The Good Shepherd

You might think that I, as a pastor, would know better.  I work hard and do my best.  I spend an inordinate amount of time studying and praying, pastoring, and loving, in an effort to lead a congregation, Bethel, to do God’s will.  You’re probably saying: I’m confused; I thought that was what you were supposed to do as the pastor and spiritual leader of the church.

 

OK.  Fair enough.  And, I am busy doing what I can, leading as best I can, preaching my heart out, running a church every day of every week.  Thankfully, the church has provided me with an able staff, with whom I argue and plan and with whom I share all of my life.  We are all busy doing something every day to make a difference.  And, we are doing what we should do.

 

On top of this, the lay people, are also doing all that they can to make a difference in the church and in the world where they are all the time.  And, we are all doing a pretty good job of it.  Lay people in Bethel Church are among the best people I know.  We are almost always doing something that contributes to the good of our community and world.

 

A few weeks ago was Shepherd Sunday and the scripture was Psalm 23.  You know the text.  The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want…he makes me to lie down…restores my soul…leads me in the right paths…

 

Psalm 23 is the most requested scripture for funerals.  We almost always read it because we have perspective at funerals that we don’t have any other time much.  Worshiping God, we look up to the altar and there is someone we loved in a casket, and a family is wounded and crying over their loss.  And, all of us remember the achievements and the good gifts of the deceased.  Most of the people that I bury are people who have enormous gifts and achievements.  Now, at the end, we give thanks to God for what he made of this person, for the ways that God was living in and through this person— and in and through us.

 

What I forget is that Jesus is the Good Shepherd.  And, we are the sheep who make mistakes, and wrong decisions, and miss the mark, and love the wrong person, or don’t love the right person, or we mess things up.  And, the Good Shepherd never gives up on us, just keeps on guiding, loving, taking care of us.  The Good Shepherd lays down his life for us- the cross is forever our symbol of that love.

 

I’m not saying that we ought not to work hard at this faith.  I am saying that all that we do or mess up is in God’s hands.  It’s not all up to us.  Sometimes I wish it were.  You know, you work hard and you get results.  You take things into your own hands.  You make it right.  You save the world.  You…you…you..

 

No,  if we know anything about this in Christian faith, we know that our best efforts are likely to not be enough, and that we are dependent on God to save us and to save the world.  I get frustrated ever time somebody who is a Christian say that we are going to save the world.  Saving the world is not in our job description.  We might work to make it better or to change some things, but Jesus Christ is the Savior. 

 

I guess the truth is that we don’t always like how he saves us.  God is Christ is certainly not doing things like we’d do them.  If we had the power, well…

 

The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.  He knows the sheep and he still lays down his life for them.  I don’t know any kind of love that is better than that.

 

Do You?

Blessings!

Dave Nichols 

General Conference Meets

General Conference Meets

 

As many of you already know the United Methodist Church is organized in Conferences.  The local church is the Charge Conference- charged with responsibility to do ministry in the local community while being connected to other United Methodist Churches throughout by Conferences.

 

In Spartanburg, we are located in the Spartanburg District which takes in most of three counties (there are 12 districts in SC).  The districts make up the SC Annual Conference.  Each Annual Conference is presided over by a Bishop. 

 

Annual Conferences are gathered into Jurisdictions.  We are in the Southeastern Jurisdiction with our regional offices located at Lake Junaluska Assembly in Lake Junaluska, NC. 

 

One every four years, each Annual Conference elects an equal number of clergy and lay delegates to represent us at the General Conference.  General Conference is meeting now in Tampa, Florida.  The General Conference sets the agenda for the entire United Methodist Church.  At General Conference there is much prayer, worship, and reporting.  There is planning for the future of our great church.  General Conference is the only body in the church that can speak for the church.  After General Conference, our Book of Discipline is written and published for our guidance.

 

Most of the Book of Discipline cannot change.  Our doctrines and beliefs are not changeable.  However, there is always some work to do in terms of structure and process and living out our faith in the world.

 

This year’s theme is “Making Disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.”  Over a thousand delegates from all over the world are meeting.  They will entertain and act on over 1,100 petitions, set policies, approve plans and budgets, and handle other business.  Simultaneous voice translation for delegates will be available in English, French, German, Korean, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, and Swahili.  If you wish to follow the conference, you may do so at www.umc.org.  

