A Maunday Thursday Sermon

This sermon was delivered 4/14/11, the last in a Thursday evening Lenten series at Fairview UMC. The series theme was "Finals Week," developed by a Creative Worship team of Lay Speakers from Mid-State District, awesome sounds, images, messages. Each of the previous sermons has taken a day of Jesus' final week, beginning on Palm Sunday. This sermon was for Holy Thursday. The sermon title was “So That” (Jesus Passed Finals Week For You SO THAT). (1 Cor 11:23b-25; 10:16-17)

A. Introduction
1. On July 26th last year, a Sunday, I came home in the afternoon after a weekend away and found Rosemary on the living room couch. She had been in prayer all day, and when she wasn’t in prayer, she had been on the phone with her nieces and nephews in South Dakota.I’m an only child. Rosemary’s sister Dorothy has six kids, our extended family, my family. Dorothy and her husband Harley, their daughter Anita and granddaughter Sally Mae had been on the way from the farm to church that morning. Daughter Anita had been in the right rear seat. Sally Mae, age seven, had been buckled in the center seat.It was a typical trip to church. Dorothy is communion steward and Sally Mae had learned from her so that even when it wasn’t communion Sunday, Sally Mae would take her own bread and grape juice in the car and have her on little communion on the way to church.

2. The gravel road to the highway was a section line, a straight shot, and the intersecting roads were section lines, all straight shots. High speeds. As he approached one of these intersections, Harley said to Dorth, “You really need to watch this one, that kid down there never slows down.” As he said it, he saw the car speeding toward them at sixty miles per hour. His premonition allows him to hit the accelerator so that instead of a direct T-bone, the car hit the left rear quarter panel spinning the car so hard that it ripped the wheels right out from under it.

3. So when I got home in the middle of Sunday afternoon, Harley and Dorothy were in the hospital. Neither Rosemary nor the nieces and nephews were sure of their condition, but it seemed promising. Daughter Anita had had to be cut out of the car and it caused a long delay. She was in the ambulance on the way to Sioux Falls, three hours away, and it was certain she’d need surgery. Because of the delay, it would be 10 hours between the accident and surgery. The force of the accident, transmitted through her seat belt had ruptured her colon.And Sally Mae, seven year old Sally Mae—the only thing wrong with Sally Mae was that she was covered in grape juice. It was almost as if it had been a protective shield of grace, of grape grace.

4. It’s Thursday night of Holy Week, the night that Christ instituted the sacrament we call Holy Communion, or the Lord’s Supper, or the Eucharist, or the Great Thanksgiving. It was the night of Jesus’ Final Exam, the tests he passed SO THAT we could live our lives differently. In our time together, I want to talk about the events of that night and together we’ll experience this mystery we call Holy Communion and why it has changed everything for and how we live our lives, and the hope we have within us.

B. Body
1. So it’s Thursday of Holy Week, Jesus’ Final Week, his Finals Week. From the text, we don’t know much about what went on during the day. Jesus may have spent the day in the Temple teaching as he did all the other days; or he may have spent the day in Bethany contemplating what he knew was going to happen. We know that Thursday was the first day of Passover. Passover was and still remains the most important Festival of the Jewish Calendar. At the time of Jesus, Jews had been commemorating Passover for 1400 years to remember the mighty acts of God in delivering them out of Egypt, out of slavery, out of the house of bondage. On that night, 1400 years earlier, God had acted with a mighty hand and the angel of death had visited every first-born in Egypt, but death had passed over the houses of the Israelites. Pharaoh had let the Israelites go. God had commanded the Israelites to remember this day and for 1400 years they had.

2. It was for the Passover Festival that Jesus and the disciples had come to Jerusalem. We believe that as many as two million had made that journey from all over the world. Thursday was the first day of Passover. The disciples had prepared the Passover feast in an Upper Room in Jerusalem. Matthew tells us, “When it was evening, He took his place with the twelve.Now the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke take three or four paragraphs to talk about their supper that night. John, the Gospel of John, on the other hand, takes five chapters. Five Chapters!

3. I’m standing here in the serving area of a table that would have been like the ones used by Jesus and the apostles. You might be surprised to know that DaVinci had it wrong, all wrong.Rather than a table, we now know from archeological evidence that the people of the first century would have been around a triclinium—tri for three sides, and clinium, the root from which we get the word recline. It was customary to “recline at table,” feet away, and resting on the left elbow, eating with and passing food with the right hand.Jesus was the host. Again, from archeological evidence, the host reclined here, the second place in, probably closest to the door. It was the second position in so that places of honor could be at the host’s right and left. So you see, DaVinci had it very wrong.

