tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44409439942562141362024-03-13T03:50:39.758-07:00Preaching and PonderingSermons and occasional writings of the Rev. Jerrod H. Hugenot. (Note: The perspectives offered on this website may not necessarily reflect my employing ministry, the American Baptist Churches of New York State.)Jerrod H Hugenothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05148268928244793821noreply@blogger.comBlogger219125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440943994256214136.post-62019559602017801092020-03-26T06:20:00.001-07:002020-03-26T06:20:10.877-07:00Worship Resources
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In the Baptist tradition, worship is not the same
necessarily.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In my work with the ABCNYS
Region, I am with a different congregation every week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can expect some elements:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>preaching, singing, praying, and the giving
of tithes and offerings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How worship
unfolds differs, and the praise of God goes upward.<br />
<br />
Right now, we’re in a liminal time where we have realized something that we
have in common:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in the midst of the
COVID19 pandemic, we are not able to gather as we are accustomed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Church leaders are learning how to adjust to
forms of virtual worship, sometimes feeling stretched to our ends, and in other
ways, reminded how we can still worship in unique times, in dislocated times,
as the people shaped by the Gospel.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br /><span style="font-family: Calibri;">
The worship resources I am listing are by no means the only ones out
there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the whirlwind of people
scrambling to help out each other, I am grateful for colleagues who keep
sharing ideas and links as we all struggle together to keep our church bodies
nourished with worship that invites reflection, inspiration, hope and yes,
lament as we navigate uncertain times yet return (in modified form) to a
corporate body of believers to listen to the Word, to sing and pray to God and
support the ministries of the local church, our shared ABCNYS family, and the
communities who need the Gospel to be made known in word and deed alike.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">ABC/USA:<br />
<br />
The Office of the General Secretary is soliciting and posting worship
materials, prayer requests and other devotional materials to inspire and
support fellow American Baptists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
</span><a href="http://www.abc-usa.org/21daysofprayer/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.abc-usa.org/21daysofprayer/</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">WORSHIP RESOURCES:<br />
<br />
These two resources offer a variety of materials:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://worship.calvin.edu/resources/resource-library/covid-19-and-worship-resources-for-churches-adapting-to-social-isolation"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">https://worship.calvin.edu/resources/resource-library/covid-19-and-worship-resources-for-churches-adapting-to-social-isolation</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://preachingandworship.org/search/COVID-19?pqid=4253898&page=1"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">https://preachingandworship.org/search/COVID-19?pqid=4253898&page=1</span></a><o:p></o:p><br />
<br /><span style="font-family: Calibri;">
FIGURING OUT ZOOM FOR WORSHIP:<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Facebook tools for faith communities:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/community/faith/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">https://www.facebook.com/community/faith/</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">A church provides their congregants with an intro to
Zoom---use link to download PDF file:<br />
</span><a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/media.cloversites.com/03/03aa9732-dbdb-4c30-bdbb-e85552b73c26/documents/ZOOM_Startup_Guide.pdf"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">https://s3.amazonaws.com/media.cloversites.com/03/03aa9732-dbdb-4c30-bdbb-e85552b73c26/documents/ZOOM_Startup_Guide.pdf</span></a><o:p></o:p><br />
<br /><span style="font-family: Calibri;">
A helpful overview of understanding Zoom as a platform for facilitating
worship:<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<a href="https://reyes-chow.com/zoom-worship-laboratory/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">https://reyes-chow.com/zoom-worship-laboratory/</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Using both Zoom and FB Live together:<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<a href="https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/115000350406-Streaming-a-Meeting-or-Webinar-on-Facebook-Live?mobile_site=true&fbclid=IwAR2dwkKn_haadYj81M38AFU1DsDJE2zKYCjDDAtNtT6_w22ZzTIUKjBBnmA"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/115000350406-Streaming-a-Meeting-or-Webinar-on-Facebook-Live?mobile_site=true&fbclid=IwAR2dwkKn_haadYj81M38AFU1DsDJE2zKYCjDDAtNtT6_w22ZzTIUKjBBnmA</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> <span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">PASTORAL CARE </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Blogs and posts abound online in many ministry websites
and forums.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For now, I share a couple of
posts from Eileen Campbell-Reed as she offers some thoughts:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><a href="https://www.christiancentury.org/blog-post/guest-post/10-guidelines-pastoral-care-during-coronavirus-outbreak"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">https://www.christiancentury.org/blog-post/guest-post/10-guidelines-pastoral-care-during-coronavirus-outbreak</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://eileencampbellreed.org/2020/03/23/resources-for-pandemic-pastoring/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">https://eileencampbellreed.org/2020/03/23/resources-for-pandemic-pastoring/</span></a><o:p></o:p><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">FUNERALS<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The New York State Council of Churches has a variety of
pastoral resources as well as issues related to public policy and challenges
COVID19 raises:<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
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<a href="https://nyscoc.org/our-issues/disaster-response/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">https://nyscoc.org/our-issues/disaster-response/</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Calibri;">
A challenge right now is how to care for the dying, to care for their loved
ones, and to deal with restrictions that make funeral planning and services
challenging at the present time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
Massachusetts Council of Churches offers these thoughts, somewhat contextual to
MA, but good to read as you ponder—link will download a PDF: <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<a href="https://www.masscouncilofchurches.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/2020.03.24-Christian-Funerals-during-COVID19-Version-3.0.pdf"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">https://www.masscouncilofchurches.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/2020.03.24-Christian-Funerals-during-COVID19-Version-3.0.pdf</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">
</span></div>
Jerrod H Hugenothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05148268928244793821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440943994256214136.post-11024586789129742222020-03-19T12:25:00.002-07:002020-03-31T06:19:43.092-07:00ABCNYS Churches Offering Online WorshipIn response to the COVID19/Corona Virus and the need for caution and social distancing, many churches are cancelling "in person" worship services, meetings and activities.<br />
<br />
Some churches are shifting to teleconferencing for worship and meeting needs. (Curious? Set up a free account with <a href="http://www.freeconferencecall.com/">www.freeconferencecall.com</a>, which allows many people to connect by phone together!)<br />
<br />
Other churches are already established with online presence, providing worship by livestreaming on Zoom, Facebook Live, or similar. Or, they are recording and then uploading content to YouTube or equivalent platforms. Questions about making this move? Please contact <a href="mailto:jhugenot@abc-nys.org">jhugenot@abc-nys.org</a>.<br />
<br />
We are pleased to share this information about where and when you can find an ABCNYS congregation providing a worshipful experience or devotional opportunity. We will update this list as you tell us by emailing <a href="mailto:jhugenot@abc-nys.org">jhugenot@abc-nys.org</a>. Please refer any corrections as well to this email.)<br />
<br />
UPDATED 3/31/2020<br />
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WORSHIP SERVICES:<br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 9pt;">Adams, Honeyville Baptist, FB Live
temporarily with 10 AM Sunday worship and Wednesday Bible Studies YouTube (<span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVv0fuxr34akKLrSJK1sh7q">www.youtube.com/channel/UCVv0fuxr34akKLrSJK1sh7q</a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 9pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 9pt;">Booneville, First Baptist. FB Live via church FB Page, Sunday’s 9:30 AM</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 9pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 9pt;">Bottskill (Greenwich) and Lakeville
(Cossayuna).</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 9pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 9pt;">FB Live via their shared
web page on Wednesdays and their website: </span><a href="http://www.bottskillbaptist.org/" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 9pt;"><span style="color: blue;">www.bottskillbaptist.org</span></a></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 9pt;">Burlington Flats Baptist Church, audio
file from Rev. Jay Henderson <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null">jayhenderson56@gmail.com</a><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 9pt;">Carthage, First Baptist Church, FB Live
via the church’s webpage with a new YouTube channel as well.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 9pt;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 9pt;">Clayton, River Community Church, FB Live
10 AM each Sunday<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 9pt;">Clifton Park Center Baptist Church, FB
Live 10 AM Sundays & Wednesdays <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 9pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 9pt;">Clifton Springs Baptist, 10 AM Sunday Via their FB page</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 9pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 9pt;">Coooerstown, First Baptist, 10 Am Sunday via their Facebook page </span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 9pt;">Croton Falls Community Church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Webcasting via: <a href="http://crotonfallscommunitychurch.com/"><span style="color: blue;">http://crotonfallscommunitychurch.com/</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 9pt;">With a Prayer
Service Monday - Friday at 7:30 pm; Our Sunday Service Webcast is at 10:30 am.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 9pt;">Cuba, First Baptist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>FB Live from their church’s webpage at 10 AM.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 9pt;">Delhi, First Baptist Church. Via their FB page on Sunday mornings.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 9pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 9pt;">Duanesburg-Florida Baptist Church (Delanson,
NY).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Worship:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sunday, 9:45 AM.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Facebook Live.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 9pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 9pt;">Endicott, Cornerstone Community Church, Sundays via their FB Page</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 9pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 9pt;">Ft Edward, Village Baptist, livestream on FB page at 10 am Sunday then posted www.fbcgf.org </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 9pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 9pt;">Glens Falls, First Baptist, livestream on FB page at 10 am Sunday then posed www.fbcgf.org</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 9pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 9pt;">Genoa, United. 10 AM Sunday. FB live under page name “Friends of the United Church of Genoa”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 9pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Govenuer, Fowler Baptist, FB Live on Sunday 11 AM via their church FB page</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 9pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 9pt;">Hamilton, First Baptist, YouTube: </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn2DOItqXNGik0d5EvdD15w?view_as=subscriber">https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn2DOItqXNGik0d5EvdD15w?view_as=subscriber</a><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 9pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 9pt;">Ilion, First Baptist Church, via their FB page (FB live)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 9pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 9pt;">Meridian Baptist, FB Live via their church FB page on Sunday morning </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 9pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 9pt;">New Hartford Baptist, FB Live vis their FB Page at 9:30 AM</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 9pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 9pt;">Odessa Baptist Church, available Sunday mornings via their FB page </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 9pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 9pt;">Oneida, First Baptist, broadcasting live on local radio and online: <a href="http://www.wmcramfm.com/">www.wmcramfm.com</a> 10 AM, Sunday</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 9pt;">Ossining, Star of Bethlehem Baptist, FB Live, 11 AM</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 9pt;">Poughkeepsie, First Baptist Church.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 9pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 9pt;">FB Live 10 AM Sundays.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 9pt;"><br /><span style="font-size: 9pt;">
Schenectady, Emmanuel Friedens.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">FB Live 10 AM Sunday </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Syracuse, First Baptist. Streamed FB live on their page "First Baptist Church of Syracuse, Jamesville, NY" and ZOOM (<span style="color: black; font-family: "constantia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Zoom: </span><span style="background: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "constantia" , "serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">+1-646-558-8656 or +1-312-626-6799 and Meeting
ID: 337 519 701)<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "constantia" , "serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Trumansburg, First Baptist Church, Posted on FB Live Sunday mornings (tburgbaptist) or www.tburg.com</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 9pt;">Utica, Tabernacle Baptist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Streamed on FB Page “Tabernacle Baptist
Church” and “TBC Christian Endeavour” and later on church website <a href="http://www.tbcutica.org/"><span style="color: blue;">www.tbcutica.org</span></a>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 9pt;">Walton, First Baptist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Streamed on FB Page from 11 AM to 12 PM each
Sunday.</span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 9pt;">Wappingers Falls, Community
Baptist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Worship via YouTube (audio
only): <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChMTTiBmupU8R2ItvwzVvoA"><span style="color: blue;">https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChMTTiBmupU8R2ItvwzVvoA</span></a>
or via the church website <a href="http://www.communitybaptistwappingers.com/"><span style="color: blue;">www.communitybaptistwappingers.com</span></a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 9pt;"><br />Waverly, FBC.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Streamed on FB Page. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 9pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 9pt;">West Winfield, Federated Church, FB page Sundays services (@FedChurchWestWinfield) available in early morning, YouTube channel with updates: Pastor Ken McKenzie</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 9pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 9pt;">Williamson, First Baptist, streamed on FB Page as well as <a href="https://williamsonfbc.org/">https://williamsonfbc.org</a> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 9pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 9pt;">Wolcott Baptist. Sundays, via their FB page.</span></div>
Jerrod H Hugenothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05148268928244793821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440943994256214136.post-20999312779515085092019-01-04T07:28:00.002-08:002019-01-04T07:47:00.802-08:00Welcoming the Word (John 1:10-18)<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FFXbEJUHScA/XC97WhmhSTI/AAAAAAAABOQ/zGo8gjeDAGssUL5_0tqLoUbBMZ0HNqqHwCLcBGAs/s1600/WordFleshG3fV-Verso58795x1200.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FFXbEJUHScA/XC97WhmhSTI/AAAAAAAABOQ/zGo8gjeDAGssUL5_0tqLoUbBMZ0HNqqHwCLcBGAs/s400/WordFleshG3fV-Verso58795x1200.jpg" /></span></a><span style="color: black;"><span style="background-color: white;"></span><span style="color: yellow;"></span><span style="color: black;"></span><span style="background-color: black;"></span><span style="background-color: white;"></span><span style="color: black;"></span><br /></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black;">Words.... When I’m on the road, sometimes, people ask what I do. Sometimes I just want to be “off the clock”, so I say, “My trade is in words.” Oh really? They say. What do you write? Then I sheepishly have to say, “Sermons.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black;"> Words…. Each week, I chase after dozens of words, trying to coral and cajole a few together to make a point, honing them into sentences and paragraphs. Sometimes, late at night, I have been known to plead with them to make it onto the page sitting there blank before me. Some weeks, I find the words just show up, moving from mind to keyboard to printed page to pulpit. A book written by clergywomen on the art of preaching has likened writing the sermon as similar to birthing. Some weeks, I feel like I needed more than seven days between sermons…. Nine months sounds about right!</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black;">Words…. Words can bear a much needed moment of truth and grace. Words can be used as blunt instruments, spoken in moments of frustration or rage. However we use words, they are best used with due care and consideration. Words well used create all manner of good.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black;"><br /> Reading the Bible, we encounter words weaving together the stories of God and humanity. Sometimes, these words puzzle, delight, disturb, empower. In these stories, we learn of God’s abiding love and presence within human history, particularly in times of great challenge and adversity.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black;">In John’s gospel, as the gospel writer is seeking a way to introduce the story of Jesus, he harkens back to one of the earliest stories: the creation narrative of Genesis. This gospel begins with “In the beginning was the Word”, meaning before creation, before there was a concept of “before”, the Word “was”. The story of Jesus, the good news about his life, death, and resurrection, is interwoven into the story of the One who brought all of Creation into existence. John’s gospel develops the story further, speaking of how the Word became “flesh”, bringing God into the midst of the world. In this story of John’s gospel, we will behold the very power of the universe, voluntarily taking the form of humanity, coming down to dwell among us. Something familiar yet powerfully new is taking place in this gospel story.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black;">A few years back, the Benedictine monks of St. John’s Abbey in Minnesota commissioned a Bible to be designed and lettered by hand, a fascinating “old school” approach to creating a Bible. The “St John’s Bible” is laden with beautiful illustrations, including a frontispiece for each gospel. The St John’s Bible introduces John’s gospel with the image of a human form emerging from a swirl of the DNA helix and Greek and Hebrew letters, the languages of the Christian canon of scripture. It is an artistic way of communicating the story, reveling in the generative power of John’s language. In this passage of scripture, the strands of humanity’s encounters with God, our sins and God’s tireless effort to redeem us, weave together anew. In this story, the story of Jesus, we learn of the Word that came down and dwelled among us.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: black;"><br /> As I read John’s gospel, I often find myself stopping in the midst of the rich language of the opening chapter and just reveling in the words. I recall the fond memory of Christmas Eve services from my own upbringing when the minister read the Prologue of John as the candles were lit around the sanctuary. (You will note this tradition made an impression on myself, as I carry it on in my own worship planning.) The reading builds up from the ethereal language to a highpoint in verse 14:<br /><br /> And the Word became flesh and lived among us,<br /> And we have seen his glory,<br /> The glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.</span><br /><div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: black;">A few notes on the Greek text of John help at this point: The imagery is not merely Jesus becoming a man. The text is more fulsome, claiming the Word became part of what it means to be human. Jesus did not excuse himself from the grace nor the grit of human life, a body prone to aches and pain, capable of such much less. The Word becomes fragile flesh and does not live above but among, in the midst, of us, the whole lot of humanity.</span></div>
