Hope is On the Way!

After the turkey is eaten, football is watched and shopping and decorations unpacked, we begin the season of Advent. Advent is a time rich with restlessness, anticipation and eventually joy. There are still lots of things to get done, gifts to buy, houses to be cleaned and decorated, food that needs to be cooked, and family to visit. On our faith side it is the time to remember not just the birth of Jesus but also remember his journey as a prophet and teacher destined to light a way to God. If we are not cautious, it is easy to fall into the trap of just solely focusing on the birth of Jesus.  Yes a little baby Jesus in a manger is important but is not the only important piece of this advent puzzle. While Walmart and other stores begin putting up their Christmas seasonal items out now in June, while people begin to argue over the whole "Happy Holidays" I say "Merry Christmas" debate or diatribe, the world is telling us Christmas is coming and you better be ready. But our society doesn’t really tell us to be ready for the birth of Jesus but to be ready to buy stuff, take advantage of discounts, and an unspoken permission to eat more stuff. But now we as a faith family begin the season of Advent. Advent is a time of ready but not yet. It’s an in between time where we remember the past but look to the future. It’s a tension between the past and the future as we must live in the present. We desperately try to place Advent or Christmas on our timeline, but as followers of Jesus, we find like the birth of any child, it comes on their time: their schedule not ours.  In the decorating, present buying, family visiting, and tradition keeping of our lives, which are all important, we tend to forget God has His own timing and agenda for things. We tend to get so distracted that we forget Christmas is so much richer, more fulfilling, and a deeper meaning than just a baby, born in a manger in Bethlehem. We tend to rush through Advent and forget that the Christ child, the Messiah, is hope for us all. We forget that the birth of Jesus is only the beginning and we don’t even know how the story ends yet. So as we prepare for Christmas let us be mindful that as we celebrate the birth of Jesus there is still hope is on the way. Let us allow this Advent season be one of getting ready but not yet finished. Because isn’t the true meaning of Christmas something that comes from the heart?

Love, Serve, and Happiness

Tommy 

Love Where You Are? You Are Here

In the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks it seems death, destruction and evil are raising its nasty head once again.  For some of us, this is just one more such event added to a list of death and destructions. For others, this is the first such event we have witnessed played out on news and social media. Either way it strikes shock, fear, hopelessness, and mayhem. It is unimaginable to most sensible people how anyone or group could attack innocent people with such fervor, violence, hatred and organization. There is no logical explanation for any attack on the innocent. We might find ourselves full of hate, anger, and rage which are all natural emotions when we see images of the attacks. So what do we do? How do we respond if we proclaim we are followers of Jesus? We basically have only two options: first we can accept what has happened, add it to the list of tragedies we have witnessed in our life time, and accept the fact there will be more added to the list as well. We can easily change our Facebook photo to red, white, and blue, move on with our life, and “do” nothing more than add another layer of callousness over our protected souls.  These can be great coping mechanisms if we are solely believers in Jesus but not if we are followers of Jesus.

If we are followers of Jesus our second option is to use Jesus’ life, words, and instructions in times such as these. I am reminded of Jesus’ last instructions to all His disciples before he ascended into heaven. Just like a coach giving a pregame speech to the disciples Jesus fires them up to change the world. Hearing the words of the resurrected Jesus, I envisioned the disciples running down the mountain fired up and ready to do exactly what Jesus told them to do. Instead they stood still looking up, frozen in time, doing nothing. We can’t blame the disciples because we are like that as well. Jesus’ instruction said simply to go love people. Jesus said go care for them, notice them, serve them, meet their needs, and love them as you would like to beloved. Do something don’t just stand here looking up. So what can we do in wake of the Paris tragedy or any other attack? We can stop staring at the sky, hoping for an answer, or waiting for someone else to come along. We can begin to love where we are. We might not be able to travel to France but we can begin to love here. We can begin to heal here. We begin by implement three vital habits. First habit is to be present for those we love in our life. Turn off the television, turn off the volume social media has on us, and focus on those whom God has placed in front of us today. Especially if you have young children in your life as they are sacred and are looking to adults for reassurance, safety, and protection. Second habit is to be prayerful. Pray for France. Pray for peace. Pray for the innocent families directly impacted by this horrible act. Pray that God’s grace, love, and mercy will be the light in a dark world. Pray with your children and grandchildren. Let them witness and participate in relevant faith. Prayer opens us up to Gods perspective. The last habit is to be perceptive. Stop looking up and look around you. You will find others that feel the same as you. Let there be strength, comfort and hope in community. It is unrealistic that you can directly help those in Paris but you can help those in our own community. When we do acts of kindness and love for others good wins over evil even if evil is manifested in another country. It demonstrates to the world that we as followers of Jesus are people of love, mercy, and forgiveness. These core virtues are contrary to those of the attackers. When love wins here, love wins everywhere. We must realize the opportunities to love that God places in our lives on a daily basis. God will not lead you somewhere He has no intention of using you. So let us stop looking up, let’s run down the mountain, and love as Jesus calls us to love. Then with the light of God’s love shining through us, on an individual basis, our dark world will become brighter: one life at a time.

