Sunday Morning - Come and See

In our gospel lesson for today, from John 1:43-51, we hear how Jesus calls two disciples into ministry with him. One of them he invites to come and join him, the second is invited by the first.

I love this story because it reminds us that God works in and through us. We are the ones who are blessed with gifts and are called to go out into the world and use those gifts to invite others to come and see Jesus.

In essence, we are God's hands in the world.

That's one thing our Sunday School kids have been learning more and more about over the years. They not only learn the Bible stories but they also find ways to live out their faith by serving others.

By being God's hands in the world.

So today I invite you to take some time and reflect on the gifts with which you have been blessed. It may be the gift of cooking, visiting others, praying for people, have a green thumb, be able to fix things, and the list goes on and on. What are some of your gifts, and how can you use those gifts to share God's love with others?

Coming to the Altar

" Then the LORD appeared to Abram, and said, "To your offspring I will give this land." So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him."  Genesis 12:7

In Genesis 12:1-8 we hear the call of Abram (Abraham) and Sarai (Sarah). God calls them to leave everything they know, including their family and home, and go wherever he leads them.

As they answer this call, they realize that they cannot take everything they have with them. So they choose what is important and leave the rest behind. As they travel they have conversations with God. They then mark the places that they have these conversations as hole and build altars there. In doing this they giving God an offering – an offering of themselves, an offering of all they have and all they are.

Through the waters of baptism, you too have been claimed and called by God. You have been washed and marked as one of God’s own children. As you have grown over the years, God has continued to call you by opening opportunities to you to grow in your life of faith and share it with others.

So today, I invite you to build an altar for your offering. Take a moment and envision an altar, your altar, in your mind. What does it look like?

After you have this image of an altar in place, ask God if there is anything you need to put on it, anything you need to offer up to him. It could be something that may get in the way of your journey of life and faith – a habit, desire, time, or sin. Is there anything you are doing that is keeping God at a distance?

Now, with these things in your mind, put them on the altar. Hand them over to God where he will deal with them and grant you freedom from them.

52 Weeks of Joy - Aha Joy

"When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy."     Matt. 2:10 NRSV

The season of epiphany is the season of aha moments. It is the time when the magi realize who the true king is, Jesus. It is the time when the world is opened to the amazing gifts that God is bringing to us. It is the time when we our eyes are opened to God, once again, acting in our lives.

So as I was thinking about joy during this epiphany season, I started to think about joy in the "aha" moments. You know those moments, those times when you are just struck and go "aha, I got, I understand, I see."

I remember one of those aha moments from a few years ago. It was the week after Easter the year I had been diagnosed with cancer. We were going to meet Jennifer’s family in Florida. They make an annual pilgrimage to a place on the panhandle and we had gone with them a few times in the past. This year was different though, because we had decided to drive – the four of us: Jennifer, the two girls ages five and one, and myself. It was going to be an interesting trip, to say the least.

It went well. We drove through the night so that the girls could sleep in the back of the van. We tried to sleep when not driving, but that did not go quite as well. Jennifer has trouble sleeping in vehicles, and I had a mind that was racing – is this the last family vacation I will go on? How can I make it memorable? What is there for me to do in order to make this the best vacation ever?

I actually put a lot of pressure on myself, but as the drive progressed, once again I was hit by the Spirit, I was hit with that aha moment.

It doesn’t have to be the perfect vacation. It doesn’t have to be the most memorable event ever. All it has to be is what it is: a vacation with family, a time to relax, and an opportunity to spend time with people I love without the pressure of work, meetings, and doctor’s appointments.

The aha moment that gave me so much joy was the moment of celebrating that moment, that time, that blessing of family and break, and not putting so much pressure on myself and on the vacation that it turned into all stress and no fun.

So what aha moment has brought you some joy?

Baptism of our Lord

Today we celebrate the Baptism of our Lord. Below is an excerpt of today's sermon

“And just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him”

Today is the celebration of the baptism of our Lord. It is the day we walk with Jesus into those waters at the river Jordan, the day we gawk wide eyed at John as he submerges Jesus in that running water, and the day when Jesus explodes out of the water that the heavens are ripped apart. Yes, in our reading for today we hear that the heavens are ripped apart, and they are ripped in such a way that they can never fully be mended. There will always be that rip, the tear, that change that has taken place, and it means that as of that very moment, things cannot go back to the way they were.

You see, with God coming to us, with Jesus’ baptism and the rending and ripping of the heavens, with God loose in the world in a way he never has been before, things have changed, and there is no way to put that genie back in the bottle. Because the heavens are ripped, and once something is ripped, it will never go back to the exact way that it way. And honestly, once something is ripped in such a way, will be different, may even be better.

Take a moment and think about that in your own life. I think about my own health life.I have this surgery scar, a place where I was ripped apart with a scalpel, and I will never the same. But, I am better for it.

And I bet you can come up with examples in your own life. I bet you can come up with times when things were ripped apart beyond your control. But as things progressed, able to see the blessings, able to see how things were better in the long run.

That is what is happening at the baptism of Jesus. The heavens are being ripped apart and things will never be the same. For God is actively getting his hands bloody and dirty, literally, and restoring his relationship with his children, with you. And God does this by entering into the world and ripping apart boundaries to seek us out

Prayer

One of the resolutions I often hear about almost every January is that people want to improve their prayer life or their devotional life as a whole. And I do have to admit that there are times that my prayer life is like a roller coaster as well - times I am very active in prayer and other times that it slips to the side.

One of the tools that I use to help get myself back on track or enhance where I am is called TAPS prayers.  TAPS prayers are a fairly simple way to think about who we are prayer for and how we can be involved in this conversation with God that is called prayer.

Here is what it stands for:

T - Thanksgiving - Giving thanks to God for the blessings in our lives
A - Ask - Asking God for what we need in our lives
P - Praise - Praising God for being the God of grace, forgiveness and love that he is
S - Supplication - praying for others

Then, after going through the TAPS prayers you would take some time in silence to listen to what God has to say to you.

Do you have any favorite ways to pray?

52 Weeks of Joy - Sacred Home

"A river and its streams bring joy to the city, which is the sacred home of God Most High"  Psalm 46:4 CEV

As I start this journey of looking at and celebrating the joys in our lives, I want to start with the joy of the city. Our congregation is in the inner city part of Beloit. It is a city with a very high unemployment rate and there are many needs in the area, especially right around the church.

So one of the joys that I see is the way that this congregation, and the community at large really, is working to help meet those needs. We have a day house for a homeless shelter on our grounds and we host a weekly lunch where we will feed anywhere from 50 to 150 depending on the week.

For me the true joy here is in the way the people of this congregation are being the hands of God in the world. They see a need, they see something that has to change, and they make it happen.

So there is Joy #1 - the joy of being in this city and celebrating the work of the people here.

So what is joy #1 for you today?

Welcome 2012

As it was for many of you as well, 2011 was a year filled with ups and downs. Through all of what came I was continually reminded of the major blessings we are showered with and how it is so easy to miss these blessings. So my prayer for you in 2012 is that your eyes may always be opened to the blessings of God in you life.

God Bless.