Being Loved to Love

       My niece loves the Backstreet Boys music.  She has since she got her first album.  Now some people might contest that because of her level of disability but if you take the time to get to know her, you'll soon find you agree.  Even though she can't talk, or dance, or play their beats, she loves the Backstreet Boys and she'll let you know.   She had a hard time sleeping the night before their concert and absolutely had a blast sitting way up front when they sang at the Minnesota State Fair.
       How easy we find it to express "love" for music, food, and for things:  'I love cheesecake.'  'I love chocolate.'  'I love football.'  But once we are beyond early childhood, it becomes harder to express love for specific people.  Easy to say to mom when you are four, "I love you" but to say, "I love you" at 25 to a companion?  Even naming the other person becomes complicated, like the nuances of companion, partner, lover, or spouse and friend is not the same as boyfriend or girlfriend.   Issues of trust, safety, security, promise, and permanence make the whole matter so serious and complicated that it can become difficult to use those words.
       Yet if you read the letters of Paul closely, especially the beginnings and the endings you will find the words of a man who is head-over-heels in love with God and with those in the Church.  How can he love so many people?  He writes at the beginning of the book of Romans, "To all God's beloved in Rome who are called to be saints" (Romans 1:7).  Paul loves those who follow Jesus (the meaning of the word saint) because God loves them (us).  His letters are full of correction (and preaching) but they are also full of encouragement and of thanksgiving for the work of others.
       In a world of training in awareness and sensitivity about sexual harassment (unfortunately much needed), Paul's words can sound strange in our ears.  In Philippians 4 (verse 1) he writes, "Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved."  Paul writes these overflowing words of love to the entire community, thanking God for their faith and work and encouraging them to continue.  His love is so great that even at his most serious and pompous, he can't help but show it.
       Does this mean God is asking us to love each and every motley member sitting in the pew?  Before we get there, we have to start where Paul starts.  Paul's faith convinces him that God loves him in spite of all his weakness and even forgives him of all the terrible things he has done.  You see, Paul spent his earlier life persecuting and even being proud of killing people for following Jesus.  Paul knows how bad a person can be because he has been there and so his joy at being loved by God is overwhelming.  Love everybody? 'Why not!' Paul answers, 'God loves even me'.
       Perhaps that is Paul's secret.  Instead of coming at each other from the perspective of judgment, Paul sees himself as the first to be condemned.  Instead of looking at other people negatively, Paul sees them through God's eyes of love.  Like my niece, Paul loves with his whole body and soul with complete abandon.
       Can we love all these people God has called?  The trick is to look at each other through God's eyes, filtered by amazing, overflowing, never ending love.   Read Ephesians 4:30-5:2

