August 2010

What’s that saying, “the calm before the storm?”  In Matthew 16: 1-4,  Jesus talks about how some of the people could judge the change coming in weather by reading the sky, yet they could not judge or interpret the change coming to the world by the signs of the times.

Yesterday was a somewhat nice January day.  In the fifties, slight wind, but not so bad.  As most of us, I had heard of the frigid cold front coming out of the arctic from the local and national forecasters.  So I was outside winterizing some of the pipes when I noticed a growing cloud formation coming our way.  Mark Green was walking by and mentioned the thick blue mass moving across the sky and so did Tracie.  We all could see or read the sky and know something was going to happen.  Yet, even with some kind of apparent front moving in our direction I could not tell what we were in store for in the next few days.  I was depending on the warning from the forecasters.  I joke about the weathermen/women, but without their warning a lot of people could have been stuck out in this dangerous arctic freeze unprepared.

Change can be good, change can be bad, but oddly enough change is humanities most dependable constant; be it to people or the planet.  The Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius understood the permanent differences change can make in nature including humanity.  He wrote, “For whenever a thing changes and quits its proper limits, at once this change of state is the death of that which was before.”  Not bad for a pagan!  In the 12th book of John, verses 24-25, Jesus said, “Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.  Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”  Woo!  As we use to say back in the day, “that’s some heavy stuff dude!”  The often ignored truth of the Gospel and all scripture is that God knows things are changing and wants, desires our change to be for good, not evil, towards God, not more self indulgence.  Yet it’s amazing how we insist on living as if everything, including ourselves will stay the same. Christianity doesn’t ask for a permanent change within us, it demands we desire to move toward God.  The good life we are all striving for also demands our change.  True peace, joy and inner strength come from our relationship with our Lord.

So how about a reality check?  It’s after New Years and most of us have been thinking about what we want to do to improve ourselves this year.  We’ve already seen all the ads for gym membership and diet programs.  We’ve heard our friends; acquaintance and even our self-talk about how this year there will be change.  All this change is of course to make our life better.  The truth is at the end of the year we will still be our self, possible with a few outside or cosmetic changes, a little more or less money, but the same person never the less.  Thus the same problems, maybe in different forms, will still be with us.  Our life appears different but deep down it’s the same.  The only true change I’ve witnessed or experienced is that which the person allowed to happen.  The one initiated and pursued by God.   It is the invitation to accept core change and put Christ, the Lord, the Creator, into the center of our life and not in some dusty room of our soul.  Want change, let change, live change, otherwise we should quit complaining because we have what we have created, for better or worse.

May the peace of Christ be with you always,

Pastor Rick

Contemplation and reflection have always been avenues for human advancement and development.  Albert Einstein, the icon for modern humanities mental advancement in modern history, is said to have patiently waited at a bridge for a friend who was running late.  When the man arrived he began to apologize for keeping the great physicist and professor late; yet Dr. Einstein insisted it was alright for he could think leaning on the wall of the bridge as well as at his office.  Albert Einstein understood the power of quiet contemplation.  When Jesus decided to choose the twelve disciples he went off by himself to pray and reflect on the decision with the Father.  The Lord communed with the complete Holy Trinity for life changing, actually world changing decisions.  We might say well Albert was a remarkable genius and Jesus is the incarnation of the God Head, how can you compare them to the rest of us?  This of course is true but that is the point.  One of the greatest created minds understood the power of contemplative reflection, thus we should consider the possibilities for ourselves.  The other is Divine and understands the creation as only a designer could.  He demonstrated the need to take our life issues to God in quiet contemplation and worship.

As we reflect on the past year and consider the changes and opportunities the new year brings let us involve the power of the Holy Spirit of God.  Together we can share the start of the New Year with prayer song and word, while each contemplating his/her own year to come.  We will have a service of worship and contemplation for the year to come this New Year Eve.  It will begin at 6:00 pm.  There should be plenty of time to make other New Years engagements.  However, none will provide the opportunity to positively affect your coming year like this service with God and friends.  I look forward to seeing you at the service.  Have a safe New Year!

Sunday morning our church will participate in a Community Service with all the churches in Archer City.  We will have our normal Sunday School classes and begin our communion service at 10:30 a.m.  in our sanctuary. We will then go to the First Baptist at 11:00 a.m. for a special community worship service with all the churches in Archer City. Our guest preacher is Craig Nedrow, an evangelist from McKinney, Texas, who has felt called to deliver a particular message to God’s people: STAND UP 4 JESUS!   A meal will be served in the Family Life Center at the Baptist Church following the service.

May the Grace and Peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you!

