Well, To Be Honest

We continue our series today on Prayer: Opening Your Heart to God. We’ve explored the privilege of prayer, discovered how to pray authentically, ventured into the realm of dangerous prayers, and wrestled with the mystery of unanswered prayers. I hope you have been benefiting from the series and you’ve truly been discovering your heart being opened to God. Today’s topic hinges on that openness. Today we’re going to look at the topic of painfully honest prayers… and to pray with genuine honesty requires an open heart and a lot of trust.
Let’s begin exploring this topic by looking at one painfully honest prayer.

[Jeremiah 20.7-18]

As you read along or listened to these words of Jeremiah you might have wondered what the heck was he saying? Jeremiah comes off a bit schizophrenic in this prayer, jumping back and forth between deep pain and great joy. Well, to be honest I thought the same thing when I read this passage. Jeremiah’s words didn’t make much sense to me so I backed up and refreshed my memory on the who and what of Jeremiah.

Jeremiah was born and grew up in a small village not far from Jerusalem. Jeremiah was part of a priestly family, but he never served as a priest in the Temple because of his call from God to be a prophet. Jeremiah began fulfilling God’s assignment to proclaim judgment on God’s sinful people in the form of attack and destruction by the armies of Babylon by talking to the rulers, priests, and merchants of Israel. For 22 years Jeremiah had been telling the Hebrew people God’s desire for them to change their ways and still the judgment doesn’t come. For 22 years the nation remained stubborn and obstinate, ignoring Jeremiah, believing they are doing okay. But at this point in the story the armies of Babylon are now marching toward Jerusalem. The king has heard of the approach of the Babylonians, fear has gripped the hearts of the inhabitants and of the king himself. Jeremiah comes to them and says, “I’ve got a message for you from God. God sees your corruption, your wickedness, your self-centeredness. God sees how you are rebelling against him. God wants you to turn things around and repent. God wants you to receive forgiveness and go in a new direction as a nation and as individuals.”

Well, to be honest the rulers, priests, and merchants responded like most people probably would and they laughed Jeremiah right out of town. But Jeremiah was determined, although discouraged, and went back this time with details. “In the past When God warned God’s people and they repented, they received forgiveness and experienced the blessings of God. But when they ignored the prophets, judgment came upon them. I beg of you, repent and change!” And again the rulers, priests, and merchants ignored Jeremiah’s message, denying they had a problem, and denying Jeremiah was one of God’s prophets. To add insult to injury, not only do they reject Jeremiah, but they arrest him, beat him, and put him in the stocks for a night where every passerby can hit him and spit on him.

The stocks consists of large, hinged, wooden boards that when a person is placed in the stocks, their feet are locked in place, and sometimes their hands are locked into place directly above their ankles. The victim is in a sitting position – a very uncomfortable sitting position.

In a surprising development Jeremiah finds himself badly beaten and chained in the stocks. For saying what he had been saying all along, he now suddenly finds himself with his back bleeding and raw and sore, his arms and legs imprisoned in stocks which held him in a most uncomfortable position, crouched over and unable to move, facing a long, dark, cold, lonely night. By this time Jeremiah was accustomed to assassination threats. But this was an official action taken by the chief officer of the temple, and it indicates how the opposition to the prophet was hardening at the time.

Looking at verse 7 we have the thoughts of Jeremiah while he is in the stocks, waiting for what would happen in the morning. This is a remarkable account of what the prophet thought while he was imprisoned. He was, to say the least, a profoundly perturbed prophet! Here we get another look at the honest humanity of this man, at the way he faced circumstances just as we do, with fear and despair, alternating at times with faith and confidence. This is an account of wavering between despair and faith. Any of you who have ever found yourself in unexpected trouble for doing the right thing will be able to identify with Jeremiah the prophet at this time, as he fluctuates between bitterness and faith, between despair and praise.

