I was rearranging and cleaning my office the other week, by the layer of dust on some of the book shelves it had been a while since I last cleaned, I came across a connection card.  You know the cards for visitors to fill out on Sunday mornings that are in the pews.  Madison, my oldest daughter, had filled it out a few years ago.  It, of course, has our names and address on it and when it asked how you heard about Park, she put “Lynn”.  When she had the opportunity to check what she wanted more information about, she checked “Children’s Ministry.”  She checked the age groups of our family – 0-11 for her and Kaitlyn and 25-35 for Michelle and myself (It made me smile that she thought that was the category we belonged in).    It also made me smile that she checked the box, I would like to meet with the pastor (I wonder if I followed up on that one).  The other part that made me laugh was on the back.  It was for a Wednesday night series, you had the opportunity to say if you were coming to eat and what study you were thinking about joining us for.  The line she checked was, “I may come for dinner and bring a few others.  I’m estimating a headcount of __________.”  In the blank she put 105.  Yes, way to think positive Madison. 
                As I thought about Madison’s 105, I was reminded that it isn’t about the numbers.  We may say that because the numbers are not what we want or because we truly believe it.  We know that each number is a person and that is what truly maters.  And although we may not want to get caught up in numbers, sometimes pastors can be bad at it.  Pastors can be like fisherman, who exaggerate how big the fish was they caught, because a group of 70 can turn into close to a hundred petty quickly when they talk about how things are going. 
                What I do want to remind you of today though is a parable from Jesus.  It is a unique parable.  Jesus tells it as he is having dinner at a prominent Pharisee’s house (by the way I suspect Jesus ate at their houses just as much as they would have complained that he ate at the tax collector and sins houses).  They talk about healing on the Sabbath, which of course Jesus has done.  Jesus talked about not taking the place of honor when invited to a banquet.  Then Jesus talks about who to invite when you give a lunch or dinner.  The answer is those who can’t repay you.  Jesus goes on to say “when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind and you will be blessed.  Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous” (Luke 14:13-14).
                It is after this that someone around the table said “Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God” (14:15).  In response to this Jesus tells a parable.  This is my paraphrase of it.  A guy was giving a banquet and he sent out save the date cards so that people would know it was coming.  When the time came, the guy sent out his banquet planner to tell everyone to come, but none of those who had been invited were able to come.  They all thought that they had something better to do.  When the host hears about this he gets really angry and tells his planner “Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.”  The planner says, “yeah, I already did that and there is still room.”  So the host tells his planner “Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full.”  (For the real parable, read Matthew 14:16-24)
                Two things, one about God and the other about the servant, both are about the heart of God.  One, God wants a full house.  We aren’t talking about churches and worship services (although I am sure that pleases him as well), but about His kingdom.  Remember when Jesus was talking with His disciples and said “In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you” (John 14:2).  The father desires His house to be full and Jesus made it possible, prepared it for us.  The father doesn’t need a full house because he wants to feel important, but because the father knows that in that place (don’t just think physical location) is where we find full life. 
                Two, the servant (banquet planner in my story), knew that the father wanted a full house and did what he could to make it full.  Did you notice that the people Jesus told the crowd to invite to lunch or dinner when you throw a party was the same list the servant said he went out and got?  (the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.)  The servant knew the father’s heart (Master in the real parable).  The servant knew it and did all he could to fulfill it.  Do we do the things we do because they are the heart’s desire of the master?
                The last thing I will tell you is that although the servant knew the masters heart and brought the people he knew that the master would have wanted invited, there was still more because there was still room.  This is why the master sends the servant farther out of the way, farther out of town, because there was still room.  Have you ever wondered how many rooms are in the father’s house?  I will tell you the answer, at least one more.  There is always room.  So invite 105 people to a Wednesday night meal, or how about just one person to worship or to a study or even out to lunch or coffee.  Let the heart of the Father be what leads your actions and determines how you see people.  Go, there is still room.
               
