Finding My Way

13Apr201208Dec2016

Live in Sunday!

empty tomb image found at: http://heavenlysprings.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/empty_tomb.jpg

Today’s guest blogger is Rev. Dave Wilkinson. He is a deacon at First United Methodist Church in Green Bay, Wisconsin and is the founder and editor of an inspirational e-mail ministry and blog called “SOUND BITES: Something to Chew on That Is Good for the Soul.” It was begun in memory of his son, Dustin, on the first anniversary of his death. You can follow SOUND BITES Ministry™at their blog:

www.SOUNDBITESministry.blogspot.com.

Trust In Christ: Live in Sunday!

On Good Friday in 1998 my wife and I buried our son, Dustin. He had died at the age of 16 as a result of a brain tumor. His cremains were placed in the ground and we began our grief journey. No parent should have to go through that experience. The death of a loved one or close friend is hard enough. The death of a child is a pain like no other. So I had some sense that day of what the followers of Jesus must have felt. On the first Good Friday they buried Jesus in a tomb, sealed it shut, and began their grief journey. I can imagine that Saturday for the Christ-followers was a day filled with grief, bewilderment, hopelessness, numbness, and quiet conversation.

Fast forward, then, to January, 2009. I found myself leading a worship service at the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem. We stood there in the beautiful surroundings with other Christ-followers from around the world. Our group pulled aside to spend some time in reflection prior to receiving communion. I shared with them some of the feelings the disciples must have felt on that Saturday. I explained that that particular day, January 21, was our son Dustin’s birthday and I shared some of his story with them.

I also shared that as Christ-followers we do not need to spend our time in the grief of the “Saturdays.” Instead, we 21st century pilgrims, just as the 1st century disciples, found the tomb empty. “He is not here. He is risen,” declared the sign at the empty tomb. He is risen indeed! And we can live in the grace and hope of Easter Sunday because Christ overcame the grave. He overcame the grave so that we might live… so that you and I might live… so that my son might live.

1 Corinthians 15:54b-57 reminds us: “‘Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Where do you find that you dwell most of the time? In the sorrow of Friday, in the hopelessness of Saturday, or in the victory of Sunday. Because I trust in Christ, I choose to live in Sunday.

The greatest love that anyone could ever know
That overcame the cross and grave to find my soul
And ’til I see You face to face and grace amazing takes me home
I’ll trust in You
(from “Till I See You” by Hillsong)

12Apr201208Dec2016

Scary-Different Church

Scott Carnes Finding My Way 2012, action, call, call to action, Carnes, church, future, general conference, ignore, illinois, Scott, scotteugene79, united methodist

image found at: http://newvintageleadership.com/

I’m very worried about the United Methodist Church. It has been on a long and slow decline in membership and finances for years. We know that the course we are on is untenable and we know our bureaucracy is oversized and out-dated…and we know that it no longer reflects the needs of our current church.

I don’t know which of the upcoming proposals will be best, but I implore all of those heading to General Conference 2012 to take action this year. If we don’t accept the call-to-action or a similar piece of legislation, we won’t be around much longer.
I hate to say it so strongly. I hate to have to say it at all…but I am afraid for my church. We can’t afford to ignore our problems any longer and the local church can’t afford anything, not any more.

It is time for action. I know the arguments against the call-to-action report. I know that many groups fear a loss of voice. I agree, that is not what we want. Yet, I fear there will be no voices soon enough, if we don’t reduce the size of our church boards. Furthermore, I wonder how effectively we feel the voices “at the table” are heard in our current system. I wonder how effectively our boards are currently operating?

I have thought long and hard about it. I choose to give up my seat. I know that’s not saying much, but I didn’t throw my hat in the ring to be on a board or agency this time around. I’ve served my church the past 8 years and I think I now serve it best by sitting back and letting the church shrink, become more nimble, and allow other voices to be heard. Are others willing to give up their seat for the good of our church? Are we willing to say less in order that the church can do more? Are we willing to step out in faith even though this new reality is scary-different?

Let’s make a new future for this church.

12Apr201208Dec2016

Resurrection & New Life: A Message for All-Time.

Scott Carnes Finding My Way, Virtues of Scripture 1 John, 1 John 1, bible, Carnes, church, faith, god, illinois, Jesus, Normal, pontiac, Scott, scotteugene79, scripture, united methodist

Today’s Scripture: 1 John 1:1-2:2

We will look more closely at just a few of these verses:

2 The life was revealed, and we have seen, and we testify and announce to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us. 3 What we have seen and heard, we also announce it to you so that you can have fellowship with us. Our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We are writing these things so that our joy can be complete.

