The Country Parson

Practicing Hospitality

2009-03-04T22:16:00.000-08:00

When I got to the church this past Monday I found a message on the answering machine from a woman from Chatfield. She was calling to see if we’d be willing to come and do a Cowboy Church service for that cities Western Days Celebration in August. As we spoke she mentioned that she had actually wanted to come to our Cowboy Church service the previous night, (probably to check us out and see if we were any good) but just wasn’t able to figure out how to get to Cherry Grove. She doesn’t know her way around this area, and when she “googled” Cherry Grove she couldn’t find any directions. Unfortunately, because Cherry Grove is unincorporated it doesn’t show up on some maps. Even that obstacle could have been overcome if we had our own web page (where we could include a map and directions), but at this time we don’t.
Now it just so happens that we’re using Bishop Robert Schnase’s book the Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations as the theme for our Lenten services this year, and the very first practice is something he calls “Radical Hospitality“. Here’s how Bishop Schnase defines this practice.

“Christian hospitality refers to the active desire to invite, welcome, receive, and care for those who are strangers so that they find a spiritual home and discover for themselves the unending richness of life in Christ. It describes a genuine love for others who are not yet a part of the faith community, an outward focus, a reaching out to those not yet known, a love that motivates church members to openness and adaptability, a willingness to change behaviors in order to accommodate the needs and receive the talents of newcomers. Beyond intention, hospitality practices the gracious love of Christ, respects the dignity of others, and expresses God’s invitation to others, not our own. Hospitality is a mark of Christian discipleship, a quality of Christian community, a concrete expression of commitment to grow in Christ-likeness by seeing ourselves as part of the community of faith, ‘not to be served but to serve.’” (MT 20:28)

According to the Bishop Radical Hospitality involves not just the way we respond to people after they arrive at our church, but also the things we do to make them feel desired and wanted before they ever step through the door. Think about it. How welcome would you feel if someone invited you to dinner at their home, but than made no significant attempt to provide you with clear directions to their residence?

For many folks not having our own church web page probably seems like a small thing, especially for a rural congregation. In fact, a couple of decades ago we couldn’t have had one - but today we can - and we don’t yet - and I can’t help but believe that in a very real way we missed an opportunity this past Sunday to practice radical hospitality!

Where Are You Living?

2009-03-03T21:47:00.000-08:00

We hadn’t been in Cherry Grove for very long - perhaps not much longer than a month even - when one afternoon a sweet, older gentleman from the church stopped by with some fresh-picked grapes for us. He wanted us to have them, he said, because he didn’t want them to go to waste and he couldn’t get his wife to do anything with them. It was a nice gesture, and we would have been perfectly delighted with the gift, except for one problem - and that was that his wife had died several months earlier, and he no longer realized that. He was in the “not so early” stages of dementia (Alzheimer’s I suppose) and like some of the folks I’ll see in the nursing home, he had already begun his retreat into the past, talking about family members who were long gone, and farm chores he hadn’t done for decades.

But you don’t have to have Alzheimer’s Disease to live in the past - truth is there are a lot us who are so nostalgic for days gone by that we just seem to obsess over them. It’s sort of like the two older men you might find in a small-town restaurant, with one of them sharing a tale from their youth. When the stories finished there’ll be a pause, and then one of them will say “Those were the good ol’ days,” and the other will reply, “Yep. Sure were!” It doesn’t matter that at the time those “good old days” might not have seemed all that good, we remember them as if they were. We do that sometimes - live in the past at the expense of the present!

But other folks tend to live in the future. I used to do this every spring as school would be winding to a close. On a beautiful spring day - especially in the afternoon after lunch - I would sit and stare out the window dreaming about the baseball games that we would soon be playing in the field behind my house, or of summer afternoons we’d spend at the pool, or of our annual trip to the lake in Michigan. Likewise someone working out of a windowless cubicle in the middle of January might get lost dreaming of an upcoming trip to some tropical area, and folks whose retirement is fast approaching may find themselves fantasizing about afternoons on the golf course, puttering around a workshop, or traveling the world! We do that sometimes - live in the future at the expense of the present!

There are even certain personality types that are known to do this! If you‘ve ever taken the Meyers/Briggs or Keirsey Temperament Sorter you might be aware that these inventories place people into four major personality types. One group, called Guardians, tend to live in the past (they prefer yesterday) and be terribly pessimistic about the future. A second group are known as Idealists, and these folks tend to live for tomorrow. For them the next move, the next job, the next pull of the handle on a “one armed bandit” will always be the one that makes it for them, and they’re excited about what lies ahead.

But horses aren’t like that - they always live in the present, in the here and now!

It’s not that they don’t remember - they remember perfectly well. If they didn‘t we wouldn‘t be able to train them, or we‘d have to re-train them every time we wanted to use them. They remember perfectly well, and will respond to what they‘ve learned and experienced in the past. Several years ago my oldest son and I were taking off on a ride, and the dogs where we were boarding were accompanying us. We didn‘t generally mind that because we figured that it‘s good to expose the horses to the dogs darting in and out of the brush, but on this day one of the dogs decided to enter a culvert on one side of the driveway and dart out just as the horse my son was riding was alongside the other end. The horse must have thought he was going to be eaten alive. He surely wasn‘t expecting it, and my son wasn’t long for the saddle that day! The next time we rode out we tied the dogs up in the barn, but as we reached that culvert that horse kept his eye glued to that culvert, so that the farther he got past it the more his head was bent around. I’ve never seen a horse walk that straight while his head was bent around to his flank. Horses remember what has happened in the past! If they didn’t we couldn’t train them - but they don’t live there! And they can anticipate things like their feeding times. For that matter whenever my horses hear the door on our trailer opening or closing they get all excited - but they don’t live in the future either!
They live in the here and now! They’re thinking about their companions, or that patch of green grass under their nose, or about what might be in your pocket, or how they can get you to scratch that itchy place just behind their elbow, or around the dock of their tail. They’re living in the present, in the here & now! And I can’t help but think that we can learn something from our horses. You see the problem with living in the past is that God isn’t there! And the problem with living in the future is that God can’t meet us there either because we’re not there yet! God can only meet us - we can only experience God’s love - today, right now, right here, in this moment. You see, this day, & this moment, are God’s gifts to us too, and if we waste them longing for the past or dreaming about the future then we’ve lost that gift!

The Psalmist puts it this way. “This is the day that the Lord has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it”

But where are you living?

