I love the 4th of July, don’t you?  As most of you know, I grew up in Arlington, which has had a fantastic 4th of July parade now for 40 years.  I went to many of those early parades, even participated in a couple of them — on the Candy Striper float throwing out candy to the crowd as I recall.  There were lots of horses; the high school bands; kids on decorated bicycles; local celebrities; floats from different groups; and lots of veterans in the parades.  It was the veteran groups that always brought tears to my eyes – especially the Viet Nam vets and the survivors of Pearl Harbor.  Just to think of the sacrifices so many made in our 235 year history so that we might be free is quite humbling.

 Did you know that Americans have been celebrating this day since 1777?  In a letter to his wife, Abigail, John Adams wrote, “The Second Day of July 1776 … will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival … It ought to be solemnized with  Pomp and Parade with … Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires, and Illuminations from one End of this  continent to the other from this Time forward and forever more.”  Adams was prophetic; Americans have long celebrated independence in those very ways.  However, Congress formally approved the Declaration of Independence on July 4; consequently, July 4 rather than July 2 become the day of celebrations.

 Of course, we as Christians celebrate another kind of freedom every Sunday, don’t we?  I hope we celebrate and live it every day.  Paul wrote in his letter to the Galatians, “For freedom Christ has set us free.  Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” (5:1) Christ Jesus has set us free from sin and from the power of sin to separate us from God and God’s love.  We are freed from the power of sin to ensnare us because we have God’s power to help us.  Again Paul writes, “For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.” (Romans 6:14)

 Paul teaches that Christ “buys” us from the slavery of sin.  Rev. Paul Stroble writes, “One of the greatest things about our Christian freedom is that we no longer have to struggle to please God or try to save ourselves through perfect obedience to the law.  Christ has done everything necessary to save u and establish us in a right relationship with God.  That is why the salvation of and freedom in Christ is so precious.

 So let’s celebrate freedom this July 4th, both as Americans and Christians, remembering the great sacrifice and cost to have it.  Let’s live free in honor of the One and the ones who bought our freedom.

In Christ, Pastor Donna

Many of you have probably heard about the excitement we had at the church last Thursday – a man and woman came in asking about childcare but ended up stealing the secretary’s wallet right out of her purse as it sat on the floor of the church office.  This couple didn’t know I was there so when I came out of my office after hearing the zip-zip and seeing the man run around the corner and out the office door, he became quite nervous and rushed to get his wife out of the bathroom because they needed to leave and leave now.  When she finally met up with him near the elevator, they rushed to get in their truck and flee the scene.  Fortunately, I got a good look at their truck and was able to give a description to the police.  An animal control officer spotted them immediately and within 5-10 minutes they were stopped and arrested.  They face felony charges as they both have records and apparently made a career out of scamming people and churches.  Erin got her wallet back and all seems to have ended well — for us anyway.

But now what do we do?  Some have suggested we should have a pistol-packing pastor.  Well, I don’t know about that; the last time I shot a pistol was nearly 50 years ago.  My dad had a pistol and would take us out in the country where we would practice target shooting; he let us (my sisters and I) shoot the gun once or twice at tin cans or rocks.  But even if I knew how to shoot a gun, I don’t think I’d care to be a pistol-packing preacher.

Of course the obvious solution is to keep the doors locked, but Erin says she would have let them in anyway if they had knocked on our locked doors; so locking doors might not be the answer, although it would give us more exercise.  Besides, the motto of the United Methodist Church over the past several years has been:  “Open Doors, Open Hearts, Open Minds.”  I don’t know if we can mandate open hearts and open minds, but we surely can mandate open doors.  We want to be a church known to welcome people of all kinds, colors, ethnicity, etc. What does it say to people who walk up to locked doors rather than open doors?  Should we be open to everyone … even thieves and con artists?

Unfortunately, this is a question that every church is facing.  Pastors and staff have been killed by people supposedly seeking help.  There was a beautiful, small chapel at one of my former churches.  It was always kept open 24/7.  People might come in at 3 AM just to say a prayer.  Often they would leave a note or a dollar or two in an envelope. But then we discovered people were sleeping in the chapel, which seems harmless but was not because they would urinate on the carpet, the pew cushions and anything else in their way.  Some visitors began breaking items or even stealing things out of the chapel.  The decision was made to start locking the chapel.  I found notes from people begging us not to lock the chapel, but we did.

