So I've been doing my sermon series on the Psalms and today [well actually now it's yesterday] I preached on Psalm 51. I have a little history with the Psalm so I thought it would be a good one to tackle. About 8 years or so ago I was a youth counselor at South Meridian Church of God in Anderson, Indiana under Mark Krenz. And for our ski trip/winter retreat Mark preached out of Psalm 51. In addition, me and Chris Gwaltney, another youth counselor and our worship band leader, ended up writing a song based on the Psalm while we were maxing and relaxing at the ski lodge while other people were skiing, snow boarding, and generally falling down.
For my other sermons I have basically focused on the Psalm itself and what it had to say, but this time I decided to take a look at the story behind the Psalm. For the uninitiated Psalm 51 is supposedly written by King David following his being confronted by Nathan the Prophet about his adultery of Bathsheba and his murder of Uriah. If you don't know the story you can read about it in 2 Samuel, one of the books of the Hebrew Bible [Old Testament], or you can just keep reading at get the overview.
I started talking about David being at home when he should have been out with his men at war. About how he took a moonlit stroll and saw a beautiful naked woman taking a bath. He asked who she was and one of his servants informed him, and then he sent for her and bed her and sent her away in the morning. A while later he found out she was pregnant and then set about trying to 'fix it.' David sent for her husband Uriah and tried to get him to bed his wife, or at the very least lay with her so that he could be convinced he had bedded her and impregnated her. But Uriah was a man loyal to his men and so he refused, even after been made drunk with wine.
After this failed David sent a note with Uriah to the captain of the army. The gist of this letter was to put Uriah in the front of the deadliest fighting and then to step back. The captain followed the orders of his king and Uriah died, but so did a lot of other men in the fighting. The captain sent a page to tell King David the news of the great loss, but told him to tell David that Uriah died also if he got angry. David having been told of Uriah's death decided that it was all good, not caring how many other men had to die to cover David's sin.
Following [in chapter 12 of 2 Samuel] God send the prophet Nathan to tell David a story of a rich man and a poor man. The rich man was, well, rich and the poor man had but one ewe lamb that he treated like a daughter. A guest came to visit the rich man and instead of using one of his many cattle decided to use the poor man's one lamb. David was enraged about the injustice and called for the rich man's head, which caused Nathan to say that David 'was that man.' In the end David convicts himself because he sees what he has done. Out of his contrite heart he wrote the 51st Psalm.
This morning's sermon was a sermon about grace, about the ability for another chance [not a second, we all had that a long time ago, but another]. I talked about how if God is not willing for David's sins to be the end of the story, with how great they were, how much more is God not willing to let our sin be the end of our story. I spoke about how no matter what we have done, no matter where we have gone, no matter who we sometimes are, no matter what we may one day do that there is still a God who yearns for a relationship with us, who yearns for us to recognize our misstep and turn again toward his love. In the Psalm David speaks about God's generous love and great compassion, but I wonder how often we fail to understand those aspects of God.
I would imagine that it is not through God's fault, or even the Bible's, truth be told you don't have to read much of the New Testament to understand how much God has done for us and how much he loves us. Heck, even if you begin in the first half there are a multitude of stories of grace, the fact that God clothed Adam and Eve after there fall [be it a true story or not it still speaks to the character of God in the face of our sins].Which makes me think that the fault is probably the church's or more importantly the human beings who make up that church. I would imagine that t is people in the public eye like Fred Phelps or Pat Robinson or the late Jerry Falwell who convinced so many people that God is the great judge in the sky just waiting to condemn us sinners to hell. I don't know what Jesus they read about but that is not the gist I get at all.
