Simon Peter said to them, 'I am going fishing.' They said to him, 'We will go with you.'
Let me get this straight, Simon Peter, along with some of the other disciples of Jesus, had just witnessed the most transforming event in human history i.e., the resurrection of Jesus, and he wants to go fishing? It's like having thwarted some dreaded disease then moving forward with life like nothing happened.
How can this be? When the woman at the well encountered Jesus she ran and told everyone about how dramatically she was affected by him. When Zacchaeus met Jesus his life turned upside down and he gave back what he had defrauded others and more. When Legion, restored to his rightful mind by Jesus, Legion became Jesus' ambassador to his home town. Over and over again we read this in scripture where having met Jesus, people's lives changed.
How could Peter return to fishing as though nothing had happened? It's like having this wonderful, celebratory Easter worship experience then going back to work on Monday as though life is the same. The sad reality is that this is exactly what happens repeatedly, year in and year out. We celebrate the risen Lord on Sunday then return to life on Monday as though nothing has changed.
In his little volume Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time, Marcus Borg talks about moving from the Jesus he knew as a child to the one he now knows as an adult, but in a more personal way (HarperCollins Publishers, New York, New York, 1995 pg. 3). What Borg is saying that he knew Jesus in a sense as a child but found Jesus in new and personal ways as an adult that have been life changing for him. As I read his book, I remembered how others have spoken with me about being "born again." They knew Jesus as a child, but were claiming Jesus in a more personal way as an adult. Though Borg and born again Christians might separate on the way they know Jesus, they both have in common the way this new relationship with Jesus has changed their lives.
That would be my hope for each of us during this Eastertide-we would know the resurrected Jesus in new, more personal life changing ways. I simply don't think that once we have encountered the risen Jesus our lives can be the same.
Prayer
Gracious God I give thanks on this first day of Eastertide for the gift of a risen savior. Lead me to know him better each day that knowing him I might understand how I might better serve you through Christ my Lord. Amen.
C. Mac Hamon, Senior Pastor
Castleton United Methodist Church
Indianapolis, Indiana
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
Shame and Salvation
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame ... —Hebrews 12:1-2
Now there’s a word we don’t hear often—shame. I’m sorry for that. We’ve confused unhealthy shame that suffocates and holds people back from the healthy shame that enables us to feel pain because we are healthy enough to feel uncomfortable with being less than we ought to be and less than we want to be (Shame and Grace by Lewis B. Smedes).
Unhealthy shame exaggerates our faults. Unhealthy shame is chronic. Unhealthy shame is put on us by others, pervades our whole being, and is unspiritual. Healthy shame is perhaps one of the surest signs of our divine origin and our human dignity. This kind of shame comes on us when our actual self is in conflict with the true self we are meant to be. Our true self is a grateful person, is integrated as a whole, is tuned in to what is really going on around us, and helps us manage our passions.
Shame that is healthy can give us pain, but it can do it in a way that brings about a positive and creative result. The cross was a symbol of suffering and shame, as the old hymn goes. Yet, it had a positive result—resurrection. The author of Hebrews notes that Jesus accepted the shame of the cross as a means of helping us deal with our shame with the balm of grace.
There are some of us who are locked in the throes of unhealthy shame. We have permitted our shame to be chronic such that it continues to make our souls sick. Those who wear their shame in such a way need this week ahead. The week ahead is a vivid reminder that the cross was the way God showed us that he understood the soulful weight shame represents. The resurrection then becomes that act of grace wherein God says I do not hold your sin against you. So get over your shame. To be sure the source of our shame may be a part of our history, and we may still have to work with some of its debris, but it does not have to pervade our whole being. The resurrection offers us grace, but it is not cheap. Grace requires that we trust God and not ourselves to bring us through the turmoil of our sin, shedding its shame, and moving into a new appreciation of what it means to let God love us.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, the week ahead offers me the opportunity to remember the road to salvation. May I be faithful in traveling it with you once again that whatever shame now besets me may be set aside that I might serve you with my whole heart through Jesus the Christ. Amen.
C. Mac Hamon, Senior Pastor
Castleton United Methodist Church
Indianapolis, Indiana
Now there’s a word we don’t hear often—shame. I’m sorry for that. We’ve confused unhealthy shame that suffocates and holds people back from the healthy shame that enables us to feel pain because we are healthy enough to feel uncomfortable with being less than we ought to be and less than we want to be (Shame and Grace by Lewis B. Smedes).
Unhealthy shame exaggerates our faults. Unhealthy shame is chronic. Unhealthy shame is put on us by others, pervades our whole being, and is unspiritual. Healthy shame is perhaps one of the surest signs of our divine origin and our human dignity. This kind of shame comes on us when our actual self is in conflict with the true self we are meant to be. Our true self is a grateful person, is integrated as a whole, is tuned in to what is really going on around us, and helps us manage our passions.
