Author: FUMCWP Admin

Earlier today, I ran to Publix to buy the final parts of our Christ-like Servants Pillar Meal. We gather every second Tuesday with the ministries of that Pillar to encourage one another, learn, pray and fellowship. I ran in quickly before heading into the office, with the purpose of being in and out but the Holy Spirit had other plans. I quickly noticed a homeless woman walking through the bakery section admiring all of the fresh food and talking to herself about how delicious the items looked. She and I started talking near the Publix soups and when she said, she loves soup, but can’t afford any today, I heard the Holy Spirit say, “You feed her.”

I asked her if I could buy her a cup of soup and at first, she said yes, but then she thought about how she didn’t really have a microwave to warm it up in so what she really wanted was a sub. And so I walked with her over the sub-station and she ordered a turkey sub with two kinds of cheese and all the fixings. But she didn’t want any sauce, she said, because as she held up five packets of tartar sauce, she was going to use tartar sauce instead.

Now, I am not a food snob and I am really no expert on sauce combos, but I can’t say I have ever used tartar sauce on something not fish. Maybe I have a lot to learn and maybe I have been living under a rock, but my new friend says it is all the rage.

And it got me thinking about being the church. As we heard on Sunday, the Way of Jesus is to be vitality in a world that is losing its liveliness and strength. When we, as a group, are called to be light and salt, it connects us back to our calling to represent God on earth and to be the representatives of another world, another kingdom where Christ is seated upon the throne. Jesus is very clear in Matthew 5 that we are salt and we are light, but if Jesus was there in the Publix sub line with me this morning, I believe Jesus would also agree with my new friend that we are tartar sauce too.

Maybe the church has always been in the “fish”ing business, but now we are called outward and beyond into the sub-business. Maybe being salt and light looks different today in this post-pandemic world and the church is called to be tartar sauce as well. Maybe we need to try things we have never tried before for the sake of God’s Kingdom.

Now, I’m not planning on having a turkey sub with tartar sauce anytime soon, but I will look at my approaches differently. I will think with more caution about doing the same things I have always done while expecting different results. I will try new things in how I talk to the people I interact with, in how I shine light in broken circumstances and in how I attempt to bring salt into bland and flavorless situations. But I won’t close my eyes to new ways of being the church either. Quite frankly it is time to diversify our “sauce collection” to reach more people, in more places, in different spaces than we have been used to in the past. And it means we will be uncomfortable. It means that we might have to try tartar sauce on our turkey sub once in a while because that is what incarnational ministry is all about. And we may love it, and we may say, “No, thank you,” but are you willing to give it a try? Imagine what God’s Kingdom will look like in five years, ten years, or the next generation because we tried something new!

Lately, Charlie has been really interested in police officers. In their cars, their sirens, and even the star on their badge. Last week we saw someone getting pulled over and Charlie says loudly to the rest of us in the car, “Ohhhh, someone’s been naughty!”

That led to another discussion about what police do when they catch a “naughty” person. Someone at school had told Charlie about jail and how the police send people there. We spent time correcting that line of thinking and helping Charlie know enough about it so that he understands the concept of jail, but not enough that he becomes fearful (it is always a delicate balance). On our travels, I visited a few historic jails and while I myself have never been behind bars, I do know what it is like to be bound by something. I know what it feels like to have chains that constrict and weigh me down. And so I found it particularly meaningful to be asked this question on Sunday.

“Where in your life do you need liberation? Where do you need freedom? What is it you are bound by? Illness. Grief. Doubt. Fear. Addiction. Injustice. Discrimination. Hate. Jealousy.”

And then next question was, “What binds us as a people? What do we as a people need to be liberated from? Where do we need the freeing blood of the lamb?”

With the conversation swimming in my head with Charlie and the questions from the sermon on Sunday, I pondered true Liberation and in doing so, sought the wisdom of others. If you have heard me preach or read my devotions long enough, you know that I glean wisdom from Father Richard Rohr. He is a spiritual mentor of mine, and I read his devotionals daily. In his book, The Art of Letting Go, Rohr writes about the six forms of liberation.

1. Inner liberation from ourselves (letting go of the centrality of the small self)
2. Cultural liberation from our biases (which involves letting go of the “commodity” culture and moving into the “personal” culture)
3. Dogmatic liberation from our certitudes (letting go of the false self and discovering the True Self)
4. Personal liberation from the “system” (letting go of dualistic judging and opening to nondual thinking)
5. Spiritual liberation for the Divine (some form of letting go happens between each stage of spiritual growth)
6. Liberation for infinite mystery (the mystery that what looks like falling is in fact rising), which is really liberation for love.

