We Are Only Human

By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return. ~ Genesis 3:19


Last night we had a wonderful Ash Wednesday worship service. The music was from Taize. Candlelight illuminated the chancel. Time spent in silence restored my soul. It was breathtaking.


The moments that I will treasure most from that service came when the Senior Pastor and I put a small cross of ash and oil on the worshipers foreheads. As I looked into the eyes of those who came forward, my heart smiled at the joy of seeing them. Yet, my heart was also breaking as I said the words, "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Repent and believe in the Gospel." 


Ash Wednesday does a good job of reminding us that we are mortal. We are human. We are all in various states of dying. Some closer to death than others. Some realize they are dying; others think they can live forever. Most of us do not want to face the idea of our own deaths. We run from the very idea of it. We shield our children from death, often not allowing them to attend funerals or view an open casket. We as a people are afraid of dying.


As I stood on the steps of the chancel last night placing ashes on the foreheads of the young and the old, my heart was breaking with love for each person I crossed. One woman who has had health problems approached me. As I put the cross on her head and said the words, I wanted to say so much more to her. I wanted to tell her what a witness her faith is to others. I wanted to hug her and tell her how much she means to so many people. I wanted to say thank you for all that she does in this life. And, I silently prayed a selfish prayer to God to keep her healthy and to keep her here. 


Yes, when people die we are sad. Very sad. Our grief can even overwhelm us. Yet, thankfully, because of our faith in Christ, we know that this world is not all that God has for us. Our bodies return to the dust from which we come. But, our spirits, our souls live on with God forever. I admit that I don't know what that looks like and, in some ways, that doesn't even matter. It's the knowing that life goes on after death that matters. Both here and in heaven. Life goes on. Amen.

God is My Rock

⁵For God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from him.

⁶He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken.

⁷On God rests my deliverance and my honor; my mighty rock, my refuge is in God.

⁸Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us. - Psalm 62:5-8

God is my rock. This was the scripture from my morning prayers. I often need to be reminded that God is my rock. Like a solid rock that has lasted for millions of years, God is not going anywhere. I may move frequently. I may change my mind. I may run away from God. But God, the rock, is always there. I can rest and rely on the One who stands ready to receive me at all times.

As we enter into the Lenten season tomorrow, remembering that God is my rock is a good thing. I am so human. Even though I am an ordained minister, I am still human. I make mistakes. I sin. I say, think, and do things I should not. These sins may not be huge compared to some sins committed in this world. But, they are sins, none-the-less. 

Tomorrow, as I pause in prayer before the Lord, I will pour out my heart to God. I will find my refuge in God. I will offer God my heart again. And, as I spend the next 6 weeks preparing for Easter, I will seek out the One who offers me unconditional love and forgiveness. 

A Sermon on Mark 9:2-9

As an Associate Pastor, I preach about once a month. Yesterday was one of those days. Here's my sermon from yesterday.

“The Holy Mountain”

Mark 9:2-9

February 19, 2012 ~ Transfiguration, Year B

I have a confession to make this morning. I am a huge Little House on the Prairie fan. Huge. I love the books and the TV show. My sister and I watched that show all the time when we were kids. I still watch it whenever I can find reruns on TV. I love it. There are so many good things about that show: the family values, their simple yet honest lifestyle, their work ethic, and of course their faith. I don’t believe there was a single episode of that show that didn’t illustrate the importance of the characters’ faith in their everyday lives.

I confess my love for this show this morning because sometimes while reading scripture scenes from Little House on the Prairie will enter my mind. As I was reading the scripture before us today, a particular scene popped into my head. No matter how hard I tried to shake it, I kept seeing it over and over again. Now, you might find it a stretch to see how this scripture relates to that scene, but just go with it this morning as I try to explain it to you.

In the middle of the first season of Little House, there was a two part episode called The Lord is My Shepherd. It begins with Caroline Ingalls telling Charles that she is going to have a baby. That baby is the long-prayed for son, Charles Jr. Of course Laura is very jealous of her little brother and the attention given to him by their father. So, when he becomes deathly ill, she refuses to pray for him. Shortly thereafter, he dies. Like any young girl, Laura becomes distraught and internalizes the guilt she feels for her brother’s death.

