A God of the Shadows

I once heard a story about a young boy who stood outside a store looking through the widow. A woman walked by and saw the tattered clothes and dirty fingers of the child that gave away his poverty. She saw him looking in and said, “What are you looking at in there?” “Oh ma’am, I’m sorry to disturb, but I am looking at the shoes.” He turned back around and peered through the window. The woman looked down and saw that his feet could be seen through the holes in the shoes he wore. It was cold out and she experienced that tinge of pity and mercy that we all know because we have all felt that moment when we want to do something for someone who needs help. Her heart stirred and it would not be quieted. “Come with me little boy,” she said to him. And she took his hand and took him into the store. Some people gave weird stares in their direction, the stares of disapproval or distaste, or some combination of both. She took him to where the shoes were and took off his beat up shoes, measured his feet, found him the nicest pair of shoes she could find, put new socks on his feet and then tied the shoes for him. “How’s that feel?” she asked him. The boy looked up at her and said, “Are you an angel?” Words could not come to her when she heard that question. The boy kept on, “Oh I’m sorry maybe you can’t say. Of course you are an angel, because I was just praying that an angel would help me get a pair of shoes.” Charity increases at this time of year. It cannot be any other way really. Many recall the gift that God has given them in their need, and in turn they realize they can give to others in need too. People come out and volunteer more hours in December than other months. It feels good, and it is good, and at this time of year, well, if not at Christmas then when? And those poor and sad souls are easier to see. People who drive right by need and pain in the course of the year find their eyes cannot ignore such things as easily. The Christmas spirit takes hold and even those with the hardest of hearts find them somewhat softened. A friend once asked me what about this time of year made people more inclined to help others. Honestly I think it has do with God. It is easy to ignore the hurting and destitute. They exist in the shadows of society, in the back alleys where we would never go, and in the seedy places we rarely consider. We come into our churches and we worship God and we try to focus on God and give God all the praise we can muster. So what does God do? God shows up in the shadows, born in them so that we must look for God there. Jesus was born to an unwed teenage mother, what kind of God would show up there? A God who wants us to look in the shadows perhaps. Jesus was born in filth, far away from the nurses and doctors of our society who help ensure the heath and safety of mother and child, what kind of God would show up there? A God who wants us to look at the filthy perhaps. Jesus was scandalously born in poverty and obscurity, what kind of God would do such a thing? A God who wants to redeem the world perhaps. The only way to redeem the world is to enter the worst places of the world. That is what the birth of Jesus teaches us, and maybe that is why we want to help others more at this time of year, because we know that God would help them too. So there was a little boy who stood peering into a window outside a store. He claimed he met an angel. The woman claimed she met God. Maybe they were both right.

