Pastoral Prayer (Jan. 14) Athens First UMC

                                                               

[This is a photo taken yesterday after our combined 10:30 worship service. We chose to cancel the 9 am service due to the below zero temperature early in the morning. Hopefully, the weather will warm up and this snow will melt in time for next Sunday’s services. We are blessed to have a maintenance staff person who was able to shovel and salt our church sidewalks on Saturday afternoon. The conclusion of the pastoral prayer below reminds us to follow in the footsteps of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who responded to God’s calling to help make this world a better place. Click here for the sermon.]

O God, was that my name I just heard? Maybe I just imagined it. After all, wasn’t that just in bible times that you spoke in that way to people? I can see you doing that for someone like Samuel, but not for someone like me.

But what if you really are calling my name? Just like you called Samuel? Just like you called the disciples? Just like you called Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.? What if you really are calling my name? My name?

Do you really know my name? Do you know that I go by Robert and not Bob? Do you know that I get nervous in new situations? Do you know that I often second guess myself? Do you know that I sometimes struggle with doubt and I often feel like I have more questions than answers? Do you know that I often use humor to hide my insecurities? And you want me to follow you? Me of all people?

What was that? Come again? So you really do know my name. And you really do know my insecurities. And you really do know that I don’t have this faith thing all figured out. And you still want me to follow you?

You’re saying that none of that really matters because your grace is more than able to overcome any of my weaknesses. What was that? Are you serious? You have gifted me with every spiritual gift and you will be my strength in every situation. And what’s that? My biggest fears are nothing compared to your biggest plans for what you want to do in and through me.

OK, God. I get it. I’ll come out from under the covers. I’ll step out in faith even though I don’t have a clue how you are going to use me.

But I’m going to need help in trusting you. You know I’m not good at that. Help me to trust that you can use me to make this a better world. A world that is free of inequality. A world that is free of injustice. A world that is free of brokenness. A world that is filled with your mercy, justice, and peace.

Here we are Lord. Your servants are listening even as we pray the words you taught us to pray together, “Our Father, who art in heaven.”

Sermon (Jan. 14) by Rev. Robert McDowell "Name Calling"

    Another pastor and I were sitting at the gate waiting to board our plane when I think I heard these words over the loud speaker: “Robert McDowell, please come to the desk.”  Since it was noisy in our gate area, it was difficult to hear the words clearly. 

     My friend was seated next to me and so I asked him, “Did my name just get mentioned over the speaker?”  And he said, “You know, I’m not sure, but it did kind of sound like your name was mentioned.”

     Just then, there it was again, but it was still kind of difficult to hear.  I looked at my friend and I said, “I think I heard my name again.”

     So I decided to go up to the desk.  I told her that it sounded like my name was called over the loud speaker.  And she said, “No sir.  I didn’t call for your name.”  And I said, “But I think someone called my name and I just want to make sure that everything is ok.”  She again assured me that my name wasn’t announced. 

     She told me to check with security which wasn’t that far from our gate, which I did.  They gave me the same story.  Nobody had called my name over the loud speaker.  I checked to make sure that I still had my wallet and my car keys which I did.

     When I got back to the gate and sat down next to my friend, I said, “I’m positive that someone was calling my name.”  And he said, “Yeah, I know.  That’s really strange.”

     I never did find out why I heard my name called in that airport.  It’s still a mystery to me.

     Does it make you a little nervous to think about the possibility that right now, even in this very moment, God just might be calling out your name?  It can be a little unsettling when we hear our names spoken.  And we might wonder, “Did I just hear someone calling out my name?”

     I say this because of our scripture readings for this morning.  In the Old Testament, we read about the young boy, Samuel who was under the care of Eli.  One night, Samuel hears his name.  I wonder if when he heard this voice that he didn't just pull up the covers and hide under the sheets.

     But then he thought.  "Hey wait a minute.  Maybe Eli called my name.  Maybe that voice that sounded like it was right above my head was really Eli.”

     When we're scared, that's what we do, don't we?  Look for a good reason why we're hearing voices.  So Samuel jumps out of bed and runs as fast as he can down the hallway hoping that Eli will say to him, "Yes.  That was me you heard.”  But no.  Eli says, "What are you talking about Samuel?  I didn't call you.  Go on back to bed.”

