Making room

Here I sit in the quiet of an early Saturday morning... Not as early as during the week... wrapped up in a blanket, sipping cinnamon tea watching the lights dance on the Christmas tree.  Yes, these early mornings are quickly becoming my favorite time of day.

I should use them to be more productive, but I really enjoy just sitting in the peaceful quiet.

Oh, I did do a little online Christmas shopping this morning, and I stretched a little, and read a little news (dumb idea, almost ruined my peaceful morning) but I prefer to just sit here and think, dream...

I've been thinking a lot about those less fortunate then me and what I can do for them this holiday season, and well, every day.  I decided the other day that maybe I'll start crocheting scarves to donate to the local shelter.  There are a couple of fundraisers coming up for it too that I'm going to try to support (eating pancakes is easy!)  My two churches collect food and such for the their local food banks.  I could do more to support that.  But all this just never seems like enough.  I want to do more but I just haven't figured out what more is yet. The Bible study I'm doing right now talks about giving more than just what can go in a stocking or under a tree.  We need to give them place at our table, room in our lives.  That's what I want to do.  I want to invite more people into my life, I want to make room for those in need in my life.  I just need to figure out how exactly to do that.

So, what do you do to help the poor?  How are you making a difference in the world?  How are you inviting people to the table and making room for them in your lives?

Sunrise

Good morning!

I've been finding that I have to get up really early (5:15) in the mornings now, in order to get anything done.  I really haven't minded all that much (once I get myself out of the bed).  I mean I get to see beautiful moments like this one.

This photo just doesn't do the colors justice.  There was a lot more pink and blue involved but you get the idea.  Getting up early puts me in the right place to see beautiful sunrises like this.  It gives me time to get some things done for church before the family gets up so that I can spend time with them when they do.

I'm actually discovering that I love my quiet early mornings.  I spend time writing devotions for my churches and working on my sermons.  I spend time tidying up the house and sometimes I even get in a little more exercise (which I definitely need more of!).  It's been really refreshing for me.   

PLUS!  This time of year, it lets me see the Christmas tree all lit up in the dark.  I love sitting in the dark and watching the lights dance in the tree.  It's one of my favorite things to do.

Well, I had better get back to work.  I've got Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services to plan!  Music to find and a house that needs a little more work.  

I hope you have a wonderful day enjoying all the things that bring you joy.

Musings...

When I first moved over to this blog from my old one at Musings By Mommy, I did so because I felt like I needed a new place to call home.  People had kind of come in and read my blog and were being ugly and so I wanted some place new, some place safe.

In my first post here I shared that  I wasn't 'mommy' anymore.  My kids were growing up and so was my blog.  My topics were changing so finding a new home seemed reasonable.  Now... I miss that old blog.  It was home for so long.  It got me through some pretty rough times that I call deployments.  I met some really great friends.  People who entered my life through the blog and found a place in my heart as well.

Last night one of those friends, reappeared and I was so excited to hear from them.  It made me nostalgic.  I've been looking back at this blog and my old one, reading old posts and remembering.  These blogs are like scrapbooks with snapshots of my life.  

Some of my favorite posts are about Christmas and I haven't even posted one time about Christmas this year on here.  My life is very busy these days with preparing sermons, planning services, making bulletins, making visits, caring for my home and family but blogging has always been so therapeutic and comforting for me.  I'd like to get back to it.  I really would but when would I find the time?  I already get up at 5am just so that I can get everything done in a day!  I don't know but I think I want to try.

I titled my old blog Musings by Mommy so that I could just ramble on about anything, no certain topic, just life as I see it.  This one is Simply Sherri.  It was supposed to be a place to just be me, to share what I was working on or thinking.  It's turned in to just being a sermon here or there.  I don't think that's what I want it to be anymore.  Nobody wants to read a sermon!  Most people don't even want to come and hear one on Sunday mornings anymore!  

Oh, I'm sure if I really like a sermon, I'll still share it but I think I need to find my voice again, not just my sermon writing voice, but my everyday voice of life.  So, that being said,  I'm going to try to be back more, to write more.  I love writing.

So we'll see... I've done this before where I said I wanted to get back at if but then never came back!  HA!  I'll try to be better this time.  I'll try to be here, to be present.  Until then, I'll share my happy place with you.  Enjoy.  I always do!

My Happy Place

Work to be Done

It's been quite a while since I last posted.  I've so very busy with my family and the churches.  I've just kept my focus there but today, I thought I would share this morning's sermon with you.  The Scripture references are Isaiah 65:17:25, 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13, and Luke 21:5-19.  The commentaries I read are from the UMC Discipleship page and also Adventurous Lectionary.

