Heart’s Priorities

Posted on August 10, 2013 by Dr. Steve Martin
Steve & Shirley

Steve & Shirley

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” – Matthew 6:21

The Sunday School teacher said to the class: “According to the gospel, the love of money is the root of all evil.” A student responded: “Well, it’s not that I love money, I just love the things money can buy.”

What we love says a lot about who we are. And since we usually spend our money on the things we love, our financial statements are really statements of self-disclosure. They reveal our true priorities, our true values and our true delights.

Talk is cheap. We can say that we are committed to being healthy and avoiding/controlling diabetes through a healthy diet and exercise, but if we are spending more on junk food and alcohol than we are on vegetables and exercise, we know what has really taken precedence in our hearts.

We can say that we love the church and we are committed to the vitality and sustainability of its mission, but if our financial contributions to the church do not reflect the substantive consistency of God’s faithfulness in our lives, we know what the priorities of our hearts really are.

We can say that we value public education as the greatest agent of racial integration and economic uplift that America has ever produced, but if we allow the problems plaguing public education to make us abandon all efforts to adequately fund it and make it more efficient, our funding decisions will say a lot about what we really value at the heart of our nation.

The price of a thing does not necessarily reveal its value. But the things we value are things that we are willing to pay any price to attain and to maintain.

I understand the need for balanced budgets. But I have a problem with austerity measures in government which, while they may make the numbers look better, are too often undertaken without a heart for the people most impacted.

If we are not making serious investments in the things we say that we really value, then we are not being true to our own heart’s desires. If there is a continuous disconnect between what we say we value in our hearts and how we spend our dollars, then perhaps we’re just not being true.

Dear Lord, you have told us that our treasures and our hearts are reflected in one another. Help us to rectify the incompatibilities and to spend our dollars on the things of real value, in and through Jesus.  Amen.

Grace and Peace

Steve

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Worthless Degrees

Posted on August 9, 2013 by Dr. Steve Martin

3WlC4B5W1Ge4-IWbELvA-BHizhG2nnrI1XxvjZznIYYLast night on the eleven o’clock news they reported that according to some poll that some organization had conducted they came up with the top ten most worthless degrees. I didn’t catch all the segment, who conducted the poll, what was the meaning of “worthless” in this poll, and why it was even worth airing the findings.

In this poll, Communications was the most worthless – judging by journalism on television today – I agree with this one. It has gone from the honored profession of the Walter Cronkite days to the sensationalism of the present day. Today it is not news but opinion and talking heads. Number five however, of the most worthless degrees, was a degree in Religious Studies or Theology.

(Since I did not know who conducted the poll, I googled the “top ten most worthless degrees…” and came up with many polls which all gave different rankings for all sorts of degrees.)

But I wonder how could a degree in Theology and Religious Studies be worthless, especially in the top five? If worthless means money, then you may be right. Most people in the pulpit in mainline denominations make less than people with Master Degrees in other fields – which is required for becoming fully vested members of the clergy. We have drawn closer only in the last few years. Had it not been for conferences in the church seeking to keep qualified and talented young clergy we would still be lagging far behind like we use to. The old layman’s prayer use to be: “Lord, you keep him humble and we will keep him poor.”

I honor anyone who has the intellectual honesty and moral integrity, the compassion and calling of Christ, and the maturity of spirit to know that one needs to be educated in the things of God, so that whether you stand in the marketplace, the pulpit, the home, bedside, study or at the grave, you may speak as one prepared and approved by man and God to speak with wisdom, truth and grace, and not speak as a fool.

In addition, in the United Methodist Church, before one can be ordained an Elder in the church, he/she must have a college degree or equivalency from a school certified by the University Senate, a (94 Hrs. 3-4- years) Master of Divinity degree or equivalent from a school certified by the University Senate, gone through the candidacy process with a District Committee on Ministry where we pass a fully involved background check and answer many questions concerning our call to ministry and our theology, receive approval and support from our home church and PPRC, and meet face to face in two different years with the Conference Board of Ordained ministry – where we write papers and sermons, defend those papers and sermons before committees on Preaching, Call and Disciplined Life, and Theology. These are tough committees who are charged with the serious responsibility of making sure you are ready to become an ordained United Methodist Pastor. If there is doubt you are asked to redo your papers and return the following year.

