Yesterday, I preached a sermon based upon Matthew 23:1-12. Jesus is speaking to a crowd, including the disciples, in which he says to listen to your religious leaders - but don't follow their examples. Jesus goes on to describe the behavior of said leaders. He tells of a people who care more about how they look (with their long phylacteries and fringes) and how they are perceived by their people (by where they sit at the banquet and how they are greeted in the marketplace). Jesus ends by saying something you would expect Jesus to say - that the greatest among you will be your servant and God will exalt the humble and will humble the exalted.
Although one of the commentaries I read in preparation commented that this text is more appropriate for pastors and other leaders to study (as a what-not-to-do in leadership), I think that since Jesus is addressing a crowd of followers, that Jesus is also telling us about the nature of discipleship.
The behavior that Jesus describes focuses on lifting one's self up instead of a life that is centered on serving others. At the heart of what Jesus does is describe the many ways in which we allow our selves (read "egos") to get in the way of just simply serving God. (In my mail today was a national YMCA publication that was applauding the work of one Y-board in making some changes that made some community differences - the quote I remember is from the board chairman: "Everyone decided to check their egos and agendas at the door and we all decided to simply do what was best for the community.") I'm not sure I can say there is no room for ego in a faithful community, but I do believe I can say that we often (and I'm guilty as charged!) allow our egos and agendas get in the way of serving God.
Jesus invites us to strip away all in our life that does not build up the body of Christ. Jesus invites us to strip away the clutter and the distractions and the busyness and stuff that doesn't really matter so that we can live grateful lives of service. There are 168 hours in the week. What would happen if we let the one hour that we spend in communal worship shape us to that the other 167 hours were lived in service to God?
Rienhold Niebuhr once wrote (and I got this quote from a sermon that John Buchanan of Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago preached recently) "Nothing worth doing can be accomplished in a lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing true or beautiful or good makes sense in any immediate context of history, therefore we are saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous can be accomplished alone, therefore we must be saved by love."
What am I going to do different because of Jesus words? What can I strip away in my own life that distracts me from my calling and my witness?
Ponderingly- John C.
---- A note on some happening at CPC - my installation as Pastor is this coming Sunday - November 6th at 4:00 p.m. My dear friend Trace Haythorn will be preaching the service. It is an official event of the Presbytery of the Twin Cities Area. It will be nice to show my parents and my uncle Plainview and the church.
-----Our midweek LOGOS program began last week with record numbers! We had 47 elementary youth in attendance. Such energy! Such excitement! Such exhaustion! The next time Belinda tells me to take a nap...I'm going to take her advice. It was wonderful to see all the activity, all the young people, and all the volunteers. What a great start to LOGOS.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Monday, October 24, 2011
(Insert Title Here) - October 24th
Today is mostly about establishing the discipline of thoughtfully reflecting each week. My hope is Monday morning, but I'm blaming the fact that the internet wasn't working well at CPC this morning; that's why I'm posting on Monday afternoon.
Yesterday was a fun day for me, and I hope for the rest of the CPC family. I know that numbers don't tell the whole story (and actually a small part of the story), but it felt like the church was full yesterday. It was certainly full of life and energy.
Kellie Becker, in her children's sermon, talked to the kids about what it means to belong. We all belong to different things (our families, Tiger Cubs, checkers clubs, Husker fans) - but we also belong to God's family. You might not acknowledge it (or even be aware of it), but I believe that God has a claim on everyone's life. The joy (and admittedly) the challenge is to live into that claim. We also gave bibles (Harper Collin's Study Bibles) to the members of the new confirmation class (which begins on Wednesday) and talked about recognizing that you belong enough to God's family to take your faith seriously. It was great fun for me to see the entire church family surround the kids around the baptismal font to rededicate themselves to the baptismal promises of care, nurture, and education. I really can't wait for LOGOS, Teen LOGOS and Confirmation to begin at CPC on Wednesday. (And the potluck fellowship following worship was also a good time!)
As I reflect on yesterday, I am mindful of the very obvious blessings of God among us. They are always there when I look back at what has happened. I'm going to try to look for God's blessings in the everyday and in the coming week. Where will I see God at work in and around me?
