Why I Shaved My Head Today

Dear St. Paul's Family,

A number of you told me this week that you weren't going to be in church today, and were hoping to receive a manuscript of this morning's message. So here is the sermon in full, including word about the "special change" that happened to me at the end of the service. Have a wonderful summer!

Magrey

“United, But Not Uniform”

June 19, 2011

Genesis 1-2

Trinity Sunday is the only holy day in the Christian year based on an idea, not an event. It is a biblical idea, even though the word trinity is not found anywhere in the Bible. Instead, church theologians have used passages like today's scripture lesson to develop some understanding of how three could equal one.

Notice the pronouns: When God creates human beings, God said “Let us make humankind in our image.” The church has traditionally interpreted those words as support for a God who existed in a plurality: one God in three persons. Somehow, at the beginning of the world, there was an "us"-ness to God, a quality which became infused into every human being.

The trinity is a part of all of us.

Of course, we don't fully understand how this trinity idea works. It is, by its very nature, irrational and mysterious. But what we do know about God is two-fold:

· First, each person in the Godhead is unique; each one is distinct from the other two.

· Second, they are all related to each other as one; they are one substance together.

They are unique, yet joined together; different, but the same. God the Creator is different from the Love revealed in Jesus, which is different still from the Spirit who guides and strengthens. Yet they are all the same God. All together as one.

Admittedly, this is all mind-numbing stuff, which is why I would prefer not to try to explain it you. Instead, I wish to look for ways for us to live it out. For if we are made in the image of God, as Genesis 1 suggests, then what does it mean to live in the image of the Trinity?

Here's the key: to live with the image of the Trinity is to live with that same kind of mysterious balance between 1) being distinct from everyone else, and 2) being related to everyone else as one. It is to see your life as one that is both “one of a kind,” but also just like the rest of humanity.

It seems to me that this is the critical question for us, and particularly for me, as I begin my renewal: How can you find the balance between celebrating your unique individuality and sharing yourself fully relationship with others?

First, a diagnosis. I think part of what ails our society today is that we tend to focus on of those ideas at the expense of the other. At the risk of sounding too simplistic, I think we might see people as fitting into one of two groups.

First, some of us work really hard to stand out from the crowd, to develop skills, personas, identities, and roles that draw attention to how distinctive we are. People like this know themselves so fully and so well that they don't take the time to learn about people who are different from themselves, to see how there might be commonalities among them.

Then, there is the second group of people. Those who just want to fit in. These are the people who seek out others who are just like themselves, to the point that they lose all knowledge of who they really are, where they came from, and what they can be. These are people who only associate with folks who look them, think like them, speak like them, vote like them, worship like them, and believe like them. All at the expense of finding what is truly unique about them.

I would suggest to you that so much of what makes our culture today so polarized, uncivil, and so segregated is that people, communities, and even churches fail to live in the image of the Trinity. They fail to celebrate both their uniqueness and their commonality. For in the Kingdom of a God who is Trinity, we don’t get to choose one or the other.

We are united, but we are not uniform.

That is the theological premise behind the next twelve weeks of my grant-funded study. It is a chance for me to explore how churches like St. Paul’s can be a congregation who welcomes a diversity of people by first appreciating themselves as unique individuals created in God’s image.

During this summer, that lesson for all of us begins with me. And I have to admit, that is the part that makes me both most excited and most nervous about the next twelve weeks.

I’d like to share with you some things about my childhood that I have never shared in public. I grew up in a predominately white, middle-class suburb of St. Petersburg, Florida in the 1970’s. We were one of the first ethnic minority families to move into our neighborhood, and I went to a school where I was basically one of a handful of ethnic kids in the entire school, and the only one in my class.

At first, I struggled to live a compartmentalized life. There was my life at home, where I ate rice at every meal, learned Filipino songs, and heard Tagalog, the Filipino language, all the time from my parents. Then, during the day, there was my school life, learning to speak, think, write, and live in English.

At times, that convergence of cultures was confusing to me. Sometimes my thoughts were in Tagalog, and I had to translate them into English. This often resulted in using both languages in the same sentence, usually with comical results.

It was clear to the other kids that I was very different. I didn’t quite fit in, with the way I looked, the way I acted, and the way I spoke. So it didn’t last long for other boys in the class to start teasing me. At times, it was harmless giggling. Other times, it became name-calling, taunting, and downright bullying. They would tell stories behind my back, not invite me to play games, or, worst of all, pretending I didn’t exist. It wasn’t all the kids who did this, of course, but there were enough of them.

And I still remember their names to this day.

It’s tough to go through that at any age, but especially when you’re a little kid, so I had to make a sad choice: if I wanted to fit in, then I had to lose what made me special.

From that moment on, I decided not to speak any more Tagalog. So, today, even though I can understand Tagalog fluently, I can speak English a lot better. Truthfully, this has served me very well in my career, as folks generally don’t complain about not being able to understand me. I have even debated changing my name to something more Americanized, which is something my dad did when he came to the states. Thankfully, I did not.

But talking like the other kids didn’t change the way I looked. I couldn’t change my skin color, and I couldn’t do anything about the shape of my eyes. But there was something that I believed I could change. Something that could help me fit in.

I could do something with my hair.

I have Asian hair. Hair that sort of flops down straight in every direction, like a mop head. We used to joke that my dad gave us haircuts by sticking a bowl on my head and trimming around it. I had bangs that hung down to my eyes, and it was something that none of the other kids had.

So, in third grade, I decided to start parting my hair to one side, sweeping my hair to the right, showing off as much forehead as I thought the white kids had. The problem, of course, is that my hair didn’t stay that way naturally. So I started using hair spray every morning and fussing with it for ten minutes. I wouldn’t get it wet in the showers after P.E. I was careful to adjust it throughout the day.

And that’s how I made it through school, college…

….and even today.

The bullying stopped somewhere around third grade. It had nothing to do with my hair, of course, but subconsciously I thought it did. I became not only accepted, but quite popular, not because of my hair, but because of my kindness, my with, my intelligence, and my charm.

