Friday, January 9, 2015

HEAVEN & HOME

One of the challenges of being a part of the church is that we can miss seeing the full breadth of what God is doing in this place. We see what's happening in our neighborhood inside the church, but we miss some miracles happening down the hall (or with a ministry that meets at a time when we're not in the building).

So I want to tell you about Heaven, and I want to talk with you about Home.

Heaven is a freshman at IU. In a recent "Jubilee" newsletter she shared part of her story.

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She writes:

"Starting college I was very nervous... I had previously lost my way in my Christian faith, and I did not want that to happen to me again. 'But the Lord stood with me and gave me strength.' 2 Timothy 4:17

"Starting on this journey I wanted to find somewhere that I would feel accepted and at home, where I could grow in my Christian faith, and be the best disciple I could be. I was blessed with very supportive friends who wanted the same things I did.

"We started by trying a campus group, and we really liked it, but felt like something was missing, so we added Jubilee to the mix. We decided that Jubilee was going to be the best decision for us. After meeting Sarah, Travis and Ashlee, who recommended us to Alex Lamb as Sunday school teachers for Kindergarten kids, we knew that FUMCB was going to be good for us. We started to get even more involved in the church, teaching Sunday school every other month, going to Jubilee on Wednesdays, small group on Thursdays, and getting involved in The Open Door. The more involved I become in this community the more I feel I can give back to it with my gifts. Jubilee is doing wonderful things in the lives of college aged kids, and I am blessed to have found my place in this community."

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That is just a part of Heaven's story, but I thought you would want to know the kinds of life stories that are happening here at FUMCB/The Open Door.

And Home? Briann Meyers, also a Jubilee student, says that she was "pretty much lost" at the beginning of the school year. She wondered if she was going to find a place of worship that would fit her soul and life. They tried worship here and she says, "We thought it was pretty awesome and decided to come back again the next week."

"If I would have been asked the question, 'What is Jubilee?' I would have answered 'It's my home away from home.' In the Jubilee community, I know that I am welcome, I know that I fit just the way I am, and I know that I am safe. In small group, I feel a connection with each person, even though I never thought that I would.

"I am coming to realize that Jubilee is not a home away from home. If I were asked the question, 'What is Jubilee?' now, I would answer, 'It is home.' It is a place where you can be yourself no matter what. It is a place where you know you are safe. Jubilee is a place where you know you are loved. Jubilee and small group are home. I have never been more content than I am now with my new home."

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I wanted you to hear about Heaven and Home because you have helped, with your giving and prayers and commitment to being a welcoming place for all ages, to make these miracles happen!

See you Sunday as we hear Paul beg the men and women at Philippi to "Look Both Directions."

Grace and peace in Christ,


Mark

Friday, January 2, 2015

THE IRRATIONALITY OF LOVE

Early Sunday morning we were on the road headed north. I had visions of our arriving at the hospital in Chicago in time for labor. Before we had gotten past Thompson's Furniture on #37, we received the following text: "Maxwell James Fenstermacher born happy, healthy and is already fed! 7 lbs 4 ozs and 20 inches." That stunning good news provoked an unexpected reaction: I began crying. (A manly kind of tears, of course. Quiet tears. The kind of tears that wouldn't embarrass John Wayne or Clint Eastwood or Daniel Craig.)

Later that afternoon I had the opportunity to hold Max. I'm good at holding babies. They have this way of "fitting" my arms. Max is named after my biological father, who died on the mission field in Africa as a very young man. I looked down at Max, and we talked for a few minutes. I did most of the talking. He would open his eyes and try to focus, looking up at me. I told him who I was, I told him I was looking forward to adventures together, I told him I loved him, I told him I wanted us to make the most of the time, and then I couldn't talk. The reason I chattered quietly as we sat in a corner of the room at Prentice Hospital is that I wanted Max to know the sound of my voice. I held him, and then I couldn't say another word. We sat. I looked down at him. And there were more quiet tears...

Where were these feelings coming from? This was like stepping into a mountain stream where the water should only be six or eight inches deep, and suddenly you're finding yourself up to your hips in fast-moving water! How could this current be so strong, so soon?

There is an irrationality of love. A poet once said, "The heart has reasons which reason knows nothing of."  

To believe we are loved, through and through, is a challenge for many of us. Because, I think, we have been told by so many that there are these things we must accomplish or know to measure up. There are people and institutions in the world that want to turn love into a motivational "carrot" we earn by our work, knowledge, power, position or obedience.

From time to time I have people come to me and say I should spend more time in my preaching talking about sin and hell. I point out two things. First, I talk a great deal about brokenness, addiction, fear, and self-centeredness, which are all synonymous with sin. Second, I believe most of us are only too aware of our failures and brokenness: the real challenge for many of us is to dare to believe that we are loved. We magnify our faults and brokenness and doubt that we could be totally, radically loved through and through - especially by God.