One of the scriptures we read in worship yesterday was Matthew 22:34-46. A Pharisee lawyer asked Jesus, "Teacher, which commandment is the greatest?" Jesus answers with two. The first is to love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength. The second is to love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus boils down all of God's commandments to love.
I was going to take a small step towards interactive worship yesterday, but I chickened out at the last minute. I was going to ask folks to list some ways that love has overcame evil in their own personal life. I was also going to ask people to name times in their lives in which they acted as if they loved their neighbors (especially when they were being particularly unloveable). I think that is the secret to keeping Jesus' number 2 commandment (Love your neighbors) is to act like you love them (even when you don't or can't) because the act of loving someone will work internally on your attitude. And eventually you will love them, in spite of yourself.
I chickened out because I couldn't figure out how to get people to share. Shout them out? Write them on paper? Put them in the offering plate? I knew that there would be a bunch of teenagers in worship (because of Bible presentation) so I really wanted to figure out how to get people to pull out their phones/ipod/etc and log onto the church's facebook page and post responses. I thought maybe I could look at them during the next hymn and use them in the Pastoral Prayer. But I didn't have time to do a trial run...I'd never done it before...I know, I know...I could come up with lots of excuses. The good news is that Sunday comes every seven days, so there will be time for me to keep experimenting.
So - I'm still seeking; seeking a way to use the technology among us to connect us to scripture, to church , to each other, to the preaching event.
And...I'm seeking a way to end this post. Thanks for taking the time to read this. I'd love to hear from you. Community Presbyterian Church; Plainview, MN is on Facebook.
I'm @jocurtiss on Twitter.
God bless -
Pastor John
Yesterday was a fun day for me, and I hope for the rest of the CPC family. I know that numbers don't tell the whole story (and actually a small part of the story), but it felt like the church was full yesterday. It was certainly full of life and energy.
Kellie Becker, in her children's sermon, talked to the kids about what it means to belong. We all belong to different things (our families, Tiger Cubs, checkers clubs, Husker fans) - but we also belong to God's family. You might not acknowledge it (or even be aware of it), but I believe that God has a claim on everyone's life. The joy (and admittedly) the challenge is to live into that claim. We also gave bibles (Harper Collin's Study Bibles) to the members of the new confirmation class (which begins on Wednesday) and talked about recognizing that you belong enough to God's family to take your faith seriously. It was great fun for me to see the entire church family surround the kids around the baptismal font to rededicate themselves to the baptismal promises of care, nurture, and education. I really can't wait for LOGOS, Teen LOGOS and Confirmation to begin at CPC on Wednesday. (And the potluck fellowship following worship was also a good time!)
As I reflect on yesterday, I am mindful of the very obvious blessings of God among us. They are always there when I look back at what has happened. I'm going to try to look for God's blessings in the everyday and in the coming week. Where will I see God at work in and around me?
One of the scriptures we read in worship yesterday was Matthew 22:34-46. A Pharisee lawyer asked Jesus, "Teacher, which commandment is the greatest?" Jesus answers with two. The first is to love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength. The second is to love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus boils down all of God's commandments to love.
I was going to take a small step towards interactive worship yesterday, but I chickened out at the last minute. I was going to ask folks to list some ways that love has overcame evil in their own personal life. I was also going to ask people to name times in their lives in which they acted as if they loved their neighbors (especially when they were being particularly unloveable). I think that is the secret to keeping Jesus' number 2 commandment (Love your neighbors) is to act like you love them (even when you don't or can't) because the act of loving someone will work internally on your attitude. And eventually you will love them, in spite of yourself.
I chickened out because I couldn't figure out how to get people to share. Shout them out? Write them on paper? Put them in the offering plate? I knew that there would be a bunch of teenagers in worship (because of Bible presentation) so I really wanted to figure out how to get people to pull out their phones/ipod/etc and log onto the church's facebook page and post responses. I thought maybe I could look at them during the next hymn and use them in the Pastoral Prayer. But I didn't have time to do a trial run...I'd never done it before...I know, I know...I could come up with lots of excuses. The good news is that Sunday comes every seven days, so there will be time for me to keep experimenting.
So - I'm still seeking; seeking a way to use the technology among us to connect us to scripture, to church , to each other, to the preaching event.
And...I'm seeking a way to end this post. Thanks for taking the time to read this. I'd love to hear from you. Community Presbyterian Church; Plainview, MN is on Facebook.
