"Being" Converted

Maya Angelou is one of my favorite writers, poets & thinkers. I actually met her once, but I will bet you dollars to doughnuts she couldn't pick me out of a police lineup :) One time, I was watching her on a national telecast where after she was interviewed by a "pro," the masses were able to ask her questions in an organized Q & A. There was an enormous number of college students who had come to listen and learn from one of their idols. During the public "open mike" time, a young woman who was in the first year of doing her master's studies at NYU rose to ask her a question. Her question went something like, "Ms. Angelou, I am an incredible fan of yours... your writings have changed me. I sense in your writings a lot of faith, a definite belief in God. I am searching spiritually myself. If it is not too much to ask, can I ask you to share what religion or faith group you ascribe to?" Maya's answer was classic: "Well, I'm trying to be a Christian! It's a lot of work, and it ain't easy, but I work at it every day. I have been working at it for over 70 years. That's why I am amazed by 18 and 19 year old students who run up to me on college campuses and say, 'Hi, Ms. Angelou, I'm a born again Christian!' I always say, "Already?!"


Our worshipping community has traveled close to four months through one of the books of the Bible, the Book of Acts, during our Sunday worship experiences.  Hearing the testimonies of these first Missionary pioneers makes me realize how far I have to go to be a true "follower of the Way" (that's what Christ-followers were referred to back then... the term "Christian" was a label that did not show up for hundreds of years). The boldness and conviction in which these great ambassadors walked is something I can only aspire to... BUT, I am learning, and I am climbing! I do not think I will leave this journey through Acts, the same way as I entered it!

That is finally the goal. Acts is a case-study in "conversions." The word conversion, literally means a "reorientation." It means to turn around and move in another direction. When reading the Book of Acts, I have decided it means to be converted (to turn) and then spend the rest of your life being converted!

The next three weeks at GMUMC, we will close our study of Acts summing up what it means to "be converted."  If you want to join us in the journey of spending "the rest of our lives being converted," buckle up and come on in!  We worship every Sunday at 9:30 (Heritage); 10:30 (Mosaic); 11:45 (Odyssey).  Be sure to introduce yourself when you come!

Again?

The great preacher, William Willimon, tells of a man named Hubert Parris who was a member of one of the first congregations he served many years ago down South. If the service stirred him, Hubert could always be counted on to stand and recount the story of his conversion... again. He had narrated his conversion story so many times, Willimon said, that young children in the congregation became so familiar with it that they would mouth the words as Hubert shared it! I had to laugh when Willimon recounted one Sunday when Hubert was so led to share it again and a young girl in the front row mouthed in perfect unison with him, "I was sunk in sin, I was lost, lost I tell you..." Here is what Willimon writes: "The story of Hubert's Damascus Road Experience (which actually occurred on the highway headed toward Gainesville) went limp in the retelling. It was the again that got us." (William H. Willimon, Undone By Easter).


I can relate to poor Hubert! I think any preacher of the Gospel can relate. We share the timeless truths of the love of God to the point that people can finish our sentences while they kick dust out of their eyes. Sometimes, it is the "again" that gets all of us... Going to church... again; Praying for the same things... again; Hearing the same Bible verses & preacher stories... again; Singing the same songs... again. I think that one of the worst things that can happen to us as people of faith is when we get "used to" God... used to the Gospel. My prayer is that God will help me to keep my faith fresh while I am in it for the long haul. I do not ever want Jesus to appear to me as he did to John on the island of Patmos and say, "Chip, I know your works, and your service and your prayers... they are all really nice. You have stayed the course and patiently walked the walk of faith... but you know what? You have lost that love and passion that you had when you first met me" (Rev. 2:3-4).

One of the most pitiful scenes of the disciples for me is when they had made a stop on the way to Jerusalem and a woman appeared to anoint Jesus' body for burial (Mark 14:3-9). This unknown woman begins to perform a service for Jesus that only his closest of friends should perform. Yet, his "closest friends" are simply reclining in their seats nearby and grumbling about the waste of the whole thing. They had gotten so "used to" Jesus, that his teaching became ho-hum and the powerful encounter that was taking place was now "not according to schedule." Wow! No wonder Jesus said that the Gospel could never be preached unless it was done so in memory of her and what she did! She was able to wade through the "again's" and feel, sense and abandon herself to the incredible power of God.

