Not a Sermon - Just a Thought, April 20, 2007
In the movie Napoleon Dynamite, Pedro, a high school kid, is running for class president. In his election speech he promises, “If you vote for me, all your wildest dreams will come true.”
It’s a funny line because of the absurdity of the promise, and it’s not too far off from what some religious leaders will tell you in order to raise funds. I know of preachers who have actually said or written things like:
“If you give money to the church all your financial problems will disappear.”
“If you tithe to the church, God will bless you.”
“God won’t bless you if you don’t bless God.”
It’s the same thing as Pedro’s impossible promise. I’m not saying that God won’t bless you if you give. What I am saying is that too many preacher-types have manipulated too many faithful people with empty promises. “Give so you will get.”
I believe that every Christian should financially support their church, but not because you’ve been beaten over the head with the Bible, the church budget, or the pleadings of a poor preacher. There are preachers who guilt you into giving money to your church. I’m not one of them. I’ll leave guilt up to you and the Holy Spirit. The bottom line for me is that if “God loves a cheerful giver” then you shouldn’t be manipulated into stroking a check for the church. Nor should you be tricked into giving so you will “get back” from God. You should give generously because you believe in the work of your church. You should give out of a realization of what God has done for you. In short, God gave, we give in return.
Frances Havergal had the same idea in mind when she wrote the great hymn Take My Life, and Let it Be Consecrated. One line reads:
Take my hands, and let them move at the impulse of thy love.
God made every resource that the planet earth has to offer, including that twenty in your wallet and the direct deposit your employer just dropped in your checking account. God has done some pretty cool things for you, including breathing life into you and sustaining you to this point. So when this preacher encourages you to give generously, either to my church or the church of your choosing, it’s because I want you to do it at the impulse of God’s love, not because of obligation or guilt or false hope.
That’s the sermon idea for this Sunday at Willow Meadows Baptist Church. I’ll be preaching a sermon entitled At the Impulse of Thy Love based on John 3.16-21. It is the beginning of a three part series about your finances, the church finances, and how the two should meet. We’ll also be praying for the families connected to the Virginia Tech tragedy and remembering those students. Join us, if you’re in Houston, at either 9am or 11:10am.
Impulsively,
Pastor Gary
Not a Sermon – Just a Thought is a weekly e-column written by me, Gary Long. You can subscribe by emailing me at glong@wmbc.org.
John 3.16-21 – NIV
16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.19This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God."
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
A Hokie Prayer
To our friends in Virginia and those connected to the Virginia Tech tragedy: the Long family mourns with you and prays for you. I have no words and even if I did they would not be adequate.
Sleep Sweetly, My Children
So we're prepping dinner tonight and the whole family is gathered. It's a sweet time of the day in our house when the work is done for the day and we're all just happy to "be." Traci is dishing up some beautiful tortellini and I'm slicing fresh bread while the kids are munching on a salad.
The Youngest Sister randomly pops out with, "I know why you and Mom can watch grown up movies."
We're on the edge of insight here, I just know it.
"Why is that?" I inquire.
"Because you two sleep together and don't get scared," she replied.
"Why do you say that?" I pried.
"Because when I'm scared I get in your bed and after a while I'm not scared anymore because we cuddle," she said, big brown eyes dancing and delightful.
"Yeah, I used to come in your room when I had bad dreams and lay with you a while," added the Brother. "That made it better."
Good advice. Maybe the best we can do, even as adults, is to cuddle up with someone when we're scared.
Today I almost wrecked Dora the Explorer when a rear tire blew out on the Gulf Freeway, just outside the I-610 loop. I was moving along at 70 mph, in the middle of heavy traffic when I felt the rear end start coming around on me. For some unknown reason I did what they said to do way back in Driver's Ed. I steered into the skid and only when I regained control did I slowly hit the brakes. The other drivers must have seen the swerve and the ensuing smoke because they gave me room and I managed my way across three lanes to get to the shoulder.
