On the way to Sunday ... Advent

I am already tired of all the commercials, all the music, all the sales, all the Fa-la-la-la-la of the season.  It really isn't hard to imagine why Scrooge muttered, "Bah! Humbug!"  

If we are honest I believe many of us lost our Fa-la-la-la-la a La-long time ago.  It really isn’t hard to lose your joy in this world we live in and it is especially easy to lose your joy in this Christmas season.  The messages we are bombarded with daily rob us of our joy and send us in endless directions seeking joy.

Since the beginning of time, mankind has searched just about everywhere in hopes of finding joy in their lives.  Today, most people are trying to find joy in something or someone outside of themselves.  But what exactly does God have to say about this quest for joy? Is it possible that our Heavenly Father placed joy onto the very fiber of our being? 

I believe God gave us each a shot at experiencing joy.  After all we are His most beloved creation.  The problem is that as humans we search for joy in all the wrong places.  Therefore what we receive is just a sporadic sampling, a mere fraction of the real deal, a clever counterfeit of genuine joy.  We look outside – not inside.  The secret to a joy filled life is so close, so obvious, that inside is the last place we look.  We search everywhere but within.  

We all want something more from our lives in some way or another.  We live in a society that is bent on highlighting what is wrong with just about everything.  Good news does not make the front page.  A 70 percent chance of sunshine is expressed as a 30 percent chance of rain.  We are not immune in the church.  We walk out of church on Sunday mornings like Entertainment critics, discussing what we liked or didn’t like rather than considering what God was trying to say to us through the message or music.  Kids bring home grade cards with As, Bs, and C, and we discuss how the lower grades can improve as if the better grades didn’t exist.  Given enough time, we can find fault with just about anything. We constantly put the Spotlight in the wrong place. What if it didn’t have to be that way?


Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.                                                I Thessalonians 5:16-18

Living with joy is our birthright.  It is God’s intention that we be joyful as His children. Being joy-filled does not mean that your life is perfect.  Who would claim that?  It doesn’t mean that your life is great.  What it does mean is that you emphatically trust God and believe that He has great plans for your life, regardless of what is happening right now.  Joy is infectious and uncontainable.  Joy is an outward sign of an inward faith in the promises of God.  

Try letting a little joy into your life this week.  Hum a song. Smile every now and then. If you are still having a hard time, join us Sunday morning.

I'll see you then .... I'll be the one humming a joyful song.

Christ the King Sunday: Elvis has left the Building

Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen. Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be! Amen.  "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty."                                                    Revelation 1:4b-8 NIV

Today we end the church calendar year and look forward to the beginning of the new church calendar with the start of advent next week.  This final Sunday in the church year is “Christ the King Sunday”.  For some the emphasis for today is the coming reign of Christ upon His second coming. It is a celebration of the Kingdom of God and Christ’s reign as King. The church calendar year is called the liturgical calendar and begins with advent and Christmas and ends with the reign of Christ.  After Christmas begins “ordinary” time or what was once called ordinal time which means simply that we count the weeks.  After this first period of ordinal time, comes Lent and Easter followed by a second period of ordinal time.  The calendar then ends with the celebration of Christ’s reign and then begins again in an endless circle of time.

 

We don’t talk much about the promised reign of Christ in the church.  Oh, occasionally we slip in a reference, but we United Methodists seem reluctant to talk about Christ’s promised second coming.  It is this second coming that will usher in the reign of Christ on earth.  We spend our time talking about the life He lived.  We even like to skip over the way He left the earth – the whole ascending into heaven thing – in favor of focusing on His last words – “Go into the world and make disciples.”

So how does this all relate to Elvis, the king of ‘rock n roll’?

Horace Lee Logan was the founder and longtime producer of Louisiana Hayride the country-music radio show that gave Elvis his big break. In 1954 Sam Phillips of Sun Records sent Logan a demo recording of the 19-year-old Elvis singing "That's All Right, Mama" and "Blue Moon of Kentucky," touting this kid. Elvis was a radical departure from the country crooners who were the staple of Hayride lineups at the time.  To give you an idea, one of the acts that preceded Elvis on his first night was a yodeler.