This list helped me really start to think about parts of my own life that need liberation and so I invite you to think through this list and see which one rings most true for you. Ultimately Jesus came to free us from every chain, every bondage. And in every area, we are liberated most thoroughly through love.  Because Jesus is love and all of Scripture is really a long and beautiful story about God’s love, we have that opportunity to be freed by love through worship, service, deeper discipleship and being together as a community of faith. Our job is to love others the way God has loved us. And the truth is the generous nature of divine love keeps liberating you and me at deeper levels, but it keeps going deeper with each chain we take off; each restraint we remove. And this journey we are on never stops giving. Why wouldn’t everybody want that?

Maybe because we don’t yet know what we are bound by. And so I invite you to look at this list this week and pray through it. As we prepare for Holy Week and the coming of the Prince of Peace into the crowded Jerusalem streets, where do you need liberation most and what needs freeing in your own life?

This past week our little family got away and spent 5 days up in the Great Smoky Mountains near Waynesville. A family from Ryan’s church opened up their mountain home to us and we decided to make an adventure out of it. The drive up there with three young kids was adventure enough, but we included a waterfall hike, a trip into Asheville, a visit to Lake Junaluska and an opportunity to teach our big kids how to ski at Beech Mountain…yes, we are tired.

Our week started off last Tuesday with a hike. Ryan had done his research and found an easy enough family-friendly hike up to Flat Creek Falls and so we packed a lunch and snacks and headed out. Remember, directions matter. When we finally arrived at the trailhead, the entrance had been washed away by a creek and in order to get on to the trail, we had to walk across two logs that were steady, but all that stood between us and the cold creek. Ryan’s parents were with us and so the 7 of us set off up the trail. Now I should note that while I love nature, I am not an “outdoorsy girl” but I want our children to love nature and so we give it our best shot. Time in nature gives us time to talk and laugh and sing with our kids and it allows us to notice things that we are often too busy or distracted to see. There is a lot to appreciate while out hiking, but this wasn’t a normal hike. What we quickly learned is that the path was distorted and rather hard to follow. There were times that the trail was obvious and clear and well maintained and other times where actual tree limbs had to be removed or rocks tossed down to cross through the mud. For the majority of the almost 6 miles, our tiny humans were troopers. But towards the end, their legs hurt, they needed a potty, and we all needed clear reassurance that we weren’t going to die out there.

You see, when we returned to our car (by another route, no doubt) we looked at the way we traveled on our tracking app and it was quite hilarious (see right photo). When I look at this view of the path we walked that day, I am reminded how important it is to know where we are headed, especially if we are taking others along for the journey. Having clear directions, or at least a map to follow is vital for the journey, both in life and in faith. Ryan is a skilled navigator of maps, but the trail had been distorted by a recent storm. In fact, we saw evidence of chain saws while we climbed that showed that others had come before us to clear the path and yet the path was still winding and unclear, steep and a bit unsafe at times.

Back at the mountain house that night with a warm meal in my stomach, I began to see the connection between directions on a map and directions on our faith walk. Even if you are the most skilled hiker or avid nature enthusiast, there will be times when you get lost. There will be seasons when you lose your way, when the path before you is distorted and unsafe. These moments may have little to do with your faith and everything to do with the storms of life. They are inevitable and unwelcome, but a part of the human condition just the same.

Growing up in church, maybe you learned that the Bible is the ultimate map for the journey; guiding and directing you towards the correct way of living. But I want to challenge that. Yes, Scripture is the primary source for understanding our faith. However I have shared life with many that find Scripture almost as confusing as hiking a trail after a storm. Words that were written down to bring life and bring us closer to Jesus can leave us perplexed or can be taken out of context. As Wesleyans, we hold to Scripture as primary as long as it is read through tradition, reason and experience. In order to have a deep faith, we need all four of these to grow as a disciple of Jesus Christ. Because the truth of the matter is, there will be seasons in our life where we walk through storms, and simply reading the Bible will not bring about healing, or peace, or comfort for a grieving heart. There will be seasons that feel like hiking on a trail with no direction and we might be tempted to lose hope.

And so, when we find ourselves in times like these, I do encourage you to cling to Scripture, but do not neglect service and worship and fellowship and prayer and fasting and spiritual formation and being in community. Don’t let yourself believe that Christianity is a solo sport or a one-on-one hiking experience. No, we were meant to walk this confusing and winding and challenging trail together. We were created to lace up our hiking boots and carry one another’s burdens. We are meant to ask directions from those that have walked the path before us, and we are required to not give up even when there doesn’t seem to be any clear path forward.

If you haven’t already, may you find the people to “go hiking” with and may you find strength from other disciples when the path needs clearing or when the trail needs reassessing. Directions really do matter and we are meant to follow them together.