From the Pastor’s Heart

In a recent sermon, I spoke about my dad’s older sister, Mary. Mary married later in life to a quiet and kind man named George. When Aunt Mary and Uncle George would come for a visit, Uncle George always had a silver dollar for my brother, sister and me. My dad’s brother Paul (we called him Uncle Pauly) also was benevolent with gifting us with silver dollars. Thanks to Uncle George and Uncle Pauly we had quite a collection of silver dollars.

On one of Uncle Pauly’s visits, he brought along a book outlining old coins and their value. As my dad looked at the old silver dollars and the book, he discovered one of the coins was of great value. We were going to be rich!!!!! Oh the joy and excitement!

However, upon closer examination, we discovered a mistake had been made, and the silver dollar we thought to be worth thousands of dollars was only worth one dollar. As often is the case, it was just too good to be true. Our joy and excitement were short-lived.

Yvonne, a server at a small diner in New York City received some news that she thought was surely too good to be true. Here is her story…

A New York cop named Charley is having coffee in a little diner. Finished, he reaches into his pocket to pay and to leave his usual tip, but finds that he has just enough money to pay for the coffee. There is not enough to tip the waitress. Embarrassed, he offers the waitress a choice. He promises to return the next day with double the usual tip or taking a lottery ticket out of his billfold and holding it up, he promises to split the winnings, if any, of the lottery ticket he just purchased for that evening’s drawing.

Now, Yvonne didn’t need to hear that. She has had a bad enough day without losing a tip. In fact, her life is the pits. She hates her job as a waitress. Her runaway husband has run up her MasterCard balance so high that just that afternoon she had been in court to declare bankruptcy. Could things get any worse? Still, she is good-natured about it. She smiles helplessly at her bad luck, forfeits Charley’s promise of tomorrow’s pocket change, and jokingly takes Charlie up on his offer of half the lottery ticket’s potential winnings.

Surprisingly, the ticket beats the incredible odds and wins 4 million dollars. Charley comes to the diner the next morning to give Yvonne the good news. Her tip for serving a cup of coffee is not a mere two bits but two million dollars.

Well, you can imagine Yvonne’s reaction to this good news. At first, utter disbelief covers her face. She thought it to be a cruel joke. Then, as Charley insists he is not joking, a tiny flicker of hope registers deep inside Yvonne. She dared just for a moment to believe Charley’s good news was true. “Yes?” “Yes?” she asks with her eyes widening. “Can it really be true?”

But disbelief wedges its way back into Yvonne’s mind. She had, after all, only yesterday accepted her fate, bankruptcy. “No! No!” she says, shaking herself back to reality. Her emotions are a slowly congealing mix of belief and disbelief. But facts are facts. Charley’s gift was really, genuinely hers.

Yvonne’s glimmer of belief grew stronger as Charley’s smile and excitement gradually thawed her skepticism. Charley’s smile was saying, “It could happen. It has happened. It has happened to you.”

“Yes?” Yvonne asked again. “Yes!” charley exclaimed.

“YES!” Doubts cast away, her question now turns into cheerful exclamation. “YES!” As the largeness of Charley’s gift grips her, she suddenly finds herself dancing, swirling through the tables of customers, contemplating her new life, a life forever changed by Charley’s free gift. The little New York diner is the scene of unexpected, overwhelming, hard-to-believe joy!

Now let me take you to another scene of unexpected, overwhelming, hard-to-believe joy. This story comes not from New York via Hollywood, but from the New Testament. It comes from the Gospel of Luke. The scene is not entirely unlike that little New York diner. There is fish on the grill and sadness and confusion in the air. The disciples of the slain Jesus have come together for a little refreshment. Like Yvonne, they had accepted their miserable fate. Their leader was dead. It was finished. Had their Jesus not said as much while hanging on the cross? “It is finished.”

Yet, there he was, in their very midst. Read again Luke’s description of the disciples’ reaction: “Startled and terrified, they thought they were seeing a ghost.” Could it be Jesus in their midst? No, surely it is too good to be true. Like, Yvonne, they sway back and forth between exhilaration and the horrible possibility that someone is playing a cruel joke on them. “In their joy,” says Luke, “they were disbelieving and still wondering.” It was just too good to be true.