Think about it for just a moment. It would not have been very difficult to believe in Christ just after the resurrection. Oh, it might have been difficult to believe, i suppose, but it had just happened! I mean, if there was a time when it was easier to believe, that would have been the time, right? If we read the gospel of John we find that Christ has appeared to the disciples. It seems assured that Christ has, indeed, risen from the dead!

But for the next few generations of Christians it must have been increasingly difficult. There were not any gospels for a while and stories were handed down, but Christ wasn’t there to be seen or touched.

The problem that becomes apparent in this scripture is that people were mixing up the message of Jesus Christ and so 1 John attempts to put the message of Christ back into order. “We have seen,” and “we testify…to you.” Those who knew something about the life and death of Jesus are writing these words to ensure future generations of Christians will understand the message of Christ.

Resurrection and New Life is not just for one time or one group of people. The message of New Life in Christ is for all times and all peoples. This letter is written to us that we might know Jesus’ love. Christ overcame death and so might we!

09Apr201208Dec2016

Resurrection & New Life: The Why Question

Scott Carnes Finding My Way, Virtues of Scripture church, conference, diana butler bass, Easter, hope, larry, luke 24, new life, northern Illinois, pickens, resurrection, united methodist, why

My guest blogger today is Rev. Dr. Larry Duane Pickens, Esquire, an Ordained United Methodist Pastor in the Northern Illinois Conference. He holds degrees in Political Science, Theology, Divinity and law from North Park University, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary (my own alma mater), Bossey (Switzerland), Chicago Theological Seminary, and DePaul University. Larry has pastored churches in New York and Illinois and led a global agency of the church from 2004-2008. He is a distinguished pastor, lawyer and United Methodist who has spoken from pulpits and in front of national constituencies. Please welcome to my blog…a friend and colleague, Larry Pickens!

The Why Question

It is said that if we are to plumb the depth of our lives, we must learn how to ask the why questions. It is the why questions that demonstrate with clarity, I think, the conditions of our souls and the nature of our existence. Perhaps, when we ask the why questions it represents the time in life when we are most honest with ourselves and God. Why questions- “why is there violence and injustice in the world?” “Why do bad things happen to good people?” “Why do the unrighteous prosper?” And the ultimate question, “Why is there suffering and death?”

The resurrection is also grounded in a why question that is posed to both Mary and Mary Magdalene. What is their reason for going to the tomb following Jesus’ death? Perhaps they were still in shock, suffering from some form of past traumatic stress syndrome, which drove them to a tomb with spices designed to ameliorate the smell of a rotting corpse lying in a tomb that was purportedly sealed by a boulder?

I would like to think that it was hope that drew these faithful women to Jesus’ tomb. The hope, inspired by Jesus’ ministry of inclusiveness, carried these women to the tomb in a death defying act of love and faithfulness. The why question that is posed in the tomb. Hope is a stubborn thing that sometimes grows frail but is very hard to kill. It was a stubborn hope that moved these women to the tomb. They became instruments of God’s death defying will represented in Jesus’ victory over the grave.

Diana Butler Bass has recently written a compelling book that is titled “Christianity After Religion: The End of Church and the Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening.” In an age when we find ourselves trying to repair creaking old church structures, Bass challenges our thinking, calling us to spiritual transformation and resurrection. She is calling us to make all things new for an age that still has its hope grounded in Jesus Christ. She states that we are at a critical stage in a completely new spiritual awakening, a vast interreligious progression toward individual and community transformation. Resurrection in our denominations and our local churches is grounded in the life giving and service driven gospel to which Bass speaks. But such compelling transformation is again grounded in the why questions of our lives.

I hope that you too are asking the why questions. But more so, my hope is that you are walking toward renewal, transformation and yes, resurrection with a stubborn hope.
Amen

07Apr201208Dec2016

Resurrection & New Life: Giving Up A Son

Scott Carnes Finding My Way, Virtues of Scripture abraham, father, genesis 22, isaac, sacrifice, scripture, self-giving, son

image found at Vanderbilt: http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-processquery.pl?code=ACT&SortOrder=Title&LectionaryLink=BVigl

