Whiteboard: May it be so

For seven full years now I've ended (almost) every sermon with those same words -- "May it be so, for you, for me, and for all of creation."

So it seems fitting that for my final Whiteboard drawing I'd use those same thirteen words.

This Sunday will be my final time in the pulpit as the Senior Minister at First Christian Church Scottsdale. In worship we'll be singing some of our favorite hymns, hearing some familiar words of scripture, laughing, crying, and celebrating the grace, mercy, and love of the Lord our God.

We'll also be participating in a Liturgy of Blessing and Release. It is a formal act that helps us close out our mutual ministry together with words of prayer, celebration, forgiveness, and thanksgiving. I hope you'll be able to join us, and I hope you'll stick around for the Luncheon that follows (Melissa Wise is catering the whole thing!).

It has been my honor to serve as your Senior Pastor for these last seven years. As Susan, Henry, and I move to Boston following her election as the President of the Unitarian Universalist Association we'll be going forth with hearts filled with love, thankfulness, and gratitude. Thank you, church!

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Genesis 18:1-10a A Promise to Abraham and Sarah

The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them, and bowed down to the ground. He said, ‘My lord, if I find favour with you, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.’

So they said, ‘Do as you have said.’ 

And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, ‘Make ready quickly three measures of choice flour, knead it, and make cakes.’ Abraham ran to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it.Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.

They said to him, ‘Where is your wife Sarah?’ 

And he said, ‘There, in the tent.’ 

Then one said, ‘I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.’ And Sarah was listening at the tent entrance behind him.

Whiteboard: General Assembly

The Disciples General Assembly will be meeting in Indianapolis, IN from July 8-12.

So our Sunday morning worship service on July 9 will have a distinctly General Assembly feel to it!

I'll be preaching on the GA theme: One!

We'll be talking about what it means to be a part of a larger denomination, the important things that are happening at General Assembly (we are electing a new General Minister and President!), and how we can stay connected with the wider church.

Speaking of staying connected -- have you been to the General Assembly website? You can find the Full Docket online, along with all of the Business Items up for consideration. You can support the Special Mission Offerings and learn more about our Nominee for General Minister and President. Oh, and you can even live stream the Worship Services every single night!

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John 17:1-25  Jesus Prays for His Disciples

After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, ‘Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.

‘I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one.They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.

‘I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

‘Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me.

Whiteboard: Music Appreciation Sunday

This Sunday we will be celebrating the blessing and gift of music!

It is Music Appreciation Sunday, and we are blessed to have so much to celebrate here at First Christian Church Scottsdale!

Our Director of Music Ministries Sandi DeFeo leads us in wonderful worship each and every Sunday. Her passion for sharing the faith and her gifts for helping us lift up our praises to the Lord is a true gift.

Our Musicians are simply one of the best in the Valley – Tavit Tashjian, Al Beasley, and Max Beckman lay the foundation for every sung word our sanctuary and also provide amazing, faith-filled soundtracks during the Offertory and Communion. And our Guest Musicians (frequently featuring David Reed) add something special to every service they are a part of.

The Praise Team Vocalists (Charlie Atkinson, Brad Bond, Josh Reed,
Sandi DeFeo, Julie Erickson, Beth Porter, and Nancy Sauder) help get our worship service started in the right spirit every single Sunday and lead us in congregational singing and offer extraordinary special music as well!

The Chancel Choir contains too many names to list and does such an exquisite job offering us Choral Anthems on Sunday and this past year even worked their way into a few programs in the Fellowship Hall during special events. Their hard work and faithful practice is a blessing to the church.

And that is without even mentioning the congregational singing! It is such a blessing to be a part of a church that loves to sing as much as ours does! It not only brings our worship to life, it gives others permission to sing out to the Lord to their heart’s content as well. When we sing out together it makes it easier for others to join in and sing out with us.

So this Sunday come join us for worship as we celebrate the Lord with our praises and give thanks for the blessings of music. I’ll see you (and hope to hear you!) there.

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Psalm 8 Divine Majesty and Human Dignity

O Lord, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory above the heavens.
Out of the mouths of babes and infants
you have founded a bulwark because of your foes,
to silence the enemy and the avenger.

