Strong in the Lord

Every morning you make a decision. How should you dress for the day?

Should you dress for the season? Long pants or short? White after Labor Day?

Should you dress for the weather? Raincoat or sunscreen? Street shoes or snow boots?

Or should you dress for the occasion? Work clothes or office duds? Loungewear or formalwear? Should you dress for success or go with the flow?

Whatever you decide to wear, if you’re a follower of Jesus, you also need to put on the full armor of God.

Yes, you need protection from the sun and rain, cold wind and snowy blast. You also need protection from evil spiritual forces. These are what the Apostle Paul calls the powers and principalities. They are the rulers and authorities of this world. They are the nameless and often faceless forces of institutions, culture, and society that are the overlords of our age.

Paul says these forces have been corrupted by Satan, “the ruler who dominates the very air” (Ephesians 2.2). Yes, the evil is so pervasive that it’s in the very air we breathe. In these days when we are concerned about the air we breathe because of the coronavirus, that notion should be especially powerful for us.

We can’t escape the influence of these forces. But we can stand against them. We can “out” them; we can reveal them for what they are. And we can blunt the force they have in our lives and the lives of others around us.

We begin by putting on the full armor of God – not just pieces of it, but the whole thing, the “panoply” of it, as Paul says. When we say it’s the armor “of” God, we’re saying not only that it’s the armor that God provides for us but also that it’s also the very armor that God wears.

Paul’s inspiration comes from Isaiah 59. In this passage, God is angered by the lack of justice in the world, so God decides to intervene. Isaiah says that God prepares for battle by putting on righteousness like a breastplate, salvation like a helmet, judgment like an overcoat and zeal like a mantle. (Isaiah 59.17)

It’s natural for Paul to pick up on this military image because he’s fond of vigorous athletic and military images to describe the Christian struggle. He’s in prison, so it’s possible he’s influenced by the sight of Roman soldiers guarding him.

But we need to be careful not to take the image literally. This is figurative language, picture language. Isaiah uses similes. He says God’s armor is “like” this but it’s clearly not the same. Paul uses metaphors, as when he speaks of a “belt of truth.” How does truth hold your pants up? It’s a metaphor, not a literal reality.

These concerns are why I’ve demilitarized the image of a Roman soldier. I’ve rendered him as a green plastic soldier similar to the green plastic Army men that I played with as a boy. They may be more familiar to younger people as the Green Army Men from the “Toy Story” movies.

But even if the image is playful, the reality they represent is not. God’s armor is real, because the forces it protects us from are very real. Using military images, Paul is not glorifying war or armed conflict. He’s saying, “God’s armor is like this, only better.” Wearing this armor, he says, makes us strong not in ourselves but “strong in the Lord.”

We are strong in the Lord, first, when we put on the belt of truth. Belts can be decorative, and they can help hold your pants up, but their primary job is to provide core body support. They help give you the backbone you need to stand straight. A commitment to truth holds you up. Deviate from the truth, and you’ll be soft in the belly.

We are strong in the Lord, second, when we put on the body armor of righteousness, or as it’s traditionally called, the breastplate of righteousness. This armor protects your heart and other vital organs.

What does it mean to be protected by righteousness? Some people think that righteousness is personal morality, but personal morality is highly overrated. Even murderers act from a sense of personal morality. It’s twisted, but it’s there. Biblical righteousness is more than mere morality. The only morality that counts is behavior that is anchored in a right relationship with God.

Elsewhere, Paul talks about the breastplate of faith and love (1 Thessalonians 5:8). Faith and love are linked because righteousness is all about relationship. To be righteous is to be rightly related to God and to others – as Jesus said, to love God and neighbor. Right relationship protects us especially from sins with a sharp edge.

We are strong in the Lord, third, when we walk in shoes of peace. Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers” (Matthew 5:9). Isaiah said: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns’ ” (Isaiah 52:7). Let us walk softly with shoes of peace.

We are strong in the Lord, fourth, when we raise the shield of faith. Roman shields were rectangular so that when soldiers closed ranks, their shields would fit together to present a solid front to the enemy and deflect arrows as well as boulders thrown at them.

Our faith is like that. It protects us individually, but it is strongest when we stand in faith next to our brothers and sisters in Christ. When we are bound together in love, we have a strength that none of us could muster individually.

We are strong in the Lord, fifth, when our heads are protected by the helmet of salvation. This is the sturdy assurance that we are saved, an assurance that will help us keep our heads on straight in times of trial and cushion us against the hard blows of life.

We are strong in the Lord, sixth, when we are armed with the sword of the Spirit. This sword is the word of God, Paul says. Don’t misunderstand here. The word Paul uses is not logos, meaning Jesus, the Word of God with a capital W; or the Bible, which many consider the word of God, with a lowercase w.

The word Paul uses is rema. It means the message, the gospel. That’s our armament. That’s what we use to conquer the world. Only let’s not weaponize it. Let’s not use the gospel as something to beat up other people, but as good news to open their hearts.

In the book of Revelation, when Jesus conquers evil, he uses what’s called the “sharp two-edged sword of his mouth.” That’s his creative and powerful logos, or word. Similarly, we are empowered to create or destroy with the words we speak. With the sword of the Spirit, we try to speak the truth in love and build up one another for the work of God’s ministry.

Finally, Paul says, we are strong in the Lord when we pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Prayer isn’t part of our armor. But it’s what holds everything together seamlessly. If there are any gaps in our armor, prayer fills them in.