Let us look at the prophet's dilemma. The first thing he feels is that God himself has deceived him:
O LORD, you deceived me, and I was deceived; you overpowered me and prevailed. {Jer 20.7a}

Here is a bitter cry in which Jeremiah actually charges God with having lied to him, and with having taken advantage of him because he is bigger. Have you ever felt like that toward God? To be honest, I am not sure I would have the nerve to talk with God like this. It is not so much that there have not been times when I was disturbed that there did not seem to be much in the way of divine comfort in my life. There have been moments when I wondered - really wondered - why certain unthinkable things happened in my life when I was doing all I could to honor and serve God. As much as I hate to admit it (and maybe some of you can relate here) there have been a few times when I felt a bit like Jeremiah. This is no little thing Jeremiah is saying here. I have just never thought to talk to God in the way Jeremiah did. Jeremiah is probably thinking back to the promise with which he began his ministry, recorded in the first chapter. God had called Jeremiah as a young man and set him to his task, and Jeremiah had objected:
7 But the LORD said to me, "Do not say, 'I am only a child.' You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. 8 Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you," declares the LORD. 9 Then the LORD reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, "Now, I have put my words in your mouth. 10 See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant." {Jer 1:7-10 }

Jeremiah, remembering those words, is saying, "What happened, Lord? What happened to your promise? You said you'd be with me to deliver me, but here I am in these miserable stocks, held a prisoner, my back bloody and sore, having been beaten, and they're threatening my life. You said you'd deliver me! Lord, you've deceived me!"

Well, to be honest that is the way the heart can easily feel toward God, isn't it? Like so many of us, Jeremiah took these promises rather superficially. He read into them certain assumptions God never intended. He assumed "to deliver,” meant "to keep him from all hurt". But God did not say that. Jeremiah saw himself in rather heroic terms, and though he shrank from that call, yet he foresaw no pain or personal injury to himself involved at all. He saw himself as going and declaring the word of God to a people who needed it, but with God setting a wall about him, giving his angels charge over him, keeping him safe through it all. But now he seems to have absolutely no protection, and so he charges God with lying.

That, of course, is the one thing God cannot do. God cannot lie. He cannot be faithless to his promise. No way, no how! And yet, to be honest, Jeremiah feels, as many of us have felt, that God has failed his promise. I do not know how many times people have said to me, referring to the word of God, "Well, I know what it says, but it doesn't work!” That is just another way of saying, "God has deceived me; God's a liar!” And that was the prophet's predicament.

The second thing he found was that people were mocking him:
I am ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks me. {Jer 20.7b}

His message was unpopular. And though the people could not answer the keenness of his logic, they did the only thing they could do -- they began to ridicule his person. That is always the refuge of petty minds. When people cannot handle a logical argument they begin to attack the person, and try to destroy him personally. And so they laughed at Jeremiah, poked fun at him, ridiculed him. Mockery is hard to bear, hard for the human spirit to take, and this was getting to Jeremiah.

Third, he discovered an unbearable tension within himself:
Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction. So the word of the LORD has brought me insult and reproach all day long.{Jer 20:8 }

Just a few chapters back, in Chapter 15, he had cried out in an ecstasy of glory,
When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart's delight,{Jer 15:16a }

Now he is saying, "Lord, your word is a rebuke and travesty to me. I wish I had never heard it!” And he wants to quit preaching, but he cannot:
But if I say, "I will not mention him or speak any more in his name," his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot. {Jer 20:9 }

Jeremiah is torn with this inner tension -- of fear and a dislike of proclaiming the truth, because it only subjects him to ridicule and scorn; and yet when he resolved to quit he found he could not, because the fire of God was burning in his bones and he had to say something. Do you know what that feels like? Perhaps not with respect to public preaching -- we are not all called to that. But have you ever felt that you just had to speak out? Some injustice, some moral wrong, some scandalous conduct, some serious hypocrisy was occurring, and you just could not keep quiet about it. And yet you knew that if you spoke out you would only get into trouble, and nobody would thank you for it -- you would only upset the status quo and create strife -- but you could not contain yourself. Did you ever feel that way? That was what Jeremiah was experiencing here -- this tremendous struggle within himself against the proclamation of the Word of God, which only created more trouble.

The last thing he mentions is the sense he had of living in an atmosphere of total insecurity:
I hear many whispering, "Terror on every side! Report him! Let's report him!" All my friends are waiting for me to slip, saying, "Perhaps he will be deceived; then we will prevail over him and take our revenge on him." {Jer 20:10 }

There is not a person Jeremiah can trust, not a one. Even his familiar friends, those he ate with, visited with, talked with, even they are whispering against him. There is terror on every side. There is no one he can trust. Friends are highly suspect. Even God has deceived him. Well, to be honest that is a pretty accurate description of the way our fears can seize our mind and distort reality – so much so that we can believe that God too is against us, betraying us, lying to us.
Yet, Jeremiah’s faith reassures him.

