Celebration Sunday

November 25, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Welcome to Celebration Sunday!  Today, on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, we look back and celebrate all that’s happened in 2009.  In keeping with the theme of celebration, I thought I’d give you an all too incomplete thanksgiving list.  I am thankful for…

  • The people who have taught my children to sing “Jesus Loves Me.”
  • This year’s nearly 52 Operation Uplifts and all of the people who showed up with food for a small army.
  • All of those who deployed and returned safely.
  • All of their families who stayed home and prayed for them.
  • The way this church became a Medieval castle for a week during the summer.
  • All of the “ big losers” at Camp Idlewild.
  • The people who work feverishly to keep this old building running.
  • A great group of shepherds.
  • Hard-working deacons.
  • Dedicated Ministry leaders.
  • Everyone who lets us and our kids mess up their house during Lifegroups.
  • The way people stand around on the front lawn after church and talk while the kids play.
  • Every meal taken to someone who was sick or had a baby or just needed help.
  • Every couch that was loaded onto or unloaded from a moving truck by our Moving Ministry.
  • The fact that I get paid to read and think and write and pray and then talk with you about it.
  • All the times that I’ve thought of something that needed to be done only to find out that someone had already done it.
  • Nursery workers who wrangle small children every week.
  • Children’s Church volunteers who save the kids from my sermons, and vice versa.
  • Another opportunity to celebrate with other people who have been rescued by God’s grace.

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, ‘thank you,’ that would suffice.

–Meister Eckhart

Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity: it must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all.

–William Faulkner

Posted by NCOC | Filed Under Amen Corner, Articles 

All Alone

November 19, 2009 | Leave a Comment

I recently read an article in The Atlantic about a study that was begun in 1937 and continues to this day.  It set out to determine predictors of well-being throughout an entire lifetime.  268 Harvard students (all male, since Harvard was not yet co-ed) entered the study.  Over the last 72 years, they have participated in interviews and tests of various kinds.  Most served during WWII.  Most were married.  Many were divorced.  Some at first appeared to excel in life but later gave way to depression, alcohol abuse and family strife.  Others faced hardship with courage and optimism.  Some made fortunes.  Some lost them.  Some never became rich.

So of course, the big question: What are the predictors for happiness over a life time?  It’s always a little risky to draw too hasty of a conclusion, but certain themes do rise to the surface. Generally speaking, people who are happy over the long run have a relatively stable marriage and are members of a church or spiritual community.  Once a person’s basic needs are being met, money does not seem to contribute largely to their happiness.

But the author of the Atlantic article does relate that: “In an interview in the March 2008 newsletter to the Grant Study subjects, George Vaillant, one of the study’s directors, was asked, ‘What have you learned from the Grant Study men?’ Vaillant’s response: ‘That the only thing that really matters in life are your relationships to other people.’”

Loneliness is very difficult for most of us to endure.  I am basically an introvert.  After a while of being with people I have to recharge by being alone.  But I never confuse that with actually wanting to live a life of solitude.  I need my friends and family.  I need to have relationships with others.  I need people to celebrate with.  And most importantly, I need someone beside me when I’m suffering.

As I read Mark’s account of the trial and execution of Jesus this week I was struck this time by just how alone Jesus is.  I don’t know how many times I’ve read the story of Jesus’ crucifixion, but every time something new jumps out at me.  This time it wasn’t the gratuitous violence he suffered or the injustice of the trial.  This time I couldn’t help but notice that Jesus was terribly isolated when he suffered all of this.  In some sense, he was even separated from God.

This would be a terrible, tragic, irredeemable story if not for the fact that Jesus was doing all of this for you and me.  And if not for the fact that God made all things right by raising him from the dead and giving us the hope that we have for resurrection.  But this morning, before we celebrate, let’s take a moment to honor the great sacrifice that Jesus offered on our behalf.

Posted by NCOC | Filed Under Amen Corner, Articles 

Just Pray

November 18, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Assuming things turned out as we hoped, I and my family are out of town this weekend, spending time with the rest of Rachel’s family and enjoying life outside of the city.  Bob Kiser has kindly agreed to preach today.  I’m always so appreciative of my substitutes.  It’s one thing for me to prepare a message; it’s my job.  But those who give me a week off come with a lesson that they have prepared in addition to their already busy workloads.