Thus protected, we are equipped to stand against attacks from the powers. But let’s not, please, sing another chorus of “Onward Christian Soldiers.” Despite the militaristic imagery, this is not a call to violence. It is a call to push back hard against the powers. The goal is not to defeat them – which is surely beyond our power – but rather to thwart their evil intent and turn it toward good.

The first step is to identify them. 1 John 4:1 calls this “discerning the spirits” or “testing the spirits.” In Ephesians 4:31, Paul gives us some guidelines. Do these spirits promote faith and love? Have they put away bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander and malice? Are they kind and tenderhearted and forgiving?

It’s not enough to judge their words. Look at their actions. Observe what they do. Evil often disguises itself as good. It may look good on the surface, but below the surface be rotten to the core.

Once you’ve identified the powers, the task becomes unmasking them in public. Best of luck with this part. The powers are often unmasked, but they are like magicians. They are skilled at misdirecting your attention here so you won’t see what they’re doing there. They will try to turn the unmasking to their benefit.

Finally, you have to simply call them out on it. You have to denounce the powers for what they are. This is often called “speaking truth to power.” This notion was popularized by the Quakers, especially the black Quaker human rights activist Bayard Rustin. He goes so far as to say that the primary social function of religion is to speak truth to power.

There’s even a Greek word for it in the New Testament. It’s parrēsia. It means speaking with boldness, assurance, confidence, frankness, openness. That’s how the early Christians spoke – and if you read the book of Acts, you’ll see that speaking this way got them into a lot of trouble. But it was what human rights activist John Lewis calls “good trouble.” It’s the kind of trouble you want to be involved with.

The classic biblical story of saying truth to power involves the prophet Nathan confronting King David after David’s rape of Bathsheba and murder of her husband Uriah. It’s a rare moment when a prophet can speak truth to a king and live to tell the tale. You can read about it in 2 Samuel chapter 12.

Don’t expect accolades, promotions or rewards when speaking truth to power. You’ve seen how whistleblowers have been treated in Washington over the last four years, despite the protection of laws. Many people who do it end up ruined or buried by the minions that serve the powers. But seismic changes can happen. Witness the fall of the communist bloc 30 years ago. Witness the peaceful end of apartheid in South Africa about the same time. Surely God was active in those days!

We are at one of those crucial moments right now. The viral pandemic, waves of police lawlessness, and Trump’s racism and authoritarianism have come together to create a unique opportunity for our society. A moment of racial reckoning may be at hand. Events may force America to confront its greatest sickness.

It could be a kairos moment, a God moment, the right time for divine intervention. Or maybe we will let the moment slip away. Maybe we will – as we have so often done before – blink when we should stare down the evil of racism, denounce it for the evil it is and say, “No more! Repent and trust the gospel of Jesus Christ!”

We do not wear the armor of God to protect us from trivial sins. We wear the armor of God to protect us while we confront the evil forces that create misery in our world. Tomorrow, when you’re getting dressed, consider the weather and the season and the occasion. But whatever else you put on, put on God’s armor. It’s what you really need in the battle ahead!

But remember that you never fight alone. As Charles Albert Tindley says in his hymn, “Beams of Heaven”:

Harder yet may be the fight; right may often yield to might;

wickedness awhile may reign; Satan’s cause may seem to gain.

But there’s a God who rules above with hand of power and heart of love;

and if I’m right, he’ll fight my battle, I shall have peace someday.

I shall have peace someday.

Amen.

This message was delivered October 18, 2020 at Edgerton United Methodist Church in Edgerton, Kansas, from Ephesians 6:10-18.

The Powers that Be

We have lost two human rights heroes so far this year – John Lewis in July and Ruth Bader Ginsburg in September. Our nation was enriched by their long and distinguished service, and we are greatly impoverished by their absence.

Three former presidents attended Lewis’ memorial service in Atlanta. One former president did not attend because of his age and concern about travel during a pandemic. The sitting president did not attend because he was still miffed that Lewis didn’t attend his inauguration nearly four years ago. If Trump had shown up, it would have been the height of hypocrisy because he represents just about everything that Lewis opposed.

In his eulogy for Lewis, former President Barack Obama said a remarkable thing. He said of Lewis’ life: “It vindicated … that faith, that most American of ideas, that idea that any of us ordinary people without rank or wealth or title or fame can somehow point out the imperfections of this nation and come together and challenge the status quo, and decide that it is in our power to remake this country that we love until it more closely aligns with our highest ideals.

“What a radical idea! What a revolutionary notion – this idea that any of us, ordinary people … can stand up to the powers and principalities and say, ‘No, this isn’t right, this isn’t true, this isn’t just – we can do better.’ ”

Did you catch the biblical reference there? It was from the King James Version, where Ephesians 6:12 says: “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

Modern translations speak of rulers and authorities, rather than powers and principalities. However you refer to them, we need to understand what they are so that we can identify them, publicly denounce them for what they are, and stand against them.

What we are talking about here is commonly called “spiritual warfare,” but it is far more than what’s commonly talked about. In many churches, spiritual warfare is strictly an individual thing. It’s you against the demons. You’ve got to fight those demons or they’ll entice you to perform sinful and degrading acts – smoking, drinking, gambling, drugs, sex, rock and roll, not to mention the farthest reaches of moral squalor – the toleration of homosexuality and liberal politics.

Spiritual warfare does involve your personal battle against personal sin, but it is far more than that, and far more is at stake than your individual morality. We’re talking here about cosmic forces that are larger than any individual. These are invisible forces that shape all our lives.

