It’s a bit odd to say goodbye when I’m not actually going anywhere. My husband, Jeff Stueve, became my co-pastor at Tyner effective July 1, so I’m not leaving Tyner UMC behind—just sharing. I’m hoping to say “good-bye” to some of the pastoring duties that have been challenging for me over the past three years—and especially the past year. I’m planning to say goodbye to
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As we approach Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday I thought I’d be busier. Holy Week is considered to be a stressful week for pastors. Granted, it’s only Tuesday and the previous weeks have been busier than usual planning and setting up the Walk to the Cross Experience. But I’m finding I have some space to breathe and reflect on the weeks of Lent before cleaning the house for our Easter guests! The word Jeff and I chose to guide us this year is “present.” Usually, I jump in with my interpretation of why God suggested this word to us on January 1! Usually, by the fall I have realized how far off I was in understanding what God wanted to show me with the word of the year! This year I'm taking some time to live with the word before writing about it. So far, I’ve learned that God doesn’t just want me to be more “present” with people in our lives, but to be more “present” with Him as well. Jeff and I chose a Bible study to do together than has a less frantic pace of reading than the previous couple of years. I know I can use more times of solitude—to be “still and know” that God is God and to get reacquainted with myself, so I’ve been working on not working as much. Taking the weeks of Lent to slow down and contemplate the Lord’s Prayer has been such a blessing to me. When I say the prayer now, I am more “present” in the process—I’ve learned to savor it like a piece of good chocolate rather than gobbling it up without even tasting it. I pray that those of you who took the journey with me have learned to be present in the prayer too. The Youversion study on The Lord’s Prayer we did earlier in Lent started with a story about a French monk named Bernard of Clairvaux. Whenever Bernard tried to say the Lord’s Prayer, he’d get distracted. He’d start praying and suddenly find his thoughts had wandered in other directions. Bernard complained about this to a friend, but the friend thought Bernard was being ridiculous. “It’s not that hard, Bernard, you just have to concentrate.” In response, Bernard said he would give his friend his horse if he could pray the Lord’s Prayer without getting distracted. The friend eagerly took the bet, cleared his mind, and began praying, “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.” Before the next line, he stopped and asked, “Wait, does the saddle come with the horse?” Do you ever get distracted while praying even a short prayer that you know well like the Lord’s Prayer? I confess it has to me! After listening to this story of Bernard, I decided if I caught my mind wandering while saying the Lord’s Prayer, I would start over. I won’t tell you how many times I had to start over in just one day! This morning, I caught myself dividing people into us and them while saying the Lord’s Prayer! I’d preached on the line “lead us…not into temptation but deliver us from evil” last Sunday. One of my points was that we petition God to “lead us” not just lead “me,” as an individual. One of the ways we can fall prey to evil is to divide people up into us and them categories. I hadn’t even gotten to that line in the Lord’s Prayer yet and my mind, influenced by some news item I’d read during breakfast, had already been led into temptation to think of people as “them” rather than “us.” 1 Peter 5:8-9 says, “Discipline yourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour.” We live in a world that constantly seek to distract and tempt us. Knowing in what ways I am susceptible to temptations and distractions—and staying alert for signs of them, can help me to avoid falling prey to them. Staying focused while I am saying the Lord’s Prayer is a way to “discipline” myself and prepare to face distractions. In reflecting on the petition in the Lord’s Prayer to “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us” two ideas stuck with me. For the message Sunday, Jeff pulled a line from a YouVersion study we’ve done on the Lord’s Prayer: “There’s a difference between struggling to forgive and refusing to forgive.” We are called to forgive others who sin against us as God has forgiven our sins—but sometimes that is so difficult! I know I am called to forgive; I know I should forgive, and I can even want to forgive others, but I can struggle to do that. Knowing that being willing to forgive, even though I might struggle and it might take time, gives me hope. Recently a friend was talking about a painful experience she was having at her church and almost instantly I was caught up in feelings of a similar painful experience I’d had several years ago. I thought I had forgiven the people in that situation, but the wounds still felt raw. Had I truly forgiven them? Was I refusing to forgive them? We’ve all heard the saying “forgive and forget.” Someone in our discussion group after the message on Sunday observed: “I’m not sure we’re called to totally forget.” She’s right. “Forgetting” isn’t part of the petition in the Lord’s Prayer. Not totally forgetting might protect us from being hurt again. Not totally forgetting might help us protect others and set healthy boundaries. Not totally forgetting might help us to make better choices in the future. My prayer is for all of us is that we ask God for help in our struggles to forgive others and ourselves—especially those we might so for have refused to forgive even after experiencing God’s forgiveness of our sins. I'm using this space to connect you to a reflection my husband, Jeff Stueve, wrote on this topic last week on our Bold Discipleship website. Too many of us can probably relate! For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. 2 Corinthians 5:1-5 In the Time of Grace YouVersion study on The Lord’s Prayer, the pastor likens our life on earth to camping. My husband and I both camp from camping families (see the pics above), so this analogy really resonated with me.