So what are we to do?  Jesus told us to love not only our neighbors but our enemies as well and when we fed, clothed, visited or gave water to those who are hungry, naked, strangers or prisoners and thirsty, we do it unto him.  Do we not offer compassion or help to many because a few are cons who take advantage of us (and believe me, this kind of thing has happened to me many times in my 30 years of ordained ministry)?  Do we become jaded, skeptical and cynical?  Do we risk our lives for some other person who only wants to steal from us or hurt us in some way?

 It’s sad to have to lock the church doors.  I remember the days, as many of you do, when we left our house doors open and didn’t even lock the screen doors and when we didn’t have to lock our car doors or when children could walk to school, play in their front yard, and be left in a car (not in the heat, of course) for a few minutes while mom went in to buy some milk.  But those days are pretty much gone, aren’t they?  So how do we respond as Christians?

I’m not sure really.  Yes, God calls us to be compassionate, loving and forgiving, but he didn’t call us to get abused, conned or murdered in doing so.  For now, I guess we will keep the doors locked for awhile and hope we hear Jesus knocking when he comes in the guise of someone needing help.

In Christ,

Pastor Donna

My Teddy Bear

One of my most cherished possessions is a tattered and worn teddy bear that is almost as old as I am. He’s black and white; I don’t remember ever giving him a name.  I carried him everywhere with me for at least the first five years of my life.  You’ll see him in lots of family snapshots; if he’s not in my h ands, I can guarantee you that he is somewhere close by.

Now you may ask, what makes this bear so special that I would hang on to him all these years.  Well you see, my father sent me that bear for my first Christmas when I was 7 months old.  He had to send it to me because he spent the first year of my life in Fitzsimmons Army Hospital in Denver, Colorado.  My mother, big sister and I were left behind in Texas – living with my Grannie Pierce and my Daddy Herman.  My father had contracted tuberculosis while serving in the Air Force, which I think was part of the army during World War II.  He also had some kind of mysterious blood disease – the doctors never did figure that out.  The doctors did let my father out of the hospital long enough to be with my mother at Carswell Air Force Base when I was born, but that was a brief visit and then he disappeared.

I’m told that when my father returned home, I screamed and cried at this stranger who wanted to pick me up and hold me in his lap.  Fortunately, we did not remain strangers very long.  I loved my father very much.  He built my sisters and I a playhouse and cradles for our dolls.  He took us fishing at the lake and taught us to swim.  We would wrestle for “his” chair.  He would often give us our baths and tuck us in bed after we said our prayers.  He bought a reel to reel tape recorder and would tape us singing or record the multiplication tables for us so that we could practice and learn.  Daddy would load us up for Sunday afternoon drives; he loved to go over hills giving us a little thrill.  He would take us to Terry’s Drug Store and buy us malts – everyone got chocolate except me; I got strawberry.  He taught us to mow the yard and then volunteered our services to the neighbors.  He had a huge garden of the most delicious vegetables; I lost a shoe in the muddy garden once while picking peas.  We never found it so I guess the earth just swallowed it.  One of the last things he did for me a few months before he died was try to teach me to drive; he gave up after one lesson in which I almost plowed us into a telephone pole.  He would patiently wait for all his girls to get ready for church but would eventually start blowing the horn to get us out the door and into church. 

The teddy bear I keep in a glass box is a visible, tangible reminder of my father and my father’s love.  I didn’t get to have him long; he died when I was 15 – 15 years to the day when I opened the gift of a teddy bear on Christmas day.

Fathers, you are so important in the lives of your children.  Children, if you still have your dads (the good, loving dads), love them well; if not, remember them well and give thanks to God that they were part of your lives for a while.

Pastor Donna

It’s Going to Be a Fruit-filled Summer at FUMC, Hillsboro

Beginning June 26, we will begin a Worship/Sermon Series on the Fruit of the Spirit, and we want each of you to be involved.

Below you will find the calendar for summer with the “fruit” of the day listed, along with a color.  Please try to wear the color of the day if you can.   Also, instead of having one chuck wagon Sunday each month, we are asking you to bring something for the H.I.M. food bank each Sunday in the color of that Sunday.  I have put a few suggestions for food, just make sure you bring boxed, canned, or bottled food.

