This Saturday is our church yard sale to raise funds to help our sister church in Turkey buy land for a building. Church yard sales tend to remind me of something that happened our first year or two in the ministry.
The tradition in the Mount Airy, Maryland area, where Prospect United Methodist Church is located, was to have auctions rather than yard sales. At an entry-level pastor’s salary, we were very limited in what we could buy even at church auction prices. But that evening, after everyone had gone home, Paula and I walked across the street from the parsonage to look around at what had been left behind for the trash collector.
That’s when Paula saw the bed frame , and old wooden headboard and footboard and side rails. It was in such poor shape that nobody was willing to pay fifty cents and carry it away. I agreed with them. But Paula saw something in it that I couldn’t see. She kept exclaiming about how beautiful it was. So, just to humor her, I carried it across the street to the parsonage.
Paula went to work with stripper and scraper and stain and polyurethane, and she created a wonderful transformation in that old bed. She scraped away the layers of dirt and grime and peeling finish, and brought out what that bed was originally created to be. And just as she said, it was beautiful. Nuances of texture and grain and color just shone.
We really didn’t have room for another bed in the parsonage, so the next time we visited Paula’s parents on their farm in Missouri we put it on top our old station wagon and took it out there. Her folks loved it, and every time we visited for the next decade or so, that’s the bed we slept in. Then when they moved to the city, we brought the bed back and now Joy sleeps in it. It’s still comfortable, and it’s still beautiful. I’m so glad Paula was able to see beyond the damage of years to see what it could become.
And I’m so glad God sees beyond the damage of years to see what we can become. When our mistakes and bad decisions and downright sins have covered us with layers of gunk and grime and we feel like we’re not worth fifty cents, God still sees something in us. He wants to pick us up off the trash heap of life and clean us up and refinish us and make us beautiful and useful. The only difference between us and that old bed is that once Paula decided, the bed didn’t have any choice. We do. But I’ll tell you what: let God have his way with you. Standing strong and beautiful in a nice bedroom is so much nicer than rotting in the county landfill.
About Me
- Pastor David
- I serve as pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church in Annapolis, MD. I'm married to beautiful Paula, mother of my 4 sons and one daughter. I was a systems engineer before entering ministry 29 years ago.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Take a Vacation!
Right after the big celebration (of Trinity UM Church’s 100th anniversary – read all about it in the July newsletter available on the Trinity website), I went on two weeks of vacation. That’s why you haven’t seen anything new here for a while. Now I’m back, and raring to go!
Vacation! Is there any lovelier word in the English language? (Of course there are – love, commitment, sacrifice , and many others – but that’s for another time.)
If you read the Old Testament right you’ll understand that God commanded his people to take vacations. Not just the Sabbath, the one day in seven when God instructs us not to work. We all need to take that seriously, and if more of us did, I personally believe we’d all be a lot healthier, in spirit and mind as well as body. But God actually commands his people to take vacations.
God set aside nineteen days a year as feast days. As described in Leviticus 23, these were essentially national holidays. Two of them, the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Feast of Tabernacles, were a week long. The others were one-day feasts. These holidays, scattered throughout the year, were specifically set aside for eating and celebrating, like Thanksgiving. Besides eating, during the week-long feast of Tabernacles, the people were specifically instructed to go camping! God understood the importance of getting away from our normal surroundings if we are to really experience mental refreshment.
We are not ancient Hebrews, so we are not subject to those particular laws. But we are God's people, so the principle applies. It is important to take time away.
We went to Shenandoah and Monticello, and visited our son Jeremiah and his family in West Virginia. It was a wonderful time. We talked, we ate, we explored, we played games, we just relaxed and spent time together. It was great. And we all came back feeling refreshed.
So if you haven’t taken a vacation yet this year – and I mean a real vacation, one that gets you someplace else for at least a few days, even if it means mooching off relatives to do it – get out there and vacate! After all, it’s in the Bible.
Vacation! Is there any lovelier word in the English language? (Of course there are – love, commitment, sacrifice , and many others – but that’s for another time.)