Our education doesn’t stop there. Each year we are required to continue our education through seminars, courses, and convocations. We are even encouraged to join a weekly lectionary group where we study and discuss scripture and prepare for sermons we will be delivering in the lectionary cycle.

I invite the Reverend Doctor Charles D. White, Jr. (former Conference Secretary) and Reverend Kimberly Ingram, current Conference Secretary to add to and/or correct anything I may have offered to you tonight.

You just don’t take a correspondence course, talk with a preacher or two, and they declare you are an ordained minister, at least not a United Methodist minister. One of the questions we ask is this: “Would I want this person to be my mother’s pastor?”

Is a degree in Theology or Religious Studies worthless? It is if you don’t use it and take it deeper and further everyday. But, I want to tell you that as you stand at the bedside of some dear parishioner who is moving into the heavenly country, you will let them down and feel very empty… if you don’t have that knowledge of God and that life of faith under-girding you as you lead this family though their most difficult day. I have an undergraduate degree in Religion, a Masters in Divinity, and a Doctorate in Organizing the Church for Ministry, and for me they are most worthwhile. I wouldn’t trade anything in the world for them.

Dear Lord, I thank you for college and seminary – it’s strain, difficulty and excitement. I thank you for those professors who cared so much for their subject – and that others learn well – that they were willing to teach in schools that didn’t pay all that much… but gave their lives to their students. Thank you for sending them to prepare us for the work of ministry, in and through Jesus. Amen.

Grace and Peace

Steve

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Joy and Peace

Posted on August 8, 2013 by Dr. Steve Martin
Steve & Shirley

Steve & Shirley

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Colossians 3:15-16

Have you ever met anyone who just radiated goodness, niceness and pleasantness?

In the course of my life and ministry I have been blessed to know a number of such people. They have not always been super-smart, ultra-talented, mega-blessed, or natural leaders. On the other hand, these folks seem to be welcomed just about any place they go. That’s because without working at it, they have the ability to make almost everyone feel loved and at peace. Now if you’re paying attention, you may have noticed that both of the preceding sentences have a qualifier. I said, “just about any place” they went and “make almost everyone feel loved.”

I put in those qualifiers because it seems that even the best people in this world have someone who dislikes them.

As evidence of that, I point out that around 1:30 a.m. in the morning on Friday, July 26th, somebody vandalized the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. This they did by deliberately throwing green paint at the statue of our country’s most beloved and probably best president. They also followed up with throwing the green pain on the altar and organ at the National Cathedral and on the statue outside the Smithsonian.

Since hearing about that event, I’ve wondered just what would it take to make an individual so angry that he would take his frustrations out on a piece of stone set up to honor a good man who had been martyred in the service to his country? And as I was thinking about such folk, I also ended up thinking about Jesus.

I thought of Jesus because, well, God’s Son lived, suffered and died. He did so for the grouchy, gloomy Gus as well as the soul who is filled with sweetness and light. When Jesus rose from the dead, He did so to bring peace to the hearts of those who seem to subsist on a diet composed completely of sour grapes and those whose mouths are filled with honey.

The point I am trying to make is this: It’s easy for you and me to give thanks to the Lord for those who make us smile and give our hearts a warm glow; it is far harder for us to pray for those whose dark shadow seems to radiate gloom to everyone around them… especially toward us.

Let us ask that all of us will be changed. May we all, as St. Paul encourages, be filled with thankfulness in our hearts toward God.

Dear Lord Jesus, when you were born the shepherds were told that event was “good news of great joy” (see Luke 2:10). When you rose from the dead, your disciples were filled with joy. May that same joyful spirit touch those Christians who today find themselves living in a cloud of cheerlessness and those hearing news that is hard to deal with, in and through Jesus. Give us all your peace deep, deep inside. Amen.

Grace and Peace

Steve

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Tweaking or Transforming

Posted on August 6, 2013 by Dr. Steve Martin
Steve & Shirley

Steve & Shirley

“Let your thoughts be on heavenly things, not on things that are on the earth, because you have died, and now the life you have is hidden with Christ in God.” (emphasis added) – Colossians 3:3

When we’re looking for words to describe the life of faith a favorite is “growth.” We speak often of “growing in faith” or “growing in Christ,” “growing in understanding,” or “growing in giving,” etc. “Growth” is good, right?