This past Sunday was an amazing time of worship. We came to the altar to receive the Lord's Supper one more time... "again." I was particularly moved as one of our members, Connie Strong, took the solo part on songs at Heritage & Mosaic. I listened to Connie sing with great conviction words like... "Jesus is my Healer!" and "Go back to the altar and stay there until you receive the Holy Ghost power." I have heard words like this many times before, and yes, I was hearing them "again." Yet, I couldn't detach myself from the remembrance that less than a year ago last fall, Connie was life-flighted from her job at Hillcrest Hospital with a tear in her aorta that could have easily taken her life. Connie wasn't just singing these words "again"... she was living them, breathing them and inviting us to do that too!

Each Sunday, we have "been going back" with our earliest spiritual ancestors in the Book of Acts. The Gospel never grew old to them as they shared it again and again. Like Hubert, they shared their testimonies over and over hoping that all of us would learn to mouth the words!  I hope you can join us each week as we worship... again & again!

We Really Need Easter!

Dear Friends,

I really need Easter! How about you? I have encountered many failures in my life… and I need to know that God provides second chances. I have run into many dead ends… and I need to know that God moves big stones away. I have lost many loved ones to the “sting of death”… and I really need to know that death does not have the last word. I need Easter, like I need oxygen!

In the Bible, nobody needed Easter more than Peter. You remember the story, when Jesus shared what was to take place that first Holy Week, Peter announced with great bluster, that even if everyone in the world left Jesus, Peter would never leave him! Jesus cautioned Peter on such bravado and told him that “before the cock crowed” (basically saying by tomorrow morning); Peter would deny he even knew who Jesus was three times. Sure enough, it happened, and Matthew tells us that when Peter heard the cock crowing, he broke down and “wept bitterly.”

Not long after that, Peter is back where he was before he met Jesus, out on a boat working in the family fishing business. The Bible tells us that oddly, he was fishing naked. Nakedness in the Bible was always an image of shame. Peter had blown it. He had been the right-hand man of the Master and he had fallen flat on his face. Peter needed another chance, a new call, a new life… and Easter came. Jesus walked out of the tomb and down the shoreline of the Sea of Galilee to call Peter again. Peter was so ecstatic, that he didn’t grab the oars of the boat and paddle to shore at the sound of Jesus’ call. He “dove in” and left his boat behind! That is the picture of a man who really needs Easter!

Peter may have left his boat behind, but he never left Easter behind. Listen to the echoes of that holy moment in one of his letters to the Church: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith—being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1 Peter 1:3-7).

Yes, life is tough, Peter acknowledges, but Easter lasts longer than the tough times do. Listen to his adjectives, Easter is “imperishable, undefiled & unfading!” It brings us new life and a living hope… not some vague abstract yearning for a better future, but a hope that breaths power and life into every moment of our earthly existence. Put that way, I hope you will join Peter and shout, “I really need Easter too!”

I hope you will join our growing congregation to sing the great Alleluia on Easter Sunday, April 24^th at any of our three worship experiences. I hope you will join us on Baptism Sunday, the Sunday following Easter on May 1^st at either 9:30 AM or our combined 11:00 AM service. Join us at any or all of the Sundays in April – what the Early Church called “little Easters” – on our journey to the Empty Tomb. Yes, Christ is Risen! Thanks God, I really needed that!

Faithfully,

Chip Freed

Back to School

As a parent, this time of year is always fraught with the thoughts of “Back to School.” With the start of a new school year, our world of daily routines suddenly comes crashing to a halt, while a whole new schedule and timetable emerges. I know we ought to prepare for it, but sadly, in our house, it just kind of arrives in ‘shock and awe.’

