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I never thought it would come back around. I bet you have had such experiences. You are doing life pretty nicely and suddenly, you feel or hear a call to change. It recently happened to me and it is both refreshing and and anxiety provoking.

Fifty plus years ago, I felt a call to ministry and was licensed as a minister. When I went off to college, I went as a “preacher boy” to Baylor and was a religion major for two plus years. Then a chaplain I knew suggest finding a major in the helping professions, since I would get all this religious stuff again in seminary. I looked around and found a new program called social work. This year I honor my 48th year as a social worker.

But, and it is kinda a big “but” about two years ago, I was finishing spiritual director training and began to feel a call to return to ministry, especially since the United Methodist Church was in crisis. So, I asked at the district office if they could use me and within a month, I was interim pastor of a wonder little church. I retired from the local university that I had been teaching at, a great HBCU, and lately have become the full time pastor of that church.

I never expected such a change, but I have learned in my life that if I just say “yes”, I have had wonderful adventures. They took me all over Western Europe, to South Africa, and to India, to say nothing of places here at home. Christ calls us just to say “yes” to the Spirit. Answering that call can be scary, but understand that as Christians we will never go anywhere alone.

TMM

For most of my Christian experience, the Cross has been held up as both an instrument of torture and pain and the point of salvation. I have begun to rethink the Cross as something much more positive. Richard Rohr sees it as “God somehow participating in human suffering” instead of just standing by and watching us hurt. That changes everything.

In my church experience, it has always been a challenge to see Jesus as “just a man” because I was taught that he was God and man all at the same time. It is often applied to Jesus that he knew everything before it was going to happen and that there was in every step a specific plan. That makes Jesus impossible for me to relate to. Why even try if I am only human? The Christ of this viewpoint is unapproachable and unattainable.

But there are examples throughout the New Testament where Jesus does change his mind. The first at the wedding in Canaan, when, at the behest of his mother, he changes water to wine. He had told her that it was “not his time”. I believe he was most of all an obedient son who measured the request and chose to make his mom happy by changing the water. He did not do a halfway job either, he made the very best.

I can love and serve a Jesus, the Christ, who is like me. He did not know everything beforehand, he was fully human. And here is another thought to consider, as he was both human and Divine, so are every one of us. We are “little Christs” from the Greek meaning of the word Christian. This means I don’t have to know it all, have my life all together or even have any of the answers. It means that I can, like Jesus, do my best to listen to the Sacred and allow my ego to rest and follow what the Sacred has called me to be.

We are all called to be, not to do. The Sacred is much more interested in who we are, and who we are becoming than what we do or how we might do it. Doing is the way of the world, and being is the way of God.

TMM

We learn at church that God is in control. We are taught that we just have to have faith and God will take care of the rest. But I do not believe that this is true. In Psalm 116 it says: “O LORD, I am your servant; I am your servant, the child of your serving girl. You have loosed my bonds.” It does not say God tore off those bonds.

I believe in and try to live out a participatory faith. A faith that says the bonds are loose but it is up to me to throw them off. That feels right, to be in a faith relationship with God. But it is also a bit frightening. You mean it is up to me to choose?! But I prefer a faith that says God will take care of it all. We will never have a full and complete relationship with God if we leave it all up to God.

The scriptures say we are to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. But do we really want to do that? That means we have to have some “skin in the game “. It means we cannot live out our faith on autopilot. But come on if I have to do something doesn’t that fly in the face of the verse that says “by grace you are saved not by works”? This verse is always taken out of context. The verse moves on to say we are created “in Christ Jesus for good works.

Maybe the true joy of the Christian life is that we get to partner with the Living God. It sets our faith apart from others. We are participants with God not loyal subjects. The loyal subjects view is from 500 years ago in England and Western Europe. We are not at the mercy of a benevolent King, we are partners with a loving friend.

Being a partner means we are in a Divine dance with our dearest friend. How about we just let our partner lead and we dance joyously.

TMM

In a recent children’s sermon the pastor asked for ways to show God’s love. One child said, “by not spitting on people “. Now that is funny. But is it the wisdom of a child?

Let’s think about it. The child knew that there are just some things that she shouldn’t do. Are we as smart? Do we “spit” on people by judging others or a speaking poorly about other’s? Don’t we know better? Don’t we know that our words can cause terrible hurt to others.

I know better….but still I do it. I am not perfect in case you wondered. But this sweet child gave me a moment to pause. She is right don’t spit on people. I need to hear and be reminded the I am called to love. I am called to let others be who they are without criticism and love them fully.

Today is Epiphany Sunday and the true Epiphany is the reminder that we are to embody pure love. We are called to be imitators of Jesus. But what does that mean? To love all others, to love God, and to love ourselves.

So on this Epiphany let’s love! All the world, all the people, all that is in the world. It belongs to God after all.

TMM

Have you ever run out of gas? It is embarrassing, infuriating, and humbling. My first car was a 1959 VW beetle and it had no gas gage. Instead, it had a little handle on the firewall and when you started to have the engine sputter, you reached down and turned the handle and it went to reserve which was 1.5 gallons. Then you found a gas station. Not so bad, right? Well no, unless you forgot to turn the handle back to full position after you filled up. Then, the next engine sputter and you were done!

This is all well and good when it is you car but what about when it is your spirit? What about when we are running on empty spiritually? The filling station called church is only open a few hour each week so what if we are on empty on Thursday? Yes, I know, pray, but is that an answer? I think “just pray about it” is insulting. That phrase makes me want to scream “what do you think I am doing?”

