A Day in the Life…Mother's Day Mission
April 29, 2011
Do you know this one?
In the beauty of the lilies, Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me;
As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
While God is marching on! Glory, Glory Hallelujah! (etc.)
Of course! It’s by Julia Ward Howe, The Battle Hymn of the Republic. To this day, I cannot hear it performed without being deeply moved–on this stanza.
The year was 1861, the War Between The States was taking shape. The story is that she visited a Union encampment and heard the men singing John Brown’s Body, a camp tune she immediately claimed for her hymn.
What is less known is that by 1870, Howe had seen enough war, and issued this declaration in an effort to draw together women in the cause of peace:
“Arise then…women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
“We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies,
our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,
For caresses and applause.
our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country,
will be too tender of those of another country
to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.”
From the bosom of a devastated earth a voice goes up with
our own. It says: “Disarm! Disarm!
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice.”
Blood does not wipe out dishonor,
nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil
at the summons of war,
let women now leave all that may be left of home
for a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
whereby the great human family can live in peace…
each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
but of God -
in the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
that a general congress of women without limit of nationality,
may be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
and the earliest period consistent with its objects,
to promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
the amicable settlement of international questions,
the great and general interests of peace.”
How’s unmet yet estimable vision continues to be potent: “to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace.†Can we, in 2011, claim Mother’s Day in the cause of peace?
Can we, too, claim a vision not bound by immediate risings and fallings? Today, in anticipation of Mother’s Day, I will claim our Mother’s Day Mission to be one of peacemaking. As we honor our mothers, can we wonder together if these are things that make for peace?
- Receive offerings for blankets, to bring peace to those displaced by disasters of every sort.
- Receive support for our elder sisters and brother at our United Methodist Retirement Homes who have outlived their means.
In recent days, we read of Jesus approaching the holy city, weeping over it and saying, ‘If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.’
May the things that make for peace come into full view!
Pastor Steve
To All the Saints….Pray On
April 29, 2011
Do you recognize this one-sided conversation?
Me: High Five!
Someone? Anyone? No one??)
Me: Don’t leave me hanging!
Okay, maybe you’re not a “high-fiver.” Since the publication of the February Focus, I’m sure you’ve eagerly awaited the report on “Becoming a Praying Congregation,” and I do not want to leave you hanging! As you can read in your loose leaf notebook of past Fairmont Foci (What? You don’t have one?!), I invited people to come together around that theme for the season of Lent. Fourteen have done so, and together, we present the seeds of how to become more of a praying congregation. Why? Prayer is basic. If we work to perfect the basics, much more will follow.
The first area is the simplest: make sure everything in our church’s life is prayerful–awash in prayer, soaked in it! Whether it is missional work, administrative meetings, or sharing foodstuffs, we call for each action, each decision, each item that changes has to be touched first with prayer. Does that make sense? The church council has begun to live into this model already, we look forward to the ways others will do so as well. One important suggestion is for each Sunday School class to name every absent class member in prayer week by week.
A second area is the creation of prayer groups. We have studied a range of possibilities, including those focusing on Discussion, Activity, Introspection, Arts, and Habit Breakers (our group preferred “Habit Builders!”). There is a wonderful array of approaches to each of those focal points. Among them is the notion of “prayer shawls,” made in groups who pray together for the person who will receive it–a powerful symbol of loving support. Writers among us may be drawn to journaling or devotional writing, and we are beginning plans to invite a speaker to help us focus that effort. Those in the arts may be drawn together around art pieces, music, or the creation of art.
A third area is in our worship. While we include congregational prayer and “prayers of the people,” we have not often made space for listening. One exception is in the communion liturgy, where the prayer of confession is followed by silent confession. What might it mean to mean to add some silence? For some, that can be discomfiting–makes us look at our watches! It is an area worth exploring.
There are ideas circulating that are “what ifs?” What if each card we send had been prayed over? What if each craft group creation for the Bazaar was also touched by prayer for its recipient? What if we include “our guests” in Sunday’s prayer? What if we, when packaging meals for Stop Hunger Now, surround the filled boxes and “lay hands” on them, praying for people who will be fed?
I feel that this is a crucial moment in our life. Do you sense it, too?
Pastor Steve
Day in the Life @ Nite
April 22, 2011
Easter. Is there anything more fundamental to the life of Christ followers than the resurrection, its naming, its celebration, its encouragement for life and life evermore? Although we know how the story comes out, we gather as those who do not know, who come to the tomb early, who see only the standard ordering of life and death. What we discover and rediscover is that in Christ Jesus, God has overcome death. We are swept up in that marvel, daily living into the implications of living without fear, living with hope, living with joy.
To experienced Fairmont folk, the story of Sunday Night LIVE! may seem as familiar as Ted Baxter’s*, “It all began in a little 5,000 watt radio station…” After extensive study in 1993, we began this “alternative” service, one intended to be biblical, musical, upbeat, and “more fun than anyone ought to be allowed to have in church.” LIVE!’s denizens will have to attest to that statement’s veracity. The service has provided a kind of “portal” for people unchurched, or de-churched, as well as those recovering from all manner of brokenness.