There is a wonderful moment in the Torah where God is carrying on a conversation with the people of Israel. The question being asked is, "Why did God choose us to be God's chosen people?" (Note: Remember Israel was chosen not for privilege but for service. To be chosen by God means you are called -especially the church as the New Israel- to serve and give yourselves away as a light to the nations.) God responds to the question by saying (basically), "I didn't choose you because you were the most powerful nation. I didn't choose you because you were the most faithful nation. I didn't choose you because you were the most creative people. I chose you because....I just did. You weren't much, according to the world, and I just decided to love you." (Look in the opening chapter of 1st Corinthians and you'll hear Paul saying basically the same thing.)

Love is a strange, wonderful, wild thing. Love is, in so many ways, irrational. It is not an earned thing, but it is a given. It just is. God so loved the world, John 3:16 says, that God gave God's only Son as a gift to the world so that we might have life.

In an hour or so we'll hold Max, welcome him home from the hospital, and then head off.   In every word, in every touch, I want him to begin to understand that he is loved in a "always and forever" kind of way. Not just by me, but by the God who knit him together while he was Sarah's womb. I want him to know he is loved by the same One who created space and time and hydrogen and music, who carved the mountains, hung the stars, and shaped the aspen leaf.  

Maybe that isn't just the work of a Mom and Dad, a Grandma or Grandpa, but perhaps that is the fundamental mission of each one of us: to let the whole world know it is loved by God in an "always and forever" kind of way. That's what we are saying, as the Jesus community, when we baptize tall people and little people: "You are loved."  

It doesn't make sense, maybe, but you are loved. The steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting, we're told.

My prayer is that you will know this as you step into a new year. My prayer is that you will trust this as you step into a new year. Stop arguing with this love, stop trying to diagram it, stop trying to figure it out: just accept the gift and live it out!

Why do I love this person I hold in my arms so much...how can this be happening so quickly? It doesn't make sense. It's irrational.

Welcome, Max.  You've got me.

And God has you...

Grace and peace in Christ,


Mark

Friday, December 26, 2014

COUNTING DOWN

We're driving north on South College Mall Road. The girls are in the back seat as I drive us downtown to the church. (We decided the church looks like a castle.)

Ella asks, "When is Christmas?" I explain that Christmas will be Thursday. We count down the days, and I explain that it is three days away.

"Just three days and it will be Christmas morning?" Ella asks in a hushed voice. There is a sense of awe in her, I can tell, that we are this close to the big moment. Something big is about to happen.

I was struck by the contrast between her attitude and mine. I saw traffic backed up at the light, I was carrying around in my head a list of things to do, and the seven year old had this sense that we are right on the cusp of something big.

Time, for her, is actually moving towards something.

The Bible tells us that time is moving towards something big. Jeremiah says God is going to give us a new heart. Amos says God is going to rebuild the ruined cities. Zephaniah says God will be in the midst of the people, renewing them in God's love, exulting over them, saving the lame and the outcast. Matthew says the Child born in Bethlehem will save God's people from their sin. Which, I believe, means we are forgiven. More than that, though, it also means we receive a grace and a truth that allows us to grow up (Ephesians 4) and to become a new creation (2nd Corinthians 5).

Here is the truth of it: if you live long enough you can lose the sense of expectation that God may show up in a life-changing way. You can begin to view all time as "flat," with one day being just like the other. You can -if you're not careful- yawn your way through life and agree with the author of Ecclesiastes: "There is nothing new under the sun."

I listened to that voice from the backseat and I thought, "That's what it is like to count down the days. That's what it is like to lean into what is coming."

Are you leaning into God's future for you, ready to embrace the new thing God is up to in your life and in our world and in our church?

Lord, give me an expectant heart and an open mind. Teach me to see every day and every moment as time filled with the possibility of new life. Slow me down and open me up to your Spirit, I pray. Amen.

"And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn." (Luke 2:7)

In Christ and for Christ,


Mark Fenstermacher

Friday, December 19, 2014

UPSIDE-DOWN

I wouldn't recommend this as the way to "do" December. Our church staff has been living in an "upside-down" world as we move from the Lincoln Street offices back into the church building.

We're living out of boxes. We're trying to do normal while much is abnormal. The phones work, the phones don't work. We have internet access, we don't have internet access. Office floors are covered with boxes we step around as we try to find the book or meeting agenda we just had in our hands a minute ago.

And not only are things in a mess, all moved around, but we are waiting...and we don't know when the blinds will get hung or the desk will arrive. It sort of feels like we're trying move ahead at the same time we're waiting. Things keep shifting.

