Pioneering: Meditations for Transforming Our
Carlisle United Methodist Church
Number
16 January
20, 2013
Satan’s
Stormy Blasts
Therefore,
in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a
messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three
times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for
you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the
more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in
weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For
when I am weak, then I am strong. 2
Corinthians 10: 7b-10.
I
believed that when this title came up we’d have typical Farm Show weather, and
everything would be white and wintry.
And who knows, it could happen yet.
However we’re basking in the January Thaw.
Imagine
your worst winter. I remember a time
when there was snow on the ground from before Thanksgiving until Spring. I remember the first day of Spring in 1948,
when I was at Seventh Ward Elementary School in Lewistown. We first grade “babies” were walking in loose
two-by-two formation, under the eyes of the sixth grade safety patrol, through
wet slushy snow that came over our galoshes.
There was a lot of talking in the ranks about the irony of snow on the
first day of Spring. (We probably didn’t
know what irony was, but we surely had an example of it that day.)
A few
winters later, when we lived in the country and had a well, Mom and Dad learned
the hard way to keep the pump house heated overnight if we expected to have running
water when we awoke.
Each
season of the year has its beauties and its challenges. Winter has its silent, white landscapes and
its howling bone-chilling blizzards.
Spring is budding flowers and heavy floods. Summer boasts majestic country and forest
scenes, and powerful hurricanes. And
autumn can show fields and gardens full of good things to harvest, or scorching
droughts. It is our lot as God’s
stewards of the Earth to enjoy the positives and deal with the negatives.
The
seasons of our spiritual journey also have blessings and challenges. In each one we can find renewal for our
souls, but also the challenges of evil, disobedience, and doubt. So we sing praises and give thanks for
blessings and lift prayers of lament, prayers for strength, and prayers of
repentance.
Mother
Teresa said that when a soul seeks to live a holy life, it is bound to be
surrounded and attacked by persecutions, struggles, and a need to sacrifice
greatly if it truly seeks Christ.
Pastor
Jim reminded us that even something as simple as baptism was once a
life-threatening act in a world of pagan emperor worship and still carries that
danger even today in some lands. For us
in Carlisle, we do not face those sorts of Satan’s stormy blasts.
Nonetheless,
although we are not usually subject to physical dangers for our faith, we face
more subtle threats that can sap our spiritual strength, dull our spiritual
edge, and even negate our gifts and talents by turning us inward and hunkering
down as if we are trapped in a blizzard.
We are
well aware that the journey of Christ’s chosen from the first Pentecost until
this day in 2013 was not made on smooth pathways or without overwhelming pain
and sacrifice by the faithful.
One
of the things that sets us apart as Christians is how God has sustained his
faithful ones every step of the way.
That’s our heritage, and it’s the legacy we leave. We need to make it our occupation today, at
this time.
The
wonder of the Christian journey is not the lack of difficulties, nor the way
difficulties may press in upon us. It is
the way God keeps us in seasons of plenty and scarcity, peace and conflict, joy
and torment under his watchful care.
We
have made great progress on our faith journey through the wilderness. Ten months ago we agreed to become one United
Methodist family in Carlisle. Two months ago we agreed upon a Plan of
Union. And now we have a name! The Pastors and the Transformation Team have
diligently listened to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in guiding us to this
point.
We’re
entering a dangerous time when we are vulnerable, because a lot of work over
the next months will be dealing with things: fixtures, altar items, etc. – all
the stuff we have lived with and that we have allowed to define us. It’s a natural human process, like having it
be Christmas for us only when we have some treasured memory, some item or
ornament from our childhood which in fact replaces the real meaning of
Christmas. These things can easily be
the graven images God spoke against in the Ten Commandments.
We’re
going to need to say goodbye to a lot of ‘stuff,’ stuff that means something to
us, and we assume means something to others.
Stuff that just won’t fit in one place, no matter which building holds
it today. Stuff that we must no longer
let define us as worshippers.
Satan
is gearing up to play us against each other, and has a chance to succeed if we
are not careful. Satan will continue to
tempt us every step of our journey. We
must listen to what Paul told the Corinthians about what God told him, “My
grace is sufficient for you…”
Common Prayer. Deliver us, O God, from the stormy assaults
of Evil against our work in Your name and the love of stuff. Continue to show your perfect, all-sufficient
power even in our human weakness. Guard
us in the weeks ahead as we draw closer to that great day when we worship You
as one family in Carlisle. AMEN.
To think about: What defines you? If all our ‘stuff’
disappears, who and whose are we? Which
is more important: where you were baptized or married, or that you were
baptized or married? What will it matter
at the Last Day?
Transformation
Team emphasis for the next two weeks:
The
upcoming Charge Conferences and selection of the Leadership Council; the continued
work of the Focus Groups, especially Funding Ministry, Grow, and Transitional
Facilities; and planning for the next combined worship event.
Please address your feedback and
comments to Charles L. Reynolds at papoo99@comcast.net. I’d really like to hear from you!
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