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Pastor's Message

November 2003

Dear Friends,

When David was eight, we were watching the news on television. After watching for a while, he said, "Do they look for bad things to talk about?" It does seem that most reported news is bad news. Søren Kierkegaard, a 19th century Danish philosopher/theologian, thought that the Press with its bad news worked at odds with the Church and its Good News. Christian living moves from the general (obedience to God) to the particular (living God's will in the moment). The Press on the other hand, moves from the particular (usually the violent, disruptive, and sinful particulars) to the general impression that this is generally what is going on. I remember Walter Cronkite ending his newscasts with the words, "And that's the way it is..."

What if we lived and prayed with the conviction that this is true? Bad news, even if it were totally accurate, would become a challenge to live in such a way that transforms it and to pray knowing that Jesus is Lord of it. The circumstances themselves are subject to our Lord. As our faith grows and our fears shrivel, we find that the world can bring on all the bad news it wants; the Good News rules. Jesus said, "You will find trouble in the world-but, never lose heart, I have conquered the world!" (John 16:33 J.B. Phillips). And in conquering Jesus is transforming it, just as He has transformed us. That's the general plan, and we are called to be a particular participant in it. And that really is the way it is.

Yours in Christ

Previous Letters from Rev. Arnold

October 2003

Dear Friends,

        “When the Saints go marching in, 

        Oh, when the Saints go marching in,

        I want to be in that number,

        When the Saints go marching in.”

Certainly the Saints (“all who follow Jesus, all around the word”) will be marching into heaven someday and it will be glorious to be in that number when they do, but from the beginning God has been trying to encourage and teach us to bring heaven to earth—to conduct ourselves in a heavenly manner and to see the reign of God at work right here and now.  When Jesus preached the Kingdom of Heaven, he referred to it as both a present and future reality.  Heaven on earth is about how we treat each other, about our families, about our neighbors, about our institutions, about our government, about our world, about doing all this as God wants it done.  The  Saints have a very special role to play in God’s work in God’s world.

Our ancient ancestors associated the number 3 with heaven and the number 4 with the earth  .  Adding them together gave a completeness—like the number of days of creation.  Multiplying them gave a different kind of completeness, representing the transforming work God was doing in creation through the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 disciples of our Lord.  As disciples of Christ, we too are part of this transforming work of God.  That’s what being a part of the Church means—participating in The Plan that God’s “will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”   

During the month of October, we will be having a series of four classes for any of you who would like a refresher course on what it means to be a member of the Church or for anyone who would like to explore the possibility of becoming a member of the Church.  These classes will be held on Thursday evenings at 7:00 beginning October 9. 

        October 9—What a United Methodist Christian believes.

        October 16—United Methodist  genealogy.

        October 23—How and Why United Methodist Christians worship

        October 30—What kind of a Saint does God want me to be?

We Saints need to be marching into all sorts of  places, not to escape into heaven from the earth but to bring heaven to the earth.  What happens after that will just be glorious.

Yours in Christ,

September 2003

Dear Friends,

David and Rachel Brown came to Gorham a number of years ago, after they had retired from the printing business in Newburyport.  Printing is how it all began for them.  At Trinity Methodist Church in Springfield, Massachusetts, after David printed the weekly bulletins and Rachel had finished practicing on the organ, he would walk her home.   They eventually became a team in the printing business.  David taught Rachel how to set type, proofread and run the hand-fed press in their basement.   They graduated to a shop in downtown Springfield and then moved the business to Newburyport.  Newburyport Press became a major printing presence in New England as it continues to be today under the leadership of Rachel and David’s son, David, Jr. 

David had a stroke after they retired to Maine, so School Street didn’t experience the full impact of David’s many gifts and considerable energy—we didn’t know him as a Sunday School Teacher, or Boy Scout leader, or successful businessman or father of four talented children, or powerful communicator or planter of countless trees. 

David had a lifelong passion for trees (the kind, as the poet reminds us, that only God can make).  His family planted trees in Bogota, Colombia and Atlanta, Georgia when he was growing up. When David and Rachel bought a house on the Connecticut River in West Springfield, they planted trees.  David bought 1000 trees that he involved the Boy Scouts in planting on 16 acres in Newburyport .  In their yard here in Gorham there is a magnolia that Rachel gave him and a red hawthorn in the back yard that was his 75th birthday gift from one of his sons.  David would often give the gift of a tree to someone who was grieving the loss of a loved one. 