A Time of Miracles

I called someone up the other day. There I was praying and suddenly I felt like I had to call this person up. For a moment I thought I should wait, I should finish the prayers, but I could not shake the feeling that I had to call. So I did it. I made the call. “Hey how are you? I was just thinking about you and needed to call.” And you know what I discovered? The person needed to talk. I was told that I called at the moment I was most needed. I had no idea of course, I simply felt like to do it and I did it. It is a miracle really. How else can I explain that? Oh I know that some will tell me it was coincidence and maybe it was, but I am someone who believes that miracles make more sense that coincidences so that does not work for me. Others will tell me it was nothing, but that is simply another way of saying it was a coincidence. Instead I will choose to believe it was a miracle. Then, I suppose, I say all of that to say that I believe miracles happen. If they happen now, I have no problems believing they happened before and will happen again. Maybe that is part of the reason I love this time of year. This time when we get to replay the old story of Christmas in our minds and sit in wonder at just how many miracles it took to make it happen. There was an older couple, too old to have children. They were unable to have children when youth still provided them the hope that such a thing would happen too. And yet with them is where the story starts in one gospel. Two dried up childless old people who are suddenly expectant parents. The stories of the older testament bubble up into the newer testament, and in the midst of the same old, same old, God starts something new. Then we come across a young girl, probably no more than 13, way too young to be having children in our day. We try to stop such things, and the truth is so did the people then, especially if the girl was not married, and this one was not. And she ends up pregnant too even though she is a virgin. Within 30 verses we have two pregnant women, a barren woman now too old to become pregnant, and a young woman too inexperienced for such a thing to be possible, and yet there they are participating in something new. And maybe that is why some people call this their favorite time of year. We recite and recall the ancient stories that bubble into today and await miracles of our own. We look around believing that there is something new to be had, the impossible to be made possible, and perhaps it can happen with us. That is a part of what makes that story great. Those two women were so unlikely. Who would have guessed an older barren woman would be used in such a way? Who would have guessed that a virgin teenager, not many years removed from running with bands of children would be used in such a way? Maybe you would, but I doubt I would. Then again I recall my own story. I was a little child with a voice so high some people asked me if I was a boy or a girl. That little voice did not change when other voices did. It was hard to get through a class presentation or even a new encounter without someone saying something about my squeaky voice. At times I did not want to talk in front of people. I knew how I sounded and it was best to keep quiet. Who would have guessed I would end up as a preacher one day, someone who has to talk in front of people? Not me. And so we celebrate this time of year and to many it is their favorite time of year, and I think it has something to do with miracles. God still uses people that no one would expect for amazing things. That means you too of course. You cannot be too old, or too young, or too shocking inadequate for God to use. Yes enjoy this time of year and know that maybe you too will be a part of a miracle.

Minister's Minute from the December Journal of Hope and Joy

What is Christmas but the celebration of the God who comes? That is good for us to remember. I wonder if we now try so hard to keep the Christ is Christmas that we have ignored who the Christ is? And the answer, of course, is the God who comes. Occasionally we make our prayer, “Come Lord Jesus, Come,” but at this time of year we celebrate that God did come. Came like one of us. Crying, cold, wetting himself, needing to cared for, weak, just like us. Some people do not want to hear that and I understand why. We want to lift up God past this dirtiness of life, to move God beyond the gross and mundane and terrible and sad. We want God outside the limitations of our humanity, and outside the things that we cannot control, because, I suppose, we are looking how to get out of it ourselves. It is hard to think of a God that shows up as a little baby right smack dab in the middle of the messiness of all of this. And, if we are to be honest, it was even worse than we think. It is nice to sentimentalize things, because it allows us to stand at distance from it psychologically. However, as the story goes, he was born into utter filth. An unwed mother and a father who was not his acting as a nurse having to birth him into some place where animals ate and defecated, not exactly a lovely beginning. Yet we cannot see that in our scenes of the nativity that we use to adorn our homes. Why would God choose that? Perhaps the answer is truly simple, because God wanted to. God wanted to be born into the muck and mire, the filth and garbage, the horror and terror, the sickness and sadness. God wanted to be discovered where others would never think God would be. And therein lies the hope of it all. When we pray for God to show up, God does. God shows up in the mess that is our lives even if we think is too messy for such a holy God. God makes way into the places where evil reigns and death rules. God goes to the places of illness and treachery and grief. We expect to find God in places that we deem are sacred, and yet we keep finding God in places of filth turning the filthiness sacred simply by being there. We have the God who comes! This is the good news of great joy and it still is. We do not have to go to places to find God, God comes to us to find us. God comes into our lives and works to redeem them. God does not care what grossness may be found within us or around us. We have a God who was born into utter filth, something that we could not imagine, and we know why. Because God’s love moves God forward even as we run back. God’s love forces God in. God’s love is not turned off by icky, awful mess we are, because God’s love does not stop and goes where we would never think of going to find those who God loves. This Christmas season pray for God to come into the mess again. The good news is that God will, and in that way we will not need to try to fight to keep Christ in Christmas, he will come on his own. With anticipation of the Spirit’s wave, Garrett

