I am very excited to be participating in The Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations at TLUMC. I look forward to sharing this time of focus on what the church is and should be with this congregation. I am trusting that God is going to do amazing things for TLUMC in the days ahead. I hope you will participate fully in this time by reading the devotional, making a point to come to worship, listening to the podcasts if you miss, and considering being part of an Interest Group.

Five Practices: Radical Hospitality, Passionate Worship, Intentional Faith Development, Risk-Taking Mission and Service, and Extravagant Generosity! Check out the book by Robert Schnase.

We had our Worship Design Team meeting tonight, and there was energy in the room - great, creative energy. We have much in store during this Simply Christian series this fall.

The themes for this series are in some way very basic, very simple. They are about the building blocks of the Chrsitian faith - God, Israel, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the church, and things like that. But they will be experienced in refreshing ways, even for those who have heard it all before.

Come and be part of The Body in the weeks ahead! Our goal is not just to have you hear about God, but to know that you have been in the presence of God.

I took a worship webinar today through Worship Leader Magazine. It was led by Bob Rognlien who wrote a book called Experiential Worship (check out his website here). His basic premise is that worship should be guided by what we often call The Great Commandment - Mark 12:30, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (NIV).

Worship is about showing our love to God, so we should be doing it with all our heart (choices), soul (emotions), mind (intellect), and strength (body). It made me think about how we’re doing with The Body. Sometimes we’re pretty good at hitting them all. But there are other weeks where we fall to our default of mostly heart and mind.

We hope that when you come to the body you come into an encounter with God every week.

God, help us to continue to find ways to connect with you in worship by using our whole being - heart, soul, mind, and strength.

I’ve been thinking a lot about politics lately. Hard not to with the DNC a few miles up the road and preempting all of our primetime TV. I’m not typically a political person. I vote and I care, but I’m not one who talks politcs a lot or even pays attention as much as maybe I should.

Someone though has said it well for me, and I want to share his thoughts with you. Curtis Strang, editor of Relevant magazine in his First Word feature titled “Leading the Charge” he writes:

There’s more power lying dormant in pews around the nation than any government could hope to provide, and that’s where [the Christian's] focus should be…

Christians should be focused on personal action regardless of legislation…

If you have a passion for an issue, rather than judging someone who doesn’t share that passion or viewpoint, just go do something about it. Give you life to it. Be the change you want to see…

But that means with our lives, our finances and our actions every day. Not just Nov. 4.

(Strang, Cameron. “Leading the Charge.” Relevant Issue 35: September/October 2008: p. 6)

I think Strang has the right idea. Can you imagine what the church could do if the individuals spent more time being the change than complaining about the lack of change? Maybe it’s time to be the change.

Several weeks ago, at a social gathering, a 20-something man who had just found out that I was a pastor asked me this question:

Yes or No: Do you believe that everything happens for a reason?

I wanted to give a longer explanation. But I was pressed to choose answer A or B, ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ No other answer would be accepted. “If I’m pushed to answer,” I said, “than the answer is no.” I think I surprised him. Shouldn’t a pastor think that everything that happens is due to the will of God and therefore there is a reason?

I don’t think so. I don’t believe that “All the world’s a stage, /And all the men and women merely players” (William Shakespeare As You Like It). I don’t believe that we are just actors at the beck and call of a divine director playing a part that was written for us. We are not the puppets of God.

To put is succinctly: Stuff happens. In the words of a youth: Life is random.

A friend of mine died yesterday. She had a brain tumor. She only knew about it for a week or so. She was too young, too important to too many, too good. She was, in the words of one who knew her much better than I, a personification of love - it just flowed from her so naturally. She lived a life that shared the love of God with the people she came into contact with - and she never had to say a word about her faith. Her faith was who she was.

If I believed that everything happened for a reason, I’d have to believe that God gave her that tumor. I don’t. Instead, I think the tumor happened. It is one of those things that occurs because we live in a broken world.

So where is God?

My image of God is not of a computer programmer playing Sim Life with the real world. I believe that God is active in our world, but instead of believing that God directs all of life, I believe God walks with us. Through our joy, pain, and even the mundane we are never alone. God is with us.

Jesus cried by the grave of Lazarus, his friend. He cried over Jerusalem thinking about the pain the city had gone through and was going to go through. And so I believe that God is grieving with us today over the death of our friend.

