There are very few people in history that I admire more than Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Baptist minister, Nobel Peace Prize winner, and most notably the leader of the Civil Rights Movement…a non-violent movement demanding equal rights for all of God’s children, regardless of color, class, or creed. A movement that awakened the conscience of our nation to live out the true meaning of it’s creed—“we hold these truths to be self-evident,
…that all men are created equal.”
Every once in a while someone asks me the question, if you could go back and be a participant in any moment in history, what would it be? I know just where I would be (with the exception of that manger in Bethlehem the night our savior was born)…I would be at the Mason Temple in Memphis Tennessee on April 3rd, 1968 sitting right in the front row to hear the final sermon given by Dr. King, the day before he was assassinated to hear his words ring out…
“…I’ve been to the mountaintop…like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has it’s place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will…I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know, that, we, as a people will get to the promised land. And I’m happy tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”
The full power of these words can’t be felt in text-form. I encourage you to go to http://www.youtube.com/ and search for “MLK’s Last Speech.” I bet you can’t get through it without tingles running up and down your spine, perhaps tears welling up in your eyes. God blessed King with an awe-inspiring way with words.
What I admire about King more than anything was the means by which he attained his goals, that is equal rights for all human beings. Dr. King and the droves of people who joined him in the civil rights movement had an un-wavering commitment to non-violence, which was grounded in the means by which our Lord Jesus attained the goal of our salvation, through suffering and death, not armed revolt. These people lived out Christ’s call to not resist an evil-doer, but “if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also.”
King, and the civil rights movement that he led, brought about perhaps the most profound change in the history of our nation, and he achieved it without violence, without taking up arms…through pure and peaceful means. In doing so, he sets a powerful example for the church today.
The use of violence and the prosecution of wars by governments to bring about change in the world is a matter of constant debate. But one thing is for sure, as the church, the body of Christ in the world; it must not be that way with us. If we are serious about living out our call to be Christ to the world, then violence is never an option for us. I’m not just talking about physical violence…there are so many—much more subtle—ways that we human beings do violence to one another…through our words, sometimes by not speaking up, by harboring ill-will, by withholding forgiveness, through harmful gossip, by ignoring the needs of our neighbors, the list could go on.
So, I leave you with a question to ponder. What might it look like for us, as a community gathered in the name of Christ, to follow in the footsteps of our peaceful savior and his servant Martin Luther King Jr. by committing ourselves to non-violence in the ways that we live with one another and interact with the world around us?
May the peace of Christ dwell in our hearts and shine forth in all our daily doings,
Pastor Tony
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Thursday, December 4, 2008
We Are Called
Dear Pastor: What, if any, other career you were interested in growing up? Did you know the ministry was your calling or was it always a dream of yours to be a teacher, professional golfer?? Not such an in depth question—just something I think is interesting about people- How you get to where you are- do you know what I mean? Sarah
Dear Sarah: Yes, I do know what you mean…and thanks for the softball! I am so glad that you asked this question, because it gives us the opportunity to discuss a really important issue, the issue of vocation. “Vocation”…probably not a word that we use very often in our day to day lives. We use words like “job” or “work” a lot more often. However, I think that we would all do well to think about our “jobs” and our “work” as vocations. The word vocation comes from the latin word vocatio, which means literally a call, or summons. I think it’s really important for all of us, especially Christian folks, to ask the following question: in what way is the job that I do a vocation, or a call from God? Some of you may be thinking to yourselves, or saying out loud, “yeah right, not my job!” If that’s you then ponder the following quote from Mark Kolden, professor at Luther Seminary, “when one is ‘called’ to follow Christ one’s occupation becomes the ‘calling’ in which one serves God.”* The point here is that because we are Christians we must try to see all parts of our lives (jobs included) as an arena in which to serve God and to shine the light of Christ. I invite you all to think and pray about what that means for you.
