Hell No... or Yes?

Yes or No?
    I just read an article, by Travis Loller in the progressive Huffington Post,  about the new documentary movie "Hellbound?".  It got me thinking how so many of us Christians live as if there is no hell, and then defend a literal hell with devilish delight.  I know for me there is still openness in my answer to "Hell?".
     Here's a thumbnail of the un-researched, un-footnoted, in-process, what-I-believe-about-hell.  I believe in Hell, as separation from God, and as a result of choices I make.  I believe a loving God has done everything possible to graciously invite, include and love me and all into a divine, loving, eternal presence.  I don't think it's a literal geographical place, nor is heaven, but more about my relationship (heaven) or lack of relationship (hell) with the Divine God of Love.
     What I don't know is far more extensive, than what I know!  What I know is that  the two great commandments are Love God and Love neighbor.  I remember that as "Live Love."  That's more important to me, and it seems to be for Jesus as well, than my definition of hell.
     I believe there is an eternal, spiritual reality. I know how to talk about that reality with the language of God's love for me through Jesus -- as model, Savior, presence and love in-the-flesh (incarnate).  I don't know all the details of that, and my ignorance generates in me comfort in God's love, curiosity along the way to keep learning, and a profound imperative for loving everyone. (And I'm still learning mightily on that last  one.)
     I believe God is big enough and God's Love is vast enough to handle all of life's questions and mine.  I don't want anything smaller.  When I try to live into something more limiting, life presents a question that just can't be satisfactorily answered within the tinier frame of reference.  I see God's enormous, surprising, including love as I learn from and follow in the Way of Jesus.  That Way includes my brain, my world, and God's love in the mix.
     I expect that this question isn't finished for me.  God will continue to grow me.  And all along the way I believe that God's life-changing, soul-saving, world-reconciling, mystery-generating Love is holding me and drawing me closer.  Traditional language calls that salvation.  So for all my friends who will challenge me, I'm saved.  Saved from the hell of disconnectedness, of unlovedness, of non-enough-ness, of cluelessness, of broken-without-hope-ness, of worthlessness, of purposelessness... of all the realities that would, without a Way of Love, leave me wandering, alone, broken, hopeless, clueless, living a random life that makes no difference.  I'm included in something huge and loving.  How cool is that!
     I care about what you believe too!  I care about what keeps you connected to God's love and if somehow that's a different picture of hell (or any other belief for that matter), I want to learn about your picture too.  I want to love all of God's creation along the way.  I want to live with Jesus' welcoming, loving, life-changing ways.  So please share what gives you hope.  Please share how you see hell.  Please be brave enough to speak with only gentle honest words for yourself and trust that The Author of Love, of Heaven & Hell, will hold us in Holy Conversation.

Cost of Connection

     I'm doing the boring work of airport waiting and I am truly so excited to be here.  Why?  I'm going to see my new granddaughter, Miah May.  Connections are like that.  They all have a cost.  Some costs I pay joyfully.  Some I pay functionally, some reluctantly, and some costs are too high for the connection expected.
     I been reading the Old Testament book of Leviticus and all those rules about sacrifice.  Why?  I want to be connected to my heritage and my God.  I'm ready, once in a while, to pay the cost of reading with explanations from scholars and colleagues in hand, so that I can understand, learn, grow and challenge my life's thinking.
     I'm committed to following Jesus, including loving everyone.  I run into that most with my EGR (Extra Grace Required) relationships.   I pay the cost of leaning into those relationships precisely because it's worth the cost of learning to live a life that's proven to make a difference in world-changing ways.
     Right now, I'm joyfully connecting, even if it means waiting in airports, rushing to get work done, and spending some money, it's all worth it for the connection.   Really, that's why I choose to pay the cost of connection most of the time... I experience a better life, a joy, an effectiveness... it's worth it.
     There are days I fail to pay the cost and have to ask for help.  That's OK too because it usually drives me back to considering the cost of connection, my values, and my choices.  So how about you?  What relationships are worth the price of connection for you?  Which ones do you choose?  I'd love to hear about your decisions and choices and stories in the comment section.
    Off to see Miah May and her family.  Peace on the Journey.  Dave

God loves you and me so much God paid the cost of connection.  Check it out.