Do you ever find yourself in the disciples’ shoes? We want to believe. We want to trust. But we can’t let ourselves go. It is sometimes difficult to believe that God actually loves us that much!

Our wondering, and dare I say, disbelieving, often gives birth to what the disciples were experiencing; fear and worry. Might Jesus ask us the same question he asked his followers: “Why are you frightened and why do doubts arise in your hearts?”

Do you know how many times the Scriptures say, ‘Fear not,’ or ‘do not be afraid’? It is a very curious number, 365 times. That is one for each day of the year. A coincidence? Perhaps…. Perhaps not. To be sure God does not want us to be afraid.

Returning to the story of Yvonne, when Yvonne finally accepted Charley’s message, she asked, “Why? You don’t have to give me this gift. Why are you doing this?” Charley’s reply is classic. “Because a promise is a promise.”

We may ask God the same question, “Why God? Why? I am so unworthy of your love and life-changing gift of grace.” God’s reply, “Because you are my son, my daughter, and I love you.”

There is no confusion… there is no mistake…. You are loved and redeemed by God. It is true!
May our lives reveal the joy and excitement of that truth.

Blessings,
Pastor Russel

Let me tell you a true story. What do you believe? What we believe affects our lives in profound ways.

Let me tell you a true story….. In Russia a few years ago a railway worker accidentally locked himself in a refrigerator car. Unable to escape or to attract attention, he resigned himself to his fate. As he felt his body becoming numb he took a pencil out of his pocket and recorded the story of his approaching death. He scribbled on the walls of the car: “I am becoming colder…still colder… I am slowly freezing… half asleep- these may be my last words.”

When the car was opened the man was found dead, but the temperature of the car was only about 56 degrees. Officials found that the freezing mechanism was out of order and that there was plenty of fresh air available. Although there was no physical reason that they could find, the man had died. It was concluded that he had died because he had believed that he would die.

To say it was a horrible week understates what the disciples witnessed and endured. In the end, the one they staked their lives on was dead as a result of a very ugly crucifixion. On Saturday, they found themselves hiding behind locked doors out of fear for their own lives. They were confused, broken, hopeless, all but destroyed. What would be their next move? How would they pick up the pieces of their shattered lives and get back to some sense of normalcy? What they believed, Jesus was dead and buried, dictated their response.

Let me share with you another story…. A preacher tells this story of a high school football player in his church who was to lead his team, as quarterback, to victory. “Before the final game of the winning season, word came that the quarterback’s father, who was blind, had died. The funeral was scheduled for a distant city on the day of the game. The reserve quarterback was preparing to lead the team, but the star quarterback showed up. The coach said, “But your dad has just died and is being buried, surely you don’t plan to play today?” “Coach,” the boy replied, “you don’t understand. My dad was blind and this will be the first time he’s been able to watch me play.”

What that young man believed made all the difference in the world.

What we believe to be true affects us to the core of our being, it shapes us, makes us what we are; it either blesses us because it opens us up to the power of God, or it afflicts us because it blinds us to what could be and what God is trying to do for us.

When the disciples finally came to their senses and finally accepted and believed in the resurrection that Christ had told them about, their lives changed; their world changed. They came out of the upper room where they had huddled in fear, and they went to the ends of the earth, and they created a mighty church despite the efforts of emperors and princes to stamp it, and them, out of existence. They went from being people afraid of dying, to being people who offered their very lives to help others come to the faith, hope, and joy the disciples had.

My brothers and sisters in faith—the resurrection is the most important thing we believe in as Christians. The resurrection is at the center of our faith.

The resurrection is of first importance to us, not because it is a nice ending to the story of Jesus, but because it is the beginning of our story, a story in which our faith can triumph over death.

As Christians, we are urged over and over again to trust in and accept the reality of the resurrection, and to make it part of our lives through faith in the one who rose from the dead.

We are people who are called to believe in the power and the love that it shows—to believe in the power and love of God to bring goodness out of evil, life out of death, and hope out of despair.

And as Christians, we are promised that when we trust and believe in this way, that when we believe in the power and the love of God, a power and love that can raise the dead to life, our lives will be blest, and we will be a blessing to others.