     I'm guessing that Samuel didn't like that answer from Eli.  Can you imagine poor little Samuel?  I don’t think I’d want to go back into that room after hearing voices!

     Maybe you heard of the story about the little boy who couldn't sleep because of the loud thunderstorm one night.  He woke up crying in the middle of the night and his mom came to his bedroom.  And he was holding the covers close to his chin and with his voice shaking, he said, "I want you to sleep with me tonight, mommy.”

     And his mom said, "Oh, you'll be alright sweetheart.  I need to sleep with your daddy."  After a short pause, the little boy said, "The big sissy!”

     If I would have been Samuel in that situation, I would have said to Eli, "Let's see you go into that room and see how you like hearing your name called in the middle of the dark night with all of the other spooky sounds.”

     But Eli just sends Samuel back to his room.  And when he gets back into his room, and probably just praying that he wouldn’t hear anymore voices, there it was again!  “Samuel.  Samuel.”   So he jumps out of his bed again, runs down to Eli’s room, and Eli tells him for the 2^nd time, “Little Sam, go back to your room.  It wasn’t me.  Just go to sleep.”

     Well, as we’ve already heard from our scripture reading, Samuel went back to his room after hearing his name called out for the 2^nd time & then a 3^rd time.  And it was after this 3^rd time that the wise elderly man of God, Eli, realized what was going on. 

     God was calling Samuel’s name.  And so, this time, Eli does a very wise thing.  He simply tells Samuel to go back to bed and this time, if he hears that voice again, to say, “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.”

     Isn’t this one of the best things that we can do for one another in the church?  To help each other not only hear God’s calling, but to respond to God’s calling.  We need each other to listen for God’s voice because hearing our name called out in the middle of the night can be a scary thing.

     Listening and responding to God’s call might cost us something.  Later on in Samuel’s life, he will realize the high stakes that are involved in saying yes to God.  Such is the life of a prophet of God.

     I think of the twelve disciples of Jesus and how they responded to his call to come and follow him.  Little did they know that the road of discipleship would lead them to a wooden cross on a hill called Golgotha on which the one who had called their names to follow him would die, but it would also lead them to an empty tomb of victory.

     When Martin Luther King Jr., heard God call his name to become a leader in the Civil Rights Movement, I wonder just how much he realized the danger he would face in responding to this call. Here he was with a wife and a young family.  So much to lose.  And how much would be gained? 

     In his pursuit of nonviolent means to bring racial equality to all of our country, he was arrested, his home was bombed, and he was subjected to personal abuse. 

     Over an eleven year span from 1957 to 1968, Dr. King traveled over 6 million miles and spoke over 2,500 times, appearing wherever there was injustice, protest, and action.  He also led massive protests in Birmingham, Alabama, that caught the attention of the entire world providing what he called a coalition of conscience.

     He is perhaps most remembered for the peaceful march which he directed to Washington, D.C. which consisted of a quarter of a million people and at the end of that march he delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

     During the evening of April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed in Memphis, Tennessee.  Even though Dr. King was killed by a bullet that night, his dream for equality lives on.  His dream for a just America and a just world lives on. 

     Did you know that Dr. King’s dream is rooted in God’s dream?  A world where there is no hatred.  A world where there is no hunger.  A world where there is no racism.  A world where there is no injustice.  A world where all people are treated with respect.  A world where medicine is available to all people.  A world of hope.  A world of promise.  A world of God’s love.  A world of forgiveness.  A world where all things are made new.

     Can you imagine such a world?  This is the world that God has intended from the very beginning.  This is the world that God is calling you and me to build and reclaim for God.

     And God does this by calling each of us by name.  It might not be an audible voice in the night as it was for Samuel, but God does call out our names to come and follow Him and make a difference in the world.  To bring hope where there is no hope.  To bring light to where there is darkness.  To build a better world.  A just world.

     Several years ago, I had a conversation with a young man who was visiting a friend in the hospital. The person he was visiting was in the same hospital room of the church member that I was visiting.

     I noticed that he was reading a bible and so I said to him, “It looks like you are a person of faith.”  And his eyes lit up as he told me a little of his faith journey and how he had been baptized in his early teens.

