Pastor Prepares For Trinity Sunday

Looking towards the scriptures for this week, these questions are on Pastor Randy's mind:

The complexity of the Trinity stands next to the simplicity of Paul's statement in our second lesson.
"We are justified by faith" is a simple statement.  And the faith we profess is faith in a mysterious God who is manifest as "One in Three persons" -- Blessed Trinity (and so complex) 

How do we live in the mystery and simplicity of it all? How do we accept the simplicity without losing the awe?

Mini death. Maximum life.

        Mini-deaths are those situations, or significant events, that occur in our lives that cause a part of us to feel as if it has died.  We experience mini-deaths throughout our lifetime.  A mini-death can occur from something simple, to something major occurring in our lives.  When we experience a sort of mini-death, we are often left with a kind of depressed feeling, which has been described sometimes as a hollow feeling.  Something that was a part of you is now gone.  Mini-deaths can include things like a son or daughter getting married, for even though you might be caught up in the excitement of that event, there still may be a part of you that feels hollow inside.  Or it might be that something in house, something that has sentimental value to you is suddenly gone, and you can't stop thinking about it.  ..... The disciples must have certainly experienced a mini-death as they watched the resurrected Jesus ascend away from their immediate presence and into heaven.  The disciples most likely experienced that hollow feeling.  However, it is what happens to the disciples in the wake of the time period that begins the church season we celebrate today, namely this day of Pentecost.

         ..... Pentecost, as we might have heard many times in our lives, is the birthday of the Church. The disciples, the followers of Christ, receive Jesus’ gift of the Advocate, the Holy Spirit.  So in the midst of their feelings of being down, depressed, and questioning their future, the Advocate, the Spirit arrives to give them a new beginning, a new birth. That's what the Pentecost season focuses our Christian lives upon.  Pentecost is the season of growing, but in order to have growth; we must have a new life, a new beginning. That is where part two comes in from the mini-deaths, because for every time we experience a mini-death, we also experience a new beginning, a kind of mini-birth.  It is very much like the season of Easter, when part of us dies; there also is a new part of us born.  

(From Pastor Randy's Pentecost Sermon) 

From Pamela

Many people have experienced the "surprise" of something new and fresh peeking out from the debris of mini- death.  Sadly our media has been replete with images of significant loss in the wake of this week's tornadoes.  For many, the loss is permanent.  Life and loved ones are gone.  

Happily, for many, the loss is material.  Even more happily, for some, what was initially declared destroyed is being found -- pets, friends and family are being returned to the hands and hearts of those who endured hours or days of wondering "is he/she gone forever?"

Across the board, those who testify to the experience of survival speak about the indelible lesson.  It goes something like this:  This miracle has taught me to value what is really important.   Never, ever take love and life for granted.  We can rebuild "stuff".  

Life will always include mini-deaths.  Grief and the hollowness of loss are a part of life, and there is no point in minimizing their impact.  However, God's spirit always, always, always invites us to look through the rubble of what seems to have collapsed and see the glimmers of hope and life.  When we can't see it individually, we gather in community to remind each other new life is most certainly present -- and we will welcome it even if it is dramatically different from the previous (precious) experiences.  

One of the fundamental powers and privileges of the church is the capacity to live in hope!   We lean towards new life even when we can't see it.  Life becomes maximized in the midst of a mini death.  

More than a makeover. Made new!

Unlike the early Christians who lived in fear of being killed for their beliefs, today our challenge as faithful followers is how we live out our lives with our community, with our world, with other Christians, with our mothers and fathers, and all our family, and even at times with ourselves.  For the truth of the matter is, that as broken but loved people, as humans who have been saved by the Gospel, we still maintain the capacity for messing up our lives.  (from Pastor Randy's sermon 5/12/2013)

From Pamela:  

Not long ago, reality shows about "makeovers" were very popular.  Sometimes it was a home that was being made over, at other times a wardrobe.  Sometimes it was a torso or a face.  And sometimes it was a family.  The episodes started with the mess and then step by step, enhanced by the dramatic flair of some narrator, the viewers were introduced to the miraculous result of some transformational process.  We were welcomed into the understory of liposuction, closet purging or whole house deconstruction.  We hung on the edge of what the new creation would be and then at the climax the host said, "and now, here it is!!!!"    