I came to a stop, got out, and in a cloud of tire smoke I assessed the damage. Quickly, I began the tire-changing process, with a portion of my SUV's rear end sticking out into the passing lane of the freeway. I was sweaty scared.
Traffic was swerving around me, horns were blaring, and I knew I was in trouble. I'd hardly pulled out the jack and begun to lower the spare when I heard a revving Harley behind me and looked back to see an HPD mounted cop. He was soon joined by a Motor Assistance Patrol and we were shielded from the traffic while I went about my fearful chore with a little more calm than before.
I hurried along competently, but I certainly didn't earn a spot on a NASCAR pit crew. Finally done, I trotted down the shoulder to the HPD officer, eager to thank him for getting there very quickly. I began to speak but he cut me off, "Let's move on before we both get hit."
His eyes betrayed him. They said: This is dangerous. Let's get out of here. If I'd known how scared that policeman was, I'd have been more scared.
One day I'll tell the Sisters and the Brother how scared I really was, but for a while, it's probably best that they don't know. In this season of life they need someone around them who doesn't seem scared. Someone who can blanket them strongly and take away the fear. Someone in the night-land they can go to when the dreams are as dark as a new moon.
You know, someone they can cuddle with.
Sleep sweetly my children, while you can, for I'm afraid that someday you will understand my words.
The Youngest Sister randomly pops out with, "I know why you and Mom can watch grown up movies."
We're on the edge of insight here, I just know it.
"Why is that?" I inquire.
"Because you two sleep together and don't get scared," she replied.
"Why do you say that?" I pried.
"Because when I'm scared I get in your bed and after a while I'm not scared anymore because we cuddle," she said, big brown eyes dancing and delightful.
"Yeah, I used to come in your room when I had bad dreams and lay with you a while," added the Brother. "That made it better."
Good advice. Maybe the best we can do, even as adults, is to cuddle up with someone when we're scared.
Today I almost wrecked Dora the Explorer when a rear tire blew out on the Gulf Freeway, just outside the I-610 loop. I was moving along at 70 mph, in the middle of heavy traffic when I felt the rear end start coming around on me. For some unknown reason I did what they said to do way back in Driver's Ed. I steered into the skid and only when I regained control did I slowly hit the brakes. The other drivers must have seen the swerve and the ensuing smoke because they gave me room and I managed my way across three lanes to get to the shoulder.
I came to a stop, got out, and in a cloud of tire smoke I assessed the damage. Quickly, I began the tire-changing process, with a portion of my SUV's rear end sticking out into the passing lane of the freeway. I was sweaty scared.
Traffic was swerving around me, horns were blaring, and I knew I was in trouble. I'd hardly pulled out the jack and begun to lower the spare when I heard a revving Harley behind me and looked back to see an HPD mounted cop. He was soon joined by a Motor Assistance Patrol and we were shielded from the traffic while I went about my fearful chore with a little more calm than before.
I hurried along competently, but I certainly didn't earn a spot on a NASCAR pit crew. Finally done, I trotted down the shoulder to the HPD officer, eager to thank him for getting there very quickly. I began to speak but he cut me off, "Let's move on before we both get hit."
His eyes betrayed him. They said: This is dangerous. Let's get out of here. If I'd known how scared that policeman was, I'd have been more scared.
One day I'll tell the Sisters and the Brother how scared I really was, but for a while, it's probably best that they don't know. In this season of life they need someone around them who doesn't seem scared. Someone who can blanket them strongly and take away the fear. Someone in the night-land they can go to when the dreams are as dark as a new moon.
You know, someone they can cuddle with.
Sleep sweetly my children, while you can, for I'm afraid that someday you will understand my words.
Friday, April 13, 2007
T.G.I.M.
Not a Sermon - Just a Thought, April 13, 2007
The call to be a professional minister has sometimes been a struggle for me because I enjoy being an entrepreneurial businessman. I had a lemonade stand as a kid, and sold greeting cards door to door beginning in the third grade. I have moved in and out of the church and business worlds having owned a restaurant/coffee shop and a landscaping business. These experiences have formed my theological conviction that ministry does not happen exclusively inside the walls of a church building.
