Remembering 2013

Years help us mark the passage of time, but all years are not equal. I don’t remember anything particularly meaningful happening to me in, say, 1993 or 2009. Those years are not memorable years in my life. Other years will always be significant to me: years in which I moved (’92, ’95, ’01, ’05, ’08, ’12), and years of graduation (’01, ’05, ’08). I’ll never forget that I married Lisa in 2008, that my grandfathers died in 2002 and 2012, or that in 1996 the Steelers lost the Super Bowl for the first time in team history.

As 2013 comes to an end, I will remember this year as significant for two reasons:

1.      2013 is the year I fell back in love with running.

In January, Lisa began training for the Pittsburgh Marathon. To support her in this endeavor, I agreed to run a 6.5 mile leg of the Marathon Relay. Although I ran cross country in middle school and high school, and ran for fun in college, I had not run on a regular basis in 8 years. The last couple of years, I tried and quickly succumbed to injury. So, I began my training with much fear and trepidation.

Oh my goodness, I forgot how much I love running. It doesn’t matter what time, it doesn’t matter where, running is glorious. I feel so free, so relaxed, so much at peace when I run. Yet, it is more than just stress relief and fitness. Running also offers challenges worthy of my competitive nature – can I go faster, further, up steeper hills? Can I push myself to the limit?

When the year began, I thought I would push myself through the relay leg of the marathon and then call it quits. But by that time, I had become so enamored with running that, like Forrest Gump, I just kept running…

In 2013 I think I ran more miles than any single year in my life. I ran more races than any year since 2000. In all, I ran one 5K, three 10Ks, one 5 miler, and my first half marathon ever. And I am still running, already dreaming up challenges and setting goals for myself in 2014.

2.      2013 will always be the year the ignominy ended.

I am a fan of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Win or lose, they have always been my team. And for 20 straight years, they had a losing record, the longest in the history of U.S. professional sports (an ignominious streak, indeed). Yet I still cheered. I still wore my Pirates hat to temples of evil empires: Boston, Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Yankee Stadium. I don’t care that your team is better; I’m a Pirates fan. From 2009 to present I have been a season ticket holder with the Pirates. I love this team, but for 2 decades they didn’t love me back.

That all changed this year, as they became the darlings of Major League Baseball, winning 94 games and advancing to the divisional round of the playoffs with promising young stars, veterans who returned to form, and a ballpark that was rocking and rolling like I’ve never seen it before. I’ll always remember the 9 game winning streak in June, taking 4 of 5 from the Cardinals at the end of July, Gerrit Cole’s 1-0 win in September that got things back on track, and of course, I’ll always remember “Cueeeeeeee-to… Cueeeeeeee-to… Cueeeeeeee-to…”

            So, on the last day of 2013, I engage in the holy practice of reflection. 2013 challenged me, uplifted me, and brought me peace and joy that I never saw coming. In 2014, new challenges and new celebrations will surely come that I cannot anticipate. So I prepare myself to meet them with grace and joy, as we once again leave one year behind and strive towards a new one.

The Feast of the Visitation

I’ve been spending a lot of time lately making visits to our congregation’s Members to Remember. That’s what we call our shut-ins, because not all of them are actually “shut in,” and it’s also not a label by which people want to be defined. Every year around Christmas and Easter, we pastors at Chippewa UMC make every effort to share the sacrament of Holy Communion with all of our Members to Remember.

In this busy season of Advent, these visits have not been easy to fit into my schedule. However, instead of being a nuisance, they have actually become something I anticipate with joy. The purpose of the visits is to make sure everyone remains connected to the body of Christ, no matter what their situation. If something limits their ability to participate fully in the life of the church, then we bring the church to them with this sacrament. Communion is a visible sign of God’s grace extended to us, and once the bread and cup is made sacred, Christ becomes truly present with those who gather together.

So, in the ministry of visitation, my role is to communicate remembrance. We remember what God has done, is doing, and has yet to do in Jesus Christ. We also remember that even though their activity in the church is now limited, they are still meaningful participants in the body of Christ, and without them that body is incomplete.

But the secret of pastoral ministry is that the Members to Remember are not the only ones who need these visits. I need to remember as well. These people help me remember that there is more to the church than what we see on Sunday morning, or even in the packed sanctuaries of Christmas Eve.

The holiday season is filled with joy and “Christmas cheer.” But sometimes all the bright, shiny celebrations cause us to forget the people living in the shadows. In the glow of Christmas, our Members to Remember are in danger of being the “Members We Forgot.” But because of this ministry practice, I have kept them at the forefront of my mind. And I can think of no better way to celebrate the coming of Emmanuel, which means “God with us,” than to spend time with Members to Remember.

