Reality Check

About two weeks ago I returned from a mission trip to Mexico. My wife, myself and ten other people went to Rio Bravo, Mexico and we helped to build a food pantry and disaster relief center. The first floor was already on, so we built the walls for the second floor and created the supporting pillars for the building. It was some wonderful work. It was also hard and difficult, but awesome as well.

We returned from this trip, though, to the news that the House of Representatives had voted down the bail out bill and the dow was down over 700 points, which was the biggest single day loss in the history of the dow. I watched the news for the first time in a little under a week and heard how horrible it is and how this could spell the financial ruin of the United States of America. I am also fully aware that many people may loose their homes because of poor decisions that they made. Incidentally, these are mostly on the two coasts and Oklahoma has very few such loans. Just like the banks are going bankrupt because of unethical and poor business practices. According to the media, it seems like everything is going down hill and we should be in a panic about the economic future of the United States of America and about our personal economic future.

I know that there are some people who are going to be hit hard by these economic times. I pray for these people and if there is some way I can help, I will. I also know that three out of the last four times the stock market dropped similar to this, within two years it recovered. However, I have a great deal of difficulty talking about hard economic times after being in Mexico. In fact, it makes me wonder if most of the United States really knows what economic hard times are.

If you have ever been to Mexico you probably know what I am talking about. Now, we did not go to the tourist areas, if Rio De Jenero or Accapulco are your only tastes of Mexico, then you have as much idea of what Mexico is like as someone who visits New York City knows the United States. You have only seen the tourist side of Mexico, the real people live quite differently. There are many people who have squatted next to the city dump and built house out of cardboard or cinderblocks that have been thrown away. They came here to live, because they had no other place to go. Thier back yard is stagnant pond in which trash is dumped. The average income is about $150. Their is a straight %15 income tax for all people. In order for your child to go to school, there is about $50 a semester fees that have to be paid. Gas is the same price as ours. If you build a new home, you have to pay for the wire and if needed a transformer so that your house can have electricity. The water out of the faucet is not safe to drink, so most people have to buy purified water. The streets have pot holes big enough to swallow a mid sized car and these streets are in the city. When it rains you have to know which streets are safe and which are not, or you could get stuck in the mud in the middle of a large city. The Oklahoma Conference of the United Methodist Church works with the Methodist Church of Mexico and build houses for some people. These are 12'x16' one room houses. These are smaller than some of our bedrooms and smaller than most of our Sunday School classrooms. yet the people who receive the houses are very proud of them. They are simple cinderblock and cement constructions, but they are much better than living in a tent or a cardboard house.

All of this brought out to me, how much we take for granted. I am fully aware that we have poor and needy people in the United States as well. We also have a middle class that enjoys complaining and panics at such news as we have had of late. Instead of panicing, we need to look around and count our blessings. We have so much to be thankful for. Even if things are as bad as some of the media says they are, we are still more blessed than many of our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world. When you flick a light switch the electricity usually comes on. Most of us have drinkable water and are not wondering where our next meal is going to come from. We are blessed beyond imagining and we need to be thankful for what we have.

The next time you turn on the the television and see a panic report about economics, think about what I have said about Mexico. Then take some time and count your blessings. You will find that there are more blessings than you thought.

Tested Optimism

I am a very optimistic person. Especially when it comes to other human beings. I think most people are good and honest. Most people want to help other people out, but generally do not help because of fear. Of course the fear comes from a few people who act out and ruin it for the rest of us. My optimism was recently tested, though.

I was in Enid, OK the other day shopping at a local grocery store. I had finished my shopping and returned to my pick-up. I put the groceries in the back and sat down and tried to start the pick-up. It would not start. The battery was obviously dead. I opened the hood and looked under the hood, trying to fake it that I actually knew anything about motors. Reality set in and I jiggled the battery cables and tried again. Still no luck. I always carry jumper cables, so I patiently waited on someone to come out of the store, so I could ask them for a jump. A man came out and was getting into his van, so I asked him if I could have a jump. I emphasized that I had my own cables and all I needed was a simple jump. He said, "I can't do that." I was stunned. It would only take five minutes at the most, but he could not do that. I turned and walked back to my pick-up shaking my head. I asked three other people, who simply said no. I was getting a little discouraged and a lot angry at this point. Finally a man pulled up, with long greasy hair, wholy and filthy jeans, an untrimmed goatee and several tattoos. He looked like he had not taken a bath for at least a week. Thinking that the most he could do is say no, I asked him if I could have a jump. He did not even hesitate and said sure. He pulled over and we used my cables and he gave me a jump in less than five minutes. I thanked him profusely and we went on our way.