If you read the Old Testament right you’ll understand that God commanded his people to take vacations. Not just the Sabbath, the one day in seven when God instructs us not to work. We all need to take that seriously, and if more of us did, I personally believe we’d all be a lot healthier, in spirit and mind as well as body. But God actually commands his people to take vacations.
God set aside nineteen days a year as feast days. As described in Leviticus 23, these were essentially national holidays. Two of them, the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Feast of Tabernacles, were a week long. The others were one-day feasts. These holidays, scattered throughout the year, were specifically set aside for eating and celebrating, like Thanksgiving. Besides eating, during the week-long feast of Tabernacles, the people were specifically instructed to go camping! God understood the importance of getting away from our normal surroundings if we are to really experience mental refreshment.
We are not ancient Hebrews, so we are not subject to those particular laws. But we are God's people, so the principle applies. It is important to take time away.
We went to Shenandoah and Monticello, and visited our son Jeremiah and his family in West Virginia. It was a wonderful time. We talked, we ate, we explored, we played games, we just relaxed and spent time together. It was great. And we all came back feeling refreshed.
So if you haven’t taken a vacation yet this year – and I mean a real vacation, one that gets you someplace else for at least a few days, even if it means mooching off relatives to do it – get out there and vacate! After all, it’s in the Bible.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Kids
I haven’t written much recently. I’ve been spending time with my kids.
Josh and Julie and their children Moses and Lucy are spending May with us as the last leg of their three-month visit back to the States from their home in Turkey. Joy is home from college for the summer from Oklahoma. John and Suzanne arrived Tuesday evening from Illinois for a week. We just picked up Jed at the airport from Tennessee. And Jeremiah and Becky and their children Isaiah and Malachi are on the road from West Virginia as I write this. Four sons, a daughter, three daughters-in-law, three grandsons and a granddaughter will be spending the Memorial Day weekend with us.
So I’ve taken kind of half-vacation time and I’ve been trying as much as I can to hang out with my kids and grandkids.
It’s an interesting thing. Many people have told Paula and me that we have wonderful children - they all love the Lord, they all earned major scholarships to college, I could go on. A lot of folks have asked us what the secret is to raising such great kids. We have even been asked to teach a parenting class. But as soon as we start talking about what we did and what we feel was important in raising our kids, people don’t want to hear it. We had to cancel the parenting course after the second class because people stopped coming.
I’m on the subject now, so I’ll go ahead and say it. It seems to me the one key element is spending time with your kids. Lots of time. Sure, “quality” time, but also lots of quantity time. Paying attention. Stopping what you are doing to be with them.
For instance, just as I was writing that last sentence I heard Moses waking up from his nap. The middle generation was out for some time by themselves. So I dropped what I was doing and Paula and I spent the next forty-five minutes or so with Moses, until his parents came home.
I believe that during the twenty or so years that a person is privileged to raise children, nothing else is so important. And the way that is played out is to spend time with them, paying attention to them, interacting with them in ways that teach them by example to interact with other people.
So that’s why I haven’t written on this blog in a while. And that’s why I’m stopping here. Gonna go be with my kids.
P.S. A lot of neat stuff happened during our prayer week, including some pretty awesome healings. I wrote about it in the Trinity Church June newsletter. You can read it online at the church website, trinityannapolis.org.
Josh and Julie and their children Moses and Lucy are spending May with us as the last leg of their three-month visit back to the States from their home in Turkey. Joy is home from college for the summer from Oklahoma. John and Suzanne arrived Tuesday evening from Illinois for a week. We just picked up Jed at the airport from Tennessee. And Jeremiah and Becky and their children Isaiah and Malachi are on the road from West Virginia as I write this. Four sons, a daughter, three daughters-in-law, three grandsons and a granddaughter will be spending the Memorial Day weekend with us.
So I’ve taken kind of half-vacation time and I’ve been trying as much as I can to hang out with my kids and grandkids.
