FIRE!!

FIRE!!
One of the things that you are just never supposed to do is yell “FIRE!” in a crowded theater…But picture yourself being in the room where the first believers were…Yeah…Anyone want to yell “FIRE!” with those tongues of fire??
The past 8 weeks, we’ve been celebrating Easter and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ…Now just because the season of Easter is over doesn’t mean that we can’t celebrate Jesus’ resurrection…We’ve just entered into a different season…Today we celebrate the day known as Pentecost…
Pentecost…Some call it the birthday of the church…It’s the day when the Holy Spirit came with a mighty rushing wind to the waiting disciples. It’s the advocate that Jesus had promised the disciples…The Holy Spirit is one that was promised to be a connection to Jesus…To remind of Jesus’ message and not just to remind, but also call to witness to the message…
Throughout these 8 weeks, we’ve heard stories of Jesus’ promises to the disciples…heard his farewell speeches to the disciples…We’ve heard the charges Jesus gave to his disciples—go and make disciples for the transformation of the world—feed my sheep…Throughout these 8 weeks, maybe you’ve put yourself in the disciples shoes and wondered in amazement at this resurrected Jesus…We’ve looked for the presence of God in our lives…Lots has happened over these past 8 weeks! And again…there’s no reason why that can’t continue…But there’s more to the story!
The disciples had spent 40 days with Jesus as he was resurrected and watched as he ascended to heaven…and now they have gathered together again…this time with many more gathered. Many of these followers would have heard Jesus’ messages and were waiting for this Advocate that Jesus promised…But not really knowing what this Advocate would look like…Would it be a person? A thing? What in the world would this Advocate be?
Could you imagine being in the place with the disciples on that first Pentecost? To be sitting and waiting, maybe still unsure of everything that had been going on…And suddenly a mighty rushing wind! And the wind wasn’t all…There were tongues of fire that touched each of the disciples and they could understand one another in their own language, even those who they couldn’t understand before….The Advocate was there! And oh my goodness did the Advocate make an entrance. The Holy Spirit came in a mighty rushing wind and tongues of fire touched the heads of the people…
The sitting and waiting wasn’t waiting anymore…The believers welcomed the Advocate and they were completely changed! They were speaking other languages, celebrating…It was such an awesome experience and as awesome and wonderful as it was for the believers…it was confusing for those who were watching. It certainly didn’t clear things up for people who were witnessing what was happening…Those who were witnessing this event and the enthusiasm of the disciples called them drunk, filled with new wine…
Then Peter gets up to speak and tell everyone what’s going on…Now, there’s certainly been a change in Peter from the last few times we saw him…He’s gained confidence…He’s gained the ability to speak authoritatively in public…He’s grown in faith…When did it happen? Well, Peter has certainly been a work in progress…From his time as a fisherman to a preacher and teacher…From his time of denying Jesus to proclaiming Jesus’ message in the middle of Jerusalem…Some might ask what got into Peter…Maybe it was his last interactions with Jesus that made him finally understand and believe with everything that he was…or maybe he was filled with new wine himself? Or filled with the Holy Spirit?
The Holy Spirit…One of the members of the Trinity…The trinity being God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit…Father, Son, Holy Spirit…Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer…The Trinity…And the Trinity is a difficult concept to understand…It’s God three-in-one…Three distinct pieces, yet one God…
There are many images to help describe the Trinity…One that I find the most helpful is the image of the sun…The middle of the sun, the great ball of light being the Father…The rays of the sun being Jesus, the Son…The heat coming off being the Holy spirit…All three are intertwined in the image…All are of the same substance…God, Jesus, Holy Spirit…Father, Son, Holy Spirit…Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer…
Heat usually spreads also…It doesn’t just stay in one place…The Holy Spirit is like that too…It doesn’t just stay in one place, but it spreads…The image of heat and the Holy spirit is one that is also held in the first Pentecost…The tongues of fire that rested on each of the ones present in that place…They were on fire…
On fire…It’s a phrase that’s used to describe when someone is passionate about something…So passionate about something that everyone knows…Can you think of the things that you are on fire for? That you are so passionate about that everyone knows it? Maybe it’s music or movies or a game…Something that when people think of you they associate whatever it is with you…Oh, there’s Angie—Angie who plays soccer…Oh, yeah—that’s Billy, Billy who plays guitar…Oh, you know Jane, Jane who reads a lot…Something that you’re on fire for…
A phrase that’s used often in Christian conferences, concerts, and books is being “on fire for Jesus.” Being passionate about Jesus and Jesus’ message so much that everyone knows about it…Some people show that passion in different ways…Some will talk about it to anyone and everyone that they encounter…Others will show their passion through actions…For some it’s a mixture of the two…
What is it that you can do to show your passion? It could be in something with the ministries of the church—helping teach Sunday school or Vacation Bible School or working in the kitchen during a breakfast or dinner…Those are certainly ways to share your passion…But what about in everyday life…in the ordinary time…Maybe it’s striking up a conversation with someone at the grocery store…Maybe it’s helping someone cross the street…Maybe it’s reading a book to children at the library…Sharing the message of Jesus sometimes with words and sometimes without….
Have you ever had an experience with the Holy Spirit before? Maybe you’ve felt like the first believers and felt the mighty rushing wind…Maybe it’s been like tongues of fire…Maybe it’s been a different kind of feeling for you…And maybe there are some of you who are wondering if you’ve ever felt the Holy Spirit move before…
I hope that you have felt the Spirit moving here…Over the past few months the Spirit has been moving something fierce! I hope that you have felt it too! Expand
This first Pentecost, the people received the Holy Spirit, but they didn’t stay in the room together forever…They went out to share what they had received and learned…The heat of the Holy Spirit spread…Hopefully we can be like those first disciples…That we can spread the heat of the Holy Spirit as well…

