From the desk of Rev. Karen Thompson

Sense and Sensuality

2009-09-16T13:33:00.001-05:00

Many people say that in the end, MCC's great gift to the world will be our reconciliation of and celebration of Christianity and sexuality. I agree. But I also think we will return an equally important gift to the church--the gift of sensuality. Now, many people will say they are the same, and certainly, that's a defensible position. But it's a little like saying Ghirardelli and Keebler are the same....Let me explain.

My sermon for this week is "Sense and Sensuality," and I promised you a full-bodied experience. That you shall have! But it might not be exactly what you think, especially after you read the scripture passage from the Song of Songs. You see, over time, we have lost the "full-bodied" nature of sensuality and reduced what actually pertains to the whole body, and all five senses, to a single set of sensations and very limited body parts. Even the dictionaries participate in the conspiracy. As soon as you get beyond the first definition, or sometimes in the first definition itself, you find these narrow definitions of sensuality: suggesting sexuality; voluptuous; physical rather than spiritual or intellectual; lacking in moral or spiritual interests; worldly.

Oh, my. There is so much about sensuality that is not sexual, not limited to the physical rather than the spiritual or intellectual realms, and not lacking in morality. I can offer you my personal experience here. I've often had my senses ignited by someone or something smart and challenging--no need to separate sensuality from the intellectual, for sure. For most of my teenage years, the feel and smell of a leather Wilson basketball, the saltiness of sweat, and the exhaustion of effort were the heights of my sensual experience--no immorality there. And even now, the intimacy of communion, the re-membering of Jesus' body broken for me, the sharing of food and drink and whispered blessings offer me a tangible sensual experience that is nothing other than spiritual.

My days are made more beautiful by unexpected sensual pleasures--the pleasure of touch when a nineteen year old daughter plops down in my lap while we're watching TV, or an eight-year-old who is "too big" forgets and slips his hand in mine when we cross the street, or the connection made when fingers momentarily touch in an action as simple as the passing of a spoon. Smells can take me back to my grandmother's kitchen, warm and safe as a womb, or to my grandfather's garage, full of tools and fishing poles and wood-shavings and every kind of potential adventure. The gift of loving words spoken and heard or written and read can offer not only pleasure, but hope and comfort and even renewal and healing.

As you go through the rest of your week, I invite you to turn your sense receptors up to high. Allow your whole life to be a full-bodied experience! When you eat, taste! When you touch, feel! When you breathe, smell! Then this weekend, come and worship the One who has created and continues to re-create us as sensual, spiritual, sexual, intellectual, physical, emotional, beloved beings.

Love and Blessings,

Hi-lites vs. Highlights

2009-09-09T16:30:00.002-05:00

For those of you who weren't able to worship with us last weekend, I want to share with you some highlights and hi-lites from the sermon, and offer encouragement as you consider how you can incorporate the highlights rather than the hi-lites into your spiritual journey.

First, some clarification on hi-lites vs. highlights. Last weekend I shared this invitation from the Lite Church:

Welcome to the Lite Church

We ask for 24% fewer commitments

Home of the 7.5% tithe

10 minute sermons

35 minute worship services

We only follow 8 commandments--your choice

We teach 3 of the 4 Gospels

We're everything you've ever wanted in a church ... and less!

That's a hi-lite, and oh, it sure can be tempting to look for just such a church!

Now here is a highlight from Thomas Bandy, author of Moving Off the Map, the primary resource that guided Team Vision as they led us through discerning our core values, bedrock beliefs, mission, and vision statements:

"Congregations ... fail to make intentional connections between faith sharing and beneficial action. They believe that 'actions will speak louder than words.' Yet in [our] world in which do-gooders are regarded with remarkable suspicion, congregations have to share the motivation that lies behind the action. Beneficial action, without intentional spiritual growth, never achieves long-term societal solutions."

I expanded on this quote by saying that beneficial action without intentional spiritual growth will never achieve long-term personal transformation, either. Faith without works is dead. And works without faith is dead, or if not dead, certainly not life giving or life transforming.

My desire is that our faith community will take seriously our commitment to individual spiritual growth. Through spiritual practices of prayer, study, meditation, service, silence, song, worship, and so many more, we continue to draw close to God, to abide in God's presence, and to renew our spirits.

This week we are adding two new spiritual growth opportunities to the over 25 that are ongoing here at MCC Austin. Tonight we begin a new season of the Word on Wednesday. This season's theme is Talk the Walk: How To Talk about Your Faith and Your Church. On Sunday evening at 5:30, we will hold our first ever Sunday evening prayer service at Faith Presbyterian, 1314 E. Oltorf. I hope you will consider making one of these experiences a part of your weekly walk. If neither fits your schedule or piques your interest, give Alycia a call at 512-291-8601 and visit with her about the many, many other opportunities available.

Finally, I leave you with this story. Two friends were talking together. One said, "I'm thinking about leaving my church." The other asked, "Why's that?" The first replied, "Oh, my church just doesn't feed me anymore." With genuine concern, her friend asked, "When's the last time you picked up a spoon?"

Come and be fed; the tables are ready.

Always in Hope,

Called Out

2009-08-26T14:07:00.002-05:00

You offered lots of feedback on last week's sermon (which I always appreciate), and you were largely united in your comments. In fact, this one comment pretty much sums up your combined sentiments: "Oh, my God! You called us out!"

Un-huh. Sure did. Haven't you heard that the first obligation of the preacher is to comfort the afflicted...and afflict the comfortable?

But a couple of you took a different tack. A couple of you wanted to know, "Pastor, if there are so many people and projects in need of our money and time, then why are we going to spend so much money to build a new building?"

I'm glad you asked! It's a good question, and one that I know is motivated by wanting to discern God's will rather than planning our own agenda.

Let me offer you three reasons for why I think building a larger sanctuary is exactly the right thing to do now.

First, never does a week go by that someone does not tell me that finding MCC Austin has saved his life, restored her hope, or lifted her spirits. We want to have room for all of those who want to come and connect with us, but we don't. Studies suggest that when facilities (sanctuaries, parking lots, etc.) are 80% full, people entering experience a strong feeling that there is not enough room for them. During the winter and spring, we were over 80% capacity at 11:00 over 80% of the time, and even during the summer, when attendance is always lower, we're averaging 75% capacity at 11:00. Those of you who attend only on Saturday night or Sunday morning at 9:00 might not see it, but that's our reality. We also welcome 80% of our first time visitors at 11: 00. We do not want them, or anyone else, to get the message from lack of seats or lack of parking that we don't have room for them. (One thing to keep in mind for those of you who feel like the sanctuary is less full than it used to be: we've used all kinds of innovations and have added 50 additional chairs to the sanctuary over the past year.)

Second, until we provide more worship space, we will have to keep hiding our light under a bushel--or at least keep it dimmed a bit. We have stopped publicizing MCC Austin in any ways beyond our web site and your personal invitations. Why? For the reasons I laid out above. We would love to promote through the Chronical and other venues some of the truly amazing series and services that we offer, but we can't do that faithfully because we don't have room. We must rectify that. Part of our commitment to being a church without walls is breaking down barriers that would prevent anyone from coming into our fellowship; radical hospitality demands that we make sure we have room for all those who would like to join us!

And third, we need more room in our sanctuary so that all those who would like to fish can learn to fish. Have you heard the saying, "Give people fish and they eat for a day; teach them to fish and they eat for a lifetime"? Well, worship offers us the greatest opportunity to teach people to fish--it's not the only way, not always even the best way, but it certainly has the greatest impact. Worship is the best way for us to provide education and understanding through sharing the Word, reminders of God's grace through the sacraments, and opportunities for community through fellowship. Additionally, we make sure that your gifts of time, talent, and treasure are not just one time charity, but are rather ongoing acts of social justice...compassionate acts motivated by love for God and sustained through the continuing nourishment of the Holy Spirit.

So it turned out to be a week of calling each other out, and I know it made some of you anxious. But don't be! One of the greatest gifts I ever received was when a dear friend called me out--out of my comfort zone and into ministry in MCC. That's what people in community with each other do: call each other out, draw each other in, and build each other up!

Always in Hope,

Shelter in God/Shelter-ing God

2009-08-19T15:01:00.003-05:00

Since the beginning of August, we have used portions of “Eagle’s Wings” by Michael Joncas in our Sunday worship services. It is a beautiful work of art that soars just as its name suggests. Listen:

You who dwell in the shelter of our Lord,
who abide in God’s shadow for life,
say to the Lord: "My refuge, my rock in whom I trust!"

Refrain:
And God will raise you up on eagles’ wings,
bear you on the breath of dawn,
make you to shine like the sun,
and hold you in the palm of God’s hand.

This weekend my sermon will be “Shelter in God vs. Shelter-ing God.” Reading that title, you might think that the “sheltering God” part is a description of God, that it refers to God’s act of sheltering those who seek shelter. But I’m thinking of something different. I’m thinking of the many ways and means by which we humans attempt to shelter God. I’m thinking of how often we slip from seeking the shelter of God’s providence, protection, and grace into seeking to shelter God…to protect God.

There are many ways we do this. Sometimes we, like the people of Israel, seek to place God in a box—a small one like the Ark of the Covenant, or a larger one like the temple Solomon built in Jerusalem. Our motivation may be to keep God near and be assured of God’s presence, but this effort is often less than a half-step away from an attempt to exert our own control over God. “Let’s keep God right here, in this denomination, in this sanctuary, at this altar so we know at all times where God is and what God’s doing!” Next thing you know, we’ve gone beyond keeping God in a box and are suddenly permitting or denying the requests of those who would dare to request access. You see, now that we’re sheltering God, we must protect God from all kinds of imagined affronts and intrusions.

Then we become small and our faith becomes small…

I invite you to think about these things as you read the scripture passage for this week. (Actually, I encourage you to read all of I Kings 8 if you can.) Ask yourself some questions: What are my tendencies to shelter God? Do I try to protect God from my shortcomings? From what I perceive as other’s failings or impurities? My desires? From what do I seek God’s shelter? From circumstances? Pain? To whom should I offer shelter?

And finally, I want you to keep this in mind. We at MCC Austin have declared that we discern God calling us to be a church without walls. Do you hear the hope in that? Do you hear a desire NOT to be a box in which we keep God? I think it’s a clear sign of hope and a very good start…

See you in church!

Come, Holy Spirit

2009-08-05T15:15:00.000-05:00

Like many people who write regularly as part of their vocation or avocation, I am blessed to have a muse. My muse and I have a complex relationship. I don’t own her and can’t predict her arrival. She won’t schedule appointments in advance. She shows up unbidden, always sure I’ll be happy to see her, and I always am.

But there is one thing I’ve learned to count on over time--the more I prepare myself for her arrival, the more likely she is to come around. By that I mean that my muse likes to weave words from a variety of fabrics. If I’ve collected threads of stories and strips of ideas from books and movies and a heart and ear tuned to life, she shows up happy and gets right to work, helping me spin off sermons and series, and I delight in her presence.

But if I’ve cut myself off from the warp and weft of life, too busy to pick up a book, not paying attention to the vignettes unfolding around me, she shies away, dancing, I’m sure, on more inviting playgrounds.

Seems to me that this relationship is analogous to my relationship with the Holy Spirit. As we’re reminded in the Fourth Gospel, the Spirit, like the wind, blows where it will. Surely the Spirit delights to settle into a space that’s made warm and welcoming by a willing heart, an open mind, and a compassionate soul. Conversely, I can imagine the Spirit choosing to move on, to keep looking for a kinder resting place, when confronted by a no-vacancy sign on a heart or a mind whose Day Planner section has even the margins filled with “stuff.”

Over the last week I was fortunate to have the opportunity to prepare myself for both muse and Spirit. For the muse, the stirring beauty of the Pacific Ocean, the energy and romance of the streets of San Francisco, the wonder of the Museum of Modern Art, and the tastes and smells of all the world stretched out like an endless banquet. For the Spirit, the inspiration and encouragement of shared ministry, the renewal of morning devotionals and reflection, and the soul-deep impact of Taize and candlelight.

When the Spirit moves near you, will she want to come in? Will she see an invitation to dwell in spaces made warm and welcoming by prayer, rest, devotion, creativity, and passion? Or will she find doors closed and areas sealed off by obstacles such as over-work, worry, negativity, and self-doubt?

Take a moment…

Turn everything off…

Light a candle…

Breathe deeply…

Sing to the Spirit…

She will come. She will come.

Peace,

BIG Things are Happening!

2009-07-29T15:29:00.002-05:00

As you read this, I’m in San Francisco attending the MCC Large Church Pastors Conference. Yes, as you might imagine, there is plenty of “size matters” double entendre being bandied about. The fact that we’re meeting in MCC San Francisco’s sanctuary in the Castro seems to encourage the jokes, probably because “size matters” is one of the prevalent themes of window displays and advertisements.

Now, you might think I digress in beginning with this description of the conference, but actually, I’m right on task. The point is, size really does matter, especially in churches. Some of you will remember that in the two years before leaving to serve as Elder, Rev. Ken Martin began to work with the Board and other church leaders in the area of church size dynamics. One of the themes of my candidacy week with you included numerous conversations about the congregation’s willingness and my ability to lead us into our “big church” years.