​

Michelle, the girls and I were at my parent’s house the other Saturday having lunch.  We had salad and potato soup, it was very good.  Kaitlyn didn’t finish all her soup and said that she was full.  My mom then brought out dessert.  It was a pistachio salad.  It was one that has a lot of whipped cream, those small marshmallows, bits of pineapple and bits of pistachio.  It is really more of a dessert than a salad.  This one was dyed green and tasted wonderful.  Although Kaitlyn said she was full, we could tell she wanted some of the salad.  Since we were at my mom and dad’s house we allowed her to have some of the “salad” (at our house, she probably wouldn’t have gotten any because if she were too full to finish her lunch, she would have been too full to have dessert).  One of Kaitlyn’s reasons for why she should have some was because it was green, “and green things are good for you.”  Michelle, who is so quick, looked at Kaitlyn and replied back to her “that is why I eat mint chocolate chip ice cream.” 


Oh the way our minds reason things out.  As I sit and think about Kaitlyn’s statement and Michelle’s follow up reply I was wondering about the different ways we can interpret good.  We hear our doctor say that “it would be good for you to eat less saturated fat, but eat more vegetables.  Then we say to ourselves, “Oh that mint chocolate chip ice cream is so good.”  Well, which one is good?  Both I guess, but in different ways.  There is good as in beneficial, helpful, right and then there is good as in enjoyable, pleasurable, and gratifying.  Let me take the conversation outside of food. 


Peter, James and John are on a mountain with Jesus and “there he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light.  Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus” (Matthew 17:2-3).  When Peter saw this, he spoke up and said to Jesus “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters-- one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”  In Mark we learn that he was so frightened, he didn’t know what to say.  But think about Peter’s thinking with me.  Good for Peter in that moment was something that they would enjoy, but it wasn’t the right thing or apparently the good thing to do.  They were going to go back down the mountain and find the other disciples in a tough spot.  


 Good as in enjoyable for me, and good as in right, don’t always lead the same way. What we consider enjoyable, pleasurable, or gratifying when it is about us may not always be good in the other sense.  I would really enjoy a nice new car but it may not be the good way for me to use what God has given me.  There may be a way that He desires me to use what He has blessed me with that is good.  Please don’t hear me say that enjoyable and right can’t go hand in hand.  God has created the world to be enjoyed.  He has blessed us not only so that we can survive, but live as well.  The question is what “good” directs us?  What Jesus found as “good” – right – was obedience to His Father.  His Father’s will gave Him direction. 


Where do we find our “good”?  For me, the scriptures are at the heart of it because they share with us the heart of the Father, Christ and the Spirit.  They give me a foundation to stand on and a direction to go.  What defines your “good’ as in what is right?  Have we confused the two goods?  Is pleasure, enjoyment, gratification our foundation we stand on and our guide that directs us?  Again, the two can walk hand and hand at times, but if we are going to follow one, which one is it?  The cross is an obvious picture of this.  I don’t think Jesus would have said that it is good, as in pleasurable or enjoyable.  But, I do think He would say that it is good, as in right or beneficial.  He knew that it was the Father’s will.  He knew that is was good, but also that it was not going to be “good” for him in the moment.


I will remind you that where God the Father and Christ the Good Shepherd lead us, is to a good place.  On the journey, we may find ourselves walking through the shadow of death, to places that may not gratify our physical pleasures and sometimes cause us to be in a hard spot.  But where we end is good.  ​I know pistachio salad is good and not good at the same time. Are there places in my life where I live with the same tension?  What good do I let lead me?

The girls and I were in the kitchen one morning, getting breakfast and packing up school lunches, when we hear Michelle tell us to “look out the window.”  I look out the window and scanned the ground, thinking there is a creature in the back yard, but I don’t see anything.  Then I look up and got to enjoy a gorgeous sunrise.  I called out to Michelle saying that it was a beautiful sunrise to which Kaitlyn, who was standing beside me says “It happens every morning.”  I just laughed and shook my head. 
 
So, Kaitlyn is right.  It does happen every morning and it got me thinking about all the incredible things that happen and how often I miss them.  I forget to see them because I am distracted by other things or my eyes aren’t paying attention. 
 