We have several names for them: The Establishment. The Man. The Boss. The System. The status quo. The Powers That Be.

You’ve heard the expression, “You can’t fight City Hall.” Well, you can try. Soon you’ll discover that though individuals of flesh and blood may be the ones who tell you “No,” they’re not the real problem. The real problem is the system, and it’s far bigger than any individual or group of individuals in it. It’s the system you can’t fight.

Ever try to dispute a claim with your insurance company? Ever try to argue with your bank? Internet provider? The water company? The police department? Social Security or Medicare?

Powers and principalities are systems and institutions and cultural norms and thought patterns. They are everywhere, and they influence every aspect of our lives. They are not necessarily evil. In fact, they were created to be, and can continue to be, forces for good. But they have a life of their own, and when they turn bad, bad things happen to people who get in their way.

Just about everything I know about powers and principalities I learned from Walter Wink, a United Methodist theologian who began his studies with statements by the Apostle Paul in Colossians and Ephesians. (See Colossians 1:16, 2:15, Ephesians 1:21-22.)

The first thing to know, Wink says, is the powers were created by God, and like all of God’s creation, they are intended for good. But like human beings, they got corrupted, and now many of them act as forces of evil. Still, like humans, they can be redeemed. This means that Christ died to redeem not only sinful individuals but also the institutions that sinfully enslave individuals and societies.

Societies, governments, corporations, economic systems – these are all powers and principalities. Their God-given purpose is the serve the common welfare. But they have become spiritually diseased. They have become demonic. Their effect is evil.

Racism is one of the powers. It is a form of domination and subordination that serves the welfare of only some, not all. It’s a perversion of God’s provision for human society. It’s an impersonal force, but like all powers, it can be incarnated in human beings. It was incarnated in Alabama in the 1960s in Bull Connor and George Wallace. It’s incarnated today a little more subtly in Donald Trump and his campaign to “Make America White Again.”

So many people today still think, “Well, I’m not racist,” so that settles the problem. But it doesn’t. Because the problem is bigger than any individual. The problem is systemic. The problem is perpetuated by white people who may not be racist but have no idea how to defeat a system that holds them prisoner as surely as it imprisons black people.

Racism is far from the only evil power. The powers include most forms of nationalism because nationalism is a perversion of patriotism. It turns the healthy love of your own country into the hatred of other countries. White nationalism and Christian nationalism are two familiar forms of this sickness – turning love for your own into hatred of others simply because they are different.

Our capitalist economic system has become a perverted power. Look at the stock market. Stocks were intended to be a way of investing in an enterprise. You helped capitalize – that is, raise money for – a company that provided certain goods and services. If the company performed well, it made a profit, and as an investor, you got a share of it.

These days, the primary purpose of a stock is to produce value or income for stockholders. Providing valuable goods and services is a secondary concern, if it is a concern at all. Greed has overcome the pursuit of virtue. When the top 1 percent of Americans own 40 percent of the wealth, something is fundamentally wrong with the way our society works. The system is broken.

Another of the powers is authoritarianism. The powers always get their way through violence or the threat of violence. Sometimes it’s simple gangsterism, but it’s usually through institutionalized violence. One form was the legal system known as Jim Crow that enslaved black people for more than a century after they were legally emancipated.

Another form: drug laws designed to incarcerate black men at a higher rate than others. Another form: police violence and a criminal justice system that looks the other way – as we are understanding more thoroughly in the case of Breonna Taylor’s killing – “lawful but awful,” as one observer says.

You may note that authoritarianism is favored only by those in power, and only when they are in power. When they are out of power, they favor something else – whatever is to their advantage, since seeking advantage over others is what they really want.

Many of the “isms” are forms of oppression, because they give one set of people power over another. Think of sexism, heterosexism (also called homophobia), ageism, and classism.

Journalist Isabel Wilkerson has raised a stir in her new book titled Caste. She contends that America lives under a caste system that ranks people by race. Upper caste people are white. Lower caste people are non-white. Wilkerson says caste creates a ladder of humanity, sorting people in a scheme of hierarchy that they cannot escape. If she’s right, caste is another of the powers.

Caste is mostly unspoken, unnamed, unacknowledged and so internalized that you don’t even know it’s there. Wilkerson says it’s like the studs and joists in your house. You can’t see them, but they hold the structure together. They are invisible but powerful forces. That’s how all the powers work – invisibly and powerfully.

What Wilkerson calls caste may just be another form of classism. However you think of it, you need to be aware of its influence. Sometimes it uses race to enforce its rules. Sometimes it uses sex or age or gender preference. Sometimes it follows rules that are inscrutable. You may never know why certain things happen in your life – why you didn’t get that job, for example, or why you did get it.

It’s nothing personal, understand. The powers don’t care who they crush as long as the crushing benefits them. The powers do care about whom they elevate. The powers love to become incarnated in humans, especially authoritarian leaders and, of course, dictators. When the powers are embodied in flesh and blood, the fight gets nasty as well as personal.

In case you think I’m spinning just another elaborate conspiracy theory, let me tell you that conspiracy theories and other similar cultural currents also are powers. They may have a tiny kernel of truth in them, but they become perverted into evil forces.

Take the Illuminati, for example. They were a real secret society involved in the French Revolution in 1789, but they soon acquired a reputation far surpassing reality. Talk of them today is fantasy.

One way the powers get away with everything is by tricking us into thinking that we as individuals are responsible for their sins. Blame the victim, in other words. If we think that we are personally responsible for all this evil, we can become overwhelmed by the immensity of it and overcome by our inability to do anything about it.