4. In John chapter 13, it tells us that Jesus began the evening by doing a shocking thing. Jesus got up from the table, took off his outer garment, tied a towel around his waist, put water in a basin and washed the disciple’s feet, their dirty, stinking feet. Jesus performed the task normally done by servants or slaves. He went around the table to each one, ending with Peter. We believe Peter was reclining here, we’ll tell you why in a minute.When he was done he said, “Do you know what I have done for you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I your Teacher and Lord have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. For I have set an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.”Later in Chapter 13, Jesus is to give the disciples a new commandment, words to go with his acts, his example. Jesus will say, “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you have love for one another. By this you will be known as my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

5. After Jesus had washed their feet and at the end of the meal, he announced his betrayal, “Very truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.” Can you imagine the stir that that must have caused around the table? The conversation? It is from this exchange that we know how the disciples were seated.
a. We do know that the host sat here with places of honor at the right and left. We’ve also guessed that Peter was here. He was the last one whose feet Jesus had washed.
b. Now John’s Gospel tells us that John (John calls himself the disciple whom Jesus loved) was reclining next to Jesus. It says Peter motioned to John to ask Jesus who it is?
c. Here I think the words of the King James Version are helpful. This is how it describes the scene: Now there was leaning on Jesus’ bosom, one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved. Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him that he should ask who it is of whom he spake. It says, “He [John] then lying on Jesus’ breast said, “Lord, who is it?”
d. Now, we don’t use the words breast and bosom in polite conversation much any more, but it sure is useful here. Can you see that John is here, directly across from Peter, leaning on the bosom of Jesus, or lying on his breast as he leaned back to ask, “Lord, who is it?”Jesus here, answered, “It is the one whom I shall give a piece of bread when I have dipped it.” And after he dipped the bread he gave it to Judas Iscariot.

6. So let me ask you, if John was in this seat of honor, who was in the other? (Judas) Isn’t that interesting. Judas had betrayed Jesus, and Jesus knew it, yet he placed Judas in the seat of honor.That’s a test that Jesus passed that night, that I’ll bet we would have had a great deal of difficulty passing.

7. We’re in the Gospel of John. In just a minute we’re going to go back to Matthew to talk about the Lord’s Supper, but before we do I want to quickly outline John’s five chapters:

Ch 13 – (The one we’ve been talking about. Footwashing, betrayal and a New Commandment that we love one another.

Ch 14 – Wonderful words of assurance. You’re familiar with how it begins: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go, I will come again to take you to myself.”

Ch 15 – is about relationship, our dependent relationship with Him: “I am the vine, you are the branches…apart from me you can do nothing.” But with this relationship, drawing on him, we can be fruitful. And relationship has everything to do with joy in our lives. Jesus closes by saying, “I tell you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.”

Ch 16 – The Gift of the Holy Spirit. God says, “I will not leave you orphaned. I will not leave you alone.

Ch 17 – Jesus’ prayer for us: for his disciples, for the church, for the world.

8. So, back to the Gospel of Matthew. They are at table. “While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it, he broke it, gave it to his disciples and said, “This is my body.”Now, for my Scriptures for tonight, those that Bridget read for us, I actually used passages from 1 Corinthians, Paul’s letter of instruction to the church at Corinth, in this case his instruction about the Lord’s Supper. Why? Paul’s letters were actually written years and years before the gospels. These words about the Lord’s Supper were the earliest recorded. The Lord’s Supper was well established as an integral part of gathering well before the letter was written. The Lord’s Supper was a part of worship in the church from the beginning.Not only that, do you realize that these words, these words from Jesus from 1 Corinthians are the earlier recorded quotations of Jesus that we have in the Bible. Jesus’ earliest quote is his institution of the Lord’s Supper.

9. The early church and St. Paul thought communion was important, that it was central to their faith, their worship, their walk of discipleship: “Do this in remembrance of me.” Remembrance is a packed word.
a. It means remembering the past, the mighty acts of God in Jesus Christ for us and for our salvation.
b. It means remembering for us to look inward and examine ourselves and knowing that if we confess our sins that God is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse from all unrighteousness.
c. It means looking outward for we are commanded to love one another, even as I have loved you.
d. It means remembering to look forward to the promises of God in Jesus Christ. “I go to prepare a place for you and I will come again to take you to myself…. If it were not so would I have told you?”
e. Remembering means looking upward at the cross of Christ, for God in Jesus Christ is present at the meal. He is the host of the meal.
f. And remembering means knowing that God will never leave us alone, that he will always be present with us in the Power of the Holy Spirit.
g. “Do this in remembrance of me.”

10. The table of the Lord, the table of Jesus Christ is all those things and more. Something happens at the table that changes us. It is a mystery. In fact, the English word we use, sacrament, in Greek is the word “mysterion.” The Lord’s Supper changes us, we know not how. It is a mystery.
a. How is it that God can take ordinary bread, ordinary wine, ordinary us, us, and make them holy, set us apart? It is a mystery, but this we know:
b. Jesus is present, grace is present, we are covered in grace.
c. In fact, John Wesley called the sacrament a means of grace. A means by which we can immerse ourselves in the grace of God, make ourselves available to his grace.
d. Just as Sally Mae was covered in grace that morning. Can you not see, can you not feel that grape colored translucent shield surrounding Sally Mae as she was present at the Table of the Lord that morning? Even if that table was in the backseat of her car. We cannot know, we cannot understand, but we know that she was covered in grape juice, she was covered in grace.

11. The Table of the Lord is ready. It is not the Table of Fairview, this church or any church or denomination, it is the Lord’s Table and all are invited, all are welcome.You will be offered the loaf where you may break off a small piece and dip a corner of it in the grape juice. You may take it standing here in readiness to serve. You may take it kneeling or at table in prayer and reverence feeding on him in your hearts. If you are unable to come forward and would like to partake, make yourself known to the ushers and we will serve you at your seats.Please come, please come to the table of the Lord.

(After everyone is seated, the lights go out for 10 seconds. When they come back on, Jesus is in prayer in Gethsemane.)