What do you believe? What do you truly believe? What we believe makes a difference to us… indeed it does!

Easter Blessings,
Pastor Russel
 

Growing up next to the Carbon Limestone Company, there were two constants in our lives: lime dust and the 4:00 pm whistle. The lime dust over the house was dependent upon the direction of the wind. The 4:00 pm whistle, however, was a Monday through Friday occurrence, marking quitting time. The whistle was loud and piercing. The whistle would sound, and my father’s beagles and my uncle’s beagles (he lived next door in the old homestead) would howl, and a stream of cars would begin to travel down the company road, which ran in front of my parent’s home.

For many years, that whistle directed our lives. My father worked at the Limestone Plant, and the whistle marked his coming home. When I was in junior and senior high school, my brother, sister and I would spend the afternoons at Crystal Lake, the local swimming quarry. We had to be home by the time the whistle blew, because supper would be on the table when our dad got home.

That whistle impacted many generations. I, too, worked at that plant for ten years. Nancy and I owned a small company house not far from my parents. Our girls, too, grew accustomed to that whistle marking my return from work.

The lime dust is no more. The 4:00 pm whistle was silenced. It has not sounded for many years. The closing of the Carbon Limestone Plant brought an end to that tradition.

Often, the sound of a whistle or the ringing of an alarm clock directs our lives. God’s people, Israel, found themselves responding to a sound, the sound of the Shofar. The shofar was made of the horn of any ‘clean’ animal except the cow. The shofar was usually made from the ram’s horn. The adults knew that the blowing of the shofar in Jewish tradition could mean one of three things: 1) It’s time to move camp; 2) They needed to get ready for war; 3) The leaders were calling a sacred assembly.

The most common use of the shofar was to call God’s people together for the purpose of worship. Today the shofar has fallen silent, at least in the Christian tradition. Occasionally a shofar will be pulled out for a special worship event, but, for the most part, the shofar does not hold much meaning for modern day Christians.

We must not interpret this to mean that God’s call on our lives has been silenced. God’s call continues to be loud and clear, if we but listen.

This past week, I received a letter from our bishop, Bishop Thomas Bickerton. His letter is a call to prayer. The bishop writes…

“The reason for this letter is to ask you and your congregation to commit to pray that, in all this, God’s will might be done for the church.

If we are going to be faithful to the CALL God has placed on our lives, it is time to pray for a turnaround. The future may look daunting, but the Holy Spirit, at work around and within us, can revive our spirit and our resolve to be the church of Jesus Christ.

In the book of Ephesians, the Apostle Paul writes, ‘…God, who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine,…’ (3:20 NRSV) This is our hope. That God will work in and through us to transform our lives and our churches in ways that we do not know how to ask or imagine.”

Soon I will be ordering prayer cards and tents that we might heed the bishop’s call to ‘The Turnaround Prayer Movement.’ Together we will covenant to pray daily for….

• The Holy Spirit to turnaround our churches with new life and hope.
• The turnaround of our lay and clergy leaders with the life-giving and visionary message of Jesus.
• The revival and turnaround of my own spirit in order to be boldly used to make new disciples of Jesus Christ.

• My congregation to be empowered by God to reach and exceed ministry goals we have set for building up the Kingdom of God:

  1. Our turnaround weekly worship attendance goal
  2. Our turnaround profession of faith goal
  3. Our turnaround baptismal goal
  4. Our turnaround goal for small groups, Sunday School classes and Bible studies for all ages
  5. Our turnaround goal for the number of people engaged in mission/outreach activities
  6. My personal turnaround goal for giving/tithing

The shofar has sounded. God is calling us to “turnaround” the church. I invite you to join me in a covenant of prayer that it might be so.

May God’s call on our lives be the constant “whistle,” or “shofar,” directing our lives as we strive to be the church!

Blessings,

Pastor Russel

This month we enter once more into the season of Lent. It is an important time… it is a holy time…it is a time to reflect on both the fragility and preciousness of life.

Officially it is the time when we remember how the story of Jesus includes suffering through betrayal, denial and a harsh crucifixion and burial in a borrowed tomb.

