ABC Messenger

Words Without Knowledge
by Pastor George Van Alstine

Listen to little Janey. She is making more and more sounds. Is that a word? Did she say “Mama”? Her family hang on every new syllable as the eight-month-old discovers the miracle of language.

Teenaged Jane can’t keep quiet. She babbles on about her friends, the recent text on her iPod, the injustice of the C she received on her English paper. Many, many, many words.

Now Jane, after four years in graduate school, defends her doctoral thesis. She is eloquent, easily and accurately using the six-syllable words familiar only to the handful of people who share her expertise.

At her ninetieth birthday party, Great-grandma Jane sits in her favorite chair, as the younger generations of her family members flit around her, from one superficial conversation to another. Occasionally someone will ask her a question, and she will respond with a one-word, no nonsense answer. Conversation ended.

That’s the story of life: we learn to talk, and then (hopefully) we learn to stop talking.

The story of Job in the Old Testament describes how hard it was for one man to learn this lesson about words. The early chapters of the book are all about words — thousands of words put together into well-reasoned arguments by Job and his three “comforters.” But the climax of the story comes when God says to Job:

“Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” (Job 38:2)

Job, struck by this question, responds:

“I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth.” (40:4)

Yes, words can explain, expound and expand. But words can also “darken counsel,” obscure truth, befuddle understanding. Job had to learn when he should shut up. Only then he might begin to become wise.

In this article, I have used words to try to expose some truth from God’s Word. Now it is time to “lay my hand on my mouth.”

Saint Mother
by Pastor George Van Alstine

We may refer to Saint Paul, or Saint Mark, or Saint John. Actually, the Roman Catholic Church “canonizes” individuals in whom saintly qualities have been evident, and through all of church history over 10,000 named people have been designated with the title “Saint.” Aside from an NFL Football team that has just been penalized for not living up to its name, saints don’t have a prominent place in secular American culture. Except for Saint Mother.

Saint Mother is that idealized person of the female persuasion who has produced offspring and who is, therefore, perfect. She is described in that schmaltzy 1915 song:

M is for the Million things she gave me,
O means only that she’s growing Old.
T is for the Tears she shed to save me,
H is for her Heart of purest gold.
E is for her Eyes with love light shining,
R means Right, and Right she’ll ever be.
Put them all together, they spell MOTHER,
A word that means the world to me.

Actually, this is just the best known of many “mother songs” that were written just before World War I, a period when romanticized innocence was sought as an escape from the horrors that loomed over the western world. Other titles from the same era include “There’s a Mother Old and Gray Who Needs Me Now” (1911), “Those Songs My Mother Used to Sing” (1912), “Your Mother Is Your Best Friend After All” (1914), “That Old Fashioned Mother of Mine” (1915), and “My Mother’s Lullaby” (1917).

I’ve never had the privilege of being a mother. I imagine it would be nice to have all those endearing things said about you. But I also think it could be quite intimidating to have the ideal of perfect love, self-sacrificial nurturing and moral rectitude held up before you once a year, when you know you don’t measure up. It must be a heavy burden to be Saint Mother.

• So I want to suggest a cheer for all those real flesh-and-blood mothers who aren’t perfect, but do their very best against great challenges:
• the mother who feels a bit guilty because she hasn’t been willing to give a “Million things” for her kids at the cost of her own goals and dreams;
• the mother who is kind of resentful that she has to wait until she’s “growing Old” to be appreciated;
• the mother whose “Tears” are sometimes shed in pity for herself, and not just “shed to save her children”;
• the mother whose “Heart” is far from “purest gold,” being contaminated with some of life’s unavoidable impurities;
• the mother whose doubts and insecurities often cloud and obscure her “Eyes with love light shining”;
• the mother who is wrong much of the time, so it most definitely can’t be said “Right she’ll ever be.”

Thankfully, this kind of real-life, warts-and-all mother can still be seen as Saint Mother, because God’s grace makes up the difference. He specializes in re-labeling “Sinners” as “Saints.” And the truth is, we’re blessed most by mothers who embrace us with their profound humanity, showing us how God’s love works in an imperfect world.

ABC’s New Financial Challenge
by Pastor George Van Alstine

In two recent Messenger articles, Tim Eby-McKenzie, our Church Moderator, reminded us from the Bible’s familiar Genesis story that God provides for his creation abundantly and is intimately involved in all that he has made. Tim showed us that these qualities of abundance and intimacy should also characterize our giving back to God. I’d like to follow this up with a snapshot of where we are right now in our church finances and how you can help in the spirit of abundance and intimacy.

