Do You Know It All?

I am back in school.    There are probably some folks that believe I have enough “book learning”.  I have a high school degree, bachelors degree, and two master’s degree.     I believe it was baseball player Yogi Berra who said  “It ain’t bragging if you did it.”  Well,  I have a few degrees.     Yet, here I am on the verge of medicare back in school again.   A few days ago, I started taking an online class on writing.    Last Fall,  I took a class in creating Word Press web sites.   Though I do not remember all the particulars of the class,  I did enjoy the experience and learned a lot. 

Now, let me stop and clarify that I am not taking a class in handwriting.   Any of you that have ever suffered the trauma of trying to read my handwriting will testify that I probably could use a lot of classes on handwriting.  If you can read my handwriting, you might also be able to read an ancient form of hieroglyphics.   

Yes,  I am taking a class in writing.   Those of you that are regular readers of this blog might lament that you wish that I had taken a class in writing many years ago.  I am taking this class not because I believe I write so badly, but because I believe I can write better.    Back in the 1980’s and 1990’s,  I read a number of books from an author named Leo Buscaglia.   One of his books was titled Papa, My Father.   As the title implies,  it was a memoir about his father.  Buscaglia tells in the book about the fact that every evening at the dinner table that his father would ask each of his children “What did you learn today?”   As Leo and his siblings would go through the events of the day,  they would search to make sure there was something they could offer as a new learning to their father at the dinner table.  As that story implies, there is so much to know and learn.   There is much to learn in this world, and there certainly is much to learn about the love we know in Christ Jesus.      I like the way that Ephesians 3 puts it:

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸ may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

I don’t know about you, but my name is certainly not “Mr.  Know It All”.     I will leave it up to the readers of this blog in the weeks ahead to decide if I learned anything in this writing class.   Have a joy-filled week.- Pastor Randy Wall

Prayer:    O God,  there is so much to learn in this world and life.   Give me an open heart and mind to others and especially to you;  through Christ our Lord.  Amen. 

What Does Serving Smell Like?

Earlier this year,  I wrote in this blog about the fact that at Christmas 2017 my daughter Heather gave me a gift that keeps on giving for the whole year.  Each week,  a web site emails  a question to me that I answer.   Sometimes,  the questions are difficult for me to answer.   Always, the question are interesting.     A few weeks ago, the question of the week was this:   What are your favorite smells?     Of all of my senses,  I suppose my sense of smell is the least developed largely due to the fact that I suffer with chronic sinus issues.    For days, I pondered what were my favorite smells.

That question caused  another question to rise up within me:   What does serving Christ smell like?   The gospels give us a few examples of what serving smells like.  As Jesus visited in the home of Mary and Martha, serving smelled like a fresh cooked meal for Martha.    While Matthew, Mark, and Luke tells us about the smell of bread and wine at the Passover meal,  the writer of the gospel of John tells us about the smell of stinking feet as Jesus served the disciples by washing their feet after a long day on the dusty roads around Jerusalem.  For a little boy,  serving Christ smelled like loaves and fishes as he gave what he had for Jesus to fed thousands of people. 

What does serving Christ smell like today?    It smells like hamburgers or hotdogs as a church group feeds hungry folks on the streets of Charlotte on a Sunday night.    It smells like clean clothes as a woman washes the dirty underclothes of a boy who did not bring enough clothes on his first mission trip with a church group.    Serving Christ smells like sawdust and freshly cut lumber as a group helps repair a home for a family whose home was seriously damaged by hurricaine waters.     Serving Christ smells like warm biscuits and fried chicken made with the loving hands of a woman who wants to offer care to a neighbor who just lost a loved one. 

What does serving Christ smell like?   It smells like all these things, and much more.    When those who love Christ do such things,  I believe the aroma of their serving is like incense given  as prayers and offerings to almighty God.   Have a joy-filled week.-    Pastor Randy Wall

Prayer:    O God,  I thank you for the priviledge to serve knowing that I serve you as I serve others.  Give me open eyes and an open heart to see the countless ways around me to serve;  through the One who came to serve and give His life for many, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen. 

Knowing How To Help

I dropped off a birthday card a few weeks ago  to a friend of ours.    I could not mail it because this person has no mailing address.  You see, he lives in a tent not very far from where I live.  It probably was the only birthday card that he received. He is not married and does not have any children.   His parents are deceased, and he is alienated from much of the family that survives.  He does receive some governmental assistance, but it is not enough to afford a traditional sort of home.  He does not work a typical job, but only odd jobs that he picks up every now and then.  It is easy to say “get a job”, but it is hard to get a job if you are a convicted felon. Who wants to have a convicted felon working at their business? 

