Reflecting God's Light

Head of Christ *oil on panel *25 x 21.7 cm *circa 1648

You may be surprised to learn that the Detroit Institute of Art’s collection includes a portrait study of Jesus by Rembrandt, the very study the Dutch master used for his Supper at Emmaus. Curator Graham W. J. Beal’s dream to see the works side by side was realized a few years ago with a special exhibit at the D.I.A. called Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus. I was fortunate to see that exhibit while visiting Janice’s family for the holidays.

Organized by the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Musée du Louvre, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the exhibit included paintings, prints and drawings of Jesus by Rembrandt and his students from museums throughout the world. I marveled at the seven or eight small portraitures of Jesus. They were simply breathtaking. I’d seen one of them previously in Berlin, but it was extraordinary to see them together for the first time since they were created in his studio.

Breaking from the traditional, idealized form based on Greek sculpture, Rembrandt painted an all-too-human likeness of Jesus. Moreover, he used a Jewish model, probably a Sephardic Jewish immigrant. (Rembrandt and his wife lived in a Jewish section of Amsterdam). Rembrandt literally changed the face of Jesus. What you get is a humble, human, caring Jesus. A servant, not a superhero. A life marked by compassion that was simply divine.

I want to invite you to join me on Monday nights at 6:30pm or Thursday mornings at 10am beginning January 25 for “Meeting Jesus Again: Part 1,” an exploration of a credible Jesus for the 21st Century. We will be joined by 25 experts for a conversation around the relevance of Jesus for today in this video-based study. Together let’s learn more about the One we’re called to follow.

Pastor Jeff

Go tell it on the mountain . . .that Jesus Christ is born!    

– African-American Spiritual

‘Tis the season of gifts and giving!  More than that, Christmas is a time to get in touch with what it means to give. When we give, something happens to us, as well as to the recipient!

Many of the gifts we give at Christmas are wrapped and placed under the tree. But there are so many others . . . the gift of friendship to someone who is lonely, the gift of compassion to someone who is hurting, the gift of forgiveness for someone who has hurt us, the gift of patience for those who are anxious. These gifts are everlasting. Long after the toys have been cast aside, the sweaters worn out, the perfume used up, these gifts will yet remain. They are eternal.

I want to suggest another unique way for us to give this Christmas, one that also could have lasting value. There’s a story about William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army. Booth spent most of his years reaching out to the destitute on the streets of London. This story may be apocryphal, but it has an important message:

Each Christmas there was a tradition in London that the churches would send out representatives to the streets to invite the poor to a Christmas celebration. Huge crowds would gather for this annual burst of generosity. The Anglicans would begin by announcing, “All of you who are Anglicans, come with us.” Then it was the Roman Catholics: “All who are Catholic, come with us.” Then the Methodists, the Lutherans, and all the other denominations announced, “Whoever belongs to us, come with us.” Finally, when all of the church representatives had made their invitations, a large crowd of people still was milling about. At that point William Booth would shout out to the people, “All of you who belong to no one, come with me.”

Hospitality is a hallmark of Dayspring UMC. We might well shout on the streets, “All of you in the East Valley who belong to no one, come with us. All who have become disillusioned with organized religion come with us. All who have been rejected by others, who are weary and heavy-laden, come with us, and God will give you rest. All who wish to be a part of a community where everybody is somebody, come with us.”

Let your gift, then, be an invitation. Invite your friends, relatives, neighbors, associates & acquaintances who may be looking for a faith community to one of our five Christmas Eve services – 3, 5, 7, 9 & 11pm – which promise to be inspiring and inclusive worship experiences. And there’s no safer time than Christmas to invite someone to church!

You might also consider inviting family, colleagues and neighbors to the Dayspring Chorale Christmas Concert on Dec. 6 at 7:00pm and our Children’s Christmas Pageant on Dec. 13 at 8:30 & 10:00am.

May the love, hospitality and generosity of the one whose birth we celebrate at Christmas touch your heart and fill your life with meaning and purpose.

In the Love of that First Christmas,

Pastor Jeff

Our United Methodist Men’s group used a book by Harold Kushner, Living a Life That Matters, for their retreat last month. I’m a big fan of Kushner’s work. I don’t know how many copies of When Bad Things Happen to Good People I’ve given away over the years. That book has brought comfort to millions of people by helping them cope with some of life’s most shattering tragedies. As a by-product of his bestselling book, Kushner was pushed and pulled into prominence, achieving a measure of fame and fortune few ever taste.

