1. Planned out Perfectly
I had my summer all planned out…
The days and the weeks of my calendar were carefully filled in. At times, it was like playing Tetris, finding a place to fit everything. But it was all planned perfectly.
It started with summer camp.
As co-director at Chi-Rho camp, I did a lot of advance planning. I had evening programs and daily schedules and keynote topics all figured out well in advance of camp. It made camp more relaxing for me, since - once I got there - so much was already planned out.
The next week was the Meals on Wheels 5K run. Bill Cruikshank - the Meals on Wheels executive director - had called me just a few weeks earlier asking if I would say the opening prayer as I’ve done in years past. At first I panicked, thinking there was no room left on my calendar, but it turned out there was just enough room; I prayed, I ran, and then I hopped in the car and drove back up to Loch Leven to pick David Clark up and bring him home.
The timing couldn’t have been better, actually.
After that, I had four days camping with my relatives at Point Mugu. Come home from that, take one day to unpack, do laundry, and repack, and then fly to Iowa with Ethan for General Assembly. Come home from that, and VBS…
It was all planned out so perfectly.
2. Down But Not Out (2 Cor. 4.9)
But then, as we were driving home from camping, I started to get a stomach ache. No big deal, I thought.
When we got home, I went to lie down. I didn’t even help unpack the car. “I don’t feel well,” I said.
“Yeah, right,” I could hear the others saying in their heads as they carried stuff in...
But then I started vomiting. And the pain got worse.
Sometime after midnight the pain hit me so hard I ended up on the floor, covered in sweat, and I could not stand up. I knew I needed to go to the hospital; but I also knew there was no way I could get up and walk to the car, even if someone helped me.
So I reached for my phone and called 911, and an ambulance came and took me to the hospital.
All the while I’m thinking, well, there’s about 36 hours before my flight to Iowa, I bet they can get this straightened out by then.
But then the doctor said I had appendicitis, and then we started getting ready for emergency surgery, and I knew I would not be going to General Assembly.
Life does that to you sometimes, doesn’t it? Sometimes, it doesn’t matter how carefully you have planned things out, things happen. It’s happened to most of you, I think, perhaps in ways far more significant than this; and if it hasn’t happened to you, just wait. It’s a part of life. The sooner you accept this, the easier it will be when life throws you a curve ball.
Not everybody handles things well when life’s plans fall apart. It’s a hard thing when your dreams don’t come true.
Some sink into depression... Some turn to substance abuse or addiction... Some turn to porn or other unhealthy diversions. Some shut themselves off to others, or to themselves. (There’s no judgment here - that’s just how some people cope when plans fall apart.)
But there are healthier ways to respond. You can start by realizing that we aren’t always in control. At some point, life will knock you down. Accept that it’s just gonna happen.
I think of the apostle Paul, the times he was arrested, thrown in prison, or beset by other afflictions. He had things he wanted to do, plans he wanted to carry out, but he was prevented from doing so.
Yet whatever happened to him, he considered himself down, but not out. To the Corinthians he wrote: “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed…” He found blessings in even the worst of circumstances. And Paul knew that God would continue working through him, blessings others, no matter what his circumstances.
This enabled him to sing songs of praise - even while in chains.
I must admit, not getting to go to General Assembly was a huge disappointment. There was a part of me that was actually in mourning. I had already anticipated so much - I had thought about what clothes I was going to wear, I had pictured myself going for a swim in the hotel pool in between business sessions, or walking along the river in downtown Des Moines; I had chosen all the workshops I was going to attend; I was very excitedly looking forward to hearing some amazing preachers; and I really, really, was looking forward to seeing some friends who I hadn’t seen in a long time.
Could I, like Paul, find the blessing in my current situation? Turns out, I could.
3. Blessings in the Storm
The first blessing came when Ethan decided to still go to Iowa without me. I so wanted him to, but I didn’t think he would. He does NOT like to fly, and has said he wouldn’t fly unless someone were with him.
But he decided he could do this. And he did. And from what I could tell, he thrived. People I don’t even know shared with me that they met him, and that he has an awesome soul. (Their words.)
He made me so proud, and so happy.
The next blessing came when I began to receive messages from people in Iowa saying they missed me, they were praying for me. It made me so happy to hear that.
A third blessing came from the excellent care I received while at the hospital. The nurses in particular were so attentive to my needs, and helpful to me.
A fourth blessing came when I realized how much worse the timing of everything could have been. What if my stomach pain didn’t hit until I was already on the plane? I don’t even want to imagine the outcome of that. Thank God it happened when it did.
A fifth blessing came when I thought of all those here at home who were thinking of me and praying for me. My family. And my wonderful, wonderful church. You all are a blessing that sustains me.
