A Job That Never Ends

Another Labor Day has passed.    Labor Day, like many of our holidays, has been made into more than what it was intended to be.  While Labor Day was created  as a day to honor American workers and how their work contributes to our quality of life,  most of us see  Labor Day as an opportunity to have a long weekend and as the “unofficial” end of summer.  

I find myself thinking about work in these days even though Labor Day is over.   I have known work up close and personal.  While many of you know my work as a pastor, there were a number of other jobs I had before I became a pastor.  They include: newspaper delivery boy… mowing yards for $1.50 a yard… stock  clerk at the A & P Food Store… mill worker at Burlington Industries… short order cook at our college grill… and working in the Stores Dept. at Duke Power Co. ….and the dream job of every college-age young man of being a night security guard for women’s college dormitories.     Then in my 20’s, I entered into this  holy, sacred work called pastoral ministry that I continue to feel called to even though I am at retirement age.    

Work has been central to life for humanity since the beginning.   In Genesis 2:15, we read these words about work:  

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to till it and keep it

While many of us use the work “job” to talk about our work, I prefer the word “vocation” to talk about my work as a pastoral minister.   The word “vocation” comes from the latin word “vocare” which means calling.   I believe that my work as a pastoral minister is a holy and sacred calling.   As a person who now has been a pastor for 48 years, I know that I probably have fewer days in front of me as pastor than I have behind me.   How many more days, Sundays, weeks, or months will I serve as a pastor?   I do not know.   This I know:  there is a work and job that never ends and you never retired from, and that is the work of serving the Lord.

Robert Cushman was one of my professors when I was a student at Duke Divinity School.  Former dean of the Divinity School, he was in the final years of teaching when I was in Christian Theology class.   Dr. Cushman was also an ordained pastor and the son of a Methodist Bishop.   I was there when Dr. Cushman retired as a pastor.  I remember in his remarks he said this:   “Though I am retiring as a pastor and a member of the Annual Conference, I will never retire from serving the Lord.”   Whatever your work status these days, may those words be true for all who follow Christ.  Have a joy-filled week.-  Pastor Randy Wall

PRAYER    Almighty God, thank you for the high and holy calling to be your disciple.  Through the power of your Spirit and the grace of Christ, help me to do the work you have called me to do;  through Jesus Christ our Lord.   Amen.

Smarter Than a Jeopardy Champion

 

School is starting in these days. Though I have grandchildren heading to school in these days and one daughter who will be working in schools, it has been a few years since I have formally been  a student.  School is different today that it was when I was in school.   The challenges student and teachers alike face are bigger than when I was in school.   I regularly pray for my grandchildren as they are in school and for my daughter as she works in school.   I particularly pray for their safety.   I know that prayer is not a part of the everyday school life of  all schools these days.   Of course, as a wise person said many years ago, as long as students face tests, there will be prayer in schools.   I know I certainly have prayed sometimes before taking a test.    

There is something I pray for my grandchildren as they go to school even as I pray for their safety.   I pray that they may have wisdom.   There are lots of people who have intelligence.  The television screen is filled with such folks every weeknight if you watch the television show “Jeopardy”.   There are also lots of intelligent people in advanced placement classes in high school or who graduate with honors in our high schools, colleges, and universities.    Wisdom is not always synonymous with intelligence.    I know that from personal experience for some of the wisest people I have ever known did not have a high school degree much less a college degree.

In I Kings 3, we read about another who prayed for wisdom.  His name was Solomon, and he was taking on the task of being King of Israel in place of his father David.  Read here the prayer for wisdom that Solomon makes to the Lord: 

⁶ Solomon answered, “You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, because he was faithful to you and righteous and upright in heart. You have continued this great kindness to him and have given him a son to sit on his throne this very day. ⁷ “Now, Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. ⁸ Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. ⁹ So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours

Perhaps my grandchildren on their worst days might like for me to pray they pass a test or they have a grade point average that will get them a scholarship into the school of their choice.   I am afraid I do not pray for that, but I do pray for them to have wisdom.   Their lives will be better and this world will be better for it.   A matter of fact, all our lives will be better for it.   The world certainly needs more wise people rather than more Jeopardy contestants.  Have a joy-filled week!-  Pastor Randy Wall

 

PRAYER    Living and loving God, give us wisdom as the face the challenges of our life and this day.   Give us wisdom to discern what is your gracious and perfect  will;   through Christ our Lord.   Amen. 

Their Story and My Story

 

My story begins with their story.  A young man fresh out of high school working in a shoe store.   A teenage woman only 17 years old, still in high school, and looking for a pair of shoes.   I don’t know if he was more interested in a sale or the woman that day but a chance encounter in a shoe store led to a series of dates and finally to a trek  down to Chesterfield County SC where they were married by a justice of the peace surrounded by their family.   She was a rising senior in high school, and tried school for a few weeks when it started again.  However, it is hard for a young woman to be a wife, student, and employee at the same time so she quit school because having a paycheck seemed more important  at that time than having a diploma.