Finding Peace on 9/11

n this anniversary of 9/11 I read a thought provoking piece by Rabbi Laura Geller, Fighting the Internal Enemy.  Rabbi Geller reminds me of two important principles for peace.  One is relationship with myself, knowing and understanding what moves me, both good an bad.  Two is relationships with others and learning the "other's" stories and life.  Both of these are set clearly in a relationship with the Divine, something bigger than just my conclusions and inclinations.  Good stuff.
      So I wonder how it's so easy for me to forget what Jesus' taught, to love my God with all I have and my neighbor as myself?  It's not rocket science.  It's not military.  It's not budget dependent.  It is effective.  It is contagious.  It is faithful.  Yet I get wrapped up in anger, pain, ego.... easily, without awareness of both myself and the Holy.
      I've noticed many different responses to 9/11 over this decade plus one years.  Some intense.  Some reflective.  And digging deep into my spirit, and you into yours, is a simple, powerful beginning place to remember and build peace.
      How do you remember and build peace?

Legacies and Lost Things

hat would you give up to follow Jesus?  Family?  Church building?  Job?  Status? Security?  And that begs the question,  What wouldn’t you be willing to give up?  I honestly struggle with the thought of giving up  family and security.  The other things are less important to me.  (I didn’t say “not important!”)

Jesus got into trouble when he expressed his faith in God by saying, “Destroy this temple...and in three days I will build it again!” (John 2:19) And in the Gospel of Mark the leaders listening to Jesus’ words interpreted them to mean their building and they weren’t willing to see that destroyed for holy purposes.   Point is they seemed more interested in their  stuff than the savior.  I am wondering aloud if I’d fare any better?  You?

I’d like to suggest that we all want to leave a legacy--make a lasting difference, and often we think the tangible things like buildings, money, houses, and the like, are the best way to do that.  Jesus teaches us the best way to leave a legacy and make a difference is to follow God with abandon, it’s spiritual, not physical.  Seriously, look at Jesus’ own life.  He offered a world changing legacy with no money, no institution, no facilities, nothing tangible, but with everything spiritual.  I think that’s a clue I want to pay attention to.

Proverbs 3:5 says, “With all your heart you must trust the Lord and not your own judgment.”  Jesus said, “But more than anything else, put God’s work first and do what he wants. Then the other things will be yours as well.” (Matthew 6:33)   These truths are tough to live out.  These realities are vital to live, if all that is vital to us, is to live on.

My new granddaughter, Miah May Harris, was born today (Aug 15, 2012) and what a joy.  What a precious gift.   I want a future with hope for her and her family.  I want a future with possibility for my family and friends.  I want... but unless I give everything to God’s control, I know I can’t guarantee that future I want so badly.  I know I can’t buy Miah May everything she needs.   I know I can’t stop hurricanes.  I know I can’t change the course of disease, single handedly change culture, or stop all the little things that can harm.  In loving wisdom God’s given me a way to offer a future... Love.  Love in Jesus.  Love, God’s gift.  Love radically lived.  Love applied in the neighborhood and with my Extra Grace Required people. And God’s way isn’t tangible, rather it begins in trust.  (“The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It's our handle on what we can't see.”  Hebrews 11:1)  It isn’t structures and stuff that leaves a legacy and offers security, rather it’s spirit and surrender.

I want nothing more than to share God’s joyous, freeing, life-giving love.  And I’ll admit there’s still some selfish motive on my part.  I want Miah May, my family, and my friends to have more because of my legacy.  I’m working on my selfishness and trying to hold the old stuff, the material stuff, the things I call “my” stuff, loosely, because really... really, I can’t control them.  God does.  And God loves me, and you and everyone.  And truly, God provides everything, and provides abundantly.  (“God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us. Ephesians 3:20)

So, what are you protecting that’s keeping a world in need from hope, joy, love, wholeness....? What won’t you give up?  As a congregation we’re seeking to follow Jesus in a whole new time and culture and I know for me it means giving up many things.  How about for you?  Is there still something so hard for you to imagine giving up that you’d rather others not know about Jesus, maybe your own grandkids? (or kids or friends...?)  

I don’t want to have any barriers to God’s power in my life like that, so I’ll keep praying, working to be honest,  and working hard on the things that God has given me to tend.  I hope you’ll join me and pray with me.   I’ll gladly join you and pray with you, so that God’s fullness can flow through each of us and First Church.  In the meantime I’ll work to use Love, spiritual stuff and all else that’s added in, for holy purposes.  I’d be ecstatic if you’d join me.  Remember, serving God and neighbor with Love makes us “First!”  (Mark 10:31)

  How are you working on your legacy?

