The death and destruction in Orlando calls us to prayer.

We pray for God’s comfort to those who mourn – for the victims’ families and loved ones and friends.

We pray for the LGBT community. The 50 killed and 53 injured were at the Pulse nightclub because they were or are gay. Our prayers for the gay community is not a political issue, it is a human issue.

We pray for the Islamic community. The killer appears to have been radicalized and radicalization is an issue that must be addressed by the Islamic community. But we must pray for the Islamic community and individual Muslims and work against the innocent becoming victims of more hate and hurt.

We pray for our nation and our culture that seems to be unraveling at its seams – hate and violence ripping at the fabric of who we are.

We pray for our church and the churches of our nation that we might – as we heard this morning – give reason for the hope that is in us, with gentleness and respect (1 Peter 3:15).

Some have mocked prayer in times of tragedy and disaster. Yes, there’s more to do. But prayer comes first.

The photo in the banner tells a story that still amazes me. It was taken in Brazil two weeks ago and during a wonderful conversation. Yes, that’s me on the left, and I am talking with my friends Leonardo, Michael, and Emerson. The conversation took place in Portuguese and that is amazing enough. My Portuguese is not that good, so I sometimes wonder if there isn’t some sort of modified Pentecost experience going on when I am with my Brazilian friends and we all understand each other.

As Leo, Michael, Emerson and I talked, our understanding of one another bridged more than the obvious divide of language, nationality, and age. Each of my three friends grew up with challenges I cannot imagine – economic, social, family, educational challenges so unlike any I have faced. I grew up in the suburbs of Southern California; they grew up in the poverty of urban Brazil. My world is a world of green lawns and safe streets, theirs of high walls, steel gates, and trafficantes. Continue reading →

The eight members of our 2015-2016 Confirmation Class will have the baptismal vows of their faithful parents confirmed by the church this Sunday – or in one case make those vows herself. Welcome to the family, Preston, Jenna, Kelly, Jamie, Alex, Jovan, Alyssa, and Gianna.

To say that Confirmation Sunday is a beginning and not an end, is like the cliché about graduation that is heard so often this time of year, importantly true, but easy to ignore.

“Yeah, right.”

Confirmation classes take on their own personalities. They are groups of real people with common experiences, inside jokes, and members whose idiosyncrasies sometimes blend and sometimes clash. Maybe just a little bit quirky, I love the personality of this 2015-2016 class. The talkers talk, but mostly about the topic of the day, and the non-talkers, when asked, offer amazing insights, having listened all the while when they were not talking.

Preston, Jenna, Kelly, Jamie, Alex, Jovan, Alyssa, and Gianna: I join Mrs. Casten, Dr. Joe, and Ed in saying it has been really good to be a part of your lives this year.

But Preston, Jenna, Kelly, Jamie, Alex, Jovan, Alyssa, and Gianna, I have to tell you that the cliché is true. Sunday is just a beginning.

In those conversations around the first Sunday of the month dinner table (thanks, parents, for those great meals), on our Tel Hai retreat last fall, and in our morning and evening classes, you have opened a window into the world in which you live. It is a world of exciting possibilities, incredible energy, intense emotions, some relational drama, and huge questions still to be answered.

I think you need the church.

You need the people and you also need the steeple.

On Sunday morning you are going to tell the whole church that Jesus Christ is you Savior and Lord and that you intend to be his disciple and to be a faithful member of his church.

On Sunday morning the whole church is going to say “we do” in loud voice as they promise to pray for you and encourage you on your journey of faith. They will promise to offer their gifts and wisdom to you and to receive the gifts you have to give to them.

Let’s agree to be promise keepers. I promise that I will challenge the people of the church to keep their promise; I pray that you will keep yours.

Preston, Jenna, Kelly, Jamie, Alex, Jovan, Alyssa, and Gianna, you have the rest of your high school years before you and then, well, who knows what. Exciting possibilities, incredible energy, intense emotions, relational drama, and huge questions. Exciting, incredible, intense, dramatic, huge – that’s the world you live in. Yes, amazing possibilities, but it will not always be a friendly world. That’s why I think you need the church, both people and steeple.

In a world that defines success but what you do and who you know, you will need the people of the church to remind you of the day of your baptism and confirmation. “See what love the Father has for us that we should be called children of God, and so we are.” You are not defined by who you are so much as whose you are. Please, do not believe anyone who says otherwise.

With apologies to the children’s song you learned long ago, the church is, also, a steeple. That is, it is a place, a real place in a real world, a safe place in a scary world. Okay, LPC doesn’t have a steeple, but you know where we are. Make sure you are at that real place in the real, sometimes scary, world on Sundays for worship and class, on Thursdays for youth group. In the real place (without a steeple) that is LPC, you will find the real people who really love you and really want you to grow with real faith in your relationship with a real God. And bring your fears and your questions and your great joys and your good friends with you.

Preston, Jenna, Kelly, Jamie, Alex, Jovan, Alyssa, and Gianna; welcome to the family!

See you Sunday

Assuming we have made it through the TSA lines, our Brazil Mission Team will be in the air on our way to Brazil by the time many of you read this post. The details; a three-hour flight from Newark to Miami, a six hour (groan) layover in Miami, and then an eight-hour overnight flight from Miami to Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Total distance traveled will be about 5,000 miles. Continue reading →

As in polite company, short-term missionaries are told not talk about politics. Five of us leave for Brazil next Thursday, and when we’re there I plan to be impolite. We’ll be talking politics with our Brazilian friends.

In fact, some of our short-term and long-term mission partners in different parts of the world ask that we not talk about the political situation in those places where they have been called to serve. Political opinions openly or indiscreetly expressed might jeopardize the work of the mission and bring threats to the life and wellbeing of indigenous partners. It’s a good idea to not talk politics. Wisdom and faithfulness calls for nothing less.

But we will be talking politics in Brazil. Continue reading →