LOVE NEVER FAILS

It's been a tough week. A really tough week. The kind of week that even moments of historic joy are tainted by the specter of dissention and deep seated discontent.

After 10 years of bloody war in Iraq, that at-best fragile democracy is again marching toward sectarian war. The civilian death toll is rising, and the violence threatens to spill over Iraq's borders. We see reports of more deaths in Afghanistan. In eastern Ukraine, the uneasy truce between government troops and pro-Russian separatists is fractured by renewed fighting.

Here in the United States our conflicted nature plays out in the courtroom. The Supreme Court struck down a Massachusetts law mandating a buffer zone around abortion clinics passed after two were killed and five others wounded at clinics in 1994. The ruling again brings to the surface the anguish that surrounds all touched by abortion.

Even the joy brought to so many this week by a federal judge's ruling that banning same-sex marriage is unconstitutional is somehow tempered by looming legal battles challenging the decision. In the United Methodist denomination there is serious talk of a split in the church over the matter.

And here in our own congregation, how often do we let divisiveness rule our hearts over budgets, buildings, service schedules, musical style, and on and on.

So, where does that leave us? Where does that leave God's people? We disagree. We fight. We hurt each other. We're a mess. Where's the good news in that? I struggle mightily with that question as I seek to make sense of this week. And, this week is a lot like other weeks, isn't it?

It might be cold comfort to know that there is, unfortunately, good historic precedent for our current brokenness. In fact, if we turn to the world Paul faces in 1 Corinthians we find some similarities to Bloomington, Indiana. You see Corinth was at a strategic crossroads between East and West and located at the convergence of several significant trade routes. It was known for its intellectual and material prosperity. I think the entry to Corinth was even marked by a pair of Sample Gates (you'll have to read Paul's writings to verify that). Paul finds the church he started in Corinth deeply divided. God's people were split into factions, each thinking themselves more worthy than the others. Some proclaimed allegiance to Paul, others to Apollo, still others felt only they were worthy servants of Christ himself.

They disagreed. They fought. They hurt each other. They were a mess. It was hard to see the good news.

As Paul sees this discord ripping apart the church at Corinth, he writes to them in part to assert that they should embrace their diversity rather than let it destroy them. They were in fact different parts of the same body of Christ. In 1 Corinthians 12:12-13 Paul writes, "Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body-whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free-and we were all given the one Spirit to drink."

And then, perhaps understanding that a people so bitterly divided would not find a self-evident way to act as a unified body of Christ, Paul shows them the way. He writes in 1 Corinthians 13:8-10 that "Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears."

Christ's love never fails.

Despite our deep, important, painful differences, Jesus gives us the gift of a love that never fails. His love makes complete that which is broken. His love transcends our differences and gives us a unity of purpose that is so strong it can never be overcome.

It's been a tough week. We know tough weeks will always be with us. But, as we struggle to make sense of our world, consider this. What would it be like if we replaced our preferred part with the completeness of Christ's unfailing love? If we did, what would our lives look like? Our church? Our community? Our nation? Our world?

In Christ and for Christ,

Jonathan

THE PRINCE OF PEACE

They had spent three years with the Nazarene. Watching him, listening to him, walking with him, healing with him, eating and sleeping with him: how could they have missed this message about the sword?

When Jesus is arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, we discover (Luke 22:49) that the disciples -at least some of them- are carrying swords. "Lord, should we strike with our swords?" they ask Jesus. Before Jesus can answer one of them pulls out his sword and cuts off the right ear of a servant of the high priest. (Matthew and Luke are polite enough not to mention that the impulsive, violent one is Simon Peter. The writer of John lets us know Peter is the one who resorted first to the sword.)

"No more of this!" Jesus shouts (Luke 22:51) as he touches the man's ear and heals him. In Matthew 26:52, Jesus says, "Put your sword back in its place, for all who draw the sword will die by the sword."

I'm writing this a few days after several Las Vegas police officers were murdered by a couple driven out of their right minds by right-wing paranoid fantasies. Today brings the news that there has been another school shooting, this time in Oregon.

I am -like so many of you- heartbroken by this seemingly unending series of mass murders by gun in our nation. My first impulse is to react to some of the more extreme positions of a gun lobbying organization. My second impulse is to discuss what the founders of the republic intended when they talked about the right to bear arms, and quote those law experts who say that is about the right to a militia but not every person's right to own an AK-47. I will resist those impulses and focus on who we are as followers of the Galilean.

I'm not going to address what a gun lobbying organization may say or do. I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on the Bill of Rights. What about a more radical approach? Let's just point to the Nazarene. Let's point to The Book. Let's go back to who we are and whose we are.

Jesus, when he sees violence done in the Garden, shouts, "No more of this!" And then, in another account, the Nazarene says, "Put your sword back in its place, for all who draw the sword will die by the sword."

So if Jesus is the Prince of Peace, if Jesus is the One who refuses to resort to the sword even when he is about to be arrested (he knows things are going to go badly in the hearing before the Sanhedrin and Pilate), then what does that say about how we are to view violence? Doesn't it say something about our community having the courage to not use violence as a way of expressing frustration or exerting power?

