Being Present

One week from today, our son Wes returns home to Newtown after finishing his summer internship in Pittsburgh. I’m not only excited to have our son home again; I’m excited that our entire family will be under one roof. For most of the summer, while Wes was in Pittsburgh, our daughter Adrienne has been home with us. In a few weeks, Adrienne will trade places with Wes: She will head to Pittsburgh for her sophomore year of college and Wes will live here in Newtown while attending graduate school. But for those precious few weeks in August before Adrienne leaves for Pittsburgh, we will all be together again.

Without a doubt, my favorite part of our family life is dinner-time. We almost always make the effort to eat dinner together as a family. We sit down at the dining room table – seated in the same places every time for reasons no one can explain. Then we say grace, usually holding hands as we pray, “God is great, God is good. Let us thank Him for our food …” We dig in to the food set before us on the table, but there are usually some interesting topics of discussion on the table, too. As we talk about what each of us has been doing that day, we may end up hearing about a new idea Dorry has for her congregation, or debating the merits of the latest lawsuit I am defending, or discussing the best way to handle a disagreement among friends, or commiserating about a tough day at school.

For me, our family dinners have become a special time, a time not only for refueling but also for reconnecting. It’s a sacred time, this ordinary meal. And while our family dinners are a valuable experience no matter how many of us are seated at the table to enjoy them, it is obvious when one of us isn’t home. Someone is missing. Someone hasn’t recounted the triumphs or struggles of their day. Someone wasn’t there to lend their unique and valuable voice to the conversation.

My dad once compared the church to a family meal. He said, “The church is not a restaurant, where you’re not missed if you don’t show up for dinner. The church is a family, where there’s an empty place at the table if you’re not there.”

“The Epistle to the Hebrews makes it clear that the purpose of meeting together as Christians is not to earn a star for perfect attendance. It’s not to show up on Sunday and sit in a pew and passively soak it up like a sponge, saying ‘I sure hope I get something out of church this morning.’

The purpose of meeting together, according to the writer of Hebrews, is two-fold: (1) to stir one another up to love and good works, and (2) to encourage one another. We come to church to build people up, to love them into being more loving, to listen to their pain and to offer Christ’s healing touch. This means that our presence must be a positive, participating presence. The Christian presence is a loving, sharing, accepting, giving, non-judgmental presence. All of this grows out of why we are together in the first place. ‘Christian presence’ is directing the full force of our presence on the matter at hand. It is truly ‘being there’ in a focused, attentive, caring manner. Our ministry of ‘presence’ in this high and holy sense is vital to the growth of the church.

Obviously then, when we neglect to meet with the body, when we withdraw our presence, the body is missing one of its vital parts. Our absence hurts. Most of us don’t realize how much our irregular attendance habits affect the church. We think it doesn’t matter because the only person we’re hurting is ourselves. Not so! Someone is not being encouraged; someone is not being stirred up to love and good works because we are not there. The body misses us when we’re not present. For we are not just a collection of unrelated individuals. We are, in the words of Ephesians, 'members of one another.' Ephesians 4:25 (RSV)”

"And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another[.]" - Hebrews 10:24-25 (NIV)

From: "The Stewardship of Presence"

Scripture: Hebrews 10:19-25

Preached at Paoli UM Church, Paoli, PA

A Humble Nation

Independence Day weekend is upon us here in America! Flags, fireworks, family and fun … a patriotic celebration of our proud nation’s founding. But what should patriotism look like for the American Christian? My father had a one-word answer to that question -- "humility."

“We … are a nation who in the beginning seemed to be called into existence for high and holy purposes. In our Declaration of Independence, we gave ourselves to high ideals of responsibility as a nation under the guidance and nurture of God. It was not unlike the covenant the Israelites made with God at Mt. Sinai and many times before and since. From that point on for both nations it was a hard struggle to survive but one which paid off – or shall we say one which God richly rewarded. We both inherited a land and society ‘flowing with milk and honey,’ and our flocks and herds and our computers and investments multiplied.

But as for the Israelites, so for us, trouble began when we succumbed to the human tendency to forget the Source of our blessings. We began to worship other gods. ‘Praise science, praise military might, praise private enterprise, from whom all blessings flow!’ And, you see, this kind of idolatry is really just a worship of self, a subtle way of saying, ‘Look what I have earned; look what I have scratched for and created. I’m pretty good! I’m pretty great! I know how; my way is best.’

And so America[,] conceived in and dedicated to God’s mission, [has] wandered and strayed from high and holy moorings, [is] given to exaggerated opinions of self-worth, [and is] unmindful that its privileged position, far from being a mark of God’s special favor, is rather a call to heavier responsibility in doing God’s work in the world. … It is pride, pure and simple. It is arrogance, a forgetting of Whose we are and what we are here for.

I believe Jesus would disagree with those who are saying that what America needs most is a recovery of its national pride. I think he would press instead for a new national humility. [I’m] not suggesting … that we should get rid of patriotism. But [I am] saying firmly that a true love of country, true patriotism includes humility – humility in seeking God’s will for the nation instead of telling God what he should want.

How does a nation discover God’s will? (And that is exactly what you do; you discover God’s will; you do not make it up to suit yourself and then give it to him.) We solve that problem by following the example of Jesus the Christ, who knew and did God’s will perfectly. You know how he did it? He did it by making no claims for himself; he emptied himself of all self-will, of all desire to do everything except serve his Father. He was absolutely humble. That is how you discover God’s will. Only when you have emptied yourself of your own will can God’s will flow in. And that is as true in the life of a nation as it is in the individual person. Humility is the key word.

How often we hear people say, ‘America is a proud nation.’ How much better it would be to say, ‘America is a humble nation’ – that is, a nation which realizes that God is in charge of the flow of history and that God has an overall plan and purpose. And so it becomes a humble nation’s task, through free speech and press and debate and democratic action, to discover what that will of God is.

• Such a nation will be a servant of the world instead of a ruler. It will spend far more on relieving pain and suffering than on creating it. 
• Such a nation will be open and flexible, admitting its mistakes, always trying new ways, never ceasing in its search to know what God wants it to do.  
• Such a nation will really listen to its critics since it well knows that God often speaks through the opposition and even the enemy.
• Such a nation is always testing its policies and measuring its stance by Christ’s rule of love.

There is no conflict between love of God and love of country when rightly understood. Christian patriotism means helping our beloved nation humbly take the right course under God.”

"On Whose Side Is God?"

Nahum 1:1-8

"Kingdom Of The Humble"
Zechariah 9:9-10 
"A Nation On Its Knees"
Joshua 24:1-15, 24