Bad News and Good News

There was a saying that newspaper reporters use to have about their work. “We are here,” they would say, “to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” It is an admirable work. To dive into the dark places of society and let people know what is going on. To inevitably cause change through reporting. The theologian Reinhold Niebuhr when hearing this saying claimed, “Such is the work of Christ and his Church. The Church is to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable.” Again it is an admirable work, this work of finding those who are oppressed and beaten, and bringing them comfort and hope. Likewise pointing the finger at the comfortably unjust and oppressive and taking away some of that comfort. We live in times when newspapers struggle for readership and struggle to survive. We also live in times when church membership is declining and now one out of five people do not believe themselves to be at all religiously inclined. Perhaps people do not think there are those that need to be comforted any longer. Perhaps we have grown weary at all the evil that is out there. What is there to do but to turn away from it, or be driven crazy by it? In the church we talk about compassion fatigue. We are afraid that people will simply be overwhelmed by all the need and shut down, grow tired of it all, say, “Enough, I’ve had enough, I can’t do this anymore.” When that happens preachers sometimes become instruments of ease. Easy, uplifting, self-care messages are substituted for sermons that will still wrestle with God and leave us changed by the encounter. I speak, of course, of Jacob’s time of wrestling with God. He limped for the rest of his life. He was never the same, and every time he walked he remembered that he wrestled with God. But limping is not easy so let us make the messages easier, right? “Why isn’t there more good news on the news?” people ask one another. Maybe the answer is we need to know the bad news. Good news is all around us. I am up and breathing and well, this is good news! My children are beautiful and I love the way my little girl runs up to me with arms open in her little toddler way and nuzzles her head into my shoulder, this is good news! My son and I are having fort night tonight. We are building a fort in his room and we will sleep in there after we are done telling scary stories and watching cartoons, this is good news! A stranger helped me when my hands were full at the supermarket today, that is good news! My neighbor came by with tomatoes from his garden, little ones that my son loves, because he knows my son loves them, this is good news! This is news from just today, and from my own life. You have your own good news, we all do. Our lives are filled with goodness if only we take the time to notice it. But the bad news is often hidden unless exposed and the people affected from bad news are still in need. We need to hear about it, we need to act, we need to care and know and that God is calling us to look out over a world full of goodness from which we can give comfort, and full of comfortable evil that we must afflict. If you are looking for a place where you can join the good fight of faith look for a church. There are many. I personally invite you to mine. Our services are at 11 am on Sundays and I know that it would be better with you there… ah that is good news too!

Minister's Minute from the September Issue of the Journal of Hope and Joy

I think at times we become too comfortable at church. We stop trying to figure out how to grow it, how to grow ourselves, how to bring people in and watch what happens when the Holy Spirit takes hold of someone. We end up worrying about the minutiae, the little things, that while they matter do not matter nearly as much as we end up saying they do. We get used to seeing the same faces, saying hello to the same people, doing the same things and that is that. We are comfortable and quite frankly it is nice. However, I remember the first time I was told that Jesus came to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted. I took it as youth often do, with a hint of hope, knowing that there was much Jesus could still change. Jesus was a revolutionary, dying as revolutionaries did, upon a cross. Jesus walked into religious establishments and created havoc because Jesus was always more concerned with people than establishments. In fact, I am not sure Jesus cared for establishments at all. Often, I care too much for establishments, because they make me comfortable. I like to know what to expect when I come to church. I am a family man, and, I do not have time to figure out new things, or to have my ordered life thrown into chaos. However, the more I get to know Jesus, the more I discover he does not care about my order. I remember when I was a child, and I was telling someone my plans for my life. The person was older and wiser, as older people often are, and told me, "You want to hear God laugh, tell God your plans, Garrett." I did not get it then, but I get it now. God has a plan, and often times my plans do not matter to God. I write all of this to let you all know that God has plans for our church. Plans that we are not yet achieving. We have done much, and we have much more to do. God is going to keep growing us! God is causing me to grow as I further my education. You will notice a video camera set up in church on September 9. Several of my sermons will be recorded and sent to people in Chicago who will evaluate my preaching as part of my work toward a Doctorate in Ministry. Someone asked me, "Why are you doing that? You're already pretty good." God wants me to be better, to figure out new ways of preaching the good news of great joy that Jesus Christ is with us. As God grows me, we will all grow. God will give us the power to bring more people into our church. There are so many people without a church home, without a place to give God glory, honor and praise. They may not know it, but God is calling them here. For our size, we do more work in this community than any church of which I have ever heard! However, we must find more workers. We must grow our community. We must discover the people who feel like they do not belong. We must open our hearts to them as well, so that we can keep on with the good work God has given us to do. God will lead us to them, for we are never working on our own accord! God will empower us to work with other churches. From September 17-19 I will be the revivalist at Bethel AME's annual revival. This historic downtown church is the place where Martin Luther King, Jr. came first when he came into Albany. I am the first non-African-American minister to preach the revival there, which demonstrates how God is working to break down our barriers. God has just started with us! Do not get too comfortable church. Do not become stuck in the mire of tiny details. Our God is one of big plans and God is planning something that will take us, and Albany, by storm. Maybe you are ready, maybe you are not, but God is ready and a new thing is about to happen. Getting ready to ride the wave of the Holy Spirit, Garrett

