Dancing with Fire

Dancing With Fire

The way, the life, and a burning bush

1 Peter 4: 10-11 “Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received…so that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ.”

The season of Pentecost began Sunday May 28. Pentecost is a very special time for we United Methodists - just take a look at our logo. Pentecost is the birth of the church, the event when the Holy Spirit descended as tongues of flame on the heads of Jesus' followers waiting to hear from their recently departed leader. That flame ignited the heart of the disciples, and continued that act of arson right down to John Wesley and his followers who started a movement that became one of the greatest Christian organizations in the world. Lately, however, it seems to me the flame has been burning a bit low. Let's see if we can fan the coals. 

Jesus told his followers, “I am the way,” and in the earliest church, Christian community was known as The Way.  The Bible is filled with the stories of people who lost their way, and the burning bushes God put in their paths to help them get back on track – starting with Moses. John Wesley gave The Way a different name, Means of Grace. Wesley says we experience grace through God’s activity all around us, finding evidence of what God is doing in whatever is life-giving, lifesaving, and life fulfilling. For Wesley, any activity could become means of grace, a way in which God works in and on our lives. In a Christian community, the things we do, but more importantly why we do them and how we do them, is The Way in which we experience and learn about God. Each of us is The Way for others. Our management of that Way in the modern church is called Stewardship. We are stewards of the kingdom of God. Stewardship, far from being limited to a financial campaign, is a way of life, flowing out from our hearts into daily action, our faithful behavior reinforcing our faith.

(Adapted from "Afire with God" by Betsy Schwarzentraub. Get it. Read it. )

Knowing Who's in Charge

There is some danger in describing about the Steward's way. When we talk about accepting our role as God's servants carrying out his will in the world, we run the risk of interpreting that to mean we are to run around fixing things, taking responsibility for seeing that everything runs in the way we interpret God would want it to run. As my teenage granddaughter would say, "How annoying."

I don't see my responsibility as a Steward to be to fix anything. I see my responsibility as acting in certain ways, creating environments around me by my own actions and attitudes through which God's way can be seen by others. The "church" word for that is witness. For me, witness is not as  much telling about God as much as living out how I think God wants me to live. If I do that, the opportunity for telling the story will come when the time is right. I need to be prepared to tell that story when the opportunity arises, because I never know when it might happen.

When I first started my job showing FUMC property to prospective renters, I was surprised to find myself in situations where my role suddenly shifted from selling to counseling as someone felt moved to start asking about who and what we are at FUMC and shared their life or spiritual situation with me. This was unexpected and I continue studying to prepare myself to be ready for those encounters.

Speaking of being prepared, or not, Sunday May 28 is Pentecost. It's time to get fired up!

Keeping it Simple

A classic movie about Mozart, Amadeus, contained a cryptic line from the king when he heard one of Mozart's social commentary operas, "Too many words." We try so hard to describe spiritual things and the more we try the more tangled up we get in "too many words." Can we make it simple?

For me, the life of a steward starts with a specific point of view, that there is a supreme being whom I call God, and that being is active as creator, sustainer, and redeemer. That belief, or a desire for that belief, is the starting point for determining everything about who I think I am and how I live my life.

If God is creator, sustainer, and redeemer, then everything comes from God and belongs to God. I'm part of a picture. Without me the picture isn't complete. Without the picture, I'm a displaced person. When I understand myself in that context, I see that there is an appropriate use for everything that comes into my life. That use is the one that helps complete the picture. My life's work is to find out and carry out those things that help make the picture complete.

I have been given a mind, a body, emotions, financial resources, the earth on which I live, and certain material goods that came from that earth. I've also been given a sphere of influence. These things aren't ME, these things are the gifts I have been given to do my work. My gifts aren't ends in themselves, they are means to an end. I'm not the garden, I'm the gardener.

That's how I see it today. But this spiritual journey is an ever evolving thing. Maybe next year I can get it down to one paragraph.

Claiming our Servant Power

Too often we equate Christianity with passivity. We misinterpret Jesus' meekness for weakness.  We misunderstand the Biblical use of the word "servant."  While all disciples are servants of God, stewards are not just servants, but also friends, beloved, partners with God through Christ. That changes our concept of the word servant from one who is powerless to one who has been given unlimited power when acting as God's representative. Nelson Mandela addressed that point, and our reluctance to accept that power, when he gave his 1994 inaugural speech.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond words. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. ...We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us, it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.  As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”- from A Return To Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles by Marianne Williamson.

The New Testament is full of statements about who we are as stewards. 

“You are the salt of the earth. … You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bushel basket. Instead they put it on a lamp stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." (Matt 5:13-16)

"You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God.” (I Peter 2:9)

 What bold empowering words for a member of the Circle of Stewards. Stand up Stewards.  Claim your legacy as people of God. It’s time for us to fulfill our calling as people of the light and bring the special gifts of First Church, the gifts of love, healing, grace, and reason, to a world that is groaning in darkness and despair. Stand up - the Circle embraces and empowers you.

