RMC #38- FUMCR Cross

When I first started going to The Vail Church I never noticed the cross in the church. I remember thinking that one morning as I drove to Avon to join in the Men’s Bible Study being held early each Wednesday.

So as I drove on this cool fall morning in Colorado I was caught by surprise of my memory of the cross that hung in the main church at First United Methodist Richardson (FUMCR).

It was about 3 years ago as FUMCR was just finishing up its new campus. The old cross that had hung in the sanctuary ever since that building was constructed was going to be moved to a place of prominence in the new church. The new church was far bigger than the old one and the scale of the old cross did not lend itself to the size of the new sanctuary. But the cross was being lovingly taken down and carried the few blocks and was being placed in an honorable and beautiful place in the new church.

One night Suzy and I were at the church, probably working on my favorite event the “Cookie Caper”. This was where the members of the church would bake 12 dozen batches of cookies, each, then have a cookie sale. Essentially buying their own cookies back. That year we would sell $7,000 worth of cookies. And since I love cookies this was a true labor of love for me.

Anyway, Joy Anderson, our totally fearless leader said that the workmen had just taken down the cross and would we like to see it up close and bless it before they moved it to the new church. We all said of course we would do so.

So we all bounded in the short distance to the sanctuary where this old rugged wooden cross lay silently on the ground.

I can barely even write this now even 3 years plus later.

The cross was alive.

I could barely move toward it I was struck with so much awe.

How many joys and tears had this wood absorbed in the years it hung so reverently above our heads? How many people were struck by the simplicity of the statement of this cross. How many people remembered the Son who had been placed on pieces of crossed wood not unlike this.

I remember saying a blessing through my tears.

I also remember there was an inscription on the cross, but couldn’t remember what it said. I remember it had been inscribed on the cross as almost a mistake. I couldn’t quite remember the story so I wrote my good friend Ed Murray to see if he remembered the story. He remembered something about it, but emailed Joy since he knew she would know.

Ed sent this back:

“The scripture on the cross is: “Father, forgive them. . . “

Bob Middlebrooks, Senior Minister at the time, was just thinking about what quote to put on the cross and wrote down that, intending for the message to include the entire quote, not just part of it, but whoever was in charge of getting the cross made took his scrap of paper and put that on the cross instead of the whole quote. 

Nothing mysterious or mystical about it.”

Nothing mysterious or mystical about it.

But then I am beginning to believe that everything is mysterious and mystical.

And magical.

I actually didn’t find the cross at The Vail Church the first time I looked that morning. I was after I had received back Ed’s response that I was actually able to see it. The cross at the Vail Church is a simple wooden cross, hung high in the chapel. It is very beautiful.

RMC # 37- The Importance of Glory

Sometimes the obvious is not so obvious to we humans. Or, at least not to this human.

My “understanding” and importance of glory really began when I read C.S. Lewis’ sermon called “The Weight of Glory” about a year ago. I thought that an odd title. It’s as if glory had a negative. As if glory weighs on men. That didn’t seem right. glory seemed more like an uplifting a goal of men and women.

Lewis said much about glory, but in the end, for me, it came down to a fairly simple thought:

“For glory means good report with God, acceptance by God, response, acknowledgment, and welcome into the heart of things. The door on which we have been knocking all of our lives will open at last.”

He goes on and discussed the divine accolade when we are before God and He says to you or me: “Well done thou good and faithful servant.”

So to Lewis, and to my mind at that time, glory meant to be accepted by God… an altogether overwhelming thought for me. “I can only imagine…” to borrow a phrase from one of my favorite songs of the same title by Mercy Me.

I was then led by a wise man into another reading. It was a book written by John Piper which including the writing of Jonathan Edwards. The Piper book is called “God’s Passion for his Glory” and the complete version of Edwards writing was “The End for Which God Created the World”.

Yep, some more lightweight reading for the Durkster.

Piper writes of his discovery of the writings of Edwards who was a famous pastor and writer in the early days of the American colonies. He wrote this particular book in the 1760’s. Its importance is still felt today.

The book was written in an era I have little affinity for. To say it was difficult and unusual for a 21^st century reader was obvious from the get go even with Piper’s impassioned lead-in.

But in his writing Edwards would stack argument on top of argument saying over and over how glory was the virtually sole reason of God. His Glory.

I hung in there as a long as I could trying to figure out where all of this groundwork was leading to.

And to my astonishment it leads directly to Scripture: Old Testament and New Testament Scripture.

Over and over and over in scriptural examples, Edwards showed how important Glory was to God.

In legal terms Edwards was delivering a “preponderance of evidence” that God’s sole reason for helping His creatures (you and me) was for His Glory.