After he died in 1995, Rachel gave a white hawthorn to the church in David’s memory.  Until last fall, it stood at the end of the walkway by which we enter the church.  Then, almost as if someone had said to David’s tree “be rooted up”, it disappeared and reappeared on our new Cressey Road lot.  This “miracle” happened at last fall’s clean up when Chuck Bamford and Wayne Morrill painstakingly dug around and under it, lifted it onto a pickup truck and transplanted it on our new church lot.

There is a legend that Joseph of Arimethea (the one in whose tomb Jesus was buried) journeyed to England to share the Gospel of Christ.  He traveled with a walking stick fashioned from a Hawthorn tree.  When he arrived—so the story goes—he stuck the walking stick in the ground where it took root and became a thriving part of the British Isles for centuries.

David’s tree can remind us that we too are about the work of living and sharing the gospel of Christ.  David’s contributions to God’s Kingdom along with those of countless saints who have gone before us are roots from which we draw nourishment.  The fruit of the tree reminds us of the fruit that we bear as followers of Christ—both the fruit of the Spirit which has to do with our character and the fruitful activity that we are called to as a church.  David’s tree has preceded us to our future base of operations as a household of God and reminds us of our heritage as well as our mission.  

Yours in Christ,

August 2003 

Dear Friends,

A remarkable thing happened at our annual conference!  The worship had been incredibly moving, again and again – the music, the singing, the liturgical dance, the visual settings and the preaching.  The business had been typical and went on with much discussion about what we could afford and what we could not afford.  The 2002 budget needed to be reduced because churches were way behind in paying their mission shares.  The 2003 budget would also be reduced by having two less district superintendents and reducing other conference staffing positions.  In the midst of these dismal discussions a pastor and former district superintendent from Maine, Linda Campbell-Marshall, addressed the conference remarking about the apparent disconnect between the glorious worship and the lack of trust in God expressed in the business sessions.  She testified that tithing was one of her spiritual disciplines even to the amount of 18% of her salary and her husband’s pension.  She challenged the conference members to rethink their own commitments to their local church and the ways that they might challenge other members of their church family to do the same.

Immediately, there were others who wanted to be recognized with similar testimonies.  Ordinarily, unless there is a motion before the Conference, folks aren’t allowed to address the body with just anything that happens to be on their hearts.  But the Bishop sensed the Holy Spirit at work and suspended the rules making space for a great number of people to come to the microphones and share their testimonies about their giving to the Lord.  One young man – a teacher- had been challenged by a young Mormon about whether or not he tithed.  The teacher answered that he didn’t, which prompted the student to ask, “why not”.  In wrestling with that question he realized that it had to do with not totally trusting God to take care of him.  He has tithed ever since and has found God to be trustworthy.  An elderly woman, stooped and walking with a walker, said that she gave 20% of her $10,000 annual pension, continuing a practice that she and her husband had done during their 60 years of marriage.  She continued after he died and said that she had never been in need.  Some shared, as did she, that they had learned the spiritual discipline of giving from their parents and found it to be a joyful way to live. 

This procession of testimonials might still be going on had not the Bishop decided to give folks an opportunity to make a renewed commitment to God.  While the musicians played “Take My Life And Let It Be Consecrated, Lord, To Thee”  a large portion of the 1,000 conference members made a pilgrimage down the aisles to the front of the Gordon College Chapel with our intentions written on pieces of paper and laid on the altar.  It was an amazing outpouring of the Holy Spirit. 

It was a reminder to me that my financial commitment to the God, the offering that is offered each Sunday is so much more than a flow of money into the operating budget of School Street United Methodist Church or even to the New England Annual Conference, but rather is an act of faith, a spiritual discipline, and an indicator of my willingness to trust that God will bless me and keep me if I will simply offer my life, my livelihood, and my every living moment to be consecrated to God.

Yours in Christ,   

June 2003

Dear Friends in Christ,

St. Augustine played a large role in the history of Christianity around the very unsettling time of the fall of the Roman Empire.  But for many years, serving God was the furthest thing from his mind.  While he was sowing wild oats and distinguishing himself in the eyes of the world and giving God the cold shoulder, his mother Monica was praying mightily for her son.  When Augustine finally gave his life to Jesus, he realized that his mother’s tearful and persistent prayers were the vehicle of God’s grace for him.

John Wesley was also a grateful recipient of his mother’s prayers and his Father’s grace.  Consequently he spent hours in prayer and trained his mind to pray on the hour a brief sentence prayer of praise.  He considered prayer so important that he went so far as to say that the lack of prayer was probably the greatest cause of the dark times of our soul (Sermon 46:4) and that God does nothing but in answer to prayer.