Serve, Love and be Happy:

Tommy  

Just Go!

Many people use the Bible to prove a point, reinforce their own opinions, and proof text their values, morals and ideals. If one took an honest, open minded approach to studying the Bible for what it actually says instead of what we think it says or what someone else told us it says, we would find there are some things that are ambiguous at best.  While the Bible can be misused, misrepresented, and misunderstood there are certain things especially in the New Testament that Jesus made perfectly clear. We find in the scripture of Matthew, what is known as The Great Commission. Before leaving earth and ascending in to heaven Jesus leaves some very clear and specific instructions not just for those who were there at the time but for all people who follow Jesus.  There is a big distinction in knowing or believing in Jesus and following or being a disciple of Jesus. In the Great Commission Jesus says “go” and love. It’s really that simple. When we look at the life of Jesus that is exactly what Jesus did.  Whenever reading the Bible about Jesus it’s important to notice what is included but also what is omitted.  For example, the bible states that the son of God, Jesus, had no place to lay his head. It tells us Jesus had no home. We never read anything about Jesus buying a house, owning land, starting a business, or settling roots anywhere. We read just the opposite. Jesus was always on the go. He was always moving from town to town going to wherever there was a need.

 But honestly it is hard for us today to be on the go for Jesus. We prefer to stay at home. It is just safer, easier to control, and a lot more comfortable to just stay where we are. Jesus made it clear that love and serve were synonymous. When questioned when his followers ever showed their love to him, Jesus responded when you fed, clothed, visited, cared the least of the marginal people.  We hear the words of Jesus but our culture and our world tells us something different: “I was hungry and you went out to eat again. I was thirsty and you needed cold bottles of water. I was a stranger and you called the police. I needed clothes but you needed newer clothes. I was sick and you pointed out my behavior that led to my sickness. I was in prison and you said I got exactly what I deserved.”  The culture and environment we must live in bombards us with images and messages that are counter intuitive to Jesus instructions. We have opportunities daily to show our love for Jesus but we tend to only focus on ourselves.  We justify this sometimes by saying we are compassionate people. But compassion is a word that is action oriented. Feeling for people in need and not doing anything is not compassion. That is empathy not compassion. So we must begin to love people one at a time. Jesus met people all the time that was not a planned. We must share the love of Jesus as we go. The single most consistent proclamation of the Bible and what is at core of Jesus’ heart is that He loves people. Jesus loves all people regardless of any circumstance, bad decision, past or current situation. Every day we, as Jesus followers, have opportunities to do exactly that: love as we go. As we “go” to show our love for others, we are also showing our love for the One who loved us first.

Go love/serve somebody

Tommy 

LOVE where you are...

Eyesight is a precious gift.  However the natural aging of our physical bodies, through no fault of our own, our eyesight slowly diminishes. It begins slowly but as we age, the vast majority of us will need corrective lens. Unless there is an injury our slow loss of sight is due to no fault of our own. It’s just part of the human aging process. Because sight digression is gradual most of us don’t even realize we need glasses, contacts or surgery to correct our vision. It is not until we see a doctor and our eyesight is corrected that we begin to see our world differently. We are able to focus on the small blades of grass. Individual leaves are now visible on trees.  Objects and people whom were once blurry quickly become clearer as we are able to make out the smallest of minute detail. We literally and metaphorically begin to view our world differently than before.