A case could be made that the truest images and metaphors of change in Scripture aren’t about growth. They are about something wilder, more dramatic, wondrous and hard.

They are about death, death and life. As in this verse from Colossians, where Paul just so starkly lays it out, “you have died.”

Is he nuts? What does that mean? And is this something we’re supposed to want? Gimme growth any day – gradual, continual, steady, slow, “day by day, in every way,” a project I can do.

Or not? Maybe there’s a place for the drastic? For transformation not tweaking? A place and a time for, “you have died.” For hearing that the life you knew, the you that you have been, that world you so fitfully inhabited – that’s done now. You have died to that. You are a new creation. In Christ.

Growth makes sense. Everyone is for it. Death and new life make no sense. No one wants it. No one but everyone. This we want most of all. “You have died, and now the life you have is hidden with Christ in God.”

Help me, dear God, not to settle for tweaking when transformation is the business you’re in. Amen.

Grace and Peace

Steve

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Jesus, The Wine That Never Ends

Posted on August 5, 2013 by Dr. Steve Martin
Steve & Shirley

Steve & Shirley

There was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with His disciples. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.” John 2:1-3

When I think of all the weddings in which I have officiated, I am reminded of all the festivities that took place there. I’m sure it is the same for you. That’s because people go to a wedding to celebrate and have a good time. Most of the time the good time happens after I leave.

Of course, in Jesus’ day, when someone went to a wedding, they went to a wedding. The festivities lasted an entire week. Imagine, a full week of feasting and celebrating. John tells us in our Scripture text that Jesus, His mother, and His disciples were in attendance at such a wedding in the town of Cana.

Unfortunately, the festivities at this wedding were going to run down because “the wine ran out.” Things were looking desperate when Mary went to Jesus. At His time the Lord Jesus provided some first-class wine. Embarrassment was avoided, and the party went on.

Have you ever noticed that there are times when the wine runs out in our own lives, when there is no pleasure in anything, when we wish to avoid others and if we can’t avoid them, we pick fights with them? We’ve all seen how…

* when the wine of love runs out of a marriage, a couple no longer sees the point of continuing;

* when the wine of peace runs out of our lives, we find ourselves in constant conflict;

* when the wine of excitement runs out of our jobs or chosen careers, we quit;

* when the wine of fellowship runs out in a church, people break away.

Many different things can happen when the wine runs out. And our reaction is often like the writer of Ecclesiastes who commented, “All is vanity” (see Ecclesiastes 1:2).

The question is what do Christians do when the wine runs out?

At the wedding, Mary went to Jesus. In the book of Psalms, when the wine ran out, David turned to God (see Psalm 42:11). Then, having seen what God was doing David wrote, “My cup runneth over” (see Psalm 23).

Perhaps as we read this, the wine is running out in some area of our life. Let me urge us to do as Mary and David did, turn to the Lord. Jesus assures us we will find refreshment when we turn to Him (see Matthew 11:28).

With Him we find the wine of forgiveness; we find the wine of life; we find the wine of salvation; we find the wine if inner strength.

Dear Lord, you have always lead me beside still waters; you make me to lie down in green pastures; you restore my soul, even when I don’t know I need all these wonderful gifts of grace. Thank you for giving us your finest wine… a wine that never runs out, in and through Jesus. Amen.

Grace and Peace

Steve

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Building Up or Tearing Down?

Posted on August 4, 2013 by Dr. Steve Martin
Steve & Shirley

Steve & Shirley

If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. James 1:26

Two boys on the school playground were discussing a classmate. One of them remarked, “He’s no good at sports.”

The other quickly responded, “Yes, but he always plays fair.”

The critical boy tried a different tack: “He isn’t very smart in school either.”

His friend answered, “That may be true, but he studies hard.”

The boy with the spiteful tongue was becoming exasperated with the way the conversation was going. “Well,” he sneered, “did you ever notice that he never wears clothes that are cool?”

The second lad kindly replied, “Yes, but did you ever notice, he doesn’t seem to need the newest and best to be cheerful? He seems happier than most of us.”