Water for Life

       Water is precious.  Come in from working hard, all hot and sweaty and nothing tastes as good as a glass of water.  Fall in the mud (like I did last week), and nothing feels as good as a warm shower.  Certain plants let you know right away when they need watering and are just as quick to respond to a drink.  Peace lilies in particular will droop and the leaves will wilt but it is amazing how quickly it will respond to being watered, standing upright and looking fresh.
       During the late 80's, there was an extended period of drought in western Kansas while we were living and working in that area.  It got so bad that there were bad dust storms that would be large enough to cause roads to be closed for lack of visibility.  I remember one day in particular when I couldn't see from the church door to the curb 20-30 yards away.   Wells started to go dry; ranchers were trucking water to cattle and irrigating was out of the question.
       The water pressure was so low in town, I remember turning on the tap to fill a picture for ice tea and leaving it to fill while I went and did other things --- it took a long time!  I don't think I have ever been as aware of making choices about water use as I was during that time.  Water use was so restricted that it affected personal and household use; you even had to order water to get some in a restaurant.  A large parking lot in the nearby city of Hays was turned into a sea of toilets when the city made water-saving toilets mandatory.  There was at least one household who gave up, paved the yard with concrete and painted it green!
       It sounds like we had bad water problems but someone I met at a water conference put it in perspective.  She ran water management for a large west-coast city.  She said that when people complained to her about water restriction, she showed them a picture on her wall of a young girl carrying a large can of water on her head.  "Now she has a water problem", she would respond.  For most of the women of the world, the average walk to get water to use is 6 kilometers or 3.7 miles, one way.  And often, that water is not clean or safe to drink which kills millions of people.  Seventy percent of our planet is covered in water but about one percent is fresh water.  Knowing this, I have consciously tried to keep aware of my water use, to save and conserve what I can.  We cannot survive without water.
       We also cannot live without God who gives us both life and water.  The Bible is full of water stories with a keen awareness of how dependent life is upon wells and wadis.  The prayer Martin Luther wrote to be used at baptisms is nick-named the "flood prayer" because it talks about many of the water stories in the Bible including the flood of Noah and the ark fame.
      We need to take water seriously both physically and spiritually.  In the book of Jeremiah, God speaks of being the "living water" that people have forsaken (Jeremiah 2:13).  When Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at the well, he tells her that if she knew who he was, she would ask him for a drink and he would have given her living water.  (John 4:10)  Now, living water is water that runs clear, free of the kind of toxic algae blooms and other contaminants that can make standing water poisonous.  How wonderful if Jesus would give her close and easy access to such water!  But the water that Jesus offers is the water that washes her and us clean from sin and gives the gift of eternal life.  This is powerful water.
       In the face of the ongoing disaster of the oil spill in the Gulf, it is easy to feel like weeping. Day after day the news gets worse and we watch with the world seemingly helpless to make it end.  It can be overwhelming even for those of us who live far away.  It can and should bring us to our knees to repent of our lack of care for the creation God has entrusted to our stewardship.
       But the God who gives the water that gives everlasting life, is also the God of our lakes, rivers, and oceans.  We can and should pray, asking for God's wisdom, mercy, and guidance. Our prayers are powerful because the God who hears and answers us is powerful.  Also, our prayers connect us to our sisters and brothers who are suffering in the midst of the disaster.  Prayers are never in vain; as we pray, so we live out our faith.  Pray to the God of Living Water.  Read John 4:7-15

Let's Go Praise-y!

        People have a never-ending capacity to create variety in everything we do.  Even in a worship environment where the same hymnbook is used and the same things happen in the same order with only a slight change in music, the personality of each congregation marks the way in which worship is done.  What keeps pastors on their toes is that often these unique marks on the service are unwritten and unspoken so that they catch us unawares.
       So it was one Sunday when my husband was filling in for a vacationing pastor, a common summer occupation for seminary students.  With only one car between us and me due to have our second child at any time, I was in the pew with our oldest son.  The service was going along as usual, with nothing unusual noted in the service bulletin except that at two-and-half, our son was getting impatient for church to be finished.  We weren't sitting up front where he could see everything because I needed frequent bathroom breaks so he was bored looking at nothing but the backs of heads.
       Finally, the last blessing, the benediction was spoken and we sang the last hymn.  This is where we ran into trouble.  Without warning or instruction, this congregation's custom was to stand perfectly still in silence for one minute after the last note of the last hymn.  A perfect silence that was broken by my son standing up in the pew, clapping his hands loudly and crying out, "Yea!  Daddy's done!  Now we can go home!".  His joy nearly echoed in contrast to their complete silence while I was on the receiving end of some smiles and some glares.
       We seem to have problems both with silence and with showing joy in worship; we aren't comfortable with either one getting too pronounced.  That's probably why we don't always deal well with welcoming and embracing young children in worship; they interrupt solemn silences and express their joy with complete abandon.  Give them a chance to sit up front where they can see, and chances to participate, and they will with all their heart and soul.  They will also find ways to have fun in church.
       We can learn from children.  We should all have fun in church!  Jesus tells us again and again that the kingdom of God belongs to children (Luke 18:15-17) and that we all need to come to God as a little child.   The sounds and presence of children in worship are the sounds of the gifts of life and future that God has given and entrusted to us.
       According to scripture, God craves sounds and music of praise.  When Jesus enters Jerusalem and he is told to make the singing and yelling crowd quiet down, he says that "if these were silent, the stones would shout out." (Luke 19:40)  Many of the Psalms tell us and the whole earth to "sing a new song" or "make a joyful noise".   Try to imagine the sounds of joy that the mountains would make or the trees of the forests.  With the horrendous oil spill in the gulf, the oceans are probably singing songs of lament; we should join them.
        I don't think either children or rocks and stones or hills or floods are  probably prone to moderate, stately, ordered praising.  The psalmist writes about breaking into spontaneous joyous songs and praises.  It sounds like fun!  Perhaps if we had more fun in church, people wouldn't be so likely to leave worship out of their summer plans.
        It starts with our own attitudes that we bring with us; coming with an expectation of joy or at least smiles and of greeting all the noises of joy and life around us with smiles of welcome. Come to worship not for what you expect to receive, but for what you can give to others: the encouragement of your presence, a greeting of welcome, the blessing of Christ's peace, and the support of our mission and ministry in the world.  Now not everyone is in a place of joy every Sunday, then we can share with each other the comfort and care of God's love and presence.   If you're not ready to share joy, try at least some gentle happiness.  After all, here you are welcomed, fed, forgiven, loved, and given life that never ends.  Yeah!  Read Psalm 98:4-9