I wouldn't recommend this as the way to "do" Christmas, but perhaps it helps put us in touch with the world Mary and Joseph lived in as they prepared to travel south from Nazareth to the Judean town of Bethlehem. Bethlehem, by the way, as known as the "City of Bread." It was also known as an area where sheep, which would be sacrificed in worship at the Jerusalem Temple, were raised. They were then led to the city.

Perhaps your world, today, feels upside-down. Things may be changing in a relationship, at work, or in your family. Things you counted on before suddenly seem to be shifting. You are trying to do life while waiting for the new normal to happen.

God still comes. Bringing God's love and truth and peace and courage into our lives. Even when we are living -figuratively or literally- out of boxes.

This child, born in the City of Bread, where sheep were raised for the Temple, will one day announce, "I am the bread of life." He will also say, "I am the good shepherd."

"All went to their own towns to be registered," Luke 1:3 (New Revised Standard) says. "Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David."

The Savior comes. To a world that often seems upside-down.

In Christ and for Christ,


Mark Fenstermacher

Friday, December 12, 2014

SHAPING OUR FUTURE

Friends -

I'm Sue Sgambelluri, and I've been a part of the Fruitful Congregations Journey Team at our Church since the fall of 2013, but my time here actually goes back quite a ways.

We moved to Bloomington in November 1994. We had been part of a much-loved church in Indianapolis, and we missed our friends and faith community terribly. It was so hard to journey through that season of Advent without a church home. And then in the spring of 1995, God led us here and we were so warmly welcomed by then-pastors Howard Boles and Phil Amerson. We were so grateful for the quality of worship, the intelligent, relevant preaching, the small groups, and the social consciousness here that gave us opportunities to connect ... and grow ... and especially to serve.

Over the next 20 years, this faith community gave me lasting friendships, gave me reassurance and a sense of perspective when my career took an unexpected turn in 2002, sustained me when my marriage ended after 18 years in 2011, and continues to give me hope and peace now as I walk with my parents during these last days of their earthly journey.

I'm in a very different place than I planned to be when I came here 20 years ago. So much has changed in my life, in my family, and in my faith journey. And this church has been there at every turn ... reminding me of what is important and reassuring me that our loving God has a plan for me and work for me to do.

This church has become a touchstone in my life. It deserves more than just my thanks. It deserves my time ... and my financial support ... and my service.

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When Mark asked me to be part of the FCJ Team, I was skeptical. I've been to a countless conferences, I've worked with a lot of organizational development consultants, and I've even been a consultant. When it comes to organizational growth and visioning programs, I'm tough to impress. I couldn't imagine a visioning process that would be sufficiently high quality and responsive to the distinctive needs of our church. What books would we study and why were those chosen? What were the qualifications of the consultant and why could he or she be trusted to offer recommendations about our church? Why was FCJ better than any other programs? Don't we have the talent and expertise among our own members to craft our own program rather than look to one that comes from our connectional relationship with the larger church?

But ... as I said ... this church deserves my support ... my best. And so I said yes. I trusted. And together with other members of the FCJ team, we prayed and we studied, and we listened, and we learned. We asked a lot of tough questions. We argued and discussed and debated.

And I've come to realize that the FCJ Process makes a tremendous amount of sense for us at this moment in our congregation's history. This prayerful, Christ-centered plan may be imperfect in some ways, but the framework it provides is powerful and, more importantly, we serve a God with a perfect plan. And as we all know, when we seek to stay close to God, He will lead us where we need to go.

Over the last 20 years, our church has changed too ...

 
We've torn down an older building and built the Wesley Wing, we acquired the property across the street. We've faced alarming debt ... and we've gotten that debt under control. We've said goodbye to treasured friends ... and we've welcomed new ones. We've brought closure to some ministries, grown others, and introduced new ones.

Everything that we've been through as a congregation has brought us to this point ... and on Monday, December 15th, our faith family with have an important opportunity to begin shaping what coming years will look like for this church. That evening, we'll gather in the Sanctuary at 6:30 pm, we'll worship together, and we'll vote on the Ministry Action Plan that has been developed for our congregation through the Fruitful Congregations Journey.

While we've hosted three town meetings on the FCJ Ministry Action Plan, you do not need to have attended any of them in order to vote. You simply need to be a current, registered member of First United Methodist Church Bloomington. We'll have childcare available that evening, and if you need more copies of the Ministry Action Plan or background on the FCJ Process, please let us know. You'll find cards with team member names and contact information at church exits, and you're welcome to call the church office, too.

Thank you for being my church family.

I'll see you all on Monday, December 15th.


