Led to Good Places

"He makes me lie down in green pastures and leads me beside still waters."  Psalm 23:2 

Dear People of St. David's,

I pray that you are well and that you are enjoying some rest these days with a greater sense of God's presence in your life and a little less fear and worry.

When reading Psalm 23, the above passage usually passes me by. It doesn't strike me as all that important.  Probably, because in my humanity, I think that it is through my own power that any "green pasture" or "still waters" I come across are my doing and not God's. Now, when we live a good life and try our best, there are moments when we find ourselves in the right place, with a sense of peace-whether it is over a job well done or a good outcome. Those could be significant moments in life from graduation to landing a new job to helping a child with their studies so they can succeed. There's a peace and a contentment and a goodness about those moments that help us to cherish our lives all the more.

But if you're like me, my best efforts and intelligence don't always lead me to green pastures and still waters. Mostly, my work simply leads to more work. Sometimes my efforts to find still waters become so overly scheduled that I am more tired when I come home than when I left. Maybe it's because I rarely have my work-play dynamic in good balance or maybe it's because I'm the one who's trying to lead and not allowing God to lead.

The promise that God offers us is that He will lead us to green pastures and still waters. That's the intention of a good shepherd who guides the sheep to the places where they can be fed and where they can find peace and rest. The shepherd cares for the sheep as part of the "job description" - as part of the shepherd's plan. It gives the shepherd pleasure to see that the sheep are fed and are at peace. So it is with God and us. God is willing to guide us to green pastures and to still waters when we allow God to lead, when we stop for a moment in the midst of a decision or in our planning to invite God into our thinking, our discernment about our lives. Too often we go our own way and miss the gentle nudge of God. But if we will listen and trust that God is who God says He is, then we can release some of our control over our lives and be led to those places that make life so worthwhile.

So, as you're going about your day today and every day, take a moment and invite the Lord, the Good Shepherd to have a say in the direction you are going so that God can lead you where you really want to go.


Grace and Peace,
 
WFA

Losing Your Life & Dropping Your Crutch for God to Save It

Introduction: The High Dive

It was the summer before I turned ten that the pressure finally got to me; when I was nine, I had jumped off the low diving board at the Walnut Hill Lane pool a half mile from our home; and that was great fun all summer as our friends and my two brothers jumped, dived, canon balled, and belly flopped our way through the typical 100 degree days of a Texas summer. The low dive was fun; it was safe – probably only three feet off the water; easy to climb up and the landing zone was near the ladder to climb out and line up again for your turn to dive.

But on the last day before school started, the last day the pool would be open; my older brother James and our best friend, Mike Fish (or Mac Fish as my wife Amy once heard him say his name in Texan) decided they were done with the low dive and would now jump off the high dive. The high dive was enormously high in the air; step after step to get to the diving board; I imagined at the top that you could see for miles across the flat Texas landscape; and the wind at the top, it was always windy, might blow you off and you would die on the concrete slabs around the pool.

Well, James and Mike jumped off one after the other; nothing too smooth, but they came grinning from ear to ear as they climbed out got in line to dive again, and beckoned me to join them. No way, I said, and that’s when the pressure started, a I watched their fun and began to fear for my life. I thought about it all winter, jumping to my death from the high dive or facing the taunts and loss of esteem for being a coward forever. When summer rolled around again and the pool opened, I made all kinds of excuses to stay away from the pool. It was baseball season and I was working on my fielding, batting, throwing; whatever excuse I could come up with, even summer reading;

But when little league ended, there I was at the pool – it was just too hot. I climbed up to the top of the high dive twice in the month of July. Only to find myself shaking and afraid; having to climb back past other boys and girls in line to take the high plunge. There may have been a few hot tears under the swimming towel by the pool and there was no mercy, especially after our younger brother, Brad, started doing swan dives and somersaults off the high dive. He was always a little show-off.

With two days left in the summer, I awoke to the resolve that today would be the day;

And before even getting in and getting wet; I marched to the high dive; walked out to the end of the board; shaking, maybe crying (I’ve always been a big baby) I jumped through the air and landed safely in the pool. The belly flop didn’t feel all that great, but I had gotten past my fears and realized that it wasn’t anything like what I had built it up to be; It was fun – moderately, dangerous fun; and all that day, my brothers and Mike and our other friends jumped and dove off either board until we were all exhausted and it was time to go home.

The warmth of victory and triumph made for some good sleeping those next few nights and some of the challenges and obstacles that came that year in school were met with a little more confidence and creativity and a greater willingness to try something new even when it was different or made me a little uncomfortable and afraid.