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The Greek text also uses a phrase that few English translations pick up: the Word became flesh, and (the Greek says) pitched his tent. It is such an interesting image: the great God above becomes a common person, somebody who lives as neighbor and fellow journeyer along life’s path. A Brazilian artist depicted John 1 this way: Jesus is imaged in the midst of a field of tents, sitting on the ground side by side with another person, having what appears to be a heart-to-heart type conversation. As the Word, God has the power to create all we know. As the Word made flesh, Jesus shares life with the created.<br /><br /> As John’s gospel unfolds, we see the prologue’s lament that the Word came to the world yet the world did not know him. He moves among us, yet he is more often rejected, notably by the religious leaders of the day. Jesus chooses a less expected path, in the midst of the common people, offering his teachings and performing his signs and miracles in veritable obscurity. Jesus seeks not fame and recognition. The glory of God shines in the least likely of places, yet in those places, the gospel writer claims the shadows overtaking the world are cast away by the light of Jesus.<br /><br /> Words…. Christians use quite a few terms to describe Jesus: “Savior”, “the second Person of the Trinity”, “son of God”, Emmanuel, King, Servant, Messiah, and the list goes on. The terms are spoken out of religious devotion and explored by biblical and theological scholars. Our words for God are our ways as Christians to identify who we are and the ways we believe.</span><br /><div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black;">Words…. Jesus gave us words to live by, found in gospel narratives in the form of parables, sayings, and the conversations he engaged in with disciples, the crowds, the marginalized, the authorities. In these words called “gospel”, we are given words that guide us through life, help us know ourselves better by reading them and taking these words to heart (sometimes in the process engaging in a struggle of conscience to sort them out in the context of our own life and times).</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black;">Words…. Amazingly, God did not choose to remain aloof or silent up in the heavens above. Such texts as the prologue to John serve as a counter-witness to those times of despair and doubt when we believe God does not hear us, remember us, or stay with us. In our present day with a rising number within society self-identifying as “no religious identity” or “not religious or spiritual”, being able to share these sort of texts becomes that much more important.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black;">Words…. Our texts form us to be a people who believe with heart and mind God is with this world. We believe God became flesh and dwelled among us. In turn, we cannot live aloof from the world or refrain from being in the midst of the crosswalks of life. To follow Christ means to follow him into the midst of the world and dwell there especially in those places we would not go.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: black;"><br />Words…. Christ comes among us, speaking the words of life abundant. Can we stop and listen, hearing the word in our lives? Can we welcome the Word into our midst?<br /> <br /> May we hear these words and believe them: <br />The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. AMEN.</span></span><br />
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Jerrod H Hugenothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05148268928244793821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440943994256214136.post-11353836930688345082018-12-26T15:57:00.000-08:002018-12-26T15:57:06.412-08:00Profitable To Zion: Upon the Dissolution of First Baptist Church of Schenectady<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-h8hPeE1vMuw/XCQTCgG1gCI/AAAAAAAABNU/XV6F2iYIsm0jL_BeVTsQTW3Zd8kDUJnYQCLcBGAs/s1600/2018-12-23_13-07-41_637.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-h8hPeE1vMuw/XCQTCgG1gCI/AAAAAAAABNU/XV6F2iYIsm0jL_BeVTsQTW3Zd8kDUJnYQCLcBGAs/s320/2018-12-23_13-07-41_637.jpeg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo collages remind of ministry moments</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><em>On December 31, 2018, the First Baptist Church of Schenectady, NY, will conclude its 196 years of ministry. Due to the holiday season, the church opted to have the formal celebration of closure on December 23rd to allow more people to participate before the Christmas holiday had some leaving town to be with loved ones elsewhere.</em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><em></em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><em>I was asked to preach the sermon, and I noted an interesting turn of phrase (see below) from their most recent church history from the days when the church was founded in the 1820s. </em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><em></em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><em>The service was indeed celebratory. They gathered for a light lunch afterwards to continue the time of fellowship. During the service, a number of persons voiced their gratitude for the congregation's ministry and for the love and care they received from one another and their pastor Carole Miller.</em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><em></em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><em>Churches are started. Churches are closed. This is the reality throughout Christian history, yet it still seems "new" or "unprecedented", as such times are rarely fathomed and mostly feared. In their decision to close, the congregation realized they were closing this church, but they had other churches in the area to go and become part of. For everything there is a season, even for the local church.</em> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">At the time of First Baptist’s
centennial celebration in 1922, Rudolph Keller wrote:<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">At a meeting held on the 9<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup>
of October, 1822, a paper was drawn up stating that it was the belief of the
subscribers that a Baptist church would be profitable to Zion and expressing
their desire for such an organization.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>At a meeting held November the 8<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> it was voted that a council
be called to organize a church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
council met on November 21, 1822....The Council unanimously advised the
brethren to organize the church, which was done, and it was recognized by the
council as the “First Baptist Church,” Schenectady, N.Y.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(History of the First Baptist Church, 1822 –
1922, revised edition, 1972, p. 1)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">As I read your church history
book, I noticed an unique turn of phrase:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“profitable to Zion”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Language
changes over time, even within the lingo of Baptists talking about establishing
a church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I turned to the internet to
see if this was a phrase used in the 1820s or even in the 1920s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To my surprise, I could not readily find
other instances of that phrase popping up in my searches.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-C1Yxg-UzB2w/XCQUS-NJ9EI/AAAAAAAABNg/dHGEb62EMSocoiBEH0N_tWdvNSMSnGg9wCEwYBhgL/s1600/2018-12-23_11-04-07_324.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-C1Yxg-UzB2w/XCQUS-NJ9EI/AAAAAAAABNg/dHGEb62EMSocoiBEH0N_tWdvNSMSnGg9wCEwYBhgL/s320/2018-12-23_11-04-07_324.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">While the dissolution came at the end of 2018, <br />
the church faithfully observed the Advent season <br />
to "watch and wait" as they have all these decades!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The phrase “profitable to Zion”
was indeed important to the writer of the church history.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps it came from the minutes of the
organizing meeting back in late 1822.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or
perhaps Rudolph Keller looked at the church’s history and said this phrase in
light of the century that had passed since that organizing meeting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps that phrase captured something of
the moment then as it did for him looking back gratefully at what had come
before.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /><span style="font-family: Calibri;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>We gather this day as part
of the concluding chapter of the history of First Baptist, Schenectady.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are here to celebrate 196 years have
passed since that day in 1822.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many of
you have been part of the most recent decades, keeping the church going in the
20<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> and 21<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">st</span></sup> centuries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>(I will take for granted no one here will claim to have firsthand
knowledge of the 1922 centennial year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If so, we will gladly take a moment to ask you for your secrets to aging
well!)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Today, it can be a time for tears and
sadness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The church is dissolving
itself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You made the decision earlier
this year to conclude and begin your pathway to the end of 2018, which is also
the ending year of this congregation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Today, it can be a time of
gratitude and thanksgiving.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nothing and
no one can last forever.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet, we can
live with gratitude for what has happened in the passage of time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Surely you also have seen how this church
could be a benefit, or “profitable”, in your life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we think of the ministry of the church,
the caring of members for one another, the faithful service of pastors who you
have known here through this congregation, it is a time to take heart that God
was indeed in the midst of all of these years, those you participated in and
those that have come long before you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Generation to generation, this
church has served the needs of Schenectady and blessed your life and that of
your loved ones.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Without this church,
your life would have been much different.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>With FBC Schenectady, you have been part of a church family that has
taken on challenges and opportunities and weathered together the storms of
change personally and congregationally.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Being profitable to Zion is
indeed the work of a congregation over the years, decades and centuries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Congregations are places to hear the Word,
to pray and to sing hymns to God, and to be with others of similar belief to
live out faith together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While you can
believe, religion is not a solitary practice in itself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are called to be with others on the long
journey of life and seek the ways of faith in the here and now as we watch and
pray for the “yet to come” part of our faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">We look, if we aren’t also
leaning forward eagerly, toward the time when our faith’s promises will be
honored in full.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We may call that “the
End Times”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We may call it “the Sweet Bye
and Bye”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet for the first Baptists to
organize First Baptist, Schenectady in 1822 and the present day members of
First Baptist, Schenectady, preparing to dissolve the church, it is a matter of
yearning for Zion to be made known to us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Zion:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>it’s that phrase you may have read in
Scripture or sung in the lyrics of a hymn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Zion is another name for Jerusalem, but not a mere “nickname”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rather, Zion is that term of endearment for
what Jerusalem could be:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the city
shining on the hill, the place where the very nations of this world will
gather.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The hymn often sang in worship
recalls the euphoria of ancient pilgrims heading up the mountains to be in
Jerusalem:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><em>“We’re marching to Zion,<o:p></o:p></em></span></div>
<em>
</em><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><em>beautiful, beautiful Zion!<o:p></o:p></em></span></div>
<em>
</em><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><em>We’re marching upward to Zion<o:p></o:p></em></span></div>
<em>
</em><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><em>the beautiful city of God!”<o:p></o:p></em></span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">While our lives are difficult,
while doubt can loom large over us, this talk of “Zion” in the Scriptures
returns us to this overwhelming sense that “in the End, God shall have the last
word.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So the Psalmist can turn us
toward language that is poetic and imaginative of a “glad river” where all the
disruptive and sad parts of our existence have their resolution and their rest
in the midst of God’s abiding goodness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">When the Baptists of 1822 set
out to be “profitable to Zion”, they looked forward in expectation and
anticipation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was a great
eagerness to be a Baptist witness in Schenectady.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Other Christians and other Baptists were in
the area, yet they wanted to plant themselves here in this place where they had
settled, found work, and got to know their neighbors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had families and passed down that
faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Yet the story of 1822 is also
the story of every year thereafter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Your
church history records in brief the long passage of time, highlighting the
change of ministers, the moments when the congregation had an opportunity or a
challenge and how they rose to the occasion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The church members struggled with questions of location.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mergers were considered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Buildings were constructed, and then later
sold.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In the midst of these years, you
kept marching toward Zion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You shared
the faith, you baptized new believers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>You were at the side of the bedside of those who died.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You rejoiced in newborn babies and presented
them to the Lord.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You had committee
meetings, Vacation Bible School in all of its glitter-covered craft glory.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You worshipped in all the seasons of the
year, and helped one another as you journeyed through your own seasons of life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HDAlrwC31e0/XCQUQ8QSmXI/AAAAAAAABNc/Q7c3NCw_Iq8J7MODvJ65fdw2gM7hqyRDgCLcBGAs/s1600/2018-12-23_11-04-19_857.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HDAlrwC31e0/XCQUQ8QSmXI/AAAAAAAABNc/Q7c3NCw_Iq8J7MODvJ65fdw2gM7hqyRDgCLcBGAs/s320/2018-12-23_11-04-19_857.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A few of the worshippers at the dissolution worship service</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">For all the seasons, all the
years, all the love of Zion, you worshipped together in various places around
Schenectady, most recently here in this wonderful partnership with Stanford
Heights UMC.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You’ve had challenges,
some recorded in the “official history” and others that I imagine you’d love to
tell me about out in the parking lot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>You’ve joined together with community partners like SICM and been faithful
participants in the life of the Capital Area Baptist Association and the
American Baptist Churches of New York State.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It may be tempting to ask today
if you were not profitable to Zion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Church closures can seem so “final”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I realize they are a closing chapter of one story, yet how you move
forward from this day will help the story continue!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each of you can join another area American
Baptist congregation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While you were and
will always be the “first” Baptist church of Schenectady, our sister congregations
of Emmanuel Friedens, Friendship Baptist, Mt Olivet Missionary Baptist and
Tabernacle Baptist would gladly welcome you to join their membership.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While the time of harvest has come in full
here for First Baptist, each of you can be the grain of those 196 years of
faithful witness and plant the things you’ve learned here, the talents and
gifts of the Spirit each of you have, and be a blessing to another of our
American Baptist congregations in the area.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In fact, I know that they would be glad to have you, as I’ve heard from
the pastors over the past few months saying that they stand ready to receive
you, if you so choose to unite with their congregations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Such faithful folks as you here at FBC
Schenectady are part of the great bounty and abundance God has gifted your
church with over the years!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And
your church’s legacy will continue in the gifts you plan to give to various
organizations and American Baptist partners.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Indeed, the work of our American Baptist Region is the beneficiary of a
long and faithful history of Northern Baptists all across upstate New York,
giving of their resources through ongoing gifts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Your generosity as the church concludes its
worship life ensures the aims and purposes of First Baptist will continue long
into the future through your giving.</span></div>
<ul>
<li><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Profitable
to Zion: that’s what your forbearers wanted to be when they convened a council
to decide if there should be a Baptist church in Schenectady.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Profitable
to Zion:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>that’s what you are being here
in 2018 as you close the church<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>at year’s end.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the legacy of
your planned giving, in the legacy of each of you who go forward now to be with
other congregations, in the continuing ministry of Pastor Carole following her
vocation to serve God’s people as faithfully as she has here among you these
past twenty years, indeed, you have honored those who have gone on before you. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Indeed,
First Baptist, Schenectady, has lived up to its aspirations from long ago:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Profitable to Zion, from generation to
generation, sharing the Gospel in word and deed alike.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One hundred ninety-six years of blessing the
cities of Schenectady and Niskayuna, and being faithful witnesses to the Gospel
of Jesus Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Profitable
to Zion:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>from beginning to end!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Profitable to Zion:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>from 1822 to 2018!<br />
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Profitable to Zion:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>from going from this place and people to
another place and people!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Profitable to Zion:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>from generation to generation to yet another
generation, AMEN!<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bbcWbYqV2M4/XCQUtnuNV1I/AAAAAAAABNs/Wm14pLK97BAp8br0UXnk9_IMHq1rfUq1wCEwYBhgL/s1600/2018-12-23_12-01-01_287.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bbcWbYqV2M4/XCQUtnuNV1I/AAAAAAAABNs/Wm14pLK97BAp8br0UXnk9_IMHq1rfUq1wCEwYBhgL/s320/2018-12-23_12-01-01_287.jpeg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rev Carole Miller gives the benediction.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span></div>
Jerrod H Hugenothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05148268928244793821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440943994256214136.post-49335476798922001362018-11-20T06:03:00.001-08:002018-11-20T06:03:12.311-08:00Living with the End (Mark 13:1-8)
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A few years ago, documentarian Ken Burns offered a two part, four hour PBS documentary on the Dust Bowl. In his introduction, Burns reminds the viewer that the Dust Bowl was a decade-long manmade disaster, brought about by over cultivation of land not really suited for the overproduction farming forced upon it by farmers and speculators looking for easy wealth.