12. The Bible tells us that after supper, and after they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives where there was a garden and there Jesus prayed in great distress:
a. “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet not my will but thine be done.”
b. We know then that the guards came along with Judas who betrayed him with a kiss.
c. Jesus told those present, “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will send 12 legions of angels?” And then Jesus allowed himself to be taken away.

C. Close
1. With that Jesus chose to accept his Father’s cup. Jesus chose to take the Final Exam. He could have chosen not to take the exam at all.

2. It was our exam, not his, one that we could never pass; but Jesus passed the Final Exam for us SO THAT. SO THAT
a. So that you can be at table with Jesus, seated beside Jesus, dine with Jesus, even though from time to time you betray him, we can have a relationship with Jesus. “Behold I stand at the door and knock, if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and dine with you and you with me.” We can dine with him, we can have a personal relationship with Jesus.
b. Jesus passed Finals Week for you so that you can see the mighty of God in Jesus Christ for you and for your salvation.
c. So that you can look inward and lay your sins before Christ with the sure and certain knowledge that they will be forgiven. The man said, “Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.”
d. Jesus passed Finals Week for you, so that we can be obedient disciples of Jesus Christ, looking outward and serving a world in need, for we are called to love one another. “A new commandment I give you that you love one another.”
e. So that you can look forward to the promises of God. Have an eternal relationship with God in Jesus Christ. In my Father’s house are many rooms, many dwelling places, many mansions. “There’s a mansion just over the hilltop.” So that you can have an eternal relationship with Jesus Christ.
f. So that God will be with you always in the presence of the Holy Spirit. “I come to the garden alone…and he walks with you and he talks with you, and he tells you you are his own, and the joy we share as we tarry there, none other will ever know.”
g. Jesus passed Finals Week for you so that, and here’s the good part, here's the part that I love: So that you may have life and it abundantly. So that you life may be full. So that Christ wells up in you. So that Christ’s joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. So that you may be filled with joy of Christ and immersed in his grace.
h. So that in some mysterious way you are changed. The filling and fulfilling relationship with Christ will not and cannot leave you alone.So that you will never again be the same. Jesus passed the final exam for you so that.

3. The ushers are coming forward to give you your diploma for Finals Week. It is a diploma that you did not earn for a test you did not pass. Jesus passed it so that we may have life, we may have joy, we may have abundance.Every time you look at this diploma on your refrigerator or on your mirror, “Jesus passed Finals Week for me… SO THAT” You fill in the blank. Only you can fill in the blank. It is your life. It is your relationship with him. You joyfully fill in the blank and give thanks. So may it be in all our lives. Amen.

Qs and As About Safe Water for Haiti

Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God…you would have asked of Him and He would have given you living water.” John 4:10

Q: Why aren’t we supporting UMC Missions?
A: Haiti and the people of Haiti are on the hearts of the United Methodist Church. We’ve been in Haiti. UMCOR has been in Haiti for years. You may recall that the director of UMCOR, Rev. Sam Dixon, lost his life in the earthquake a year ago because he was there. Meeting the needs of the Haitian people is a UMC priority. You might check out http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umcor/work/emergencies/ongoing/haitiearthquake to see 33 pages of UMCOR activities. And we would recommend giving to UMCOR, Advance #418325 to support these efforts. If your passion is safe water, we can directly impact the problem, short and long term, by supporting the efforts of the Safe Water Team.

Q: What are the administrative costs associated with our donations through the Safe Water Team?
A: Since we are designating our funds, 100 percent go to product and delivery. In addition the Letter of Intention we have signed with the Safe Water Team agrees to match every donation that we make by July 1, 2011. Therefore the effectiveness of our donations is 200 percent!

Q: What is UMCOR doing in the area of Water and Sanitation and why aren’t we supporting them?
A: The reason UMCOR is so effective and has such immediate impact is that they direct funds to high impact agencies already on the ground like the Red Cross (secular) or Church World Service (religious). See http://haiti.ngoaidmap.org/sectors/13 for ongoing projects funded through other organizations. UMCOR is now looking for long-term, sustainable solutions to the problems of unsafe water and poor sanitation. It will take a variety of solutions to meet those needs. We believe that Hydraid Bio Sand Water Filters are one of those. While we are raising funds to put them in place, we (Safe Water Team and the Missouri Conference UMC) are working with UMCOR to be part of their long-term solution.

Q: What is the Water and Sanitation Crisis all about?
A: A billion people lack access to safe water; 2.2 million die every year, mostly children. In other words, a child dies every 15 second from water borne disease. See http://water.org/learn-about-the-water-crisis/facts to check out the facts. Unfortunately, even when water is available, it is more than likely contaminated with human or animal feces, or parasites that have devastating health impacts or even death, especially among children. People live their lives with parasites and disease and often do not even realize they are sick. It is difficult for an individual or even a society to be productive under such conditions. What is the water crisis all about? People need water to live, but unsafe water kills every 15 seconds.