Even in the times when Jesus confronted people who were living incorrectly I feel that he did it with a broken heart not a smile on his face. I know that Jesus would never have blamed Katrina on the sin of America. I know that Jesus wouldn't be picketing a funeral of a soldier or a homosexual. I know that Jesus would be standing beside the grieving, helping them to stand upright in their time of overwhelming pain. And I have to say that if that is what Jesus would be doing its probably what we should be doing also. And if in our actions and our in-actions we his "followers" have convinced even one lonely hurting child to stay away from a scary God I worry about our eternities, not theirs.
I don't know about you but even I, a pastor of a church, is in desperate need to be reminded that God accepts me the way I am, even in my screw-ups. I am desperate to be loved, not tolerated. I am desperate for a sense of hope, for a sense that tomorrow may not always be better, but it will at least be a start of being better. I am glad that David made his mistakes, because they remind me that mine aren't really that bad, at least not bad enough to keep me from God. It's strange that we think that it is possible to do too much wrong for God, to think that our deeds could be bigger than his love, to think that our mistakes could trump his power to forgive, to think that we could be beyond his reach.
I pray that both you and I would recognize that God's love is bigger than anything that we can do, that God is never further away then just around the corner, and that forgiveness is never more than a simple u-turn away.
Peace and Love,
Pastor K
[Sidenote: I have stated before that I do not think that God neither stands up nor sits down to pee, but unfortunately their is not a non-gendered pronoun to use when talking about God, so I hope that those who are against using male language for God will be forgiving in the times when I do, I appreciate that the concept of a Heavenly Father may not be meaningful to all people]
Monday, July 30, 2012
Monday, July 23, 2012
the Dung Month
Okay, so admittedly the last two blog posts have been, just okay. Neither time was I really interested in saying something, or maybe more importantly I had nothing to really say, but I felt I had been offline for too long and I needed to remind you all that I was still here. But that's over now, the real Pastor K has returned and today we are going deep...maybe.
With only a bit of sugarcoating it has been a pretty crappy couple of weeks. As I have previously shared in detail about a month ago now my car got hit while Mary and I were eating lunch at Ponderosa. Then, again as previously stated, although in shorter limits, about a week later my bank card was compromised, because of that we had a few bills that ended up being late, hence late fees were attached to some bills. Then another week or so later Mary's plane back from Denver got delayed 5 hours, so we were too tired to make the 2 hour drive to church. I didn't know if I would get paid for that week since there was no one besides myself that decided I wouldn't be there that morning. So, when I got to church the next week and there was only one check there I didn't really question it [on one of the few bright sides of the past month today I received two checks, for this week and for the missing week, turns out they had just forgotten to give it to me, and since I wasn't sure if I was getting it I didn't ask] but because I only got one again things that should have been paid got left behind and yet again late fees.
Mary and I had come to a plan on how to attack the bills and get back ahead, but then a few short days later (or yesterday depending on how you want to think about it) we were heading home from church and we stopped at a light, when the light turned green the car wouldn't move, instead it started making a loud noise, and unfortunately the same noise happened in drive, first and second, and reverse. I got out and pushed the car to the side of the road about an hour away from home. We turned on the blinkers and called Mary's family, Janice (my wonderful mother-in-law) got in her car and started driving to us, a three hour drive from their home. As we sat there not knowing what to do, and around mile and a half away from any place to eat or waste three hours, we began to dwell on how the last month has been a big pile of dung.
Fortunately a car pulled up and two strangers/angels gave us a ride to a restaurant so that we could eat something, then after we finished a rather stressful lunch we walked to a Meijer and wasted another hour and a half until Janice showed up. We called someone to tow our car back to Anderson and so it waits until tomorrow. We are hoping/praying that the car will not be as messed up as we fear, Mary's dad thinks it may be the transmission, which if you know anything about cars is most often not a cheap fix at all. Which begs the question will we be able to get it fixed, or will we need to get a new car [did I mention that this was our 'good' car, the one without a hit n run dent in it, the one with air conditioning, the one that we have hardly ever had any problems with...unlike mine which is just the opposite], which while it would be great to have a new car comes with a sizable monthly payment which is unneeded in the wake of having a new life form in our house in about 4 months.
