A few short days ago I sat watching my television as the President of the United States came out to address our nation a deeply troubled man.  As he stood and talked about the shootings which had taken place at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston, South Carolina there was a deep sadness about him.  You could see the mantle of leadership was heavy.  It felt as if he was asking, “What next?”  “What can I do in the face of such hate, such anger to protect the people of this great country?”  As I watched him speak he recited facts, spoke as a tired old politician and seemed defeated and resigned to what was going on around him.  I got the sense during that conference that if he could have given the job to someone, to anyone…he would have.

Fast forward to today…there was a different leader who stepped to the podium to speak to the family, Mother Emanuel and the nation.  A leader who had, “been thinking a lot about grace this past week.”  A leader who stepped out from behind his own shadow.  A man who refused to be placed into a box that people from different political parties try to force him into whenever they seek to constrain or marginalize him.  A man who had witnessed the power of grace as the family members of those who died spoke words of forgiveness and grace to the alleged shooter.  He had watched his nation struggle to figure out what to do with a symbol that for many represented fear, intimidation, and decades of persecution.  He had witnessed as companies, organizations, business leaders, politicians, and even sections of the government called for the removal of this symbol that just days before had seemed destined to be forever a part of the landscape.  He had watched as God brought good out of something meant solely for evil.  Grace had shown through and he was transformed with the power of “hope for what could be.”

I have listened to his speech three times this evening.  Each time it brings tears to my eyes.  He spoke eloquently, passionately, and truthfully about life.  A number of times I found myself saying, “Did he just say that?”  With laser like intensity he shone a beacon of bright light into the darkest recesses of the soul of our country.  He talked about justice, education, poverty, racism, anger and hate, even a little gun control.  Nothing was off limits and grace was the foundation upon which everything was addressed.  The foundation was grace, not some political platform or agenda to be advanced…it was grace pure and simple.  He talked about how we are to live together as a people now that we have received grace from God.  He pointed a path forward, showing us a way in which we could live our lives to reflect the grace of God to others.

I know there will be those who find fault, those who seek to tear down, those for whom criticism is the only way in which they can respond.  I am sorry.  For some it will be simple jealousy…not many can step into a situation such as that one and deliver a message as thoughtful and clearly focused as his.  Others will be so locked into their own ideological position it will be too threatening to open their ears, or mind, to hear clearly the mans words or heart.  Still others will agree on the issues at hand yet differ on the path forward.  For the latter the temptation will be to embrace the caustic and bitter world of politics and resort to tearing down the person rather than discussing the issue.  Please…for the sake of grace…to keep the dream of hope alive can we rise above that and begin to dialogue in a way that gets things accomplished and moving forward?  The world our President points to, the road ahead that he calls us to will lead us closer to what Jesus called, “life to the full”.  It will lead us closer to the fulfillment of “Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will be Done; On Earth as It is in Heaven.”  We need each other to reach that place…we need to work and pray together.

If you have not watched President Obama’s eulogy of Rev. Clementa Pinckney it is worth taking the time to listen to his challenging words.

Thank you for everything.  I am not sure this thing called “the internet” could hold the amount of words I would need to write to fully thank you for all that you have done for me over the years.  You made sure that home was safe, worked hard to provide for our family and to ensure that we had opportunities you knew nothing about.  Working alongside you I learned what it meant to put in a “hard days work” and how to enjoy a time of relaxing and simply enjoying life.  You always put your family ahead of yourself and I am the better for it.  Thank you for loving and caring for me and for embracing Nancy and my children as your own.  You showed me what it meant to love and serve God.  I learned how to serve others and how to give generously of all I was blessed with as I watched how you lived each day.  You taught me how to care for this earth, how to be a good steward of all that God has blessed me with and how to be satisfied with what I have.  I learned what it meant to be careful with my finances and how to “shop for the deals”.  There so much more but I think you get the idea…you have helped make me who I am today and I am thankful.  On this Father’s day I have found a few of my favorite pictures of you to celebrate my Dad.  My favorite is the first.  I took it a few years ago.  We were on a walk back to the falls down the back road.  You were leading us on a hike and it was one of those simple, yet good days.  Thanks for the many, many simple, yet good days you brought into our lives.

"At Home...In the Woods"

Today was Family Fun Day at First Baptist Church.  There were pony rides, all kinds of animals to pet and feed, a bounce house, live music and plenty of food to go around.  Thanks to everyone who came early to help set up and to those who stayed late to make sure everything was cleaned up.  It was a great day of fun and getting to know some of the people in our community.  Here are some of the pictures from the day.

Oh to be a kid again

Friday afternoon I stopped by a local office supply store that has chosen to close their doors and is nearing the end of their closeout sale.  I had driven past when the 25% off signs were out, figuring, “it was not really worth my time.”  When the 50% off signs were in the windows I did not want to deal with all the people.  At 75% I figured, “everything good was probably already taken and picked over.”  Well, I could not pass over the 90% off signs that were in the windows.  I assumed I would quickly walk in, decide I did not want to buy any fixtures, and walk out.  Boy was I surprised.  I picked up enough paper to make church bulletins for the next six months.  I found the larger 11 x 17 and 8.5 x 14 paper in full supply and was able to get plenty of that.  There was even some reams of colored card stock left.  After four trips in and out of the store (much to Rayann and Nancy’s embarrassment) I ended up with over $1,000 of paper supplies for $100!  I also came away with $240 worth of supplies for JAM DAYCARE for under $24.  All in all a good day.  Which kind of disproves the old saying…”The early bird gets the worm.”