It’s an interesting thing. Many people have told Paula and me that we have wonderful children - they all love the Lord, they all earned major scholarships to college, I could go on. A lot of folks have asked us what the secret is to raising such great kids. We have even been asked to teach a parenting class. But as soon as we start talking about what we did and what we feel was important in raising our kids, people don’t want to hear it. We had to cancel the parenting course after the second class because people stopped coming.
I’m on the subject now, so I’ll go ahead and say it. It seems to me the one key element is spending time with your kids. Lots of time. Sure, “quality” time, but also lots of quantity time. Paying attention. Stopping what you are doing to be with them.
For instance, just as I was writing that last sentence I heard Moses waking up from his nap. The middle generation was out for some time by themselves. So I dropped what I was doing and Paula and I spent the next forty-five minutes or so with Moses, until his parents came home.
I believe that during the twenty or so years that a person is privileged to raise children, nothing else is so important. And the way that is played out is to spend time with them, paying attention to them, interacting with them in ways that teach them by example to interact with other people.
So that’s why I haven’t written on this blog in a while. And that’s why I’m stopping here. Gonna go be with my kids.
P.S. A lot of neat stuff happened during our prayer week, including some pretty awesome healings. I wrote about it in the Trinity Church June newsletter. You can read it online at the church website, trinityannapolis.org.
Monday, May 4, 2009
God Invented Sex
I’m preaching a six-week sermon series on the real-life issues we all have to deal with. Things like life and death, and politics, and when God doesn’t answer prayer. Yesterday’s sermon was, “God Invented Sex.” (You can listen to a podcast on our church website, www.trinityannapolis.org.)
At the 9:00 service it was my turn to give the children’s sermon. Most of the kids are between two and six years old. I asked them if any of them were married, and they laughed and one said no, they were too short. Then I asked them what married people do. I was thinking about things like taking care of each other, so I was a little surprised at the chorus of snickers from various parts of the congregation.
Why is that the usual reaction to this topic?
Forty years ago, 8% of children were born out of wedlock. Twenty years ago that had climbed to 18%. Today, depending on what you read, the percentage of children born to single mothers is between 40 and 51%. Adding in the wide availability of birth control, and the number of children conceived by single mothers who are never allowed to be born, that points to a huge amount of sexual activity outside of marriage. And more and more couples I talk to in pre-wedding counseling have no idea that God even has an opinion about that.
That’s not something to be snickered at.
Then there’s the increasing visibility of the GLBT population: those who consider themselves gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered.
This is not just something we read about in the newspaper. Most of us know unmarried couples of all sexual orientations living together. Often they are in our families.
Somebody asked me recently, “How do I treat these people? What do I say to them?”
The simple answer is this: you love them. How can they ever know that God loves them if we don’t show them God’s love by loving them ourselves? That doesn’t mean we condone what is obviously unbiblical behavior. Encouraging people to continue in anything less than God’s perfect plan is not loving them.
But these folks know the church doesn’t approve. They don’t need us to tell them that. They may not know God doesn’t approve – in the eyes of many people there is a big disconnect between God and the church – but they’re not likely to take our word for it.
Our job is not to condemn non-Christians for acting like non-Christians. The Holy Spirit is the one who convinces people. Our job is just to love them, and tell them what Jesus has done for us.
Most of us grew up in a time when the Christian view of sex was accepted as the common morality. That is no longer true. If the church doesn’t tell people what the Bible says, nobody else will.
But if we don’t love them first, why should they listen to us?
At the 9:00 service it was my turn to give the children’s sermon. Most of the kids are between two and six years old. I asked them if any of them were married, and they laughed and one said no, they were too short. Then I asked them what married people do. I was thinking about things like taking care of each other, so I was a little surprised at the chorus of snickers from various parts of the congregation.
Why is that the usual reaction to this topic?
Forty years ago, 8% of children were born out of wedlock. Twenty years ago that had climbed to 18%. Today, depending on what you read, the percentage of children born to single mothers is between 40 and 51%. Adding in the wide availability of birth control, and the number of children conceived by single mothers who are never allowed to be born, that points to a huge amount of sexual activity outside of marriage. And more and more couples I talk to in pre-wedding counseling have no idea that God even has an opinion about that.
