First United Methodist Church - Fort Collins, CO

The sermon will have two points; two ways of dealing with the tedium of tomorrow and the terror of tomorrow. We remember the words of Jesus who said, “Don’t worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has problems of its own.”

Some of what tomorrow brings is small. It’s boring. It’s boredom; Monday morning monotony. When we face the tedium of tomorrow then we will want to do something different. We will want to change what has become our pattern or our way of doing things.

Some of what tomorrow brings is big. It’s frightening. It’s threatening and scary. Tomorrow can bring death or illness. It can bring uncertainty and failure. Monday morning can loom awaiting us like a menacing presence. When Monday morning brings something big we will want to imagine something new. It’s time to rethink; to re-imagine.

• What do you do about Monday morning; about tomorrow when it’s small or when it’s big?

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If you have thoughts, please leave a comment with this post. For personal thoughts write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. I look forward to hearing from you.

- Charles

I have begun to realize that this “Monday” this is large and applies in different ways to different people. Monday is my day off and is a day I look forward to spending with Kathy, but there are other ways in which there is a Monday issue.

“Monday is a Monster”

Some of us it is the ongoing routine we cannot escape. It’s a day to do nothing followed by another day in which there is nothing to do. For some of us Monday the day we’re dreading. It’s the coming of the new school year, or the arena in which we will be challenged to do something we may or may not be able to do. For some of us it is the arrival of the moment when we are going to have surgery or when we are going to face the death of a loved one. For some of us it is the arrival of our own death. Monday is the tomorrow we’re afraid to face. How do we face it?

For Jeremiah it was the coming of the Babylonians and the captivity and he responded by buying land as a token of his confidence that the people would return to the land. It was an affirmation of the future they we not able to see. 

• How do we face Monday/tomorrow?
• How do we face whatever tomorrow brings?

Jesus said, “Do not worry about tomorrow. Today has enough problems of its own.

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 If you have thoughts, please leave a comment with this post. For personal thoughts write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. I look forward to hearing from you.

- Charles

This summer we have tried to look at some of the many moods of summer, and this coming Sunday I want to have us reflect upon the depression of going back to work when, at times, we feel our work is futile. Many members of the church tell me how exciting their work is and how much they enjoy it, but that doesn’t deny that there are times it is difficult to get back to it. In fact, we can become addicted to our work.

In the Biblical texts we find support from some surprising sources as we reflect upon our Monday Morning Blues. The Creator of Creation had moments when there was regret for the fact of creation. We are told there was a time God wished God had not created humankind. Moses, in leading the people out of Egypt, had to face the indignity of questioning from people who would rather have remained in captivity. Did Isaac ever get depressed? The name, Isaac, means “laughing”. Were there times in his life when he wasn’t laughing? I suspect there were.

What do we do with our depression? It can come to us because we do not believe the work we do is meaningful, but it can also hit us when we are overstressed by work we values but which takes too much out of us. It can come to us because we feel inadequate and it can come to us when we are feeling extremely competent. It can come to us at any stage of our career, and it can come to us when we are completely retired. It happens to people in the Universities, in the corporate world, and in the Retirement Home. It happens in the church, in the operating theater, in show business, and in the school classroom.

What do we do with our depression when it is related to the work we do, or the work we wish we did, or the work we are no longer able to do?

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 If you have thoughts, please leave a comment with this post. For personal thoughts write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. I look forward to hearing from you.

- Charles

The preacher for Sunday July 16th is Dr. David Dalke. Here are his thoughts on the sermon he is writing.

The theme for Sunday will be centered around the scriptures in Matthew and John, where Jesus calls us to pay attention to “the least of these”.  We need to notice the “stranger” in our midst…the “scared”…the “wanderer”.  I will tie some of these scriptures into a significant time in the church of Belle Plaine, KS., as this congregation experienced “ministry” when least expected, just as we do here at First United Methodist Church in Fort Collins.

It is time to notice how powerful Jesus’ message is as he addresses the “religious” people who have brought a woman to him, caught in adultery.  He raises their concerns to a higher level…”what right do you really have to condemn this woman?”  Another expression of “the least of these”.  As Erich Fromm says, “the greatest threat to our happiness is the feeling of separation”.  The subtle message is: we must not “judge” or “ostracize”, but rather reach out and CONNECT.

