For some people, this might be news. For anyone who has spent time around pastors, this information will ring pretty true. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/28/clergy-depression-_n_3830295.html

God gives to us divine Grace and there’s nothing we can do about it! As one of my professors used to ask, “What are you going to do, now that you don’t have to do anything? It’s a great question! Now that you don’t have to earn God’s favor (in fact, you can’t earn it and neither can I), how will you RESPOND? Or as we like to say around SOTH, how will you RE:Spond? How do you choose to live in response to God’s grace? Some folks just ignore it and try to make God love them by doing all the right things in order to prove themselves “worthy.” Some measure themselves by the things they can attain; others measure their “goodness.” Some folks do their best to rebel against God’s grace. They push every envelope to every extreme and deny that God could love them in any way, if, they say, he actually exists. But what of you? Or me? How shall we respond to the love of God in our lives? What shall we do now that we don’t have to do anything? I think the answer is to love God and our neighbor in the best way we can, always giving thanks to God in every situation. It’s much easier to write it, or say it, than it is to do, but we press ahead in gratitude for God’s love, grace and mercy in our lives. That gives us hope, which as Paul says in Romans 5, “will not disappoint us.” With that hope we can walk through difficult personal situations, in family, work, and health, knowing that God’s Holy Spirit will come alongside us to see us through. In that we can say “Thanks be to God!” But our response need not be limited to our personal circles. We respond to God’s grace by loving our neighbor wherever our neighbor is. We respond by helping those who are homeless, who are hungry, depressed or sick; abused, addicted or alone. As we serve others, we give glory to God! For my friends at Shepherd of the Hills in Fort Collins: I am excited to say that we can spend a good bit of time this year talking about how we respond to God’s activity in our lives and in the world. This fall we kick off a great theme for our 2013-14 program year, “RE:Spond!” We’ll spend a good bit of time looking at all the ways we respond: to God’s grace, to our families, friends, and to the needs of the community and the world. We’ll cap off our year with an all-congregation Faith Formation experience next summer, in which we will RE:Spond to the love of God in some fun and interesting ways. Together, let’s RE:Spond to the blessings God has given us at Shepherd of the Hills.

Some of you may know that I grew up with jazz as the primary musical influence in my house. While other kids’ parents were listening to whatever they were listening to, on the big console stereo in our living room artists like Basie, Ellington, Ella, Brubeck and Kenton were the standard fare. I remember my father lying on the floor in front of the speaker, so he could hear some intricate harmony better. I learned to love the dissonant chords of jazz, and to appreciate what a soloist could create as he or she improvised their way through the “changes” of a jazz tune. As a young person, I met many Twin Cities jazz musicians, and, if truth be told, spent way more time in smoky bars than most kids my age. It was all about the music. Jazz has many moods; it can fly the listener through a stratosphere filled with ebullient notes and rhythms, it can walk gently through a melodic garden filled with musical color, and it can sit in the gutter to wail and cry a mournful melody. I never cease to be amazed by the giants of jazz—their amazing ears, their ability to hear a riff where most of us could not even hum a couple of notes; their sense of time and ability to bring order out of chaos. I am awed by what they can do with only 12 notes. Is there a point to all this, you ask? Why yes, I say. In the rich chords, the haunting melodies, the talented musicians; in the improvisation and the complex structures, I see an image of God. I see God, who doesn’t give us a life with straight quarter notes; who makes life rich and complex and sometimes gives us “notes” that sound strange together when we first hear them, but as we live them out they become beautiful. I see God, who moves through our lives with grace and beauty, as a melody moves from one instrument to another, being changed and embellished as it goes. I see a Creative God, who spun the universe from nothing and, like the soloist, continues to create and make new all the time. I see God, who like the bass and drums, holds the rhythms of our lives together even when everyone seems to be doing their own thing. Whether or not you share my love of jazz, whether you have ever heard of Mulligan or Desmond or Parker, perhaps you too can reflect on the complex, rich, melodic, fresh, rhythmical, alluring nature of our God. Where do you see such a God in your life?