Pastor Rick

October 27, 2009

With a little imagination…

If you think about throwing a ball back and forth from the left hand to the right hand, making that arch in the air where at the very center it falls into the right and then tossing it back, so on and so forth,  you may find that opposites are different but both equally wrong.

In your mind put someone in your left hand who is too uptight, too strict and rule bound in their life to comprehend true grace and someone who is way too laid back in the right hand, kind of a 60’s hippie get-high type of guy who seems to have little or no concerns because they don’t need grace or they think it is due them in everything, then toss the ball back and forth.  The man on the left says “get a grip” while, don’t hassle me man, “be cool, relax dude,” comes from the guy on the right.  The ball arcs across to the left hand “have some self-control, get some self respect!”  The conversation continues until it is so worn out that the ball is dropped.  Yet there in the middle, at the highest point of the arch, the apex of the toss is God.  To the right he says stand up and make a difference, follow the Way to the self worth I put into you, and make a difference!  To the left he says sit down for a moment, relax and  let the peace you need rise up, for you cannot  find it with rules alone; search with your heart and live with love and you shall find everything necessary to be the man I made you to be.  To both of you the Lord says search and you will find, stay where you are and die in your own impurities.
Jesus looked out at the masses and felt their need saying:”blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”  Matthew 5:3. The searcher knows that neither the right nor the left hand holds the truth.  The truth belongs to God, and God alone.  Even though the apex may be the scariest and seemingly less secure position to be in, as you are suspended in space, falling neither left nor right, it is also the highest point you will ever achieve.  We must search not for an established secure position, but look to have the faith that will secure God in our hearts, thus giving us the position we need in order to be children of God.
May the peace and grace of our Lord Jesus the Christ be incarnated into your life.

October 21, 2009

So why you gotta do the things ya do?

“He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Micah 6:8

We can call ourselves what we want and worship how we want but the character of God is love and the greatest gift of the Spirit is love, so how does anger, arrogance and injustice fit true belief or faith?

I’ve got a pretty good imagination but I can’t seem to put the two traits together.  That is I can’t make the character of love produce anger, arrogance and any application or acceptance of injustice.  Anger robs us of our love for others and blinds us to Christ’s love for us.  Arrogance, particularly religious self-righteousness leaves no room for grace.  Instead it must muscle its’ way into heaven of its’ own accord trampling the souls of others on the way; once again I can’t make this fit with love or any of the teachings of the Gospel. 

Injustice, truly an ungodly act from Genesis to Revelations is everybody’s concern.  Next to worshiping false gods, I don’t think anything got the ancient Israelites into trouble more than the miscarriage of justice.  It was never just a personal problem for them and it’s not for us today.  Justice is a community responsibility by its very nature and according to God’s actions as recorded in scripture, the Lord also saw, and sees it to be a matter of community goodness or guilt.

So why do we do the things we do?

This is a question that has been plaguing humanity from the beginning.  John Wesley pinned a lot of our problem on “Original Sin.”  Let’s see if we can’t work this one out and think on how to avoid the personal and social calamities it brings as we consider our situation this Sunday.  Its’ a big order but I think we can take a bite out of it!

Sermon on Original Sin

A Cause For Pause…

Salvation, like life it is a journey. It is fast and it is slow, with often our greatest gains during our deepest sorrows as we wait for God who so often seems slow to respond. Yet it is in this seemingly quite period that God’s grace is often already at work in our lives. In the darkness we are drawn toward the light of Christ and grow stronger in our faith as we maintain our hope in God. “Those who wait for the lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31

Unfortunately, so many Christians take only half of the journey, then quit. This seems to wrap up most of humanities view of living with God. We live with little thought of a renewed relationship with our Creator. We are willing to take the refreshing drink of life from the Lord so long as it doesn’t interfere with our living arrangements, so long as it does not cost too much. No job, no corporation, would take such a half hearted effort as the one most Christians give our Lord. It would be like showing up only on pay day for a week’s wage, time after time.

Salvation is a long and beautiful journey with pain and joy interwoven to make our own distinct pattern; a quilt of our life with God and Creation. To think we should only give the Creator one moment of life as we confess with our mouth our devotion to the Lord misses most of the grace of God that has been offered. Can we imagine the life God has in store for us? Only if our eyes are open and the desire of our heart is in tune with the Holy Spirit of God. We must read, we must pray, we must journey to grow and prosper in the greatest of all relationships. How unfortunate to live a life with God on our lips but not on our heart. How unfortunate to stumble through the shadows of existence avoiding the light of Christ because we fear we may lose control or be changed. The writer Henry James once wrote “It’s time to start living the life you’ve imagined.” It is time to start living the greater and deeper life God has offered.

