Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to virtual church.
You have noticed on your screens that the pews in our building are empty today.
There’s a reason for that.
No one comes to this church any more. That’s the bottom line.
It did not happen accidentally, by the way. But this is the result of a concerted effort from those of us in leadership positions to set higher standards for the membership. Anyway, what happened was this….
“…I know not; God knows.” (2 Corinthians 12:2)
Some things you will never figure out in this life.
Some mysteries you will eventually see–or the Spirit will reveal them to you or someone much smarter than you will explain it to you–but you haven’t so far.
Until then, humility is the order of the day. (And, yes, afterwards, humility is still in order.)
Here’s one that has me going.
In Romans 8:26, one of my favorite “prayer” verses, after informing us that “we do not know how to pray as we should”–I knew it; I’m just surprised that Paul admits it!–and after saying “The Spirit also helps us in (that) weakness”–we read that “the Spirit Himself also intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”
Okay. That sentence carries mystery enough to occupy me for the next few years.
There’s more.
“They will still bear fruit in old age; they will be full of sap and very green….” (Psalm 92:14)
Can I tell you something odd?
Today, as I was surfing through the program containing all the articles in this website from over a dozen years of blogging, I came across an unfinished draft of one called “the last temptations of the aged.” I breezed right past it, in search of something else I was looking for.
A moment later, I was back. That was an intriguing title, I thought. Must have started that article a year or more back. Wonder what it says.
After reading it, I deleted the entire thing.
My friend Pastor Dave has led a congregation in our neighborhood for two thirds of his life. It’s a sweet fellowship and even though our denominational affiliation is different, he has kindly invited me to fill the pulpit in his absence on several occasions.
Recently, over lunch, I asked Dave how he managed to stay in one church over four decades. Were there not times when church members rose up and demanded new leadership? Did he not get the urge to try something new?
“Give me your top three ways to stay at a church for 42 years,” I told him. He did not hesitate….
I was sketching this fellow and as usual, asked him to smile. He said, “When I was 15, my grandmother told me, ‘You do not have an attractive smile.'”
“I went 20 years without smiling.”
I said, “What a mean old lady. What a cruel thing to do to a kid.”
Parents and grandchildren get this wrong sometimes.
They have been known to shrink the self-worth in a child, perhaps from a wrong-headed conviction that it was their calling to drive the child to achievement rather than to encourage him or her in that direction.
I’m thinking of my friend Kathy.
“No one spoke to me at that church.”
“That’s an unfriendly church.”
“I’m never going back there again.”
We pastors have heard it all. Sometimes, it’s anonymous notes informing us that ours is a cold church, that not a single person spoke to them last Sunday. They will not be returning.
Usually, it’s hearsay. A visitor told a friend who passed it on to a neighbor who told one of our deacons.
Church visitors, it would appear, can be a troublesome lot. Always demanding to be greeted warmly, seeing that as their right and as the confirmation that ours is a church founded on the Rock and faithful to the Word.
I beg to differ.
“Submit yourselves one to another in the fear of the Lord” (Ephesians 5:21).
Some church leaders think “submission” applies only to “those other people.”
Leaders must submit also.
Submission can take many forms. It may mean to accept advice, to be teachable, to be willing to receive correction, and to follow your God-given shepherd. When necessary, it may mean to stand up like a man (figure of speech, ladies) and apologize.
I started this article on Monday, February 2, 2015, but never finished it. Today, Friday, October 2, 2015, I found it and decided to finish it.
We had my wife’s funeral today. She would have loved almost everything about it.
And may have, for all I know.
We have no idea what the “dead in Christ” know about what goes on here.
I’ve been home from the funeral 4 hours and had a nap, and am ready to live again, I suppose. (Note: Blogging is a form of therapy for me, clearly.)
A friend gave me a nice hardbound, spiral notebook the other day. The cover says “My Bucket List Journal.” At the bottom are the words “Write it down!”
Inside, the first two pages offer 100 blanks to list the places one plans to go, the experiences he wants to have, the mountains to climb, before “kicking the bucket.”
A few years ago, I compiled such a list and published it on my blog. It was picked up and reprinted by many other websites. By googling “bucket list McKeever”, I got this one: http://www.crosswalk.com/faith/spiritual-life/the-christian-bucket-list-50-things-every-believer-should-do-before-heaven-11631119.html
However, as I told my friend who gave me the book….
Michael Connelly writes the best crime fiction of anyone. His “Lincoln Lawyer” series, about Mickey Haller, and the detective series of Harry Bosch, are as good as they come. But before he began a career as a novelist, he was a crime reporter for two major newspapers. In his book “Crime Beat,” he tells of those early years of covering the dark underside of Fort Lauderdale and Los Angeles.
I’ve chosen three segments from “Crime Beat” as excellent jumping off places for sermons or articles or essays.
It all comes down to moments.
Connelly’s fascination with detectives started with a single moment. He was 16, on his way home from his shift as a hotel dish washer in Fort Lauderdale. The streets were deserted, with no person in sight, and when the red light caught him he thought of running it. Before doing that, he looked both ways. And that’s when he saw something.