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars that you have established;
what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
mortals that you care for them?

Yet you have made them a little lower than God,
and crowned them with glory and honour.
You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under their feet,
all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

O Lord, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Caring for Community and Creation

Check out this great new video from our friends at Green Chalice!

Faith in Action: Caring for Community and Creation from ecoAmerica on Vimeo.

Whiteboard: The Day of Pentecost

This Sunday is Pentecost!

It marks the passage of 50 days since our Easter Sunday Celebration. It marks the beginning of a new season in the worship life of the church. And it marks our celebration of the coming of the Holy Spirit!

Oh, and it give us an excuse to wear red!

On Pentecost Sunday the colors of everything in the sanctuary change – we have red paraments, I’ll wear my red stole, we have red banners on the walls and (hopefully) pews full of church members decked out in red. We change the colors to commemorate the change in the season in the worship life of the church, and to welcome “the inspiring flame” of the Holy Spirit once again.

In preparation for our Pentecost Sunday worship service I keep coming back to the following prayer from “Chalice Worship”:

God of wind, word, and fire,
We bless your name this day for sending the light and strength of your Holy Spirit.
We give you thanks for all the gifts, great and small,
   that you have poured out upon your children.
Kindling Spirit, build well the fire in our hearts this day.
   Fan us to flame that all will see the Christ-presence of love blazing in our midst.
   Burn the witness on our tongues: Christ’s Spirit moves among us.
Jesus Christ, our risen Lord has set his church on fire with strength and boldness and power.
Kindling Spirit, build well the fire in our hearts this day
   to clean our hearts,
   to hallow our gifts,
   and to make perfect the offering of ourselves to you.
Amen.
I’ll see you on Sunday for Pentecost celebration. Don’t forget to wear red!

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Acts 2:1-21 The Coming of the Holy Spirit

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.Amazed and astonished, they asked, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.’ All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’ But others sneered and said, ‘They are filled with new wine.’

But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them: ‘Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
“In the last days it will be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams.
Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
in those days I will pour out my Spirit;
and they shall prophesy.
And I will show portents in the heaven above
and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
The sun shall be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood,
before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Whiteboard: Trying to be One

It is one of the most important scripture readings for us as Disciples...and no, it doesn't involve Communion!

As Disciples of Christ we proudly declare that "Unity is our Polar Star" and so one of our guiding scriptures has always been John 17:11 where Christ himself declares, "Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one."

"That they may be one."

It is Christ's prayer for us, and it is our prayer as well.

This Sunday we'll be talking about Christian Unity, in a Sunday that is specially billed as Education Recognition Sunday. We'll be honoring our recent graduates at the beginning of the service, thanking our Sunday School Teachers and Worship and Wonder Leaders at the end of the service, and celebrating the God that makes us one all throughout the service!

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John 17:1-11 Jesus Prays for His Disciples

After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, ‘Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.

‘I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.

Three Things from Admin Council

The Administrative Council had their regularly scheduled meeting on Sunday May 21st immediately following the Worship Service. Here are "The Three Things" that you need to know from that meeting.

1. Hospitality as a Focus
   We centered our "New Business" time around a larger conversation of Hospitality. Oftentimes we think of hospitality in very narrow terms -- it is that thing that we outsource to the Fellowship Team and the Greeters in the Narthex, right? But actually, hospitality is something that needs to be baked in to everything that we are and everything that we do as Christians. That means that hospitality needs to be a part of each of our ministry teams. Over the course of the conversation we reframed hospitality as invitations and follow-up. So what are we doing that invites folks to be a part of our community? What makes FCC Scottsdale a warm and inviting place? And how can we follow-up with folks who have participated in some aspect of our ministry?
   
2. Property Updates
   We received several updates on church property related projects. New doors will be installed in the sanctuary this summer and the parking lot has been resealed. Administrative Council authorized Curt McCormick to seek an appraisal of our buildings as a supplement to our insurance. And we received the good news that through the first five months of the year our income is exceeding our expenses!
   
3. Post-Election Plans
   During my Pastor's Report I shared my plans for communicating with the church following the UUA General Assembly's Presidential Election. 