     He said that when he got older, he kind of let his faith slide, but now he was really close with the Lord. 

     And then he told me something really interesting.  He said, “You won’t believe what happened to me this past summer.”  He went on to say that he was driving down the road when he said that he felt that God was calling out his name. 

     He said, “It was the strangest thing.  I could tell that God was trying to get my attention.  It was like God wanted me to stop at a church somewhere.  But I kind of shrugged it off and kept driving.  And I drove past this little church.   But the more I drove, the more it became clear to me that I should have stopped at that church. And so, I turned the car around and went back to that little church, but the only person that was there was this painter.  He was painting the outside of the church building.  And I asked him if the pastor was available.”   

     And he said, “You just missed him.  He left.”

     “And so I was pretty down because I felt like I missed out on something big that God wanted me to do.  I got in my car and kept on driving down the road when I felt God calling me again.  And this time, I could sense that God wanted me to cash a check that I had in my wallet and give $20 of that check to somebody who really needed it.”

     You should have seen this man’s eye’s light up as he continued his story.  He said, “I know this all sounds far fetched, but honest to God, this is exactly what happened to me that day.  After I cashed my check, I got in my car and started to leave when I noticed this handicapped woman and her son on the sidewalk along the road.  And I could tell that God wanted me to help them.”

     “And so I stopped at the next parking lot and parked my car.  As soon as I got out of my car, this little boy had already run up to me.  Without even saying a word, this little boy gives me this big hug and says…He says to me… ‘Thank you for helping us.  Thank you for helping us.’”

     “As I was being hugged by this little boy, I kept asking myself, ‘How did this little boy know that I was going to help them?’  And I gave this boy’s mother the $20 and I said to her, ‘I believe God wanted me to give this to you.  God bless you.’”

     After he told me this incredible story, this man paused, looked right into my eyes and said, “If that isn’t strange enough, after I got in my car and drove away, I felt that the Lord was telling me to tell a pastor about what had just happened.  I felt it so strongly.  And come to think of it, you are the first pastor that I have told this story.  I think you’re that pastor.”

     I just kind of smiled and nodded.  And I thought to myself, “Here’s someone who truly believes that God called his name, and somehow I got drawn into his story.” And now, guess what? You have all just been included in this guy’s amazing story.

     But isn’t it true, that we often become part of each other’s stories as we listen and respond to God’s calling in our lives? 

     We all get swept into this story of God calling Samuel’s name.  Our name is called.  We’re nervous and we’re scared.  The stakes seem high.  And we’re left with a choice. 

     Do we dare follow this God or do we hide under the covers?   

Name Calling

Small Group Discussion Questions

January 14, 2018

I Samuel 3:1-10 & John 1:43-51

In our Old Testament reading from I Samuel, God calls Samuel's name in the middle of the night. Eli, the Priest who is watching over Samuel, helps him to realize that God is calling his name.

Who has helped you to be open to hearing God calling your name? How have you been like Eli in helping someone else hear God's calling?

This week, we honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. because he responded to God's calling in his life to work for civil rights and racial equality. Dr. King responded to God's calling at great peril to his life. Listening to God's voice can be risky business.

What helps you to deal with any fears you may have in responding to God's calling in your life?

When Samuel heard God calling his name in the middle of the night, he was experiencing what we have been calling, a "Thin Place Moment." These are moments when God is present in a very real way.

Share a time when you experienced a "Thin Place Moment" in your life.

Pastoral Prayer (Jan. 7) Athens First UMC

[This past Saturday (Epiphany Day) marked the conclusion of the twelve days of Christmas season. This meant that we needed to take down our Christmas decorations after each worship service yesterday. Pictured above is our new Welcome Center "Be Free" Christmas tree before it was taken down and packed away. During the season of Advent, people had placed tags on the tree with things they wanted to give over to God. Our Tuesday morning prayer team will pray over these several tags when they gather this week. We are now in the liturgical season called "The Sundays After the Epiphany" which will continue until we get to February 11 (Transfiguration Sunday.) 

Merciful God, shine your light in and through us. Shine your light in the conversations we have with our neighbors, with our co-workers, with family members, and with the people we see throughout the week.