In my devotional time this week, I was reading and meditating on a few of the Psalms. Psalm 78 caught my attention and I reflected upon it for awhile (with 72 verses, there is a lot to reflect upon!). The author of this psalm is known as a “teacher,” and he or she is taking Israel “back to school.” This psalm is known as one of the “historical psalms” in scholarly circles. These psalms recount in narrative form deeds of God in the history of the people. The people are to hear the story or “parable” (v. 2) and then contemplate the lessons that should apply to their lives today. As Biblical scholar, James Mays, comments, “Each recital of these psalms is composed to elicit a lesson from the tradition… they are not simply concerned with the past, but concerned with the lessons of the past and their bearing upon the present and future.”

The psalm retells the stories of Israel’s journey from Egypt through the wilderness and into the promised land. God did mighty deeds and nurtured and protected the people. The problem, however, was that the people relished the blessings and basked in their benefits, but then began to forget the “Author of the blessings.” God blessed the people so that they might be a blessing to others, and become ambassadors or teachers themselves, so that others would come to know and lean on the Lord. Instead, the people “leaned on the blessings of God” thank you very much, and began to live as though they had earned them or deserved them.

Hear these words: “The Lord commanded our ancestors to teach to their children; that the next generation might know… the children yet unborn, and rise up and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments; and that they should not be like their ancestors, a stubborn and rebellious generation… whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to the Lord” (vv. 5-8). Scholars say that this psalm continues to underscore the call of the people of God to “remember and tell… remember and tell… remember and tell…” Instead, Israel had chosen to “receive and keep.”

In some ways, this psalm reminds us that we are all called to continually go “back to school,” to learn and equip ourselves with a great story, God’s Story, to remember and tell to others. Jesus said something similar on the Mount of Olives after the resurrection when he gave the Great Commission to his disciples (that word meaning literally “students” or “apprentices”). They were to go and make other “disciples / students / apprentices” by “teaching them everything that I have taught you” (Matthew 28:19-20).

Therefore, I hope you will go “back to school” or “stay in school” with us in worship and study this fall. That way we can all be great “apprentice-teachers” to a world full of prospective students!

We Gather Together

One of the stories from scripture that I have always been intrigued by is the period of “exile” ofIsrael that you can find referred to in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Ezra, Nehemiah and others. In short, after Babylon destroyed Jerusalem in 587 BCE, it was their policy of imperialism to deport citizens of that country into foreign lands. By so doing, Babylon felt that their occupied countries would be more manageable and less susceptible to uprising or insurrection. The incredible pain that this deportation and displacement caused, has led many scholars to stand amazed that the religion of Judaism and the worship of Yahweh even survived this long exile! When Persiaeventually conquers Babylon, the people of Israel in some places of exile are permitted to return to their land.

I have long felt that there is much for us to learn from this time of exile in our own contemporary church. We have so many people and people-groups who are so cut off and estranged from God, that the case could be made that millions are living in exile today. To witness European countries such as Great Britain and France who have roughly 7% of their nation in church is astounding. InAmerica, estimates range from 28-33%. I believe that people are living in exile here in our own country and community… cut off from the Lord of Life, and wrapped up and consumed in a world of issues, circumstances and catastrophes. Sadly, they have no faith basis nor hope from which to make any sense of it all. It is no wonder that anxiety, depression, stress, grief and suicidal despair are at all time highs.

In exile, Lamentations cries out, “Gone is my glory, and all that I had hoped for from the Lord” (Lam. 3:18). The world as we have known it seems to have disappeared. As one scholar observes, “all the conventional, homegrown props of established society are now largely gone.Old institutions scarcely perform their tasks anymore, and that reality of loss generates enormous anxiety among us.” That reality leads this scholar to assert that the Church has now become “God’s agent for gathering exiles.”[1]

The end of Isaiah depicts a real clash in this ministry moment when exilic Jews return fromBabylon to Jerusalem and encounter communities formed by those “left behind.” One scholar notes that the prevailing issue suddenly becomes “who is in and who must be excluded?”Compounding things was the existence of what historians refer to as “urban elites” among the body who “monopolized power… and thereby had the capacity to define the community and its constituents.” Into this quagmire, the LORD speaks: “Thus says the Lord God, who gathersthe outcasts… I will gather others to them besides those already gathered” (Is. 56:8). The great Old Testament scholar, Walter Brueggemann, states that this verse depicts a “God who gathers.” It depicts that “some are already gathered home that some are not yet gathered home; and that all will, by the mercy of God, be gathered home.”

