Sermon Work

An oxymoron - "sermon work"? It can be. It is easy to get sermons via the internet. One pastor used to say that he did not work his sermons up, he got his sermons "down". Meaning they came directly from the throne room of the Lord. That would be nice. And, in some ways, the Word and the Spirit do work together to produce the message through a human vehicle. More often than not, however, rather than receiving post cards from heaven messages arrive through the work of study, prayer, and thought.

Sometimes I am asked how difficult it really is to prepare a sermon. Sometimes it is very difficult and sometimes not so much. Occasionally it just flows. More often than not, however, it is laborious. I say it is a bit like giving birth, but saying that gets me in trouble every time. (We'll see!) The hardest part for me is the application. I mean that in two ways. How does this sermon apply to the hearers? What should they do with the truth of this text? The second struggle with application is more personal. How does this text apply to me and how am I seeking to live out the reality of it? Jesus warned about those who teach one thing and live another. There are certain topics that I blanch about when I preach on them. Suffering, for one. All people suffer to some degree or other. But, in the face of the catastrophic suffering some folks in the congregation go through, my pain seems a bit trivial.

As Tommy Snooks and Bessie Brooks

were walking out on Sunday,

Said Tommy Snooks to Bessie Brooks,

Tomorrow will be Monday.

And that is in the front of my mind - tommorow is Monday and what will this message mean then - when the saints move out into the homes and jobs. That is the application. Living out our faith in the context of the world into which God has called us with His glory in mind.

Dear Deer! NOT!

Well, the white deer saga continues. Turns out, it apparently is not a deer. Well, sorta. I have been told by those who know that it is a "Seka" deer which is actaully a tiny elk. Furthermore, I have also been informed that it is an escapee. It ran away from someone for some reason. It certainly is an odd deer, very friendly, not shy with a bouncy gait when it does run. Regardless, the white deer, er elk, is currently MIA from the GCBC property. Perhaps he read the earlier blog and was offended.

Hobby - Help? Hinderance?

Hobbies - are they a good thing? A hobby, by definition, is "an activity or interest pursued outside one's regular occupation and engaged in primarily for pleasure". Are hobbies a good thing or do they serve to siphon off valuable resources in terms of time and money - resources that could or perhaps should be invested else where? Should we be feeding children with the money we spend on our hobbies? Do our hobbies stop us from serving our neighbors like we should. Hmmm.

I have two hobbies that I will admit to. One is the collection of diecast airplanes. It is a rather innocuous hobby. Here is a photo of one. It is an A-10 Thunderbolt. If you could see the tail (or vertical stab for your airplane aficionados) you would see the designation EL which means it is a model painted in the scheme of A-10s which were with the 23rd TFW and stationed at England Air Force Base. I used to watch these planes straffing at the nearby bombing range. This particular diecast model was a gift - I bear no guilt in owning it. But, I have 91 other diecast models. Some of them were also gifts, but many of them I purchased. Most of mine are fairly inexpensive, especially when compared to the $150 models collectors purchase. I add 2-3 new planes a year, sometimes receiving them as Christmas gifts.


The other hobby is astronomy. (There is a theme here - both require looking up). It can be an expensive hobby. I looked at a telescope advertised on the web today. This is a "personal" telescope mind you. $156,000! My telescopes were not quite that expensive. I own 4, three of them I purchased used. The one new one is the one in the picture. It is a nice telescope - a 4 inch refractor. Not only do you need the telescope, you also need a mount to put it on, a diagonal which holds the eyepieces, and the eyepieces. Then there are accessories such as cases, finders, red flashlights, books, etc, etc. It would be easy to spend thousands. But, you don't have to spend thousands. It would be hard to be in astronomy and not spend hundreds, however. A decent used scope is $250 - 300. A decent used eyepiece $50 - $75. And on it goes.


Of the two hobbies, the astronomy one takes me away from the family. None of my family really has an interest. They told me that when I am with the Lord, they are liquidating all of my equipment. So, when I am out looking, I am usually alone. I would like to change that and am thinking about starting a club here in Gibson.

Anyway, I would be less than honest if I did not think that at times I should be rid of all of it and give away the money and invest the time else where. But then, there is something about developing more in our lives than simply work. We were, I believe, created to work. But, we were also created to be creative. And, participating in a hobby broadens our world, opens opportunities, increases our knowledge, expands our horizons, and invigorates our imaginations.

So, I guess as long as I feel, to some degree, the tension, as long as I seek to be moderate and am open to abandoning it all should the Lord call me to do so, as long as I hold it all loosely, as long as it does not become a god, does not injure my testimony, does not hijack my faith, does not impede my service - then it can be a good thing. What do you think about hobbies?