I happen to love camping—even tent camping. I love to be in the middle of a woods and sleep with the breeze blowing through the tent flaps. I love making smores by a campfire. I love slowing down to more fully appreciate God’s creation. Once, while camping at the Grand Canyon with our sons, my husband got up in the middle of the night to use the facilities and woke the rest of us up when he returned to the tent to share the amazing stars in the night sky with us. However, any of you who have been camping know that it’s not all bucolic bliss. Something always goes wrong. You might forget to put the chocolate bars for the smores in a cooler and they completely melt. You might end up having to pack three people into a one-person pup tent on the night you had chili for dinner. You might set up your tent on an anthill or find yourself huddled in the middle of the tent as an overnight rainstorm begins to flood the edges. You might not factor in how cold it will be sleeping in a tent in the Rocky Mountains even in the middle of summer. I could list more of our camping “groans and burdens” (in Paul’s words), but you get the idea. One of the best things about camping is that after a few days (or perhaps a day for some of you), we get to go home. Home to hot showers, reliable Wi-Fi, microwaves, and real beds. We might love camping, but eventually we all want to go home. When we pray for God’s kingdom to come in the Lord’s Prayer, we are reminded that we are not at home here on earth. Like Paul’s analogy in 2 Corinthians 5 that our human bodies are just temporary tents, let’s remember that while we live here on earth, we are just “camping” and will someday get to go live in our permanent home. I pray we would enjoy life on earth but know there will also be “groans and burdens”—and that we will only truly have peace and freedom when we are at home with God. Several years ago, a sister in Christ confessed to me that in worship she often skips saying The Lord’s Prayer. She admitted that, like many of us, she found herself saying the words without much thought and that made her sad. So instead of saying the words out loud, she listens to those around her saying them and tries to focus on God and soak in the words of this powerful prayer. One of my challenges in worship is leading The Lord’s Prayer—I don’t want to fall into the habit my friend described! And yet, while saying it I often worry I will get the words wrong or stumble over them and get us all off track! At times it doesn’t feel like I have prayed it so much as led others to pray it. How about you? There is something powerful about saying The Lord’s Prayer corporately in worship—but I often slow down to savor its words more when I pray it during private prayer time. During our Lenten worship series, I may invite us to slow down or perhaps even listen to it like my friend does instead of saying it during Sunday worship. I may invite the congregation to listen and pause for a few seconds after each section. Adam Hamilton suggests this in his book, which we are using to guide our worship series. He provides an example of how he does this at the end of the book, and I’ve included an excerpt at the end of this post in hope of inspiring each of us to slow down and meditate on the lines as we pray. I'd love to see any inspirations you write as you slow down to mediate upon each line. When we change things up a bit, we may gain insight or connect to God more deeply. In praying for Ukraine this week, I Googled “The Lord’s Prayer in Ukrainian” and listened to a video that displayed the English words and the Ukrainian words side by side. Even though I studied Russian in college (and could recognize the letters of the Cyrillic alphabet which Ukrainian also uses), I didn’t know most of the words. Yet hearing it prayed and knowing it was the same prayer we pray in Tyner, gave me a deeper sense of solidarity with Ukrainian Christians—who after all are members of The Body just as we are. I invite you to change things up in how you pray The Lord’s Prayer during Lent or how often you pray it. Listen to the link above to hear The Lord’s Prayer in Ukrainian or search for a video of The Lord’s Prayer in other languages that intrigue you. Remember as you listen that we are all part of The Body of Christ, the church universal. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
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Pastor CathyPastor Cathy has been appointed to Tyner UMC since July 2019; she also is a part-time writing instructor at Bethel University in Mishawaka. Archives
July 2022
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