Crutches That Keep us From God

I drove by the Walnut Hill Lane Pool this summer a couple of times on my visits to see my mother and that high dive was probably all of eight feet in the air. A death-defying leap to a nine year old still today, I’m sure; but nothing worth the fear and anxiety and sleepless nights it cost me as a child. Sometimes our fears are just not all we make them out to be and we choose to sit out from the life that’s before us or we find crutches that help us get by but keep us from a life that’s really life.

I think that’s part of what Jesus is about with His first disciples this morning; teaching them the difference between living their lives with God; or relying on some of life’s crutches that allow us to get by; but keep us from living all the life and adventure and peace that come when we live our lives in hope; when we live our lives more fully with God.

Jesus and His first followers are in the northern part of Israel in today’s Gospel story; It’s a city called Caesarea Philippi – a city that contains all the signs of power and all the crutches of Jesus’ day and our day the worldly power and crutches that distract us from a life lived with God. From a life lived in hope.

In Caesarea Philippi, there is money and wealth – it’s a center of commerce; and the signs of prosperity and the things and the lives that money can by are all around them, dazzling their country boy eyes with luxuries they’ve probably never seen.

In Caesarea Philippi, there is power – Roman power. Soldiers; horses; chariots, palaces, fortifications, Roman administrators; all the trappings and the signs and realities of the greatest empire on earth.

In Caesarea Philippi there is religion – ancient religions, Roman religions the signs and practices of the gods that supposedly gave Rome their empire and have an effect on the every day lives of the every day person.

In Caesarea Philippi the power and the crutches of life are all around them; for who has not longed for enough money to take care of your needs and then some as a crutch that distracts us and keeps us from living the life that is before us and trusting wholeheartedly in God and God’s power in our lives;

Who has not longed for the political authority in our community and our work place to get what we need and what we want to make life go a little more our way a crutch that keeps us from being open to God’s way who has not wanted a religion that gives us some kind of power over God Himself that persuades us that our way is the right way of practicing religion, perhaps the ultimate crutch for going through life, but only partially connected to the life God offers us. Jesus knows these are all the low boards of life, the low boards of the world; adequate for getting by, but nothing like the thrill of the high dive and the life God is calling us to live.

So in the midst of all these signs of power and crutches of Jesus’ day and our own day Jesus asks them who people say He is. Now please understand, Jesus is not asking for positive reinforcement about His ministry and who He really is. No, Jesus asks in an effort to help His followers then and today to choose; to choose in the midst of all the signs of worldly power and authority, the life of the world or the life with God; the low dive or the high dive.

And Peter answers first among Jesus’ followers, that Jesus is the Messiah, God’s anointed, the one who will restore the fortunes of God’s people; But He doesn’t really know what this means as the people of God have been longing for a king like David; who would restore the economic, political and religious power they imagined they wanted as the people of Israel.

So when Jesus goes on to explain that He’s a different kind of Messiah who will be betrayed and killed and be raised from the dead on the third day; Peter rebukes Him. What kind of Messiah would be willing to die and what kind of kingdom of restoration could Jesus mean.

And Jesus rebukes Peter in return and challenges His followers to set aside their crutches, to deny ourselves and follow Him. Not to the low dive or the things of life that make us comfortable; But to the high dive, where life is thrilling and a little unknown; to a restoration from our sins and the power of death aand a life lived with God now and beyond death itself. For what good will it be, Jesus asks, if we have all the power and crutches of the world if we have all the money and prestige and religion we think make up our lives, we could have the life with God and the thrill of living our lives to their fullest in God’s presence and with God’s power at work in us. In Matthews’ Gospel, Jesus says, seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be given to you as well; have no fear as you pursue the life lived with God, Jesus promises because all the worldly needs will be yours, too.

Jumping off the High Dive

Living our lives without fear, living our lives in hope, begins and continues when we turn our lives over to God. When we offer who we are and what we’re about to the Lord who made us, who sustains us, and who promises to be with us always.

It’s a daily decision for everyone one of us as we set aside our crutches, as we set aside our focus on the things of this life and turn our focus to God instead; By asking for God’s presence; By seeking God’s purposes for our lives; By asking God to take away our fears and replacing them with peace and with hope so that we may live our lives to their fullest measure. You may be surprised as I have been throughout my following of Jesus that this high dive life is really all that much different from the low dive life that most of us live; but the thrill and the excitement and the safety of the life with God are infinitely more fulfilling and life giving.

So, whether you’re sitting by the side of the pool looking in on the Christian life or taking a few dives into this life from the low board; I invite you to ask God to set aside your fears and try life from the high dive. When you do, you will know a peace that passes understanding and a life that’s really life.

