For my birthday I received a copy of the early hymns of the Methodists that John Wesley pulled together into a single hymnal. They are largely written by his brother, Charles, though they also include hymns by Isaac Watts and a few others.

There are over 400 hymns in the collection. I have taken up reading one of them as part of my morning devotional time. At that rate, it will take me until well after my next birthday to finish.

As I read them, I’m struck by two things:

One, we clearly have always been a people that have sung. There is power in song. Well written hymns can share the faith with us memorable ways if the music helps us to remember the words. This was the original intent of the Psalms in our Bible. They were sung and they helped people to remember the truths of the faith by setting those words to song.

Two, not only do we have a long-standing tradition of being singers as Methodists, but some hymns have had long life as well. While this collection of over 400 hymns are largely ones we no longer sing, it does includes some hymns that we still sing and that are still in our hymnal. Hymns by Charles Wesley and Isaac Watts and others that have spoken to us of the power of faith in Jesus Christ for so many years and continue to do so.

It’s the power of song. A two-fold power – one for it’s adeptness that communicating faith to us in memorable ways and also the power of lasting quality and singability and grandeur.

I guess I’ve been struck by how when I sing on a Sunday morning I don’t often think about it or the power it has. Lately I’ve been reflecting on it more.

What’s your favorite hymn? Which hymns will you be singing on your death bed because they are so much a part of you? What songs have changed your life? Which have led you to faith in Jesus?

Music has power. For that we give thanks to God!

Each year in January I work with the Worship Design Team to plan our worship focus and preaching for the coming year. We plan this from July 1 to June 30 each year. This is so that I am planning a year of preaching for which I will be preaching. Usually by January a pastor knows if they’ll be remaining in their current appointment and so it makes sense to plan my next year of preaching.

This past weekend was the time when we did our planning for the coming year. We have been preaching through our Vision Statement: Joyfully reaching out to share God’s love and faith in Jesus with everyone. We are focusing this coming year on the final part – “with everyone.”

This will be a year of invitation, of challenging assumptions, of inviting God to grow our love beyond where it normally tends to have its boundaries. We will be asking ourselves, “Who would God have me love that I’m not loving yet?”

When the team comes together, we start with a little worship and then we brainstorm and come up with ideas. Then we get down to actually creating our worship series for the coming year. It is a process that takes us about four hours.

The amazing thing is that we always start with a blank sheet and just an overall theme. A single idea. And from there we are able to develop 52 sermons. The other day, when we had finished, the team was talking about how miraculous this feels at times. We’ve been planning worship together now for six years. They commented that they figured they would run out of ideas. Yet each year we come up with 52 new sermons. Certainly there are themes that repeat, but the Holy Spirit is also always there providing new inspiration.

This is often how I feel getting up in the pulpit each Sunday – How on earth could I bring a fresh message today? The answer, of course, is that I couldn’t, but the Holy Spirit does. So, each week is something new, different and unique that can speak to our spirits and inspire us to love God more and follow Jesus more closely.

It truly is miraculous. It’s only possible because of the Holy Spirit given to followers of Jesus. Still, even knowing these things, I’m no less amazed at how it happens, how it works, how consistent the Holy Spirit is to show up again and again.

Praise be to God! Where have you seen the Holy Spirit at work lately?

It’s only been a little over a week since we celebrated the life of the wonderful church member, Chuck Maki.

So often, people say to me after a funeral, “I don’t know how you do it?”

Well, let me tell you. Preparing to celebrate someone’s life in a meaningful way for me is two-fold.

First, it’s about knowing Scripture. One can’t celebrate a Christian’s life outside or away from Scripture. In order to celebrate any life, one has to know Scripture deeply. What it says, what it promises, its stories,  and its truths. This is imperative. Again, there is no way to celebrate a Christian’s life away from or apart from Scripture. So you have to know Scripture.

That’s because the second part of this two-fold way for me to create a meaningful celebration of life is that I look for each person’s life in Scripture.

One of the truths of Scripture is that we are made in the image of God. That means that it’s not hard to see glimpses of someone’s life in Scripture. If you can hear about their life and connect it to Scripture, it’s very easy to celebrate their life in a way that people will find unique and meaningful.

Again, all you have to do is know Scripture and see the person in Scripture. To put it another way, you have to know God and then see God in that person.

These are the two things I think about as I look to mark someone’s life. “How do I do it?” It’s incredibly easy, actually, because one can find each person in Scripture because each of us is God’s child and part of God’s creation and part of God’s story and so if we look to God’s story in Scripture, there we are. Scripture is not something separate from us, we are a part of it, just as we are part of God’s story and God’s creation.

That’s how I do it. With Scripture. With God.

Today is All Saints Day. It’s a day to remember those faithful people we have known that have gone to reside with God until we can see them again.

I know many struggle with this term “saints.” It raises ideas for us of the kind of religious people we could never hope to be. However, repeatedly in the Bible the word “saints” is used to apply to those that are living the faith.

Sometimes we live the faith better than other times. Hopefully, in the grand scheme of things people see us as people whose lives have been made different and better because of our relationship with Jesus Christ. If that’s true, then we’re saints. Because this word has its roots in the idea of being “set apart.” We are to be different than the world and different than people expect – something special – not because of who we are, but because of who Jesus is and because we know him.

All of the saints I know were imperfect people, but their lives pointed to Jesus and spoke volumes to who he was and what he can do in one’s life.

In particular, on this All Saints Day, I’m thinking of a guy named Andy. Andy had struggled with addiction, but his life had been transformed by meeting Jesus Christ. Andy was the type of guy that could make anyone feel comfortable and he was perhaps not what people immediately picture when they think of a church-goer. Yet, he was not only a church-goer, he was a church-liver. He spent every moment of his life living for Jesus and sharing that good news with other people.

Sure, his past was not the best, but his future was guaranteed and I know I’ll see him one day in heaven. For that, I give thanks on this All Saints Day.

 

If you want to understand a little more about All Saints Day in the United Methodist tradition, this is a great article.

 

What saints are you giving thanks for today?