Robynes Review of 2011

Robynes Review of 2011

Wesley Foundation Fall 2011, Merry Christmas

Wesley Foundation Fall 2011, Merry Christmas

Here we are...

Last Sunday’s service is still on my mind…perhaps a sign that the Holy Spirit is at work in me(?). It is sometimes amazing how the words of the songs come together with the message. Pastor Lana shared an audio clip from Corrie Ten Boom describing how she struggled with forgiving a concentration camp guard-although she could not forgive, she discovered that God CAN forgive (sometimes working through us). Powerful!

Then the words of the song “Remedy”…

“Here we are

Here we are

The broken and used

Mistreated, abused

Here we are…

Here we are

Here we are

Bandaged and bruised

Awaiting a cure

Here we are

Oh, lift up your voices

And lift up your heads

To sing of the love

That has freed us from sin…”

We all have so many wounds from life. Truly God’s love lifts us up. God’s love frees us. It is God, by forgiving us, that empowers us to forgive ourselves and others…and move on.

Rev. Adam Hamilton puts it this way….

““1. Is forgiving condoning? The answer is “no.” To let go of our right for retaliation is not to say that what the other person did was okay. We can choose to let go of our anger and resentment and still be clear what happened was wrong. If we don’t, we continue to give the wrong and the wrongdoer power over us. We continue to carry their rocks in our backpack if we are unwilling to forgive.

2. Does forgiving negate consequences? The answer again is “no.” If someone steals from me, or lies regularly to me, I will forgive them, but that doesn’t mean I will trust them again. I had a friend who betrayed a confidence. I love him, but I know that I can’t tell him anything in confidence because he’s likely to share it with others. Consequences are sometimes the only way we learn. So, if my children when they were small did something wrong, I would forgive them, but they might still be grounded–the grounding was about redemption.

3. Do we forgive them if they have not repented?...There are two sense of forgiveness. There is the internal letting go of the right to retaliation, giving up bitterness and resentment. And there is extending mercy to the other, so that they know you have released them from the guilt of their sin towards you. We call this showing mercy towards them. We must forgive in the first sense. We cannot let the wrong continue to have control over us. But when it comes to showing mercy towards the other, we are not required to do this until they have repented. In fact, sometimes showing mercy towards one who has not repented can keep them from redemption….Mercy extended prematurely might actually harm the one you’re extending it too. It can make you an enabler of their actions if you extend mercy too quickly.” --Rev. Adam Hamilton in “Forgiving Others”

Each time we pray the Lord’s Prayer…may we pause when we say “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those that trespass against us…” God is working in your life.

A prayer…

Lord Jesus, I’m so grateful for your love and

forgiveness. Today, I hear Your word: “Shouldn’t you have had

mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on

you?” (Matthew 18:33) That raises painful feelings

and memories I’d rather ignore. Lord, of your

mercy, teach me how to seek forgiveness from

others, how to offer it even to enemies—and how

to do both in healthy ways that heal, rather than

just suppressing, my pain and hurt. Amen.

Washing Dirty Feet

I don't get to share this story enough, so I'm just going to write it down and let it go where it will on its own.

Today is Maundy Thursday, my favorite day of the church year. In 2006 I spent the most memorable Maundy Thursday in my life. It's one of the few events I have no photos of, yet have most emblazened on my mind and heart.

I was in Zimbabwe with my family for five months while Glen and I worked on campus ministry development at Africa University near Mutare. I was missing that there was no Maundy Thursday worship service planned on campus. Students were busy preparing for finals.

At about 6:30, Dr. Beauty Maenzanise, Dean of the Faculty of Theology and our neighbor, dropped by to invite us to a Maundy Thursday service across the valley at 7pm. Glen and I were getting ready to put the kids to bed. Being a person who loves spontaneous opportunities as well as Maundy Thursday worship services, I immediately volunteered to go and let my lovely spouse stay with the kids!

Dr. Beauty picked me up, and as we drove, she warned me on the way over that she would be leaving me to go up to wash feet and serve communion. She asked, a little dubiously, if I'd be interested in joining her for either foot-washing or commuion, warning that foot-washing in Africa wasn't like in America. These feet would be dirty, diseased, cracked, calloused, malnourished, and worn. I immediately assured her I'd love to help with both if they could use me. She arranged for me with Rev. Mutano (who later became a dear friend) to join her up front for both.

Dr. Beauty was absolutely right. The church was packed that night with hundreds of people. It was clear that most of them had walked many miles to get there as no other cars pulled up (we had driven the one and a half miles across the valley). Many arrived carrying their shoes while some had none. I had no idea when I said yes to her just how special this opportunity was, to get to wash real feet...feet like those in Jesus' day. If I had had any idea how long I'd be down on my knees washing hundreds of feet, I might have thought twice. They offered me a chair, but none of the other Zimbabwean servers had one, so I stubbornly continued to kneel with growing numbness and increasingly painful leg cramps.

I've thought often about all those feet I washed that night...and all the feet WE washed that night. Everytime I hear the story of Jesus washing his disciples' feet or have a foot-washing service around Maundy Thursday, the images of that night-- washing all those beautiful, hard-working, hopeful feet no matter how dirty, and then looking up to see huge smiles of true gratitude and amazement that a white American clergy-woman would bother with serving them (actually, they probably had no idea I was clergy at that time). I imagine that's how Jesus' disciples might have felt as Jesus washed their feet. He showed them a new practice of power and leadership through service, humility, and love.