So, jump in, the water’s fine.

Amen.

Someone Watching Over Me

"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." Psalm 23:1

Dear People of St. David’s,

Thanks to all who came to our Kick-Off picnic. God gave us a wonderful day and I want to thank the men and all who made the event picnic such a great success. Many hands make light work and it was wonderful catching up after our summer activities.

In this year of Fearless—Living Our Lives in Hope, it is my hope that we can feed our faith rather than our fears. To that end, I want to spend these next few weeks offering some thoughts and practices that you may find helpful feeding your faith and quieting your fears - all centered on the 23rd Psalm.

The most well-known and beloved psalm of the Bible, many of us learned the these verses as children. We hear it at the funerals of our loved ones and read it during times of distress. I like to use it to quiet my fears in the middle of the night because that’s when my cares and problems and fears seem to take on a greater power. Maybe that’s because, most of the time, there’s little we can do to solve a problem at two in the morning. Maybe it’s because it’s dark which makes our sense of being alone seems greater.

So my response to fear in the darkness is the 23rd Psalm. I repeat it in my head. I whisper it aloud. I repeat it until the words start to catch hold and a calm and peace start to creep into my soul and the fears go away. It may take me a few times, depending on what’s going on in my life, but there is a comfort in remembering that someone is watching over us. It’s important to remember there’s a greater power at work than fear, and we should allow the power of God to work in us like a shepherd taking care of their flock. A shepherd making sure the sheep are guarded; cared for; guided in the right path of life. And when the power of God takes hold, I usually drift off to sleep and am refreshed by more than sleep when I rise.

The God who has given us our lives and the people and gifts of life is the God who promises to watch over us. When we remember Him and acknowledge Him, then our fears fade and hope grows strong. So the next time you wake in the middle of the night with worry and fear tugging at your heart or the problems of the day are keeping you down, remember that you have someone watching over you and allow God to calm your fears.


Grace and Peace,
WFA

The Promise of Life in Abundance

"I've come to bring you life and life in abundance." John 10:10

Dear People of St. David's,

I pray that you are well and welcome you to a new program and ministry year at St. David's - a year when we as a community and as individuals will be focusing on living our lives in hope rather than in fear.

Each year we choose a theme to better help us live into our mission to know God in Jesus Christ and make Christ known to others. So, our theme this year, Fearless-Living Our Lives in Hope, will be the focus of sermons, teachings and publications with the desire that we may all learn how to better feed our faith, rather than our fears. I expect that many more of us will become Christians filled with hope during this coming year.

The beautiful thing about this particular theme is that fits into the much bigger promise our Lord makes. Jesus offers a life-changing promise in showing us the loving face of God through His life; the forgiveness He offers for our sins; and the life beyond the door of death that is given freely to all who believe, to all who offer their lives to Christ in some way. That life-changing promise is an abundant life.

You see, God wants all of us to live lives of abundance. It may include an abundance of the things of this life, but usually not. Instead, God wants us to live lives that are fully awake to the promises and possibilities that bring joy and peace and love in our relationship with God and in our relationship with others and with God's magnificent creations. He gives us life at birth and desires with all His heart for us to take up that life without fear and live it in all its fullness and abundance.

So join us this Sunday and throughout the year, so that your life may become a life filled with the abundance God intends for all His children. Set aside your fears, and come and feed your faith. Your life and the lives of those around you will be changed forever.

Grace and Peace,
WFA

Wrestling With Change

"So Jacob was left alone and a 'man' wrestled with him till daybreak." Genesis 32:24

I pray that you are well and that you enjoy a restful and enjoyable long weekend in honor of those who work, remembering that we depend on the work of others as well as our own work to build the world in which we live.

This weekend is also a time of preparation for new beginnings both in our church life and our home life. As a church, we're getting ready for Kick-Off Sunday and the All-Parish picnic Sept. 9th. And many of you will be returning to or starting a new phases in your lives with a new school year. To mark this new beginning, we will bless the backpacks of all the children and youth in attendance during the 10:00 a.m. Chapel service on Sunday as a reminder that God will be with them as they begin a new school year.

New beginnings come throughout our lives, and more often than not they come with a little bit of fear and apprehension. We're familiar with our current lives, but we're not sure about the life and changes that are coming our way. Of the many things I talked about with our youngest son on our way to his new college, he wondered out loud if he could remember how to make friends. His friends over the last four years have been so steady and strong, that he couldn't remember how they first became friends. I assured him that he would be fine and so far he has been.