I know that I am over weight, but I think I look pretty respecable. I was dressed in a nice button down short sleave shirt and a good pair of jeans. I do think I look like an axe murderer and had I seen someone in a similar condition asking for a jump, I would have done it in a second. I could not believe that four people would not help. Perhaps they were busy and on a tight schedule. Maybe one of them had hooked up cables backwards some time and blew up a battery or perhapse they were afraid I would sue them if something went wrong. Either way, this event made me angry and really tested my optismism about human beings.

I know that we humans only get angry when something important to us is threatened, so on the way back for Enid, I had to ask myself "What important thing to me was being threatened?" Certainly I was running late and did not have time for my vehicle to break down, but that was not what was threatened. I fully believe that what was threatened was my view of humanity. I believe in the basic goodness of humanity. However, what good person would say no to giving a car a jump, in the broad daylight of a rather busy parking lot. Especially, when it was a decent looking human being like myself.

That is why I was angry, though. Perhaps I am spoiled living in an area where neighbors still know each other and will go out of thie way to help somone. Perhaps I am overly optimistic about people and our culture in general. Maybe I work around church people too much and have forgotten what a secular society is like. Has our society and culture grown so fearful that we are afraid to get involved with anothe human beings problem, even when they are simple? Are we truly afraid to help other people?

Maybe this was just a bad day, but it has affected me tremendously. I hope that I will not cave in to the culture of fear. I hope and pray that I will be able to show Christ in a situation like this. I think I would.

What's the difference? Matthew 25:31-46

The other day I was preparing a sermon on Matthew 25:31-46. This is the passage where Jesus talks of God seperating the righteous and the unrighteous like a shepherd seperates the sheep from the goats. I was reading several commentaries and looking at the passage myself. This passage has always disturbed me because of it seemingly talking of judgement according to works. None of our works will be good enough, so I believe that we who are Christians will be judged according to the righteousness of Christ. Suddenly it hit me. I was missing the whole point of this passage. The parable was not about judgment, instead the parable was about being able to tell Christians from non-christians by thier actions. Let me explain.

Over the past two years I have gotten to know a bit about goats. I have limited expereince with sheep, but I know enough to know that sheep act differently. Now the goats I have been around the most are boar goats and they deffinetly do not look like sheep. However, I have seen some goats that could be mistaken for sheep. I am not sure what kind of sheep and goats where in the Middle East at the time of Christ. There seems to be some argument over what they looked like. Most commentators do agree that sheep were white and goats black. The fact of the matter is even they looked identicle sheep and goats act differently.

Goats are very playful and love to climb. Sheep do not like to climb and are not very playful. Goats are curious and sheep are afraid of everything. Goats are smart and if there is a way out of pen they will find it. Sheep are not very smart and will starve to death if they find themselves in a corner that they cannot turn to the right or left, they will thirst to death or starve to death because they do not have a reverse gear. Goats eat brush and weeds, sheep eat more grass. Sheep will eat themselves to death, goats will eat till full and stop. In essence, in my oppinion goats are smart and have personality, sheep are just dumb (Okay this is oppinion, but this is my blog). The bottom line is that sheep and goats act differently. Just as those of us who are Christians should act differently than the rest of the world.

Christians should be spending time feeding the hungry, giving water to the thirsty, visiting those who are in prison, helping the sick and clothing the naked. None of this will get a person ahead in the world. In addition when you help the helpless, they can do nothing for you in return. Jesus says that the Christian should be hanging out with the outcast and helping those on the edges of society. In other words, people should be able to look at your actions and know that you are a Christian. This is the challenge of the passage. Can others see the difference that Christ has made in your life? My prayer is that by the grace of God others can see the difference.

Cultural enabling (Taking Responsibility for your own actions)

Enabling is endemic to our culture. I truly believe that enabling has become or is fast becoming closely tied to American culture. What has been the latest thing to cause me to think this? The Mortgage Bailout plan that just passed the Senate. The bill is a bailout for people who got into a subprime rate adjustable mortgage and now cannot afford thier payments. Therefore, they are about to lose thier houses. Now the government is stepping in to enable these individuals and allow them to not expereince the consequences of thier actions. (If you want more information see http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CONGRESS_HOUSING?SITE=TXDAM&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT or other articles)

First, I should explain what I mean by enabling. Enabling is usually used in reference to the person or persons that are helping the alcoholic or addict to use their preferred substance. For example, a man goes out and gets drunk on Sunday night, so he is sick with a hangover on Monday morning and cannot go to work. In addition, he passed out on the floor and threw up all over himself. His wife found him in the morning and did not want thier children to see thier father this way, so she dragged him into the bedroom, cleaned up his puke and then called his work to tell them that he had the flu. The wife is enabling and is an enabler. It seems to me that our culture as a whole seeks out enablers to keep our destructive behavior going.

