Continue reading »]]> This year Lincoln Park United Methodist Youth (6th thru 12th grade) will be going on a mission trip to Cherokee, North Carolina through an organization called Team Effort. We leave 6/17/12 early, early morning and return 6/22/12 late, late evening. We will be working on the Cherokee Indian Reservation with remodeling projects and VBS. Our accommodations are at a local college which includes bunk beds and showers. Each participant is asked to make a $50 donation to go and so far we have 5 committed youth (4 boys and 1 girl) and 2 very brave chaperones. There is still time if you would be interested in going, contact Tracy Goldsborough.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cRToyvNXAk

Continue reading »]]> There are many ways to be involved in outreach opportunities at LPCUMC. Some programs are seasonal and some are year-around. All need gifts of either time, talent or treasure by volunteers, so that we can offer different means of support to our neighbors, communities and our world.

OPPORTUNITIES TO HELP

Children’s Greeting Card/Care Ministry to shut-ins

Clothes Closet Ministry at New Journey UMC

Coats for Kids

Dinners for Opportunity House

Flea Market- donations made to various charities

Habitat for Humanity

Heart and Hand (meals and assistance)

Hearts for Haiti candy sale

Ladies Craft Group

Mailings (Christmas postcard, Spring flyer)

Mission’s Committee Angel Tree for Salvation Army

Nurture & Witness Committee

(Samaritan’s Purse) Operation Christmas Child gift shoeboxes

Soup Kitchen at New Journey UMC

Stone Soup Ministry

Tutoring at Opportunity House

Youth Mission Trip

Youth Peace Conference

Continue reading »]]> “Behold:  A Sower Went Forth”

(God’s Work: Our Hands)

“Behold, a Sower Went Forth…”

What may come as a surprise to some of you what was a surprise to my family and friends was that after two years of going to seminary, studying to become a pastor, I quit.

The following fall, after college I enrolled at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky about 17 miles southwest of the city of Lexington.  When I arrived I was a part of a new seminary pilot program which immediately placed first year students into a field position.

We had several possible positions in churches surrounding the Wilmore and Lexington area to choose from. But another student and I, Leo, both from upper middle class backgrounds, chose the Nathaniel Mission a small United Methodist Church located in an impoverished section of Lexington called Irish Town.

At the turn of the 20^th century Irish town had been settled by folks from the Appalachian region of Kentucky who had moved to the city to find work in the tobacco warehouses.  I remember the first time I turned off  the major thoroughfare that runs through the city of Lexington into Irish Town with its narrow streets, abandoned cars with missing wheels, dilapidated wood clad shotgun houses lining each side of the road and children and stray dogs filling the street.

A small cinderblock building with glass metal doors Nathaniel Mission sat on a corner of Dehood Street.  Behind the church was a large scrap metal yard encircled by a cyclone and barbed wire fence and in the center of the yard stood a huge crane which loomed above the neighborhood.

A small congregation of about thirty or forty on a Sunday

When you would walk through the front glass door of the tiny church the smell of dust and mildew would shock you awake.

My responsibility was to teach children’s Sunday school and lead the Boy’s Club.  On a Sunday morning I would have five to six children ages 7-10 meet upstairs in a dark paneled room.

The Boys Club met on Saturday mornings.  Most Saturdays there were six or seven boys including Claude and his younger brother Michael and Ricky.  Claude, 14 or 15 at the time, was the largest of the boys and Ricky, also 14 or 15 whose face showed signs of fetal alcohol syndrome was the undeclared leader.

Their world was much different from the one I had known while growing up.  They all came from broken homes.  All of their parents like their parents before them had fallen into a cycle of poverty and illiteracy of drug, alcohol and domestic abuse.

In the winter time many of the boys would come in t-shirts because their parents couldn’t afford coats for them.  There were times when I could overhear them talking about having skipped school, of Claude having to protect his younger brother Michael from their drunk raging father of not knowing for sure where some of them would sleep that night, of huffing paint or glue from a brown paper bag or the exhaust from a car.

For two years, Leo and I met with this small group of boys every Saturday for a Bible Study, games and activities.  We joined a youth basketball league, went to world wrestling foundation live events, played touch football in a lot not far from the church.