End of show.  We see the glorious product.  

But we never see what happens in the months ahead.  Not to be a skeptic, but I can't help but wonder how sustainable the result was, particularly if the people involved did not internalize the lifestyle needed to let the fruit of the transformation flourish.  Even the most dramatic makeover will fade unless the life is made new!  

Consider now the sustainability of our new lives in Christ.  We regularly get glimpses of the product -- we experience surges of joy or compassion.  We spring into energetic service or we burst with understanding of how Christ redeems us each day.  

And then the muck and mire of our brokenness begins to accumulate again.  Something is done to us. Or we do something to someone.  Or we do nothing at all.  The old way hovers in the corner, just like old eating or thinking or living habits hover at the perimeter of even the most extreme "makeover".  

The difference for Christians is that the love of God continually (and intentionally) surrounds us.   To be sure, every day we face the risk of backsliding. We can't stay "in Christ" on our own.   

But with every day God, who knows us better than we know ourselves, meets us and says "even now, I am making you new." The transformation from within expands daily, assuring us that what God has promised to accomplish for God's people, God does!  And what God does, is done forever!  

The Story Continues

​40 years. 1973. While work went into this ministry well ahead of that time, on May 27, 1973 the official beginning of this mission station, of this community of faith was celebrated.   Did the group of disciples that gathered there that day even envision that we would be sitting here in this facility forty years later and talking about them? That this group of people here today would be about Praising God, Serving Others? I think in many ways the answer to that question is yes.  Because all the work that went into those moments were not just about those moments, it was more so for future moments, for a people that had yet to encounter the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  It was about mission.  It was about sharing the Good News.  It was about the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, which would come to the church, as Jesus announced in our text.  It was about vision.  

(From Pastor Randy's Sermon on 5/5/2013)

From Pamela:  I recall a statement of one of the Native American Indian principles of decision making.  It went something like this: 

"Everything we decide to do today should be for the good of the next 10 generations".  

That is about vision.  It is about standing in the present, looking at all that we have before us, and using everything that we have with the future in our minds.  It is about trusting that what and who is beyond the horizon is in some way dependent upon us. 

I know that many of those who were present 10 or 15 or 30 or 40 years ago are no longer with us in "fact".  However, we are the way we are because of the way they were.  We at CRLC represent the current sum of the hopes and dreams and prayers of everybody who has been in this place.  

However, we are but a subtotal of what will ultimately unfold in our mission.  

So we celebrate the subtotal of 40 years of shared ministry, knowing that our commitment to the good news of Jesus Christ will affect all of the others who will praise God and serve others here long after we are, in a word, history!  

Chardon .  Newtown.  Boston.    Fertilizer Plants blowing up.  Chemicals sent in the mail.  Maybe when we hear these words and the horrific events attached to them we want to yell out with the Jews: "'How long will you keep us in suspense?’'' If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.  We do not want the suspense any longer.  We want God now.  In the midst of the calamities, in the midst of senseless we want the full resurrection peace, now, today. These inconsolable events and the families attached to them, leave us with our mouths often dropped in our own disbelief of humanity's in humanity to one another.  Jesus does give us, I guess, a partial response in his answer:  “I have told you and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name testify to me...   My sheep hear my voice.  I know them and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.'"  

From Pastor Randy's Sermon on 4/21/2013 

From Pamela:  
How true.  When despicable and senseless tragedy hits us, the voice of fear and doubt says, so where was God in any of this?  If God is all powerful then why didn't God prevent this from happening?

Then we remember that we (as CS Lewis said) live in enemy occupied territory.  True, most Americans do not live with the daily background sounds of gunfire, explosions and keening voices.  However, the possibility of tragedy is with us every single day. And in recent days, tragedy has erupted and traveled in shockwaves, and we are reminded of our vulnerability.

