Thursday, May 20, 2010

Sea Glass

Have you seen sea glass? It is simply that…glass that somehow got into the ocean and it floats around in there for years and washes up on the beaches. When it finally washes up much of the glass no longer has sharp edges but is smooth and clear. People are collecting it, cataloging it, making books about it and some of it is made into jewelry. One of my friends gave me a sea glass necklace. It is round and smooth and pale green. Probably when it started out it was angular and sharp and a darker shade of green. With time and the relentless exposure to the sea it has changed into a thing of beauty.

Here we are once again approaching Pentecost…the birthday of the church. Once again we read the Acts 2 account of the power of the Holy Spirit blowing into the disciples’ prayer room and changing the world forever. The Holy Spirit gives us power to witness, gifts for service, guidance for the work, and comfort in times of distress. Let’s not forget the Holy Spirit’s sanctifying work that takes the likes of you and I, with all our sharp edges and unrepentant habits, and slowly shapes them into the likeness of Christ. This does not happen overnight but it is the reality of the Christian life. As we continue to walk with Jesus he works on us to perfect us in love and make us in his image.

As we ordain our class of Elders and Deacons this year at Annual Conference we ask them if they are going on to perfection. They say “yes.” May we all say “yes” to the Holy Spirit as it chips away at our faults and failures and makes us, like sea glass, into beautiful Christians.

Monday, May 10, 2010

Wet Wood

Have you ever tried to start a camp fire with wet wood? It doesn’t work very well. Once as a camp counselor in college I had to make a fire for a group of campers who were having a picnic outing in the woods. It had rained the night before and everything in the woods was wet, except for a roll of paper towels that we brought along with the food we were to cook over an open fire. We decided to set the paper towels on fire and that combustion lasted for about a minute so we ate cold hot dogs that night. Wet wood does not a good fire make.

How I wonder at the prophet Elijah who was having a contest with the priests of Baal one day on Mt. Carmel. Elijah and the prophets of Baal each made an altar and put wood on the altar and placed a sacrificial animal on that wood and they called upon their god to light the fire. The contest was to see which god was the real god: the God of Israel or the god of Baal. Whichever God had true sovereignty and power would be able to light the fire on their altar. The account of this can be found in I Kings 18:20-40. It is an all-day event with the priests of Baal going to great lengths to call upon their god to light the fire but to no avail.

Then Elijah prepares his altar by repairing an altar that had been previously destroyed, arranging the wood and the sacrificed bull on the altar and then he does this additional step of pouring water on the altar. He drenches the wood with not 1 but 12 jars of water. He even builds a trench around the altar to catch the water so this altar is as wet as it can be. The point of this no doubt was to make it abundantly clear to the wishy-washy Israelites that only a supernatural, all powerful God would be able to light fire on this altar. The story ends with God sending down so much fire that the altar is consumed, the wood, the stones, the burnt offering, the dust and even the water in the trenches were “licked up.” The people were more than convinced and fell on their faces and cried “The Lord indeed is God.” Our God can do the impossible. The power of God is able to overcome any obstacle.

In our daily lives we face difficulties, challenges, disappointments, tragedies, want and suffering. Sometimes it seems like the old phrase “when it rains it pours” and just when you think it can’t get any worse, it does. I am thinking of the people of the Gulf shore region who are suffering now from a tragedy of the oil slick. These people who lived through Hurricane Katrina and other storms have another difficult crisis. I am reminded of the people in Haiti who are going to be getting the rainy season, which will cause flooding in an island that is hardly recovered at all from the earthquake.

Sometimes in life it seems like jars of trouble are poured into our lives. That is when we realize, like the people in Elijah’s day, that it is only God that can make a way out of no way. In our own human strength we cannot overcome the many troubles on our earth. Humanity more or less has made a mess out of things and it is only the power of God that can heal and help and bring solutions to our problems. When things begin to look impossible, remember the wet wood and God’s power to light the fire. Trust in God to bring about the answers. Ask God to direct you in what you need to be doing next. Don’t be overwhelmed by hard times. See it as a workshop in faith and pray for the eyes of faith to see God’s victorious hand in the midst of it. Wet wood is no match for God’s fire.

