Food Pantries Need Help!

 “Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who will receive good things from my Father. Inherit the kingdom that was prepared for you before the world began.  I was hungry and you gave me food to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me.  I was naked and you gave me clothes to wear. I was sick and you took care of me. I was in prison and you visited me.’...
... ‘I assure you that when you have done it for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you have done it for me.’
Matthew 25:34-36, 40

The news spreading today was no surprise.  Since the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (also known as the Stimulus) was enacted, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program ('SNAP' /food stamps) has received additional federal dollars to distribute to those in need.   These additional monies ended as of October 31, 2013.  The net result is a decrease in the amount received each month to be used for food.  Again, this was the original law; the federal government and the states have seen it coming for a long time.

What was not seen, nor expected, was the content of a letter mailed to South Carolina SNAP recipients.  According to a source connected with a local food pantry, those receiving food assistance through SC were encouraged to go to their local food pantry to help with the decrease in funds.  The problem? No one bothered to give the food pantries a 'heads up' that they will likely see a marked increase effective immediately.

Food Pantry Shortage February 2009

I am not writing today to spark a conversation about food assistance programs; my focus has always been
on the faith side of things rather than the political.  My concern is that our churches, soup kitchens, and local feeding ministries may not have the resources to handle the foreseeable surge in need within their communities.  I will not get 'preachy' today.  I will simply refer us to Jesus call to feed the hungry. It is part of our call as disciples of Christ.

What should we do?
1. Plan food drives in your local congregations - Have them spaced throughout the year in order to continuously stock the shelves. Have groups within the church "compete" to see who can give the most.  Always buy at least one can extra to donate every time you buy something for yourself.

2. Glean - Connect with an organization that is saving food that would otherwise be wasted.  The Society of Saint Andrew is a great example of one such organization in the southern US.  Full disclosure: my wife, Ashley, serves as the Program Coordinator for South Carolina (if you would like to help you can email her).

3. Volunteer - With increased demand will come increased numbers of people seeking help.  Every local pantry will need additional support of people like you and me to collect, sort, and distribute food.

4. Tell others - People need to know that there is a need that is likely to grow.  I believe that most of us are generous and, shown the opportunity, will give to help others.  Even those who complain loudest about "government intervention" in this area seem to agree that the private sector should meet the needs of the hungry.  Here is their chance to do something to make a difference

Let us join together as we seek to show the love of Christ to our brothers and sisters!

Grace and Peace,

Trust, but Verify

 Dear friends, don’t believe every spirit. Test the spirits to see if they are from God because many false prophets have gone into the world.

1 John 4:1

As I took a few minutes to read over the daily news for "techies," I discovered this article on CNet. Entitled "Wikipedia shutters 250 accounts in probe of paid edits," the article explains that Wikipedia has banned over 250 people from the use of the editing function on their site.  To understand why this is significant, it is important to have an appreciation of how dramatically information gathering has changed in recent years.

A long, long, long time ago, when I was in seminary (and walking there over a mile, uphill - both ways, in the snow), I used to do research for papers.  I would block off an afternoon to get started as I found my way to a boxy-looking piece of furniture called a card catalog.  This was an organization of index cards that could help you determine the physical location of books within the school library.  After finding a book or two that was pertinent to my subject, I would go into the stacks (lots and lots of books on shelves) and retrieve my recently discovered troves of information.  While there, I would browse the surrounding books to see if, perhaps, another one would also bring light to the topic at hand.  I was always cautioned to check and double-check my sources, but I could feel confident that the librarians at Duke University had taken care to ensure that books of fiction and satire were not mistakenly placed in the science section nor would books trying to sell you a product be in the section for technology.

As we fast forward to 2013, research begins most often with the typing of a few words in a Google search.  A list of possible answers appears, and Wikipedia is often near the top of the list.  Its name sound a lot like encyclopedia, but the source of its information is quite different.  Wikipedia depends on volunteers to share their knowledge and uses a host of editors who verify, cite, and clarify sources.  Information can appear almost instantly in Wikipedia from anywhere in the world -- and that is both its greatest strength and weakness.

I have always taught my children that you cannot trust what you read on the internet unless you have multiple sources that you know and trust.  Wikipedia can point you in a direction, but do not rely on it as your only source.  Today's news reflects the reason for my caution: 250 people were changing or releasing information in ways  to promote and sell products, not because the information was true.

Trust, but verify.