In our most vulnerable moments we are called to look and listen for the sights and sounds of hope.  They are there -- they beckon to us and gather us into heart of God.

It is not easy.  It never has and never will be.  But our faith assures us that it is possible -- Nothing and no one can ultimately snatch us from the hand of God.

What is your comfort zone?

.  I don’t know of anyone who doesn’t want to be comfortable.  Whether it is financially, whether it sitting behind a new car during a test drive, whether it is the mattress on your bed, the people you hang around, the couch or the recliner that is positioned just right in front of the television, we seek comfort.  But sometimes due to unforeseen circumstances, and things out of our control, good and bad life changes, among some of the first group of feelings we find ourselves dealing with, is this sense of being uncomfortable.  And the human reaction to being uncomfortable is to seek comfort.  Again, it doesn’t matter if these changes are good or bad, expected or unexpected; we still seek out a new comfort level.  It may be leaving for college, it may be getting married, changing jobs, or moving into a new house.  And it might even be a new worship service, or a new church program, or doing things in a different way. 

 What about the disciples’ comfort zone?  How much of their world had been turned upside down?  Just about everything.  Each week since our Easter celebration we have heard these accounts of their encounters with the risen Lord.  How was their comfort level?  For now no matter what they experienced they knew that the tomb was empty, the Lord had risen; death had been conquered through their Teacher, Savior, and Messiah.  For them the world would now be forever changing, but the one level, the one thing that would remain the same, was their comfort in knowing completely that the tomb was empty.

(From Pastor Randy's Sermon)

From Pamela:  It seems to me that we have an abundance of comfort objects (or activities or substances) that actually decrease our need for understanding NEED for comfort zones.  To be sure, we have developed many patterns for increasing comfort -- think of the ice breakers or team builders at fellowship gatherings -- or the cocktail hour at business conferences.  They are all aimed at softening the raw, uncomfortable edges of unfamiliarity.  

I think about our worship services and the moments when I begin to feel on edge or uncomfortable.  (Chuckle... in another place, I will tell you about mine if you tell me about yours!!)  

Then I remember to remember the Empty Tomb.  I remember to remember that Jesus is with us, wandering around, saying "when you begin to feel uncomfortable, focus on me.  Together, we will see how this all works to help us praise God!"  

So... think about YOUR uncomfort zone.  Be honest about it.  Let Jesus walk with you into the comfort zone.  

Perhaps an unlikely model for us can be, of all people, the disciple Thomas. Thomas doubted, but yet he came back and stayed in the room with the disciples.  As Christians, we too are free to doubt.  God has created us with a mind to think and act freely.  God can handle our tough questions.  God can handle our moments of desperation, and certainly God can survive our doubt.  God, despite often our own acknowledgment, is there in our times of questioning, as well as our moments of great faith.  There is a saying that reads: "I respect faith, but doubt will get you an education."  As Christians we do not have to feel guilty that we sometimes question the things of God. God is there. God understands. But faith too, has an important role. We need to hold on to the example of Thomas when we doubt ourselves and our faith. Thomas was open and honest about it, and most importantly he stayed with the group of believers, despite the despair of this own thinking. We too, in times of frustration, in times of working things out, need to hold on to our community of faith, our church.  

 (From Pastor Randy's Sermon 4/7/2013)

From Pamela:  I think doubt is a universally shared human experience.  Everybody has moments when what we believe to be true is not validated by information or perceptions that moment.  Our beliefs and opinions benefit from regular affirmation, even if proof is not possible.  

You probably have heard that "the opposite of faith is not doubt, but, rather, indifference".  Indifference terminates the conversation (or the relationship).  The doubter still has a partially open mind that leans toward the matter at hand, waiting to learn more.  In many ways, doubt invites civil presence, and sometimes even civil conversation.  

So, when we "doubt" matters of God, in many ways it is an invitation to see what more (or what else) God is revealing to us.