Comments at FUMC Austin Celebration of Abundant Life
April 5, 2009

It’s spring in Austin, Texas. What could be a better illustration of abundant life? Have you ever done the traditional kid or pet or significant other photo in the bluebonnets? You know the seeds from which those little flowers sprout are so tough that if you want to plant them in your yard, the seed companies have to do a process they call scarifying. They scrape the surface and subject the seeds to a sulfuric acid bath. These little seeds are made so tough in order to survive Texas winters, poor soil, and drought, and hang out long enough to bloom when conditions are right. Life is abundant and life is tenacious.

Does it feel a little uncomfortable to talk about abundance when so many of us are losing jobs, homes, and life savings? Maybe that’s because we’ve confused abundance with affluence. Today we’re celebrating abundant life, the life we’re privileged to know and live because Jesus showed us how. We need to remind ourselves of that once in a while. We’re beginning Holy Week, a time of voluntary suffering when we remember what it was like for Jesus’ followers to go through his triumphal entry on Palm Sunday (today) his betrayal, his crucifixion, and his burial. But we know something they didn’t. We know the resurrection is coming. We know at the end of our time of trial, Jesus will triumph and give us the gift of everlasting abundant life. Knowing this, even as we go through the time of trial, we can live that abundant life every day, if we remember who we are.

The Bible tells us over and over if we put our hopes in things of the world we are doomed to disappointment. But the world is so seductive, its promises look so good. We need Holy Week and Easter to remind us about a few things. We need Palm Sunday to remind us that the worldview can be terribly flawed, no matter how real it seems. It’s great fun to reenact the triumphal entry of Jesus with the palm branches today. But most of the people in that crowd were expecting an earthly king in the mode of David. They were in for a very big disappointment. We have the crucifixion to remind us things can look pretty hopeless when our earthly expectations are crushed. And then, we have Easter, to remind us that God’s view gives us abundant grace, abundant life.

True story: A man I know who grew up in a different place, different faith, returned from a year-long spiritual retreat in his own faith and found himself attending services in a small Episcopal Church in the US. He heard the words of the hymn they were singing, listened to the scripture, and fresh from his retreat heard, really heard, what Jesus’ life was about. He said he wanted to run down the aisles shouting and dancing. But the people in the church sang listlessly, listened half-heartedly, and seemed eager for the service to be over. He wanted to grab them and shake them yelling listen, listen, you’ve got it right here, you’re the one’s who’ve got it. But, not wanting to be arrested, he was silent. It’s so easy for us to take this gift for granted when we have it. Sometimes it takes a fresh set of eyes to see clearly. Sometimes it takes stripping away layers of old paint to reveal the beauty of the wood beneath. When the world’s institutions fail us, it’s a wake up call to remember what true abundant life is.

Every time I read Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, the writings of a survivor of the WWII concentration camps, I’m reminded that I do have a choice about how I view things, how I respond to the world view. I can choose an abundance mindset or I can choose a scarcity mindset. When I choose scarcity I retreat, I live in fear, I stop being generous because I’m afraid there isn’t enough. I look with suspicion at my neighbor and mistrust at the stranger. I build walls. Fear paralyzes my mind and prevents creative thought.

When I live with an abundance mindset I live with confidence and joy. I share what I have with faith that there will be enough. I welcome the stranger believing she has something to offer that will enrich my life. I honor a passion for love and truth and beauty. Freed from fear, I’m able to think creatively, act boldly, and live abundantly.

Jesus said it, I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. What is God’s abundant life? Jesuit priest Anthony DeMello offers us an exercise to help answer that question. First, recall the kind of feeling you have when someone praises you for something you have done, when you are approved, accepted, applauded. Now contrast that with the kind of feeling you have when you look at the sunset or the sunrise or nature in general, or when you read a book or watch a movie that you thoroughly enjoy. The first, although not bad, is a worldview feeling. The second is a soul feeling.

Another exercise let your mind wander away from my talking for a minute, if you haven’t already, and think of some time when you stopped short at something so beautiful it fully captured all your senses and you forgot to think, you only experienced. Think of times when you felt real peace in your heart, and then remember what you were doing. My guess is, those moments didn’t depend on possessions or money or a job. Those were moments of experiencing God’s abundant life. No one here can be immune to the problems of the day, and none of us can afford to ignore them, but we do get to choose our attitude toward them.