For me, the stories are tied together by the gospel, especially Luke, especially his opening chapter. It’s in the encounter between the angel Gabriel and Mary of Nazareth. At the news that she will bear the Son of the Most High, she questions Gabriel as to how this can be, for she has not known a man. Gabriel assures her that she will indeed mother such child, “For nothing will be impossible with God.” Nothing. No thing.
The gospels all make that case: with God, nothing is impossible. When John the Baptist landed in prison (remember, he also spoke truth to power!), his followers sought out Jesus with a message from John: are you the One? Jesus said,
I will not venture that as strong a case could be made for what we hear and see at Sunday Night LIVE! and across all of Fairmont life. But I will say, we’re working on it–aren’t we? Ours is this same God, the God of the possible, the God for whom nothing shall be impossible.
* The Mary Tyler Moore show, 1970-77.
A Day in the Life…Two Holy Days
April 15, 2011
For many, Holy Week is something of a mystery. What makes it holy? What does “Maundy” mean (not, it’s not the day after Sunday)? And how can the Friday on which Jesus died be called “Good?” There is a sudden shifting of mood, from our festive procession to the ominous tone of Messiah.
While I want to fill this column mainly with a prayer for each day, I will offer the briefest of explanations. “Maundy” is related to the Latin for “mandate,” the day on which we are commanded to “do this in remembrance of me”“ and we will. Holy communion will be the climax of our Seder on Maundy Thursday. And “Good” Friday? Surely, it is the church’s faith that the day that leads to Easter, to resurrection, to triumph over sin and death, that day has to be “good!” As the old preachers like to say, “It’s Friday. But Sunday’s comin’!”
Maundy Thursday
Bread of Life,
We are grateful that your table, like your grace, knows no bounds or end.
We think we are identified
by the crosses around our necks,
the buildings in which we worship
or the theology we profess.
Teach us again this Holy Week
that we are known as your followers
by the love we graciously give to others.
Remind us that your power
is not a force to elevate ourselves
or demean and manipulate others.
Tutor us, Gentle Teacher,
that what matters most
is not being wealthiest, smartest,
or having the largest church.
Remind us again
to humble ourselves in service
and have love, one for the other.
Eager to be fed and forgiven we pray. Amen.
Good Friday
Compassionate One,
draw close to us
as we shrink before the events of this day.
We marvel at Christ’s willingness
to stand up to the powers and principalities of this world.
We face our complicity
in so much inhumanity to humankind.
Darkness closes in as we wonder how we have betrayed you.
How have we sold you for a little money?
When have we denied knowing you
or been fearful to claim association with you?
When have we been so afraid or self-absorbed that we cry,
“crucify him?”
God, give us the courage of Christ,
willing to risk our reputations and resources, our all,
for the sake of those in need, even people we do not know.
We pray clinging to the hope for resurrection. Amen.
Pastor Steve
Prayers by Cynthia Langston Kirk, appearing in Alive Now, March/April, 2011, pp 40-41, reprinted by permission.
A Day in the Life…THE Mission of the Church
April 8, 2011
Experienced United Methodists will know that we are governed by The Book of Discipline, published ever four years subsequent to the quadrennial meeting of the General Conference, about 1,000 delegates strong. Our world-wide church addresses matters great and, well, not always so great, at each of those gatherings.
Walking in the footsteps of St. Paul, Martin Luther, and John Wesley, our movement is marked by “the priesthood of all believers,” meaning we all have the same access to God–or as the old gospel hymn puts it, “The ground is all level at the foot of the cross.” So we are not surprised that our Discipline calls us all ministers of the gospel–some are ordained, some not, but all are called. There is a section in our Discipline entitled “The Ministry of All Christians,” where the mission of the church is defined this way:
The mission of the Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. (UM Book of Discipline, 2008)
This week, I was privileged to be part of a leadership summit, a “webinar” (yes, it’s a strange new world) hosted by The Council of Bishops and The Connectional Table, representing the leadership of the general church. They are proposing a Call to Action, a call about which we will hear a great deal in the time to come.
You may be wondering from where such a “call to action” is coming. Our denomination, along with the other main line groups, has experienced a lessening of membership, even as members have done amazing ministry and have been increasingly faithful in their giving. The general church is seeking to recover a “movement’ mentality, where vital congregations exercise radical hospitality, passionate worship, risk taking mission and service, intentional faith development and extravagant generosity–all of which I hope sound familiar at Fairmont!
The Call To Action has several pivotal points for the general church:
- Developing principled leaders
- New places for new people, as well as vitalization everywhere
- Ministry with the poor, physically and spiritually
- Combating the diseases of poverty (as in, Imagine No Malaria)
The leadership is committed to changes in the clergy leadership system, lessening the distance between the general church and the local church, emphasizing results, investing in local ministry, realigning and streamlining our general agencies, rethinking the role of bishops, focusing on congregational vitality…in short, everything is being reviewed, and ultimately will be renewed.
There are some metrics that will be used in the decade to come, most of which can be found here in the aftermath of Pentecost, Acts 2:42-47:
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Awe came upon everyone, because wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
Sounds like a plan!
Pastor Steve