Patty Hobson writes that “We convince ourselves that life will be better after we get married, have a baby, then another. Then we are frustrated that the kids aren't old enough and think we'll be more content when they are. After that we're frustrated that we have teenagers to deal with. We will certainly be happy when they are out of that stage. We tell ourselves that our life will be complete when our spouse gets his or her act together, when we get a nicer car, are able to go on a nice vacation, or when we retire. The truth is, there's no better time to be happy than right now. If not now, when? Your life will always be filled with challenges. It's best to admit this to yourself and decide to be happy anyway. For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin—real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin.
At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life!. This perspective has helped me to see that there is no "way to happiness." Happiness is "the way." So, treasure every moment that you have. And treasure it more because you shared it with someone special, special enough to spend your time… and remember that time waits for no one...
So stop waiting until you finish school, until you go back to school, until you lose ten pounds, until you gain ten pounds, until you have kids, until your kids leave the house, until you start work, until you retire, until you get married, until you get divorced, until Friday night, until Sunday morning, until you get a new car or home, until your car or home is paid off, until spring, until summer, until fall, until winter, until you are off welfare, until the first or fifteenth, until your song comes on, until you've had a drink, until you've sobered up, until you die, until you are born again to decide that there is no better time than right now to be happy...
Happiness is a journey, not a destination.”

“This is the day that the Lord has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it”

But where are you living?
(Excerpted from a March 1st Cowboy Church message)

“Living Water”

2009-02-18T19:34:00.000-08:00

For the past couple of years my wife and I have traveled out to Sheridan, Wyoming, for the Leather Crafters & Saddlers Tradeshow, and then spent some time visiting places of interest in Wyoming and Montana. So far we’ve been to Cody and Jackson Hole, walked out among the Pryor Mustangs north of Lovell, seen the wildlife, mud bogs, and Old Faithful at Yellowstone, visited Glacier National Park, gone horseback riding in the Bighorn Mountains, and even seen Hulk Hogan & family filming their reality show at a waterfall in Wyoming (we later saw that episode on TV - the only time we‘ve ever watched the show). It’s breathtakingly beautiful out there, and we really enjoy these trips.
Of course, you can’t head out west through South Dakota without stopping at Wall Drug along the way, and we generally find ourselves pulling in around noon or so to have a meal (there really isn’t anyplace else to stop anyway). Now, I’ve been to Wall Drug before these trips began, once when I was growing up and again six or seven years ago when we went out to the Black Hills (another beautiful area to visit), but I had never known the history of Wall Drug until two years ago when I read one of their pamphlets over lunch. Though Wall Drug is little more than an expensive tourist trap today, the story behind their success has become one of my favorites.
In 1929 Ted Hustead graduated from pharmacy school, and after two years of working for other druggists, he and his wife Dorothy were itching to find their own store. Ted’s father had just died, and he'd left Ted a $3,000 legacy that he could put towards their own business. As they searched together for the right opportunity they had two requirements; they wanted to live in a small town, and they wanted the town to have a Catholic church where they could attend daily mass. In Wall, South Dakota, where a drugstore was for sale, they found both. The priest, the doctor and the banker in town all insisted that Wall was a good place to live, with good people, and they encouraged the couple to come and set up shop.
While Ted and Dorothy were excited about the opportunity, their extended family was decidedly less so. A cousin warned them that the town was in the middle of nowhere, and that everyone there was broke. Even Ted’s father-in-law noted that Wall was “about as Godforsaken as you can get.” But together the family prayed about it, and in the end they all agreed that God seemed to leading Ted and Dorothy to Wall.
The first few years did little or nothing to confirm that decision. As Dorothy wondered whether they could use their talents to the fullest, Ted promised that they would give it five years, and if things didn’t pan out by then they would leave.
Those five years were nearing an end when the breakthrough came. Dorothy had gone upstairs for a nap while Ted minded the empty store, swatting at flies with a rolled up newspaper just to pass the time. An hour later Dorothy was back down. The conversation that followed her return appeared in 1982 in Guideposts Magazine.

Ted: "Too hot to sleep?"
Dorothy: "No, it wasn't the heat that kept me awake. It was all the cars going by on Route 16A. The jalopies just about shook the house to pieces."
Ted: "That's too bad,"
Dorothy: "No, because you know what, Ted? I think I finally saw how we can get all those travelers to come to our store."
Ted: "And how's that?"
Dorothy: "Well, now what is it that those travelers really want after driving across that hot prairie? They're thirsty. They want water. Ice cold water! Now we've got plenty of ice and water. Why don't we put up signs on the highway telling people to come here for free ice water? Listen, I even made up a few lines for the sign:
"Get a soda . . . Get a root beer . . . turn next corner . . . Just as near . . . To Highway 16 & 14. . . Free Ice Water. . . Wall Drug."

Over the next few days Ted and a high school boy put some signs together, modeling them after the old Burma Shave pattern of using staggered signs, placed a distance apart, to convey their message, and the next weekend they went out and put them up. By the time Ted got back to the store people were already lining up for their free ice water, and Dorothy was bustling around trying to keep up. A few bought sandwiches, ice cream and other items. The next summer they had to hire eight girls to help run the business, and the rest, as they say, is history. The place is famous today. I’ve actually seen signs for Wall Drug at the intersection of dirt roads in Africa, pointing towards Wall and informing travelers of how many miles they’ll have to travel to get there. Imagine that trip with your kids asking “Are we there yet?” It’s a fascinating story. Free ice water, and some creative advertising, saved a families business and launched an icon.
But I’ve been thinking (that’s the curl of smoke you see rising over SE Minnesota). Don’t we (the Church) have Living Water to offer? In John 4 Jesus, pausing by a well outside of Sychar in Samaria, asked a Samaritan woman for a drink of water. Now, if you understand the culture and religious practices of the day, this request is extraordinary on so many levels, but for our purposes I’m more interested in the conversation that follows. When the woman expressed surprise the he, a Jew, would ask her, a Samaritan and a woman, for a drink, Jesus replied that "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water." A few verses later Jesus explained himself this way. "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
On a dusty, hot summer day, not much beats a glass of cold ice water. Dorothy Hustead recognized this back in the 1930’s. But all around us are folks who are thirsting for the water that Jesus is offering, the Living Water that quenches an even deeper thirst. Travelers were driving by Ted & Dorothy’s shop every day even before the signs went up, they just weren’t stopping. I wonder how many people drive by our worship centers every day who are dying of thirst? And what will we do to reach them?