For example, when I owned the restaurant I found that I did far more pastoral care for my “regulars” than I did as a pastor. I learned that a short exchange over the counter with a regular customer provided me an excellent opportunity to bring a word of grace or to help someone going through a hard time by reminding them, “God is on your side.” I learned that I could do more to influence public policy in my small town as a business owner than as a pastor. I learned that providing a place of social interaction for teens was not only good for business, it was good for their safety and development. It was wild and liberating to do ministry in Jesus’ name and in my own way, free of the traditional boundaries the church naturally makes between herself and the culture.
Now I’m a pastor and most of my work is tame by comparison. I deal mostly with people who are already Christian and I try to equip them for doing ministry outside the church. Some days I feel like a caged tiger, antsy to be earning my bread in ways that allow me more interaction with people who are outside the influence of a local church. At times I am jealous of you who don’t get paid to do ministry, but do it anyway. There are things you can do that I can’t do as a pastor. As a part of your daily living and daily job, you stretch calling to mean more by taking your faith into the public forum.
Maybe you’re stuck in a dead-end job, or maybe you’re just frustrated by the system. Maybe your career is great and your future’s so bright you have to wear shades. I want you to know that God can use you in all those situations, so see where God is working and see your work as a way of joining God’s work. All around you are people who are knee deep in a river and yet dying of thirst. You can help people to find the true water for which they thirst by being Christ’s presence and by being attentive to God’s leading. When you see work through those lenses the mantra becomes T.G.I.M. “Thank God It’s Monday!”
T.G.I.M is the title of the sermon this Sunday and it’s about finding God’s calling out of the sanctuary and into the work place. It’s based on scripture from I Peter 3.13-22, with a special focus on the sentence, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you the reason for the hope you have.” I hope you’ll take a Sabbath rest this Sunday and worship God with the local church of your choice. If you are in Houston, join us at Willow Meadows Baptist Church at either 9am or 11:10am.
Taking care of business,
Pastor Gary
Not a Sermon – Just a Thought is a weekly email written by me, Gary Long, pastor at Willow Meadows Baptist Church in Houston, Texas. You can subscribe or unsubscribe to this list by contacting me via email at glong@wmbc.org and you can learn more about my church at www.wmbc.org.
The call to be a professional minister has sometimes been a struggle for me because I enjoy being an entrepreneurial businessman. I had a lemonade stand as a kid, and sold greeting cards door to door beginning in the third grade. I have moved in and out of the church and business worlds having owned a restaurant/coffee shop and a landscaping business. These experiences have formed my theological conviction that ministry does not happen exclusively inside the walls of a church building.
For example, when I owned the restaurant I found that I did far more pastoral care for my “regulars” than I did as a pastor. I learned that a short exchange over the counter with a regular customer provided me an excellent opportunity to bring a word of grace or to help someone going through a hard time by reminding them, “God is on your side.” I learned that I could do more to influence public policy in my small town as a business owner than as a pastor. I learned that providing a place of social interaction for teens was not only good for business, it was good for their safety and development. It was wild and liberating to do ministry in Jesus’ name and in my own way, free of the traditional boundaries the church naturally makes between herself and the culture.
Now I’m a pastor and most of my work is tame by comparison. I deal mostly with people who are already Christian and I try to equip them for doing ministry outside the church. Some days I feel like a caged tiger, antsy to be earning my bread in ways that allow me more interaction with people who are outside the influence of a local church. At times I am jealous of you who don’t get paid to do ministry, but do it anyway. There are things you can do that I can’t do as a pastor. As a part of your daily living and daily job, you stretch calling to mean more by taking your faith into the public forum.
Maybe you’re stuck in a dead-end job, or maybe you’re just frustrated by the system. Maybe your career is great and your future’s so bright you have to wear shades. I want you to know that God can use you in all those situations, so see where God is working and see your work as a way of joining God’s work. All around you are people who are knee deep in a river and yet dying of thirst. You can help people to find the true water for which they thirst by being Christ’s presence and by being attentive to God’s leading. When you see work through those lenses the mantra becomes T.G.I.M. “Thank God It’s Monday!”