There is a passage of scripture in Lamentations 3, that some of you will know.  It is the one that implies that God’s mercies or compassions are new every morning (Lam 3:23).  New every morning, just like the sunrise.  It is true and something for us to be thankful for, but the verses before 23 are important for us to hear today. 
 
The section from Lamentations 3:19-23 goes like this: “I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall.  I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me.  Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:  Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.  They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”
 
I think it is important to hear the verses before 23 because I know, at times, I never make it to 23.  I get stuck in 19 and 20.  I remember my affliction, my wandering, my bitterness and my gall.  I remember all these things and my soul is downcast.  Maybe my day is going lousy, my week has not been great, my month has been tiring, and my year has worn me out.  My soul is downcast, or to say it another way, I’m just down and if not in, close to the dumps.  When you are there, it is easy to stay there.  It is easy to just look at what is going wrong, to look at what has gotten you into your funk, to play over and over again what has made your soul downcast.  All we remember is the bad, the trouble, the pain, and the weariness.  But there is a yet.
 
“Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:  Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.  They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”  God’s compassions (sometimes translated mercies) never fail, they are new every morning and our God is faithful.  Do we forget the yet?  Do we get so consumed with our eyes on our own problems and situation that we don’t see the sunrise, hear the birds chirping, or enjoy the smile of a friend?  Do we miss what God is doing in someone’s life around us that should remind us that God is still at work?  Do we forget that there is a yet?  Trouble will come.  Heartbreak will happen.  Affliction will find its way into our lives.  YET.  Don’t forget the Yet. 
 
I know that there are days that I will enjoy a sunrise, but it is not every morning.  Sometimes it takes someone reminding you to look out the window, reminding you that God is doing something wonderful and beautiful and life changing.  To be reminded, with Him is great love and His mercy is new every morning, that He is always faithful.  May your eyes be open to all that God is doing, yet.  May your heart be awoken again by all that our Lord is yet to do but will because He is always faithful. 
​Because of Him,
​Lynn

Michelle, Kaitlyn and I went to the furniture store the other day.  We normally don’t just visit furniture stores, but we had some time to waste before we picked up Madison from an event and we were close by, so we went.  Kaitlyn was so excited to go in, when we told her where we were going she said, with a smile, “I love furniture stores.”  Of course we know why she loves them.  She gets to try out different chairs and sofas, lay on different beds, and it is a lot of fun.  Kaitlyn likes to do more than the normal person though.  She saw a blue fuzzy carpet and went over and felt it.  Then she ran back a little way, got a running start, and just slid, head first, onto the carpet – kind of like a baseball player sliding into second base.  She looked up at Michelle and I and said, you have to feel this.  It is so soft.  Michelle and I just laughed.  I did bend down and feel the carpet and it was soft.  I didn’t go for the slide though.
 
As I thought about our trip to the furniture store, Kaitlyn’s slide onto the fuzzy blue carpet, and how much it made me smile, I started to wonder if I need to slide more in my life.  Really, everybody sits on the couches, tries out the chairs, lays on the mattresses, but how many people slide head first onto the carpet.  I’m not even for sure that the carpet is for sale.  People don’t seem to be there to shop for that.  I have started to wonder if I should start doing the unexpected, the thing that is out of the ordinary, those things that most people aren’t going to do, as a follower of Christ.
 
We see this in the life of Jesus, don’t we?  He stops a funeral procession because He touches the coffin (Luke 7:14), He reaches out and touches the leper (Matt 8:3), He ate with sinners (Matt 9:10), He remained quiet when accusations were flying (Matt 26:63), He slept while storms where raging (Luke 8:23), He didn’t fret when food was short (Matt 14:15-16), and He didn’t run when the enemy came for Him (John 18:4).  That is how we find Christ acting.  How do we act?  Do we act as expected?  Do we talk like people think we should?  Do we limit our sharing, protect our pride, defend our honor, try to be seen in the right way, or be on the right side?
 
The cross is called foolishness (1 Cor 1:18) and if it is our hope, we are called to be fools (1 Cor 3:18).  We are called to surprise the world with an attitude that is unexpected.  To make them wonder with our gestures and acts that are unanticipated.  To bring something different to the table, a new song to the dance, light into the darkness.
 