The conversation went on for a while that way. Every negative observation was countered by a positive comment.

Now if this was a parable, and it is, I would ask which of the two boys on the playground is most like you?

* Are you the one who defends others, or are you the one who criticizes?

* Are you the one who builds people up, or the one who tears them down?

* Are you the one who puts the best construction on everything, or are you the person whose construction is pretty slipshod?

Now I know your mother told you, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.” And I know we are also told to say “everything in the kindest way.” But do we do what has been suggested to us, or is our conversation filled with criticism and complaints about others?

I wish I could answer all those questions in a way which makes me look good. I can’t. Odds are you probably can’t either. This is why we need to, in the words of James, “bridle our tongues.” Tongue-bridling is a good thing for many reasons. First, it helps and builds up others. Second, it helps us see the world and each other in a positive light, and most of all it reflects positively on our Savior.

James knows that the Christian witness of many of God’s people has been rendered useless because their tongues were polluted. It is a habit he encourages us to avoid. In that I agree. I would hate to have someone have a difficult life because I got careless with my conversation.

This is why today’s devotion encourages us to refrain from “evil speaking” and asks that we be “kind to one another” (see Ephesians 4:31-32). Rather than contributing to the spirit of criticism, let us be known as those who do their best to cancel it.

Dear Lord, it seems like my tongue is so small it ought to be easily controlled. That is the way it seems, but the reality is different. It is far too easy for me to shoot the verbal arrows, to unleash the thunderous tirade against others. For this forgive me. And now I ask that you will not just create a new heart in me, but you will also give me a new tongue, in and through Jesus.  Amen.

Grace and Peace

Steve

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Come, Holy Spirit Prayer

Posted on August 3, 2013 by Dr. Steve Martin

Just in case you were unable to download the music

for the prayer last night I wanted to share the words

with you tonight. WOW, what a wonderful prayer for

us all as we face each day.

Come, Holy Spirit

Bryan Duncan

Come as a wisdom to children

Come as new sight to the blind

Come, Lord, as strength to my weakness

Take me soul, body and mind

Come as a rest to the weary

Come as a balm to the sore

Come as a dew to my dryness

Fill me with joy evermore

Come Holy Spirit, I need you now

Come, Sweet Spirit, I pray

Come in your strength and your power

Come in your own gentle way

Come like a spring in the desert

Come to the withered of soul

O, let your sweet healing power

Touch me and make me whole

Come Holy Spirit, I need you now

Come, Sweet Spirit, I pray

Come in your strength and your power

Come in your own gentle way

Come in your own gentle way

Grace and Peace

Steve

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Come, Holy Spirit

Posted on August 2, 2013 by Dr. Steve Martin
Steve & Shirley

Steve & Shirley

“He opened the rock, and the waters gushed out; they ran in dry places like a river.” – Psalm 105:41 (KJV)

Like many other countries in the throes of financial crises, Britain is struggling to revive a faltering economy. A recent survey by Abbey Banking reveals that 64% of British citizens are running out of money before payday each month. And, with corporate tax collections well below estimates and government spending well above estimates, Britain seems poised for yet another painful round of social spending cuts, exacerbating the financial worries of many.

But into this dismal national story, there gushed a flood of joy. Prince William and Lady Catherine gave birth to an 8 pound, 6 ounce baby boy on Monday, July 22, and with the announcement of that birth, the spirit of a beleaguered nation was refreshed. People all across England, as well as the 53 member states of the Commonwealth, celebrated with flowers, cards and champagne, as they joined together on one accord to wish the royal family well and to confirm the vitality of their national solidarity.

God never fails to send rivers of hope through deserts of desolation.

Through the dry places of a Catholic Church, riveted by allegations of child abuse, a river of renewed compassion for “the least of these” still flows, with the coronation of a new Pope.

Through the arid sectors of The United Methodist Church, seeking to expand its work in a world of depleting denominational resources, a river of high hope still flows – both for the restructuring of the denomination and for the re-commitment to its mission of Radical Hospitality and risk-taking Mission and Service in the world.

Through every death valley, a river of new life, new hope and new possibility still flows.