So is true with our faith as well. As we experience life, our relationships with God and others can slowly deteriorate out of focus. Sometimes we don’t even notice it until something comes along and corrects our vision.  Jesus gave specific instructions before he left our world. In his parting words before he ascended into heaven, Jesus said basically go love. This was a reminder of Jesus’ earlier statement that one could cover all of the 613 Jewish laws into two: Love your God and love your neighbor. If we are going to transition from a believer in Jesus to a follower of Jesus, we must fully understand what Jesus meant here. Jesus said perfectly clear just to love. Jesus didn’t say go start a church, march in the streets, or even tackle the moral ills of our world. Jesus didn’t say change the world, change a law, or join a political campaign. Jesus said go love your neighbor. Jesus said we do this one by one, life on life, person to person. Jesus said to love your neighbor as you love yourself. Jesus said to love where you are. He didn’t mean love where you are in the since that you deeply like where you are in life. He clearly meant to love those around us where we are. We can love no matter where we are in our faith journey. We can love no matter our physical location or address. We can love anytime, anyplace, and during any circumstances. Jesus also said to love our neighbor even when it’s very difficult to do so. For many of us, we have a hard time actually identifying or defining just who exactly our neighbor is. It is more than the person whose street address is one number off from ours. 

In the next few weeks as we begin a new journey and sermon series: Love Where You Are. We will begin to define and clarify what Jesus meant when He instructed us to go love. We will begin to correct our vision so we may see with clarity our spiritual goals and relationships are strengthened and our vision is clear. We will expand on Jesus’ instructions as we add clarity and understanding of his last instructions to us.  We will begin this week as we learn to love where we live.

Hope to see you in service until then take care of yourself and one another.

Tommy

Rebuilding Block: Community

Over the last weeks we have been looking at the story of Nehemiah and his efforts to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. We have been viewing this remarkable story through the context of the ruins of our own life. We have all been standing in a position where we needed to rebuild. We have all looked around our own community and realized that it is not what it once was. Rebuilding is harder than building. When we build something new the entire process is filled with enthusiasm, vision, and expectations. When we are forced to rebuild we stand amongst the ruins of our reality with the memories of what once was.

This stands true in our own community as well. We hear catch phrases from politicians, community leaders, and religious clergy say “we need to return Centralia to the way it used to be,” or “we need our neighborhood like it once was.” Such statements reflect the ideology of those who stand in ruins focused on what once was. The real work of rebuilding takes place after the headlines fade, the march is over, and the sermon or election is far past. Like Nehemiah, the real rebuilding begins when no one is watching or even taking notice. So what have we learned from Nehemiah’s rebuilding blocks that are relevant for us today. First there needs to be unity of purpose. We need participants’ not just spectators. Individuals need to be moved so deeply that they actually stop commenting on social media and get their hands dirty. When an entire group of people can come together with a common goal or single purpose, amazing things can get accomplished. It takes unity with a purpose but it also takes harmony with diversity. Like Nehemiah we need families, clergy, politicians, rich people, poor people, business owners, young, old, men, women, and children all working together in harmony. We need religious leaders to put aside their personal theology or agendas and work with others who differ to serve all of God’s people. When we come together we can accomplish more but more importantly we get exposed to the diversity of our neighbor. Working alongside someone, we get to know them, understanding them more, and see your similarities and differences. You become a community when diverse people work together for a common communal goal.  There is unity with purpose, harmony with diversity, and last courage to participate. To rebuild takes courage. Rebuilding takes a tremendous amount of courage, strength, and endurance. We must acknowledge that there are individuals or groups in our life and in our community who do not desire to make it better. They will deflect, ridicule, and sabotage any rebuilding efforts. So like Nehemiah, we must not allow them to distract us from the job ahead. If we want to rebuild, before the first brick is replaced, we must be unified in our purpose, harmonious in our diversity, and courageous in our participation. It will not be as easy as standing in the ruins, remembering what once was, and doing nothing. So let us begin this journey of rebuilding together. 

Be kind to one another.. 

