Mosaic Faith

(Originally published in First Presbyterian Church Fayetteville TN’s P&P on March 19, 2002, which means you’ll need a time machine to actually visit the store and table described below.)

In a gift shop on the square (Grapevine Art & Glass), there is a unique table that fascinates me. Underneath its exterior, the table is of good quality, though fairly ordinary. It is what Sue Tiekling—the artist—has done with the top of it that makes it unique.

In a kind of mosaic style, Sue has taken broken pieces of Noritake china and formed a thing of beauty. The tabletop’s border consists of inlaid pieces from the gold edging of the plates. In the center, she has taken broken pieces from the middle of the plates and formed beautiful mosaic patterns. Each piece shows a fragment of the china plate’s original design, but together, they form a new design all their own.

I’m not working on commission, either for the Grapevine or for Mrs. Tielking, but I would recommend going to see it, if for no other reason than the fact that my description of the table is very inadequate. When you look at it, I want you to think about your life. Think about how your life could be compared to that table. Underneath it all, most of us live ordinary lives. But often, unbeknownst to us, God is at work doing extraordinary things in and through us that we do not immediately recognize.

When the fine china dreams that we have built for ourselves are cracked and broken by events beyond our control—when life’s chaos swirls around us and shatters the patterns around which we’ve built our lives—God can take the broken pieces and rework them into a mosaic that has a beauty and a function beyond what we ever dreamed. It won’t be the same plate, or the same dream, but it can become a beautiful work of art nonetheless.

Sometimes I think we hinder God’s transformative work by holding on to the broken pieces of our lives in a futile attempt to clumsily reconstruct our dreams, making a glue-covered mess that has no purpose or usefulness. Other times we quickly and thoughtlessly jettison the broken pieces, sure that they will never be useful again. All the while, God is waiting for us to let go of them, or may even have to salvage them from the trash, so that we can be shown the path to “a more excellent way.”

Check your life’s china dream cabinet to see if there are some broken pieces that you can begin to let go of. Look through your life’s garbage, in search of discarded and broken dreams to see if they might be offered up to the power and transcendent grace of God. You never know when and how the beauty of Noritake dreams might easter-up from our brokenness.

© 2002 Todd Jenkins

Week Found

I found a week twice this week
but didn’t know what to do with it.
I didn’t really find a week,
but it sure felt like it,
when I believed on two separate occasions
that scheduled events and due dates had arrived,
only to find out a short time later that
I had a week’s reprieve for them both.

When I lose a week,
which happens much more often,
I sometimes wonder where it went.
I like to imagine that
I was abducted by aliens or some other
equally-dramatic scenario,
so that I don’t have to
take personal responsibility
for my calendar bulging like a three-day udder.

But when I find one,
which I can only remember happening recently,
what myth will help me explain this phenomenon?
What can I claim as the cause for a week found?

I know I didn’t do anything special
to deserve this bonus;
didn’t somehow save up some
chronographic karma
that suddenly paid dividends.

What will I do with this found week?
Is it like found money—
do I have a choice of splurging with it
or investing it wisely?
What would you do with a found week?

I ended up using it much like any other week,
but I think I enjoyed it a little more;
savored its days, hours, minutes more deliciously,
simply because I realized that,
if only in my mind and for a brief while,
I nearly lost it before I ever had a chance to taste it.

Cheers to a found week,
to the grace of living all over again,
even if it’s really only once,
a week that almost disappeared!

© 2010 Todd Jenkins

We Are Falcons!

We are Falcons
from Lincoln County High!
We’ll always be Falcons
until the day we die!

When the sun goes down,
and the air is chilled,
we strap it on & buckle up
as the Pit is filled!

From the first kick-off
‘til the final whistle blows,
our hard work and
our teamwork shows!

Falcon fever pitch,
rising higher and higher!
We’ll rock your world!
We’ll burn you like fire!

We let our game be
the walk that we walk!
We let the score be
the smack that we talk!

We'll knock you on your butt!
We'll leave you in the dust!
When the final whistle blows,
you will respect us!

We are Falcons
from Lincoln County High!
We’ll always be Falcons
until the day we die!

Praying

This past Sunday’s sermon was not only about prayer, it was prayer. We could preach about prayer 52 Sundays a year and never come close to covering all of its aspects. We could pray 24/7 and never finish. Someone once said,” Prayer is not what we do, it is who we are.”

