Second Chances

This week we continued our talk about calling. God's call is often unexpected in our life. It may involve paths we didn't even realize were there. And as a close friend once told me, "if the call of God is easy, if it is to something you have always wanted, or involves money or status, you might want to listen harder". So to talk about this week's story of calling I brought a life jacket.

The Book of Jonah is only 4 chapters. You can hardly call it a book. It is more like a parable, or fable, because like those such large truths live within such a small story. Jonah was a man who was called by God to go to Nineveh and preach that the city would be destroyed if they did not repent their evil ways. And instead of accepting his call as prophet, Jonah runs away. He flees. He tries to escape God, first on a ship, and then by jumping into the ocean in a sacrifice we must assume he thinks will end his life. Jonah chooses death over God. Luckily for Jonah, God chose him. God gave him a second chance. God threw him a life jacket. A smelly, stinky life jacket in the form of a belly of a great fish, but it saved him nonetheless. Jonah was stubborn. He lived in that belly for three days and nights, before finally he surrenders and turns to God. And the fish spits him out on the land.

So the word of God comes to Jonah a second time, calling him to go to Nineveh. And this time he answers the call. He preaches of the city's destruction. He calls upon them to repent. And then...surprise, surprise...they do. From the king down the people surrender to God's will and change their ways, and ask for forgiveness. God sees their response and gives them a second chance. And at this Jonah is incensed. He throws a temper tantrum, sulking outside the city walls. He is embarrassed that what he preached did not come true. He is angry that God threw them a life jacket. He doesn't like being their whale.

The four short chapters of Jonah make us think about calling and mercy, about surrender and pride, and they don't end with an answer, but with a question. What is the nature of God?

Communication

Today I brought a maraca in my box. It was given to me this summer, when I was fortunate enough to travel to Cuba as part of a mission team from St. Mark's Church. While there we worked with our sister parish of St. Mary's in Itabo, Cuba to put together a Vacation Bible School for their children and youth. Each morning we enjoyed several hours of songs, Bible study, crafts and snacks with preschool and elementary age children, and after a break for lunch we did the same thing with teenagers in the afternoon. Although we had a wonderful translator with us, SMEDS graduate Cathy Hardin, most of us in the mission team spoke little to no Spanish. And most of the residents of Itabo spoke no English. Everything we did had to be either translated by Cathy, or worked out by communicating with a combination of limited Spanish and hand motions to indicate what we needed, or were going to be doing, or eating. It was challenging, but an incredibly rewarding experience.

Over the week, as we spent more and more time with the children, youth and adults at St. Mary's, an amazing thing started happen. Even with the language barrier, we began to understand each other. We shared information about our families. We learned what the volunteers there did for a living. We ate together and played together and prayer together and by the end of the week we had formed a wonderful community.

Our story today was about the Tower of Babel. Often the focus in that story is on the division of humanity into different cultural and ethnic groups. God splintered our language and made communication difficult so that we would separate and fill the earth. What I reminded the children, was that when we allow God to work through us, when we share God's love and grace with others, no communication barriers can keep us apart.

We can experience difficulty understanding each other without traveling to a  foreign country. Are there people in your life with whom you have a hard time communicating? Think about those relationships as your "mission". Bring Christ in as well. See what happens.

In the Image of God

When I was a child I had curly blond hair, blue eyes, and tan arms and legs. My husband had straight brown hair, a light smattering of freckles, and brown eyes. Our three boys are a mix of both of us, a genetic spreadsheet of our various characteristics, but looking at pictures of me as a young child and at pictures of my daughter you see almost a mirror image. Every family has funny stories about what is passed down along the generations: dimples, near-sightedness, red hair.We also inherit other traits from our families, such as musical ability, a love of reading or a passion for football. As we mature we are constantly being formed and reformed in the image of those who created us, raised us, and loved us.

Today I brought a picture of myself as a child and compared it to one of my children. Our lesson was that we are created not only in the image of our parents, but in the image of God. Being made in God's image has nothing to do with our messy hair or the color of our skin or our ability to sing on key. It is our soul that is created in God's image. And just as I have my grandmother's nose, I hope to have my Lord's heart.

What are you passing along to your children? While you have no control over whether they have your eyes, you can pass along a love of worship, a passion for service, and a heart for prayer.

Back to School

It has been a busy, dusty and chaotic summer around St. Mark's as the construction on our campus took place. My office window provided an unobstructed view of everything from bulldozers to cement mixers as the work crews scrambled to get everything ready for the start of school. On Sundays it has been fun to escort the children going to children's chapel to a spot where they could view the weekly progress and listen to what they noticed had changed from the previous week. And for those of us who work here the construction provided us with a new dress code of closed -shoes and hard hats if we needed to walk through any of the areas where demolition or construction was happening. Thus it seemed only fitting that I brought a hard-hat to the first week of chapel.

