Seek the Lord and Live
~ ... Amos 5:6a

The great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy told of the day he was so overcome with depression that he considered suicide. On this day he went off for a long walk, trying to find an answer to life… unable to find real meaning in the things he was doing at that time. In his desperation, he went back to the house and, as a last resort, began to pray. Tolstoy then wrote this:

So then, why look I further? The reason I can't help thinking of God is because God is here, and the reason life takes on meaning when I think of God is because God gives life meaning. This is what I'm looking for. This is it. I will seek God and live.

Jesus said, “Seek (and keep on seeking) and you will find." (Matthew 7:7). The question worth asking ourselves is: What are we seeking? There are any number of worthwhile and desirable goals to which we can aspire (as well as a long list of vain pursuits that vie for our attention). From time to time it is helpful to take inventory of your lives, order our priorities, and discern what really matters to us. As we recognize with Tolstoy that God gives life meaning, indeed that God is life, may we join our prayers with the Psalmist:

“O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you;
My soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you,
In a dry and weary land where there is no water.”
~ Psalm 63:1

My cousin, Eric, writes a column for some small town newspapers in Northern Minnesota where he muses about small town life, including church life. In one of his columns, he tackles the subject of church dinners, commenting “I choose church dinners by food rather than doctrine. Meatball suppers always tempt me. Ham never fails. Turkey is fine, but barbecue of any sort will lure me for sure. I regard lutefisk as a toxic substance. Let's hope terrorists never get a hold of it, because they could paralyze the entire country. I take long detours around lutefisk suppers just to be safe.”

Breaking bread together is a rich tradition in our Christian faith. I was strongly influenced by studying with the community of St. John's Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota. The Abbey is founded on the Rule of St. Benedict where “hospitality is the way we come out of ourselves. It is the first step toward dismantling the barriers of the world. Hospitality is the way we turn a prejudiced world around, one heart at a time.” Based on the Benedictine Rule, everyone at the abbey—everyone--is received as Christ.

I believe hospitality to be one of the foundations of our life together and a profound act of caring. Imagine how we would benefit from always receiving each other as if we were receiving Christ. Hospitality is part of our culture at Pinnacle Presbyterian, and warm welcome has become a core value of our SAGE group where we break bread every Wednesday for our noon meal.

Jesus himself broke the bread, shared it, and said, “This is my body broken for you.” At our church meals, we do this in remembrance of Him, and we become the incarnation of the Body of Christ.  Warm welcome is our table grace.

Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
~ 1 Corinthians 12: 27

Last week at Pinnacle we hosted our first week-long Leadership Academy for upper elementary aged children. We spent time in the classroom studying the traits of successful leaders. The kids focused attention on Bible study and different kinds of prayer. We enjoyed some team-building activities and fun lunchtime together. The kids had opportunities to go out into our community to put their newly acquired leadership skills in action packing food for starving children at Feed My Starving Children and providing a few days of VBS for the children at a local homeless shelter. On Friday afternoon as we closed the week, the children sat in a circle and shared their reflections. When asked to name the highlights of the week, every student mentioned our mission projects almost exclusively.

We can all learn a lot by observing our church’s children. They have enthusiastic faith. They are accepting and forgiving.  And, as we saw last week, they live to serve.  As I watched kids engage with their faith, I am reminded that I, too, can enjoy such an unbridled relationship with God. I just need to stay out of my own way and keep my eyes focused on what really matters. If I let myself, I can be such an amazing piece of the “body of Christ” both at church and in His Kingdom.

In fact, as I reflect on a couple of years in the ministry at Pinnacle, the times I remember as the most special are the times I was part of engaging children and families in becoming God’s hands and feet. I loved those times when church was not an event or even a place, but was us serving as one Body in Christ. My faith grew the most when I was a part of something bigger than me. As I move on to new ministry opportunities, I will take these special moments and use them in continued service to God. I also know that God remains very much at work in the ministry at Pinnacle and have faith that our children will grow to new heights in their collective and individual walk with Christ. As Kingdom builders, we can both continue in God’s hands, doing God’s work as one church, one body in Christ. I know our paths will continue to cross, merge and grow in the years to come.  “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28.