“As One With Authority”

2009-02-11T12:57:00.000-08:00

The gospel lesson a few Sundays back was from Mark 1:21-28. On the surface what Mark records is a common enough occurrence in the gospels. Jesus teaches in a Synagogue in Capernaum on the Sabbath, and a man who is possessed by a demon is healed. Pretty common fare for Jesus. But look deeper and you’ll find that Mark is still setting the parameters for Jesus’ ministry. It wasn’t uncommon for Synagogues to host visitors on the Sabbath, or for them to invite those visitors to read the scriptures and expound upon what they have read. But Mark tells us that the gathered congregation senses something different about this guest, for He spoke to them “as one with authority,” and not like the scribes. And it seems to me that in a world that is unraveling around us, and where folks are increasingly searching for a voice of truth, that it might behoove those of us who are seeking to offer truth to ask where Jesus’ authority came from, and what made His words so different!
In most cultures authority is granted to us for a variety of reasons. For instance, it can accompany a position. Visit a courtroom and you’ll find that when the Judge enters and departs the Bailiff will say “all rise.” There’s a certain authority that is invested in a Judge’s position, and his or her authority in that courtroom is nearly absolute. We find that type of authority in the military too, as well as in the workplace. You may have heard about the boss who hung a sign in the office that read:
Rule #1: The Boss is always right.
Rule #2: When the Boss is wrong, refer to rule #1.
Mark’s gospel doesn’t really make it clear whether or not Jesus was invited to speak as an itinerant Rabbi or as a laymen, but neither situation would have made Him particularly unique - in other words there was nothing unusual about His position that would have explained the aura of authority that accompanied His words!
Authority can accompany our expertise in, and our grasp of, a subject! A group can be gathered around the open hood of a car broken down along the highway, speculating on the problem, but when the mechanic arrives the group will defer to his expertise. And it’s the friend who is a computer science major, or who builds her own computers, who is called upon when our own machines are not working properly.
But there were other experts in the law who had spoken to the people of Capernaum in the past, without this response, so this must not be our answer either!
It some places authority can accompany our age. Asian cultures in particular operate under the assumption that wisdom is acquired with many years of experience, and so the elderly have traditionally been greatly respected. But here again Jesus really doesn’t qualify. He’s a relatively young man still, only around thirty years of age, so His authority can’t come from the wisdom that (sometimes) is gained over many years!
In some cases authority can be given to us by another. In ancient times a King could give his Signet Ring to a trusted aid, and that ring would authorize that aid to carry out whatever the King wished. Today when law enforcement agencies want to conduct a search of private property, they first acquire a search warrant from a Judge. If the property owner refuses to grant access law enforcement can then conduct the search under the Judge's authority. That doesn't always work so well. You may have heard about the government surveyor who brought his equipment to a farm, called on the farmer, and asked permission to go into one of the fields and take some readings. The farmer objected, fearing that the survey would ultimately result in some highway being built through his land. "I will not give you permission to go into my fields," said the farmer.
Whereupon the surveyor produced an official government document which authorized him to do the survey. "I’ve been given the AUTHORITY," he declared, " to enter any field in the entire country to take the necessary readings."
With that the farmer shrugged, open the gate, and allowed the surveyor to enter the field - and then he promptly marched to the far end of the field, and opened another gate-- which allowed his fiercest bull to charge forward into the field!
Seeing the bull, the surveyor dropped his equipment and began to run for his life. As he did he could hear the farmer shouting after him, "SHOW HIM YOUR PAPERS! SHOW HIM YOUR PAPERS!"
In the gospels Jesus does state that "all authority" has been given to Him, and he fully vested his disciples with that authority. But I’m convinced that the “authority” that Jesus spoke with in Capernaum came not from His position, or His knowledge of the Law, or His age, or even because God gave it to Him - but for another reason - because of His personal intimacy with the One of whom He was speaking.
Scott Hoezee recalls a charming anecdote involving the Pope John XXIII. One day the pontiff was having an audience with a group of people, one of whom was the mother of several children. At one point the pope said to this woman, "Would you please tell me the names of your children. I realize that anyone in this room could tell me their names, but something very special happens when a mother speaks the names of her own children."
The Pope was right. There is something different about the way we speak of another, or even utter their name, when we have an intimate connection with that person!
I think that's what made Jesus' teaching so different from that of the scribes. They knew something about God - but Jesus knew His Father intimately!
So it is with us. Our words will carry far greater weight when they are backed by lives that demonstrate Christ’s presence in them!
In the end I’m convinced that others will listen to us not because we know about our subject - because they think we know something about God - but because they sense that we know God!

“Created for Community!”

2009-02-02T07:10:00.000-08:00

We have a spring fed spring stream that runs through our pastures – and it’s kind of interesting to see the different ways our horses react to it. A couple of our mares are just plain “mudders” – it seems like they’re always in the water. We’ll hear them splashing in it, but even if we didn’t we could tell how much they like the water by the mud that comes almost up to their knees in the summertime. My wife’s mare, on the other hand, wouldn’t dream of splashing across it. She’s got to tip the scales at over 1100 lbs but she’s afraid to get her feet wet! When we got her we weren’t sure if she’d ever even crossed water, so we had to spend some time working on that with her.
Now, there are actually a couple of different ways to get a horse to cross water. If your horse is trained to seek the release you can actually take your horse out alone to a park with water crossings, line your horse up and reward every small movement forward, and eventually (it might take a l-o-o-o-n-g time) your horse will plunge in and cross. It might literally leap in and race across the first time, but with each subsequent trip across your horse will become calmer and quieter about it.
But I didn’t really want to have to spend that much time waiting for my wife’s horse to finally cross, because she’s pretty stubborn and so I opted for an easier method. I called a friend who was working up at Ironwood Springs Christian Ranch, hauled our mare up there and went out on the trails with just one other horse – one that was both familiar with and completely confident with all of the water crossings along their trails. We started out with the shallowest and easiest crossings, and once my friend’s horse crossed mine – not wanting to be left alone – did likewise! You see, horses are “herd” animals, and they will seek out and prefer the safety and security of other horses. That’s why one of the safest ways to introduce a young horse to something new is to take out an older horse with them. The older horse supports, strengthens, and offers confidence to the younger one.
And I can’t help but wonder whether or not that might be why, when Jesus sent His disciples out here in Luke 10 to “practice” the ministry skills they were learning, that He sent them out in twos! Because the one could strengthen, encourage, and support the other. You see, I’m convinced that we were created to be in community with one another. From the creation account in Genesis when God can find no suitable companion for Adam and so creates Eve to fill that void, the Bible reminds us again and again how much we need one another. Solomon in Ecclesiastes makes this point when he writes that “two are better than one… for if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion, but woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up.” And the book of Acts tells us of the radical community that is formed in Jerusalem by the new believers, where homes are opened up to one another, property and possessions are sold and the proceeds given away to those in need, and folks care for one another sacrificially! You see, we were created for community, and we’re most vulnerable when we isolate ourselves from others! Oh, we’ll read every so often of some hermit, off living alone in the mountains or in a cave somewhere, and seemingly the happier for it, but the very fact that such a person makes the news proves my point. We were created for community!
Increasingly today we’ll hear from folks – usually younger people – who have forsaken the Church all the while arguing that they can practice their faith – or more often their spirituality – on their own. And you can encounter God in the privacy of your own home. But real growth requires the presence of another, of someone who can encourage us, support us, spar with us, and even help us learn patience and forgiveness. Someone once said that “(You) can acquire everything in solitude except character,” and they're right. You need others for that.
Stu Weber tells of being drafted in 1967, while the country was at war in Vietnam. Stu soon found himself at the U.S. Army Ranger School at Fort Benning, Georgia. It was brutal. He writes:

"I can still hear the raspy voice of the sergeant: 'We are here to save your lives. We're going to see to it that you overcome all your natural fears. We're going to show you just how much incredible stress the human mind and body can endure. And when we're finished with you, you will be the U.S. Army's best!'