 

This year the General Conference will look at some sweeping structural change.  They will debate whether to do away with guaranteed appointments for clergy.  They will deal with issues of pensions and health benefits, just like every other institution.  They will send our missionaries.  They will work and pray for the discernment of the Holy Spirit on issues that affect us all.

 

I have always been proud to be a United Methodist.  The challenge of our great church as all churches is to continue to do the work of Christ in a world where things are changing so fast that it is difficult to know how to move forward. 

 

So, I will be praying and I ask you to be praying also for your local church, for your pastors and staff, and for the delegates who represent us at General Conference.

 

Pray that we will do whatever is necessary to continue to make disciples of Jesus Christ.  That, after all, is our major task, our only task.

 

Blessings!

Dave Nichols

Lent and Spring

It’s Spring around here.  The trees are blooming; pollen in on all our cars giving them a yellow tint.  And, the temperature outside is a round 80 something for a high.  Last Sunday we met Jesus with Nicodemus at night.  In the darkness, Nicodemus an enlightened teacher of all things spiritual comes to meet Jesus.  Nicodemus is nearly blinded by the light of Mr. Light of the World.

 

And, we worked on John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him might not perish but have eternal life.”  This verse is followed by: “For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world…”

 

We, many of us, know these words by heart.  People hold up signs at ball games with: John 3:16.  Martin Luther says it is the Gospel in miniature.

 

This week at church we are dealing with air conditioning problems.  After a warm Sunday, I asked that the heat be turned over to air on Monday.  The air is working my building and office but is not working in the office building.  Turns out that lightning struck a line to the compressor last fall.  The AC people who had our contract then assumed they would still be with us in 2012 and did not inform us of this.  They thought they could fix it in the spring but they lost their contract with us.  The new people discovered the problem and we are working on insurance coverage, which shouldn’t be a problem.  However, in the meantime, our people are hot in this old building.  And, as we preachers say: “Sunday’s coming…”  They tell us it will be fixed by Friday.

 

All this calls to mind something that happened to me at Clemson UMC.  A wonderful young couple was to be married in the sanctuary, the old sanctuary which has not a window that will open.

 

On Friday around noon, I went into the sanctuary to see if all was well.  The AC was running but it was hot as blue blazes.  My first thought was: “Oh no; how can I tell the bride and worse, her mother, that we don’t have any AC.”  I had been fussing about getting the unit replaced for the sanctuary, but we had put it off.

 

I had a meeting with the bride and mother and told them the problem.  The Episcopal Church, which was new next door, had agreed to let us use their place.  No, said the bride, I grew up in this church and I’m going to get married in this church, no matter what.  Her father was in construction and had some huge fans and put them in the sanctuary.  I said that night: “When you marry one of our daughters, we get you in here and crank up the heat, to see if you’ll go through with it…” It was a lovely wedding.

 

Lent and Spring bring warm weather and pollen.  It’s all good.  But, we remember that Jesus’ Lent didn’t go all that well either.  For him, it meant the cross which he gladly bore for us.

 

During this Season of Lent, we’ve been trying to enter in to Jesus’ suffering and it’s meaning.  We have been with Jesus as he told us: “I’m going to Jerusalem to suffer rand die….”  We have been with Jesus as he stormed the Temple running out moneychangers.  We were with Nicodemus in the night looking for Jesus, Mr. Light.

 

In a little while, Lent will move into Holy Week and the Last Supper and Good Friday.  It’s hot outside; experience the warmth of God’s love for the whole world.  The whole world.

 

Blessings!

Dave Nichols

Transfiguration and Beyond

Sunday, Feb. 19, is the last Sunday in the first cycle of the church year.  That cycle is Advent-Christmas-Epiphany.  The Sunday is Transfiguration Sunday when Jesus appears to Peter, James and John on the mountain.  Jesus is “high and lifted up” and appears with Moses and Elijah.  The next week the second cycle of the church year starts: Lent, Easter, Pentecost.

 

Transfiguration means to change forms.  The Greek word for transfiguration is the word from which we get metamorphosis.  Every school child learns about metamorphosis. 

 

It’s interesting to me that Jesus does not invite all of his disciples into this experience, only his closest three.  If this were the modern day, and we had been left out of this experience, we would say things like: “Why was I not included?”  or  “I have a right to be there.”  Or  “I’m as good as Peter, James and John.”

 

Maybe the same kinds of questions came up with the other disciples- we don’t know.  All we know is that Peter, James and John are there, and Jesus appears with Moses and Elijah.  It’s not hard to figure that out.  Moses, the first Lawgiver, the one who met with God as a man with his friend, the one who gave Israel the Law, is there.  Elijah, the first of the prophets is there, the one who was used by God in mighty ways and then take up to heaven in a chariot of fire.