Most people visit furniture stores and test out the furniture, but maybe we, as Christians, are call to dive on rugs.  Go through the power and call of the Holy Spirit and look like a fool, a fool that hangs every hope on the cross.
 
Because of Him,
​Lynn       
​

About five years ago on a Saturday night my family had just finished eating dinner (the girls helped me make some baked cheese raviolis, I fixed a nice salad and Michelle made a wonderful brown butter sauce with sage – it was very good) and Kaitlyn asked Michelle “mommy can we have a little dessert?”  We actually didn’t have anything for dessert, at least not enough for everyone to have some, and so Michelle said “We don’t have a little dessert.”  Kaitlyn wasn’t deterred by this answer and so she asked, “Well, how about a big dessert.”  (That’s a great reply isn’t it.)
There is a parable that Jesus tells in Luke 11.  In Luke, Jesus tells it right after He answers the disciples request to teach them to pray, just like John taught his disciples.  Of course in answer to that request, Jesus teaches them what we call The Lord’s Prayer and then directly after that goes into this parable. (See Luke 11:1-8)
 
Then he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.'  "Then the one inside answers, 'Don't bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can't get up and give you anything.'  I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man's boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
 
Isn’t that a wonderful parable?  Let’s think about it for a bit.  There is a lot about how we live that makes it hard to get the fullness of this parable.  Maybe the first has to do with how available things were.  There were no 24 hour convenient stores.  So when someone comes knocking and you don’t have something, running down to the corner isn’t an option.  Maybe we need to remember that the majority of these people weren’t living in a house were each kid had their own bedroom, not only did they not have their own bed room, they didn’t even share a bedroom with just their siblings, as you can pick up from the scripture, everyone was just in on big room.  It was a family slumber party every night. 
There are two other things that are at the heart of this parable that we need to understand.  The first is an understanding of hospitality in that day.  I’m sure many of you can think about stories from the Old Testament where we see just how important hospitality was.  So when a traveling friend comes knocking at your door, who you didn’t even know was coming, you don’t turn them away.  In fact, even the stranger who is in need would hopefully find a place to rest in some kind persons’ house.  The writer of Hebrews tells us, “do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.” (12:2) The other thing at the heart of this parable is boldness, the boldness of someone to knock on your door even though he knows you are asleep, even though he knows it will be a disturbance, but because there is a real need, he knocks.   
Now, you and I realize that after Jesus teaches on The Lord’s Prayer and goes directly into a parable it probably means it is connected to prayer in some way.  This is true here.  It is about boldness and how God is not afraid of our boldness.  Remember we are called to “approach the throne of grace with confidence.” (Heb. 4:16) I think sometimes we “don’t know the power of God” (Matt 22:29) and therefore we don’t pray with boldness.  Now, that boldness has to be through faith and, if I can take the parable a little farther (maybe farther than Jesus intended) the pray of boldness isn’t just for us.  The bread was for the neighbor, but ultimately for the visitor. 
So the question becomes, why would I ask for a little dessert instead of a big dessert?  In all truth, I don’t deserve dessert, but praise God our Lord is a God of mercy and grace.
​Because of Him,
​Lynn

A while back, a new store opened up where Morrison’s bookstore used to be on E. High St. called the “Prissy Peach.”  Now I haven’t been in it, but it looks to be a ladies clothing store.  Not long after it opened, we were driving by on our way to Park and Madison said, “look, the pricey peach.”  We corrected her gently.  But I totally understand how she got to pricey peach.  They have been around me plenty of times where I have called things too pricey or expensive.  I like to think I’m frugal, but I’m probably just cheap.  And so Madison just saw what she knew I would call it.  That’s my girl. 
 
It probably isn’t fair of me or Madison to label a store before we actually go in and see it, but we all do it at times.  Maybe it isn’t with a store, but sometimes it is with people, or sometimes with apartment buildings, or sometimes with group gatherings, or so many other places.  Maybe it is individuals we see on the street, see in our office, see at the store, see in line to go somewhere or do something.  The truth is we don’t really know much about them and we surely don’t know their whole story. 
 