One of the joys I have in serving as a pastor is that there are moments, sacred times when during the preparation for a sermon or teaching it feels as if time stands still and God says, “I want you to share this with my people…but Dan this piece is especially for you…is your heart ready to hear, to own, to embrace this?”

I had one of those times a few weeks ago while looking at Isaiah 6.  In the passage Isaiah has a vision where he encounters the holiness of God.  He is forever changed.  His response is to call out, to confess his shortcomings in light of the holiness of God, “Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips.”  In his grace and mercy God has one of the angels take a live coal from the altar and touch Isaiah’s lips saying, “…your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”  Amen, hallelujah, praise God!

Isaiah then records hearing the voice of God ring out with two questions, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”  Moved by the holiness and grace of God, Isaiah responds, “Here am I, send me.”  Here am I send me…now that preaches…we could get an entire month of sermons out of that phrase.  It is here that we normally end our focus…but this was one of those sacred times when God led me deeper, further and allowed me to see something I had not seen before.  Isaiah’s response leads God to tell Isaiah what to do.  It is not a call to success as the world would define it, but a call to faithfulness.  In other words, if we were to measure Isaiah’s prophetic ministry by earthly standards we would judge it a failure…Israel would not repent, their “heart would be calloused, their ears dull and their eyes closed.”  If someone would have taken the time to chart his ministry, things would not have been moving up and to the right…it would have “looked rough.”

Isaiah asks what I think is a great question in verse 11, “for how long O Lord?”  In other words, how long will you have me struggle with this calling before you set me free to a calling that will be marked with success?  How long will I have to struggle with these people?  How long will I have to endure?  If I put my time in, eventually I will see things move “up and to the right” … correct … I mean that is only fair.  God’s response is that Isaiah is to continue until “the Lord has sent everyone far away and the land is utterly forsaken.”  The only promise God gives Isaiah is “but as the oak leaves stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.”  The promise is that there will be a seed, life, hope for rebirth…but Isaiah, it will not necessarily be a part of your ministry.

As I wrestled with that, as I sat and questioned I had to ask myself.  Dan are you willing to put aside success for the sake of faithfulness?

Some of you may be questioning this idea of choosing faithfulness over success.  Yet in the Kingdom of God things work just a little differently and God has the ability to transform and redeem on His schedule, in His time.  Isaiah was faithful.  In chapter 11 we read his words, “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.  The Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him…”  I wonder if Isaiah could fully imagine the work of Jesus as he spoke those words.  I know Isaiah could not have imagined that every Christmas season, thousands of years after his death, people would be reading the words God gave him to faithfully deliver as we celebrate the birth of Jesus each Christmas season.

Success is simple…it is easy…it is quick.  I pray I have the strength, character and wisdom to choose faithfulness.  Won’t you join me in seeking to walk like Isaiah?

Over the past few months I have been using an electronic devotional put out by the Jesuits to help center and focus my days and energy.  I have found it helpful as I become distracted and disconnected from the things that truly matter in my life.  Today’s meditation was based upon the scripture found in Mark 10:28-31, where Jesus teaches,  “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life.  But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

I found the meditation that accompanied the scripture both challenging and refreshing at the same time…

May it speak to you the same way it spoke to me.

I imagine, like the disciples, we’ve all found ourselves saying to God: “I have given up so much to follow you….What’s in it for me?” Far from selfish, this question is genuinely human.

In trying to live our lives as Christians we come to know sacrifice. We sacrifice our freedom, desires, and dreams when we commit to a vocation, a relationship, a job, or a child. We make material and physical sacrifices for the people we love. We sacrifice popularity, recognition, or acceptance when we stand up for what is right. In whatever form it takes, sacrifice is not comfortable or easy. It often seems a burden and a loss.

In today’s Gospel, however, Jesus flips our view upside down: paradoxically, sacrifice leads to joy, contentment, and fulfillment. A meaningful and rich life comes through putting ourselves aside for others. And each time we do, God promises fulfillment one hundred times over.

In what ways has God blessed you through the commitments you’ve made? Ask God today for the grace of seeing your sacrifices in a new light.

—Aaron Pierre, S.J., a Jesuit scholastic of the Wisconsin Province, is studying philosophy at Loyola University Chicago.

The daily devotional link can be found at    Jesuit Prayer.org

Everyone in our house had the day off today.  I told the girls (Nancy and Rayann) they could be in charge of planning the day and we would do whatever they wanted.  We ended up at Valley Forge, National Historical Park.  It is one of Nancy’s very special places.  On the way into the park there were signs for reenactments.  For a moment I thought Nancy   was confused and was thinking she was with her father who enjoyed spending hours upon hours wandering historic sites reading plaques and watching reenactments like the one they were advertising.  Turns out we were there for a nice walk and everyone, including Owen, behaved nicely.  It was the perfect family day.  Time to light up the grill in a little bit and put the finishing touches on a relaxing day.  We could use a few more of these type days in our lives.