One Month to Live

Part II:  Live Passionately!



               Years ago, I served as a chaplain intern at VCU hospital.  Every day, I saw something new.  One of the premier things that I have never forgotten was a conversation with a Catholic priest I met while I was there.  He worked specifically with all the HIV/AIDS patients.  This was 1989, and the world of AIDS was different.  In those days, a diagnosis was a death sentence.  This particular priest worked with all those troubled, typically young males, who were facing their impending death.

               One day he told me about one of his patients.  In a surprising way, this particular man spoke of the blessing of his disease.  The priest asked him more about this, what he meant, and this man said this: “Everyone in the world has a bullet headed straight for their forehead.  I am blessed because I can see it coming, and I can get ready for it.”

               That dying man’s perspective speaks to our current Lenten sermon series. Hopefully by now, you know about our theme for these forty days.  Basically, we are asking ourselves the question, “If I had one month to live, what would I change about my life?”

               It is an appropriate question for Lent.  The ashes of Ash Wednesday are there to remind us that we are mortal.  All of us will go the way of the earth one day.  But the purpose of these forty days of self-examination is not solely upon the dark and gloomy.  They are here to point us to Jesus, and his journey to the cross.  In his death, he found and offered new life.  Death to self became a vehicle for life for us. 

               And so we follow him with the same perspective.  By facing our mortality, we actually find new life for us individually and even for the people around us.  Each week, we are looking at different ways that we might face our limits, and live differently right now.

               This weekend, we are recognizing that many of us would like to live more passionately.  All too often, especially as we grow older, we drift to the safe and moderate middle.  That may be a good thing in some places, like politics and other categories, but it is a dangerous place spiritually.  Spiritual passion may scare us, and to be sure, that have been places where it has gone astray.  But this weekend, we are going to take a look at Peter, the man who was moved by the appearance of Jesus on those waves, and found his passion carrying him out of the boat and on to the water.  Could we find this same Jesus and those same sure steps today?

               Come to worship on Saturday and Sunday, and we will speak of this some more.  See you there!!

Pastor Pete

The Church is Beautiful

The Church is Beautiful



This weekend, we will be concluding our five week "Lessons From the Road" sermon series around the country.  This has been a great series and I have really enjoyed your comments and feedback.  Thanks so much!  We will finish up  with two stops in Detroit and New York City. 

I was struck with my time in these two cities, but especially during my few days in Detroit.  As most are aware, the city of Detroit has not fared well during these last years.  The region has suffered dramatically from our recent recession.  It is one thing to read about it in the headlines, but it is another entirely to spend a few days there.  While there are still remnants of the glory days of old, for the most part, driving the streets of Detroit and its suburbs is stark.  Businesses are closed or closing, signs are falling down, streets are in disrepair, and there exists a general sense that this community is on the downhill side of the graph.

In contrast, I had the privilege of meeting an incredible church just outside of the city limits: Redford Aldersgate United Methodist.  They invited me to their Wednesday night dinner and Bible study, and I had the opportunity to meet their pastor, Jeff Nelson.  The contrast of the church and the surroundings was simply phenomenal.  There was life everywhere.  The night was filled with laughter, stories, and radical hospitality and generosity with me as a visitor.  More importantly, while the majority of the city is moving out of downtown, this church is moving in, with new ministries and even planting a new church in ground zero of the urban evacuation.

All of this offers a reminder of which we will speak this week.  In the midst of the world’s problems and struggles, the church is beautiful.  Certainly, the church has its scars and sins, but it doesn’t change the fact that when you read the Bible, our risen Lord looks at us and our future, and sees the church with eyes of beauty. 

When we, like that little church in Detroit, live up to that beauty, we shine in the midst of all that human pain and suffering.  I invite you to come and join us in worship on Sunday.  We will speak more of this beauty with this story and another like it in New York City.  In all the ugliness that we see in this world each day, we can all use a reminder that despite us, the church is still beautiful.   See you in worship,

Pastor Pete

This past Sunday in worship, I spoke about my visit to Shreveport, Louisiana and how inspired I was when I met Donnie Brook, an incredible woman with a heroic story. 

We were also reminded that according to a Gallup survey, Shreveport is the most "Christian" city in the United States.  Specifically, 98% of those surveyed indicated that they were Christian.  This topped every other locality in the country.

This Sunday, we are going to change gears pretty rapidly.  I am going to share my experiences on the West Coast, in San Francisco and Seattle.  In contrast to Shreveport, they are the most un-churched cities in the country.  I am looking forward to sharing some stories of two churches who have found way to do ministry in the midst of challenges that we, at the edge of the Bible belt, may struggle to comprehend.

To understand their world, I am looking forward to discussing a passage in the book of Ezekiel.  In the eleventh chapter, God promises that he "will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh"  How does God do this?  We don't necessarily have to travel to the West Coast to deal with this.  Every one of us have met folks with that heart of stone.  Sometimes we meet that heart when we look in the mirror!  As we will see, right here is God's greatest miracle; changing out our hard hearts and softening them into something that carries the hope and compassion of Jesus himself.

As we will see, there is a lot of "hardness" to the world of ministry on the West Coast.  But we will also remember that our neighbors in the West don't have a monopoly on those hard hearts.  Jesus has plenty of work to do on us.  Come join us on Sunday morning and we will talk about this some more.

See you in worship!
Pastor Pete