Dear Hyde Park Family:

Rejoice always. Pray continually.
Give thanks in every situation
because this is God’s will
for you in Christ Jesus.
(1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

As we enter these days of giving thanks with loved ones and friends, consider these words from John Wesley, in his commentary on 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18:

Thanksgiving is inseparable from true prayer:
it is almost essentially connected with it.
He that always prays is ever giving praise,
whether in ease or pain,
both for prosperity and for the greatest adversity.

He blesses God for all things,
looks on them as coming from him,
and receives them only for his sake;
not choosing nor refusing,
liking nor disliking, anything,
but only as it is agreeable or disagreeable
to his perfect will.

On behalf of the clergy, staff, and lay leadership of Hyde Park United Methodist Church, I wish you and your loved ones a Happy Thanksgiving!

Grace and Peace,

November 16, 2023

Dear Hyde Park Family,

Over the past three Wednesday nights, I have had the fun of teaching a class on the Enneagram, a personality type indicator that guides self-discovery, offers awareness of one’s strengths and shadows, and enhances relationships with others. Every time I offer the class, I learn more about each of the nine types, including greater understanding of my own. (Type 6, in case you are familiar with it.)

With Thanksgiving next week, I have been pondering what each of the nine styles would be most grateful for in their lives, in their relationships, and in their faith. So, I wrote the following as a kind of litany that you might find meaningful, whether or not you know your own Enneagram type.

An Enneagram Thanksgiving

Type 1, The Perfectionist: I am grateful for God’s goodness and righteousness, which enables us to live moral and ethical lives. And I am grateful for God’s forgiveness, which redeems me when I go astray.

Type 2, The Helper: I am grateful for God’s love, which enables me to be generous and self-sacrificial in addressing the needs of others. And I am grateful for how that love is unconditional, which shows me how to love myself.

Type 3, The Performer: I am grateful for God’s excellence, which urges me to offer God my very best, in every aspect of my life. And I am grateful for how God’s is teaching me not to avoid failure, but to embrace it as a teacher and guide.

Type 4, The Artist: I am grateful for God’s beauty all around me, which allows me to transform the hurt and suffering within and around me into something that is exceptional, beautiful, and inspirational to others. And I am grateful for how God is showing me humility, through the example of Jesus.

Type 5, The Thinker: I am grateful for God’s wisdom, which enables me to experience the thrill of discovery through intellect and reason. And I am grateful for how God is helping me to embrace mystery and the unknown, so that I can be more connected to God and others.

Type 6, The Loyalist: I am grateful for God’s commandments, which creates order out of chaos, and aligns me and others to live together as God intends. And I am grateful for how God is helping me to embrace my fears, trust my gut, and take a risk whenever necessary.

Type 7, The Adventurer: I am grateful for God’s joy, which addresses the pain and suffering in my life and others, and helps me to savor all the delights and adventures that are around me. And I am grateful for how God is helping me to acknowledge pain, rather than escape or avoid it.

Type 8, The Leader: I am grateful for God’s power, which is made perfect in my weakness, helps me overcome my limitations, and enables me to empower others. And I am grateful for the gift of repentance and humility, which helps me to live in God’s strength, rather than in denial.

Type 9, The Peacemaker: I am grateful for God’s peace, which seeks the wholeness and health of all creation and within my own self. I am thankful for the harmony of the natural world, and for moments when I feel calm and settled. And I am grateful for times of conflict, which push me and others into new understandings and possibilities for growth.

Most of all, I am grateful for Jesus Christ, who is the perfect reflection of all nine dimensions of humanity, and is the full expression of God’s divinity. In him, and through him, we have all that we need.

And for that, let us be thankful.

Grace and Peace,

November 9, 2023

Dear Hyde Park Family,

Years ago, Grace asked me to describe my happiest memories. I told her about the time she and her sister were born, about the day I married their mother, and about the night I was ordained a minister. She agreed that those were good memories and felt satisfied by those answers.

But here’s a thought experiment. What if she had asked me to assign a monetary figure to those memories? What if she had asked, “Daddy, what is the monetary equivalent of those memories? How much money would I need to have in order to feel as happy as any of those events?”