Sue Sgambelluri

Friday, December 5, 2014

PACKED AND WAITING

I'm not good at waiting. When I was a student at IU if the dinner line in the Willkie Quad was too long, I would choose to return to my room rather than wait and eat. Years before that I would wait impatiently for the record albums I had ordered from the Capitol Record Club to arrive. Day after day I would stop by the post office in our Alaskan village, and check mail box #550. The waiting was intolerable.

I'm not good at waiting and yet at the heart of Advent is the Biblical call to wait expectantly for the arrival of God. The God of Abraham, Sarah, Ruth, Isaac, and Jacob is a God who is on the move.

This December Sharon and I are waiting not just for the arrival of the Carpenter King, but we are waiting for the birth of a little boy. He will be the son of our youngest son, Michael, and his bride, Sarah. The boy's name, they decided long ago, will be Max. He is being named after my biological father. My Dad was a missionary teacher who died on the mission field and is buried in a place called Wymbo-Nyama.

The due date is immediately after Christmas. Sarah and Michael, who live near DePaul University in Lincoln Park, Chicago, are so ready for their son to arrive! The nursery is ready, the crib was long ago put together, the rocking chair is waiting, the car carrier has been purchased, and Max has a whole line of IU clothing ready to wear!

At a lunch put on by a United Methodist Women's circle this week, people asked, "What are you going to do if Sarah goes into labor on Christmas Eve? Will you go?"

I mumbled something about staying here to preach while Sharon drove north, and several people said, "You go! You hand the sermon to someone else and you go be where you need to be. You've got to be there...whenever it happens."

So our late December plans are a little "iffy." Other family members are coming in. Airline tickets have been purchased. But if Max decides to arrive, then we may well be headed north even as guests arrive. We'll abandon our Christmas tree, gifts here and some people we love very much, and head north...because we don't know when he is going to arrive.

This whole God thing, this Advent deal, is like this, I think. We are told to live with our bags packed, our shoes by the door, so that when God shows up we don't miss the holy, beautiful, world-changing thing that is happening.

Mark's Gospel begins (1:2-3, NRSV) with this quote from the prophet Isaiah: "See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.'"

Are you ready for God's new thing in your life, even when God doesn't give you a specific date on the calendar?

In Christ and for Christ,

Mark Fenstermacher

Friday, November 28, 2014

THANKSGIVING WITHOUT THE STUFFING

In the middle of the Children's Message last Sunday I realized how much of my thanksgiving is driven by gladness for what I have. As we talked about Thanksgiving, I mentioned how glad we are to have homes that are warm and dry, clean sheets on the bed, food on the table, and people who love us.  

Now the truth is that there is nothing wrong with being thankful for blessings -large and small- in life. In fact, seeing the blessings is a sign that we are alive, I think. To see food on the table, notice clean sheets on the bed, give thanks for the ability to stand up and walk across the room, feel inspired by the beauty of a book or song or film artfully constructed, to be glad for the ache in your legs as you make your way down a snow covered mountain, to rejoice in the glory of the child you hold in your arms, is such a good thing!

If you have eyes to see these things, and if you have a heart that knows how to dance the thanksgiving jig, you are blessed!

And yet...what if we had few -or none- of these things? How much of our gratitude is driven by the good stuff we have received? Is the core of our thanksgiving about what we have or who it is who has us?

One of my favorite passages, especially at this time of the year, is from Habakkuk 3. The writer rejoices even in a very difficult season of life: "Though the fig tree doesn't bloom, and there's no produce on the vine; though the olive crop withers, and the fields don't provide food....I will rejoice in the LORD. I will rejoice in the God of my deliverance."

As I list all the "stuff" for which I am thankful, I think of my brothers and sisters in places like Guatemala, Haiti, Mali, and Zimbabwe who have very little in the way of soft beds, well-constructed homes, and pantries full of food. Their lives hum with thanksgiving! The act of bringing their offerings forward in worship becomes an exuberant, joyful time of singing and dancing. Their gratitude is fired by their love for God and their experience of God's love for them in Jesus.

The steadfast love of God for us and all creation, the presence of the Risen Christ in every day and every night of our lives, the promise that Love Wins: all these give us a reason to rejoice and give thanks even if we have -in terms of worldly stuff- next to nothing! Paul, in Philippians 4, talks about God's peace that is with the people. He then says, "I have learned how to be content in any circumstance. I know the experience of being in need and having more than enough; I have learned the secret of being content in any and every circumstance, whether full or hungry or whether having plenty or being poor."

Being thankful because of the stuff(ing) in our lives is one thing.

Being thankful because of the grace and truth of God in our lives is something much better!

May your time of Thanksgiving be full of God!
   
In Christ and for Christ,


Mark Fenstermacher