But the LORD is with me like a mighty warrior; so my persecutors will stumble and not prevail. They will fail and be thoroughly disgraced; their dishonor will never be forgotten.
O LORD Almighty, you who examine the righteous and probe the heart and mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you I have committed my cause.
Sing to the LORD! Give praise to the LORD! He rescues the life of the needy from the hands of the wicked.{Jer 20:11-13}

It would be great if we could end the account here. But Jeremiah is a very human being, and so he does as we often do -- he sinks back into even greater despair!

Cursed be the day I was born! May the day my mother bore me not be blessed!
Cursed be the man who brought my father the news, who made him very glad, saying, "A child is born to you—a son!" {Jer 20:14-15}

He starts to curse the day he was born. It must be about three in the morning now. Up 'til midnight he had been doing fine, but the last hour or two he has been scrunched over in this cruel position, his feet are hurting, his hands are hurting, his head hurts, his back is raw and bloody, and he cannot scratch or soothe it in any way. So the situation gets to be too much again, and he begins to curse the day he was born.

Have you ever said that? "Why was I ever born?" "I wish I'd never been born!” Well, to be honest, Jeremiah does not tell us any more of what went on through the long, long night. What happened? Well, we do not know; we can only guess. But I’m inclined to believe that sometime through that long dark night, the burning in the bones of the prophet, the word of God triumphed over the trembling of his heart. Jeremiah poured out all of his feelings in a painfully honest prayer… all his anger, fear, sadness, confusion, regret, depression, and feelings of betrayal… he let God hear it all, holding nothing back.

Jeremiah also lifted up deep personal words and feelings of praise. In the middle of his pain he still knew the goodness of God. At one moment his tone was depressed and sad and in the next moment he was confident and rejoicing. The depth of Jeremiah’s honesty in prayer led him to transparent expression of his sorrow and joy, his anger and praise.

Jeremiah’s prayer was not schizophrenic; it was just authentically honest. Even though his prayer poured out of a broken heart he still trusted God. His cries were honest expressions of the depth of his despair that was still rooted in his confidence in God’s power and love. Jeremiah felt free to pour out his heart because he was so sure of God’s character. Jeremiah trusted God so much that he was willing to risk praying a painfully honest prayer. He believed God could handle a messy prayer. He knew God was interested in all of his feelings, even the tough and ugly ones. Jeremiah believed being in the presence of God was refuge, even for those with chaos in their hearts.

We can learn a lot about praying openly and honestly from Jeremiah. Sometimes our prayers are so tidy, pretty, and sanitized that God must wonder if our heart is at all connected to our mouth. God knows our pain, sorrow, anger, hurt, and struggles, yet when we pray, too often we push those genuine, honest feelings down and try to present only the positive or to at least clean up the negative. We may feel that expressing our anger or hurt might be offensive to God. Or maybe we were raised to bury those feelings and never let anyone see them. Or maybe we don’t feel free to be honest with God.

Well, y'know what? God knows us and God still loves us. We matter to God and God wants to hear everything that is on our heart. It is time we learn to lift up painfully honest prayers, understanding that they will not injure God. What makes them painful is how hard it can be for us to tell the truth, even to God. When we realize God wants us to pour our heart out to him, our prayers may seem schizophrenic, or messy, but at least they are honest.

Equal Opportunity Employment for EVERYONE!

Did you know that in 31 states it's perfectly legal to fire someone for being gay?

Or that in 39 states it's legal to fire someone for being transgender?

I found it pretty hard to believe. Here we are in the 21st century, in a country that prides itself on equal opportunity,and millions of Americans can be denied a job or fired - not for poor performance, but for simply being themselves.

I just took action with the Human Rights Campaign to end this appalling injustice. I hope you'll join me today, by sending a message to your lawmakers in Congress urging them to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which will make this kind of discrimination illegal once and for all.

It's easy. To take action, go to:http://www.passENDAnow.org

A Day Off Continued

So after pondering Sabbath rest and blogging a bit about it I decided to get in touch with some of my friends via facebook and ask them their thoughts on sabbath-ing. Below are some responses I received. (well said, friends!) Please add your own through the comments feature. And may you "grow to treasure Sabbath days."

Here is what I'm wondering:What is sabbath rest for you?What are you resting from when your sabbath arrives?How do you observe sabbath in your life?