“There is Work To Be Done”

Wednesday was a very quiet morning for me.  I spent a lot of time in prayer and quiet contemplation.  There were a few tears too.  I found myself wanting to sit and cry, not because of who won or lost the election but because of the hurt I was seeing, the meanness,  the fear.  I asked my mom how I was supposed to write a sermon now.  She said she didn’t know.  Later I asked Susan the same question and replied, “I don’t know, but you have to address this.”  But that’s hard!  I know we have folks on both sides here today.  We have some feeling relief and some are hurting.  It’s very real.  On social media this week… well, it’s been hard.  It’s hard to read about the hurt of many of friends, LGBTQ friends, immigrant friends, young people who voted for the very first time.  I saw some of my friends gloating, boasting and spewing some awful stuff at those on the losing side and like wise I saw some on the losing side doing the same to the winning side.  Even STILL! 

And then I saw friends, who I love more today on both sides of the table offering love, understanding and encouragement.  That was beautiful and it comforted me.  Eventually, like many of my friends, I put Facebook away.  I just could take the pain anymore.

I began to try to focus on my sermon and try to remember what it was that I had planned to say and that’s when I realized that I still wanted to share the same message I had planned.  See when I first read the scriptures a week ago, I though how perfect it was for an after election message and now that it IS after the election, I think I was right so, bare with me this morning as we work to begin healing our community by uniting to answer God’s call and continue his work.

Let us pray, May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts and minds be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.  Amen.

I love our scripture from Isaiah this morning.  It’s filled with such hope!  And, well, we can sure use some hope right now right?  Every day!  These verses offer us just that.  A light at the end of the tunnel, a beacon of light on a rough sea.

It says, there will be no more weeping, living long lives, and peace.  Peace.  He says the wolf and the lamb will eat together.  That’s hope.  He will answer before we even call.  Hope – light – and we should rejoice! God has great vision for the future.  God is creating new possibilities and the energy to achieve them even when things are not exactly how we want them.  Today we can dream this future with God if we so choose. (Living a Holy Adventure)

Here’s a thing though.  2 Thessalonians tells us that WE have work to do.  Now, a lot times when people read these verses, they think of them as a way of saying they don’t have to help those who aren’t working but I don’t think so and the commentary I read didn’t either.  Here is what it said.

“This was no critique of those who were poor and could not physically work to support themselves for whatever reasons. Of course, the community cared for these people and provided them with daily bread. Rather, Paul’s admonition appears to be aimed more at some of the wealthier members of the community who actually did not need to work to support themselves and so could choose lives of “idleness,” becoming “mere busybodies” (verse 11). Very likely, too, it was intended to stave off Christians deciding to cease regular labors in expectation of Christ’s second coming, the major theme of this whole letter.”

I think Paul was telling us as Christians we still had work to do.  Our Bible study on Hunger told us this, “that the idle ones in Thessalonica were failing to practice real love. They not only had stopped working to feed themselves, but they had also stopped working to help others.”

See we all need to do our part.  We need to be there for one another.  We need to work together to make the world a better place.  We need to help those in need, protect those who need us to and we need to stop judging each other and just simply LOVE more.  WE need to be more like Christ.  We have to love through the hate, we have to stop hate in it’s tracks and the best way to do this is to LOVE.  Last week, I told you love is the answer – well, this week, it’s still the answer.

I’m not saying it’s easy.  In fact in our reading from Luke today, Jesus tells us it won’t be.  He tells us it will be hard.  He tells the disciple they will arrested, persecuted.  It’s not easy to be a follower of Christ.  Oh, it seems easy enough to come to church on Sunday morning  and sing a few hymns, listen to a few scriptures being read and put a few dollars in the offering plate, but you KNOW Jesus calls us to do MUCH more than that.  He calls us to stand up for him and his people.  He calls us to love his people – ALL OF THEM.  Trump supporters, Hillary supporters, Republicans, Democrats, Independents, immigrants, Muslims, women, the LGBTQ+ community, children, the poor, the elderly, EVEN our ENEMIES.  He calls us to love and care for each one – each and every person whether we like them, agree with them or not.  We are to love them – all.  WE are to care for them, stand up for them, fight for them.  We are all ONE in Christ and it’s time for us to remember this and to live it every day in every way.

It’s not easy, in fact, sometimes it can be downright hard, scary even, but in Luke Jesus tells us not to be afraid.  Think of what Jesus endured for loving his people – all God’s people.  Through out the Bible we are told not to be afraid for God is with us.

We had an extra reading in Isaiah in our lectionary reading.  It was chapter 12.  In verses two and three it says, “Surely God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid, for the Lord God is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation.  With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.”

