Presby-Musings

“Hospitality means primarily the creation of free space where the stranger can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy.” —Henri Nouwen In the waning years of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, waves of immigrants came to the United States to flee a war-torn Europe, famine, and persecution.   They were filled with hopes and dreams for a better life, and believed the words of the poem on the Statue of Liberty which read:  “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” They endured racism, bigotry, and hatred once they arrived.  They were taken advantage of and often reviled by so-called "native born" Americans.  Politicians railed against them; newspapers printed hateful columns about them.   Neighbors treated them with fear and suspicion; some even relocated so they wouldn't l...

  “The church is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state.” —Martin Luther King Jr. For the next several days, I'm risking life and limb by applying the concept and practice of asking "What Would Jesus Do?" to some divisive, hot-button issues in our current culture.  We're going to be asking "What Would Jesus Do?" about politics, immigration, poverty, education, and environmental issues.   No, I haven't lost my mind.  If we're going to follow Jesus, we need to talk about these kinds of things and wonder together how Jesus would approach them.   These devotionals won't be about choosing a political side; they will be about standing with Jesus, wherever Jesus would be standing.   Jesus shows us by example that there aren't easy answers to the social ills that we are so divided over.  Instead, he encourages us to ask better questions.   And so, right off the bat, I want to talk about poli...

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the tragedies of September 11, 2001.   It's hard to believe that it happened a quarter of a century ago.   A few years ago, I had the opportunity to visit the 9/11 Memorial in New York City and spent an entire afternoon there, somberly experiencing all the exhibits.  It brought up a host of emotions and the memory of that fateful day and all that came after it.   If you remember that day as I do, you probably felt fear, horror, unbelievable sorrow, anger, confusion, and a sense that the world would never be the same again.  But there were other things that we felt as the days went by after 9/11.  There were tragic but incredible stories of people who gave their lives to save the lives of others.   Survivors also shared stories of acts of mercy, kindness, and bravery they would never forget.  We also felt a sense of solidarity and togetherness with one another.   In those early days,...

  “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.” —Peter Drucker I did some calculating the other day; as near as I can figure, I've officiated at nearly 250 funerals over the course of my career as an ordained minister.   I can't recall a single funeral I've officiated where the eulogy included phrases like:   "They were the most productive person I've ever known." "They loved spending more time at the office than with their kids."  "They would always take work calls, even in the middle of a family vacation."  "They were a workaholic and proud of it." Those descriptions are definitely not the way any of us want to be eulogized.  But far too many of us know that if we shuffled off this mortal coil right now, our friends and loved ones could use those phrases at our big send-off.   Asking "What Would Jesus Do?" about how we spend our time definitely would be a sobering exercise, b...

  “When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand.” —Henri Nouwen Scripture: John 15:9–17; Mark 1:35–38 Years ago, I facilitated a study at the church I was serving on creating and maintaining healthy boundaries using the work of Dr. Henry Cloud, who has written extensively on the topic.   As I worked through the leader guide and class materials, it quickly became apparent that I needed the lessons more than anyone else in the room.   There is a great quote from Henry Cloud that began my journey toward creating better boundaries:  Boundaries define us. They define what is me and what is not me. A boundary shows me where i end and someone else begins, leading me to a sense of ownership. Knowing what I am to own and take responsibility for gives me freedom....

  “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet.” —Frederick Buechner Scripture: Colossians 3:12–17, 23–24 Whenever I preach or write about what it means to be a Jesus-follower at our places of work, I will often get a response from folks that goes something like this:  "It's so easy for you, man.  You're kind of a 'professional' Christian."   To begin, I'm not a professional at following Jesus.  I stumble harder than most at doing it.  But I get it.  My workplace is kind of conducive to talking about faith.   But I spent years working outside the church, including time on the corporate side of both entertainment (Disney World) and retail (Best Buy), so I understand how hard it can be to follow Jesus faithfully without becoming some annoyingly overly-Christian person everyone at work avoids.   The fact is, most of us will spend or have spent far more time working than we eve...

