It Wasn't A Ghost Story

Reflections
April 26, 2009

Luke 24:36b-48 is a post resurrection passage where Jesus comes to his followers and they struggle with believing who he is. This is not the only challenge in belief for the early Church. In John 20:19-31 the story of the disciples gathered when Jesus appears to them. Thomas is not present and will not believe until he can touch Jesus’ wounds. So Jesus appears later that Thomas may believe. The Bible is replete with such stories. An angel of God tells Abraham and Sarah that in old age they will become parents, and they laugh in the face of Holiness itself. Noah doubts that God really wants him to build an Ark. King David doubts the real power of God and experiences a fall from grace. Peter swears loyalty to Jesus only to deny him. Paul insists on his righteous condemnation of those who follow Jesus only to find his surety could not have been more false. Doubt comes because it can and because sometimes it must.

In a Homiletics Magazine article from March of this year in which the agnosticism of the late astronomer Carl Sagan is written. Jerry Adler of Newsweek in March of 1997, Sagan was fascinated by the phenomenon that educated adults, with the wonders of science manifest all around them, could cling to beliefs based on the unverifiable testimony of observers dead for 2,000 years. He once said to cleric Joan Brown, “You are so smart; why do you believe in God?’ “ Of course, Dr. Sagan meant why would you or how could you? Rev. Brown replied “she found this a surprising question from someone who had no trouble accepting the existence of black holes, which no one has ever observed. You’re so smart why don’t you believe in God” Adler goes on to say that Sagan never had doubts about his agnosticism. His wife Ann Druyan, told him that “There was no deathbed conversion...no appeals to God, no hope for an afterlife, no pretending that he and I, who had been inseparable for twenty years, were not saying goodbye forever.” Didn’t he want to believe? She was asked. “Carl never wanted to believe,” she replied fiercely. “He wanted to know.”

Therein lies the difficulty. Far too often we need to know rather than simply believe. Be it Dr. Sagan, or the bank manager, you, me or the postal worker, we forget that God’s existence does not require our approval. The world we live in, with its flora and fauna, even the bubble gum we can experience, and the ‘Black Holes’ we cannot are proof that God believes in us. Our need to know is not a validation of faith, our willingness to believe is.

Dr. Joey K. McDonald
First United Methodist Church
4832 Tujunga Avenue, North Hollywood, CA 91601

On Getting The Story Straight

Reflections
April 19, 2009

The season of Easter comes to us in springtime, a season of growing and birth. Author, Hugh Kerr, reflects upon this in his book, THE SIMPLE GOSPEL, in an essay titled Starting Over Again. Dr. Kerr reminds us that the faith tradition is full of examples of God’s generative power. Word with the prefix re, (such as repentance, redemption, reconciliation, renewal, regeneration, and resurrection) are used regularly in the Bible. These words along with words suggestive of transformation like the term New, (as in New Testament and in the book of Revelation, a New Heaven and a New Earth) evoke the promise of change found in relationship with God.

Each season of the Church year, be it Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter or Pentecost call upon us to contemplate the work of God in our lives. However, none is more demanding than Easter. For in Easter, we remember the work of God in the life of Jesus. We recall the gift of ministry He gave in life and death and life anew. We reflect on His gracious acts, and we reconcile our hearts to the work of grace in each of us. In this season, we can claim fully and without reservation a love that can make all things new.

Dr. Joey K. McDonald
First United Methodist Church
4832 Tujunga Avenue, North Hollywood, CA 91601

Name Recognition

Reflections
April 12, 2009

God is at work in our world. In ways and at times we are yet unaware. G.K. Chesterton wrote of this in a personal way. "There was a man who dwelt in the East centuries ago. And now I cannot look at a sheep or sparrow, a lily or a cornfield, a raven or a sunset, a vineyard or a mountain, without thinking of Him." The Him, of course, is Jesus.

Chesterton's intent wasn't geographic or biological, but rather to illustrate how Jesus took the common and placed it in the uncommon. Jesus used everyday elements, and common occurrences, to demonstrate God's love and our response. When Jesus said as God knows the grains of sand and each hair on our head, the focus was on relatiopnship, not hair or sand. When He suggested one consider the mustard seed as a model of faith, the oint wasn't to diagram the spiritual life of a plant, but to show great things have small beginnings. Jesus' use of everyday elements affirms a belief that God is a creative and renewing source.

The redemptive and renewing power of God can be heard in the song, Hymn of Promise written by Natalie Sleeth. "In the bulb there is a flower, in the seed, an apple tree; in cocoons, a hidden promise, butterflies will soon be free! In the cold and snow of winter there's a spring that waits to be, unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see."

For the Christian tradition the most significant symbol of renewal is found at Easter. The Cross, a tool of death, becomes a signature of hope. The Tomb, a point of closure, becomes an opening to new life. The Disciples, scattered by denial, fear, and their own sense of loss, are given over to the power of grace transforming and strengthening them.

At Easter, if we dare take notice, the unrevealed is made known in the person of Jesus. In life, in death, in life beyond death, Christ tells us that the final word belongs to God. It is a word of renewal over destruction, love over hate, hope over fear, and grace over judgment.

Dr. Joey K. McDonald
First United Methodist Church
4832 Tujunga Avenue, North Hollywood, CA 91601

Reflections
April 5, 2009

This is Palm Sunday! We all know the story. The Gospels record that Jesus gave instructions to his disciple to go into the city and prepare for their celebration of the Passover. As part of that preparation, they were to bring a colt (some record donkey), on which He was to ride. He then rode into Jerusalem with the children waving palm branches to shouts of hosanna.

Palm Sunday is, of course, known as Passion Sunday as well and that interpretation is found in one of today’s lectionary readings from Philippians. In the second chapter, beginning with verse five, Paul records the purpose of Jesus’ visit. He came to celebrate the Passover, but He came as well, knowing He faced betrayal and mortal danger. His humility and inner peace in the face of death confound and confuse. His self-giving love and obedience nearly beyond comprehension.

The words of Paul were so important to the early Church they were sung often in worship in the form of a hymn. They used them to remember the Passion experience. Paul recognized and celebrated His triumphant journey into the city. However, he knew the road to Easter traveled through Good Friday.

Dr. Joey K. McDonald
First United Methodist Church
4832 Tujunga Avenue, North Hollywood, CA 91601