T.G.I.M is the title of the sermon this Sunday and it’s about finding God’s calling out of the sanctuary and into the work place. It’s based on scripture from I Peter 3.13-22, with a special focus on the sentence, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you the reason for the hope you have.” I hope you’ll take a Sabbath rest this Sunday and worship God with the local church of your choice. If you are in Houston, join us at Willow Meadows Baptist Church at either 9am or 11:10am.
Taking care of business,
Pastor Gary
Not a Sermon – Just a Thought is a weekly email written by me, Gary Long, pastor at Willow Meadows Baptist Church in Houston, Texas. You can subscribe or unsubscribe to this list by contacting me via email at glong@wmbc.org and you can learn more about my church at www.wmbc.org.
Saturday, April 07, 2007
No Bones About It!
Not a Sermon - Just a Thought, April 6, 2007
The Lost Tomb of Jesus aired on March 4, 2007, on the Discovery Channel. The documentary asserts that five bone boxes found in southern Jerusalem in the early 1980’s are the mortal remains of Jesus and his family. If the claim is true, it has the potential of upending the claims of Christianity about Jesus and his bodily resurrection, a belief which is central to the faith.
There is too little time here to critique the documentary from a scientific, archaeological, or historical view – after all, this a thought, not a sermon. I’ll leave that to other scholars who have done it exceedingly well because here’s the bottom line for me: You can’t prove the resurrection.
We can take a cue from the historical claims of those who witnessed the living Jesus after the event of the cross. But even the historical claims of the gospel writers and historians are not enough to completely fill in the blanks of this story.
Sure, lots of writers like Lee Strobel (The Case for Christ) make an intelligent and investigative claim that Jesus lived, died, and came to life again. But Strobel and the gang are nothing more than the opposite side of the coin to The Lost Tomb of Jesus, The DaVinci Code, or The Bible Code. They all aim to prove or disprove something that people of faith take as the work of God, something that we take on faith, not as head knowledge.
It all comes down to a person’s experience with the resurrected Jesus. It is a spiritual thing that surpasses objective knowledge. I take the central teachings of Christianity as true, not because a great scholar proved it to me, but because I once was a sinner who did not know about forgiveness and eternal life. But I had a religious experience that I can only describe as mysterious yet real. I can only tell you that I believe in the resurrected Jesus because I have personally experienced the resurrected Jesus.
We all lose our faith from time to time – I pray that this weekend’s celebration of the resurrection will be a resurrection of things dead or dying in your soul. I’ll be preaching a sermon from Matthew 28.1-15 entitled No Bones About It in worship at Willow Meadows Baptist Church this Easter Sunday. We gather at 9am and 11:10am and you are invited to join us.
Faithfully,
Pastor Gary
Not a Sermon – Just a Thought is a weekly e-column by me, Gary Long, pastor of Willow Meadows Baptist Church in Houston, Texas. You can subscribe or unsubscribe by emailing me at glong@wmbc.org.
The Lost Tomb of Jesus aired on March 4, 2007, on the Discovery Channel. The documentary asserts that five bone boxes found in southern Jerusalem in the early 1980’s are the mortal remains of Jesus and his family. If the claim is true, it has the potential of upending the claims of Christianity about Jesus and his bodily resurrection, a belief which is central to the faith.
There is too little time here to critique the documentary from a scientific, archaeological, or historical view – after all, this a thought, not a sermon. I’ll leave that to other scholars who have done it exceedingly well because here’s the bottom line for me: You can’t prove the resurrection.
We can take a cue from the historical claims of those who witnessed the living Jesus after the event of the cross. But even the historical claims of the gospel writers and historians are not enough to completely fill in the blanks of this story.