So today we choose abundant life. We celebrate that we have the freedom to choose an abundance mindset, the example of the Christian faith to show us how, and the support of this community to help us follow through.

When I started working on this talk my mind went to the classic musical, Fiddle on the Roof. Remember the engagement dancing scene and the song - to life L'chai-im. Now I don’t have any alcoholic beverage here today, and I’m certainly not going to dance for you, but I do invite you to join me in this toast from Fiddler.

To us and our good fortune!
Be happy, be healthy, long life!
And if our good fortune never comes,
Here's to whatever comes,
Drink to L'chai-im, to life!

At the "Awakenings" group last night we talked about labels and viewing people as a child of God rather than through our perceptions and judgments. A story told me by a friend of mine who was a psychologist came to my mind after the session. During his internship, my friend worked in a state maintained mental institution. Most of his patients were there not by choice but by incarceration or involuntary commitment. He told me that each day working with the patients he imagined the well whole person within them and spoke only with that person. No matter what the body did, he imagined himself communicating with the well person who was trapped inside. If I were to translate this to church language I would say communicating with the pure soul within the person. If I imagine myself as a pure soul, and the "other" as a pure soul, I stand a better chance of interacting with them without judgment. We may all have to act out our rolls, including disagreement with actions or protecting society from the results of certain actions, but we carry out those rolls as part of the dance of two souls, learning about God through our interaction with each other.What am I to learn? In my interacting with those society might label as monsters, I learn about my own dark side. I contain within myself components of each characteristic I admire or hate in others. When I acknowledge that without judgment, I can begin to relate to the "other" appropriately without judgment. I never really judge another, I only judge myself. That's how I view it.

More about Mark

The third chapter of Mark includes Jesus' selection of disciples. It sound so easy in the book. Jesus walks up to people and says follow me and they drop everything and go. Then he picks the 12 who will preach and heal in his name. What was so different about these people? Did Jesus ask others who didn't follow him or did he already know who was going to say yes? We don't see much struggle on anyone's part, except for Paul of course who came later. Were these times so different or were these people just so poor they had nothing to lose? That sounds like a convenient excuse.

Jesus also expresses concern that people will get so wrapped up in his healing, the miracles, that they miss hearing the message he is trying to preach. What may I be so wrapped up in that I'm missing the message?

Mark

One of the options for Lenten observance is to read the Gospel of Mark, twice. Why, I wonder? Why Mark and why twice? I have decided to give it a try and see what Mark may have to say to me. Reading a chapter a day I have discovered, Mark is the oldest of the gospels. It is also more active, telling in active verbs what Jesus did. It records the least of what Jesus said.

There is a great deal of creative energy related to our financial situation right now. What else would cause so many meetings of small groups, soul searching, brainstorming to find ways to keep our church strong, meetings to pray, and pruning to the essential activities? What else would cause so many of us to evaluate our resources and look deep in our hearts to determine our priorities? What else would generate such sacrificial giving among some of our members?

A winnowing spirit is blowing through our church – if we can recognize it. For some of us this is the first time to face a financial crisis and it’s frightening. Some of us will turn away. Life is hard enough. We come to church to escape those things not face more of them. God go with you. When you need us, and you will, we will welcome you back in love. Those who remain are embarking on a spiritual adventure from which we and this church can emerge stronger in the faith with a clearer understanding of Christian stewardship, more in love with FUMC, and blessed. It may not feel like it right now, but if we take this as God’s opportunity to build us as Christians, it will be so.

But what if we fail? What if there are not enough of us who accept this mission or it to succeed? Then this church will complete its place in history and it will be time to make room for a congregation with the passion and will to respond to God’s calling.

Let us be clear. This isn’t John’s problem, or Jim Weaver’s problem or the Finance Committee’s problem. This is our call, each one of us, to fulfill our vows of membership, respond to God’s call, and further our own spiritual growth. Now is our hour and this is our story.