Nowhere is this more true than when it comes to issues of faith.  Countless people have questions and are seeking sound advice to guide them with a struggle or a dilemma. In years past, they might go to a pastor, a priest, or a trusted friend. Today, we google it.  This is exactly the type of hapless wandering that 1 John warns against.  There are so many voices that are crying out today. Many of them (dare I say most), do not speak clearly and truly about God.  They bear little or no reflection of the One so clearly described later in the same letter as Love.

If you are a member of my congregation, never hesitate to call, email, text, or speak to me about any question you may have.  If you do not come to me, I encourage you to speak to people who are solid in their faith.  Spend time, not just trusting what others say, in reading the Scriptures for yourself.  

Trust where people have been in their faith journey and how God has spoken to them, but verify their traditions by the touchstone of God's Word. 

Trust the rational, reasoning mind that God has given you, but verify your reasoning by Scripture.  

Trust the experiences you have when God's Holy Spirit touches and moves you, but verify your experience with God's nature as revealed in the Bible.

This is what it means to be part of the Methodist tradition.  We acknowledge Reason, Tradition, and Experience, but only as they bring light and understanding to the foundation of our faith - Scripture.

The world will speak in many different voices.  Those voices can help, but they can also lead us astray.  May we always return to Scripture as we seek to authentically trust, but verify in our faith.

Grace and Peace,

On Snowden and Hiding

7 

"Where could I go to get away from your spirit?                

    Where could I go to escape your presence?

If I went up to heaven, you would be there.

     If I went down to the grave, you would be there too!

If I could fly on the wings of dawn,

    stopping to rest only on the far side of the ocean—

        even there your hand would guide me;

        even there your strong hand would hold me tight!

If I said, “The darkness will definitely hide me;

        the light will become night around me,”

    even then the darkness isn’t too dark for you!

        Nighttime would shine bright as day,

        because darkness is the same as light to you!"

-- Psalm 139:7-12, Common English Bible, 2012

In recent weeks, Edward Snowden has found himself in the crosshairs of both the US government and the international media. After leaking information about some of the NSA's practices of collecting private information on American citizens, Snowden fled Hong Kong and is currently seeking asylum in a dozen or so countries (see http://tinyurl.com/OnSnowdenAndHiding). From all reports I have read, he does not expect to be able to disappear from sight.  Instead, Snowden is looking for a place where he can speak freely without fear of the reach of the United States government. 

Will he be successful? I am skeptical but unsure.  The reach of the US is quite far, and yet, the "frenemies" of our nation with which Snowden can hide have resources to assist him.  This does not include the fact that he has the Wikileaks legal team assisting him in his plight. Maybe he will be able to find somewhere to hide.

Wouldn't it be great to be able to flee? The medical bills get too much? hit the road... Job causing overwhelming stress? leave the country... Family driving us up the wall? simply disappear... But we don't because of the real consequences of these actions. I tried several times to describe them, but want you to use your imagination.  The hurt and harm we would cause is staggering. And yet...

How often do we run and try to hide from the call of God?  So many times I speak with people who tell me that they know God is calling them to do things much greater than they are right now, but the cost is high.  The commitment is awesome. The road is so narrow...and so we run.

Most of us don't run like Jonah did.  He literally packed a bag and hopped the first boat that headed farthest from where God called him. He wanted nothing to do with God's call because it meant doing something that he really did not want to do.

We don't run like that...We run through busyness:we overbook our calendars so that we don't have the time. We run through avoidance: we turn another direction every time the subject arises. We run through procrastination: we share our good intentions that never match actions. We run through withdrawal: we pull away from God, from the church, from those who would hold us accountable.  

We don't run like Jonah, but boy do we run!

Which leads to my next question: where do we think that we can go to hide from God? I am skeptical about Snowden's ability to hide from the government, but I know that Jonah was unable to hide from God. The psalmist tells us this in Psalm 139. We can run, but we are never able to hide. God will always know where we are without having to even look.

The most beautiful part of that scripture is that God's presence isn't a threat; it's a promise. Even if we hide on the other side of the ocean "there your hand would guide me; even there your strong hand would hold me tight!"(Psalm 139:10 (CEB, 2012). God's hand is there to hold us and to guide us, not to harm us. God loves us and wants our lives to be made complete with joy as we follow Jesus wherever he leads.