But, even to this day, on a subconscious level, I keep my hair the same to ward off the bullies, to fit in, and to deny who I really am.

With all that said, I can’t tell you how important it is for me to go on these trips with my family. With the exception of a few weeks when I was two years old, I have never been to the country of my roots, immersed in the land where everyone looks like me. And Jessica has never been to the Netherlands. And the girls have never really been in touch with their ethnic roots as biracial children.

And that’s kind of sad. Sad for any one who wants so desperately to fit in that they forget that the first step in accepting people who are different is being comfortable with you are.

That’s why the Lilly Endowment fully funded this project for the church. If St. Paul’s is going to become open to people who are different from us, because they’re from another country or speak another language, or are even from another town, the place to begin is to celebrate what makes us each beautiful in God’s eyes.

The more you come to accept yourself as the unique person God has made you to be, then the less you will find others to be threat. And understand, even though my story has to do with a few white kids who were intolerant, I don’t see this at all as a “whites only” problem. There’s no need to blame just one group of people for this. I have prejudice in my heart that I have to work through, just as people of all skin colors can do a better job getting over their biases. The problem of prejudice really knows no skin color.

And this is not just about ethnicity. It is about getting along with people who think differently from you, act differently, worship differently, vote differently, and believe differently.

Ultimately, it all starts with each of us finding a balance between our uniqueness and our commonalities. To live the Trinitarian image within us.

So, there’s one more thing I need to do to be ready for these next twelve weeks.

(Take out hair clippers.)

I think it’s time to get rid of this hair.

There’s no need for any of us to try to earn our acceptance in God’s eyes. And there should be no reason for me to want to look like everyone else in order to feel accepted. That’s what I’ve done for years, hiding behind an obviously receding hairline and thinning scalp, pretending that I’m something that I’m not. So, in a few moments, during the Offertory, I’ve asked Karla Wilkie, one of our town’s hair stylists, to come up and shave me down.

And I hope this will be a reminder to all of us, especially myself, that we are each fearfully and wonderfully made. You do not need to be afraid of people who are different from you, because you can be comfortable in the way that God made you.

And when I come back, we’ll talk some more about what it means to be a church open and welcoming to new people, recognizing that all of us are God’s children, united, but not uniform.

In the name of our Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer, Amen.

Good-Bye, But Not Farewell

June 14, 2011

Dear St. Paul’s Family,

A week from today, my family and I will be boarding a direct flight from Minneapolis to Amsterdam, to begin my twelve-week, grant-funded study leave. Lately, I’ve been feeling an odd confluence of excitement and apprehension. The reasons for the former are simple: It’s a chance to step away from the routine of ministry (which is recommended in the Discipline for pastors every six years), it’s an opportunity to experience an all-expense paid trip to some remarkable countries, and it’s a time for rest, renewal, and recreation.

But I’m also hesitant. As a worker by nature, I don’t often know what to do with extended periods of personal time, and I’ll have to adjust to life without the reliable routines of Sunday-to-Sunday. After all, I’m in the people business, and doggone it, I really like being your pastor. I’ll miss our daily and weekly interactions, the sound of your laughter, and the generative power of our worshipping together.

But the greater uncertainty that I feel lies in the subject of my study. Unlike a normal continuing education experience, in which I study topics such as more effective ways to do ministry, or the latest theological innovations, or current trends in Christianity and culture, the subject of my time away is, well, me. And my family.

As you know, the goal of this whole project is to come to a better understanding of the complexities and blessings of what it means for me to be an American citizen of Filipino descent, married to a woman of Dutch origin, with multiracial children. To come to that understanding, I’ll be dusting off long-neglected memories, uncovering hidden aspects of my past, and rooting up some parts of my heritage that I’ve never really acknowledged. I’ll meet cousins, aunts, and uncles that I’ve only heard about, be immersed in cultures where everyone looks like me (The Philippines) and where no one looks like me (The Netherlands).

Along the way, I’ll be prayerfully exploring ways for another kind of family – this church family – can learn to coexist with all of its beautiful, chaotic diversities. The underlying premise for this project is that the same principles that the deVega family can learn to celebrate its differences and focus on its commonalities are the same principles that a church can use to be more open to different ethnicities, perspectives, and backgrounds.

That’s why I’m excited. It will be a kind of work that I’ve never done before in my fourteen years of ministry: deep introspection, mixed with dramatic cultural immersion, with intentional focus on a critical area of survival for the mainline church. But it will be work done with deliberate rest, intentional connection to family, all in the context of some of the most beautiful locales in the world.

(Did I mention that one of my uncles is taking us up a jungle trail to the top of a volcano? And that I might get to preach in a family member’s village church? And that some members of one of my former churches is taking us on a canal boat tour in Amsterdam?)


THIS SUNDAY: GOOD-BYE (BUT NOT FAREWELL!)

This Sunday will likely be one of my most personal, most autobiographical sermons to date, as I go further in unpacking for you why this renewal means so much to me, my family, and the church that I love. I’d love it if you came to worship so I can thank you personally for your love, support, and well-wishes as I say good-bye until September 11. (And let me reiterate: when I come back, I still plan on being your pastor, for the foreseeable future!!)

In the meantime, here are some ways that you can be praying for us over the next several weeks:

· Pray for safety as we travel, with no major disruptions to our itinerary. You can pray for an uneventful eight hours to Amsterdam, as well as the whopping twenty-four hours to the Philippines. And since the girls display a lot more patience on super-long plane fights than their parents, you can pray that Mom and Dad don’t go stir crazy in the flight cabin!

· Pray for our health. We won’t go into the list of possible illnesses we could contract while we’re there, since we’re trying not to think about it. We’d rather just have a good time and come back whole and healthy. Oh, and you can pray for a steady recovery from all the jet lag!

· Pray that the four of us will draw closer together as a family. It is truly rare for a young family like ours, with kids our girls’ ages, to have a chance to have an experience like this. I’m not sure what this might look like, but there’s every possibility that this can show us how to love, respect, appreciate, and affirm one another more than ever before. Please pray that all of that will happen between me and Jessica, for our relationship to our daughters, and for these two cute little ducklings that call themselves siblings.

