Is It Spring Yet?

On the way out of church on Sunday, there was a flurry in the air. As I let out a rather loud sigh, I was reminded that it wasn’t but a few months ago that I was celebrating snow. Now it seems in many ways that I am now contradicting myself with my lament. The truth is that we do live in Pittsburgh and we should expect this kind of weather. It was just 15 years ago that we experienced the Blizzard of ’93 on March 13. So with just a few flurries in the air, I shouldn’t be complaining.

As I sighed, I tried to explain that the earlier post about winter is all true. I love snow, and I love winter. But there comes a time in the season when that feeling wears off and I begin to look forward to spring. Regardless of what the furry rodent says, I am never ready for spring on February 2nd. But now I am.

But this year, I am more anxious for spring than other years. I think it has to do with several things. The first is the time change that already happened. This is the second year that we’ve experienced the earlier shift. Couple that with what is the earliest Easter in my lifetime and I think that I am growing anxious. In previous years, spring happens on its usual day, and I probably wouldn’t think twice about it. But for some reason, daffodils are an early signal of spring, and that hasn’t even happened yet. I’m anxious for spring and an early Easter is the capstone of the entire feeling.

But warm weather and sunshine will have to wait. We have a week of rain, snow, and low pressure systems in the forecast.

Sunday is Easter. It is earlier than ever before in my lifetime, but nonetheless it is Easter. I am anxious, but like the warm weather, I will have to wait. For before the Easter Celebration is the rain, snow, and low pressure system of Holy Week. Before Easter, Jesus Christ must go through the pain and agony of the cross. He must go through it – so that we can get to Easter. We too have to go through it.

One of my favorite hymns talks about this spring and Easter moment for us, “Hymn of Promise.” While the hymn best talks about the hope of resurrection that awaits us all as part of God’s plans in eternity, I think it speaks well to the promise of Spring and the promise of Easter as well.

In the bulb there is a flower; in the seed, and apple tree; in cocoons, a hidden promise: butterflies will soon be free! In the cold and snow of winter there’s a spring that waits to be, unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see. (Words by Natalie Sleeth).

It’s Winter, but Spring is just around the corner. It’s Holy Week, and Easter is coming!

My prayer is that you will experience Holy Week in a whole new way this year, either through scripture reading, attending a production with your children, or even in worship. Come and share in the experience of winter, so that when Sunday arrives, you can celebrate the good news that God has overcome death, the victory that is unrevealed until its season. God sees it, and I hope that you experience it new this year.

Please pray for me, and know that I am praying for you.
Greg

Breaking News!

If I were to begin to tell you how I arrived at my thoughts today, it would take longer than time permits. So if you will indulge just a little, I will tell you that I have been thinking a lot about how the media covers certain events. It has struck me as fascinating recently how information is shared, what information is shared, and how it is that media can sometimes have an influence on what we think, how we feel, how we vote. Anyone can be an expert in something, everyone has an opinion, and everyone is trying to get a cut of the attention.

I guess in many ways that is no different than these random thoughts being scattered across cyberspace today.

That, combined with my thoughts about Holy Week and my preparations for it has me thinking a lot about how Jesus is portrayed in the media. I can almost count on one of the news magazines doing a cover on Christ either this week or next. I have several from years past. Headlines like, “The Real Jesus,” or simply “Jesus Christ,” cause us to reflect on the life and career of Jesus. Sometimes in those magazines, very little is shared about the “message of Jesus.”

So with that said, I really have been thinking about how Jesus would be portrayed today. If Jesus was 33 again, walking the earth, sharing the message of repentance and salvation, I just wonder how it would be portrayed in the media. Would it be a rolling script at the bottom of the screen? An interview? Some expert offering their interpretation of the message or a psychological analysis? Would there be predictions about the time it would take to offer a resignation, or conversation with an “insider whose identity has been concealed” to protect his/her family?

I say all of this because Jesus had a hard enough time without the media. I almost caught myself thinking, “the media would crucify him!” Ok, I did think it and then I wrote it! It didn’t take much for the message to get around. Certain events had a life of their own and were catalysts to his ultimate demise and death.

But would it have taken him that long to end up on a cross, or would we have brushed him off much sooner because an exit poll said that he was behind in the polls?