May Newsletter

Dear Friends,
Spring has sprung! Well, mostly anyway…It’s been nice to be able to open windows and feel the sunshine. Before too long, summer will be here!

Before we get to summer, we have the whole month of May and there is sure a whole lot going on…It’s so exciting! We’ll be celebrating Pentecost & Mother’s Day on the same day, the last day of Sunday school at Sheridan UMC on May 18 and the last day of Sunday school at Norway UMC on May 25, graduations, and gearing up for all of the summer activities…Did I mention that there are exciting things happening?!

Another exciting thing that I have to share with you is that from May 12-May 17, I will be on vacation. 2 years ago, as some friends and I were expecting to begin our first years in full time ministry, we knew that it would be impossible to be in ministry by ourselves and without a support system. Knowing that, our covenant group was formed. The 7 members of this group check in with each other, hold one another accountable, challenge one another, and support one another. They’re some of the first people that I call when I need to vent about something and they’re some of the first people that I call when I need to celebrate something. This is an amazing group of people! May 12-May 17, we will be joining together for our second annual Sabbath retreat and this year, we’re gathering here. The end to our time together will come on May 18th, when we gather for worship. I am so happy and pleased to share with you that we will be leading worship together at Sheridan & Norway United Methodist Churches on May 18th.

May 18th is going to be a big day for other reasons too! It’s graduation day for high school seniors and it is also the last day of Sunday school for this year. We’ve got a lot to celebrate, that I think we should share it with everyone! So, that’s exactly what we’re going to do!! May 18th will be “Fill-A-Pew” Sunday. Invite your friends, neighbors, family, strangers to church that Sunday. We’ll worship together in an inspiring worship service and then share a potluck at Sheridan United Methodist Church. We will also be working to build the largest sundae in Sheridan!! Think about whom you would like to bring with you to church on May 18th to fill our pews and with whom we’ll share the love and grace of God! I know who I’ll be bringing!

Even though it sounds like things are coming to an end, they’re really not…We’re just beginning something new! I am so excited to see the Spirit moving throughout Sheridan & Norway United Methodist Churches and to follow where the Spirit moves!