I wonder if you would be willing, with me, to make June an experimental month of prayer.  Our praying can begin when we wake up, as we are grateful for God’s presence and as we anticipate the day.  As we go to bed, we might review the day in prayer. (Psalm 113:3)  We might also try Wesley’s discipline of praying hourly—briefly a prayer of praise and thanksgiving—to cultivate an awareness that Jesus is our constant companion.  See if you can set aside 15 minutes of your day just for an appointment with God in prayer and then pray throughout the day, interwoven with your activities.  Put prayer reminders where you will see them. 

Some of our prayers will be sharing with God how grateful we are for life and all the good gifts God has given us.  Some prayers will thank God for being God.   Some will ask for God’s forgiveness for the things we do that we shouldn’t and for the things we don’t do that we should.  Some of our prayers will be for others—for healing, for guidance, for strength, etc.  Some will be for those we don’t even know—people who are mentioned on the news or in the newspaper.  Some will be love prayers to Jesus.  Some will be invitations to God’s Holy Spirit to work in our lives.  Some will be prayers for our family, our Church, our country, our world.  Some will be too deep for words.  Some will be short and others long.  Some will be because we want to and others because we know we should.

During this time, pay attention to the impact prayer is having on you and those around you.  A month full of prayer:  Augustine might say, “don’t be surprised at the remarkable things that will happen.” Wesley might say, “see how much a part of your life your Lord will become.”  The Apostle Paul might say, “why just a month?”  (I Thessalonians 5:16-18).

Yours in Christ,

May 2003

Dear Friends,

When I was in high school I worked summers for the A&P grocery store.  I used to clean up lots of pits and seeds in the produce area and would find candy wrappers tucked in amongst the soup cans and even found an empty quart container of chocolate milk in back of a cereal box.  But, these examples notwithstanding, I suspect that most people left the store no better nourished than when they came.  You do not get nourishment simply by being around food.  And if the grocery store is to do you any good at all it’s important to know how nourishment happens.   Without that knowledge we could just as easily leave the store with a cartful of Twinkies or whoopee pies. 

Nor does spiritual nourishment and growth happen by hanging around a church or  simply indulging in a few ‘spiritual” things that we enjoy.  A nourishing spiritual diet that keeps us strong and healthy for the work God has for us has certain staples.  Studying the Bible is one of these.

Knowing the Bible is crucial for our development as maturing followers of Christ.  Maybe you’ve tried reading the Bible and it just doesn’t hold your interest.  It doesn’t read like a good self-help book.  It isn’t clear in a step-by-step sort of way like an instruction manual.  It doesn’t flow like a novel.  And it’s not organized like a history book.  There really isn’t anything like it and that uniqueness can discourage us from studying it.

The apostle Paul talks about going in to a city called Beroea and speaking to the people about Jesus.  He undoubtedly told them that Jesus was God’s long expected Messiah and that he fulfilled all that the prophets had promised.  Luke writes in the Book of Acts, “they received the word with all eagerness, examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were so.”  (Acts 17:11)  Paul writes to Timothy, “All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the person of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”  (II Timothy 3:16)

The Bible provides us with the incredible story of how God has entered into history to create a human family which would love God with all their heart and soul and mind and strength and their neighbor as themselves.  We find in Genesis that this has been God’s intention from the beginning.  We find there and throughout Scripture that humans haven’t been very cooperative.  We find God’s provision for our lack of cooperation which leads to the death and resurrection of God’s Son and our Lord Jesus.  We find the working out of that relationship among the earliest Christians.  If we don’t know that story, how are we going to know how we can become a fully functioning part of it—helping God to fulfill God’s family vision for all of creation. 

All this has prompted our Learning Community committee to plan a pot luck supper on May 24 at 5:00.  When we will all have an opportunity to find out what resources are available for us to learn how to do what the Beroeans did and what faithful people of God have done ever since. 

Yours in Christ,

April 2003

Dear Friends,

The other day, I was waiting to pull out into traffic. A driver stopped almost in front of me to let a bicyclist cross the street. The driver in back of him laid on his horn and didn’t stop until the traffic started moving again. He was angry for the interruption. I was angry at his anger, so I honked at him on his way by. My rationale was—here we have a war going on and this guy is adding to the tension just because he’s going to arrive wherever he’s headed 20 seconds later than he would otherwise. However, as time passed the less and less, righteous my indignation seemed to me, until at last I was left with the image of two angry people honking, and I was one of them. Lord, have mercy.