"Then, before he dismissed the formation, he announced our first assignment. We'd steeled ourselves for something really tough—like running 10 miles in full battle gear or rappelling down a sheer cliff.

"Instead, he told us to … find a buddy!"

"'Find yourself a Ranger buddy,' he growled. 'You will stick together. You will never leave each other. You will encourage each other, and, as necessary, you will carry each other.' It was the army's way of saying, 'Difficult assignments require a friend. Together is better.'"

It’s like that for us too. God never intended for us to isolate ourselves. We need one another if we’re going to navigate our way safely through the trials and temptations of this world. We were created for community!
(From February 1st Cowboy Church)

"Popeye"

2009-01-28T21:29:00.000-08:00

My first appointment was in central Illinois, where I served three smaller churches who had each seen their best days long ago (see “Requiem for a Church” elsewhere in this Blog). Their populations were simultaneously declining and aging, what with the majority of their young people heading off to college and not coming back, and so I had quite a few funerals during my three years there. I’d have to go back and count to be sure, but I believe the number was around fifty. They started during my second full month there with back to back to back funerals, three weeks in a row. One of those was Henrietta. If my memory serves me correctly, she was right around 100 years old.
By all accounts Henrietta was pretty deaf by the time I arrived, and our sound system didn’t work particularly well, so I doubt she heard much of what I said during worship. But she was from a time and generation when folks went to church, and so she was with us every Sunday, including the Sunday before she died. When she went it was sudden, despite her age. Her son found her, at home in bed. It appeared that she’d gone to sleep and just not woken up. And so we gathered for her funeral, and the ladies of the church prepared a fine meal for her friends and family, the latter of which included a bachelor son who was seventy years old. Everyone called him Popeye, because, well, he bore an uncanny resemblance to the cartoon character of the same name. Popeye had never really done too much with his life. If I recall correctly, he may have had a slight learning disability. He spent most of his time downtown at the bar where he earned a few dollars sweeping the floor. And unlike his elderly mother, he didn’t come to church. But during the lunch that followed the funeral one of the older ladies of the congregation suggested to him that with his mother gone now it was time for him to claim her pew.
Now, this was a town where the older church ladies commanded respect, and this friend of his mothers may have even been his Sunday School teacher sometime in the past. Whatever the reason, Popeye was in worship the next Sunday, sitting right there in his mother’s pew. Unfortunately, over the years Popeye’s clothing had become somewhat worn, and you didn’t really need to dress particularly well for the town bars, and so Popeye wore what he had available. This set a few tongues wagging, and Popeye, unlike his mother, was able to hear every word. That was his last Sunday in worship with us. He never came back, unwilling to subject himself to the judgment of the ladies of the church.
We do that sometimes in the Church - drive away the very people that Jesus would send us out to find and bring back home. Oh, we’ve relaxed our dress code substantially since this happened, but we can still be mighty quick to judge and reject the folks who’s lives bear silent witness to a lifetime of poor choices, or those who really don’t fit well within our social circles. Jesus once reminded the Pharisees that it was the sick who required a Physician, and not those who were well, but we too often forget that, expecting folks to have their lives all in order when they first come to the church, as if somehow that could be possible.
I’ve often thought about Popeye over the years, even though he died in 1992, five years and a few months after we had moved on to Minnesota. The obituary stated that he was survived by a nephew. I still grieve that it couldn’t add the words “and a loving church family.”

“Trusting the Hand on the Reins”

2009-01-13T20:26:00.000-08:00

If you ride much – or if perhaps you used to ride a good bit in the past – than you already know that one the greatest risks in riding a young horse is over the way they tend to shy at things that frighten them. It might be a mailbox, or a piece of paper blowing by, or any number of things that spook them and cause them to behave in an unpredictable fashion.
A number of years ago, back when we were boarding our horses down the road, Susan and I had gone out for a ride on a nice fall afternoon. We had a pretty good ride that day - and by that I mean that we had lived through it - and were most of the way back down the ditch alongside the driveway leading into the yard, when my horse stepped on a cattle fence that someone had left in the high grass. Now that might not have been a problem, except that my horse had shoes on, and the back edge caught a corner of the fence so that as he raised his foot the fence both pulled on him and came up out of the grass - and I’m sure he thought it was going to eat him. He just “broke in two”, bucking up out of the ditch, across the driveway, and into the ditch on the other side. Frankly, I didn’t know he had it in him. Anyway, about that time I decided to get off - or at least that’s my story! Fear responses can simply be dangerous.
There are a couple approaches that you can take to try to overcome this sort of response. The first thing that you can do is de-sensitize your horse to as much as possible. By that I mean you expose your horse to as many different frightening things as you can - starting slowly with things that aren't too scary - and only reward your horse by removing the scary object when he finally stops moving and relaxes. By and large when you see someone advertise a horse as bomb-proof the seller means that this horse has been exposed to – and become accustomed to – pretty much everything you might encounter on a ride (cars, trucks, tractors, 4-wheelers, mailboxes, dogs, plastic bags, gun shots, etc.).
But there’s a second approach that you’ll often find some of the very best clinicians advocating – and I mean the people who seem to be able to look deeper inside a horse and recognize exactly where it is at and what it needs in that moment. These folks suggest that rather than working on the horse (de-sensitizing it) we should be working on the rider. What they mean is that if the horse trusts the rider – if the horse has come to understand that the rider knows what he or she is doing – if the horse believes that the rider cares for it and is it’s leader and protector, the horse will do pretty much anything the rider asks without fear because it knows it is in good hands!
And I can’t help but wonder, as we stand only a few days into a new year, whether or not our own response to God’s leading might not also depend upon how much we are willing to trust the One whose hands are on the reins in our lives?
Robert Sutton recalls a television program that preceded the Winter Olympics some years ago that featured blind skiers being trained for slalom skiing, as impossible as that may sound. Paired with sighted skiers, the blind skiers were taught on the flats how to make right and left turns. When that was mastered, they were taken to the slalom slope, where their sighted partners skied beside them shouting, "Left!" and "Right!" As they obeyed the commands, they were able to negotiate the course and cross the finish line, depending solely on the sighted skiers' word. It was either complete trust or catastrophe.
Sutton suggests that this is a vivid picture of the Christian life - except that we are the ones who are in reality blind and can only make our way to safety as we listen to, and heed, God’s guidance.
As you make your way through 2009, you really have two choices. You can buck & shy, fighting for your head as you plunge blindly in the darkness of the unknown. Or you can trust the hand on the reins of the One who loves you and who can see what you cannot.
(Excerpted from a Cowboy Church message on January 4th)

