Pastor's Pen: Looking for a Hero

In 1938, two high school students from Cleveland had a vision for a comic hero.  He had super strength, super speed, and super senses.  The character resonated with the public, and Superman was born.  Since that time, a thousand heroes in tights have bloomed.  Whether they are women or men, aliens or mutants, or even wizards or robots, they all have one thing in common.  Each has powers and abilities far beyond us mortals.

In the early days, the assumption was that superheroes used their powers for “truth, justice, and the American way.”  However, since then we have grown cynical.  Power, we realize, has its own temptations.  This isn’t a new revelation.  In fact, it is as old as the tempting of Adam and Eve.  The serpent whispers, “You will be like God” (Genesis 3:5).

In 1962, Stan Lee created a comic character struggling to make the transition between adolescence to adulthood.  Due to a bite from a radioactive spider, the awkward teenager must deal with incredible powers thrust upon him.  “With great power,” we are told, “comes great responsibility.”  Jesus himself will similarly declare two thousand years earlier, “To whom much is given, much will be expected” (Luke 12:48).

We don’t have x-ray vision or the ability to sling webs, but we are blessed.  Our talents and abilities are formidable.  How do we avoid temptation?  How do we reject exploitation or the abuse of power?  How can we be gifted yet humble?

The model for us is Jesus.  Jesus came and walked with us.  He listened to God, trusting in God’s word.  He spoke out against injustice.  He faced danger with courage.  Jesus continues to love us with a sacrificial love.  Moreover, Jesus offers these gifts to us.  “Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these” (John 14:12).  If we are looking to be a hero, we need to look to Jesus.

From 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. on June 18-22, our children will be exploring what it means to be a hero at Ardmore Presbyterian Church’s Vacation Bible School.  Exploring the stories of the Old and New Testament, we will be looking for Jesus.  Through games, crafts, and lessons, we learn what it means to follow him.  Check out www.ardmorepres.org for more information. 

Grace & Peace,

James Hodsden

REGISTER ON-LINE FOR VBS HERE.

Garden Fellowship on Wednesdays

Hello all now and future APC gardeners!

This is a note to say we hope you will join us this Wednesday at the garden right behind the church for some great food(really!) and fellowship. We have been meeting for several weeks now and we are having a good time. The garden is coming along nicely. We've had Keenagers, younger people, single people, families, pastors and even new visitors to our church attend. You will fit in well. If you have chairs or blankets please feel free to bring those as we add to the supply at the Parrish House. We have hot dogs and (veggie burgers upon request) for the grill and drinks supplied. People have been bringing a side, chips or dessert to share. You don't have to bring anything but we have enjoyed eating everyone's delicious food. 

Do you ever drive through west Philly and feel some despair? Do you cross City Line Avenue and wonder what is to be done about this place so close to where we live? Come to the garden and see. This is fresh produce, grown and given in Christ's name to our neighbors who otherwise would not have access to it. Your kids will understand this idea of feeding hungry people and you not feel so helpless. The company in good and the tasks are not hard- I promise. Mary Van Leeuwen will show you just how to do it all:)

We will be out there every Wednesday unless it is pouring rain. Come for a little while or come for the whole time. We will be excited to see you.

Please pass this email on to anybody else in the church who you think might enjoy this event. This is going out to the families list but all are welcome.

Blessings,

Karen and Jeff

PS.  If you cannot garden, whether because of the health or interest,you have to be somewhere without dirt on you afterwards,etc please join us anyway. we would love to have your company, regardless.

Garden Fellowship, Wed at 5:30p

Hello potential gardeners,

We will be at the Ardmore Presbyterian Church garden this coming Wednesday, May 16, at 5:30p to weed and pick what has already come up. We had lots of people come help last week, and we will be glad to see even more this coming Wednesday. We'll be there with the hot dogs and drinks. Feel free to bring anything else your family would like to eat or something to share. It would be helpful for people to bring chairs or a blanket to sit on as we do not yet have enough of those for everybody. Let us know if you need a vegetarian option and we will have it for you. We found that many hands make light work and left lots of time for fellowship.

Blessings,
Karen

P.S.  If you cannot or choose not to garden because of physical limitations (or something else) please feel free to join us still. Come watch some adults and kids (very cute) pull weeds and have a hot dog. Come smell the herbs. I think you will enjoy watching the garden come to life this summer. What it produces will be a blessing to many. It is a mission of our whole church and all are welcome to come and spend time together.