When the Church is Better

I was having a conversation with another minister. Us minister types like to use one another to talk shop, and to say the things we would never say to others. Well here I was speaking to this minister and he says, “You know what? Our churches about to get fuller because for some reason people always come around the holidays. I don’t have any idea how to bring them in at other times, but around the holidays there they are.” He said that like it was a bad thing, and I am not sure that it is. Just today I have been on the phone with some people who know this time of year as a hard time of year. It is hard because they have lost loved ones. Some of have lost children, others have lost parents, and they are learning to cope. It is hard to make it to a time of year when we are used to having someone in our life and that person is gone. Our memories are all we have left, and there will not be new memories with that person, and that is hard. The grief, even if it had been well managed, can come back then. And I wonder if that is why some people come to church around this time of year. Do some come back because they are looking for support, friends, maybe even family? Maybe they do not know that is what they are doing, but it is part of it. And yes, us minister types can get frustrated by this because we wish that they would be there year round, but we probably should not be. It is best to love in these next couple of weeks. I know I am praying that there might be more love in me, more love for the people that might grace the doors of the church, more love for the people who are always there but are hurting more at this time, and more love for the larger family of God that congregates to hear the old story again. At her best the church is a place where people who are in need can come in and be loved. Now I am the first to admit the church is rarely at her best, but the church is broken too. Therefore, while the church is not always at her best, the church is true when it is full of people who are hurting and who need to know they are not hurting alone. Only God is good, the church is still being reworked and reformed by that good God. But what I do know is that church is better with people together. Church is better when the huddled mass of broken humanity that we are come together and believe that with God we can still find wholeness and love in a world in which there is pain and grief. Mind you that is church that is better, not church that is at its best, but better is something. I suppose, in short, I am praying that my church, and your church if you have one, might become better this holiday season. Not trying to guilt the people that enter our doors we would never otherwise see to come throughout the year, but trying to see them as those that are seeking solace in a difficult world. After all, that is what the miracle of the Incarnation, God becoming human, is all about. We are not alone! May all churches become places where those who feel alone at this time of year find they are not alone. And who knows? Maybe they will come back because they discovered the wider net of love that they needed.

What is Merry?

When Christmas comes around we begin to throw out words like “merry.” Merry is an older word, out of use until we get to this time of year. It means full of cheer and glee, and it makes sense that we associate such a word with the time of year we celebrate God coming into the world as one of us. But in our own celebrations I always try to remember that there are those for whom this time of year is not so merry. It probably has nothing to do with religion that makes this time of year hard on some. Instead it is simply the truth that life is hard for many of us. The difficulties of life always become magnified in times when cheer is what is expected of us. It is hard to be cheerful and merry and happy and whatever else when there are gapping holes in our lives. When loved ones are lost and we find ourselves alone. Solitude is easier to feel when we believe there are so many others wrapped up in the love of their families. And yet we do not see the problems of other people’s lives as easily as we see the problems in our own lives. That makes sense because everyone tries to hide their problems. I know I do. I am afraid that if people knew all of my secrets, the skeletons in my closets, they would judge me and ostracize me. It is a common fear I think, and so each of us wears a mask, an image of who we want the world to think we are. We portray ourselves as happy, successful, put together, in a problem free marriage with children who are perfect, and most of the time people believe it. Or perhaps they let themselves believe it, because they are trying to believe their own stories. That happens too. We put on these facades for so long, and do it so successfully that we begin to buy our own stories. Then something like Christmas rolls around, and we believe that everything should be merry in order that Christmas can be said to be merry. But as we have admitted there is something about forced merriness that magnifies life’s difficulties, and the facades are harder to keep, and the stresses pile up, and we wonder how others can do it when we cannot. The truth is they cannot either. Life is hard for everyone. But this is Christmas, and there is something to be merry about. It is obvious in the little broken family into which Jesus was born. He was born as a bastard to an unwed mother in a place where animals ate and defecated. There his soon to be step-father did his best acting as a nurse, and his teenage mother cried out in drugless pain as he entered into the world. This was the kind of family that is easy to judge. If we were to consider how God would come into the world, this is not the story any of us would have chose. But maybe that’s the point. Maybe God comes into the mess, the filth, the mire, the brokenness, and too frail and all too human to let us know that at Christmas time we can take off our masks and put away our facades and just be free of it all. God knows who we are with all the skeletons in our closets, with all the things we judge ourselves for and all the things we know others would judge us for that we try to hide. God knows all of that and comes anyway, comes to redeem the messiness of it all anyway. And you know what? I am pretty sure that means I can have a merry Christmas. Go ahead and judge me for my faults, God has chosen to redeem me anyway. I will do my best not to judge you for yours for God has chosen to redeem you too. I will not hide anymore, for in my hiding God has found me and says, “Be merry for I am here to redeem you.” Yes Christmas is hard for many, but that is simply because we do not know the good news yet. Into our difficulties Christ shows up and loves us through them. He is born right there into the midst of it all, and that is good news no matter how you slice it. So have a merry Christmas for you have every reason to be merry!