Joseph writes:
Right now is kind of a weird point in my life in that I am scheduled to work one job or the other every day of the week. The days that I'm off my retail job it is because I am working with my summer youth group.During the school year, though, Saturdays tend to be a sabbath for me. I get up when I want - either early or late depending on what I want to do, and I just chill. I might do some school work, but it's not the busy, frantic work of the week. I may intend to do work but just do nothing all day, and I don't feel bad about it. I rest from being over committed and stretched thin.

Mark writes:
Well, if we go all the way back to the original meaning, sabbath is not so much about resting as it is about remembering. So, on my sabbath day of rest (Fridays!!!), I remember and celebrate where I've seen and not seen God in my last week and where I've been and not been the person of God that I need to be. This helps me refocus on what's most important. Then I'm prepared to go forward into another week.

Richelle writes:
"Sabbath: Restoring the Sacred Rhythm of Rest", by Wayne Muller has been life changing. The author of the book brings light to fact that we live in a world where we are rewarded for being overworked, overscheduled, over-everything. He also talks about how seeking a “successful” life can be a type of violence for in our doing so, we can hurt our physical bodies, our families/children, our spirits, our communities, and our earth. All of this is partially do the fact that we have forgotten the Sabbath. One of the most profound statements in the book is “If busyness can become a kind of violence, we do not have to stretch our perception very far to see that Sabbath time-effortless, nourishing rest- can invite a healing of this violence.” (p.5) After reading this book I have faithfully observed Fridays as my Sabbath. Whether you take a whole day or portions of every day, you need to schedule your Sabbath in just as you do office hours, hospital visits, meetings,vacations and days off. On Sabbath days i do not prepare sermons, take phone calls- I rest, reflect, walk, spend time with family and friends.Only for an emergency (death) will I return a phone call that day. It is up to you and you need to do it or your ministry effectiveness will be in jeopardy. Your Sabbath is also NOT your day off. I take Saturdays as my day off but an not as faithful in taking the whole day. You will burn out if you do not take a Sabbath regularly. God is pretty clear that we are to observe the Sabbath..It is for sure that the one who created us knows what is good for us. Talk to your congregations, youth groups, Sunday schools about this issue and encourage the regular practice of taking a Sabbath. It has been the best thing I could have done for myself.

Matt writes:
I haven't found a way to do a whole day of Sabbath, but I am intentional about participating in activities that refresh me. I attend a mid-week Eucharist at an Episcopal church most weeks, I spend time outside, I read non-theological books, I watch silly movies, and I make time to tend to my relationship with my wife. To me the prohibition of work on the Sabbath is that so we will focus on the other aspects of our lives, not become work-a-holics (a tendency of many pastors), and have a full and balanced life- to the extent that such a thing is possible.

Phyllis Writes:
Thanks for your message and the chance to think/reflect about sabbath. We hear in classes like Spirituality of Ministry, Homiletics, and others how important it is to keep a sabbath, to keep refreshed in order to keep one's own connection to God in order to serve others well. There were some weeks last semester (80-85 hour weeks between school and the small church that I serve 20 hours per week) when I would ask, "Ok, all you who suggest 'keeping a sabbath': just show me how!!!" The only time that felt like a "sabbath" to me then was Sunday late afternoon/evening, when I would make a pizza with my son and we would watch a Law and Order rerun while we ate our pizza. What a strange way to keep a "sabbath," yes? --- But it did feel like it, I guess because I was relaxing and spending time with my (grown) son, whom I otherwise barely got to say hello/good-bye to. This summer, I am working a "mere" 40 hours/week or so, and it feels as though I am on vacation! And, I have correspondingly noticed that I feel more refreshed in my care of the little church I serve. I have gotten independent confirmation: a couple of parishioners have commented that my sermons seem livelier, "excellent," "getting better all the time." I say this not to brag at all but merely to say that their comments seem to be independent verification that we DO need to have enough time to rest, to be whole, to recreate, to take care of other parts of our lives. This summer, "sabbath" is radically cleaning my house, cleaning up the yard, curling up on the couch and doing a Sudoku puzzle, and feeling overall more relaxed. What am I resting from in sabbath? From the normal tugs of the effort/energy I expend during the school year: school work (reading, papers) and also from preparing the weekly worship service and writing a sermon. Even though I enjoy doing those (especially preparing the worship service; I have learned that I love selecting hymns and liturgy), they are hard work. Good work, but hard work. Prof. Diane Turner-Sharraz told us that we should start reading the scripture for the following Sunday's sermon on Sunday evening. I told her that Sunday evening (during the school year) is the closest/only thing I have that I can call a sabbath and that I need to not read or even think about scripture on Sunday evenings. But by Monday morning, after my "sabbath," I am refreshed and ready to read and pray about the scripture coming up for the next week.