There are different scriptures that we could point to that tell us this.  The easy one would be the story of Samuel anointing David King.  Remember God’s words to Samuel, “man looks at the outward appearance, God looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7)   We could think about Jesus’ response when He saw the crowd coming after Him.  In Mark, it is before He feeds the 5,000.  It says “had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.” (Mark 6:34)   But one of my favorites would be when Jesus tells a woman “don’t cry” and then reaches out and touches the casket with her dead son (only son) in it and tells him to get up.  And he does. (Luke 7:11-15) Think of all that Jesus must have known about the Mother.  By the way, did I mention she was a widow?  At this point, her life was going to be hard.  She had no husband and now, no son.  Life just got difficult if it wasn’t already.  Doable, but difficult.  And so Jesus, seeing more than just a funeral march, saw a grieving widow and mother, and He did what Jesus does.
 
So next time you go by a person, a place or a group, let’s not presume to know the story.  One moment in time doesn’t tell a story.  It just shows a glimpse.  Let us have eyes of compassion and ears to hear.  All people are image bearers of God and His heart hurts for us all and He desires life for us all.  So let me remind us of the lesson from James, because it could be useful here.  Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.  (James 1:19)
 
Who knows maybe it is a pricey peach, but I really should go and check it out before I make that call.  And maybe I should be asking about someone’s story instead of just making one up in my mind to fit the moment in time I see. 
 
Because of Him,
Lynn
 
​

Michelle was getting mashed potatoes ready for the potluck last week we had after worship.  (By the way, our next ones are on the 9th and then the 23rd, come and join us.  It is good to break bread together) Kaitlyn was watching her and Michelle told her that if she wanted some that she should get in line pretty  early because they will probably go quickly.  Michelle also told Kaitlyn that she probably wouldn’t get any because she would wait until everyone else went through to eat.  So Kaitlyn, without missing a beat said to Michelle, “well then you better taste their glory now.”  My girls do love mashed potatoes. 

As I have had a chance to laugh at and think about what Kaitlyn said to Michelle, I have been     thinking about the wonderful words from the hymn “Blessed Assurance” - “O what a foretaste of glory      divine.”  Have we ever had a taste of the glory?  Gotten a glimpse of the glory of God?  At a lot of our district and conference meetings, we will talk about glory sightings, those places where we have seen God at work.

In Psalm 97:6 the psalmist declares that “The heavens proclaim his (the Lord’s) righteousness, and all the peoples see his glory.”  It is there, but do we know what it is.  Sometimes it is easy to see, the work of God, God revealing himself.  Isaiah says that “The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom.  Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy.  The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon; they will see the glory of the LORD, the splendor of our God.” (Isaiah 35:1-2) Sometimes for those who have eyes to see, it is so obvious.

Scripture also reveals to us that there are probably a few things we need to have in order to         recognize and see more and more of this glory that God is revealing.  Remember when Jesus was at the tomb about to raise Lazarus?  "Take away the stone," he said.  "But, Lord," said Martha, the sister of the dead man, "by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days."  Then Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" (John 11:39-40) Do we believe we will see it?  Do we believe that our God is still at work in our lives, this world and all of His creation?  When we wake up in the morning, is it with the thought of I get to see God reveal His glory today?  Do we really believe that those places that are dead, those bodies that are worn out, those spirits that are broken can be brought back, revived, healed?  Do we truly believe?

We also find a hint in David’s 63rd Psalm.  It says “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.  I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory.” (Psalm 63:1-2) Are we seeking?  Really seeking?  As one who is in need of water searches for water?  Or are we more like the one who is hungry for a good    burger, but I know if I can’t find a good burger place, I have plenty of other options? 

I will end by reminding you of what David wrote in Psalm 34:1-8 “I will extol the LORD at all times; his praise will always be on my lips.  My soul will boast in the LORD; let the afflicted hear and rejoice.  Glorify the LORD with me; let us exalt his name together.  I sought the LORD, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.  Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.  This poor man called, and the LORD heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles.  The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them.  Taste and see that the LORD is good.”  He is good and His glory is so much better than that of mashed potatoes. 

Because of Him,
Lynn