Through Stained Glass: A Mid-Week Reflection-Clutter

Stuff.

If you’re like me, you have a lot of it.

It seems as if every nook and cranny is an invitation for me to stow papers and trinkets; even clothes sometimes. When those spaces get too full, I often find myself browsing a thrift store looking for a piece of furniture to store or display the stuff I have.

This past winter when I was having a moment, one of those when nothing I put on worked, I caught myself standing in the middle of a giant pile of clothes. It looked as if my closest had vomited every article of clothing I owned onto my bedroom floor.

That is when it hit me… No, really, the shelf that held my dress shirts broke and hit me in the head…

I had too many clothes.

For Lent, I decided to go through my closest and dresser and get rid of one article of clothing per day. I wanted to simplify my life.

So I had a hard talk with each item.

From my very first bow tie to the sweatshirt I had to have in college, each one went through the examination. I remembered when and where I bought the item or who gave it to me. Some items I needed to get rid of simply because, well, the hole under the armpit was larger than the neckline.

Ultimately, I asked the same two questions, “Do I really need this? Do I still have a use for it?”

Fifty articles of clothing were eventually purged from my closest and donated to the Clothing Closet that our church is hosting this weekend.

If I am honest with you, this was kind of a difficult task. Many of the dress shirts brought back memories. Many of my sweatshirts flooded my mind with memories of those long weekend getaways with friends. That holy pair of jeans (that ended up in the garbage and not at the Clothing Closet) reminded me of one of the best days of fishing I ever had.

But here is the deal, friends, the impulse to save, to make do, to find a use for things, can get out of hand. And the irony of saving things is that we accumulate so much stuff that we forget what’s there and end up buying duplicates.

Like three Chicago Cubs sweatshirts; five fleece button down up shirts; thirteen pairs of jeans (I am not proud of this); and 30+ neckties. I am still working on letting go of my many pairs of shoes. Especially those baseball shoes I have had for ten years…and I’ve only worn a dozen times…but one day I will coach again…and one day I might just need them…you know, to preach in?!?!

What sparked this issue for me is the realization of how much stuff I have and how much I depend on that stuff. I have a lot of books. While I read most of them, there is also a part of me that uses these books to impress people who see them.

Here’s the deal, our possessions may be precious to us; they may even have a lot of power over us. And they may even have a lot of meaning (like that black flannel shirt I have that once belonged to my late uncle. Though it is two sizes too big, I will NEVER get rid of it…).

But my favorite Cubs coffee mug, all those books, all those bow ties, all those (insert those items you have a tendency to collect) aren’t the ruach of God, the breath of God.

God gifted us with all we need and then asked us to take care of it. Part of this call means to be good stewards:  use only what we need and share because with God, there is enough for everyone.

Our stuff is meant to bring us joy and life.

If it doesn’t, if it gets in the way, perhaps it is time to share it with someone else.

There is freedom in letting go.

Or as Quaker theologian Richard Foster has boldly said, “The goal of work is not to gain wealth and possessions, but to serve the common good and bring glory to God.”

To bring glory to God means to make God’s presence known.

Stuff can get in the way of this.

But stuff can also add to it.

I guess the choice is ours!

Through Stained Glass: A Mid-Week Reflection-speak

speak

Sometimes a picture speaks a thousand words.

Pablo Picasso said this about pictures, “Every now and then one paints a picture that seems to have opened a door and serves as a stepping stone to other things.” 

The same can be said about photographs.

Like this one: 

So much is communicated in this photo.

What do you see?

What do you feel?

This image has become the image of the church for me. This is what we are to be about. This is how we are to live and be in the world. This is our mission.

While there are some of us complaining about making cakes and others about what is or isn’t love, this is happening.

A visible display of God’s love, Christ’s trust, and the Spirit’s presence captured in a simple moment between 2 people.

Beautiful.

And I want you to know this:

You

                  Yes you.

                                             Stop what you’re doing for a moment.

Listen.

                  Be still.

                                             You are loved like this.

Welcome.

                  Home.

                                             Child of God, you are enough.

Christ waits for you with arms open and with a tenderness to calm your fears.

You belong.

You are loved.

You are wanted.

You are not alone.

God loves you, exactly as you are.

Look again at the photo.

If you are hurting, let us hold you.

If you are not feeling well, let us heal you.

If you are down, lets us help you up.

If you are lost, let us walk you home.

You are not alone.

You

         Are

                  Loved.

Through Stained Glass: A Mid-Week Reflection-Street Celebration

Street Celebration

My dad loves to tell stories.

Now granted, most of them require a LOT of creativity.

Like the one about how he invented snowboarding…

In downtown Peoria…

On Marquette Street…

In the 60’s…

Oh, when you have time, ask him about his decade long reign as the checkers king of Marquette Street.

Whether or not he intends to be, my dad is a master storyteller.

As a boy I always loved it when he told stories about the block parties his neighborhood threw. While I can’t remember exactly what he said, I remember the pictures that were painted in my head. Actually, what I am probably imagining is the 4^th of July scene from the 3^rd greatest movie of all time, The Sandlot.

What I remember picturing in my head was children playing in the streets—whiffle ball or that game y’all refer to as kick-the-can (and I’m certain if you ask my dad if he played those games, he’d tell you yes and how he was the champ of those as well…)—while their parents sit in their aluminum lawn chairs catching up on the latest gossip or exchanging their best casserole recipes.