Ironically, it was out of this position of prominence that Kushner penned his second book with the surprising title When All You Ever Wanted Isn’t Enough. His thesis being, even if you do “get it all” you won’t be satisfied, simply because life is created for something more significant than success.

As much as we’d all like to have the chance to prove him wrong, most of us will never have the opportunity. All of us know what it’s like to feel unfulfilled at one point or another in our lives. If the Bible is to be believed, from Jeremiah to Jesus, the real art of meaningful living is learning how to live life bravely, and even beautifully, on the basis of never getting “all you ever wanted.” As DeWane Zimmerman says, “Meaningful lives are those who have learned the great and graceful art of living with leftovers, even with the left over memories of loved ones who have died – or have left in other painful ways.”

This is the season of Thanksgiving. It begins and ends with a heart of gratitude. While aerobic exercise may be good for your heart, practicing gratitude is a spiritual exercise to develop a grateful heart. Grateful for all we already have – even leftovers.

I think I was in high school when I became troubled by exclusive truth claims professed by some Christians. Perhaps I wondered how my good friends who happened to be Jewish would be left out of heaven. Or how Christians of a certain stripe could have a monopoly on the Divine. The notion of an all-loving God coexisting with a place of eternal damnation especially left me short. Slowly I began to see the Sacred in a new way, characterized as having an ongoing love affair with the world – a God who participates and delights in creation and calls us into holistic ways of being and relating to each other, the Spirit, and all of creation.

Brian McLaren relates a similar journey. He came to see that the narrative arc of the Bible isn’t about saving sinners from hell. “No,” McLaren says, “The Christian faith – and the basic message of the Bible – is that we human beings are in a mess. We’re in a mess individually, but we’re in a mess as a species and we’ve plunged the whole planet into a desperately serious crisis. And God is with us, and God is guiding us, and God is leading us to deal with it in constructive ways. The story is about God’s love for the world and healing of the world. “

This realization can be liberating. We don’t have to live in fear. God is for us! Isn’t that the Gospel in miniature? And it’s an invitation to actively participate in what Jesus called the Kingdom of God, what our Jewish sisters and brothers call tikun olam, “the healing of the world.”

As McLaren says, “I can’t help but think that if we participate with God in God’s redemptive healing, reconciling work then whatever happens after we die is gonna’ be ok. But, if we become so preoccupied with our own little eternal outcome, so that we don’t care about what God’s doing in this world, we don’t join in it, that can be pretty counterproductive.”

I too believe the overarching message of the Bible concerns God’s ongoing care for creation and invitation to all to help bring about God’s dream for the world. “Please join me,” it’s as if God says to each and all. “I need you!” Each and all, blessed to be a blessing!

Pastor Jeff

I was once challenged to read nothing but the Bible for a month. I think my friend was genuinely concerned for my salvation. One day she came to me and said, “Jeff, it’s obvious that you read a lot of books. But I’m wondering if you spend enough time reading the Bible. I’d like to challenge you to spend a month reading nothing but the Good Book.” Somewhat intrigued, I told her I would give it some thought and prayer.

I later called her and said, “I’ll do it. But I have a request of you. While I’m reading the Bible, I’d like for you to read three books of my choosing!” My friend agreed, and we decided to meet each week of that month and share our discoveries.

So the following month I read nothing but the Bible. No newspapers, magazines, books. I had Janice read me my mail and I joke that I got lost every time I got in the car, not being able to read street signs and all. And I must say it was a fantastic experience! My friend and I both learned a great deal about ourselves, each other and the texts we studied. The experience cemented our relationship in mutual respect. I fell in love again with large parts of the Bible, Isaiah and Luke, in particular. And I was reminded of huge swaths of prejudice and violence that somehow made it into the canon.

And, of course, I realized my friend was right: I don’t spend enough time reading the Bible.

September 13 is Bible Sunday. We will give Bibles to our children and we’ll consider how we are a people, as John Wesley said, “of one book.” I hope you’ll plan to be present in worship.

You may be wondering what titles I put in my friend’s hand. If you’ve been around Dayspring the past year you can probably guess the authors of two of them! I asked her to read: The Clown in the Belfry: Writings on Faith and Fiction, by Frederick Buechner, Jesus: A New Vision by Marcus Borg, and, of course, Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism by John Shelby Spong.
Blessings, Pastor Jeff

http://www.old.dayspring-umc.org/events/easter-2019/

And now back to our regularly scheduled routine…

I love routine. I love the assurance of knowing what is going to happen next. However, as a parent of school aged children, routine changes with summer vacation. Summer gives me the opportunity to be challenged with the unexpected opportunities that exist outside my family’s regular routine. It has been challenging, but also a growing opportunity to live in the moment with my daughters and greet each day looking for the unexpected joy and surprises. This past summer, I have been meditating on one of my favorite verses from Scripture. Lamentations 3:22-23 says, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. God’s mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is God’s faithfulness.” What a joy it has been to greet the morning looking for the Spirit of God’s love during this summer season. God has been at work and what an incredible gift it has been to recognize all that God has been doing.