Sure, lots of writers like Lee Strobel (The Case for Christ) make an intelligent and investigative claim that Jesus lived, died, and came to life again. But Strobel and the gang are nothing more than the opposite side of the coin to The Lost Tomb of Jesus, The DaVinci Code, or The Bible Code. They all aim to prove or disprove something that people of faith take as the work of God, something that we take on faith, not as head knowledge.
It all comes down to a person’s experience with the resurrected Jesus. It is a spiritual thing that surpasses objective knowledge. I take the central teachings of Christianity as true, not because a great scholar proved it to me, but because I once was a sinner who did not know about forgiveness and eternal life. But I had a religious experience that I can only describe as mysterious yet real. I can only tell you that I believe in the resurrected Jesus because I have personally experienced the resurrected Jesus.
We all lose our faith from time to time – I pray that this weekend’s celebration of the resurrection will be a resurrection of things dead or dying in your soul. I’ll be preaching a sermon from Matthew 28.1-15 entitled No Bones About It in worship at Willow Meadows Baptist Church this Easter Sunday. We gather at 9am and 11:10am and you are invited to join us.
Faithfully,
Pastor Gary
Not a Sermon – Just a Thought is a weekly e-column by me, Gary Long, pastor of Willow Meadows Baptist Church in Houston, Texas. You can subscribe or unsubscribe by emailing me at glong@wmbc.org.
Thursday, April 05, 2007
I Can’t Make You Love Me
A Maundy Thursday meditation
Bonnie Raitt soulfully sang, “I can’t make you love me.” She’s right. You can’t make your heart feel something it won’t. I can’t make anyone love me, and wouldn’t want to try. I want my wife, my family, my friends to love me because they choose to. But Jesus took a different approach to this issue. At the Last Supper he tells his disciples “Love one another.”
He didn’t say, “Love one another if you feel like it.”
He didn’t say, “Love one another if it’s convenient.”
He didn’t say, “Love one another if the other is pretty.”
He didn’t say, “Love one another if they love you back.”
His mandate to love (hence the name Maundy Thursday) is not conditional and it is not optional. Christians are called to this higher kind of love. We are called to serve when we’d rather be served. We are called to give when we’d rather take. We are called to pour out when we’d rather drink down.
This is a difficult Word because not everyone is lovely or loveable. The reputation of Christianity is muddied by those of us who claim the name of Jesus and tried to close our eyes to love. Those of us who would follow Jesus must follow this rule of life, being mindful of the words of 1 John 4.8: “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
If you’re in Houston, I invite you to join us at Willow Meadows Baptist Church at 7pm this evening as we observe communion and foot washing in honor of Jesus’ Last Supper during our Maundy Thursday Service. Our worship service will be a rehearsal for the real life of serving one another in the here and now world and in the kingdom of God to come.
In these final hours before the crucifixion,
Pastor Gary
Bonnie Raitt soulfully sang, “I can’t make you love me.” She’s right. You can’t make your heart feel something it won’t. I can’t make anyone love me, and wouldn’t want to try. I want my wife, my family, my friends to love me because they choose to. But Jesus took a different approach to this issue. At the Last Supper he tells his disciples “Love one another.”
He didn’t say, “Love one another if you feel like it.”
He didn’t say, “Love one another if it’s convenient.”
He didn’t say, “Love one another if the other is pretty.”
He didn’t say, “Love one another if they love you back.”
His mandate to love (hence the name Maundy Thursday) is not conditional and it is not optional. Christians are called to this higher kind of love. We are called to serve when we’d rather be served. We are called to give when we’d rather take. We are called to pour out when we’d rather drink down.
This is a difficult Word because not everyone is lovely or loveable. The reputation of Christianity is muddied by those of us who claim the name of Jesus and tried to close our eyes to love. Those of us who would follow Jesus must follow this rule of life, being mindful of the words of 1 John 4.8: “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
If you’re in Houston, I invite you to join us at Willow Meadows Baptist Church at 7pm this evening as we observe communion and foot washing in honor of Jesus’ Last Supper during our Maundy Thursday Service. Our worship service will be a rehearsal for the real life of serving one another in the here and now world and in the kingdom of God to come.