After Mike shared about the loss of his own son, I realized that I am not nearly articulate enough to bring something that will be new and profound to this Holy Saturday. Please, if you haven’t already, read Mike Rayson’s words from Friday’s post, and then, I invite you to contemplate what it would mean to give up your own child. Seems impossible to most of us, doesn’t it. Take a moment to read some scripture of a father who was, indeed, ordered to give up his son:

Scripture: Genesis 22:1-18

06Apr201208Dec2016

Resurrection & New Life: A Good Friday Homily

Scott Carnes Finding My Way, Virtues of Scripture amy rayson, brighton, child, church, illinois, loss, mary, mike rayson, Normal, pastor, pontiac, tears, united methodist

image found at: http://poeticmindstate.com/tag/poems/

Rev. Mike Rayson, a United Methodist pastor here in Illinois is giving this homily today at Westminster Abbey in London as a guest preacher. He has agreed to share his message here as part of my guest blog series on Resurrection and New Life! (Thanks Mike!) You can find out more about Mike, his wife, and their ministry by clicking here: http://stpaulumcbrighton.blogspot.com/

A Good Friday Homily by Rev. Mike Rayson

Grace and peace from the Illinois Great Rivers Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, our Bishop Gregory Palmer, and from the good people of St Paul’s congregation in Brighton Illinois, where I am currently appointed to serve together with my wife, the Reverend Amy Rayson, and our children Laura and Oliver.

Since Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, it has become for us the bearer of good news and of bad. Serving a vibrant and growing congregation means that the phone in my home rings several times each day. A church member who wants a friendly chat… A troubled soul seeking guidance… A local needing assistance with food… and sometimes news of illness, hospital admission, and even death.

It was the ringing of a phone one Monday morning in May 2007 that brought such news to my family. I’m sorry… your son, 11 year old Samuel, has been tragically killed. It was the beginning of a lifelong journey of pain for me, a truly Psalm 23 experience of moving through the valley of the shadow of death.

They say a clergyperson shouldn’t officiate at the funeral of a family member… but for me, as Sam’s dad, I knew I must. He was my son, and as I had served him in his life, so to I would serve him in his death.

The most harrowing and traumatic moment of my whole life happened that day. Not when I gave the eulogy… led the gathered faithful in prayer… or read from Matthew’s gospel of the one sheep who wandered away… but when I, as pastor and as daddy placed my hands upon the body of my child and recited the words…

Almighty God, into your hands we commend your son, my son, Samuel Thomas William Rayson. Born March 28th 1996 in Port Lincoln South Australia, died May 14th 2007 in Geneseo, Illinois. This body we commit to the flames. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust

Nothing ever prepares a parent to bear the death of their child. We use the word widow for one who loses a partner… orphan for those who have lost their parents… yet our English language does not provide a word for a parent who must live and grieve for their child.

Nothing could have prepared Mary, the Mother of Jesus, for this. No broad shouldered support she received from the disciple John at the foot of the cross could have made the events of that terrible day in Jerusalem any easier to bear, as she watched her son put to death at the hands of a blind regime who wanted to hold fast to their religious power and authority.

In the heat of the afternoon on a hill of shame, a mother watched. Whilst the world cursed and crucified the babe she had nursed at her breast, a mother grieved. As the boy who had played at the feet of his mom was tortured and terrorized, scorned and shamed, despised and denied – the light that shone in a mothers proud eyes was extinguished, leaving in its place a wounded and suffering woman.

In the death of Christ, God Almighty embraced everything Mary experienced – the worst that we could ever experience; throwing his arms around our lost-ness, our shame, our sin, our alienation, and our pain… all the while whispering a simple word…

No… No… NO…

For this son of man, sent by God, truly God, came to seek and to save the lost, to embrace the darkness with the light of life… to redeem the tears of a woman whose heart had shattered at the vision of her son’s death. ‘No’ cried God – this was not how it was meant to be for her, or for us.

In the words of theologian Dr. C Baxter Kruger, “there on the cross, he penetrated the last stronghold of darkness. There he walked into the utter depths of our alienation. There the intolerable No!, shouted by God the Father at the Fall of Adam, found its true fulfillment in Jesus’ Yes! “Father, into Your hands I commend my spirit,” as he took his final step into Adam’s disaster. Jesus died–and the Fall of Adam died with him”.

As a Dad, grieving for a little boy, my tears have truly fallen… leaning on the arms of her son’s beloved disciple, the tears of Mary, the mother of God must have fallen… and I know your tears too have fallen in the presence of death as you have encountered it.