· Pray for St. Paul’s. I have absolutely no reservations about leaving your pastoral responsibilities in the capable hands of Rev. Ron Kitterman. (If anything, you may learn to like him better.) But you can pray that whatever I experience overseas and what you experience here in Cherokee over the next three months will lead us to even more clarity and enthusiasm about the future God has for us. When I get back, it will be full steam ahead, and I can’t wait to see what we accomplish together!

You might want to know that I plan on writing a few new editions of this Mid-Week Message throughout the summer. But part of this renewal will include stepping away from the regular routine of writing these weekly, though I’ll want to be in touch with you a few times with some of the things I am experiencing and learning. Those will be joyous occasions to tell you how we’re doing.


THE SUMMER AHEAD

In case you’re wondering about our itinerary, here’s a quick outline:

Sunday, June 19: Last Sunday in the Pulpit
Tuesday, June 21: Depart for Amsterdam
Wednesday, June 29: Depart Amsterdam via Train for London
Saturday, July 2: Depart London for U.S.
Starting July 2: Time with Family and Friends in Minnesota (Jessica’s American roots)
July 16: Depart for Manila
July 27: Return from the Philippines
Starting July 28: Time with Family and Friends in Florida (My American roots)
August 11: Kids Return to School
Magrey Spends Remaining Weeks Recovering, Studying, Reflecting, and Writing
Sunday, September 11: First Sunday back in the Pulpit

And here’s a quick word about Rev. Ron Kitterman. He’ll be in the office starting the week of June 20, and I’ll share with you all this Sunday what his anticipated days and hours in the office will be. He will be able to cover all pastoral emergencies as they arise, and you can reach him by contacting the church office. He already has a handful of weddings and memorial services scheduled at the church, and he will be providing excellent worship leadership and pastoral care for you, based on his decades of effective, beloved ministry in the Iowa Conference. He will make his cell phone available to you in cases of critical, urgent emergencies, and you can reach him through his new St. Paul’s UMC e-mail address, at rkitterman@cherokeespumc.org <mailto:rkitterman@cherokeespumc.org> . You will want to come this Sunday to formally welcome him and his wife Mary Lou to the St. Paul’s Summer Family.

Finally, this is great time to remind you that your membership commitment to prayers, presence, gifts, and service really does matter this summer! We thank God that we are in great shape heading into this summer regarding our financial giving, membership, and worship attendance. We have gained 32 members so far this year (a number of them by profession of faith!), and we are a few thousand dollars ahead of expenses right now (the first time we’ve started the summer this way in my time as your pastor.) Nonetheless, we know that the summer is a time for busy folks to go away for their own renewal, so please continue to remember St. Paul’s over the next three months. Come to worship as often as you can, and please make arrangements to fulfill your stewardship commitments either by mail or through automatic check withdrawal. You can contact our Financial Secretary Sarah Cook for more information on setting this up.

Now, more than ever, I am grateful for the privilege of serving as your pastor, and for the chance to have this once-in-a-lifetime, transformative opportunity. I can’t wait to see what our future holds in ministry together.

Grace, Peace, and Love,

Magrey

The Rev. Magrey R. deVega
St. Paul's United Methodist Church
531 W. Main St.
Cherokee, IA 51012
Ph: 712-225-3955
http://www.cherokeespumc.org




WHAT A GREAT TIME SO FAR!
Wow! That’s the best way to capture what we’ve been experiencing so far with the 70 children in this year’s Vacation Bible School. Thanks to Korrie Waldner and her great leadership team, the first day of VBS happened without a hitch, and there’s a high level of energy and joy as we steam through the week. You will not want to miss a taste of what we’re experiencing when you come to worship this Sunday. And you’ll have a chance to match the children’s daily contributions to the Bishop’s FIT Challenge, which funds disaster relief to the Iowa communities devastated by recent tornadoes and that will be affected by the rising waters of the Missouri River. God’s Love has really been in Action this week. Come and see for yourself!

Charles Wesley's Day of Pentecost

June 7, 2011

Dear St. Paul’s Family,

United Methodists are quite familiar with John Wesley’s “Aldersgate” experience, but know less about a similar moment in the life of his younger brother Charles. On Pentecost Sunday, 1738, 30 year old Charles was deathly ill, suffering from a near-fatal case of pneumonia. Additionally, and more significantly, Charles was suffering from a serious spiritual ailment: a severe bout with doubt and a need for assurance of his salvation. Lying on his death bed and slipping in and out of consciousness, he noticed a woman named Mrs. Musgrave, a family friend, enter his room. She said to him, “In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, I tell you, arise and believe, and you shall be healed of your infirmities.” The woman then left the room.

At that moment, Charles awoke from his slumber and felt a “strange palpitation” in his heart. His pneumonia began to clear, and he was also able to claim, for the first time, a solid assurance of his salvation. He uttered the words, “I believe. I do believe.” When he later saw Mrs. Musgrave and asked her why she came into the room and to say what she said, she had no recollection of that event.

It is no wonder, then, why Charles henceforth esteemed the Day of Pentecost. For him, it became more than a liturgical observance in the Christian year, and more than a narrative from the pages of biblical history. It also marked that moment when he became more than a professing Christian, but a committed follower of Jesus as well, guided and shaped by the Holy Spirit. He considered “Pentecost” to be the stage in a believer’s journey of grace in which the Holy Spirit transformed that individual more and more into the image of Christ.

In short, for Charles Wesley, Pentecost was Sanctification.

So naturally, he wrote a hymn about it. In fact, he wrote thirty-two, compiled in 1746 as a songbook titled, Hymns of Petition and Thanksgiving for the Promise of the Father. It begins with these verses, from a song simply titled, Hymn 1:

The purchased Comforter is given,
For Jesus is returned to heaven,
To claim, and then THE GRACE impart:
Our day of Pentecost is come,
And God vouchsafes to fix his home
In every poor expecting heart. [1]


“THE GLORIOUS WORK OF SANCTIFICATION”

Charles advanced his love affair with Pentecost so often to his older brother that John Wesley acknowledged it in a journal entry On October 28, 1762:

“Many years ago my brother frequently said, Your day of Pentecost is not fully come; but I doubt not it will; and you will then hear of persons sanctified, as frequently as you do now of persons justified; and any unprejudiced reader may observe that it was now fully come.”

