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Mar 1 2017

I had just signed up for my first ever seminary class. I took a seat on a bench next to the registration building and wondered how this new college experience would compare to being an undergraduate engineering student. Two young women walked by and stopped to talk to me. “Girls talking to me – that’s different than engineering school,” I thought. As the conversation wound down, one of them said, “You’d be cool if you just smoked.”

Well, that was a new one. But something about the experience did feel familiar. Someone had evaluated me and judged that I didn’t measure up. Know that feeling?

Most of us feel like we don’t measure up pretty frequently, and unfortunately churches often send mixed messages. One day you may hear that God loves you just the way you are. On another day you may hear that you need to (fill in the blank – pray more, give more, read the Bible more, etc.). What’s going on?

John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church, had this realization: we are works in progress, beloved by God as we are and inspired by God to become more. In Wesley’s teachings about what he called “grace” I have discovered a faith that gives me both peace about my shortcomings and excitement about overcoming them.

I would love to share this with you! Please join me at Access the next three weeks for a series of sermons titled, “Enough.”

See you Sunday!
Rich

Rich Rindfuss
Access Pastor
First United Methodist Church Richardson

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Mar 1 2017

Two hawks in my neighborhood have chosen, of all things, the cross at the top of a steeple as their base of operations for preying. No, not praying. Preying.

Whether neighborhood birds or terrorists in Belgium, predators have no qualms about using tools of faith to further violence. On this Friday before Easter, however, we remember that Jesus turned the tables. He used a notorious tool of violence, the cross, to further faith. Jesus prayed from the cross. He prayed, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” That action represented a pattern in Jesus’ life that can give us hope and direction in a world still filled with violence.

Throughout his life Jesus created pockets of forgiveness, reconciliation, and peace. Jesus never brought an end to violence, and he seemed ok with that. Right before his death he said, “it is finished,” as if creating pockets of good in the midst of evil was enough to fulfill God’s purposes.

Through the hindsight of history we can see that it was enough. What he did – even though incomplete – has encouraged and guided people for millennia and transformed the cross from an image of violence and fear to an image of peace and hope.

The Bible promises that one day Jesus will return and bring a final end to violence. Until then we can and should do our best to end violence. But when we fail and violence breaks out, we don’t have to despair. God doesn’t expect more from us than Jesus accomplished. Wherever we can create even small pockets of peace, we further Jesus’ work. I encourage you to look for ways to do this in the coming days.

I also invite you to join me tonight at 7:00 for a special worship service recalling Jesus’ crucifixion and on Sunday at 5:00 pm for our Access Easter celebration!

See you then!
Rich

Rich Rindfuss
Access Pastor
First United Methodist Church Richardson

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Mar 1 2017

In the book of Exodus Moses investigates a burning bush and hears the voice of God say, “the place where you are standing is holy ground” (Exodus 3:5). I went to Israel hoping I’d have a holy-ground moment. I did, but I didn’t expect that the most significant spiritual moment of my trip would take place on the holy ground of my hotel room.

I went to Israel knowing that I’d walk on ground where the most significant moments of Christian history took place. I had done some research and pre-selected two places I thought I was most likely to have a deeply spiritual, holy-ground kind of moment.

I thought it might happen at the Western Wall. It’s part of the Jerusalem temple complex and is the holiest prayer site in Judaism. Parts of it date to the time of Jesus, and I would be praying there, touching its stones, and placing a few written prayers in the cracks of the wall. If I didn’t experience the holiest moment of my trip there, one other spot seemed even more likely.

In view of the temple and across the Kidron valley lies the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus liked to come to this grove of olive trees and was praying here on the night he was arrested before his crucifixion. I knew that in modern times visitors can see a 2000-year-old olive tree that may have been there when Jesus was. I had packed a list of the names of everyone that subscribes to my weekly e-mail (i.e. you), and I planned to get as close to that tree as I could and lift up the names of each of those people to God in prayer. On the day I did that it was a very meaningful moment, but it wasn’t the deepest spiritual moment of my trip.

The most spiritually significant, holy-ground kind of moment of my trip to Israel took place the night before I visited the Western Wall and the Garden of Gethsemane. I sat at a small desk in our hotel room writing prayers on tiny pieces of paper that I would place in the cracks of the Western Wall and gathering the pages of your names that I would take to the Garden of Gethsemane. As I did this I kept recalling the times we’ve shared with each other. I remembered the struggles we’ve prayed about, the celebrations we’ve shared, the places and ways you’ve volunteered, the leaps of faith you’ve taken making financial commitments to the church, the times we’ve spent in Group Life groups, the moments we’ve shared in worship, and more. My recollections became prayers as I recognized God’s presence in all these memories. That time became the most deeply spiritual moment of my entire trip, and my hotel room, the holiest ground in Israel.

I strongly suspect that the holiness of ground has nothing to do with geography and everything to do with the presence of God. A burning bush or a historical site can be holy ground, but so can any place where our connections with each other and our connection with God come together.

This Sunday begins Holy Week. Most every day our church will offer some kind of experience to help you discover holy ground and holy moments as we build up to the celebration of Easter. You can check out the possibilities at fumcr.com/lent, and I hope you’ll also join us at Access!

See you Sunday!
Rich

Rich Rindfuss
Access Pastor
First United Methodist Church Richardson