Will Snowden hide from the US government? Only time and history will tell. Will we ever be able to hide from the call of God? Not a chance. God loves us far too much to let us go.

If we are going to run, "...let’s ...run the race that is laid out in front of us, ... Let’s throw off any extra baggage, get rid of the sin that trips us up, and fix our eyes on Jesus, faith’s pioneer and perfecter. " Hebrews 12:1-2 (CEB, 2012) 

Grace and Peace,

Grief, Dreams, and Grace

 After that I will pour out my spirit upon everyone;

        your sons and your daughters will prophesy,

        your old men will dream dreams,

        and your young men will see visions.

--Joel 2:28

I believe that God speaks to us in many ways.  Sometimes it's through spiritual disciplines like prayer, Bible study, worship, fasting, giving, silence, sharing our faith or service to others.  Sometimes God uses another person in order to share a word or offer strength, comfort and peace at just the right time. There are times that God breaks into our subconscious and speaks to us in dreams.

It happened with Nebuchadnezzar.  He had a mighty vision where God showed him the future of his empire. Pharaoh had a dream. God was warning him that a time of famine would follow a time of plenty so that he might plan and prepare for the future.

Just to be clear -- many times our dreams are a manifestation of all that we have been going through and just have not had the time to process.  I understand that.  But occasionally, perhaps more often than we realize, God can use the quiet of our sleep to bring a message that might be worth sharing with others.

And the other night, I had a dream...

It was vivid and startling -- clear and convincing in every detail.  I was gathered with some of my family at my grandmother's house.  My mom, aunt and uncle, brothers, and cousins were there (as well as my wife).  I cannot remember what we were doing in the den, but I remembered what happened next...

I felt something shake.  It was like sitting in a house near railroad tracks except extraordinary in intensity.  Everyone felt the vibrations as wide, questioning eyes stared at each other.  What was happening?  Was it a train?  Not out here in the country...Was it an earthquake?  Surely not.

But then it happened again.  Hands grasped for furniture; arms wrapped around heavy chairs and propped open door-frames.  Twenty seconds, then thirty passed.  Instead of subsiding, the whole house began to tremble.  I have never felt an earthquake like this.  Surely the house would shake apart.

And then the unthinkable began to happen.  The house began to spin -- not like a carousel, but like a hamster wheel.  As the roof plummeted toward the ground, we braced our hands on the ceiling while standing on what furniture we could.  Incessantly changing from hand stands to sideways to upright was absolutely exhausting.  We must have rolled for 5 full minutes until everything....just....stopped.

There was both finality and fatality in the stillness.  Something had happened.  Something was far different than just a few minutes before.  We stumbled out the door to assess the damage only to be greeted by an alien landscape.  No, I don't mean from another planet.  It was far removed from the wood-bordered fields that surround my grandmother's house.  We were in a place that we did not recognize.  We were at an intersection far from other people.  In the midst of the chaos was a simple street sign -- the green kind with white letters indicating the names of roads.  One road name was so battered that I could not make it out.  The other name, the path that seemed to go forward from where we were, was clearly labeled with one word. The road was named "FREEDOM."

So what does any of this mean and how is it relevant?

My grandmother recently passed away after battling Alzheimer's for many years.   Before her disease took a grip of her mind, her house was the center of Sunday afternoon.  The whole family and any guests we invited would pull around the table (or tables), and we would spend the afternoon together.  The early rumblings of Alzheimer's began to shake those traditions when she forgot how to cook first one thing and then another.  As the disease gradually progressed, the rumbling sent our family spinning and tumbling through year after year. We watched her fade away until (last November) everything...just ...stopped.  My grandmother died.

But there is a truth behind my dream that fuels my desire to share it: when my grandmother's life ended, she began her journey on a new road, the road of freedom.  For those of us who have faith in Christ, death is not the end, it is only the beginning.  We are transformed back into the fullness of who God intended us to be. We join with the saints drinking from the River of Life and enjoying the Tree of Life that brings us healing (Revelation 22:1-2).   

I believe that my dream was a gift of grace for me, and I wanted to share it with others.  These last few months have been difficult as I grieve the loss of "Granny."  April 24, 2013 would have been her 94th birthday.  I was reminded that even though the grief can have me upside down, sideways, and exhausted, God has given Granny freedom that she will never lose again.  I may find myself in a strange and new environment, but I know that God continues to leave me signs that point me toward hope.

May we find courage in our grief, hope in our despair, and life in our death.