In other words, Charles constantly reminded John that the results of effective ministry never stop at a person’s conversion, and the work of our churches should be more than just adding new members. Instead, every ministry ought to have “Days of Pentecost,” seasons in which people became more committed to Christ, and strove to go deeper in their discipleship than mere lip service or superficial piety. Charles had no doubt that in their renewal efforts, there would come a time when the number of persons sanctified would at least match the number of people justified, and that would truly be a moment to celebrate.

John Wesley would heed his brother’s encouragement, and would even couch the fruitful results of his ministry in terms that echo the Pentecost story in Acts 2. Whereas Luke the history writer would claim conversions among the Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and Pamphlyians, Wesley shared these words, reflecting on the work of the Spirit throughout the British Islands.

“Here began that glorious work of sanctification, which had been at a stand for twenty years. But from time to time it spread, first through various parts of Yorkshire, afterwards in London, then through most parts of England; next through Dublin, Limerick, and all the south and West of Ireland. And wherever the work of sanctification increased the whole work of God increased in all its branches. Many were convinced of sin, many justified, many backsliders healed.” [2]


OUR DAY OF PENTECOST

Revisiting these rich stories from our Wesleyan roots reminds me of the many reasons I consider Pentecost to be my favorite Christian holy day. Unlike Christmas and Easter, retailers have yet to commercialize Pentecost with trinkets, greeting cards, lawn decorations, and sale circulars. It is also the very point in the biblical narrative that we enter the story most vividly. God’s revelation to the early church of Acts is the very same way God is revealed to us today: through the invisible, yet undeniable, power and promise of the Holy Spirit at work in and among us.

But Charles Wesley’s affection for Pentecost ought to add a deeper dimension to our understanding of what this Sunday is all about. It is an invitation for us to allow the Spirit to deepen our commitment to discipleship, to shape our perspectives, priorities, and behaviors around the person of Jesus Christ.

It is my prayer that this Sunday’s Pentecost service will afford you the opportunity to experience the sanctifying, purifying grace of God revealed to the church through wind and flame. Join us as we hear this glorious, vivid story from Acts 2, and experience the Holy Spirit at work in and through our lives.

Grace and Peace,

Magrey

The Rev. Magrey R. deVega
St. Paul's United Methodist Church
531 W. Main St.
Cherokee, IA 51012
Ph: 712-225-3955
http://www.cherokeespumc.org


[1] A free online version of Hymns for Whit-Sunday is available from Google books.
[2] From Wesley’s Concise Ecclesiastical History



RESPONSE TO THE FLOODS
At our Annual Conference in Des Moines last Sunday evening, clergy and lay delegates from the Northwest and Southwest Districts gathered to strategize response and relief efforts for the communities affected by the rising flood waters of the Missouri River. At this point, our district and conference disaster response coordinators are working with local emergency management officials to work within the systems already in place to address this imminent need.

As we await word of what we will be asked to do in response, you can already begin preparing items that you might wish to donate. Cleaning supplies, such as mops, gloves, bleach, rags, and sponges can be gathered and kept at your home until such time as we send word for you to bring them to the church. We’ll then find a way to get them to the distribution site in Sioux City. Also, there will be a need for bottled water for the volunteers that will be working there in the heat of the summer sun. Again, keep those at your home until we ask for them. Finally, there will certainly be a need for volunteers to work on mucking out the flooded homes and businesses once we are given word that it is safe to do so. This can be a powerful way you could put God’s love into action by contributing even half a day for the cause. Let’s all be in prayer, and be ready to respond.

VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL
We are excited to have 66 children registered for next week’s Vacation Bible School! Please be in prayer for the kids and the adult volunteers as we experience God’s love through fun songs, lessons, and activities. If you wish, we are still in need of gallons of fruit juices for the kids throughout the week. And, the children will be taking up an offering every day for the “Bishop’s FIT Challenge” which will fund relief efforts for the towns in Iowa devastated by tornadoes and the communities facing rising flood waters. You’ll have a chance to match their contributions with a special offering on June 19.



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A Prayer for Pastors

May 31, 2011

Dear St. Paul's Family,

As many of you know, I am spending the next eight days attending Annual Conferences in Tampa, FL, and Des Moines, IA. In addition to our normal business, this year’s gatherings will include the election of delegates to next year's General Conference, as well as legislative discussion about the church's stance on several hot-button, headline-grabbing issues. These sessions will be significant occasions for discernment, dialogue, and debate.

But these are also times for clergy like me to reunite with old friends and establish new connections. So much of what is important about Annual Conference happens outside the auditorium, in the hallways and over meal tables, sharing stories of how life in the pastorate has been over the past year. Sometimes, the stories I hear are ones of joy and achievement: transformed lives, dynamic ministries, professions of faith. But all too often, clergy come together in these occasions to solicit prayerful support from each other for the doldrums of ministry: church conflicts, faltering economies, enduring fatigue, and spiritual dryness.

Last year at this time I used my Mid-Week Message as an invitation for you to pray for the pastors in the church. I thought I would encourage you to do the same again, and this time I've written a prayer that you might use as a guide in the days and weeks to come. This is by no means an exhaustive prayer, as it may spur additional avenues for you to explore in the ways you pray for me and others. I would certainly appreciate your prayers as I continue to lead this beautiful St. Paul's congregation and its lovely people. But I wonder if you can extend your prayers to cover other ministers, near and far, including clergy you don't know, who depend on the strength of the Holy Spirit to carry out their work in difficult settings and trying times.


Gracious God,

We thank you for the call that you have given women and men to serve as ministers in your church. We remember that theirs is a holy calling, grounded in the theological and biblical roles of prophets, priests, and psalmists, for the work of challenging, nurturing and ordering the life of your people. You have composed a rich, diverse, covenantal communion, whose pastors display a wide range of skills and passions, from all walks and seasons of life. In particular, we thank you for those who have or will soon retire, for their long years of service, and for the legacy they leave behind. We thank you for those who are fresh into the tender years of their work, especially those who will soon be licensed, commissioned, and ordained to ministry.