<br />
<br />
Burns claims the Dust Bowl
was <em>"an epic of human pain and suffering—a crucible of dust, drought and Depression, when normally self-reliant fathers found themselves unable to provide for their families; when even the most vigilant mothers were unable to stop the dirt that invaded their houses from killing their children by "dust pneumonia;" when thousands of desperate Americans were torn from their homes and forced on the road in an exodus unlike anything the United States has ever seen."</em><br />
<br />
I admit more than a passing interest in this disaster, as the Dust Bowl figures into my family lore, particularly the experiences of my grandmother and grandfather Hugenot. As a young married couple with a small daughter (my father and his brother not quite on the scene yet!), they lived and farmed in “Dust Bowl” country, close to Dodge City, Kansas. My father recalls his parents talking about memories of thick, choking dust and the complications and hardship it brought along. <br />
<br />
The Dust Bowl is a story perhaps forgotten today, save the dwindling number of first hand witnesses and high school students still required to read John Steinbeck’s <em>The Grapes of Wrath</em>, a story of the Joad family, who lose their crops to the Dust Bowl and then their homestead to the bank. Steinbeck’s novel is a fictional accounting rooted in the pain and loss known to many farm families in that era. <em>The Grapes of Wrath</em> is a book I have found far more profound than under the pressure of junior year book reports and the youthful naiveté that I was reading “just” a story.
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<br />
It was not something my grandmother talked much about in my recollection, yet as I read through Ken Burns’ book that accompanies the film, I felt like part of my family history was being brought back to life in the black and white photos, the newspaper clippings and the chilling stories of farmers drove to despair by financial ruin and livestock killed where they stood in the field if they were caught outside in an unexpected dust storm.
Indeed, for those living through the Dust Bowl, Burns claims the experience was “<em>a ten year apocalypse</em>”.
<br />
<br />
The heavy dread, the great uncertainty, the fear of everything about to come crashing down, all of this figures into such a word as apocalypse. We are given a number of moments in the Bible when the text turns ominous and indeed here we get the oft-quoted phrase “war and rumors of war”. <br />
<br />
Such passages resound with images of absolute chaos, deep fear and unthinkable hardship. In Mark 13, we get nations and kingdoms against one another, earthquakes and famines predicted.
While the Book of Revelation is most popularly known for such talk, the gospel, aka the “good” news, is also the place where the Bible turns solemn and frightening. <br />
<br />
The teachings of Jesus include passages where he predicts and pronounces judgment upon the world. He does not skirt around the idea of his followers knowing hardship and persecution.
Indeed, the gospel of Mark is thought to be written with the author’s likely first-hand experience of being a persecuted mid-first century Christian. He gathered together the oral traditions being passed around about Jesus among the early churches with the goal of telling “the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God”. <br />
<br />
In the midst of his recounting of the parables and miracles, Mark ensures the reader does not lose sight of faith’s costliness. Love your life, and you lose it. Lose your life and find it. Take up your cross and follow.
These words take especial meaning when you realize the challenge of the first decades of Christianity. One could argue the early Christians found the stories of what apocalypse would bring about all too familiar. <br />
<br />
Long before gaining favor and standing in the Roman Empire, the Christians would know great persecution and violence, marginalization and martyrdom.
One could also argue that they recalled the apocalyptic teachings of Jesus and also found great hope and joy there as well. For in the midst of these frightening images of dread to befall the world and the faithful alike, the apocalyptic serves also as a reminder that while an ending is coming, a beginning is also promised. <br />
<br />
We hear remarkable poetic language of God bringing an “end to death, to crying and to pain”, bringing Creation to New Creation. Such language may not be overtly stated in Mark: “When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come”. In Mark 13, we hear of the end bringing not “doom” but this wondrous and poetic imagery of birth pangs, the first sign of new life, rebirth about to take place.
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<br />
For those who have experienced birth, one might have all manner of terms for birth pangs. For some, the birthing process is graceful. For others, it is a test of endurance. The end result is often the same: an overwhelming sense of joy. Certainly it is mixed with pain, yet the wee miracle before you is worth it all. In that liminal moment between pain and joy, one might even say that in the delivery room, the baby’s not the only one crying.
The apocalyptic has this same mixture of joy and pain, chaos and certainty. We live in a world yet to be birthed into this new Creation where all things will be made well. So it is that every generation will deal with challenges and indeed for some, tests of endurance where we think God somehow absent or aloof. Such teachings of Jesus offer the warning of peril and the promise of God’s good End.
<br />
<br />
Scholar NT Wright observes,
"<em>Jesus’ warnings to his followers are to be taken very seriously by those who are called to work for the kingdom today. Many Christians today face persecution every bit as severe as that which the early church suffered; and those Christians who don’t face persecution often face the opposite temptation, to stagnate, to become cynical, to suppose that nothing much is happening, that the kingdom of God is just a pious dream.”</em> (Mark for Everyone, 179-80)
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<br />
Some questions I ponder when reading passages like Mark 13: Do we read this passage as a long past word, spoken to a situation not necessarily ever like our own? Or do we read this text as the good word, spurring us to take heart when we feel the world crashing down around us? Does the text spur us to care and become involved when we hear of fellow Christians or other religious groups are enduring religious persecution today? <br />
<br />
The apocalyptic teachings of Jesus echo down the centuries to us. From generation to generation, we hear these words tinged with sadness and hope, and we ponder the question of how we live out the faith handed down long ago by those who first heard Mark’s gospel. We are here because of Christians who kept the faith in difficult times, not least the Christians who lived in that difficult time of the first century when women and men lived under constant threat for their faith. <br />
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Mark 13 reads as a good word for persons who found themselves in unpredictable times with little resources other than their faith and one another.
I thought about Mark 13’s predictions of hardship and its affirmation of trust in God when reading Ken Burns’ observations about the Dust Bowl as people struggled through the “ten year apocalypse” experience. <br />
<br />
He writes,
<em>"
But the story of the Dust Bowl is also the story of heroic perseverance—of a resilient people who, against all odds, somehow managed to endure one unimaginable hardship after another to hold onto their lives, their land and the ones they loved."
</em><br />
<br />
May we read the New Testament and likewise discover the stories of a similar resilient people who, against all odds, kept the faith and lived into the fullness of their belief in Christ Jesus.
Jerrod H Hugenothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05148268928244793821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440943994256214136.post-39302905625410901952018-11-01T08:38:00.001-07:002018-11-01T08:38:16.887-07:00The Last and Lasting Word: Notes on All Saints Day 2018<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Stories have a powerful way of shaping our lives. <br />
<br />
Over the years, I still remember my Grandmother Hugenot reading the story of “Button Soup”. I have the book among my books, and I will never part with it. The physical book is precious to me. <br />
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The story of “Button Soup”, a tale of a miser who learns to be generous by sharing of his abundance with his neighbors, is one that I claim as a “core story” I retain from my childhood. And, thanks to corporate marketing strategies, I know it thanks to the Gospel according to Walt. Daisy Duck outwits champion miser Uncle Scrooge to share his resources with his other Disneyland neighbors.<br />
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I remember with great fondness my grandmother reading me many stories over and over, yet that particular story, a variant of “Stone Soup”, is the one that nestled down deep within me. The story makes sense of the world, or the way the world ought to be.
As a grownup, I find myself telling people another story, one that I find deep down in my bones just like “Button/Stone Soup”. <br />
<br />
The story I tell involves the very end of human existence, aka "the Eschaton" (for those wanting a cool Scrabble winning word). Where I tell this story as a preacher is less a matter of standing in a pulpit and more when I stand on a hillside. It’s a quiet time when I tell this story. It’s time for that final ritual up there among family and friends. We have been telling stories already, sometimes told with rollicking detail during an eulogy delivered by a friend (clergy sometimes blanche at the stories of the deceased that get told at funerals). Now it’s approaching time for that last word. <br />
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What will it be?
At the graveside, I tell one story. It’s really the best one for times like these. As the liturgy draws to a close, I am nearing the amen, but I still have this story to tell. I say in the midst of the sadness and as that sense of finality hangs a bit thick in the air:
“We look forward to that time, when the one who has made us shall not leave us in the dust. For as scriptures promise, there shall be an end to death, and to crying and to pain, for the old order has passed away”.
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The Christian cannot speak of any other last word. We sometimes forget when the anxieties of the day make us think things are otherwise contrary to our knowledge of the promised End. Indeed, there are times when we lose sight of that which is promised, or we let another story take precedence.<br />
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Those who are able to stay the course, those who are able to keep “their eyes on the prize”, we have a word for these sort of folks: saints. <br />
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The book of Revelation mentions saints quite frequently, the people who live a faithful witness on the earth, even in its broken down state, and once up in the heavenly choirs, just can’t stop praising the Lord.
The saints are those who live in this world with the same frailty and fallibility as any other human being, yet they are able to live a faithful and unshakable witness to Christ. It does not happen overnight for these folks: the process varies, yet the result is the same: people who are able to be the faithful and beloved of Christ. <br />
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They take the long view, knowing that God will have the last word, not the powers and ideologies of the day, or the belief that things will end in disarray or without meaning. They see the world as a place where the gospel can indeed take root, no matter how tough and stubborn the soil appears to be. <br />
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The Baptist saint Clarence Jordan lived through the difficulties of mid-20th century racism as a witness to racial reconciliation and peace. Only a saint could take the long view, despite the many forces against him. Jordan spoke prophetically when he observed, “Hope is believing in spite of the evidence and watching the evidence change”. <br />
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In other words, God shall have the last word, and it shall be one that is glorious and just.
Jerrod H Hugenothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05148268928244793821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440943994256214136.post-37260505859590282982018-10-04T07:35:00.002-07:002018-10-04T07:35:28.962-07:00A prayer for Regional Ministry in upstate New York<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<em>The American Baptist Churches of New York State has its Regional Biennial gathering every other year. It is an opportunity to welcome as many of our 284 churches as possible to convene in one place for a weekend.</em><br />
<em></em><br />
<em>As part of the Friday evening worship, I was invited to offer a "pastoral prayer" for the Region and this gathering. Working with the theme of "Finding Hope in Brokenness" (Isaiah 58:8a), I offered these words for the evening prayer:</em><br />
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O God, we gather this weekend as a family of faith, joined together in prayer and praise, ministry and mission. We give all glory and honor to you as Maker of Heaven and Earth, Redeemer of Humanity and Creation and the Breath of all Creation and the sometimes gentle and other times gale force Wind summoning us to be your people called “Church”.
We are pilgrims together on a journey, following the Gospel way of Jesus Christ. <br />
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We pause here for two days for fellowship and being together. We come from busy schedules of work and ministry, the rigors of our family and congregational needs not necessarily set aside from our minds. <br />
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Yet, we are here, ready to be challenged, ready to be affirmed, ready to encounter the wide ranging family of God called ABC/NYS.
We hear the ancient prophet Isaiah, summoning people to greater belief and more holy action. We know that these words are not just for then, but surely, we need to hear them anew in the here and now. We are in the midst of difficult times, whether in our local churches or in the wider communities we are located within and called to serve. Sometimes, our hope and trust made known in Jesus will falter as we worry about lack or resist the Spirit’s prompting to risk. We let the four walls of the church building sometimes be the limits of our sense of what ministry we are called to undertake.
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Challenge us, O God, to see the abundance You give to us, even when our churches worry about attendance, buildings and cash flow. Challenge us, O God, to find our voices to testify and speak truth to power. Challenge us, O God, to lift up the many who are kept down in this world through circumstances and systems that separate us and classify people as “us” and “them” in so many, many ways.
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Bless the work of this weekend’s meetings. May we hear the words of Isaiah resound in workshops and seminars, business meetings and plenary worship sessions. May we go and tell this good word of American Baptists united together in ministry across upstate New York, living in the power of the Spirit, by the New Life given to us by Jesus, to the glory and honor of God almighty. AMEN.
Jerrod H Hugenothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05148268928244793821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440943994256214136.post-44836661512895405992018-08-13T12:18:00.001-07:002018-08-13T12:28:06.996-07:00Celebrating a new church building<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<em>This past Sunday, it was my pleasure to represent the American Baptist family of New York State and the Capital Area Baptist Association at the dedication of a new church building. The Gethsemane Karen Baptist Church is a congregation of persons relocated from Burma and Thailand to the United States. In the upstate New York area, we are blessed with several churches with Burma connections, speaking Karen, Chin and Burmese languages. Churches have formed in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Utica and in the greater Albany area.</em><br />
<em></em><br />
<em>Gethsemane Karen Baptist Church shared facilities with the Emmanuel Baptist Church of Albany, whose congregation encouraged the Gethsemane congregation as they developed their ministry, shared Sunday School resources and other ways of working together. This eventually led to this happy day as the Gethsemane Karen Baptist Church purchasing a former Episcopal church in Castleton-on-Hudson, just south of Albany. The church's dedication service was a celebration shared by many Karen churches from across New York and even a church from Connecticut was present. Baptist leaders from Burma and the Karen Baptist Church/USA attended, offering words of encouragement. </em><br />
<em></em><br />
<em>On behalf of ABCNYS (with the thankful help of a translator!), I offered these words:</em><br />
<br />
From Psalm 100
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A Psalm of thanksgiving.
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Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth. <br />
Worship the LORD with gladness;
come into his presence with singing. <br />
Know that the LORD is God.
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It is he that made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. <br />
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Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise.
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Give thanks to him, bless his name.
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For the LORD is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations. <br />
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This is a great day in the life of your church.
This is a great day for American Baptists and Karen Baptists.
We celebrate the dedication of your church building.
All of us together give praise and thanks to God, who provides for His people in times of plenty and in times of want. We are blessed by God greatly today and always!
<br />
<br />
This day comes after a long time of looking for a church building. Many prayers, many meetings and many hours were spent looking for the place God called you to be.
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This day comes after a long journey. Many church members come from Burma, Thailand and other places as refugees. You and your family have had many challenges, many times of discouragement. Yet God has blessed you and kept you, bringing you here to New York and to become Gethesemane Karen Baptist Church.
<br />
<br />
At a church building dedication, we remember the stories of Israel, building tabernacles and temple. Such work was to praise God, to provide a place for His holy people to gather, to pray and to be in God’s holy presence.
This church building is part of that tradition. We gather here to be holy people in a holy place, carrying out the holy work of following Jesus.
<br />
<br />
A church building is a blessing. It is a place where you sing, you pray, you listen to God’s word. You gather together to baptize believers in the name of Jesus. You gather together for Communion, sharing the bread and the cup and remembering Jesus.
<br />
<br />
A church building is also a place where you have joyful times: eating together, learning together in Bible study, watching your children and grandchildren run and play. It is a place of many happy memories.
<br />
<br />
A church building can also be a challenge. Just like a house, a church building can have roof problems, issues with water, and things can break. Having your own church building means you will have repair work to do. You will have decisions to make about what to do with a repair or a building improvement. Buildings are brick and stone, water pipes and electric wiring. All of these things will have their challenges. Sometimes when we do not expect them!
<br />
<br />
Moving to this church brings new opportunity!
I know that the church building will be a blessing and a challenge. Yet, I know something even greater than this building: the people of Gethsemane Karen Baptist Church. Each member has contributed to make this day possible. Looking to God for your hope and trust, you will do many great things for the Lord in all the days to follow.
<br />
<br />
As you have moved from Albany to Castleton on Hudson, you can be assured the support of the Capital Area Baptist Association and the American Baptist Churches of New York State will be with you. We hope you will invite our sister churches to come here in the future, to meet together, to eat together, and to praise God together.
<br />
<br />
You have the blessing and the challenge to be the church. Use this building well to bless God and one another with what happens inside the church building. <br />
<br />
May this building be a place that: <br />
*
shares the Gospel in word and action
welcomes all who want to know God,
wherever in the world or this neighborhood they come from.
<br />
*
Opens its doors to those who are needy, sick or in trouble,
<br />
* So that your church members can help them.
<br />
*
Offers ways to grow as disciples of Jesus,
Who follow and serve in His name.
<br />
<br />
PRAYER:
O God, bless the holy people of this holy place, so that they may share the word here and throughout the community. Bless the building to long years of worship services, Bible studies, children and youth ministry, and caring for all who come through these doors. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, AMEN.