God doesn’t make bad stuff happen - that’s just not in his nature. He isn’t in the business of bringing pain to those he loves (which is all of us, by the way). God’s work is to redeem the difficult stuff in our lives so “that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good” (Romans 8:28, Msg, italics mine). That doesn’t mean everything is good, but God can turn it into something good. Or as the Bible says in another place, “thank God no matter what happens” (1 Thessalonians 5:18, Msg) not thank God for whatever happens. Do I always get to see the good? No. But I believe that it is there.

My faith comforts me today in knowing that God was with my friend through her ordeal. I also choose to believe in her particular case that God’s grace was manifest in the fact that she didn’t suffer long. That would have been so hard on her.

Did it happen for a reason? Was it the will of God? I have trouble saying yes to either of those questions. But do I think that God will do something with this, and already has? ABSOLUTELY!

Thanks be to God. Even today!

Those who have know me well know that there are times when I find God-moments in weird places. I’ve illustrated sermons with Simpson clips, clips from Brian Regan’s comedy, and once with one of the final scenes from Steve Martin’s The Jerk. I don’t always endorse the vehicle, but God has a way of showing up in places some might not expect.

I just finished watching last night’s episode of My Name Is Earl. Earl is a dark comedy, but I like Earl’s life philosophy: “Do good things and good things happen, do bad things, they come back to haunt you.” He calls it Karma - not a Christian doctrine. But its not that far from the Golden Rule, “Here is a simple, rule-of-thumb guide for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them. Add up God’s Law and Prophets and this is what you get” (Jesus in Matthew 7:12, Msg).

Enough trying to justify programming the DVR to series-record Earl.

Last night, Earl was in a coma and here is what happened in one scene:

Earl (voiceover): Randy wasn’t a religious man, other than believing in the Great Pumpkin, but these were desperate times.

Randy (praying): Dear Lord, it’s me Randy Hickey.
Please tell me what to do to save my brother. Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
But Lord…
I’m sorry. I’ll let you finish.
Oh yeah. Perfect.

Randy (to Earl): I know what to do to help you. I’ll be right back.

Randy (looking up in prayer): Why didn’t you tell me this before? You’re right. I shoulda asked.

What a great truth in such a ridiculous place. How often I have wondered why God is not acting in a situation in my life, and the simple truth is that I’ve never asked. Or if I have asked, I haven’t surrendered control long enough for God to really do anything about it.

If I knew Randy Hickey and asked him why God wasn’t answering my needs, he would tell me I shoulda asked. The Bible says it this way, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened” (Jesus, Matthew 7:7-8, NIV).

Ask. Seek. Knock. God doesn’t barge into our lives. But he always responds to an invitation.

Leonard Sweet, in one of the regular podcasts I listen to, introduced me to the word floccinaucinihilipilification (Napkin Scribbles, “Are You Addicted to Floccinaucinihilipilification?” 2/21/2008). Apparently, it’s a favorite of word lovers, crossword puzzle addicts, and serious Scrabble players. According to Wikipedia, “it is the longest non-technical word in the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary” (go here to see the Wikipedia article), and another website claims that is has been listed as the longest “real” word in the 1992 and following editions of The Guinness Book of World Records, beating antidisestablishmentarianism by one letter (29 to 28).

Floccinaucinihilipilification was formed through the running together of four Latin words – flocci, nauci, nihili, and pilifi – all of which mean “of little value” or “for nothing”. Although rarely used, the word is a noun that is “the estimation of something as valueless” (see Dictionary.com). In other words, when you are putting something down, complaining, or criticizing, you are participating in floccinaucinihilipilification.

Do you suffer from floccinaucinihilipilification? Do you find yourself constantly putting down the things around you – people, situations, family, your car, school, friendships, government, church, etc.? While it’s not a disease, and there’s no pill to cure it, I do believe that floccinaucinihilipilification is contagious. Surrounded by people with the malady, we can find ourselves caught up in it as well. Negativity just seems to breed negativity. And to me, that’s just not what we’re about as Christians.

