Monday, October 20, 2014

At Your Service

Last week at our weekly staff meeting, Tonya Johns led the devotions. She shared the following posting on a weblog called "The Better Mom." I share it with you for this week's posting.

I thought I’d outgrown that kind of pettiness.

But there I was on weary feet, in a sticky kitchen, mind swirling through the two hundred tasks I’d checked off my list and the dozens of to-do’s yet undone.

And self-pity whispered innocent little questions like, “What am I — the household servant?” and “Why are people not falling all over themselves in gratitude around here?”

Earlier in the day, my motivation had been good…

I expended extra energy to bless a friend.
I provide wholesome entertainment for the kids by dismantling our leaky pool and assembling a new one.
I took my special needs son on a long-anticipated excursion, weathering his seizure and nasty fall along the way.
I cooked dinner, gave a haircut, ironed church clothes, and…, and…, and…
But somewhere in the middle of great intentions, I allowed pettiness and immaturity to sneak into my heart.

Ummm, applause, anyone? A pat on the back?

Do any of you realize I’ve set my own important projects aside to serve you all?

God greeted me and my endearing attitude the next morning with John 13:3-5:

Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

Wait. What?

Jesus knew who he was and the importance of his calling SO he took the towel and basin and washed the disciples’ feet?

Shouldn’t it read “Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power… so he asked one of the disciples to be the servant and wash everyone’s feet?”

If anyone had “more important” things to do, it was Jesus. His calling, who he was, everything about him should have disqualified him from the role of servant.

But no, he “did not come to be served, but to serve” (Mark 10:45).

Me? I’m just like the disciples, hoping to pawn the dirty jobs off on someone a little further down the ladder. And if I’m forced to do it because no one else will, you’d better believe I want a little recognition.

But Jesus is so breathtakingly different. Everything about him is astounding.

He is the Creator, the King of Kings, and yet he stooped to wash filthy, smelly feet.

He stooped under the whip… under the weight of the cross… under the burden of my sin.

He humbled himself.

He knew his identity in his Father, and knew that serving didn’t change his standing… serving pleased his Father.

Oh, what a challenge to my warped perspective.

Serving isn’t about doing something “important.” It’s not about glamor, recognition, novelty, or gratitude. It’s just following the example of the One who served me. It’s an opportunity to offer myself as a living sacrifice.

Serving isn’t beneath me; it’s a privilege.

And even though I’m the one who belongs in the role of foot-washer… who merits nothing… my dazzling Savior sees my service and promises to reward it. Every unrecognized act of love, every sacrifice, every gesture of humility is applauded by him.

Unbelieveable. And so empowering.

Thank you, Jesus, that you came to serve and redeem my sinful heart. Please enable me to serve my family, friends, and even the unlovely through your grace. Thank you for the privilege of being one of your household servants.

*Can you relate, friend? How do you fight the temptation to grumble as you serve your husband and family? Maybe you have a go-to verse? Let’s help each other out — share!! :-)

Blessings and grace to you as you continue serving,

Jennifer
(http://www.thebettermom.com/2014/05/30/)

--

We love Jesus by serving others. Seems to fit, doesn't it!

Peace,
Pastor Charlie

Monday, October 13, 2014

Senses

We are making final plans for our trip to Israel in a couple weeks (yes, the trip is still on). We are working on a packing list, coordinating connections and group information, and getting all the things done that need done before we leave. I am excited about the trip, and looking forward to gathering people in our group together for an experience of a lifetime. The blessing of coordinating a trip with a company that has done it for decades is that the details are spelled out ahead of time. The company tells us what we need to know, where we need to be, and what we need to bring. Our job is to show up, and hopefully do it on time!

So my responsibility for the trip as trip coordinator is to keep people on time and on task. I am the one to remind the group what time dinner is, what time to be on the bus, and where to put your bags. How will I know these things? Because I will be paying attention to our tour guide, and simply relaying the message to the group. I guess that is kind of like preaching, isn't it? The information I share from the pulpit is not my message, but God's message. I am just the one conveying the message that I have heard to others.

One of the things we will be doing on our trip as a group is to take time each day to check in with each other. Our group of 14 (made up of people from Epiphany, people from my previous church in Westerville, including my colleague there, family and friends) will be traveling with two other groups - about 20 others. I found it beneficial to take time at the end of each day to talk about what we had experienced - what were the highs and lows. I will also ask the question - "Where did you see the hand of God?" That is a question we can ask ourselves every day.

When traveling to some place so unique and different in many ways than where we come from, I want to encourage my group to consider what they experienced through their senses. What did you see? What did you hear? What did you touch? What did you taste? What did you smell?

I know there will be a lot to see, but that isn't the full experience. So it is with worship, yes? Worship is more than what we see and here - it is about touch and taste and smell. It is about experiencing God in all that we are. My role is to encourage us to be mindful of all of this.

I invite you today to be mindful of what you see, what you hear, what you taste, what you touch and what you smell. How is God present in those for you?

And don't stop there. Give thanks to God for the senses.

