When I was a small boy, people in the congregation my father was serving would invite us over to dinner. My mother upon seeing their house would sometimes remark what a lovely house it was. On more rare occasions she would remark about how lovely their home was. As I grew older I asked my mother why she used the two words-house and home-at different times. Her response was that not every lovely house is a lovely home. Homes refer to the occupants. A house is simply an abode.

Several years ago I was invited by a family in my congregation to bless their new house. When they invited me they indicated that having a blessing on their house would help establish their house "as a home where God is celebrated." These were not people who you would call overly religious, but they were faithful and an active part of our faith community. It was the only time anyone ever invited me to bless their house (By the way I still do house blessings in case you're interested).

We have discovered during this Great Recession that our houses are not the valuable investments they once were. In fact what may be a lesson from the devaluation of our houses is to look at them as places where we can build faithful families. For too long too many of us have looked for the house that would impress and not been as concerned about the families in them.

In this same vein, my father always used the words church and church building separately. He would refer to his study being in the church building. If he was going to his study he would say he was going to the church building. The church for him was the body of Christ. It was so much more than the building. I have been trying to do the same over the last several years-church building when I go to the facility and my study instead of office-my home versus my house. Language can be a powerful way of helping us change, not only the way we think, but also the way we live.

Prayer

Gracious God bless this day the house where I live and the home within. Let my home be decorated by your love and grace. When there is strife help me to do what I can that your Spirit might bring healing. In the name of Christ. Amen.

C. Mac Hamon, Senior Pastor

Castleton United Methodist Church

Indianapolis, Indiana

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
-Romans 12:3

In a wonderful new book by David Brooks called The Social Animal, David Brooks observes that research on people has revealed that most of us are mildly delusional status inflators.We wonder about the problem with the other guy and not so much about ourselves.We wonder why others are such bad drivers even as we drive while talking on our cellphone. Do not think of yourself more highly that you ought to think, Paul writes.

Paul's words here are appropriate. If we don't have a proper self-assessment, we can't be a worthy contributor to the body of Christ. And, we certainly cannot contribute to those who live around us in a meaningful and helpful way. I use myself as an example. I don't know how often I have said to myself when someone else's cellphone rings in worship or at some other public event why they didn't silence it at the beginning.Yet a few months ago I was praying at a Church Council meeting and my own cellphone went off in the middle of my prayer. It was a good lesson in humility. Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought to think.

How many times have we been locked in the throes of verbal battle with our spouse, child, or parent believing that the problem lies with them and not ourselves? We believe if our spouse, child, parent, co-worker, etc. would simply be more of this or of that everything would be fine. Paul is trying to help us with our mildly delusional status inflators, and he does so with grace and love.

Mildly delusional status inflators who ignore the importance of humility can too easily become the radical who listens to no one. They can become the person who believes the problem is not theirs, but the other person's. We must have a proper self-regard, but be cautious not to suffer from delusional status inflation.

Prayer,
Almighty God whose love reaches out to me on this day, grant me the strength of self-regard that will enable me to regard others as your children. Forgive me when I suffer from delusional status inflation and in so doing fail to listen to those who may have something to teach me about life and faith. In the name of Christ. Amen.

C. Mac Hamon, Senior Pastor
Castleton United Methodist Church
Indianapolis, Indiana

Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is
easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it.
For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads
to life, and there are few who find it. -Matthew 7:13-14

During the season when squirrels look for food that may be a bit easier to find and will tickle their taste buds in new and wonderful ways, I saw a squirrel tackling one of our bird feeders. The bird feeder was one of those shaped like a long tube. It was hanging from a tree branch in our backyard. The squirrel had crawled out on the limb from which the tube was hanging and began eating the bird seed that was at the top of the filled tube.

I can't really blame him for going after what seemed easy pickins'. However, as the squirrel continued to eat he went further and further down the tube-head first. Suddenly, he realized that he was upside down in a glass tube. How would he get out? Panic set in. He struggled and struggled to try and back out of the tube. What had seemed so easy could very well conclude in his death.