Pastor's Pen: God and the Luddite

The irony of the 21^st Century is that we are more connected than ever, yet we remain more and more isolated.  We can look at a smart phone and catch the news from the other side of the planet, yet the relationship with our neighbor consists only of a nod on the way to work.  At the grocery store, I appreciate the convenience of the automated check-out, but listening to the mechanical voice, I wonder if I’m missing something.  While living in the fifth largest city in the U.S., we can actually make it through the day without talking to an actual human being. 

An interesting exercise for the modern family is to count screens.  If I count everything from televisions, laptops, or even hand-held games, there are many more screens than people in my home.  Each one beckons me away from interacting with the people with whom I live and love.  Even the promise of social media is fleeting.  It can certainly enhance existing relationships.  However, the same Facebook page which shares baby pictures with a grandparent can also speed up a marital break-up. 

In the 19^th Century, textile artisans in England protested against the technical changes of the industrial revolution by destroying mechanized looms.  The Luddites feared that a way of life was passing away.  They had legitimate fears, but their actions were violent and ineffectual.  For the modern Luddite, there are plenty of fears in our brave new world.  We live in a media bubble of our own design.  We listen only to the voices that we want.  This isolation can lead to loneliness or even the inability to interact with someone who disagrees.  I don’t suspect that there will be pickets outside the Apple Store any time soon, and frankly, I like this age of communication and instantaneous information.  How then do we respond?

God has already given a response:  Pentecost.  After the resurrection and the ascension of Jesus, the disciples were gathered together.  Suddenly, a violent wind blew through the place.  The Holy Spirit settled upon them making the disciples one body of believers.  By God’s action, the Church became a reality.  However, the Church was never meant to be another interest group isolated from the rest of the world.  Pilgrims visiting Jerusalem from all over the known world noticed the commotion.  From the disciples of Jesus Christ, they suddenly heard God’s praises each one in his or her own language. 

Pentecost affirmed God’s observation back in Genesis, “It is not good for man (or woman) to be alone.”  Jesus’ life and ministry demand that the Church must be focused outward.  We are called to love God and to love neighbor.  As society or technology attempts to pull people apart, we are ministers of reconciliation.  That might mean using an e-mail to encourage a friend, or it might mean turning off the computer to care physically for another.  We reject the loneliness, and take interest in the people around us.  Together, we might hear God’s praises in our own language.

Grace & Peace,

James

Shine-Up Saturdays

The following is an article by Alan Abel from our church's centennial book, Our Heritage, Our Life, written in 2007.  The article is a history of Shine-up Saturdays.

In the late 1980s, with a relatively small congregation for such a large facility, it became increasingly clear that we could not afford to hire professionals to do things that we could do ourselves. Mission, Christian Education, and other areas of our church life should not be cut back because of unnecessary maintenance bills. Trustee George Sargent (who had an engineering degree) organized volunteers to help at that time. Then, in 1991, George coined the phrase "Shine-Up Saturday," which is still with us today.

Over the years, at least 80 church members have given of their time and skills on the average of eight to ten Saturdays a year. A few of those have died, some are now too old to work, and others have moved from the area, but we still have a solid core of workers. It is also encouraging that so many of our new members have expressed an interest in Shine-Up Saturdays.

Some of the activities over the years have included grass seeding, grass cutting, lawn aerating, shrub and tree planting, pruning, general landscaping, leaf raking, gutter cleaning, and sidewalk and driveway sweeping. Outside doors have been polyurethaned or painted several times.

Almost every room, closet, or storage First Presbyterian Church of Ardmore area in the church (maybe. 45-50 in all) has been painted once, twice, or three times in the last 16 years. (Only the sanctuary, chapel, fellowship hall, or some high places have been left for the professional painters.) To add to the typical painting preparation was washing, scraping, sanding, caulking, spackling, undercoating, and then applying one to four coats of paint in the church building. More of the same was done on the three floors of the Parish House.

Mechanical activity included floor tile installation and the building of various storage racks, shelves, work tables, banner holders, and many other carpentry repairs. Housekeeping chores included washing, scrubbing, sweeping, and vacuuming and the organization and reorganization of voluminous numbers of closets, shelves, and storage areas. There have been multiple trips to the dump with major clean-ups of trash and unusable items. As grueling as some of these jobs were, there was the added benefit of newfound friendships, camaraderie, and fun.

From the beginning, my wife Janet, supplied lunch to this hearty group of volunteers.  Sandwiches, potato chips, soda, water, tea, and countless banana segments and cookies were served at least 128 times over the years. For me, the real challenge has been trying to match the work assignments to the volunteers' interests and expertise while running from one end of the church to the other with supplies and, hopefully, the correct answers to many questions. The end result of our work has been worth every minute of the efforts put forth by many devoted church members.