Too often we worry and wrestle with our fears until the new phase of our life begins. Jacob wrestles an entire night with his fears over meeting his brother again and starting a new life in a different land. Like Jacob, many of us can relate to wrestling with our fears through the night, but thankfully, we never wrestle alone. The God who was with Jacob is also with you and me. God is a God who loves us, and promises to walk with us in every phase of life. New beginnings are just another time to see God's gracious hand at work. Eventually, like Jacob, we also enter into a new life.

So, sleep well and remember that though you don't quite know what's coming next in life, God is with you - always.

Grace and Peace,
WFA

One Prayer, One Wish

“Give your servant, therefore a discerning mind . . .” 1 Kings 3:9

Dear People of St. David's,

I pray that you are well and that your lives are rich and touched by the grace and presence of God.
I’ve been pondering the sermon I didn’t give on Sunday, a sermon wondering what we would ask for if we could ask God for one thing and know that God would give it to us. Now, I know, as many of you know, that God answers every prayer we offer to God. God answers, “Yes”, “No”, and “Not right now.” But what would you ask for? What is the one thing you would ask for if you knew that God would answer yes to your heart’s deepest desire or the one thing that would give your life complete fulfillment? Kind of a scary thought for some of us, but one that’s worth a little reflection and consideration as God is in the ‘business’ of answering our prayers and guiding us into a life that’s really life.

That’s the question God put before King Solomon at the beginning of his ministry as King of Israel, following the death of King David, his father. It’s pretty clear when you read over Chapter 3 in the first book of Kings that Solomon has given this a lot of thought. When God comes to Solomon and asks Solomon the one thing he desires, Solomon gives a little review of his life and what is before him as king. Solomon doesn’t ask for power or riches or an easy pathway as king or for a long life. He asks for the one thing that will make him the best servant of God’s people that Solomon can be – wisdom or a discerning mind. The one thing he will need to best lead God’s people and to walk according to God’s desire for his life.

And God seems to like Solomon’s prayer a great deal as He promises to grant Solomon’s prayer and as a bonus gives him riches and honor. It reminds me a little of Jesus’ challenge in the Sermon on the Mount, “Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things (of life) will be given to you as well.” Look for God and God’s purposes in life and all the other gifts of life will be ours, too.

One prayer, one wish in our lives can make all the difference in our following of Jesus and in the way we conduct ourselves on a daily basis. So consider well what you ask God to give you and may our prayer be a wise one.

Grace and Peace.
WFA

Sermon—Eating and Sharing the Bread of Life for New Life

Eating for Living and Transformation

Over the past twenty years, churches and denominations all across the United States have put a tremendous effort in becoming more welcoming; On making sure that the unchurched members of our communities and people looking for a church home know that they are welcomed in our church or denomination. Efforts to make church feel more welcoming range from physical construction, like handicapped parking and handicapped ramps for better accessibility and good sound systems for those of us who have trouble hearing; To changing the times of services and activities to better suit modern living and to make it easier for persons and families to get involved in church.

We put up signs to let people know that they are welcomed; we invest time and money in websites, Facebook, Twitter and advertising to invite people in and we try to pay special attention to newcomers in church. A couple of years ago, the Methodist Church ran a series of advertisements in prime time that showed all kinds of different people involved in their churches; young and old, adults and children, singles, families, people of all colors; In an effort to show that in the Methodist Church everyone was really, really, really, really welcome.

But for all these efforts at appearing and being welcoming, most denominations and churches are in decline. And it’s not for lack of trying and being truly welcoming; they, we, are in decline because when people come into a church there are too few signs that the people in the Church are living changed lives as a result of their commitment to Christ. Too many Christians and churches are indistinguishable from the regular world, and visitors, newcomers, seekers, even members turn away or don’t come back because they don’t have a sense that they will be fed by God in that community—
that God is somehow absent.

You see, it matters to others and to God that you and I are living changed lives. It matters that we allow God to feed us and change us to be more like Him. When we do, people know it, sense it, want that life themselves; and will come again and again because they taste God in that place, they grasp a hope that they can be changed, too, by the presence and grace and bread of life that lives in you and me.

You and I have been invited to partake of the presence of God in our lives and when we partake, when we join in, when we commit ourselves in some way  God will change us as individuals and as a community. The result will be new life for ourselves and the promise of a new life for those we are welcoming into our community. And it begins and continues when we partake of God’s presence in our lives.

Feeding on Jesus

And so I want to spend some time today on something you and I know a lot about –eating. When I first read and prayed over the scriptures for this Sunday, I thought GREAT—here’s a topic I really know something about. I can agree on the importance of eating— it is something that’s important to our physical lives as well as our spiritual lives.