If you want to follow along on our trip to Israel, I will be posting daily on our trip. I am adding a couple entries a week on the blog in preparation for our trip, lifting up one site from each day we are traveling and giving some background information on it.

The link to that blog is: http://israelpilgrimage2014.blogspot.com/

Peace,
Pastor Charlie


Monday, October 6, 2014

Indentured Servant

In preparing last week's sermon, the terms "servant, slave and tenant" came up in the Gospel lesson. So I did a little research to find out more about these terms, and I came across some interesting information about my own family history, as well as my wife's family history. I did some research via Wikipedia to find out more about my ancestor, John Howland.

John Howland was a passenger on the Mayflower.  He signed the Mayflower Compact and helped found Plymouth Colony. He fell overboard but was rescued by the sailors. I am glad he got back on board, or I would not be here today! At about mid-voyage the ship entered equinoctial gales and under instructions of the ship's master, Governor Carver directed that no one without official authority would go on deck. The ship was in danger and Howland, carrying some emergency message from the governor to the ship's master, was washed overboard.

Howland signed the first written constitution for a representative government 'of the people, by the people, for the people'. After the passengers came ashore John Howland became assistant to the governor over the new independent state created under the compact. The act of Governor Carver in making a treaty with the great Indian Sachem Massosoit was an exercise of sovereign power and John Howland was the assistant.

Howland was an indentured servant and the executive assistant and personal secretary to Governor John Carver and accompanied the Separatists and other passengers when they left England to settle in Plymouth, Massachusetts. John Carver, the first governor of the Plymouth Colony, to whom he was indentured and his wife survived the winter of 1620-21. However, the following spring, on an unusually hot day in April, Governor Carver, according to William Bradford, came out of his cornfield feeling ill. He passed into a coma and "never spake more". His wife, Kathrine, died soon after her husband. The Carvers' only children died while they lived in Leiden and it is possible that Howland inherited their estate. After Carver's death, he became a freeman. In 1624 he was considered the head of what was once the Carver household when he was granted an acre for each member of the household.

My wife's family has a story of indentured servitude as well. George Hempleman was born in Germany in 1732. His father was Lord Hempleman, a rich man with a large estate. George fell in love with Margarette Duffy, a peasant girl, the daughter of one of the peasants who lived on one of the farms of Lord Hempleman. The two knew they would be forbidden to marry in Germany, so they decided to run away to America and begin a new life together. When they reached the ocean, they had no money for the trip to America. So they made arrangements with a company there to carry them to America by agreeing to allow the company to sell them as indentured servants when they arrived in America.

They landed in Richmond, Virginia in 1752. George was sold to a cotton planter in the Carolinas, and Margaret to a tobacco farmer near Richmond. The two did not know if they would ever see each other again, but they planned that they would. The agreement was that they would meet each other after their four years of servitude at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Richmond. This church later became famous for Patrick Henry’s speech delivered there – “Give me liberty or give me death.”
George’s time of servitude was difficult, and his health suffered because of it. Margarette was more fortunate, and she fared better over the years. The family historian, George Whitely writes of their reunion:

Neither had heard from each other until their time of servitude had expired, but true to their promise, each started for Richmond and the little old church. Margarette Duffy being only a short distance from Richmond reached there first, and went directly to the church, attending every service regularly, hoping soon to see her lover return. Finally one cold, crispy morning as she sat watching ever passer through the door, she saw a stout, young German man coming through the door, pause for a moment, look around, seemingly looking for someone that he did not see, then he sat down, and draw from his hands a pair of white mittens, and laid them across his knees; immediately Margarette Duffy recognized those mittens as the ones she had knit in Germany and gave to her lover, George Hempleman. Time had wrought such changes in these folks that it was no wonder neither knew the other, but at the close of the service, those two wanderers were reunited. ("History of the Hempleman Family")

The two were married in that very church soon after their reunion. A side-note – the family settled near the Little Miami River a few miles west of South Charlestown, Ohio in the 1800s.

So how did indentured servitude work? Indentured servitude was a labor system whereby young people paid for their passage to the New World by working for an employer for a certain number of years. It was widely employed in the 18th century in the British colonies in North America and elsewhere. It was especially used as a way for poor youth in Britain and the German states to get passage to the American colonies. They would work for a fixed number of years, then be free to work on their own. The employer purchased the indenture from the sea captain who brought the youths over; he did so because he needed labor. Some worked as farmers or helpers for farm wives, some were apprenticed to craftsmen. Both sides were legally obligated to meet the terms, which were enforced by local American courts. Runaways were sought out and returned. About half of the white immigrants to the American colonies in the 17th and 18th centuries were indentured.

While slavery and human trafficking carry the strong negative images and connotations, as they rightfully should, there is more to being a servant than just those images. God calls us to a life of servitude, to place our trust in God and God's care. And we are more than just servants of God, we are also called God's beloved, and through the waters of baptism, we receive the title of Child of God. And as God's children, inheritors of all of the blessings of God - love, forgiveness, peace and life.

God is good.
All the time!

Peace,
Pastor Charlie