Time-Out

The blog is back and this is the first new post in a long time. As many of you know, I ended up hospitalized with pneumonia. As I continue to recover, I've had to think a great deal about how I use my time, manage my time, and care for myself. The regional leadership -- both lay and ordained -- have strongly encouraged the pastors in the Northern Illinois Conference concerning self-care. I appreciate the encouragement and wisdom, support and nurture, care and compassion offered to me and all my pastoral colleagues. It is an important teaching/learning for all of us in ministry regardless of our postion -- pastor for whom ministry is the manner in which they earn their living, lay volunteers for whom ministry is a way to live out their passion, or retired pastors who continue to serve as volunteers within congregations. We all must care for ourselves well in order to offer the care, guidance, oversight, and leadership for our respective ministries.

Yet, here's the "time-out" for today's blog: Self-care isn't the everything. At the Wednesday evening Lenten Supper and Study, we looked at the section of our study entitled "Do good." Rueben Job, the video presenter, reminded us that the primary founder of Methodism, John Wesley, in the week before his own death was on the streets of London begging for money to help assist the poor who came to The Foundary in need. Wesley, himself, died in poverty with just enough resources to pay for his burial. Self-care and selflessness: How can they stand side-by-side in the Christian tradition? and in particular in United Methodism? and in our North American culture in general?

I don't think I have answers to all those questions. I am convinced, though, that we have misled ourselves about self-care. Part of the conversation at the Lenten Supper and Study was about raising children in our present cultural climate. We all agreed it was difficult; children and youth today face a more difficult journey than we would describe for ourselves; and the pressures of "the American lifestyle" have dramatically changed. We pointed at technology in the discussion, but didn't blame technology. There are other pressures: competition for time, competition for college admission, participation in sport .. the list goes on and on.

I have spent a good amount of time considering what I've heard and learned. At the heart of this matter is the heart of the individual and the heart of the family in which our children are raised. I think today, perhaps moreso than at any other time in history other than at the decline of the Roman Empire, we have indulged ourselves to the point of loosing clarity. We indulge ourselves with the myth of "if it feels good do it." We have indulged ourselves with the myth of "more is better." We have indulged ourselvse with the myth of "less government is better government." We have indulged ourselves with the myth of "the government should do something about this." We have, as did the emergent middle class of the Roman Empire, indulged ourselves.

Where are our hearts? In the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew's gospel, Jesus says, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where you treasure is, there your heart will be also. " (Matt. 6:19-21 NRSV) This is followed by two powerful verses on "The Sound Eye" in which Jesus talks about the eye as the lamp of the body filling us with either light or darkness. Immediately after that, the famous Matt. 6:24 is pronounced: "No one can serve two masters; a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth." Immediately after this, Jesus gives the less often quoted passage about not to worry because God provides for the birds who do not plant, harvest, or store up for themselves -- if God provides for them, won't God also provide for you? (Matt. 6:25-34). This passage is powerful! Where are our hearts? I think if we measure them against this unit (Matt. 6:19-34), we will discover they are not with God or God's reign! We have deceived (indulged) ourselves to the point that we have lost sight of what it is to be in ministry -- both lay and ordained! We have lost sight of what it is to be the people called Methodist within the Christian family! We have lost sight of what is important as people.

Now, if I stopped there, that's a very grim and judgmental picture! THANKS BE TO GOD, that's not all there is! I don't have answers to the questions being raised in Washington, D. C. or Springfield about the budget crisis and economic problems the nation faces. However, I do believe a large portion of those issues are related to having lost sight of what is important. Employment must be encouraged. Healthcare must be provided for all. A safety net must be in place for the least (the poor) among us. We must care for our elderly (widows and orphans). We must educate our children and ourselves to the highest standard. We must provide a stong national defense. I don't know what the path through that "dark forest" is. Yet, this blog post isn't about the state of our nation, but I think the state of the nation is related to where we are individually and as families.

Thanks be to God for those who claim the name Christian and Methodist, and United Methodist inparticular, we have something in our "Wesleyan DNA" which can guide us back. The "General Rules of Our United Societies" give us three simple principles by which to live: Do no harm; Do good; Stay in love with God. As Rueben Job implied in his video presentation this week, staying in love with God is the key. I am convinced we have have not remained in love with God. We have spent so much time "loving ourselves," we have forgotten the very first part of that statement when Jesus summarizes all the Law and the prophets -- "love your neighbor AS you love yourself." This is a very high standard. I don't want to love the others as I love myself. It's my sinful human nature. I want to love me and let the rest take care of themselves. However, that is not Good News -- that is not Gospel! Gospel is when I love someone else, even a stranger, the way I love myself. Why would I do this? Because even when God was a stranger to me, God loved me by providing for my well-being which includes Jesus Christ suffering and dieing as I do and becoming the ensign that I too, like him, will have new life. I too shall be raised from the dead. How can I listen to this powerful witness in all of Christian Scripture and not want, at least, to explore what and to know something about this God who loves me even when I am a stranger?

The Good News is that God has provided for us -- and provided many ways to explore and know the depth, breadth, and height of God's love for us. As I explore and know more and more about God, the less and less I think of myself. The more I explore and know of God, and God's love for me, the more I love God in return! I love God with all that I am, and that is not enough! Yet, that is all God asks of any of us -- to stay in love and grow in that love. The struggles we face as individuals, families, the people called Methodist, and as a nation can be addressed if we will but turn to the One who loves us when we are strangers; turn to the One who has never turned from us; turn to the One who provides for us even when we are ungrateful; turn to the One who out of love suffers and dies with us and promises that our death will be transformed to new life. Then this One, does something audacious -- God asks us to live in the world in that same self-giving manner!

In this movement of God toward us, and then in our movement toward others, self-care and selflessness come together, lives are transformed, and disciples of Jesus Christ are made. The grim picture painted at the beginning is true in our sinfulness. The hope-filled and transformed pcitured painted at the end only happens when we engage one simple rule, "stay in love with God."