In a few months, that young married woman found herself pregnant.   This was her first pregnancy, and she was excited along with all the family.   A child was on the way.   A few months later, their joy and glee turned to woe and concern.  The doctor said that something was wrong.   Hard choices had to be made, and one of those choices was whether to follow the doctors orders and be on bedrest or continue to work her job.   Even with bedrest, the doctor still thought there was a possibility the baby would be born dead or deformed.  Though it was hard for them to make it on one income, she chose the former instead of the latter.  She spent 7 months of a 9 month pregnancy on bedrest.   In a few months, they could no longer afford  to have their own place and moved in with her parents.  

On a hot, humid afternoon in  August, the time came for the baby to be born  and they made their way to the hospital.  Would the child be born dead or alive?  Would the child be deformed like the doctor said?   To  new parents named Dennis and Shirley,  a child was born in a thunderstorm that August day.   They named the child Randy.  That child was me. And so, my life began.

 

When August rolls around every year, I celebrate another birthday.   But more than that, I remember not only the mother and father who gave me life, but give thanks to God for the gift of life.   In these days I echo these words from Psalm 139: 13-15 which say:

¹³ For you created my inmost being;   you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,   I know that full well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you   when I was made in the secret place,
    when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

 I am “fearfully and wonderfully made”.   And you know what?  So are you.  Have a joy-filled week.-   Pastor Randy Wall

 

PRAYER    Creator God, thank you for giving me life and for the abundant life in Christ.   In times of darkness and gloom, help me to especially remember that I am fearfully and wonderfully made; through Christ our Lord.   Amen.  

What's In A Name?

 

What’s in a name?   Most people either have a nickname or know someone who has a nickname like “Shorty”, “Slim”, or “Goofy”.    While those names might not be the real names for the persons, they acquired them because they say something about the person or their character.    I am told that some Native American tribes in the past had the custom of giving persons a temporary name.  Once the person had lived a few years and the community got sense of the person they were, they gave them a more permanent name that said something about  who they were.

In the book of Acts 4, we read about Joe.  Joseph was his full name.   He was a levite, from the priestly lineage of Aaron, brother to Moses.    But he had another name.  Listen to what Acts 4:36 says about him:

³⁶ Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means “son of encouragement”), ³⁷ sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles’ feet.  

 I want to be “mo’ like Joe.”    I want to be more encouraging.   In 1963, Morris West wrote a book titled The Shoes of the Fisherman.   The book tells a fictional story about the Pope, head of the Roman Catholic Church.   There is a scene in the book where the Pope escapes the pressures of  the papacy and Vatican City and travels out on the streets of Rome.  In a neighborhood, he comes across a home where a family is dealing with the death of a love one.   The call goes out on the street for a priest, and the disguised Pope rushes to the bedside where he offers  last rites for the deceased before  they take their last breath.   As the Pope lingers in the home beside the bed side with grieving family members, some members of the Papal staff discover him.    As the Pope hestitates a departure, one of his staff tells him:   “Father, come now.   Dying is easy, but it the living that gets us down”.     There is much in the world that can easily get us down:   news reports,  social media attacks,  economic tensions, politics, and much more.    

 I want to be like Joe.   I want to encourage my  grandchildren as they grow up and my children as they maneuver the challenges of parenthood, marriage, and living in this 21^st century.   I want to encourage friends and fellow believers as they face the challenges of these days.  In Acts 11: 22-24, it speaks further about  Joseph better known as Barnabus: 

²² News of this reached the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. ²³ When he arrived and saw what the grace of God had done, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. ²⁴ He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.

 Mo’ like Joe.   That is my goal and aim for  myself.   The world surely needs more sons and daughters of encouragement.   How about you?   Have a joy-filled week.-  Pastor Randy Wall

 

PRAYER     I give you thanks, O God, for the  family, friends, and fellow believers who have encouraged me through the years.  Help me to do the same; through Christ our Lord. Amen.  

Change Happens!

 

Brodie was a businessman in a small town in North Carolina where I  served as a pastor at a local church over 30 years ago.   He worked at a successful business that did  well.   I patronized the business regularly as I have always felt that we should support local businesses.   They are the lifeblood of the economic health of a community.  One day, Brodie and I got to talking about change and he was quite adamant that he did not like change of any kind.  He did not like change in his family, home, or small town.  He wanted everything to always be the same.   I remember what I told Brodie and it was this:   “You may not like change, but it happens.  If  you don’t believe me, go look  in the mirror and see if the person you see in the mirror looks just like the person you saw there 20 years ago”.  

 One of the constants in our lives and communities is change.  As Bob Dylan sang many years ago, “the times they are a changing”.   I was reminded that change is always happening recently when I read the book Who Moved My Cheese?  Pastoral ministry in rural United Methodist Churches has certainly changed since I began my ministry.  While I began my ministry talking on a land line telephone on a party line, today I speak and text with people on a cell phone.  When I started out as a pastor, online is where we hung clothes to dry, but today online  is where I send and receive messages including from members of my congregation and those in our United Methodist connection.    While internet availability is not an issue of concern for me, it is a concern in  many rural areas.