For in Christ, freedom is more than a dream,
       it is the life that welcomes all faithful disciples
              in this life and in the life to come.

Jesus Leads the Way

I have often wondered about the story of Palm Sunday -- how Jesus rode into Jerusalem knowing that he would willingly lay down his life for us.  But what if he had been the Messiah that many Jews sought so many years ago?  How might things have been different?

In another bog, Brian McLaren imagines how the scene might have appeared:

"For days, Jesus and his disciples meet secretly outside Jerusalem. They plan where their weapons will be stored, where horses will be waiting, where various militia will assemble and wait until they receive the word to strike. They also organize crowds to hit the streets at just the right moment to create intimidation, distraction, and fear in the Romans and all those in Jerusalem who collaborate with them. "Operation Sacred Vengeance" is about to begin. 

Then on Palm Sunday, Jesus mounts a white horse. He is carrying a huge sword, but has it hidden in a palm branch. His disciples are similarly well-armed with swords, daggers, and shields, all camouflaged behind palm branches. They are mounted on warhorses, prepared for battle. The word goes out and the crowds assemble. In each man's right hand is a sword or dagger raised to the sky, concealed beneath in a palm frond or coat. Each left hand is raised in a fist. Younger men and boys carry concealed torches, ready to light them, march on the city, and create mayhem when the battle begins. "Hosanna!" the people shout. "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord to execute vengeance on our enemies!" 

Word spreads and people stream out from the city to welcome the freedom fighters. 

As they cross the brow of the hill near Bethany and the city comes into view, Jesus gives a rousing speech. "It is wrong for the heathen idolators to have power over the faithful people of God!" he shouts. "That wrong must end today! We have suffered enough. Now we will make our persecutors suffer!" The people cheer and chant, "Victory! Victory! Crush the Romans! Kill the collaborators!" 

"Who is with me in our holy cause?" Jesus asks. The crowds shout, "We are!" in a roar that echoes across the valley into the streets of Jerusalem. "Who is willing to fight to the death and avenge the blood of our ancestors?" Again the crowds shout, "We are!" "And who will shed a gallon of Roman blood for every drop of our blood that is shed?" Again the crowd erupts. Then the branches and coats are thrown to the ground and blades glisten in the sun.
The Pharisees hastily interrupt, nervous now that bold words are brimming over into action. "Shouldn't we wait a little longer until we have more weapons and troops? Some of our advisors think this battle is premature." "Are we trying to be Goliath, or are we David?" Jesus asks defiantly. "Those who live by restraint will die by restraint. Now is the time. Now is the day of annihilation for our enemies. 

And so the battle for Jerusalem begins." 

http://brianmclaren.net/archives/blog/palm-sunday-2011-end-of-violence.html

What would we think of our Savior had he come in such a way?  How does it make our lives and our faith different that he comes --not to kill, but to die?

How many times, in the name of Jesus, have we seen people launch vicious campaigns against others?  How many times have we seen the righteous headed into battle in order to uphold God's word?

If God's Word came as a Suffering Servant, shouldn't we follow Jesus as he leads our way?  If we get angry with someone different from us, hasn't Jesus found us as guilty as a murderer? or if we call someone of another viewpoint an idiot or a fool, do we not fall under judgement? (Matthew 5:22)  Jesus leads the self righteous in quite a different path when he says, 

         “You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you that you must not oppose those who want to hurt you. If people slap you on your right cheek, you must turn the left cheek to them as well. When they wish to haul you to court and take your shirt, let them have your coat too. When they force you to go one mile, go with them two. Give to those who ask, and don’t refuse those who wish to borrow from you.          “You have heard that it was said, You must love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who harass you so that you will be acting as children of your Father who is in heaven. He makes the sun rise on both the evil and the good and sends rain on both the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love only those who love you, what reward do you have? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing? Don’t even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore, just as your heavenly Father is complete in showing love to everyone, so also you must be complete.

Matthew 5:38-48 Common English Bible, 2012)

I wonder what our society would be like if we let Jesus lead the way -- if we approached those different from us
     ... headed to the cross instead of headed to crucify
     ...willing to sacrifice instead of ready to strike
     ...seeking to love instead of seething and loathing
     ...turning the other cheek instead of being cheeky in return

Unless Christians let Jesus lead the way, I am afraid that we may never know.

May the One who rode into town that he might die grant us

Grace and Peace,