I will close with an illustration about a 78 year old retired carpenter building a cross for Easter Sunday morning service, and what that message of the cross can mean to “the least of these”….

If you have thoughts please contact David at Ddalke37@cs.com. He’d love to hear from you.

The most important question about getting away is the purpose for it. If we’ve gotta get away what will we want to do while we’re away? Is the getting away escape? Is there some reason why we should want to get away? Is there something that must happen to us while we are away?

I think there are two things that should happen to us while we are away.

1. We can rediscover a part of ourselves that has been lost. We can become “congruent” with ourselves. We can find a bit of consistency we have lost in the frenzy of life with the pressures and pulls in so many directions. We can rediscover who we are even as we live in a world in which we are told by others who we should be.
2. We can realign with that which is greater than ourselves. Often we can’t see the forest for the trees and we forget that there are broad dimensions of our living that impact other aspects of life. Our goal in life is to line up with the sense of the eternal and to live in accordance with that. Our aim in getting away is to find God and to live a life that lines up with what we understand God to be.

Two things for us to do while we are getting away from it all: CONGRUENCE AND ALIGNMENT

Finally, it may be we can’t get away this summer or it could be that our getting away this summer will be so rushed and pressured that it won’t really be getting away. That may be true and, if so, what are we to do? I think we have a chance when we’ve gotta get away to do something every week at church. Worship should provide both alignment and congruence. That’s why we come to church on Sunday mornings in the summer, in the fall, in the winter, and in the spring.

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If you have thoughts, please leave a comment with this post. For personal thoughts write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. I look forward to hearing from you.

- Charles

 

Where and how do you get away from it all?

In the 6th Chapter of the Gospel of Mark we find that passage where Jesus is speaking in his home church and the people, instead of listening to what he said and learning from it, remark about his parents. They are more concerned to name is family tree than they are to hear what he said.

In the next section of Mark he sends out the disciples and tells them to go door to door. He suggests there are some places where they will not be heard. What he advises them to do is shake the dust off their shoes and move on.

Every now and then we’ve got to get away. It’s important to know when it’s time to get away. Peter Moore wrote an article in a magazine on “men’s health” but I am sure this is not exclusive to men. He said that research has shown that men are more likely to have heart attacks if they don’t take time away from their work. He writes that, it has been shown; men who do not take summer vacations have a higher risk of having fatal heart attacks than men who take their summer vacations.

You and I have got to get away from time to time.

1. How do we know when it’s time to get away?
2. What are the signs?
3. Where do we go to get away?
4. Are you going away this summer?
5. Have you been away? Did it help?

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If you have thoughts, please leave a comment with this post. For personal thoughts write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. I look forward to hearing from you.

- Charles

There is much in life that will stress us out. The pressures on all of us are overwhelming, and the summer is a time to find time to recollect our thoughts and our spirits. It is a time to find ourselves again.

Jesus, from time to time, needed to “get away from it all”. He found a place he could go and there were times in his life when it was important to go there.

We can get away by simply spending time in reflection; a spiritual retreat. We can get away from it all going to a place we’ve never been, and we can get away from it all as we are surrounded by friends and loved ones.

Bill Henson writes about the time in his ministry he was asked to give a speech in South Carolina. It had been a particularly stressful time for him in his church in Houston. There had been a murder of a staff member, a fine in the church, and a decision about whether to stay at the present location or move. He remembers how he had never been as tired as he was when he finished his speech that night. The pastor of the church asked him to stay after the presentation and answer questions. He remember leaning against a wall and wondering if he could make it through the next hour while people came up to him asking him questions and pointing out the error of his thinking. At the end of the line was a familiar face. It was his daughter. She had barrowed a car and driven from school to visit with her dad. The two of them went to a local all-night restaurant and visited until the early hours of the morning. Finally, she got back in her car and drove back to school. Bill noticed something. He was no longer weary. His conversation with his daughter had energized him. Being with the people we love will lift our spirits and will revive us.

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If you have thoughts, please leave a comment with this post. For personal thoughts write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. I look forward to hearing from you.

- Charles