Some people are bothered by the notion that prayer or, as in the case of Hebrew [OT] scripture stories, conversation with God changes God’s mind (Genesis 18:22ff; Exodus 32:14). Others are quite convinced of and comfortable with the notion that God’s actions are tied directly to people’s prayers (Matthew 21:21-22). I know that:
• Prayer makes a difference in mine and others’ lives;
• Prayer makes me more attentive to the work of God in the world and in my life;
• Prayer is about reinforcing my trust in God;
• Though I don’t fully understand the “how” of prayer’s efficacy (Does it change me only, or also God?), I still practice it, in the similar way that I use a microwave even though I do not fully understand nuclear science.

Here are some other thoughts on prayer from C.S. Lewis:

“I pray because I can't help myself. I pray because I'm helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time- waking and sleeping. It doesn't change God- it changes me."

"Almost certainly God is not in time. His life does not consist of moments one following another...Ten-thirty-- and every other moment from the beginning of the world--is always Present for Him. If you like to put it this way, He has all eternity in which to listen to
the split second of prayer put up by a pilot as his plane crashes in flames."

© 2010 Todd Jenkins

Where's the Grace in THAT?

I tried not to proof-text my sermon too much this week, but the Pharisees (Luke 15:1-10), who grumble that Jesus “eats with tax collectors and sinners”, seemed to be tailor-made for the “Dove World Outreach Church Media Frenzy” of this past week. I’m guessing that Terry Jones is oblivious to the irony that he is a prime example of how ridiculous and dangerous it is to generalize and stereotype an entire faith by the actions of a handful of extremists who claim to be acting on that faith’s principles.

I don’t recall Jesus burning the Torah, as a way to spread the gospel message. When I contemplated the possible burning of the Qu’ran, Islam’s holy book, the first thing that came to my mind was, “Where’s the grace in that?”

A pastor friend shared a story about C. S. Lewis, who was once asked to settle a scholars’ debate about the most unique characteristic of Christianity. Lewis is reported to have said, “It’s grace.” God’s love is “string-free” and not dependent on our goodness, wisdom, actions, or anything else related to who we are or what we’ve done.

That’s a very powerful characteristic, but also one that challenges us. When we are on the receiving end of grace (like the 1 sheep of 99 and the 1 coin of 10 in Jesus’ parable), it is a wonderfully unimaginable gift, and we are deeply grateful for grace’s great-reversal of the “less-than” sign (Remember your math class?) that the world aims at our life. When we are called to give it, however (especially to someone who has hurt us), it is a little bit more difficult to swallow.

Some moments we find ourselves square in the middle of Pharisee Street, grumbling about grace’s long reach and compassion, convincing ourselves that we are good enough to be judged by law, instead. Other times we are well aware that we are the one sheep of ninety-nine in desperate need of grace. In many situations we find ourselves among the ninety-nine, wondering whether another “one sheep” is worth it.

Our congregation’s vision, adopted by the Session, prominently displayed on our church sign (the last frame in the video), and the primary tool by which we attempt to measure all our endeavors is, “Reveal God’s grace now and to all generations forevermore.”

If you are interested in a visual and audio reflection on this, which I used as the final illustration in our TouchPoint Worship Service, check out the YouTube video I posted. I would put a direct link in the blog, but I can't figure out how to do so, even though there is an "Insert Link" button right in front of my face. Isn't technology wonderful?

© 2010 Todd Jenkins

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9peBFXBFFP0

Mom the Invincible

This was written for a friend's mom who recently underwent a "medical procedure."

At her age it surely seems
“the I’s” her middle name.
From everlasting she has been
to endless years the same.

The Dr. says it is only
a simple procedure,
but when it is your mom at risk
you want to be quite sure.

I know she’s not invincible
and surely, so does she.
So, hold her in your palm dear God,
she means the world to me.

Amen.

© 2010 Todd Jenkins

Ordinary Ministry

We work, play, and casually interact with people every day who have unspeakable tragedy lurking just beneath the surface of their lives. Sometimes we’re on the other end and the tragedy is our own. Most of the time there's no longer a visible indication of this suffering but, occasionally (more often than we probably realize), there are "thin places" where the fresh coat of "normal" does not completely hide what has been buried in the shallow ground.

We stub our metaphorical toe on another’s invisible pain. We accidentally rake across non-sequiturs of rage, anger, or shock. Momentary silence creates a complete change of subject. Punctuation’s pause opens the door to overflowing catacombs of emotion.

Pay attention! These are the places where we can rise to the occasion and be fully present. These are the times for which we are created. These are the experiences by which, if we can resist the reflex of withdrawal, we are warmed by love and soldered together by God’s healing touch. These are the foundational blocks of the priesthood of all believers. These are the blessed sacraments of ordinary ministry.

© 2010 Todd Jenkins