“Be Not Afraid”

2008-12-24T22:04:00.000-08:00

“Be not afraid.” I can’t help but wonder whether those words even began to slow the racing heartbeats of those shepherds, surprised out there in the wilderness that first Christmas.
It wasn’t that Shepherds, as a group, were generally a particularly fearful people. In fact, they almost certainly weren’t. The Bible reminds us that there were a great many predators, animal and human alike, that would prey upon the flocks. Indeed, when a cocky young shepherd boy named David is trying to convince King Saul that he (David that is) can go out and face down a 9’ giant named Goliath with just a sling and a few smooth rocks he argues that he has already faced down bears and lions to protect his father’s flocks. No, shepherds weren’t generally cowards. There’s even a word for those few shepherds who ran away and abandoned their flocks at the first sign of serious trouble - and that word is “unemployed.” It’s just that the one thing they’re not taught to deal with in shepherding school are angels who suddenly fill the sky, likely knocking the poor souls to the ground just by the intensity of the light that surrounds them - kind of like when your spouse comes into the bedroom at night and flips on the light, and you’ve already been laying there in the dark for a half hour or so - only more so. No, this was almost certainly the last thing they were expecting on that night. It’s important, I think, that the angels were wise enough to know how shocking, and how frightening, their appearance likely was. And so they led with those words of comfort and hope, “Be not afraid!”

And I can’t help but believe that these are words that we too need to hear - not just here but around the world - as 2008 draws to a close, because by all accounts it's been a tough year!

Economically, we're in a significant recession. Some of our nations largest banks and Wall Street brokerages have failed. The government has bailed out AIG (one of the largest insurance companies in the world), as well as several bank & mortgage companies. Most recently the auto manufacturers have been helped. Last month we lost 558,000 jobs in this country, at a time when most retailers are adding help for the Christmas rush. The state of Minnesota projects a budget shortfall that could exceed 4 billion dollars next year. Actually, some experts are saying the shortfall could be over 5 billion dollars, but what's a billion dollars between friends. Here in SE Minnesota and NE Iowa we've been hit hard too. Featherlite corporation in Cresco, Iowa, has instituted rolling layoffs and closed several building. Donaldson's (also in Cresco) has laid off so many people that folks hired on back in 2002 have been let go. They make air filters for tanks at Donaldson's. Who would have guessed that war is in a recession. And in Spring Grove, Minnesota, Northern Engraving is closing their factory that engraves nameplates for Chrysler because, well, they engrave nameplates for Chrysler!

The Stock market has experienced a significant “correction” as well. I was recently talking to a fellow who had been hoping to retire next year, but if he locks in his losses now he will receive about $20,000 less per year than he would have if he had retired earlier this year. It's been tough out there.
But there are those words again - Be not afraid! It’s enough to make you wonder if maybe angels don’t read the headlines!

And things aren't a lot better on the world scene. Last month security experts announced that Iran is expected to have a nuclear bomb in a year or less. If you think those shepherds were frightened on a Judean hillside 2000 years ago, imagine how the people of Israel must feel about the prospect of a nuclear Iran. And Russia has just announced that it will begin ramping up it’s production of nuclear weapons after years of reductions in a new arms race! In Africa Zimbabwe is falling apart, and so is the Republic of Congo. Cholera is raging in the southern part of Zimbabwe as well as in refugee camps in South Africa. It's tough out there. But there are those words again - Be not afraid! To which we might reply, “Why on earth not?”
Truth is, things weren’t a whole lot better 2000 years ago when the angelic songs & message first filled the night sky. Judea was a conquered state, chafing under the heel of the mighty Roman empire. Taxes were high. Indeed, it was the need to register for a census being taken for tax purposes that brought Joseph & Mary to Bethlehem in the first place. And the Romans were cruel overlords. They had a particularly heinous method of enforcing their will and power on a people, and it involved nailing people, alive, to a cross in full public view. Quite a message there.
In fact, if you think about it, there’s a lot about this account that must have been more than a little bit frightening for quite a few of the folks involved. Zachariah, and later Mary, have their own frightening encounters with angels. Mary in particular must have been just a little bit uneasy to hear Gabriel’s message that she will be “with child." Our Bibles generally translate her response to the angel as “How can this be…” but in the vernacular it would probably go something more like, “Are you nuts?!”
There must have been concern on Mary’s part, too, over Joseph’s response. Would he believe her or would he divorce her, leaving her alone, shamed, and vulnerable with a baby to care for?
And it must have been frightening too several months later during their approach to Bethlehem, as the couple searched for a place to stay even as Mary knew that her child was coming soon, and that she would be quite vulnerable!

No, the angelic visit to the shepherds was just the latest in a long line of potentially frightening encounters. And it begins, as the Bible so often does, with those soothing words of comfort. “Be not afraid.” To which again we might ask, “Well, why not, for goodness sake.”

Because, Isaiah might tell us, God is now with us. That's what the name "Immanuel" means. No matter how badly we may have screwed things up, God is with us. No matter how poor our choices have been, God is with us. No matter how far, and for how long, we have run from God, He’s still here, waiting with arms outstretched to welcome us home, prodigals that we are. God is with us. Because no matter what happens, or what goes wrong, we don’t face it alone anymore, and God is with us. Immanuel. God is with us. Be not afraid.
(adapted from tonight's Christmas Eve homily)

The Foolishness of God!

2008-12-22T20:05:00.001-08:00

I love the story that Thomas Tewell, pastor of 5th St. Presbyterian Ch. In NYC tells of a little boy who had just been picked up by his mom after Sunday School had ended. Wanting to show interest in the things her child was doing she asked him what he had learned that day. And the little boy said, “Well, we learned about how Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt and across the Red Sea into the Promised Land. You know the story. After Pharaoh finally gives in and permit’s the Israelites to leave he had a change of heart and went after them with his armies. Meanwhile the Israelites got to the Red Sea and it was too deep to cross so Moses had the Israeli Corps of Engineers build a Pontoon Bridge and the people crossed to safety, but when Pharaoh and the Egyptians got there with their heavy tanks and trucks they got stuck in the mud, so Moses had the Israeli Air Force fly over and they bombed the Egyptians and wiped them out completely!” Well, the little boys mother was absolutely horrified and she said, “Is THAT what they taught you in Sunday School?” To which the little boy replied. “Well, not exactly. But if I told you what they really said you’d never believe it!”