Getting back to your original question…yes, there are other things that I considered doing with my life. From the age of 5 to about 10, I was certain that I wanted to be a Paleontologist (a digger-upper of Dinosaur bones, for the lay person). I never would have had the patience for that. When I was about nine years old I got my first set of golf clubs and fell in love with the game (okay, it was a love-hate relationship, but it’s all I wanted to do). So, yes, for a time I wanted to be a professional golfer. Unfortunately, I never enjoyed practicing very much. By the time I was a Junior in High School, 17 years old, I had long since given up the dream of joining the PGA tour. I really had no idea what I wanted to do…I was thinking about business because, well, my Dad was in business and that’s just what a lot of guys think about doing when they have no idea what they want to do. The one thing that I did know was that I wanted to serve God, in some way. I had never, I repeat NEVER, considered being a pastor. One Christmas I was on a vacation with my parents in Colorado, skiing. I was alone on a Ski lift, high in the Rockies, it was a beautiful day and I had nothing to do but think about what I was going to do with my life…that’s when it happened. It’s so hard to talk about in words, I didn’t hear a voice or anything, but God spoke…and I knew in an instant that I was supposed to be a pastor…I said, “Okay God.” It’s as simple as that. I still get goose bumps thinking about it.
This moment in my life was truly a gift; not everyone has a “call experience” like I had. That being said, the plumber, doctor, businessman, or teacher is no less called to do what they do than I am called to do what I do. Again, as Christians, our occupations—that is, whatever we do for eight-hours-a-day or perhaps more—becomes the calling in which we serve God, it becomes our ministry. So how is your job your ministry, your vocation?
There is an awesome hymn in the ELW (new hymnal) entitled, “We are Called.” The Chorus of this song reminds us of how all Christians are called to live in all arenas of our life, it goes like this: “We are called to act with justice, we are called to love tenderly, we are called to serve one another, to walk humbly with God.” Thanks again for the question Sarah, it turns out that it was even deeper than you thought!
Grace and peace, Pastor
ps: I have a question for you all. It is the responsibility of all congregations to raise up leaders for the church (pastors, chaplains, associates in ministry, etc…). What are some intentional things that we can do to be more intentional to encourage young and old to consider a call to rostered ministry? Send your ideas/reflections to pr.tonymetz@gmail.com
*The entire article by Mark Kolden entitled “Luther on Vocation” can be found at this web address: http://www.luthersem.edu/word&world/Archives/3-4_Luther/3-4_Kolden.pdf
Dear Sarah: Yes, I do know what you mean…and thanks for the softball! I am so glad that you asked this question, because it gives us the opportunity to discuss a really important issue, the issue of vocation. “Vocation”…probably not a word that we use very often in our day to day lives. We use words like “job” or “work” a lot more often. However, I think that we would all do well to think about our “jobs” and our “work” as vocations. The word vocation comes from the latin word vocatio, which means literally a call, or summons. I think it’s really important for all of us, especially Christian folks, to ask the following question: in what way is the job that I do a vocation, or a call from God? Some of you may be thinking to yourselves, or saying out loud, “yeah right, not my job!” If that’s you then ponder the following quote from Mark Kolden, professor at Luther Seminary, “when one is ‘called’ to follow Christ one’s occupation becomes the ‘calling’ in which one serves God.”* The point here is that because we are Christians we must try to see all parts of our lives (jobs included) as an arena in which to serve God and to shine the light of Christ. I invite you all to think and pray about what that means for you.
Getting back to your original question…yes, there are other things that I considered doing with my life. From the age of 5 to about 10, I was certain that I wanted to be a Paleontologist (a digger-upper of Dinosaur bones, for the lay person). I never would have had the patience for that. When I was about nine years old I got my first set of golf clubs and fell in love with the game (okay, it was a love-hate relationship, but it’s all I wanted to do). So, yes, for a time I wanted to be a professional golfer. Unfortunately, I never enjoyed practicing very much. By the time I was a Junior in High School, 17 years old, I had long since given up the dream of joining the PGA tour. I really had no idea what I wanted to do…I was thinking about business because, well, my Dad was in business and that’s just what a lot of guys think about doing when they have no idea what they want to do. The one thing that I did know was that I wanted to serve God, in some way. I had never, I repeat NEVER, considered being a pastor. One Christmas I was on a vacation with my parents in Colorado, skiing. I was alone on a Ski lift, high in the Rockies, it was a beautiful day and I had nothing to do but think about what I was going to do with my life…that’s when it happened. It’s so hard to talk about in words, I didn’t hear a voice or anything, but God spoke…and I knew in an instant that I was supposed to be a pastor…I said, “Okay God.” It’s as simple as that. I still get goose bumps thinking about it.