In Zimbabwe, people don't say please and thank-you like we do. Instead they show their desire and gratitude by clapping their hands together and through shining eyes. We had seen this so many times with the children who stopped by our house after school for a snack and arts/crafts time. After washing feet that night, I helped serve communion and was struck how everyone said please and thank-you for communion in the same way. Clap-clap. The body of Christ broken for you. Clap-clap. The blood of Christ poured out for you. Shining eyes, grateful smile.

I wonder all the time, especially every year at this time, what has happened to all those feet and hands I served that night. Zimbabwe was facing difficult times when we were there, and we naievely thought it couldn't get much worse. But it did get infinitely worse. No petrol meant even more people walking everywhere, standing around waiting to hitch rides that never came. How many of those feet were tortured and maybe even wiped off the face of their land due to AIDS, cholera, starvation, torture, imprisonment, political persecution, and exhaustion of all resources? How many hid away until the storms passed, and how many escaped across borders and now live as illegal immigrants and refugees in places like South Africa and Mozambique. The odds have been against them and continue to stomp the people down, but that makes me pray all the harder for them. Can I stay awake to their needs, or will I forget and sleep.

Please pray with me to stay awake for their sake, and Jesus' sake.

Amen.

Maundy Thursday in Zimbabwe from our 2006 www.Xanga.com/Robynes blog by Lana...an experience I can never forget. We were supposed to leave Maundy Thursday afternoon for Mana Pools to go camping for the Easter weekend, but the car we were borrowing wasn't available yet. How thankful I am for this inconvenience. Because, at the last minute, I went with the AU Dean of Theology (Beauty) to the 7 p.m. Maundy Thursday services at the Hartzell Mission United Methodist Church...all in Shona. We figured out later it started an hour and a half earlier than we thought, so we got there in the middle of the sermon even though we thought we were early. But plenty of other people came in late too, and soon the church was almost filled (maybe 300 people). Then the pastor called up any other ordained pastors to help serve communion, so Dean Beauty and I went up with three other women (yes, one ordained male pastor to five ordained women...and here in the still realitively patriarchal Zimbabwe of all places!). We kept running out of juice, so the stewards kept going back to refill the little cups. I'm glad we didn't dip or share one cup, as lots of people have come down with colds right now as the weather as cooled a bit. Everyone did the traditional Zimbabwe hand clap-clap (their sign of saying please and thank-you) before receiving the wafer and juice. Communion took about an hour. Then there was a foot-washing part of the service. Yes, actual foot washing. And many people had walked a long way to come to church. The pastor looked at us doubtfully and offered to let us go sit back down if Dean Beauty and I didn't want to help with this, but we said we wanted to help. So they went and found two more buckets and chairs for us sit on. But we insisted on kneeling like the other pastors. It took another hour, and I figure I washed about seventy people's feet. It was quite a humbling experience, kneeling to serve so many desperately poor people...some of whom certainly had HIV/AIDS. As I washed their feet, I marveled at how similar this was to Jesus washing his disciples' dusty, blistered, tired, worn feet. I also marveled at the fact that probably none of the Africans I served had ever experienced this type of service from a white woman. I wonder what this meant for them! So, although the pastor warned us not to spend too much effort actually cleaning them since it was to be symbolic, I found it wasn't just a symbolic act, and I could not let them leave with dirty feet. So, even though there were many people and it took a long time, I didn't rush people through. At the end, I went to have my feet washed by Dean Beauty, and found she was taking even more care with each person's feet...almost a foot massage. I was asked to offer the benediction at the end, and I said basically the following (hoping they understood most of my English): “It is an honor to be here tonight, to serve communion and wash your feet. When Jesus washed his disciple's feet on the night before he was crucified, it wasn't just symbolic. He was truly washing their tired, worn feet which had walked many miles with him to Jerusalem. And by doing so, he showed them how a leader of God is called to serve others. And he turned the meaning of being Lord upside down...that he didn't just come to be King, but also to serve in humility and love. He showed how we must value the feet of the body. Paul said this too, that all parts of the body are important, even the feet. We must not take any part of the body for granted – but especially the feet, because they bear the weight and carry the rest of the body. It is tragic how Africa has been treated like the feet of the world. Zimbabwe has been treated like the feet of Africa lately. And many of you may feel like you have been treated like the feet of Zimbabwe, abused, neglected, stomped on. But you are important and valuable, because you are children of God, created in God's image like everyone else. And I am honored to serve you tonight. I pray for you and this country. May you walk out of here tonight with clean feet, clean hearts, and your heads held high with dignity as children created in God's image. God bless you all!”

Jesus Christ Superstar 2000. part 3 (this Jesus must die)

The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves.
William Hazlitt (1778 - 1830)

Jesus Christ Superstar 2000. part 4 (Hosanna)

Glee "Loser like Me" w/LYRICS (Full Original Song) HQ/HD

Modern Palm Sunday could sing Glee "Loser like Me"

we sadly don't have time for singing this in WIRED this Sunday, but you can come join us for a Palm Sunday Part II with Pastor Lana and Wesley students at Wesley Foundation, 4:30 pm. Find out more about how to stand up for Jesus when all the powers are against you! Stand together! Lift high whatever you have to declare your faith in Christ-- palm branch, foam hand, i-phone, etc. Make a wave!