“Big church” is variously defined, but for our purposes, the label means an average weekly worship attendance of 350 or more. Reaching that kind of size has many implications for a church. One of the greatest impacts, as we often talk about, is the changing role of Sr. Pastor. Most noticeably, perhaps, has been our shift from a congregation in which the Sr. Pastor provides the majority of pastoral care to a model in which our 25 Deacons are now trained and supported in providing a great deal of pastoral care for the congregation at large and the Sr. Pastor provides pastoral care for the Deacons. The Sr. Pastor or another member of the pastoral staff also provide care in any situations beyond our Deacons’ training or confidence level.

Last year, I attended the LCP conference a mere 3 weeks after being installed as your pastor. The experience was invaluable in two ways: First, we received excellent training from a member of the Alban Institute staff pertaining to large churches and multi-staff management. Second, the introduction to new colleagues and friends from the denomination’s other large churches opened up a collegial support and information sharing network that I relied on over and over throughout the year.

This time, I’m not quite so green, feel much more comfortable participating in the give and take of ideas and resource sharing, and am (if possible) even more excited about getting back to you and beginning to implement some of the ideas that have been shared or inspired through our sessions.

Size dynamics is such an important area that a great deal of our Elders’ new structural model takes into account the size of churches. Rev. Elder Darlene Garner will still serve MCC Austin as our “care” Elder and will still work with us in areas of connection, communication, and care as well as moderate our Region VI conferences. But beginning in August, Rev. Elder Ken Martin and Rev. Elder Lillie Brock will be working more directly with MCC Austin as they take on the responsibility of providing leadership and resources to the MCC churches that already are or are moving toward the “large church” category.

All jokes aside, I know talk of “big church” and “size dynamics” is not a comfortable or exciting topic for many of you. Some of you have loved MCC Austin for years and your greatest desire is for it to keep that smaller, “we’re a family” feeling. Some of you still aren’t sure that it sits well with you for your pastor not to be the one you count on for all your care concerns. Some of you wonder how much time we have left before being part of MCC Austin starts to feel institutional or impersonal.

Friends, we (I say “we” because we share responsibility for how we grow.) are not going to let that happen. If we do what we’ve dreamed about, talked about, and sung about since Advent and draw the circle wide, we’re going to have a BIG circle with ever more souls on the inside. Whether we continue to feel “at home” and “part of the family” at MCC Austin is up to us. The staff and I will work diligently to provide worship and connection points through ministries and other opportunities. The board will continue to work hard to ensure that we have the financial health and resources to keep improving and adding to our programming and other connection points. And you will keep making sure that MCC Austin feels like home to our faith family as you continue embracing our mission to affirm everyone’s gifts and journeys, connect people with God and each other, and create hope and healing.

I’ll be coming home next week after I enjoy some vacation time with my family, and I promise you I won’t leave my heart in San Francisco. How could I? I left it with you in Austin.

BIG Love and BIG Blessings,

The Bible on Broadway: Seasons of Love

2009-07-22T09:17:00.001-05:00

We bring down the curtain on our Broadway series “Redefining Family” this weekend with the music from Rent. I know some of you can’t quite bring yourself to “appreciate” this series and won’t be sad when it’s over, but I for one will miss it when it’s gone. For one thing, I think using the music from Broadway allows us truly to celebrate worship. I love to look out and see you smiling, singing along, tapping your feet, even occasionally shouting out as you did last week. And I love seeing the way the music moves you, not just the rousing anthems, but the ballads, too.

I especially appreciate the way that connecting scripture and our faith stories to the music and stories of Broadway keep us connected not only to each other within our individual faith community, but with a much larger community. Theologian Karl Barth once said, “The Pastor and the Faithful should not deceive themselves into thinking that they are a religious society, which has to do with certain themes; they live in the world. We still need - according to my old formulation - the Bible and the Newspaper."

Now, I know Barth specifically named the newspaper as the source that connects our faith with the “here and the now.” But I think the arts do the same. Great books, plays, poems, paintings, and musical compositions can be vehicles that open us up to spirit, truth, and light. And they don’t have to be OLD to do it. We know in our gut when something is destined to be a classic, when it speaks truth to us in new language. If you think the standard for sacred text is that it be at least 1500 years old and written in a language other than English, try rereading “The Gettysburg Address.” Try listening to the theme from Rent, “Seasons of Love.”

525,600 minutes!
525,000 journeys to plan.
525,600 minutes –
How can you measure The life of a woman or man?In truths that she learned,
Or in times that he cried.
In bridges he burned, or The way that she died.It’s time now to sing out,
Though the story never ends
Remember the love!
…Measure in love.

Call me sacrilegious, but I’m telling you, if Jesus had had an iPod, this song would have been on his Favorites playlist.

And you can bet he’ll be in church this weekend…and he hopes to see you there.
Love,

The Healing of Racism

2009-07-15T15:31:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday, a group of 45 ministry leaders, staff, and board members gathered for a six-hour workshop with facilitators from the Houston-based Center for the Healing of Racism. The workshop was made possible by One Love Ministries, MCC Austin's diversity ministry.

CFHR is unique among such organizations in that its emphasis is on healing. The CFHR trainers first educate about racism, then facilitate the process by which people can begin to counter the effects of racism on their lives and become empowered to interrupt the cycle of racist attitudes. We are all hurt by "isms," the trainers stress, whether we are the recipients of oppression or whether we perpetrate oppression on others OR ourselves.

It's not possible, nor is it permissible, for me to delve too deeply into the contents of our day together because the CFHR believes in creating a "relational space" in their workshops in which people can allow themselves to become vulnerable to sharing all the hurt oppression has brought them. Only then, after that personal and communal acknowledgment, can healing begin. But I can share a story from outside the workshop that might help bring into focus for you just how prevalent a hurt and a challenge racism in the U.S. still is.

Staceyann Chin grew up, as the title of her new memoir tells us, on The Other Side of Paradise. She grew up on the impoverished side of Jamaica opposite the beaches and resorts and paradise enjoyed by tourists. That in itself was enough to give Chin a difficult childhood, but to compound that, she was never claimed by her father and was neglected by her mother. And she was gay. To be gay in Jamaica is literally to be in fear for your life-to be verbally and physically abused relentlessly, even to face death at the hands of vigilante groups unhindered by police. Chin made the decision that she would live as an out lesbian, and the only way to guarantee that she would stay alive to do it, was to come to the U.S.

You might assume that with all our anti-LGBT laws and discriminatory practices, the U.S. still offered a much better life for Chin. You would be right. But here is the part of her story that issues a stinging wake-up call. In her own words, Chin found it "almost as problematic to be black in America as to be gay in Jamaica." Call her over- reactive. Divide her assessment by two. Remind me that we now have a black president. It's still appalling.

In closing, I want to answer a question I've been asked several times: "Why address racism in a church setting? There are plenty of other topics more suited to pursuing at church." I think it makes perfect sense that efforts at healing any kind of "ism" begin in the faith community. By beginning in the faith community, we begin with an absolutely necessary ingredient: the desire to love each other as Christ first loved us. Efforts at healing "isms" may find a start and even achieve some momentum within the realm of politics or society at large. But by placing this work in the church, we ground our human efforts in prayer, allow ourselves to be inspired by the Holy Spirit, and give our goals over to God who "is still doing great things"!

Always in Hope,

The Bible on Broadway: Tenderness and Tenacity

2009-07-11T11:09:00.002-05:00

This week we'll be exploring "Tenderness and Tenacity," and once again there appears to be a contradiction in the two terms. If you're not sure what I mean, try this. First, call forth images of tenderness... Now, images of tenacity. How many of them were the same?

My guess is not many. The two qualities seem to be at odds with each other. But let's look a little more deeply. Consider the tender love of a father for his child. Then consider the tenacity with which that father will protect the child. Imagine a woman's tender, compassionate love for her aging father. Then imagine the tenacity with which she will combat insurance companies and health care facilities for her father's right to life with dignity.

Often we find ourselves in instances where our path is not a clear and direct one. Often a single, specific approach is not enough to lead us to our destination.

I can think of many examples from our MCC Austin faith story in which we approached things from seemingly contradictory directions. Several of our members, committed to compassionate and supportive community for HIV positive friends and family, pushed hard and long for an HIV support group. Finally, out of this two-pronged approach of sensitivity and stick-to-it-iveness, Positive Perspectives was born.

Another example of the results born of the partnership of tender love and tenacious drive is our Saturday @ 6:24 worship service. Over 5 years ago, a small group of MCC Austin members told Rev. Elder Ken Martin of their desires for an additional worship service. They hoped to offer a different expression of worship that included praise music and personal testimony and prayer time. Their dream grew from a tender place in their hearts, but it became reality through the tenacity of their will and lots of hard work.

This weekend, as we mark the 5th anniversary of our Saturday service, we offer special thanks to those who began it. We are grateful for your faithfulness, for your vision, for your tenderness, and for your tenacity. May God bless you and keep you!

Always in Hope,

The Bible on Broadway: Redefining Family

2009-07-01T12:15:00.001-05:00

It feels like I’ve been working harder than usual this week. I’ve been poring over lyrics, listening to choruses, and watching film adaptations of musicals. Now, for those of you who are wondering if I’ve picked up a second job, the answer is “No.” I’ve been right here, in my office, preparing for our upcoming sermon series, The Bible on Broadway: Redefining Family.

Some of you might be thinking that it sounds like I haven’t been working at all! You’re wondering how you can find a gig that’ll pay you for immersing yourself in the best that Broadway has to offer. Others of you (and I do know who you are) are thinking there’s not enough money in the world to make Broadway appealing to you.

Without divulging the truth about where along that spectrum I lie, let me tell you what I think is important about this observation—that those of you from each extreme and every point in between will come to MCC Austin this month expecting to worship God in a way that offers renewal, rest, joy, forgiveness, and meaning to your life. Whether you can sing every word of Dreamgirls’ ballad “And I Am Telling You,” or you think Rent is only something due on the first of each month, you will come expecting that God will meet you here.

Take me at my word: God will.

And even though most of us would say that that’s enough, the truth is, most of us want more. We want God to meet us here in the manner in which we’re most comfortable, or in the manner we find most appealing. Some of us want God to meet us in jeans and t-shirt, smelling like Grandma’s kitchen, gathering us up in loving arms and assuring us everything is gonna be alright. Some of us prefer that our worship service be like an audience with royalty: we like to see our God as Christ the Victor, wearing robes and crown and ushering in God’s dominion. Some prefer to greet Jesus on a colt, entering triumphantly amidst our shouts of praise and waving arms. Some of us wouldn’t recognize God in any of these forms but can always find God in the swirl of baptismal water or the glow of a candle’s flame or the nuanced rhythm of silence…

As we worship together these next few weeks, I invite you to open yourself fully to the possibilities for meeting God in the words and music and messages of the musical stage. Remember, Broadway may not be your cup of tea, but to others, it’s music to their ears.

Always in Hope,

God's Healing Hope and Peace

2009-06-24T10:27:00.001-05:00

Whenever I invite people to worship with us, I always make sure they know they have three opportunities each weekend. My invitation goes something like this: “We have three worship services each weekend, and we’d love to have you join us for one or all of them! On Saturday night at 6:24, we have “comfortable church” with music from our 6:24 Band. On Sunday morning at 9:00 and at 11:00 we have…” Right about here in the invitation my mouth and mind go their separate ways. My mouth says something like “a more traditional service with a choir and worship leaders wearing vestments.” My mind, on the other hand, is still hung up on my invitation to “comfortable church” and the vague worry that some people might assume that Sunday morning is “uncomfortable church.”

I mean, if you make a point of using a particular label or description like “comfortable” for certain services, then it’s reasonable for people to assume that other services are not that certain thing, right?

Is anyone still reading?

If you are, and you’re not totally confused, you’ll find this next part simple to follow…

This Sunday our worship services will be slightly different in their order and emphasis. Now, many of you won’t notice any real change at all, but others of you will realize that our emphasis is on “healing” and that we’re offering time and space and intention for the Spirit to move in healing ways. Ordinarily, I’d describe it to you as a “healing service” and move on. But this week, I want to make sure that I don’t leave room for any misunderstanding: Even though the Worship Team has created a “healing service” for this week, it is NOT unlike every other worship service we share together. Whether we acknowledge and lift up God’s healing presence every time we gather or not, we definitely receive it.

Often, we don’t even know the healing that others have experienced while praying, singing, worshiping…. And of course, it doesn’t stop with worship. We’re often unaware of the healing that God has worked in people’s lives, but we can be sure it is happening constantly. God knits broken hearts together, and they’re not “as good as new.” They’re better than ever! They are bigger—at least 2 sizes!—and more ready to give and receive and nurture love. God soothes exhausted spirits and offers everyone the invitation to “Come unto me and rest.” God offers hope in the face of impossibility and peace in the midst of chaos.

Come and worship with us this weekend. I don’t promise you anything new, different, or exciting. Just the same ol’ same ol’: healing, wholeness, peace, hope, joy, acceptance, affirmation….