Jerrod H Hugenothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05148268928244793821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440943994256214136.post-4096524606240174422018-07-03T14:13:00.001-07:002018-07-03T14:14:57.153-07:00Roger Williams: An American Baptist to Remember<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span><br />
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Back in the 17<sup>th </sup>century, as
Baptists began to emerge in Europe, their beliefs and teachings began to work
in the minds of these upstart colonists in America. Roger Williams founded the
“first” Baptist church in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1638, part of his
personal odyssey of living a contrary-minded faith. When he arrived in America
in 1630, Williams was a controversial figure, aggravating the Puritan colonial
government to the point that within six years, he was banished from
Massachusetts. <br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">To avoid deportment to England where he was equally unwelcome,
Williams set off in the dead of winter 1636 for the wilderness....later known as "Rhode Island".<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Ironically, the
British crown and the Puritan government thought of themselves along the same
lines: both forms of government thought they alone knew what God had ordained
for the order of things. To both, Williams would speak out against theocratic
rule, embracing that religion is a matter of conscience and church and state
kept separate. What we take for granted today came only because persons like
Roger Williams argued for it and suffered consequences. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Recently, I came across a quote taken
from Williams’ writings about his banishment from the Bay Colony. Williams set
his reflections to verse:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">God makes a Path, provides a Guide,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">And feeds in Wilderness!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">His glorious name while breath remaines,
O that I may confesse.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Lost many a time, I have had no Guide,
No House, but Hollow Tree!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">In stormy Winter night no Fire, no Food,
no Company:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">In him I have found a House, a Bed, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">A Table, a Company: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">No Cup so bitter, but’s made sweet. When
God shall Sweet’ning be.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">(Edwin Gaustad<em>, Liberty of Conscience</em>, Eerdmans, 1991;
current edition, </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Judson, 1999). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">In the midst of tangling with English
and then colonial legal and religious leaders, Williams found strength in
reading the sacred text. Surely you heard the refrain of the 23<sup>rd</sup>
Psalm weaving through his reflections. As he established Rhode Island and a
Baptist congregation, Williams worked for religious tolerance, creating the
first place within North America where persons of any or no religious
background were welcome. The subsequent Constitution and Bill of Rights would
be indebted to Williams’ early advocacy for religious liberty. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">When visiting
the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, I saw Thomas Jefferson’s historic
1802 letter to the Danbury Baptist Association, assuring them of his likeminded
desire to establish the separation of church and state. Jefferson and the
Danbury Baptists were indebted to the witness of Roger Williams, the first person
in America to speak of the need for such separation. In the 1630s, however,
Williams was a pariah and a pest, a threat against the status quo.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">In more modern times, we have Roger as a
fine example of what a Baptist in America could be like.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like Roger tromping off into the wilderness
called “the unknown” toward his future, we present day Baptists who advocate
for religious freedom and the liberty of conscience can also feel a bit “out
there” in the wilderness. Nonetheless, we see what happens when the prophetic
learns these words of hope and fills with the divine Spirit of God. Hopeful
future births, even when all witness and wisdom alike say or fathom otherwise.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Jerrod H Hugenothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05148268928244793821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440943994256214136.post-85107436504319176662018-05-15T13:19:00.000-07:002018-05-15T13:22:44.485-07:00Preaching and Film<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bG6hWuCuDio/WvtBXhjaB4I/AAAAAAAABKA/dGX-OF9j_y876VWGyGUfmlTk7ouZdBK2QCLcBGAs/s1600/pop-corn-cinema.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="251" data-original-width="383" height="130" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bG6hWuCuDio/WvtBXhjaB4I/AAAAAAAABKA/dGX-OF9j_y876VWGyGUfmlTk7ouZdBK2QCLcBGAs/s200/pop-corn-cinema.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
From time to time, I have short form pieces that appear in places other than this blog. Last week, <em>The Christian Citizen</em>, a primarily e-journal with some print publication, published a piece I wrote on the Oscar winning film "The Shape of Water". <br />
<br />
To read this essay, click this link:<br />
<a href="https://medium.com/christian-citizen/does-the-shape-of-water-depict-the-shape-of-us-f1606b3f4ceb">https://medium.com/christian-citizen/does-the-shape-of-water-depict-the-shape-of-us-f1606b3f4ceb</a><br />
<br />
Informing my interest in film and faith is indeed my love of good stories. Over the years, I have tapped many sources of popular culture to assist my work with weekly preaching and teaching. I watch films in theatres, but I also enjoy a good binge watch session on Hulu or Netflix. I also enjoy the patient (and not so patient) times between issues of a comic book story, where it may take 5-6 issues for a storyline to be completed. (I know, I know, I could "trade wait" and read everything at once after the comic book publisher releases a trade paperback of the whole story all at once months later, but it's still a great thing to "wait" and watch the story unfold, if not prognosticate a bit on how the writer has sorted out how to resolve the storyline, part by part.)<br />
<br />
Furthermore, my favorite show of all time is <em>Doctor Who</em>, which has spent most of its existence being told in episodic, multi-part form, complete with the grand cliffhanger tradition. Why not leave them at the edge of their seats? It can also work on Sunday mornings!<br />
<br />
In the pulpit, I find myself remiss if I haven't thought about the ancient text and cast around for contemporary examples to further the work I have done with translation, exegesis and commentary. The "creative process" depends on keeping the faith lively and relevant, even if you find that moment of grace coming from less conventional sources.Jerrod H Hugenothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05148268928244793821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440943994256214136.post-76884303024255823462018-04-26T07:07:00.001-07:002018-04-26T07:15:35.104-07:00Words that Bless and Unite: Remembering Howard Sheffey<br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-51v0geWz8d4/WuHcs6A4BwI/AAAAAAAABJk/FX6nBMjQ_K8gw4Z_P2wVjOQWRkxjGbJcgCEwYBhgL/s1600/31131001_1216094515193589_4379513346020362683_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a> </div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-51v0geWz8d4/WuHcs6A4BwI/AAAAAAAABJk/vpVWWqhzNWQOHyoaRW05Hu7g2kw0rpvaACLcBGAs/s1600/31131001_1216094515193589_4379513346020362683_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="720" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-51v0geWz8d4/WuHcs6A4BwI/AAAAAAAABJk/vpVWWqhzNWQOHyoaRW05Hu7g2kw0rpvaACLcBGAs/s320/31131001_1216094515193589_4379513346020362683_n.jpg" width="240" /></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><em>On Monday, April 16, 2018, the Rev Howard Sheffey, pastor
of the Old Stone Church near Ballston Spa, NY, died of cancer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As part of his home going service at his
long-time “home church” Friendship Baptist in Schenectady, NY, I spoke on behalf
of Howard’s colleagues and the ABCNYS Region as part of the tributes to his
life and ministry. I offered words extemporaneously, so I have reconstructed
what I said after the fact, followed by a personal note that I did not share
that morning.</em><br />
<br />
I come in praise of God for the life of our brother Rev Howard Sheffey.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Without a doubt, Howard loved his
congregations:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Friendship Baptist, where
he served as a lay leader, usher, deacon and later called to ministry and ordained,
and the Old Stone Church, where he served faithfully for many years while also
keeping connected with Friendship.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Howard believed in cooperative work between
Baptists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most Baptists have been known
to be particular minded more than united.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Indeed, like the King James Version says, we are a “peculiar” people. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Yet, for Howard, he did not let too many conversations go
by without his affection and concern for the local Baptist Association (aka
Capital Area Baptist Association, part of ABCNYS) or the Central Hudson
Association (part of the NYS Empire State National Baptists) coming up in
conversation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He wanted to see more
cooperation, more energy in ministry together and for one another. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Once he accepted his call, Howard never said never to his
call to preach and serve God’s people, especially at the Old Stone Church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We will miss him greatly, for he was a colleague
and a friend to us all. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thanks be to
God!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Amen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><em>When speaking at such gatherings, it is a virtue to be
brief, so I did not share this next word at the memorial service.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I did share it at the Old Stone Church at
their worship service the next day (again, a reconstruction of my
extemporaneous remarks):</em>
<br />
One of the last conversations I had with Howard was over the phone, just before
he went into the hospital.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was calling
from time to time to check in with Howard and Doris (his wife).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the end of the brief conversation, Howard
said he wanted to offer a prayer for me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He offered words of thanksgiving for my work with churches and prayed
for God to strengthen me for the journey ahead.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Certainly, one thing we heard repeatedly was the
testimony of family and friends coming to see Howard and his efforts to care
for them, even though he was the one dealing with the illness and
discomfort.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even in his last few days as
verbal communication lessened, his smile and his gestures spoke for his
gratitude and delight in seeing loved ones at his side.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Know that in the days ahead, Old Stone, that you are not
alone in this time of transition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our
Association, our pastors and our Region is ready to help you in whatever is
needed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thanks be to God! Amen. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Jerrod H Hugenothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05148268928244793821noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440943994256214136.post-18214847789636346062018-04-07T18:06:00.002-07:002018-04-07T18:06:27.594-07:00Singing at a funeralOn Saturday, April 7, 2018, a celebration of life was held for Rev Douglas Deer, who died in February. Retired in 2014 from First Baptist Cooperstown, Doug was remembered for his many years of ministry and his influence on the lives of many people.<br />
<br />
We sang quite a number of hymns as part of the service. Doug loved to sing, so we sang many hymms familiar to many Baptists. Indeed, I knew most of the hymn lyrics (at least the first and last verses) thanks to my own upbringing in similar churches. You could say we sang our way through a veritable American (Baptist) Songbook!<br />
<br />
I was asked to share some recollections as part time of the service:<br />
<br />
I first met Doug during the summer of 2013. I had just started working with churches as Region staff and Doug was looking toward retirement.<br />
<br />
At the end of that first conversation over at the parsonage, I knew of his great love of this church and community. There was no doubt he and Susan had a good season of life together here.<br />
<br />
In retirement, Doug spent a number of Sundays with churches, continuing his love of preaching. While his health sometimes slowed him down, I knew he would be back in the pulpit once he was feeling up to it again, especially in Groton City.<br />
<br />
When Joe Perdue shared word of Doug’s passing via the church’s Fb Page, he wrote, “We know Doug is in a better place, surrounded by the many people he ministered to” (FB post 2/28). Joe also speculated on the many train sets that surely awaited him.<br />
<br />
This image of Doug working with his train sets is fairly easy to imagine. Yet the other one of Doug alongside his congregants, that image captivated me even more so, for it is part of the faith he proclaimed and shared, that God would gather together those who believed in the gospel. I can imagine pulpit and fellowship hall folding chairs are just as likely close at hand for Doug as the train tracks are in the sweet bye and bye.<br />
<br />
It is good to note this, as ministers often feel more challenge than celebration. It is a burdensome and joyful vocation, though in uneven proportions most days. Pastors journey alongside people in times of joy and concern, well acquainted with the tragic and the inexplicable. Ministry is not easy nor does the stress level ever completely subside. Sometimes a sense of fulfillment or vocational contentment for pastors can be elusive.<br />
<br />
Yet I know what I sensed even in that first conversation with Doug over at the parsonage: he was a person who kept the faith, kept saying “yes” to his vocation to serve Christ and the people within and well beyond these four walls. <br />
<br />
His ministry and faithful witness shall continue in the lives of those he pastored and shared Christ’s light with. Indeed, we saw in Doug’s life and ministry the words of Jesus flourish:<br />
<br />
He said, “How will we liken the Kingdom of God? Or with what parable will we illustrate it? It’s like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, though it is less than all the seeds that are on the earth, yet when it is sown, grows up, and becomes greater than all the herbs, and puts out great branches, so that the birds of the sky can lodge under its shadow.”<br />
— Mark 4:30–32<br />
<br />Jerrod H Hugenothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05148268928244793821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440943994256214136.post-13841163825964291162018-03-19T18:58:00.001-07:002018-03-19T18:59:57.676-07:00Why Lent matters<br />From the 4th century Desert Fathers tradition, as translated by Benedicta Ward:<br /><br /> Abba Lot went to Abba Joseph and said to him, “Abba, as far as I can I say my little office, I fast a little, I pray and meditate, I live in peace as far as I can, I purify my thoughts. What else can I do?” <br /><br /><br /> Then the old man stood up and stretched his hands toward heaven. His fingers became like ten lamps of fire and he said to him, “If you will, you can become all flame.”Jerrod H Hugenothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05148268928244793821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440943994256214136.post-5923242803395786052018-02-08T18:36:00.003-08:002018-02-08T18:36:39.837-08:00Part Time Shepherding: Ministry Trends in the Here and Now<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mJHE8otVvk8/Wn0I8I4n5yI/AAAAAAAABI0/eMBkWz4dJ2E34rvd0M-soOcbJPvN6Ks4gCLcBGAs/s1600/Bi-vocational-Header.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="359" data-original-width="640" height="179" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mJHE8otVvk8/Wn0I8I4n5yI/AAAAAAAABI0/eMBkWz4dJ2E34rvd0M-soOcbJPvN6Ks4gCLcBGAs/s320/Bi-vocational-Header.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Do clergy wear multiple hats<br />
or choose which hat to wear?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Part-time clergy. Bi-Vocational Pastors. Shared/Yoked Ministers. Multiple income clergy.<br />
<br />
These are part of the lived realities of the churches I serve alongside in upstate New York. While we have a few "full-time" positions (i.e. sufficient resources for compensation, full medical and pension and reimbursements for ministry expenses), we have a much higher number of churches with pastors who serve less than full-time (or are paid for less than full time and sometimes struggle with churches still expecting more than their pastoral budget really allows). <br />
<br />
Ponder these things....<br />
<br />
The Episcopal Church conducted a survey of its denominational clergy and found some very familiar patterns if you know anything about the trends (mostly downward) of full-time clergy becoming less likely.<br />
<br />
Read the report via this link:<br />
<a href="https://www.episcopalcafe.com/clergy-employment-in-the-episcopal-church-a-new-landscape/">https://www.episcopalcafe.com/clergy-employment-in-the-episcopal-church-a-new-landscape/</a><br />
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A few years ago, a report on "Alternative Pastoral Models" was written by Dr C. Jeff Woods, Associate General Secretary of the American Baptist Churches/USA (aka "my home team"). Jeff's thoughtful piece is now several years old, yet I believe it is likely to be appreciated anew or perhaps now can be appreciated with the change already felt and experienced actively among many of our churches.<br />
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Read Jeff's piece via: <a href="https://alban.org/archive/alternative-pastoral-models/">https://alban.org/archive/alternative-pastoral-models/</a><br />
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One of my own contributions to this changed trend in ministry (note: it's not "changing" as it has already "changed") is my essay "4 Ways Your Church Can Pay Your Next Minister Fairly", written back in September 2014. After I posted my original version on this blog on a Friday and shared word of its availability through social media (FB), I had over 100 views by the end of the weekend. I realized then that I had written something more off the cuff really struck a chord. I continue to refer churches to it as they wrestle with how to be "fair" not only to the minister but also the congregation as everyone will be more realistic about the balancing act in the long run. <br />
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Here's a version edited for Ethics Daily's use: <a href="http://www.ethicsdaily.com/4-ways-your-church-can-pay-your-next-minister-fairly-cms-22127">http://www.ethicsdaily.com/4-ways-your-church-can-pay-your-next-minister-fairly-cms-22127</a><br />
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Jerrod H Hugenothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05148268928244793821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440943994256214136.post-62950451208506180412018-01-18T11:30:00.000-08:002018-01-18T11:30:23.875-08:00Listen Before Speaking: MLK Holiday 2018 and 1 Samuel 3:1-20<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I offered the sermon at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Albany, NY, on the Sunday of what some consider the MLK Holiday Weekend, an expansion of the one day civic holiday to include opportunities for learning and service in the spirit of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. <br /><br />Seeing that the Revised Common Lectionary readings suggested 1 Samuel 3:1-20 (aka "the call of Samuel"), I revisited key events in King's life where a sense of call was sensed and sometimes wrestled with by even Dr. King himself. Here's the sermon:<br />
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The call of the prophet Samuel might strike you as “low key”. Many times, we think of God’s voice booming, yet here, God is subtle, drawing in the young man through a quiet calling out that at first leaves young Samuel thinking it’s the voice of his elderly mentor Eli. <br />
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When Eli sagely realizes Samuel is not just “hearing things”, he gives some advice: When God speaks again, say “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”
It’s an unexpected moment, a call given as a “stage whisper” by the divine voice that could otherwise rumble across the heavens! Yet God works in a variety of ways, most often in ways we’re sometimes not subtle enough to catch onto!
