A GPS Is Not A Roadmap

REFLECTIONS
May 9, 2010

Today is Mother’s Day. We may not all be mothers, but we all have (or had) mothers. Some people for a variety of reasons do not connect with their natural mother, but everyone does seem to have a mother figure.

An old Jewish saying says, “God could not be everywhere, so God made mothers.” A Spanish proverb puts it another way, “An ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy.” Poems, songs, novels, and plays have been written depicting the value and strength of motherhood. Famous people usually give their mothers credit. President Lincoln wrote, “All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.” Earlier, John Quincy Adams had written, “All that I am my mother made me.”

From time to time, I have shared with you stories of my mother. Her wit, will, and wisdom have marked me beyond measure and in many ways continue to shape my existence. My mother taught me that doing your best was more important than being the best. Her gift of a passion to do the right thing, rather that the popular thing, is a treasure. She believed in equal justice and an extra measure of grace for everyone, and her faith led her to witness these truths.

I only remember her being truly wrong once. Not long after I was ordained, we had a serious disagreement. It lasted the better part of a year. The details aren’t important, but the point of departure was over her judgment of somebody. My mother argued the judgment of God, and I argued the love of God as she had taught me. Once in frustration she asked, “What kind of minister are you?” I responded, “A frail and human one whom you taught to believe in a loving and forgiving God.” It was not an easy time for either of us. In an attempt to resolve the argument, I asked my mother to look at three of her favorite scriptures; Matthew 7:1-7, Philippians 3:12-16 and 4:13. Whether the scripture worked, or she had pity on me, something changed and we got past our differences. Our relationship was not the same, it was better.

It is the only argument I ever won with my mother. Perhaps she did let me win, yet I am certain she gave me the tools by teaching me faith, justice and a full measure of grace.

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

The Five Second Rule In God's Kitchen

REFLECTIONS
May 2, 2010

The Book of Acts is attributed to the author of Luke’s gospel. In Acts, we find the early church fighting to find form and function in terms of discipline and development. Arguments large and small would rage over gifts of the Spirit, especially who was allowed to follow the teaching of Jesus . In Acts eleven, Peter is defending the necessity of the emergent Church in its need to be open to gentiles, which is to say non Jewish and including even Pagan persons, interested in experiencing the love of God in Christ. The difficulty Peter and the Apostles faced was those believers who still held strict adherence to Judaic Law which meant rules against outsiders, and specific dietary laws as well. Many within the early Church were concerned with who was in and who was out, and what was clean and what was not. To illustrate this most of us can look no further than our childhood. Was yours the first name called when choosing teams for sports? When I was in grade school or perhaps Jr. High there was a popular song that went something like this, “I’m in with the in crowd, I go where the in crowd goes. I’m in with the in crowd, I know what the in crowd knows.” Through much of my adolescence I was either a partner to or a victim of this thinking. These illustrations are mere snapshots of a larger phenomenon which afflicted the early faith community. Namely an aversion the revealed truth which Jesus taught and moreover lived.

The process of faith is one of constant revelation in terms of personal experience. The clearest biblical evidence of this for me is seen in the stories of Peter and Paul. Peter was one of the earliest disciples who when Jesus shared his upcoming arrest, trial and passion, assured the Master he would follow him to the death. Jesus told Peter not only would he not do this, but in fact he would betray his Lord three times before sunrise. Jesus did this not to impugn his reputation or crush his spirit, rather to state that Peter was not yet ready to be the Rock upon which the early church could be built. Likewise with Paul, an early persecutor of the followers of Jesus, he was certain of his way and understanding of faith until confronted by Christ spiritually. Each of these men needed revealed experiences which opened them to new possibilities in terms of ordering their lives of faith. The net result of Peter and then Paul’s experience of encountering Christ was that they could not live the same way they had in the past. They had to move to a new reality of what it meant to be a follower of Jesus. No longer could they be arbiters of clean and unclean, or who does or does not belong. Their life was now focused on a faith fashioned and focused on an all inclusive love, sung to a tune of grace and forgiveness.

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