Brown's Daily Word 2-15-13

Praise the Lord for this Friday. Those of you live in the region join us for our weekly Friday TV outreach on Time Warner Cable Channel 4 at 7 PM. One of our ministry teams will prepare and serve a special at the historic downtown First United Methodist Church at 12 noon. Jesus, who dined with lepers, joined in these gatherings as He share the meal with the least of "His brethren". Once again we will gather at the Union Center United Methodist Church at 5:30 PM to share another special meal. Jesus, who loved eat with sinners and saints, will be there too. We are so excited.

The coming Sunday is the First Sunday in Lent. One of the readings for the first Sunday in Lent centers on the temptation of Jesus our Lord. As it is written in Mark 1, soon after the Baptism of Lord He was driven by the Holy Spirit to the wilderness. Our Lord found himself in a most ugly, spiritually dangerous, place. He found himself in the company of the devil out in the middle of the wilderness, which is the biblical symbol for all that is chaotic about and wrong with this fallen creation.

"He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him." It's no surprise to learn that the wilderness had wild animals in it. In fact, the animals in question were dangerous animals, threats to life and to human flourishing. These were not squirrels and raccoons, but lions, jackals, and other predators. Again, in the Bible wilderness is shorthand for chaos, for the precise opposite of the cosmos God created in the beginning. In God's cosmos, he was careful to carve out a safe haven where life could flourish undisturbed and unthreatened. Jesus was with the wild animals. We read in Isaiah where the prophet predicted that when shalom returned to this world, the wilderness would bloom and become a place of verdant life, not a threatening place of imminent death. What's more, when that happened, the lion would lay down with the lamb and even small toddlers would be perfectly safe making mud pies right next to the hole of the cobra. In shalom, all creatures and all people could be with each other in harmony and goodness and without peril.

Jesus, our Lord, was tempted relentlessly and He won. He overcame the tempter. In the Garden , the first Adam lost to the Tempter. The Second Adam, Jesus, our Lord, overcame the devil not in the garden, but in the wilderness of the desert. We are tempted. We are tossed. We are tested. Praise the Lord that we can overcome because we serve under a captain who has never lost a battle.

One of my favorite preachers is Dr. William Willimon. He taught at Duke University. He is a Bishop in our United Methodist Church in Alabama. Years ago Willimon was the pastor of a medium-sized suburban church. Every week during the Lenten season he led the women's Bible study group and always enjoyed the gathering of those saintly pillars of the congregation, most of whom were well into their retirement years. At one point, Mrs. Donaldson began to bring an African-American woman with her to the group. Shirlene was very much from the other side of the tracks having grown up in the inner-city projects. But she and Mrs. Donaldson had met when Mrs. Donaldson had volunteered in a local clothing ministry and so she gave Shirlene a nice new Bible and began to take her along to Bible study, where she was warmly enfolded into the group.



One week the topic of discussion was temptation. Rev. Willimon led the ladies in a review on the nature of temptation and how to rely on God to resist it. Then he asked that most typical of all Bible study-like questions, "Does anyone want to share a story of a time you felt tempted but were aided by God's strength?" One kindly soul piped up to say, "Yes, Reverend, I have one. Seems last week at the Piggly Wiggly supermarket there was some confusion in the checkout aisle. They were training a new girl and, well, next thing you know there I am in the parking lot with a loaf of bread I hadn't paid for. Now at first I thought, 'Well, it's not my fault and anyway it's only 99 cents.' But then I thought, no, that would be wrong, so I went back in and paid for it." Everyone nodded and smiled. Then Mrs. Jenkins said, "Last week I overheard a couple of folks sharing some gossip about someone. It just so happened that I, too, had recently heard a few juicy tidbits about old so-and-so and this was right on the tip of my tongue to say to these other people when something stopped me and I decided, no, I won't share in this rumor mill." More nods.

It was quiet for a moment before Shirlene cleared her throat and said, "A couple of years ago my boyfriend and me--he's the father of my youngest child but not of the older two--anyway, him and me were big into cocaine. Well, you know how that stuff messes with your head! So one day we're in the pharmacy and my boyfriend all of a sudden decides to tell the cashier to give him all the money in the cash register. And she done it. It was like takin' candy from a baby. So we ran out of there real fast. Then we see this 7-11 down the street a ways and he says to me, 'Let's knock that over, too.' But something in me kinds snapped and I told him no. I robbed that pharmacy with you, but I'm not doing no 7-11. I was glad I resisted. Made me feel like somebody."

No one nodded this time. After fidgeting nervously with the cover of his Bible for a few moments, Rev. Willimon weakly said, "Yes, well, that's rather what we've been talking about today. Shall we close now in prayer!" Willimon later berated himself for not being more compassionate at that time. He, and the other members of the group, were simply not prepared for the Holy Spirit to toss the real, messy, ugly world smack into the middle of their tidy meeting. But that's what the Holy Spirit does.



In Christ,

Brown

http://youtu.be/JZBPD-T20t0

Brown's Daily Word 2-14-13

The Lord blessed us with a beautiful Ash Wednesday gathering last night. There was a great time sharing and celebration. One of the teens shared that she is going to give up meat for Lent. One of my daughters called and shared that she is going to live more of a very contemplative life and simple life this season. I desire to follow Christ and serve Him with joy and obedience.