Shame that is healthy can give us pain, but it can do it in a way that brings about a positive and creative result. The cross was a symbol of suffering and shame, as the old hymn goes. Yet, it had a positive result—resurrection. The author of Hebrews notes that Jesus accepted the shame of the cross as a means of helping us deal with our shame with the balm of grace.
There are some of us who are locked in the throes of unhealthy shame. We have permitted our shame to be chronic such that it continues to make our souls sick. Those who wear their shame in such a way need this week ahead. The week ahead is a vivid reminder that the cross was the way God showed us that he understood the soulful weight shame represents. The resurrection then becomes that act of grace wherein God says I do not hold your sin against you. So get over your shame. To be sure the source of our shame may be a part of our history, and we may still have to work with some of its debris, but it does not have to pervade our whole being. The resurrection offers us grace, but it is not cheap. Grace requires that we trust God and not ourselves to bring us through the turmoil of our sin, shedding its shame, and moving into a new appreciation of what it means to let God love us.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, the week ahead offers me the opportunity to remember the road to salvation. May I be faithful in traveling it with you once again that whatever shame now besets me may be set aside that I might serve you with my whole heart through Jesus the Christ. Amen.
C. Mac Hamon, Senior Pastor
Castleton United Methodist Church
Indianapolis, Indiana
Monday, April 11, 2011
How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! And the tongue is a fire. —James 3:5b-6a
A member of our congregation sent me an email with an attachment from a news source that indicated a Methodist bishop, in light of the burning of a Koran by a non-Methodist pastor, had said he would burn one of our church buildings for every Koran that was burned in America. This member was wondering if this was true. I did a little research and it didn’t take long before I discovered that it was a bishop who said this all right, but a bishop from another denomination.
There are so many stories on the internet these days and I really appreciated that this member thought enough to run it by me in order to determine its veracity. I read some place that a myth on the internet, if not refuted in a couple of days, will become truth. That’s kind of scary.
Once upon a time we used to think, perhaps some of us still do, gossip was something that took place among some squinty-eyed people in a corner whose tongues spread false rumors and kept things stirred up. We tend to forget that the internet (email and texting) in so many ways has replaced this. So, many get sucked into the process not thinking that we may be participating in gossip which is every bit, if not more, as destructive as that which takes place in some corner of the room. James is writing about the power of the tongue. Like a small blaze it can burn down an entire forrest—it can destroy the reputation of one person or the unity and harmony of a congregation. Noting the power of the tongue and how it might be used, James writes later in this chapter: With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God (James 3:9).
With the tongue we can affirm someone or tear them down. With it we can honor our co-workers or cut them up. With it we can speak well of our spouse or bad mouth them to others. With it we can speak about our great congregation or we can pick it and its leadership apart. I have seen churches with the potential for greatness whittle away their gifts and destroy the very things that would have made them great—unity, harmony, and purpose. My brothers and sisters this ought not to be so (James 3:10).
So guard against spreading gossip on the internet, in the workroom, or the narthex of a church. In so doing, we will strengthen others and the Church of Jesus Christ.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, there is much that I need to do today. Grant me the wisdom to discern what may build up those with whom I work or those members of the body of Christ, for it is in His name I pray. Amen.
Mac Hamon,
Senior Pastor
Castleton United Methodist Church
Indianapolis, Indiana
A member of our congregation sent me an email with an attachment from a news source that indicated a Methodist bishop, in light of the burning of a Koran by a non-Methodist pastor, had said he would burn one of our church buildings for every Koran that was burned in America. This member was wondering if this was true. I did a little research and it didn’t take long before I discovered that it was a bishop who said this all right, but a bishop from another denomination.
There are so many stories on the internet these days and I really appreciated that this member thought enough to run it by me in order to determine its veracity. I read some place that a myth on the internet, if not refuted in a couple of days, will become truth. That’s kind of scary.
Once upon a time we used to think, perhaps some of us still do, gossip was something that took place among some squinty-eyed people in a corner whose tongues spread false rumors and kept things stirred up. We tend to forget that the internet (email and texting) in so many ways has replaced this. So, many get sucked into the process not thinking that we may be participating in gossip which is every bit, if not more, as destructive as that which takes place in some corner of the room. James is writing about the power of the tongue. Like a small blaze it can burn down an entire forrest—it can destroy the reputation of one person or the unity and harmony of a congregation. Noting the power of the tongue and how it might be used, James writes later in this chapter: With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God (James 3:9).
With the tongue we can affirm someone or tear them down. With it we can honor our co-workers or cut them up. With it we can speak well of our spouse or bad mouth them to others. With it we can speak about our great congregation or we can pick it and its leadership apart. I have seen churches with the potential for greatness whittle away their gifts and destroy the very things that would have made them great—unity, harmony, and purpose. My brothers and sisters this ought not to be so (James 3:10).