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The call of God can happen to anyone. God knows no partiality! We can be called to serve as pastors or missionaries or chaplains or all manner of church-related vocations. And indeed, God calls and gifts each believer for serving others through “secular” and “sacred” means. For a Christian believer, the “call of God” happens in a variety of ways and sometimes crystal clear and other times at first mostly opaque.
Yet God calls. Will we know how to listen and respond? How do we hear God when times are so uncertain that it could be said, “The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread” (1 Samuel 3:1b)
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In the summer of 1959, Joan Thatcher, publicity officer of the American Baptist Convention (now ABC/USA) was seeking material for the “Life Service” Sunday. This was an initiative to encourage churches to place especial emphasis in Sunday worship on church vocations, most particularly the importance of people being called to ministry. The publicity office sought testimony and insight from notable people who epitomized a life lived in service to Christ and the Church.
Joan Thatcher reached out to a minister with a rising profile in the late 1950s and certainly a good number of American Baptist connections. She sent a letter to Atlanta, asking Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., asking him to write about his call to ministry. As part of her request to Dr King, Joan Thatcher noted, “Apparently many of our young people still feel that unless they see a burning bush or a blinding light on the road Damascus, they haven’t been called.”
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Dr King wrote back:
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<em>
My call to the ministry was neither dramatic nor spectacular. It came neither by some miraculous vision nor by some blinding light experience on the road of life. Moreover, it did not come as a sudden realization. Rather, it was a response to an inner urge that gradually came upon me. This urge expressed itself in a desire to serve God and humanity, and the feeling that my talent and my commitment could best be expressed through the ministry. At first I planned to be a physician; then I turned my attention in the direction of law. But as I passed through the preparation stages of these two professions, I still felt within that undying urge to serve God and humanity through the ministry. During my senior year in college, I finally decided to accept the challenge to enter the ministry. I came to see that God had placed a responsibility upon my shoulders and the more I tried to escape it the more frustrated I would become. A few months after preaching my first sermon I entered theological seminary. This, in brief, is an account of my call and pilgrimage to the ministry.</em>
(LINK: <a href="http://kingencyclopedia.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/documentsentry/my_call_to_the_ministry/index.html">http://kingencyclopedia.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/documentsentry/my_call_to_the_ministry/index.html</a>)
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These words about “call” were shared across the denomination as part of the 1960 Life Service initiative. We hear this word thanks to the careful archiving of the King Papers, held at Stanford University, and made available online for everyone to access. King is on our minds this weekend with the civic holiday and the various ways communities and organizations recall King’s legacy through celebration and times of service to others in need.
We hear these words from 1959 with the benefit of hindsight, knowing what significance King would take on for the Civil Rights Movement, his greatest public speeches yet to be seared into the minds of generations yet to come. <br />
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Yet, in this moment of reflection, King recalls a shifting of vocations, uncertain until he was certain about his life’s pathway. It was not in the clarity of a singular moment. I am reminded of Jürgen Moltmann who looked back at his life and career as a theologian and observed, “The road emerged only as I walked it.” King came to the realization, yet it was not ultimately a one-time event that overwhelmed. Instead, he found his call to ministry “a response to an inner urge that gradually came upon me.” He had to hear it, live with it, perhaps run from it, and then embrace it, and as any pastor will admit, then keep embracing it through thick and thin (and there’s plenty of that, if you didn’t know already!).
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The life of following Jesus, whether we are a pastor or lay person, a new Christian or a long time believer, is about being on that journey, even when it’s uncertain what will come next. We are gifted to serve Christ and the world in various ways, yet we also know we are not meant to have it “all together” (or if you think you must have it all together, may I give you this kind and liberating word that you do not have to be perfect to be part of God’s Kingdom-Reign)? <br />
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Certainly, our brother Martin was given a great call and endured much in his following of that call, yet he could also look back and see where there was a dynamic at work where gradually he came into what God called him to become for the church and most certainly matters of a nation’s soul.
King was the son of another Baptist minister, Rev Martin Luther King, Sr. Some accounts recall “Daddy King” as resolute in his vision of his two sons, Martin and A.D., becoming pastors, joining him in the ministry of the Ebenezer Baptist Church. He sent Martin at age 15 to the Morehouse College, a prestigious historic black college. (A PBS special next month will explore the HBCU. Similarly, the American Baptist Home Mission Society has a video recalling efforts to establish colleges and universities in the South with Morehouse itself named after a significant executive director of ABHMS, Dr. Henry Morehouse.)
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Morehouse College was, as it is well known today, a fine school where King was challenged, especially as a younger than average undergraduate. He made it through his studies, and the time came as he said in his 1959 recollection, “I still felt within that undying urge to serve God and humanity through the ministry. During my senior year in college, I finally decided to accept the challenge to enter the ministry.”
I note here that later this year, 2018 will mark the 50th anniversary of King’s assassination in Memphis, TN. <br />
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Such a moment will be a sad commemoration, yet it will be remembered because of the witness King had built up in the nation’s conscience. We know the “rest of the story” element of King’s life, yet I think again it is well worth noting another “50th anniversary”, remembering that in February 1948, King was sent forth from Ebenezer and his studies completed at Morehouse that may to become a seminary student at Crozer Seminary in September 1948. (Crozer would later close its Chesterfield, PA, school and merge in with Colgate Rochester, thus giving students and alums for years to come a bit of challenge trying to say their alma mater is “Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School” in one breath…)
Such moments in a pastor’s life like an ordination service may get shuffled away in the hectic pace of ministry with its mix of sermons to write, meetings to attend, appointments to keep, yet I find recalling these “milestone moments” in my life as a pastor are helpful. Once heard, the call to preach is hard to shake loose. <br />
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Yet for King in 1959, he looked back at his vocational pathway, exploring other tracks of professional development, embracing the call, then living it out in the years since 1948. Over that next eleven year period, he would marry, start a family, earn a Ph.D, and be called to his first “solo” pastorate, Dexter Avenue Baptist in Montgomery, Alabama. From there, King would become part of the Montgomery Bus boycott alongside Rosa Parks, help found activist groups, including what is now known as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He would become known increasingly around the United States, meeting with presidents and other national leaders. He would feature on the cover of TIME Magazine and publish his first book <em>Stride Toward Freedom</em>. <br />
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Yet, that same time period, those years of “saying yes” to his call also came with the experience of unsettling anonymous calls and letters threatening violence. In late January 1958, King would be sleepless after a disturbing phone call. He found himself in prayer,
“Lord, I'm down here trying to do what's right. I think I'm right. I am here taking a stand for what I believe is right. But Lord, I must confess that I'm weak now, I'm faltering. I'm losing my courage. Now, I am afraid. And I can't let the people see me like this because if they see me weak and losing my courage, they will begin to get weak. The people are looking to me for leadership, and if I stand before them without strength and courage, they too will falter. I am at the end of my powers. I have nothing left. I've come to the point where I can't face it alone.”
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In response, King recalls,
It seemed as though I could hear the quiet assurance of an inner voice saying:
"Martin Luther, stand up for righteousness. Stand up for justice. Stand up for truth. And lo, I will be with you. Even until the end of the world."
I tell you I've seen the lightning flash. I've heard the thunder roar. I've felt sin breakers dashing trying to conquer my soul. But I heard the voice of Jesus saying still to fight on. He promised never to leave me alone. At that moment I experienced the presence of the Divine as I had never experienced Him before. Almost at once my fears began to go. My uncertainty disappeared. I was ready to face anything.
Three nights later, King’s home would be bombed. Mercifully, no one was hurt, yet he knew it could have been easily otherwise for his family. Remarkably, King would call for nonviolent response, even as the violence around him threatened to continue. [LINK: <a href="https://swap.stanford.edu/20141218230026/http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/kingweb/publications/autobiography/chp_8.htm">https://swap.stanford.edu/20141218230026/http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/kingweb/publications/autobiography/chp_8.htm</a>] <br />
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Flash forward to 1959 and he receives this correspondence from the American Baptist Convention. “Could you tell us about your call to ministry, Dr. King? What can you say to inspire especially our youth to explore God’s calling to ministry and mission?”
Considering the long path from that initial call to preach, to the wrestling to accept it, to the affirmation and blessing of ordination to schooling and then to such a ministry as this, Dr. King could write of ministry as a call to be embraced and a pilgrimage he found himself on, not for his gain or glory, but to serve the God who called him to live and serve in difficult times in sore need of conscience, non-violence and a beloved community.
What do you hear in this word today, whether it is taken from the call to a young child of ancient Israel or a 20th century Baptist whose legend and legacy may make us miss out on the man who struggled through the long haul and tumult? <br />
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How do we understand how to live and serve in difficult times in sore need of conscience, non-violence and a beloved community?
Like Samuel, King was called to tell the people that the Lord was ready to bring a mighty word: “See, I am about to do something….that will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle” (cf. I Samuel 3:11) <br />
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So I leave you with this troubling yet fruitful word:
God calls. Will we know how to listen and respond?
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(Most helpful for this sermon: the MLK chronology published by Stanford’s King Papers Project: https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-resources/major-king-events-chronology-1929-1968)
Jerrod H Hugenothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05148268928244793821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440943994256214136.post-42538047144215623402017-12-29T06:10:00.001-08:002018-01-02T06:30:35.573-08:00Heralding the New (Simeon's Song from Luke 2)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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On the fireplace mantle of my parent’s home, shepherds, magi, a barn full of animals, and an angel hovering above, have attended the holy family these last few weeks. The Nativity set hails back to my mother’s time as a nurse in the early 1970s, a career she gave up when lo unto her, I was born. During her years there, my mother was given this nativity set made by some of the patients. It is one of her treasures in this life, and every year, the Nativity figurines appear in the wooden manger scene that my father built. Even though I do not get home very often for Christmas, I know without a doubt, the Nativity is there.<br />
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The Holy Family appears on fireplace mantles, windowsills, even underneath some household’s Christmas trees. Folk who would not consider themselves religious will have one. Perhaps it is just the cultural influence, but I wonder if the image strikes a primal chord within. The scene of Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus reminds us of one facet of human life: family. That word “family” can be complicated, as not all household configurations are the same, not all families have good stories to tell. Somehow, thought, deep down, we are drawn to these figures of mother, father, and child. The Holy Family is holy, yet they are also like us, persons hewn in the same flesh as the rest of us, prone to suffering and joy, part of this world where one can know great success and great hardship.<br />
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While most of us just put out the Holy Family or Nativity sets and leave them there, there is one tradition that recalls the great difficulty of Mary and Joseph finding no immediate welcome or hospitality. For many Hispanic Christians, there is a grand tradition celebrated from December 16 to Christmas Eve, called Las Posadas, with each house in the neighborhood agreeing to be the host of each evening’s celebration. Each evening, adults, and children go through the neighborhood, carrying candles, little statues of Joseph guiding a donkey bearing the pregnant Mary, and the crowd sings of the Holy Family looking for a place. They go household to household, ritually turned away until they arrive at the host’s home, where they are welcomed inside.<br />
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The lack of hospitality in Bethlehem is one part of the many hardships endured by the Holy Family. The annunciation of Jesus’ birth to Mary is scandalous as Mary conceives the child out of wedlock and while most certainly a virgin. The hardship of travel to Bethlehem while pregnant, the annoyance of having to be compliant with a census demanded by the occupying Roman government, the frantic scramble to find a decent place to spend the night, and…oh no! Mary’s water just broke!<br />
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The scene at the Temple is passed over in the stories of Jesus’ birth. We focus on the manger and the shepherds, angels, and magi. Nevertheless, here again is a story that fits into the difficulties faced by this family. More travel is necessitated, this time to Jerusalem, to fulfill the baby’s ritual purification requirements. Mary and Joseph make their way to the Temple, a place where the people of God gave praise and sacrifice and class distinctions as pilgrims found themselves dealing with the commerce built up around the Temple. The choice of two turtledoves sounds quaint, given the Victorian era carol regarding what one gets over the twelve days of Christmas. The selection, however, gives a very clear indication of Mary and Joseph’s peasant status. These two birds were all they could manage to afford.<br />
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To be a peasant in the first century CE was to be one of the multitudes of people who eked out a living as artisans, carpenters, fishers, and day laborers. There was no middle class in Jesus’ day (might not be the same much longer in our day, for that matter), just the peasants, the very few who owned land, and the elite. If you could make a living, you were lucky. If you were a landowner, you were among the few. If you were an elite, you lived the good life, standing on the backs of everyone else beneath you while helping Rome and its local government thugs to assure your comfort and status (at least for now).<br />
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Studying the gospels necessarily involves understanding that most of Jesus’ inner circle, the crowds hearing his teachings, the recipients of his miracles and healings, and the demonically possessed were from the peasantry of the day. Most of his conflicts came from those who were vested in keeping the Temple’s religious and economic interests or keeping Rome’s vice grip of power on Palestine, Jerusalem, and anywhere else that Rome decided it should have power. <br />
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We learn that the Holy Family is set in a scene not too far off from our own day, the one that perhaps we try to make go away this time of year. We want a reprieve from the bills, the worries about utility costs rising, the deadlines at work, the anxiety of not having a job or at least one that pays a livable wage, the doctor’s report that we didn’t want to hear, the bully that will still be there on the playground when school resumes after New Year’s. The Holy Family becomes that set of parents you know, struggling to make ends meet, hoping that they have enough to care for their newborn, even if they have to go with one less meal themselves.<br />
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Years ago when visiting Ireland, the train we were on loaded up its passengers, and there they were, not “the” Holy Family, but a young family with a little baby, settling into seats near us. The couple could not have been older than perhaps their early 20s, and the baby was not quite a toddler, content to sit on a little table between his parents. For the record, the baby was not a “tiny terror” baby: that child that you somehow get “blessed” to be with on a transatlantic flight, who bellows at high decibel shortly after takeoff and just before landing, or who keeps wondering all over a public event, getting agitated once the parent finally scoops the child up in arms. No, this baby knew he had a good deal. He was cute, and with every burble, every passenger playing “peek-a-boo” with him (myself included), the baby held court among his loyal subjects.<br />
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The train door opened, and a grizzled looking old man, postcard of Ireland perfect, came through the doorway, heading for the diner car just behind us. The guy looked like he was itching for a Guinness and some conversation about the latest football match and his scowl said do not stray him from his task. As he passed the young couple, he stopped in his tracks, and a slight smile creased his wrinkled face. With a long bony finger, he tickled the baby’s chin and the baby gurgled with glee. <br />
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The old man said, “Long life to thee. May ye walk the earth many years.” With that, off he went.<br />
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In the midst of the hubbub of life, in the struggles and challenges of the Holy Family, along comes this elder named Simeon. He spotted them across the courtyard, made his way to them, and as he beheld the infant Jesus; he could not help but burst into song.<br />
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Simeon is described as an elderly man who lived his long, long life “awaiting God to comfort Israel”. He has kept a deep and abiding sense of hope that God would provide for his people. The Greek word for “comfort” is “paraklesis”, which is to say that one has “a sense of an aid or help [that] one [can] lean on”. In another Gospel, Jesus tells his faithful that after He has returned to God, Jesus will send the Holy Spirit to be with them, calling the Spirit the “Paraclete”. Simeon has spent his life not worrying about how things are going, or when things will come crashing down. Simeon has learned to wait upon God.<br />
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Simeon is one of the many faithful folk you encounter while reading the Gospel of Luke. Luke tells us that there was once a father who embraced the prodigal, or God being like a woman who never stops looking for that lost coin. Earlier in the story, Mary sees great promise rather than personal scandal in having a firstborn child with no wedding ring yet. Throughout Luke, the many who eat at table with Jesus and are bedazzled or befuddled by a new worldview beckoning in an after-dinner parable.<br />
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The Gospel of Luke keeps tossing that word paraklesis here and there into the narrative, particularly as it relates to what people ought to be looking for. Jesus claims the rich, the select few “elite”, have to find their comfort. To Jesus, the poor comprised most of his audience, inner circle, and nearly anyone else around. He claims the poor have another sort of gold standard: the kingdom of God, a vision of the world that Jesus’ disciples have continued to seek, live out, and await for two millennia. <br />