Penny writes:
Sabbath is really important in my life and I have been more focused this summer on it. My Sabbath day each week is different just like me. I do not check email, answer the phone, I focus on me. What I am resting when my Sabbath arrives is: I am resting my mind, body and soul from the weeks worth of needs and issues. I like to take God walks after having read a scripture or something reflective and reflect on where my journey is or has been, the people I have come into contact with at my Chaplain job. I also get to see where I am growing and be open to hearing the Holy One's response and further guidance. I believe Sabbath is a vital if I am too avoid burnout and to keeping my ego aligned with God. May you grow to treasure Sabbath days

A Day Off

Mondays are my Sabbath days. It is the one day a week that I protect with ferocity. I don't work at church or my retail job. I won't even answer the phone. From about 2p.m. on Sunday until 8a.m. on Tuesday I am just MK - not Pastor MK, not Sales Associate MK, not Student MK. I am intentional to carve out this time to rejuvenate myself. I play with the dogs, take naps, read fun books, avoid email and facebook, and spend quality time with my significant other.

My two jobs are draining work because they require a lot of people time and I'm an introvert. Being a youth pastor is additionally draining. I need my Sabbath time to heal the wounds I suffered the previous week. I need to reconnect with myself and my 'family.' I will admit because I am a pastor a big part of my Sabbath time is turning off God. Sounds awful or strange, but I know God is present with me always and I know God cares deeply for me so I know that God understands my need to be silent.

One of the hardest things for me while in seminary was to observe a sabbath rest. I was determined after graduation to not let that continue to happen. I needed a day off and a day of sabbath rest - just like everyone else in this world! I know I'm not alone. Many of my friends who are seminarians and pastors struggle with observing and remembering the sabbath.

What is a sabbath rest for pastors, when you handle holy things all week long?

Contemporary Jewish observances of the sabbath are beautifully simplistic. The symbols of candles and braided bread on Friday evening are reminders of God as light and God's presence entwined in our lives. A glass of wine and a box of spices at the end of the sabbath evoke the desire to bring the sweetness of the sabbath into the rest of the week. Married couples are encouraged to make love on the sabbath. Families often go for long walks. Many Jews attend synagogue.

Some pastors observe sabbath well. Their day away from work is markedly different from the other six, and there is something special and holy about what they do—and don't do—on that day. For others, the sabbath feels like another work day, another day of handling holy things that—even with the best of intentions—seems to have nothing particularly holy about it. It isn't set apart. It isn't even restful.

When you work with holy things all week long, what is it you are resting from when sabbath finally arrives?

Ben, the pastor of a small urban congregation in Seattle, keeps a Sunday sabbath. He is alone quite a bit during the week, so he relishes his time with people on Sunday mornings at church and with his wife's extended family in the afternoon.

Marva Dawn, a Christian theologian, writer and speaker, has described a Sunday sabbath pattern similar to Ben's. She is willing to engage in ministry on Sundays in the form of speaking or preaching, but she will not do any work of preparation.

Ann, another pastor of a church in the Seattle area, keeps a Friday sabbath. She has been a faithful sabbath keeper for more than 30 years. She found as she entered her fifties that she needed longer than 24 hours in order to feel rested. So she begins her sabbath at dinnertime on Thursday and usually continues her sabbath until bedtime on Friday. For Ann, the heart of the sabbath is taking off all the roles she wears during the week: pastor, teacher, building administrator, worship planner, etc. On the sabbath, she slides gratefully into the role of beloved child of God—and nothing else. She describes it as comfortable clothes that she looks forward to wearing each week. She spends the time largely alone, reading fiction, walking on a beach, riding a ferry.

Eugene Peterson describes in several of his books a day of rest not connected to a Sunday worship service. When Peterson was a pastor, he and his wife, Jan, spent Mondays hiking. On the first half of the hike, they kept silence, and on the way back, they talked with each other.