Ann and I have tried to help him in all sorts of ways: getting him a temporary home to live in for a new start… bringing him food… giving him odd jobs to do… giving him money and other things to help him survive… giving him ideas on how he could better himself.  We have prayed for him and prayed with him.  We have wondered if we are helping enough or if we are helping too much.  Despite the best of our intentions,  he continues to subsist on a “day to day”  basis. His health is fragile.  Thanks to our local free medical clinic, he does get some  medical help. While I am glad he does,  I wonder about his mental health.   Sometimes, it seems he does not think clearly or act rationally. 

I tell his story not to give my wife Ann and I a pat on the back for helping this man or to receive your consternation as you think we are  enabling his plight.  I tell his story because his story is legion.   There are thousands of people across this land of prosperity who live drowning in their poverty.  Their names are many, and their stories are varied.  The questions are many, and the answers are hard.   They are young and old, men and women, veterans and civilians,  black and white.    As I think of their story,   I think of a story of Jesus in Matthew 25:

³¹ “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. ³² All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. ³³ He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.  ³⁴ “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. ³⁵ For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶ I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’  ³⁷ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸ When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? ³⁹ When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’  ⁴⁰ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’     

Whether we are homeless and a convicted felon or not,  all of us are people Christ died for.     May God help us to know how to help those in poverty around us  that their number  might decrease.   Have a joy-filled week.-  Pastor Randy Wall

Prayer:    O God,  I pray with awe and thanksgiving that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.  I  pray for the thousands of people who struggle to simply survive. Lord, the questions are many,and the answers are hard to come.    Show me how to help their name to be fewer; for the sake of Christ I pray.  Amen. 

A College Professor and the Resurrection

As Easter Day is still a close memory,  I think of one of my former college professors.  His name was Dr. Lorenzo P. Plyler.   He was the chair of the Religion Department of my alma mater, Methodist College  (now known as Methodist University) in Fayetteville.  As I recall, he was a Pennsylvania native  and received his Ph.D. degree from Boston University about the same time as a fella you may have heard of named Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Dr. Plyler also was an ordained United Methodist pastor. 

He was not a tall man, but his personality and educational exploits were often imposing.  For example,  I recall a time on an Old Testament exam when he asked “Who is Jeremiah?”   When a fellow student named Danny wrote  “Jeremiah was a bullfrog”  (the first line of the hit song “Joy to the World” by music group 3 Dog Night)   Dr.  Plyler gave Danny an “F” on the final exam.  I was often quickly intimidated by Dr. Plyler’s education and his personality.

In the summer of 1973,  I took a class under Dr. Plyler titled  “The Historical Jesus”.   The class was taken through independent study meaning that instead of sitting in a classroom hiding behind a large football player or the homecoming queen it was only Dr. Plyler and I one on one.   I worked full time that summer at Burlington Industries in my hometown of Burlington and would make the drive on weekends to Fayetteville where I would talk with Dr. Plyler at this home  about what Bonhoeffer,Bultmann, Schweitzer, said in their books about Jesus. 

Though there was much reading I would do for the class that summer about Jesus, there was only paper that I had to be write  and the topic was Jesus.   The grade on that paper would determine my grade in the class.    There was much about Jesus in my readings that was undisputable:   that he was born, that he lived, that he died, and that he was a great teacher.   The question I wrestled with was what to write and say about the resurrection.     I recall I wrote that there is nothing historical about the resurrection of Jesus, and that our faith was the only way that one could believe in the resurrection.    Despite my intimidation about Dr.  Plyler and my uncertainty about what to write about the resurrection,  I was delighted when I received an “A” on the paper and also on the course.    The resurrection of Jesus Christ is at the heart of the Christian faith.  It is the heart of the matter.  The apostle Paul puts it this way in I Corinthians 15: 12-17:  

¹² But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? ¹³ If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. ¹⁴ And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. ¹⁵ More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. ¹⁶ For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. ¹⁷ And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 

Thanks be to God for the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  He is risen, He is risen indeed.  Have a joy-filled week.-  Pastor Randy Wall

Prayer:   All praise, glory, and thanksgiving be to you, O God, for the resurrection of Jesus Christ.    We celebrate that we are people of the empty tomb.  Help that resurrection joy to inspire us daily;  through Christ our Lord.  Amen.