Nothing Gold Can Stay

This week the seasons turned from Summer to Fall (except in Montana, which went straight to Winter). The temperatures are cooler, the days are shorter, and the leaves are turning. But even this will change. I always find myself drawn to a Robert Frost poem at this time of year:

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

“Nothing gold can stay”

Nature helps me remember that from the very beginning of creation, God set in motion a world that changes. The cycle of birth/death/rebirth is a constant sacred rhythm in the world and in our lives. Why is it that change, then, is so hard for so many of us?

The Hebrew people faced many changes as they encountered enslavement, wilderness wandering, and liberation. As they journeyed in the wilderness, there was so much complaining by the people: reaching for liberation is hard and uncomfortable. The people longed for the security of enslavement rather than the uncertainty they faced as they wandered looking for the Promised Land.

How often do you want to stay in the secure and known, whether or not it is healthy and life-giving, rather than open yourself up to the change that can bring you new life and freedom?

Moses prepares Joshua for a change as he is to take up the mantel of leadership from Moses:

“God is striding ahead of you. God’s right there with you. God won’t let you down;  God won’t leave you. Don’t be intimidated. Don’t worry.” (Deuteronomy 31:8 The Message)

Change is a constant in life. Can we take heart in these words of Moses? When faced with an uncertain future, can you remember that God is with you, is ahead of you, and will never leave you? So fear not! Pour yourself fully into the future God desires for you!

The Power of One

I am up in the Rockies on retreat with the women from Longs Peak UMC (CO) and taking time to pray for the laity and clergy of the Mountain Sky Conference as we prepare for Sunday worship.


I have been meditating all day on this picture I saw this morning.

It is a picture of Greta Thunberg, a Swedish teenager with Asperger’s Syndrome, taken in August 2018. At 15, she became so concerned about climate change and the lack of action on the part of politicians that she took time off from school to demonstrate outside the Swedish Parliament, calling for stronger policies related to the environment. Soon, other students from around the world started to join her and together they formed a school climate strike movement called “Fridays for Future.”


More and more young people have been engaging in Fridays for Future and yesterday, September 20, 2019, young people on every continent (yes, including Antarctica) participated in Climate Strike demonstrations in a show of global solidarity. There were over 2500 events scheduled in over 163 countries. Estimates put the number of participants at over 4 million.


Young people from across our conference participated. Here are pictures of climate strikes in all the five states of the MSC. Look closely and you might recognize some of our young people!

Wyoming

Denver

Helena

Idaho

Utah

I am struck by the power of one—one young girl saw something that needed to be addressed, and from her first lone witness, a movement was born. As Margaret Mead once noted, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”


As people of faith, we know the truth of that statement. Throughout the history of our faith, we see how the power of one can change human history: Moses, David, Deborah, Esther, Mary, Paul, John the Baptist…the list goes on and on! From these lone figures, others were inspired, liberated, made whole. 


Jesus—God-With-Us—walked a solitary path but invited others in. From the initial 12, to a whole community, humanity’s path was forever changed. We gather in our churches because of a movement he began, grounded in Love’s power.


So as you look around your community, what is that one thing you are being called to address, challenge, change? How are you stepping up and speaking out? How are you inviting others to do the same?


The movement towards God’s Beloved Community begins with one person taking one step.

Doing The Stuff That Matters

One of the great privileges of being in ministry is to have deep conversations with the people of our conference. Whether a zoom or phone call, or in an in-person conversation, each one, no matter how difficult or raw, is something I hold as precious. Thank you, friends, for welcoming me into your lives and sharing yourself with me.

This week, Rev. Joyce DeToni-Hill and I had the chance to catch up. She shared more about her passion as a spiritual guide for the Denver Front Range American Pilgrim Chapter. She has walked the Camino De Santiago several times and is looking forward to sharing this spiritual experience with others who wish to take this pilgrimage.

She said something that I have been pondering ever since we met. As people walk the Camino, they stay at hostels, monasteries, and other simple places that offer generous hospitality for rest and fellowship with other pilgrims. She told me about one monastery that offers overnight accommodations. It was a centuries old monastery: “What kept that monastery open since 900AD?” she asked. “They kept doing the stuff that matters.”

Having been a local church pastor for a couple of decades, that observation nags at me: do we keep doing the stuff that matters, or do we keep doing the stuff we’ve always been doing? Are we willing to keep up with the emerging needs and hungers in our community and fling open our doors and spill into the streets with ministries that address those things, or are we nostalgic for the glory days of a church of a bygone era?

