Christmas Prayer (or Pastor's Lament)

I lay me down, not sure the reason,
For I can't sleep in Christmas season
When all around me, here and there,
Apathy hath filled the air.
Come Christmas Eve or Christmas morn
Its not about the Savior born
Fellowship? Good News spread?
That egg nog's gone right to your head!
Good pastor, you this Church must grow
But don't disturb the status quo
(Especially the Christmas Show,
It's very special, don't you know?)

Good Christians all (I'm pretty sure)
Come walking weekly through our door
And rush to chat up the rare new face
That finds its way into God's place
Did I say God? Oh, heavens me!
What I meant was Church Trustee.
But just for now I simply pray
That God will grant another day
That I might use to do His will
And grant me sleep, that's better still!
I'll take His testing 'round the clock
For the privilige to guide His flock.

Life of Christ Glass Slides

The images in this slideshow are scans of painted glass slides used for projection shows in the late 1800s (?) and early 1900s. The nearly complete set was found in a wooden box marked "Life of Christ" in our church, The First United Methodist Church of  Saranac Lake. They would have been used in a special projector - early multimedia! I have been told that at  one time there was a big old projector in the church but it is no longer anywhere to be found. The titles are from paper labels on each slide.

Cedar Eden - The Blog: Religious TV Today - There should be a WHOLE LOT OF SMITING GOING ON!

Religious TV Today - There should be a WHOLE LOT OF SMITING GOING ON!

So I am unwinding after my early Praise Service and decided to flip through the religious channels on DirecTV. There are a lot of choices at 10:30AM EDT. Every one - EVERY ONE - but two asked for money within 2 minutes of turning to the channel. And MOST within 30 seconds or less. It is wrapped up in false Christianity - don't you know the Lord WANTS you to have EVERYTHING you want. Wow! Such crap, such false teaching.

Here are the networks and the shows:

• Fox - Hour of Power (ready to start a new life with God, call now!)
  
• Inspirational Channel - Turning Point (get books and stuff with your gift - "order today")
• God TV - Missions Week - (a new season of giving for a new level of media ministry)
• World Harvest TV - (my favorite, God's diet plan!)
• Daystar - Ed young TV (i want you to connect with us/partner with us)
• The Church Channel - Medina Pullings (buy Dr. Pullings book)
• TBN - Pastor Ed young, Sr. (come to their Holy Land Experience Theme Park!)
• Word - Armor of God - come to our revival
  

Only TWO aren't direct marketing:

• EWTN - Faith and Culture (analysis of various religious views); One World Praying (leading the world in prayer - today it is Catholics and The Rosary) - I;m going to take down my Rosary and learn about Fatima
  
• BYU TV - Brigham Young University network (well, they are pushing just THEIR version of Christianity and THEIR University
  

Isn't ANY wonder that the unchurched are turned off? Think about it. This is probably the ONLY religion that many people are exposed to, and only as they quickly turn to and say "Oh, see, there they go again. Just asking for money."

Imagine the Heavenly Host looking down and tuning in. . . .

• It makes a pretty good argument for their IS NO GOD!
• There should be a whole lot of smiting going on!

Expectations • January 25, 2009

Jonah 3:1-5, 10; Psalm 62:5-12l; 1 Corinthians 7:29-31; Mark 1:14-20

Sermon by Michael R. Martin
First United Methodist Church of Saranac Lake, NY

Expectations

1 Corinthians 7:29-31 (32-35) (NLT)

29 But let me say this, dear brothers and sisters: The time that remains is very short. So from now on, those with wives should not focus only on their marriage. 30 Those who weep or who rejoice or who buy things should not be absorbed by their weeping or their joy or their possessions. 31 Those who use the things of the world should not become attached to them. For this world as we know it will soon pass away.

32 I want you to be free from the concerns of this life. An unmarried man can spend his time doing the Lord’s work and thinking how to please him. 33 But a married man has to think about his earthly responsibilities and how to please his wife. 34 His interests are divided. In the same way, a woman who is no longer married or has never been married can be devoted to the Lord and holy in body and in spirit. But a married woman has to think about her earthly responsibilities and how to please her husband. 35 I am saying this for your benefit, not to place restrictions on you. I want you to do whatever will help you serve the Lord best, with as few distractions as possible.

Paul urges believers not to regard marriage, home, or financial security as the ultimate goals of life. As much as possible, we should live unhindered by the cares of this world, not getting involved with burdensome mortgages, budgets, investments, or debts that might keep us from doing God's work. A married man or woman, as Paul points out (1Co 7:33,34), must take care of earthly responsibilities — but they should make every effort to keep them modest and manageable. (from Life Application Study Bible.)

1 Corinthians 7:17 (NLT)

17 Each of you should continue to live in whatever situation the Lord has placed you, and remain as you were when God first called you. This is my rule for all the churches.

In our reading from the Old Testament, the book of Jonah, a story of a minor prophet’s personal struggle with God over a mission on which he had been sent. In what is sometimes referred to as The Gospel of Second Chance, we have Jonah finally deciding to be obedient to the Lord, after running from him, then praying for him from within the great fish. The job Jonah was asked to do was decidedly not an easy task, or one that one would readily accept – to bring a message of doom to one of the most powerful cities in the world. Hence Johan’s Reluctance led to Disobedience, submission, obedience

Jonah 3:1-5, 10 (NLT) Jonah Goes to Nineveh

1 Then the Lord spoke to Jonah a second time: 2 “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh, and deliver the message I have given you.”
3 This time Jonah obeyed the Lord’s command and went to Nineveh, a city so large that it took three days to see it all. 4 On the day Jonah entered the city, he shouted to the crowds: “Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!” 5 The people of Nineveh believed God’s message, and from the greatest to the least, they declared a fast and put on burlap to show their sorrow.