If there is one thing that I am thinking about these days, it is the media. There will be a lot of opportunity to hear what the media says, but I invite you to read what the original source said about the life and the times of Jesus. As you enter into Holy Week in just a few days, crack open the source and see what it says. I know that when you do, you will see that the original will add much to your days and weeks that lead up to Easter.

To be sure – those who were distracted by Jesus message found him to be a trouble maker. But it is through that message and his death on the cross that we live.

This week is Palm Sunday and we will be gathering to hear the message that invites us to Follow Christ to the Cross. Come and get your palm and try to twist it into a cross. If you can’t do it, I bet you someone will. I look forward to beginning Holy Week with you in Worship.

Please pray for me, and know that I am praying for you.
Greg

Time for a Check-up

This morning, I finally put off procrastination and took number 1 to the orthodontist. It was a year ago that the Dentist told me that we should be going, but I put it off. I think it was a combination of things including fear of monthly payments, fear of the unknown, fear of taking my 9 year old to the orthodontist and reliving my own awkward years with metal-mouth, and finally fear of vicariously gaging while she received impressions. Maybe there was also the part of me that didn't want her to grow up!

So I'm sitting there watching her get evaluated, and photographed - and I actually caught myself doing what the assistant was asking her to do. "Open up" - I opened my mouth. "Lift your lip up" - I lifted mine. "Tilt" - I tilted. I felt like a psychological experiment gone wrong. Pavlov's dog. Sit Ubu, sit! Good Dog!

Well - thank God she received my big mouth and she doesn't need to be seen for another year!

Time for a Tune-up?

I once had a professor at Duke who admonished our class not to put illustrations into folders for use at a later date. He related his own experience of those illustrations or experiences being outdated or forced into sermons. The same could be said about current situations or current events – we sometimes use them or force them into situations. But his point was simple, if something happens and it’s relevant, use it!

OK – point well taken. There have been several things that have been happening in the ministry of the church, and in many ways they are all related. Regular attendees would probably not see these things in action for they are more administrative details and things that happen behind the scenes. Let me try to describe the events.

The first happened on Monday. I was given the task of evaluating and reviewing a program that we offered last fall. The program was made possible by a grant through the United Methodist Foundation. (Did that sound like a public television broadcast?) Following the receipt of a grant, the recipient is responsible to report the progress of the program, which usually involves reporting how the money was spent. It is a measuring tool.

Today, I am preparing a presentation to our Church Council on how important it is to provide focus to ministry through a Vision Statement. Vision Statements are measuring tools by which programs can be administered and evaluated.

Finally, an organ tuner just arrived. For those of you who have ever had to sit on the other side of a wall from organ tuning, it is an eyebrow furrowing, ear twitching experience. You don’t know that an organ is out of tune until two like notes are played together and you can actually hear the sound waves clashing. The tuner meticulously moves from note to note to measure, and fine tune the instrument.

All of these events combined have me thinking about a mid-lenten evaluation. Maybe it’s the time for us to measure where we are on this Lenten journey as well as where we are personally on this walk of faith. Maybe it is a wonderful opportunity to make a mid-course adjustment to your commitments that you’ve made to the church. Questions you can be asking are: am I spending time with God; am I attending worship regularly; am I serving the Lord and those God is calling us to serve; am I regularly praying and moving myself forward on this journey to the cross?

The prophets in the Old Testament often used the image of a plumb line or what some call a plumb bob. It is a weight at the end of a line of string. It is used in construction to measure the up-rightness of a wall or building. Holding the line at the top of a wall, the weight would hand down straight. Today, contractors and home improvement geeks use levels to determine if something is plumb.

The Lord showed the prophet Amos a plumb line to let him know that we need to be measuring and evaluating and assessing our lives constantly. So I guess I have just one question – How are you doing on this walk of faith? Do you need a tune-up or mid-course adjustment? What will it take for you to get your wall of faith back in line?

My prayer for you this day will be that you are plumb, and if you are not that you might be given the tools and the strength to make those little adjustments so that you can stand upright and righteous before the Lord.

This week in worship we will be continuing our series on Following Christ and removing our own preconceived notions of life as we follow Christ to Hope. I hate to tell you this part – Its daylight savings time this weekend. Remember to set your clocks ahead! I look forward to seeing your tired eyes on Sunday.

Please pray for me, and know that I am praying for you.
Greg