Monday, May 3, 2010

Deacon Sunday is Coming Up

The first Sunday of June is Deacon Awareness Sunday. The Order of Deacons in the UM Church has only been around since 1996 but it is mighty indeed. Deacons are ordained ministers of Word and Service who connect the church to the world in some amazing ways. This spring I had the privilege of meeting with Deacons from both the Eastern PA and the Peninsula Delaware Conferences. They are involved in a plethora of ministries: youth, chaplaincy, teaching, counseling, hospice, music, nursing, advocacy, HIV/AIDS ministry, retirement community ministry, disability ministry, church planting, international missions, Christian Education, ministry with grieving children, etc. The possibilities are endless. Invite a Deacon to your church to share about the ministry. Encourage people who are feeling God’s call to full time ministry to explore the Order of Deacons.

Deacon Sunday Litany

Leader:
Within the people of God, some persons are called to the ministry of deacon. Very early in its history the church . . . instituted an order of ordained ministers to personify or focus the servanthood to which all Christians are called. These people were named deacons. This ministry exemplifies and leads the Church in the servanthood every Christian is called to live both in the church and the world.

All: We give thanks for the ministry of the deacon.

Leader:
Deacons are persons called by God, authorized by the Church, and ordained by a bishop to a
lifetime ministry of Word and Service to both the community and the congregation in a
ministry that connects the two.

All: We give thanks for the ministry of the deacon.

Leader:

Deacons fulfill servant ministry in the world and lead the Church in relating the gathered life
of Christians to their ministries in the world, interrelating worship in the gathered community with service to God in the world.

All: We give thanks for the ministry of the deacon.

Leader:
Deacons lead the congregation in its servant ministry and equip and support all baptized
Christians in their ministry.

All: We give thanks for the ministry of the deacon.

Leader:
Deacons give leadership in the Church’s life:
in teaching and proclaiming the Word
in contributing to worship
in assisting the elders in administering the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper

All: We give thanks for the ministry of the deacon.

Leader:
Deacons give leadership in the Church’s life:
in forming and nurturing disciples
in conducting marriages and burying the dead
in embodying the church’s mission to the world
and in leading congregations in interpreting the needs, concerns, and hopes of the world.

All: We give thanks for the ministry of the deacon.

Leader:
Deacons exemplify Christian discipleship and create opportunities for others to enter into discipleship:
In the world, the deacon seeks to express a ministry of compassion and justice,
assisting laypersons as they claim their own ministry.
In the congregation, the ministry of the deacon is to teach and to form
disciples, and to lead worship together with other ordained and laypersons.

All: We give thanks for the ministry of the deacon.

Leader:
Deacons are accountable to the annual conference and the bishop for the fulfillment of their call to servant leadership.

All: We give thanks for the ministry of the deacon.

Leader:
The deacon in full connection shall have the rights of voice and vote in the annual conference where membership is held.

All: We give thanks for the ministry of the deacon.

Leader:
Deacons shall be eligible to serve as clergy on boards, commissions, or committees of the annual conference and hold office on the same.

All: We give thanks for the ministry of the deacon.

Leader:
Deacons shall be eligible for election as a clergy delegate to the General, Central, or jurisdictional conference.

All: We give thanks for the ministry of the deacon.

Leader:
The deacon in full connection shall attend all the sessions of the annual conference and share with elders in full connection responsibility for all matters of ordination, character, and conference relations of clergy.

All: We give thanks for the ministry of the deacon.

Leader:
As members of the Order of Deacons, all deacons in full connection are in covenant with all other such deacons in the annual conference and shall participate in the life of their Order.

All: We give thanks for the ministry of the deacon.



Adapted from BOD ¶328 &¶329