Ahhhhhh. Thank God.

Love and Blessings,

I.O.U.

2009-06-17T14:21:00.000-05:00

So many of you have asked about the poem that I shared last Sunday that I have included it for you here. It was written by Dr. Bertha Munro, academic dean at Eastern Nazarene College from 1923 to 1957.

I.O.U.

I owe you respect for your personality. You too are that climax of God's creation, made in His likeness. I owe you a right to your opinion. You may differ with me without fear that I shall raise a barrier between us if we do not see eye to eye. We can disagree and still be friends.

I owe you belief in your integrity. Since I do, I shall put the best possible construction on your actions. I shall trust your words and deeds, even those I am unable to understand.

I owe you honest treatment; I shall not steal people's good opinion of you. I shall voice the sort of comment on you and your actions that I should wish made on me.

I owe you a "taking off place." Though I value your friendship, I shall not enslave your spirit nor bind you so closely to me that you will lose the wealth of other friendships, or even fail to develop your own best potentialities.

I owe you thoughtful consideration. I will not steal your time when you are evidently busy, just because I have free time to "kill."

I owe you honest wages if I chance to be employer, honest work if I chance to be employed, honest measure and just weight in any case.

I owe you special help in time of special need: my hand, my ear, my voice. I owe you patience with what seems to me your stupidity or slowness. I owe you the identification of Golden Rule imagination. I owe you "love unfeigned."

I owe it to you not to push you down in order to lift myself. Rather, I owe it to you to see you forge ahead of me without any reaction of envy or jealousy- even to give you a push. I owe you a good example, a Christian testimony. I owe you the gospel of Christ to the limit I possess it. I owe it to you to prove its power to the full, that God may challenge and encourage you by the sight of what He has done for someone else.

All this I owe you, and much more. I owe it to you not to fall behind with my payments. I shall always owe the abounding love that will meet those unforeseen and unexpected demands of the emergency and will save me from "Thou shalt" and "I must."

Owe no one anything, but to love."

May your life be filled with true friends and with the constant assurance that Jesus has called you friend.

Love and Blessings,

Friendship Sunday

2009-06-10T14:17:00.000-05:00

This weekend we're celebrating our friendships at MCC Austin. On Saturday night, you can invite your friends to enjoy live music by our special guest, world class guitarist Vicki Genfan. On Sunday, we'll share music that lifts up friendships, give thanks for our friends, and explore what the Gospels might teach us about friendship. I encourage you to bring one or two or even five or six of your good friends with you!

Many of us find it difficult to invite friends or acquaintances to church. With our friends, we may know that they already attend another church, and so we might hesitate to invite them to our church because it may seem like illegal recruiting. Or perhaps we know that our friends embrace a spirituality that is not necessarily in full lock-step with what they will find at our progressive Christian church. With acquaintances, we sometimes feel that we don't know people well enough to know what they might like. I think there can also be a fear that if we invite someone to church, they might misconstrue our meaning, message, or motivation. We're used to wearing our Ls, Gs, Bs, and Ts with PRIDE--especially after last week--but truly, who wants to be a P for proselytizer?

For this week, I ask you to come at this invitation thing from a different angle. This week I ask you to think about what being a part of MCC Austin means to you. Are you inspired by worship? Do you love the music? Do you feel at home here, welcomed by your faith family? Do you like the values your children are learning here? Do you find that MCC Austin offers you sacred space in which you can encounter the Holy? When you leave here, are you inspired by the Spirit to share peace, hope, love, joy, and compassion with others?

If any of these things are true for you, if MCC Austin is a gift to you, then give it away! We so often will tell a friend about a new product we like, recommend a doctor or therapist, or tell them they must see a certain movie or read our latest favorite book. Well, it can be just that simple and unencumbered to invite people to church.

This week, I hope we fill the sanctuary at all three services with our friends. The friends we bring this week may never return or they may become members themselves, but don't worry about that. Just think about how glorious it will be to worship the God you love, surrounded by a community you love, with your best friends thrown in for good measure.

Blessings,

Pride 2009

2009-06-04T14:14:00.001-05:00

Happy PRIDE! I hope you're planning to join MCC Austin as we participate in the week's activities. Specifically, I hope you'll worship with us at the PRIDE Multifaith service on Thursday, June 4, at 7:00 at University Baptist. Our own Jeff Lutes, Executive Director of Soulforce, will be the featured speaker. A combined MCC Austin choir will sing and several of our members and staff have helped plan and will help lead the service. On Saturday afternoon, from 4:00 to 8:00, we will be hosting a booth at the PRIDE festival. We'd love to see you there. (Please note there will be NO Saturday @ 6:24 service this Saturday.)

Shortly after the festival booths close, we will be walking in the PRIDE parade. You're welcome to cheer from the sidelines of the parade route as the 6:24 Band "floats" by or put on your walking shoes and come walk along with us. Wouldn't it be wonderful if a couple hundred of us invited parade goers to visit our Church Without Walls?

And finally, we will celebrate PRIDE together on Sunday at worship. Now, I don't want to give it all away, but I will tell you that we're going to have a wonderful time sharing our stories with each other. As I told you last Sunday, I finally did myself the huge favor of reading Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees. Here's what Kidd tells us about stories through the words of Lily, the book's narrator:

One thing I was starting to understand was that August loved to tell a good story.

"Really, it's good for all of us to hear it again," she said. "Stories have to be told or they die, and when they die, we can't remember who we are or why we're here."

Come and worship with us this weekend as we remember who we are and why we're here!

Love, Peace, and PRIDE,

Dare to Believe (Pentecost)

2009-05-27T15:14:00.002-05:00

How fitting that we celebrate Pentecost this Sunday. This week, barely three days old, has already confronted us with a hurricane of historic headlines. Why, on Tuesday alone we had two major announcements. Early Tuesday morning we had the opportunity to celebrate a first for Latinos and Latinas, the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor. Regardless of your politics and regardless of the outcome, I hope you can enjoy the significance of another barrier coming down, of another "first" for a community of often marginalized people. Second, we heard the crushing news from California, that the state Supreme Court had affirmed 6 to 1 that a simple majority vote can deny rights to a group of people based on...anything? Distaste, misinformation, religious beliefs, tradition, fear, better fundraising?

If it weren't so close to Pentecost, I might become a cynic.

But Pentecost won't allow it. Think back through the history of Pentecost. The Jews celebrate Shavu'ot 50 days after Passover, as both the early spring harvest and the giving of The Law, Torah, on Mt. Sinai. Christians know Pentecost as the day 50 days after Easter on which Jesus' disciples offered the Gospel message of Jesus Christ to the Jews gathered for the Jewish Pentecost. On that day two miracles occurred: one, the Spirit descended upon the people with power, as tongues of flame, and each person gathered for the festival heard the Gospel proclaimed as if in her own language. The new Christians were united as one community through the power of the Holy Spirit. There were no barriers. You might describe it as "church without walls."

Even through subsequent exile and persecution, Jews have continued to understand Shavu'ot as a day of extravagant hope. Passover freed the Jews from physical bondage in Egypt, but the giving of the Torah freed the Jews from spiritual bondage to idolatry and immorality.We Christians celebrate a similar hope in Pentecost. We celebrate the knowledge and hope that God is at work in and among God's people through the Holy Spirit. Just as our Easter enthusiasm begins to wane, just as the new begins to wear off the renewal we find in the Resurrection, Pentecost comes along to revive us in mission and purpose.

That's why I can't become a cynic. Even though most days half the news or more is bad, I keep reminding myself of what Dr. King said, "Social change cannot come overnight, but we must persevere, and work as if it were a possibility the next morning." That's the promise of Pentecost: at any given time the headlines can change because the Spirit is alive in God's people.

Please come worship with us this weekend as we Dare To Believe. Oh, and wear red-this weekend it's totally appropriate to be flaming.

Always in Hope,

Dare to Pray!

2009-05-26T16:29:00.001-05:00

Oh, my! If we haven't strettttcccchhhhed you yet during the Dare Ya series, we certainly will this weekend. This Saturday and Sunday, we'll dare you to pray dangerous prayers, and we'll give each one of you a personal copy of Regina Sara Ryan's poem "Dangerous Prayers."

I want to take the opportunity today to look both forward and backward a bit. First, I want us to look back to Easter and the beginning of the Dare Ya series. In our daring to dance, to cry, to fly, to dream, and to pray, we are daring to claim that we are Easter people. We are daring to announce that the entire course of history changed through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Not only that, but we are affirming that we have been and will continue to be personally changed by our relationship with God through the person of Jesus Christ and the presence of the Holy Spirit. Who knows better than we do what a risk we take when we dare to be changed, dare to be different!

Looking forward, we end the Dare Ya series next week with "Dare To Believe." Next week is Pentecost, the "birthday" of the church, if you will. It is the day, fifty days after Easter, when we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit, arriving like tongues of flame and "firing up" the baby Christians to come out of their closets-or their safe spaces-and share the Gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world.

Of particular relevance to us as we celebrate this Pentecost is the multicultural, radically inclusive nature of Pentecost. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, every person present that first Pentecost could comprehend each other's words even though they were speaking in a variety of different languages. We've been trying to recreate that experience in worship. Have you noticed over the past several weeks that we have been blending a variety of languages into our Sunday worship services? I have enjoyed hearing the surprised whispers of recognition all around me as the congregation realizes that an unexpected language is being spoken. "It's German!" someone will whisper excitedly. "Is that Hebrew?" someone wonders. The Sunday that Daniel sang the consecration in Spanish, I couldn't hear your words, but I could see the tears in many of your eyes.

Is there anything more amazing than feeling like the Word of God is being spoken directly to us? In the way we most want to hear? In the words that cut through all our filters and our "stuff" and our defenses and break our hearts wide open?

I dare you to let your heart be broken wide open by the vastness and reality of God's presence. And I dare you not to rush to patch your broken heart back together, but to leave it open...leave it open to life, laughter, tears, learning, joy, dancing, dreaming, love and always, more love.

Liebe, Karlek, Amore,

Daring to Dream

2009-05-13T10:16:00.000-05:00

This weekend we will Dare To Dream, and that’s not all. We’ll also be commissioning our Building Team and praying for God to bless them with creativity, energy, and endless hope as they work to shape the dreams we bring to them into a new home for our worship and work.
I thought that when we actually reached this point, I would be nothing but happy. For one thing, we’re building for the best of reasons: our family is growing! We need more seats for worship. We need more childcare and classroom space for our children. We need more meeting space for our growing number of WoW U. offerings and ministries and community gatherings. God is great and it’s all good!

But…every time I step into our sanctuary, walk across the golden-brown floors, feel the sunlight filter down around me, and look at those rising, rounded walls that nurture us like a mother’s womb, I wonder how much of my heart I can truly give to a new building. This place, this unconventional, built by loving hands, hauled in on a truck place is a home like I have never known. I’m certain those words “We are standing on holy ground/And I know that there are angels all around” were never true until the people of MCC Austin sang them for the first time at Freedom Oaks.

I think what I’m doing today is inviting you to enter into this new building journey with us in any way that is authentic for you. Some of you will be like me, riding high on waves of excitement and then slipping below the swells of nostalgia. Some of you will be facing only forward, ready for every bit of challenge and change a capital campaign and building program can bring. Some of you will be looking back, wondering if the best has already been or is happening right now and longing to keep everything just the way it is.

I encourage you to be patient and loving with yourself, allowing yourself to feel whatever you feel. When enthusiasm is running high, call a Board member or email the Building Team and share your thoughts and dreams. When every sign of new construction heightens your sorrow over the coming changes, call your deacons or your pastors and share old stories and prayers for peace of mind.

I am going to keep reminding myself over and over that God has called MCC Austin to be a Church Without Walls, and we can be faithful to that calling in a cathedral of stained glass and stone, in the most unconventional of church buildings, in a rented gymnasium, a converted office building, or standing beneath the oaks with dirt under our feet. Wherever we gather in God’s name, God is most assuredly with us, and we are on holy ground.

Love and Blessings...

Flying Forward, Looking Back

2009-05-06T16:32:00.000-05:00

Oh, you must worship with us this weekend as we Dare To Fly! Once again, you might be hard pressed to find the connections between our theme and scripture, but trust me, they are there and we will be blessed as we explore them together. Additionally, we will celebrate Mother's Day, and I encourage you to bring not only your moms to church, but also bring all of the special people who have nurtured and inspired and been "like a mother" to you. And of course, I offer a special invitation to all of you who are mothers, who show through your words and actions the amazing love of Mother God.

We have all that to look forward to, but I'd like to change directions and invite you to look backward with me for just a moment.

Last month, our MCC Board of Elders met in what we were led to expect would be a landmark meeting in respect to the challenges that our denomination is facing and the changes that might need to be made. We were asked to pray specifically for our Elders to have the courage and wisdom to let themselves be inspired--filled with and moved by the Spirit.

I think all of us who heard Rev. Elder Nancy Wilson's sermon on the Sunday immediately following and then read her pastoral letter on that Monday believed that indeed, the Sprit had moved among our leaders and they were renewed and refocused and ready to lead us into a new day.

