Getting Hooked on Stories

Kyle Chandler as Coach Eric Taylor

I’m totally hooked on the TV show Friday Night Lights. Yes, I know the show has actually been off the air since 2011; I tend not to catch on to the good stuff until it’s released in box set. Thanks to the convenience of Netflix, I don’t have to wait a week to watch the next episode, so I’ve been watching an episode or two almost every night for the past few weeks.

It’s gotten to the point (the sad point?) where I think of the characters on the show as real people.  I find myself seeking out friends who’ve watched the show and saying things like, “Don’t you just love Matt Saracen?” Or “Buddy Garrity drives me crazy,” and “I can’t believe Lila did that!”  Events in everyday life make me think of something that happened two episodes ago, and I wonder WWCTD (What Would Coach Taylor Do?).  I bring up Friday Night Lights in conversation and encourage people who haven’t seen it to start watching it.

I’m now in the last season of the show, and I’m trying to slow myself down so I don’t get to the finale too soon.  I’m not ready for it to be over.As silly as it may seem to feel so strongly about a TV show and its characters, I’m guessing I’m not the only one.  Maybe for you it’s West Wing, Friends, LOST, Breaking Bad, or The Good Wife.  (If you’re a fellow Friday Night Lights groupie, let me know!)  Our love for these shows and their characters is a testament to the power of stories.  A good story captures our attention and sticks with us even when it’s over.  A good story can challenge us and inspire us to make a change in our lives, to work to heal a relationship, to try again.

This understanding of the power of stories is what’s behind “The Stories We Tell,” our formation theme this year.  As Christians, we learn and study the stories of the Bible, trusting that they help us better understand who we are and who God is.  We share our own stories – stories of success and loss, stories of defining moments in our lives and of mundane daily routines – and we listen to the stories of others.

The more I think about it, the more I think that story may be one of the greatest gifts we share with each other as the church.  This community is one where we practice being honest about our own stories and where we open ourselves to being transformed by the stories of Scripture and our neighbors.

As we begin this new program year at FPC, I hope you’ll find a place to connect with the story of our church and our ministries and a place to share your own story.  Personally, I can’t wait to see what happens next in the story God is telling through the people of First Presbyterian.

– Katelyn Gordon

I have been blessed – #fpcyouthsun

Doubt … can easily be overcome through full attention to God’s voice. And it was on the peak of the mountain in Costa Rica that I realized that I have been blessed with an amazing family and godly friends and an almighty God who is willing to stand beside me and encourage me up the hardest part of my mountain. Ann Mariah Burton

Our youth lead worship on Sunday, April 17, at 9 and 11 am, and we will celebrate our 8th-grade confirmation class at the 11 am service. Join us for worship and stay afterward for food a food truck lunch and games on the lawn! All are invited to this special day as we  give thanks to God with our youth and for our youth.

More from us. More of us.

The Ten Commandments tell us that God wants more from us. God wants more of us.

You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.
Exodus 20:4-6

Like mirrors, idols reflect and (therefore) affirm what we project. Unlike mirrors, they give those images such authority that worship is our only response. Idols are easy to worship. They stay put. They obey our instructions and affirm our agendas. They answer all of our questions with answers that we want to hear (or at least expect to hear). They ask only of us what we want to give. It is easier to worship an idol than some uncontrollable, unpredictable, demanding, even jealous God. Idols are safe. They tuck our sense of right and wrong in the warm comfort of sanctifying the way the world is, the way we are, the way we want the world to be.

This particular commandment doesn’t keep us from ourselves as much as it opens us to experience where and how this mysterious, unpredictable God is breaking in, revealing something new. It invites us to imagine not only what it means to love God but what it means to truly love one another: to offer ourselves beyond our selves, to give up control for the sake of giving into relationship, to remember who we are and whose we are.

What are some idols common in our world today? Where do they get their power? What idols do you worship, and why are they destructive to your relationship with God?

One service, two classes

Dear Wired Word Faithfuls,

The average American family gives about 4% of its income to charity, a percentage that is well below the biblical tithe (10%). It is also a fraction of the 50% donated each year by a young man in the world of finance named Jason Trigg. His generosity gives us an opportunity to think about Christian stewardship, the faithful use of money and what the Scriptures teach us about how our giving impacts the world around us. Although The Wired Word class will not be meeting in the summer, you will find the topic below of interest.

Continuing this Sunday at First Presbyterian Church, we will gather for one service (11:00) while we walk through a special summer series on the Ten Commandments. Each week, our worship will center on a particular commandment as we work our way through the “Decalogue” (“ten words”). The pastors have also written a weekly devotional to help you explore this rich and often overlooked text. You can find this devotional on our web site or in hard copy around the church.

During the Sunday Class time (9:45-10:45) we are offering two classes. The first is entitled “With Our Whole Heart,” (in the Chapel) and will unpack that Sunday’s respective commandment to deepen your worship experience. The second is a class titled “Being the Body of Christ,” (in the Pattie Cole Room) which will focus on the ever-changing missional nature of the church. We encourage you to join these classes through the summer.