Advent's Comfortable Pace

Recently, I went running on a Sunday afternoon. For most of this year, I have been in training for one race or another, and in training, every run has a purpose. Distance, pace, time, and route are all planned for a training run, so I can prepare for an upcoming race. But this particular Sunday run was not a training run. I simply had a few hours to spare on a beautiful fall day, so I laced up my running shoes and headed out.

Even as a I started, I didn't know how far I would go. I intentionally left my watch at home, so I wouldn't be tempted to track my time. This was a run for the love of running, and my only goal was to settle in at a "comfortable pace" and run until I felt like stopping.

Every runner knows what a comfortable pace is. It's slower than race pace, and you're not pushing too hard, but you're not dragging your feet either. You aren't breathing so heavily that you can't carry on a conversation, but you are still tired at the end of the run. And one person's comfortable pace is not the same as another person's. A comfortable pace is not measured by a stopwatch; it is felt in the rhythm of one foot in front of another, over and over again.

I've been thinking about pace a lot as we enter Advent, the season of waiting. In the first cold days in December, at the beginning of the Christian year, we are called to wait. Advent is not the time to celebrate, nor to busy ourselves with Christian service, as it is with other seasons. Advent is the time to wait for the coming of the Christ child.

The season of waiting is a season meant to be lived at a "comfortable pace." Yet how many of us take off sprinting the moment Thanksgiving ends, constantly accomplishing "merry" tasks until we are out of breath? And others of us drag our feet, thinking that if we stay behind the pack, no one will notice that we'd rather this whole thing be over with so we can get on to other things.

Somewhere in between is the comfortable pace, which again is felt, not measured. The blessing of the comfortable pace is that sometimes we get lost in thought and lose track of time. We are going slow enough to notice the things we pass along the way and to reflect upon their meaning in our lives. Yet we are not standing still. We are constantly moving further along the trail from where we started to where we have yet to be.

Finally, we arrive at the end of our run, welcoming God-with-us on Christmas Day. The journey was long and tiring, but we are also glad that we chose to make the journey in the first place. I'm glad I went running that Sunday afternoon, and because I found my comfortable pace I was able to go further than I had planned. Sometimes, we only make it because we find the comfortable pace between sprinting and dragging our feet.

This Advent season, I hope we will all find the comfortable pace that allows us to converse with neighbors on this journey, and reflect on what we see together as we move closer each day to the joy of Christmas.

The Great Thanksgiving

Consider this my return to blogging. I have gotten away from it, but hope to get back to sharing some of my sermons and other writings in this space. This is my sermon for worship on Nov. 23-24, 2013 at Chippewa United Methodist Church. The accompanying scripture lessons are: Acts 2:46-47, Psalm 100, and John 6:25-35. The sacrament of Holy Communion was celebrated following this sermon. Audio should be up at chippewaumc.org today or Tuesday.

INTRODUCTION

    There’s a story often told of a little girl who was brought forward to participate in the sacrament of Holy Communion. As the first Communion server broke off a small piece of bread and placed it in her hand, the girl looked down at the bread, then back up at the server, and cried loudly enough for everyone to hear: “I want more! I want more!”

    Oh, that we would all approach Communion in the same way, begging for more bread of heaven, more of the body of Christ, to be passed along to us. Instead, we adults are usually content with just a small piece of bread, just big enough to dip into the cup and consume all in one bite. Sometimes, I wish we would approach the Lord’s Table in the same way as that little girl: expecting more, wanting more, pleading for more Jesus.

THANKSGIVING

    It is interesting to think of these things as we prepare to celebrate the holiday of Thanksgiving. No holiday on our calendars, whether Christian or civic, is centered around a meal the way Thanksgiving is. Everyone has their own traditions for Thanksgiving, but the Thanksgiving dinner is the main event. There are even traditional foods that are expected to be served. For one day a year, dinner is the most important thing on everyone’s schedule.

    Yes, Thanksgiving is all about the meal. How big will the turkey be? Get out the fancy tablecloth! Put the extra leaf in the table! Fetch the extra chairs from the basement! And make sure there is enough food for everyone! Thanksgiving is an important holiday because it is the unofficial kick-off to what we know as the holiday season, which continues through Advent, Christmas, New Year’s, and Epiphany. It is a season that encourages us to gather with family and friends for important meals, meals where the food we eat is important, and the way we linger at the table for hours is even more important.

BREAKING BREAD TOGETHER

    The tradition of sharing family meals is nothing new. As we read in Acts, early Christians broke bread in their homes and ate their food with glad and generous hearts. This practice reminds us that the earliest Christians were still essentially a sect of Judaism, which is a faith tradition with an even longer history of sharing ritual meals with family and friends.

    But I believe that sharing meals, “breaking bread together,” is not only a religious exercise. There is a reason the phrase “breaking bread” has entered the common lexicon as a slang term for family, friends, or business associates eating together, often for the purpose of developing a closer relationship or working out an agreement. Breaking bread is a symbol of spiritual or social relationship.