Since then, Rev. Elder Wilson has released another pastoral letter, this one with more detailed information about what our new provisional structure will look like and how our elected leaders will work with other denominational staff and with churches to enact some of the changes they have envisioned.

I remind you of all this for several reasons. First, I want you to know that this is not about "they" or "them" but about "we" and even "I." If you give of your time, talent, and treasure to an MCC church, you are not only part of but an important part of MCC. MCC Churches are first and foremost a fellowship in which all of us are welcome to bring our gifts and voices to the communion (common) table. If you don't know in your heart that you are vital and included in our dream of "Tearing Down Walls, Building Up Hope," then you just haven't "gotten" it yet. But don't worry, we'll stick with you till you do!

Second, I remind you of all these significant events so that you will continue praying. Many of us are more "acute" pray-ers than we are "chronic" pray-ers. In other words, something comes up that freaks us out or demands our attention and we start to pray. However, when the immediate crisis is eased, we often turn our prayers to other needs or even drop them altogether. This time, let us be chronic pray-ers, and let's pray for our fellowship and our leaders without ceasing.

Finally, I raise these thoughts because I want you to know that the health, mission, and vision of MCC Churches is very important to your local MCC Austin leaders. What happens at the denominational level matters to us greatly, and we are committed to offering input on, responding thoughtfully to, and supporting prayerfully and practically our denomination and our leaders. This does not mean that we accept all decisions and directions without questions or even, when appropriate, challenges. Rather, it means that we constantly affirm that we share the same goals for our united ministry and that we encourage and demand the best that can be offered from our leaders and ourselves.

I leave you with these three questions today: First, will MCC Churches succeed in Tearing Down Walls and Building Up Hope because MCC Austin is helping lead the way by becoming a Church Without Walls? Or will MCC Austin succeed in becoming a Church Without Walls because MCC Churches are helping lead the way by Tearing Down Walls and Building Up Hope? And finally, does it matter?

I can only answer the third question. It doesn't matter at all how these things are accomplished as long as they are. May we continue as individuals and as a body to be led and inspired and graced by God.

Dios Te Bendiga,

We Dare to Cry

2009-04-29T09:59:00.000-05:00

As we embrace the challenge to become a radically inclusive community, we want to take every opportunity to recognize and lift up our God given diversity whether that diversity is in our culture and language, our physical bodies, our faith traditions, our gender identities, our sexual orientation, spirituality, or any of dozens of other divine diversities.

This week we Dare To Cry with each other in worship as we continue with a theme inspired by Regina Sara Ryan's poem "Dangerous Prayers." But that's only one piece of our worship; this weekend we'll also celebrate Cinco de Mayo, the Fifth of May, when we gather together. Cinco de Mayo commemorates Mexico's victory over the larger and better equipped French forces at the Battle of Puebla in 1862.

As I've thought about our opportunity to celebrate with our Mexican brothers and sisters this weekend, I've become aware of many opportunities to grow in our relationships with our expanding multicultural families--opportunities that can be informed by our Christian experience.

First is an opportunity to grow and expand our language. Too often we congratulate ourselves over our daring use of gender inclusive language for our God and then stop right there. Every once in awhile we allow ourselves the rare Alpha, Omega, or Jehovah. But what beauty rests in "Vaya con Dios" and "La paz de Cristo." For centuries Christians denied ourselves the beauty and diversity of our own languages and approached God only in Latin, through priest translators. Martin Luther (I'm making up for criticizing him last week :-) ) wrested God language away from the institutional Church and offered it to the people.

May we honor that gift not only by using the breadth of human languages in our God talk, but also by allowing ourselves the inspiration of new translations and new voices. We can rest in the New Revised Standard Version or even the King James Version of the Bible if we like, but we can also dance in the modernity of The Message and allow ourselves the familiarity of the New Living Bible. We can read Bonhoeffer and Buechner, but we should also converse with Isasi-Diaz and Gutierrez.

I love the UCC's promise that "God is still speaking." Who am I to say whether God speaks with a lilt or a drawl or a 'het or a tilde or...

Dios Te Bendiga...

Dare to Dance!

2009-04-22T15:16:00.000-05:00

This week in worship we will dare you to dance. Now, I know there might be some of you who will choose to stay home rather than submit yourselves to the possibility of being asked to dance in church. To those who might be so inclined (and I am definitely one), please don't worry. Other than the people who have already volunteered to dance, none of you will be expected to--well, none of you will be expected to literally. All of you will be invited to let your spirits dance, your faith dance, and your imagination dance. And you're welcome to do that in the privacy of your own home or discreetly in your extra-ecclesial life. If, however, the Spirit says move and you gotta move, you will find yourself much supported and encouraged.

That leads me--albeit a little awkwardly--to other opportunities we have to dance, to move in and with the Spirit. The music of change has been our theme song for over two years now. We've quick-stepped through times, moving so fast that everything became a kind of blur. We've waltzed through the beauty and tradition of different liturgical seasons; and we've slow danced a time or two, holding on to each other rather than really moving anywhere. But now, we're ready to dance with the stars-or at least reach for them.

We're creating a challenging, exciting program for our next steps. This new program will include strategic moves in the areas of radical inclusivity and Christian hospitality; connecting people to God and each other throughout the MCC Austin community of faith; and providing for sustainable and meaningful growth not just in numbers, but in discipleship and spiritual maturity.

I encourage each one of you to take an active role in choreographing our next 1-10 years. Help us to know who you are, what your passions are, what you desire from your church home, and what you discern God is calling MCC Austin to be and do. The first and easiest way to do that is by participating in a survey that our Mission Possible Team (formerly Focus 8 Team) is launching today. The survey has many purposes, among which are the following:

--To provide MCC Austin members with an opportunity to reflect on the current state of the church and assist church leaders in planning for the future
--To help direct strategic planning efforts (radical inclusivity, connecting new and current members to congregational life, and meaningful growth (including plans for building a permanent sanctuary)
--To help evaluate members' level of church involvement, church attendance, perceptions of congregational identity, demographics, and hopes for the future of MCCA

The survey is targeted toward new members and long-term members and can be accessed via Survey Monkey beginning today, April 22, and ending on May 3, 2009. The survey is completely confidential, and the data collected will be collated and analyzed by members of the Mission Possible Team. Results will be available to the congregation at the end of May 2009 and will be used to make recommendations and to assess how well we are addressing our priorities.

I know answering surveys is probably not at the top of your priority lists and probably not anywhere at all on your "bucket lists," but please do take the time to fill this one out. You heard Rev. Elder Nancy Wilson assure us last Sunday that God is using MCC Churches to bring hope and healing and the Gospel of God's love to all the world. Such an ambitious agenda must be owned not just by a few MCC leaders or churches, but by all of us--especially by those of us, as Rev. Bill Young reminded us, to whom much has been given.

The music is playing; shall we dance?

Blessings and Love...

A Worship Experience

2009-04-15T13:47:00.000-05:00

Each week I look forward with great anticipation to our worship together, and this weekend especially so. On Saturday @ 6:24, our Congregational Life Director, Alycia Erickson, will preach at MCC Austin for the first time. On Sunday, the Moderator of MCC Churches, Rev. Elder Nancy Wilson, will bring us the message in both services. In addition, our sanctuary choir will sing at both services on Sunday as will our good, good friends Out4Joy: Ken, Kim, Kay, and Doug.

So I've been thinking about what a wonderful thing it is to practically wish the weekdays by so that I can get to Saturday and Sunday worship. I mean, that's a really good way for a pastor to feel, right? I hope a good number of you feel that way too...

But on the other hand, last night I had an experience that reminded me that worship can happen in all kinds of ways and in all kinds of places.

I shouldn't have been surprised by my worshipful experience last night; after all, I was at church! But I wasn't in the Easter adorned sanctuary. I was in the social hall, sitting at a yellow plastic covered table, drinking watered down iced tea, eating stale pretzels, and making my way through an ambitiously full agenda with the rest of our Board of Directors.

Low and behold, worship happened.

As we entered the portion of our agenda titled "Grow as Spiritual Leaders," we read several times through Philippians 4:4-9. I asked the Board to share how those verses spoke to their personal lives or their service as Board members. What many of our reflections included was an acknowledgment of how we begin to lose our fear and find peace and accomplish more when we give our decisions and actions over to God. After our sharing time, we offered a prayer thanking God for direction and for the peace that passes understanding and headed into the action items on our agenda. We ended up working for another 2 hours, and we took up some challenging topics, but our spirits were calm, our hearts and wills were united in purpose, and we managed to laugh many times before we finally blew out the Christ candle and went home.

Here's what I took from this experience: Worship is ceremonies, prayers, or other forms by which we express our love for God. Many times this happens within a stated worship service, but many times it happens outside of those services. We worship together at Seders and socials, when we collect our history and welcome diversity, when we tend the grounds and decorate the sanctuary, when we teach the children and host IHN families and write checks for MCC Cares and pray for our Board of Elders. Whenever we express our love for God, we are worshipping.

Don't get me wrong-this is not an invitation to skip Saturday and Sunday worship services. Rather, it's an invitation to add to them in whatever ways speak to your spirit. Attend a class; join a ministry; participate in church meetings, go to cluster conference. God doesn't wait for the weekends to bless us; we need not wait to worship.

Grace and Peace...

Dancing With Conflict

2009-04-08T14:12:00.002-05:00

This week we have many opportunities to fellowship and worship together. As we prepare to enter these holy experiences together, I want to share with you sort of a Paul Harvey "The Rest of the Story" story. You see, the events that led up to bringing you this week's worship offerings have been as much of a gift as I anticipate the services themselves will be. Here's the rest of the story:

The week before Holy Week, the MCC Austin Sunday Worship Team met for our weekly meeting. About a dozen of us squeezed around tables in a local deli, indulged in soup or sandwiches or decadent desserts, tried to filter out the clink and clatter from the counter, and tried to turn down the volume of nearby guests, some of whom practice their Spanish lessons with great volume and gusto each Monday evening.

The Sunday Worship Team is made up of roughly 15 people, and it represents a pretty wide swath of the congregation. We have members whose creativity and imagination skip merrily off the charts, members whose knack for analysis and deductive skills would shame Sherlock Holmes, and members who fill in nicely the whole spectrum in between. Each member of the team is passionate, amazingly articulate even if not especially verbal, and almost all fill leadership roles in their families, work places, or at our church. Considering our strength and diversity, we never should have been surprised by what happened next, but we were.

On that Monday before Holy Week, we had a rather unexpected visitor show up at our meeting: Conflict.

What on earth was Conflict doing there? We hadn't invited him. She isn't a member or regular attender of our church as far as any of us know. And besides, isn't Church the last place that Conflict would feel welcome, or wanted, or fed???

I'm embarrassed to say we politely ignored Conflict for a while, kind of like we would an elephant in the room. But then we threw caution to the wind and invited him to dance on the table! Right there in the midst of us! Right there in public!

Oh, and she kept dancing...even when the rest of us went home.

I couldn't sleep. I kept thinking about her dancing there.... In one way, she was pitiful and all alone, just dancing there with no one wanting to join her. And yet, in another way, she danced with us all...wouldn't stop beckoning and cajoling and insisting we be her partner...would not be, and never will be, ignored.

I don't know how each member of the team interpreted this dance, but I know that for me the interpretation continued to be one of great sadness. From my perception, our imaginations were stymied. Our appreciation for each other and free flow of ideas and actions were all gunked up. We were broken. I couldn't fix us. I felt small and useless.

I did the only thing I felt like doing. I cried. Then I did the only thing I thought could help. I prayed. Sometimes I used words; sometimes I didn't. Many of my prayers were like great big fill in the blank tests-with most of the blanks empty.

And then, finally, another visitor appeared. This one longed for and very much welcomed: The Lord of the Dance. The Lord of the Dance who danced at Bethlehem, at Cana, on the mountaintops, on the water. The one who dares us to remember:

They cut me down and I leapt up high
I am the life that will never, never die
I'll live in you if you'll live in me
I am the Lord of the dance, said he.

I don't know if any of this matters to you, but for me, I have had the blessing of an early Easter. For several days I had felt confined to a dark tomb, and then the Light of the World burst in and my hope and my heart were resurrected again. The Lord of the Dance wanted to dance with me! And not just with me, of course, but with all of us who had been hurting all week.

A week after Conflict surprised us all, our team met again. This time, we had a chair waiting for Conflict, and of course, he was there, but looking a little smaller and less sure of himself than he had been the week before. I think she was taken aback to find that not only had each of us found during the course of the week a certain comfort with having her present, but we were expecting her. We saved a chair for her. Yes, Conflict took his place right there along with Kindness, Compassion, Tension, "Stuff," Certainty, Doubt, Love, Pain, Grace, and all the rest of us. It was a blessed time.

So there you have it-the rest of the story. But only the rest of this one story. The Living Word has many, many more stories to create with us all.

I hope you find the services this week beautiful. They were created through the grace of God by beautiful people who love you, each other, and our God very much. Thanks be to God!