At our March 31 Annual Business Meeting we adopted a budget for the year ahead, and we were fully aware that it would require a stretch in our faith and commitment through increased donations by ABC members. The week after that Business Meeting, we received a letter from Community Life Fellowship, who have been renting the church for Saturday night worship for over ten years. They informed us that the group was disbanding, and they were giving us ninety days notice that they would no longer be renting from us after June 30.

This was a real blow, because rental income from them was built into the budget we had just adopted. The amount the church’s income will be down, beginning in July, is just under $200 per week!

This seemed to be such an important issue that our Deacon Board decided to meet in a special session last Thursday night, April 26. We spent two hours looking at the church’s financial health from every possible angle. It was a time of team-building, as this was the first meeting for three newly elected deacons, and it was also an opportunity to share our various visions of how money relates to the Lord’s work. Here are some of the things we learned:

(1) While weekly giving has not been keeping pace with budget needs, other unanticipated resources have helped take up the slack. Most noteworthy, Extreme Learning, a tutoring program connected with the public schools, paid use fees of over $16,644 during the past year, and they seem quite likely to continue in the year ahead. Though we don’t want to be too dependent on income that may or may not be available in the future, it does give us a cushion to help tide us over while we come up with a more stable solution.

(2) We have begun to search for other congregations that are looking for worship space who may be willing to meet on Saturday nights. We invite others in the ABC family to be on the lookout for promising leads.

(3) We looked through the Expenses side of the church’s budget to see where cutbacks may be made. We are not prepared to recommend any at this time, but will continue to study these. Infrastructure costs, such as utilities, insurance, etc., are hard to reduce, and we spend very little on program expenses for worship, education and outreach. The only places significant cuts might be made would be in staff and missions, and we want to think very carefully and prayerfully before we reduce any of these.

(4) There was a consensus opinion that our people need more consistent teaching and preaching about tithing and stewardship, and the two pastors are already discussing how we might provide this.

(5) There was a concern that financial reports are not clear to many in the congregation, and there were a number of ideas about how this can be improved.

(6) Fund-raising events and projects of many types were suggested as a way to supplement giving through tithes and offerings. Some of these will be pursued in the weeks to come.

The deacons and pastors feel that we can safely wait until our next Quarterly Business Meeting, July 29, before taking any serious steps. Meanwhile, we want to challenge every member of the ABC family with this: Can we, between us all, come up with $200 more per week in regular giving so that by the time of our Quarterly Business Meeting we will decide no more drastic action is necessary?

If the Lord has inspired you to become part of the solution, please communicate to one of the pastors or to Finance Chair Ivory Webster the portion of the needed increase you will provide.

Being Comfortable in God’s House
by Pastor George Van Alstine

With construction for the Lift Project going on, we’ve often left the front doors open for carrying out demolition waste and carrying in supplies. Recently a bird wandered in, flew up to the high ceiling in the entryway and had trouble finding its way out. I first thought it was a common house finch, but then I noticed a flash of yellow. I went to my office, grabbed my bird book and field glasses, and like a jungle explorer, I quietly stalked my quarry. It turned out to be a Western Yellow-Throated Warbler. I was excited.

The bird was excited too, but not in the same way. He flitted about frantically from one light fixture to another, then to the front window and back. As people came in and out of the offices, the bird’s anxiety level increased, and he flew even faster. It wasn’t until everybody left the area that he got his wits about him and found a way to escape.

In Psalm 84 we read about some birds long ago who had a much more comfortable relationship with another place of worship, the Temple in Jerusalem: “Even the sparrow finds a home and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God. Happy are those who live in your house, ever singing your praise.” (Psalm 84:3-4)

Sparrows and swallows felt right at home in the magnificent Temple, the awe-inspiring center of all Jewish worship, but my little Yellow-Throated Warbler wanted to get out of our much humbler place of worship as fast as possible.

I grew up in a blue collar church, and I remember how uncomfortable some of the men were in their Sunday-go-to-meeting starched white collars. I have a particular mental image of one hard working carpenter who usually sat in the pew ahead of me. Throughout the service he would repeatedly pull on his collar to loosen it up, moving his neck around to find a more natural position. I knew the man loved the Lord, but he didn’t look comfortable in the Lord’s house.There have been a lot of changes in our worship patterns since then. Everything has become less formal and rigid. When it comes to proper church attire, just about anything goes. I know some old timers are really bothered by this, seeing it as disrespectful. I myself continue to wear a suit and tie at a time when most mega-church and TV pastors wear either pullover sweaters or Hawaiian shirts with big flowers. It just seems right for me personally.