A Sunday sabbath affirms the connection between corporate worship and resting in God, but for many pastors, Sunday morning is such hard work that it doesn't provide the rest God intends. Abraham Heschel, in The Sabbath, suggests that we should cease from work and also from thoughts of work on this day of rest. Christians are called to partner with God in sustaining the creation and redeeming the world. Our profession is heavily weighted on the redemption side. We spend our days creating structures and working with individuals to help people grasp the great gift of redemption and eternal life we have in Jesus Christ. Those of us in ministry should rest from our partnership with God in redeeming the world by relishing God as creator of the world. On the sabbath, then, those of us in ministry professions may benefit most and honor God most by engaging with God as Creator. We rest from our partnership with God in redeeming the world by acknowledging God is Creator as well as Redeemer.

A key to healthy sabbaths for people in ministry comes from the root meaning of the word sabbath: stop, pause, cease, desist, or rest. The heart of sabbath is stopping, not finding more things to do. Several ministers I know observe a sabbath discipline of journaling/blogging, and they record prayers and thoughts, using journaling as a way to listen to God. The center of this discipline is stopping long enough to listen and pray.

What practices help you experience God as Creator? Perhaps walking, hiking, biking, gardening, painting, or reading poetry? What practices help you experience the freedom God has given us in Christ, our redemption from slavery? Turning off the computer, the phone, or the TV? Putting away the Blackberry or calendar? Turning off worry or the temptation to obsess with ministry issues? How are you observing and remembering the sabbath in your life?

Americans' Image of God

I recently read an interesting bit of statistics in some "christian leaders" e-news I received.
Source: Cathy Lynn Grossman, "America's Image of God Varies," USAToday.com (9/11/06)

• 31% believe in an "Authoritarian God" who is angry at humanity's sins and engaged in every creature's life and world affairs.
• 23% believe in a "Benevolent God" who is forgiving and accepting of anyone who repents.
• 16% believe in a "Critical God" who has his judgmental eye on the world, but he's not going to intervene, either to punish or comfort.
• 24% believe in a "Distant God" who is more of a cosmic force that launched the world, then left it spinning on its own.

Interesting, huh? As pastors and Christians how are we doing with conveying the love and grace of God? 71% would say not so good...

Making an Easier Transition

This month United Methodist ministers around the nation are moving to new appointments, new churches. As I preached this past Sunday, July 1st, from the pulpit of the Korean Presbyterian church where I am serving I thought of my many friends where were preaching that morning as well. While I preached to a familiar group, a number of my UM clergy friends were preaching to a congregation that they were meeting for the first time.

I am not ordained so I am not itinerant like those who are ordained Elders in The United Methodist Church. However, I have had my good-byes and hellos as I have left churches and been called to different churches. It isn't always easy to start at a new place. I always feel like the congregation expects you to hit the ground running - whether you know to where you are running or where the track is! United Methodist congregations are getting better at welcoming new pastors - they have to! - but they few tend to welcome a new youth pastor/minister/director/leader with as much finesse.

How can it be improved? First, remember whether the new youth leader is ordained or not s/he is going to become the "pastor" to the church's youth. So treat him/her as such. Second, give the new youth leader a little help. Why not provide the same level of care, welcome, and information to her/him that you do when a new pastor is appointed?

Here are some pieces of advice:

• Make a notebook for the new youth pastor with a copy of the church bulletin, newsletter, member directory, schedules for worship and other leadership teams, and a list of ongoing Bible studies, church traditions, and youth activities
• Help the new youth minister by making some appointments to meet the staff and other core people in the church
• If your church has provided housing, clean the parsonage and mow the lawn
  Be on hand to help unload the moving van - this is especially helpful to the single youth director who doesn't have a family to help.
• If the new youth leader has children, offer to babysit and introduce them to other children in the congregation
• Take food to the youth pastor until s/he has time to get the kitchen in order, or give gift certificates to local restaurants - this is especially helpful for the single youth leader who is trying to get settled all alone
• Suggest local favorites for services such as dry cleaners, grocery stores, doctors and dentists
• Provide the youth pastor with a list of youth and their families. Offer to introduce the new pastor to these families
• Introduce the new youth director to people in the community who may or may not be church members
• On the new youth minister's first Sunday, after all of the worship services, Sunday School classes, and welcome brunch are over, let them go home in peace to rest and rejuvenate their drained mental, emotional, and spiritual reserves

A Little Thing Called Itinerancy

These words were published in an United Methodist News Service article and I found them simple and profound. While I am United Methodist my family and most of my friends are not... and they just don't get this itinerancy thing... nor do they get why I think it is a good thing. Well, I'm not sure if I could have explained it any better than Wesley or Whitaker... Read on...