Hope On

Christians are often a wildly pessimistic lot. Anyone who knows much about the Bible would find that kind of strange I would imagine. How could those who profess faith in a God of promise, in a God who declares, “Behold I make all things new,” and “All things are possible with God,” and who believe that God loves the world, think so little of the world? Many Christians believe that world is going to hell in a handbag, which means that it is going to hell quickly and easily, like carrying a handbag. They speak of destruction and judgment for all people who do not believe like them. Then they do not do much for the world, because they see no purpose in it. It is no wonder the prophets of atheism have been declaring the death of the church. It is no wonder those same prophets appear right as religious affiliations decline. And yet there is a fascinating bit of information about those who claim no religious affiliation. While some are indeed atheists, many are not, and neither are they agnostic, they simply have no need to go church. And really who can blame them? As I have admitted we are a wildly pessimistic lot, and to be so pessimistic suggests that perhaps we do not believe in God. There I said it, I was afraid to, but it is written down now and I am going to let it stand. Maybe Christians do not believe in God. I am not saying we do not believe in something. We believe in our doctrines, in our one-sided interpretations of Scripture, in the god we can box up and fit to suit our desires. But the God of those Scriptures, now that is harder to believe in. The God who told Abraham, “I am going to make you great,” and Abraham believed him even when he saw no evidence of that at all, that God is hard to believe in. The God who made a promise to Isaac, and Jacob, and said, “you will be a blessing to the nations,” that God is hard to believe in. The God who said through prophets, “I care about how you treat each other, I care about how the poor and needy are dealt with, I care about this world in all its fleshiness,” that God is hard to believe in. The God who took the time, at the right time, to become flesh and dwell among us, that God is hard to believe in. The God who says, “I love the world and I will save it,” well that God is hard to believe in, because look around. So we Christians have decided to focus on the pie in the sky and simply judge the trip to hell in that handbag. We talk a lot about God loving us, but to talk about loving God, maybe we need to do that some more. To love God means to love the world. To have hope in God is to have hope for the salvation of the world. Yes there will be the fall of nations. Yes there will be the demise of societies. Yes the world will change and many will cry out in despair. But as a Christian who knows that Sunday always comes I will not lose hope. As a Christian who still sings of God having the whole world in those divine hands I will not lose hope. As a Christian who believes that Christ alone is King I will not lose hope. As a Christian who knows I am blessed and favored because with me is the light that the darkness cannot overcome, I will not lose hope. Instead when the days appear dreary and the work moves slowly I will sing my thanksgiving. When the trials are many and the temptations get to me I will still sing my thanksgiving. As long as there is goodness to be done, as long as one person can benefit from the words of my mouth and the work of my hands, as long as the crown of life is still offered to the one who overcomes I will sing my thanksgiving and believe that hope for the world still has a place in the church.

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

The Gift of Sharing

And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. – Hebrews 13:16 (NIV)

Who has done good and shared with you? Who have you done good and shared with? What have you shared? What goodness have you given? Why do you think God would be pleased?