Our destinies are not so much determined by our anguish in the desert as they are by the renewal we experience down by the riverside. So, as the old spiritual says: “Let All Come to the Waters.”

Tonight as a prayer I want to ask you to spend .99 on Itunes to purchase a beautiful and powerful prayer – a song by Bryan Duncan entitled “Come, Holy Spirit.” You will fall in love with it and it will touch your spirit. Amen. (Let me know what you think).

Grace and Peace

Steve

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A Mysterious God

Posted on July 31, 2013 by Dr. Steve Martin
Steve & Shirley

Steve & Shirley

“Why have you forsaken me? I cry by day, but you do not answer; and by night, but find no rest.” – Psalm 22

Sometimes we think that if we work hard at our spiritual practices we are bound to experience God, to feel God within us. But not everyone feels God, no matter how hard they try or how much they want to. Many know only the ache of absence. The truth is that God is often silent, dark, and distant — so much so that it can be painful to be around people for whom God is cheerful, close, and chatty.

There’s an old slogan that says, ‘If God feels far away, guess who moved?’ You’re supposed to answer, ‘Not God.’ But whoever thought that up never read the psalms. Jesus, who probably loved saying “Surely goodness and kindness will follow me all the days of my life” as much as we do, didn’t pray Psalm 23 on the cross. He prayed Psalm 22: “I cry to you, but you do not answer.”

You know this, but hear it again: the Christian life isn’t about feeling feelings or acquiring spiritual experiences. Baptism ushers us into a life of greater depth than that — a life of faith. And faith is almost always a journey through the desert and the dark. If Deus absconditus is your God, you are not a second-class Christian. You have a gift. A hard one, but a gift all the same.  Your heartache — faith’s heartache — can lead you straight to the heartache of others, to neighbors whose abandonment is human, not divine. With them you can keep company. With them, mourn. With them, persevering, wait out the darkness ’till the Coming Day.

Was there really anything else you wanted when once upon a time you said yes to a fierce and mysterious God?

Dear Lord, also known as the Hidden One, they say you are still speaking, and even if it isn’t to me right now, give me faith to trust that you are as real as the poor, as close as the suffering, as audible as the cry of the abandoned; and let me find you there, and everywhere else you send me, in and through Jesus. Amen.

Grace and Peace

Steve

 

 

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An Open Trunk

Posted on July 29, 2013 by Dr. Steve Martin

thThis week Noah is in an Animation Camp out at the Natural Science Center here in Greensboro. I picked him up around noon and asked how his day had been going? He told me that he and his partner are making this movie (Lego movie) which they have entitled: “The Zombie Apocalypse.” This may not be out in your local movie theaters this summer, but it is certainly intriguing to hear him talk about it.

As we are talking about the happenings of his day, we headed for Jay’s Deli for lunch. They sat us at a table for two by the window. We continued our conversation about the looming apocalypse, and how he was going to have little Lego figures flying through the air.

I happened to look out the window, and I noticed this car with the trunk wide open and no one anywhere near that car. I thought to myself: “I cannot believe how dumb some people are… to leave their trunk wide open right here in the middle of the parking lot.” I called this to Noah’s attention, and then it hit me – it was MY car – the trunk not just cracked a little – no, it is open all the way… like a flag on a bicycle!  Apparently, I cannot only pocket dial someone on my cell phone, I can also sit on my keys and open my trunk. Isn’t life wonderful?

It is so easy to look at the mistakes we see around the world – even up close and personal and wonder how could those people be so dumb. And then we find out it is our error… it is our sin, it is our mistake. We are really no different from anyone else. What makes us think that other people, who do the same things we do, are dumb and yet we do not apply the same standards to ourselves.

I believe the Bible tells us that all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Not one of us is smarter than a fifth grader. Not one of us is perfect. Not one of us deserves to be called dumb. When it comes to kingdom living, all of us fall short of what God expects from us. But all of us do some mighty dumb things.

Next time you see an open trunk think about me, but more than that, realize that if it were not for the grace of God all of our trunks would be open.

Dear Lord, I don’t know why I do such dumb things, but I sure am thankful that you are there to forgive me, redeem me and restore me, in and through Jesus. Amen

Grace and Peace

Steve

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  • Uplifting Lectionary Homilies (A)

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