Always in Hope,

Rejoice in Adversity

2009-04-01T14:04:00.000-05:00

Usually, I tell you on Wednesday what my weekend sermon IS about. Today, I'll tell you what this week's sermon, "Rejoice in Adversity," is NOT about.

It's not about the theodicy question. Theodicy is a Greek term for the problem of reconciling the presence of evil and suffering in the world with the idea that there truly is a benevolent, omnipotent God. I won't take up the theodicy issue because I couldn't even provide a decent bibliography of the topic in a fifteen minute sermon.

It's not about that saying we like to toss around jokingly: "God never gives us more than we can stand-I wish God didn't think so highly of me!" For the most part, my life is embarrassingly good. Never in my life have I lacked for nutritious food, clean water, or safe shelter. Never have I faced a life threatening diagnosis or lost a child to the 1,000 things parents fear losing their children to.

It's not about God's ability to bring good out of the greatest suffering. Yes, my life is easy and excessive in comparison to so many of the world's people, but when I hurt, I hurt. Sometimes I feel like that funny- looking man with the red nose in the game "Operation"-I feel like unskilled people are pulling out my internal organs with a flimsy pair of tweezers. This pain often has nothing to do with physical injury or illness at all. Often, it's the searing pain of rejection or a lost friendship or a bungled attempt at reconciliation.

Now, don't worry. Don't think that it's already Wednesday and your pastor doesn't have a clue about what her sermon is about. I do. God's been working on me.

If you'd like a preview, spend some time reading this weekend's scripture from the Gospel of Mark. There is a lot of adversity there, and a lot of rejoicing. I guess you could say there's a lot of life. I can't wait to worship with you!

Always in Hope,

Our Regional Conference - Join Us!

2009-03-25T13:58:00.000-05:00

In addition to my weekly invitation to each of you to worship with us at MCC Austin this weekend, I also want to extend an invitation to each of you to attend the MCC Region 6 Cluster Conference coming up on April 24-26 in Houston, Texas. Originally, Region 6 was to have a combined regional conference with Region 7 in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, this spring, but the combined conference was cancelled in consideration of growing financial challenges in our global economy and local congregations. While the cancellation of the combined regional conference is disappointing on several levels, the decision to hold smaller, more easily accessible cluster conferences means that many more of us can attend the conference.

MCC conferences are wonderful opportunities to connect with fellow MCCers during worship services, workshops, forums, and fellowship. Some people might be under the impression that MCC conferences are only for clergy members and lay delegates, but that's not the case at all. While only clergy and lay delegates cast votes for nominated positions and for bylaws and revisions, everyone is welcome to participate in all worship services, plenary sessions, workshops, and of course, fun and fellowship. Especially important at this cluster conference will be opportunities to enter a discussion with Region 6 Elder candidate, Rev. Darlene Garner, before the vote on that position takes place and to participate in conversations about the two candidates for MCC Moderator to be elected at General Conference in 2010.

If you've been to an MCC regional or denominational event before, I'm sure I don't need to sell you on how wonderful they are. If you haven't been to one, don't let this opportunity to attend one so close to home pass you by. Do you remember how you felt when you first found your MCC home? Multiply by 20 and that's the feeling you'll have when you enter into worship and work with 200 or so others who are part of MCC's past, present, and future. Think of it as PRIDE weekend with the Spirit of God as the Grand Marshall...

Please, do join us and our friends from Galveston, Corpus Christi, Houston, Waco, and San Antonio at Resurrection MCC in Houston for the Region 6 Eastern Cluster Conference on April 24-26. You can register online for a very reasonable $50 per person, and hotel information is available online here . Please call Alycia Erickson, Director of Congregational Life, at 512-291-8601 with questions or for assistance.

I'd love for us to have 75 or 100 representatives from MCC Austin make the trip to Houston together. Encourage your friends and family to go; set up caravans and "green" carpools; stop and eat on the way; tie a rainbow flag on your antennae so you don't get separated from the group; and of course, honk if you love Jesus!

Always in Hope,

Confession

2009-03-18T10:23:00.002-05:00

This weekend we "Reclaim Our Stories," and so I share a story with you.

Two years ago, a group of us were trying to revive the PRIDE multi-faith service after a major organizer of the event left town. As we began to plan the service, we each offered elements that we felt the service should have. One woman, a good friend of mine and a wonderful, committed, straight ally of the GLBT community, offered, "We should have a confession." Of course, I thought, a worship service should have a confession, a recognition that none of us live wholly loving lives that reflect the true nature of the God we worship...a recognition that we fail and we are forgiven. But maybe not this particular worship service.

I began talking with my friend about the experience many of us who are GLBT and Christian have had when it comes to confession. I explained how so many of us have been assaulted by those who believe our sexuality and gender expression are an affront to God, and how often we're urged to "confess" what is most certainly not a sin. I shared that many GLBT people I've met are so fragile in their self-esteem or, at the other extreme, so determined to celebrate their sexuality and God's affirmation, that confessions might need mountains of accompanying education to ensure that they could be embraced and understood for their true meaning and value. I told my friend that I wasn't sure we could pull off a confession in a service that was so multi-faceted and hoped to reach such a diverse swath of the GLBT community.

We didn't, that first year, but then last year we introduced a confession that acknowledged our need to provide better stewardship to our earth, air, and water. It felt like an honest, careful way to offer a corporate confession. That brings me to our worship together here at MCC Austin and the question I was asked this week: Why don't we have a confession before communion? I thought there might be many of you wondering the same thing, so here I am doing my best to answer this big question in this little space.

The first thing I want to share is that most often, we do include a confession (generally in the form of a Prayer of Confession) in our communion service. We have the advantage--through the course of living in community and worshipping and learning together regularly--of placing the confession within the context of God's faithful forgiveness. Always, when confession is part of our liturgy, it is followed by an assurance of God's pardon and grace...of God's love!

Right now, though, you will not find a Prayer of Confession as part of our communion liturgy. This is not because we no longer feel the need to bring our complete selves before God or because we've decided to ignore the 1st Corinthian teaching that we examine our hearts before taking communion; it's simply a process matter. For several series now, we've been using one worship bulletin for the entire series. This is a response to our desire to be better stewards of natural resources and to cherish the earth. During the Advent and "Love Letters from God" series, we included a prayer of confession in the worship bulletin. However, the repetition of the same prayer each week prevented the kind of variety and the personal "stamp" of the communion Celebrant that we so cherish.

For those reasons and others, we decided to leave a printed confession out of the bulletin for the Lenten series. For those of you who feel that you can't come to communion without a confession, let me offer you some possibilities.

First, you can always offer your own confession. It can be simple and personal, along the lines of "God, I know I'm far from perfect. Forgive me when I fail." You might use the words of a familiar song, hymn, or scripture; something like "Change my heart, oh God/Make it ever true," or "Create in me a clean heart, oh God/And renew a right spirit within me." If your soul craves the liturgy of other traditions, you might confess "Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed." And for those of you who need the pastor's assurance that God will forgive, does forgive, has already forgiven, believe this: When we confess our failings, God who is faithful and just forgives us wholly, totally, perfectly. That is very good news.

Always in Hope...

A Free Gift

2009-03-11T10:32:00.000-05:00

Shameless, I know. But we have, to complement our Lenten series of reuse*renew*rejoice*resurrect, 500 awesome reusable tote bags. We plan to give one to every person who attends worship this weekend, and I want you to have one. They are beautiful. Deep green and a little larger than average reusable bags, they boast "MCC Austin: A green Church Without Walls" and our Church Without Walls logo on the side.

Whether you're participating with us in the carbon fast or not, we'd like for you to have one of these bags. They're free! A gift! No strings attached!

Which reminds me. That's pretty much what happens each time we worship together. Each time we gather as a community of faith and acknowledge God's dominion, God's love, and God's grace, we take away with us a free gift, no strings attached. So often we worship together and we leave with renewed hope and refreshed spirits. We leave reminded that God is with us and God is for us. We might have the unexplainable urge to smile at strangers, the strength to stand against adversity, an unexplainable feeling that things are somehow better, or at least the confidence that even if things are not better, we won't be facing them alone.

I hope you'll do yourself the favor of worshiping with us this weekend, either in the comfort of our Saturday @ 6:24 service or the celebration of our Sunday morning services. This weekend, as always, you'll receive many, many gifts. Most of them are on God; the bags are on us!

Always in Hope,

The Lenten Journey

2009-03-04T10:35:00.000-06:00

Last weekend our scripture reading told the story of Jesus' temptation in the wilderness, and I suggested that a key to that story was that the temptation was preceded by 40 days of prayer and fasting. I asked you to imagine taking 40 days and nights to pray, to join your spirit and will to the spirit and will of God, and to think about what temptations you might overcome after 40 days of dwelling with God. I asked you to imagine what you might be strong enough to resist AND strong enough to accept if all your trials were preceded by 40 days and nights of communion with God, sustained only by the bread of life and living water.

I invited you to willingly enter a period of 40 days in which you removed yourself, to whatever extent you could, from the normal frantic pace of your life...decided to pray during lunchtime instead of running errands. Walked to work instead of driving or took the bus and read something good for your soul. Willingly entered a period of 40 days in which you bought and cooked only as much as you would eat and didn't throw anything away...

What if you promised yourself that every time you looked at your watch you would whisper, "God, help me slow down and live deeply"? What if you used less electricity, saved more water, produced less waste, and helped heal the deep wounds in our Mother Earth?

I want to add to those suggestions some more that were shared with me by a friend.

During Lent...Fast from worry, and Feast on the divine order by trusting GodFast from complaining, and Feast on appreciationFast from negatives, and Feast on affirmativesFast from unrelenting pressures, and Feast on unceasing prayerFast from hostility, and Feast on tendernessFast from bitterness, and Feast on forgivenessFast from self-concern, an Feast on compassion for othersFast from idle gossip, and Feast on purposeful silenceFast from judging others, and Feast on the divine within themFast from emphasis on differences, and Feast on the unity of lifeFast from greed, and Feast on generosityFast from thoughts of illness, and Feast on wholenessFast from words that pollute, and Feast on the phrases that purifyFast from discontent, and Feast on gratitude

I pray that your Lenten journey is a time of renewal, refreshment, and rejoicing.

As We Prepare for Lent...

2009-02-25T10:43:00.000-06:00

Before looking ahead to this evening's Ash Wednesday service and the Lenten season, I want to thank you for making our All-Alleluia Saturday and Fat Sunday services amazing affirmations of the joy and hope we live into as followers of Christ. I also want to encourage you to remember that the joy and hope flows in both directions, for our God is a "happy God" who delights in each of us as well!

Don't forget that for a moment, even as we enter into the deep solemnity and reflection of our Ash Wednesday service tonight. Ash Wednesday does mark the beginning of Lent, but it doesn't mean the end of our joy, our hope, or our celebration of God's love and forgiveness. Not for one moment should we forget that we are Easter people, assured of God's unconditional love and unending forgiveness through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Lent, here's a brief explanation: The Catholic Church began to observe Lent in the fourth century. Lent lasts 40 week days, beginning on Ash Wednesday and ending on Easter. Since Sundays celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, the six Sundays that occur during Lent are not counted as part of the 40 days of Lent. They are referred to as the Sundays in Lent.

Originally, Lent was the time of preparation for those who were awaiting baptism. During Lent, those who were to be baptized observed a period of study and prayer before they were baptized at the Easter Vigil, early on Easter Sunday. Since the newly baptized members were entering into the larger community of Faith, the entire community was asked to prepare with study and prayer.

Many Protestant Christians are only recently beginning to reclaim the observance of Lent. The evangelical Christians, especially, have rejected Lent because it is associated with "high church" and Catholicism. But now many Protestant churches are observing the season of Lenten reflection as a way to refocus on spirituality.

Here at MCC Austin, we are claiming Lent as a time to Renew, Reuse, Rejoice, and Resurrect our spiritual selves. We invite you to attend our Ash Wednesday service tonight and use it as a way to "set apart" the sacred season of Lent. Then, we encourage you to engage in some type of personal spiritual practice throughout the season. Prayer, reading, fasting, and serving others are some of the practices you might take on during the 40 days of Lent. Many of us will be committing to a "Carbon Fast," and we will engage in practices that will help us reduce our individual "carbon footprints." In this way we will be worshiping God by renewing our covenant relationship with all of God's creation. A description of the "Carbon Fast" and suggestions for each day of Lent will be printed in tonight's worship bulletin and in our Lenten worship bulletin. In addition, we'll send out a "Carbon Fast" daily devotional beginning today and continuing each Friday in Lent.

For those of you who regularly observe Lent and for those of you who may be observing Lent for the first time, I pray that this Lenten season is a time of wonderful renewal and refreshment for your spirit.

God Bless and Keep You Always...

Fat Sunday

2009-02-18T10:51:00.000-06:00

Our Worship Together

This weekend, we celebrate Mardi Gras at MCC Austin with an All Alleluia Saturday service and a Fat Sunday service. Mardi Gras, French for "Fat Tuesday," is the final day of the Carnival celebrations as well as the last celebration day before the Lenten season begins on Ash Wednesday.