It is a parable of life. It is a fairly human trait which we all possess to one degree or another to take the easy, convenient way. What may appear to be easy in the final analysis may trap us. This was the simple point Jesus was trying to make. Revenge, cheating, hatred, judgment, drunkenness, sloth, envy, etc. may appear attractive at the beginning, but be our undoing at the end.

Prayer
God of love and power I begin another week of life. For sure there will be moments when I am tempted to feed on gossip, envy, revenge, hatred or some other trap that would damage my spirit. Grant me the courage and determination to take the high road with all of its difficulties that I might enjoy life free from the regret and guilt the inevitably follows. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

C. Mac Hamon, Senior Pastor
Castleton United Methodist Church
Indianapolis, Indiana

And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into the pit.
-Matthew 15:14b

Jesus was referring to the fundamentalists of his day that got all fired up about whether or not a person washed their hands (as the laws of ritual cleansing required), but seemed relatively unconcerned about what was in a person's heart. What comes out of the mouth, or how the hands are used arises from the heart. If the heart is not cleansed then what difference is it whether we have clean hands or are picky about what we eat or drink?

In the Middle Ages if you had a headache, the local "physician" treated it by drilling a hole in your skull so that the evil spirits could escape. If you didn't die of infection from the dirty drill bit, you might actually have gotten well-or maybe not. They were concerned about treating externally a problem that was a matter of internal issues.

Many of the religious leaders of Jesus' day approached religion the same way. If you ate food that was ritually clean, kept your hands clean, and otherwise did as the laws directed, you were considered to have great faith. Jesus' point was that many of these leaders were blind to the very essence of religion's purpose-changing the heart. Change the heart, and you change the way a person views themselves, others, and the world around them.

A friend of mine, Mike Mather, senior pastor of Broadway Church here in the city, was observing how accessible information is. Every day we are bombarded with information from our cellular phones, televisions, ipads, ipods, and computers. "Yet," he observed, "it's too bad we live in the age of information and not the age of wisdom."

William James wrote that "the art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook." We have a lot of information but sometimes fail to overlook the details of the information so we might discover the deeper purpose to which the information is pointing. The blindness of too many religious people in Jesus' day (and I might add our own) was they were so focused on the minutiae of the Law, so blinded by it, that they failed to see a wiser purpose-loving God, loving one another, and loving ourselves.

Such discerning wisdom that knows what to overlook and what to focus on begins with reverence for God (Proverbs 1:7). I speak here of the God of Jesus who focused on the heart-the repentance and grace that could heal the heart and literally transform life.

Prayer,
Heavenly Father, I will be bombarded by a lot of information today. Grant me a discerning heart that I may make wise choices and look for what may be the deeper lesson about life. In Jesus' name. Amen.

C. Mac Hamon, Senior Pastor
Castleton United Methodist Church
Indianapolis, Indiana

Diversity in Life and in Faith

A great conductor, tired of the excessively familiar New World Symphony by Dvorak, asked his orchestra to reseat itself on stage so as many players as possible were placed next to an unfamiliar instrument. For example, the first violinist sat next to the timpani, an oboe player amongst the violas, a horn in the cello section and so on. The purpose was to reveal new sounds and textures the musicians would not hear when seated in sections where musicians played the same instrument as they did. The change in Dvorak’s piece was revelatory.

I think this is a marvelous illustration of the importance of diversity in life. We travel in circles where people see things the way we do. People increasingly place their children in schools where the values and perspectives of the other students are like their own. The same could be said of our faith community. Imagine if we worshipped with people who saw their faith exactly as we see ours. We would certainly miss out on a new vision of life and faith.

I marvel at the diversity of Jesus disciples—fishermen, a tax collector, and a nationalistic zealot. They were hardly a homogeneous group. As difficult as this might have been Jesus knew that his teachings would have to appeal to a larger crowd whose values, lifestyles, and experiences would all be very different. So, he recruited people who would understand that kind of diversity. What a difference it made in the broad appeal of the gospel message.

This is one of the reasons I want to travel and see different cathedrals and the communities that grew up around them. Each of them will tell the story of a variety of people and paths of faith. They will tell the story of doctrinal unity and diversity—harmony and controversy. These cathedrals and the communities they spawned comprised of the artisans that constructed them will remind me that we ignore diversity at our peril. A church, a real church requires people of all ages, stages, viewpoints, status, race, and ethnic origins bound together by the mystery and wonder of God and guided by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. We certainly have a ways to go in some areas, but if we can see the strength diversity will bring us and the new ways God will speak to us, we’ll move even closer to the church God wants us to be.