Yet, we acknowledge that the journey is often difficult for those who pursue your call. We pray for those who are dealing with physical, emotional, mental, or financial hardship. Grant them courage for their disabilities, guidance for their difficulties, supportive loved ones to surround them in their darkest days, renewed strength for their moments of fatigue, and the willingness to make necessary changes toward health and wholeness.

We pray for those struggling to find adequate balance between the demands of leadership and their responsibilities to family and self-care. Grant them the ability to discern healthy choices, prioritize what is most important, and to tend to those areas of life that nourish their souls and tend to their relationships.

We pray for those dealing with isolation and loneliness, separated perhaps by distance from close friends and colleagues, or who serve in communities where pastoral boundaries preclude close friendships with parishioners. We pray for a dramatic increase in the numbers of pastors involved in clergy covenant groups, that they may discover the strength of companionship. May these groups afford them the chance to celebrate without seeming boastful, and to mourn without appearing indulgent.

We pray for pastors whose current spiritual state is likened to a dry, parched wilderness. We pray for those whose difficult years in ministry have sapped them of joy, robbed them of creativity, and drained them of a desire to seek your spirit of innovation and imagination. Tend to them as ravens at the Brook Cherith. Restore their energies, and inspire them to new ways of serving your people and the world.

We pray that you will renew within pastors a holy passion for the Scriptures. Open their eyes to new interpretive possibilities, and fill them with new zeal for its preaching, its teaching, and its embodiment through their example. May they see themselves as wordsmiths of the Word, falling in love once again with the beauty of human language, and its power to name, claim, and sustain our commitment to be your people.

We pray for pastors struggling with congregations mired in conflict, who must mediate between people caught in sharp disagreements and taxing arguments. Grant your spirit of peace, and empower a commitment to reason and compromise.

We pray for pastors whose patterns of spiritual discipline have long gone untended. Forgive those whose regular practices of prayer, Bible reading, ministry to the needy, fasting, tithing, meditation, and study have lapsed into inactivity. Call them to flex their atrophied muscles, that they may build up their capacity to serve your church over the long haul.

We pray that you will give pastors a new sense of joy in their ministry. Remind them of the first moments when you whispered your call into their ears. Strip away the layers of painful memories that now muffle the clarity and vitality of those first effusive moments. Instead, buoy their call with hope, fill them with laughter, grant them holy humor, and remind them that "the joy of the Lord is their strength."

We pray for the development of mentoring relationships, for older pastors willing to share a lifetime of lessons learned and mistakes overcome, and for younger pastors willing to exhibit humility and reverence for those who would teach them. Provide each Samuel a willing Eli, an Elijah for every Elisha, and a Naomi for every Ruth.

We pray for the Bishop and the Cabinet, and for the weighty episcopal demands they bear in making and setting pastoral appointments. We pray for your guiding spirit in every stage of the process, and for all parties involved - - departing and arriving pastors, sending and receiving churches, and all spouses and families impacted - - that your Kingdom will be built by the best people serving in the right places.

We pray for the emergence of new people into the ministry. May each local church claim the responsibility of seeking, cultivating, and calling people into this sacred task, and we even pray for an influx of younger pastors to lead the church for generations to come.

We give you thanks, O Lord, for all you have done in and through the faithfulness of your people throughout the years. May we continue to serve as the living expression of your love, put into action for the world to see. May all of us, clergy and laity alike, be led by the one whom you sent for our sake, Jesus the Christ, who is the head of the church, and in whose name we pray,

Amen.


Magrey

The Rev. Magrey R. deVega
St. Paul's United Methodist Church
531 W. Main St.
Cherokee, IA 51012
Ph: 712-225-3955
http://www.cherokeespumc.org




WORSHIP THIS SUNDAY
We begin our new summer worship schedule this Sunday, with services starting at 9:30. We continue our sermon series "Strength for the Tough Times" with the observance of Ascension Sunday and a sermon based on Acts 1:1-11.

SUMMER GIVING
We give thanks to you for all your faithful generosity over the first several months of this year, leaving us in a relatively fit financial position as we head into the summer. As people head out over the next few months for trips and vacations, please continue to remember St. Paul's in your giving, so that we can enter the Fall and the remainder of the year in healthy shape. If you would like information on how to set up your checking account for regular, automatic contributions, please contact Financial Secretary Sarah Cook.

TORNADO DEVASTATION IN JOPLIN
We have all been viewing the footage of the terrible damage done to the town of Joplin, MO, and other cities along the tornado belt. Your United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) continues to play an active role in relief and recovery efforts in towns like Joplin, and 100% of your gifts go directly to victims of the disaster. Please make your checks payable to St. Paul's and designate them for "Tornado Relief."



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With Gentleness and Reverence

May 24, 2011

Dear St. Paul’s Family,

At age 16, George Washington penned a small booklet called Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation. His 110 rules were based on principles of community written by French Jesuit monks 137 years prior, and Washington translated them for use in his time. He envisioned a society that viewed its citizens as equals, not dominated by aristocrats and elitists, yet still maintained a standard of dignity and decency.

Many of his rules now seem laughably quaint and outdated:

• When you Sit down, Keep your Feet firm and Even, without putting one on the other or Crossing them.
• In the Presence of Others, Sing not to yourself with a humming Noise, nor Drum with your Fingers or Feet.
• Do not Puff up the Cheeks, Loll not out the tongue, rub the Hands, or beard, thrust out the lips, or bite them or keep the Lips too open or too Close.
• Do not laugh too loud or too much at any Public Spectacle.
• Take no Salt or cut Bread with your Knife Greasy. [1]

Let’s just say I would have been a pretty lousy Colonial America, especially the part about laughing too loud. But of all of Washington’s rules, the one that most grabs my attention is the very first one, apparently the bedrock upon which all other codes of conduct rest:

Every Action done in Company, ought to be with Some Sign of Respect, to those that are Present.

