Prayer for Mission in India

This week we pray for Teresa and Anil Henry and Nancy Lott Henry, our missionaries in India.  Teresa and Anil are medical doctors at the Christian Hospital of Mungeli and Nancy is a volunteer with the Church of North India.

You can read more about the mission to India here, including stories of recent improvements at the hospital with the procurement of a CT Scan instrument and the opening of a nursing school.

There are Christian missionaries serving around the world on our behalf in 70 countries.  Each week, Global Ministries highlights one of these missions and asks the church to pray for its continued vitality in spreading the Gospel.

Coming Up Sunday, April 29

On Sunday, we will celebrate our ongoing support for the medical clinic in Carrefour, Haiti.  Our special Haiti Sunday will feature a testimony from Rev. Karen Yount, who has frequently traveled to Haiti over the years -- she will be sharing photos and stories from her experiences of visits to the Carrefour clinic.  After this, Sue Short will invite us to give generously to provide the annual salary for the clinic doctor, as Eastgate has done every year since 2007.

I am excited for our worship time this weekend, when we will gather together to praise a God who uses our congregation in Independence to make a community better in Haiti.  We will share our money and our prayers and hundreds of people will have medical care that they otherwise would not have.  In this practical way -- and Karen will have pictures to show us -- you and I will be reminded again that together, as the body of Christ, we can lovingly be the hands and feet of Christ.

What a blessed thing!  I have no doubt that we will raise enough money to fund Dr. Duronvil's 2012-2013 salary -- and maybe a little extra for the clinic besides.  And I have no doubt that we will be blessed through our sharing, if only by the assurance that, through Christ, all things are possible.

April 22 Worship: "The Long Run"

After all of the special Holy Week services and last week's special installation service, I suppose that Sunday was a return to a more normal style of Sunday service.  Of course, we have several special Sundays in the next few weeks (Haiti Sunday, Youth Sunday, Mother's Day, Graduation Sunday, and Pentecost) before we enter so-called "Common" time.

(Of course, I can think of a few people who would laugh at the idea that any worship service I lead be described as 'normal.')

In the sermon, I encouraged us to take Paul's metaphor of faith as "running a race" seriously by thinking about how a distance runner prepares and runs an endurance race.  I developed this sermon after reading a chapter in Bearing Fruit: Ministry with Real Results by Lovett H. Weems Jr. and Tom Berlin, which suggested distance running as a model for pastor's seeking to sustain their leadership in a congregation.  The authors identify six lessons of long-distance runners:

• Take Time to Stretch
• Move at the Pace of Your Success
• Be Discerning about Pain
• Make Time for Recovery
• Find a Cheering Section
• Remember the Dream

I think that these lessons apply to our individual faith, not just pastoral leadership.  I also think there is another vital component of running the race that Weems and Berlin overlook.  As my friend John Sowers wrote in his most recent pastor's note: "racing is what always takes my running performance to the next level."

I strongly believe that this can be a helpful model for us to think about our individual faith and our shared ministry as a congregation, which is why I wanted to share them with the congregation on Sunday.  Certainly it is not the only useful model, but it has the potential to nurture us toward a more mature faith.

If you missed Sunday's sermon, if you'd like to listen to it again, of if you'd like to share it with someone, you can listen to an audio recording of it here.

Prayer for Mission in Israel and Palestine

This week we pray for the ongoing mission to Israel and Palestine.  While I think we may be between missionaries in this location, the Disciples have a long history of mission work in the Holy Land, dating back to the mid-1800s.

Now, the mission focuses on offering various measures of support to Palestinian Christians and encouraging interfaith dialogue, especially among young adults, in the turbulent land.  You can read more about the mission to Israel and Palestine here.

There are Christian missionaries serving around the world on our behalf in 70 countries.  Each week, Global Missions highlights one of these missions and asks the church to pray for its continued vitality in spreading the Gospel.