That is precisely what the powers want. They want us to feel overwhelmed. They want us to think there is nothing we can do to fight them and there is no way to defeat them. But we can stand against them, and we can defeat them.

That’s what we’ll focus on next week, when we talk about putting on the full armor of God.

You’ll need armor because confronting the powers will get you into trouble. John Lewis called it “good trouble.” It’s the kind of trouble Ruth Bader Ginsburg was always getting into with her fiery dissents to Supreme Court decisions. It’s the kind of trouble Jesus got into confronting the powers in his day. It’s the kind of trouble most genuine American heroes get into.

Obama was right. “What a revolutionary notion” this is – “this idea that any of us, ordinary people … can stand up to the powers and principalities and say, ‘No, this isn’t right, this isn’t true, this isn’t just – we can do better.’ ”

The odds against us are great. But we never stand alone. We are like young David confronting the giant Goliath with his five smooth stones and the confidence that the Lord is on his side.

As Paul told the church at Rome: “I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).

With that conviction, we can stand strong against the powers that be.

The message was delivered October 11, 2020 at Edgerton United Methodist Church, from Ephesians 6:10-12.

Loaves and Fishes

Are you a wannabe? Or are you a gonnabe?

Wannabes want to be like someone else. A wannabe is girl who wants to be like Lady Gaga, or maybe Ruth Bader Ginsburg. A wannabe is a boy who wants to be like Patrick Mahomes, or maybe Alex Gordon. Try as they might, they can never become someone else.

By contrast, gonnabes want to become the best possible version of themselves. Gonnabes may start out like wannabes, but they move beyond the stage of mere aspiration. They change the wanna into gonna. They become what they wannabe. They become the best possible version of themselves.

Churches are the same way. We got our wannabes, and we got our gonnabes. The question every church must ask itself is simple: Which one are we? Are we a wannabe, or are we a gonnabe?

The question may never have been more important than it is now, as we struggle through the covid-19 pandemic. We have an opportunity to reinvent ourselves. If we do, we may come out stronger than we were before. If we don’t, we are in big trouble.

Pardon the grinding noise as I shift gears.

Every year for the last 20-plus years, Church of the Resurrection has sponsored a Leadership Institute. It attracts pastors, church staff members and laypeople from multiple denominations around the country – indeed, around the world. They gather for two or three days to hear top-flight speakers and attend workshops on best practices.

I’ve attended many of these sessions, including the most recent one Sept. 24 and 25. It was very different from the previous ones, in that it was totally online. That has its pluses and minuses. On the plus side, it’s shorter, and you don’t have to travel to get there. On the minus side, you have much less opportunity to meet new people and to reconnect with friends. Last year, I was able to spend time with a friend I hadn’t seen in maybe 10 years. That alone made the whole thing worthwhile.

The in-person 2019 Leadership Institute attracted 3,200 people – a record number. The online-only 2020 Leadership Institute attracted 4,200 people. That means one thousand more church people than last year wanted to connect in whatever way they could to hear how they could become better church leaders in time of pandemic.

These are wannabes on the way to becoming gonnabes. It’s not that they want to become like Adam Hamilton. Rather, they want to become the best possible version of themselves that they can be so that they can lead their churches to become the best possible version of themselves that they can be.

I want to share some of what I learned during this session, because it’s important.

First, Adam made a point that I’ve shared with you before. The “old normal,” whatever we imagine it to have been, is gone. The old normal is history.

Life before March 15 is history. Pre-March 15 Edgerton is as much history as the villages of McCamish and Lanesfield that once stood nearby. Pre-March 15 Gardner is as much history as that sign that pointed “This way to Santa Fe, this way to Oregon and California.”

Life can never be the same as it was pre-pandemic. Even as we grieve that loss, we want to recognize that we have an opportunity to make life a little better than it was. God did not cause this pandemic, but as always God is trying to work good through it by working with us to create positive change.

Covid-19 will continue to make our lives difficult for some time yet. But, unless we blow our response entirely, this is only a temporary situation. The new normal that will come out of this is what we are creating right now.

We don’t have to completely get our act together right now. But we need to start thinking about what we need to do to get our act together, and working to implement those ideas, or we will be caught off-guard and stumble bigtime.

One of the speakers at this year’s Leadership Institute was Ron Heifetz, who is one of the world’s best-known authorities on leadership. He normally teaches at Harvard in Massachusetts, but the pandemic lockdown caught him vacationing in Hawaii. That’s where he’s been stuck since mid-March. Tough duty, he admits.

He says there are three questions we need to ask ourselves as leaders and as institutions.

1. What is essential for us to preserve? Or, as Adam Hamilton paraphrases it: What must we keep doing?

2. What must we let go from our past? What must we stop doing?

3. What innovations must we make? What must we change?

These are challenging questions. These are not new questions, though. These are the same questions we ask ourselves all the time, if we are truly attuned to the gospel imperative of being fresh wineskins for the good news of Jesus Christ.

Several years ago, when we were moving to a one-board form of church governance, I said that questions similar to these should be part of every Church Council meeting – and one of these days, when we return to regular Church Council meetings, they will be again.

What is essential? What must we continue to do, no matter what? What defines us as a church? What is there without which we are not who we really are, or at least want to be?

For the last seven months, we have continued to worship. We worshipped online only at first. Now we worship in person and online as well – at least, when the wi-fi cooperates.