Washington had an idyllic vision of how our nascent country could mature into a place where prosperity and achievement could be complemented with politeness and decorum. He believed that the foundation of a decent society was found in the way individuals treated those around them. His is a challenge that is just as important today as it was over 250 years ago.


SIGNS OF INCIVILITY

It is easy to see how far our country has strayed from Washington’s ideal. A recent Zogby poll revealed that 95 percent of Americans believe that civility in politics is important for a healthy democracy, but 89 percent say that the tone of politics has remained poor and in decline in the last three years. One need only remember the horrific shooting in Tucson last January to see evidence of our polarized political atmosphere.

Things are not much better in the workplace. The Workplace Bullying Institute, in conjunction with Zogby, conducted a poll that defined bullying as “repeated mistreatment: sabotage by others that prevented work from getting done, verbal abuse, threatening conduct, intimidation and humiliation.” By that standard, 35% of employees claimed to experience bullying first hand, including 34% of all female employees. [3]

And even the world of sports, the place to which Americans turn for escapist entertainment, is not immune from our uncivil society. Think about the near-fatal beating of a Giants baseball fan outside Dodger stadium in late March. Or even consider the rough tenor of parents attending youth sports. A recent report by the National Alliance for Youth Sports shared a story about two women assaulting and leaving unconscious a mother after a little league game in Utah. There was a also youth baseball coach who wrestled an umpire to the ground in Wisconsin. And there was a brutal brawl of thirty adults at the end of a Los Angeles youth soccer game. [4]

Of course, you and I could go on, building a nearly inexhaustible list of examples of how our relationships with one another have been marked by more rancor than respect, more spite than civility. And I haven’t even mentioned the divisions within the body of Christ.


WITH GENTLENESS AND RESPECT

With this gloomy diagnosis in mind, our journey through 1 Peter focuses our gaze this Sunday on chapter 3, verses 15 and 16: Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an account of the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence. In the spirit of true mainline, centerfield construction, 1 Peter finds the center between two extremes, recognizing the value of both firm opinions and gracious compassion. It is permissible, even advisable, for us to be confident about our principles, and to stake claims about our convictions. We need not be subject to a kind of open-ended tolerance that renders us unable to define truth for ourselves, and need not worry about being all things to all people. “Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you,” 1 Peter says.

But the second part is just as important: with gentleness and reverence. This is the key complement to conviction. It is the ability to relate to others with a tone that is neither condescending or acrimonious. We are called to be simultaneously secure and sympathetic in the way we relate to others.

I don’t think I can make it more practical or say it any better than Donald Miller, bestselling author of Blue Like Jazz and A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. Listen for the way he advises Christians to engage with others in areas in which they might disagree:


1. Truth is not My Truth, it’s Just Truth: My ideas were not really my invention. Even if I was the first person to consider an idea, it’s still something I stumbled upon. I shouldn’t take it personally when somebody doesn’t agree. They aren’t rejecting me, they are rejecting an idea.

2. Methodology is Part of the Message: When I get defensive and then condescending, what I associate my ideas with an offensive subtext, and that association is very strong to the hearer. Imagine having a conversation with somebody who has terrible breath, standing there and smelling their putrid hot air as they talk. It’s the same with your attitude toward somebody when you’re discussing an idea.

3. Without a Loving Heart, I am Like a Clanging Cymbal: If I don’t genuinely care about the people I’m talking to, I’ll be received like a guy standing there clanging cymbals together. The Bible makes a strong connection between a persons heart and their tongue. We tend to think we talk with our tongues alone, but the Bible says we talk with our tongues and our hearts. Corinthians 13: If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

4. The Other Person has Sovereignty: Even if I think the other person is completely wrong, they have a right to their beliefs. I can simply state what I believe and do so in kindness and that’s really it. If I’m trying to bully somebody into my way of seeing things, I’m not respecting the sovereignty of the person I am talking with.

5. I Could be Wrong: What we most want from the person we are talking to is for them to see things from our perspective and agree. That being said, though, are you willing to see things from their perspective? If not, try listening to their perspective then repeating it back to them. Ask them if you got it right, and if you did, say you will think about it. Then present your idea, too, and ask them if they understand your position. To be honest, they may not be as open as you, but once the conversation is over, I assure you they will have a new respect for you, and believe me, they will consider your ideas more respectfully. And besides, the truth is they could be right. [5]


PRAYER FOR ANNUAL CONFERENCE

We’ll explore more ideas of how to become a more civil people this Sunday when we dig deeper into the words of 1 Peter 3. In the meantime, I hope that you will keep all of these challenges in mind as United Methodists across the connection prepare to attend annual conferences in upcoming weeks. I will be attending two, Florida and then Iowa, starting next Monday. At these gatherings we will conduct the important work of electing delegates to the 2012 General Conference in Tampa, which serves as the chief decision-making body for the denomination. That means that our work will brew with conversations about the major hot-button topics of our time, earnestly seeking God’s guidance on how to resolve them despite our differences.

Let us join together as a congregation in prayer, that the words of 1 Peter 3 may be lived out in the way we dialogue and discern the future of the church. May we be clear enough about our convictions to provide “a ready defense,” but do so with great gentleness and reverence.

Grace and Peace,

Magrey

The Rev. Magrey R. deVega
St. Paul's United Methodist Church
531 W. Main St.
Cherokee, IA 51012
Ph: 712-225-3955
E-mail: mdevega@cherokeespumc.org
http://www.cherokeespumc.org


[1] http://www.foundationsmag.com/civility.html
[2] http://sitesmedia.s3.amazonaws.com/civility/files/2010/04/AlleghenyCollegeCivilityReport2010.pdf
[3] http://business.financialpost.com/2011/05/04/workplace-bullying-north-americas-silent-epidemic/
[4] http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-parents-we-mean-be/200907/the-morally-mature-sports-parent
[5] http://donmilleris.com/2010/05/03/five-principles-of-civil-dialogue/


1 Peter 3:13-17
13 Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good?
14 But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated,
15 but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an account of the hope that is in you;
16 yet do it with gentleness and reverence. Keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame.
17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God’s will, than to suffer for doing evil.




