#33 Color Commentary

March Madness is far and away my favorite yearly sporting event. Year after year I find myself sucked in by the drama of back-and-forth finishes, star performances, and amazing upsets. But this year has been even more special. This year I have Lanie to watch the games with me. She doesn't understand anything that's going on yet; in fact, I'm pretty sure she can't even see far enough to make out what's happening on the TV. But that doesn't matter, because her daddy is around to announce the game for her. I fill her in on big threes and huge dunks and crucial defensive stops. I explain the foolishness of risky passes, the beauty of patiently finding the open man, and the hope brought by key offensive rebounds. And most of all, I emphasize again and again the necessity of making free throws. You have to make your free throws. (Hopefully, if I repeat this enough to Lanie while she grows up, she'll just inherently know the importance of foul shots if she does decide to play hoops.) Lanie normally just looks at me while I provide my color commentary, but every once in a while she flashes a smile that suggest she enjoys it. I'll turn her into an expert yet.

Lanie enjoying Saturday's Elite Eight games with Daddy

Grace and peace,
BMH

#32 Minesweeper

This weekend our youth group fasted for thirty hours for World Renew's FAST Forward program. When we weren't collecting food for the local food bank, doing Bible studies, or having worship times, we played some games. One of these games simulated the dangers people in many parts of the world face as they cross fields littered with unexploded ammunition to gather food. One member of each team had to walk blindfolded through a "field" of styrofoam cups while another member of the team guided them. If the scavenger touched a cup, they had to put down whatever they had picked up, and the next person on the team took over.

At the end of the game, my team and the team next to us were both gathering our final can of food. By the time my teammate started, the other team was just about on their way back. I quickly guided my teammate to the can. We were in total sync. He passed cup after cup without a problem. When he turned around to come back, the other team was almost halfway back. I started yelling out directions to "take big steps" and "just go!" Bit by bit we hauled in the other team, bounding over and around cups with ease. With the two scavengers nearly neck and neck a few feet from the finish, I instructed my teammate to jump forward, and he just beat out the other team. We screamed and jumped and hugged each other in wild celebration of our victory. Finally, I thought, we won a game! What a comeback! I basked in the glow of this triumph for a few hours until we reviewed the scores at the end of the weekend. It turns out, the third team had finished collecting their items a couple minutes before us. We had been totally oblivous. Here I had made a fool of myself celebrating over just another game we lost. We'll see if I live this one down.

Grace and peace,
BMH

#31 Daddy Day

Monday is far and away the best day of my week because Monday is Daddy Day. On Monday I get more time with Lanie than any other day of the week. Tess is happy because she gets freedom to relax or take care of projects that she can't get around to on other days. Lanie is happy because she still gets attention. But Daddy is the real winner on Daddy day. I get to cuddle and bounce and kiss and sing to my sweet babes, who smiles and coos and stares back at me. I've had some busy weeks at work over the past month. But Mondays, by comparison, remain beautifully, refreshingly chill. My squirmy, happy, gassy, adorable, sweet daughter is experiencing so many new things, and I get to experience them with her. It's the best.

This week's Daddy Day got a little interrupted by shoveling and a tax appointment. But Lanie and I still managed to pack in quite a bit. We bounced up and down. We used her swing while listening to a couple albums by The Civil Wars. She pooped through her diaper and screamed at me while I lovingly cleaned her up. We cuddled in the recliner as she took a nap. We took some precious pictures. She spit up all over my shirt. We walked around the house. We made faces at each other, and I did my best to imitate her noises. We held hands. I rubbed her belly. We did tummy time. For the most part, we just kept each other warm and happy while getting to know each other just a little better. Today was a good day.

Grace and peace,
BMH

#30 3:00 AM

"Brian! Brian!" The voice of Tess pulls me out of my normal deep sleep. My eyes spring open and glance around our bedroom, dimly illuminated by a nightlight. As I try to piece together what's happening, I hear Lanie crying. "Can you change her diaper? I need to run to the bathroom before I feed her." Slowly my brain figures out what Tess is asking. I mumble something positive and grab my glasses so that I can see what I'm doing. The cold sensation of leaving my covers behind wakes me up just a little more as I pick up my squirming daughter in her bundle of blankets. "Hi, Lanie," I coo, staggering toward the changing pad. I flick the lightswich on and blink in the brilliant light. Lanie's fussing grows louder and louder. I peel back her sleeper, grab a new diaper and a baby wipe, and open her old diaper to survey the damage. As Lanie wails at me, I try to reassure her that everything's okay while wiping her off as quickly and effectively as I can manage in my sleepy stupor. After securing the new diaper, I trash the old one and wash my hands. By the time I'm finished, Tess has appeared to rezip Lanie's sleeper and carry her off for feeding time. I stumble back to the bedroom, nearly asleep by the time I pull the covers back up. As I drift back to dreamland, I have only one thought: I love my sweet babes.

Grace and peace,

BMH

#29 In Life and in Death

Last week I officiated my first funeral. A ninety-eight-year-old member of our congregation died early in the week; we gathered on Saturday to remember her life, mourn her passing, and celebrate the hope we have in Jesus Christ. The whole process, from my first contact with family members through planning and conducting the funeral to parting conversations after lunch, was pretty special. Funerals and the grieving process can be extremely emotional and difficult, but they're also quite sacred. They lead us to reflect on the core of our Christian beliefs. We shared memories of a beloved mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother and did our best to capture the essence of who she is. We reflected on her legacy. We meditated on Psalm 23, noting how our sister has come through the valley of the shadow of death to dwell in the house of the LORD forever. We recited the first Q&A of the Heidelberg Catechism, professing our comfort of belonging to Jesus Christ "body and soul, in life and in death." We sang songs of hope. And at the gravesite, we said our good-byes, clinging to Jesus' words from John 11: "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die." The part of the day that has stuck with me the most was reciting the Apostles' Creed together at the gravesite, ending with our belief in "the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting." Death is not the end, for Jesus Christ is our victory. That part about resurrection is important. If only our souls lived forever, then I don't think we could say death is defeated. Part of us would be lost in death; we'd just have some sort of spiritual work-around. But with resurrection, death is truly defeated. Even our bodies come back to life in Christ. Death cannot claim any part of us forever. That gives us hope and that gives us joy, even in the most somber, solemn times.