Maybe you loved her.

Maybe you thought one more Sunday with him in the pulpit and you would lose your religion.

Then suddenly, one hot summer day, it all changes. A decision is made and it's out with the old and in with the new.

In The United Methodist Church, after annual (regional) conferences have conducted their meetings, it's customary for many congregations to say goodbye to their current pastor and hello to their next. The United Methodist Church has a unique tradition of assigning clergy to churches. Ordained elders must be willing to go where they are sent. The itinerancy system means every pastor has a church and every church has a pastor. In some cases, larger churches have more than one pastor and pastors of smaller congregations may serve two or more churches. Some pastors serve in positions outside the local church such as in church agencies, institutions and specialized ministries.

John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church, began the itinerant system in England. Wesley developed circuits for his assistants to travel, each of which included a large number of congregations. Preachers visited these appointments about once a month and changed circuits from year to year, depending on the circumstances.

"We have found by long and consistent experience that a frequent exchange of preachers is best," Wesley wrote. "This preacher has one talent, that another; no one whom I ever yet knew has all the talents which are needful for beginning, continuing, and perfecting the work of grace in a whole congregation."

"I believe the process of itinerancy gives us the perfect opportunity to renew ourselves and for the congregation to become revitalized for the work of making disciples of Jesus Christ," says Asa Whitaker, long-time member of The UMC.

Dangerous Prayers for Daring Christians

Today we’re continuing our series Prayer: Opening Your Heart to God. And if you didn’t know it before now, let me tell you - there are many different kinds of prayer.

• Take mealtime prayers, for instance. We all know what these are like… they tend to be short and sweet because everyone is hungry and the food is getting cold.
• Then there are bedtime prayers often starting with the words “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep,” and then end with a list of God blesses… y’know – God bless mommy, God bless daddy, God bless my pet frog.
• There are also church prayers. These focus on praising God and lifting up people and needs in the congregation and community and world.
• Private prayers are prayers we pray by ourselves. Occasionally resulting in conversational prayer where we sense God speaking to us in a still, small voice, giving us direction and a clear sense of God’s presence.
• We can’t forget crisis prayers. These prayers can get messy as they occur in the midst of a crisis when we honestly pour out our deepest hurts and needs to God.

All of us have had some kind of experience with prayer. For some of us prayer came naturally… and for others of us prayer is frustrating and difficult. I remember when I first became a Christian… I was 17 and a senior in high school. I was not raised in a Christian home so I didn’t have the opportunity to learn to pray by watching my parents, grandparents, or church family pray. I had to learn how to pray on my own. I read books on prayer. I talked with my campus minister about prayer. I learned the ACTS formula for prayer that we’ve talked about here – adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication. Over time praying became easier and more natural simply because I was praying. But I continued to explore more and different ways to pray – searching out a variety of ways to talk with God and to hear God. I soon explored the prayers of the bible – but I found praying the prayers of the bible could be dangerous. When we enter the realm of dangerous prayers, we find ourselves asking God to work a transformation with us. The focus of our prayers move from what we want to God’s presence in our lives.

Our scripture for this morning takes us into the realm of dangerous prayers. In this one beautiful, earnest psalm we encounter four dangerous prayers. Before we get into that hear the words of Psalm 139.1-12, 23-24:
1 O LORD, you have searched me
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O LORD.
5 You hem me in—behind and before;
you have laid your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,"
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

In this psalm David praises God for being present everywhere. “Wherever I go on this planet I am never alone because you are there,” declares David. David recognizes that God knows everything and made everything, so he also declares God’s greatness. “You are a powerful God. You made everything and I will give thanks to you,” he proclaims. Then a thought strikes David. He realizes that God thinks about David’s personal life all day long. David says in verses 17 and 18, “How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. If I were to count your thoughts about me they would outnumber the grains of sand on the seashores.” David is caught up in the wonder of it all, the wonder of God.