For it is the thief says Jesus, who comes only to steal and kill and destroy;yet it is in the cross, underscored by what C.S Lewis’ referred to as ‘the deeper magic’, that Jesus has gathered back the tears the thief has stolen from us, and proclaimed that we are made for something beyond than the cold hands of death. Something more than mere extinction or annihilation. Something above the hands of time. We are made for life and life more abundantly.

And so it is we wait… silently, painfully, expectantly… for that Sunday bloom of sheer grace and liberating life to rain again upon our broken and weary souls. For as sure as the sun will rise on the dawn of tomorrow and as certain as the daffodils bloom each February and March, so death will NOT have the last word.

Not for Mary, not for me, and most assuredly not for anyone who trusts in the one who died for us all.

05Apr201208Dec2016

Resurrection & New Life: Christ At Your Feet

Scott Carnes Finding My Way, Virtues of Scripture Christ, church, clean, devotion, foot washing, god, illinois, Jesus, john 13, new life, Normal, peter, pontiac, resurrection, united methodist

image found at: http://www.fwb21.com/2011/04/20/ministry-wednesday-feet-washing/

Scripture: John 13:1-17, 31b-35

Let’s focus on just one piece of this scripture:
“No!” Peter said. “You will never wash my feet!”
Jesus replied, “Unless I wash you, you won’t have a place with me.”
Simon Peter said, “Lord, not only my feet but also my hands and my head!”
Jesus responded, “Those who have bathed need only to have their feet washed, because they are completely clean. You disciples are clean, but not every one of you.”

Peter has an interesting reaction to Jesus, in this scripture, doesn’t he? He first refutes Jesus, right? Jesus goes to wash Peter’s feet and Peter says, “No way!” Then Jesus tells that he must wash Peter’s feet and Peter wants more than Jesus offers.

It seems to me that a follower is pretty full of himself if he orders his leader around like Peter seems to do. I wonder how we respond when we see Christ at work in this world. Do we act like Peter or do we participate with Christ in the work He plans to do??? I mean, when we see the chaos of a soup kitchen do we accept that Christ is doing that work? When we watch children at play do we really believe that Christ is shaping those lives?

First Peter denied Christ his chosen activity and then asked for more than Christ was offering. Do we do this today? Do we ignore Christ when it suits us (yes, the homeless man invisibly sleeping in a drainage ditch across town) and yet ask why God isn’t doing more to fix our world?

If we learn nothing else from Jesus’ teachings, we should at least know that Christ placed a high value on humanity. Jesus came to life, did ministry, and died on the cross not because of how little God valued humanity, but because of how very much God valued our earthly life. Here in this scripture, Christ is kneeling down to care for His friends and followers. Today, still, Christ kneels down to wash our feet and his tears fall upon our flesh because fail to take part in His Holy mission.

As we journey with Christ towards the cross and Easter Sunday I ask that we keep our eyes open. I beg that we, as people of faith, would keep our eyes open to the injustice that plagues this world and to take part in the work Christ is trying to do. As a person of faith I beg you: be the hands and feet of Christ so that we can take part in washing the feet of this world. That we would participate in giving the world the gift of Christ.

Peter didn’t need to be washed. Peter needed to have an experience of Christ. There are so many people of this world who need to feel Christ at their feet, will it be you or I who will help them feel Christ in their lives this Holy Week?

04Apr201208Dec2016

image found at: http://mikefriesen05.wordpress.com/2012/02/27/dealing-with-lifes-great-wounds-betrayal/

Scripture: John 13:21-32

In the scripture today Jesus is said to know that one of his disciples will betray him. I want you to take a moment to consider this. How many of us would ever knowingly keep someone who will betray us in our group? I mean, if I know someone is talking behind my back or acting jealously (etc.) you had better believe that I will stop confiding in them. If I know that a friend does not have my best interest at heart, you’d better believe that I no longer consider them friend. My interests have to be important to my friends, right? My needs have to be a concern for a true friend.

Christ does not define life or friendship as you or I do. As Jesus approached the cross, he began to make it very clear that Life is far more than what we can see or experience. In those last days of life, Christ showed us that there is more to experience than this lone world. When Judas is invited to continue at the meal, in fact, invited to ‘do what he must do’ but quickly…Judas is shown that he is still cared for. Jesus remained committed to Judas even when Judas was clearly not committed to Jesus.