The following story is one I am sure I have used before, but it is good.
Many years ago three soldiers, hungry and weary of battle, came upon a small village. The villagers, suffering a meager harvest and the many years of war, quickly hid what little they had to eat and met the three at the village square, wringing their hands and bemoaning the lack of anything to eat.
The soldiers spoke quietly among themselves and the first soldier then turned to the village elders. "Your tired fields have left you nothing to share, so we will share what little we have: the secret of how to make soup from stones."
Naturally the villagers were intrigued and soon a fire was put to the town's greatest kettle as the soldiers dropped in three smooth stones. "Now this will be a fine soup", said the second soldier; "but a pinch of salt and some parsley would make it wonderful!" Up jumped a villager, crying "What luck! I've just remembered where some has been left!" And off she ran, returning with an apronful of parsley and a turnip. As the kettle boiled on, the memory of the village improved: soon barley, carrots, beef and cream had found their way into the great pot, and a cask of wine was rolled into the square as all sat down to feast.
They ate and danced and sang well into the night, refreshed by the feast and their new-found friends. In the morning the three soldiers awoke to find the entire village standing before them. At their feet lay a satchel of the village's best breads and cheese. "You have given us the greatest of gifts: the secret of how to make soup from stones", said an elder, "and we shall never forget." The third soldier turned to the crowd, and said: "There is no secret, but this is certain: it is only by sharing that we may make a feast". And off the soldiers wandered, down the road.

One interpretation I have heard of Jesus feeding the 5000 claims that perhaps when people watched what little food was going around that they took out the food they had hidden away. It was hidden because they were afraid of not having enough. When the food went by they added to it, and soon a feast ensued. We often hide our resources away because we are scared of not having enough. For some reason though, perhaps due to a miracle, when we share there is more than enough and joy abounds! It is good to share and God knows it. Let this be our first stewardship devotional. What are you hiding that you can share? Share it and be a part of God’s joy!

With hope and joy,
Garrett

Those of Much Worth

“Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” – Luke 12:6-7 (NIV)

When did you feel forgotten by God? How did it make you feel? Were you really forgotten? Since sparrows are important to God, how important are people? What does that mean about how we treat people?

In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus mentions that two sparrows are sold for a penny. Here he talks about five sparrows being sold for two pennies. Sparrows were the animals poor people could afford to buy for sacrifices. The rich people bought doves, and lambs, and other things that cost more, but the rich would never buy a sparrow. Sparrows were so insignificant that if four sparrows were bought a fifth was thrown in for free.
Jesus is saying that the sparrow that is thrown in, the left over sparrow, the sparrow not even worth half a penny matters to God. Then Jesus says, “Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”

This worth did not come from what we have made of ourselves. It did not arrive because we worked hard for it. Our worth comes from God because God loves us! Perhaps it is too simple to believe. We still try to come up with reasons why we can be considered important, or at least more important than others. We still take others for granted and fail to see the worth in them that God sees. We still dwell on our faults far more than our strengths.
Yes perhaps it is easier to believe in a God who requires us to make ourselves worthy, after all that is the way the world sees us. What would the church look like if it were a place where people rejoiced in others because God’s love makes them worthy? I do not know, but I am going to pray that I find out.