Minister's Minute from the August Issue of The Journal of Hope and Joy

I am late in writing this. I often am. It is not that I do not want to do something; it is that I do not want to do something that is pointless. So I asked someone what she would like to hear about if I was her minister. “I’d like to hear your hope for the church.” My first thought was that there was no way I could do that in this space. I have too much to say, too much to convey… but alas, if I cannot say it here perhaps it could not be said at all. First let me say that I am sure you each have your own hopes for our church. My hopes are not better or worse than yours, but they are mine. I hope to hear yours too. I hope that you share your hopes with others. I hope that as we talk about what we want to see happen at this church a fire is lit within us, the fire of the Holy Spirit, and our hopes may become realities. I hope that our church becomes a place of conversion, justice, mutual hospitality and community. At this moment, as I am writing this, that is my hope. Conversion means to me that lives are changed by the power of the gospel of Jesus the Christ. I hope and pray for changed lives in our church. I hope and pray that people meet this Jesus, and by the grace of God that they invite him into their lives. It is impossible to remain the same with Jesus in one’s life. The status quo will not do anymore, things that once seemed of monumental significance lose all meaning, and suddenly that which is important to God becomes important to the convert. Words are not enough for the convert, life must imitate the words and give the words life. Conversion means that the Spirit is moving and working in our midst. Justice means to me that the right things are done for the right reasons, and evil is actively battled. This world is full of evil and injustice. I hope and pray that First Presbyterian Church is a place where evil is not tolerated, where the good fight is fought, and where people are empowered by God to change the world as a people of love. I believe God’s justice is concerned with how the least of people is treated, and I hope that First Presbyterian Church becomes a place where the least of people feel they have a place and a friend in a chaotic and hostile world. Mutual hospitality means to me that people are excited about welcoming the stranger, and are gracious when being the stranger. I hope and pray for a church where all members shower guests with love, and go other places and accept with gratitude all the love that others give them. We know what it is like to have good guests in our homes, and we know how good hosts have treated us. Our church is a home, and all people are welcomed. When the welcome people receive is equal to the graciousness that God has received us then we will know we have succeeded, until then we work toward it, knowing that Jesus is empowering us to accomplish such a goal. Finally I hope our church becomes a place of community. Community means to me a place where people are supported. I hope and pray that people feel supported when they are members. Anyone who has 7 to 8 good friends in a church will almost never leave a church, why? Because they have a community of support that is there for them in their needs and their joys, but not only that! They also have people for whom they are present, they care for others, and people are most fully human when they exist with others and for others. There is still more! Our church is part of a wider community and we are needed to work within that community to ensure its success. Our success is Albany’s success, and Albany’s success is our success. So there it is. That is my hope for our church, conversion, justice, mutual hospitality and community. When I think and pray on what it means to be God’s hope and joy to each other and to the world I think on such things. We are headed in that direction and for that I am glad, but we are not yet there. However by God’s grace we will get there, I am sure of it. Riding the Wave of the Holy Spirit, Garrett

Minister's Minute from the June issue of The Journal of Hope and Joy

I have been studying about Pentecost, because as I am writing this Pentecost Sunday is coming up. There are those who call it the birth of the church, but I am not so sure about that. It is definitely when the church entered its own with the power of the Spirit. However, I tend to think the church started way back when Jesus started calling disciples and forming them. That is what the church is after all, disciples who are called and formed. Peter preached one mean sermon on Pentecost, apparently 3000 people were baptized that day, but he did not start off as some ancient Billy Graham. He started off as a fisherman who fell to his knees and told Jesus, “I need to get away from you, I’m a sinner!” And Jesus said, “You don’t get to get away from me, you’re coming with me, I’m going make you fish for people.” Then Peter got out of his boat and he followed Jesus. Peter made a lot of mistakes along the way. He wanted to build houses for Jesus, Moses and Elijah to stay in when he saw the transfiguration. That was not the point of the transfiguration of course. The point was that God wanted people to listen to Jesus. Peter missed that, because it was not long until Jesus said, “Hey I’m going to be handed over and killed.” Peter did not like hearing that and he took Jesus aside to scold him, “Jesus you will not be killed, do you hear me?! You’re wrong that’s not how this Messiah thing works!” It was then that Jesus had to scold Peter, and I am pretty sure Peter did not like it very much. No one likes to be scolded or to be called Satan. Peter needed it though, he had missed the point and the point was important. I am glad that Jesus took time to correct the disciples, it was one of the ways he went about forming the church. Peter did not like it when Jesus told him, “Hey you’re going to deny me.” “No I’m not,” Peter said. “By the time you hear a rooster crow you will have denied me three times.” “No I’m not Jesus, really there is not a chance!” Of course he did, and he wept when he realized what he did. There must have been a lot of shame in those tears, and probably a lot of self-doubt. Peter could not even stand up for Jesus when confronted. But that did not stop Jesus from taking so much time to build him up through their time together. It did not stop Jesus from renaming him “Rock.” “You’re going to be the rock I build my church upon,” is what Jesus told him. He probably did not feel like much of a rock most of the time, but Jesus kept working with him. We all know death did not stop Jesus. He kicked that stone away and burst out of the tomb and went looking for Peter. “Do you love me?” “Yes,” Peter replied. “Then feed my sheep.” I take that to mean that Jesus was hoping Peter would build people up like Jesus built him up. He did not get it all the first time, but Jesus was not done working with him. Jesus left, but the Spirit showed up and made sure Peter was still built up. Then he preached a sermon and thousands of people believed. That is what happens when Jesus builds someone up and the Spirit takes over. The guy who denied Jesus shared the same death as Jesus because he knew that love is sacrificial, he had to build people up and death was not going to stop him. That is what a church is, a place where people are willing to build others up no matter the cost. A church is a place where disciples are called and are formed and the Holy Spirit does what the Holy Spirit does, and lives are changed through the power of the Gospel of Jesus the Christ. Who knows what Peters are in our midst, people who feel like unworthy sinners that God just cannot wait to build up and use in incredible ways. Jesus spent more time building Peter up than healing or proclaiming the good news… may we learn from his example and build others up too. When we do then God can use us to change the world. Riding the wave of the Holy Spirit, Garrett