I know; that’s a really odd question. But it’s one that an Australian professor named Paul Fritjers asked back in 2009, as the culmination of a surprising eight-year study. After surveying 10,000 people, he developed dollar value equivalents for the emotional effects of events such as marriage, childbirth, divorce, and home purchases. Positive dollar amounts indicated “psychic benefits,” and negative dollar amounts showed “psychic costs.”

For example, here are some of his conclusions:

• A man getting married feels like he just received $32,000. To women, it only feels like $16,000.
• Divorce feels like a $110,000 loss to a man, but only $9,000 to a woman.
• The death of a spouse or a child feels like minus -$130,900 to a woman, and a whopping -$627,300 deficit to a man.
• And moving into a new home? A positive $2,600 for a woman, and a negative -$16,000 to a man.

Frijters suggested that the study’s value might be in assisting insurance companies and lawyers in assigning dollar compensations for certain life events. He summarizes his study with this statement: “Losing or gaining money can offset the effect of other life events quite well, and that is what we are formally looking at – the amount needed to offset an event or keep someone happiness-neutral.”

Oof. I don’t know about you, but the word outlandish comes to mind.

You know as well as I do: you cannot quantify your feelings with dollar signs, and you cannot put a price tag on life’s most significant moments. Yet that is a message embedded in our natural urge to accumulate more material goods and earthly treasure. The only solution to this kind of wayward thinking is to align our finances around the biblical principles of generosity. It’s captured in Jesus’ words to his disciples:

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Luke 6:19-21)

This Sunday, we continue in our Generosity Campaign “Love for All” with an exploration of Paul’s teachings on money, contentment, and generosity in 1 Timothy 6. We’ll hear more stories of transformation through the work of this church, especially at our downtown Portico location. And, we will lift up a reminder for you to prayerfully fill out your estimate of giving card by Commitment Sunday, November 19, so that the Finance Committee can responsibly plan for all the exciting ministries and programs for 2024.

By God’s grace, may we experience true joy, through contentment and generosity.

Grace and Peace,

November 2, 2023

Dear Hyde Park Family,

This Sunday will be an especially poignant All Saints’ worship service for me. Over the past year, several influential people in my life have died, people who were formative to my Christian journey and my ministerial calling. There is my high school Bible teacher Bruce Strickland, my high school administrator Rita Smith, and my lifelong mentor and senior pastor Jack Stroman. I have written and preached about each of these people over the last several months.

One other person I will be remembering is C. Frederick Harrison, or “Mr. Fred,” who was the longtime Director of Music Ministries at Pasadena Community Church in St. Petersburg, Florida, my home church. Mr. Fred had a remarkable ministry, directing choirs of all ages, including the youth choir in which I sang when I was in the youth group. Every fall, we would have a Music Ministries Sunday, when all of our groups and ensembles would perform in worship, and we would celebrate the fact that the number of volunteer musicians and vocalists under Mr. Fred’s care was larger than the membership in most congregations in the Florida Annual Conference.

In the 1980s, Mr. Fred developed a close friendship with a well-known composer named Natalie Sleeth, who had become famous for her moving anthems and hymns. In the spring of 1985, Pasadena Community Church hosted a music festival honoring Mrs. Sleeth, performing many of her best-known works.

Mr. Fred requested that Mrs. Sleeth compose a special anthem for that festival, for his Chancel Choir to perform as a debut in her honor. Mrs. Sleeth obliged, and she wrote what would become one of our most beloved hymns.

It is titled “Hymn of Promise,” which she composed in honor of her husband Rev. Dr. Ronald Sleeth, who had been diagnosed with cancer. Just weeks after the hymn’s debut at Pasadena, he died. Read the deep and profound lyrics below, and watch it performed here.   

“Hymn of Promise”

Natalie Sleeth

In the bulb, there is a flower
In the seed, an apple tree
In cocoons, a hidden promise
Butterflies will soon be free

In the cold and snow of winter
There’s a spring that waits to be
Unrevealed until its season
Something God alone can see

There’s a song in every silence
Seeking word and melody
There’s a dawn in every darkness
Bringing hope to you and me

From the past will come the future
What it holds, a mystery
Unrevealed until its season
Something God alone can see

In our end is our beginning
In our time, infinity
In our doubt, there is believing
In our life, eternity

In our death, a resurrection
At the last, a victory

Unrevealed until its season
Something God alone can see

After its debut in our church in 1985, its popularity soared. It became a fixture in worship at Pasadena; my dad says it is his favorite hymn. When The United Methodist Hymnal was revised in 1989, Hymn of Promise was included, just four years after its debut. To this day, it is a favorite feature of many funeral and memorial services.