Are we doing the stuff that matters?

To do the stuff that matters means we will probably have to stop doing some things that no longer matter. That is hard! It is not comfortable! It leads us to unknown situations! But isn’t this what Jesus asks of us when he said, “Come, follow me.”

I want all our churches to be vital spiritual centers in the communities they serve. My prayer is that in 900 years, someone will point to your church and say, “They kept doing the things that matter.”

Have a blessed Sunday!

CHOOSE LIFE!

It's Saturday night and I am praying for the clergy and laity of the Mountain Sky Conference as we prepare for Sunday worship.

"I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live, loving your God, obeying the commandments and cleaving to God, for that means life to you... that you may dwell in the land which God swore to your parents."

       

Moses spoke these words the Israelites as they stood on the far side of the Jordan river. This is the second generation of those who were once slaves but were liberated from Egypt. The first generation nearly reached this same point forty years earlier but didn’t reach the Promised Land because they feared the risk of following God over the Jordan river. The result of their lack of faith was that even though this first generation experienced God's help in their release from captivity, they led themselves into another kind of captivity as they wandered in the wilderness, because they lacked the faith to follow God into the promised land.  This journey became a death march, as the first generation slowly died off. Moses speaks to their surviving children, now adults themselves. The decision is now before them: to choose life, or death. Are they able to trust God enough to risk following God over the Jordan, or shall they stay wandering in the wilderness another generation? 

The promised land is so close now that they can see it. Yet, so did their parents decades earlier. Will they have the depth of faith and trust in God to enable them to risk crossing over into Canaan? "I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live."

This choice is ours as well. Every day, God sets before us life and death. Are we willing to take a step towards life, or will we be like that first generation of wandering Israelites, and choose death over life?

As a pastor, I have seen too many people settle for death instead of choosing life.  It is a culture of death which pervades so much of our world, our nation, our cities, our communities. Too many of us have adopted this culture of death in our own lives. Life has become cheap, meaningless, hopeless, and nowhere else is that visible than the way we live our lives. We have grown so comfortable with death that we invite death into our lives, into our bodies, into our relationships, into our homes, into the land, the water, the air, in countless ways.

How have you settled for a culture of death?

It’s not just individuals who must choose between life and death. Entire communities, too, must decide.  I have seen too many churches choose death instead of life. One church had dwindled down to 8 members. They didn’t want their church to close, but were unaware of the ways they had chosen death over life. They had literally nailed the front doors of the church shut, so that everyone needed to find a side door when they came to church. They allowed their building to become so run down that there were more rats than people in the church. When a newcomer made their way through the hallway maze from the side door to the sanctuary,  they were greeted with cold stares instead of warm welcome which communicated strongly to the newcomers, “What are YOU doing here?” And woe to the visitor who sat in the pew of one of the regulars.

This church had chosen death instead of life. They believed their best years were behind them and they stopped looking forward to the promised land God was calling them to.

With so many of us willingly accepting a culture of death in our lives, relationships and homes,  it is any wonder why there is so much violence in our neighborhoods, cities, schools, and world? Until we get a sense of our own self-worth, that life--our life--is not a cheap thing to be thrown away but a gift to be savored, and that the same holds for every living person, every living thing on this planet, we will be plagued with a culture of death. But it is not inevitable. It is not our fate. We can end the violence, end the death-inviting behaviors, end the brittle and battering relationships.

Jesus said,  “I have come that they might have life, and have it abundantly.” I have come that YOU might have life. And not just a miserly piece of it. Not some fraction that could be used up before you know it, but abundant life.

This life is rooted in love. Love of God, love of neighbor, love of ourselves. This is the abundant life Jesus tries to teach us over and over again: When we love, we find ourselves connect to others in deep and mysterious ways. What happens to others, even to those we don’t know, matter and move us when we are living a life of love. We react to it. We want to do something about it. We want to make things better.

You and I can push back this culture of death. Together. In community. It starts now. Whatever and wherever death has a hold of you, know God is wanting to give you life. Abundant life. And it is right this moment that we can choose life, can choose the way of love, can live into connection with others by committing ourselves to community. When we say we are a part of a church community what we mean is that I am greater, more powerful, more loving, more hopeful with you than I am without you. I can affect more change, I can transform more of the world, I can better heal my own life and the lives of those around me when I join my love with others than I can do when I am alone.

Choose life!