One need simply listen to Jesus teaching the religious leaders of his day in the 15^th chapter of Luke, saying that God is like a restless shepherd unable to sleep at night because he must go and pursue the one sheep out of the hundred that has strayed off… that God is like an agitated woman who combs through all the house for the one lost coin… that God is like a heartbroken father scanning the horizon yearning for the son who has run off, to come home. God is truly a God who “gathers!”

At the end of August through the end of October, we are launching a media campaign for “exiles.” You will see advertisements on TV that satires the perception of a church that asks that terrible exilic question, “Who gets in and who is excluded?” Our message is that GarfieldMemorial Church is a place of grace that does not exclude, but seeks to join in God’s work of gathering. There will be a trailer highlighting our Odyssey service as Cleveland needs to visually see that this new offering exists in a local church. These ads will depict a body of believers who graciously and lovingly receive “exiles,” as we know that on any given day, we ourselves are exiles.

Walter Brueggemann, Mandate to Difference: An Invitation to the Contemporary Church (Louisville: John Knox Press, 2007), 51 {Later references to Brueggemann in this article, are also found here}.

Rock...and Roll

“Listen to me, you that pursue righteousness, you that seek the LORD. Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug. Look to Abraham, your father and to Sarah who bore you; for he was but one when I called him, but I blessed him and made him many” (Isaiah 51:1-2)

I have always been a nutty history buff. A great historian once stated “Remembering our history does not mean we won’t make the same mistakes. Forgetting our history, however, assures that we will make the same mistakes.” God is a God of moving forward; yet, once in awhile God calls on the people to “remember” from whence they came. God invites us to look over our shoulder and remember our spiritual ancestors and the legacy of faith that they left behind. The writer of Hebrews does a wonderful roll call of faith in the eleventh chapter and then encourages us to “lift our drooping hands and strengthen our weak knees” (Heb. 12:12). It is as if the Holy Spirit is saying, “When you look back upon these spiritual giants, take courage and get back in the race of faith!”

A week ago, our worship leader Nancy Snell uncovered a precious document in the Garfield Memorial church safe. (I will let you ask her what she was doing digging around in there :). It was the minutes of a Post-Depression Conference held in September of 1929, which recorded a pivotal moment in the life of this church. The 96th session of the Pittsburgh Conference of the Methodist Protestant Church (which was our home conference at the time...And yes, I can't believe it was Pittsburgh either!)… records that “Orange Church” was in dire straights. At the time, the church had dwindled down to 30 or 40 “nominal members” with an active constituency of 8! However, at this conference a momentous happening was being recorded. Here are the exact words from their official minutes: “Orange Church, which has been without a pastor for several years and had become almost extinct, has through the faithfulness of the few left to ‘carry on’ suddenly come to a new day” (Sept. 4, 1929).

What had occurred is that a developer (the Van Swergan Company) had undertaken an extensive real estate development in the area, and a new county road was being completed “passing so close to the church property that the county commissioners were about to condemn it” (with only 8 folks in attendance, who could blame them?). Yet, these faithful few caught a vision. If a road was coming through, that meant that there would be people travelling on that road. What if they cut a deal with the developer and moved the church off to the side of where the road would be? Thus, they worked out a deal with enough money to move the facility and to hire a new pastor. The minutes of the conference record that the Methodist Church suddenly had a “splendid new plant, entirely free from debt, with which to begin anew.” Apparently there was another Methodist Church at Orange Center (at Kinsman and SOM Center Roads) that chose to give up the ghost and the minutes say was “sold for a small amount and did disappear in this way.” Our spiritual ancestors chose the fight of faith, however, even if that meant moving out of the way (literally!) and making way for human traffic.

What a legacy! When I read this, I literally cried. With all of our Strategic Mapping, launching of new services and ministries, etc… we are only marching to the beat of these faithful drummers. People who saw the gospel as something greater than themselves, and were ready and willing to do and give “whatever it takes” to see that gospel shared! That’s a history that I am proud to be sharing in, and a heritage that should weigh heavy on all of our shoulders. Let’s remember that “rock from which we were hewn,” and keep it rolling!