Time

In reflecting on the events of the past week, I have been in somewhat in a reflective mood. I have witnessed first hand how death can steal from us the most valuable commodity we all hold: time. I have been pondering the thought of what if the tragedy at First Baptist Church in Maryville and Pastor Fred Winters happened here at FCC and to me. While I prayed for the church and all those involved, never worried about my own personal safety, but what would I want to leave behind. What message would I want my faith community, everyone I know and care about to, receive if the exact same thing happened to me? I found myself with clarity, without horrible images in my mind, without the fear of death, with time being a precious unrecyclable resource, writing down little ramblings that came to me this past week.

Not at all to be morbid here are a few.

• Don’t let the last few minutes of my life be the constant image you carry of me into the future. I pray my life was an example of the joy that comes with being in a relationship with Christ. Please laugh, joke, celebrate, have fun and remember me the way I lived life not the way I died.


• Don’t ever be afraid to be in the house of our Lord. God’s house has to be open, free, and inviting to all, no matter what. Don’t fear the stranger as they need Christ love also.
  God called me home from the place were I feel his holy presences the closest. Behind the pulpit, communion table, or a guitar for me is the serenity place I feel the warmth, strength, and comfort of God the most. I was taken into God’s kingdom from the exact place where I experienced and came to know as the most Holy place on earth.


• If I ever hurt you, disappointed you, or let you down please know it was not my intent and please forgive me.


• Pray and pray hard. Pray for my family, our church, and the one who was responsible for taking my life. Forgive them also. View it only for the reality of exactly what happened. A person in poor mental health reacted out of his illness, not out of clarity.


• Keep on truckin. Don’t spend much time and energy on mourning my death. Use that energy to help others connect to the love of Jesus Christ. That is my only passion, so use my memory only to motivate your self to connect others to Christ. Our church holds many special unique gifts, use them abundantly to serve, love, help, invite, and mentor others in their relationship with Jesus Christ.


• Root for the University of Memphis Tigers, love each other abundantly, be limitless in forgiving each other, and at every opportunity share what God, not me, has done for your life. Remember God is about love and reconciliation so we will meet again.
  Last but not least, use the time you have left wisely and never take it for granted.

My intent is not to glorify this horrible tragedy or use it for my own gain but wanted to share my message if time was ever robbed from us. I hope it will stir your thoughts as we experience Lent together, reflect on the time Christ spent on earth, cherish the time we have, and chose to use it wisely. Time is the precious commodity. Shalom, Tommy

Saving Grace

When does a gift become a present? We all give gifts to friends and family for all sorts of occasions. Weddings, births, deaths, anniversaries, birthdays, graduations, and special occasions are usually customary times to give a gift. There is a lot of thought, time, energy, and creativity that goes into picking out the perfect gift. Giving gifts are a way we express our love for one another. Many people express their love for another through giving of a gift, time, money or energy. The gift does not become a present until it is received by the recipient. The value is not complete until it has been accepted by person we love. We would not spend the time searching for the right gift, fight the crowds at the store, spend our hard earned money to purchase it, wrap it in a nice box for a wonderful presentation, and then place it on a closet, and never give it to anyone. We would not go up to a friend and say, “I bought you the best birthday present ever. You will really love it. It will make your life so much better. Every time you see it, it will remind you of my love for you and give you peace and joy as a reflection of our relationship. But, you can’t have it; I’m not going to give it to you. I decided to keep it for myself.”
We would not ever say that to someone we loved. What if those words were from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? In reality, Jesus through His life, death, and resurrection says the exact opposite. He declares to us that the gift he has for us is grace. He has prepared the gift for us, it reminds us of His love for us, and it can bring us peace, joy, love and comfort beyond our imagination. But it is up to us to receive that gift. God’s divine grace is an "unmerited favor" of God, given freely to us but we must accept and receive it for us to become complete. In theology, grace may be described as 'enabling power sufficient for progression'. We also must pass the grace on to others. We have wasted the gift of grace if we are not willing to share it with others. Grace draws unity, understanding, love, acceptance, power, and hope. Let us receive it, understand it, and share it with someone we love this time of Lent as it becomes our enabling power for progression. That is when our gift becomes a present.

Impossible! No Way! Won't Happen!

Impossible! No Way! Won’t Happen!
Have you ever struggled with the impossible? Have you ever looked at situations in your life and said, “Impossible! No way! Won’t happen!” Luke 1:26-38 is a story about the impossible. It is a story about the “no way” and the “won’t happen.” It is the story of the angel’s announcement to Mary. Think about the impossible situation Mary was in. Mary, a pregnant virgin, was going to birth a child and while still remain a virgin. Impossible! No way! Won’t happen! Joseph following through on the marriage even when he discovers she is pregnant. Impossible! No way! Won’t happen! Elizabeth conceives and gives birth to a child in her old age. Why, it is so impossible the news left old Zechariah speechless. Impossible! No way! Won’t happen!
The entire advent story is full of biblical impossibilities. But, what are the impossibilities in our world? What would you label “impossible” in your life? Peace in our world. Christian values returning to our nation, morality becoming the norm? Impossible! Our church reaching our community and making a difference in people lives? Impossible! Restoring relationships, healing past hurts in our lives; a relative or friend entering a relationship with Christ; breaking an addiction and overcoming past hurts and disappointments? Impossible! We often say through Christ all things are possible but are our actions reflected in our own rhetoric. Debts, doubts, worries, criticisms and indecisions many times guide our actions not our faith. Fear also seems to be precedence before joy. We must move through the fear for us to receive a divine joy, one that the world can not rob us from, and the joy God offers through Christ. We must believe in the impossible. We must believe with conviction that the same God that blessed Mary with the impossible will also do the same to us. How? Mary too asks, “How?” and the angel says, “by God’s power.” Not by her power, not by Joseph’s power, nor by the power of friends/family. It is not the power of nature or the power of luck, but by God’s power!