FUMC has a calling, we have resources, we have people. Will we make the best use of our financial and human resources? What is the best use? It will take love and discernment to agree on the answer to that question. Perhaps we should engage together in an exploration of discernment, what it is, and how to carry it out. Hint: It is not brainstorming nor debate nor blind adherence to any legalistic interpretations nor manipulating to get someone convinced of your point of view. It is prayerfully and honestly seeking to listen for God’s direction.

All crises within the church, in life for that matter, are spiritual. They come in the guise of buildings or committees or worship styles or even carpet selection, but what they really are is our opportunity to learn about the nature of man, our own individual selves, the nature of God, and how to live out our faith through God’s body in the world, the church.

Let me ask you this question. If you saw God lying sick and hurt by the road, what would you do? Oh, that’s a parable isn’t it? Brothers and sisters the church is God’s body in the world. FUMC is wounded and in danger. Who will you be in this modern parable?

On Mardi Gras

Mardi Gras is over. Most of us who participate in the annual festival don't know or care what it's about. Like most Christian rituals, it has become so divorced from its meaning that the mythological power is gone. It's a great time to party and so we do. We want the party without Lent. We want Easter without Good Friday, and we want redemption without confession. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. It wasn't the church or the government or even our parents who made these rules. That's just the way it is. When the church or the government or our parent (or our pastors) try to explain these rules to us we rebel against them. "Spoilsports!" Our rebellion can't change the truth, no matter how loudly we holler.

The rules of the universe are inexorable and the truth of the Bible describes not proscribes them. I didn't party last night, although I got caught in the Austin Mardi Gras traffic. Today I will go to a service that I don't fully understand, and my forehead will be marked by ash. I will carry that ash voluntarily into my life for the next 40 days and explore the shadow side of faith. There is much to be enjoyed in the light. Now I'm looking for the lessons of the darkness. Mardi Gras is about escaping. Lent is about engaging.

That's how I see it.

"Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up..." (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10, 12)


In Newsweek of Nov. 3, 2008, there was an article entitled “Click in Remembrance of Me.” It described two types of online communion service, one by an anti-organized-religion site, and two others provided by United Methodist churches who view their sites as augmenting, not replacing a church service. The article raised the question, can Christian community be authentically replicated online? It raised for me a further question, is community necessary for practicing the Christian faith?

For nearly 20 years I stood in the ranks of the disaffected and viewed my spiritual growth as an absolutely personal and individual thing. Over time, I noticed that every spiritual path I pursued included the same admonition: community is an essential part of spiritual growth. I am a slow learner. Fortunately God is patient and my health is good.

Certainly I didn’t come to FUMC in search of community, or even in search of spiritual growth. I just came to sing in the choir. Each time I became involved in one more activity here I told myself I was “just” serving on the committee to help out, doing my part because I owned it to the church, doing good for the community, taking a class because the teacher was interesting. . . it’s amazing how many excuses I found for my participation. I could have achieved any of these goals in secular pursuits. The fact is, I was in the presence of people whose lives were such examples of the active love of God in the world that I was finding the spiritual grace that so long eluded me during my solitary searching. Once I stopped blindly searching for a new roadmap and opened my eyes, I realized I was already home.

This quarter the stewardship focus is presence. We vow to support this congregation by our presence. As part of that presence we may each take our turn as questioner, lost sheep, dissenter, seeker, or even saint. That’s how we learn from each other, by each living out fully the life we are given. Because we are a congregation of the United Methodist Church where all are welcome, no exceptions, we have a rich, full, and challenging spiritual environment in which to grow.

As a fan of technology, I applaud efforts to reach out in every way we can. We are called to do that. But we are also called to be present for each other. John Wesley preached, “Christianity is essentially a social religion, and … to turn it into a solitary religion is indeed to destroy it. By Christianity I mean that method of worshipping God which is here revealed to man by Jesus Christ. When I say this is essentially a social religion, I mean not only that it cannot subsist so well, but that it cannot subsist at all without society, without living and conversing with other men.”

And so to my question is community necessary for practicing Christina faith, scripture, my experience, and Methodist tradition says resoundingly, yes.

As the Beacon moves to a quarterly publication, we will have only one Stewardship column per quarter. However, if you would like more conversation, please continue to visit our blog. Yes, I do believe in technology as one means of community, but God willing, I’ll be present in church next Sunday as well.