I had come prepared to sow the Word, the power of Christ into their lives to make all things new again overcome their parental oppression to reach their full potential to experience a full and meaningful life.

But after two years, of working with them every Saturday Claude was still often truant from school and still having to protect his younger brother Michael from their drunk and raging father.  And Ricky was still huffing paint and glue from a paper bag and none of them seemed to be the least bit interested or hopeful of ever breaking free of the cycles of poverty, illiteracy and substance abuse that had plagued their parents and their parents before them.

I had come to a spiritual crossroad, a crisis.  I began to question myself as a Sower, my motives for entering the ministry.  I had grown weary of sowing seed on what seemed to me to be hard ground.  And I began to question the power of the Seed, of Christ to change lives.  So, I quit school at least for awhile.

Thankfully, in the Parable of the Sower and the Seed and through my brief lifetime of experience I’ve come to better understand and appreciate that

God never quits.

The Parable of the Sower and the Seed is a parable about God.  God is the Sower and the Seed is God’s Word (capital “W”), or, in other words, Jesus who is God made flesh

The four soils do not represent any particular group based on race, creed educational and economic status but rather the human condition which all of us share.  All of us – at one time of another have been all 4 soils:   worn down and down trodden; hard hearted and shallow; thorny and stunted by bad luck and bad choices.

Each of us having received Good News has had our early enthusiasm for a new life snatched away.  Each of us has had Good News get worn down by the unrelenting cares and troubles of life?  If soil cannot change itself, is there then any hope for the hardened, rocky, and thorny soil?

In the Parable of the Sower and the Seed, the Sower sows his seed carelessly, recklessly, seemingly wasting much of the seed on ground that holds little promise for a fruitful harvest.  Jesus’ listeners would think that any respectable farmer would not be so careless as to waste so much good seed especially that is sown by hand

The seed of Jesus is invested in disciples who will betray him and fall away.  The seed of Jesus is squandered on tax collectors and sinners, with lepers, the demon-possessed, and all manner of outcasts.  Yet God promises that his extravagant sowing of seed of Jesus the Word made flesh, will produce an abundant harvest.

If there is any hope for unproductive soil, for you and I, it is this:  that the Sower,

God chooses to keep sowing generously, extravagantly, even in the least promising places.

In spite of our many failings, God simply will not give up on us, but will keep working on whatever is hardened, rocky, or thorny within and among us.  You and I may choose not waste our efforts on the down trodden, the thorny, and the hardened, but God does and will and God chooses to sows God’s seeds his love made flesh through human hands.

The Seeds which God sows through our hands may often seem insignificant.  In the words of Mother Theresa, “there are no great acts of love, only small acts with great love.”

But having fallen to the ground dying and lost from sight, covered over they begin to do their work.  And every seed of love sown, the Bible declares will never return empty, but will accomplish that for which it was sent forth.  Even seeds snatched up by birds can be redeposited and grow in the most unlikely places and soils.

In his parable Jesus declares that such extravagant wastefulness will not be punished in the end, but yield 30, 60 even 100 fold.

We may wonder about the wisdom and efficiency of his methods, Jesus promises that the end result will be a bumper crop.

Continue reading »]]> Worship Notes – May 2012

During the month of May, we continue our sermon series on the Painted Windows which fill the church narthex, Wagner Room and back second floor landing of the sanctuary. These windows were given in memory of beloved family members and help to tell our story of the Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Continue reading »]]> Sermon – Mark 10:13-16

“Let the little children come to me; do not stop them, for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.”

In the book of Exodus, Chapter 1, verse 8, we read of a crisis amongst the Hebrew people, “Now a king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.”  Joseph we know was a Hebrew the second youngest son to the great patriarch Jacob who was sold into slavery by his brothers but eventually rose to become the second highest ranking official in all of Egypt, the Pharaoh’s right hand man put in charge of all of Pharaoh’s grain.

But the Bible says, that in time, after Joseph’s death and with the rise and fall of many Pharaohs and succeeding generations there came to the throne of Egypt a Pharaoh, and a generation of Egyptians who knew not or no longer remembered Joseph who thus, mistreated the Hebrew people the descendants of Joseph who had long ago settled in Egypt.

