Monday, July 25, 2016

A Word of Hope and Healing

2 Corinthians 1:3-5
James 5:13-16
Psalm 121

 All praise to the God and Father of our Master, Jesus the Messiah! Father of all mercy! God of all healing counsel! He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us. We have plenty of hard times that come from following the Messiah, but no more so than the good times of his healing comfort—we get a full measure of that, too.

It seems like every week, there is another mass shooting, case of police brutality, act of violence against police, terrorist suicide bombing overseas, or some other horrible violence that reminds us that love is in short supply in our global community. 

It also seems like every month, we have another serious illness and/or a sudden loss occurring in this small congregation.

I thought maybe it would be a good time to pause for a moment. To pause for a moment of silence and a deep breath. To pray for hope and healing. To read scriptures that remind us that hope is eternal and God is always here with us. To hear a message of hope, healing and promise for our own lives and for the world we live in.

If you have a hopeful story or quote to share, or a story about peace and peacemaking, please email me at peverhart@niwotumc.org or comment below.

Sunday, July 17, 2016

Cymbeline: Roots and Growth





What I read in this letter to the church at Colossae is almost a warning about 'church law.'  Paul is warning the church not to be caught up and bound in what the official regulations are, but to be caught up in Christ instead.  He is saying that the letter of the law regarding circumcision or dietary laws or whatever are not the focus. The focus is our relationship with Christ and on our willingness to   follow Christ and let Christ and his inclusive love lead the way in our lives.  It isn't saying that we can be reckless in how we practice our faith, but that we allow love to guide us, through Christ, instead of "human traditions," as Paul puts it.

In the play Cymbeline, the King (Cymbeline) marries a woman who is described as quite wicked after his first wife's death.  The evil queen wants her son Cloten to marry Cymbeline's daughter Imogen, but she is in love with Posthumus. Posthumus and Imogen exchange tokens of their love, a bracelet and a ring.   The main thread of the play is deception and misinformation regarding the relationship and fidelity of Imogen and Posthumus.  The villain Iachimo tries to trick Posthumus into thinking that he had relations with Imogen and things go awry in a big way.

The play highlights the themes of young love and jealousy and most importantly, what happens when you think you know the whole story, but you don't.  Having a lack of information can lead one to making some pretty harsh judgments and proclamations that one might later regret.


Paul suggest something similar in our judgments with one another.  
 So don’t let anyone judge you about eating or drinking or about a festival, a new moon observance, or sabbaths. These religious practices are only a shadow of what was coming—the body that cast the shadow is Christ. Don’t let anyone who wants to practice harsh self-denial and worship angels rob you of the prize. They go into detail about what they have seen in visions and have become unjustifiably arrogant by their selfish way of thinking. They don’t stay connected to the head. The head nourishes and supports the whole body through the joints and ligaments, so the body grows with a growth that is from God.-- from Colossians 2
When we allow judgments about others that we make or judgments about us that others make rule our religious life, that is a selfish and arrogant way of practicing our faith.  When we choose to allow partial or misguided information to rule our heads and hearts, then we shut out Christ's ability to grow in us and allow us to grow as the body of Christ. When we choose, instead, to connect to Christ as our head and allow his love to nourish our body and our soul... his example, his witness, his love for neighbor, his extension of grace.... then we will grow as Christ's witnesses in the world.

What areas do you struggle with the most in terms of passing judgments on others?  What sources can you look to for learning and understanding more about what you tend to judge?  What ways can you seek Christ? How can you allow Christ to help you grow in the faith? 

Email me at peverhart@niwotumc.org or comment below.