Coming Up Sunday, April 22

This Sunday, as we take a breath from concluding this year's Lenten and Holy Week journey and relax after last week's celebration, we will seek guidance from the great valedictory section of 2 Timothy 4, which includes the famous passage, "I have fought the good fight, I have run the race, I have kept the faith."  As Eastgate looks to the future, we might learn from Paul's great metaphor for faith -- running a race.  This week's sermon, "The Long Run," will ask what we can learn from running a race -- and preparing to run a race -- that will make our personal faith and our shared ministry more effective and more fulfilling.

April 15 Worship: "The Morning After"

Our celebration on Sunday, with my official installation as the senior minister of Eastgate, was joyous.  From my point of view, I thought it was a great day for all of us.  My family and friends enjoyed meeting so many wonderful people, and I thought that the worship was a hopeful expression of our faith and our ministry together.

The sermon about Jacob wrestling and the aftermath of that struggle is a personal one for me, and I have shared it with every congregation where I have served.  Entitled "The Morning After (There's Got To Be a Morning After)," it focuses on the scars of our lives that mark the important events that shape us and our relationships with God.  While I know that I have not faced the deep challenges that many have in their lives, like all of us I have had my growing pains, and this sermon reflects my understanding of how those can be blessings, rather than curses, from God.

If you missed the sermon on Sunday, if you'd like to listen to it again, or if you'd like to share it with someone, you can find an audio recording here.

Prayer for Mission in Colombia

This week we pray for Michael Joseph, our missionary in Colombia.  He works to encourage pastors in this country who are often subject to the threat of violence by those who seek to intimidate them.

You can read more about the mission to Colombia here, including the story one one such pastor who struggles to preach a gospel of truth and freedom in a country with drug lords who seek power.

There are Christian missionaries serving around the world on our behalf in 70 countries.  Each week, Global Ministries highlights one of these missions and asks the church to pray for its continued vitality in spreading the Gospel.

Looking Back at Holy Week

I am still recovering from the emotions and the energy of Holy Week and Easter Sunday.  In some ways, I'm a bit numb from the experience (and probably more than a bit tired too), so I haven't reflected as much on the week as I would like.

Still, I found Holy Week to be personally moving and I believe it was a growing experience for Eastgate.  We stretched ourselves, doing many new things that I hope gave us a deeper appreciation for Christ's crucifixion, death, and resurrection and its meaning for all of us.  As I tried to share in meditations and sermons, I found great, recurring examples of love throughout the tragic story.

If you missed one of the services, if you would like to listen to one of my sermons or meditations again, or if you'd like to share them with others, you can find audio links below:

• Maundy Thursday: "Last Supper: The Cursed Betrayal"
• Great Vigil of Easter: "Blessings of Light Overcoming the Curse of Darkness"
• Easter Sunday: "A Promise Kept: Redeemed from the Curse"

There is no rest for the weary, though.  While the Sunday after Easter is usually a quiet day (in fact, many ministers take that day off), we are celebrating our shared ministry at Eastgate with my official installation as the senior minister.  It should be an opportunity to celebrate together and enjoy each others company as we remind ourselves of the covenant of ministry we share.  There will be some special guests who will be participating in the service, as well as a pot luck dinner following. 

For the sermon, I'll be reflecting on Jacob's wrestling match with God and its aftermath in a special sermon entitled, "The Morning After (There's Got to Be a Morning After)."  I'm looking forward to it, and I hope that it will be a special weekend for Eastgate.

Prayer for Mission in Fiji

This week we pray for Aaron Wiggins, our missionary in the island nation of Fiji.  He serves as a program advisor and advocate for social justice issues related to global warming and nuclear testing, working through the Pacific Christian Council.

You can learn more about the mission to Fiji here, including a reflection on the aftermath of the nuclear plant meltdown after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan last year.

There are Christian missionaries serving around the world on our behalf in 70 countries.  Each week, Global Ministries highlights one of these missions and asks the church to pray for its continued vitality in spreading the Gospel.