We continue to feed people through the Community Food Pantry. We have had to stop hosting Grace Café because of safety concerns. If we consider that part of our food ministry to be essential to our identity, we will pick it up again eventually, though perhaps this hiatus give us an opportunity to tinker with the format before we start up again.

Small group meetings for Bible study and book sharing have continued in new ways. Purely social gatherings, such as senior game night, have had to stop because we cannot imagine an online alternative.

Being able to go online has saved us. In fact, going online has greatly expanded our reach. Before March 15, the only way you could be part of worship was to physically show up at 9 on Sunday morning. Since then, we have expanded the number of ways you can be part of this worship time. Now we routinely reach 100 or more, sometimes way more, every week. Our “attendance” has multiplied.

That happened because of innovations we made to preserve what’s essential. Necessity forced us to go online. We had to innovate. We had to change. And more changes are ahead.

Our monthly newsletter has now become a Weekly Update distributed by email and US mail. Its content keeps expanding. Who knows what it may look like in seven more months?

The nasty question, of course, is what activities we might discard and leave behind, either because we cannot find a new way to do them, or we decide that they’re no longer worth the effort required to do them well – and if we can’t do them well, we should not do them at all.

We have so slimmed our ministry menu of late that there may be nothing else left on the plate that’s extra. Or maybe there’s room for more of a different kind. We will have these conversations as we move along.

One thing that is here to stay is our online presence. It is vital to our present as well as to our future. We just have to get better at it. I remember my first two attempts at Facebook Live when I appeared sideways. Somebody changed the rules on how you start it up, and I missed the memo, so I appeared vertically challenged. I’ve learned a few things since then. I know there’s plenty more to learn to improve our livestream experience.

Church of the Resurrection recently discovered just how important its online presence is. On Sept. 20, 502 people joined the church in an online ceremony. More than 50 of those people don’t live around here. Some of them have never even been in the building. Some of them may never be. But they have pledged to be supportive members.

So COR now has a purely online congregation as well as a hybrid congregation of those who worship online plus – as of this weekend – those who worship in person. Such transitions are difficult, as we can testify after worshipping outside for five weeks before we moved inside, and still under strict conditions that we could never have imagined seven months ago.

Talk of change always gives people the willies. Ron Heifetz makes the point that people don’t fear change per se. What people fear is loss. We’re afraid that change will bring loss of something we hold dear. But if we adapt creatively to the changes around us, the gains can outweigh any loss we feel, and the future can be bright.

We face two kinds of challenges, Heifetz says – technical and adaptive. A technical challenge is something you probably already know the solution to. The furnace quits; you fix the furnace. The wi-fi quits; you fix the wi-fi. Those are technical solutions to technical problems.

But some challenges are so big and so broad that they cannot be met by technical solutions. They require adaptive changes. They require basic changes in how we do things. And deep change is always risky because people fear the possibility of loss.

But Heifetz says we usually don’t need to make revolutionary changes to meet adaptive challenges. He says most positive change involves relatively conservative adaptations of what is already in place. If change is rooted in who we are, we won’t feel a great loss because we won’t lose anything in the transition.

Denial of the situation will kill us, Heifetz says. Nostalgia for the past will kill us, too. We have to face the reality of the present and do what we need to do to preserve what we believe to be essential. We can look back fondly at where we’ve been, but we have to realize that the past is not a proper guide to the future.

Most of all, we need to proceed in faith. I won’t insult your intelligence by denying that even that can be scary.

Take the time Jesus and his disciples land their boat at a remote place and discover that a huge crowd is already there waiting for them. Late in the afternoon, the disciples tell Jesus it’s time to send everybody away to buy food. They see a technical problem – people are hungry – and they propose a technical solution – let them buy food.

Jesus sees the problem differently. “You feed them,” he tells his disciples. He knows that a technical solution to the problem is impractical. So he provides an innovative solution. It’s not one the disciples could have expected. It’s not one we can expect today. But we also need to look for innovative solutions to adapt to our new circumstances.

As I was musing on this scripture and some others last week, there came to me a possible solution to something that’s been bugging me for awhile. Some time ago, I helped saddle this church with a generic vision and mission statement that provide little inspiration for anyone. Maybe I’m the only one who cares about it. But I want to suggest an alternative today because it could be helpful as we chart our future.

It seems to me two things are among the things essential to who we are. These are worship and feeding people. Most everything we do revolves around those two concerns.

A vision statement is supposed to describe the change you want to make. A mission statement is supposed to describe what you do to make it happen. I think our mission is nourishing people in body and spirit. I think our vision is a community that is free of hunger and rich in spirit.

See how those fit together? We nourish those who are hungry and poor in spirit because we want to see a community that is free of hunger and rich in spirit. I think that says a lot about who we are. Let me know what you think of the idea.

By ourselves, we cannot feed all who are hungry in the Gardner-Edgerton area. But we can set the pace for doing it. We can be like that young lad who showed up that day in Galilee with a knapsack containing five barley loaves and a couple of dried fish. He was willing to share what he had, and God multiplied it to feed thousands.

God can work miracles in our midst, too, if we are faithful; if we have a strong sense of who we are; if we decide that on these essentials we will stand, and on these essentials we will innovate.

Because we are not just wannabes. We are gonnabes. We know what we wannabe. We wanna be God’s change agents in our corner of the world. We wanna praise God, and we wanna be used by God to feed hungry people and tell the good news about Jesus. And we’re gonna do whatever it takes to become what we wannabe!

This message was presented October 4, 2020, at Edgerton United Methodist Church in Edgerton, Kansas, from Matthew 14:14-18.