Do our words matter? As a youngster, I recall the adage: sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. I don’t know where I first heard it, but I’m sure that somewhere along the path a well-meaning individual encouraged me to use it as a pithy reply to someone hurling insults towards me. And I’m certain that I probably did recite it once or twice on the playground in an attempt to cover my hurt feelings. But the truth is sometimes words can and do hurt.

A few days ago, a Massachusetts judge found 20-year old Michelle Carter guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the 2014 death of her boyfriend. Juvenile Court Judge Lawrence Moniz found that Carter had displayed “wanton and reckless conduct” that led to the death of her then-18-year-old boyfriend Conrad Roy III.

 She didn’t give him drugs and she wasn’t behind the wheel of an out-of-control car that crashed into his vehicle. What she did do was encourage him by way of dozens of text messages to follow through with a plan that he apparently had previously shared with her. A plan to take his own life.

I am stunned by the idea that two young adults were texting messages of this nature back and forth. And further stunned by the thought that this young woman didn’t feel compelled to call his parents, call the police, call anyone. Not only did she not try to stop him, she encouraged him. How does something like that happen. What happened in his life and in hers that together they agreed that suicide was the only answer. In his ruling Moniz added: “Where one’s action creates a life-threatening risk to another there is a duty to take reasonable steps to alleviate the risk.”

As a communications professional, I believe that words do matter. What we say, how we say it and when we say it are all vital to our daily communications with one another. But in today’s world of electronic communications there’s yet another dynamic at play as well. In the last three decades technology has completely changed the way we communicate and more significantly it has redefined the way we build and maintain relationships with our colleagues, family and friends. The prevalent use of devices which allow us to communicate intimately, without being face-to-face, seems to have removed a layer of consciousness from our dialogue with one another. The fact that we can’t see the reaction on someone’s face or hear the tone of their voice shift, deprives us of the ability to respond appropriately.

Much in the same way, social media seems to enable people to post ugly, rude, tasteless comments that do hurt people. But why? What has happened to us as a society that causes anyone to think that it’s okay to demean someone on Facebook for their views, beliefs or practices.

As a person of faith, I do not believe that it’s my right or my responsibility to judge others. But I do believe that it is our responsibility to help someone in need if we are able. In the 22nd chapter of Matthew, Jesus was asked “which is the greatest commandment.” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ We are to love God from the top of our heads to the bottom of our toes. But we cannot claim to love God and not love others.

Most often when we talk about worship it is as the body of believers who join together to praise God, confess our sins, listen to God’s Word and leave renewed to walk back into the world changed. Right?

But what happens when we don’t leave worship feeling renewed?  What happens when politics, terrorist attacks, and the way we treat each other are like weights holding us down.  Or when we watch a loved one suffering due to illness, pain, or loss and we are continuously pulled back unable to break away from the struggle they are enduring.  Maybe it is when our own loneness, fear, and anxieties keep us from feeling connected.  That is when worship doesn’t bring the bond and connection that we all hope to find. 

It is on those days when the “I” in worship is ignored.  When the challenges we are going through are too heavy to carry, the hurt is too deep and the pain is so great. Coming to worship feels like a chore or that the church is filled with only happy people. And our own suffering doesn’t matter.

But that is wrong. Instead we gather together from every place and time with as many different life challenges and joys as there are people sitting in the pews. And that is why the “I” in worship is so important. 

The “I” in worship is found in the statement, “I believe.” We don’t point it out very often because we are in community and most often we say “we” but it is why we show up.  We come because we believe, or that you believe and I believe. We proclaim it in song, we pray it, confess it, and trust in it. 

When our new members join, they say, “I believe in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.” When someone is baptized they or their parents proclaim the same statement. It is one of my favorite parts of the service.  The announcement that is easy to believe and yet difficult to understand sometimes.  Jesus is our Lord and Savior.  Jesus loves us. Jesus saves us. The Holy Spirit is with us. And yet in dark struggling moments we wonder.

And that too is why we show up to worship. We come because sometimes, we are not sure where God is in this moment when we say, “my child is sick,” “my spouse died,” “my marriage is falling apart,” “I lost my job,” “I feel depressed,” or “I just don’t understand anymore.”

We come during these times because we have all been in the doubting, questioning, and wondering place.  We come to walk with each other.  Broken and beloved people going through our days trusting that we doubt that God is really there, someone else will come along side us and walk with us through it.  Someone will pray for you. Someone will care for you. Someone will love you. And someone will be there until you can say again, “I believe.”