This morning, I thought I’d share with you some thoughts on prayer.  The following thoughts come from Richard Foster’s wonderful book, Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home.

  • We should feel perfectly free to complain to God, or argue with God, or yell at God…God is perfectly capable of handling our anger and frustration and disappointment.  C.S. Lewis counsels us to “lay before Him what is in us, not what ought to be in us.”
  • My first counsel is simply a reminder that prayer is nothing more than an ongoing and growing love relationship with God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

And perhaps my favorite “new” idea…

  • I now want to give a counsel that may sound strange.  It is that we should learn to pray even while we are dwelling on evil…We lift even our disobedience into the arms of the Father; he is strong enough to carry the weight.  Sin, to be sure, separates us from God, but trying to hide our sin separates us all the more.

Imagine somebody that you really love to hear from.  Perhaps it’s an old friend.  Maybe it’s your spouse.  Maybe it’s one of your children.  Or think of someone you haven’t heard from in a really long time and you would just love to know what is going on with them.

What would you say if they were to tell you, “I think about calling you from time to time, but I’m just not sure what to say.  I’m afraid of embarrassing myself or saying something that would make you like me less.”  I don’t know about you, but what I would say is, “Stop worrying so much about all that!  I just want to hear your voice and know what’s going on in your life!”

If that’s the case with you, then allow me to quote Jesus: “…how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him (Mt. 7:11)!”  If you’ve been avoiding prayer because of fear, trust that you have a God who really wants to hear from you.

Posted by NCOC | Filed Under Amen Corner, Articles 

The Babcocks Going Away

November 18, 2009 | Leave a Comment

There will be a Mardi Gras going away party for the Babcock Family on Saturday, Nov. 21st at 6 p.m. The party will be held at the home of Robert and Rachel Lee. Please bring a drink and your favorite New Orleans dish. Donations for a gift are still being accepted.

Posted by NCOC | Filed Under Amen Corner, News 

Grief & Grace

November 6, 2009 | 1 Comment

In a recent article from Christianity Today, Mark Galli reminds us of Mark Twain’s story, The Prince and the Pauper:

“…we are introduced to Prince Edward and a poor boy named Tom Canty. In the opening pages, they meet each other and discover they look identical. Since each one is dissatisfied with his social situation, they decide to swap places and see what life’s like from the other side. Tom takes on the life of Prince Edward, and Prince Edward adopts the life of the pauper Tom. During the course of the novel, King Henry dies, at which point Prince Edward becomes King of England. For the rest of the story, Edward has to convince others that he is the legitimate king. All they see, of course, is a poor boy in rags.”

Galli goes on to note that Jesus is often unrecognizable, because of his humility: “Many people—not just the wise men—had trouble spotting King Jesus in his day, because they were looking for the trappings of royalty instead of an infant in a manger or a young man in a carpenter’s shop.”

Nor would people be looking for a king in the Garden of Gethsemane. But that is where we find him in Mark 14. Again, he is not in a palace. He is not at the vanguard of a conquering army. He is in a Garden on the outskirts of Jerusalem. And it’s not just his location that we should find so scandalous; it’s also what he’s doing.

The Messiah, the anointed one of Israel, her deliverer, the Son of God, the Lord who has cast out demons and raised the dead and controlled the forces of nature is on his knees. He is overwhelmed. He is racked with misery. His body is rebelling against him. And he is begging for his life. Doesn’t exactly comport with our idea of grandeur and power, does it?

But I believe that this is when we see Jesus at His best. Here more than any other place, Jesus is the Messiah. He is both the Son of God and the Son of Man. He is fully human and fully divine. Nowhere else, except perhaps on the cross, do we see the two come together so completely.

It’s a good thing we were not allowed to write the story of Jesus, because who but God would include the events that take place in Gethsemane? Who would imagine the Messiah in such a terrible state? But our salvation begins in Gethsemane. I’m beginning to think that this is where the battle is fought and won. Gethsemane makes Calvary (and the empty tomb) possible. And we can learn more about the world saving character of Christ there than anywhere else. I hope you’ll spend some time with Him there this morning.

Posted by NCOC | Filed Under Amen Corner, Articles