"Are You Catholic?"

 John 17:20-21a “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one…”

 Friday closed with a nurse’s call, asking if I could pray over a dying man.

 I entered the hospital room to the greeting, “Are you Catholic?” I told the grieving family, no, I am a Protestant minister, but I was the only available minister/priest. The dying man’s wife looked in my eyes, ‘Well, I guess God hears your prayers too.” My heart-felt reply was, “Yes,  God doesn’t have all these barriers that we have erected between us.”

 The family looked at each other, then nodded.  Together we prayed their dying husband and father into the arms of his Savior, Jesus Christ.

 Why has the Church of Jesus Christ so miserably failed to live into Jesus’ final prayer? Why do the ‘people in the pews’ understand the truth that in Christ we are all one so much better than the religious leaders who teach them?

 Truth is, I am ‘catholic’, believing in ‘the holy catholic (of all times and places) church.’ (Apostles Creed) May human-bound denominations learn to live what we profess.

Spirits and Saints

 Halloween is my least favorite holiday. Sorry kids, small and big. I am not opposed to costumes (I was a theatre major); nor candy (have you seen my shape?). I loved saying “Trick or Treat for UNICEF” when I was a boy.

 What bothers me is that we celebrate only half of what Halloween represents. Halloween started to keep the spirits away on October 31. People dressed up in disguises to avoid detection by roaming spirits.  Churches held “All Hallows Eve” services to ward away the spirits until the dawn of All Hallows (Saints) Day on Nov. 1, which was the celebration of the saints in heaven. 

 Along the way we lost the superstitions but still celebrate only the darkness. We stopped remembering the light on All Saints Day, November 1, a day set aside to remember all those who truly did die in Christ and now live and reign with him. (Cue “For All the Saints”, and if you don’t know it, find it on YouTube!)

 Yes, call me Halloween Scrooge. I wish all of you ghosts and goblins a safe and happy Trick or Treat, but, please, on Tuesday, remember a saint you love who lives in light.

Tick Tock...Tik Tok

 Luke 18:8 “However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

 I believe the church exists to tell the next generation that Jesus alive.  Then I read the Gallup world-wide survey of teens which reveals that while 47% of all teens believe Jesus was crucified, only 33% believe Jesus rose again. Among Christian teens, only 50% say that Jesus is resurrected. Read that again.

 Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock. Now is the time to get our Message to the next generation. Why do we have difficulty engaging teens in conversations which explore the basic, faith-defining, Christian truths? How do we share the faith today?

 Learn to live like Jesus is alive. If Jesus isn’t alive, then Christianity is dead.

 Check out Christian Tik Tok influencers, young Christians expressing their faith in ways that I never could imagine. Teens learn faith in something every day.

 If Christianity has a future, then the Church needs to learn how to communicate truths to teens in methods that reach their eyes and ears.

 Parents, grandparents, churches, are we truly committed to doing what we can to make sure Jesus finds faith on the earth when he comes looking?

"Essential Prayers"

 When the circumstances of life change faster than we can comprehend.

 When the world in which we live seems to be falling apart at the seams.

 When you cannot think of one word to say to a God whose existence, perhaps, you wonder about.

 Then, when words escape you, here are two prayers you can memorize and draw upon to lift to God:

 “Help me, help me, help me.”

“Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

She has a third prayer for those rare times when everything goes just right, maybe even better than you dared hope. Memorize this one too:

 “Wow!”

 God is listening. Every day. Pray.

 Sources: Anne Lamott (2012). “Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers” Penguin; Anne Lamott (2000). “Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith”, p. 75, Anchor

 

 

Mountain Rescue Team

 Luke 15:4 “ “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?”

 If Jesus was teaching near the mountains of Colorado:

 “Suppose one hiker on a nearby mountain is lost or falls. Wouldn’t my people race into the mountains find him, expending all their strength and skill to bring him home? I tell you, there is no greater comfort to loved ones than to know their lost son has been found.”

 On September 7, 2022, the Alamosa Volunteer Search and Rescue Team received a distress call from hikers that Justin, a young but experienced mountain hiker, tragically fell 300 feet to his instant death. Caring hikers marked the place, standing watch until the rescue team arrived. Today, because of their caring acts, and the brave, heroic efforts of the Alamosa team to carry Justin’s body up from the place he fell, the family has the comfort of knowing he is not lost.

 We can send Justin home to Jesus.

 We, the church of Jesus Christ, are called to search the wilderness, the mountains, bringing the lost home.

What God Sees in You

 1 Samuel 16:7b “The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

 Sometimes God’s ‘ask’ seems impossible for us. But God does not ask you to do anything, to take on any task or responsibilities that you cannot do with God’s help.

 If you judge your capabilities using the standards the world uses, you may feel inadequate to the task. Perhaps on your own you are. But when God chooses you, anoints your head as God’s servant, you will find the courage and strength to accomplish God’s call.

 Doing God’s will is rarely easy or ‘fun’ in the worldly sense.  Yet faithfully doing God’s will brings rewards that the world cannot offer.

 What does God see in you that the world does not see? Your heart. Your heart for God’s people. Your heart for the disenfranchised, the lonely, the mourners, the little children.

 If God is calling you into a new or a difficult role of service examine your heart.

 Saying ‘yes’ to God means ‘putting your heart’ into the call. God knows the strength of your heart. Do you?

Where Alan Waits

 Leaves of Grass/Song of Myself, 52, by Walt Whitman (excerpt)

I depart as air, I shake my white locks at the runaway sun,
I effuse my flesh in eddies, and drift it in lacy jags.

I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,
If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.

You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,
But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,
And filter and fibre your blood.

Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,
Missing me one place search another,
I stop somewhere waiting for you.

 My good and faithful friend, Alan, I miss you. I miss your stories and secrets. You prepared your beloved wife and sons and, oh, that grandbaby, for this day. But they miss you, more than I know. Your many friends, such dear, dear friends you had, they miss you. You and they know why. We all miss you, gone too soon from this earth.

 We will all be inspecting the fibers of our boot-soles for evidence of the place you have stopped to wait for us to find you. Until then, my wonderful friend, Shalom!