Transformation Meditation for 4/28

Pioneering:  Meditations for Our Transformation

Number 22                                                                   April 28, 2013

Oklahoma…Or Bust

Better than Oklahoma!

And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?  Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.  Matthew 5:47-48

…“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”  “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied [to the expert in the law]. “Do this and you will live.”  But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”  Luke 10:27b-29

The earliest song I can recall (outside of ‘Jesus Loves Me’) is ‘The Surrey with the Fringe on Top.’  I can remember my mother and an older cousin, who was kind of a baby sitter, singing it to me.  I was too young to know what a surrey was, but at three years of age, I had fringe figured out.  The song came from the 1940s Broadway hit Oklahoma!

It was many decades later (like about last week) that I realized that the story is a love story twisted around a hate story and all wrapped around another love story.

Curly McLain, the cowpoke, and Laurey Williams, the independent farm girl, circle around each other for most of the show until they settle on each other, with Laurey accepting Curly’s simple cowpoke proposal of marriage.

The open-range ranchers are forever angry about the dad-blamed penny-pinching sod busters and their fences.  The farmers have enough problems raising crops without the cattle trampling the fields and eating their corn.  But both of these dog vs. cat factions love the land and want Oklahoma Territory to become the 46^th state to enter the Union.

The song “The Farmer and the Cowman” spells out the basic problem between farmers and cowboys, as they sling insults at each other in competing stanzas until Aunt Eller steps in and straightens out things by making them all promise to “…learn this sayin’ by heart.”

“I don’t say I’m better than anybody else.
But I’ll be danged if I ain’t just as good!”

Her message is simple: just put up with one another, and show a little toleration.  And that sounds like a pretty good lesson.

But it isn’t.  Christ’s message was not a message of toleration.  Christ never said “Tolerate thy neighbor.” Christ’s message is that we are to (let’s all say it with me) LOVE one another as He loved us.  There is absolutely no room for compromise on this point.  In fact our love should put God first, everyone else next and ourselves at the very bottom of the Love list.

For all the good that comes out at the end of Oklahoma!, it is not enough if we are true followers of Christ.  When it comes to dealing with the farmers or ranchers in our three campuses, we are called to be better than Oklahoma!

I bring this up because as we are nearing the end of our wilderness travels, there is one more mountain range to cross.  It seems we’ve been trying to cross it for some time. There is no hidden pass to make crossing it any easier.  And even after we top the summit we’ll still probably have a rocky descent to the land where we will settle.

The mountain is called Mount Stuff.  It is littered with stuff we need to shed and the stuff we need to master.  It’s a combination of physical presence, emotional environment, and spiritual state that mark the continental divide between our past and our future.  It’s those treasured tangible things we must shed, those particular rituals and memories that set us apart, and those attractions to the precious past that draw us back from the future.

It will take every one of us, every talent and amount of energy we can muster to say goodbye to those things and feelings that prevent us from completing our journey together.  All of us, every single one of us will bear the scars and wounds of sacrifice on this journey, because every single one of us will sacrifice something we’ve considered precious, for the opportunity to love one another as Christ loves us.

Whether we are farmers, ranchers, merchants, or school marms; no matter where we were baptized, where we were married, or where we buried loved ones, we are now together.  We’ve traveled together for nearly two years, and we’ve enjoyed one another’s company; we’ve shared meals and

worshiped, prayed and laughed together, mourned and sung together.  It’s time to show the world we are Better than Oklahoma!

Common Prayer.  Our Father, You have continued to lead us toward the place where we can serve You in the years before us.  Abide in each one of us and lead us through the last stages of shedding things and attitudes that we may be fully prepared to be Your servants in ministry to Carlisle and the world beyond.  Remind us that we are all one in You, by the blood and resurrection of Your Son, our Savior and Master, Jesus Christ.  AMEN.

And a Joy!  Grace Campus has paid off its building debt!

To think about:  Take a personal inventory of what really counts in your faith walk.  Match it against what Jesus calls us to do.  Decide what you will do about it.

Leadership Council and Transformation Team Prayer Emphasis: Completing the interview and hiring process; preparing for the July 7^th celebration at the Fairgrounds and the July 14^th worship at the CUMC Transitional Site; completing the remaining work of the Transition Team.

Please address your feedback and comments to Charles L. Reynolds at papoo99@comcast.net.  I’d really like to hear from you!