That’s not something to be snickered at.
Then there’s the increasing visibility of the GLBT population: those who consider themselves gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered.
This is not just something we read about in the newspaper. Most of us know unmarried couples of all sexual orientations living together. Often they are in our families.
Somebody asked me recently, “How do I treat these people? What do I say to them?”
The simple answer is this: you love them. How can they ever know that God loves them if we don’t show them God’s love by loving them ourselves? That doesn’t mean we condone what is obviously unbiblical behavior. Encouraging people to continue in anything less than God’s perfect plan is not loving them.
But these folks know the church doesn’t approve. They don’t need us to tell them that. They may not know God doesn’t approve – in the eyes of many people there is a big disconnect between God and the church – but they’re not likely to take our word for it.
Our job is not to condemn non-Christians for acting like non-Christians. The Holy Spirit is the one who convinces people. Our job is just to love them, and tell them what Jesus has done for us.
Most of us grew up in a time when the Christian view of sex was accepted as the common morality. That is no longer true. If the church doesn’t tell people what the Bible says, nobody else will.
But if we don’t love them first, why should they listen to us?
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Sudden Death
Darlene Henry, the warm and talented wife of my predecessor as pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church, had a massive stroke Easter evening. She died three days later. Eddie retired two years ago, and Darlene was set to retire in two months.
This was the second unexpected death in the church family in as many weeks.
One of the first things that comes to most people’s minds in such a situation is, “Why?” We understand that everyone has to die, but when someone doesn’t reach what we consider a normal life span, we want a reason. There are those who get comfort from believing that God wills and causes everything that happens, and that we just have to trust that God had his reasons. This is not the place for a theological argument. Let me just say that the way I read the Bible, and the way my relationship with God leads me to understand him, makes me see it differently. We live in a fallen world where God’s will is not always done. People dying painfully or before their time is an example of that.
What hit me about both these deaths was the unexpectedness. We can make all the plans in the world, but tomorrow is never guaranteed. I’m all in favor of delayed gratification and prudent planning for retirement. But I have to ask myself, is there something I really want to do, something I believe is important, something I am putting off into an uncertain future, that maybe I should begin working on right now, or that might give me a reason not to work until they make me stop? Those books I want to write, if I believe they are going to be a blessing to other people, can I really afford to wait until I retire to start writing them? Those special things I want to do with Paula and the kids, how sure can I be that they and I will be around and healthy and able to enjoy them fifteen years from now?
Death makes you think about things.
This was the second unexpected death in the church family in as many weeks.
One of the first things that comes to most people’s minds in such a situation is, “Why?” We understand that everyone has to die, but when someone doesn’t reach what we consider a normal life span, we want a reason. There are those who get comfort from believing that God wills and causes everything that happens, and that we just have to trust that God had his reasons. This is not the place for a theological argument. Let me just say that the way I read the Bible, and the way my relationship with God leads me to understand him, makes me see it differently. We live in a fallen world where God’s will is not always done. People dying painfully or before their time is an example of that.
What hit me about both these deaths was the unexpectedness. We can make all the plans in the world, but tomorrow is never guaranteed. I’m all in favor of delayed gratification and prudent planning for retirement. But I have to ask myself, is there something I really want to do, something I believe is important, something I am putting off into an uncertain future, that maybe I should begin working on right now, or that might give me a reason not to work until they make me stop? Those books I want to write, if I believe they are going to be a blessing to other people, can I really afford to wait until I retire to start writing them? Those special things I want to do with Paula and the kids, how sure can I be that they and I will be around and healthy and able to enjoy them fifteen years from now?
Death makes you think about things.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Washing One Another’s Feet
Last night Trinity had our Maundy Thursday service. Maundy Thursday is what they call the Thursday before Easter, when Jesus turned the Passover meal into the Lord’s Supper/Mass/Eucharist/Holy Communion.
Usually our Maundy Thursday service focuses on the Lord’s Supper. This year we added a foot washing piece.