I wrote a blog awhile back about how I don't believe that God is in the punishment business, but I can't say that it hasn't crossed my mind that maybe there is something that I am doing [or not doing] that is causing this stuff to happen to us. But I also realize that bad stuff happens to everyone from time to time, and in addition I am fully aware that this is not the first time that bad stuff has happened to us in our about to be six years together. To that end I realize that much like we have made it through other tough times that we will make it through this one as well. But there is still the small voice that worries and frets and tells me that maybe this time will be the one that breaks us...to that small voice I say buzz off.
I preached this morning over the 23rd Psalm and about how we are constantly in the valley of the shadow of death, its just that we too often don't realize it. Today I am all too aware that we are in the valley, but I also know who walks with us, and while the path may not always be easy we are never alone in it. That truth gives me hope, that truth helps me stand, that truth knocks away the worries, that truth banishes the small voice, that truth gets me through.
Today my prayer is that you would also take in that truth. That today we can all start walking with our heads up instead of down. Today we can hold each other up when the other is falling. Today we can know that our great, caring, loving God walks beside us and within us, helping us to carry on through the sunshine and the rain alike.
Peace and Love,
Pastor K
With only a bit of sugarcoating it has been a pretty crappy couple of weeks. As I have previously shared in detail about a month ago now my car got hit while Mary and I were eating lunch at Ponderosa. Then, again as previously stated, although in shorter limits, about a week later my bank card was compromised, because of that we had a few bills that ended up being late, hence late fees were attached to some bills. Then another week or so later Mary's plane back from Denver got delayed 5 hours, so we were too tired to make the 2 hour drive to church. I didn't know if I would get paid for that week since there was no one besides myself that decided I wouldn't be there that morning. So, when I got to church the next week and there was only one check there I didn't really question it [on one of the few bright sides of the past month today I received two checks, for this week and for the missing week, turns out they had just forgotten to give it to me, and since I wasn't sure if I was getting it I didn't ask] but because I only got one again things that should have been paid got left behind and yet again late fees.
Mary and I had come to a plan on how to attack the bills and get back ahead, but then a few short days later (or yesterday depending on how you want to think about it) we were heading home from church and we stopped at a light, when the light turned green the car wouldn't move, instead it started making a loud noise, and unfortunately the same noise happened in drive, first and second, and reverse. I got out and pushed the car to the side of the road about an hour away from home. We turned on the blinkers and called Mary's family, Janice (my wonderful mother-in-law) got in her car and started driving to us, a three hour drive from their home. As we sat there not knowing what to do, and around mile and a half away from any place to eat or waste three hours, we began to dwell on how the last month has been a big pile of dung.
Fortunately a car pulled up and two strangers/angels gave us a ride to a restaurant so that we could eat something, then after we finished a rather stressful lunch we walked to a Meijer and wasted another hour and a half until Janice showed up. We called someone to tow our car back to Anderson and so it waits until tomorrow. We are hoping/praying that the car will not be as messed up as we fear, Mary's dad thinks it may be the transmission, which if you know anything about cars is most often not a cheap fix at all. Which begs the question will we be able to get it fixed, or will we need to get a new car [did I mention that this was our 'good' car, the one without a hit n run dent in it, the one with air conditioning, the one that we have hardly ever had any problems with...unlike mine which is just the opposite], which while it would be great to have a new car comes with a sizable monthly payment which is unneeded in the wake of having a new life form in our house in about 4 months.
I wrote a blog awhile back about how I don't believe that God is in the punishment business, but I can't say that it hasn't crossed my mind that maybe there is something that I am doing [or not doing] that is causing this stuff to happen to us. But I also realize that bad stuff happens to everyone from time to time, and in addition I am fully aware that this is not the first time that bad stuff has happened to us in our about to be six years together. To that end I realize that much like we have made it through other tough times that we will make it through this one as well. But there is still the small voice that worries and frets and tells me that maybe this time will be the one that breaks us...to that small voice I say buzz off.