Now we move back into the season of routine. A time to schedule ourselves with the gifts and graces God has given us to use in our school work, our jobs, our relationships, our play, and our worship and service at Dayspring and the world. As we prepare for our journey of “routine” together, I invite you to consider how you and your family will schedule your worship, spiritual formation, and play at Dayspring. Dayspring is full of incredible opportunities to serve and grow in faith. Prayerfully discern how you will use your gifts and receive spiritual formation in your routine. If you need help in your discernment, you are not alone, please contact anyone of the staff and we would love to pray and talk with you.

Have a great routine this year at Dayspring.
Pastor Joel

“Through the years of human struggle walk a people long despised,
    Gays and lesbians together, fighting to be realized.”

Those lines were written by my friend Julian Rush – musician, composer and former United Methodist minister. I met Julian in 1989 at the 2nd Annual Reconciling Ministries Convocation in San Francisco. He retired to the Phoenix area a decade later and joined Asbury UMC, where I served as pastor.

Julian Rush was the first openly gay minister appointed to a United Methodist Church after the UMC institutionalized discrimination against LGBT persons in its 1976 Book of Discipline. In 1981, Bishop Melvin Wheatley appointed Rev. Rush to St. Paul’s UMC in Denver. There would be hell to pay. Julian was soon forced out of the ordained ministry and Bishop Wheatley was admonished and ostracized by the Council of Bishops.

Julian’s rejection by the church only served to strengthen his faith. In 1985, he wrote a hymn called Ours the Journey. It is a stirring anthem, a testament to God’s persistent desire to help us move beyond ignorance and hatred, through tolerance and acceptance, finally to embrace and celebrate persons of all backgrounds, colors and orientations – “each a gift in your creation, each a love song to be sung.” The hymn would included as “In the Midst of New Dimensions” in The Faith We Sing, a hymnal supplement of the UMC published In 2000 – but only after Julian’s willingness to omit the lines quoted above: “Through the years of human struggle . . .”

This has been a watershed week in the LGBT struggle. At home, our annual conference voted by an overwhelming margin to petition the General Conference of the UMC (which meets in May 2016) to remove discriminatory language against LGBTQ persons from the Book of Discipline. And nationally, the Supreme Court has ruled that same-gender marriage is the law of the land. I recognize this represents dramatic change for some. For others, it has been a long time coming. Hopefully all of us can affirm, with Julian, our faith in the God who goes before us, calling us into a vision of our shared humanity:

“In the midst of new dimensions, in the face of changing ways,
who will lead the pilgrim peoples wandering in their separate ways?

God of rainbow, fiery pillar, leading where the eagles soar,
we your people, ours the journey
now and ever, now and ever,
now and evermore!”

On May 3 we will receive the Confirmation Class into the membership of the Church. It seemed fitting for me to share with you “Why I Am a United Methodist” on that day. And since May 24^th falls on a Sunday this year, I thought it might be nice to do a month focused on Methodism. What’s the significance of May 24^th, you may ask?

As you probably know, John Wesley started the movement that became the Methodist Church. May 24, 1738, was a watershed day in the life of the Anglican priest. Wesley had a life altering experience that he came to refer to it as his “heart-warming experience at Aldersgate Street.”

That morning he read from 2 Peter, “There are given to us exceeding great and precious promises, even that you shall be partakers of the divine nature.” Later he opened his Bible again, and his eyes were fixed on these words: “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” He felt God was telling him that his search and coldness of heart were nearly over. He walked the streets of London all morning, while the words echoed in his mind: “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” He later wrote in his journal, “At three in the afternoon I went to St. Paul’s Cathedral where the choir was singing the 130th Psalm — their cry being my cry: “Out of the depths have I cried to you, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice!” Yet there was no answer to my plea. He was encouraged by a friend to attend a meeting that night on Aldersgate Street. He wrote, “I shudder to think what might have become of me had I not gone. Someone was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change that God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for my salvation.”

My prayer is that we all will have such heart-warming experiences of God’s love and acceptance. When we can affirm, with Paul, that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ!

Blessings,

Pastor Jeff