There is another crisis; I believe that is taking place in the Church in the United States.  There is a generation now growing up who knows not Jesus.  Since the early 1980’s Church attendance in the United States has been on a steady decline and continues to decline at an alarming rate.  By some estimates, just take note of the cars in your own neighborhood on a Sunday morning, less than 20% of professing Christians in America attend church on a regular basis on Sunday morning.

There are several reasons why people are choosing not to attend church.  Some feel the Church is boring and irrelevant that it doesn’t address their needs or the needs of the world as they see it.

Religious pluralism.

Many today believe that there are many paths that lead to the mountain top; Christianity being just one of them, the growing number who consider themselves Spiritual but not religious.

There are those who feel no need to follow any particular religious tradition or be part of a religious community, but choose to worship the God of their choosing alone in their own way.

There are some today who also have a general distrust of all institutions political, business or religious and shun them.  There has also been the loss of Sabbath Keeping, many of us who no longer choose to set aside Sunday as a day for worship and rest.  But, possibly the number one reason for declining church attendance in the US is the breakdown of marriages and the family unit especially when it comes to the role of a father as a spiritual leader.  Men, particularly single and/or divorced men are the least represented population in church on Sunday morning in America.

Several years ago a study on church attendance revealed that irregardless of how faithfully a mother attends church with her children if a father does attend church on a regular or even irregular basis, only 1 in 50 children will become church attenders.  But if a father goes to church regularly, even on an occasion 2/3 to ¾ of their children will become church attenders.

The number one reason that there is now a generation of children growing up “not knowing Jesus” is because of fathers.

Whatever the reason, because of declining Church attendance we have a crisis in the Church in America and I would offer as a society, a people.

There is whole generation of children who, by in large will be kept from “coming unto Jesus” and the kingdom of God to which they belong.

Why is it important that children are brought to Jesus?  As Christians we have an obvious bias.  We believe that in the person of Jesus is found real and eternal life of which none compare.  But let me be more specific.  There are three essential reasons why I believe it is important to help children come to Jesus and not to stop them.

The first is the necessity of a Master Story.  You and I live our lives by story.  Part of making meaning of our lives is to understand them as part of a larger ongoing narrative our birth, family of origin, school, marriage, work, children, relationships, human events and history.

One of the most important foundations for a child’s healthy self-identity is a Master story a frame of reference for understanding themselves, God, human nature and history, the world in which they live and the part they are called to play within it.

As a young boy, I was brought to Sunday school and church every Sunday by my parents.  As early as primary Sunday school, 6 & 7 years of age, we were being taught to memorize the books of the Bible by song Genesis through to Revelations.

It was while in Sunday school that I learned the great formational stories of the Bible:  the story of Creation, of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah and the Flood, the Tower of Babel, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Jacob, Joseph and his multi-colored robe, Moses and the Exodus, 40 years wandering in the wilderness and the Giving of the Ten Commandments, the Hebrews entering into the promised land, Joshua and tumbling walls of Jericho, Samson and Delilah, Eli and Samuel, David and Goliath, Solomon and the Temple, the prophet Elijah, Isaiah and Jeremiah, Daniel in the Lion’s Den, Mary and Joseph, Elizabeth and Zachariah, the calling of the first disciples, of fishermen, Peter, James and John the sons of Zebedee, the healing of a man with a withered hand, Lepers, the Gerasene Demoniac and the paralytic Zaccheus the tax collector, the raising of Jairus’ daughter, the Good Samaritan and prodigal Son, the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem, the Last Supper, his trial before the Sanhedrin and Pilate, his crucifixion and death and resurrection on Easter morning followed by Pentecost, the birth and proliferation of the early church, Stephen, James, Barnabas and Saint Paul.

These were the formational stories that filled my head each with its own lesson revealing to me a sense of history of place of our human nature, the possibility of love, courage and virtue, the consequence of sin and of the God of second chances and new birth.