I preached this morning over the 23rd Psalm and about how we are constantly in the valley of the shadow of death, its just that we too often don't realize it. Today I am all too aware that we are in the valley, but I also know who walks with us, and while the path may not always be easy we are never alone in it. That truth gives me hope, that truth helps me stand, that truth knocks away the worries, that truth banishes the small voice, that truth gets me through.
Today my prayer is that you would also take in that truth. That today we can all start walking with our heads up instead of down. Today we can hold each other up when the other is falling. Today we can know that our great, caring, loving God walks beside us and within us, helping us to carry on through the sunshine and the rain alike.
Peace and Love,
Pastor K
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Psalms and Songs
As stated in my last blog I am currently doing a series on the Psalms for my sermons, and tomorrow's is on Psalm 23. As I have been working on this series it keeps reminding me of a project that I did about 7 years ago. At the time I was a youth counselor at South Meridian Church of God here in Anderson, the youth pastor at the time was Mark Krenz, who is now the lead pastor of One Community Church outside of Phoenix.
It was right before Lent and Mark suggested that instead of giving something up for Lent maybe we should try to do something new instead. During my college years I wrote a lot of song lyrics, so I decided that during Lent I would read all 150 Psalms and write a song based on each one. I thought if I wrote three to four a day I would get all 150 in the 40 days. Sadly, I am not the most disciplined person so while I started out writing 3 to 4 a day I quickly went away from that and sometimes did only 1 and a fair amount of the time I did none, so toward the end of the 40 days there were a few days where I was writing 8-10 a day to finish on time. So as a blast from the past, here is what I thought David was saying to me on February 15, 2005.
A Shepherd's Psalm
Intro:
I need a green pasture
I need a still water
I need a path of righteousness
because I'm stuck in the valley of death
You promised you'd be here
and that's a promise kept
but I wish you hadn't promised
that I'd be here at all
And though you're with me
I still have a dreadful fear
and mine enemies look like
they're about to eat me
Chorus:
Lord, can you get me out of here
I'd do just about anything, I fear
so Lord, just get me out of here
and I'll do anything, go anywhere
you promised me a cup
overflowing
but you didn't say anything about
me drowning in it
and you said you'd
anoint my head
but you failed to mention that
I needed healing
Chorus:
Intro:
Chorus:
anywhere but here
As you might have realized it was a time when I really wanted out of where I was. This is a recurring feeling that I have, wanting to go somewhere new. This might be why I like going places on vacation so much, or it could be that I just have a wandering spirit from when I was a kid and we moved every few years. I may post a few more of my Psalm songs as we go along...to that end here is my one based on Psalm 1 which I did for last weeks sermon.
Prayers and Cries
Dear Lord, I pray
hold me to your side
Dear Lord, I pray
never let me wander from you
Dear Lord, I cry
always hold me to your chest
Dear Lord, I cry
keep me from the wicked path
Chorus:
make me a tree Lord
planted by the sweet water
let me bring fresh fruit
and set my leaves not to wither
and I will walk in your ways
until, until, the end of my days
Dear Lord, I cry
cry myself to sleep sometimes
Dear Lord, I cry
over all the times I promised and lied
Dear Lord, I pray
that you might hold me so tight
Dear Lord, I pray
help me Lord, you not to fight
Chorus:
Bridge:
you know the paths of righteousness
it's where I always want to be
and you know the hearts of the follower
it's who I always want to be
and I pray, and I cry
Dear Lord
Chorus:
Well, that's just a taste of my awesome song writing abilities. At the time I had dreams of one day being a songwriter or singer in band [was in one the year before but we went our separate ways, I still sing in church though, so if anyone needs a lead singer for their band let me know ;-)]
Peace and Love,
Pastor K
It was right before Lent and Mark suggested that instead of giving something up for Lent maybe we should try to do something new instead. During my college years I wrote a lot of song lyrics, so I decided that during Lent I would read all 150 Psalms and write a song based on each one. I thought if I wrote three to four a day I would get all 150 in the 40 days. Sadly, I am not the most disciplined person so while I started out writing 3 to 4 a day I quickly went away from that and sometimes did only 1 and a fair amount of the time I did none, so toward the end of the 40 days there were a few days where I was writing 8-10 a day to finish on time. So as a blast from the past, here is what I thought David was saying to me on February 15, 2005.