Is there a better answer? I think there is. You see it is only when I run out of gas that I am forced to find another way. Scripture says in our weakness God is made strong. Is it just possible that what we each need to do is to just run out of gas? I believe that we all need to run out of spiritual gas and refuel from God. That humbling experience is God’s chance to take us over and fuel us for the long trip called life.

So let’s quit running on our own fuel and switch to the premium fuel… the spiritual fuel from God.

TMM

I am not sure about you but I was not taught at church that I was free to choose how to view life. Church usually taught (explicitly or implicitly) that I had to see things God’s way, meaning that I had to be judgemental of life and abide by a partial quote of “be ye perfect as God is perfect”. (Matthew 5:48)

That verse however is actually intended to invite us to see things from a different point of view. To better understand God’s plan. This invitation allows us to be fully involved in how we see things. We get to choose to see God at work in others, ourselves, and the world. We can choose to see things God’s way or our own way. It is not a command it is an invitation.

So, in this current world of ours, with so much going on that is frightening and seems so bad, how do you want to see things? You can see all the bad and feel lost and overwhelmed. You can see the world and say it is God’s plan even if I don’t understand it. Or you can look at this world and see that there are good things and good people all around if you but notice.

So, choose. I make the choice to seek the goodness in each thing, person, and experience. I want to be as St. Francis was and find God everywhere. Can you make that choice? To find the living God everywhere? You might find hope for this new year.

TMM

Scripture says that the child grew “in wisdom and the favor of God”. This is Jesus and this is the beginning for Him and for each of us. I find it refreshing and joyous that I started just like he did, nobody special just a newborn baby. And I find it even more powerful that I can grow in wisdom too.

Jesus repeatedly said he was not God. Remember him saying that “only God is good”? Jesus made it clear he was not God so how did we turn him into a deity to worship and not a friend to follow and fellowship with? If we leave him as God, we make it impossible to relate to him. If we see him as the ultimate example of what each of us is called to be we have hope that we too can grow in wisdom and favor with God.

Perhaps on the eve of a new year we should examine who we will choose to be in the coming year. Do we worship the man Jesus or do we call him brother and friend? Do we choose to embody love and peace and joy? What we seem to have lost sight of is that we get to choose every day. Maybe it is time to embody choice every day. That would certainly make us free. That would certainly help us all to live in this present moment.

Oscar Wilde was right “be yourself, all the others are taken “. So this year let’s choose to live in the present moment and to grow in wisdom and favor with God. Let’s truly become Christian, and embody that life that was so freely given as an example.

TMM

The scripture says “be still and know that I am God.” But what does that mean? It seems so obvious, “shut up and let God be God.” That is often the point of a sermon and is used to put people in their places. Just be still. God is the center of the universe and we should be quiet and believe that.

It sounds so clear but is it? What if the first word of this statement is the real point? In lectio divina one listens to the scripture and lets it envelope them. As it unfolds the sentence moves from the entire sentence to “be still and know God ” and then to “be still” and finally to “be”. Perhaps that is the point, just to “be”.

What if we were all just being? What if our very existence is about being? Now, that being assumes the entire verse. Our very essence is to be in God’s image and to be that image to the world. And what if, during this time of Christmas, that is the point of a very special birth? Isn’t that the real point and real hope of Christmas?

Just be! Not be still. Just be. Be you. Be the vision the world has of God among us. That is the whole scripture in summary. That is the call of the Christian life. That is the essence of Christmas, to be reborn daily and to be born as the light of the world.

TMM

The Child is coming! This is Christmas Eve and the light is coming anew. This birth will save us all. And All means all. It is too easy to limit this birthday to Christians but that betrays what God is doing every day in our world, This small child is and always has been the perfect union of Divine and human, not two separate things but one glorious thing, us!

We are all called to union with God, but more so with ourselves. This is the new birth Jesus told Nicodemus about. To once and for all be reborn in ourselves. This is the Divine dance, the true Trinity, the first and ongoing community. And each of us are called to be in community with ourselves. This is the miraculous birth we celebrate. We celebrate our birth anew.

This is the eve of new hope entering the world. And yet this is not new! We should live each day as if it is Christmas morning and we are that newborn baby. We are the lights of the world and the hope of the world. These are dark times in our world with wars, fears, and hopelessness all around. But tomorrow as we celebrate the Child we bring hope back to a weary world that needs it.

Let’s celebrate Christmas day as the newborn lights we all are. Let us be the light in these dark days of winter. Let us spill out that light on each person we touch and do it over and over again. The more light we spill the more light we will be given. Merry Christmas to you.

TMM

We in the Christian church have the Eucharist as a focal point of our lives and worship. We are taught that it is a very somber moment of remembering that Christ’s body was broken and his blood spilled for us. Except we are also led to believe all of this is our fault. If we were not such sinners, Jesus would not have had to die!

When did we forget that it is about His life and not his death? “As often as you do this, do it in remembrance of me ” was said before he had died and he asks us to think of him every time. He is asking us to remember how he lived. For so many the Eucharist is not a celebration of His life, it is a remembrance of his death. Why do we do this?

It is often convenient to control people with guilt. In the Advent season we now have the “elf on the shelf”. The elf is all about getting kids to behave and it is done through guilt. The elf is watching the kids. How is this healthy? Santa is no better with his “list”. When did we stop celebrating life and start watching for mistakes?

What if we all take the bread and wine in celebration of a life well lived? What if we stopped feeling guilty and instead celebrated the precious life we have been give? Then we could find daily ways to live out that gift in joy and service.

TMM