Q: What is the efficacy of the BioSand Water Filter?
A: : A comparison of various purification means and results can be found here: http://hydraid.org/pdf/scientific-study-synopsis-march-2009.pdf http://hydraid.org/pdf/SustainedUse_Sobseyetal_POUsustainability_Published_2008.pdfhttp://hydraid.org/pdf/BSF_HaitiStudy_Dukeetal_RuralRemoteHealth_2006.pdfBottom line, bio sand filters are found to be effective, convenient and sustainable in eliminating or reducing disease causing bacteria, parasites, viruses, and solids from water. While highly effective by itself, it becomes extremely effective if the filtered water is treated with one drop of chlorine per liter. Amway as part of the Safe Water Team is supplying chorine. The Hydraid BioSand Water Filters are not effective against dissolved pesticides or other dissolved chemicals or in purifying seawater.

Q: Why is the Safe Water Team best equipped to address the problem NOW?
A: While this huge problem requires a variety of long-term solutions including permanent wells and effective latrines, The Hydraid BioSand Water Filter is available, effective, and distribution centers are in place in critical areas including the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Shipment to Haiti is being done in cooperation with the US Navy’s Operation Handclasp so that filters sent to Haiti do not need to go through the docks and customs. The NGO, Pure Water for the World, who has been in Haiti many years distributes the filters and trains the recipients. So, the Safe Water Team with its sponsors, see http://safewaterteam.org , are producing the Hydraid BioSand Water Filters inexpensively and the logistics chain is in place to pack, ship, deliver, train, and sustain the filters NOW.

Q: How do we give and make sure our money gets to the right place and receives matching funds?
A: We’ve set up two ways to donate. You can donate directly to Safewaterteam.org a 501c3 organization online at http://safewaterteam.org or by mailing to Safe Water Team, PO Box 287, Lowell, MI 49331, making sure that “ACDLSM Haiti Water,” or “Lay Speaker Haiti Water” in the online instructions or on the memo line of the check. You organization can also consolidate donations and forward a single check.For those who would rather donate to a United Methodist Organization and know that the donations will be properly transmitted, we have set up an account through the Missouri Conference Office of Creative Ministry. You can donate online at http://www.umocm.com/Donate/donate.html Be sure to include “ACDLSM Haiti Water” or “Lay Speaker Haiti Water” in the “instructions to seller.” Checks can be mailed to Office of Creative Ministries, 3009 David Drive Columbia, MO 65202. Again, include “ACDLSM Haiti Water” or “Lay Speaker Haiti Water” on the memo line.

Q: How do I find out more?
A: Go to http://hydraid.org/resources/index.htm and read some of the documentation. A great place to start may be the handbook, http://hydraid.org/pdf/HydrAidHandbook_English.pdf and Qs and As, http://hydraid.org/pdf/faq.pdf And for more background on the program, see http://tiny.cc/rick_haiti_water

Fundraising Ideas--Safe Water for Haiti

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, he has sent me to proclaim release to the captives… ”

Few things provide release to the captives like the availability of clean, safe water. The leadership of the Association of Conference Directors of Lay Speaking Ministries (ACDLSM) has signed a Letter of Intent that can obtain matching funds for all donations made by July 1, 2011 up to $50,000. The total would provide clean, safe water for up to 10,000 people for the next 10 years. We can all become part of the solution to a crisis in Haiti and beyond. Set a conference goal of $3,000 now. Have every district set a goal of $1,000. Below are some great fundraising ideas. Select three or more that you can start on right away.

As lay speakers we are called to equip United Methodist for all facets of lay ministry. For this time, the leadership of your Association (ACDLSM) is called to equip the lay speakers and the church to a ministry of Safe Water for Haiti and Haitians. During the past six months, the cholera epidemic as infected over 120,000 and hospitalized 70,000. Fortunately deaths have been under 1,500. But within a short time, the impact of waterborne diseases will exceed the human suffering of the earthquake itself. And as long as people use dirty water, cholera and other debilitating waterborne diseases will not go away. These are Christ’s people. These are the poorest of the poor in the western hemisphere. A million of them remain in tents. The Spirit of the Lord is upon us. We are called.


And we are calling and equipping you to respond. At the ACDLSM Convocation this year, three of our learning sessions focused on lay speakers and lay speaker training sessions to be in mission. We also invited a representative of Safe Water Team who introduced us to an elegant, affordable, available solution. (Click here for details, use it to prepare yourselves). It is the Hydraid Bio Sand Water Filter. It has no moving parts, requires no power, is transportable and costs less than $100.00 shipped and installed. It is highly effective and sustainable for 10 years or more.


A Letter of Intent (LOI) has been signed that has as a goal ACDLSM raising $50,000 and the Safe Water Team providing matching funds by July 1, 2011. That’s $100,000. That’s huge, but easily doable. It’s called the power of connection. If 40 of the 58 contiguous conferences participate, that is $1200 per conference, assuming 8 districts, 800 churches and 800 lay speakers a conference (all round numbers), that’s $150 a district or $1.50 a church or $1.50 a lay speaker. That is the power of connection! (We can only fail by leaving it to the other girl or guy.)


Here are some ideas and easy goals for raising funds in your conference or district or church or lay speaking classes. Remember we are equipping our lay speakers to call the churches to ministry. The goals listed are easily achievable. Our experience is that people want to give. The first presentation was to a congregation of 100 that gave a spontaneous (they did not even know donations were going to be requested) of over $4000. A congregation of 28 donated $1400. A hastily prepared church auction netted $6200. Lay Speakers simply need to be equipped with information and some good fundraising ideas.