A Shepherd's Psalm
Intro:
I need a green pasture
I need a still water
I need a path of righteousness
because I'm stuck in the valley of death
You promised you'd be here
and that's a promise kept
but I wish you hadn't promised
that I'd be here at all
And though you're with me
I still have a dreadful fear
and mine enemies look like
they're about to eat me
Chorus:
Lord, can you get me out of here
I'd do just about anything, I fear
so Lord, just get me out of here
and I'll do anything, go anywhere
you promised me a cup
overflowing
but you didn't say anything about
me drowning in it
and you said you'd
anoint my head
but you failed to mention that
I needed healing
Chorus:
Intro:
Chorus:
anywhere but here
As you might have realized it was a time when I really wanted out of where I was. This is a recurring feeling that I have, wanting to go somewhere new. This might be why I like going places on vacation so much, or it could be that I just have a wandering spirit from when I was a kid and we moved every few years. I may post a few more of my Psalm songs as we go along...to that end here is my one based on Psalm 1 which I did for last weeks sermon.
Prayers and Cries
Dear Lord, I pray
hold me to your side
Dear Lord, I pray
never let me wander from you
Dear Lord, I cry
always hold me to your chest
Dear Lord, I cry
keep me from the wicked path
Chorus:
make me a tree Lord
planted by the sweet water
let me bring fresh fruit
and set my leaves not to wither
and I will walk in your ways
until, until, the end of my days
Dear Lord, I cry
cry myself to sleep sometimes
Dear Lord, I cry
over all the times I promised and lied
Dear Lord, I pray
that you might hold me so tight
Dear Lord, I pray
help me Lord, you not to fight
Chorus:
Bridge:
you know the paths of righteousness
it's where I always want to be
and you know the hearts of the follower
it's who I always want to be
and I pray, and I cry
Dear Lord
Chorus:
Well, that's just a taste of my awesome song writing abilities. At the time I had dreams of one day being a songwriter or singer in band [was in one the year before but we went our separate ways, I still sing in church though, so if anyone needs a lead singer for their band let me know ;-)]
Peace and Love,
Pastor K
Monday, July 16, 2012
Rearranging and a little housekeeping
As you have probably figured out by this point we are expecting a baby in November and to that end we have been rearranging some stuff to make our extra room ready to be a nursery. We did most of the work about two weeks ago but in order to finish the room we needed to move Mary's filing drawer out and into my office. To accomplish that task I needed to clean and rearrange the office so there would be room for this new item. As I type this I am sitting in said office, and right now it is about 80% finished and I am wore out. The filing drawer is now in here so I feel that this was a good time to stop and rest, frankly I am beginning to find that I am not quite as young as I used to be, strange.
Truth be told I made this change a little more difficult than it needed to be, I could have simply moved a couple items to the side and would have had plenty of room for the drawer. Instead I decided that as long as I was needing to change things around I would do it a little more drastically and, in addition, I decided to get rid of some things and to simplify in other areas. It is a little sad how much stuff I have and I don't even need half of it.
I realize that it has been a little bit since I last wrote a blog so I did want to do a little housekeeping and bring you up to speed with what has happened since my last blog [which by the way is now my most read blog, which I am quite happy about, it was a topic that I really wanted to address and one which the church really needs to wake up about].