TORNADO DEVASTATION IN JOPLIN
We have all been viewing the footage of the terrible damage done to the town of Joplin, MO. Coupled with continued recovery efforts throughout the south and in the nearby towns of Northwest Iowa, these events are a stirring reminder of the importance of the church in times like these. Your financial contributions to the United Methodist Committee on Relief are vital in these efforts, and 100% of your gifts will directly to people in need. Make your gift payable to St. Paul’s and designate it for “Tornado Relief.”

MAGREY OUT OF TOWN NEXT WEEK
Starting next Monday, I will be attending to consecutive Annual Conferences, the first in Tampa, Florida, followed by Des Moines. I will be still be in the church to preach each of the next two Sundays, but in the event of a pastoral emergency in my absence, please contact the church office.

SUMMER WORSHIP TIME
Summer worship begins at 9:30am starting Sunday, June 5. Phyllis Parrot is coordinating summer coffees, so if you would like to help out with cookies or desserts, please contact her.

LAWN MOWING VOLUNTEERS FOR THE SUMMER
“The grass is growing, so the lawn needs mowing,” in the words of our own Rod Bainbridge. There is a sign-up sheet downstairs in front of the office for you to volunteer to mow the church lawn. All the equipment is here at the church for you to use, including gasoline. Please sign up and contact Al Henn if you have questions.



To view past editions of the Mid-Week Message, visit http://mdevega.blogspot.com
To unsubscribe from this e-mail distribution list, please reply to this e-mail and write "UNSUBSCRIBE" in the subject line.

A Sermon for Graduates

May 17, 2011

Dear St. Paul’s Family,

This Sunday the Cherokee community will gather at the high school to observe the commencement exercises for the Class of 2011. That morning, we will celebrate the seniors in our youth group and ask God’s blessing upon them as they move into the next exciting chapter of their lives.

To mark the occasion, I’m using today’s Mid-Week Message to share with you the sermon I preached last Friday night at Grace United Methodist Church in Sioux City for Mornigside College’s Baccalaureate Service. It was my honor to serve the college in this way, especially since our own Michele Witcombe was among its senior class. Having never attended a baccalaureate service, let alone preach for one, I wanted to offer a word to the graduates that was both suitable for the occasion and grounded in scripture. It was a sermon titled, “When Life Certainly is Uncertain,” based on Mark 9:14-29, the story of the father with the demon-possessed son. It captures my thoughts and hopes for all our graduates, as we journey through a world filled with conviction and chaos.

“When Life Certainly is Uncertain”
May 13, 2011
Mark 9:14-29

“Immediately the father of the child cried out, ‘I believe, help my unbelief!’” (Mark 9:24)

What a peculiar response. What a strange thing to say. The faculty of Morningside College, have, I suspect become quite accustomed to peculiar responses. Perhaps from some of you graduating seniors. Professors have the luxury of going right to the student and asking them, “What did you mean by what you wrote?” Or, “Tell me more about what you said.” Or, “I’m not clear about your point.” There is a desire for clarity and understanding.

A desire for certainty.

But when it comes to passages of scripture that are peculiar or unclear, we do not have that luxury. Because if we did, we could go straight to this man who responded to Jesus’ question and say, “What in the world did you mean?”

To set the stage, this was a man whose son was possessed by what the Bible says was an evil spirit. It was perhaps not a literal demon, but some kind of heavy, dark, emotional and mental state that had seized control of his life, rendering him uncontrollable and mute. And when the father brought the boy to Jesus for healing, he was greeted by Jesus with a rebuke: “You faithless generation, how much longer must I be among you? How much longer must I put up with you?”

The man didn’t exactly catch Jesus “in the mood,” wouldn’t you say?

So, the man decides to give Jesus the whole medical history on the boy, dropping the veritable case file on Jesus’ lap. And then he said to Jesus a seemingly innocuous, pious phrase: “If you are able to do anything, have pity on us and help us!”

To which Jesus said, “If you are able! (As if to say, “Really? Don’t you know who I am?) All things can be done for the one who believes!”

And so here it is. It’s at this point that the man cried out: “I believe, help my unbelief!”

I believe. Help my unbelief.

Two seemingly disparate, polar opposite ideas, juxtaposed with no reasonable connection. How in the world do we make sense of this statement? How can he both believe and not believe?

If the man were submitting this as a term paper to a Morningside faculty member, he might get docked points for a typo, and urged to proof his paper more carefully. He might get it back with a red pen in the margin, saying, “Um, you seem to be missing a word there, in between those two statements. Some kind of connecting word to help us understand the relationship between “I believe” and “Help my unbelief.”

I looked carefully at several translations of this verse to see if there was a conjunction in some version other than the one I’m used to. In fact, I looked at the Greek, and couldn’t find one. I then asked the smartest biblical scholar I know for advice.

I said, “Sweetheart…..” (To which Bruce Forbes said, “Don’t call me that.”) But we still couldn’t find a connecting word.

So rather than having the luxury of asking this father personally for clarification, we are left to playing Mad Libs with the gospels. There’s a blank there, and it’s asking for a conjunction.

So first, we try the word, “However.” That seems reasonable enough. “Lord, I believe….however….” Of course that works. It works for many of us. Yes, we believe. But, we still doubt. Yes, we live with certainty, but we still have our jitters.

This works grammatically, just as it works autobiographically. Track it through your own life. Four years ago, you went through a similar exercise in your life, graduating as high school seniors. You were at the top of your game, the king or queen of the hill, and you were convinced that you were fully formed for the task of adulthood. Your future was bright, your disposition giddy, and your enthusiasm charged.

And then came the first semester of your Freshman year.

Then, every bit of your “I believe” turned into “Help my unbelief.” Many of your foundational perspectives shifted, like tectonic plates under your feet. Your preconceived notions were challenged, the basic fabric of your identity tugged and frayed, and you were being disassembled, like a device in for repair.

All the while, this liberal arts education was doing its job.

But now you are sitting here, looking at college in the rear view mirror, having been more than repaired, but renovated, upgraded with new tools to make you think, act, and speak better than ever before. You graduated with certainty from high school, became uncertain in college, and now you are certain again.

