Going through the motions

Are you a fan of Christian music? If so then you’ve probably heard of K-LOVE radio. If not, tune it in next time you’re near a radio – 106.7 FM. They play awesome music, and in my life it has often been a direct line from God’s mouth to my ear. A perfect example of this occurred recently as I was heading down Youree Drive. I almost always have K-LOVE on in my car and Matthew West’s song The Motions came on. I’d heard it before, but this time I really HEARD it – one line in particular: “I don’t care if I break, at least I’ll be feeling something.”

This stopped me in my tracks. As someone who suffers from bouts of depression, I can tell you with certainty – that is exactly what it’s like. There have been times in my life when I’ve prayed for it all to end just so I wouldn’t have to face the monotony of going through the motions. Thankfully I had people around me that helped me to see that I didn’t have to live like that. With the help of God, my family and friends, and getting active here at Broadmoor UMC, I’ve learned how to catch myself before I fall back into unhealthy habits. I still have bad days where all I want to do is crawl into bed, but it doesn’t have the same effects as it used to.

Growing up in the church I’d heard it all – “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” “Trust in the Lord and lean not on your own understanding.” “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” But it wasn’t until I hit rock bottom and felt Jesus right there with me that I really began to believe it. If you are tired of the same old, same old and need a change, talk to someone – a friend, a co-worker, a Sunday School teacher.

Hearing that song made me think back to the darkest times of my life and realize that I wasn’t alone and I really CAN do all things if I look to Christ instead of myself. We can’t do it by ourselves – we aren’t made to withstand the pressure. With God on our side, we don’t have to just go through the motions – we can live each day with the joy and peace that comes from giving it all to God.

– Kelie Taylor

Prioritizing priorities

Cassie is reading a book.

Katie is enjoying an afternoon with her kids.

Kevin is making his March Madness picks.

Carrie is having a bad day. 

Facebook status updates keep me posted on what’s going on with friends across the nation – friends I rarely make time to call, friends I see even less – even the ones who do live in the same city.

And I sometimes comment on a status, and they sometimes comment on mine – it’s the new, techno-savvy way of keeping in touch, no matter how impersonal it may seem. But last week, one of these friends posted a status that got me and others within our widespread circle thinking. The friend was “wondering what matters most to people in their day-to-day lives.” She did not explain what prompted the thought – maybe it was a kind gesture from a stranger, maybe a rude driver cut her off at a busy intersection. Whatever the motivation, she opened a discussion that prompted inner reflection as much as it did examination of the world around us.

I was compelled to respond, but I did it in guilty non-answer way – by answering a question with a question, because maybe examining my true response was a hard pill to swallow. I asked her, “What matters most or what we put first, because they are hardly the same thing – and why is it so hard to keep those straight?”

Some mutual friends responded to the status.

A friend in Pennsylvania wrote, “To be honest, it depends on the day, but I hope it goes something like God, family and friends. Of course the world has a way of distracting us, and that’s the Devil’s real trick.”

Another friend, this one in Alabama, responded: “Honestly, God, my marriage and my daughter’s stability and happiness.”

And in my head and my heart, my answer was similar to theirs – God comes first, and loved ones right after, above and beyond all else – before work, before personal desires. But sadly my “day-to-day” actions rarely reflect those priorities.

I tend to cancel dinner plans or a gym outing with a girlfriend when I need just one more hour to finish a project. I forgo a phone call to a friend in need for an afternoon nap on my day off. Or worse, I skip time for daily devotionals by hitting the snooze one too many times in the morning, or let my head hit the pillow at night without giving thanks for yet another day. I don’t give that extra $10 to that worthy cause the church is supporting, but I don’t hesitate to download that new CD I’ve been waiting for on iTunes.

Rev. Ken Irby wrote a column for The Vision in January that really hit home for me. (Do you have those moments, when a pastor says something and you just know that God’s passed that message along specifically for you? … This was one of those, and yet somehow I don’t think I comprehended the words until last week.) In the column, Ken quoted an analysis of our daily time: “We worship our work, and work at our play, and play at our worship,” adding that we often times “give God a very low spot on the priority list.”

In that column, Ken said, “We try to ‘work God in’ somewhere, but our spiritual life is the first thing to go when things get busy. Of course, if there was ever a time to find our true center, to pause and consider our lives in the light of God’s presence, it is when things are hectic.”

How true those words are. Without our true center, how are we failing in those other priorities of our lives? How much more meaningful would our personal relationships and work life be if we kept our day-to-day priorities in check, putting God first even through the most chaotic days?

Ken also stressed the importance of Psalm 46:10, “Be still, and know that I am God.” In finding that quiet center, we may finally put our priorities in order and learn something about ourselves along the way.

And just days after my friend called our priorities into question, which brought me back to Ken’s column and that scripture, another friend updated her status with the same scripture. And in that moment, scrolling through friends’ status updates on my Facebook page, I found myself amazed to realize the many ways God speaks to us – the many ways God keeps trying to reach us even when we let the hustle and bustle of daily life drown out the message.

-- Angela Cason

Get Connected!