In the case of the mortgages, some people made mistakes in not thinking about long term affects of an adjustable rate mortgage. It is sad that they may lose thier house, but it is a consequence of thier bad descisions in the past. Now it seems that many in our government are wanting to save them from these consequences or enable them to do this again. Many of these people willingly signed these papers and had full disclosure. They made a mistake. I am aware that some people were not told the truth by thier mortgage company and these mortgage companies should be made to take a hit. However, the current government bailout would also allow them to avoid the consequences of bad and unethical business practices.

Even the case of some proponents of abortion on demand, we are wanting to avoid the consequences of our actions. If you have sex, it does not matter what kind of birth control you use the consequences could be a baby or a STD. Abortion as a means of birth control attempts to avoid some of those consequences. It is enabling poor behavior.

We as a culture and as individuals need to stand up and take the consequences of our actions. God teaches us this. I mean God forgives us for ous sins, but many times we have to take the consequences. If I lie to my wife and lose her trust, God and my wife can forgive me, but I still have to earn her trust back. I still have to rebuild the relationship.

It seems to me we do not learn if we do not suffer the consequences. If the government is going to bail me out whenever I make a poor financial decision, then why bother making good ones. I do not have to think about the consequences, because someone else will take them for me.

I hope and pray that congress will realize that they are enabling. I for one will do what I can to take responsibility for my actions. I also hope ai teach my children the same thing. Responsibility is not always pleasant, but it is nesecary.

True Leadership

Three weeks ago the Oklahoma Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church met in order to hear reports, celebrate ministry and organize for the coming year. As has been the case for the last four years Annual Conference really was wonderful. We had some powerful worship and I expereinced wonderful fellowship with many of my fellow Clergy persons who I had not seen or seen very little in the last year.

I did find it interesting, though, that our largest debate for the whole week occurred around our standards for clergy housing. Particularly the debate was whether or not smoking should be allowed in parsonages. If I timed it correctly, this debate went on for about an hour and a half. In essence this was not a theological discussion, nor was it a missional discussion, it was simple house keeping. However, isn't it these simple issues that we get side tracked on too often. The discussion of the smoking in parsonages reminded me of a church I served whose biggest controverseys were the color of a new piano and the color of the church carpet. How do these issues help us to "Make disciples for Jesus Christ." Ultimately, if someone is allowed to smoke in a parsonage or not, does not really help us make disciples. I heard all of the arguments, if we are going to reach out to the unchurched, they may want to come to my house and smoke. If I follow another pastor that smokes it will wreak havok with my allergies. I am allergic to cigarrette smoke, so I am painfully aware of this problem. I also have parishoners and friends outside of the church that smoke. I have always asked people to step outside to smoke if they are in my home. This is not being rude, it is simply the way it is. I have yet to have any of my smoker friends to get upset with me for politely asking them to step outside. In other words while these are nicely theologically sounding arguments, in reality they are easily adapted one way or the other. (I am aware that this ban on tobacco technically goes for chewing tobacco as well, but I am not going to ask someone to spit thier chew out if they visit me, unless they are spitting on my floor. In fifteen years of ministry, I have not had anyone spit on my floors!).

A truly theological point was made at Annual Conference in a simple gesture, though. When our awesome prison ministries was giving a report, there was a young woman who came forward to speak, her four children came with her. They all looked to 10 or younger and on the platform they could not be seen. Our Bishop, Bishop Bob Hayes, got up out of his chair and allowed the children to sit in his chair, where they could be seen and be more comfortable. This simple action hit me profoundly and I started crying. I think this action embodied what it means to be a servant leader. Allowing a child to take the most important seat in the house. Allowing the child of a single parent, ex-con, who is trying to get her life back together to be the honored guest for a few minutes. What an awesome picture of Christ like service. I applaud the Bishop.

I do not know if this act was an intentional symbolic act of the Bishop Hayes. I do not really think it was. Because one of the things that made it so profound was that he did not appear to think about it, the act was a deep part of who he was. The children needed to be seen and what better place to be seen than in the Bishops chair. I believe that such acts come naturally to our Bishop because he is a true servant leader.

May God bless our Bishop and all the other servant leaders of our Annual Conference. May we take away from Annual Conference not disagreements, not smoking or non-smoking, but that we are called to be servant leaders and to live our lives in the way Christ showed us how to live.

