Fresh Start!

I've enjoyed the summer outdoor worship season so much.  I love the trees, the flowers, the birds, and even the sounds of lawn mowers and airplanes.  I've enjoyed experimenting with new worship music and sharing our annual thanksgiving for the Blessing of Creation, at which we've shared worship with all of our pets.  It's hard to see the summer end so quickly.

But I am also energized by the arrival of crisp morning breezes and colorful leaves on the trees.  The summer worship crowds have been vibrant and happy, but I've continued to find myself missing every family that goes away for a summer vacation.  I occasionally feel like the pet dog left behind at home, while the rest of the family goes off on an adventure.   Maybe others in the congregation feel something similar.  Not angry or resentful, just a little saddened by the absence of those who are away for a few weeks.  Maybe even God shares such feelings.  In all events, it's fun to see everyone arriving home, rested and ready to begin the new school year--and a new fall season at church.

I love Rally Day, when all the Sunday School classes start up again, and when our worship services return to the main indoor Sanctuary.  There are so many kids and parents and teachers everywhere, that the whole building seems charged with new energy.  The old worship space seems especially beautiful and inviting, filled again with the sound of organ music and choirs.  And new faces in the choirs!  New helpers for technical matters!  Fresh repairs to the building!  New mission projects in the works!  The news of our summer service projects and the plans for all of our upcoming events fill me with confidence and hope.  Whatever my own flaws, God is really at work in this place, and I feel so blessed to be a part of it!

Cool Morning, Fresh Start

For several days now, the sunrise has seemed to me to be behind schedule.  For almost a week, I've been waking up very early each day, and it's been dark.  Grousing quietly to myself, I've been dragging myself from the darkened bedroom to the shower.  While shaving, I've thought about all the things I've needed to do during the day.  A depressingly long list.  Then I've eaten breakfast, filled up on coffee, and slogged into the study to work.  Because of having slept too little, I've dawdled through routine matters, ignoring the big, time-consuming projects that have been piling up.  I don't know why I've felt so unproductive.

But today has been different.  Today, the late sunrise has opened into a beautiful, cool blue sky.  I've dressed in my usual late-summer attire, and as I've walked outside to dump the trash and get the paper, I've been cold.  Cold?  All of a sudden, the autumn has arrived, cool and crisp and full of promise.

Like all the kids heading back to school, I feel suddenly energized and excited about the start of a new fall season.  The church is ready and waiting for everyone who is returning from summer vacations, and the fresh paint and new projects are noticeable everywhere.   We had a great Vacation Bible School this summer, and I hope to see all the kids again soon.  We've begun some amazing mission projects, and I can't wait to talk about them with the people who have been away.  There are new worship ideas, new music, and new education plans in the works.  Last week, record numbers of people brought pets to church, to give thanks for God's creation and love, and we had a great time!  Can't wait to show everyone the pictures!

As the autumn begins, it's not just time to dress more warmly, but also time to shake off the cobwebs, start fresh, and begin a new song!  God is in this place--let's join the adventure!

Accounted as Righteous

Not too long ago, I got up from the table in the Hay Belly Deli and walked to the counter to pay for my lunch.  I was surprised to be told that "your check has already been taken care of."  A friend had already secretly paid for my food.  In the deli's bookkeeping, I was already ok.  How had that happened without my knowing it?  I didn't assume, or even "have faith" that the bill would be paid before I got to the cash register--but it was.

In the Letter to the Romans, Chapter 4, verse 4-5, Paul wrote, "Now to one  who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due.  But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness."  Hmm.  The one who trusts "him who justifies the ungodly..."  So is it that a decision to trust God is a "virtue" or a "work" that earns our way into God's favor, i.e., God's "accounting" us as righteous?  Or is it that when we trust God, we can recognize (and have confidence) that God's love is a gift.  Is it that despite appearances, we can see we are not captive to our addiction to selfishness, we are not bound by the past, and we are not faced with completion of an impossible "to-do" list that we must complete before we can be "right with God"?  To me, faith feels like part of the gift, as if I've just discovered that a friend has already paid the bill.  Of course, we can, and should, trust and love God, and do good things for other people; how else can we show gratitude for God's love for us?  But we can't do anything to earn God's love.  In God's "book," we're already loved.

This week, as I met with several people to review the preparations in the outdoor chapel for the outdoor worship services that will start this week, I felt a great rush of fresh excitement.  It's always fun to see the  arrival of summer, and I find our outdoor worship gatherings really inspiring.  What a beautiful place our outdoor chapel is!  There is something special about singing by the lake, feeling the breeze and hearing the birds that always lifts the spirits.  Summer offers an opportunity to try new songs, to imagine new ways of sharing, and to start fresh.

If you have not been with a worshipping community for a while, this is a great time to give it a try--it's not formal or stuffy, and it's also not slick or show-biz-like.  You don't have to dress a certain way, or talk a certain way, or share a particular political point of view.  If you say you can best sense God's presence in a sunset--our 7:00 Saturday evening services will be great for you!  If you find early morning a great time to recharge, but find your weekends overloaded with activities--come at 9:30 Sunday morning!  You'll have a great experience, and you'll still have most of the day free to play golf, or fish, or cut the grass.

If you always come to worship, but you would really rather be indoors--this is a special chance to be there for other people, and to show your overriding gratitude for God's blessings.  We don't worship just for ourselves, but for God; and we do it together.  Our goal is to lift up, inspire and help others.  So here's the chance, to worship beyond ourselves!  To do something other people haven't tried.  To take joy in something new!