At the end of part one of the episode, we see the family in church and the Rev. Alden is giving a sermon on how with God all things are possible. After the sermon, Laura talks with him about what he said. Basically, she wants to know how to get a miracle from God. In the conversation, Rev. Alden says to her, “The closer you are to God, the more likely he is to listen.”

Thinking with the literal mind of a child, Laura takes his advice to heart. She runs away and climbs a mountain. She thinks if she is physically closer to God, closer to heaven, then God will hear her prayer. So, she leaves home in the middle of the night, and finds herself looking up at a glorious mountain. She hears the voice of Rev. Alden saying, “The closer you are to God, the more likely he is to listen.”

“The closer you are to God, the more likely he is to listen.” How often do we find ourselves in a similar place. We think we want or need something from God. Or there is something about our lives that we want God to explain to us. And, we think if we could just do something, just be closer to God, then we could get the answers to our prayers. We want to do something. Anything to help us understand, but we don’t know what. We pray as hard as we can. We try saying all the right words in just the right way. We just want to understand. But, somehow our efforts are still lacking.

I think this is how Peter probably felt when he was on the mountain with Jesus and James and John. The scripture doesn’t tell us why they went up that mountain. Six days before, Jesus had talked with the disciples about who people think he is and about his impending death. Peter confesses that Jesus is the Messiah. But, when Jesus insists he is going to die, Peter tries to talk him out of it. Jesus rebukes him.

Now, six days later, Jesus takes Peter up the mountain with him. I think Peter wanted to make sure that he got the right answer this time for whatever was going to happen next. So, when they are up on this mountain, Peter sees this amazing sight. Like the stories about Moses in the Torah, Jesus glows with this other-worldliness. A bright light emanates from his face. Moses and Elijah appear beside him and start talking with him. Surely, this amazing site had to overwhelm all of Peter’s senses. Yet, there he is trying to stay on top of things and he wants so badly to say the right thing. So, instead, he says completely the wrong thing. Have you ever done that? I know I have. It usually happens when I’m too wrapped up in my mind with trying to THINK about what I should say next or what I’m supposed to say that I totally just miss what is happening around me. I stop experiencing the world around me. I stop listening to the other person who is trying to interact with me. And, I completely miss something spectacular – a God-moment.

There on that holy mountain, Peter is so absorbed in trying to say the right thing to Jesus that he is missing this amazing God-moment. There on that holy mountain something amazing, something beyond words, something beyond even our own imagination is happening and Peter tries to talk himself through it. Peter has this amazing mountain-top experience of God and he’s at a loss for what to do with it. He jabbers away and says something about building a house or monument for Jesus, Elijah, and Moses. He wants to memorialize this event because he knows it’s special even if he can’t explain it himself.

But, then the experience is over just as suddenly as it began. Moses and Elijah are gone. The voice of God is now silent. The clouds, the glorious light, they are now gone. It is only Jesus and the disciples. The mountain-top moment is over and they must head back down to the valley below.

Life is like that. Just when we are experiencing a wonderful moment, it’s over. We finish school and experience that moment of graduation. But, then it’s over and it’s time to find a job. Or, we can spend months if not a year or more, planning a wedding. Then, just like that, you come home from the honeymoon and it’s time to adjust to everyday living. Then there’s summer camp. A week that goes by way too fast. Or that perfect job we’ve always dreamed of, that’s not that great once we get it.

We can spend so much time anticipating these glorious events, planning for them even that when they finally do occur, we’ve run out of energy to enjoy it. Or we built it up way too much in our heads to appreciate it for what it simply is. We can also spend too much of our lives simply walking by something absolutely wonderful without noticing it.