David realizes that God can see him through and through. David is intensely aware that God knows his thoughts before he thinks them, his words before he speaks them. God knows his plans, his errands, his comings and goings, his strengths, his weaknesses, even his secret sins -- literally everything about him. There is no hiding from God. But David still takes a risk in asking God to shine the burning light of God’s holiness on the darkest corners of David’s heart. David wants nothing hidden from God. He is entering the level of dangerous prayer.
Sometimes when we are praying we are forced to do the same thing as David. We realize there are pockets of resistance and rebellion within us and we have to decide if we will pray a dangerous prayer. Dare we pray, “Search me, O God. Know my heart. Turn on the spotlight. Expose any rebellion inside of me.”

When was the last time you really prayed a “search me” prayer, if ever? It is like the saying in business: Don’t ask the question of you don’t want the answer. Don’t pray this kind of prayer unless you are daring enough and humble enough to receive God’s answer. Don’t ask God to search you and know you if you don’t want God to really do it. Because God will answer your prayer and something will get exposed and then you’ll have to deal with it.

When we dare pray the dangerous prayer of “Search me and know me, O God” we will have revealed to us those things in our lives that need special attention. Ecclesiastes 3.3 says there is a time to tear down and a time to build up. There are times in our lives when we need to pile up bricks, but there are also times when we need to get out a sledge hammer and to break the bricks apart. When you’ve prayed the Search Me prayer and have had God show you those areas of your life that needs to be changed, you need to ask God to help you. You need God to break down those things in your life that are not pleasing to God. You’ll need to pray the dangerous prayer, “Break me, O God”

As we grow as followers of Jesus we encounter things in our lives that don’t necessarily need to be broken, but just stretched a little bit. We become discontent with the spiritual rut we find ourselves in. God created us to be dynamic and growing, but sometimes our own humanity gets us stuck. And we need God’s help to grow beyond where we are to where God desires us to be.

In John chapter three, Nicodemus daringly came to Jesus during the night with a dangerous request – to have his spiritual understanding stretched. Jesus taught him that obeying religious laws wouldn’t get him to heaven, but instead stretched Nicodemus’ understanding to realize that he needed to repent of his sin and receive God’s free gift of grace for salvation.

Sometimes it feels really good to be stretched. First thing in the morning I love nothing more than a big stretch – it really wakes my muscles up and gets the blood flowing.
But other times it hurts a bit to stretch. After an injury or surgery sometimes the most important part of our recovery is the stretching we have to do during physical therapy. We have undergone the essential work to fix whatever was broken or damaged in our life and now to optimize the results we need to do the hard work of stretching. In the painful process of being stretched we often wonder if it is worth it, but ultimately when it is all over we are thankful we did it.

Stretching is also part of the process of spiritual growth. When a time of spiritual stretching is over, we often will look back and thank God for bringing us through such a growth process. It truly takes courage and daring to actually pray the dangerous prayer of “Stretch me, O God.” But it is always a life-changing experience.

Hearing others tell stories of how God has been working in their lives is inspiring. It reminds us that God is still in the business of caring and directing the lives of God’s people. Testimonies of God’s leading can challenge us – dare us to pray another dangerous prayer, “Lead me, O God.” But let me warn you if you dare pray, “God lead me. I take my life, gifts, talents, resources, energy, and future and put it all in your hands, O Lord” … if you are a daring Christian praying such a dangerous prayer be forewarned you just might find yourself enrolling in seminary… that’s what got me here.

I don’t know if I was being a daring Christian or something else! But I do know I did a dangerous thing when I responded to my pastor’s altar call, when I went forward, kneeled, and prayed, “God you know me and what is best for me. I’m tired of running from you and avoiding you. Break that self-determined spirit of mine that tells me I know what is best. I desire to be wholly devoted to you and working for your church to bring about the Kingdom. Stretch my comfort zones. Stretch me in my ministry. Lead me to where you would want me to go from here.” A dangerous prayer for sure… within two years for financial reasons I lost my job at the church, was hired to manage a woman’s clothing store, got transferred from southern Indiana to central Ohio and was starting my Master of Divinity studies at MTSO.

Dangerous prayers like search me, break me, stretch me, lead me, O Lord require humility, vulnerability, and a bit of daring. If you are more of a reluctant Christian than a daring Christian when it comes to dangerous prayers be assured, as was David, God will not abandon you, nor forsake you; God’s hand will hold you fast; God has hemmed you in.

Are you ready to pray a dangerous prayer? I double dog dare ya.