Monday Morning Musings | October 14, 2019
The past week was interesting. For starters, the congregation surprised us with Pastor Appreciation Sunday. My family and I are grateful for both the card and the monetary gift. Although I am not yet certain how the money will be used, I can tell you that the kind and encouraging words written in the card by so many different people mean more than I can say. It is such a privilege and joy to grow and minister alongside you!
Speaking of ministering alongside you, I would be remiss if I did not take a moment to thank Jerry A. for bringing light once again to the church sign. For several years, we have had issues with the sign blowing bulbs and ballasts. A couple weeks ago, Jerry took it upon himself to upgrade it to LED lights so that we will never need to worry about that again! In fact, the photo at the top of this post shows just how beautiful the sign is at night.
There are many in our congregation who minister faithfully each week to make possible the things that we do. From cleaning the church and teaching Sunday School, to providing food for Celebrate Recovery and Adventure Club, we would not be nearly as effective without these people!
This week, I finished up two fantastic seminary classes. Evangelism in Context was outstanding, and Newcomer Integration was phenomenal. The two should be packaged together. And they should be the most popular classes Wesley Seminary offers. Of greater interest to me is the fact that these were my last two seminary classes. The reality that, this past Friday, I turned in my last seminary assignment has not yet sunk in. It feels incredibly strange to have a Monday where I am not reading or writing or both for seminary.
Yesterday, we dug into the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Well, maybe “dug into” is not the right term. Truth be told, we barely scratched the surface. Like so many other things Jesus said and did, this parable is profound. As I observed yesterday, we must approach this parable from the perspective of each of its three – yes, three – main characters in order to really pull out all of its nuanced messages.
As I said yesterday, the key to reconciliation, as demonstrated in this parable, is to recognize that there is real hurt to go around. Sin leaves no one unscathed. Not the victim. Not the perpetrator. Not even bystanders such as the big brother. (Read Luke 15:25-32 to get an idea of his pain!) And the only way to address this real pain is through real repentance and real forgiveness.
Of course, the challenge of real repentance is that we like to add that “but…” to the end of every apology. That “but…” mitigates our responsibility for the sinful action, and also for the essential solution. If we are really sorry, then we must repent without condition or qualification.
And the challenge of real forgiveness is choosing to really let go. This would be easy if we had the luxury of wiping our own memories, but since we do not have this option, we will need to choose daily to release the hurts. Part of that means that we no longer hold that pain against our friend. Part of it means that we choose never to dredge up that hurt again.
This week, I will give time to cleaning my office. I cleaned it a bit in January, but since classes resumed for the spring 2019 semester, it has been a sprint to the finish. As anyone who has been in the pastor’s study will attest, I have been negligent in this matter.
I will also be giving some time to reading No Future Without Forgiveness by Desmond Tutu. I ordered this a few weeks ago, but with two concurrent seminary classes, I was unable to read it before launching this sermon series. I expect it will be relevant. By the way, if you are looking for more resources on reconciliation, Miroslav Volf’s book, Exclusion & Embrace is fantastic. It is a bit deep in places, but it is tremendously insightful.
I also hope to finish a new website for our neighborhood association. Their site has been offline since the old version of Google Sites went offline a few weeks back. We had been talking about launching a new one for a few months prior. Now, it is time to make that happen. As time permits, I will also continue to work on a new church website, which I started this time last year!
This coming Sunday, we will be digging into the mechanics of reconciliation in cases where you have been wronged but the other person either does not know or does not acknowledge what they have done. We will be going to Matthew 18:15-20 to explore the reconciliation process Jesus prescribed. Take a look at it.
Finally, you will not want to miss church this Sunday because we will announce a new opportunity for people to take their next step of spiritual growth.
Oh, and the picture