Blessings,
Pastor Melissa

Yes, I Like You, But...

Yes I Like You, But…
This is our last Sunday of Easter as next week we prepare for the celebration of Pentecost next week…But before we get to Pentecost, we have this passage from the Gospel of John. Some of you may recall this passage from our confirmation service a year ago…This is the last interaction between Jesus and his disciples found in the book of John…The story of Jesus’ ascension is found in other Gospels, but this story from John is the end of the Gospel…
It’s just been a short time since Jesus died and rose again and the disciples were beginning to understand that Jesus is who he said and that he was doing everything that he said he would…Peter was one of the fishermen that Jesus called to be his disciples, to follow him and learn and grow and to reach out in service…And after everything that had happened and all that Peter and the other disciples had been through and seen and done…They knew what it was that there were supposed to be doing because they had heard and seen Jesus…But, the first thing that Peter & the disciples do after they see Jesus risen from the dead is…Go fishing…Literally…Peter goes back to doing what he was doing before he met Jesus…He goes back to fishing because it’s more comfortable—he knows how to do that…There certainly has been a lot of change in Peter’s life over the past few years…He was fishing on a boat when Jesus called to him, “Follow Me.” And he did! And then there was this whirlwind of activities where he was labeled a criminal, blasphemer, coward, crazy, betrayer…Then, the man that said follow me, was crucified…And here he was, risen from the dead just like he said he would…And the first thing Peter does is go fishing…
While Peter is fishing, Jesus meets with him again and calls out to Peter from the shore. Jesus tells Peter where to fish in order to get the most fish and as soon as it’s pointed out that it’s Jesus, Peter can’t even wait for the boat to get to the shore! He jumps out of the boat and swims to shore where Jesus has a breakfast prepared…Jesus tells Peter to bring the fish that he just caught and they eat breakfast together…And then Jesus has a little chat with Peter…
This little chat…Jesus has just one question for Peter, but has to ask it three times…Do you love me? And three times Peter answers him… But there’s a subtle point that’s missing when this passage translates from the Greek into the English. In the Greek language there are 47 different words for the word love. And each of those words means a different type of love…The word that Jesus used, was “agape” which the fullest kind of love—the love that would make someone a servant. But…Peter doesn’t use the same word…Peter uses “Philio” which means a kind of brotherly love…How different are these two words? Well, here the passage in this way: “Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?’ Peter said to him, ‘Yes, Lord. You know I like you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Then tend my lambs.’ A second time Jesus asked him, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me?’ Peter said to him, ‘Yes, Lord. You know I like you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Then tend my sheep.’” Twice Jesus asks Peter, “Do you love me?” and twice Peter can’t go the same way that Jesus is asking him to go…Listen to what happens the third time Jesus asks Peter that question… “He said to him a third time, ‘Simon, son of John, do you like me?’ Peter felt hurt because he asked him a third time and he said to him, ‘Lord, you know everything; you know I like you!’ Jesus said to him, ‘Then feed my sheep.’”
After the first time Jesus asked the question, he could have yelled and screamed at Peter for giving the wrong answer…But what does he do? He give Peter a second chance…He asks him again…And the same answer comes…And again, Jesus could have yelled and screamed at Peter for giving the wrong answer, but what does he do? It’s Peter’s third chance…And this time…Jesus asks Peter, “Do you like me?”
What does Jesus do? It’s more than just asking the question…It’s what he did from the very beginning of the passage…Jesus knew where Peter was at…He knew what steps Peter was ready to take and what steps Peter was still scared to take…He met Peter on the shore after helping him catch some fish…He asked Peter the question, “Do you love me?” twice before realizing that Peter wasn’t ready to go the next step quite yet…