The day after I wrote that blog I had really good news and really bad news. On the bad side of things I got a call from my bank about some charges that occurred in Southfield, MI which we did not make. If you happen to run into someone in Southfield [which I have never been to] who is bragging about getting one over on some guy in Anderson do me a favor and kick them for me, then tell them the are forgiven. On the good side of things we found out that we are having a boy [I wouldn't have cared if it had been a girl, but still good news none-the-less]. And to boot he has ten fingers and ten toes so everything looks good.
Then the next week Mary went to Denver for the Church of God International Youth Convention for work, on the way back her flight got delayed by five hours because of some storms in Texas, this meant that we didn't get home til 3:30am and were too tired for church the next day, so I called and told them we couldn't make it, which meant we lost a paycheck, adding to those charges in Southfield things have been a lot tighter than they needed to be, oh well, at least I have bills to complain about, it means we have a home and cars and clothes and food and a lot of other things we don't really need. So, really I have no right to complain about it, but it still stings.
As far as church goes I started a new sermon series on the Psalms called 'The Heart's Cry" each week I am looking at a different Psalm and seeing what they says into our lives today. David and the other psalmists may have lived thousands of years ago but the desires of their hearts are still the same as our hearts desires, stability, love, strength, hope, etc.
In other 'church' related things I performed my first wedding this past Friday for a former co-worker. I was told by multiple people that I did well, so I assume that I did, or they were all lying to me, which isn't out of the question, but I'm still going to assume I did a good job. It was an extreme honor to be allowed to play a role in such a life-changing moment.
I suppose that brings us up to date, I have to get ready for work soon so I suppose that I'll end here.
Peace and Love,
Pastor K
Truth be told I made this change a little more difficult than it needed to be, I could have simply moved a couple items to the side and would have had plenty of room for the drawer. Instead I decided that as long as I was needing to change things around I would do it a little more drastically and, in addition, I decided to get rid of some things and to simplify in other areas. It is a little sad how much stuff I have and I don't even need half of it.
I realize that it has been a little bit since I last wrote a blog so I did want to do a little housekeeping and bring you up to speed with what has happened since my last blog [which by the way is now my most read blog, which I am quite happy about, it was a topic that I really wanted to address and one which the church really needs to wake up about].
The day after I wrote that blog I had really good news and really bad news. On the bad side of things I got a call from my bank about some charges that occurred in Southfield, MI which we did not make. If you happen to run into someone in Southfield [which I have never been to] who is bragging about getting one over on some guy in Anderson do me a favor and kick them for me, then tell them the are forgiven. On the good side of things we found out that we are having a boy [I wouldn't have cared if it had been a girl, but still good news none-the-less]. And to boot he has ten fingers and ten toes so everything looks good.
Then the next week Mary went to Denver for the Church of God International Youth Convention for work, on the way back her flight got delayed by five hours because of some storms in Texas, this meant that we didn't get home til 3:30am and were too tired for church the next day, so I called and told them we couldn't make it, which meant we lost a paycheck, adding to those charges in Southfield things have been a lot tighter than they needed to be, oh well, at least I have bills to complain about, it means we have a home and cars and clothes and food and a lot of other things we don't really need. So, really I have no right to complain about it, but it still stings.
As far as church goes I started a new sermon series on the Psalms called 'The Heart's Cry" each week I am looking at a different Psalm and seeing what they says into our lives today. David and the other psalmists may have lived thousands of years ago but the desires of their hearts are still the same as our hearts desires, stability, love, strength, hope, etc.
In other 'church' related things I performed my first wedding this past Friday for a former co-worker. I was told by multiple people that I did well, so I assume that I did, or they were all lying to me, which isn't out of the question, but I'm still going to assume I did a good job. It was an extreme honor to be allowed to play a role in such a life-changing moment.
I suppose that brings us up to date, I have to get ready for work soon so I suppose that I'll end here.
Peace and Love,
Pastor K
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