Breathing Prayer

Last Sunday I introduced a Bible study called Connections that I think can help you get through the anxious days we live in. I hope you’ve at least taken that out for a test drive. Today I’m going to show you a couple of ways of praying that I also think you will find helpful in this stressful time.

The beauty of these ways of praying is that you can do them almost anytime and anywhere, even in the most demanding circumstances. These are prayers that you make in coordination with your breathing.

In these days of pandemic, when we wear masks in public to protect ourselves and others from our breath, it may seem odd to talk about breathing as a form of prayer. But it can be a powerful way of communicating with God.

We’re going to practice several breathing prayers this morning, so let’s get warmed up. First, make yourself comfortable. Relax. Roll your neck to get some kinks out. Let your arms go limp in your lap or at your side. Take a deep breath in. Let it out slowly. Inhale again, a good deep breath. Now let it out. Let it all out.

Breathing such as this is a kind of prayer. That’s the assertion of John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement. He calls it “spiritual respiration.” He describes it as “the life of God in the soul of a believer.”

It’s “the continual inspiration of God’s Holy Spirit,” he says – “God breathing into the soul, and the soul breathing back what it receives from God.”

It’s about God continually breathing into us the breath of life, and us breathing back to God the fruits of life renewed through Christ.

Let’s practice it again. Breathe in. Breathe out.

Breathe in God’s grace. Breathe out praise and prayer. Breathe in God’s grace. Breathe out love and thanksgiving. Breathe in grace to you. Breathe out grace to others

Breathing in and breathing out, we move from the experience of God’s grace to the sharing of God’s grace, from the receiving of grace to the giving away of grace we have received.

Spiritual respiration, then, is kind of an enacted parable of our life in grace. It is sometimes called the “prayer of the heart,” because words are not necessary. But you can add words, in an ancient practice called Breath Prayer. As the name implies, it’s a short prayer that’s intended to be said in one breath – one part while inhaling and one part while exhaling.

Any short prayer will work, but a popular form is called the Jesus Prayer. It’s based on the prayer of Bartimaeus, the blind man whom Jesus heals in Jericho on his last trip to Jerusalem.

The Jesus Prayer goes like this: (inhale) “Jesus, Son of God, (exhale) have mercy on me.”

Practice that with me. (inhale) “Jesus, Son of God, (exhale) have mercy on me.” And again…

There’s a longer form, if you have the breath for it: (inhale) “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, (exhale) have mercy on me, a sinner.”

Again: (inhale) “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, (exhale) have mercy on me, a sinner.”

The Jesus Prayer is just one of many Breath Prayers you can make.

Here are some other popular ones, some longer than others.

Lord, have mercy.

Come, Lord Jesus.

Not my will, but yours.

When I trust in you, I am not afraid.

The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.

Jesus loves me, this I know.

I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.

The joy of the Lord is my strength.

This is the day the Lord has made; I will rejoice and be glad in it.

Breath prayers have a calming effect because you have to regulate your breathing to say them. But sometimes you don’t have the leisure to do that. In times of crisis, you may have to just blurt something out to keep you properly centered.

That’s when another kind of prayer comes in. It’s saying a word or phrase over and over again as fast or as slow as you need to. Call this a prayer word, or mantra. It’s something that helps you focus on a positive thought.

Remember the story of The Little Engine That Could? “I think I can, I think I can.”

When you’re stressed, feeling overwhelmed, facing uncertain days ahead, repeating a mantra or prayer word can help you keep on track with positive thinking.

At this point, I need to confess that almost everything I know about mantras I learned from Ginger Rothhass. Ginger is a graduate of Saint Paul School of Theology. Like my wife Linda, she once served as a pastoral care intern at Church of the Resurrection in Leawood. She now lives in Kansas City, in Brookside, and acts as a soul coach.

You can find her at two websites: compassionfix.com and manyopengates.com. You can sign up for a weekly email message from her. I look forward to receiving one every Tuesday morning.

Back to mantras and prayer words.

Here’s what Ginger says: “Repeating a phrase or word to yourself has been shown to have a physiological effect on our bodies. It can create a feeling of calm, bring reassurance, help us to feel safe, lower stress, increase optimism, and positively impact outcomes. By repeating a phrase to yourself, you are creating a neural pathway that not only creates a habit of positive thinking but becomes your default mindset.”

Here are some examples of mantras that she lists:

I can do this.

I choose to be happy.

I am loved.

Done beats perfect.

It’s good enough.

I’ve come so far.

Do the right thing.

Go slow.

Don’t force it.

Let it go.

Family first.

It will get better.

All is well.

I am not alone.

This too shall pass.

Breathe.

You can also create your own mantra. What advice do you want to give yourself? When do you need encouragement the most? Write some mantras and test them out. If they are true and positive and encouraging, keep using them.

Practice using them every day. The more often you repeat them, the more likely you are to remember the thought when you need it most. It’s similar to memorizing Bible verses. They’re there when you need them.

Using mantras of your own creation, you can become your own life coach, and you can coach yourself through bad times.

Spiritual respiration, Breath Prayer, mantra. These are ways you can stay in touch with God anytime of day, anytime of need, anywhere you are physically, mentally, or spiritually.

Remember that God is as close as your breath. God was there for your first breath and will be there for your last breath and is there for every breath in between. You can pray without ceasing and rejoice always with every breath you take. May you breathe, and pray, well.

This message was delivered September 27, 2020, at Edgerton United Methodist Church in Edgerton, Kansas, from Mark 10:64-69 and 1 Thessalonians 5:16-17.