To insert however into the man’s sentence is to suggest that belief and unbelief, certainty and doubt, are an uneasy mix, even mutually exclusive, in which we try to as hard as we can to be confident, but acknowledge that we still fall short. Is that the nature of this man’s peculiar response? Equal parts profession and confession? An affirmation of his belief, yet a repentance for his own shortcomings?

Now, if “However” is a reasonable possibility, I would like to suggest another. Maybe one that is more likely, and even more suitable for you graduating seniors ready to forge ahead with life.

How about the word, “Therefore.”

“Lord, I believe; therefore, help my unbelief.”

In other words, certainty and uncertainty are not mutually exclusive, but are necessary co-companions in your journey of life. They are the yin to the yang. They exist in our lives just as light creates shadows. If you have one, you must have the other. The more you grow in your understanding of who you are and the world around you, the more you must be aware of what you don’t know, and be ready for the surprises that lie ahead.

The presence of the word therefore would therefore be a reminder to us that tension and ambiguity in life is not always a bad thing. Struggling with what we know and don’t know does not convey how weak we are, but simply how human we are. I’m reminded of the great quote by Anne Lamott, who said that the “opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty.” Faith is not the absence of doubt, but the embrace of and ultimate transformation of it. Courage is not the elimination of fear, but the regular interplay and conscious choice against it.

The truth of the matter is, you and I live in a time when there is more value in the ambiguity and the shades of gray than there are in rigid, dogmatic certainty. Our world will be made better, not by the extremists on the fringe who think that everyone else has it wrong, but by those of us in the center who believe that there is value in respectful dialogue.

And if there is any group who has had to experience these lessons the hard way, it is you. Consider the fact you are part of a graduating class that was born the year that the Berlin Wall fell. You were toddlers when we engaged in the first Gulf war. When you were in elementary school, you saw the rise and burst of the dot.com bubble, the horror of the Oklahoma City bombing, and the massacre at Columbine High School. When you were in junior high, you witnessed the unfathomable tragedy of September 11, and every year of your high school and college careers has been marked by this country at war. And we are now in the midst of the greatest economic slump since the Great Depression. No generation has had to live with this kind of chaos and ambiguity shifting beneath their feet as yours.

All of this makes you uniquely equipped to understand that uncertainty is a certain part of life. And with its embrace can come transformation.

It’s interesting to note Jesus’ response to the man after he said this. Whereas in other stories, Jesus praises a person for their faith, or indicates how impressed he was by them, Jesus said nothing to the man.

Nothing at all.

Mark moves on with the story as if the man had said nothing at all. And so we are led to believe that Jesus found the man’s response to be neither troublesome or noteworthy. Perhaps it’s because he found it to be so natural. Whereas we might labor over what the man’s true motivations were deep down, it seems that Jesus knew.

He knew that the man was simply exhibiting all that it meant to be human. This, after all, would be the same Jesus that would later in his life say, in the same breath, “Let this cup pass from me. But not my will but yours be done.”

Jesus knew what it meant to be internally conflicted. So, Jesus gave this man the most salvific non-response in the gospels.

Instead of responding verbally, Jesus moved on to the important business at hand. He entered right into the midst of the man’s tension and spoke the demon out of his son’s body. Jesus’ response to the man’s response was to bring healing.

There is a lesson here for all of us, and for you, graduating class of 2011. When we are at our most vulnerable, at the point of acknowledging our deepest tensions, we need neither be judged or praised. We can simply be transformed, and then healed, to become agents of healing for a broken world. We can be brought to a maturity that neither ignores or condemns uncertainty, but embraces it for its benefit.

I encourage you, then, to insert your own therefore into this verse, and thus receive these great lessons: Don’t settle for easy answers in life. Don’t ever stop the thirst for learning, for checking your assumptions, and embracing the unknown. Don’t ever be timid in admitting your ignorance, but use the tools that you have been given by this college to test and to tease the resolutions out of chaos.

Yours is a generation that has been forged in the crucible of uncertainty. And you can lead the way for the world to embrace it and transform it.

In the name of the God who created us, redeemed us, and sustains us, Amen.


Magrey


The Rev. Magrey R. deVega
St. Paul's United Methodist Church
531 W. Main St.
Cherokee, IA 51012
Ph: 712-225-3955
http://www.cherokeespumc.org




GRADUATION SUNDAY NEXT WEEK
Join us as we celebrate this major milestone in the lives of our graduating seniors. We will continue in our sermon series “Strength for the Tough Times” with a challenge from 1 Peter on how to cultivate a mature faith anchored in Jesus Christ, our chief cornerstone.

CONGRATULATIONS, MICHELE!
We celebrate the graduation of Michele Witcombe last Saturday from Morningside College, who earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Education. We are so proud of you, Michele!

SUMMER WORSHIP TIME
Summer worship begins at 9:30am starting Sunday, June 5. Phyllis Parrot is coordinating summer coffees, so if you would like to help out with cookies or desserts, please contact her.

SPECIAL OFFERING THIS SUNDAY
This Sunday we are receiving our annual offering for Larry and Jane Kies, our missionaries to Africa University. Please be prayerful and generous in your support of their vital ministry to the students and families of Zimbabwe. All of your gifts will count toward our Rainbow Covenant Missions Giving effort for this year.

LAWN MOWING VOLUNTEERS FOR THE SUMMER
“The grass is growing, so the lawn needs mowing,” in the words of our own Rod Bainbridge. There is a sign-up sheet downstairs in front of the office for you to volunteer to mow the church lawn. All the equipment is here at the church for you to use, including gasoline. Please sign up and contact Al Henn if you have questions.

HOT DOG DAYS SUCCESS
Thanks to Jeff Blum, Kathy Simonsen, Rod Bainbridge, Darly Gochener, Korrie Waldner, and Don Henderson for their work on last Thursday’s Hot Dog Day. We distributed 160 hot dogs in under 45 minutes, and gave away over 50 flyers to kids advertising this summer’s Vacation Bible School. Thanks!