“Are you better off today than you were four years ago?” “Who will make you better off in the next four years?” These seem to be the litmus test questions that the candidates want us to consider as we prepare to vote. Surely our well-being is important to each one of us, and we will spend time considering which philosophy of government is more likely to help us be successful. But there is another question for us, and I hear neither candidate even acknowledging its relevance. It is a question that I believe Jesus would ask if he were in the audience at one of the debates, and it has import for our entire nation. It is this: “Who will help my neighbor in the next four years?” How would the candidates answer such a question? Which answer would make more sense to you? As followers of Jesus, we are called, in Paul’s words, to “look each of us not only to our own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Philippians 2:4). Increasingly, those at the margins of our society are being left farther and farther behind those of us who are more or less in the mainstream. We see the elderly, the poor and children at risk, and many are still discounted because of gender, ethnicity or social status. These people at the margins are precisely who Jesus calls us to serve. It is not, nor will it ever be, enough simply to throw a few dollars in a bucket or a collection plate and belief that we have answered Jesus’ command to serve. We are called to work to make a difference in the lives of those on the margins. Now, don’t misunderstand me…this is not a discussion of parties or politics. Politics will ask about the role of government and the role of the private sector in addressing the concern, and that is an important discussion. As followers of Jesus, we must ask the prior question: are we willing to do as Jesus commands us to do—to love our neighbors as ourselves? And we must remember Jesus teaching on the question “Who is my neighbor?” Once we have answered that question we can begin to discuss how we can do what we know we must do. I’m sure that neither candidate has a plank in his platform called “care for the neighbor,” but our country would be a better place if every candidate, and every public servant, took such an idea seriously. As you prepare to cast your vote, look not only to your own interest but also to the interest of your neighbor.

In her recent book, Almost Christian, author Kenda Creasy Dean describes an African’s understanding of Christianity. She quotes: “You American think of Christianity as a farm with a fence. Your question is ‘Are you inside the fence or outside it?’ We think of Christianity as a farm with no fence. Our question is ‘Are you heading towards the farm or away from it?’” The African’s concept of the Church is an important challenge for us, for many Christians seem to spend most of their energy judging the spiritual fitness of others, rather than looking at their own journey “toward the farm.” Our understanding of discipleship should move us away from a focus on the fence itself, concentrating us instead on our journey with and toward Jesus. Dean makes an important distinction about our faith; she says “The Church’s identity is not defined primarily by its edges, but by its center: focused on Christ, the sole source of our identity…” Because our identity is found in Christ and not in the color, shape, or location of the fence, we are free to focus on our relationship with Jesus and with the world. Although the “border” may be fuzzy without a fence, it means that God sets the dimensions of the “farm,” not us. This distinction means that all those who seek Jesus, disciples or not, will move back and forth, toward the “farm” and away from it, during the course of their lives. We engage the world, and the world engages us, without either of us being impeded at a fence. The freedom of no fences can be both life-giving and dangerous at the same time. As disciples mature, we learn where we choose not to go, even though we are free to go there. As disciples grow their identity in Christ, we learn how to work and play without a fence. With Christ as the center of faith, and without worry about putting up fences to keep others out, disciples of Jesus become less “guardians” and more “ambassadors.” Without fences, we invite others to journey toward the farm, that is, toward Jesus, rather than hoping they’ll figure out how to hop the fence. As Dean says, “Disciples are people who participate in God’s movement toward the world and are empowered by the Holy Spirit to represent Christ in the process.” Does a fence surround your Christianity? Are you more concerned about the fence or the farm? How might you move from guardian to ambassador?

Ministry is All About Connections

There is a temptation today to simply blast out electronic ideas to anyone who might read it. The most significant thing that disciples have, however, is not technology, rather is authentic community. Sometimes authentic community comes thru social media, but is the most complete when we gather face to face. Disciples need to be together!

Sunny G, a communications manager,
says: “I think the world is plagued with enough negative people. We need more positive people, people who like to zero in on what is right with the world. Negative people just make me feel heavy.” --Now Discover Your Strengths, p. 109
I can relate to what Sunny has to say. Negativity is so…well…negative! I have to wonder about attitude. Why do some people face adversity with such courage, while others mope like Eeyore about this tiniest of inconveniences?
Is attitude hard-wired? Are some people just born negative? Perhaps, but I am convinced that we have quite a bit of control of how we choose to see the world. A SOTH member said to me recently that at a point in his life he “decided to be happy.” His decision was to view his life from the most healthy, positive perspective he could—not to sugarcoat or fool himself or anyone else, for that matter—but to see his glass half full.
An office manager in a previous congregation was not the jolliest of people.
However, she found a way to poke a bit of fun at herself. She found a poster of a bald eagle, looking stern and serious. The caption read: “I am smiling.” She put in on the wall in the church office and for those of us who knew her it captured her attempt to be a positive person, even though she could never be, as she described it “a grinning idiot.”
Neither of these people said so to me, but I believe they could see that part of
becoming more positive about life comes from acknowledging that you and I ultimately are not the ones in charge, but that God is. I suppose that we are hard-wired in some ways, but I also believe that as God’s children when we learn to trust that God is present in our lives and when we expect God to see us through the difficulties we face that we can move through them with a grateful, positive viewpoint. This attitude of Discipleship is far from some kind of pie-in-the-sky naiveté—it is grounded in our hope in Christ.
As you begin this new year, Disciples, may you be grounded in that hope, and may you trust that God will make your paths straight in 2012.
Proverbs 3.5-8
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not rely on your own insight.
6 In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
7 Do not be wise in your own eyes;
fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.
8 It will be a healing for your flesh
and a refreshment for your body.