He is our strength and our might, he is with us and he loves us and he wants us to love even when it’s hard.  He wants us to help his people all of his people even when it’s hard.  He wants us to follow the example of his son and trust him even when it’s hard. 

I want to close this morning with a couple of quotes from The Lord Of The Rings.  Thank you, Michaela for pointing them out.

Frodo: I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.

Gandalf: So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world, Frodo, besides the will of evil.

We all have to decide what to with the time give to us.  What will we do with this time?  This question brings us to our next quote.  Sam is talking to Frodo this time.

Sam: I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.

Frodo: What are we holding on to, Sam?

Sam: That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fighting for.

So that is what we need to do with our time here.  Be the good in the world, be the light, be the love and know that it is worth fighting for.  Amen.

SaveSave

Small Thinking

This morning, I preached on small thinking and how it holds us back from what God is calling us to do.    I thought I'd share with you all here.

The scripture readings came from Jeremiah 1:4-10 and Luke 13:10-17

“Small Thinking”

Today we move on to a new prophet, Jeremiah.  Jeremiah is different from the other prophets in that he was called young.  The other prophets were all second career prophets.  Jeremiah tries to use this as a way of getting out of God’s call on his life.  He says, “I’m too young!  I don’t know how to speak!  I’m not qualified.”  That last one I think has been used by young and old alike, but this is all small thinking and well, I don’t think God thinks small, he’s more of a Big Thinker don’t you think?

Would you please pray with me?  May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts and minds be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and redeemer.  AMEN.

Small thinking… I think we all do it from time to time.  It’s the thinking that says we aren’t good enough, we’re too young, we’re too old, we’re too small, we’re too big and so on.  This is what Jeremiah was doing.  He was making excuses for why he couldn’t answer God’s call.  He actually used one of the same reasons Moses did, his poor communication skills.  But God wouldn’t have any of it.  He touched his lips and gave him the words he needed.  He told him that he knew him before he was born.  He told him that he had a plan for him before he was born.

Now, as a side note, I don’t think this is proof of predestination.  I think it’s more of an assurance that God’s love, grace and support have always been with us and will continue to be… always.  It’s more of a divine inspiration in the here and now and that the God who was with you in birth will always be with you and seeks your abundant life.

He thinks BIG for us.  He wants big things for us and he calls us to do big things, both as individuals and as a church.  Even as a church we can find ourselves held back by our small thinking, we think we are too small to do much.  We think we don’t have the money to make a difference.  We think small and in our small thinking we forget who we serve, we forget who calls us.  We forget what he can do in us, for us and through us.  We forget his power, his might.

After God put the words in Jeremiah’s mouth, we see another way in which Jeremiah is different. God told him he was set before nations and over kingdoms, not just Judah or in Israel like the others.  He was set before nations and over kingdoms to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.  As I was reflecting on this part of the scripture, I first thought well, this doesn’t really pertain to us today but as I continued to dwell on it I suddenly realized that it does!  Just not in the literal sense. 

I think God did set us before nations… the nations of hate and judgment, the nations of fear and greed.  Just like Jeremiah, we are to pluck them up and break them down, destroy and over throw them.  But how are we to that?  I imagine that Jeremiah was thinking the same thing!  This seems like a really big hard thing to do.  This seems like some pretty big thinking!  But you know, God, he always has a plan and that is what I think the next part that Jeremiah tells us God told him to do is; to build and to plant.  I think this is how we are to take down these nations.  We are to plant seeds of hope and love.  We are build bridges of compassion.

That’s just what Jesus was doing in our reading from Luke this morning.  He was taking down the nation of legalism by showing this woman, this woman who had suffered for some 18 years a little compassion even on the Sabbath.  He was teaching that compassion was more important than the laws.  He was applying the heart of his teaching and preaching to real life.  On the surface he was showing that humans were just as important on the Sabbath as their animals and if they would care for their animals on the Sabbath, they could definitely care for their brothers and sisters. 

Now, some of the commentary I read pointed out that there was more to this than just the healing on the Sabbath.  It also had to do with it being a woman.  It had to do with Jesus calling her forward out of the back where she would have been forced to sit because she was a woman in a deformed condition.  She had become religiously marginalized.  Such people wouldn’t have been allowed in the temple and the commentary said it was surprising she was even in the synagogue.  She would have been in the back, where people were not permitted to participate actively in the acts of worship offered up by the men.  They weren’t even supposed to speak!  And Jesus, who is sitting up front teaching, notices her and calls her forward and lays his hands on her and she was healed and what did she do?  She immediately began to praise God, to glorify God!  Remember, she wasn’t allowed to speak but she couldn’t contain her joy!  The religious leaders spoke out and condemned Jesus for ‘working’ on the Sabbath but he shamed them a bit.  This commentary said it was more about losing control than the actual healing on the Sabbath, control of the culture as he knew it.  A caste system that kept him and men in a place above women and others who suffered who couldn’t even ask for relief. 