Visiting Calvary and the Tomb of Christ

As we consider the purpose and meaning of Christ's crucifixion on this Good Friday, here is a report from the weekly PBS program Religion and Ethics Newsweekly, which shows two of the places that are thought to be the locations of Christ's crucifixion and burial.  One location is located inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, first built in the 4th Century.  Another is the "Garden Tomb," unearthed in the 19th Century.

While the debate is interesting, I share this during the holiest of weeks so that we -- who are not privileged to be in the Holy Land this year -- might see better the context of Christ's death and burial. 

Watch Where Was Jesus Buried? on PBS. See more from Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly.

Coming Up: The Holy Triduum and Easter Sunday

This weekend is the holiest part of the Christian year, when we mark Jesus' Last Supper, his arrest, trial, crucifixion, and death, and then celebrate Christ's resurrection on Easter.  In addition to our special worship service on Easter Sunday, Eastgate will hold special worship services each night during the Holy Triduum -- Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday.

Tonight we will mark Maundy Thursday with worship beginning at 7:00 pm.  (The name Maundy Thursday comes from the Latin mandatum -- meaning commandment -- found in John 15:12, "that you love one another as I have loved you," thought to be Jesus' final teaching during his time with the disciples in the upper room.)  The service is in two main parts.  In the first part, we will remember Jesus' time with the disciples that night, particularly his gift of the Lord's Supper to Christians for all times, as we gather for Communion.  In the second part, we will remember key events of that night in a service of tenebrae, which marks the approaching darkness -- as the story of Jesus becomes bleaker and darker it will become darker in the sanctuary as we remember Christ's journey from the upper room to the Garden of Gethsemane to his arrest and trial before Pilate.

On Good Friday we will commemorate Christ's crucifixion with a simple worship service of remembrance beginning at 7:00 pm.  We will sit at the foot of the cross and listen to Jesus' teaching that day, traditionally called "The Seven Last Words of Christ."  Different people will offer brief meditations on each of these seven teachings.

On Saturday, after sunset, we will gather for the Great Vigil of Easter, which begins at 8:00 pm.  This service, held in churches for at least 1600 years, emphasizes all of the central focuses of our faith -- our worship of God through prayer and music, rooted in the divine revelations in the Bible, which find their highest form in our celebration of the sacraments, baptism and communion.  Through this vigil, the church gradually moves from the emptiness of Good Friday to the full-throated joy of Easter.  The light of Christ, which ceremoniously is removed from the sanctuary on Thursday is boldly brought back into the sanctuary by the whole congregation.  Then we listen to the teachings of Scripture, remembering some of the many times God has reached into the world with love and grace, offering salvation and hope to people of all times and places.  Then we will remember our baptisms before coming to the Lord's Table for the great Easter celebration of Holy Communion.  (In fact, this is the part of the vigil, where communion was celebrated at the moment of sunrise, that led to the tradition of the "Sunrise Service" on Easter.)  If you are curious about this unique worship, Wikipedia has a good article about the Easter Vigil.

Then on Sunday, we will join together for our Easter celebration, which will feature some special music.  The sermon will conclude our Lenten series, "Curses," with the ultimate blessing of Christ's resurrection -- it is a sign that the curses have lost their power -- in "A Promise Kept: Redeemed from the Curse."  After our worship, there will be a special Easter egg hunt for the young people, which is always a fun thing.

I hope and pray that Christians, near and far, find many ways to join together in worship on these holy days, marking the difficult road that Jesus walked on our behalf and understanding better the hope for the world in Christ's resurrection.

The Lesson of Loss in Holy Week

Last week, while reading the most recent issue of The Christian Century, I read a short article by Richard Lischer, who teaches preaching at Duke Divinity School.  Drawing on the imagery of preparing a body for burial, he considers the practice of stripping the sanctuary on Maundy Thursday, removing all of the decorations and fine coverings, leaving everything bare.  Through this ritual, we prepare to face the reality of Christ's death, similar to the way that Christ himself was stripped -- of clothing, of followers, of dignity -- before his crucifixion.