In faithful New Orleans fashion, we are going to celebrate Mardi Gras with a rousing feast of food and music, and in faithful Christian fashion, we are going to celebrate by reveling in God's joyous love for us and ours for God.

A main focus of our weekend worship will be letting out all of our Alleluias! because during Lent, we don't sing or say Alleluia. As Ervin Knezek, our Worship Team leader, has shared with several of our ministries, "In Lent, we do not profess Alleluia. We use this time to wait in joyful expectation for Easter. This practice enriches and shapes our prayer and our sense of discipline as we anticipate Easter. It is a kind of fasting from 'ecstasy' and ecstatic praise, letting our Alleluia lie dormant for six weeks before we again burst out in joyful and ecstatic affirmation of the resurrection."

Come and lift your Alleluias! with us this week and help us reaffirm that, as Nehemiah says, "The joy of God is our strength." Not that we're in any danger of forgetting that here at MCC Austin, but I've heard tell that some churches think that following God means only fasting and never feasting. If you're of a different mindset (or just different), we'll see you Saturday and Sunday!

Laissez le bon temps rouler!

Agape Love

2009-02-11T09:32:00.003-06:00

I've never pretended to be a sophisticated theologian. In fact, you're as likely to hear me quote Anne Lamotte or Emerson on matters of theology as you are Karl Barth or the Apostle Paul. Today I want to share with you a theological reflection from that depository of spiritual wisdom, Garth Brooks. Back in the 80s, Brooks released one of my favorite songs, "The Dance." That song resonated with many people, and as a result we (who are old enough) heard it played over and over at memorial services and graduations and reunions of all kinds. The chorus says simply: "And now, I'm glad I didn't know/The way it all would end/The way it all would go./Our lives are better left to chance/I could have missed the pain/But I'd of had to miss the dance."

Nice, isn't it? Well, nice when you're standing on the other side, safe from or at least somewhat numbed to the pain. But what about in the beginning? What about when you're taking the very first tentative steps into a new love? What about when you're considering the risk of self-disclosure that a new friendship invites you into? What about when you're weighing the investment of time and energy that a new romance desires? What about when you're agonizing over whether to try one more time to explain to your parents or your children or your siblings who you are and whom you love? It's not often easy when we feel those first, tentative tugs or those first lose-our-balance yanks on our heartstrings to choose the dance despite the pain.

This weekend, though, that's exactly what I'm going to ask you to do. I'm going to ask you to live a life "wide open" to love.

I chose the sermon title "Wide Open" many weeks ago, when our Love Letters from God series was in its planning stages. I love to dance with words, and the Greek word agape held out her hand to me and dared me to let her lead, dared me to follow where she wanted to go, and to acknowledge her power as a partner. That wasn't easy for me. You see, like many people, I often think of agape as the pure love, the ideal love, the wing-wearing, haloed love that seems so unattainable.

But in half a beat agape invited me to come out and dance and offered to share with me her untamed side. Agape invited me to forget her italicized foreignness and her strangely placed accent and hear her in my native tongue: not /ah gah' pay/ but /uh gape'/, or, in other words, wide open.

Now I'm beginning to realize that "agape," the Americanized twin sister, has a lot to teach us about love if we will just let her.

Please come and worship with us this weekend, and oh, be sure to wear comfortable shoes.... We're going to turn up the music and dance!

Love,

The OTHER Three Letter Word

2009-01-29T09:53:00.002-06:00

"Sex."

There, I said it. How are y'all doing with that? You okay? Still a little uncomfortable when your pastor uses the other three letter word (meaning the three letter word that's not God)? Thankful that you have had a succession of pastors at MCC Austin that can say the word? Worried about how I am after having said it?

Don't worry; I'm fine. Truthfully, better than fine. As I told the Pastoral Search Team eight months ago, I believe that being able to talk and preach and think and pray with you about sexuality openly, honestly, and often is a sacred trust; a humbling opportunity; and a wonderful, though mysterious, blessing.

This weekend, as we continue our series on the different nuances of love, we remain with eros. This week's sermon title is "Sexual Salvation," a title I borrowed with permission from a sermon by Rev. Elder Ken Martin. The words "sexual" and "salvation" might seem oddly juxtaposed to you. After all, the word "sexual" connotes the body, things of "the flesh," and things "of this world." The word "salvation," on the other hand, most often connotes the soul, matters of the spirit, and things "celestial," or "not of this world."

I contend that those opposing connotations are the very reason that these two words need each other, need to be coupled, need to be close enough to touch.

When we force these two concepts apart, set them in different camps, make enemies of them, then we end up actually cutting Solomon's baby in half. We show no wisdom and no mercy. We destroy something beautiful and leave everyone bereft.

I'm not going to write the whole sermon here, or you might be tempted not to come to church. But I am going to ask you to prepare yourself for the sermon. I'm going to ask that you pray about, read about, and yes, even talk about these words "sex" and "salvation" before you come to worship. Invite God to ready your heart, mind, and Spirit for what you need to receive from the sermon. And please, pray for me, too. Pray that every word and thought that I share with you will be exactly what God intends it to be.

See you in worship!

Soul Mates

2009-01-21T09:48:00.000-06:00

I've been the recipient of lots of puzzled looks the last few days, and it wasn't because of the clapping comment I made at the end of worship last week. (By the way, my comment wasn't about our inability to applaud; it was about our inability to clap in rhythm to music...we need a dose of soul!)

Which leads me back to the puzzled looks. I've been getting those from the Worship Team and this week's worship leaders as I've tried to explain what my sermon "Soul Mates" is about.

Initially, most of them thought that my sermon would be about the love between life partners, spouses. It was a reasonable guess, since they knew this week's topic was eros, one of several nuances of love, and one we most often associate with romantic or sexual love.

No, I said, it's not about that. It's about the people--yes, I said people--who touch our souls. The people who in unexplainable, profound ways stake a claim upon our hearts. The ones whose spirits commune with ours in everyday ways of words and gestures and in ways that transcend our everydayness. . .ways that are soul-full, almost sacramental. . .way beyond talk or touch.

I don't think I did a very good job of explaining myself because the blank looks remained. Oh, a couple of nice people nodded politely to help me feel better, but alas, I hadn't enlightened them at all.

Not one to give up easily, I'm going to try a different approach. I'm going to let someone else explain for me, and that someone is Richard from Texas, the para-hero of Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love. Elizabeth is trying to explain to Richard why her shattered heart will never be over David, the man with whom she has recently broken up. Elizabeth says, "I think the reason it's so hard for me to get over this guy is because I seriously believed David was my soul mate."

"He probably was," Richard offers. "Your problem is you don't understand what that word means. People think a soul mate is your perfect fit, and that's what everyone wants. But a true soul mate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that's holding you back, the person who brings you to your own attention so you can change your life. A true soul mate is probably the most important person you'll ever meet, because they tear down your walls and smack you awake. . . . Soul mates, they come into your life just to reveal another layer of yourself to you. . ."

Hmmmmmmm. Does that help? Are you thinking about the people who have come into your life that, as Richard also said, "touched a place in your heart deeper than you thought you were capable of reaching"? Are you remembering those soul mates who from the very beginning you felt you were getting reacquainted with, not meeting for the first time?

If you still don't get it, just read this week's scripture. When you read the lines "When David had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was bound to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul," if you still don't get it, if you can't think of a single friend or mentor or lover who has gotten to you in this way, if you've never encountered a soul mate, I encourage you to start praying for one right now. A true soul mate is someone in whom it's very easy to see all the possibilities God has created us for, and all the love, hope, and grace God is ready to offer us.

God Bless Your Heart & Soul...

Goodwill at the USPS

2009-01-14T09:43:00.000-06:00

I wonder if the U.S. Postal Service has felt an unexplainable surge of goodwill this week? I'm wondering this because I estimate that our MCC Austin family has mailed somewhere between 400 and 500 postcards this week to people that we love. All those love letters are bound to be spilling their positive energy onto unsuspecting people everywhere!

If you weren't able to worship with us last weekend, let me describe the postcards I'm talking about. They were created in keeping with our Epiphany theme "Love Letters from God." On the front of each card is a heart resting in a swirling flame of orange and red and yellow. Upon the heart are written Mother Teresa's words: "I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world." On the back, each card says simply: "I was thinking about you in church today..."

After each worship service, we invited you to take as many postcards as you wanted and send them to the people that the service moved you to reach out to, especially your parents and children, biological or chosen.

Well, you took over half of our 1,000 cards home with you, and some of you dropped by during the week to pick up more...wonderful! We asked David to order 1,000 more, and if that's still not enough, thanks be to God that we are blessed with so many people that we love and are thankful for!

This week, we will explore thelema, the "desire to do something" or "the will." We'll focus on the amazing possibilities that arise when we join our human will to the will of God, either intentionally or unintentionally.

Specifically, we'll look at two people, Harvey Milk and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I feel pretty certain that both of these men were in lockstep with the will of God insofar as their work for human rights was concerned. Dr. King once wrote that as he prepared to speak, he would always remind himself to "keep Martin Luther King in the background and God in the foreground and everything will be all right. " We do not have nearly as extensive a record of the speeches and writings of Harvey Milk, a Jewish man, nor was his faith as prominent a part of his platform, but I have no difficulty in accepting that the hope and dignity he offered to gay people everywhere generated within the will of a good and gracious God. Whenever we help to raise people up, not above God but toward God, I believe we, too, are resting in the will of God.

Come worship with us this weekend! Be inspired by the love of God and the lives of two remarkable people. When you leave, send a postcard or a dozen to people who have inspired you.

Next week, I'll check in with the Postmaster General and see if my theory about goodwill at the post office has any merit. Anybody know the number?

Unbelivable #2

2009-01-07T21:03:00.001-06:00

I've tried to come up with another word to use, but there's just not one. So here again, for the second time in less than a month, is my signature exclamation: Unbelievable!

Unbelievable that we've said goodbye to Advent, my favorite season of the church year, and I'm not a bit sad about it. I don't have time or energy or need to be sad because I'm too excited about Epiphany and our theme "Love Letters from God."

Mother Teresa once described herself as a pencil in the hand of a God who is writing love letters to the world. During Epiphany, we're going to continue our year's theme of "Sacred Desire~Spiritual Yearnings" as we explore different types of love and the risks and rewards of giving and receiving those types of love. Here are the types of love we will explore:

January 10 & 11 Storge- love of parents and children"Before I Am and Yet a Child of Me"
January 17 & 18 Thelema- desire to do things; will"MiLK"
January 24 & 25 Eros- soulful love"Soul Mates"
January 31 & February 1 Eros-erotic love"Sexual Salvation"
February 7 & 8 Philia- love of siblings"Poet, Prophet, and Priest"
February 14 & 15 Agape- love"Wide Open"

Each time we gather together you will have an opportunity to send your own love letters to the world. It will be amazing!

I hope you will commit yourself to worshiping with us every weekend of the series. I think you will be moved to laughter, moved to tears, and moved to new depths of loving God and others.
One last thing. As your Worship Team has planned these services, we've been mindful of the emotional impact of this series. If you find yourself with questions or comments, please don't hesitate to reach out to one of your pastors or deacons. You can find staff email addresses on our website at www.mccaustin.com or reach us through the office at (512) 291-8601, and you can call the Deacon Care Line at (512) 291-8819.

Please never think that your questions or concerns are too trivial or that your needs are inconsequential. Reach out. Trust God. Trust others.

May we all be pencils in God's hand.

New Beginnings

2008-12-31T14:57:00.001-06:00

I love new beginnings. I love New Years and the First Sunday in Advent and the First Day of School (Yes, I capitalized that on purpose!) and Spring Cleaning and even the start of Daylight Savings Time. I love any opportunity to start over, to start fresh, to experience the grace of a new beginning.

I know that all of you are not looking forward to the New Year with the same kind of enthusiasm I am. I know that financial news is grim. I know that many of you will enter 2009 unemployed or underemployed. I know that many of you have endured broken hearts and broken dreams this year and it seems that even a thousand new years will not ease the pain.

I know that some of you carry the guilt of having hurt or failed others. Some of you walk daily under the burden of feeling that you will never be good enough for your partner, your children, your parents, or your associates.

On this New Year's Eve, I hope you will allow yourself the grace of a new beginning. Just for this day, know that you are created in the image of a God who is love, who is goodness, who is kindness, compassion, joy, hope and every good and beautiful thing. Know that you cannot destroy that, void it, ruin or renounce it. Just for this day, believe that with all your heart. Speak from that knowledge, act from that knowledge, and love from that knowledge.

Just for today, let your heart believe this promise from 2 Corinthians 5:17: Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it!

Look at it! Celebrate it! Believe it!

Happy New Year,

Unbelievable

2008-12-23T14:44:00.000-06:00

Unbelievable.

That's the word I usually reserve for informing basketball referees that what I've seen doesn't match up with what they've called. The volume and length of the word usually grow in proportion to my disbelief.