Every child needs a Master story a vital living narrative a frame of reference to understand themselves, God and their place in the world.  To form core values, guiding principles and compassion by which to order and make meaning of their lives.

There are of course alternative narratives by which children can orient themselves like the narratives found today on television and on movie screens, video games and books about wizards, warlord and vampires.

But I would offer that there is none more vital, more life –giving than our own biblical narrative.

The second thing children need to come to Jesus is community.  Some years ago now, Hillary Clinton brought attention to an old African proverb.  “It takes a village to raise a child.”  I would offer the local church in America is that village.

There was a time when the local church was more central to most families.  Listening to my mother growing up in a small town in southern New Jersey, her whole life revolved around the church from Sunday school and worship on Sunday morning to Youth Group on Wednesday and Sunday evenings to other church events held throughout the week.

For us as Believers the Church is the community of Faith where our Master Story the ongoing narrative of followers of Christ is made flesh, lived out.

One of my earliest childhood memories was being left in a play pen in the nursery of the church where I grew up (I was only 16 years old).  It was at Union United Methodist Church in Havertown, just outside Philadelphia, that I witnessed the faith of Christians lived out.

Here I was taken in, brought to Jesus and cared for.  Here I learned about the variety of God’s children like Mr. Parsons who taught the Men’s Sunday School Class along with my father.  A human bowling ball of a man no more than 5’6” and I imagine close to 300 pounds who laughed and spoke with a deep bass voice, wore coke bottle thick glasses and open toed sandals 356 days of the year even in 12 inches of snow who I recall telling the story one day of having climbed into a tree to cut down a limb, a feat I recall finding hard to imagine who, when I was older learned worked as a teacher at a school for children with severe learning disabilities.

I remember Jay Davis who, even from a young age I knew there was something special about him.  Jay lived with his aging parents, never drove a car and worked in a greenhouse and garden at the home of one of the Campbell’s of Campbell Soup fame.  Jay worked at all of the United Methodist Men’s breakfasts washing the dishes.  I was often his helper.  He was one of the gentlest and kindest souls I have ever met.

Then there was also Mr. Campbell at our Methodist Men’s breakfasts.  A retired school teacher who mentored me in the fine art of making and cooking blueberry pancakes.  Who used to ride his bike for great distances well into his early eighties.  Who I remember one day as a boy watching out my car window parade back and forth in a small park alongside the road in his kilt playing his bagpipes as we passed by.

Then there were my Sunday school teachers Mrs. Gilbert whose daughter I dated in the 10^th grade, Mrs. Kohberger, 93, living at the Highlands, Mrs. Heart and Mrs. Keller who loved us and showed us how to make Bible scene dioramas from a shoe box with clay figures popsicle sticks and straw.

And Mr. MacMillan my senior high Sunday school teacher who would cut articles out of the sports page and relate it somehow to a story from the Bible.

It was within this community of faith that I grew was formed from the Bible and worship through relationships with other children and adults   Proceeding through the rites of passage from baptism to confirmation later to serve there as the associate pastor for a short period of time while finishing my seminary education.

Where else, today, can children find this kind of community.  Children need a loving, nurturing community where they can feel safe, where they are accepted, loved, can grow in self-confidence and self-esteem.

This leads me to my third reason why it is important for children to come to Jesus and for us not to stop them.  In order for children to be whole to grow and thrive they will need a sense of purpose.  For a time it is enough for a child’s number one priority to be to get themselves into trouble, to play, and have fun.

But it’s not too long before they are looking for the opportunity to contribute to reach out beyond themselves, or as someone has said “to outlive themselves”.

Jesus calls all children to come unto him for a purpose.  To bless them, yes but ultimately to make them to make us “fishers of men.”

The fruit of the Christian life of being followers of Jesus is service whether it’s in our home our workplace, in our neighborhoods, in the church, each of us have been given gifts and talents for the purpose of serving.

As a youth growing up at Union United Methodist Church, we were given regular opportunities to serve at our monthly breakfasts and dinners, in Vacation Bible school with the younger children, in driving into Philadelphia on Wednesday evenings to help Hispanic youth learn to speak English and to help them with their homework.