 Sunday “Fruit” Color Food Suggestions

June 26  -  Love  - Color is Red - apples, cherries, red Jell-o, red velvet cake,  beets, red beans, strawberry jelly,  tomatoes

 July 3  - Joy  - Color is Yellow  -  corn, lemon pudding, cake, squares,macaroni & cheese,  pineapple, banana pudding

  July 10  - Peace - Color is Blue -  blue Jell-o, blueberry pie filling, pop tarts, blue corn tortilla chips

  July 17 - Patience  - Color is Purple  -  plums, eggplant, grape jelly, raisins

  July 24   -  Kindness  - Color is Orange  - pumpkin, carrots, oranges, sweet potatoes,  apricot, peaches

  July 31  -   Generosity/Goodness -  Color is Green   -  beans, peas, okra, spinach

 August 7  -  Faithfulness  -  Color is White - mashed potato mix, onions, tuna, pasta

 August 14  -  Gentleness   - Color is Pink  -  pink salmon, grapefruit, cake mix, pink lemonade

 August 21  - Self-control  -  Color is Brown  - beans, brownies, black-eyed peas

  August 28  - Life in the Spirit  - Color is Rainbow  -  fruit cocktail

Both on the way up to Lake Tahoe and on the way back to Texas my friend and I saw lots of interesting sights – from the flatlands of the Texas panhandle to the mesas of New Mexico, from miles and miles and miles of dessert wilderness across Arizona to miles and miles of mountains in Nevada.  We saw lots of animal crossing signs – for cows, horses, deer, and bears – but only saw one jack rabbit actually cross the road and he didn’t even have a crossing sign.  We saw beautiful mountain streams and places where it appeared no streams had been flowing for some time.  We saw signs indicating we were entering a national forest but wondered where the forest was – we couldn’t see it for the lack of trees.  We saw the neon forest of Las Vegas and the placid lake of Tahoe.  We spotted a bald eagle flying overhead as we set in one of our sessions at the camp.  We stopped for a close up view of the engineering miracle known as Hoover Dam and marveled at this human achievement in the middle of God’s magnificent creation.

Our last stop was to the Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo.  Although I had lived in Amarillo for 2 years several years ago, I had never gone out to the “ranch.”  Now you can stop off and walk up to and round the nine finned Cadillacs that were planted nose down some 40 years ago or so.  They certainly look nothing like the original cars planted as an art installation.  In addition to being weather worn – rusty, corroded, and decayed – they have many coats of graffiti on them.  There were probably around 50 spray paint cans lying around the grounds near the cars.  People were putting their mark on the cars while we were there.  I took pictures of course and was surprised to find that on the back of the last car someone had painted a cross with hearts around it.  I found that somewhat comforting and heartening.

The cross graffitied on an old Cadillac reminded me that Christ is always present with us.  Whether we are on the mountain tops of life or out in the wilderness where seems to be no sign of life, Christ is there.  Whether we feel like our life has “plateaued” and we are living on a mesa, Christ is with us.  On those days when we feel like an old spray-painted Cadillac, Christ is right beside us.

Life is like a road trip isn’t it?  It’s a journey in which we will experience lots of ups and downs, desert places and mountain experiences.  I just hope we remember that we do not take the trip alone – Christ is with us.  Thanks be to God.

“Watching a small child die from malaria is a horrific experience. First comes the headache, tiredness, weakness in the joints and general malaise, followed by a very high fever. Then the fever’s effect on the brain causes the child’s muscles to jerk, just before the end.” ~Tom Gillem, Interpreter Jul/Aug 2009.

Even though you haven’t experienced these realities first hand, there is something you can do. Stand with The United Methodist Church in the fight against malaria. Sunday, June 5, our church will be holding a Sunday to Save Lives. June 5 is our day to make a difference. Would you please prayerfully consider saving 10, 50 or 100 lives through your sacrificial gift? ($10 to save a life) Your gift to Imagine No Malaria will help The United Methodist Church along with its’ global partners, like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to provide life-saving bed nets, health education and communication programs and treatments for malaria.

We have malaria on the run. In two short years, our efforts (your efforts) and those of our partners have slowed the clock. While in 2006, a child under the age of five died once every 30 seconds, in 2008, a child died once every 45 seconds. What that means is that 200,000 children lived. Your gift, made on our Sunday to Save Lives, is critically important. The time is right. The time is now. To sit back and let vast numbers of women, children and youth die from diseases and practices that are distant memories if not completely forgotten in the comfort of our churches in the developed world is simply not acceptable. We must respond. Your gift will make a difference. A gift of just $28 a month over the next three years, which adds up to $1000, will impact the lives of 100 children, their families, communities and nations. These are parents – just like you – who long to see a day when malaria won’t kill any more of their children. They are “Imagining NO Malaria.” To make their imagination a reality, they need you. Please stand with First United Methodist Church in this fight. I invite you to join me and others in taking the pledge to save 100 lives.

You have my thanks for your prayerful consideration of this wonderful opportunity. Together, we can carry out our healing mission: to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

Grace and Peace, 

Pastor Donna