God Bless You

Pastor Rick

A Cause For Pause

Salvation is not one stop shopping or an insurance policy for the soul taken out with a few mumbles and promises.  Salvation is a movement within our lives which brings us closer to God till we recognize our dysfunction within the divine community of the Lord.  A time when we not only know we must change but most desire a difference in the conduct and production of our lives.  We leave behind the dead existence of our social dictated life and begin to realize our created purpose, thus our deepest fulfillment is found in “…our way of life,” designed by God and expressed in Jesus the Christ.  Ephesians 2:10

The movement, like a perpetual wind never stops disturbing or bringing peace to our soul as we grow closer to God in Heart, Mind and Body.  Read Ephesians 2:1-10 and feel the rhythm and movement as Paul takes us through the grace of God before we understood our need of a repaired relationship with our Lord, the moment or moments that brought us faith and the actions which will give us the living salvation today, tomorrow and for ever more.

May your day be filled with God’s Grace and Peace which proceeds from the Holy Spirit.

Pastor Rick 08/18/09

Well I got up a little after 5:00 this morning ready to go for a walk.  I’ve had a catch in my back for a week and I figured what I needed was a good walk to work it out.  Then Tracie says something about it sounding like rain.   It’s hard to complain about the rain these days even when you’re standing there in your walking shoes, ready to hit the road for good health and hopefully a better back.  So I decide to make the most of the new situation by going out into what is an unimpressive watering of the earth to move some rain barrels around to catch the water as it flows from the roof.  Actually it was a trickle but I don’t want to offend any rain what so ever.   Well of course I got wet, and yes my back now hurts worse, but I am trapping some of this precious gift of nature for use on the garden.  So I go in, dry off, settle down with my first cup of coffee only to enjoy the peace and quiet of the morning.  Only it’s too quite!  Why, because the rain has stopped.

You make plans, improvise when they don’t work out only to have the situation change again.  There has to be something consistent in life, in a day, in the moment.  Oh yea, Gods’ love and grace.  The one thing that can never be taken away from you.   I can handle the rollercoaster ride today and all the rest so long as my God is with me.   Now about that walk?  I’m sitting down now, so let someone else have the road!
The average American is similar to the weather and yes my capricious desire to go for a walk this morning. People are looking for the answers which will give meaning to life and their own existence.   We are of a frame of mind which speaks about many different ideas of God and even Christianity.  For many Americans the only answer is that there are multiple acceptable ideas or truth, but no absolutes.  In Post-Modern thought there is a coming together in both society and professional philosophers and theologians.  In regards to the professionals John Caputo wrote “…both (Philosopher and Theologian) are interested in the world’s questions of God, and of the good life and of what being ‘human ‘means…” [Philosophy and Theology P5]  We are searching, but do we want solid answers?
Conversely we are in a time when many of our people are seeking for a concrete structure to give value to their economic/consumer based lives, yet at the same time are resistant to accepting the very structure that can give them peace and stability.  In some ways we are in a confused state of understanding ourselves and the universe surrounding us, body and soul.  The up side is that such a confused state opens the population for new ideas, even the old ones like Christianity. The roots of The United Methodist Church run deep from the times of John Wesley who was one of the founders of the Holiness Movement which revitalized Christianity when the Western world was trading in God for philosophy and strict reason.  Our foundation is built out of the Holy Writings of Scriptures and our experiences with our Lord.  These open-ended times are an opportunity to spread the well-rounded Gospel of Jesus the Christ to a needy world.  First we must make sure we are secure in our own understanding of God and are practicing the teachings of Jesus.

Over the coming weeks we will be looking at some core Methodist teachings on the “Way of Salvation.”  Join us as we continue in our sacred journey with God.
May the Grace and Peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you!
Pastor Rick

“A manifesto is a public declaration of principles and intentions, often political in nature, but may also be life stance related. However, manifestos relating to religious belief are rather referred to as credo.”  From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia   Has God left us a Creed to follow or directions on how to live a way of life that will bring peace and prosperity to ourselves and the world we come in contact with?  Of course we are given multiple gifts of wisdom from God through prophets, revelations and most importantly Jesus the Christ.  Much of what was important to Christ, thus God, can be found in the 15th chapter of John.

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If people were like earthworms, then maybe they could grasp some of the greatness of Christ.

They take the garbage and manure of life, the discarded waste of humanity and turn it into some of the richest, healthiest dirt designed by God.  That enriched soil then gives nutrients to the plants of creation which within the food chain gives life to all land mammals.

People on the other hand….Create garbage, and waste, then try and bury it somewhere so they don’t have to see it or deal with the trash they produce and then wonder why life smells so bad.   In short we are better at destroying life than we are at enriching the world and those around us.

The worm knows its place in the world, in the universe, more importantly in life, and performs its’ Divine assignment, reaching its’ potential; how many people do?