As I read these familiar scriptural passages in a new light I saw over and over again what Edwards was getting at, in his words:

“There are many reasons to think that God has in view, in an increasing communication of himself through eternity, is an increasing knowledge of God, to love him, and joy in him. And it is to be considered that the more those divine communications increase in the creature (you and me- my parentheses), the more it (us- my parentheses) becomes one with God; for so much more is it (us) is united to God in love, the heart is drawn nearer and nearer to God, and the union with him becomes more firm and close, and at the same time, the creature (you and me) becomes more and more conformed to God. The image is more and more perfect, and so the good that is in the creature (us) comes nearer and nearer to an identity with that which is in God. In the view therefore of God, who has a comprehensive prospect of the increasing union and conformity through eternity, it must be an infinitely strict and perfect nearness, conformity and oneness. For it will forever come nearer and nearer to the strictness and perfection of union which there is between the Father and the Son.”

The Glory of the Father is best realized when you and I become as close to Him as he is to his Son.

Then Edwards says:

“God is their good. Their excellency and happiness is nothing but the emanation and expression of God’s glory.”

So the next time you read the Bible, look to see how many times the word “glory” is used. It is the clue to God we must not miss.

God Bless You to the Glory of God and His Son.

Ron and Brenda were some of our favorite friends when we lived in Dallas. They actually left before we did and we have not been able to see them other than a night in St.Louis before a golf tournament. That was way fun! Anyway, they have since moved to southern California and you know what has been happening there this week. Please read this moving account from Brenda and keep them in your prayers!

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Ron and I awakened to a second dawn of sobering gratitude for our continued safety from the fires raging in three directions around us.  You asked if we are safe and doing ok, and my answer is a heartfelt “more than ok”, we are blessed, because we still have power and water and are able to live at home.

We began to hear fire engines racing and helicopters buzzing early Sunday night. The swirling winds were blowing with gusts up to 70-100 miles per hour from the Santa Ana Mountains. The humidity level was a mere 3%, with a record-low annual rainfall of less than 4 inches, so the thousands of acres of dry tinder were easily fueled with a mere spark.

By 2am Monday, the winds were high, and the stench of burning trees and homes were so strong we closed our windows to try to shut it out. We tried to rest, but the intense smoky air was a constant reminder of the helplessness of damage and losses occurring. We offered silent prayers for those lives affected in much worse ways than simply dealing with smoke fumes.

5am passed, (after a sleepless night), as we watched the sun attempt to force its way through the corpse-like-grey rain of ashes blanketing the air. We began to watch and read the tragic news about our neighboring towns evacuating for the safety of their lives.

As you probably know by now, Ron and I live in southern Orange County; equal distance between Los Angeles and San Diego, and approximately five miles inland from the Pacific coast. San Diego county, approximately 30 miles south had mandatory evacuations of more than 300,00 people, and neighborhoods ranging from low income homes to $10 million+ homes have been leveled to nothing more than embers. To our north in Malibu, known for its “paradise of homes to the famed” destruction falls at the same pace as neighborhoods with less fortunate financial status. To the east of us, in Orange County through the canyons are many newly developed neighborhoods with young families displaced by the inferno. We witnessed the effects of Mother Nature’s powerful control over our lives without judgment of age, gender, race or faith; and without regard to one’s station in life.

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The Blessings I Have Received from the Churches I have Attended

I started to think about my spiritual journey over my life and was struck by a thought… how fortunate I had been in belonging to two churches that have been and are now being lead by really great Christian examples. The “pastors” of these two churches have blessed me, enlarged my faith, challenged me to learn and have comforted me in wonderful ways.

The Intellectual

I began going to the First United Methodist Church in Richardson, Texas shortly after moving to Richardson about 15 years ago. Keaton was in first grade and Sarah must have been about 3-4 years old. We went for the kids, and thankfully God was there waiting to help me too.

It would be another 5 years before I stood up for Jesus, but the time spent at FUMCR was far from a spiritual loss for this sinner. I was baptized in the church along with the kids. My heart felt awful at this time in my life as I knew how troubled I was personally and how far away I felt from God. Over time, as I went to more and more sermons given by my first “pastor” - David Shawver - God began to reach me as I was entranced by his sermons. The sermons appealed to me on an intellectual level that I had never experienced before. I started to understand the reasons why God worked and could work in my life. I was being drawn into God without my asking for it or understanding even the most basic of reasons.

After I came to Christ, got divorced and Suzy began to go to church with me, she too was taken by David’s sermons. But most of all she was taken in by his kindness to her and his unconditional acceptance of both of us into the church. For that and the encouragement of other members of FUMCR we became dedicated to working in the church wherever and whenever we could.

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