Rainey Bethea

Have you ever heard the story of Rainey Bethea.  He lived in Kentucky in the 1930s.  He was arrested and sent to prison on at least two occasions before being arrested for breaking into an elderly woman's home, robbing and murdering her.  He was convicted of the crime and sentenced to death.  At this time in Kentucky, executions were done by public hanging.  The event turned into quite a circus.  Thousands of people came from all over the state to see it.  The executioner showed up drunk and at the last second changed his mind about pulling the lever.  The reports of how or who pulled the lever differ depending on the account, but on August 14, 1936 Rainey Berhea died by hanging.

The newspaper accounts of the day vary in details.  The sheriff was a woman and that was unusual. Some papers embellished her reaction to the hanging.  One even reported that she fainted.  Other papers embellished the crowd's reaction and some said that the crowd stormed the gallows to take souvenirs.  Most agree that neither the storming of the gallows, nor the sheriff's fainting ever happened.

The execution of Rainey Bethea was the last public execution in the United States.  The crowds and the media circus had become too hard to manage.  Over the last 75 years all executions have been done in private.  That however does not solve the problem of managing crowds or the media circus.  It seems that every time there is an execution crowds line up outside the prison gates.  Some are protesting the death penalty.  Others are whooping and hollering and generally celebrating the spectacle.  And of course the media is there to cover it all in round the clock detail.

Now here's the thing about this story.  Think of all of the people listed.  All of them.  There is Rainey Bethea.  He was a murderer and a thief.  There is the elderly woman that he killed.  There is the sheriff, the drunk executioner, the reporters making news where it is not.  There are the thousands of people who showed up to watch the executions.  There are the people who are executed today and the people who show up to protest and celebrate and the news people who cover and sensationalize it all. And and and.  

Here is the thing about this story.  Jesus came for all of them.  Jesus came to seek the lost and that includes everyone in this story.

All

of

Them

Watch this clip from Pastor Chris.

Jesus came to save the lost.  All of the lost.  That includes murderers as well as you or I.  We all need redemption and Jesus came for us all.  No more or less for one or another.  All of us.

Juggling Torches

Have you ever juggled flaming torches while riding a unicycle?  Me neither.  I think that it would be a spectacular disaster if I tried.  Luckily, it really hasn't come up.  But as we go through our days there are any number of jobs that come up and for each we are either well suited, poorly suited or somewhere in between.

Now the odds of being called on to juggle on a unicycle are fairly remote, but there are every day tasks that can be equally as daunting.  I think of things like planning a meal for the church.  The food seems to all get there some how.  There is enough for everyone and it all looks and tastes wonderful.  If I think what I would do if I had to pull of such a meal, it's not pretty.  I suppose that you could make the food yourself or call a caterer, but both options involve spending a fair amount of money.  So it seems that you need to contact a host of volunteers to each donate a dish.  You need to figure out who will bring what, who can be counted on to follow through and how much you need.

No matter how I look at this task, cooking large quantities of food or organizing a team of volunteers, I don't think that I would be very good at this.  Luckily there are people who are good at it.  And some of those people look at what I do, teaching high school, editing videos, writing a blog... as being way outside of their own comfort zones.

The point is that we were never meant to go it alone.  The kingdom of God is best served when we all contribute our own skills and talents where they are needed.  But it's more than that.  As fellow believers we need to encourage the best in each other.  We need to quick to compliment and encourage so that we can help each other become the best version of ourselves that is possible,  

Watch this clip from Pastor Chris.

Five more.  We can help each other in places where they are week and in turn they will help us in the same way.  That is what true Christian community is all about.

More Than a Club

There is an organization in our community called "The Dummy Club".  As I understand it, years ago there were some men gathered around talking about the problems in the community.  Someone suggested that they do more than complain.  The response was, "What can a bunch of dummies like us ever do?" Well most people would have left it at that, but these men decided to find out.  Since then the Dummies have been a significant organization who have done a lot of good for the community.

And the Dummies are not the only club that is out there doing good.  In our community there are Lions, Moose, Eagles, Shriners, Oddfellows, American Legion and VFW.  I am sure that I am forgetting some, and that they too do great things.  These organizations are an important part of any community.

Did you notice on the list of important community organizations that I didn't list any churches?  That is because a church is not a club.

A church is something different.

There is a difference between a church and a club.  Admittedly there are some similarities.  A church has a building where people gather.  You are likely to get to know people and will probably become friends.  Both are likely to do things to help their community.  But churches are different.