Rules of Life

I have a restless and inquisitive mind, so I read voraciously in several areas: theology, the practice of ministry, history and, of course, fiction – though I’m fairly picky about what fiction I read. One of the reasons I read so widely is that I love following rabbit trails.

I can be reading a book or a blog, and the writer will mention something that tickles my fancy, and off I go, googling a book title or a name or an idea I never heard of before. Half an hour later, I may have satisfied my curiosity, or maybe only whet my appetite for more.

You can get seriously lost on rabbit trails, or you they can become journeys of wonder.

A couple of weeks ago, after I did a message on doing good, Jean Reynolds pointed me to a song that I had never heard before. Turns out, it was slyly hidden in our green hymnal supplement all the time, and I’d never noticed it.

The lyrics were from that saying attributed to John Wesley, though he probably never said it quite this way:

Do all the good you can

by all the means you can

in all the ways you can

in all the places you can

at all the times you can

to all the people you can

as long as ever you can.

What intrigued me most about it, though, was the title: Rule of Life. I’d heard a little about it before but decided I needed to know more.

I started with United Methodist resources. Sure enough, I found a brochure with a cover much like the one you see on the screen. The brochure said that the United Methodist Rule of Life consisted of those Three Simple Rules that we discussed the previous three Sundays.

I wanted to know more, so I kept digging, and I found many resources for devising a personal rule of life. A brief but very helpful summation originates not far from here, in Independence, at the headquarters of the Community of Christ, what used to be known as the RLDS church. The Episcopal Church calls its rule The Way of Love. Elaborate and comprehensive instructions also can be found at the website of Bridgetown Church in Portland.

Turns out, you can make this as easy or as difficult as you like. I’m going to show you an easy way this morning – and all the result of me following a rabbit trail.

Let’s begin with the basics. What is a rule of life?

First, it is not a rigid list of laws or regulations that you have to follow – or else. A rule of life is a voluntary and loving way of relating to God, self and neighbor. It’s a pattern for intentional living, a plan for holiness of heart and life.

The word “rule” comes from the Latin regula, from which we get the words “regulate” and “regular.” Regula means a straight edge, like a ruler, or a pattern for growth, like a trellis for flowers or a grapevine.

Some rules of life are corporate, such as the Rule of St. Benedict used for centuries by monasteries around the world. We’re going to talk about a personal rule, devised by you just for you. It’s simply a pattern of practices that helps you grow.

Right now, right before your eyes, we’re going to build one, using a handout that came out in the Weekly Update. If you didn’t get it, email me or the church office, and we’ll send one out to you. (A copy follows.)

We’ll start with five basic categories, and then add certain practices in each category. One of the first things you’ll notice is that some practices fit in multiple categories, so you can put the emphasis wherever you want.

The first category is Body. Here are some practices you might include here.

Adequate sleep: Seven to eight hours a day is often suggested. Some people think they can get by with less. Some need more. What’s best for you?

Regular exercise: That’s what your doctor nags you about all the time, right?

Walking or running: Run, if you can. Walk, if you can’t run. It’s good exercise, and you might meet some new people on the way, especially these days when so many people are out walking.

Participating in sports: Notice that it doesn’t say “watching sports on TV.” You may get worked up watching the Chiefs play, but it’s just not the same.

Healthy diet: Hey, you know what’s good for you and what’s not.

Practice self care: Some of us are really good at caring for others and really bad at caring for ourselves. Remember that Jesus says we should love others as we love ourselves. You can’t help others if you’re sick all the time because you don’t take care of yourself.

Eliminate hurry: Slow down! Save energy and reduce stress.

Adequate water: Eight glasses of water a day is usually cited as a goal. If you’ve ever gotten seriously dehydrated, you know why it’s important.

Limited alcohol: No lectures here. You get the hint.

Recreation and hobby: You don’t have to collect knick-knacks or run model trains. Do what most appeals to you.

Play with children and Play with pets: Both may wear you out, and it’s sure good for you.

That’s a dozen things in only one category! Don’t think that you have to do them all. Choose a few to start. You’re on your way to a rule of life.

The next category is Mind.

Adequate “down time”: Do you ever just sit or lie down for a few moments to rest?

Silence & solitude, retreat: These are longer forms of down time. They also can be a spiritual discipline.

Periodic fasting & self denial: Most of us have an unhealthy relationship with food. Fasting from food can help identify the problem. You also can fast from social media – especially Facebook – and digital devices. My iPad is really annoying about telling my how much screen time I’ve had in the last week, but the hint is helpful.

Weekly Sabbath: It’s not just a commandment, it’s a necessity for your mental, physical, and spiritual health. Your Sabbath may not be Saturday or Sunday, as long as it’s one of those seven days. Mine is usually Monday. This is another form of down time and retreat.

Listen to music: You can do this most anytime, often while doing other things.

Listen to podcasts: I’ve done this sometimes while digging out weeds in the garden.

Fiction and non-fiction reading: If you don’t know what to read, ask somebody in our Roses & Thorns Reading Group.

Maintain a rainy day fund: You really do need to be ready for that impossible-to-foresee emergency that quickly drains your resources.

Have deep conversations: Most of the time, most of us major in the minors. Deeper conversation is good for your spirit, too.

We move on then to our third category, Spirit.

Weekly worship: Ought to be obvious. So should Daily prayer all ways. We’ll talk more in the future about the many ways you can pray. One way is the Daily examen. This is a way of winding up the day with a sort of spiritual scorecard. How’d I do today, Lord?