  “The world asks, ‘What does a person own?’ Christ asks, ‘How does a person use it?’” —Andrew Murray I've known what it's like to not have enough money to make ends meet.   I've lived paycheck to paycheck, and realized that there was more month at the end of my money than money at the end of the month.   When I was a kid, we shopped at thrift stores for my toys, books, and clothes.  Out of necessity, not because we wanted to be trendy.   I remember more than a few times when I was a young man, living on my own, having to steal crackers and salad dressing from the salad bar at the Disney employee cafeteria for lunch because I was broke.   Thankfully, I had a friend who worked the register and let me slide because she felt sorry for me.    I've also known abundance to the point where I could buy whatever I wanted without worrying about my checking account getting emptied.   I went on fantastic vacations, ate at expensi...

  “If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.” —Mother Teresa This week, our Daily Devos will approach the question, "What Would Jesus Do?" from a different angle, and we'll explore practical ways to apply that question in our everyday lives.   We'll think about what it means to act as closely as we can to what we believe Jesus would do when it comes to loving others, spending money, using our time, and more.   Hopefully, these devotions will offer some ways to truly take what we've been learning over the past couple of weeks and put it into practice.   Today, we'll begin with what it means to show compassion to the people we encounter, and begin showing Jesus to them as we do.   Compassion isn't something we think about very often.   Most days, we go about our lives, running errands, doing work, navigating the chaos of family life, managing calendars and schedules, and it's hard to lift our g...

  What Would Jesus Do? Reclaiming a Christ-centered Faith   This series will help us rediscover what it means to follow Jesus—not the Jesus we’ve created in our image, but the Jesus revealed in Scripture.   Today we’re going to explore how asking “What Would Jesus Do?” impacts our relationships with others.   We live in a culture where it's far too easy to cut people loose when they wrong us, offend us, insult us, etc.  I've been guilty of this in the past when I unfriend or unfollow someone on social media after they post things that make my blood boil.   It's either that or start an argument online where all kinds of other people get involved, taking sides and hacking at each other with hard words typed from a safe distance.   It's a good thing that Jesus doesn't treat us like that.   Our culture cancels and shames.   Jesus restores.   Christians ought to measure success by reconciling broken relationships, not by bein...

  “The greatest issue facing the world today, with all its heartbreaking needs, is whether those who, by profession or culture, are identified as ‘Christians’ will become disciples—students, apprentices, practitioners—of Jesus Christ.” —Dallas Willard Some years ago, I was studying what it meant to be called a "disciple" of a rabbi or teacher in the first-century context of Jesus' ministry.   I was curious about the expectations that were part of the whole process of discipleship, and particularly what the twelve disciples of Jesus might have expected when they "left everything" to follow him.  As it turns out, the relationship between a rabbi and his disciples in first-century Judaism was more like an apprenticeship than anything else.  The expectation was that, over time, a disciple would learn to do everything the rabbi could do.   Many people claimed to be Jesus' followers, but to be a disciple you had to commit to something deeper.  You could...

  “The Gospel is the announcement that God has taken up residence among us, and that we are invited to participate in God's work of healing the world.” —Rachel Held Evans A couple of Saturdays ago, my fiancé and I volunteered for the truck run as part of our Mobile Loaves and Fishes ministry to the unhoused in our community.   Going on the truck run means that you are part of a small team that drives the fully loaded truck out to the areas in the community where our unhoused neighbors gather to deliver food, clothing, toiletries, and water.   It was a hot day with a heat index of nearly 118 degrees, and we eventually ran out of water bottles and had to stop to get more.   We gave away all of the food on the truck, and also a great deal of clothing, socks, underwear, and toiletries that were sorely needed.  At one point, I looked up at the sky from where we were and saw all the highway systems high above us.  It occurred to me how often I dro...