10 When God saw what they had done and how they had put a stop to their evil ways, he changed his mind and did not carry out the destruction he had threatened.

And in our Psalm, we have a centering prayer focused on God

Psalm 62:5-12 (NLT)

5 Let all that I am wait quietly before God, for my hope is in him.
6 He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will not be shaken.
7 My victory and honor come from God alone. He is my refuge, a rock where no enemy can reach me.
8 O my people, trust in him at all times. Pour out your heart to him, for God is our refuge.

Interlude

9 Common people are as worthless as a puff of wind, and the powerful are not what they appear to be. If you weigh them on the scales, together they are lighter than a breath of air.

10 Don’t make your living by extortion or put your hope in stealing. And if your wealth increases, don’t make it the center of your life.

11 God has spoken plainly, and I have heard it many times: Power, O God, belongs to you;
12 unfailing love, O Lord, is yours. Surely you repay all people according to what they have done.

The Psalm reminds us that, although it is tempting to use honor, power, wealth, or prestige to measure people, and we may even think that such people are really getting ahead in life, on God's scales, these people are a "breath," a puff of air.


And our gospel reading tells of Jesus, following his baptism and temptation by Satan, walking the shores of Galilee and looking for a few good men – the first disciples.

Mark 1:14-20 (NLT)

14 Later on, after John was arrested, Jesus went into Galilee, where he preached God’s Good News. 15 “The time promised by God has come at last!” he announced. “The Kingdom of God is near! Repent of your sins and believe the Good News!”

The First Disciples

16 One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living. 17 Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” 18 And they left their nets at once and followed him.
19 A little farther up the shore Jesus saw Zebedee’s sons, James and John, in a boat repairing their nets. 20 He called them at once, and they also followed him, leaving their father, Zebedee, in the boat with the hired men.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Expectations

When people first met Jesus, I wonder if they really knew what to expect. At some point, people began to see him as the promised Messiah, and so they had the promises of the Old Testament prophets to guide their expectations. But when Jesus first started his ministry, when he walked along the shore and called out to a few fishermen, what did those fishermen expect. When the crowds began to gather everywhere he went, what were they expecting to hear? When the poor, the lame, the sick began to press in around Jesus, just to see him, be near him, maybe touch his robe – what did the expect?

There is who you are, who you want to be, who people think you are, who you try to be for people. There is what other people see in you, what you do or see in yourself. There is what people tell you to do, there is what society tells or compels you to do. There is your conscience, which may be right or wrong.

We like to pigeonhole people. So to Marlene I am a husband; to my children, a father; to colleagues, a lake scientist; to my fellow Whompers bandmates, a musician and fellow Whomper; to you I am a certain kind of musician, perhaps as Pastor Al at Mooers UMC calls me – a gospel singer. Maybe to you I am a preacher, or just a fellow Christian, or a man with a message.

We can’t be all things to all people. Some days it feels like we can’t be anything to anybody. And some days we don’t feel like being anything to anybody.

If you could be one thing, relinquishing all other things, what would you be?

But people, men and woman, you and me – we aren’t one thing. We are many things with a whole lot of potential piled on top. 

Expectations can limit us, make us inflexible, resistant to change, to new ideas. Expectations can become very negative when we begin to expect anything from someone just because you think that is the way things should be. We limit ourselves, we limit each other.
As United Methodists, we have learned to accept that pastors come and pastors go. Such change may be a good thing, introducing us to new ideas, new ways of thinking, new ways of doing things. But it also can make us close ranks and cling to our old habits and rituals. We expect things to be the way we expect them to be – the times of our services and Sunday school, what room our pastor uses as an office . . .
We develop closed hearts, closed minds, closed doors – the very antithesis of the UMC global mission.

8946. The "Perfect Pastor"

After years of research, the profile of the "perfect pastor" has been developed. The perfect pastor preaches exactly fifteen minutes. He condemns sin, but never embarrasses anyone. He works from 8:00 A.M. until midnight and is also the church janitor.
He make $60 a week, wears good clothes, drives a new car, and gives $50 a week to the poor. He is twenty-eight years old and has been preaching for twenty-five years, is wonderfully gentle and handsome, loves to work with teenagers, and spends countless hours with senior citizens. He makes fifteen calls daily on parish families, shut-ins, and hospital patients, and he is always in his office when needed.
If your pastor does not measure up to this profile of the perfect pastor, simply send this description to six other churches that are tired of their pastor. Then bundle up your pastor and send him to the church on the top of the list.
In one week you will receive 1,643 pastors. One of them should be perfect.

So, IF we are many things, and IF we can’t be all things to all people, what then, are we to do?

 What does God expect of us?

What makes us human, makes us Christian, is our ability to focus, to rise up, when we see a need, a challenge, a crisis in the life of another human being.
And when we do that, we are doing what God expects of us. It isn’t what we want, what our spouse wants, what our kids, our parents want – it is precisely what God expects.

And in return, we can expect the One Truth, the Good News. We can expect to receive all of God’s grace and love, ALL of it. And, yet, there is still enough for everyone else to have it all, too.

Michael R. Martin – January 25, 2009
First UMC of Saranac Lake, 8:30AM