Shine your light so that we will be open to those opportunities where we share how you are at work in our every day lives. Shine your light so that people will find, encouragement and hope through our words and actions. Shine your light just as brightly as the star that led the Wise Men to the Christ Child. May we shine brightly so that people will be led to Christ as well.

O God as we transition from Christmas into this New Year, we are mindful of people who are in need of your light this day.

May your light shine upon those who have questions about their faith.

May your light shine upon the family looking for a church home.

May your light shine upon students returning for a new semester.

May your light shine upon those who are in need of healing.

May your light shine upon those who are struggling to make ends meet.

May your light shine upon the homeless, the hungry, and the downcast.

May your light shine wherever there is darkness, O God, and may your light always shine through us to be a blessing to others.

We pray this in the name of the light of the world, Jesus Christ who taught us to pray together saying, “Our Father, who art in heaven…”

Sermon (Jan. 7) by Rev. Robert McDowell "You're an Evangelist!"

Have you ever thought of yourself as an evangelist? You know, an evangelist.

Someone like this deacon named Philip in today's Scripture reading. Someone who shares the gospel with people who don’t know about Jesus. Have you thought of yourself as someone who tells others about Jesus?

Just the thought of that can send shockwaves and rock our world. Very few of us warm-up to the word evangelism. It seems to either make us feel guilty because we're not doing it, or makes us cringe because there's no way we would ever want to do it.

A very large study was conducted on evangelism in churches like ours. The conclusive finding was that the vast majority of people would rather go get a root canal than talk about, much less DO, evangelism. For the last forty years, most churches have been in decline. It seems we’ve developed a life-threatening aversion to evangelism!

Right now, you might be hoping that I change the subject. Maybe you would rather have me show you pictures from my trip to Arizona last week. Anything but a sermon on evangelism!

When my plane was landing this past Wednesday evening in Columbus, the flight attendant announced, "Welcome to Columbus, but I think you all made the wrong choice."

Seriously though, I want to thank so many of you who helped shovel and salt the sidewalks last weekend to make it possible to at least have one service last Sunday. And a big thank you to Rev. Ben Edwards and Dave Bayless for filling in for me while I was away. I was telling my sister and brother-in-law while I was visiting with them how much I enjoy serving as your pastor and what a great church you are.

See how I would rather talk about my trip than today's topic of evangelism? 

Why do so many of us have such a visceral reaction to evangelism? There are all kinds of reasons why not much evangelism is happening in most congregations. I'll give you some of my own reasons.

I don't want to be anything close to the stereotype that comes to my mind when I think of an "evangelist."

I don't want to wear a fancy white suit every Sunday or con people out of their money.

Nor do I want to offend people by pressuring them with rhetoric about where they'll spend eternity.

Besides that, I wonder sometimes what business I have telling people what they ought to be doing or believing. I have enough trouble in my own life doing and believing what I should.

I'd rather just do the best I can, being the best Christian I can be, and hope that is a good enough witness to others. After all, one of my favorite quotes is the one from St. Francis of Assisi who said, “Preach the gospel at all times and if necessary, use words.

I do fine talking faith language with you here at church. I love talking about church things with my church buddies, but when I’m with people who aren’t churchgoers, words seem to fail me. I get nervous. And sometimes, I miss opportunities where I could have shared my faith with someone.

But what happens when we meet someone who obviously needs to hear some words about God’s love? Someone like the Ethiopian eunuch from our scripture reading this morning. He is an African man with an important job that came at a high price.

Most likely, he had been castrated at some point in his life so that he could serve the queen of Ethiopia. That’s why he's called a "eunuch." He was unable to be married or have children.

Religious law at that time, kept him from participating in worship services. Yet, somehow, he had heard of God and wanted to know more about God. What do you do when you don't think of yourself as an evangelist but you come across someone like this man?

Someone who bears deep wounds inflicted by the world . . .

Someone who is not welcomed by traditional religion . . .

Someone who looks successful but feels empty . . .

Someone who is searching for God, searching for something besides what she has . .

Someone who needs to hear about God’s love.