1. Have a special offering at the Annual Conference. $15,000. Talk to your Lay Leader about making Hydraid BioSand Water Filters a part of the laity presentation coordinate a special offering with your director of connectional ministries. At your booth at the Annual Conference make water a part of it so members are educated before the offering. Act now, Annual Conference planning is underway.
2. Teach the LS Lead Missions Course to 15 students (email rmatson573@aol.com if you do not have the course DVD). Our experience is that lay speakers will not be able to wait to talk to their congregations and will receive substantial spontaneous donations. $15,000
3. Find a Conference Champion. Ministry does not happen nor persist without a champion. Anyone who has been to Haiti or on a VIM trip will be an advocate. Buy them a Hydraid BioSand Water Filter Demonstrator (deb.walsh@cascadeng.com or 616-254-4114) and turn them loose. $10,000
4. Find District Champions. $10,000. (Note, a powerpoint presentation you can build on is available.
5. Speak at Rotary Clubs. Many of Lay Speakers are Rotarians. Rotary International is passionate about water and many of these safe water programs were founded and supported by Rotary organizations. A five minute talk at a Rotary Club in December raised $4000. And an Interact Club in California (High Schoolers) raised $50,000 in 2010. Make it known that there are matching funds and it’s a no-brainer. Two Rotary Club presentations should easily net $5000.
6. Make the ministry of Safe Water part of every Lay Speaking Ministries class in your conference this spring. As an extra task, ask each participant to make a presentation (tell the story, that’s what we do best) to their congregations or a small group within their church to raise awareness of the safe water crisis. Solicit fund raising ideas from each group. Act. Assuming 15 students per class, you do the math; it could be great.
7. Each lay speaker (say 300 from a conference) buy one-tenth of a $34 Hydraid Bio Sand Filter. $1,000.
8. Have lay speakers at each church (say 100 churches in your conference) ask for a second offering for Haiti Safe Water. $1,000.
9. Encourage the UMW in each of 100 congregations to do an area study on Haiti, and to raise congregational awareness. $1000 or more.
10. Have Lay Speakers talk to the public school teachers in their congregations about speaking about the problems of Children in Haiti. Invest in a Hydraid Demonstrator ($58 shipped) and use it as a piggy bank for two weeks in a school. Each school will raise $250.
11. Lay Speakers talk to Scouting Organizations sponsored by your churches about doing a fund raiser in the community malls to raise awareness and collect donations. $500.


We recommend that every conference should set a goal of $3,000 to assure levels of giving will capture every dollar of matching funds. Be intentional. Remember, the deadline is July 1, 2011. Let the oppressed go free!

Safe Water--Saving Lives Now

"Lord, when did we see you thirsty and give you something to drink?" Matthew 25:37


If you could provide safe water to a family of five or more for the next 10 years; safe water that was free of parasites and stopped cholera and other killers and that cost only $100, procured, shipped, installed, with the family trained, would you? That's $100, $10 a year to provide safe water to a family in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, or Ghana.

Unsafe water and poor sanitation are at crisis levels. A child under five dies every 15 seconds because of them. It is a crisis begging a sustainable solution. Most efforts leave us frustrated and feeling helpless. But there is an elegant solution. I first learned of it in "Rotarian Magazine" a year ago. (See August 2009 page 30, and November 2009 page 61, issues). The solution is the Hydraid Biosand Filter. A simple device with no moving parts, requiring no power, no maintenance, and only minimal training. It costs $34.00, $100.00 installed in Haiti or one of the other countries above. How can that be? Because God made it that way, and he has led people of God to make it happen.


The Hydraid Biosand Filter uses sand, the system that has cleansed water flowing into our aquifers for eons and a biological layer that naturally forms within few days that attacks the bad pathogens which cause devastating illnesses and even death. (See how it works.) It is a wonder!


Educate yourselves with the links above. It is a life-saver. The Safe Water Team (safewaterteam.org) is a 501 c3 organization dedicated to distributing the technology to those in need. They are doing tremendous work. The government of Honduras just two weeks ago signed a contract for 40,000 of them to be distributed over the next five years. The solution is there, the transportation is there, the receiving system is there (through the US Navy in Haiti to avoid Customs problems), and the distribution systems are in place (an NGO, Pure Water for the world in Haiti, and Good Samaritan Hospital in the Dominican Republic). The Dominican Republic distribution system supports Haitian field hands who are the poorest of the poor in the Western Hemisphere.


Here's what Lay Speakers in the United Methodist Church are doing: At our annual convocation, we drafted a Letter of Intent to raise $50,000 by July 1st. Safe Water Team pledges to match our donations dollar for dollar up to $50,000! Wow! And because we are a connected church of 50 conferences, and average of 8 districts per conference, 80 churches and 80 lay speakers per district (all round numbers), it is no-brainer. It's a $1000 per conference, $1.60 per church or lay speaker. Most importantly, it is a life-saver!


Lay Speakers, brainstorm how you can make missions part of your training. Find a champion, a person with a passion for people, in your conference or in your district. Talk to your churches. The lay speaker in this video was giving a report on his VIM trip to Haiti. Unannounced, he introduced the Hydraid Biosand Filter and spontaneously raised over $4000 from a congregation of 100 in attendance. Last week a church raised $6200 in a spur of the moment auction just for Hydraid filters for Haiti.