This moment in my life was truly a gift; not everyone has a “call experience” like I had. That being said, the plumber, doctor, businessman, or teacher is no less called to do what they do than I am called to do what I do. Again, as Christians, our occupations—that is, whatever we do for eight-hours-a-day or perhaps more—becomes the calling in which we serve God, it becomes our ministry. So how is your job your ministry, your vocation?
There is an awesome hymn in the ELW (new hymnal) entitled, “We are Called.” The Chorus of this song reminds us of how all Christians are called to live in all arenas of our life, it goes like this: “We are called to act with justice, we are called to love tenderly, we are called to serve one another, to walk humbly with God.” Thanks again for the question Sarah, it turns out that it was even deeper than you thought!
Grace and peace, Pastor
ps: I have a question for you all. It is the responsibility of all congregations to raise up leaders for the church (pastors, chaplains, associates in ministry, etc…). What are some intentional things that we can do to be more intentional to encourage young and old to consider a call to rostered ministry? Send your ideas/reflections to pr.tonymetz@gmail.com
*The entire article by Mark Kolden entitled “Luther on Vocation” can be found at this web address: http://www.luthersem.edu/word&world/Archives/3-4_Luther/3-4_Kolden.pdf
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Prayer: Can we Hope for real Change?
Does prayer really change things? Should prayer be used only to thank God for all he has given us or are we allowed to ask for *things? If God has a plan for our lives, prayer won't change anything: all we can hope for is to be able to accept what is already going to happen.
*by "things" I mean health, family harmony, safe travel...NOT new cars, boats vacations, etc...
Thanks for this great question. It’s a question that probably deserves a 15 page essay, single spaced (whoa…seminary flashback), but I’ll do the best I can with a couple paragraphs. I think I see two questions here actually (that was very sneaky of you)…the FIRST is, does prayer really change things? The assumption that is tagged onto this first question is that God has a comprehensive plan for our lives and all that we can do is accept what is already going to happen. Okay, that’s the first one (as if that one isn’t enoughJ), the SECOND separate, yet not altogether unrelated question is, is it ok to pray for things, that is things like “health, family harmony, safe travel…NOT new cars, boats, vacations, etc…”
First things first…does prayer really change things? I think that the answer is clearly “YES!” Of course prayer changes things, but the next question, I suppose, is…how? How does prayer change things? I think that gets more to the heart of the question being asked. What do you think about the following, different perspective…“Prayer changes me and I change things.”
This statement is much more true to my own prayer life, and also to what I read in scripture about prayer. Prayer is intimate communication with God that changes and transforms ME, and the way that I live and act in the world. This may be a minor example, but I can remember an experience back in college when Angie’s roommate said something really mean and hurtful to her. When Angie told me about it I got really angry and my first instinct was to go over there and let her roommate have it (verbally, that is). So, I did…and it went horribly. I made a fool of myself and only made the situation much worse. But I learned a valuable lesson…and every time since then that I’ve found myself in a similar situation, instead of reacting out of my anger or hurt or whatever, I pray. I bring all that I am feeling before God and God has the amazing ability to take all of that junk and replace it with peace and calm and a solution that will bring healing rather than more harm. Through prayer God changes ME and I change things…this is NOT to say that God cannot interject in God’s creation and change things all by God’s self, certainly God can and God does, but I think God primarily uses us as his tools of change.
Think about Jesus, praying in the Garden of Gethsemane (see Mk. 14:34-36), he knows full well what lies before him, the cross. The text tells us that Jesus was distressed, agitated, and deeply grieved, even to death. In his torment Jesus throws himself onto the ground and prays this incredible prayer, “Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want.” Jesus asks for a “thing” here. He asks that this “cup” be taken from him and the cup that he is talking about is the suffering and death that he was about to endure. Now, we all know, that this cup was not taken away from Jesus, a day later he was nailed to the cross. So, what are we to make of this, did his prayer not work? Did it not change anything? By no means, Jesus prayer changed him, through this prayer Jesus communed with his Abba, and I have to believe that he received the strength and the peace (you know, that peace which passes all human understanding) to continue on and to endure everything that was to come.