It was an ordinary Sunday. Mark Martin (former BUMC Associate Pastor) and the praise team were leading The River service. Since I can’t seem to go to the same grocery store two weeks in a row, it should be no surprise that I would drag my husband back and forth on alternating weeks between the BUMC service in the sanctuary and The River service. We both enjoyed experiencing the varied worship styles. On this Sunday, however, something caught my eye. I guess I had noticed it before, but since I wasn’t in this service every week, I really couldn’t remember if this was the case every Sunday or just this Sunday… there was no one playing the keyboard. A little voice in my head asked why, but I quickly told that voice that I really didn’t need to worry about that.
The next week, I told my husband that I wanted to go back to The River service. Since we usually alternated weeks between the two services, he asked why. I told him, “I don’t know why … I just want to go there.” Not quite true, something had been on my mind for the whole week; that little voice that just wouldn’t go away. We attended The River service and once again I saw the keyboard empty. “Don’t be silly,” I told myself. “It’s been twenty years since you have really played at all … what are you thinking?!”
I found my mind drifting during the service (not during the sermon of course!) about how my relationship with my church had changed over the years. I had been very involved when my children were little, but the time drain of work, caring for aging parents, and child responsibilities over the middle school and high school years had drawn me further and further away from a meaningful connection at church. Sometimes I felt like a stranger in my own home on Sundays.
The service drew to a close … “It can’t hurt to ask,” I thought. I approached Mark and asked him if there was no one playing keyboard with the band. “Why,” he asked excitedly, “do you play?” There it was; the question I had both hoped for and dreaded. “Well, yes but it has been a LONG time.” Mark quickly replied that he would call me. Should I say that the phone was ringing as I walked in the door? Well not quite, but let’s just say that the Lord did not give me time to get cold feet. I agreed to show up for River practice that Wednesday night.
When I arrived, I was somewhat embarrassed that I did not even know the names of most of the people I had enjoyed listening to every other Sunday, but they greeted me with open arms. My fears of keyboard inadequacy were heightened when I found out there was no piano music. I would have to figure it out from guitar chords. How ironic that my last two years of piano instruction decades earlier had been just that, but my brain and my fingers struggled with recalling the skills learned. The first several weeks were sheer agony. I finally had to have a conversation with the only one who could help me. “Lord, if you want me to do this, you are going to have to help me.” And then it suddenly clicked. Each week it became easier and morphed from fear to joy. I still have a long way to go, but am excited about the journey!
What is it that the Lord is calling YOU to do? What in your past has prepared you for just this moment in the present? Is there a question that a little voice is asking you? Instead of arguing with that voice or hoping it will go away, what if you answered with a YES! Not a “Yes, I can Lord,” but a “Yes YOU can Lord!”
When you do answer YES, a great reward may be in store. How great that as each of us seeks to draw closer to God’s people at BUMC, we WILL draw nearer to HIM! I pray that you will listen for and find your connection today!

-- Teresa Allen

Blessings by fire

The morning a co-worker and friend of mine was supposed to leave for Washington, D.C., to witness and report on the historic inauguration of Barack Obama, an electrical malfunction set fire to his home. Luckily, he wasn’t there. He was house-sitting for his parents who were out of town. His cat was home, though. And luckily again, the person who first noticed the fire and stopped to help was a veterinary technician who heard the cat and rescued him. The fire was extinguished by volunteer and paid firefighters from four different towns. But it flared up again later that same morning and burned the house completely to the ground. My friend lost everything except the few clothes he had taken to his parents to wash before he left for the inauguration. Such a tragedy.

The following Sunday, I was running a bit later than usual getting out of the house for church. My husband and older son were out of town, so my younger son and I were on our own. When we arrived at The River, someone already was sitting in our seats. (OK, folks, you know you do it. People are creatures of habit. It’s a comfort thing.) So we found other accommodations across the aisle – with a new perspective. As Matt called for joys and concerns, I couldn’t help but think immediately of my friend’s tragic week, and then also – the blessings of his tragedy.

It wasn’t luck he wasn’t home. It was a blessing.

It wasn’t luck a veterinary technician discovered the fire and his trapped cat. It was a blessing.

It wasn’t luck he had some clothes with him preparing to participate in American history. It was a blessing.

And in the days that followed, the blessing of the fire extended to his friends and co-workers who were given the opportunity to demonstrate their love by helping him replenish some of the day-to-day necessities he needed.

And it was a blessing for him to be given the chance to see how much his life has touched others in a positive way.

To realize how much he matters. What a blessing.

Church and State--According to Barth

In preparation for the special "Great Romans Debate" Sunday School presentation, read these words from Karl Barth about the difference between Christianity (the Church) and Christendom (the State).

If anything Christian be unrelated to the Gospel, it is a human by-product, a dangerous religious survival, a regrettable misunderstanding . . . marks of Christianity would be possession and self-sufficiency rather than deprivation and hope. If this be persisted in, there emerges, instead of the community of Christ, Christendom, an ineffective peace-pact or compromise with that existence which, moving with its own momentum, lies on this side resurrection. Christianity would then have lost all relation to the power of God.