Here's the key to getting our matching funds: Donate through safewaterteam.org. ALWAYS make sure that "ACDLSM" or "Lay Speaker" in is the memo section or if through paypal, in the instructions to the seller. Send checks to Safe Water Team, PO Box 287, Lowell, MI 49331, again with "ACDLSM" or "Lay Speaker" on the memo line of your check. If you prefer to donate through a United Methodist organization, we've set up an alternate at Office of Creative Ministries, Missouri Conference (Click Here) or mail checks to Office of Creative Ministries, 3009 David Drive, Columbia, MO 65202. The same memo instructions apply.


Now, consider if one church in each Conference had a fund raiser. How about a church in each district? Or if each lay speaking ministries class this spring took Safe Water on as a mission project? How about if each lay speaker just bought a $34 Hydraid Biosand Filter? What if it was a project for Change the World Sunday? The possibilities for saving lives are endless. What are your ideas?

Links to SOLM mp3 Audio Files! (See Right Panel)

Missouri Conference School of Lay Ministry, "Transforming Congregations through Spiritual Formation in the Wesleyan Tradition," led by Rev. Tom Albin, Dean of the Upper Room was a (let's use the work again) a transforming experience. Awesome really. We were fortunate enough to video the event and have a four DVD set available for $25.00. Drop me a line at rmatson573@aol.com.

What a great way for you and your church leadership groups to review, renew and launch transforming ministries for your congregations! Some just don't have time to spend eight hours in from of the TV, but would have time in their cars or on the jogging paths or sidewalks while walking their canine friends.

You're in luck! The sessions are now available for download and use on your iPod or mp3 player or you may burn a CD to use in your car. Take a look in the right hand panel of this blog. The files are available for immediate download. They are large files so be patient. If you are on dialup, or just need a more convenient way, drop me a note and I'll send you a CD.

Audio and Video are different experiences. You'll learn something different in each format. If you have formed a team at your church, here's my recommendation: Then during the week, listen to the audio session. Send emails to each other with the ideas that God has placed on your mind.

And may you be blessed!

A Living Memorial

(1 Samuel 7:7-12)

Below is a the Memorial Sunday sermon at Smith Chapel, how we can become an Ebenezer, a living memorial to God's help. After listening to Bishop Schnase describe the Wesleyan approach to salvation and sanctification through Grace, I thought it important for us to hear my take on friend Dorothy's story, part of the sermon below. The hymn of preparation was "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" and the Scripture reading was 1 Samuel 7:7-12.

Introduction

Ebenezer, in our song and our Scripture, “stone of help,” but also stone of remembrance for it helped them remember. Last Tuesday, we visited our stone of remembrance, the memorial stone of our son Jeff. Jeff would have been 48 on June 30^th, one month from today. August 13^th will be 30 years, but he will always be 18 to me. Jeff was Rosemary’s best friend. He was Curt’s constant companion. He was our son. In his short life, he had experienced more than most. He had a job that he loved, he had a girl that he loved, and who loved him in return. He had friends that he loved who cared about him. He was passionate about life. He loved life and it loved him in return. How do we memorialize a life so precious to us? How do you live in response to the love that he had given us? A stone of remembrance yes, but our best response is a life of remembrance, a life lived as a memorial to life of love that he lived. Our lives as a stone of remembrance.

Sometimes when tragedy happens, we have trouble even getting on with life, let alone living our lives. We have the question in our hearts continually, the question that has plagued humankind since the beginning, the question that in so many cases drives people away from the Christian faith. The question of course is “Why do bad things happen to good people?”

Body

You’ve all asked that question. Certainly Ilene has asked the question. Certainly Cecil has asked the question. When we think of Julie, I think we all ask the question. My hunch is that every single one of you have asked. Many times with unsatisfactory answers, many unsatisfactory answers from good, well-intentioned people. They say, “It was all part of God’s plan.” Or “God takes the very best for his own.” Or “God loved him the most.” Well, then, I don’t want God to love him. In fact, I don’t want a God that had it in his plan to snatch Jeff from us. How can we have faith in such a God? How can we raise a stone, a memorial to such a God?

It’s the kind of thing you might have heard from your friends. It’s the kind of thing you might hear from the more vocal of the Christian community today. “God has a plan. It was all part of God’s plan.” It’s the kind of thing that drives many away from the faith. You might have heard it, but you won’t hear it here. It is not Methodist. It is not Wesleyan. It’s not part of our DNA.

John Wesley had a running battle with friends of his who followed the French theologian, John Calvin, who believed that all things were predestined by God. Even those who are to be saved and those who are not to be saved are predestined by God. That was unacceptable to Wesley who believed in a God of grace. A God whose grace was available to all, not just some. God’s love, God’s mercy, God’s grace is available to all. O, we have the free-will to refuse it, we can choose, but God’s grace is available to every one of us.
How does this address the question of “Why do bad things happen to good people?” The world is fallen, evil exists, bad things happen because of the choices we have made from the beginning. Choices made by both people and spiritual forces. Paul called them “powers and principalities”; they make choices too. Choices result in accidents. Choices sometimes result in evil. Bad things happen to good people not because God chooses them, but because people do. Choice gives us the freedom to love, to experience joy. It also gives us the freedom to do harm.