We have some global issues impacting us which makes our ordinary, everyday personal and interpersonal issues even more difficult to deal with and that tends to bring out the worst in us. There is some high profile violence going on in our name. Whether we think this is justified or not, it certainly seems to threaten the global community, our own national community, and local communities which are torn by debate about the war and from which are drawn those who are serving in the armed services. Whether we are supporting the war or opposing the war, we certainly recognize that the Lord of love must be unimaginably sad about these tragic events and all they evoke in us. Christ, have mercy.

In the midst of this turmoil, we have a call. The call is from God who calls us together as the Church. As Jesus was the light of the world (John 8:12), we are to be the light of the world (Matthew 5:14). As Jesus was a peacemaker (Matthew 20:20-28), we are to be peacemakers (Matthew 5:9). As Jesus loved and prayed for his enemies (Luke 23:34), so we are to love and pray for our enemies (Matthew 5:44). He is the Christ, and we are the followers of Christ. He is the vine and we are the branches and apart from Him we won’t be able to be what we’re called to be (John 15:5). Lord, have mercy.

So maybe, if we love Jesus, we shouldn’t honk.

Grace and Peace,

March 2003

Dear Friends,

Our ancestors in the faith, in their inspired wisdom, have given us a season of getting ready for the most joyous of all holy days, Easter. This season of getting ready is called “Lent” and begins on March 5—Ash Wednesday. Traditionally, the season involves fasting (giving up something important for a time) as a way of shifting our focus away from our ordinary way of doing things and toward the extraordinary presence of God in our lives.

Lent is an annual opportunity to imitate our Lord and Savior Jesus who was led into the wilderness forty days getting ready to fulfill his mission. (Luke 4:1-13) Why the wilderness? Maybe because there are fewer distractions. Not much goes on in the wilderness. Here in Maine, these next couple of months are rather like wilderness. The trees continue to look lifeless as the snow gives way to mud.

During his wilderness time Jesus came face to face with the choices he had to make in light of the mission for which he had been put on this earth. I hope we will allow the Holy Spirit to work in a similar way in our lives during this wilderness of Lent.

What are the choices we have to make? As more and more troops (read: young people) are being positioned for battle, we may be tempted to see ourselves as helpless in this scenario. After all, we can’t make world leaders be cooperative on the one hand or patient on the other. We can, however, pray to One who can. We may feel helpless to change the climate of hostility in the world but systems analysis would tell us that if we make a difference in any part of the world (our part) it will impact the whole. In the face of the temptation to be a victim, we can choose to fulfill our destiny, as children of God, to be peacemakers (Matthew 5:9).

Another set of choices has to do with the dismal economic times that have impacted so many of us through unemployment, depleted pensions, higher health insurance costs, etc., etc. Once again, we may be tempted to see ourselves as victims. But once again we have faithful choices to make. Despite significant changes that these economic times cause in our lives, we can choose to be grateful people for the providence of God that we experience in so many ways. We are also in a position to reach out with assistance to others who are hurting and being sensitive to their needs, as opposed to dwelling on our own. These are two ways that we can fulfill our mission to be a light in an overcast world and witness to our faith that Jesus meant it when he said, “do not be anxious about your life...but seek first God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness and all these things shall be yours as well.” (Matthew 6:25 & 33).

Yours in Christ,

Eulogy for Mister Rogers, February 27, 2003

February 2003

Dear Friends,

We sit helplessly watching the television and reading the headlines to see if we are at war yet. Or do we? Are we truly helpless? What is the Christian response to all of this? As ambassadors of the Prince of Peace what is our mission in the midst of wars and rumors of wars?

When Matt, Tim, and Pat were younger, they would get up at 5:00 and deliver the newspaper. As they counted out their papers in the kitchen, there were some interesting conversations about the headlines. One morning they were questioning why people couldn’t get along with each other and felt they needed to fight wars. Good question. However, when they got back, one had come up short of papers because his brother had miscounted. There were words; then escalation of hostilities. But for parental intervention it might have come to blows. They had their answer to their good question.

War begins much closer to home than the particular administration in power or the random array of “enemies” that present themselves around the planet. That’s not to minimize the incredible havoc caused by decisions made by world leaders or the tragic slaughter of soldiers and civilians that results when countries strike out against each other in fear. But it is to say that as large as war looms, at a time like this, there is a far larger issue here—one that resides not in Washington or Baghdad, not with Republicans, Democrats or al Qaeda—but deep within our own hearts. That’s where wars start. It is also where peace begins—the peace that is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22) - the peace that Jesus is the source of (John 14:27). This war or peace that resides in us is why we say what we do, treat other people the way we do, buy the products we do, elect the politicians we do. What is in our hearts generates the power that that drives world events.