So guard against spreading gossip on the internet, in the workroom, or the narthex of a church. In so doing, we will strengthen others and the Church of Jesus Christ.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, there is much that I need to do today. Grant me the wisdom to discern what may build up those with whom I work or those members of the body of Christ, for it is in His name I pray. Amen.
Mac Hamon,
Senior Pastor
Castleton United Methodist Church
Indianapolis, Indiana
Monday, April 4, 2011
Imagination
In my Father’s house are many dwelling places . . . —John 14:2
Pity the person who has little or no imagination! Many years ago I knew a woman who said to me that she would not meditate because that took imagination and she feared imagination might carry her to places God would not want. Yet Jesus in this passage is asking his disciples to use their imagination. We might paraphrase Jesus’ words by saying that the disciples had trusted this room for their existence; how much more might they trust God for the next.
Many of you have heard me talk about this incredible universe. We live in a solar system most of us cannot imagine. Yet this is but one of thousands of solar systems. Try as we might we can’t even imagine the place in which we now dwell. Of imagination William Blake writes: Imagination is the real and eternal world of which this vegetable universe is but a faint shadow . . . In other words, this world is but a canvas to our imagination [for something greater] (Thoreau).
This God-given gift of imagination, at least for me, trumps logic every time. Einstein said Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere. It is impossible to gain a full appreciation of the Psalmist without using imagination. He frequently compares God’s mercy and steadfast love to the depth of an ocean or the height of the very heavens themselves. When he speaks of yearning for God’s presence as in a dry and thirsty land, imagination lets us feel the parchedness of our souls without God’s presence (Psalm 63:1).
Have you ever heard someone say in frustration, Use your imagination! It is what this passage of scripture says to those gathered at the graveside of one they have loved: Use your imagination! To those who think that there is no God because God does not seem logical, the universe around us says: Use your imagination! To those who long for life to be consistent, we hear the poet tell us that consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.
Take a break today, if only for a little while, and use your imagination. Try to fathom what rests beyond the skin of this universe and celebrate the vastness of God. Try to imagine a yellow as vibrant as the daffodil. Try to imagine a place of beauty where you love to go, then in your imagination go there and let God share it with you. Use your imagination—it can be God’s treasured gift of himself to us.
Prayer God whose imagination does exceed my own, I give you thanks for the spark of imagination that disturbs this sleepy clod. Lift me for a moment today beyond what I see to what is possible because of your matchless grace in Jesus the Christ. Amen.
Mac Hamon, Senior Pastor
Castleton United Methodist Church
Indianapolis, Indiana
Pity the person who has little or no imagination! Many years ago I knew a woman who said to me that she would not meditate because that took imagination and she feared imagination might carry her to places God would not want. Yet Jesus in this passage is asking his disciples to use their imagination. We might paraphrase Jesus’ words by saying that the disciples had trusted this room for their existence; how much more might they trust God for the next.
Many of you have heard me talk about this incredible universe. We live in a solar system most of us cannot imagine. Yet this is but one of thousands of solar systems. Try as we might we can’t even imagine the place in which we now dwell. Of imagination William Blake writes: Imagination is the real and eternal world of which this vegetable universe is but a faint shadow . . . In other words, this world is but a canvas to our imagination [for something greater] (Thoreau).
This God-given gift of imagination, at least for me, trumps logic every time. Einstein said Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere. It is impossible to gain a full appreciation of the Psalmist without using imagination. He frequently compares God’s mercy and steadfast love to the depth of an ocean or the height of the very heavens themselves. When he speaks of yearning for God’s presence as in a dry and thirsty land, imagination lets us feel the parchedness of our souls without God’s presence (Psalm 63:1).
Have you ever heard someone say in frustration, Use your imagination! It is what this passage of scripture says to those gathered at the graveside of one they have loved: Use your imagination! To those who think that there is no God because God does not seem logical, the universe around us says: Use your imagination! To those who long for life to be consistent, we hear the poet tell us that consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.
Take a break today, if only for a little while, and use your imagination. Try to fathom what rests beyond the skin of this universe and celebrate the vastness of God. Try to imagine a yellow as vibrant as the daffodil. Try to imagine a place of beauty where you love to go, then in your imagination go there and let God share it with you. Use your imagination—it can be God’s treasured gift of himself to us.
Prayer God whose imagination does exceed my own, I give you thanks for the spark of imagination that disturbs this sleepy clod. Lift me for a moment today beyond what I see to what is possible because of your matchless grace in Jesus the Christ. Amen.
Mac Hamon, Senior Pastor
Castleton United Methodist Church
Indianapolis, Indiana
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