There will be many times when we will betray our God. It is part of being human, by the way. Our God will be hurt and saddened by the decisions that we make and the things that we choose to do, yet God does not send us away from the table. Jesus not only continues to eat with Judas, he actually dips bread and feeds Judas. Jesus feeds the one who will betray him!? I want to suggest that this is what happens for us at communion. Communion is the act when we come forward in church and feed upon bread and juice as a sign of being fed by Christ….when it comes to that act, we are much like Judas. We are imperfect human beings, yet God sees beyond us and our limitations. We will mess up and betray God, yet God will still love us, feed us, commune with us.

During Holy Week consider what it means for us to still be at God’s table after all of these millennia. What does it mean that Christ still communes with us? What does it mean that Christ offers body and blood for us to partake in? What does it mean that God does this knowing that we will commit betrayals?

Christ invites all of us, even though we will mess up, to walk with Him to the cross. Christ invites all of us to journey the Easter experience and to know his love. Will you journey with Christ this Easter? Are you prepared to be loved in a new way this Easter?

03Apr201208Dec2016

Resurrection & New Life: Approaching New Life

Scott Carnes Finding My Way, Virtues of Scripture Christ, church, cross, Easter, god, illinois, john 12, new life, Normal, pontiac, resurrection, united methodist, wheat

Image found at: http://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/news/st-edwards-stained-glass-window-recalls-resurrection-1428418.html

Starting today I want to focus on the Easter experience. For those who might not be sure what that means…I want to focus on what it means to have new life. Do you have a story or reflection on what it means to have new life in Christ? Please email or comment below so that I can publish your reflections during the season of Eastertide (Apr. 8 – May 26)

Scripture today: John 12:20-36 (CEB)

I want to focus, especially upon this part of the scripture:

Jesus replied, “The time has come for the Human One^[a] to be glorified. ²⁴ I assure you that unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it can only be a single seed. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. ²⁵ Those who love their lives will lose them, and those who hate their lives in this world will keep them forever. ²⁶ Whoever serves me must follow me. Wherever I am, there my servant will also be. My Father will honor whoever serves me. ²⁷ “Now I am deeply troubled.^[b] What should I say? ‘Father, save me from this time’? No, for this is the reason I have come to this time. ²⁸ Father, glorify your name!”

As most of my readers probably know, by now, I have been re-appointed to First United Methodist Church in Normal. In case you aren’t familiar with the United Methodist Church, it works like this: Each year I am told whether I will be staying at the church where I am appointed or whether I will move.

Finding out that I was moving was a strange situation because everyone at my current church is naturally curious about where I am going (and when) and people naturally expect for me to be excited, but on the other hand I am leaving behind a community of people who I care about. I think about Christ, in this regard. I think about how mixed up Jesus and those who believed must have felt as they approached the cross. It must have been exciting for Him to go on to God’s glory and yet heading toward one’s own death and suffering just simply isn’t! As Christ moves toward the Easter experience, toward being killed, he admits that there is real trouble upon his soul. He says, “What Am I supposed to do,” “Should I want this or not?” When you read this passage you can feel Jesus’ mixed emotions about what lay before.

We will come to many moments like this in our lives. We will all have times where we wonder about the road ahead. For me, I must worry about how I will work with a new church and if you think I look forward to packing boxes, then, think again! Yet, I face the packing because it is what I must endure in order to experience a new life. I must let go of relationships and people who I hold dear in this Pontiac-life, so that I can experience the new life (the Normal-life?). God seldom calls us to turn away or to turn back, you see. God calls us to walk forward and step out in new ministry. As we prepare for Easter we must ask ourselves, “What is God calling me to do,” or maybe: “Is God calling me to a new life this Easter (to do something new)?”

03Apr201208Dec2016

Resurrection & New Life: A New Blog Series

Scott Carnes Finding My Way, Virtues of Scripture academic, blog, Easter, eastertide, guest blogger, laity, new life, pastors, resurrection, scholars, series

Image found at: http://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/news/st-edwards-stained-glass-window-recalls-resurrection-1428418.html

A new Easter series from April 8 (Easter Day) – May 27 (Pentecost). I have invited a number of friends, scholars, pastors, lay people, and even some bishops to share devotions about Resurrection and Eternal Life. Over the next few weeks you will hear from me and many guest bloggers as they share about Easter from a variety of places, ages, and world views. Be sure to come back often. I’m already giddy with anticipation about some of the people I’ve lined up for you all!!!

If you would like the opportunity to contribute, simply send me a devotional (1/2-2/3 of a page maximum) and I will be glad to consider it: scotteugene79@mac.com

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Resurrection & New Life: Live In Sunday!