Robert Frost: A Cabin in the Clearing
“…Smoke They ‘ve been here long enough
To push the woods back from around the house
And part them in the middle with a path.

Mist And still I doubt if they know where they are
And I begin to fear they never will.
All they maintain the path for is the comfort
Of visiting with the equally bewildered.
Nearer in plight their neighbors are than distance.”

Salvation and modern humanity play a fruitless game of cat and mouse. A question comes to mind. Do we even know that we are a lost people wandering the desert of abundance and immediate gratification? Pleasure seeking and ourselves have become our idols, our gods. “The modern world teaches us to narrate our lives without reference to God. It’s all our decision, our actions, and our desires. So the first thing we must say is that salvation is primarily about God… A favorite means to coping with the absence of a savior is to deny we need saving.”P6 Who Will Be Saved by William H. Willimon

If salvation is primarily about God, If salvation comes only from God, then God must be the gravitational pull, our sun, the center of life from which we revolve. This is in complete opposition to what our self-absorbed society teaches us. As we consume all we can we are truly consuming each other and ourselves.

Pastor Rick

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