Shalom,

Tommy

Where Do You Fit In.

Romans 12:1-8

Tears, words of frustrations, confusion, a since of betrayal, feelings of wanting to return back to the way it use to be, anger, self- doubt, nervousness, anxiety, a sense of abandonment, that awkward feeling of not know what to say, trying to be supportive but only making things worse, a longing and deep desire to just return to the ways things once were. That was the climate around the house the last week or so. All of which revolved around the first day of school. Not just the first day back after the summer break, but the first day in a NEW school. A school where everything is different, not one familiar voice, familiar face, or even familiar surroundings, nothing is like you imagined. We as adults forget, that it can be a traumatic and scary thing, to start a new school.
Parenting is not easy. Especially when you see your kids hurting or anxious and there is nothing really you can do about it. I wished I would have had some vocational tech training classes or something before I had kids. If I knew then what I know now, I would have been a whole lot less trouble to my parents, I promise. It’s tough. Life is tough. While parenting is full of many great rewards, it still is a tough job.
During the week I was hit with the line: “You have no idea how I feel.” Spoken so true. We really don’t have an idea what another person feels. I can sympathize though. At fourteen years old, I went form a very small, very expensive private school that I attended for seven years, to a very large, predominately African American public school. I was transposed from a place where I was popular, well liked, and very comfortable to something so different. I literally felt like I had walked out of one world on to another planet. So I could in a small way remember that uneasiness, sick feeling you have in your stomach that first day. I also had the past experience of knowing that I could find true friends in both worlds. The key was just being myself, not letting race, social classes, backgrounds, family structure, religion or anything else stand in the way of forging new friendships. These new friendships that would last a lifetime shaped me into a better person. Before I could find my place in the new environment, I had to know exactly who I was and where I fit in.

That is exactly what Paul is writing to us this morning. The church in Rome was a new group of Christians. They were trying desperately to figure out just who Jesus Christ was. They were learning what it was like to live as Jesus’ disciples. To live a life of faith. They desperately wanted to be faithful but really just didn’t know how. Paul had the task of not only shaping their theology but also their attitudes towards one another. The church was made up of folks who did not necessarily all socialize together. They were made up of folks from every part of town. The only thing that brought them together was the common bond of Christ love. It is easy to explain to others who Christ is, but harder to explain just how the church works and functions.

Paul uses the analogy of the church being the body of Christ. It is one body, but has many different parts. Each part is vital to the overall health and well being of the whole. Each part has a vital function, which no other part can perform. With the church being the true object in the equation, let us examine it further. Suppose you have a terrible sore throat, it causes great pain when you swallow. Now the heart doesn’t say to the throat, “it is your problem, I am beating just fine.” The lungs don’t say, “a sore throat doesn’t affect me, I providing all the oxygen to everyone, so talk to the brain.” Now the throat because of great pain can not function properly. It directly affects the food that is consumed. The throat pain affects the brain and the emotional effects of the body. The way we interact with others when we are well and when we are sick are drastically different. Less food means less energy. Less fuel or energy to our cellular system that fights disease. This affects our entire immune system. If the throat goes on untreated, you can see how the entire body is affected. Each vital organ knows its own specific function and it place in the entire body function. If the throat refused to work, it directly affects the heart, lungs, all the way down to a singular cell.

This is clear when we think of our church as untied as one body. Christ’s’ body. God has given each of us some unique and powerful gift. God intended on us to use it in the overall function of the church. Paul reminds us that the gifts given to us by God are not of our own. They are a gift, which means no gift is greater or more important than the next gift. While we might feel we are not valued or posses Godly gifts, we do. Each gift is vital for the overall function of the entire body. You are vital for the overall function of Christ’s body. You are responsible for the health and welfare of Christ’s church. If we don’t use our gifts we loose them, or they become nonfunctional.

It is also an unselfish gift. The body was not designed for one organ to do it all. Paul reminds us that each person only posses one or two gifts. It is the collaboration of these diverse gifts that make it work. This time of discernment we are experiencing should help us all clarify exactly where we fit in. We are reminded that if we are one member of a larger body, so are the other churches in our area. We must rejoice in their effectiveness on the lives of others, simply because they are a part of the same body, Christ’s body.
So let us continue to discovering where we fit in God’s plan. In prayer, we will hear Christ words of instructions. In worship we will recognize that the gifts and blessing we hold are uniquely given to us by our Lord. In studying God’s word, we will find clarity in the function of our congregation. In service to others, we will experience the affects we have on the lives of others. And through it all, while it will be tough, we will know exactly where to fit in.


Tears, words of frustrations, confusion, a since of betrayal, feelings of wanting to return back to the way it use to be, anger, self- doubt, nervousness, anxiety, a sense of abandonment, that awkward feeling of not know what to say, trying to be supportive but only making things worse, a longing and deep desire to just return to the ways things once were. Through it all Christ love will bind us together forever. Amen.