Paul writes, “For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength!”

Now Paul is talking here about the cross, and the apparent foolishness of God choosing to secure our salvation in such an obvious (in our minds) act of weakness and failure. But if you think about it, God works this way throughout the Scriptures!!

We see it in the story of Abraham & Sarah in Genesis, when God decides to begin His great movement in salvation history through a childless couple who, by rights, are too old to start a family but end up doing so anyway. Even the name given their son - he is called Isaac, which means “one who laughs”, hints at the absurdity of it all.

We see it in Judges 6 & 7, when Gideon is called by God to lead an army against the marauding Midianites. After testing God in an attempt to weasel out of this calling, Gideon starts out with 32,000 men, only to be told that’s too many. 22,000 are sent home - but that’s still too many. Another 9,700 are sent home, leaving 300 soldiers, and with that guerilla force God routs the Midianites! Even Jesus would appear to question that military logic in Luke 14:31-32

We see it in I Samuel 17, as a shepherd boy named David slays Goliath, the 9’ plus giant of the Philistines with a sling and a few smooth, round stones.

But most of all, we see God’s “foolishness” in the second chapter of LK’s gospel, and in the setting that He chooses to enter the world in! Ask any Madison Avenue trained PR man or woman. If you want to make a splash, you need to do it it in a way that will reach, and impress, as many people as possible - like buying ad time during the Super Bowl. But when God makes His grand entrance as one of us He comes as the child of a young couple who are so insignificant that they can't get a room in the sleepy village in the tiny, backwater nation where their child will be born. Can you imagine the King and Queen of just about any country being refused a room anywhere in their homeland? It's just foolishness.

But if you think about it, there are a couple of qualities that each of these persons had whom God had chosen to work through. While they may have been inititially confused, and even reluctant to act, in the end they all trusted God and obeyed. They weren't necessarily the brightest, or the biggest, or the strongest, or the richest or the most politically powerful! But they all, each in their own way, trusted God & allowed Him to accomplish His purposes through them!
In his book "The Peter Principle," Stan Toler writes: “I was a church planter at one time and felt impressed by the Lord to send $50 to some missionaries. When I shared with my wife what the Lord had laid on my heart, we took a look at our checkbook and found $54 in our balance. Not much room for error there. She said, ’Honey, I wasn’t raised quite like you, but I trust you and have faith in your stewardship commitments. Let’s do it.’ So I wrote the check and sent it to the Carters in Arizona, who were ministering to Native Americans in a small reservation village. Even though I knew it had been the right thing to do, I did begin to wonder how we were going to manage.
The next day I went to the Post Office, and amazed I picked up a letter from a student at Asbury Theological Seminary who had been one of my roommates at college. The letter read, ‘I just had you and Linda on my heart and felt impressed to write you. I’m enclosing a check for you, knowing you will probably put it in the offering plate next Sunday, but it is not for your church. It is for you.’ Fifty bucks!

When the check we sent arrived in Arizona, Doug Carter called immediately. ’Stan, your check just arrived. What timing! We had an appointment with the doctor for our daughter, Angie, but we had no money to pay the bill. I was just about to make the dreaded phone call to tell the doctor, but I paused to look at the mail first, and there it was. The Lord was right on schedule, wasn’t He?’”

Now I don't know how could God touch a poor church planter on the shoulder and say, ‘Send $50 to missionaries in Arizona,’ even though He knew the church planter needed it, and at the say time touch a student at Asbury Theological Seminary on the shoulder and say to him, ‘Send $50 to the Tolers’? Let’s just chalk it up to the foolishness of God, who works wonders through ordinary people like you and like me when we trust Him!

Re-Claiming the Missional Nature of the Church!

2008-12-22T19:39:00.000-08:00

In 1989 Phil Robinson adapted & directed a novel by W.P. Kinsella called Shoeless Joe into one of the most popular movies of all time. In it Kevin Costner plays Ray Kinsella, a novice farmer who is struggling with the disappointments of the past. Ray lives in rural Iowa with his wife, Annie, and their young daughter Karin. As the movie unfolds we learn that Ray’s now deceased father, John Kinsella, had loved baseball - particularly the Chicago White Sox, and Shoeless Joe Jackson, who was banned from baseball for his part in throwing the 1919 World Series. Heartbroken over what had happened to his favorite player, Ray’s father is described to us as someone who had simply been "worn down" by life.
The event that drives the movie takes place while Ray is walking through his corn field. He’s contemplating the past and his farms present financial struggles when he hears a voice whisper, "If you build it, he will come." In his mind he sees a baseball field in his cornfield, and he becomes convinced that he is supposed to construct a diamond there. Somehow he sells his wife on this plan, and in the midst of his corn fields the diamond becomes a reality. Those scenes were shot in Dyersville, Iowa. The movie, of course, was called “Field of Dreams.” In 1989 it grossed over 84 million dollars.
And it seems to me that for quite a long time now (decades actually) the promise that that voice makes to Ray has been pretty much the American Church’s approach to outreach. We look around to see where communities are growing, buy a lot, construct a building, schedule services and post a sign out front. I call it the “Field of Dreams” approach to doing Church - it’s the belief that “if you build it, they will come.” Now there’s a few more things that would usually happen, but you get the idea. Most of the time in the past when we constructed a new church building there was an expectation that people would simply come. And it worked - sort of - at least for awhile! It’s also sometimes called the “attractional” model for doing church, and it focuses heavily on the building and worship experience. In this model “church” is a place that people go to at a certain time or times, and Christian service is often described as the way members use their gifts and serve within the church walls, perhaps as musicians or Sunday School teachers. And that basic approach does work (sort of) when:
- the people in the surrounding culture resemble, and share the same basic values, as the folks in the Church.
- new families are constantly moving into the neighborhood where the church is located.
- at least a significant minority of those relocated families are looking for a new church home.
- when a local congregations worship service is vibrant enough, and the members are welcoming enough, to retain at least some of those families who may visit on any given Sunday.

But that approach doesn’t work when:
- the core values held by the surrounding culture (particularly younger generations) no longer reflect those of the longtime members of the church.
- an area has large numbers of young people who have grown up apart from the church, and so sense no need to look for one.
- an area is declining in population and its schools are shrinking.
- very few new families are relocating to that area.
- a church building is located inconveniently out of the way.
- the members of a local congregation are, for whatever reason, unable or unwilling to really welcome and embrace new people.