I'm @jocurtiss on Twitter.
God bless -
Pastor John
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Communication and Virtual Relationship - Just beginning
"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."
By any other name would smell as sweet."
--Juliet, in Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
Community Presbyterian Church—The name says so much to me. First, I have discovered in my short time among you that you are a community of faith. As the banner at the front of the sanctuary so boldly proclaims: “Community Presbyterian Church – Where Friends Become Family.” I believe this to be true. Our community of faith is a family. We are a welcoming church and for that I applaud you. I feel very much at home with you already (and it hasn’t even been three months yet!).
But the CPC family extends beyond the walls of the church. I have been impressed by how vital the witness and ministry of this congregation is to the community of Plainview
This edition of the Newsletter (my thanks to Eileen Wood for her tireless work and nimble computer skills!) contains many important announcements about our common life and work – information on the start of the LOGOS program (October 26) and my first Sunday in November – November 6th). All of this information is important to deepen our relationships and strengthen our community.
This week, I created two things that I believe will continue to strengthen our community and our ministry and witness to Plainview Plainview , MN
The second thing I did this week is to create a blog. I intend to blog each Monday morning about Community Matters – things that I believe are important specifically to CPC, as well as things that I believe are important to our lives of faith. And occasionally, I confess I will probably rant and ramble about things I am passionate about – like coffee or the Nebraska Cornhusker football team (don’t say I didn’t warn you). My hope with this blog is to provide a way for some deeper conversation around the things that matter most in our lives of faith. You can check out my blog at www.communitypresmatters.blogspot.com. Eventually, I hope to connect the blog to our church webpage (an in-the-works process) and to you all through Facebook and email. As with so much of our technology today, it is truly an experiment, but one in which I have hope; hope that we will continue to connect over things that matter--relationships and community.
What’s in a name? I think our Community is a good place to start.
Prayerfully,
Pastor John
Monday, October 17, 2011
Here we go!
This blog is intended to be a collection of my musings, thoughts, and occasional rants on life, ministry, and the things that matter most. I hope to use it as a conversation starter for the good folks at Community Presbyterian Church in Plainview, Minnesota. I hope to use this blog as a way to deepen our relationships and connect during the week (in other words - more than Sunday morning).
I feel extremely blessed to be a part of the CPC community. My nearly three months here (as solo pastor) have shown me a lively little church that seeks to have a faith that makes a difference in the world. CPC is a church that values relationships - one of the banners proclaims we are a church "where friends become family." It is been impressed upon me, in subtle and not-so-subtle ways that community matters.
This space here will be used to explore just how community matters. Both our common life and ministry together as CPC, but also how our community matters to the world.
I hope that I can write and reflect each Monday morning. In fact, "Monday Morning Matters" was my second choice for naming this blog. In part because the name would serve as an external motivation (something I need to stay on track!) as well as honoring my friend and mentor Rev. Houston Hodges, HR and living in Hunstville, AL. Houston did many things that contributed to the life of the Presbyterian Church - but one thing was editing and publishing the weekly journal "Monday Morning." This publication was, in many ways, a blog before blogs existed. And this space is, in part, inspired by Houston. God Bless, my dear friend!
Happy reading and away we go.
Pastor John
Monday, Oct 17, 2011
I feel extremely blessed to be a part of the CPC community. My nearly three months here (as solo pastor) have shown me a lively little church that seeks to have a faith that makes a difference in the world. CPC is a church that values relationships - one of the banners proclaims we are a church "where friends become family." It is been impressed upon me, in subtle and not-so-subtle ways that community matters.
This space here will be used to explore just how community matters. Both our common life and ministry together as CPC, but also how our community matters to the world.
I hope that I can write and reflect each Monday morning. In fact, "Monday Morning Matters" was my second choice for naming this blog. In part because the name would serve as an external motivation (something I need to stay on track!) as well as honoring my friend and mentor Rev. Houston Hodges, HR and living in Hunstville, AL. Houston did many things that contributed to the life of the Presbyterian Church - but one thing was editing and publishing the weekly journal "Monday Morning." This publication was, in many ways, a blog before blogs existed. And this space is, in part, inspired by Houston. God Bless, my dear friend!
Happy reading and away we go.
Pastor John
Monday, Oct 17, 2011
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