If you're like me, and you already like to worship with friends in new ways, and you like to be outdoors--this is a time for easy joy!  Happy summer!  (15 Bank St., Sussex, NJ 07461, 7:00 p.m. Sat.; 9:30 a.m. Sun.)

"Behold, I Am Making All things New!"

On the whole, I enjoy learning how to do new things on my computer, and I enjoy learning about new internet applications.  Sometimes, though, I find myself frustrated by the tendency of software developers to take away the simple routines I've long used to create the things I've used in my work.  For example, I have typically created new worship bulletins by starting with the Word document containing the previous week's order of worship.  I have used the "save as" command to create a new  Word document, identical to the old one but with a new name.  In that way, I've been able to create a new file that I can edit, to include the various hymns and prayers I want to use in the new order of worship.  meanwhile, the original file containing the previous week's order of worship has been left unchanged.  It's a simple process, one that I've been using for years.

In the most recent update to the Microsoft Office program (for Mac users), the menus have been changed to add a lot of new options, and that's fine.  But the simple process I have long used to make a new document out of an old file is no longer available.  After a lot of effort and unsuccessful attempts, I concluded that the "save as" routine just no longer worked, and I was annoyed and frustrated.  How could I still use an old file as a template?  How could I still create and manage new files and folders in the new version of Microsoft Office?  Why did they mess up the system that had worked for me?

Fortunately, our daughter Susan (also known in our family as "Tech Support") came to my rescue.  After some trial and error, she figured out how to do what I wanted to do, in the new way required by the new version of Microsoft Office.  It's not really all that hard, I have to admit, and the new version adds a lot of neat options and features.

In a lot of aspects of life, maybe we all tend to cling to what we know, even as the world changes around us.  Styles of clothing and music, ways of communicating, methods of running the church.  We know that change is an unavoidable part of life, but we tend to struggle against losing the ways of doing things that we have mastered.  Maybe we just hate to feel incompetent.  God reminds us that everything is being made new, both what we like and what we don't like--but that we don't need to be afraid.  God is still in charge, and things will work out in the end.  Even if the changes don't seem to make much sense to us right now.  Even if the changes make us uncomfortable or frustrated.  That should give us an ability to charge into rapidly changing times with boldness and courage.  We can advance to do God's work, even when we're not sure what we're doing.  Look!  God is making all things new!

Barn & Rummage Sale!

Every six months or so, our church holds a big Barn & Rummage Sale, during which we fill the fellowship hall with donated clothing, fill the kitchen with breakfast and lunch items to sell, load the tables with baked goods to offer, and empty out the barn of household items that have been left by people since the last sale event.  For two days, we sell all these things to the public, at very low prices, and it's a big event, for both the church and the community.

It's also a satisfying time in our own households, as we take the opportunity to rid ourselves of some of the unneeded stuff that has accumulated over time.  I tend to avoid disposing of things that I don't really need, and they gradually begin to take over all the space in the house.  I think I tend to keep such things either because I received them as gifts, or because they are in perfectly good condition.  Sometimes I keep clothes that no longer fit, because I hope that I will soon lose enough weight to wear them again.  I want to honor people who have been generous to me, and I don't want to be wasteful.  But it is wasteful to horde things that are not usable, and gluttonous to hold onto clothes just because they might someday fit me again.  I know that, but I tend to be slow to act on that knowledge.

The Barn & Rummage Sales help me get over all that, because I can give all that excess stuff for a good cause, and feel confident that someone will have a good use for the things I do not need.  The Sale events also re-connect me with my church family.  I really enjoy seeing how much fun it is, when we all work together!

My life can also sometimes get cluttered up with other habits and distractions that keep me from being productive and effective.   I know what habits I should change, but day-to-day events just take up all the time.  That's why I need the church.  I need the church to remind me, in a periodic way, of what is important.  I need the church to help me discard the clutter in my life, and engage my energy in tasks that matter.

Where Have We been?

So much time has gone by since my last posting!  The rush of events leading up to my ordination just overwhelmed my ability to keep up with making new posts, and I started to let the time slip by.  Soon I was embarrassed about not having made any recent posts, and I thought I should have something very profound to say when I actually started up again.

But so much time had passed, that nothing seemed profound enough.  So I just didn't post anything.

That strikes me as not very different than the way many people begin avoiding going to church.  We miss a few weeks, and then begin to think that we don't have a good enough reason for having missed those weeks, and we avoid going back to face any questions about where we've been.  Pretty soon, the memory of what we liked about going to church begins to fade.  We can't remember the feeling of inspiration, the feeling of pure exhilaration in praising God with friends, and all we can remember is our embarrassment.  We imagine that others will look at us with disapproval if we fail to show up.  If we run into church members at the grocery story, we avoid looking at them.  If they see us first, and they ask us how we've been doing, or tell us that they miss seeing us, we assume we are being judged unfavorably.  The truth is, we're probably just missed, as absent friends are always missed.

The easiest way to get back into the "church habit," really, is just to jump back in.  Just get up and go to church some random week.  Don't offer any reason for past absence, or just say, "Oh, no good reason, really."  And almost instantly, the fun of being welcomed back will take over.  No one will remember why you were gone, they'll just be happy to see you again.  Try it!  I know this works, because I 've been there.