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Simeon sees the world with its rough edges, undoubtedly the scars to prove it, just like you and me. He knows that Rome likes to keep control by peace-veiled fear, he knows the Temple itself has become less than what it was intended to be. He knows that this baby will be the great hope he is awaiting as well as one who will suffer mightily in bringing things about. Yet, Simeon knows that in the moment, as well as the beginning and the end, God has the last and abiding wordJerrod H Hugenothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05148268928244793821noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440943994256214136.post-7616634835700548262017-12-27T06:12:00.001-08:002017-12-27T06:14:36.475-08:00Christmas Eve 2017<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Last weekend, I found myself in a similar moment of great anticipation. The lines were long at the movie theatre, but somehow with some friends and my spouse and what seemed to cost about the same as a down payment on the national debt to purchase popcorn and soda, we made it to our seats.<br />
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<em>Star Wars: Episode VIII: The Last Jedi</em> began with the traditional “opening scroll” setting up the story about to unfold, accompanied as always by the powerful overture of maestro John Williams. This time around, the opening scroll talks about the dire circumstances of the Rebels against the First Order, the post-Darth Vader bad guys. The last film in the series left heaviness with the death of a key character and a great deal of loss. <br />
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Yet, the narrator holds out that good word that “a spark of hope” will rekindle the fortunes of the downtrodden. A return of Luke Skywalker might be the ignition that the future needs!<br />
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Throughout the new Star Wars’ film, characters keep talking about hope: its absence and its abundance. They face difficult situations and great threats, yet even in the depths of loss, the characters find something greater. When Luke is found, he is a hermit, living where he would prefer not to be found and resigned that he had failed. For someone thought to be “the” spark of hope, he is just as down and dejected as those who are on the front lines. What will it take? <br />
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For Star Wars, it’s the Force, a somewhat mystical power that solves all manner of plot devices (while creating no end of plot holes, if you talk to the particularly faithful fan base! So the Force is a great human idea, not really anything approaching God’s way of being with us in the world). <br />
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As a Christian believer in the midst of Advent, I could feel an even greater hope stirring within, as pop culture often reflects the glimmerings of what the Gospel reveals in full: despite the world doing its worst, Christ brings us into an abiding, lasting hope and way of living our lives faithfully, boldly and without any fears. Luke’s Gospel shows us the true power in the world, one that has no patience for Empire, nor a desire to be anything like whatever humans could conjure up alone. <br />
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No wonder we believers have such great joy in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, as the hope given has raised up the persecuted, the marginalized and the forgotten, just as surely as Mary’s great song, aka the Magnificat. <br />
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At Christmas Eve, we turn from the lead-up to the great Nativity stories themselves. Boldly, we hear this word: “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom God favors”, is the message of the angels. As for the earthly powers that be, those who see the world as their plaything, it is a word that they would not want to hear, even if the angels showed up in the halls of power rather than the meadows out in a remote place. The ministry of Christ is one that takes each person seriously as God’s beloved, worthy of worth, able to be the glory of God, fully alive, as an early Christian theologian would put it. A spark of divine hope, indeed!<br />
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But how does the believer live in the here and now, where the powers that be would frankly find such talk annoying as it is sort of hard to keep an empire running when the glory is directed elsewhere to a much higher authority (i.e. God who is neither Caesar nor one of many). The Roman Empire plastered every wall with their promise of “Pax Romana”, but any cursory study of Jesus’ day reveals that it was rarely and holistically for every person. (Indeed, Rome was the original Empire that strikes back!) Comparatively, the angels above sing of peace meant for the good of all, not just a politicized commodity that you can control at your whim or to your advantage. <br />
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Thus, that baby in a manger is a contrary word to the world very content to keep to its own devices and vices alike. No matter where you flip through the pages of the gospels, Christ in the manger, Christ and his parables, Christ on the cross, Christ and the empty tomb, all are stories of unexpected twists that God alone brings to the plot of life and the status quo we have come to expect or to which we have resigned ourselves.<br />
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We seek a lot of things in life, sometimes because we want the perfect moment, the right path, or the charmed life. Christ lays flat all these things, asking us to look at the unlikely, the unadorned, and see there in its vulnerable humility all the power and glory in the most hidden of places. Sin can be found frequently in the world’s glittering appeal, yet in the midst of the world came the Word made flesh, nestled into the swaddling clothes that constrain a baby, and by choice, God’s Son come to be with us, Emmanuel.<br />
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That manger may not look like much, but if you look more intently, you will see the very glory of God shining forth as the cattle low, the shepherd bustle in from the hinterlands, and Mary and Joseph marveling at this wee babe born in Bethlehem, destined for Golgotha and here to redeem the world.Jerrod H Hugenothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05148268928244793821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440943994256214136.post-61591992503127981962017-12-01T11:15:00.000-08:002017-12-03T01:06:36.011-08:00Advent One: Turned the Right Way<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">On a walk in my neighborhood this week, I noticed the
lawn and home decorations for Christmas have arrived in earnest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some folks appeared to change to Christmas
just after Halloween, but most waited until Thanksgiving dinner leftovers were
parceled into twelve days of Tupperware.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">One yard had two familiar decorations: an inflatable lawn
ornament and a Nativity set.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For the
former, I find the daytime walk a bit disconcerting, as the family is not home,
so the decoration’s fans are shut off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At
night, you will see a jolly old St. Nick standing on the lawn with a bag of
presents over his shoulder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>During the
day with the power turned off, the decoration’s fabric is a misshapen lump on
the ground, as if Santa stepped out of the sleigh at 30,000 feet and met his
untimely end.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">The grace of the Nativity set thankfully saved me from
other distasteful imaginings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
plastic form of the Holy Family, the Three Kings, a Shepherd and a couple of
cows returned my mind to more sacred matters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">While my beloved New Testament professor Dr. David M. May
(Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City) has reminded a generation
of students each year in the Intro to the Gospels course, the Magi likely did
not arrive anytime close to Jesus’ infancy, nor was it likely that the cows
paid much attention to the family suddenly taking up the corn crib for a
makeshift cradle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<br />
The reality is that the Nativity took place in the midst of an overcrowded
small village, the cacophony of strangers from the hinterlands grumbling about
being summoned by the Romans and laughing uproariously at the inn’s tavern
likely overwhelmed the newborn cry of little baby Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">The Nativity set can be “lawn decoration”, but I
suspicion in our less religiously adherent times, the sight of one usually
marks a household wishing to honor devotion rather than custom or cultural
expectation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nativity sets are not
common in my neighborhood, located in Albany, New York, part of the “Capital
District”, which is one of the leading “less religious” metropolitan areas in
the United States.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Around these parts, beholding the Nativity in front of a
private home tends to signal more intention to share faith than decorate like
the Griswold family of cinematic lore. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Curiously, this Nativity set was arranged differently
than I had seen in the past.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Manger
is at the center, but the “grown-up” characters of Mary, Joseph, the shepherds
and the Magi are not positioned in a way that you might expect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead of sprawled out to show the scene to
the passing car or pedestrian, the figures are focused on the Manger in the
middle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You are more likely see the backs of
some figures, all turned inward to direct one’s gaze to the baby.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">With the candles of Advent ahead of us, the “12 Days of
Christmas” already playing on repeat in the aisles of box stores praying for
your brick and mortar commerce, and the sugar shock of various holiday
gatherings for home, family and workplace still to tempt us into weight gain, I
hope we too will find ourselves turned in the right direction. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Jerrod H Hugenothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05148268928244793821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440943994256214136.post-43570268171359361212017-11-22T11:23:00.000-08:002017-11-26T03:42:26.285-08:00Christ and the Powers that be<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Of late, we have had much conversation about the role of power and authority in the world, mostly because we are looking for better examples of human beings using such things wisely and without grievous result!<br />
<br />
For Christians, we ponder the words of Jesus, who teaches he is “the way, the truth, and the light”. We take strength in this teaching and use it as a compass for our way forward into a world of competition and contradiction. The last Sunday before Advent begins is a celebration of that power: Christ the King, or Ruler, is proclaimed by the church even as the world thinks of Christmas as one long season of retail magic!<br />
<br />
Yet, we must also realize Jesus said these things about power and God's reign in the midst of the same world we know, where some ancient yet distressingly familiar "powers that be" type worldly forces ultimately conspired to do him harm.<br />
<br />
Rome and the Temple have their own teachings, and they are not in step, or in remote agreement, with Jesus’ claim to truth. Jesus is not a king of this world. His disciples will not turn to violence. Indeed, these are strange words for Empire to hear, a kingdom deeply vested in having the right amount of troops, weaponry, and control at all times. <br />
<br />
When brought before the Roman authorities, Jesus found himself with
Pilate, whose questions want to know what sort of king and kingdom Jesus claims. Jesus’ answers are lost on Pilate, as Jesus is not the sort of king of a kingdom that Pilate can understand. Pilate’s career was built upon the dominance of empire. The Temple elite vested their authority through mostly economic maneuverings. In his fine robes, Pilate seems the epitome of “the ways things are to be”, whereas Jesus, roughed up from his captors’ handling, appears to bear the consequence for speaking against “the way things are to be”. <br />
<br />
Indeed, Pilate’s question about kingship is turned to a question of truth. Not the “truthiness” of Empire or Temple, the sort of truth that is good for the moment, Jesus seeks to witness, to embody even, the truth of the world as God intends it to be. The truth of Pilate and the Temple will unveil itself within the next generation as a local uprising will result in the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple itself. As for the Church, the early Christians will experience great hardship and persecution themselves, yet it will be the truth Jesus offers that shall allow them great strength and endurance.
Pilate’s cynicism demonstrates the hard heart of the world. In hearing the truth, Pilate only hears what he wanted to hear. “What is truth?” is not the beginning of a new sort of conscience taking root. Indeed, with a dismissive sneer, Pilate sends Jesus away for the next step toward the cross. <br />
<br />
What sort of people, what sort of “kingdom” is formed by this story? It seems to end with tragedy, yet the gospel reshapes the status quo in the resurrection of Jesus. The kingdoms of Rome and Temple, the “middle men” of Pilate and the Temple elite, shall not stand, even though they seem to hold all of the cards right now. What sort of people does this story intend to empower?
<br />
<br />
I recall the writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German Christian whose career as a gifted theologian and teacher was cut short by the tumult of the Second World War. Bonhoeffer saw the effect of another sort of Empire on the rise, growing in power and might, rising above the reproach of question and fashioning its own “truth” as the way things ought to be. <br />
<br />
While Bonhoeffer would die in the last days of the Second World War at a concentration camp (sentenced to death as part of a failed plot to kill Adolf Hitler), his writings remain as a counter-witness to the powers of his day. While living in the turbulence of the times, Bonhoeffer offered a counter-witness to the “way things are to be” being impressed upon his nation. <br />
<br />
As he taught seminary students in the mid-1930s, he offered lectures that became his book called “Discipleship”. Therein, Bonhoeffer mentions this same Johannine text in passing as he describes what sort of discipleship is required by the gospel. He writes,
“If it engages the world properly, the visible church-community will always more closely assume the form of its suffering Lord” (Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, vol. 4, English translation. Fortress Press, 2003, p. 247-8). <br />
<br />
The same question that confused the powers is the same question that challenges (perhaps “haunts”?) the Church. How do we hear this story? Is through ears and hearts shaped by the world, or by those shaped by the gospel? There are stories at competition within us, being of the world and not of the world. <br />
<br />
What does it mean to take leave of “the ways things are to be” and “more closely assume the form of [our] suffering Lord”?Jerrod H Hugenothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05148268928244793821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440943994256214136.post-67950074605595338992017-10-16T05:46:00.001-07:002017-10-16T05:46:52.901-07:00Building and ReBuilding: A sermon on the occasion of the 200th year of First Baptist Rome, New York<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Preaching at church anniversaries is an occasional duty of Regional ministry, yet I also take great joy in the opportunity! The First Baptist Church of Rome, New York, celebrated its 200th this past Sunday, and this fall, we have also had churches celebrating 175th and 250th anniversaries as well.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The spread of Baptists across New York State is often told in tandem with NYS Civic History. The Erie Canal's 200th anniversary is underway in 2017, and among the festivities and retrospectives is the excellent exhibit at the New York State Museum in Albany, NY: Enterprising Waters New York's Erie Canal. The exhibit will run until October 20, 2019. (For more information, click: <a href="http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/exhibitions/enterprising-waters-erie-canal">http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/exhibitions/enterprising-waters-erie-canal</a>) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">I was invited to speak at the Sunday morning worship service of FBC Rome, and I noted quickly the connection of FBC Rome's formation a few months after the Canal's section in Rome began excavation and construction. I wove the sermon around the theme Scripture: 1 Corinthians 12:4-7, 12-14 along with excerpts from a historian's retelling of the Canal's start in Rome and the memories shared within the church's own historical narrative. My thanks to Rev Cedric Broughton, pastor of FBC Rome, for his work along with the lay leaders serving on the committee for planning a festive celebration in honor of 200 years of ministry and mission!<br />+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> Grace
and peace be with you this day!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am
grateful for the privilege and honor of serving as the preacher for this
celebratory Sunday morning, recalling the past and committing anew to the
future of this congregation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">To
the congregants and friends of First Baptist gathered here this day, to the
clergy past and present, especially Revs. Broughton and Htee Gay, and to your
former minister and later on our Region’s Executive Minister, the Rev. Dr.
William Carlson, I bring greetings to you in the name of Jesus Christ and on
behalf of the 294 churches of our upstate New York regional family.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">With
the words of Paul to the church in Corinth in mind, I begin with a moment taken
from the pages of local history:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">On July 4, 1817, a
boisterous throng of citizens paraded out of their small village in central New
York before sunrise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were armed,
but not for war.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many had been up all
night celebrating the holiday and the impending grand event.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They proceeded to a flat, marshy meadow
studded with hemlock and birch a mile south of town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each carried a shovel. </span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">These
words are from the historian Jack Kelly, who researched the development of the
Erie Canal as well as the changes the Canal project brought to upstate New York
all across its eventual path.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here Kelly
recalls what happened two hundred years ago when the town of Rome, NY, began
its significant contribution to the earliest stages of the Erie Canal’s
excavation and construction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Quotation
above from Kelly, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Heaven’s Ditch: God,
Gold and Murder on the Erie Canal, </i>New York, NY: St Martin’s Press Griffin,
2016, p. 40)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The
year 1817 was a good year also in Rome, as that was the year First Baptist was
founded.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Certainly, Baptists had been
around these parts for years before, but this was the time when a church body
was formally established for the purposes of regular worship. On that day in
October 1817, there was no church building to gather in at the time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Certainly, much work had to be done if the
loosely organized group was ever going to become a church that lasted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Small in number, these faithful folks brought
faith, willingness to serve and their differing skills and talents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For those who endeavored against the odds to
found First Baptist, each carried their faith.</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">From
the church’s history, newly revised for the 200<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> anniversary, we
read:</span></div>
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<span><em>In the summer and
autumn of the year of our Lord, 1817, several members of different Baptist
churches residing in Rome and its vicinity became impressed with an idea that
it would promote the declarative glory of God; the honor of the Redeemer’s
kingdom and their own happiness (If God in His providence should so order the
state of things and prepare the hearts of his children for it) to have a church
formed amongst them. Accordingly, after having given notice in the vicinity,
they met to consult upon it at the schoolhouse in Wright Settlement, Rome on
the 23rd day of October, 1817. The meeting was opened by singing and prayer by
Elder Stark. Brother Simeon Hersey was chosen moderator and Brother James H.