Jesus said, “The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve.”  Jesus knows that to be whole to be well is to give ourselves away for others.  And this process, this training gives children a sense of accomplishment, self-esteem, compassion and life.

Is coming to Jesus only about embracing a Master Story being a part of a vital local church and learning to become a fisher of men to serve others?  Well, not necessarily, coming to Jesus is also about personal surrender and trust, a personal vital ongoing life changing relationship with the living God through prayer and worship.  But, it’s a good start.

As the saying goes we can lead our children to water but we can’t make them drink.  But if we stop them if we hinder them we can be assured they will forever thirst?

Are you and I being faithful to our children?  Is our church being faithful to children our own and others?  Are we helping or hindering them?  “Let the children come unto me.  Do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.”

Continue reading »]]> Sermon: The Good Shepherd

“I am the Good Shepherd. I know my own and my own know me.” John 10:14

Growing up in the suburbs of Philadelphia I had very limited knowledge of sheep.
The little I knew came from the bedtime and Bible stories I read. And the rare family trip we would take to the petting section of the Philadelphia Zoo.

It wasn’t until I first came to Reading back in the late 1980’s that I had what you might call my first wild real life encounter with sheep. One early morning while fishing in a stream on private property in Womelsdorf I ducked under a low bridge. When I came out on the other side, I straightened up to find that I was now staring face to face with a large agitated looking ram who had lowered his head as if he was about to rush me. Not wanting to expose my hind end by ducking back under the bridge, I did what I had read about in the survivors sections of wildlife magazines, I stood my ground, didn’t budge or blink an eye. Until the “he” sheep, the ram, finally realized I wasn’t a threat, squatted to mark his territory and returned to his fold.

Someone took the time to count all the times that sheep and shepherds are mentioned in the Bible: over 500 times in all. A nomadic people, sheep and shepherds play a prominent role in our Biblical story. In the very first few chapters of the first book of the Old Testament, the book of Genesis, we read that Abel, the son of Adam and Eve, was said to have been a shepherd, “The keeper of sheep.”

Then there were the great patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and Joseph, before he was sold into slavery. All of whom were shepherds. Many forget that Moses was also a shepherd along with his wife Zipporah tending the flocks of his father-in-law Jethro for forty years in the land of Midian.

And then there was King David said to be the author of the 23rd Psalm the youngest of all of Jesse’s sons a ruddy looking shepherd boy who defended his father’s flocks from lions and bears with a sling shot and his own bare hands.

As for sheep, while the Bible makes mention of the four footed kind, it is more concerned with the two legged variety. The relationship between Shepherds and sheep is used in both the Old and New Testament as a description of the relationship between God and His people.

In Psalm 100, we read, “Know that the Lord is God. It is he that made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.” In the 23rd Psalm, King David writes, “The Lord is my shepherd,” I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside still waters; He restores my soul.”

From the beginning, the relationship between the Shepherd and his sheep has been a challenging one. In his book All Creatures of God former zookeeper Gary Richmond describes some of the troublesome habits of sheep. “Of all domestic animals,” he writes “Sheep require the most supervision.” In a dangerous world, when left unsupervised, sheep have a way of getting themselves into trouble.

One temptation of sheep is the “herd or mob instinct.” “If one sheep panics, so do all the rest.”

Have you ever watched or been a part of a wave at a sporting event? They appear to be a little less popular these days. One or two, often inebriated people get the hare brain idea to stand up and wave their arms in the air. Next thing you know their whole section of the stadium is standing up and waving their arms in the air and then the next section of the stadium then the next and the next 30, 40, 50,000 people like a human wave until it comes back to those who came up with the hare brain idea in the first place.

This is only one example of the herd or mob instinct in its less harmless form. But, we know from history the terrible consequence of the “herd instinct” that has led to genocides around the world, of Native Americans, Irish Catholics and Armenians, Greeks, Jews, Poles, and Ukrainians, Cambodians, the Hutus of Rwanda, the Daju people of Darfur. “One sheep panics, so do all the rest.”

Social media like text messaging and tweeting has added a new twist on the herd or mob mentality. Some turn into justice movements like the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street. Others turn into flash mobs in college towns and urban centers often fomenting violence and chaos the overturning of cars attacks on pedestrians and vandalizing stores.