We will continue to send the Wired Word topic for your own reflection and look forward to open discussions at the church in the fall.

Also, if you are looking for summer reading, check out our 2013 Willard Speaker’s work. You can find them all at brucefeiler.com. I would recommend that, by the September 29th event, you pick up a copy of “Generation Freedom.” Great read.

Enjoy the topic and we’ll see you this Sunday at 9:45 in the Chapel to hear Peter Buck lead “No Other Gods” found in Exodus 20:1-3, or in the Pattie Cole Room where The Rev. Pen Peery will begin a series on “Living Into a Missional Church.”

Kirk

The Wired Word – Good News

Dear Class Member,
The nature of news reporting is usually to focus on bad news, and in doing so, much good news gets crowded out. But occasionally some genuine good news is so compelling that it takes precedence over the bad. The finding of three missing women alive in Cleveland earlier this month is one such story. While there’s a lot of bad news in what happened to those women over the last decade and in the despicable behavior of their captor, the joy when they were found was abundant and widespread.

That reminds us that amid the frequent bad news of life, there is a hunger for good news. We also note that the word “gospel” means “good news.” So we are going to use the news of the rescue of the three women as a basis to talk about this hunger and about why the gospel is, in fact, GOOD news. That will be the topic of our next class.

If you wish to start thinking about our topic in advance, below is some introductory material. The Reverend Pen Peery will be leading the class, which will meet on Sunday, May 19, 10:00am in the Pattie Cole Room.
Kirk

The Wired Word invites us to contribute news story suggestions for upcoming lessons. If you have a story you’d like to suggest, post it to The Wired Word forum at http://thewiredword.squarespace.com/.

In the News
On May 6, three young women — Gina DeJesus, Amanda Berry and Michelle Knight — who had been kidnapped separately a decade ago in Cleveland, Ohio, were found alive in a house not far from where they’d had been snatched. From the moments of their disappearance until the day of their rescue, nothing had been heard from the women, and their families grieved their loss while still hoping that somehow they would be found.
The women had been held as sex slaves by a man who is now in police custody.

Since the details of the rescue of the women, along with a 6-year-old girl who’d been born to one of the women while in captivity, have been widely covered in national news, we aren’t going to to repeat them here. However, it’s worthy of note that the joy in the families of the rescued women was shared widely not just among people who actually had known the women (who were 14, 17 and 21 when they were kidnapped), but also throughout the city and suburbs and, to some extent, across the nation.

The editor of The Wired Word lives in northeast Ohio, which is the broadcast area for the Cleveland news programs. He said he was struck that in almost every early report he saw on TV about the women being found, there were people rejoicing, crying tears of joy, smiling widely and cheering.

“It often appeared that whole neighborhoods had come out on the streets to help the families of the women celebrate,” our editor said.

While we found no online article focused primarily on the joyful response, several reports commented in passing on the joyful atmosphere.
The Huffington Post, for example, reported, “Cheering crowds gathered Monday night on the street near the home where police said Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight had been held since they went missing and were found earlier in the day.”

The Daily Beast observed, “The news stopped everyone in Cleveland dead in his or her tracks. … All three women were taken to nearby MetroHealth Hospital, where a huge and jubilant crowd soon gathered and patiently waited for any bit of information on their condition.”

And according to Cleveland.com, a couple of days later, when two of the women returned to their homes from the hospital, “Crowds cheered and chanted the women’s names as vehicles, flanked by police motorcycles, drove slowly to the two homes festooned with balloons, ‘welcome home’ signs and stuffed animals.”

Well wishes for the women have poured in from across the nation, and, as of last week, donations to a fund set up by the city to help the women get established independently have come in from 34 states as well as from Australia, Canada and France.

Our editor commented that the joy in the city reminded him of the song “A Little Good News” (sung by Anne Murray) that tells of so much bad news in the media, and then says, “One more sad story’s one more than I can stand … We sure could use a little good news today.”

The Big Questions

Here are some of the questions we will discuss in class:

1. Is it your impression that life brings more bad news than good, more good news than bad, or a roughly equal mix of the two? Why? What bearing, if any, do you think that one’s station in life and one’s economic status might have on how a person would answer that question?

2. Are you aware of a personal hunger for good news? If so, what do you think is the root of that hunger?

3. In the Roman Empire, the word translated “good news” was often used for official announcements. Why do you think that Jesus and the apostles used the term “gospel”/”good news” to characterize Jesus’ message?

4. What is the good news that Jesus proclaimed?

5. Can anything or anyone other than God satisfy the hunger for good news? Explain your answer.

Confronting the News With Scripture and Hope
We will look at selected verses from these Scripture texts. You may wish to read these in advance for background:
Luke 15:11-32
Isaiah 52:1-10
Matthew 11:2-6
Mark 1:14-15
1 Corinthians 15:1-11

In class, we will talk about these passages and look for some insight into the big questions, as well as talk about other questions you may have about this topic. Please join us.