But I've had a different experience with that word lately. In fact, I think I've whispered it half a dozen times this week alone. Unbelievable that we just decorated the sanctuary for Advent and here it is Christmas Eve. Unbelievable that Thanksgiving is a distant memory. Unbelievable that in less than two months we will enter the Lenten season.

So many things that are hard to wrap my mind around!

But Christmas time, perhaps more than any other, is a time for believing, so I want to share with you a few of the things that I believe...believe with all my heart.

I believe that our community of faith at MCC Austin is growing and maturing as disciples--followers and students--of Christ. I see it in the way we worship, the way we treat each other, the way we are trying to minister to others both inside and outside of the church proper.

I believe that we have an extraordinary group of lay leaders. The talent, the generosity, the ministry of our lay leaders inspires me daily. From our Worship Team to our Sunday School teachers to our Deacons and Communion Team and Board and musicians and on and on we are blessed and blessing others constantly. When I watch you serving each other, I am at the same time humbled and uplifted by the way God works and loves and heals through you.

I believe that the staff, both paid and volunteer, that we have gathered is a remarkable group. I believe that the genuine love and respect we have for each other, the true joy we have in working together, and the shared purpose we claim create an atmosphere in which we are open and available to the Spirit. I believe God enjoys coming to work with us as much as we enjoy coming to work together!

I believe that we as a congregation are being invited by God to do amazing things. I believe that God has been working in us and working on us, and that we're poised to take God's love, joy, peace, and hope far beyond the bounds of 8601 S. First Street.

I believe that we are ready to draw our circle wide and wider still, keeping God as the center of light and love from which we radiate.

Merry, Merry Christmas!

The Fourth Week of Advent

2008-12-20T13:03:00.001-06:00

Call this Part II.

Last week I shared some of what I think the young Mary must have been feeling as she contemplated her pregnancy, her future, and her beloved. This week I offer similar thoughts on Joseph, but my path is a little more convoluted. Stay with me...

A couple of summers ago, I heard a sermon that began this way:

I fell in love with God at a church camp in Kerrville, Texas, while two camp counselors strummed "Kumbaya" on their guitars and fireflies danced around the edges of our campfire. I was twelve years old...and God's name was...Shelley.

Once I heard those words, I couldn't track the rest of the sermon very well. I had had the same experience! The first time I fell in love so completely that not only my skin tingled, but my very soul tingled, I suddenly understood the catechism in a whole new way. Patient, kind, unconditional, life-giving, transformational--these were holy words, and suddenly, my everyday words.

Over time, though, I gave in to the constant barrage of societal disapproval about this great love, and I convinced myself that there was nothing sacred or spiritual about it. Further, I rationalized that God demanded my undivided devotion, not devotion shared with the great human loves of my life.

Thank God that I've come full circle on that.

If we're not supposed to live our lives in a delicious swirl of God's love and friends' love and partners' love and parents' love and on and on, then why did God mix it all up for us? Why did God choose messy, fleshy incarnation over, or at least along with, divine transcendence? Why has God chosen to be born in us, to be borne by us, and to dwell in us, and why has God commanded us to love one another as God loves us? Certainly it must be so that we would not create so many distinctions, separate our lives into compartments of sacred and secular, try to distill the human from the holy.

For the final time this season, let me share with you some words from Two from Galilee. In this section Marjorie Holmes gives voice to the agony Joseph feels as he wrestles with how to deal with Mary now that he knows she is pregnant. Joseph has been approached by Mary's father, Joachim, who has begged Joseph to deal mercifully with Mary.

Joseph's mother had been right. And Joachim. A man's honor and the honor of his family was involved. But neither Joachim nor any other who spoke of honor could conceive that there was a value even greater than honor--a man's love. However forsaken, bereaved, humiliated, a man's hopelessly abiding love.

He wanted her back, no matter what. Perversely, he wanted her back even more the more people talked. Yet it was so much greater than that, it went so far back and so far beyond. She was his life's purpose, his hope; she was his Messiah. At this time of miracles and magi, don't try too hard to comprehend it all. Instead, allow yourself to feel it...Emmanuel...God with us, in us, loving us, and happy to be loved by us as best we can...as best we can.

Peace and Much Love,

The Third Week of Advent

2008-12-10T18:19:00.004-06:00

I'm always aware of the blessing and privilege of being an MCC pastor, but this Advent I've felt that blessing more keenly than ever. I think that part of this awareness has to do with our chosen theme for worship for this year: Sacred Desire, Spiritual Yearnings. As we've shared over the last two weeks the stories of Elizabeth and Zechariah and of their son, John the Baptist, I've been deeply moved by the depth of their desires and the extent of their yearnings. Now, as we prepare to relive Mary's story this week and Joseph's next week, I've been more aware than ever before of the freedom that I have to give voice to the Nativity story with words that so many pastors feel they must shy away from--words like knowing, covenanting, consummating, blood, flesh, birth and the holy of holies, that we somehow have come to believe we can use only on Good Friday, passion.

Last weekend I shared with you a passage from Marjorie Holmes's beautiful novel, Two from Galilee. Today I want to share another. In this scene, Mary is certain that she is, as the angel announced, pregnant. Now she is faced with the impossible task of telling Joseph, not only the one to whom she is engaged, not only the one who will literally hold her life in his hands, but the one whose love she craves body and soul.

Numb with astonishment, Joseph could only gaze at her for an eternity. Then he spoke one word. One alone, which later seemed to him almost as unbelievable as the thing she had told him.

"Whose?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know?" His hands, dangling at his sides, felt wooden...."Mary, are you mad? Or do you think I am?"

"Perhaps," she said.

"Perhaps I am mad. At first I thought so. How can it be? I asked myself that I am the chosen one? How can it be? There are fairer girls in Israel, and certainly purer ones. Girls whose only wish has been to serve in the Temple, to fast and pray. No, there had to be some mistake, I told myself. Yes, I have been very close to God--especially in childhood; there were times when I felt sure he spoke to me. But it is human love that I have longed for as I grew older." She had been staring into the darkness. Now she lifted her eyes to meet his. "Flesh and blood love, Joseph. Your hands, your arms, your lips, your body close to me even as it is close to me now."

I know, I know. The more practical among you can strike down mine and Marjorie Holmes's romantic notions on several fronts. You can speak of arranged marriages, the history of marriage as a matter of property transfer, domestic servitude, on and on. But listen! Don't allow yourself to buy into the mythology that surrounds this account of virgin birth. (Notice, I didn't say, "Don't buy into this myth of virgin birth." I said, "Don't buy into the mythology that surrounds this account of virgin birth.")

Don't allow yourself to miss the passion that invades this story from every angle, the passion that burns between Joseph and Mary, the passion that Joseph and Mary have for Yahweh and for the promised Messiah, and greatest of all, the passion that burns within Yahweh with such power that God's only release for it was to break into the human story in a way that could not be denied or explained away.

People, believe the good news: The Christmas story is not a simple purity tale; it is the greatest love story ever told, and that's the Gospel truth.

Love and Peace,

The Second Week of Advent - Dedication Sunday

2008-12-04T09:27:00.000-06:00

This weekend when we gather for worship, we will bring with us our pledges of time, talent, and treasure for the coming year. We've been talking for several weeks now about the wondrous things we believe God is calling our congregation to do in 2009, and now it's time for us to move from discussion to action.

You've heard my thoughts about being veterans of Christ's service. You've seen the goals that our leadership has set for increasing our financial support of MCC Churches worldwide, increasing our gifts through MCC Cares to nonprofit organizations that are truly struggling with the volatile economy, and funding not only all of our MCC Austin ministries, but also funding our next building team so that they can obtain appraisals and plans and start us toward the reality of a permanent sanctuary. Additionally, you've been offered suggestions for ways that you can grow in your individual commitments to God through the ministry of MCC Austin.
So now I want to offer some final thoughts to you as you prepare to bring your pledges to church this weekend. First, may your commitment to giving be based on your answer to this question: Realizing that everything I have is a gift from God, how much does God ask me to give back as a spiritual response of faith?

Second, trust that if circumstances change for you and you are unable to fulfill your pledge, God and this church will accept whatever you are able to give and be richly blessed by it.
Third, though it is indeed a strange and troubling time in this nation's and the world's economy, it is not the time to become fearful or selfish, but rather time to reorient ourselves toward the things that are truly important. My friend, Rev. Greg McDonell, has offered these words to the congregation of the church he serves:

I would suggest that we see this "crisis" as a time for deep reflection. . . As Christians, let us spend some time reflecting on a few theological questions.1. Are we free enough to move from a mindset of scarcity to one of abundance?2. Are we willing to move from a place of isolation to one of relationship/community?3. Can we be transformed into a people that stops trusting in our attachments and begins to trust in God's providence?

Friends, I have so much hope and excitement about how our family of faith is going to continue to advance God's dominion and share the light and love of Christ in the coming year! But enough of my talking; listen to the promise that God makes to us through the words of the prophet Malachi:

Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house, and thus put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts; see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing.

People of MCC Austin, let's bring the whole tithe into the storehouse and see what God does next!

Always in Hope,

The First Week of Advent

2008-12-04T09:20:00.000-06:00

I thought I was prepared for what I would see when I walked into the sanctuary this morning. I've been here for five or six Advent seasons now; I know how amazing our sacred space looks adorned in royal blues and gold and silver and greenery and garland.

I thought I was prepared after weeks of working with the worship planning team and listening to their ideas come together.

But I wasn't prepared.

The beauty of it all, the meaning of it all, took my breath away.

Come see for yourself and give yourself the gift of worshiping with us as we begin a new year in the Christian liturgical calendar. Our over-arching theme for the coming year is "Sacred Desire~ Spiritual Yearnings." As we begin the journey through the year with Advent, we will be incorporating traditional themes of Hope, Love, Joy, and Peace. Additionally, we have woven in and among those traditional themes some new images and ideas about circles--thus the sermon titles you will see for the four weeks in Advent and for Christmas Eve:

"Where Does a Circle Begin?"
"Widening the Circle"
"The Circle Within"
"Outside the Circle"
"Full Circle"

To help you fully enter this blessed time of Advent and help you prepare your heart and mind for the coming of the Holy Child, we will be sending you daily devotionals for each week of Advent beginning this Saturday.

I'll close this with a quote that I discovered when preparing last week's sermon about worship. It is taken from the Didascalia Apostolorum and quoted in John E. Burkhart's book, Worship.

"Now when thou teachest, command and warn the people to be constant in assembling in the Church, and not to withdraw themselves, but always to assemble, lest any person diminish the Church by not assembling, and cause the body of Christ to be short of a member."

Please do come and worship with us this Advent. We will be less than we should be without you.

Always in Hope,

Thanksgiving 2008

2008-11-23T17:44:00.001-06:00

My arms and shoulders are a little tired this week from trying to hold back the mighty assault of Christmas commercials and Christmas carols. Yes, that confession is bound to surprise some of you who know that one of the playlists on my iPod is called "Christmas," and it's not uncommon for those Christmas songs to show up in the recently played list. I love all things Christmas, always have.

Please understand, this is not going to be a diatribe against commercialism or an exhortation to hold the line on Christmas cards, Christmas carols, Christmas trees, and Christmas parties against the more trendy and supposedly politically correct "Holiday" this and that or "Winter" this and that. I'm not one of those people who is worried that we're not doing enough to protect God from consumerism. I trust that after eternity plus 2,000 years, God can take care of God's self. I trust that after 2,000 years, Christ is quite capable of keeping himself in Christmas. I'm not even criticizing the merchants who depend on exceptional sales in December to have a profitable year.

No, no, no. I'm not on a rampage. My concern is much simpler.

I'm not afraid about losing Christmas. I'm afraid about losing Thanksgiving.
Not once have I heard "Over the River and Through the Woods" playing in the background of a television commercial. Not once have I heard a radio station asking for people to create Thanksgiving baskets for hungry families. But I have heard dire warnings about what will happen to families that don't have presents under their Holiday Trees!

Look over this week's scripture reading. Doesn't it read like a love letter? An extravagant invitation to feast upon the gifts of God?

I invite each one of you to come worship with us this weekend and offer thanksgiving to our loving, generous God. Then the next week you'll find the sanctuary transformed by Advent colors and cloths and lush greenery. But don't let that fool you.

Though our attention will have turned toward Christmas, we will still be celebrating Thanksgiving--for the greatest gift ever given.

Thanks Be to God!

God's Closet

2008-11-12T17:12:00.000-06:00

If you grew up going to Sunday School like I did, you probably heard the story of the three servants and their talents many times. You probably listened to admonishments not to squander your God given talents. Some of you might have even heard teachers caution you against using your talents in any pursuit that wasn't "holy" or "Godly." Do you remember the criticism Amy Grant endured when she turned from contemporary Christian to popular music?

I don't want to debate those lessons this week, but I do want to broaden the discussion a little. Two things have captured my attention as I've studied this week's Gospel lesson from Matthew. First, I've been struck by the realization of how much money a talent actually is. You see, ever since I was a child I've accepted the interpretation that this parable is about our faithful use of our skills and abilities. No one ever stressed the literal interpretation of this parable and the fact that a talent was equivalent to about 15 years of wages! One of the servants in this parable received an amount of money equal to a full 15 years' wages, another the equivalent of 30 years' wages, and the third an amount equivalent to 75 years' wages. This parable is much more than a child's bedtime story about using the talents God has given us. The stakes in this story are exceptionally high, and I think we should delve into that a bit.