Serpents and Doves

I didn't expect to find a Stewardship column in the financial pages of the newspaper, but one Sunday in April there it was in a column by Al Lewis. (Mr. Lewis can be read on tellittoal.com.) Lewis proclaims that "Jesus was not a capitalist." He goes on to cite that when he turned water into wine, Jesus did not open a liquor store. "When he healed the sick, he did not bill Medicare, or start an HMO. Somehow, profiting richly from the sick and infirm was considered unjust back in those days." We equate capitalism with Christianity when the only thing they have in common is their initial letter, and offer misinterpretations of the Biblical understanding of giving in order to fill the coffers of the churches, or sometimes the pockets of independent so-called evangelists.
Lewis says the philosophy of, "Plant a seed, reap a harvest makes Christians particularly vulnerable to being victimized." Just give God your money through me, the televangelist purrs, and you will receive a hundred-fold blessing for every dollar donated. Al says that's "something not even the Prince of darkness, Bernie Madoff, had dared."

Christian churches and leaders have made a lot of mistakes, and most of them have been picked up and abused by those who want to use religion as a means for personal power. Nothing could be farther from the lessons of Jesus' life than using God as a means to attain riches or power in this life or the next. How do we miss that?

Every time the church and its leaders misinterpret the Bible, we put at risk the hundreds of seekers who desperately want to find grace and peace in their lives through a spiritual path. We lay them on the altar and hand over the sharpened knife to the charlatans of the world who are all-to-ready to carry out the sacrificial offering. It's our job as stewards of the kingdom of God to protect them. Innocent as a dove, but wise as a serpent - that's the steward's way.

Stewards in a Storm

Have you ever met Jeremiah? He was one of those reluctant Old Testament prophets picked to take the bad news to God’s people. Those old testament prophets really told it like it was, blood, gore, and all. The messages were usually pretty much the same – threats of destruction because the people had strayed from following God. 

Jeremiah had some pretty hard times, but he kept on warning the people and being ignored. Then, when the disaster was clearly upon them and they were about to be sent in captivity in Babylon, God tells Jeremiah to go buy a field just outside of town.  Buy a field? There will come a time, God says, when the people can come back. You go buy this field as a demonstration that you believe in the future, no matter how dismal things look right now. Jeremiah, the good steward, buys the field and a couple of generations later, God makes good on his promise. 

There are some parallels here with our modern situation. Things are pretty chaotic and it’s hard to know where to stand. What does a good steward do in these times? Loren Mead in her book Transforming Congregations for the Future suggests our call may be as prosaic as buying a field. “Our task is to go on holding on, studying and teaching the story of the faith, acting in service to the world, trusting God in the middle of ambiguity, refusing to back away from God’s claim on us. If we hold steady, God will provide the vision when the time is right…The first step in transformation has to do with attitude… [Like Jeremiah] our commitment must be large enough to acknowledge the winds of the storm we are in and go through the storm, not pretend it is unreal…we have new pages to write about what church is and how we serve.”

Jeremiah 32

 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD… The army of the king of Babylon was then besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was confined in the courtyard of the guard in the royal palace of Judah…. Jeremiah said, “The word of the LORD came to me … your uncle is going to come to you and say, ‘Buy my field at Anathoth, because as nearest relative it is your right and duty to buy it.’ …I knew that this was the word of the LORD; ⁹ so I bought the field at Anathoth from my cousin …This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Take these documents, both the sealed and unsealed copies of the deed of purchase, and put them in a clay jar so they will last a long time. For this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Houses, fields and vineyards will again be bought in this land.’

Income Tax - a sacred exercise?

Whew! Income tax is done! Whether waiting for a refund or writing that check, or just coming out even, I’m always so glad to have that little task done.

Looking back at the year’s financial summary is a good spiritual exercise for me. Are my expenditures in line with what I say are my life priorities? Was there enough? Did I feel like there was enough when I was living out that year? Will there be enough this year? When will there be enough? If I have enough, (maybe even a little bit more than enough), what should I do with it? Buy a field?  If there isn’t enough, how do I keep from panicking? What does the curriculum of Stewardship 101 have to tell me about all of this?

I was reviewing Adam Hamilton’s book Enough that we studied at First Church this fall. Hamilton talks about ways to overcome fear: trust God, offer gratitude for what we have, live a life of service and generosity to others.  The first one seems the hardest to me.  I can do those other two and still have knots in my stomach and sleepless nights. How do I learn to trust God?  

Here are some ways I’ve found. I can turn to scripture and read God’s assurances.  The Psalms are full of them, for example, Psalm 46: “God is our refuge and strength…therefore we do not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea.”  I can remember my own experience, a time when I was afraid and God comforted or led me through, or listen to the experiences shared by those in this faith community. I can read the stories of John Wesley or other faith leaders of our tradition and learn about their faith experiences. I can practice prayer, stilling my troubled mind and listening in the quite for the still small voice of God. I can volunteer for one of First Church’s myriad service opportunities and learn from those who get by day to day on faith alone.

God’s abundance is a gift, but it’s a gift I don’t seem to know how to receive unless I unlearn what contemporary culture has taught me about who and whose I am. No matter how old I get, I never seem to outgrow my need for refresher courses. Believe it or not, income tax time has become one of those refreshers. Who'd have thought?