 

There bathed in dazzling light is the whole history of Israel.  The disciples see and experience the glory of God.  And, it is so dazzling, so amazing, so overwhelming, that they fall on their faces.  Fear?  Awe? 

 

Peter says: “Lord let’s build three booths.”  Peter wanted to house it, to frame it.  The experience was so moving that he wanted to put it in cement and keep it forever.  That’s why we build churches, to house our experience of God.  You can’t really house God, says Einstein.  But, you can house the experience of God.  You can mark the spot where God appeared.  Our sacred buildings mark the sport where God has been met with.

 

But, like any experience, this experience is fleeting.  It doesn’t last forever.  Remember the last time when something so good happened to you and you wanted it to last forever.  The older I get the more I want a point in time to last forever. 

 

We don’t know how long it lasted.  However long- it passed.  And, says Mark, the disciples were there all alone with Jesus alone.

 

Jesus was doing most of his ministry in Northern Galilee, now with this experience he is moving south.  He goes down the mountain and immediately gets back to his ministry, but now his ministry is going toward Jerusalem.  Jesus sets his face to go to Jerusalem. 

 

So, the church moves with Jesus to the season of Lent.  We all know what happens next. 

 

This experience was a confirmation of who Jesus was and is.  It was a affirmation of Jesus as the Son of God indeed.  Now, he is ready for what is ahead.  Now, with the light of God piercing his being,  Jesus is ready for the cross.  The disciples?  Are they ready?  Hardly?  Are we?

 

Look at that experience and get one more sight of Jesus in dazzling light.  You’ll need that in the days ahead.

 

Blessings!

Dave Nichols

An Appropriate Candidate for President

Someone asked me on Sunday: “Are any of the people running for President candidates that we as Methodists could support?”  I think I know what he meant but I’m not sure.  To be honest, nobody ever asks my political opinion about anything, at least to the point of what candidate for anything that I support.  And, if they did I would certainly have to give a non-answer.  It’s just easier not to take sides in an election.

 

However, just yesterday I got a personal call from someone in Greenville inviting me to a pastor’s brunch for one of the candidates.  He is a Christian and wants the support of the clergy, as if somehow that will ensure the support of the churches.  I was flattered, I guess, to be invited to anybody’s brunch.  My wife says that I have probably already seen him as close as I would get to him at the brunch.

 

This particular candidate was in SC for the last debate in Spartanburg, and we happened to be out the same night that he and his entourage came to eat.  I got a good look at him, but he spoke to no one and went right to his book where he was pushed to the inside by his people.  We could see him, but we couldn’t get close to him.  So, my wife thought that was as close as we could get, even at a pastor’s brunch.

 

Politics is an interesting thing in this country.  I am old enough to remember when John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon had the first debates on TV.  My mother certainly had an opinion about which way to vote, but things have changed since then.  We don’t just get debates but we get 24 hour coverage of these people and their families.  Every word that’s spoken by them or anybody connected to them is recorded and played over and over.  And, you ever made a mistake, well, it will be mentioned.

 

On top of all this is the length of the political presidential campaign.  Not to mention, the money that is spent is incredible.

 

It’s not that I don’t have an opinion; it’s just that any opinion will upset someone.  People seem to care more about protecting their particular political candidate than almost anything.  And, after all everybody has an opinion about everything these days.

 

In spite of all this, our system is still the most open system in the world.  I would say that we ought always to be concerned and informed as followers of Jesus Christ, and we ought always to vote.  Voting is a privilege that we should never take for granted.

 

I would say that there is good in all of them, and that no one of them is all evil.  Sometimes I do think that they have forgotten that they are working for the good of all people and not just for a particular PAC.  That said, followers of Jesus Christ know something about humanity that everyone seems to forget.  We are all sinners.

 

Leslie Whitehead used to say that we get all worked up to vote in one group and throw another group out of office.  He said we must remember that we are just throwing out one group of sinners and putting in another.

Whoever our President is, whoever our leaders are, we, as followers of Jesus Christ believe that no one is the Messiah except Jesus Christ.  So, we pray for them all- that God will give them the wisdom to make right decisions for the good of all.  We pray that God’s will might be done.

 

So, think it over, learn as much as you can, pray, and then vote.

 

Blessings!

Dave Nichols