With hope and joy,
Garrett

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

My son figured out how to make my daughter laugh the other day. She was sitting on my lap and he started running at her laughing and making a scene and she responded by laughing too. It was the kind of laughter that was contagious. I suppose little child laughter always is. He just kept coming at her, and she just kept laughing, and soon I found myself laughing too. It was one of those near perfect moments in life. Then he did it again and she laughed and he looked up at me and said, “Daddy the baby loves me.” Perhaps that is perfect… at least I am not sure how it could have been more perfect and I pray to my God the memory of that moment never leaves me. It has already been my fuel for joy in moments of need.
Recently I have picked up a hobby. I like to take photos. While I am not very good I enjoy the hobby because it keeps me more aware of what is around me. There really is beauty everywhere! Last month I was asked to speak in Columbus and enjoyed the drive. Over four years I have lived here and I am still enamored by the beauty of this place. It was perfect day, at least to me. The clouds were high and white, the sky was blue, the sun was bright but the air was cool. Then there was the scenery, farms, trees, little towns, beauty and more beauty. I kept saying to myself I would love to have a picture of this or that. Finally on the way back as I passed by a pecan orchid void of leaves I could not help it anymore. I pulled over. Found a little road off to the side and got out. I discovered an angle I liked and took a picture. A truck came up and the man inside asked if I needed any help. I told him I had to stop to enjoy the beauty. He looked out with me for a moment and said, “Thanks for reminding me.” I wondered if he meant it… maybe not but I am glad I had the chance to share it and I pray to my God the memory of that moment never leaves me. It has already been my fuel for joy in moments of need.
A couple of weeks ago in church I was sad. I had heard the night before that my grandfather was not doing well. It is hard to be far from family sometimes. When the service started a twelve-year-old girl, or do we call them young women these days, came up front. I had no idea why, she just did. She said she wanted to ask us to pray for a friend of hers. Apparently she was sad too, and knew that church is a good place to go when one is sad. Someone said that we should pray right then. I ended up telling everyone about my grandfather, and we heard other prayer requests right at the beginning of the service. There were tears and it was good… I am sure that right then somewhere God was smiling that in Albany, Georgia a little church decided not to follow the order of service and to pray when the Spirit moved instead. I pray to my God the memory of that moment never leaves me. It has already been my fuel for joy in moments of need.
I was dropping my children off at day care last week. There I was looking like the frantic father trying to get my toddler and baby out of the car. Langston was stepping in puddles and Kensington was throwing up on me. It was hectic. Just about when I pretty sure I could not take anymore a woman who works at the day care was walking up. Politely I asked how she was doing. She simply responded, “This is the day that the Lord has made…” and then left it hanging. I finished the verse and suddenly the moment became holy. For a moment I thought maybe God would show up… God never did, at least not in person, but I pray to my God the memory of that moment never leaves me. It has already been my fuel for joy in moments of need.
What is your fuel for joy in moments of need? All around us there is reason for joy. The cynic would point out that there is also reason for despair, but I would counter there are only reasons to have people who offer fuel for joy so that joy abounds. To those who are hurting and in need, we must become their fuel for joy! God offers a world so full of beauty, a life filled with surprise, and moments of inspiration to each of us with the express intent that we in turn offer the world what God has given, joy!
Riding the Wave of the Holy Spirit,
Garrett

No Favorites with God

For God does not show favoritism. – Romans 2:11 (NIV)

Why do think God may not show favoritism? How do you show favoritism? Why do you show favoritism? How great is it that God does not play favorites with you?

The following story was e-mailed to me about a soldier coming home from Vietnam:
He called his parents from San Francisco.
“Mom and Dad, I’m coming home, but I’ve got a favor to ask. I have a friend I’d like to bring with me.”
“Sure,” they replied, “we’d love to meet him.”
“There’s something you should know the son continued, “he was hurt pretty badly in the fighting. He stepped on a land mined and lost an arm and a leg. He has nowhere else to go, and I want him to come live with us.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, son. Maybe we can help him find somewhere to live.”
“No, Mom and Dad, I want him to live with us.”
“Son,” said the father, “you don’t know what you’re asking. Someone with such a handicap would be a terrible burden on us. We have our own lives to live, and we can’t let something like this interfere with our lives. I think you should just come home and forget about this guy. He’ll find a way to live on his own.”
At that point, the son hung up the phone. The parents heard nothing more from him.
A few days later, however, they received a call from the San Francisco police. Their son had died after falling from a building, they were told. The police believed it was suicide. The grief-stricken parents flew to San Francisco and were taken to the city morgue to identify the body of their son. They recognized him, but to their horror they also discovered something they didn’t know, their son had only one arm and one leg.

We are not very good at accepting others for who they are. We are not even very good at accepting ourselves for that matter. Thank God we accepted by God! However, if we are to be true to the God we follow, worship, and praise, we would do good to ensure that others who feel unloved in this world might find that we do not play favorites too. In that way those who feel they have no place in this world might find a place in our presence.

With hope and joy,
Garrett

Looking On The Inside

When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. – Matthew 2:16 (NRSV)

Why was Herod angry? Was it just because the wise men tricked him, or was it something much more? Was it fear? How much of anger is fueled by fear? What was he afraid of?