Folks would stand with Lucky Strikes hanging from their mouths and cool beverages clamped in their sweaty hands. The heat from the setting summer sun causing condensation to form on the cans. The streets would be filled with celebration and laughter, community and love. You wouldn’t be able to hear the hum from the streetlights because there was so much playing going on.

In my head, I understand why people refer to them as “the good ole days…”

This past Saturday, the stories I was told as a boy came to life as we at First Presbyterian Church had a block party of sorts. Now, despite the unexpected thunderstorms that rolled across Logan County late Saturday afternoon, the party went on and a great time was had by all. Friends and strangers, children and adults, Presbyterians and Lutherans, among so many others, gathered around tables, including the picnic kind, and shared life.

What was the reason? Why did we spend money to do something like this? What mission organization will benefit from this?

Well, we had a party because we wanted to.

And we had hotdogs and games, art and music.

And it was a great time!

What a joy it was to see people gather together for the sake of gathering and breaking bread on a day that wasn’t Sunday.

As a community, we have something good happening among us.

Our space, it is a warm and inviting one.

You know something, though? What we did Saturday night wasn’t new. The church has been doing this for quite some time. In chapters 14 & 15 of the Gospel of Luke we see how many party scenarios there are: 

• Lessons at a dinner party - 14:1-14
• Parable of the party - 14:15-24
• Party over finding one lost sheep - 15:1-7
• Party for finding one lost coin - 15:8-10
• Party for the return of a son - 15:11-32

Jesus went to parties. Jesus talked about parties. Jesus loved to party!

Celebrating and being neighbors for the sake of being neighborly is important for the development of community. It is necessary for the love of God to manifest here and now. By celebrating in parking lots and in the pews, in the streets and in sanctuaries, we are reclaiming a lost art, the art of life together.

Not only as a church but also as a neighborhood.

You never know, we might invent a new game. Or at least be known on the block as having the best neighborhood block parties!

And that’ll be a story to tell!

Party on church!

But do so responsibly!

Through Stained Glass: A Mid-Week Reflection-Soon

The snow falls quietly outside. It blows and swirls, making the line in that song relevant just 3 days from March. You know the one, “Oh the weather outside is frightful…”

We’re under a winter advisory for another 30 minutes.

The good news, we are within 30 days until the first day of spring.

There are probably many of us who are tired of the snow. In comparison to our friends out East, we have had a pretty mild winter. A total of 12 inches or so over a season is a little easier to deal with than 12 inches or so every week for the last month.

That is a little dramatic, but you get the point.

Before you know it the sun will be shining across my old Illinois home, buds will be budding on the trees, and kids will be kidding around outside in short sleeves and shorts. Soon, the world will be green again and it’ll look like paradise.

However, I was told paradise is a word we must use carefully. This piece of advice came again via a Christian tract. This time the card consisted of two lawn chairs sitting next to a palm tree, on a sandy beach, looking out over the ocean, a perfect juxtaposition to the weather we are currently experiencing here in Illinois.

On the backside of a card is the explanation of why this world is not paradise. That if you believe a peaceful existence is possible then you have believed the lies this world has to offer. Furthermore, paradise is where God dwells. And that dwelling place, is not here. Rather, it is up there, somewhere. And the only way to get there is if you ask Jesus into your heart and repent. If not, don’t expect sunny skies where you’ll go. You’ll be enduring an eternity of living in Death Valley…

Before sounding too pejorative, or judgmental, there is a need to repent, to believe in the good news that God loves us, and to further the incarnation with our lives. I’m not denying this. However, to declare this world is not a place of paradise is ludicrous.

Anyone who has ever resisted or mourned the destruction of the earth or the demise of one of its living species

or has wondered at the beauty of a sunrise,

or the awesome power of a storm,

or the vastness of prairie or mountain or ocean,

or the greening of the earth after periods of dryness or cold,

or the fruitfulness of a harvest,

or the unique ways of wild or domesticated animals,

or any of the other myriad phenomena of this planet and its skies has potentially brushed up against an experience of the creative power of the mystery of God, Creator Spirit. As the Bible’s love songs show, the love of God for the world is revealed through the depths of love human beings can feel for one another.

What does this have to do with paradise? It speaks to God’s continued creation in our lives. To believe paradise is some far off place is to deny the very real presence of God here and now. God is not a god who set into motion the world, destined it for corruption, and then leaves, only to return just in time for some people and not others. Creation is not a one-time event. Rather, God’s creative activity involves a continuous energizing, an ongoing sustaining of the world throughout the broad sweep of history.

God is the giver of life and the lover of life, pervading the cosmos and all of its interrelated creatures with life. If God were to withdraw God’s divine presence everything would go back to nothing.

And that nothing is a far cry from

                                             

paradise.

The last sentence of the card encourages its readers not to “live in a fool’s paradise thinking this life is all there is. God is inviting you to the ‘real’ paradise through faith in Jesus Christ.”

Honestly, while we have hope in the resurrection, what we have is now and this now is a gift. What is so compelling about God’s love and God’s goodness is that God has promised to remain with us as we return to God’s original vision of earth—paradise. Perhaps we would actually come to know what paradise has to offer if we believed in the goodness of all people, committed to the uplifting of one another, and made sure care was taken of all.

If God can make dry bones walk, why can’t God use us to usher in paradise?

God loves us and this love God has for us creates goodness, making the entire world and us lovable.

That sounds like a place I could call paradise…even when it does snow.