Jesus didn’t do anything different with Peter than he does with each and every one of us. Jesus asks us the question…Jesus meets us where we are. Jesus meets us in our human-ness. Jesus meets us wherever we are…It’s not complicated…It doesn’t take us having to be perfect or even completely ready to meet Jesus…Jesus meets us where we are and if we’re not ready to answer the question that Jesus asks with the answer that he wants…He doesn’t yell and scream or say that he’ll come back when we’re ready…He meets where we are…He may change the question to what we are ready for…
But that’s not all he does…After he asked the question to Peter, “Do you love me?” and Peter responded…What Jesus ask Peter to do? He asked Peter to take care of his sheep. Oh, Peter wasn’t off the hook yet…Jesus met Peter where he was at, but he asked Peter to take the next steps…There was more than Jesus was asking than to just love him. Jesus was asking Peter to do his work…He said two simple words with big meaning… “Follow me.”
And that’s what Jesus does with us…He meets us where we are…wherever we are…But doesn’t leave us there…He asks us to take the next step. And that can be scary and dangerous…Ultimately for Peter, it meant that he lost his life…What does it mean for us? Yes, those next steps are certainly scary…They can mean sacrifice…
And our passage continues…Because as soon as Peter finishes this talk with Jesus, he must have felt terrible…He knew that he didn’t answer Jesus in quite the way that he knew he was supposed to…He went back to fishing instead of going out in ministry…Maybe he was feeling embarrassed and ashamed and guilty…And we’ve all felt those emotions at one point in our live…When we disappoint someone and we feel bad about that…After this chat with Jesus and Jesus meeting Peter where he was and calling him to do his work…Peter looks at another disciple and says to Jesus, “What about him?”
He tries to take the heat off of himself by pointing his finger at someone else…How many times do we do that? When we’re being focused on a little bit too much…What about that person over there? When we’re embarrassed that we haven’t lived up to our full responsibility, we try and focus on someone else… “Yeah, I know I that I haven’t lived up to my call from Jesus, but what about this other person? Neither have they!” Maybe it makes us feel better for a minute because we feel like we’re not the only ones who are falling short…Or we try and make excuses for why we’ve fallen short… “yes, I know what we’re supposed to be doing and what we’ve been called to do, but Jesus you just don’t understand….We just don’t have enough people…Someone keeps stealing our people…It’s easy to turn the attention on someone else without looking ourselves and where we have fallen short…There’s always the elusive “someone” too…Have you met this someone? Maybe there’s a new idea or something that needs to be done and instead of doing it, we hear, “Someone really should do that.” And what does that mean? Well, anyone but me should do that…Someone should take care of that…Instead of focusing on what we are called to do and be, we focus out the focus on someone else because it’s not easy to look at our own shortcomings…
But Jesus responded very quickly to Peter when he tried to put the focus on someone else…Jesus said to Peter, “What is it to you what happens to him? It doesn’t matter what I have called him to be…What have I called you? “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?” Then Jesus repeats to Peter… “Follow me.” Don’t focus on someone else…Focus on what I have told YOU to do…Feed my sheep…Follow me…Don’t focus on what someone else is supposed to do…Don’t point fingers…Feed my sheep…Follow me…
And as much as Jesus was saying these words to Peter…He’s saying them to us…He asks us to love him and to feed his sheep…He meets us where we are and asks us to take the next step…He tells us not to focus on what someone else is doing, but he says, “Follow me.”
It’s not easy to do…sometimes it means sacrifices…Maybe it means getting up earlier on Sunday morning to come to worship…Maybe it means taking a class or joining a Bible study… Or you talk to your neighbor about your faith…Or you give up going out for dinner for a couple months so that you can support a child who is suffering from hunger…Oh those next steps…See, Jesus isn’t content with just leaving us where we are—he wants us to make the journey with him…Jesus promised over and over to his disciples that although he was going away and we would be able to see him for awhile, he was sending an Advocate…We will not be abandoned…I AM with you always…God says to us, I have created you to be my child…I love you…I was, I am, I will be with you always…I have blessed you…Be that blessing to others…Feed my Sheep…Follow me…Take those next steps and be ready to answer that question, “Do you love me?” And you can answer, not with a question, but with a statement, “Yes Lord, You know I love you.” Then feed my sheep…