I haven’t left much room for your second question, but hopefully you’ve seen that yes, it is more than okay to pray for any-thing that is on your heart or mind, as Jesus did. Take “family harmony”, for example, this is one that so many people deal with. If you pray to God for peace in your family, he may not magically make everything great all of the sudden, but God will most certainly give you the strength and the peace and the guidance of the Holy Spirit to do what you can do to bring harmony to your family. I better stop there so that this can fit in our newsletter…please feel free to add any thoughts you might have on the blog: http://www.askpastortony.blogspot.com/
Peace, Pastor Tony
*by "things" I mean health, family harmony, safe travel...NOT new cars, boats vacations, etc...
Thanks for this great question. It’s a question that probably deserves a 15 page essay, single spaced (whoa…seminary flashback), but I’ll do the best I can with a couple paragraphs. I think I see two questions here actually (that was very sneaky of you)…the FIRST is, does prayer really change things? The assumption that is tagged onto this first question is that God has a comprehensive plan for our lives and all that we can do is accept what is already going to happen. Okay, that’s the first one (as if that one isn’t enoughJ), the SECOND separate, yet not altogether unrelated question is, is it ok to pray for things, that is things like “health, family harmony, safe travel…NOT new cars, boats, vacations, etc…”
First things first…does prayer really change things? I think that the answer is clearly “YES!” Of course prayer changes things, but the next question, I suppose, is…how? How does prayer change things? I think that gets more to the heart of the question being asked. What do you think about the following, different perspective…“Prayer changes me and I change things.”
This statement is much more true to my own prayer life, and also to what I read in scripture about prayer. Prayer is intimate communication with God that changes and transforms ME, and the way that I live and act in the world. This may be a minor example, but I can remember an experience back in college when Angie’s roommate said something really mean and hurtful to her. When Angie told me about it I got really angry and my first instinct was to go over there and let her roommate have it (verbally, that is). So, I did…and it went horribly. I made a fool of myself and only made the situation much worse. But I learned a valuable lesson…and every time since then that I’ve found myself in a similar situation, instead of reacting out of my anger or hurt or whatever, I pray. I bring all that I am feeling before God and God has the amazing ability to take all of that junk and replace it with peace and calm and a solution that will bring healing rather than more harm. Through prayer God changes ME and I change things…this is NOT to say that God cannot interject in God’s creation and change things all by God’s self, certainly God can and God does, but I think God primarily uses us as his tools of change.
Think about Jesus, praying in the Garden of Gethsemane (see Mk. 14:34-36), he knows full well what lies before him, the cross. The text tells us that Jesus was distressed, agitated, and deeply grieved, even to death. In his torment Jesus throws himself onto the ground and prays this incredible prayer, “Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want.” Jesus asks for a “thing” here. He asks that this “cup” be taken from him and the cup that he is talking about is the suffering and death that he was about to endure. Now, we all know, that this cup was not taken away from Jesus, a day later he was nailed to the cross. So, what are we to make of this, did his prayer not work? Did it not change anything? By no means, Jesus prayer changed him, through this prayer Jesus communed with his Abba, and I have to believe that he received the strength and the peace (you know, that peace which passes all human understanding) to continue on and to endure everything that was to come.
I haven’t left much room for your second question, but hopefully you’ve seen that yes, it is more than okay to pray for any-thing that is on your heart or mind, as Jesus did. Take “family harmony”, for example, this is one that so many people deal with. If you pray to God for peace in your family, he may not magically make everything great all of the sudden, but God will most certainly give you the strength and the peace and the guidance of the Holy Spirit to do what you can do to bring harmony to your family. I better stop there so that this can fit in our newsletter…please feel free to add any thoughts you might have on the blog: http://www.askpastortony.blogspot.com/
Peace, Pastor Tony
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Question for October
I recieved a real doozy of a question for October...read it over so that we can all be thinking about it over the next month. One of the reasons that I really love this question is that it has a footnote!
Does prayer really change things? Should prayer be used only to thank God for all he has given us or are we allowed to ask for *things? If God has a plan for our lives, prayer won't change anything: all we can hope for is to be able to accept what is already going to happen.
*by "things" I mean health, family harmony, safe travel...NOT new cars, boats vacations, etc...
Does prayer really change things? Should prayer be used only to thank God for all he has given us or are we allowed to ask for *things? If God has a plan for our lives, prayer won't change anything: all we can hope for is to be able to accept what is already going to happen.
*by "things" I mean health, family harmony, safe travel...NOT new cars, boats vacations, etc...