Second, I'm troubled by the end of the scripture. Along with being told that this parable was about skills and abilities, I was taught that the wealthy "master" in the story represented God. This troubles me on two levels. First, it troubles me because the third servant characterizes the master as cruel, and harsh-someone to be feared. Second, it troubles me because the master's response to the third servant is terrifying. "You wicked and lazy slave!" he explodes. Later the master says to the others, "For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Mercy! Where's the grace in that?

I invite you to study this passage during the week and ask God to illuminate the text and the meaning as you study. You might even find it helpful to compare Matthew's version of the parable to Luke's version in Luke 19:11-27. As you pray your way through the passage, I encourage you to share your thoughts and questions with me. It's always a blessing to hear from you!

May God Bless and Keep You,

Veterans of Foreign Wars

2008-11-10T10:06:00.001-06:00

I hope you're planning to worship with us this weekend. Along with singing, sharing the Word, and celebrating communion together, we will also honor our military veterans by, among other things, having veterans process in the U.S. flag and the flags of the different branches of the military.

We know that our LGBT brothers and sisters who have served in the military have most often done so with even greater risk and greater personal sacrifice than our straight brothers and sisters. Many of them have "served in silence," and many of them have received silence or censure instead of thanks after their service. We hope all of you who have served or still actively serve in our military will come to church this weekend and allow us to recognize you for your commitment. Invite your friends, too, especially if they are LGBT veterans who have never been publically honored before.

In preparation for worship, I invite all of you to read Joshua 24:1-18 and spend time reflecting on the intentionality, commitment, risk, and rewards of your own service. Truly, in your life, whom or what do you serve? Do you serve God? In what ways? What is your motivation? Does your service to God serve others? Does it have an effect on you? If you'll spend some time answering these questions, you'll be ready when I ask them again in worship, and you'll be able to follow me as I share with you my belief that all of us, civilian and military alike, are "Veterans of Foreign Wars."

Peace...

Guest Blogger:Assistant Pastor Rev. Dr. Bill Young

2008-10-30T09:53:00.001-05:00

This week a number of our members are enjoying a wonderful Caribbean cruise, among them Senior Pastor Rev. Karen Thompson, MCCA Board Vice-moderator Denice Bain, and Focus8 team leader Adama Brown. All are supposed to be a enjoying a well-earned week of rest and relaxation soaking up the sun in the Caribbean, sipping Mai Tais by the pool, and dropping a few bucks in the on-board casino.But some of our members are frankly dubious that these committed, multitasking leaders can actually go a week without obsessing about church business.

Some folks have wagered over $2000 that the intrepid three can't restrain themselves from discussing the business of MCC Austin at least once during the course of their week on the high seas. In this case, it's literally true that "Loose lips sink S.H.I.P.S.'' (Significant Hushmoney Infusion Possible from Silence).The money goes into the church coffers, so stakes are high.

Rumor has it that the Board, concerned at the potential loss of this windfall, has outfitted other MCCA members on the cruise with a tranquilizer gun and a roll of duct tape, with orders to deploy them at the first glimpse of a budget projection or a strategic planning document.So I ask that you be in prayer this week that all of our cruisers have a wonderful, safe and restful time in the Caribbean, that things go smoothly here at MCC Austin in their absence, and that Karen, Denice and Adama manage to keep their mouths shut. It's only a week!

Many preachers preface their sermons with this verse from Psalm 19: "May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Oh Lord.'' But before she left, I suggested to Karen that she consider a slight modification as the guiding prayer for this voyage: "May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart ... stay there.''

Blessings,
Bill Young
Assistant Pastor

Twenty Questions

2008-10-26T14:14:00.000-05:00

My sermon title for this week is "20 Questions," and not surprisingly, I've been thinking about questions a lot. This sermon title was inspired by our Gospel reading from Matthew 22:34-46 in which a group of Pharisees asks questions of Jesus to "test" him. You know, there's just no way that can turn out well!

Now I don't mean to imply that it's not a good idea to ask questions of Jesus. I believe bringing all of ourselves-our joy, fear, anger, confusion, doubts, devotion, and questions- to God is our most faithful response to God's love and grace. But there's something to be said for how and why we pose our questions to God. In the 22nd chapter of Matthew, both the Sadducees and the Pharisees take turns trying to trick Jesus into offering false witness, for they've already decided he's dangerous, and they're plotting to kill him. That's their sole purpose, to offer him a test which they want him to fail.

If that's the motivation behind the questions we pose to God, then I would say that our questions are not any more faithful than those of the Sadducees and the Pharisees. But I don't think it is. When we ask our questions of God, I believe it's most often in the attempt to know and be known by God more deeply than before. Questions, often, are simply our way of staying in conversation with God. In fact, I don't think we'd even bother with our questions if we weren't certain that ultimately, God will never fail us.

I hope between now and our worship this weekend, you will spend time talking with God and asking your questions. Then bring the ones you have left to church with you. You and your questions are always welcome here.
Blessings...

A Church Without Walls

2008-10-16T14:04:00.001-05:00

I am so looking forward to our worship services this weekend and a chance to explore together our vision of becoming A Church Without Walls.

Before we focus on our vision, though, I thought it might be helpful to share a little bit about what we mean when we talk about our vision and to share a little of the history of our vision discerning process.

MCC Austin's understanding of vision was largely informed by Thomas G. Bandy's book Moving Off the Map. Bandy says that a vision is "a song in the heart. It is a metaphor or symbol, a rhythm or tune, a picture or experience, the mere presentation of which elicits spontaneous joy and excitement. Vision speaks to the heart, not the mind."

That's pretty lofty!

Bandy then goes on to explain key criteria of a meaningful vision. First, visions aren't created by humans, he cautions, but by God. Humans are faced with the task of discerning God's vision for them.

Second, Bandy points out that vision statements are threatening statements. "Core values and bedrock beliefs help define who you are, but authentic vision will change who you are," Bandy says.

Third, Bandy warns that vision can never be fully expressed in words. In order to fully present our vision, he says, we must "transcend mere words to express the raw enthusiasm or emotional power that leads us to take real risks."

Can you imagine the anxiety those words cause me as I prepare a sermon on our vision? (This is where I would insert a smile but it might not appear very dignified.)

The truth is, I don't mind taking the risk necessary to get at the heart of our vision at all--as long as you're with me and we're all aware that the vision belongs to God, who blesses us with it.

See You in Worship...

When God Gets Away

2008-10-09T09:57:00.000-05:00

Our scripture passage for worship together this weekend comes from Exodus 32:1-6. Most of you will recognize this story after reading only a couple of verses. You will probably remember several sermons you've heard on the passage, too. In fact, some of you might be tempted to stay home this weekend rather than hear another sermon about all the idols we sinful humans turn toward when we turn away from God.

Don't do it. I promise you, this will not be a sermon about placing money, liesure, people, or success above God in your life.

This time through the story of the golden calf, I intend for us to take a more lenient look at the people Israel. What were they really asking for when they confronted Aaron?

Many translations of this story begin with the people saying something like this to Aaron: "Come, make gods for us, who shall go before us..." Immediately, our monotheistic monitors go off! What? Gods? Plural? Have these people so quickly forgotten that they are the children of one God? The God who freed them from captivity in Egypt and asked nothing more of them than to paint the doorposts and lentils with a lamb's blood?

It would seem that they have...

But wait. Look at the verses as they are written under the "Worship for Sunday, October 12" section. These verses are taken from the Jewish Study Bible, the Jewish Publication Society Tanakh translation. Notice that the people say, "Make us a god who shall go before us..." The annotation for this verse admits that many commentators choose the plural here, but it then goes on to state that it is more likely that what the people actually wanted was not other gods, but "something that would serve as a new means of securing God's Presence." This makes sense if you remember that the whole reason for the people's panic is that Moses, the one who has represented God's presence to them, has left them and been gone for forty days. It's possible that the people didn't want many gods or even any god, but that they wanted reassurance of the presence of the God of Israel.

Think about it. They were homeless, wandering in the desert, and uncertain of tomorrow. They had been abandoned by their spiritual leader, and they were afraid that God had left them as well.

Ever been there? Ever been desperate to know that God has not gone away? That you are not alone? Ever felt the need for reassurance that God is with you? Ever been afraid, lost, anxious, lonely?

My answers? Yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes.

If you've ever answered yes to any of these questions, come worship with us this weekend. I don't promise you easy answers, magic words, or even revelations. But I do promise you this: Whenever two or more of us gather in God's name, God is with us.

O Come, Emmanuel!

Happy Anniversary!

2008-10-04T17:39:00.000-05:00

Happy Anniversary, MCC and MCC Austin! As we move toward the 40th anniversary of MCC Churches and the 33rd anniversary of MCC Austin, I want to personally invite you to spend your weekend with your faith family here at Freedom Oaks.

On Friday night, we'll gather at 7:00 to listen to MCC Austin's 6:24 Band and then watch Call Me Troy, the biographical film about Rev. Troy Perry, founder of Metropolitan Community Churches. If you saw the movie at last year's Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival, you know that Troy Perry's life story is incredibly moving and affirming, and you'll probably want to see it again. If you didn't see it last year, I hope you will give yourself the gift of watching it with us on Friday night. I believe you'll leave the sanctuary feeling like God has whispered a love letter right to you through the mouth of Rev. Perry.

On Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m., Rev. David Bieniek will preside over our annual Blessing of the Animals service. We plan to hold the service outside under the oaks, and we will again be giving St. Francis medallions to every beloved pet. If you have pets that you cannot bring to the church, bring a picture or other memento and we will be happy to bless them in absentia.

On Saturday @ 6:24 and at 9:00 and 11:00 a.m. on Sunday morning, we will gather together and raise a joyful noise, a shout you could say, to God in our worship. Our scripture for the weekend is Joshua 6, and I will be sharing how I see the stories of Israel's bringing down the walls of Jericho, Troy Perry's founding of MCC Churches, and MCC Austin's history intertwining. If you have the time and interest, I encourage you to read the first 6 chapters of the book of Joshua so that you can have a fuller understanding of the events that led up to the fall of Jericho.

Please spend the weekend with us and lend your voice to our celebratory shouts!

Hosanna and Hallelujah!

Our Lives Together

2008-09-25T09:51:00.000-05:00

A few months ago, Dr. Paul Dodd called and asked if I'd be interested in participating in a service to remember the 10th anniversary of the hate killing of Matthew Shepard. I was glad to have the opportunity to take part in what I thought to be an important event.

At our initial planning meeting, someone mentioned that it was also the 10th anniversary of the hate killing of James Byrd, Jr. All of us present quickly agreed that the event should be expanded to include Mr. Byrd's death as well.

What has evolved is an event that I think is significant for all of Austin, an event called Hope Not Hate. I am proud that MCC Austin, through our diversity ministry (AADM), is a co-sponsor of this event along with University Baptist Church, Equality Texas, Soulforce, and Church of the Savior. Our participation signals once again that we are committed to being a radically inclusive community--a church without walls! We are committed to reaching beyond all types of "isms" that separate people from one another--especially beyond racism and heterosexism.

Please invite your friends to Hope Not Hate on Sunday, Oct. 12, at 5:00 at University Baptist Church, 2130 Guadalupe. The keynote speaker for the gathering will be Rev. Dr. Stephen Sprinkle, Associate Professor of Practical Theology at TCU's Brite Divinity School. Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo and a representative from the Travis County Sheriff's Department will also offer their remarks. Childcare will be provided and the evening will be ASL interpreted.

It is important that we not let our lasting images of these two men, James Byrd, Jr. and Matthew Shepard, be images of them as the victims of hate. Rather, we are called by their memories to do all we can to ensure that hate will never be the final word. We are called to join our hope for a more just, fair, and compassionate world with our actions in a way that brings about true and lasting change.

Always in Hope...

International Day of Peace

2008-09-17T16:47:00.000-05:00

Two years ago, MCC Austin dedicated our own "Peace Pole" near the entrance to our sanctuary. The Peace Pole is a hand crafted pole that has the words "May peace prevail on earth" in eight different languages. Our Peace Pole is one of over 200,000 in a total of 180 countries around the world.

It seems that day by day our world moves further away from peace. Wars of words and weapons wreak havoc upon the people and the planet. Sometimes it's hard to remember, much less embrace, the promise of Christ in John's Gospel that "in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world."

One of our members sent the staff a card this week that helped me regain some perspective. It reads:

peace.
it does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work.
it means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart. unknown

This is the lens that I needed to help me regain my perspective on Christ's promise of peace. Our God has not promised the absence of chaos, pain, tribulation, grief, or any of the things that swirl around us and disrupt the peace. Our God has promised to stand with us in the chaos, and ultimately, to bring order to it again.

I invite you to come and worship with us this weekend and allow the love of God and Christian community to help you regain your perspective on peace if, like me, you sometimes lose it.

May Peace Find You...