Our Roman Catholic and Orthodox brothers and sisters celebrate a feast day on December 28, the Feast of the Holy Innocents. On this particular day the Gloria is not sung and the Alleluia is not prayed, the clergy once again wear purple vestments symbolizing mourning even in the midst of the Christmas season. We recall that God became a helpless child and that children were slaughtered because of the helpless child God became.
Not an uplifting story, but one of caution in this New Year. It is easy to find the Herods of today. Those tyrants and despots who do anything to keep power and heard about in the news, read about in the wakes of their evil.
However the ancient story invites us to face the power struggles of in our lives. We have all found ourselves in contentious board meetings, gossiping about the lives of others, stuck in office politics, and much more. Our lives are in as much need for a Prince of Peace as during Herod’s time.

In this New Year we are invited to look within and see where we ourselves need the Prince of Peace to bring light into our darkness. We could bemoan the evil of others even while we lash out violently in our own ways, or we can confront the evil within and thereby become a vessel for goodness in this world. The story of whether or not peace or violence will win out in our lives is being written as we live. Let us pray that we live well.

With hope and joy,
Garrett

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

Are the holidays over yet? There is a part of me that is quite ready for them to end. Please do not misunderstand me I love the holiday season, which is that time of year that runs between Thanksgiving and New Year where we all seem in constant motion. I love the celebrations, the family, the friends, the travelling, the food, the goodwill, the gifts, the joy, the services, the darker nights, and all the rest. Part of the reason we have to take so many days off of work during this time of year is because if we attempted to do all we had to do and work a full schedule some of would die.
I am quite serious! I have more wrinkles in January than I did in November, to say nothing of my weight gain, and the lack of sleep. Without those days off to recover from it all I might just not be able to make it, and I suppose that is why I am ready for them to end. Surely it is mighty enjoyable, but it is mighty exhausting too!
I need a moment to breathe, to just be, whatever that means. Perhaps what I need is to sit, or stand, or lie down, and just pray and meditate, and listen to the deep silence in between words and notes of music where God speaks. “Be still and know that I am God,” the psalmist quotes from the Divine. But we are not a people who know about being still. We are people who are on the move. ADD is something we each have some problems with.
Let me be honest and admit that I have a problem being still even at a red light. That minute or two that I am sitting alone in my car waiting for the light to change is a moment where I can check my email or make a call or wonder what I should be doing when I arrive to wherever I am going. If I cannot maintain some semblance of stillness while in my car for a minute, with music coming from the radio, how on earth can I possibly be still enough to know that God is God?
That is part of a problem we have in my opinion. We do not know God is God. Surely we say we worship God. We go through the motions. Sometimes we even pray on our own, and when we do God better be ready for us. “Do you believe in God?” someone asks. “Why yes I do, of course I do,” we reply but what if someone asked us to explain something of God?
Children ask questions about God because, even if they go a mile a minute, in their innocence there is stillness, and they start to wonder about God. Most of the questions I field in my line of work about God either come from children, the parents of children who need help, or non-believers. Perhaps the rest of us are afraid to ask, afraid to search, or perhaps we cannot be still long enough to realize we are not sure.
I was speaking to someone from another church who was considering leaving the church behind. “It just doesn’t speak to me anymore.” “Why is that?” I asked. “I don’t really know, I’m just not getting anything out of it. You know what I mean?” “What are you putting into it?” I asked. Then I just got a quizzical kind of look in return like the person never considered about having to put something into it.
I had a friend, a really good friend. We were inseparable for a while, then one of us moved away. Someone asked me the other day how my old friend was doing. “I don’t know, we haven’t talked in years,” I said. “Really? You guys were inseparable, what happened?” I made up some excuses but the truth is we stopped putting anything into the friendship. If one does not tend to their relationships they rarely survive.
The same is true of our relationship with God I have discovered. I have been running so much during the holidays that I have not taken a moment to be still, to sit with God and catch up. I have talked about God, led people in worship of God, but I have not taken much time to sit with God myself. Today I will. I will take a moment and put something into my relationship with God. I am sure it will be refreshing; in fact it may even feel like a holiday.
Hoping to hop on the wave of the Holy Spirit,
Garrett