In Israel at the time of Christ, everybody wore sandals, and they either walked or rode donkeys – on rare occasions, camels or horses. Sandals were easy and cool, but they let all the dirt and dust and “donkey pollution” from the roads get all over your feet. So whenever you went into somebody’s house, they would have a servant untie your sandals and wash your feet. Since this was such a dirty job, it was usually the lowliest servant who was assigned to this task.
On that first Maundy Thursday, Jesus and his disciples were in a rented room. There was no host, and no servants. So everybody just came on in and sat around the table with their dirty smelly feet sticking out.
John’s gospel tells us the meal had gotten well under way. In other words, Jesus gave everyone ample opportunity to do something. They all missed their chance. Finally Jesus himself got up from his meal, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, took a pitcher and basin, and began to wash his followers’ dirty feet. Jesus, the Lord of the universe, took the place of the lowliest servant.
The values of God’s kingdom turn the values of this world upside down. Jesus was demonstrating that in a way none of them would ever forget.
Last night we offered an opportunity for folks to wash one another’s feet. Maybe a third of the people there did. You could tell it was a moving experience for everyone, those who washed and those who watched.
For me, the most moving part was seeing several older couples, people in their seventies and eighties, washing each other’s feet. Very slowly and carefully getting down on their knees, then very tenderly washing and drying the feet of the man or woman they had lived with and loved for fifty years or more, then reversing roles and allowing their feet to be washed.
What a picture of love and devotion. I won’t forget it soon.
Usually our Maundy Thursday service focuses on the Lord’s Supper. This year we added a foot washing piece.
In Israel at the time of Christ, everybody wore sandals, and they either walked or rode donkeys – on rare occasions, camels or horses. Sandals were easy and cool, but they let all the dirt and dust and “donkey pollution” from the roads get all over your feet. So whenever you went into somebody’s house, they would have a servant untie your sandals and wash your feet. Since this was such a dirty job, it was usually the lowliest servant who was assigned to this task.
On that first Maundy Thursday, Jesus and his disciples were in a rented room. There was no host, and no servants. So everybody just came on in and sat around the table with their dirty smelly feet sticking out.
John’s gospel tells us the meal had gotten well under way. In other words, Jesus gave everyone ample opportunity to do something. They all missed their chance. Finally Jesus himself got up from his meal, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, took a pitcher and basin, and began to wash his followers’ dirty feet. Jesus, the Lord of the universe, took the place of the lowliest servant.
The values of God’s kingdom turn the values of this world upside down. Jesus was demonstrating that in a way none of them would ever forget.
Last night we offered an opportunity for folks to wash one another’s feet. Maybe a third of the people there did. You could tell it was a moving experience for everyone, those who washed and those who watched.
For me, the most moving part was seeing several older couples, people in their seventies and eighties, washing each other’s feet. Very slowly and carefully getting down on their knees, then very tenderly washing and drying the feet of the man or woman they had lived with and loved for fifty years or more, then reversing roles and allowing their feet to be washed.
What a picture of love and devotion. I won’t forget it soon.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Babies, Babies, Babies!
Two days ago Paula and I went to visit one of our families and their new baby – what a cutie! This afternoon we plan to visit the families of two more babies recently born at Trinity. We are expecting another one any moment, and I have been told there are twins on the way within the next month or so.
That will make nine new babies at Trinity since October. Wow!
It’s a good thing we got the nursery renovated.
We’ve known about most of these babies for some time. One of them was a total surprise – a baby suddenly up for adoption, and just as suddenly adopted.
Some people say what God does or allows in the natural realm is often a sign of what God plans or intends for the spiritual realm. If that’s so, what does God have in mind for Trinity?
I’m not sure, but I think we should start thinking about renovating our spiritual nursery!
That will make nine new babies at Trinity since October. Wow!
It’s a good thing we got the nursery renovated.
We’ve known about most of these babies for some time. One of them was a total surprise – a baby suddenly up for adoption, and just as suddenly adopted.
Some people say what God does or allows in the natural realm is often a sign of what God plans or intends for the spiritual realm. If that’s so, what does God have in mind for Trinity?
I’m not sure, but I think we should start thinking about renovating our spiritual nursery!
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