Yet it is also a time when we reflect on our own mortality, how we are born into this world and one day will leave it again.

Saturday evening I sat at my mother’s kitchen table as we celebrated my baby sister, Brenda’s 42nd birthday. As I sat there I thought how different life is now. I remembered when there were six of us around the table and where each of us sat with baby Brenda in her little seat near the table. Today there are only three of the original six taking our place at the table but we have been blessed over the years, for many have been added to the family as each takes his or her place at the table. And now when we all gather we can’t all fit around the kitchen table. We must move to the basement where multiple tables are set to make room for in-laws, grandchildren and their spouses and great-grandchildren. We gather and we celebrate the gift of family.

Every Sunday we gather as a family, God’s family. Our church family is constantly changing: while some choose to leave of their own accord to worship else where, others leave for the church triumphant as they inherit their eternal reward and continually we are seeing new faces coming to be a part of the church family. We add another leaf to the table; we pull up more chairs making room for our brothers and sisters.

I very much appreciate the following communion liturgy:
This is not my house. This is God’s house. I cannot tell God who is welcome and who is not.

This is not my table. I do not sit at the head as host. It is the table of Christ. He is host. I can not tell the Host who can sit here and who cannot.

This is not my food on this sacred table. I did not prepare it. It is not my blood, my body. It is the very life of Christ laid out there. I cannot tell Him, this one who constantly ate with sinners and outcasts, who is worthy to partake of it and who is not.

The doors of God’s House are open to all who need shelter, who crave the fellowship and friendship of God. Anyone, everyone is welcome as honored guests in God’s house.

This table of Christ is long and it has many chairs. There is always room for one more, for those craving the fellowship of the sacred table, a place to belong, to be somebody to Somebody. Anyone, everyone has a place at the table of Christ.

This food, simple yet divine, is bountiful, abundant, ample for all, especially those who are hungry and thirsty for what mere bread and drink cannot supply. Anyone, everyone has a plate and apportion served by the very hand of the Christ. No one is sent away hungry or thirsty here.

The doors are wide open and there is always room at the Table for one more. We are family!!!!

Blessings,

Pastor Russel

When I was growing up, New Year’s Eve was a night my parents went out to celebrate. They often went to the Croatian Club to dance the night away to the toe-tapping, heal-kicking joyful music of a polka band. My brother sister and I would spend the night at our grandparent’s home. The next morning, there were left over hats and noisemakers for our enjoyment.

At this season of the year our minds are crowded with recollections of the past, especially the past year, some cheering and some sobering. But before long we find our minds occupied with anticipation. As we stand on tiptoes gazing into the New Year we wonder, what will 2012 hold for us? What is waiting for us just around the corner? Will there be joy, celebrating and dancing? Will there be tears, fear and despair?

Neither you nor I know what the future holds but we know who holds the future.

As we step into 2012 I invite us to look back and remember. Look back and give thanks for the many blessings God has bestowed upon us. Give thanks that God saw us through the wilderness experiences. Give thanks that God has chosen to love us and save us.

As we step into 2012 I invite us to look to the future. With God by our side the future is always filled with hope and expectation.

As we step into 2012 I invite us to look inward. God has wiped the slate clean for us. “Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as wool, though they be red like crimson, they shall be white as snow.” (Isaiah 1:18). Look inward and discover God has made us a ‘somebody.’ We are God’s beloved children.

As we step into 2012 I invite us to continue to look upward. Each and every step we take through the New Year will be a richer and fuller experience as we look upward for guidance and direction and as we look upward with praise and thanksgiving.

As my parents would dance the night away on New Year’s Eve we too can dance through 2012. Jesus comes to each of us and asks: “May I have this dance? Won’t you take his hands and step onto the dance floor called 2012 and allow Him to lead, as He joyously dances with you through the year?

Blessings for a dance filled New Year,

Pastor Russel

A NOTE OF THANKS……

Nancy and I wish to thank our Church family for the benevolent Christmas gift. Your generosity, love and support are greatly appreciated. I also wish to thank all who helped make our Advent and Christmas worship experiences holy and filled with the presence of the Christ Child. You give so much of yourselves in so many ways to make worship so meaningful. Thank you…thank you…thank you…thank you!!!!!