Our Bible begins with a construction story, that of God constructing the world. The Master Architect designed light and darkness, land and sea, sun and planets and filled our world with plants and animals of all kinds. And after each stage of the project was completed, God saw that it was good. I brought the hard hat to remind all of us that unlike the rest of creation, we are still under construction. We are created in God's image, but none of us is a completed project. Instead we must participate in our own development, and through prayer and study and action we should try to follow the blueprints that were written for us. Construction can be messy. It can cause headaches. Some mistakes are made, causing delays, and fixing those mistakes may take some time. Luckily God is with us, guiding us through each stage of development, loving us at all times.

Where are you in the construction process? Are you willing to endure some dust and debris in your life? How do we support our children, our families, our friends as their lives are constantly being constructed and reconstructed to be more like God? This week wear your hard hat with pride. God is at work in your life.

Resurection Rolls

Ok- this is not what I put in my box, but this is such a great idea I thought I would pass it along to everyone. If you want to see what was in the box today look at the previous entry, Sleep. But for a cool activity this weekend, try this. Happy Easter! Enjoy!

http://shinefmafternoons.blogspot.com/2010/03/resurrection-rolls-easy-way-to-tell.html

Sleep

I think one of the worst feelings in the world, is when you keep nodding off at a time when you really should be awake. It's embarrassing at the movies, or a concert or lecture. It's dangerous when behind the wheel of a car. One of my most cringe-worthy moments was falling asleep on a date, (think long day and boring episode of Saturday Night Live). I awoke the next morning on my couch to find my date had sweetly put a blanket on me and locked the door on the way out. Needless to say it wasn't a lasting relationship. I can also remember trying desperately to stay awake as a friend and I were driving back, several hours, after going to a concert. Even the cold air rushing in through my open window didn't help keep my eyes open.And what I felt most terrible about as I struggled to keep up the conversation, was that I was letting her down. She was driving, all I had to do was stay awake until we got home sometime the next morning. An easy job at which I was a total failure.

So I have to admit it was with a certain amount of empathy that I brought a warm, soft, snugly blanket in my box today. Empathy for the disciples who were only asked to stay awake and pray with Jesus and yet who, like me, found the spirit willing but the flesh so very weak. Maybe it was the dinner...the bread, the wine, the clean feet, but one by one the disciples drifted off to dreamland, while Jesus struggled with the role he was born to play. It is here, in this moment, that we see how little they understand about the man they follow. Like foolish students, unaware that the final exam is about to take place, they argue over who has the best grades and then fall asleep instead of studying. In Mark 14: 32-42 we are told he wakes them several times, pleading with them to stay awake and pray, yet none of them do.

There are so many things Jesus asks of us that we may struggle to do. Perhaps this Easter, we should make a commitment  to pray, by ourselves, with our children, and as a family. Jesus wants us to share in his journey,  to take up his cross, to join him in prayer. Can we stay awake?

Butterflies

Around my house we love butterflies and have several gardens designed to attract them into our yard. So last year when my mother gave one of us a butterfly pavilion for Christmas we were all excited. It is a large pop-up tent, that hangs in the house where we can watch caterpillars hatch from eggs, eat and grow and form chrysalis and then turn into beautiful butterflies. And this is what I brought in my box today. A home for butterflies, a wonderful sign of life coming out of something that looks like death.

Last week we talked about Mary and Martha and so it was only fitting that this week we share the story of their brother Lazarus. We don't know that much about Lazarus. He is really a bit player in the Gospels, that is until his death. But the story of Lazarus is wonderful and allows us to better understand the man that Jesus is as he travels through his final days on earth. For, it is in the story of Lazarus that see that Jesus, like us, has friends and companions whom he truly loves. Jesus witnesses the grief of the Mary and Martha over the death of their brother and is “greatly disturbed”. (John 11:33) He is again described as being “greatly disturbed” when he came to the tomb. (John 11:38) And it was in this emotional state that he called “Lazarus, come out”! (John 11:43)

When we look at what it means to be human, the ability to emote, to feel, is critical. The sharing of emotions as we laugh together or weep together is what binds us to one another. And so it seems fitting that it is in his final days that Jesus allows his emotions to show. He aches for the loss of his friend and the pain of Mary and Martha. The death of Lazarus allows him to experience the very human pain of loss. And it is seemingly out of this human pain, that he provides one more sign of his divinity by calling Lazarus back to life.

Sometimes we don't want to share our emotions with our children. But allowing them to see us in grief and pain, as well as when happy, shows them both have a place in our lives. And it allows us to remember that our Lord doesn't cause the pain and loss that enters our lives, but grieves with us, and calls us back to life.