One of the problems with sheep is that you and I can be easily drawn in by the “herd or mob instinct.” Especially when there appears to be a lot of uncertainty if one of us panics and says the sky is falling, that all Muslims are extremists, that all illegal aliens are the bane of our society, that all of the younger generation feels entitled. We may find this collective thinking hard to resist.

This leads us to another problematic characteristic of sheep, our susceptibility to fear. The rustling grass, a loud noise, or an unfamiliar voice can start us all off running in every direction. “Fear,” someone wrote “Is anticipating the worst, not the best that can happen.”

How many of us anticipate the worst rather than the best that can happen? Rumors of forthcoming layoffs at school or in the company can lead us to many sleepless nights. An abnormal test result can result in unexplained physical symptoms and an upset stomach. A looming disagreement or conflict with your spouse can lead you to lash out in anger or withdraw in silence.

Having not heard from a friend or children for several days can lead you to feel you’ve been forgotten. How many of us anticipate the worst rather than the best that can happen? While some fears are justified, too many of us live our lives paralyzed by the fear of things beyond our control expecting the worst rather than the best to happen

In his Epistle, John writes “perfect love casts out fear.” Jesus, our Good Shepherd, calls out to us. His second most often command after his command to “love” “Fear not.” “Be not afraid.” “I am with you”. “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” “Believe in God; Believe also in me.”

Sheep, Gary Richmond writes are also notoriously stubborn. They will stay in one place and overgraze an entire area roots and all until they have left the landscape barren and lifeless.

How many of us, like sheep, have stubbornly chosen to stay in the same place for too long. Long past the time the landscape or our circumstances have become lifeless and hopeless. A meaningless or dead end job an unhealthy relationship a harmful habit.

We witness this stubbornness all the time in our own lives and in the lives of others. We complain of feeling stuck, lifeless, sad and lonely half-starved from trying to free ourselves from a landscape, a job, an unhealthy relationship, a harmful habit which has long been barren over-grazed, roots and all and yet we are still unwilling to do the hard work of either rectifying or restoring the landscape or to move on.

It’s in times like these that we need to listen to hear the voice of the one who knows us to entrust ourselves into the care of our Good Shepherd who is ever ready and willing to lead us into greener pastures and beside still waters to a new or renewed job a new or revitalized relationship far away from harmful habits.

A problem with sheep is that they we are often too stubborn.

Finally, Sheep have the natural inclination of wandering off and getting lost. With our heads down to the ground nibbling on whatever we can find to fill our emptiness the void in our hearts

How often, have we looked up to find ourselves in unfamiliar surroundings even lost or hanging on for dear life at the edge of some dangerous precipice. How many times amidst all of our activities and all our fruitless searches have we in moment of grace finally looked up unfamiliar with our new surroundings asked ourselves “Now, where am I?” “What have I gotten myself into?” “Where am I headed in this life in this job, this relationship, this harmful, lifeless habit?” “What was it I was looking for in the first place?”

Sometimes we walk through life with our head down all the time feeding on the little we can find and find that we have somehow lost our way our moral, relational, or spiritual compass.

The Bible says it like this “All of us have gone astray each of us has turned our own way.” The Good News is that we have a Good Shepherd who leaves the ninety and nine in order to go and find the lost sheep: the wayward son, the prostitute, the tax collector, the confused in mind, the infirmed in body, the least, the last, the lost.

The Bible tells us that there is only one Good Shepherd One Gate Keeper who can lead us in and out into real and eternal life. One who will willingly lay down his life for his sheep. He knows his own and his own know him. He has many other sheep we do not know of who also know his voice.

The sheep of our Good Shepherd have learned to hear his voice in the silence of earnest and anguished prayer in songs and hymns and table fellowship in the howling winds of doubt and uncertainty in the deepest and darkest valleys of broken and lost relationships. We hear his voice bidding us to follow Him. “Follow me,” he calls into greener pastures beside still waters. “Let me restore your soul.”

Do you hear his voice? He is searching for you.” Listen.