What grabbed me most in the article, though, was Lischer's recognition that Holy Week is about the art of losing, but that lesson is carefully avoided by some Christians, especially in this culture.  He writes:

My South African friend Peter Storey once remarked that "America is the only country where more Christians go to church on Mother's Day than Good Friday."  It is a sobering thought... Those who skip Thursday and Friday but show up on Easter Sunday are missing the essential truth of the Passion.  Thus they also bypass the profound grief that attends Jesus' death.  But there's more to it than that.  They have also missed one of Jesus' most important lessons before dying.  During Holy Week Jesus teaches the art of losing.

I think this is a sobering critique of the ways that Americans have diminished this central part of the Gospel.  It's not just the all too common group of "C & E" Christians, but also those who avoid church services on one of the holiest of days.  For them, the story is roughly "Jesus is here" -- born to Mary or entering Jerusalem amid adoring crowds on Palm Sunday -- and now "Jesus is here again" on Easter.  What occurs in between those two appearances of Jesus is vitally important, though.

More than this, Jesus' behavior during the hardest times of his life offers Christians a practical example of how to face the losses in our own lives with faithful love.  As Lischer writes:

What Jesus offers this Holy Week is not an escape from loss but a better way of losing. In each Passion account, and especially in the Gospel of John, Jesus suffers humiliation and defeat but does not relinquish his identity as the Son of God.  His final cry is addressed to his Father.  His divinity is confirmed not by coming down from the cross but by his gestures of love while impaled upon it.  From the cross he provides for his mother and forgives his tormentors.  From the cross he draws a world of lost souls to himself.  As it turns out, what remains in each of us is not the bravado of mastery but the vulnerability of love.

As he concludes the article, Lischer compares Christ's reaction to loss and grief with our most common response: instead of pulling within, Jesus reaches out.  Instead of becoming totally absorbed in the pain and horrible nature of his suffering, to the point that he loses the ability to think of anyone else except himself, he rarely thinks of his own comfort and instead reaches out repeatedly to others, even during the crucifixion.

This, I think, is one of the valuable lessons we gain if we pay proper attention, through our worship calendar, to this holiest of weeks.  By following in Christ's footsteps during His Passion, we can learn not only to be more grateful for his death to sin on our behalf, but how we can more lovingly and graciously -- that is, faithfully -- face the challenges and disappointments of our own lives.

April 1 Worship: "Via Dolorosa: The Cursed Journey of God's Anointed"

Our special Holy Week worship services began on Sunday with our celebration of Palm Sunday.  Our young people participated with a parade of palms, and Renee sang a beautiful song called "The Palms," as we remembered Christ's entry into Jerusalem.

As I said in the sermon, I find Palm Sunday to be an unsatisfying date on the Christian calendar, partially because I don't think that most Palm Sunday "celebrations" seem forced and church-y, nothing like the ways we mark the highlights in our own lives.  I also tend to find that the "Hosannas" in the Gospels ring hollow in my ears, knowing that a similar crowd will cry out for vengeance against Jesus a couple of days later.

Still, this year I tried to imagine how we could balance the great good of Christ entering the holy city -- the promised "God with Us" anointed by God -- and the vast sinfulness that will lead to his crucifixion.  Building on our Lenten study of scriptural "Curses," I tried to consider the simultaneous blessing and curse of the beginning of this Holy Week in "Via Dolorosa: The Cursed Journey of God's Anointed," drawing inspiration from two stories as told in Mark: the triumphal entry into Jerusalem and the promise made at Jesus' baptism.

If you missed Sunday's sermon, if you'd like to listen to it again, or if you'd like to share it with others, you can find an audio recording here.