The purpose of a church is to worship the one all mighty God.  In that function we gather together.  In that function we serve those less fortunate than ourselves.  The difference between a church and a club is that fellowship and service are means to an end, not an end in and of themselves.  A church exists to spread God's message of hope and love to a world that absolutely needs to hear it.  If they happen to have great music and a dynamic pastor, that is a bonus, not a requirement.

Watch this video from Pastor Chris.

A church is not a club.  It's not here for us.  We're here for it.  The purpose of a church is not to fill our needs and provide for us a social life.  The purpose of a church is to bring glory to God.  That happens to be out purpose too.

Self Reliance

Poon Lim was a Chinese sailor who was working on the British merchant ship SS Benlomb when it was sunk by a German Uboat of the coast of South Africa in 1942.  He manages to find an 8'x8' raft and a few floating supplies.  By catching fish and seagulls he managed to live alone on that little raft for 133 days.  His story of survival includes at one point killing a shark with a water jug. He was eventually found by fisherman on the other side of the Atlantic, near the coast of Brazil.  His story remains one of the great tales of survival and self reliance in the history of sea travel.

Self reliance is a trait that we very much admire in our society.  We appreciate tales of the person who pulled themselves up by their bootstraps, who succeeded against all odds, who persevered and pulled off a single-handed accomplishment.  And why not?

Ralph Waldo Emerson in his essay on self reliance said,

"There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till."

We all have to make our way in this world.  We cannot sit back and wait for others to meet, our needs.  No, we need to be responsible for ourselves.

Of course there is other side of self reliance.  Like most things that are good, it can become unhealthy when taken to the extreme.  We are not meant to simply go it alone, but rather to be part of something bigger.  We can become so self reliant that we find contempt for those who are less able, or we think that counting on others is a sign of weakness.  But this couldn't be further from the truth.  While we want to be able to take care of ourselves, we need to understand that we are better when we also rely on others.

In the book of Genesis it says, "It is not good for the man to be alone." We are better when our strengths and talents are used with others.  The total becomes greater than the sum of its parts.

Watch this clip from Pastor Chris.

We are better together.  Even Emerson went on to say that self reliance is about finding the purpose that God has for us in our  relationships with others.

"Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events."

It is odd how in God opposites can be true.  We find victory through surrender.  We gain eternal life by dying to ourselves, And we are most self reliant when we are working with others.

Wrong Tile in the Guest Bathroom

Have you ever seen one of those shows about people buying a house?  They are inevitably looking at massive houses on an extraordinary budget,  They go through the house finding small things that they dislike and talk about them like they are big things.  They declare kitchens outdated, beadrooms too small and bathrooms that are the wrong color.  We always joke about how all of it, and I mean all of it, is nicer than our house.  And we think that we've got it pretty good.

Now I suppose that when you are preparing to spend top dollar on a house, it should be what you want.  But when this is just how life goes, when the attitude that if something isn't perfect than everything is unacceptable rules the day, then priorities need to be readdressed.

In Greek mythology, there was a hunter named Narcissus who was thought himself to be so good looking that he fell in love with his own reflection.  The story goes that he saw his reflection in a pond and could not look away.  Eventually he drowned.  This idea that someone can be so obsessed with our own image that it leads to destruction we call today narcissism.  One look around at our age of selfies and we see that the spirit of Narcissus is alive and well.

The danger in all of this is that our obsession with image and materialism and the right named products and the most modern gadgets and the biggest brightest house means that we miss out on seeing what is really important.  If we let success in life be defined by advertisers and social media, we will end up with a very shallow version of life's potential.

In the book The Purpose Driven Life Pastor Rick Warren begins with the phrase, "It's not about you." And that sums up what I am saying here.  There is a bigger purpose to our walk on this Earth than ourselves and our stuff.

Watch this clip from Pastor Chris.

It's not about you and it's not about me.  And it certainly isn't about the color of tile in the enormous guest bathroom.  God sent his son, Jesus Christ, to Earth to be the embodiment of all that is good and right and holy.  It is only by surrendering ourselves and looking away from our own self image that we can  real fulfillment in this world and beyond.

Of Course

I once saw a politician being interviewed on a talk show.  One of the cast of thousands that line up every four years.  The interviewer asked them what their favorite book was.  Their response was, "Well, of course the Bible..." and then went on to include other books.  I was left with the distinct feeling that he felt that "The Bible" was the answer he was required to give in this situation, but he would rather talk about something else.