Jesus’ actions this day as they often did broke down the nation of this caste system, the nation of the faithful religious social order and planted seeds of compassion and built bridges of love and those who had been shut out worshipped joyfully together with those of privilege.  They didn’t have to hold it in anymore, I bet they couldn’t!

Imagine, what our world could be like if we broke through some of these nations I mentioned before, greed, fear, hate, and judgment, the nation that Jesus himself was breaking through, a nation of social order, whether religious or monetary and then started to plant in them seeds of love and compassion and built bridges of acceptance and friendships.

See I think this is what God is calling us, you and me; this is what he is calling our church, this small single church and the big church in communion with each other to do.  How can we refuse? We can’t refuse anymore than Jeremiah could.  Often we think to ourselves, we’re too old, we’re too young, we’re too small, we don’t have any money, we don’t have the means, this is small thinking.  And you know what?  I think small thinking is like putting limits on what we think God can do.   But God knows no limits.  We teach our kids that God can do anything and yet when it’s time for us to answer his call we say, “Well, we can’t do that.”  And you know what, we’re right, we can’t but God can, that’s why he calls us!  He can do unimaginable things through us if we just answer his call and trust in him.    That’s the thing, we have to trust him, we have to have faith, faith in something bigger than ourselves that wants to work in us and through us.  That’s what we’ve been talking about the last few weeks.  Faith. That’s big thinking.  Faith is big thinking.  It’s hard to step out in faith.  Our small thinking wants to kick in and say we can’t for whatever reason but that’s just when Faith, when big thinking needs to really come in and take over. I read in some commentary that “This is when God wants us to spread our wings.  God seeks the well-being and fulfillment ofus as individuals and as a congregation as way to heal the world.”  We have to stop our small thinking.  We have to answer God’s call in our lives and in the life of the church even when it’s big thinking, even when it’s scary.  We have to break through self-imposed and other-imposed barriers, through the small thinking and join God on this holy adventure to heal ourselves and the world by planting seeds of compassion and love and building bridges of hope.  

Blessings

This week we had a backpack blessing at each of the churches plus a school supply drive for the schools right down the street from each church.  I have been so excited about this!  It was so fun to plan and I think we had a pretty good turn out too!  

I worked a lot this week on balance.  I've been finding myself working all day every day on church stuff and neglecting other things in my life.  I'm allotted 20 a week for both churches, each, but both all together.  I know it will be always be more than that but I think it's important to find balance and I did pretty good this week.  

I made time for my little family, I made time to do a little pleasure reading and even for some crafting.  It made my week and my family very happy so I will continue to work on this.  I think it's good for me.

I'm still thoroughly enjoying serving both these congregations and look forward to lots more outreach opportunities with them both!  I hope for us to be a light on the hill for their communities!

A full dunking...

Last week I got to the churches and found the signs looked a bit different! 

How exciting it that?  And very weird too... 

So, as it became 'sign' official, I was fully dunked into the pool of ministry and pastordom... 

Last week, I officiated at my first memorial service.  I was petrified.  I really was.  I froze when I was called and asked to do it and it took me a while to thaw out but lucky for me, I have some amazing mentors in my life who encouraged and helped me through it.  I think it went well, as well as a memorial service can go anyway.  No one yelled at me or fired me yet so I'm taking it as a good sign. 

And then, during worship Sunday, a member became ill and we had to call an ambulance.  It scared us all terribly but the person was cared for and is on the mend. 

See what I mean when I said I was FULLY dunked into the pool of ministry and pastordom?  I didn't get to just get my feet wet for long!  Week 3 was the week of dunking.  But it felt good to be there for those who needed someone.  It felt good to be in ministry.

As I went for now, my second hospital for visits, I remember a day back in high school when Daddy was going to visit an elderly member of the church in the hospital and he insisted that I go with him.  I always thought that strange and wondered why but now I'm ever so glad that he did.  He was preparing me well for today. 

I discovered, or was reminded, last week, that God knows better than I what I am capable of doing for him and I have to tell you, that is so comforting. 

Last week was a hard week but it was good too and I'm grateful for all those who offered words of encouragement to me and those who had such confidence in me as well.  You guys all ROCK!! 

THANK YOU!