I could go on, but I think I made my point: there was disappointment to be sure, but at the same time the disruption made me aware of so many blessings - blessings that I might have overlooked or taken for granted had the disruption not occured……..
Recovering from surgery means doing a whole lot of nothing. Which, at first, is just fine, because your body and your mind don’t feel like doing anything. But doing nothing gets tiring after awhile.
Fortunately, the General Assembly was starting, and the worship services were livestreamed, and I was going to watch them.
The one preacher everyone was looking forward to hearing was William Barber… Do you know about his major life disruption? When he was a young man, William Barber was extremely athletic, but in his 30th year, he woke up one morning paralyzed. He could not move.
An ambulance came and took him to the hospital. He was diagnosed with a rare, debilitating form of arthritis in which the bones of his spine and his arms and his legs just fused together. Doctors said it was doubtful he’d ever walk again.
He spent three months in the hospital, in excruciating pain. Emotionally and mentally, he went about as low as one could go. He felt called to be a preacher, but who would want a preacher who couldn’t even walk into a pulpit?
Talk about a disruption to one’s plans...
He did eventually learn to walk again, although for 12 years he required the use of a walker. His body was weak, but his prophetic voice remained strong, and grew even stronger over the years. He is a great blessing to the church and to the nation - a blessing that grew and developed in the midst of a terrible life disruption.
4. The Vine
The theme for the Assembly was “Abide,” which was taken from the scripture we heard this morning. Saturday night’s preacher was our General Minister & President, Terri Hord Owens. She focused on the part where Jesus told his disciples to abide in me, and she repeated a theme that she has emphasized before, which is that if we aren’t connected to the vine - if we aren’t connected to Christ - then nothing else is really going to work for us. In church we are focused on programs and growth and building maintenance and musical styles and so many other things, yet we neglect our connection with Christ. We neglect to abide with Christ.
And when we neglect that connection, the fruit we bear begins to wither.
We must abide in Christ. We must remain connected to Christ, the way the branches are connected to the vine.
On Monday night, Ruben del Pilar - from Gardena, California - was the preacher. He built on this theme by saying: “If there's no fruit, check the root.” If the branch is not connected to the root, it gets cut off. "If i remain in myself but not in the vine…"
You gotta be connected to the vine. You gotta be connected to the root. Otherwise, there will be no fruit.
Ruben del Pilar mentioned that his church had launched a new prayer program. Every day (I think he said), their church was open for prayer from 6 to 7 a.m.
Well, soon, people started coming into the church. New people. And they would ask these new people, “What brought you to church?” And they would answer, “I don’t know. Something just made me come in here…”
That’s the power of prayer that connects us to the root. That’s the holy power of a church that is connected to the root, connected to the vine, connected to Christ. That’s a church that has Jesus - and following Jesus - at the center of all they do. And it’s why every so often, I remind you to pray; to pray for your church.
5. Many Branches Bearing Fruit
We are all branches connected to the vine, connected to the root. As long as we remain connected to the root, we remain connected to each other.
And I am so grateful for the connections we have in our church - the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). The livestream limited how much I was exposed to, but we have so many ministry organizations within our church that we are directly connected to, doing ministry in so many ways.
William Barber, who spoke Wednesday morning, is co-director of the Poor People’s Campaign. The Poor People’s Campaign is working so hard in this country on behalf of the poor, on behalf of immigrants, on behalf of those whose rights have been taken away from them.
We’re connected to that.
Wednesday morning’s worship also featured a commissioning of Global Ministries co-workers, who are engaged in development work in so many parts of the world. One of those commissioned was Abi Hernandez, who some of us have worked with at Loch Leven. (I was also her camp counselor when she was younger.) She’s going to Japan for a year, to do work there on Christ’s behalf, and on our behalf.
We’re connected to that.
And we’re connected to the work of Week of Compassion, which continues to respond on our behalf to relief efforts and humanitarian needs around the world as well as here in the U.S.
We’re connected to that.
And we’re connected to ministries of reconciliation, working to overcome the sin of racism in the church and in the world.
And we’re connected to ministries of care, working to care for those in need in so many places.
We’re connected to that. Directly connected, through our church. Directly connected, through our financial support. Directly connected, through our ongoing prayers. We are part of one vine, with many, many branches, connected together.
And each one of those connections is a blessing.
Connected together, we are a movement for wholeness in a fragmented world. A fragmented world is a world of disruption. A fragmented world is a world where things don’t go according to God’s perfect plan, a world where God’s plan has been disrupted.
But God calls us to be a movement for wholeness in that fragmented world. We are a blessing in this world of disruption.
And it’s all because of the root. It’s all because of the vine. It’s all because of Jesus.
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