In other words, the “Field of Dreams” model for doing church is a terribly limited, insular model, and it’s deficiencies become increasingly glaring the more the culture around the Church changes.
But there’s another problem with that model - and that is that far too often it fails to live out the radical faith that Jesus called His followers to in the gospels, particularly at the end of MT 25! In verses 31-46 Jesus offers his listeners a parable about the end times, when the nations are gathered before the throne of God and judged. There they will be separated, we learn, on his left and right like sheep and goats. The sheep (on the right) will be there because during their lives they fed Jesus when he was hungry, gave him a cup of water when he was thirsty, clothed him when he was naked, and visited him when he was sick or imprisoned, while the goats (on his left) are there because they failed to do these same things.
A fascinating twist to the story is that neither the “sheep” or the “goats” are aware of those times when they saw Jesus in these states and did or not respond to his need. His answer to them ought to be instructive to the Church. “To the extent that you did these things (or failed) to the least of these you did so (or failed to do so) to Me.“
I'm convinced that the central thrust of the Christian Life was never intended to revolve around a building, a structure - but rather around the radical way that we are called to love and care for those around us.
In the movie “Sister Act” Whoopi Goldberg plays a Las Vegas Lounge singer who witnesses a mob murder. In order to keep her safe so she can testify the authorities disguise her as a Catholic Nun and place her in an inner city convent. Now the neighborhood around this Convent is so crime ridden that there are bars on the windows and a high steel fence surrounding the building, with the gate only opened and closed briefly to admit a few souls to Mass. But the convent cannot contain Whoopi’s character. Soon the fence is taken down and the Sisters are out on the street talking to the teens, playing jump rope with the younger children and generally transforming the neighborhood! And we’re like that in the Church sometimes, hunkering down within our buildings while the world outside changes in ways that frighten us. But the central thrust of the Christian Life was never intended to revolve around a building, a structure - but rather around the radical way that we are called to love and care for those around us. Indeed, someone has noted that the goats are not condemned for doing bad things but for doing nothing.
At the very end of Matthew’s gospel we find a commission that, for centuries, has been the Church’s rationale for outreach and evangelism. In these parting words to His disciples Jesus doesn’t instruct them to return to their home villages, construct a nice building, hire a talented organist and erect a sign inviting folks to come. Rather He sends them out to ends of the earth where they are to make disciples, baptize, and teach. It’s time for us to once again reclaim the missional nature of the Church!
(Excerpted from a sermon on November 23rd)

Requiem for a church!

2008-12-16T12:18:00.000-08:00

The Christmas cards are coming in at a pretty good clip now, from parts near and far away, reminding us again of how many folks have wondered in and out of our lives over the years, and of what each one has meant to us. Some are merely signed, others contain a brief note of greeting, while still others are accompanied by the ubiquitous annual letter updating friends and family of the events of the past year.
Frankly, I enjoy getting these updates. Life has just become too busy to be able to keep up with all those we care about, and while these letters can never substitute for the intimacy of moments spent together, at least they allow us to catch up with one another.
But one letter, received from a dear member of one of our former congregations in Illinois, has proven to be bittersweet. While it contained the usual information on their family, it also sought to fill us in on some of the news in our former churches. We were delighted to learn that a food pantry that my wife helped launch over 23 years ago was still operating. To be sure it’s having it’s struggles, especially with the demand on it’s services of late, but it’s still in place. It’s nice to know that ones time and efforts have made a difference. But other news was not so welcome, for we also learned that one of our former congregations will be closing it’s doors after this Christmas!
The Scotville UMC is a small but beautifully maintained white building that sits one block off the town square. When I served there attendance averaged in the low twenties, mostly women and children. It wasn’t that they were all widows. Some were, but the rest were married to men who were Masons, and in that community they seemed to think that the Masons were an adequate substitute for church. There was no running water in the building in the mid-80’s, and the restroom facilities consisted of a two seat outhouse in back, but that didn’t stop the ladies from serving a huge turkey dinner every fall as a major fundraiser. Jugs of water were hauled in from home, heated on the stove, and some of the best food I’ve ever had in a church basement was served there! “City” water service came to the town in the late-eighties, and the church hooked on and put in a bathroom. They also added central air, again just after I left! They were proud of their building, and the congregation was a supportive community for one another and those in need around them.
But Scotville has been afflicted with the same population trends that have hit other rural areas. Their school closed decades ago. Young folks have gone off to college and not returned. The aging population (around 200 when we were there over twenty years ago) was down to 136 as of July of 2007. Declining numbers, as well as rising costs to heat and maintain the building and pay for pastoral coverage, all conspired together to help the remaining members make a difficult choice.
I trust that this is sad news for those of us who pastored in Scotville. It’s painful enough for me to approve the closing of a church at Annual Conference even when I have never served there, but the personal tie makes it that much more difficult. Still, in the midst of this loss I hold on to the conviction that while a local congregation may shutter its doors and windows, it lives on in the lives it has touched. Young people who grew up there, and who learned of Jesus from faithful Sunday School teachers and pastors, are passing that same faith on to others in new churches now. One of the last times I was back one young man who had grown up in that congregation was wrestling with a call to the pastoral ministry. I never heard whether he went on to seminary or not, but if he did that congregations love and care will continue in his ministry as well!
And I can’t help but think that it’s like that for us too. In the end our real “worth” won’t be measured by the size of the estate we leave behind, the notoriety we've achieved, or the things we've accomplished, but by the people we’ve touched and the lives that have been enriched by our love.

In One Ear & Out the Other!

