The encounter between Paul and Lydia took place in a garden,
next to a river, just outside the ancient city of Philippi. Paul has been guided to this garden by a
vision from God to go and share the Gospel of Jesus Christ to others. The power and goodness and joy were so great
that he had to share this new with-God life with others. The new life is so important that the
cultural boundaries no longer applied.
Lydia is a single woman, head of household, successful businesswoman,
and a person of faith. In this encounter
Lydia’s life becomes even more full of purpose.
She opens her mind and her heart and her doors to this new life. Did you notice that she invites them to her
house? Go Lydia. Did you notice that she was a woman of
prayer? Go Lydia? Did you notice that she has her whole
household baptized? Go Lydia. Did you notice that she was a dealer of
purple cloth for Kansas State? (That is
not in there?) Did you notice that when
Paul got to Europe following God’s call, the people he ran into was a group of “United
Methodist Women” on a prayer retreat, in a garden, near a river, near a city?
What happened next for Lydia is even more important: her home became a spiritual center for the
church. That space had a new expanded
purpose because Lydia had a new purpose.
In the change that God worked in her heart, she because ready to open
her home, her resources, her relationships to the new things God was doing
through Christ. Her baptism and the
baptisms of her whole family, brought new life, not just to them, but to the
whole city. She was ready to offer what
she had in a new way for work of God in Christ.
What happened as Paul talked to
this women’s group? New things happened
that changed the world. Lydia, in a
garden of prayer is captured by a vision of a life where people have room to
bloom spiritually even in her home. God
opened her heart.
Let’s go back to the wonder of Gardens.
“God said,
‘Let the earth produce every kind of living thing’….then God said,
‘Let us
make humanity in our image to resemble us so that they may take
charge…God
created humanity, in God’s own image. God
put us in charge.
The Bible begins in a garden and ends in a garden. The Garden of Eden is the biblical way of
describing creation and its purpose and our role in it. God created the earth and all that is in it
to live in harmonious covenants. The
Bible shares story after story of how faithful God is and how much trouble
human beings have being faithful. The
Garden at the end of the Bible is a city garden, the fulfillment and completion
of God’s purpose. The Book of Revelation
is so misunderstood. Its purpose was
never meant to scare. The purpose of the
book was to comfort faithful people in very difficult times to remember that
God is love and will triumph over evil and death. The Revelation Garden, the
garden of heaven, is far more beautiful that any we have experienced on earth.
People need gardens for renewal. In Tuesday morning Bible study we reflected
on the spiritual benefits of being in Gardens.
They are a celebration of life and growth and good things. Maybe that is why Jesus went into the Garden
of Gethsemane to make the decision to sacrifice all for us. Just being in a garden reminds us, that no
matter how tough things are, God is still making all things new. Just recently the special populations of
Manhattan got to double their space at the Community Gardens; to participate in
growing things is a joy. If you go down to our preschool classroom you
will see by each window a garden. I remember the day the men of College Avenue
constructed and took to a Meadowlark Retirement Community household a raised
flowerbed to allow residents the joy of growing things.
Kansas State University was the first operational Land Grant
University and before that it was a small Methodist college right near this
property. The visions that brought
people to this place were to keep Kansas free of slavery and to guide the
nation in research and education on how to help God feed us and the world. This past year the university has been
celebrating what grew out of that Methodist college so tied to
agriculture. Our own Chuck Marr wrote
one of the histories for this celebration. Kansas State University has advanced
agriculture around the world and continues to do so.
The world has changed and continues to do so. We must make certain that there are places by
spiritual rivers where people learn and teach about how good life is and how to
care for it in a way that it benefits all people. What we are doing here at College Avenue UMC
is priceless and is worth our sacrificial giving. We want this community of faith to be a
spiritual garden of healing…and continue to do so for years and years to
come.
One of the greatest joys of our church is seeing how our
children grow up and do great things in many places. I could on for hours about youth who are
doing great things. God has been at work
here through persons guiding children by faith, hope, and love. Heather Hagstrum Caswell, who grew up in the
church, is an assistant professor at Emporia teaching teachers how to get
children to bloom. Over and over
children get something here that helps them grow into creative, life-giving
disciples of Christ.
The sole reason behind a new building is to expand our
ability to help God grow disciples of Christ for the transformation of the
world. This means we are about the
business of assisting people tend their gardens of family, work, and friends in
a way that life everywhere is enhanced. Max
Lansdowne was on KMAN Radio, the InFocus Program with Cathy Dawes. Click on the
Radio Website…and here what he and others had to say.
This week my thoughts were caught in how Jesus lived this
amazing life of compassion and how others do the same. On Thursday, Rev. Diana Chapel of Ogden
Friendship House of Hope, presented to our Willing Workers Spring Lunch, one
way she lives out the words of Jesus. I
was in prison and you visited me. She
goes into the prisons and participates in a 4 day life-changing event called
Kairos. It is the Greek word meaning
special time or God’s time…not clock time, chronos. She helps create a garden of spiritual growth
in that place of bars and concrete and depression and fear. She reminds those inside that they are still
children of God and there is hope. Roger
Johnson and Carol Ott, Randi and Melvin Dale of our church do prison
visitation. How about a team?
What is it about Jesus that makes us want to live and love
as Jesus did. His question “When did I
see you?” indicates that the writer wants us to think about a way of living
that is like this…it is the way we are…it is the way we live.
One thing I see in Jesus is a basic certainty about life
that with God, all of life is held in ultimate goodness. God is going to take care of it. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus answered
the prayer, “Lord, what would you do through me?” with the trust that whatever
was coming was not as powerful as the power behind him and under him. I see in Jesus an inner gyroscope or compass
which guides him no matter what. Yes,
there are moments of deep questioning…let this cup pass…have you forsaken
me….but he was able in all things to look to God. It was a relationship so strong it guided
everything. Paul had it…Lydia caught
it. May we continue to catch it.
Part of this certainty is a realization that life does not
have to perfect to be good. There is
great joy in knowing life is good. This
does not mean that we settle for good enough in that we get lazy or complacent. It means that we give up on being perfect and
start going on to perfection, living fully.
We are always unfinished until heaven…and always growing. And churches are places giving people room to
bloom.
joy comes from using some talent or gift you have to meet
someone’s need.
All of the things I received in life…others did not have to
give them to me. They chose to give
them. My parents chose to sacrifice for
me. My parents gave up so much for
me. Teachers, the same. Sunday school teachers, the same.
And nothing they did for me was something I could
demand. I appreciate how interdependent
we are on each other.
Descartes, make the statement: “I think, therefore I am.” Looking at Jesus, I can think of one
better: “I care, therefore I am.” I believe that is what defines spiritual
existence. If it is trouble to care, it
is much more trouble not to care. Life
is an extraordinary gift that is experienced in caring for others and with
others.
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