Of Course.  Google defines the phrase as being used to introduce an idea that should be obvious or expected.  Of course.  Now if you are a politician, certain things are expected of you.  Giving an unexpected answer that is not received well gets you on the news and allows your opponents to make hay with it.  So we get the cookie cutter answers to questions.   Of course.

So often we get the of course answer to our questions and conversations.  Not just from politicians running for office, but from friends, neighbors and relatives that just don't want to quarrel.  I think that this happens for two reasons.  1. Arguments can become heated and no one wants to create a scene, 2. The odds that we will actually change someone's mind about an issue is about zero.  I think that the level of discourse in our society would improve if we could say to each other, "I tend to disagree with you on this issue, but I respect you so I would like to hear why you feel that way."  But of course, I could be wrong.

I think the greatest danger is when we give ourselves the expected, "Of Course" type of answer.  Of course my family is more important that my job.  Of course buying things won't fill a hole in my life.  Of course i need to pray over decisions in my life.  Of course I need to be sensitive to the whispers of the Holy Spirit.  Of course God's will for me is better than any thing that I could come up with on our own.  Of course.

There are certain Christian principles that can be accepted to a point that we never check to see if our lives actually look like this principle that we think is obvious or expected.  Does our life look like we are following the guidance of the Holy Spirit?  Do we make decisions through prayerful consideration?  Do we really act like we trust God's will over our own.  We would all like to say "Of Course" but can we really?

Watch this clip from Pastor Chris.

We need to be honest with ourselves.  We need to check our expected answers and decide if we are really living the kind of life that we think should be the obvious way to live.   

Following the Lead

One winter my wife and I took dance lessons.  For several weeks we went to the instructor and learned the steps.  Mostly we learned the foxtrot, waltz and tango.  The tango was fun but very complicated and over the years we have pretty much forgotten it.  But the fundamentals of the foxtrot and waltz have stuck with us and can be used to dance to most songs.  When we first were starting, the instructor explained that the couple works as a team.  The man leads and the woman allows herself to be led.  He went on to say the for most women, being led takes some getting used to.

Most of us would rather lead than be led.  We want to set the conditions and decide what is going to happen next.  Some people don't really want to lead or decide, but what they do want is the right of refusal.  They don't want to lead, more back seat drive and offer helpful suggestions.  This is the person who doesn't want to choose where to go for dinner, but is not very happy about your choice of getting pizza.

When we resist being led, there is a real lack of trust in the leader.  A woman is nervous being led around the dance floor, because she is afraid that her partner will run her into something.  

But for a Christian, being led by God should be different.  On the one level we know that God's will for our life is way better than anything that we could come up with on out own, but still we are afraid that God is going to pick out pizza when we want home cooking.  But that's it.  We need to trust that God's will is better than our own.

Watch this clip from Pastor Chris.

The Lord's prayer is our model.  It is given to us by Jesus as a way to show us the way to pray to God the Father.  May we really believe that God's will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.

Getting to Carnegie Hall

There is an old joke that goes like this.

A musician is walking down the street in New York and is stopped by a tourist who asks, "Can you tell me, how do you get to Carnegie Hall?  The musician looks back at the tourist and says, "Practice."

The saying goes that practice makes perfect.  I can't say that I really believe that, but I can say that practice makes BETTER. Even a small amount of practice can really help.  At events like weddings and high school graduation, there is a rehearsal the day before to work out some of the bumps.

Whether playing the piano or shooting free-throws, we understand that practice helps us keep and maintain our skills.  Some professions such as law and medicine are called "practices" with the idea that the experience refines and improves skills.  And while "just like ridding a bike" means that we can come back to it without practicing, professional bike racers get better by practicing all of the time.  The odd thing is that we usually associate practice with physical skills and not relational, emotional or spiritual ones.

For whatever reason, we tend to see internal traits involving relationships and emotions as being fixed parts of our personality and not skills to be improved upon.  This couldn't be further from the truth.  When I was getting married a friend gave me some advice,  He said that a lot of things would be pulling at our attention but for the first year of marriage we should be really selfish with each other, meaning spend time together.  Marriage, like so many other things, improves with practice.

And so it follows that our relationship with God improves with practice as well.  The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy peace, patience, kindness, gentleness and self control.  These just don't happen but with a lot of practice and a healthy infusion of the Holy Spirit, we can get better at making them part of our life.

Watch this clip from Pastor Chris.

Practice will not just get someone to Carnegie Hall but will help improve in many ways.  And as we progress on our journey with God, each step we take helps prepare us for the ones to come.