    Many of us will break bread with those whom we love around a Thanksgiving dinner table later this week. And today, we will break bread with each other as we celebrate Holy Communion, which is also sometimes called “The Lord’s Supper.” In doing so, we break bread with God as well, entering into God’s presence as we receive the bread and wine at the table set for us.

PREPARING THE TABLE

    Now at any meal, the table must first be prepared. Think about the preparation required for your Thanksgiving dinner this Thursday. First, you have probably already invited people to come and told them when to arrive. Then, you have prepared the food and set the table. Even then, people do not magically appear in their seats and begin to eat. There’s always that moment when you have to go around telling everyone that “It’s time; dinner is ready. Come have a seat at the table.” Then, the final preparation is made with the prayer of blessing and thanksgiving.

    So it is with the sacrament of Holy Communion. You were invited into worship today at a particular place and time. Food has been prepared for us - this bread and wine did not magically appear, but someone had to take grain and turn it into bread and take grapes and turn them into the unfermented wine we have here.

    Final preparations are still made when we are called to the table and the prayer of blessing and thanksgiving is spoken over the meal and all who are gathered. In fact, we call this prayer, “The Great Thanksgiving.”

“THE GREAT THANKSGIVING”

    There are many theological meanings to the sacrament of Holy Communion, and one of them is to give thanks. One of the words you may have heard used for Communion, “Eucharist,” comes from a Greek word that means “giving thanks.” When we celebrate Communion, we convey our gratitude for the goodness of God and for God’s unconditional love for us.

    It is clear that giving thanks is an important theme in the liturgy called “The Great Thanksgiving” which we will share in a few moments:

• Almost immediately in the Great Thanksgiving, we are invited to “give thanks to the Lord our God,” because “It is right to give our thanks and praise.”

• Then the pastor proclaims: “It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give thanks to you, almighty God, creator of heaven and earth.” What we are doing in this “Great Thanksgiving” is something we are supposed to do “always and everywhere”: give thanks.

• In the Great Thanksgiving, we express joyful thanks for God’s action throughout history: creation, covenant, salvation offered through Jesus Christ, and the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit.

• In the Great Thanksgiving, we recall that the first thing Jesus did with the bread and cup were to give thanks to God.

• Finally, “we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving” - a “Great” Thanksgiving, indeed.

When we have finished these prayers of thanksgiving and blessing, we are finally ready to eat the meal that has been prepared. And with whatever method we choose to eat and drink, we receive bread and wine, body and blood, bread of heaven and cup of salvation. We have a Thanksgiving dinner at which Jesus Christ is the host.

    Being the host is a familiar role for Jesus. He was one who had made such a habit of welcoming sinners and eating with them that he was criticized for it. But if Jesus could not welcome sinners to his table, then who could he welcome? Are we not all sinners in need of God’s grace? And do we not all find that grace and peace here, at the table of our Lord?

In this way, the sacrament of Holy Communion is no different than any other meal. Henri Nouwen once said that Communion, like any other meal, is an invitation by the host to affirm and celebrate life together. Isn’t that why we invite people to dinner, to affirm and celebrate life together? In Communion, Jesus invites us to affirm and celebrate life with him and with our neighbors, and because of this, everyone should feel welcome at this, the Lord’s table.

CONCLUSION

Today, Jesus invites us to celebrate a Great Thanksgiving in this sacrament of Holy Communion. But many of the elements of this meal are also present in our Thanksgiving dinners on Thursday, and I’m not talking only of bread and wine. Will your Thanksgiving celebration have all the necessary elements of a Great Thanksgiving as we celebrate today? Will you:

• Welcome all persons around your table
• Give thanks to God always and everywhere
• Give thanks for God our Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer?
• Give thanks for the unconditional love and grace that God gives?
• Celebrate and affirm life together, a life rooted in the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ?

    United Methodist pastor and author Will Willimon reminds us that in Jewish tradition, “when the blessing is said at the table, the table becomes a holy place and eating together a sacred activity.” As you sit down at your Thanksgiving tables this week, someone will likely say a prayer of blessing before you eat. When the prayer of blessing is given, your table then becomes a holy space, and eating together becomes a sacred activity where Christ’s presence is made known.

And as you eat together, remember that little girl who cried loudly upon receiving communion, “I want more! I want more!” She, more than any adults around her, knew the truth about the bread being placed in her hands. It was bread come down from heaven, and her cries were actually cries of thanksgiving. We are often most thankful for the things that stir up a hunger within us. May we all be hungry for the bread of heaven, and remember to give thanks to God, always and everywhere for that gift. And may our Thanksgivings all be Great Thanksgivings. Amen.