What a Friend We Have in Jesus

I really had a lot of fun playing father Abraham during Sunday’s worship service. As we greeted one another following worship, several of you commented on my beard. Apparently, I don’t look good with a beard. It’s a good thing I made a pact with a friend that she will come and shave my beard if I am ever unable to groom myself. She’s also going to make sure that my gray hairs are colored regularly. I’ve agreed to do the same for her if ever the need should arise.

The pact may be vain, but it’s the sign of a true friend that we would be willing to do this for one another. It’s funny that the keynote speaker at the Southern Illinois Women’s Retreat on Saturday, Rev. Katherine Bryant-Graves said that she has a similar pact with a friend. Saturday’s retreat was all about Building Forever Friends.

Friends are those who know us as we are. They are compassionate, loyal, hold our secrets, share our devotion to God, and treat us with respect. We share laughter and tears. As Katherine reminded us, friends are the ones we meet up with to catch up on life, then we call each other to talk about the things we didn’t get to talk about when we were together. Time seems to fly when we’re with friends.

It takes time to be a friend. If time is money, we have to be willing to invest our time and ourselves in our friendships. We have to intentionally carve out time in our busy schedules to be a friend.

So, it is with our Divine Friend. There are so many hymns that we sing about Christ as our friend – What a Friend We Have In Jesus, There’s Not a Friend Like the Lowly Jesus, For the Beauty of the Earth, Jesus, Lover of My Soul, Tell It To Jesus, I’ve Found a Friend. Those are just a few of the hymns which name that we have a great and perfect friend in Christ. Just like with our earthly friends, we must invest time with our Heavenly friend. You might ask Christ, next time you talk to Him, who am I that you call me friend?

Now, I have the song by Israel Houghton “I Am a Friend of God” stuck in my head:

Who am I that you are mindful of me?
That you hear me, when I call
Is it true that you are thinking of me?
How you love me, it’s amazing

Chorus:
I am a friend of God
I am a friend of God
I am a friend of God

May you find richness in the time you invest in God,
Rev. Tracy

The "S" Word

Sin. There I said it. It's a dirty little three-letter word. We're afraid to say the “S” word too much in the church. We are willing to talk about the things weren't not supposed to do and the things Jesus taught us to do as his disciples. But, don't say the "S" word.

You're a sinner! It's okay. I'm a sinner too! That's a tough pill to swallow if we can’t talk about the “S” word.

But, we have to accept that we are sinners. In fact, we should boldly proclaim that we are sinners. If we call ourselves Christians, we must be sinners and, at one time or another, admitted so. After all, the church, as some wise church ladies recently reminded me, is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints (attributed to L.L. Nash).

"We want to avoid suffering, death, sin, ashes. But we live in a world crushed and broken and torn, a world God visited to redeem. We receive [God's] poured-out life, and being allowed the high privilege of suffering with [God], may then pour ourselves out for others." - Elisabeth Elliot

Elliot points out the importance of facing sin. Once we see our sin, we are able to see the broken, war torn world we live in. Once we accept that we are sinners, we see our need for repentance. Once we have repent of our sins, we can accept the gracious gift of forgiveness which sets us free to be change agents for God’s coming kingdom.

May you live to heal the world that God died to redeem,
Rev. Tracy

The Breath of Life

On Saturday, September 11th, I had the opportunity to attend two memorial services.  The first service was a memorial service for the tragic events of 9/11 honoring the first responders from Montgomery county.  The second service was a service for a congregant.

This second service wasn't planned.  The family knew their loved one's health had been failing.  I had the honor of sitting vigil with the family as they surrounded his bed to express their love of him.  His breathing was labored and shallow.

Ultimately, it was his breathing that most affected his critical state.  His breath of life was labored and shallow.

After several hours of gazing into his beautiful wife's eyes and holding the hands of his kids and grandkids, he closed his eyes and stopped breathing.  The breath of life had stopped flowing through his lungs, no longer caused his chest to rise and fall.  It was no longer labored and shallow - it had stopped.  His breath had been gathered up to the God who first breathed life into his lungs.

Genesis 2: 4 - 7 tells of God's creation of humanity.  God formed the earth being and after breathing into its nostrils - it became a living being.  This account of God's creation of humanity is true of the creation of all humans.  God breathed life into the lungs of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, sinners and saints, terrorists and first responders, soldiers and our foes.  The breath of life God breathed into my lungs and your lungs God also breathed into every other living being.

I am reminded of the hymn, "Breathe on me, Breath of God."

Breathe on me, Breath of God, fill me with life anew, that I may love what thouse dost love, and do what thou wouldst do.
Breathe on me, Breath of God, until my heart is pure, until with thee I will one will to do and to endure.
Breathe on me, Breath of God, till I am wholly thine, until this earthly part of me glows with thy fire divine.
Breathe on me, Breath of God, so shall I never die, but live with thee the perfect life of thine eternity.

I went to the memorial service for the man.  I wasn't able to make it to the 9/11 memorial service.  Both services remembered loved ones whose breath was gathered back to God under very different circumstances.  Nonetheless, those lives were gathered up to God.

May your inhaling of the breath of life be easy and full,
Rev. Tracy

In the Name of Jesus

On the first Sunday of each month, the church does prayer cards.  During worship, we receive a card.  We write our name on the card.  We give the card back.  We receive another card.  Then, on the card is two names – first is a person on the prayer list.  This person is someone who is in the military, in a nursing home or assisted living facility, homebound, or ill.  The church has been asked to pray for this individual.

The second name on the card is the name of whoever in the congregation received the card first and wrote his/her name on it.  The church has not officially added this person to the prayer list but is nonetheless in need of prayer.  We all are in need of prayer. This practice of distributing prayer cards acknowledges that whether we are on the prayer list or not we all need to be prayed for.

Isn’t it great to know that someone is praying for us.  I’m sure more people are praying for you than just the person who received your name on the prayer card. Still, it is comforting to know that at least one person is
praying for us. It doesn’t matter if s/he knows what you are being held in prayer for – God knows!

That’s what I find most befuddling about prayer. God knows what each of us needs. God knows what we are going to ask for. God knows what we need  before we need it.

In Romans 8: 24 – 27, Paul writes: “For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.”

Paul tells us that the Spirit intercedes for us when we cannot express our joys or concerns, our desires or complaints. Prayer is not about asking for something-it is turning to God who is our source of everything. Both Paul and Edward Farrell would agree that prayer is our response to the Divine Presence that is in, with, and through all things.

Edward Farrell in Gathering the Fragments wrote: “Christian prayer is always a response to a presence already felt. The awareness of a desire to pray again is already prayer. As the desert fathers so often said, "If you want to pray, you are already praying."

We pray, not to change God’s mind; we pray that we might be changed by the knowledge that we are in the presence of God. We are changed as we are reminded that with love God created us, by grace God redeemed us, with compassion God sustains us. In the prayers we express, we give over all our joys and concerns knowing that God is the One whom we can rely on and trust.  God is gonna do what God is gonna do – prayer reminds us that God is the One who is already at work...on our behalf and the ones we pray for.

In the name of Jesus, I pray,
Rev. Tracy