My wife and I recently went to visit my 88-year-old mom in North Carolina. She lives alone in the house where she spent part of her childhood. The house is about two miles outside of the small town of Wagram. Mom still drives and actually is in pretty good health. She would prefer to stay right where she is for as long as she can. She actually feels pretty safe with her 4 dogs running around in the yard and neighbors that keep a regular check on her. The issue is she knows and we know that at any moment that could change. I am beginning to realize that this is true regardless of our age. I have an aunt who is much younger who just discovered she has Alzheimer’s. A few weeks ago she was planning on moving nearer the grandchildren so she could spend time with them. Now she is looking into nursing homes. What is the commercial that was running a few years ago, "Life comes at you fast!"

Lately it seems to me that the most important issue for all of us is how we keep all this in perspective. My sense is that this is one of the main reasons God has given us the scriptures. On Sunday June 27 we will finish our series of sermons on the book of Revelation. This is a book that takes both the power of evil and the goodness of God very seriously. It seeks to give us a sense of perspective on life.

Barbara Brown Taylor in her book Leaving Church tells the following story. She shares her concern that it seems to her that we think that since Jesus took care of all the hard work for us there is really nothing left for us to do. "God now has become a great friend who would like to get to know us all better, if we can find the time. And if we cannot, then God loves us anyway. "The fear of the Lord" has become as outdated as an ephod."

"This is not true for the Native Americans I know, whose divine meetings have included glimpses of the god who is as far above them on the food chair as an eagle is to a mouse. When they will talk about this at all, they do not speak like mice whose bones have been picked clean. They speak like mice who have been lifted high into the heavens where they have seen themselves, the world, and the lives they lead with terrible new clarity. Set down again, they cannot look at anything the same way they once did, which means that they cannot live the same way either. Because their fear has proved to be the means of their transformation, they do not want to get over it. Their time aloft has brought them as close to an eagle as most of them will ever get, which makes their terror appropriate. The fear of the Lord and the Lord’s love of them are two windows on the same reality." P. 189-190.

There is something terrifyingly real about dealing with aging parents that you love—as someone said, "No one gets out of this world alive!" So please let us not be guilty of trivializing the agonizing that is involved in all these hard choices. But is it just possible that Taylor is right and the fear of the Lord and the Lord’s love are two views of the same reality? This would mean that indeed even in these hard choices we are transformed into persons that are being moved more toward the image of God by the very making of them. John

One of my very favorite people once suggested this for a bumper sticker, "Not going to church? How’s that working for you? Well, I have a similar question to ask, "Do you communicate primarily by text or email?" How’s that working for you?

The other day I called one of the guys who I play tennis with to ask if he was able to play at our regular game. He said he was going to be out of town but not to worry because he had already called and asked another friend to find a substitute for him. The trouble was he had called but he had not talked to the friend he had only left a message. The friend didn’t get the message until the morning of the match so we wound up with three players, which is way less than ideal for doubles! It happened again the next week. We were doing something special in worship. I was told that everyone knew. Well everyone had been emailed and/or sent a text but guess what one person never got either. I am often told that we don’t need to have meetings we can just do everything by email. I remain skeptical about that suggestion!

Now, granted I am somewhat of a curmudgeon but I think that in the interest of time and "efficiency" we have somehow overlooked the value of the good old face to face. I think that technology has not only increased communication it has also increased miscommunication. Someone told me about a New Yorker cartoon that showed a husband and wife sitting across the breakfast table "texting" each other! Is this what our intimate conversations have turned into?

I never write anything by hand anymore—everything I write is on a keyboard. As a result my already poor penmanship has gotten even worse. If we never have the occasion to talk face to face will we also become less able to communicate in this way? What toll is that taking on marriages and what about the relationship of parents and their children?

Send your wife flowers, send her a text, send her an email but remember what still counts the most is looking her right in the eye and telling her you love her. Oh yes, and when we pray, we would do well to look right into God’s face, the one we know because of Jesus and tell him how much you love him too. Don’t bother to text or email my understanding is that God doesn’t have a computer or a smart phone! God prefers direct communication after all that is why he sent Jesus!