Psalm 51 is one of the traditional readings for Ash Wednesday. This is a Psalm of David, written with a broken heart. In brokenness David wrote this Psalm of repentance and restoration. David spoke of his bones being broken in judgment and his heart being broken in repentance. He understood that God is interested in hearts and, unlike others, He does not want one that is perfect. He wants the heart that is broken. We see this theme throughout the Bible of God receiving glory not from things that are whole but from things that are broken.

Some things can not give God glory until they are broken. The Glory of a broken leg: We read about Jacob and God wrestling in Genesis 33. Jacob ended up with a broken leg, but he also ended up with a blessing. The Glory of Broken Bread: we read in Matthew 14:19 that Jesus took the loaves, blessed them, and broke them, and gave them to the disciples for distribution. The Bread was broken for multiplication. Though the bread was broken and distributed, the supply was not thereby diminished. The Glory of Broken Box: In Mark 14:3, as Jesus sat in Simon the Leper’s house a woman came with an alabaster box of spikenard ointment. She broke the box, pouring the ointment on Jesus’ head, and then she proceeded to wash his feet with her tears and wipe them with her hair. The Glory of the Broken Body of Christ: In Matthew 26:26, Jesus took bread and blessed it, and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take ye and eat, for this is my body which is broken for you." It represented the broken body of our Lord. John 21:19: “Thus spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God.”

Indeed, in brokenness there is greater wholeness awaiting than we can ask or imagine.

In Christ,

Brown

http://youtu.be/aPXAju9z7Cs

Brown's Daily Word 2-13-13

Praise the Lord for this Holy Season in the Church calendar. We will gather for Bible study and a communion service that evening at 6 PM. Ash Wednesday is the first day in the Lenten season, and has traditionally been a day of repentance, of remorse for sin symbolized by the imposition of ashes, but in that imposition is the sign of hope, for the ashes are imposed in the sign of the cross—the means by which our sins were atoned for. Ash Wednesday falls exactly 46 days before Easter.
The term Lent comes from the English word Lenten, which comes from the English word lengthen, referring to the season of the lengthening of the days. Today, above all days, is the time to think about repentance, which means ever so much more than just saying one is sorry, or even having regrets. The Greek word we translate as repentance, metanoia, refers to a volte face, an about face, a complete change in direction or behavioral pattern. From the very first Jesus associated this concept of repentance with the Good News of the Kingdom—“repent and hear the Good News". It is written in Joel 2, "Return to me with all your heart, rend me your heart." God does not demand that a person never make a mistake again, but that they give him their whole heart.
In reflecting on a culture that has gone astray from Jesus the Lord, C.S. Lewis has described, “We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” In a time when superficiality, band-aids, and quick fixes are the way to go, God demands that we return to him with “all our heart”.
Let us make time to stop and think about our life…what we need to do better…what we need to stop doing…what you need to be making time for? If we truly and honestly examine ourselves, we will realize we need to make changes, we need to repent. C.S. Lewis, wrote the "Chronicles of Narnia", a great series of fantasy books, full of deep Christian imagery. In the sixth book of the series, “The Silver Chair”, Lewis depicts exactly the struggle we’re talking about. In Narnia, there is the great lion, Aslan, who Lewis portrays in the role of Jesus in Narnia.
In the story a girl named Jill Pole burst into an opening in the forest. Very thirsty, she saw a running stream close by but, even though she felt that she was dying of thirst, she would not rush into the stream and put her face in its refreshing current. Instead, she stood there in fear, because of a large lion sitting on the ground just this side of the stream. It spoke to her:
“Are you not thirsty?” said the Lion.
“I’m Dying of thirst” said Jill.
“Then drink” said the lion.
“May I—Could I—would you mind going away while I do?” said Jill.
The Lion answered this only by a look and a very low growl. And as Jill gazed at its motionless bulk, she realized that she might as well have asked the whole mountain to move aside for her convenience. The delicious rippling noise of the stream was driving her nearly frantic.
“Will you promise not to—do anything to me, if I do come?” said Jill.
“I make no promise,” said the Lion.
Jill was so thirsty now, that she had come a step closer without noticing it.
“Do you eat girls?” she said.
“I have swallowed up girls and boys, women and men, kings and emperors, cities and realms,” said the Lion. It didn’t say this as if it were boasting, not as if it were sorry, nor as if it were hungry. It just said it.
“I dare not come and drink,” said Jill.
“Then you will die of thirst,” said the Lion.
“Oh dear!” said Jill, coming another step nearer. “I suppose I must go and look for another stream then.”
“There is no other stream.” Said the Lion.

Indeed there is no other sream. Jesus is the Fountain of the Living Water. He is the way. He is the life and He is the Truth. Let us come to Jesus and live.
It is written, “The Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, and abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness” If we repent, we have hope because forgiveness and mercy are in the very nature of God.
In Christ,

Brown

http://youtu.be/eOY0mjjmx8Y