Politics, Respect and Disagreement

I was listening to talk radio just a few minutes ago and I really started to get irritated. It was mentioned by the talk show host that John McCain had come out immediately after Hillary Clinton withdrew from the race and said that he had great respect for Ms. Clinton and perhaps even has a freindship with her. Both canidates have been very respectful to each other and have complimented each other quite often. (For more information on thier freindship and respect see
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/06/mccain-clinton.html). This particular talk show host, though, was calling this a negative. He claimed that McCain was merely trying to court the Hillary Clinton supporters and it would end up turning off most of the true conservatives. My question is When did it become wrong to respect and even be freinds with someone who disagrees with you?

I have always prided myself in the diversity of my friends. I have friends who are gay, straight, liberal, conservative, middle of the road, don't know what they believe, right wing nuts, left wing nuts, open minded, closed minded, to the right of Attilla the Hun, virtual socialists, Jewish, Islamic, Christian, red necks, cowboys, city slickers, fundamentalists, literalists, and just about any other title you might think to give someone. I enjoy talking a debating our various areas of disagreement with each of them, because they are respectful toward me and I respect them as well. Do I think I am right? Absolutely, or I would have changed my mind, but that does not mean I have to be mean spiritted and arrogant about what I believe.

You know, it seems to me that Jesus hung out with a divergent crowd as well. One of his disciples was a zealot, another a tax collector, he had some fishermen and at least one disciple that was known by the high priest. Then there is the people he talked to and created a relationship with, there were Pharisees, prostitutes, tax collectors, women of questionable reputation, crippled people, sick people and the unclean in society. If Jesus could be friends with such diversity, then maybe we could be freinds with those that disagree with us as well.

I gained a new respect for Senator Ted Kennedy when I heard one fellow congress person make the comment that he could argue a point vehemently with you on the senate floor, he could be passionate in his disagreement with you, but when the senate dismissed he would pat you on the back and greet you as an old friend. That is the way it shold be.

Perhaps if the church could be better at respecting and loving those we disagree with, then the world just might take our example. There is nothing wrong with disagreement. We each disagree with each other in one way or another. What is wrong is hate speech and failing to love one another. Christ preached against these things. We as Christians should stand up and demand more respect and civility in our politics and in our culture. I pray that we will.

Moving Day

I alway become somewhat reflective during this week of the year. For us as United Methodist pastors it is moving week. By Thursday at noon for all the churches changing pastors, the former pastor is to be out of the parsonage and the new pastor moving in. I am not moving this year, but I have several freinds that are. Moving Day as I remember it is hectic, exciting, nerve wracking, patience trying, happy, sad, angry and about every other emotion that can be described. Moving day is a time of endings and new beginnings a time of mourning and a time of excitement. It is an awe-filled, awefull day of mixed emotions and rushing. It is a wonderful day as well.

I know there are some pastors who are looking forward to moving day. Perhaps he or she realized that they had taken their soon to be former church as far as he or she could. He or she knew it was time to move and thier District Superintendent had been attentive and listened to what they wanted and the move is to a place they wanted to be. For those of you whose move occurred under great cicumstances, my prayers is that the move will be everything you hope and dream. I pray that your church or churches are even more wonderful than you thought they would be. I pray that this new beginning will be a growing oppurtunity for your church or churches and for you. I pray that the Lord will richly bless your ministry and show you how to enable your church or churches to make disciples for Jesus Christ. God bless you.

I also know there are others moving in a less than idealistic manner. Perhaps you really did not want to move. You have freinds or family that you do not want to move away from. Perhaps, your appointment was not quite in the geographical location you were hoping for. Perhaps you feel like your District Superintendent did not listen to you or God in making this appointment. Perhaps you feel as if the system has messed you around once again and are getting rather tired of it. Perhaps you are burned out, but do not know what to do. For these pastors I say a special prayer. I have been there before. It is not fun. However, we must never forget that God works in our system sometimes despite the circumstances, but God is always working.

I would encourage those of you in the latter category to first and foremost remember, it was not your church that messed you around. The system may or may not of messed you around, but the church you are moving to, certainly did not. It is not their fault you asked to be in the OKC or Tulsa area and are actually six hours away from civilization. They do not need to have your anger taken out on them. The new congregation needs you to love them unconditionally. They need to feel the love of Christ from thier pastor, not be beaten up again as some congregations have been. I do say special prayers for you. I pray that you will find the healing you need. I pray that you will rediscover the love of God and I pray that God will lead you to be the strong leader that this new church deserves.

My prayer for all of you moving is that this will be a new beginning for both you and the church or churches you will be pastoring. My prayer is for travel mercies and for guidance from God. My prayer is that the love of Christ will be shown to you and you will show the love of Christ as well. I pray your new community will become home very quickly and that you will be the pasoral leader that your new church has prayed for. All of you moving, please remember, that I am praying for you and your Church or churches. God bless you and keep you. Amen.