John

I was on my way to work on Monday morning. I turned onto Browns Lane and there in front of me was a man and his little girl riding on a tandem bike. Both had on their helmets and she seemed to be pedaling as fast as she could to do her part. They turned into our church parking lot and up to the back door. Oh my goodness, it was a preschooler being brought to school by her dad! Both then got off the bike with big grins on their faces. He thanked her for helping and opened the front door and in she went!

For me this turned out to be a good start to the first day of Holy Week. It is, after all, a week filled with many emotions. Thursday and Friday will bring deep sadness as we celebrate Maundy Thursday worship and our Tenebrae service on Good Friday. Saturday evening will end with our Easter Vigil and a baptism as a reminder that in the early church this was the night new members joined. Sunday morning we arrive at worship for a joyous celebration when we cry out, "He is Risen!"

For most of the week I feel pretty much like the little girl on the tandem bike pedaling as fast as I can to "keep up." Unfortunately, unlike her I will sometimes forget that my parent is in front of me caring for me and doing all of the real work. I hope if the worship services do their work in me that, like the little girl, I will arrive at my destination filled with a sense of joy. I will realize that God has done for me that which I could not do for myself—I have been freed by forgiveness beyond my imagining.

Happy Easter

John

On the Church Front…

The long journey toward hiring new staff has finally come to a close. The Pastor Nominating Committee has selected Kimberly Cabrera and Adam Fischer to be our two new associate pastors. This is indeed a thrill for me because over the past year I have watched how well these two worked together. The goal of the PNC was to choose the best team we could find. I have every reason to believe that they have succeeded. I have nothing but respect for Adam and Kim’s ability and think this will be an excellent staff.

 A Personal Note…

Janie and I have just returned from attending our grandson Jordan’s first birthday party in Batesville, Arkansas. We headed for Batesville with our car loaded with dozens of cookies (a special request from my son) and a number of gifts for Jordan. Leslie our daughter in law made a cake in the shape of a duck. Yellow icing was then applied by my son so I don’t have to tell you it was thick. The finishing touches were the orange bill and the blue eyes. Do I even need to tell you that Jordan was within moments of the party’s start covered in yellow icing much to the delight of both sets of grandparents! If the family decides to give up anything for Lent I hope it is not bathing Jordan at least until all the icing is finally removed! The party was on Saturday and seemed to fill up the whole day. On Sunday after worship Janie and I prepared the joy of taking care of Jordan while Jeff and Leslie lead the Youth Group that evening. Did I mention Leslie is the Associate Pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Batesville? On the long drive home, made a bit longer by the weather, Janie had plenty of time to plan our next trip! I just spent time wondering if perhaps the secret to happiness really is chocolate chip cookies, cake and grandchildren?

John

When we were living in McClellanville, SC and I was serving my first church, we were on our way to my mother’s house for Thanksgiving. We started out on the morning of Thanksgiving Day. It was about a three hour drive and about half way there the fan belt broke on our car. It was quite an ordeal to find a place to have it replaced on Thanksgiving. When we arrived back in McClellanville I was relating the story to one of my parishioners and he said, "Well, I always keep a spare fan belt with me under the seat of my car, don’t you?" Of course, I said "no". Someone told me later that everyone did this in the days that service stations were few and far between such was not the case even way back in the 70’s. This was before cell phones but even then there were plenty of service stations available, they were just not open on Thanksgiving Day.

Whereas care for our car is even more readily available today than it was all those years ago these days what seems to be few and far between is care for our spirits. We know what to do in case of a car crisis but we do not seem to know where to turn in a spiritual crisis.

It is for this reason that I am so excited about the invitation that Adam made to the congregation in his sermon on January 3^rd. We as staff of the church are inviting the congregation to read the entire bible in 2010. It’s not as hard as you might think. We have a plan, which is available through the church office, that suggests four passages a day for our readings. The amount of time required is 15-20 minutes a day. Really, wouldn’t you just love to be able to say I read the bible in 2010? If we do then when the spiritual crises come we don’t have to keep a copy of it under the seat of our car we can take it with us in our heads and hearts.

John