Monday, July 11, 2016

Comedy of Errors: Estranged and Reconciled

Colossians 1:15-23 (The Message)

"For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him." from Colossians 1

Paul tells us in this scripture that Jesus is the flesh of God, that the Christ is God poured out in human form... and that everything in all of creation got its start through God and that through Christ, who embodies God even unto the cross, the whole broken world is made whole again.  He connects the past, the present, and the future of God's creation and gives it purpose.  Lofty theology about Jesus, the concept of incarnation, and the cross as salvation. Sometimes hard for us in this postmodern age to wrap our heads around, but it is a concept that Paul firmly believed and passionately taught, probably because he himself had been 'broken' and then 'saved through Christ.'

In Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors, you have a farcical play about two sets of identical twins. The stage is set when we learn that Egeon has twins that were separated in a shipwreck 25 years ago. He raised one alone, while his wife and the other are somewhere unknown.  He is in Ephesus looking for his long lost wife and other twin son... Unbeknownst to him, his son Antipholus of Syracuse and his servant Dromio of Syracuse are in the city of Ephesus, also, on this day.  They each have an identical twin Antipholus of Ephesus and his servant Dromio of Ephesus.    The fact that twins and their servant twins have ended up in the same city together creates a play with much mayhem and confusion. It's got lots of madcap antics as you might expect.

But we see in this play a couple of poignant themes.  A father who is looking for a long lost son.  A twin who has lived a lifetime separated from his 'other self' and a longing for companionship and camaraderie that is all too rare.

Paul is sharing his lofty theology to the church at Colossae to remind those gathered that we do have a place to find our 'other selves.'  That we only need to reach to Christ who has come in the form of Jesus to show us a way to connect what is broken, a way to save what might seem lost.

Nothing is lost.  All we need to find our way is given to us in the message of Jesus who became our Christ.  We just need to look, and listen, and find a space where Jesus is welcomed, no matter where we find ourselves or who we think we are.  We all belong to Christ.  No one is torn apart or left behind.

Thoughts? Email me at peverhart@niwotumc.org or leave a comment on the comment link below.



Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Alll's Well That Ends Well: Avoid Distraction

Luke 10:38-42

(All's Well That Ends Well is this year's Longmont Theatre Company Taste of Shakespeare summer production, featuring our own Brett Landis, and can be seen at venues around the area. See LINK for more details.) 

I gotta tell you, this play is a laundry list of "what not to do" if you want to live into the fruit of the Spirit. Deception, lies, trickery, abandonment.  But then again, if we don't highlight how these things work against us in our efforts to be at one with humanity, we might not be able to see the logs in our own eyes very clearly.  In this play,  Helena is set on marrying Bertram even though he has no interest in her.  Through a series of missteps and deceptions, Helena does win Bertram as her husband. But there is so much to unpack there. Helena's desire for a husband who doesn't want her being the most obvious of the long list of complications.  And all the things that everyone does to distract them from what matters most in life.

"Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her."--from Luke 10

In the scripture reading, a very famous one from Luke, we have sisters Mary and Martha hosting Jesus.  And while Martha is busy tending to details of the household, Mary is sitting at Jesus' feet, listening to him. Martha gets jealous and upset and asks Jesus why he isn't concerned that Mary has left Martha with all the work. He tells Martha that she is the one who is distracted and that Mary has chosen 'the better part, which cannot be taken away from her.'  

While I have my own struggles with this scripture because plenty of us have times when we know that if Martha doesn't get things done the household will fall into disarray, I do see Jesus' main point here.  He is with them to share stories and inspiration for just a short time, and if they don't seize the moment, they will miss it, and he will be gone.  Kind of like stopping to realize that if you don't put aside your list of to-do's while the kids are still young, one day they'll be grown and you won't have stopped to play enough. Or the old phrase, 'stop and smell the roses.'

So distraction, then, becomes the theme of the week. When do we allow distractions to take our eye off the real 'prize' in life?  When do we settle for things that aren't necessarily life-affirming for us?  How do we learn to stop and listen for the message of Christ first, rather than diving headlong into a laundry list of activities?  How might we recognize the benefit of listening to Christ first as a way to center and ground us as our lives unfold?