If [people] must have their religious needs satisfied, if they must surround themselves with comfortable illusions about their knowledge of God and particularly about their union with God, well, the world penetrates far deeper into such matters than does a Christianity which misunderstands itself, and of such a "gospel" we have good cause to be ashamed. Paul, however, is speaking of the power of the UNKNOWN God, of --things which eye saw not and ear heard not, and which entered not into the heart of man. Of such a Gospel he has n cause to be ashamed.

Just as genuine coins are open to suspicion so long as false coins are in circulation, so the perception which proceeds outwards from God cannot have free course until the arrogance of religion be done away.

Are we to follow the Law?

Earlier this week, a member asked me about what relationship Christianity had with the Jewish Law (after reading AJ Jacob's book, "Living Biblically." Below is my response.

I have heard the book. I have not read it, but I did see his interview on the Today show several months back. Your question about the Law and Christianity is a great one, one that the church has been discussing for thousands of years. For the answer to this, we must look at Jesus and Paul. Jesus picked grain on the Sabbath. He did not stone a woman who was caught in adultery. Jesus came to fulfill the Law, not to abolish the Law. The trick is understanding what fulfilling the Law means.

Christ was born under the curse of the Law . . . the Law was originally a blessing for the Ancient Israelites. In Deuteronomy, Moses warned that if they did not follow God’s Law that the Law would become a curse to them. It was either going to be a blessing or a curse. It was their choice (much like money or sex or status or celebrity, in a way). Instead of having theocratic Rule with God as Israel’s head, the people wanted a King (See the book of Samuel). God obliged, but warned that this was not what the people truly want. Now that the Israelites had a King, it was the King’s responsibility to follow the Law on behalf of the people as their representative before God. The Kings failed, the Torah was now a curse, and Israel was sent into exile.

Upon returning from exile the Isrealite people rebuilt the Temple and they picked up right where they left off . . . failing at following the Torah, which was still a curse. Jesus (God) was born under the Law as a curse so that the Law could once again become a blessing for the people. Throughout his ministry, Jesus redefined the Law . . . “You have heard it said . . . but I tell you . . .” Jesus was obedient unto death on a cross (He who is hung on the tree has been cursed by God). Essentially, God died under God’s own rule so that the Law could be completed and fulfilled.

Now, in walks Paul, who helps us understand what it means to love God in the post-Torah world (and eventually the Post-Temple world. The Temple was destroyed by the Romans in AD 70). Paul says things like, the Law is death and Christ is life, and we are to be circumcised with the heart not with the flesh. Paul also says that we know that we can eat “unclean” foods because we know that all things are clean, but if your brother does not think the same as you, you should abstain from eating so that your brother will not stumble (kind of like the age old question—Do Methodists drink. To which the answer is “some do.” In other words, it’s ok to have a drink, but if you are in the presence of an alcoholic, you should abstain. The basic answer of Christian ethics is, “It’s ok, unless it’s not ok.”)

So, what part of the Law are we to follow? Jesus said it himself—Love God with all of your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. It is the Christian ethic of love (Ecclesial Ethic). Paul, through the experience of Christ, tries to break us out of our binary understanding of the world (black and white, Jew and Gentile, Male and Female, homosexual and heterosexual). In the realm of ethics, most feel that ethics are either Universal (applies to everyone) or situational (only applies to context). Paul’s point is that in Christ we should follow an Ecclesial Ethic, or an ethic of love which is both universal and situational. Like in Romans, folks have asked Paul if Christians can eat meat which have been sacrificed to Pagan Gods. Paul’s answer is sure, unless you shouldn’t. Yes you can because we know that the Pagan God’s don’t exist, but if your brother thinks you are committing a great sin, than don’t (Do Methodists drink . . .).

In conclusion, as far as the book is concerned, following the Law as strictly as you can without any kind of love ethic is missing the point. Likewise, living by love without any type of justice element is also missing the point. We are to love both God and neighbor. AJ Jacobs is a self-avowed Atheist. Following every jot and tittle of the Law without a love of God is nothing but damning. Conversely, loving God without loving your neighbor is equally so, at least, you can't do one without the other. Can you really love God and hate your neighbor?

To answer your question. Jesus fulfilled the entire Law, transforming the Law into a blessing through the power of the Spirit. Transforming the Law into an ethic of love which we can only follow in the power of the Spirit.

What does an ethic of love look like within some of the Church's most heated debates? Abortion? Homosexuality? Aids? Immigration? . . . etc. Let me know what you think.

Dreams?

What are your dreams for Broadmoor United Methodist? I'm not asking for "If . . .then" statements here, like "if we had the money, then . . ." or "if we had enough volunteers, then . . ." I'm asking for your dreams. Big dreams. How do you see Broadmoor building the Kingdom of God five years from now?
Here are the rules.

1. There is no such thing as a bad idea. Ideas that don't come to fruition only gets us closer to what WILL work.
2. No negative words. We're thinking big here. "Can't" doesn't exist yet.
3. Accept all ideas as gifts with which we can work. Nothing is thrown away. That will come later.
4. There is no such thinga s a bad idea. I'm serious about this one.

What are your dreams?