Prayer
Gracious God, I thank you for the blessings of the different. If I have become too comfortable with the life and faith I am composing, seat me next to someone who sees it differently so I might grow in grace to the glory of Jesus the Christ. Amen.

P.S. I am taking the summer off from my weekly articles. See you in the fall.

C. Mac Hamon, Senior Pastor
Castleton United Methodist Church
Indianapolis, Indiana

The Value of Taking Risks

The great cellist Gaspar Cassado used to say to his students, I’m so sorry for you; your lives have been so easy. You can’t play great music unless your heart’s been broken. I would say the same of great composers, great poets, great preachers, great parents, great business people, etc. Getting one’s heart broken is all about taking risks. That is how we come to understand grace—owning the risks we take in a world that is by and large immune to our control.

The compassion Jesus had for others came from having his heart broken. He took the enormous risk of recruiting relatively uneducated and self-absorbed people to follow him. On so many occasions his heart was broken when they fell asleep while he prayed, eyes glazed over at his parables, and doubted after they had witnessed one of his miracles.

A life that is well lived is risky. Marriage is risky. Venturing into a new area of business that is filled with the unfamiliar is risky. Taking the time to make a new friend is risky. Having children is risky. Deciding to care for animals that have been abandoned is risky. Volunteering in an unfamiliar area is risky. You can and will get your heart broken and face disappointment. But you will also experience unparalleled success. The new friend will introduce you to new ideas. The business venture will open up new possibilities. Volunteering will expose you to another world. Having children will make you humble. Marriage will teach you a new kind of love—deeper than you thought possible.

Christians are called to be risk takers especially as we live the message of the gospel in the world. Jesus speaks about this throughout Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7. The risk is seeking to live by what the world deems as unconventional. Yet, I dare anyone to try any of these teachings of Jesus and see if the risk does not result in a richer, more compassionate life. Yes, we will get our hearts broken, and life will not always be easy, but we will to know how great living a life of faith can be.

Prayer
Precious Lord, take my hand and lead through the risky paths of faith. Show me the great joy of a deeper love and a greater capacity to care that my life might more reflect you to a world that thinks it can live without you. Amen.

C. Mac Hamon, Senior Pastor
Castleton United Methodist Church
Indianapolis, Indiana

Waiting

How long, O Lord! Will you forget me forever? How long
Will you hide your face from me? —Psalm 13:1

I just had the privilege of leading another small group on understanding and practicing discernment. As a part of our last session we reflected on one of the most important disciplines about discernment — waiting. Waiting is not valued in our culture. When we want something, we want it now. I think of the commercial frequently seen on television where people, sticking their heads out from a variety of windows, yell, “It’s my money, and I want it now!”

If we want something we jump in the car and get it now. (Although this may be a lot less frequent given the current price of fuel.) When we are sick, we want the magic bullet now that will get us well. Years ago when we wanted to purchase a new car, we had to order it and wait six to eight weeks. The automobile industry caught on quickly that they could sell more cars if they kept a large inventory. We soon learned that when we wanted a new car, we didn’t have to wait. We could have it now. In this social networking age we can give our opinions now and get a response now.

Many of the Psalms deal with lament. They usually begin with something like, “How long O Lord.” Then they are followed by what the psalmist desires and the frustration of waiting for it. I have written about this before, but the Bible indicates that there is a right time for everything. It refers to God’s time. If we are willing to wait rather than rush it, God always has something better.

Alas, many us would rather have it now and settle for less. That is why so often our grieving is cut short; we marry too quickly; and we divorce even more quickly. Isaiah reminds us that they who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will walk and not be weary. They will run and not faint (8:17).

Prayer
O God, guard my life. Do not let me be put to shame, for I take refuge in you. May integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you. Amen.
—Psalm 25:20-21

C. Mac Hamon, Senior Pastor
Castleton United Methodist Church
Indianapolis, Indiana