But I really believe in making our place of worship warm and welcoming, even embracing, to all kinds of people. A person whose heart is reaching out for God’s love and reassurance should never be afraid to come into the place we speak of as God’s house. In fact, she or he should have the feeling of coming home. Rules, regulations and dress codes should not stand in the way of a person wanting to come closer to God. We should have the feeling of “Y’all come!” when we’re around the church.

As the psalmist wrote: “Happy are those who live in your house. . . For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to live in the tents of wickedness.” (Psalm 84:4, 10)

I want two of my friends to feel at home at ABC – the carpenter from my youth and my Yellow-Throated Warbler.

April 16, 2012

Dirty, Messy & Wonderful Work
by Tim Eby-McKenzie

Have you ever had baklava? I first ate baklava when I was a freshman at Occidental College. Friends took me to Burger Continental on Lave Avenue, and I was soon to fall hopelessly in love. Sure, the burgers and Armenian dishes were terrific, but the baklava! Oh, the ecstasy and the wonder of this new-found delight! For those of you who haven’t partaken, it’s a pastry made from phyllo dough layered with nuts and brown sugar and honey, and honey and did I mention the honey? It just drips unapologetically all over, but you’d never think of complaining. The syrupy goodness that drips from a piece of good baklava covers your hands and allows you to enjoy the yummy flavor long after you’ve consumed the pastry itself. I’m so distracted by this thought that I’m tempted to stop writing and go get some. That’s how good baklava is.

The poetic narrative of the Genesis 2 is a lot like baklava; it drips with intimacy. God and humanity, human beings and the earth, God and the earth, humans with each other – there’s rich, earthy, sensual and intense interaction. In fact, right at the beginning, God kneels on the ground and makes a man out of mud, then grabs its face with his dirty hands and puts his mouth to the mouth of his child, breathing life into his beloved with a kiss. It’s astounding how tender the scene is, and the rest of the story is filled with garden-walks with God, human sexual intimacy and life becoming “fruitful and multiplying” everywhere. To the Hebrew listening to the story, even the language implies inextricable closeness between all things and with God.

All this intimacy is beautiful, and in the relationship with humanity, God draws us into his own work of fostering, furthering and protecting the abundant life that fills his creation. It’s meaningful work at its height, and the most meaningful part is that we only need to follow God’s lead to know it will all work out well.

So what is the significance of this message for us at ABC, and what does all this have to do with our finances? I’ve noticed that God has challenged us on a number of levels over the past few years to trust him and come to know him more deeply. We’ve been challenged to examine what it means to be the family of God, especially in troubled times. We’ve been exploring how to be a community drawn together not by blood or civic duty, but by the call of God’s spirit. As I wrote last week, I believe our first step in addressing our budget struggle must be to remember and celebrate the God of abundance in our lives and to expect this celebration to bring about peace in us; to celebrate before taking action, before choosing a financial path for ourselves.

When we’re at that place of calm assurance, then it’s time to ask God, not “How can you meet our various needs,” but rather “What is the work you’re calling us into?” “How do you want to walk with us and work with us at ABC?” This really broadens the question, because it is asking what barriers we need to cross as we take God’s hand and walk into the path of his calling. Should I be striking up relationships where I haven’t been before? Do I need to examine what I’m doing in my career? Is there a way I’ve avoided serving others humbly? Am I holding my purse strings in fear of losing a stable financial footing? It requires listening to God to hear the answers to these questions, or even to know which questions to ask.

Malachi 3:10 is often quoted in “stewardship sermons” to challenge the congregants to “bring the full tithe into the storehouse,” and the quote often stops right there. It sounds like the heavenly tax man, knocking on the door. The full verse reads, “Bring the full tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house; and thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing.” However, the broader context of this passage, and in fact of the whole book, is that God is mourning, even weeping over his beloved Israel who has distanced herself from him. God is a jilted lover in this book, pleading to Israel, “I have loved you! Return to me; I want you to be with me and I want to bless you.” This is not a divine IRS publication. God was saying to Israel, “Come to work with me! Bring food to my house for the poor and the priests.” I believe God is saying the same to us: “Join with me in this amazing work of blessing others, and I will make you a sight to behold for all the nations!” How will we respond?