But Logan decided to take a chance. On October 16, 1954, Elvis debuted on the show, which was broadcast live on KWKH, a 50,000-watt station in Shreveport, Louisiana, that reached 28 states. The studio audience responded politely to the young singer--he had yet to develop his trademark hip wiggle or sultry sneer--but Logan and company saw his potential and signed him up for a regular gig. Soon teenage girls discovered him and Elvis was on his way. After two years of touring the south and southwest and drawing increasing national attention, Elvis bought out his contract with Hayride for the unheard-of sum of $10,000, with the stipulation that he give one last performance, which turned out to be on December 15, 1956.

By this time Elvis was verging on superstardom. Ten thousand kids jammed the youth building on the fairgrounds in Shreveport and screamed at the top of their lungs for the duration of the King's 45-minute show. According to KWKH disc jockey Frank Page, it was sometimes hard to tell if Elvis was singing, or even if the band was playing.  After Elvis had given his final encore and left the stage, the crowd headed for the exits, even though many other Hayride acts were still waiting to perform. Logan took the microphone and pleaded with Elvis's fans to return to their seats: "Please, young people . . . Elvis has left the building. He has gotten in his car and driven away. . . . Please take your seats."

The words became part of the Elvis legend and were repeated at many subsequent shows.Now they're a catchphrase whose meaning, usually tinged with irony, is clear to all: 

the show's over, the curtain has fallen, the sun has set, that's all she wrote, the fat lady has sung, our work here is done, move along nothing more to see, disperse, beat it, turn the page, hit the road, don't forget to tip your waitress, pack it up, turn out the lights, that’s all folks, time's up, toodle-oo, class dismissed, back to work, end of story, that's all there is there ain't no more, so long, hasta la vista baby, you don't have to go home but you can't stay here, later gator, buh-bye, get lost, Scotty beam me up, So long and thanks for all the fish!, finito, the end.

Elvis was the king of ‘rock and roll’: Christ is the King of all. 

Scripture teaches us much about Christ who is the King of everything:

John 1:1 teaches us that Christ was at the beginning of everything.

                In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John 1:14 teaches us that Christ become flesh like us.
                The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory 
                of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Luke 17:20-21 teaches us that Christ lives in us today.

                Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus 

                replied, "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people 

                say, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you." 

I Thessalonians 4:16-17 teaches us that Christ is coming again.

                For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of 

                the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After 

                that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds 

                to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

Revelation 22:12-13 teaches us that Christ is coming soon.

                "Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to 

                 what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning 

                 and the End.

Christ is King!

How different we will be when we live believing the words “"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty."

And how different our celebration is from the celebration related to the King of Rock n Roll:

The fans of Elvis were told to leave for he is gone: the followers of Christ were told to wait he is coming back!

The fans of Elvis were told he has died: the followers of Christ were told he has risen!

The fans of Elvis were told to mourn: the followers of Christ were told to celebrate!

The fans of Elvis were told it was over ‘He has left the building’: the followers of Christ were told it has just begun!

What else can I say you today as you sit here on Christ the King Sunday?

I say, “Get out of your seats. Be anxious – The King is coming back! Live your life in a way that your joy would proclaim to all that Christ is King: yesterday, today, and forever!”

On the Way to Sunday .... Elvis has left the Building

Elvis Comes Home from the Army!

On the morning of 3 March, 1960, after a flight from Germany broken by a refuelling stop at Prestwick Airport, 30 miles south of Glasgow, the DC7 jetliner carrying Elvis Presley landed at McGuire Air Force Base, New Jersey.  Forty-eight hours later, Presley was given just over $100 in "out pay" – for travel, food and clothing – and, at the age of 25, discharged from the US Army, his two-year commitment fulfilled.

Presley's first professional commitment in his new civilian life was to spend two days in a studio in Nashville, recording material to be rushed out for sale to the 1,275,077 people who had placed advance orders for his new single while he was still in Germany, before the songs had even been selected. Once that task was complete, he, his musicians and his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, boarded a train that would take them, with frequent stops to greet crowds of fans carefully alerted in the small towns of half a dozen states, to Miami, where he would perform both sides of his new single, Stuck on You and Fame and Fortune, as the guest star on Sinatra's regular television show.