In these final hours before the crucifixion,
Pastor Gary
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
The Lees of Desire and Yearning
I'm reading thirteen moons by Charles Frazier. The jury is still out on how good a story it is, but so far the writing is breath taking. Better than Cold Mountain; more alive, more poetic.
In the first chapter the main character, Will Cooper, is an old, old man, feeble and nearly bed ridden. "There is no scatheless rapture," he says. "...even when all else is lost, there is yearning. One of the few welcome lessons age teaches is that only desire trumps time."
I'm only 36, and though ancient to my children, I'm young to a lot of people. I feel young to me. I don't know what it means to be old, but I'm far enough along the journey now to understand what it means to age. I hope Will is right. I hope that yearning persists, that desire does trump time.
A lot of what I see as a pastor suggests otherwise, though. What I see suggests that most souls die long before their bodies, that desire and yearning are a commodity of the young. What I see suggests that passion proves faltering when dreams die. What I see suggests that vision and possibility seem less important for most of the aged than for the young.
There are exceptions, of course. Take one of my church members. He is in his 70's, he dances competitively, and he visits our church members in the hospital every day. In many ways he's younger than me and passion still has a grip on him. But the average middle class American seems so lulled into complacency that living life is more maintenance than anything else. It is a taming by way of easy life.
This I cannot take. This way I cannot live.
- Desire means that no matter how many times you read The Old Man and the Sea, you still believe he might pull that fish in.
- Yearning means that no matter how many times you watch The Blues Brothers you laugh at the "Orange whip" line.
- Desire means that no matter how many times you've held her, you want to do it again.
- Yearning actually means that my favorite joke about the Scotsman and the steering wheel sticking out of his kilt is always going to make me laugh when I tell it.
- Desire means that no matter how sleepy I get, I'm always willing to shoot one more game of pool, linger in that conversation just a few ideas more, and to argue politics with you even when we agree.
I cannot imagine a life without yearning and desire. Will Cooper gives me hope that ahead of me still lies years of wanderlust, adventure, restlessness, and hope. When that ceases, someone please take me off of the ventilator. Until then, I want to live life to the lees.
In the first chapter the main character, Will Cooper, is an old, old man, feeble and nearly bed ridden. "There is no scatheless rapture," he says. "...even when all else is lost, there is yearning. One of the few welcome lessons age teaches is that only desire trumps time."
I'm only 36, and though ancient to my children, I'm young to a lot of people. I feel young to me. I don't know what it means to be old, but I'm far enough along the journey now to understand what it means to age. I hope Will is right. I hope that yearning persists, that desire does trump time.
A lot of what I see as a pastor suggests otherwise, though. What I see suggests that most souls die long before their bodies, that desire and yearning are a commodity of the young. What I see suggests that passion proves faltering when dreams die. What I see suggests that vision and possibility seem less important for most of the aged than for the young.
There are exceptions, of course. Take one of my church members. He is in his 70's, he dances competitively, and he visits our church members in the hospital every day. In many ways he's younger than me and passion still has a grip on him. But the average middle class American seems so lulled into complacency that living life is more maintenance than anything else. It is a taming by way of easy life.
This I cannot take. This way I cannot live.
- Desire means that no matter how many times you read The Old Man and the Sea, you still believe he might pull that fish in.
- Yearning means that no matter how many times you watch The Blues Brothers you laugh at the "Orange whip" line.
- Desire means that no matter how many times you've held her, you want to do it again.
- Yearning actually means that my favorite joke about the Scotsman and the steering wheel sticking out of his kilt is always going to make me laugh when I tell it.
- Desire means that no matter how sleepy I get, I'm always willing to shoot one more game of pool, linger in that conversation just a few ideas more, and to argue politics with you even when we agree.
I cannot imagine a life without yearning and desire. Will Cooper gives me hope that ahead of me still lies years of wanderlust, adventure, restlessness, and hope. When that ceases, someone please take me off of the ventilator. Until then, I want to live life to the lees.
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