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Trivial Prayers?
Imagine my excitement when I looked in my box and found this question!
"Dear Pastor,
I know that we are supposed to worry about nothing and pray about everything, but sometimes I feel like I pray about such trivial things. I guess this isn't really a question, but what are some of your thoughts?"
I sense that at the heart of this wonderful question--a question that so many people struggle with--is the issue of your relationship with God. After all, what is prayer but communicating with God and maintaining a relationship with God? I hear you saying that you desire a deeper and more substantive prayer life and therefore also a deeper and closer relationship with God.
Let's use an example from human relationships as a lens through which we might get some insight into this struggle. I have a couple of very close friends that I roomed with for four years in college. One lives in Chicago and the other in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. Our only means of verbal communication is, obviously, the phone. I want my friendships with these two guys to grow deeper over the years, but that's hard to do over the phone. Sometimes our conversations seem trivial, you know, just small talk. Now, on the one hand, it is good that we are staying in contact...it's good that we are communicating, regardless of the depth of our conversations. On the other hand, I desire to go so much deeper, to talk about the things in our lives that really matter, the things that worry us, or excite us, the things that we dream about. You see where I'm going with this?
On the one hand it is really good that you are communicating with God, even if the things that you are talking with him about seem trivial! It is good that you are able to "small talk" with God! On the other hand, I want to really encourage you in your desire to go deeper in your communcation with God. We all carry around heavy weights from day to day, we have broken relationships, we worry about loved ones who are sick, we are sad for those people in the world who have no food and live in the midst of war, we wonder about that person at work who seems sad and lonely, etc, etc...the list goes on and on. Think about what things burden you from day to day and pray about them!
All that being said, I think my best answer to your dillemma is probably the most simple, Pray about it! And when it gets really hard and you don't know what to pray that you are not alone, Paul writes, "Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words." Thanks for the question.
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Tony
ps: If you would like to add your thoughts to this post, just click 'comments' below.
"Dear Pastor,
I know that we are supposed to worry about nothing and pray about everything, but sometimes I feel like I pray about such trivial things. I guess this isn't really a question, but what are some of your thoughts?"
I sense that at the heart of this wonderful question--a question that so many people struggle with--is the issue of your relationship with God. After all, what is prayer but communicating with God and maintaining a relationship with God? I hear you saying that you desire a deeper and more substantive prayer life and therefore also a deeper and closer relationship with God.
Let's use an example from human relationships as a lens through which we might get some insight into this struggle. I have a couple of very close friends that I roomed with for four years in college. One lives in Chicago and the other in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. Our only means of verbal communication is, obviously, the phone. I want my friendships with these two guys to grow deeper over the years, but that's hard to do over the phone. Sometimes our conversations seem trivial, you know, just small talk. Now, on the one hand, it is good that we are staying in contact...it's good that we are communicating, regardless of the depth of our conversations. On the other hand, I desire to go so much deeper, to talk about the things in our lives that really matter, the things that worry us, or excite us, the things that we dream about. You see where I'm going with this?
On the one hand it is really good that you are communicating with God, even if the things that you are talking with him about seem trivial! It is good that you are able to "small talk" with God! On the other hand, I want to really encourage you in your desire to go deeper in your communcation with God. We all carry around heavy weights from day to day, we have broken relationships, we worry about loved ones who are sick, we are sad for those people in the world who have no food and live in the midst of war, we wonder about that person at work who seems sad and lonely, etc, etc...the list goes on and on. Think about what things burden you from day to day and pray about them!
All that being said, I think my best answer to your dillemma is probably the most simple, Pray about it! And when it gets really hard and you don't know what to pray that you are not alone, Paul writes, "Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words." Thanks for the question.
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Tony
ps: If you would like to add your thoughts to this post, just click 'comments' below.
Welcome Blog
Welcome to the Ask Pastor Blog!
Here, you can add your thoughts, reflections, ideas, and answers to the questions raised in the Ask Pastor article in our monthly bulletin.
All you have to do is click the 'comments' link at the very bottom of each blog. I'm excited to see what you have to say!
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Tony
Here, you can add your thoughts, reflections, ideas, and answers to the questions raised in the Ask Pastor article in our monthly bulletin.
All you have to do is click the 'comments' link at the very bottom of each blog. I'm excited to see what you have to say!
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Tony
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