 People of faith in the 21^st century find themselves walking a tightrope if you will on the issue of change.   First, we must always affirm with faith and confidence that we worship a great and glorious God that never changes.   People change.   If you do not believe that people change, do what I encouraged my friend Brodie  to do many years ago.   Go look in the mirror and see if you look the same way you looked 20 years ago.   While people change in their looks and even in their opinions, God does not change.  His love changes not!

 Secondly, while we affirm that God never changes we also as people of faith look eagerly to  discover new ways and opportunities to minister in these days.    As I recall in Methodist history, there was a time when John Wesley and company did  something they had not done before by preaching to the coal miners as they went to and from their jobs.     This pandemic has been the breeding  ground for new ways of ministry for me and perhaps you.   Two years ago,   the notion of doing worship on Facebook live was outside of my comfort zone.   Now, it is something that my congregation and I do  weekly.     What new thing is God calling you and your congregation  to do in these days?   May the changeless God give us open hearts and open spirits to the new paths he is beckoning us to trod.-  Pastor Randy Wall   

 

PRAYER     Thank you that though change happens, your love and faithfulness changes not. Give me a heart that trust more fully in you; through Christ our Lord.  Amen. 

Freedom FOR a Cause!

 

I believe a rousing chorus of “”Happy Birthday” is appropriate in these days.    It is July 4  week, and  July 4 is considered to be the birthday for this over 200 year old experiment called the United States of America.   One of the core values of our country is freedom.  Perhaps you will remember in the bill of rights that Americans have the  right for freedom of worship, freedom for lawful assembly, freedom of the press.  

The freedoms we know as Americans do not mean that we can do anything and everything that we please.  No, we have freedom for a reason and a cause.    We remembered that did we not on Memorial Day as we paused to remember those brave men and women who died in military service?     The freedoms we have as Americans come with responsibility.

The same is true for all who live under the banner of Christ and call themselves followers of Christ Jesus.  Through the gift of Christ on the cross, each Christian has freedom from sin through God’s forgiveness and grace.    Yet, that freedom we know in Christ comes with responsibility.   In Galatians 5: 13-14,  the apostle Paul speaks about that freedom with responsibility as he writes:

¹³ You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh^[a]; rather, serve one another humbly in love. ¹⁴ For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

 Through Christ Jesus, we have been set free from the shackles of sin and given new life through water and the Spirit.  Yet, the freedom we know in Christ calls us to let the love of Christ be known through us.  Happy Independence Day and week!     Have a joy-filled week.-  Pastor Randy Wall

PRAYER

Thank you, God, for the freedoms  we know as citizens of this country and of the kingdom of God.   We give you thanks for your love known in Christ.   Through your grace and Spirit, let the love of Christ be known through me.   Amen. 

A Living Legacy

 

The month of June is a time of the year when I seem to be more focused on my family than some other times of year.     There are several reasons why that is the case.    First,   several members of  our family have birthdays in June including my wife, Ann, and two of our daughters.   We also have a grandchild that has a birthday in June.    June, of course, is the month when we observe Father’s Day.  During this month, I think of my Dad who was born on June 2.    I  also find myself thinking about what it means to me to be a father and a grandfather.   

In recent days, I have been contemplating the legacy I want to give  my family.   When some folks think of  legacy, their focus turns to the money, investments, or the like that they leave someone in their will.    That is the kind of legacy that you should speak to your attorney or an estate planner about.     I have been thinking lately about a legacy that is a little bit different.    When I think of my legacy to my kids and grandkids, there are two things I want to give them.

First, I want to offer my children and grandchildren the legacy of my example.  I have learned a lot through the years.  Some of what I learned I learned by sitting in a classroom, reading books, or writing papers that led to the completion of a class and the receipt of a diploma.   Most of what I learned is through my trial and error.   Boy, there have been many trials and more errors than I can count.   I hope in my latter years I have taught them through my example about what is good and important.

Secondly, I want to offer my children and grandchildren the legacy of my prayers.    There are several of our children and grandchildren I only get to see every now and then because of the many miles between us.     Since our children are grown, it certainly is not my role to “tell them” what they should do as they face the decisions of ordinary life.  That is why I think it most important that I spend time talking to God about them.    While I certainly do not think that God needs my advice on his work in the lives of  my children and grandchildren, I do think that God appreciates my prayers and supplications  for my family.    I honestly admit that when our children were much younger that my prayers for them were scattered and infrequent;   as I have gotten older, I realize how important it  is and what a privilege it is for me to pray for my children and grandchildren.  You see, my children do not just need a father and a step-father and my grandchildren do not just need a grandfather;  they also need a heavenly father at work in their life in ways that are beyond what they ask or even imagine.     Have a joy-filled week.-  Pastor Randy Wall

PRAYER

Thank you, God, for my family.    Today, I pray for them as the face the challegens of this day and of this life.   Thank you for your work in their lives.   Protect them from harm;   work in their lives in ways that are greater than we ask or imagine; through Christ our Lord.   Amen.