Or because that’s the way a fallen world is. We choose to go certain places. We choose to go at certain times. We live in certain places. The hurricanes that provide water for thousands of square miles, provide devastation at the seashore. The same thunderstorms that water the plains spawn tornados. The wild beasts that provide food also are a threat to life and limb. We live in a fallen world, but someday we know that the lion will lie down with the lamb. That is yet to come. For now, bad things do happen, but we know that God is there.

The important thing for John Wesley was the understanding that God’s grace was available, not just available, but working in each and every one of us even before we know it. Wesley was not alone in his understanding, but was following in the footsteps of a Dutch theologian, Jacob Arminius, who had set forth certain principles in opposition to John Calvin. Wesley embraced Arminism, as it came to be known, and our own denomination as well as many other Wesleyan denominations, such as the Church of the Nazarene, the Salvation Army, Assemblies of God; and many others like the Disciples of Christ have followed and others, most all flowing from Wesley’s teachings.

And how important is this understanding? It makes understand that God’s love is for all, not just for some. We don’t have a God who picks and chooses. We have a God who loves all of his children and wants all to believe in him and love him in return. By the way, that should influence the way we view others.

It makes us understand that we are immersed in God’s grace that is continually nudging us, but that we have apart to play, we have to accept the nudging of God’s grace. Understand there is nothing we can do by ourselves to save us. It is grace. But what we must do is make the choice to accept it.

It makes understand the power of prayer. What good would prayer be if all things were predestined, even the prayers we say tonight? We choose to pray because we know we have a God who loves us, and God who hears our prayers. Not that all are answered to our satisfaction. Evil forces exist in this world that resist grace and bad things can happen.

But it makes us understand that nothing can happen that cannot bring God glory, even the most tragic of circumstances. Tragedy happened in Jesus’ life. His friend Lazarus died. Jesus used it to bring glory to God. Bad things happen in our lives. If we will allow God, he will take those tragedies and bring glory out of those too. I praise God today because he has been at work in my life.

Yes, I think the Wesleyan understanding of God’s grace, God’s love, makes our lives much more important because we have choices to make. What we do with our lives matters. It matters to us. It matters to others. We can choose to make our lives a memorial. We can choose to make our lives a difference. And I would submit that we make a difference best when we follow the teachings of Jesus.

We are the body of Christ. Jesus is our head. We are to have the mind of Christ. Paul called Jesus the pioneer and perfector, perfector, of our faith. It is Jesus to whom we look. It is Jesus who we follow. It is Jesus in whom we believe. It is in following Jesus that we build our lives into a memorial for Him and for those we love. Our lives become an Ebenezer when we choose to follow Jesus.

Making choices is not always an easy thing. We are immersed in a world of bad options. It’s easy to make bad choices when we are surrounded by bad options. Fortunately, Wesley had some things to say about that too. He taught us too how we are to live our lives in following Jesus, how we can best make choices. We talked of that last year when we did our sermon series on Wesley’s Three Simple Rules.

First, do no harm. Recall that we said that this was the first rule because in so many cases it is so difficult to undo harm. We can be forgiven, but the consequences of harm remain.

Then, do good. Do all the good you can, to all the people you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, for as long as ever you can.

Finally, stay in love with God. We do this by immersing ourselves in grace and saying yes to God’s nudgings. We immerse ourselves in grace by doing all those things associated with the devotional life: We pray, we read and hear Scripture, we study, we partake in Holy Communion, we fast, we gather in community to enter into holy conversation. In so doing, we hear the love of God proclaimed and we respond in love.

This week I read a facebook note from my friend Dorothy in Springfield. She had attended a Joyce Meyer event this past weekend where Joyce had talked a lot about, “what you think, you become.” She was challenged to spend some time each day thinking about what she was thinking about. It struck a chord with her.

On Tuesday morning, her Bible opened to the following verse, one of my favorites: Philippians 4:8 "Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things." NIV

Wow! Dorothy thought about in the shower, then on the drive to work. Then she thought about what she thought about. When the day was done, she wrote this:

What goes into my head, thoughts, judgments, etc., can be pretty scary sometimes… Man, are my eyes wide open now. Here are a few examples that will bring me to a place that is noble and just and lovely and admirable:

1. I will not shade any of my thoughts with deceit or lies.
2. I will think about others with respect and honor.
3. I determine to think on what is virtuous and decent.
4. I will keep my thoughts focused on good things.
5. I will look for the inner beauty in the people I meet - after all God created them.
6. I will focus on the best qualities of people I know.
7. I will avoid sloppy attitudes.
8. I will recall those things that cause my heart to praise God!

She concludes: These are the biblical teachings that will better shape my day to help me better shape the world where I am.

Dorothy is becoming a memorial, a stone that will help others remember who and whose they are. How does this come about? It is grace. God’s grace. We can do nothing apart from God. But there came a time from God’s nudgings (Wesley called it prevenient grace—grace before we know it, grace before it’s convenient) there was a time Dorothy responded and said yes to God. God forgave her of her sins and brought her into a relationship with Him. She became a Christian. She was justified, she was made right. She was brought into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. We call this justifying grace. You see grace is God’s love continuously poured out for us. God continued to pour out his love, to continue to work in Dorothy’s life. He nudged to go to the Joyce Meyer seminar. She said yes. Through the voice of Joyce Meyer He placed an idea before her. She said yes. On Tuesday morning he nudged her to read her Bible. She was again immersed in grace. She said yes. He placed Paul’s letter to the Philippians before her. It shaped her thoughts to which she said yes.