Just the Way You Are

       By the time my children started becoming teenagers, I decided that any embarrassment I caused them was pure justice for all the times they embarrassed their parents.  Especially since at that age, all it takes on a parent's part to cause embarrassment is to simply show up.
       I remember the day it happened with my daughter.  We had spent the summer doing fun things together even taking along her friends.  But then came the evening of registration and orientation for high school.  I drove to the high school and parked the car.  We got out and started walking when she took off on her own.  I found her sitting inside and was going to sit by her when I got "the look".  I'd seen it before, that don't you dare half-command, half-pleading glare so I sat somewhere else.
       The good part of this phase is that you can usually console yourself with the thought that you really haven't done anything wrong or odd or strange to cause such acute embarrassment.  Unless you go over the bounds of good behavior by actually kissing, hugging, or otherwise "parenting" your child in front of other teenagers with public displays of affection (PDA's) or instruction (PDI's).
       Teenagers on the other hand, are perfectly capable of doing or saying or wearing things that really do drive us nuts.   The trick of parenting is learning to let go of the little things and save the battle for things that really matter such as behavior that could be dangerous, illegal, or life-changing.
       However, there are distinct disadvantages for having gone to college in the early seventies.  It makes it really difficult to be self-righteously judgmental with your children about certain things.  Like the time one of the guys was growing his hair long and wearing a pony-tail.  It didn't take long after a set-to about his hair for him to come up from the basement with photos of his parents looking like long-haired hippies.   It changed the conversation because we had to begin with confessing that we agreed that we didn't look that great like that either.  It was uncomfortable to be confronted with the fact that we didn't look nearly as cool and unique as we thought at the time.  Kind of like old pictures of guys in powder-blue tuxedos with ruffled shirts; the judgment of time is not always gracious.
       If it is a good thing to be humbled by past experience (and I think it probably is), then we should not be afraid of it.  Our youthful follies are useful reminders that we have every reason to be gracious and forgiving with the people around us.  None of us make it to adulthood without making many mistakes whether by intent or accident.  Before we pipe up in judgment of others, we need to remember our own mistakes so that we can welcome others as they are the same way God welcomes us just as we are.
       How wonderful that God accepts us with love, forgives us, and gives us the freedom and chance to try again.  We never get so embarrassing that God leaves us behind or refuses to  acknowledge us.  Instead, God takes us just the way we are with or without purple hair, tattoos, or stuffed shirts and wraps us up in love.  All God asks in return is that we extend that same welcome, love, and forgiveness to all of God's children around us.  Read Psalm 25:6-10