You have questions? We have answers

Our Confirmation class has the opportunity to engage worship in a new way!  They attend worship and are given the opportunity to ask questions of the Minister that preached the sermon for a particular Sunday.  Here are a few of their questions and responses from the Minister that proclaimed the Word.  We will continue to put these out there for the congregation to see as we all seek to wrestle with God’s call for us.

Confirmation Worship Questions

Rev. Peery, From 9/30/12

Scripture:  Mark 9:38-41

How can we encourage those who are different from us to serve in Christ’s name?

Great question!

I think the key to your question is found in the word “encourage.”  Sometimes I have seen Christians (of every kind) make the mistake in believing that they can “make” someone who is different than them serve in Christ’s name (or believe in Christ).  I don’t think it is our job as disciples of Jesus to “make” people do something or believe something.

What we can do is be clear about what it is that we believe.  Then we can be clear about what motivates us to do those things that Christ wants us to do: share love with others, forgive, feed the hungry, offer welcome to those who don’t have many friends.   We don’t practice those acts of compassion just because we want to be nice people.  We do those things because we are grateful for the life we have in Jesus Christ who lived, died, and was raised for us and for the whole world!

There is an old song I used to sing at Camp Grier called “They will know we are Christians by our Love.”  I think being the best Christian we know how to be is the way we can encourage others to follow in Christ’s path.

Rev.  Peery, from 10/14/12

Scripture:  Mark 10:17-31

Are we really supposed to give up everything to follow God?  I like my stuff.

I like my stuff, too!

There are lots of things that Jesus says that are…quite simply…HARD.  Jesus sets the example for how to live the ideal life that God had in mind when God created us.

And no one BUT Jesus has ever been able to lead that kind of life.  The rest of us – always – fall short of the ideal.  So the question is, do we just give up?  Do we not even try?  Or – instead – do we do the best we can to be faithful and depend on God’s grace to pick us up when we’re not?

One of the questions I always try to keep in my mind about “my stuff” (money, car, iPhone, 1982 UNC National Championship coke bottle) is this: which do I love more?  God?  Or my stuff?

And one of the ways we practice making sure that we have our priorities in order is by giving our “stuff” away.  The fancy church word for that is “stewardship.”  That’s why we pass the offering plate.  Not just to take up money to pay for running the church, but to create a spiritual discipline of giving back to God some of the stuff that – by the way – came from God to begin with!!

Rev. Peery, from 10/28/12

Scripture:  Mark 10:46-52; Job 38, 42: selected verses

Why did God ever take a bet, even if he knew the outcome?

Why didn’t Job stop loving God after everything that happened?  Why would God make a bet on the happiness of a man’s life?

Both of these are great, and difficult to answer, questions.

I’ll start answering them by talking about the library.

When you go to the library (whether in person or online), the first thing you do is to look at what section you are in.  If you want to study history, you don’t check out a cookbook.  If you want to read a novel, you don’t browse the encyclopedias.

Now imagine that the Bible is a library.

There are 66 books in the Bible.

Many of those books are in different sections.

The gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) talk about Jesus’ life.  These are in the non-fiction section.

The Psalms capture a whole range of feelings about what it means to follow God that are summed up in just a few short verses.  Psalm is in the poetry section.

The book of Revelation reads like a sci-fi adventure.  It is in the fantasy section.

The book of Job starts out with God making a bet with Satan and then ruining a man’s life for no reason other than to prove himself.  Do I think that is the way God does things?  I certainly hope not!!  But what if you don’t read the book of Job as if it were history?  What if God and Satan didn’t ACTUALLY sit down and ruin Job’s life?  What if Job is a story that is written to try to make an important point?

Does that make it less true than the other books in the Bible library that are non-fiction?  I don’t think so.  What the Bible reveals to us is God’s truth: about who God is, who Jesus is, and who we are.  The Bible is not a history book.  It is the Bible.  It’s bigger than history!  It is the revelation of God’s word!

The character of Job is a remarkable person.  He sticks with God even in spite of his sufferings.  He loves God through the difficult times.  He just keeps waiting for things to make sense.  And when they don’t – he finally flies off the handle and expresses his anger at God (read chapter 30 to see what I mean…).  It makes for a good story.  It sets up “the point” of the book: that the only one who is able to make sense of the world is the one who created the world.  That would be…not Job, or his friends, or us…but God and God alone.

Sounds kind of heavy, huh?  Like God is distant and cold and removed from all of us.

Maybe…but don’t forget that the way we know God is through Jesus…who came to the earth, lived among us, loved us, died for us, and was raised for us.

So while we may not ever know all there is to know about why things happen the way they do in our lives or our world, we do know what God thinks about us: because we see how much love has when we look at Jesus.

Can I get an AMEN???