Do you know the two biggest selling books after the Bible, year in and year out? Cook books and diet books. We’re a people who understand the importance of eating and drinking for nourishment as well as to mark important moments in our lives. Physical eating can be an important part of our lives as a church, as well. When I first came to St. David’s and was getting to know people and drawing people into ministries and leadership my mantra was “no food, no meeting.” We had some kind of meal or snack or dessert at every meeting I was a part of. Well, twenty-five additional pounds later, I’ve backed off from that goal a little; but sharing a meal is an easy and important way to welcome others and to help us grow closer as a community.

But as enjoyable and important as physical eating can be in church it’s the spiritual food that helps us grow in our lives with God— it’s the spiritual food that helps us become more like Jesus. The spiritual food that God offers us every day changes us and allows others to come to know God in us and among us. And that’s exactly what Jesus offers to everyone – a spiritual food that draws us closer to the presence of God and that let’s us know of God’s grace and forgiveness and love and peace. Jesus offers a spiritual food that nourishes us so we may nourish others.

In today’s Gospel Jesus says, “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.” Now for those of you who may be a little squeamish about consuming flesh and blood Jesus is talking about feeding on Him in a spiritual sense; Jesus is talking about focusing on Him; about turning our lives to Him; about abiding in Him and with Him so that we may enter into a life that’s truly life. For this food and drink that Jesus is offering is the food and drink that brings forgiveness of our sins; a meal we’re unable to buy in any restaurant; a meal we can’t earn through works or labors of our own. For this food and drink that Jesus is offering is the food and drink that fills us with a peace that passes understanding in the midst of life’s most difficult moments, that leads us in making right choices in life and living our every day lives as God would have us live them.

This food and drink that Jesus is offering is the food and drink that refreshes us, that softens our hearts so that we can love God and our neighbors as ourselves. The food and drink Jesus offers brings eternal life with God now, and in a time to come and allows us to look forward each day in hope.

Jesus invites us all to feed on Him; to be nourished in our bodies and souls by the very source of light and life and to be drawn ever more deeply into the life of God—to be drawn into living communion with the God who loves us so much that He sent His Son to live among us and to die for us to open the way to everlasting life for us and for everyone. For unlike the food we eat and the beverages we drink that become part of us for a time, when we mediate on God’s Word in the Bible; when we share in the communion of Christ’s Body and Blood; when we spend time with God in our daily prayer; and when we act to help others in need, we eat and drink Christ and this food changes us and stays with so that we and others may know the presence of God in our lives.

The Food That Brings Life

And when we have fed on Jesus and have been changed by God’s presence we can offer that bread of life to others, here at St. David’s and out there in the world as people taste the presence of God in us—
as the aroma of the bread of life draws them closer to God through us. That’s the welcome that people are really seeking.

We have a lot of our children and family members serving in the military at St. David’s and we pray for them every week. Recently our nephew, Aaron Waldo, returned from his tour in Afghanistan. We are so thankful for his safe return; and his return reminded me of a story of another soldier Who returned home, severely wounded. After being flown through Germany and then to a hospital here on the east coast he had surgery and the doctors felt there was a good chance of full recovery. But his spirit was wounded and broken, and he wouldn’t eat anything, drinking only a little water and juice.

When some of his buddies caught up with him and saw his sad state they pooled their money and flew the soldier’s parents in from their farm in the Midwest. His parents got in late and stayed with one of their son’s buddies until they could see their son the next morning. Well before anyone else could rise, the mother got up and baked some bread. The aroma filled the apartment and woke everyone up. And when they came to see their son, they carefully unwrapped the homemade bread and the boy’s faced brightened and he began to eat for the first time in weeks.

His recovery was swift after that and as he grew stronger and after he could walk again, he was out of his room all the time and could be found at the bedside of the men and women who were struggling to recover, offering them hope and the inspiration to take up their lives once more.

You and I and every visitor God sends to church are that boy. We’re the ones who have been wounded in the battles of life, injured by our sins and the sins of others, broken by the challenges and trials of life, confused about the direction our lives are heading. By our forgetfulness of God, we’ve lost our taste for the food that will strengthen our souls and make us Christians and a Christian community that can feed others by the presence and power of God at work in our lives.

And so I invite you to remember to eat the spiritual food that brings life to us and to everyone God sends our way; to live your life in God’s grace by spending time with God and allowing God to change you and to use you for God’s purposes, for if we will, we will have life now and in a time to come, and can offer that life to others.

So, please, let’s eat and welcome others to God’s banquet of life.
Amen.