See you Sunday when Elvis comes to Church!

Happy Thanksgiving

THANKSGIVING DAY 1795 – A PROCLAMATION

When we review the calamities which afflict so many other nations, the present condition of the United States affords much matter of consolation and satisfaction. Our exemption hitherto from foreign war, an increasing prospect of the continuance of that exception, the great degree of internal tranquillity we have enjoyed, the recent confirmation of that tranquillity by the suppression of an insurrection which so wantonly threatened it, the happy course of our public affairs in general, the unexampled prosperity of all classes of our citizens, are circumstances which peculiarly mark our situation with indications of the Divine beneficence toward us. In such a state of things it is in an especial manner our duty as a people, with devout reverence and affectionate gratitude, to acknowledge our many and great obligations to Almighty God and to implore Him to continue and confirm the blessings we experience.
 
Deeply penetrated with this sentiment, I, George Washington, President of the United States, do recommend to all religious societies and denominations, and to all persons whomsoever, within the United States to set apart and observe Thursday, the 19th day of February next as a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, and on that day to meet together and render their sincere and hearty thanks to the Great Ruler of Nations for the manifold and signal mercies which distinguish our lot as a nation, particularly for the possession of constitutions of government which united and by their union establish liberty with order; for the preservation of our peace, foreign and domestic; for the seasonable control which has been given to a spirit of disorder in the suppression of the late insurrection, and generally for the prosperous course of our affairs, public and private; and at the same time humbly and fervently to beseech the kind Author of these blessings graciously to prolong them to us; to imprint on our hearts a deep and solemn sense of our obligations to Him for them; to teach us rightly to estimate their immense value; to preserve us from the arrogance of prosperity, and from hazarding the advantages we enjoy by delusive pursuits; to dispose us to merit the continuance of His favors by not abusing them; by our gratitude for them, and by a correspondent conduct as citizens and men; to render this country more and more a safe and propitious asylum for the unfortunate of other countries; to extend among us true and useful knowledge; to diffuse and establish habits of sobriety, order, morality, and piety, and finally, to impart all the blessings we possess, or ask for ourselves, to the whole family of mankind.
 
In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United States of America to be affixed to these presents, and signed the same with my hand.
 
George Washington

Counting Your Blessings: The Love Feast

When we hear the words ‘love feast’ today, we might imagine something from the sixties – flashy colors, platform shoes, and peace signs. But the love feast that John and Charles Wesley celebrated was a passionate part of the Evangelical Revival Movement that began in 1727 with Count Zinzendorf and the German Moravians. 

The believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching,

to the community, to their shared meals, and to their prayers.  Acts 2:42 CEB

They renewed the practice of the earliest Christian groups, who ate and worshipped together. This practice was called the agape meal from the Greek word which meant an inclusive and unconditional love.  John Wesley first experienced the Love Feast in Savannah, Georgia around 1737 with the Moravians who were working there as well. Wesley’s own diary notes: 

 After evening prayers, we joined with the Germans in one of the love-feasts. 

 It was begun and ended with thanksgiving and prayer, and celebrated in so 

 decent and solemn a manner as a Christian of the apostolic age would have 

 allowed to be worthy of Christ.

The practice grew among the early groups of Methodists and became an important part of the early

American Methodist movement.  Vital to the celebration was telling stories of how one was 

experiencing the transforming love of God in one’s life or in the life of others. Informal singing and  

sharing of bread with water – a simple meal – were also an important part of the celebration.

 

Thanksgiving is a day for us to celebrate how thankful we are for the blessings and the people in our lives. It might mean including the names of people you love in the prayer you say around the dinner table this week. It might mean going right up to someone you hold near and dear and saying, “I thank God for you!” and then telling that person why you are so thankful to God for him or her. It might mean giving a big bear hug or a hearty handshake to someone who is very special to you. 

 

Give thanks in every situation because this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

Don’t suppress the Spirit.         I Thessalonians 5:18-19 CEB 

 

Perhaps you need to write a note to someone – perhaps you don’t know the words to say … Give them a warm fuzzy.  However you wish to do it, show people in some way how grateful you are for their presence in your life and then let the feast begin!