Sherman, Clerk. </em><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>We come today to celebrate the 200<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup>
anniversary of First Baptist, Rome, even as the State celebrates the same
anniversary year for the Erie Canal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One
cannot understand the history of Rome without the Canal, just as surely as
First Baptist cannot tell its story in isolation from being embedded in that
history as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Out of the origins of
spirited collaboration, Rome and this congregation faced the future with great
zeal, with the uncertainty and opportunity that accompanied such risk taking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two hundred years later, with the challenges
and celebrations alike that shape history, we are here looking back with
gratitude and thanksgiving that indeed “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">God
in His providence so order[ed] the state of things and prepare[d] the hearts of
his children for it.” </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Such
splendid language of faith was also needed when the Erie Canal project was
proposed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jack Kelly recounts the
extreme challenge of designing and engineering a canal when no previous attempt
had been successful or enthusiastically supported in the history (to that
point) of the United States.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Indeed, the
canal became known as a gamble on the part of New York State, its chances of
federal funds blocked by President James Madison who vetoed the bill just
before his Presidency ended, citing a disdain for federal funds to be used in
such manner (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Heaven’s Ditch, </i>p. 32).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>New York’s Assembly gave the go-ahead,
entrusting a major project to engineers who were largely self-taught.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Coming to Rome in early July 1817, the
dignitaries realized they were staking their good names on the significant work
that loomed ahead with little assurance of future success, let alone project
completion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Reviewing the project’s
scope, one could identify many variables and unknowns, yet these New Yorkers
dared to try anyway.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The many talents,
the shared willingness to risk against the odds, that’s how the largest canal
project in American history got underway!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In the New Testament, we learn of
the great strength of the Christian church comes from the Spirit gifting each
believer with their own abilities for ministry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Many congregations today struggle to remember this truth faced with
challenges of attendance, building issues and cash flow struggles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The greatest asset of a church is its
willingness to take up the call to follow Jesus and empower each and every
person in the membership to bring what God has given them uniquely and
blessedly for the good of the whole Body.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Paul
writes to the Corinthian Christians, a group that deals with a lot of internal
division and dissension.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Calling the
fragmented factions back together, Paul proclaims,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">
<span class="text"><sup><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: x-small;">4 </span></span></sup></span><span class="text"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Now there are
varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; <sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">5 </span></sup>and there are
varieties of services, but the
same Lord; <sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">6 </span></sup>and there are varieties of activities, but it is
the same God who activates all of them in everyone. <sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">7 </span></sup>To each
is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. <sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">8 </span></sup>To
one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the
utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, <sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">9 </span></sup>to
another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one
Spirit, <sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">10 </span></sup>to another the working of miracles, to another
prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of
tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. <sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">11 </span></sup>All these
are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually
just as the Spirit chooses.</span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">As
Paul tries to sort out the issues afflicting the Corinthians, he wisely works
toward the healing of the whole gathered people. He speaks of gifts for good
reasons. Each Christian is gifted with some talent or ability that contributes
to the furtherance of the work of the Gospel. No one is without usefulness to
the community of faith. No one is “less than” another. It is a remarkable thing
in this world to be told that you have something to offer. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Church may struggle to say that
consistently, graciously and intentionally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We have our good days and our not so good days, but when we are at our
best, we welcome the diversity of gifts rather than narrow it down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For without God and one another, do we really
have a chance of being something greater than an individual or alone?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Meanwhile
back in July 1817, the dignitaries would finish their speaking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The cannons boomed aloud to mark the
moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And then the contractor was
handed a spade to turn the earth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After
he did, “the gesture touched off a frenzy of flying dirt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everyone in attendance began to dig, ‘each
vying with the other’ said the Utica <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Gazette</i>,
in the pure joy of participating in history”(Kelly, p. 41).<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Likewise,
great joy fueled the desire to form a Baptist church in Rome that would come to
be known as “First Baptist, Rome.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Certainly, we tell the story of a congregation sometimes by the litany
of pastors who served and what happened during their tenure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet, in the midst of the “official narrative”,
it is not just the leaders (ordained and lay) who have made a congregation’s
history all alone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To understand a
church’s history, we recall our origins not in 1817, but in the early decades
of the first century, when at the Day of Pentecost, the Spirit of God stirred
up the women and men following Jesus, and the Gospel spread with not frenzy,
but evangelical fervor!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Indeed,
the best parts of a congregation’s history are when you see evidence that the “many
members” of “the Whole Body” become engaged in the ministry of the church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s not meant to be just about the
decisions, committee meetings and official minutes of the Church that tell the
history.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I look especially at
congregational histories to see evidence of when the grit, determination,
cooperation and “pure joy of participating” can be discerned in the midst of
yellowing pages of old minutes, financial ledgers, newsletters, and other
ephemera that collect as a church’s history slowly unfolds.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The story of First Baptist, Rome,
continues to be written.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even in the
past twenty five years since your 175<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> anniversary observance, your
church has encountered challenges (building issues, changing community and its
effect on church attendance).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet,
you’ve been blessed like other parts of the Mohawk Valley with the influx of
new settlers, coming not from places like Wales and other European contexts two
hundred years ago, but from Myanmar and Thailand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Welcoming the Karen as part of your
fellowship and Htee Gay to your pastoral staff likely was not something you
would have predicted in 1992 when the church gathered for its last “big
anniversary”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Celebrating today, First Baptist,
Rome, can count its blessings while acknowledging the challenges that come
inevitably with time’s passage and a community’s economic and social
changes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Your church has been the
spiritual home of canal diggers, foundry workers, military families stationed
nearby, merchants, homemakers, students and people starting life anew from
other places far beyond the Erie Canal’s path. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Blessings upon blessings upon blessings!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Can
we just let that wonderful word soak in for a moment?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Imagine with me what has come before:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">All
of those wonderful folks who loved the Lord, who loved this congregation and
what the church could do for Christ and the world, we remember the two hundred
years now coming to a close<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">And
then can we look to the future, seeing challenge and opportunity alike,
realizing that God has gifted this church with the great potential of each and
every member who chooses to share their gifts and open up possibilities for
others to exercise their own individual gift for the greater good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In such moments, we look to the future just
like those folks in October 1817, knowing that God continues providentially to
“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">order the state of things and prepare
the hearts of [all God’s] children for it.” <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">++++++++++++++<br />
Recommended resources:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">A
short history of the NY State Canals:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="https://www.canals.ny.gov/history/history.html"><span style="color: blue;">https://www.canals.ny.gov/history/history.html</span></a></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Kelly,
Jack.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Heaven’s Ditch: God, Gold and Murder on the Erie Canal. </i>(New York,
NY: St Martin’s Press Griffin, 2016).</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">A
website related to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Heaven’s Ditch:</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="https://heavensditch.com/"><span style="color: blue;">https://heavensditch.com/</span></a>
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
Jerrod H Hugenothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05148268928244793821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440943994256214136.post-47853083134763247442017-09-25T05:51:00.000-07:002017-09-25T05:53:46.771-07:00Generation to Generation (Psalm 145)<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-V98juUT17ko/Wcj7h4nzkMI/AAAAAAAABCY/e69yW1NBMFEkGuFMxiHZD34oINcP220MwCLcBGAs/s1600/572054-L.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-V98juUT17ko/Wcj7h4nzkMI/AAAAAAAABCY/e69yW1NBMFEkGuFMxiHZD34oINcP220MwCLcBGAs/s200/572054-L.jpg" /></a><br />
<em>As the fall is underway (though this weekend up in the 80s/low 90s seemed to contradict), churches return to "active mode" with their schedules and programming. As it happens, the Revised Common Lectionary suggests the 145th Psalm for the last Sunday of September, so I preached on this text as part of my visit to the First Baptist Church of Ossining, NY, ministering in a diverse community along the Hudson, just about 20 miles north of the NYC line.</em><br /><br />(READ PSALM 145)<br /><br />In some Christian churches, I could ask this question: What is the chief end of man [humanity]? Many in the congregation reply: “To glorify God and enjoy God forever.”<br />
How did they know this? Thanks to catechism.<br />
<br />While we Baptists might associate the word catechism more with Catholicism, a number of Protestant traditions use catechism as well, particularly in the Reformed traditions, especially Presbyterians and Lutherans. Catechism sets up a series of questions and answers for Christians to learn the vocabulary of faith and the beliefs central to Christianity. The question about “the chief end of humanity”, our identity and destiny, appears as Question #1 in some catechisms. <br /><br />So, why is this brief handful of words considered so great, so central to what it means to be Christian? To give God due praise and glory means that no other shall receive your faithfulness and dedication. God alone receives our praise and glory, and our understanding of life cannot be without a sense of humility that we exist not for ourselves. Such a faith is unflinching in its theism (i.e. there is a God) and its willingness to say that we give our trust and allegiance to God alone.<br />
In the midst of our lives, such talk may sound too lofty or worse, detached from the life we know. To say that humanity’s very reason for being, our reason for being is to praise God is even difficult. We typically struggle with questions of life, trying to sort out the puzzles and the pain of human existence however the plain-spoken words of this question and answer ought to cause some troubling in your soul. Such thinking calls our bluff and asks us to think about what we really mean when we say we are believers. Is this conversation this morning a “nice thought” meant as a Sunday morning listening yet lost in the shuffle of the other six days of the week, or does this question illumine the faith of Christianity, with its way of discipleship that asks very hard questions of us? <br /><br />Answering with “to glorify God and enjoy God forever” is harder than just learning and repeating these words. To live it out means you commit to living out faith daily. Somehow, in the whirlwind of family and deadlines, in the midst of the headlines of the world and the headlines of your little corner of the world, such belief is a tall order. How does one learn such a way of life? And more to the point, can you risk life by living that way?<br />
In the midst of the world, in the great times of trial, the praise of God can take place in every season of life, and it is indeed fitting for us to do so. Giving praise to God is in part a realization that our lives twist and turn, and often without much warning, yet we still recognize the goodness that God intends for the world, even when we cannot see much of it ourselves. <br />
Christians believe that in the end, whether it is our own or that of this world, God shall have the last word. God shall make all things well. As Augustine said, restless hearts will find their rest in God. To give praise to God, even in the midst of your worst days, understands our lives so much differently, cast not to the winds, but in loving trust of the One who has made us. <br />
Appropriately, the 145th Psalm raises up a long liturgy of praise. Of all the psalms, many of which call us to praise, this one begins with a self-description. Rather than perhaps “a psalm of David” common for many psalms, the superscription, or title, is simply tehillah, or in English: “Praise”. The psalmist just leaves it at that: “this one…it is praise.” To understand this psalm, you need not look any further than this one word: “praise”. <br /><br />Down the centuries, a rabbinical tradition arose, stating, “Every [person] who repeats the Tehillah [praise] of David thrice a day may be sure he is a child of the world to come” (cited Mays, <em>Psalms,</em> Interpretation, 1994, p. 437) Reading this psalm, measuring its words with your heart and mind, is offered as a good word, one that guides you through this life, helping you know your identity against all the other claims of the world to tell you who you are. One could rail against rote (indeed, catechism is often criticized as rote faith), yet in the repetition, if you look closely, you shall find a rhythm worth taking up in your own life. In reading this psalm in times of sorrow, in times of joy, in the midst of disaster and when going to bed after a ho-hum day, this psalm keeps turning us back to our reason for being.<br /><br />In the midst of this psalm, we find the same wisdom that prompted the later Christian observation that the chief end of humanity is to glorify God and enjoy God forever. The life we live ought to be a life of praise, yet not one that is trite or errs on the side of living faith as if it is “magic” (if I pray or live a certain way, I’ll get a free pass from the unpredictable part of human existence). This sort of praise is meant for those who have diplomas from the School of Hard Knocks. The psalms reflect ancient Israel’s own story, shaped as much by pathos as praise, as much about lament as hope. And in the midst of the collection, we are offered a psalm that points to the life we know as well as the life to come. <br /><br />We have a holy calling to be involved in the education and upbringing of each child and youth in our congregations. After all, we did not learn the ways of faith alone. We too are the product of the investment and love of generations who have gone on before us. In turn, we share the faith, and hopefully take it very, very seriously as a key investment in what it means to be a congregation. Each of us is responsible for sharing faith and helping our children and youth know that life may be complex, life may even get deeply sorrowful, yet there is a world to come that is worth living and a great calling to live this life fully. This is not just the work of Sunday school teachers. This is not just the work of a Christian education board. This is not just the work of a pastor. It is the responsibility of each one of us to be invested in children, whether just learning to walk, or starting to bridge across the stages of life. You have the wonderful challenge of “being there” for our kids! <br /><br />I remember very well the witness of grown-ups who made the faith come alive. Teaching a Sunday School class, helping train me to be an usher, welcoming my voice (going through puberty even) into the choir, asking good questions and acknowledging me in the room as the young kid, the moody teenager, the young adult (with the assurance of knowing all things despite knowing very little). I was blessed by those who remembered their faith was not just “theirs” to have, but to share and kindle anew a spark, a flame and a love of God made known through Jesus Christ.<br /><br />We did not use catechism, so “to glorify God and enjoy God forever” did not get communicated by a standardized teaching. Yet it was there, so when I read what other Christians were taught, I could agree with the good word it imparted. I had seen it lived out in the lives of the church folk who helped raise me up in the faith. I could savor the words of “glorifying and enjoying God forever” as words of faith, not only passed down to me but kept by me as words that anchor me. And today, I share the faith with you through my preaching and through our connections together through the American Baptist tradition and our ministry together as fellow American Baptists in upstate New York.<br /><br />Sometimes, people will pick up on the fact I do not sound like I’m from the Northeast. (This accent is not from the Bronx nor is it from Maine, so I do “sound funny” pretty much at the outset of talking aloud to folks out here.) The question gets asked, “How did somebody from Kansas get out here?” (I suspicion I would be believed if I casually said it was due to a tornado and some winged monkeys.)<br />
