Heading to Kenya!

I love a good movie!  Not only do I love a good movie, I do not discriminate too much between the different genres.  Whether it is action, horror, sci-fi, or movies based on historical events, I can only name a few that I have not enjoyed.  I love a good comedy, even certain romantic comedies with my wife, and I especially love all of the super-hero movies from Marvel Studios.  Aside from the messianic themes that run throughout each of the films with a hero rising up as the savior, what I particularly love is how they end the majority of them.  There is always an epic battle between the young hero and the villain that is promising doom for the realm the hero is vowed to protect (or even the hero himself/herself).  Then, after the battle when the hero stands victorious, it ends on a happy note with a massive cliffhanger telling us that this hero’s tale is not finished but only just begun.

This is how I see Matthew’s account of the “Good News.”  Matthew tells of a hero that rises from meager beginnings as a carpenter’s son.  A hero that comes from a humble unpretentious beginning in a lowly manger.  As Matthew tells the story, he takes great care to ensure his Jewish audience that this hero is without a doubt the hero that the Prophets had spoken of from the house and line of David.  As the story unfolds, however, Matthew also shows us that while this hero is the foretold Messiah, he is very different than what was expected.  This hero was a game changer!  This hero boldly challenges the religious authorities of the time, thinks and acts in a completely different way than anybody else, and spends a great deal of his time building and cultivating relationships with those that society have turned away.  For Matthew, the hero of his story is one who embodies the love, mercy, and grace of God rather than the judgment and wrath.

Matthew’s story, however, does take quite a different turn than the heroes in the Marvel movies.  In Matthew’s story, rather than rising up to fight the impending threat, the hero does the complete opposite and surrenders.  If the story stops at the hero’s death, what kind of story would that be?  Fortunately, our writer doesn’t leave us there.  Then comes the twist.  The hero that we watched die at the hands of the evil villain of the story rises from the dead and wins a sweeping victory!  The cliffhanger that comes at the end of all of the great super-hero movies involves not only the hero of our story, but us.  This is where the story gets interesting.

As Matthew is wrapping up his story of the Messiah, he ends it in Chapter 28, vs 19-20 with Jesus’ final words:

“I have received all authority in heave and on earth.  Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Song and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything that I’ve commanded you.  Look, I myself will be with you every day until the end of this present age.”

The cliffhanger of the story that tells us that the hero’s story is not over and that we can expect an exhilarating sequel is actually our story.  In fact, this is where Matthew’s story differs greatly from the Marvel super-hero films.  In the Marvel films, the story centers around the hero.  In Matthew’s Gospel, the story that he tells of Jesus and Jesus’ life is not really about Jesus…it is about us.  Matthew’s Gospel is a part in a much larger narrative of the immense love that
 our Creator has for us and the lengths that God will go to just for us to know that great love.

This is why we do it!  We go out to the world around us, and even to the opposite corner of the world to be the Body of Christ.  Today 13 of us from various churches in the West District of the Cental Texas Conference are hopping on a plane and heading to Kenya so that we may serve as the “hands and feet.”  Although it is not without its anxieties or apprehensions.  For me....I think the plane ride will take us about a month just to get there.  As we embark on this journey, I invite you to join in ministry with us to the people of Maua, Kenya.  Pray for us!  In addition to the prayers, I invite you to follow this blog.  I will (attempt to) update it daily photos and some events from the day.  To all of you that are already supporting me and the rest of our team... Thank You!!!!

Bwana Asafiwe (means God is good!)

God is Good

13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its saltiness, how will it become salty again? It’s good for nothing except to be thrown away and trampled under people’s feet. 14 You are the light of the world. A city on top of a hill can’t be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a basket. Instead, they put it on top of a lampstand, and it shines on all who are in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before people, so they can see the good things you do and praise your Father who is in heaven. 

~ Matthew 5:13-16

Thank you for being a friend...

Koinonia is about a circle of friends uniting and working together for the Kingdom of God.  Thank you for being a friend.

Are you listening?

When you pray, do you listen?  Many times, our prayer life ends up more like receiving a phone call where the person on the other end of the line does all of the talking without letting us get in a word at all.

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We seem to be held captive by a series of "If/then" contractual agreements, how liberating it is for God to extend to us a unilateral covenant with no qualifiers.  Embrace the new covenant!

Embark on the Lenten Journey with Granbury FUMC

Join us at Granbury FUMC as we embark on the Lenten Journey.  Pastor Scott's new series, "Circles,"  beginning this Sunday will be examining each aspect of our commitment as United Methodist Church members to support the church with our prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness. Each week, there will be a new Lenten Devotional video blog, or "vlog" to provide further thoughts, meditations, and considerations for our Lenten Season as we prepare for Resurrection Sunday.  We hope you will take the Journey with us!

Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

After a very enlightening visit to the dentist a few months ago, we were overjoyed to discover that Caroline (6 yrs) has a few of her baby teeth that are hosting a nasty cavity or 2 and it was going to mean fillings. So, a few weeks ago, we decided to up the ante  of tooth care and add mouthwash to the girls’ nightly bed time ritual of homework, showers, and brushing teeth.  

For Cadence (8 yrs), it was pretty easy going….for those of you that know Caroline, you know that very little with her is easy going.  We tell people that our girls’ personalities match their hair.  Cadence has straight brown hair, which means she is fairly laid back.  She really likes to be in bed by 8:30, and by 9:00 she begins to get very anxious about it being so late and then proceeds to go to sleep pretty quick.  Caroline, on the other had has curly blonde hair, and I’m pretty sure if we had had her first, we would have stopped there.  I’m reminded of an episode of her getting ready for preschool a few years ago.  After being told she couldn’t wear her special, ruby red, Dorothy from Wizard of Oz, church shoes to school, it resulted in a rolling on the floor, you’ve ripped my arms off catastrophe with repeated shouts of “I won’t be beautiful.”  So, needless to say, introducing something new like mouthwash, something you and I might find commonplace, for Caroline was in fact the end of the world.  

What started out as a small conflict of want vs. need, quickly shifted to a titan battle of wills that I refused to lose…but of course so did she.  She was hysterically terrified of this idea of mouthwash.  We explained how to do it, we both demonstrated how you take a little in your mouth, swash it around to wash all of your teeth, and then spit it out.  We even bought children’s bubble gum flavor! She was not having.  Caroline could not in any way move beyond the crippling fear that she could accidentally swallow the mouthwash and then it would make her sick or even worse.  

After a couple of hours of my wife and I tag teaming the grudge match, we finally decided the level  of Caroline’s hysteria had moved far beyond any chance of this being a fruitful venture and decided to let her calm down.  Then we tried to discussed with her in detail about the alleged poison and let her go to bed with the promise we would try again the next night.  (Which we did by the way and she was surprisingly immune to the arsenic laced substance.)

As she was beginning to calm down, I went into her room to try to console her and have a more rational conversation about the nights events.  I scooped her up  and held her in my lap amidst the sobs and whimpers and asked her, “Caroline, don’t you know that mommy and daddy love you?”  Yes.  “Don’t you know that mommy and daddy would never do any thing, or ask you to do anything that would ever hurt you?”  Yes.  “Then what are you afraid of?”  “I might swallow it.”  

Caroline’s fear of the the unknown, of taking the step to follow what Katie and I were asking her to do (which was undoubtedly for her own good, and for the health of her teeth) had nothing to do with her questioning our love for her.  She in no way thought that we would ever intentionally harm her or ask her to do something that would harm her.  Her fear stemmed from a lack of trust in herself.  She was terrified that her own body would somehow betray her and inadvertently swallow this substance that in her mind could harm her.  

Caroline didn’t trust herself or her body.  For example, when a bird lands on a tree branch I wonder if the little bird lands on the tree branch trusting that the branch is not going to break, or does the bird have trust that the wings that carried him to branch can carry him to safety if the branch does break?

Many times, our God calls us into the unknown, and many times our fear cripples us from answering the call.  Our typical indictment is that we simply do not trust that God can carry us through that which we are called.  However, in this line of thinking, we sell ourselves (and that which our Sovereign has created) short.  Our God created us, and our bodies.  These shells, mortal as they may be host a myriad of complex and fascinating systems and mechanics; not to mention the amazing gifts and graces that God has bestowed out of love for us.  I tend to believe that if God is calling us to something it is because God has gifted and graced us with the skills and abilities to achieve that call.  Does that mean that we can always see that?  No, and that is why often times with don’t answer the call.  We don’t trust ourselves, and all that God has created in us.  

So, today is a word of encouragement.  Ephesians chapter 2, verse 10 states that we are God’s craftmanship.  Other translations use the word, “masterpiece.”  Now this particular verse is in a much longer discord with the Church at Ephesus where the Author is proclaiming a great message of hope to the readers.  Because of their response to the Gospel, they are now experiencing a radical transformation of their personal and social identity.  For the Author,  they are in a way, being resocialized into God’s purposes and family.   But, I think it can also speak to this same notion.  God created us…. God knows us, and if God is calling us to it, then it must be because God has already created or is creating the tools needed.  

The Psalmist echoes this idea in celebration of God’s work in them.   So, I close with the words of Psalm 139:   “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful…

Thanks be to God!