Leonard Sweet feels that the church suffers from floccinaucinihilipilification, and the writer of unChristian definitely agrees. (By the way, I highly recommend unChristian. It may be the most important book about the church I have ever read.) We who make up the church have a reputation of telling everyone what’s wrong with them. As if we’ve got it all together. Jesus warned us of this pitfall when he said, “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?” (Luke 6:41, NIV). Read this passage in The Message to hear about what Jesus thinks of us when we start putting other people down to lift ourselves up – Luke 6:37-42. Just to whet your appetite, it starts with: “Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults— unless, of course, you want the same treatment.”

Jesus didn’t participate in floccinaucinihilipilification. Instead, he always seemed to find the best in people. He saw potential in prostitutes, possibilities for lepers, and promise in the hearts of fishermen. Jesus always seemed to find the good in the people with whom he came into contact. He treated Zacchaeus, the hated tax collector who climbed a tree, like he was the most important person in town that day. He touched people who were “unclean” and hadn’t been touched in some time. He fed people when they were hungry, healed them when they were sick, and showed them the love of God even when they felt (and were probably told) that they were unlovable. Even from the cross, Jesus was able to focus on the confession of faith from one of the thieves crucified with him (Luke 23:39-43) and to ask God to forgive the very people who were killing him (Luke 23:34-35). Jesus looked for the good in people when he walked the earth, and he continues to do the same for us today.

With Jesus at work in our lives, we should not get involved in floccinaucinihilipilification. Like Jesus, we should be looking for the good, not the bad. We should be like treasure hunters seeking the value in people and not putting them down. We should be the ones who see God in the commonplace – like friends, sunrises, circumstances, enjoyable times, the snow on Pikes Peak, and more. God is at work in the “ordinary” stuff of life, even the stuff that might look bad to us.

May we not find ourselves victims of floccinaucinihilipilification. In fact, may we do the opposite. May we be people who find the good in things; who find God in everyday life. The Bible says it this way, “Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, bold added by me).

Jesus spoke to me today. The voice belonged to a guy in my gym. I don’t know his name, but his words were straight from God.

I woke up discouraged today. Nothing specific. It was just “one of those days.” Even the sermon podcast I was listening to on the treadmill shut off in the middle for no apparent reason.

Then, as I was getting ready to leave, he came over to me. Startled me a little. I took off my headphones and he said, “I just wanted to let you know that I’ve seen you in here every day for quite a while and your dedication and hard work are paying off.”

I pray on the ride to the gym most days. Today it was a prayer of frustration - wondering about where I’m going, and if I’m on the right path. So hearing about dedication and hard work paying off had nothing to do with exercise for me today.

I believe they were the words God wanted to say to me - an answer to my prayer. I’m so thankful that a man whose name I don’t know, listened to God whispering in his ear this morning to share those words. He has no idea what they meant to me.

I barely got to the car before tearing up. I’d been in the presence of the holy, and it moved me deeply.

Jesus spoke to me today, through a man whose name I don’t know.

In the benediction of his January 6 sermon podcast titled “Grace and Peace,” Rob Bell says this:

We find it absolutely totally unacceptable that somebody in our midst would be struggling with an addiction, despair, an eating disorder, drugs, alcohol, cutting themselves, financial hardship and would not have people around them to help them with it. It is absolutely unacceptable to us that somebody would suffer alone. It is everything the church is not about.

May I just add an amen!

We started a new series on Sunday called “Does Being Smarter Make Your Faith Greater?” a parody of “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?” Aren’t we clever?

What we are attempting to do is to look at the big questions, but in simple ways. I’m convinced that sometimes we make things more complicated than they need to be.

We’re going to be asking questions like:

1. Who is God? What is Heaven like?
2. What does it mean to be forgiven? How are we forgiven?
3. What does it mean to be a Christian? How do you become one?
4. How do you tell others about Jesus? Who do we see Jesus in?

I could ask NT Wright, Marcus Borg, or some other prominent theologian. Those guys have written books on some of these topics. Instead, we’re going to interview some of the kids in our church to hear their answers. And then we’re going to take a look at the Bible and see Jesus’ answers.

Somehow I think we’re going to learn that you don’t need to be smarter than a fifth grader. It’s not about smarts. God knew better.

In the words of Jimmy Buffett:

Maybe it’s all too simple for our big brains to figure it out.
What if ‘The Hokey Pokey’ is really all it is about?”

(Jimmy Buffett, “What If the Hokey Pokey Is All It Really Is About?”, from his CD Far Side of the World, ©2002)