To answer that question is not about “jobs” or “opportunities”. I begin not with a roadmap or some GPS directions. I share that I am here thanks to first learning of the faith from a little Methodist church in a rural Kansas farming community. Later on, my family joined the local American Baptist church, especially for myself and my dad that day in 1984 through confession of faith, profession of Christ as Lord and going fully into the waters of baptism. How I wound up here today is a long journey that is still unfolding, still being discovered, somewhat on my own and somewhat on the way along with the gathered people called “Church”. Without a doubt, I can look back at that history thus far and say, “Praise be to God!” And I know I’m simply joining the rest of the choir, generations present, down the centuries of the past and with those who I hope will hear this sermon today and decide to join along this journey of faith!<br /><br />Wherever we go in our lives, no matter how our lives play out in one time or another during the seasons of life, we are best known not as people with a list of successes or failures to our name. We are a people who know where we are going and what we should be doing in the times in between. We are a people called to a singular way of life, to praise God now and forevermore.Jerrod H Hugenothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05148268928244793821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440943994256214136.post-46811211392319623632017-08-13T18:12:00.006-07:002017-08-13T18:12:59.753-07:00Clarence Jordan's great disappointmentEarlier this weekend, I shared on social media:<br />
<br />
As clergy prepare for another difficult day in Charlottesville and silence (not even a little bluster!) is likely from high places in our government, I recall this observation from Clarence Jordan. In his efforts to support integration in 1950s Georgia, Jordan had run-ins with the KKK and local authorities who wanted to perpetuate racial inequality, but his great sadness was the difficulty of being rejected by fellow Baptists and other Christians in southern churches:<br />
<br />
"I would rather face the frantic, childish mob, even with their shotguns and buggy whips, than the silent, insidious mob of good church people who give their assent to boycott and subtle psychological warfare."<br />
<br />
Jordan was nearly killed a number of times in his life by people driving by in the middle of the night, shooting at the family home, yet it was the silence of the Church that was worse.<br />
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Lord, have mercy.Jerrod H Hugenothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05148268928244793821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440943994256214136.post-19500837900994730322017-08-11T08:20:00.000-07:002017-08-11T08:20:06.300-07:00A word on restraintThis week, we have watched the news clips of the leaders of two nations exchanging words that certainly escalate the chances of tension. As I watched and indeed prayed my way through the headlines and the push notifications of news updates on my iPhone (with two major newspapers I follow sending notices within seconds of one another), I hear the words being said, and I keep slipping back to some other words.<br />
<br />
From a sermon on Matthew 27:47-56, the late preacher Fred B. Craddock of Candler School of Theology (Atlanta, GA), told of his trip to Seoul, South Korea, at the request of the U.S. government. In his remarkable sermon "He Could Have But He Didn't" (published in <i>The Collected Sermons of Fred B. Craddock, </i>Westminster/John Knox Press, 2011), we read of this experience (pp. 101-2):<br />
<br />
<i>"Twenty-five years ago, something like that, what's a year, I think it's twenty-five years ago that I was asked to speak at a president's prayer breakfast. At that time, these prayer breakfasts were held in this country and around the world where we had troops and consulates. I got a letter from Washington asking me if I would hold one of these. I said I would and they said the place we want you to go is Seoul, South Korea. "Well, sure, I'll just stop by on my way to Candler." But I was glad to go and I went.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>The general in charge, and my host, was General Stilwell, four stars. He gathered officers and enlisted people in this large room and we had the president's prayer breakfast. We had a nice breakfast and then we had prayers. It was not just prayers in name only. The general's assistant, a colonel, had the soldiers there enter into a period of sentence prayers. I really was surprised. I associate sentence prayers with an old Wednesday night service somewhere in the country. They had sentence prayers for mothers and fathers and sisters and babies and for my wife back home and for peace in the world, moving prayers.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>There was a young man brought in from Formosa, a private who played the bagpipe. He played "Amazing Grace" on the bagpipe just before I spoke. The general sat there with tears and he said, "I love that song."</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>I spoke; he and I talked awhile. There was a benediction; the room began to empty. I shook hands with the general and thanked him for his gracious hospitality. He said, "I want you to remember us in prayer."</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>And I said, "I will, you know I will."</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>He said, "Not for more power, we have the power. We could just one afternoon destroy this whole place. Pray that we have the restraint appropriate." </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>[....]</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>When I left the room everybody was gone except the general and his aide, a colonel who said, "General, shall I bring the car around?"</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>He said, "Not now, I want to sit here awhile. And he asked the private from Formosa to stay and the young man did, of course. When I looked back before I went outside, there was the general seated alone in this big room. There was a private out in front of him playing on the bagpipe "Amazing Grace". </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Now isn't that a picture? Four stars shining, listening to a voice of restraint."</i>Jerrod H Hugenothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05148268928244793821noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440943994256214136.post-7029207519887608822017-07-28T09:09:00.000-07:002017-07-28T09:09:03.909-07:00The Path of Life (Psalm 16)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
The 16<sup>th</sup> Psalm revolves around the question of trust. In the end, where do we place our trust? While the word “trust” does not appear in the actual Psalm, the idea of trust permeates the text. The psalmist celebrates trust, placing his life and wellbeing in the hands of God. No matter what happens, no matter what may befall, the psalmist is content to seek his life in God’s care. He calls out: “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you”. The psalmist has cast his lot with God, and nothing shall shake him from this resolve.</div>
<br />
At this point, I know there are those who read this and harbor a thought or two along the vein of “Yeah, right”. And that person might be in the majority. Trust can be a tall order in our American culture. Gallup opinion polls regularly chart the decline of public trust, especially among persons considered historically trustworthy. Trust in institutions, authority and high profile individuals have eroded greatly.<br />
<br />
When it comes to trust, the conventional wisdom of our culture runs along these lines: Trust can be broken as soon as it is said to be given. Trust can be offered only to find it left in tatters. If you are too free with your trust, you might run into trouble of all sorts. The best word on trust appears to be this observation: “Trust: It’s the hardest to earn; it’s the easiest to lose.”<br />
<br />
So what should we make of this psalm with its enthusiastic word about trust in God? Is it the word of some young writer, composing a song about life, though the psalmist is somebody still wet behind the years? Does the psalm tether to a reality that you believe possible?<br />
<br />
Let me tell you about one young person of faith who taught me a bit about trust. I met him only briefly, yet he left such an impression. He was a young Baptist minister who pastored a very unique congregation. From Liberia, the pastor was part of a temporary refugee camp. Political upheaval caused this pastor and hundreds of others to flee their country.<br />
<br />
The pastor came to the Baptist World Alliance meeting being held that year in Ghana. He was invited to speak, thought it took much difficulty to procure a “day pass” so the pastor could attend. This refugee camp was fraught with anxiety. Politically, the UN and Ghana's government kept wrangling over how long the refugee camp could stay open. The refugee camp had very little clean drinking water, let alone enough water to meet basic hygiene and sanitation standards. The pastor shared that among his fellow refugees, they had little knowledge of what would happen once the camps were closed. To many in the camp, returning to their home country itself was not of high attraction.<br />
<br />
Curiously, the refugee camp pastor exuded a remarkable level of calm and grace. He told stories of the church he planted in the midst of the refugee camp, creating a place for the people to gather to sing, to pray, and to support one another. The gathering would scatter in a few weeks or months when the UN shut the camp down, yet something remarkable happened as the people gathered in the mud or the dust, even as they worried about their political future, or the lack of a decent meal. The worship at this church for refugees offered them a connection beyond any political map or governmental power. It may not have seemed the most tangible some days, yet they had called upon God, upon whom they placed their trust.<br />
<br />
That day I heard a word about “trust” come to life.<br />
<br />
Rather appropriately, I note that the 16<sup>th</sup> Psalm’s placement in the collection of psalms itself appears to be a little editorial license at work. The 13<sup>th</sup> psalm is one of complaint. The next psalm softens in tone a bit. By the time the 16<sup>th</sup> psalm appears, the psalms have moved from edginess to reverence. We read these psalms one after the other and find something of our own life story in this movement from complaint to confidence.<br />
<br />
Even when we claim to be ardent in our love of God and take pride that we keep the faith, we find ourselves sometimes rattled by life circumstances going well beyond our control or go through times when there’s not much hope in sight. On such days, we find ourselves closer to the psalms of complaint or lament rather than psalms centering on the praise of God or trust in God. Yet, the Psalter reminds us that there is a word to the otherwise. You can find lament and pain, suffering and weariness in this life, yet there is also the grace notes of faith, love, and hope to be found as well.<br />
<br />
I wonder if this psalm reflects life so well that its celebration of deep trust in God while still living in the world that this psalm is better understood as the word given by an old woman or man to the rest of us young whippersnappers. There is a certain world-weary (or better said, world-wise) tone that I hear in the text. The psalm arises from a voice wise to the ups and downs of human life, knowing the sorrow, the frustration and the yearning that things played out differently. The psalmist’s rather radical assertion that God alone is the source of one’s identity is a less than subtle word of challenge to anyone who says otherwise.<br />
<br />
The preacher William Sloane Coffin, Jr. spent the last few years of his life knowing that his health was declining, yet he outlived his doctor’s prognoses enough that it became a little joke that he kept having “one last time” visits more than once with his friends. <br />
<br />
Speaking of death and the end of life, the old preacher observed that he found his last years bringing a change to his attitude and outlook. He proclaimed this good word:<br />
<br />
<em>Although still outraged by callous behavior, particularly in high places, I feel more often serene, grateful for God’s gift of life. For the compassions that fail not, I find myself saying daily to my loving Maker, “I can no other answer make than thanks, and thanks, and ever thanks.</em>Jerrod H Hugenothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05148268928244793821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4440943994256214136.post-35458510502719670332017-07-14T06:06:00.001-07:002017-07-14T06:06:02.812-07:00The Strength & Splendor of Belief: Words for Consolation<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZwlvwCRGHpg/WWjBohboOXI/AAAAAAAABBI/fa_PnYvRaG4zU87m4nGGbyyov9DEddRbgCLcBGAs/s1600/funeral-lily.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="424" data-original-width="283" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZwlvwCRGHpg/WWjBohboOXI/AAAAAAAABBI/fa_PnYvRaG4zU87m4nGGbyyov9DEddRbgCLcBGAs/s320/funeral-lily.jpg" width="213" /></a><em>Last week, I shared a gem of a story from Dr. Fred B. Craddock. His stories never fail to inspire and stir the heart! (Indeed, the feedback from last week's post has been quite wonderful as colleagues have learned of this particular story for the first time or joined me in giving thanks yet again for Craddock's insight as he learned around a baptism service that included a camp fire and a square dance!)</em><br />
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<em>I was looking for some good words with the preaching task at hand for the upcoming Sunday. Recently, one of our Region pastors had a young adult son die of cancer. As part of the care of the pastor, his family and congregation, I offered to preach on the next available Sunday, which happened to be the day after the same church sanctuary held the son's funeral, officiated by his father the pastor. Preaching for a colleague is part of the ministry work we do, though I imagine from my own experiences of being kin as well as the officiating clergy, it's good to have an opportunity to sit in the pews without the pressure to be in the pulpit immediately the next day.</em><br />
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<em>I shared a passage from Romans 8:31-39 as my New Testament reading. Here's what I shared on last Sunday morning:</em><br />
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In 1972, Fred Pratt Green wrote the hymn entitled: “How Blest Are They Who Trust in Christ.” In the last verse, Green ends with some words that I wish to use as this sermon’s beginning words:<br />
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<em>In Christ, who tasted death for us,</em></div>
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<em>We rise above our natural grief,</em></div>
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<em>And witness to a stricken world</em></div>
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<em>The strength and splendor of belief.</em></div>
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Over the last few days, I imagine you have been feeling, well,…. I suppose the options to finish this sentence to describe our feelings range from descriptors like: numbed, shaken, bereft, stunned, pained, and the list goes on, multiplied by the number of hearts deeply grieved by the death of Jake. When Death comes, grief follows, and we struggle to put words together to express what we feel. And, at the end of things, we find some respite in just being silent and still, pondering the past few days.<br />
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In sorting out our thoughts, we turn to the wisdom of sacred text, allowing the ancient cadence of Scripture to provide a rhythm to help us reclaim a measure of hope and grace. I find myself wading into the language of Pauline epistles, which may be an odd place to start. Sometimes, we forget that Paul wrote his various letters not so much for teaching for belief, but in the task of helping churches understand, often in the midst of deep conflict, how their faith called them to live a life together in Christ. In Paul’s letters, we are richly reminded that there is a great strength in the various people called “Church.”<br />
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We gather each week in this sacred house of worship, seeking a little respite from the rigors of our lives, yet during a week like this, with a great loss felt deeply within our fellowship, perhaps we sit in the pews feeling shaken as well. I find in the midst of such times to recall Paul’s words to the church at Rome. Despite anything and everything that could go wrong, God does not abandon us. “Nothing” separates us from the love we know in Christ Jesus.<br />
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Charles Spurgeon, the great British Baptist preacher of the 19th century, had a personal motto: "<em>Teneo et tenor</em>". For those of us (myself included) who did not grow up learning Latin (short of the variant known as "pig"), the phrase means "I hold, and I am held". The saying is depicted in a stained glass panel in the Baptist ministry training school bearing his name in London. It depicts one hand reaching up and another hand coming down to clasp it. "I hold and I am held". Indeed, “Nothing” separates us from Christ. <br />
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Many years ago, I attended Spurgeon's College for a semester, so my wife and I worshipped with various British Baptist churches. One common practice among these churches involved the benediction that was given each Sunday. The minister or worship leader would invite the congregation to say the benediction. The first couple of times, we were befuddled, as the churchgoers did not bow their heads. Instead, they looked around the room at one another, reciting together this verse of scripture: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with us all.”<br />
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This practice of saying this verse together is a remarkable reminder of what draws a congregation together. While we are different in many ways, we are drawn together by a common confession and desire to follow God, known to us as Father, Son, and Spirit. Our congregation is shaped by grace, love, and fellowship given to us by God. We experience this especially at times when we face challenges and shoulder burdens alongside one another. Especially these days, Ed and Chris have endured much this week. Such is the nature of "church", where we share the pain of loss with them, and many of you have brought food, cards, words of care, and love along with you. <br />
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<em>It was the custom in that church at Easter to have a baptismal service, and my church immerses and it was held as baptismal service in Watts Barr Lake on Easter evening at sundown. Out on a sand bar, I — with the candidates for baptism — moved into the water and then they moved across to the shore where the little congregation was gathered singing around a fire and cooking supper. They had constructed little booths for changing clothes with blankets hanging, and — as the candidates moved from the water — they went in and changed clothes and went to the fire in the center. And finally — last of all — I went over, changed clothes, and went to the fire. </em><br />
<em>Once we were all around the fire, this is the ritual of that tradition. Glen Hickey — always Glen — introduced the new people: gave their names, where they lived, and their work. Then the rest of us formed a circle around them, while they stayed warm at the fire.</em><br />
<em><br />And the ritual was each person in the circle gave her or his name and said this, <br />“My name is ____, and if You ever need somebody to do washing and ironing...” <br />“My name is ____ if You ever need anybody to chop wood...” <br />“My name is ____ if You ever need anybody to baby-sit...” <br />“My name is ____ if You ever need anybody to repair Your house...”<br />“My name is ____ if You ever need anybody to sit with the sick...” <br />“My name is ____ if You ever need a car to go to town...” <br /><br />And around the circle, and then we ate, and then we had a square dance. And, at a time they knew — I didn’t know, Percy Miller — with thumbs in his bibbed overalls — would stand up and say, “It’s time to go.” </em><br />
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<em>And everybody left, and Percy lingered behind and — with his big shoe — kicked sand over the dying fire. And my first experience of that, he saw me standing there, still. And he looked at me and said, “Craddock, folks don’t ever get any closer than this.” <br /><br />In that little community, they have a name for that. I’ve heard it in other communities, too. In that community, their name for that is “church.” They call that “church.”</em> (<em>Craddock Stories</em>, by Fred B. Craddock, edited by Richard Ward and Mike Graves, Chalice Press, p. 152)<br />
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Once I visited a family who also lost a son unexpectedly. As we drew the visit to a close, I said, “Please know that the church is concerned for you and will support you in this time.” The father said, “After the past few days, that is more than evident.” <br />
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Such is the nature of "church". Little by little, even in ways we do not quite realize are graceful moments when we feel nothing but fumbling for the right words or if it's alright to offer a hug, in our own way, we have lived out the grace, love, and fellowship of our faith. Thanks be to God.Jerrod H Hugenothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05148268928244793821noreply@blogger.com0