Beyond avoiding the use of the sword, we are called to be peacemakers. We are to carry the seeds of God's peace out into the world. We are to go to those who have something against us. We are not to slap back when we have been slapped. We're with the Prince of Peace. We are his people. We are the sheep of his pasture. We know his voice.

Another shooting. I want to shout, "No more of this!" I sit in my office and pray

-again- for those whose lives will never be the same because of what has happened today. And I whisper, "Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy."

In Christ and for Christ,

Mark 

WATCHING THE POLAROID PICTURE APPEAR...

Some of you will remember the fun of taking pictures with a Polaroid camera. The difference between a Polaroid camera and others was that the print would develop right in front of your eyes. At first the picture was a white or gray haze, and then you would begin to see the picture. It would get clearer and clearer as you waited for a few minutes.

We're about to take a picture of God's church. FUMCB/The Open Door has been accepted into Step 2 of the Fruitful Congregations Journey (FCJ) process. This part of the journey is "designed to help a local congregation conduct a congregational assessment in order to identify what next steps it needs to take in order to more effectively carry out the church's mission."

Here is how we are going to take the picture:

• FCJ leaders will work with others to compile a Self Study Report (attendance patterns, demographic profile of the congregation, census data of the community, etc.);
• The members of our congregation will be encouraged to take an online FCJ survey;
• A consultant will lead a one-day workshop for the church's leaders on the principles and characteristics of healthy churches;
• Mystery guests will worship with us over a period of weeks;
• An assessment team will visit us on-site to conduct one-on-one interviews with staff, laity and focus groups;
• The assessment team will meet with the Church Council, conduct a five-hour workshop with church leaders/interested church members;
• An assessment report will be written. That will be shared with the pastors and then shared with the congregation in worship.

This assessment report will include key next-step objectives called Ministry Action Plans (MAP's). The MAP's are to help the church become healthier and more effective at carrying out its mission. The church will have 45 days to talk about the recommendations, pray over the recommendations, and then we will formally vote on whether or not to accept the MAP's.

We'll have teams putting together a summary of the church, gathering data, etc.

We're about to take a picture. What do you think the picture is going to look like? What do you think will stand out? What will we learn? What will we enjoy seeing and what will we want to "crop" out of the picture?

The writer of the New Testament book of Revelation took "snapshots" of several early Christian churches. The church at Ephesus was hard working, willing to endure hardships, but they had lost their love for Christ. There was a grim determination to their life - but little joy.

The church at Sardis is known for being alive with the Spirit of God, something is always happening there, but the early Christian writer says they never finish anything. They start big but every dream ends with a whimper. People have started to think nothing will ever change, and so they are sleep walking through life.

The Christian community at Thyatira is a church defined by love and faith. Not only that, but the people put their faith into action. They don't just talk about faith but faith for them is an action verb! They are enduring great suffering, and are growing more faithful, more alive, than they were in the beginning! The picture is free of any negatives.

What do you think the picture will look like?

In Christ and for Christ,

Mark

THE BIG SMALL GROUP

It surprised me. No, actually, I was in awe. The blueprints had been drawn up, permits had been secured, financial commitments had been received, the contractor had moved equipment onto our church lot up north, and then one day I walked out and stakes had been driven into the ground.

Each stake and the string connecting them marked the outside walls of a building that was about to go up. I found it amazing that the whole endeavor began with a couple of people, surveying the territory, and marking off where the building was going to be.

They marked out the dimensions of the footprint, and then they began to build the foundation.

We've been in a season where we are marking out the footprint of the church of the future. The Fruitful Congregations Journey (FCJ) is laying the foundation for some very significant decisions we'll be making about who we are and where God is calling us to go.

This Sunday, June 8th, we begin a series of sermons based on the BIG IDEAS identified by our FCJ team. We're calling it GOD'S ORCHARD & ROAD SIDE STAND.

Sunday is Pentecost Sunday and we'll be looking at the power of a God-given vision as key to the life of a healthy, loving, serving, world-changing faith community. Look at Acts 2:1-8 and Matthew 28:16-20.

I want to encourage you to join others for our BIG SMALL GROUP this Sunday at 10:40 a.m. in the Great Hall. You'll get the most out of our sessions if you'll read Paul Borden's book "Direct Hit: Aiming Real Leaders at the Mission Field." (You can order this Abingdon Press product from your favorite book seller.) This Sunday we'll be looking at Chapter One and Chapter Three.

So after you worship at 9:30 or before you head to The Open Door at 11:15, come up to the Great Hall for a time of fellowship around tables, some input from the pastors (and perhaps a member or two of the FCJ team), and conversation.

Between now and Sunday, I would challenge you to ask yourself this question: What is my understanding of God's vision for my life? Another way of asking that might be: Why has God put me on this earth at this time at this place with these people?

In Christ and for Christ,

Mark