Another way of prayer is Contemplation & reflection. This is a deep discipline I would love to know more about personally.

Daily scripture reading also is important. Next week I’ll introduce you to a Bible study plan I think could be helpful for you. You can dig deeper into what you’ve learned in a small group, or what John Wesley called Christian Conference.

Holy Communion is a sacrament you should try to partake in at least monthly. Maybe we can talk someday about making it a weekly practice.

Sharing your faith: It’s not just how you live but also how you explain why you live the way you do. Be prepared, as it says in 2 Peter chapter 3, and you’ll be surprised how often the opportunity arises.

Church activities: Many of these will resume, one of these days.

Special ministry fund: Besides saving for a rainy day for yourself, you might save a little for a special ministry’s rainy day so you can give whenever you learn about it.

Visit the sick & imprisoned: Neither are viable activities at this time, but even now if you know that someone is sick, maybe you could call ahead and pull into the drive and honk your horn to let them know you care.

Feed the hungry: We still do this through the Community Food Bank, though it’s still not safe yet to re-open Grace Café.

Resist evil, speak out against wrong: You don’t have to march in the streets to make your opinion known. The two Kansas senators stopped replying to my emails years ago. But they know where I stand.

Work is our fourth category.

Work can be a real grind, or it can be something that gives your life pleasure and meaning as well as income. Embrace work as a ministry to others, because that’s what it can be. But try to Maintain work boundaries. Don’t work too much, and don’t bring it home. If you work from home, know when to quit.

Know why you do what you do – especially if you consider it a vocation so, as we said above, you can share your faith with others. Whatever you do, work hard – give it your best effort within a reasonable time – but always remember to play harder.

Our fifth and final category is Relations. This is all about maintaining your all-important relationships.

Many couples have learned to cherish a Date night with your spouse, though that may be hard to do right now. Dinner and a movie might not be safe yet. Meeting with friends and Making new friends can be hard now, too, but it’s also rewarding. You might make some new friends when you Visit neighbors, including people you barely know who live right down the street.

Maybe what you really need is a “Do nothing” night when you try not to accomplish anything. Or maybe you’ve had your fill of those in the last six months.

Finally, there’s Generous giving of self and resources. That’s kind of a miscellaneous gathering of some things we’ve already mentioned and some we haven’t. Fill in the blanks on your own.

That’s all there is to it. You can add more categories and activities as you like. Probably many of you are saying, “I already do half these things!” If so, that’s great! That means you already have a rule of life, or at least the start of one.

Now, go down the handout and put a check by all the things you already do. Then choose a couple more to add to your routine. See how that works for you. Add or subtract activities as you grow and your needs change.

My personal rule, of course, includes following rabbit trails. Yours may not. That’s how this thing works.

This is a simple way of charting a course for your future. And it doesn’t matter how old you are. If you’re still breathing, it’s not too late to make some improvements in your life or to ditch some bad old habits.

“I am the vine. You are the branches,” Jesus says. “Abide in me.” (John 15:4-5). Use your personal Rule of Life as a trellis on which you can grow and bear fruit with your life.

This is another way, as the Apostle Paul says, of taking “your everyday, ordinary life – your sleeping, eating, going-to-work and walking-around life” and placing it before God as an offering (Romans 12:1).

Take this thing out for a spin and see how well it works for you. Let me know how you’re doing. Most of all, embrace your whole life as a gift to God and others – and give it everything you’ve got!

Amen.

This message was delivered September 13, 2020 at Egerton United Methodist Church, from John 15:4-5, Romans 12:1-2.

Here’s the text of the handout:

A rule of life is a commitment to live your life a certain way guided by love of God and neighbor. It’s a pattern for intentional living, a plan for holiness of heart and life.

Our English word “rule” comes from the Latin “regula,” meaning a straight edge or ruler, or a support system such as a trellis. Consider it a framework for abiding in Christ. “I am the vine, you are the branches,” Jesus said (John 15.5).

Your rule can be as complicated – or as simple – as you make it. Here are some ideas for activities in several categories. It helps if you flesh each out with the amount of time invested: daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, always. Choose some from each category to start. Add or subtract as you go.

Body

Adequate sleep (7-8 hours a day)

Regular exercise

Walking or running

Participating in sports

Healthy diet

Practice self care

Eliminate hurry

Adequate water

Limited alcohol

Recreation & hobby

Play with children

Play with pets

Mind

Adequate “down time”

Silence & solitude

Periodic fasting & self-denial – from food, social media, digital devices

Weekly Sabbath

Listen to music

Listen to podcasts

Reading, fiction and non-fiction

Rainy day fund

Deep conversations

Spirit

Weekly worship

Daily prayer all ways

Daily examen

Contemplation & reflection

Daily scripture reading

Christian Conference

Holy Communion

Sharing your faith

Church activities

Special ministry fund

Visit sick & imprisoned

Feed the hungry

Resist evil, speak out against wrong

Work

Embrace work as a ministry

Maintain work boundaries

Know why you do what you do

Work hard, play harder

Relations

Date night with spouse

Meet with friends

Make new friends

Visit neighbors

“Do nothing” night

Generous giving

Here are resources mentioned in the message:

United Methodist Church

https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/the-rule-of-life

Episcopal Church

https://episcopalchurch.org/way-of-love

Community of Christ

https://www.cofchrist.org/samples-spiritual-disciplines-and-rule-of-life

Bridgetown Church, Portland

www.practicingtheway.org