Someone like a man named, Rick. Rick was a successful businessman. He attended a church in the “Bible belt” of our country. He came because he saw an ad they had placed on TV. The minister of the church had been opposed to putting ads for a church on television. "Only fundamentalist mega-churches do that," he said. "It costs too much anyway. We should be using that money for caring for the poor. Besides," he said, "What kind of people pick their church from ads on television?"

But the church did it anyway. They got dozens of visitors who had never before been to any church in their lives. One of them was Rick. Rick brought his 8-year-old son, Andy, to church one Sunday. The children's Sunday school happened to be studying Esther that day, and Andy was part of the class.

Monday morning the minister got a call from Rick. "My son is so excited about this story he heard at church," he said. "He said the story is from the 'book of Esther.' Can you tell me where I can get a copy of that book? I want to read it to him at home. Can I buy it at the bookstore or would the library have it?'"

Rick, a college graduate and successful businessman, had never owned a Bible. He had no idea that Esther is one of sixty-six books in the Bible.

Here’s the reality.  There are many people in our community who do not know that Esther is a book in the Bible. This is increasingly true.

In 1910 only 3% of Americans were growing up with no faith training, but in the 1980s 14.5% were growing up with no faith training. And the number of people coming to adulthood in the U.S. with no faith training at all continues to increase.

In our own county, according to the Association of Religion Data Archives, the latest demographic study shows that 68% of our neighbors have no religious identity. They are not Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, or Christian. They are not connected religiously at all.

"What is to prevent me from being baptized?" the Ethiopian man asked. That’s a good question.

For people like Rick, the obstacle to being baptized, to becoming a Christian, is simply that no one had ever told them about God. Let me say that again. No one had ever told them about God.

Friends, I wonder if we are preventing people from hearing about God. Are we keeping people from hearing about God’s love? Are we constructing barriers between the gospel and the people who desperately need to hear it?

Is our fear of being like a stereotype of a bible thumper a barrier?

Is our lack of confidence in ourselves a barrier?

Is our desire to give people their "space" about religion a barrier?

Could it be that for many people like Rick, we are actually preventing them from knowing more about God? Are we keeping people from becoming followers of Jesus Christ?

You know how tight lids on sport’s drink bottles can be sometimes? These grip things are wonderful, aren’t they? [Hold one up]

Can you imagine standing there with one of these in your hand, keeping it to yourself, while someone, even someone you know really well, struggles to get to that refreshing drink? Of course not! You would gladly share what you had to make things better for someone else. You wouldn't just keep it to yourself if someone needed it!

But this is exactly what the church does when we do not share the gospel with those in need. We sit with the keys to the waters of baptism in our hands. Meanwhile, neighbors around us are desperately thirsty to know that God loves them through Jesus Christ.

Maybe that is easier said than done. It certainly seems that Philip had it easier than we do. After all, the Spirit of God seemingly transported him to the Ethiopian man's side and compelled him to share the gospel! It seems like all Philip did was show up and God did the rest.

If we were to be evangelists, do you think it would be like that for us? How could we partner with God? How could we be authentic to who we are, not trying to be some stereotype or push something over on someone?

How would the Spirit work with us? Where would the Spirit of God send us?

Who would be on our pathway?

Friends, I invite you to join me in this New Year to reclaim the true meaning of the word, “evangelism.” I know that the word has been hijacked by some shady Christian evangelists in the past, but my goodness, we need to reclaim this word in our Christian vocabulary.

What would it look like for us to be evangelists in the best sense of that word?

Before, we embark on this evangelism journey, let me offer some thoughts on what I don’t mean by evangelism.

By evangelism, I don’t mean that we go down to the student center and judge college students on the kind of clothing they wear. I also don’t mean that we hand out religious tracks that say something like, “Do you know where you’re going to spend eternity?”

And by evangelism, I don’t mean that we start a new prayer ministry where if you donate $500 to the church, we’ll send you a ceramic angel that Pastor Robert prayed over.

Evangelism also doesn’t mean that we try to convince people to accept God in their lives with our clever arguments.

And lastly, being an evangelist doesn’t mean that you have to put several Christian bumper stickers on the back of your car that show the Christian fish symbol swallowing the word, “Darwin.”

By evangelism, I mean that we get back to its original meaning which is simply sharing the good news of our faith with others.