If we see ourselves simply as innocent bystanders or victims of a potential war with Iraq or of terrorists, then there will be many more similar scenarios in the years ahead. At the recent Peace Teach-In, Martin Luther King, Jr. was quoted from a speech on the Viet Nam War as saying that the war was simply a symptom of much larger malady which, if not addressed, would keep manifesting itself again and again. We do well to be concerned about the immediate danger of war. We would do better to invite the Lord in to search and know our hearts, to try us and know our minds, to see if there is any wicked way in us (Psalm 139:23-24), so that we will then be free to depart from evil, seek peace and pursue it (Psalm 34:14 & I Peter 3:11).

Yours in Christ,

Dear and gracious God may the peaceful fruit of righteousness grow in our lives. Empower us to become spokespeople for the peace you desire in your creation. May we speak it, pursue it, model it, insist on it, elect people who believe in it, live a life consistent with it, and seek it for every person on earth. In Jesus’ name. Amen

December 2002

Dear Friends,

Part of Jesus’ mission statement was “to proclaim release to the captives”. (Luke 4:18) When we think about the many ways humans can be held captive we can appreciate how many people are in need of this message. Some are economic captives, who don’t have enough to provide for the basic needs of themselves or their families. Some are relational captives, who are in oppressive relationships and don’t know how to escape. Some are held captive by the myths of where happiness lies and spend their lives in a frenetic quest for the money, position, esteem, or power that will finally make them happy. There are so many in need of a proclamation of release from our Lord.

One of our callings as Christians is to work for justice and love wherever people are being held captive with all the divine and human resources at our disposal. There is much hope in working together to lift the burdens from the oppressed whenever and wherever the Spirit leads us. But where is the hope when we come up against situations that show no sign of budging no matter how much we pray or how hard we push? Is “release to the captives” simply an illusion then?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was in prison in Germany in 1943 for participating in a plot to assassinate Hitler. He was writing to his parents as Christmas approached and encouraging them not to lose heart even though his release was unlikely and his death a real possibility. He comforted them with the thought of Christmases past. “...for years you have given us such perfectly lovely Christmases that our grateful recollection of them is strong enough to put a darker one in the into the background. It is not till such times as these that we realize what it means to possess a past and a spiritual inheritance independent of changes of time and circumstance.”

He goes on to say, “From the Christian point of view there is no special problem about Christmas in a prison cell”. He speaks of how ,”God will approach where men turn away” and how Christ who was born in a stable, whose life was threatened and eventually taken from him, who was persecuted by his enemies and abandoned by his friends comes to us in our difficult places and stands with us. That in itself is a release from the loneliness that often accompanies captivity. Along with Bonhoeffer, maybe we can affirm that even and especially in the dark places in our lives and the lives of others, we have a Savior who is constantly working for the release from our physical needs, our emotional needs, our social needs, and is providing for our spiritual needs constantly. This is truly the “glad tidings of great joy” that the angels proclaimed to shepherds so many years ago, which is as fresh now as then.

Yours in Christ,

September 2002

Dear Friends,

I hope your summer has included some sabbath time, when you could rest and re-create and allow God to replenish your strength and spirit. My summer included two weeks of time at Little Sebago reading, sitting in the sun, and sailing in my jury-rigged sailing dinghy, a week with middle schoolers at church camp, and the wedding of our firstborn.

The time at the lake was an opportunity to reflect on the importance of the rhythm of life: waking and sleeping; working and leisure; reflection and action; “a time to keep silence and a time to speak”. Eccleciastes 3:7 If Sabbath time is important to God at creation, and to Jesus, then it must be important to us as well.

The time at church camp was an opportunity to reflect on our work of ministry—the things that we do in response to God’s call for the sake of others. Middle schoolers are not the most spiritually receptive of groups but are in no less need of ministry and knowing God’s presence than any other age group. Each of us is called throughout the year to use the gifts God has given us and the guidance available from the Holy Spirit to reach out to others with God’s love.

Matthew’s wedding was an opportunity to reflect on the built in responsibilities that God has given us as parents, as spouses, as children, as friends, as neighbors, and on and on the list goes. These are the relationships where our faith makes a huge difference in the way we behave. Jesus stands with us in each of these relationships so that we may be faithful, loving, and effective.

God is with us in every dimension of our lives. One of our creeds says, “I believe in the Holy Spirit—God with us for guidance, for comfort, and for strength. These are available to us in our time off, in our time on, and in those responsibilities that are constant. Praise God!

Yours in Christ,