How do our lives become a memorial? Wesley believed that God does not leave us alone. Through our immersion in grace, our immersion in God’s love, from our saying yes, day after day, God moves us from where we are towards where he wants us to be. Wesley called this sanctification. Moving on to Christian maturity with God’s help. Yes, I would say on to becoming an Ebenezer, a monument a stone to God’s help.

Stones are a big deal in the Bible. (Note: Small stones are passed out to each in the congregation.) A search will reveal almost 400 occurrences, depending on the translation you might be using. Some notable remembrances of stones in the Bible:

Jacob used a stone as a pillow the night he dreamed of Jacob’s ladder and angels ascending and descending from heaven. In the morning he set it upright as a pillar, pouring oil on the top of it and saying, “Surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it…. How awesome is this place. This is none other than the house of God and this is the gate of heaven.”

Stones. The Ten Commandments were given on two tablets of stone.

Joshua had the Israelites take 12 stones out of the Jordon River after they had crossed over and set them up as a monument to God so that anyone who asked in times to come they would know they were a monument to God’s mighty acts so that they might fear the Lord forever.

There was the Ebenezer stone, the stone of help.

There was the stone Jesus commanded be removed from Lazarus’ tomb, and the stone that was rolled away on Easter morning.

Then, there was Christ, the cornerstone.

Finally, we are to become stone of remembrance, an Ebenezer, a monument to God’s help for those around us to see.

Close

One more thing, we become a memorial, a stone of remembrance, when we live a life of gratitude.

As we drove away from the cemetery, from Jeff’s grave last Monday, I asked Rosemary a question I’d heard another time. “If you knew, if you knew the pain, the suffering, the anguish that you’d have gone through because of the loss of Jeff, because of the bad things that had happened to this good child. If you knew, would you have had children?”

Her response was the one that I know you know: “I’m grateful for the time I had with him. I wouldn’t trade a moment, not a second of that time.

The time we have with one another is precious. A precious stone, more precious than gold. You see that precious stone is hope. And that too is grace, an undeserved gift of love from God. The hope that we will join again with those who have gone before, join with them in the presence of Jesus Christ who is our stone of hope.

Our hope is in Jesus Christ, the answer to our deepest longings, and our most difficult questions. When we ask, “Why?” We need not know the reason. Reasons may never be satisfactory to us. What we need is our stone of hope. We need gift of Jesus Christ.

With a gift like that, how can we not live our life as a stone of remembrance, as a memorial to all that God has given us.

So may you all be stones of remembrance, carrying in your hands the precious stone of hope to the glory of God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He is our help and we are his stones of remembrance, his Ebenezers in a world that desperately needs his help. Become a stone for all to see, and as Dorothy said, to shape the world around you. Amen.

Strategy #4 "Create Momentum"

The Strategy Themes discussed below were presented by Bob Farr, Director of Congregational Excellence, Missouri Conference UMC, as part of a presentation “Renovate or Die: How to Become an Outwardly Focused Church.” The following discusses Strategy #4 of 10.

Strategy #4 Create Momentum

Or how to break through resistance and lead change!

Leaders motivate. Managers channel that motivation. In the case of “Creating Momentum” both are clearly needed. Channeled activity without motive is doing the same old thing. Motivation without direction is simply chaos. Momentum mathematically is a “vector,” ie it has a direction as a component. In other words, it is channeled energy. So the leader’s task is to achieve channeled energy that moves the congregation toward his or her vision.

So how does a pastor create momentum? What does he or she focus on? Buckingham and Coffman, First Break all the Rules (pg 57) say emphasize your strengths. Jim Collins, Good to Great, says select something you can do world class, that you are passionate about, that makes the biggest difference (he says “economic denominator”; I say that produces the most "extravagant generosity" or the most "radical" participation by your congregation.)

What can you do world class, better than anyone else? Everyone has something. Our little church does Vacation Bible School (VBS) world class. We have an average attendance of 19 that includes two children. Yet we had 18 kids in VBS last year with a teenage dancer leading awesome music, in a multipurpose barn a half mile from the church, with a neighbor mom, home schooler, as a wonderful Bible teacher. To be world class, we didn’t just depend on our own resources, we used the community. And we had fun! Three years ago it rained. One of the mothers rounded up 10 plastic water bottles and tennis balls, and we did VBS bowling down the church aisle. The first one to 153 (the number of fish caught in John 24) won. And we had fun. (Two years later, Cokebury used the same game as one of its recreation programs.) Did I say 18 kids?

The intersection of what you are passionate about, what you can do world class, and what radically maximizes participation should be the fruitful ministries that are your focus. Then Collins says the best achieve success over and over again creating an accumulation of visible results that energize their companies (congregations). Momentum builds and bursts through resistance to change!

Success is best visible in PRAY-PLAN-DO-CHECK-ACT cycles. Rick Warren says, “[Practices] must be put into a sequential process [to] be acted on every day.” Bishop Schnase says, “Exemplary and repeated practices.. are the means congregations use to fulfill their missions with excellence and fruitfulness [changing lives in Jesus Christ].”

Create momentum by doing what you are passionate about, what you do best, what brings extravagance and radical participation and do it in an exemplary and repeated manner… Changing lives in Jesus Christ!

Bob’s Farrism: “Successful churches do what unsuccessful churches refuse to do.”