And so, I am inviting us to simply be willing to share with others how God is at work in our lives. We’ve been calling these “Thin Place” moments where we are on the lookout to see how heaven and earth overlap in our ordinary lives.

These “Thin Place” moments happen all of the time. It’s just a matter of being attentive to their occurrences in our lives and then sharing them with others. These experiences are often not even that dramatic, but they are powerful moments where God is present in a very real way.

Let me share a simple Thin Place moment that happened to me. It was when our church hosted one of the university choral concerts this past fall. It was during intermission and I struck up a conversation with a couple of guys who were standing just outside our front entrance. They wanted to get a breath of fresh air.

During the conversation, they told me that they were from out of town. One of them told me that they don’t attend any church because they said how churches often come across judgmental toward others.

In the course of our conversation, I pointed over to our outdoor prayer cross and I told them about all the prayer requests we get in that box each week, mostly from college students. And I said how we put that prayer cross there because we want people to know that we are a church that cares and that we truly want to be a church of open minds, open hearts, and open doors.

After our conversation, I went back into our church entrance. A couple of minutes later, I looked outside, and I noticed that these two guys were filling out prayer cards there at the prayer cross.

Now, I didn’t do all that much. I simply pointed to our prayer cross and it connected with them. In that moment I felt God’s presence in a very real way.

See, I love sharing these everyday God moments with you and when we share these with each other.

And it’s been my experience that people inside AND outside the church are open to hearing us share these experiences of where we see God at work in our lives.

That’s what it means to be an evangelist. To simply share with others how God is at work in your life.

I love this prayer written by Josh Thomas to encourage us to share our faith with others. Here’s the prayer:

Lord Christ, help your people to seek opportunities to share a word about you with others. Move us beyond our shyness and fear, so that we can speak the word you give. Guide us to speak a true word and a good one, so we attract, not repel; and touch our ears that we may listen first, before we trust our tongues to speak in your Name. Amen.

I love that prayer because it prompts us to share the good news of our faith with others.

A family shared one of the most memorable Christmases they ever had. It was the last Christmas they spent at their grandparents' house. The grandfather had Parkinson's disease.

Soon, they would move to an assisted living center. It had been their family's tradition to gather around the Christmas tree and listen to the granddad read the Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke.

This year, when Granddad tried to read, he could barely move his Parkinson’s-locked jaws. He just couldn’t manage to speak the words aloud. The family sat there and watched him struggle. No one seemed to know what to do. Should they say something? Would it hurt his pride if someone helped him?

No one did anything for what seemed to be a very long time. But Emily, the 6-year-old granddaughter, had just learned to read. She knew exactly what to do. She quietly tiptoed over to his chair and plopped herself beside him. Then, taking his finger into her hand, she helped him point to each word, saying them out loud with him as they read along together:

“Unto you is born this day a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.”

"Do you know what you're reading?" Philip asked the Ethiopian eunuch. The man nearly begged, "How can I unless someone guides me?"

So Phillip went and sat beside him.

Who will God lead you to sit beside?

[Based on the resource, "Unbinding the Gospel: Real Life Evangelism," Chalice Press, 2008]

Faith Sharing

Small Group Questions

Acts 8:26-37 & Mark 1:4-11

January 7, 2018 

The word, "evangelism" is often seen in a negative light today because people associate that word with being pushy, preachy, and judgmental. 

What comes to mind when you think of the word, "evangelism?"

Our Acts scripture tells the story of how Phillip helped someone (the Ethiopian eunuch) who was considered an outsider hear the story about Jesus and receive baptism. 

Why do you think Phillip was willing to take the risk to share the good news of his faith with this man?

If the word, "evangelism" simply means sharing with others about the good news of our faith and how God is present in our day to day lives, evangelism takes on a positive meaning.

 What are the barriers that keep us from sharing how God is at work in our lives and who Jesus is to us?

Practice being an evangelist by sharing with a partner a recent time in how you have experienced God at work in your everyday life.

As a group, say this pray together:

Lord Christ, help us to seek opportunities to share a word about you with others. Move us beyond our shyness and fear, so that we can speak the word you give. Guide us to speak a true word and a good one, so we attract, not repel; and touch our ears that we may listen first, before we trust our tongues to speak in your Name. Amen.