Reflections

May 6, 2007
“They Know if You Care”
Scripture:  Acts 9:36-43
Rev. Eddie Ingram

I.  We work either to create or to consume.

Dorcas made clothing, but worked in order to provide for the future of the widows of Joppa.  When we work to consume, we are working to maintain our appetite to have bigger and better things.  When we work to create, our efforts are to secure a future hope for those around us.

Why do you work?

II. Our call as Christians is to leave behind a lasting legacy.

When Dorcas died, the impact of those around her was tremendous.  Those that had depended upon her for a future were facing uncertain times.  When Peter raised Dorcas, he also raised the widows, giving them a future.  When we die, what kind of response from the community will we receive?

What will be your lasting legacy?  How much you acquired?  Or how much you leave behind for the sake of others?

III.  Christians are called to model their lives around the examples of living witnesses.

The seeds of generous people are scattered everywhere and take root in the lives of those around them.  We are called to model our lives around the people who humbly gave of themselves for the sake of others.

Who have been your mentors?

May 20, 2007
Shaking Our Foundations
Acts 16:16-34
Rev. Kim Tyree Ingram

As Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns, there was an earthquake!  Have any of you ever lived through an earthquake?  How many of us ask for an earthquake?  I don’t mean a real earthquake that shakes the foundation of our houses – of course we wouldn’t really ask for that, knowing the damage it can do, but what about wishing for an earthquake in our spiritual lives – shaking the foundation of our life experience as we know it?

Which of us really asks God to shake us up a little, to uproot us or to even just jostle us around a bit?  What would you do if you were sitting in jail and suddenly your handcuffs fell off and the doors were all open?  Escape of course.  You know you’re innocent and God has provided a source of freedom, no one has to ask twice!

But not Paul and Silas.  What do they do?  They stay and somehow they convince all of the other prisoners to stay.  The scriptures don’t exactly say how, but they do say in verse 28, “we are all here.”  Paul and Silas don’t take advantage of an opportunity to do what might be best for them, they are not looking out for their own self-interest, but they take advantage of an opportunity to change a household.  They made a decision that would change the lives of others, perhaps at their own expense – who could know?   Instead of doing what’s best for Paul and Silas, they did what they could that the “kingdom might come on earth as it is in heaven.”  That others might know God.

When we take our baptism seriously, we realize that we are changed.  We have to be different because of our faith.  We have to life counter-culturally in a world that calls us to so many things that God does not.  We live in the world but we are not of it.  We are transformed and we are transforming that which is around us.  This is what it means to live like kingdom people.

Paul and Silas were accused in verse 20, “These men are disturbing our city; they are Jews.”  A more literal translation would be, “These men are overturning our city, being Jews.”  How many times has someone said that to us?  “Highlands United Methodist Church is overturning our city, being Christians!”?

Are we like the Romans?  The ones who are fearful of the alien, the one who’s different?  Or are we the alien, the one who’s different?  The doors have been open to us.  The chains are unfastened.  We are not locked up any more!  Do we live like we are?

Our society promotes a “look out for #1” mentality.  It is our responsibility to look out for our own good because no else is going to.  The world teaches us to sing “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Ourselves.”  But the example of Paul and Silas teaches us to put our self-interests aside in order that someone else might be changed in such a way that they meet Jesus. 

Paul clearly understood that if the open door for him, meant the closed door for another fellow worker - that of the Philippian jailer - the door was really closed to both of them.  It is this kind of thinking that empowered white people during the civil rights movement to stand side by side with black people so that all might be treated fairly.  This was portrayed in the 1991 movie “The Long Walk Home” where Miriam, a white house wife played by Sissy Spacek drives a carpool that shuffles blacks around the city including her maid, Odessa (played by Whoopi Goldberg), during the bus boycott in Montgomery in 1955.  She stands with Odessa and other African Americans in their fight for freedom knowing that she’ll have to pay a price for her commitment. 

when we allow our faith in Christ to overpower us in a way that we reach out in love that we will let God out of the box we try to keep God in and really find life.  In looking out for each other, new life is possible.  We are called to open the doors and take risks to make sure others have faith. 

In verse 30 the jailer asks Paul and Silas “what must I do to be saved?”  They answered (verse 31), “believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”  They spoke the word of the Lord to them and to all who were in his house – similar to Lydia’s household in chapter 6 and Cornelius’ in chapter 11.  In verse 33 it says, “Then he (the jailer) and his entire family were baptized without delay.”  The entire household (in Greek - the oikos) rejoiced and believed!

Is it time for an earthquake to hit our homes?  Are we making sure that our families have faith?

Are we making church a priority?  Are we making sure that our children participate in Sunday school or Wednesday night or youth group or Bible study on a very regular basis so they will know the Christian story and what it means to be a child of God? 

I don’t think that just bringing our children to worship is going to ensure their faithful participation as adults.  My experience as a child sitting through worship as a child would never have sent me running from church as an adult.  It was boring!  I didn’t know or like the hymns.  The prayers were so long.  I didn’t really get what the preacher was saying.  I was a kid!  But my involvement in UMYF, the mission trips and mystery trips, the children’s musicals and youth handbell choir, the Bible studies and leadership opportunities, summer camp at Blue Lake (our conference camp in Andalusia, Alabama) – these were the things that drove me to find a church when I went to college – that inspired me to participate in a college choir at church and go on retreats, that kept me faithful into adulthood and eventually empowered me to apply to seminary.  How are we making sure that our children have faith?

Are we having prayer and devotional time at home?  Are we talking about our faith and how our lives are shaped by our relationship with Jesus Christ?  Do we spend time with faith-full friends and encourage our children to be faith-full friends?  Are we teaching our children an understanding of sacrifice and self-denial instead of letting them think that it’s all about them – as our culture would suggest?  Are we making choices and setting priorities based on what will be most important when our children are 20 and 30 and 40 and 70 - or are we just making sure they are happy and having fun?

It’s easy to get caught up with what the crowds are convincing us to do – and we, like the Roman magistrates, are easily swayed.  It’s an easy road to go and we are all guilty of it.  I think it’s time to start praying for earthquakes and hope that when God shakes us up we see the open door, accept the freedom, and take a risk in order that another person will know the love of God and receive the grace so freely given.  And then, God will say, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”