Peace, Love and Happiness:

Tommy

Rebuilding Blocks: Brokenness

“I was just heartbroken.” We have all probably said that a time or two.  Sometimes there is nothing more to say. Sometimes it is lighter situations that seem dreadful at the time.  Your favorite team plays a great game but just comes up sort at the end, it can be a heartbreaking loss. If you are a sports fan, your heart will be broken. Then there are deeper more serious, deeper, hurtful times when we utter that profound statement. When you look around our Centralia community and witness young people lives cut short, lives that are full of promise, hope, and anticipating tragically cut short: as a community our hearts break.  If you ever risk love, your heart will get broken and those wounds go deep. You even weather you realize it or not take that brokenness into the future relationships as well. The wounds go deep. Our hearts can break for others as well. When a family member or friend gets those awful words from a doctor, our heart can break. Whenever a child’s life is ended way too soon in our community, it is a tragedy, but it also can break our heart, damage soul, and destroy our spirit as well.

So we stand among the rubble of what once was, with our hearts broken as we try to rebuild. We desperately search for meaning in our brokenness but many times there is none. So we stand in the middle of the chaos of our lives, with our hearts broken, not know how, when, and where to start to rebuild what was lost in our life. We begin not with the unknown but with the absolutes in our life.  We know that God is a God of love and life. One thing that is consistent throughout scripture is God is the God of love and life. He had provided for us love and life in this life and beyond. We know that brokenness is a season. A painful season but like all seasons both good and bad, seasons change. We also are absolute that God is a God of reconciliation. God love it when we come together without conflict. Most importantly if we look back from the beginning, God creates best out of chaos. It was out of chaos God created the physical world in which we live. It was out of chaos God sent His son to restore grace, mercy, and forgiveness in a new covenant. If we read the stories of both the Old and New Testament, we will find hundreds of rich stories where God created something better out of chaos, suffering, and brokenness. Let us not forget God can do the same in our brokenness as well. We must invite Him into our pain, chaos, and sadness. Because when our hearts are broken, God’s heart is broken as well. Join us as we uncover more rebuilding blocks as we rebuild from the ruins of our lives.

Just Love one Another

Tommy 

Sabbath Ain’t Just Solo Anymore

We live in a stressed out, chaotic, frustrating uneasy world. One only has to read the headlines or watch the news to know that craziness abides in our everyday existence. Our bodies eventually begin to show the physical signs of stress: High blood pressure, heart disease, strokes, over eating, and many more medical conditions are directly or indirectly related to stress. We all handle the stress of our lives differently. We all have been told to “just have more faith.” There has been a stigma attached Christians that is your life is stressful you lack faith. Nothing could be further from the truth. When we look at Jesus as he cleansed the temple and prayed in the garden before being arrested, Jesus had stress. Stress is part of life. We cannot avoid it, destroy it, or pray it away. So we must learn ways and means to deal with it. But God did not just leave it up to us to figure it out. First we are reminded that God creates out of chaos. Out of chaos, God created the heaven and earth and called it good. It was out of the chaos of sin, that God provided redemption, reconciliation, and salvation. God works best in creating out of stress and chaos.

We discussed why it is important to take a Sabbath or to rest as individuals. We uncovered how God rested and if it was important enough for the Creator of the universe to rest, maybe we should also. We also pointed out that God just didn’t simple take a day of rest but made that day Holy. A day set aside like no other day of the week. God also commanded his people to keep the Sabbath as part of God’s covenant with His people. It’s a time to rebuild relationships, spend intimate time with those we love, and not allow the world to dictate us. We all could use a little rest and better relationships.  God instructed us to take a Sabbath or day of rest witch is all agreeable on an individual basis but He doesn’t stop there. God instructs us to take a Sabbath as a community of faith as well. All communities need a time for renewal, re-energized, and a revision of passion.  It is a break from doing business as usual. Can you imagine if we took a time out in our community to just refocus? What if businesses, political leaders, social workers, teachers, educators, and religious leaders put aside all agendas, ideals, and opinions and focused all of our energy on one single issue that plagues our community? Can you imagine if our whole community that stop just saying “what’s wrong” and concentrates on specific concrete programs, outreach, and service. A break to evaluate if our efforts are truly helping or enabling those we are called to serve. As a faith community we need intentional periods of Sabbath to stop, listen to God’s instruction, reevaluate our efforts, and define our true calling in our community. God desires any community to take a Sabbath. Maybe it’s time we all put that into practice and follow God’s lead.

Lead Servant:

Tommy