Brown's Daily Word 10-3-11

Good morning,
Praise the Lord for this new day. The Lord blessed us with a beautiful weekend of worship and witness and fellowship. Better is one day in His house than a thousand elsewhere.
Alice and I walked for over five miles in the evening in one of the local parks. One of the walking trails goes along the river bed. The waters still looked turbulent. Some of the big trees have been uprooted during the recent floods. We can see the devastating and destructive effects left by the power of the running waters.
In Mark 4 we read about a mighty storm. Even the professional fishermen were surprised and frightened at the severity of the storm. They knew the Sea of Gallilee, and so they knew it was famous for its sudden, severe storms. Yet the severity of this particular storm surprised even them. They panicked and so, as most of us do, they expected Jesus and everyone else around them to react in the same way.
One thing we often fail to realize is that the presence of the Kingdom often means opposition and conflict. Many expect that once they become a Christian, the storms of life will not turn their world upside down. Both in our churches and in our own hearts, we try to avoid conflict as we would avoid tossing seas. Though we often experience life as chaotic, threatening, and even frightening, we tend to view this and any conflict as “unholy”, an infringement of secular “chaos” into sacred” calm. However, the Gospel of Mark is telling us that is just how life is, conflicted and chaotic. The kingdom’s presence does not mean the end of conflict in our communal or individual lives. It does mean, though, that we have another lens through which to look at life.
The disciples forgot that fact. While they were afraid for their very lives amidst the chaos of the storm, Jesus rested in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. When they saw that Jesus was calm, not panicked, their fear led to ange, because they felt that Jesus didn’t care. They cried out at that point, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing.” That is similar to the way we react to the storms of our lives.
When there is chaos all around and we are being tossed about so that we think surely we will be overwhelmed by it all, we tend to wonder, “Lord, where are you in all this?” We can identify with the disciples' reaction. They asked him, in essence, “don’t you get it man, we’re gonna die!” Jesus reacted to their panic and anger with calmness and gentleness. He didn’t yell at them for getting upset at him, and he didn’t sharply answer their question as we might, “of course I care, who do you think I am, watch me fix it!” In fact, though he responded to their need, he did not answer them. He simply stood up and spoke to those pesky waves, “peace be still!”
Suddenly, in the very place where there had been the violent chaos of the storm, there was calm. Only then did Jesus answer the disciples, with a question in return. “Why are you so afraid,?” he asked. Do you still have no faith? Jesus turned their question around. He revealed their personal insecurities and lack of faith. Jesus has been calm amid the storm, while the disciples showed their immature faith. Fear, not doubt, is the opposite of faith.
We live in a society that fosters fear rather than faith. Fear is everywhere. We fear for our safety in our homes and on the highway. The Bible recognizes the reality of fear, but it encourages faith instead. Jesus expressed divine power in calming the sea not for his own benefit, but in order to calm the disciples, to show them that they do not have to be afraid in the midst of storms. They could, rather, be confident because Jesus was in authority, in control.
A pastor tells the story of visiting a refugee camp at Eglin Air Force Base in the 1970's, just after the Vietnam war, and finding hundreds of refugees huddled under tents. Some were learning English, some were filling out government forms, some being taught to cook. Children were playing games. In the temporary chapel, there was a group singing in their native tongue, “leaning on the everlasting arms.” Here were people who had lost everything but their lives and their faith, and they were singing, “what have I to dread, what have I to fear, leaning on the everlasting arms.”
In 1945 when Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a 39 year old German Lutheran pastor who opposed Adolf Hitler, was taken away to be hanged in a Nazi prison, some said, “it is the end.” Bonhoeffer said: “it is the beginning.” So faith can enable you and I to face with confidence the challenge of living and dying.
There are times and places in our lives filled with uncertainty and with great fear. This passage speaks to people of faith who are being swept away by the currents of life and beaten down by the waves of the storms, with the simple question of faith, “do you trust Jesus?” Friends, Jesus is in the boat with us! Will we let him calm our storms?
In Jesus who is the Christ in every crisis.
Brown

http://youtu.be/NO8uyHtOAHo


Saturday , October 2.2011
Praise and worship service:
First United Methodist Church , Endicott
Sponsored by Union Center UMC
6PM Gathering- Coffeee- Fellowship
6.30PM Worship
Music: Laureen Naik
Speaker: Jim Nedlik
Please mark your calendar for our prayer conference, which will begin on Friday, October 14 and continue through Sunday morning, October 16.
The Keynote Speaker: Kelly Johnson from Memphis, TN.
The Prayer Team will include: Sunita and Andy, Rob and Jenn, and Meredith from Washington, DC.

The tentative schedule follows:
Friday, October 14 at 6 PM - opening session at Union Center UMC
Saturday, October 15, 9 AM - noon - concert of prayer at UCUMC
The Prayer teams will be available to pray for people for salvation, restoration, healing, deliverance...
Saturday, 5:30 PM - banquet at First UMC, 53 McKinley Ave., Endicott
6:30 PM worship service, including an open invitation to pray at the altar following the worship service. I invite you to be a part of the prayer team during that time.
Sunday morning worship at 8:30 and 11 AM. at UCUMC Kelly Johnson will be preaching. There will be a time for prayer / a concert of prayer

Saturday, October 8.2011 at 6:30 PM (Coffee Fellowship at 6 PM) at First United Methodist Church, 53 McKinley Avenue in Endicott.
Our youth will be attending the Word of Life Superbowl at the arena and other sites on November 4 & 5.
Our annual Thanksgiving Banquet will be held on Saturday, November 19.
The Russian Men's Ensemble will be in concert on December 3.
We are planning for a trip to the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Extravaganza on December 6, leaving here at 6 AM, spending the day in NYC, and attending the show at 5 PM. There are optional sites to visit, including the Ground Zero 9/11 Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine. The trip costs $90 per person, including the bus ticket and a ticket to the show. Anyone who wants to reserve a spot on the bus should make their check payable to Union Center United Methodist Church, memo "Radio City Christmas Extravaganza".
Here at Union Center- Wesley- Endicott, we focus on " World as our Parish"., We remind ourselves that we serve under a captain who has never lost a battle. Jesus Christ the Head of the Church is Faithful. We are invited to embrace 7 holy habits of Christian faithfulness. We are called to FOCUS on our prayer life, our relationship with Christ, reading the Bible, faithful worship attendance, financial gifts to Christ and His Church,, serving Jesus with our hands, and sharing the good news of His Great Redemption,with others. May Christ be praised.