This Saturday, April 21, 2012, we are looking for volunteers for an all-church Shine-up.  This will be a great time for someone who has never attended to be a part of the the fun.  Everyone is invited.  Come for an hour or come all day.  Lunch will be provided.

Pastor's Pen: WIJD

On my bookshelf I have a dusty old volume of Charles Sheldon’s novel, "In His Steps." The book was written in 1896 by Sheldon for his youth group in Topeka, Kansas. The novel tells the story of a pastor who challenges his congregation to live for one year asking the question, "What would Jesus do?" The rest of the book outlines the transformed lives of the parishioners as they tackle the problems of poverty, economic exploitation, graft, and the like. The story epitomized the social gospel movement and its optimism in human efforts solving human problems.

The book is not great literature, but amazingly it continued to make an impact.  In the 1990s, Dan Seaborn read the novel while he was a youth pastor in Michigan.  He used the question as a rallying cry for his youth group.  They made buttons with the letters WWJD which led to a merchandising frenzy.  Soon, one found WWJD everywhere, emblazoned on bracelets, T-shirts, bumper stickers, etc. The question became a credo for an entire subculture of Christians.  Then the fad faded. Perhaps this is a good thing.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m entirely in favor of promoting ethics based on the teachings of Jesus. The world would be a better place if more people patterned their lives after our Savior. However, the question itself is troublesome. "What would Jesus do?" is conditional. "Would" implies an "if" clause. "If Jesus was here, what would he do?" As Christians who live in the sunlight of Easter, we no longer can speak conditionally.

"Christ is risen. He is risen, indeed."

The resurrection refuses to allow Jesus to slip into the sands of time. Instead, we believe in his reality and his continued actions on our behalf. His teachings remain valid because his kingdom remains an actuality.  One preacher puts it this way, “The question is not ‘What would Jesus do?’  Instead the question is ‘What is Jesus doing?’”

With all respect to Rev. Sheldon, this Easter we should take on a new challenge. Because Jesus is alive, let us ask, "What is Jesus doing right now?" Let’s live the next year asking, "What is Jesus doing in our congregation, in our families, in our lives?"

Grace & Peace,

James Hodsden

Pastor's Pen: Blessed Are Those That Mourn

Excerpts from the Service of Covenant Renewal, on February 23, 2012.

After we first moved here, my wife signed up to receive text messages from one of the local television stations.  So a few times a day, her phone buzzes with the latest headlines in the Philly area.  More often than not, the texts are filled with bad news.  The media reports that someone did something hurtful or hateful or simply stupid.  Perhaps, it is another shooting or another flash mob or another scandal.  On occasion, Sara will forward a headline to me.  Sharing the news, even bad news, can be a comfort.  It’s nice to know we aren’t alone.

While recently reading one of those forwarded texts, I realized that I wasn’t angry or upset.  I just was saddened.  I grieved the waste of talent and ability.  I grieved the lost opportunities.  At the end of the text, the television station gave me an option, “Reply STOP NEWS to quit.”  If only it was that easy.  I would love to hit reply on my cell phone to stop the bad news from coming.  It would be great to push a button and know that no child would go hungry tonight, that wars would end, and that cures for diseases would be found. 

However, there is no app for that.  

We aren’t powerless.  Humanity is capable of great acts of compassion and sacrifice.  Each of us should do our part.  Nonetheless, it will never be enough.  Injustice, suffering and hatred will remain.  Despite our human efforts, death will always be an enemy.  The very things we wish to preserve slip through our fingers. 

For me, the worst part is when I discover that even our efforts are tainted.  Our actions are accompanied by selfishness, accommodation, and sin.  Exhausted by the magnitude of the challenge, we fall to our knees and cry.  And Jesus calls us blessed. 

For those of us who grew up reading Peanuts comics, “Good grief” was Charlie Brown’s cry of desperation.  It was meant to ironic, but Jesus means it seriously.  “Blessed are those who mourn” (Matt 5:4). 

On a certain level, those who mourn actually know the truth about this world.  If someone cannot feel the pain of another person, they are essentially alone.  There is something hellish about the one who walks through life surrounded by self-built walls, comfortably numb.

However, being blessed isn’t simply feeling another’s pain.  That’s not Jesus’ word to us.  “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”  Jesus declares that there is an end to grief.  Jesus stands with us at the grave.  He whispers into our ears.  Don’t worry.  This is not the whole story.  My love cannot be stopped by this.  I will never leave you.

The nails that pierced his hands are gone.  The cross on which he hung is no more.  But Jesus himself is not lost to history.  He is alive.  The grief we have today must be understood in that context.  Lent is not simply forty days of dreariness.  The empty tomb declares that our grief happens in the embrace of hope.  And God’s hope will never disappoint.