From the Pastor’s Desk . .
.
Dear Church Family,
Happy
Anniversary! As of July 1, we have been together for eight years, and yes, I have
been appointed for my ninth year here at Lockwood UMC. I am curious as to how this
feels to you. . . whether it seems like just yesterday that I began as your pastor, or if it
feels like forever ago. For me the time has been full of what I would call “Good, Bad and
Ugly” days, that have been our past, created our present and that prepare us for our future.
For
all the baseball fans in the congregation,maybe we can look at it like this. I/we are ente
ring into to the ninth inning. I/we have hit a few out of the park by doing faithful and
fruitful
ministries, but I /we have struck out a few times by not being as faithful and fruitful as
I/we could have been. And yes, I/we have been scored on (I apologize if my analogies upset
some of you) a few times by Sin, the devil, the world, just fill in the blank________, but I/we
are here in the ninth inning and the souls of individuals, the making of new disciples, the
growing of faithful believers, and the transformation of the world may depend on
what we do this coming year/inning. It may also be a determining factor in whether I/we go into
extra innings or not. I say this
because one of my biggest fears as a pastor is a the fear of
failure (a fruitless ministry.) Being in pastoral ministry for me and my personality is a daily
uphill climb; I have put a lot on the line to
follow Christ (as many of you have). Sometimes I
wonder if I do this for one of two reasons:
either I’m absolutely crazy, or I really am called of
God
to do this ministry. I’ve tried to do the best I could, and sometimes it’s been a complete
failure, but there have been those times when it has all been worth it to see the fruit bearing in
others’ lives and in this community. As I think back over the last eight years and begin to pray
about the next appointed year, I find myself dealing with fear /fruitlessness and/ or faith
/fruitfulness. The Scripture that has been on my spirit lately is one that was spoken of often at
conference in June. It’s from Luke 13:6-9, and reads: “Then he told this parable: ‘A man had a
fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. And he said
to the gardener, “See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I
find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?” He replied, “Sir, let it alone for one more
year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not,
you can cut it down.”
This
scripture is essentially the story of a gardener who intercedes for the fig tree that, for
three years had proven pretty useless/ fruitless. The land owner becomes disgusted. Good soil in
his part of the world is rare and precious, and
he has a community to feed. This is about so much
more than making money from produce. If he fails to be a good steward of the land, people
will
starve and lives will be lost. Even though the
land owner is ready to bulldoze the thing, for some
reason the gardener has compassion on the little fig tree and begs on its behalf, “just give it/me
one more year. I’ll tend to it. I’ll turn over the soil. I’ll fertilize it. If it doesn’t produce fruit after I give
it everything I’ve got, then you can cut it down.” I feel
as if that has been my prayer lately.
Please hear me; it’s not that I/we are fruitless. We have done some really great things together
these past eight years! It’s just that we have so much more potential. We could do so much
more. So this has been my prayer. Just give me one more year. I ask this of God, as well as you,
the body of Christ, the Family of God. I ask this as the gardener (pastor), but more as the fig tree.
I
am the fig tree. You are the fig tree. We are the fig tree together. And as I/we are starting year
nine (or the ninth inning), we never know how much time I/we have left. All we know is that
God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit are rooting for us. They want us to be fruitful.
They have placed us into the precious soil of His world, and we have no choice but to bear fruit.
We are planted here for a purpose—to feed our neighbors, a community that is hungry.
Every
day someone in this community is asking, “Is there anything/anyone who can fill this hole
in
me?” They have an empty space in them, that’s hunger. The question is this: Are you/ are we/am
I ready? Do
you/we/I have what it takes to feed them?
This
year may be the only/last chance they’ve got. In fact, it may be the only/last chance
we’ve
got. This is not about keeping the doors of the church open; it’s about saving lives. It’s about
introducing them to the One True Gardener who can fill that hole in them and bring them back to
life. The good
news is that this work doesn’t belong to us. We’re not the ones who struck the deal.
It’s
the true gardener’s. We all belong to a gardener who is rooting for us, who is giving us
everything
he’s got. I give thanks to God for the gardener, our Lord Jesus, who is praying for you/me/ us,
“Lord, just give me one more year to work with them.”
With the gardener looking out for us,
how could we not bear fruit? Ok, I
admit I have been struggling with being a
pastor for some time, between fear/ fruitlessness and faith /fruitfulness, but I thank you for
believing in me and your desire for me to be your pastor for “one more year.” Now as we enter
into the “one more year” of the appointive process, I
pray that during this ninth year /ninth
inning of our ministry together, God will stir up the soil of our faith, and do something in and
through us that bears much fruit. And instead of just taking life from the soil as fruitless fig
trees
do, we get
to help give life back.
The Lectionary for July
5—2 Samuel
5:1-5, 9-10; Psalm 48; 2 Corin-
thians 12:2-10; Mark 6:1-13 (no study
VBS)
12—2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19; Psalm 24;
Ephesians 1:3-14; Mark 6:14-29
19—2 Samuel 7:1-14a; Psalm 89:20-37;
Ephesians 2:11-22; Mark 6:30-34, 53-56
26—2 Samuel 11:1-15; Psalm 14; Ephesians
3:14-21; John 6:1-21