In 2007, the Washington Post did an experiment at a DC Metro station. Joshua Bell, a talented concert violinist, played for an hour one morning as people were on their way to work. They wanted to see how many people would stop and notice. Only 6 people paid attention. One was a small child. Another was a man who stopped for 3 minutes because he was 3 minutes early to work. Everyone else just passed him by. [1]

We can be blind to the goodness that is all around us because we are caught up in our own desires, our own daydreams that we miss the wonders that God puts right in front of us. Katherine Huey puts it this way, “We live our lives mostly down here on the ground, unaware of the wondrous, transformative power of God at work in the world.”[2]

The world we live in is a very busy place. We are always going here, doing that, fixing this, and cleaning that that we often let it pass us by. We rush headlong into life that we sometimes forget to live it. And, then we read a scripture like this one and we are puzzled. What does this mean for me? What in the world is God trying to say to me through this text?

Perhaps that is what it was meant to do. To stop us in our very tracks. To get our attention and say notice this, “This is my Son, Jesus, listen to him!”

Did you know we are only 6 weeks away from Easter? In some ways it feels like we just finished with Christmas. Yet, this Wednesday is Ash Wednesday, the start of the church season of Lent. Yes, that’s the time when many Christians give up something like chocolate as they prepare themselves for Easter. But, it’s more than that. It’s the perfect time for God to stop us in our tracks so we can take a look around us to see God’s hands on our world. It’s the perfect time to reflect on our lives, repent of our sins, and renew our faith in Christ as we prepare for the glorious resurrection on Easter morning. Lent is the perfect time to listen for the voice of God as we pause to breathe in Christ’s holy presence into our very lives.

We don’t have to go climb a mountain to be closer to God. We don’t have to find the right words to say to please God. We can just stop and rest and be in God’s presence.

In one of her poems, Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote, “Earth’s crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God; But only he who sees, takes off his shoes, The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.”[3] God’s presence is all around us. God is waiting for us to notice, to see God’s presence in and through others all around us. And, when we do, God wants us to fully be in that moment. To experience it for all it is. To be quiet and to listen.

Then, when that moment is over, just as Jesus and the disciples went down the mountain returning to their work of healing and teaching others, we too are called to return to the world. Yet when we return, we return filled with the presence of God. And, we can share that presence; we can share God’s presence, God’s love, God’s compassion with the world that is starving to be fed the good news. Amen.

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[1]Gene Weingarten, “Pearls Before Breakfast,” Washington Post, 8 April 2007 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html

[2] Katherine Matthews Huey, “Last Sunday after Epiphany Year B Transfiguration”, http://www.ucc.org/worship/samuel/february-19-2012-last-sunday-after.html

[3] Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “From Aurora Leigh”, http://www.bartleby.com/236/86.html

Where the Goose Calls

I have thought about blogging for years now. But, I've always stopped and put it off. Well, today is the day. Today is the day for my very first blog post. Now, what should I write?

I chose the name "Wild Goose Beckons" from a song my dad sang to me as a child. Recently, as I have studied Celtic Christianity, I have come to understand the Wild Goose as symbolic of the Holy Spirit. I love that idea! The wild goose is such a wonderful bird to see in flight, especially flying together as a flock in V formation. On a beautiful clear day, the V of the geese stands out in glory against the blue sky. I want to join that V and fly away with the wild goose! I want to go wherever God may lead me.

We see lots of those birds here in Ohio. And, I love to hear their call beckoning one another on as they fly south for winter only to return again in spring. The call of the wild goose has led me to many different homes in this great country of ours. I grew up in eastern NC. The call from God led me first to Fort Worth, TX for seminary. From there, God called me to Bowling Green, KY. Then, that crazy goose called my husband to return to school for a PhD. So off we went to Richmond, VA. I'm not exactly sure that call was for me to move there. Those three years were pretty tough on me. So, we listened again only to hear the goose beckoning us to move north, to northeast Ohio. It's quite different up here in the north, where Canada appears on our weather maps. But, so far, it's been amazing. God has opened my eyes to new ways of being in ministry and relationship with others. Nowhere has ever felt like HOME as much as this church and this town. It really is amazing the way God works in our lives.

Learning to hear the beckoning call of the Wild Goose is a huge part of my spiritual life. It requires patience, trust, faith, and love. My heart and ears are open. I am open to learning from and following the beckoning call of the Wild Goose.