Grace and peace,
BMH

#28 Where Is God in All of This?

The men's Bible study in Kanawha just finished discussing the book of Esther. Esther is an unbelievably well-written book. The tension is real; the drama is intense; it seems no detail goes to waste. We found time after time where an event mirrored or reversed a previous event. (For example, Esther risks her life by going before King Xerxes without being summoned, while the previous queen was dismissed for not going before the king when she was summoned.) In short, Esther made for a very fun study.

Now the book of Esther is famous for never mentioning God. God's name never appears in the book, nor are there any references to worship or other religious practices. Instead, God's people are delivered through a series of events that unfold like coincidences. The events of the book of Esther take place while God's people are in exile, far from the land of Israel and the temple in Jerusalem, the symbol of God's presence with His people. So the people feel far from God's presence. God seems silent to them. And yet, the people are delivered. As best as we can tell, the book of Esther is written to show how God works on behalf of His people even when He seems absent. There doesn't seem to be any way the events of Esther could happen the way they do if God is not controlling circumstances and protecting His people. God is truly active, not absent.

The book of Esther is very relevant to our situation as God's people in the church today. God's people are scattered throughout the world. Many of us feel that God is not as active as He was in Bible times: we don't seem to see as many miracles being done, and we don't always hear God speaking so clearly when the Bible was finished nearly 2000 years ago. But Esther teaches us that God is still in control. God doesn't just leave things up to chance. He watches out for and delivers His people even when He seems absent or silent. We may be threatened; we may even suffer. But God will not let His people be destroyed. In fact, He will continue to make His church grow, and He will eventually completely defeat our enemies. Sometimes God may seem hard to find. But He never abandons us. He remains faithfully present with us and working in our midst. Always.

Grace and peace,
BMH

#27 Epiphany

Since Christmas I've been preaching on the life of Jesus as recorded in the gospel of Luke. This season after Christmas is called Epiphany in some traditions, and it focuses on how God and His purposes are revealed in Jesus the Christ. I started this sermon series because last summer I was inspired by reading one of N.T. Wright's books, How God Became King. In this book, Wright talks about how many Christians focus on the events of Jesus' death and resurrection when thinking about Jesus. While these events are certainly important--more space in the gospels is devoted to the week of Jesus' death and resurrection than any other period in His life--the majority of the space in the gospels is dedicated to Jesus' ministry before His death. Wright argues that if we unthinkingly follow the flow of the Apostles' Creed (Jesus "...was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried...) and sort of skip over Jesus' ministry, we risk misunderstanding Jesus, or at least understanding Him incompletely. It's true that Jesus' life built toward His death and resurrection. Certainly the forgiveness of sins was a central reason why Jesus came. But Jesus didn't go immediately from birth to death. The rest of His life wasn't just a waiting game. Jesus' life goes a long ways to revealing God and His purposes to us. We learn a lot about how God fulfills His promises to His people and about what God is continuing to do until Jesus' return.

I really started thinking after reading Wright's book. I can remember a lot of sermons about the meaning of Jesus' birth and death and resurrection. I remember hearing preaching on Old Testament stories and New Testament letters and even some of Jesus' teachings and parables. But I don't remember hearing a lot of sermons that talked about what Jesus did while here on earth. (Now it's possible that my memory simply has some gaps here.) So I've been trying to think and preach more about what Jesus did as He travelled through Galilee and Judea (and Samaria, though that hasn't come up in my sermons yet). It's been a lot of fun for me, mostly because Jesus is--forgive me if these seems a bit crude--just so cool. Jesus didn't go out of His way to get people to like Him; He was totally secure in His identity. Jesus challenged things that everybody believed, He broke social rules left and right, and He simply mesmerized many of the people who encountered Him. They'd never met anybody like this Jesus, and they often weren't sure what to make of Him. But Jesus just kept doing His thing: driving out demons, healing the sick, revolutionizing religious teaching, calling disciples, hanging out with outcasts and rejects. No matter what people may think of Christians and Christianity in our society, it's hard not to at least admire Jesus.

So let's bring this home. So what? If Jesus shows us more clearly than anything else who God is, then what do we learn about God from Jesus? Let me give just a couple examples. First, we learn that God cares about us. God's Son becomes fully human and lives as one of us. He hangs around ordinary people. He interacts with the least and the lowliest people and honors and respects them. Jesus embodies love and hospitality for every kind of person. Second, we see that God is fixing our broken world. Jesus brought God's kingdom, making God's reign more clear to us. He brought healing and restoration and hope almost everywhere He went. No power of evil or darkness or sin was even close to a match for Him. He freed people from suffering and oppression. Jesus' ministry gives us confidence that God will someday set everything right. What's more, Jesus shows what kind of people we should be and what kind of people we will be. The Bible says that God is conforming us to the image of His Son. He's making us like Jesus, making us into people who are loving and good and compassionate and courageous. Jesus calls us to follow His example and helps us to do it. So let's learn from Jesus and, with His help, go and do likewise.

Grace and peace,
BMH