Whiteboard: At the Areopagus

You are looking at the blog title and you are thinking to yourself, "I don't even know how to pronounce that word, much less what it even means..."

Well, good news! That is exactly what I'll be explaining on Sunday (not just how to pronounce the word 'Aeropagus' but also exactly why that obscure geographic reference in the Acts of the Apostles is so very important).

In meantime, I hope you will read through Acts 17:22-31 (conveniently reprinted at the bottom of this post) and feel the power and the promise of some of the most familiar words in the New Testament: "For in him we live and move and have our being."

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Acts 17:22-31

Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, ‘Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, “To an unknown god.” What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For “In him we live and move and have our being”; as even some of your own poets have said,
“For we too are his offspring.”
Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.’

Hospitality

The Executive Team and I have just completed a book study.

For folks who don’t know, the Executive Team at FCC Scottsdale is comprised of our Moderator Judy Kares, our Vice Moderator Scott Eubanks, our Treasurer Curt McCormick, and myself.

We meet regularly to discuss important items for the church, set the agenda for the Administrative Council Meetings, and discern the ways that God is calling our congregation forward. In order to set a theological grounding on those wider conversations, we have just finished reading Henri Nouwen’s spiritual classic “Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life.”

Henri Nouwen was a prolific writer, a deep Christian thinker, and bringer of profound insights into life and faith. Nouwen was a Catholic priest, author, professor and activist. He taught at the University of Notre Dame as well as the Divinity Schools of Yale and Harvard. He spent the final years of his life teaching and ministering to the mentally and physically disabled at the L’Arche Daybreak community in Toronto, Canada.

“Reaching Out” details the three movements of a spiritual life. They include:

1. The movement from loneliness to solitude;
2. The movement from hostility to hospitality;
3. The movement from illusion to prayer.

Ultimately the book is about the fullness of right relationships. The first movement in a spiritual life is about coming to right relationship with our truest, inner self. From there we are prepared to move to right relationships with others. Finally we move all the way to the transforming power of a true relationship with God.

It is a beautiful, vivid way of envisioning the Christian faith, and in our discussion together the Executive Team came to see that the second movement (from hostility to hospitality) is actually the key component. Here is how Henri Nouwen puts it:

“Once God has touched us in the midst of our struggles and has created in us the burning desire to be forever united with him, we will find the courage and the confidence to prepare his way and to invite all who share our life to wait with us during this short time for the day of complete joy.”

This coming Sunday during our Administrative Council meeting we’ll be spending a lot of time talking about hospitality – about how our individual ministry teams can bring it to life; about the ways we create “safe spaces” for others in our church; about how we can grow in relationships with ourselves, with others, and with God.

I’m looking forward to continuing this conversation about hospitality, and seeing all the wonderful ways that God uses us to reach out to the world!

Whiteboard: Home

Our lectionary scriptures give us an interesting contrast this week; one that is built around the word house.

In our Gospel Reading from John 14 Jesus tells us "In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?" Here our faith leads us to a house that is waiting for us in the far distance of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Then our reading from 1 Peter tells us " Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." Here our faith calls us to come together in this world in order to build a spiritual house in service to the Lord.

See how that word "house" lives squarely in the middle of each scripture passage? As we wrestle with what it means to have a "dwelling place" prepared for us in the "Father's house" or what it would look like for us to ourselves be "built into a spiritual house" I keep coming back to the same question: What does it take to transform a house into a home? 

Mother's Day seems like a fitting time to answer that question. Because, for me, the answer is simple: It is love.

Love is what transforms a house into a home. Love is what sends Jesus to prepare a place for us in Our Father's house. Love is what turns these living stones into a spiritual home.

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John 14:1-14 Jesus the Way to the Father

‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going.’ Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.’

Philip said to him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.’Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works.Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.

1 Peter 2:2-10 Living Stones

Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in scripture:
‘See, I am laying in Zion a stone,
a cornerstone chosen and precious;
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.’
To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe,
‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the very head of the corner’,
and
‘A stone that makes them stumble,
and a rock that makes them fall.’
They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.
Once you were not a people,
but now you are God’s people;
once you had not received mercy,
but now you have received mercy.