2008-12-12T09:32:00.000-08:00

The Rochester Post-Bulletin is the local daily newspaper in our area. It arrives in the afternoon, so for over twenty years now we’ve had to forgo that delicious experience of perusing the paper over a cup of coffee and a piece of toast in the morning. I suppose we could just save the P/B until the next morning, but with the internet by the time the paper reaches our home it already seems like old news. They’re constantly changing it too, making it smaller and condensing much of the material into the shorter “bullets” that appear necessary in order to hold our attention today.
One of their recent changes was to begin including a joke on the inside of the front page of its weekday edition. Generally they’re the type that, when I tell them, my wife rolls her eyes and groans. A month or so ago their joke was about three men - a preacher, a doctor, and an undertaker - who were out deer hunting (a timely subject in our area). It happened that all three saw a large buck and fired at the same time, and it went down. As you might imagine they began arguing amongst themselves over who’s shot had taken the buck, and they were still engaged in heated disagreement when a DNR officer arrived on the scene. After learning of their dilemma he offered to check the deer over to see if he could learn who’s shot had felled it. When he was through he reported back that the minister had shot it. When the other two asked how he had come to that conclusion, the official said he could tell because the slug had gone in one ear and out the other.
That joke reminds me of a conversation my mother-in-law once had with our oldest son when he was only about four years old or so. She was up visiting us from Texas shortly after we had moved to our first appointment, a three-point United Methodist circuit, and she was asking him about our church next door. When he informed her that was his church she asked him if his dad also went there. He replied in the affirmative, and she pressed further to see if he understood that I was the church’s pastor. “What does your dad do there?” she asked. And with the certainty that sometimes accompanies childhood he said “Oh, he stands up in front and talks to himself.”
To tell you the truth, I feel that way sometimes (for that matter, I felt that way quite a bit while raising that aforementioned son ;-)). I feel that way when I repeat Jesus’ words on the need to forgive and still find people nursing grudges like a tall, cool drink. I feel that way when I lift up Jesus’ admonition about laying up our treasures in heaven and then see folks drooling over new cars, lavish houses, and large salaries. I feel that way when we study Jesus’ answer to the lawyer, that the greatest commandments are to love God with all that we have and love our neighbor as ourselves, and then hear folks rationalize that their neighbor really doesn’t deserve help because, after all, he got himself in this predicament in the first place. I feel that way when I talk about really trusting God and then watch us trust pretty much everything and anything else first. And I feel that way when we study Jesus’ passionate model for prayer and then we run off and pray just enough to coat what are really our decisions and our plans with a thin veneer of religiosity.
In one ear and out the other. Maybe words are a little like taking a set of darts out to the garage and randomly throwing them at things. We’d likely find that they would only stick in the softer items. Perhaps some words can only stick in a heart and mind prepared by the Holy Spirit. If that’s so, may ours be softened this Christmas season.

Book Review of “The Shack”

2008-12-04T15:20:00.000-08:00

A few months ago I started seeing references to a new book that folks were insisting was a “must read.” Now, I have a lot of books recommended to me, and I love to read. From time to time folks even give me books they think I’ll like. Unfortunately, I don’t have the time to read them all.
But this book was being pushed by folks I admire, people I respect as deep thinkers in the Church. Oh, there might be a caveat here or there concerning some small theological point they questioned, but overwhelmingly they all loved this work. The book was William Young’s new fiction novel, “The Shack.” And so a month ago I read the first chapter online (you can find it at www.theshackbook.com ). Last weekend I found it at our local library and finished it today. Frankly, the reviews didn’t do it justice.
Now, I don’t want to give the plot away. Suffice it to say that it is the story of a man who has been wounded by his past who encounters God at an old shack that holds particularly gruesome memories for him. The encounter proves to be transformational.
If you’ve ever wondered whether or not God is good, read this book. If you’ve ever wondered whether or not God loves you (or how much) read this book. If you’ve ever wondered what you were created to be or how you were created to live, than read this book! Even if you're not asking any of these questions (or dozens more) it will leave you craving after the presence of God. Oh, and one more thing. Read this book!

And God Came Down

2008-12-04T06:59:00.000-08:00

A few years ago one of our mares had an early August foal. That’s actually two or three months later than you’d ideally like a mare to give birth. We thought she had been bred quite a bit earlier than she was - if we had known she hadn’t settled earlier we would have pulled her out of the pasture with our stallion. But that didn’t happen, and so in the wee hours of the morning of August 6th - and it was cold & damp most of that month - we were awakened by the sound of the mares squeals. Because this was her first foal, and out of concern that she might be having difficulties foaling, I figured I better get out and make sure she was alright. I could tell by the direction of the noise that she had crossed the stream and was in the high grass, so I headed out that way and sure enough there she was, her foal already on the ground. Unfortunately as I drew closer the mare became nervous and decided it was time to head back across the stream. Now that wouldn’t have been a problem if she’d chosen to cross in one of the areas where the stream bed sloped more gently on both sides. But she decided to cross in one of the steeper places where her foal, once in the water, couldn’t climb back up the other bank!
And that’s where the problem began. I was pretty sure that if I left the two alone the foal would never get out. Our stream is spring fed, and it’s cold even in the summertime, and I knew the foal would chill quickly. But every time I started to get close the mare would become frantic and the foal would head into even deeper water. I must have spent close to half an hour in the stream myself, soaking wet, with the mare flashing back and forth, before I finally got the foal out safely without getting myself kicked in the process - actually, she might have gotten me in the head with a hoof. It would sure explain a lot.
Anyway, there was one point in the middle of that whole mess where I remember thinking to myself how frustrating it was that I couldn’t get that mare and her foal to understand that I was only there to help - if they would let me. And maybe it’s a sign that I’ve been a preacher for too long - or maybe God was whispering in my ear - but the very next thought that popped into my mind was this: I wonder how often God feels the same way about us - about you, and about me.
Now throughout that ordeal there was an intriguing side story taking place less than twenty yards away. You see, we still have the dam of this young mare who had just had her 1st foal, and the two mares are practically inseparable. And while I was trying to get close enough to fish the new foal out of the water, the older mare was standing guard on the other side of the stream, attempting to block the pathway down so that my wife couldn’t approach from that side. And that, I suppose, was my answer. If I could just have become a horse I might have been able to more easily communicate my intent - but of course I couldn’t do that.
But the scriptures tell us that was God was bound by no such restrictions. And so God considered our need, and counted the cost, and then came down. Emmanuel, God with us, for you, and for me. That we might understand, that we might know what God is really like, that we might embrace the life He offers us, and truly live both now and eternally. All of that, and more, John captures with those simple words. “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” And so God came down.
(excerpted from a Cowboy Church message December 3rd, 2008)

Are You Preachin’ or Tellin’ the Truth?

2008-11-25T19:59:00.000-08:00

There is an old joke about an elderly preacher who was out on a nature walk one day with his young grandson. Coming upon something unusual, the boy asked his grandfather how it had come to be. Now this was one of those things in nature that ought to be a marvel to all of us as we consider it. It certainly was to the little one, who listened wide-eyed to his grandfathers explanation. When it was over the boy thought about all of this for a few minutes, and then, looking up, said, ”Grandpa, are you preachin’ or telling’ the truth?”
I suppose that’s a fair question. We preachers have been known to “embellish” on a point from time to time. It’s not that the truth isn’t important to us - it is in fact of eternal importance to most of us. It’s just that when you traffic in words sometimes you want to reach someone so badly that…well, you know. Then too, some us just like telling a good story.
So it is with the stories and sermon excerpts you’ll find on this blog. Some of them are probably true. Some of them might be partly true and partly made up. Some of them might be completely made up, but they can be true if you need them to be. Whatever the case, I hope you enjoy it.