Cyber Community, Connection, Talking

Never say never. I am now on "Facebook". It is a good thing, I think, to be connected with people. A very good thing. It is Biblical. We don't do it enough. We need to be involved in the lives of others. It is a demonstration of our faith to "bear one anther's burdens". But, is it correct to call an electronic connection a community? If so, it is a whole other way of thinking of it - different from the past view of seeing community as a collection of people who love, care, and serve one another in tangible ways. (I am NOT saying that people connected by the computer do not express those, but I do think the temptation is there to not) The danger of an electronic community is that we can become voyeuristic, not in some perverted way, but in the way that we look through the window of our computer at the lives of others, people we really care about, and our only involvement is through words typed onto a screen. It is a means of satisfying our curiosity but not a means of applying our love. It is like the old saying, "thinking about praying is not the same as praying". Reading the agony someone is experiencing is not the same as heading to their home and seeking to help them. It may be argued, of course, that at least we now know about the agony.

And yet, for all the shortfalls, it DOES connect us in a way we have not been doing. It does provide the opportunity for legitimate expressions of love, for tangible and viable opportunities to meet needs. And, maybe I am taking it all to a place where we don't need to go. Maybe cyber community is about having some fun with other folks, a light touch, but a touch nonetheless.

Anyway, I do have to be careful with my time. And, I don't want to loose face to face, hand to hand contact with people. As good as cyber communities may be, they can never, ever replace the need for us to sit together, face one another, share our joys, burdens, prayers, concerns, and victories together.

Dear Deer

Dear Deer,

Dear me. You have caused quite a stir. For some reason you have adopted our church property as your residence. Some see it as a miracle, a sign. Of what, I am not sure. I do not sense any increased "blessing" since you showed up. Now, if tomorrow, someone walked in and paid our church building off, then I might change my mind. In fact, I still think you (please don't take offense) might be a goat. My grandpa raised goats and you bear a striking resemblance to them. But, you don't smell like them. Regardless, Dear Deer, I would tell you to be careful. For one thing, you are way too trusting. You let us get too close and I fear that one day someone will want to get close to decide whether White Deer is as tasty as Brown Deer. And then there is highway. Cars and Semi Trucks are not your friends. Stay far, far away from them. Someone talked about trying to capture you and put you in a pen as curiosity for folks to come and see. Somehow that seems to take the joy out of things.

I would suggest, Dear Deer, that you lay as low as possible. You are easy to spot, so try to keep a very low profile. Stay away from people wearing camo, don't be drawn to bright lights at night, and be wary of folks bearing gifts of corn.

Thanks for coming to see us.

Sincerely,

Paul Thomason

Ressurection Musings

This is an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly which is enjoying the blessing of an azalea. I photographed this last month during our time in Louisiana. Forgive me for sounding morose or for not moving on, but for some reason I found comfort in seeing this insect during the difficult time of experiencing the death of my father, a renewed sense of the death of my mother, and the death (at least the ending) of what has been a significant part of my life for 51 years by preparing the "Place" to sell.

I am not attempting to simply "get over it". Sorry, but that does not happen. If you just "get over it" then whatever you are "just getting over" certainly did not mean much to you. Instead, the butterfly and what it symbolizes to me helped put everything in perspective. What does the butterfly represent? It is a reminder of The Resurrection. Not just any resurrection, mind you, but The Resurrection. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The butterfly "dies" in its cocoon, those of you who are entomologists (as if one would read this blog!) would correct my perception, but this is representation or illustration - which is not always exacting in comparisons, and then the butterfly comes back to life. It is Spring. And, The Resurrection is not some lame story that has evolved as a Spring Passage Story thought up by our forefathers as symbolic of the earth coming back to life after the dormancy of winter. The Resurrection is the shock wave that shoots through the universe and changes every thing.

Sunday worship here on the day we celebrate The Resurrection was awesome. The music was amazing, we had a great attendance (400 - 500), and the Lord gave grace during the message. My point was to take the worn out cliche - You Cannot Get There From Here - and to turn it on its head and say that The Resurrection is about - You Cannot Get Here From There. I understand how Jesus got to Dead, in that there is no mystery. We are all headed for Dead. But,
getting from Dead back to Life, that is amazing and therein lies our hope. And, The Resurrection is not just about an exclamation point at the end of the death of Jesus. It is not just about me saying "Nan Nan Na Nana" to death. It literally changes everything. Jesus is taking back the universe. He is not giving the devil an inch. This good earth is going to be transformed back to what the Lord intended it to be in the first place and the power that is going to accomplish that has already been unleashed by The Resurrection. And we, the people who are recipients of His grace are also being transformed by that same power to become more and more like what He intended us to be from the beginning. It is a process that won't be complete till Jesus comes back, but the power is already at work in our world.

And, it all comes because Jesus has provided a way in order to Get Here From There.