Wisdom of the Elders

     Relationships are life. (I'm tempted to talk about God and earlier blog entries, weaving these life giving connections into the theme of relationships, but I'll let you do that.)   Reflecting on and living in the changed reality of my Dad's death I am touched by wisdom.  Wisdom born in relationship.  Wisdom of those who have lost a father.  Wisdom from friends seasoned by pain.  Wisdom from friends ready to trust my emotional need of the moment.  Wisdom from family who are making a journey through the same territory. All elders, of sorts, if not by age, then by virtue of their wisdom.
     Dad's wisdom is glistening through the memories, conversations, prayers and support.  His is truly as a generational and spiritual elder.  It is a wisdom that has shaped me, as well as guided me.  And, as wisdom does, it surprises me with It's appearance and relevance.
     There was another elder, this week. One beyond the list above, and one I've just met.  Samuel White, grandson of a slave, pre-civil-rights-born, friend of our Rural Missions home owner.  Samuel told us stories about his history and connections, about his wisdom incubated in both pain and joy, freedom and limitation. (Shown here with homeowner Maria Haywood.)  His was wisdom rooted in a very different place and situation.  It was less familiar and enriching.
     What my father and other elders have taught me with lives and language is that relationships are life.  In relationship we love, grieve, grow, suffer, learn, lean, believe, trust and so much more.  The tasks of life are valuable and yet, always secondary to relationships.
     What my mission week has reminded me is that there is a Love that will not let me go.  I know it as my mission friends live out the love of Jesus, being real Church, in a difficult week.  I know it as I hear Samuel proudly recount his history, pain and all.   I know it as I remember the wisdom of my Dad, and so many other elders, a great cloud of witnesses, who have loved me.  Thank you all.
      Who are the elders, teachers and guides in your life?  I'd love to learn from your wisdom.

In Memorium...Man & Mission

My Dad died yesterday morning.  It's been the predictable whirlwind of calls and questions since.  There is much to say, but right now a partial and maybe disjointed reflection.
      I will miss Dad.  He taught me faith and fun, play and serious stuff.   I have many fond memories of moments like when I didn't know what to do with the mentally challenged kid's pestering everyday on my walk home from the school bus, Dad said to tell him, "Cease and desist or you will be the perpetrator of a disastrous incident."  He was teaching me humor, compassion and language all at once.
    Here on the mission trip I have seen the true power of Church as the group has come around me and my family offering compassion, care, help with any transportation, funds,... in short showing me the love of God in practical ways.  Thank you team.  It means the world to me.   (Some from back-home church have even helped via e-methods.  Thank you too.)
     Family is the most important part of the reflection as my wife Penny has offered care and my and her  behalf to Mom and others.  Thank you sweetheart.  And family that has encouraged me to stay in mission, or do whatever I need to do.  Thank you.  Perhaps family most for sharing the foundation together of the love of Jesus in practical and enduring ways that gives us hope and joy even in the face of death.
    Dad died today.  It's hard and good.  It's challenging and easy.  It's faith and practical stuff.  It's part of life and faith.  One thing I know is that his faith in the practical and enduring love of Jesus served him well in life and is lifting him into joy even now.  So to you Dad, Thanks and I Love You.

New & Good

here's always something new and good in the day,  that's just how God does things.  Today the team talked about "New & Good."  We found relationships with homeowners, and one another. We related about new experiences.  We shared about gifts in spite of challenges.  We told stories of a variety of gifts in the day, none fully anticipated, all good, and together, an abundance of treasure.
     Monday's on the mission trip often are slow and feel less productive than most of us like, because we're getting situated with supplies and tasks.  Monday's are frequently challenging because working with our hands in the heat is not the daily occupation for the majority of our team.  Monday's are sometimes tough as we puzzle out where the lost team left off and where we need to pick up.  And with all of those realities we found an extravagance of God-given gifts.
     Reflecting on this we connected to Exodus 25 and the Exodus in general as a mission trip.  Israel was on a mission and even had some building plans along the way.  We are on a mission trip of another kind, but both trips were missions from God and connected to all of life.  Both adventures had gifts.  Both journeys have times of challenge and ease.
      What mission are you on?  What is God doing on your mission?  In other words... what's New & Good?

See more pictures at PFUMC's Facebook site