This Sunday, I will join you in remembering those persons who have played an influential role in your life. I will remember Bruce, Rita, Jack, and Mr. Fred. And I will join you in remembering all the saints, that “in their death, a resurrection; at the last, a victory.”

“Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.”

Grace and Peace,

October 19, 2023

Dear Hyde Park Family,

Near the start of my ministry 25 years ago, I attended a clergy gathering at the Life Enrichment Center in Leesburg, Florida. The featured speaker was Dr. Paul Chilcote, a professor of Wesley Studies.

In that lecture, he spoke about John Wesley’s two conversion experiences. It was an intriguing premise. I had known about his first conversion, the fabled moment on Aldersgate Street in which he felt his heart “strangely warmed” after hearing Martin Luther’s preface to the book of Romans. In that moment, Dr. Chilcote said Wesley gained a “passion for the truth,” in which he received assurance for his salvation.

But then Chilcote said there was a second conversion for John Wesley. It occurred as he took to the streets, the open fields, the coal mines, all throughout England, preaching good news. Along the way, Wesley experienced up close the real needs of those who were hurting and suffering: the poor, the sick, the undereducated, the incarcerated. It was in this time that Wesley developed a “compassion for people.”

Chilcote said that both of these ideas – a passion for the truth and a compassion for people – gave Wesley a stereoscopic, multidimensional view of the power of the gospel. Not just to get people into heaven after they die, but to care for their wholeness and wellbeing during their time on earth.

Wesley’s two-fold conversion continues to be at the heart of what it means to be the United Methodist Church today. And it is why our denomination is so committed to not just preaching the gospel, but also to local and global missions efforts, from schools to clinics, from recovery centers to disaster relief, from peacebuilding to health and wellness efforts around the world.

MISSIONS CELEBRATION SUNDAY

So, I can think of few better people to be our guest preacher for this week’s Missions Celebration Sunday than Dr. Paul Chilcote. He continues to offer profound insights into our Wesleyan heritage and practice, especially during this time of renewal within the continuing United Methodist Church.

You will certainly want to join us this Sunday, either in person or online, as we recognize and pray for all our missions partners. We will also have available two of his latest books, Multiplying Love and Active Faith, which he will be available to sign after each service.

This Sunday will be one of great joy and celebration, and I am thrilled to have you hear from one of our most inspiring and compelling United Methodist voices today.

See you Sunday!

October 5th, 2023

Dear Hyde Park Family,

How noisy is your life?

 Bernie Krause is a noted “soundscape artist,” producing albums of sounds found in nature. He has said that in 1968, in order to get one hour of natural sound – no cars, planes, or machines of any kind – it took about 15 hours of recording time. Today, to get that same hour of natural sound, it requires over 2,000 hours of recording time! We are bombarded by the sounds of a noisy world, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to escape it.

But this is nothing compared to the noise within us. If it were possible to make a soundscape recording of your mind and heart, how long would it take to record an hour of mental and emotional quiet? Probably even longer than 2,000 hours, right? We hear the constant drone of deadlines, pressures, and to-do lists, along with the heavy pulsing of anxieties, sadness, and fear.

 Over and against this backdrop of noise, the scriptures call us to observe a command rooted in the earliest days of creation:

 “So then, a Sabbath rest still remains for the people of God; for those who enter God’s rest also cease from their labors as God did from his.” (Hebrews 4:9-10)

 Wayne Muller, in his classic book: Sabbath: Restoring the Sacred Rhythm of Rest and Delight, offers this poignant reminder to live a life shaped by intentional spiritual rest:

 “Like a path through the forest, Sabbath creates a marker for ourselves so, if we are lost, we can find our way back to our center. ‘Remember the Sabbath’ means ‘Remember that everything you have received is a blessing. Remember to delight in your life, in the fruits of your labor. Remember to stop and offer thanks for the wonder of it.’ Remember, as if we would forget. Indeed, the assumption is that we will forget. And history has proven that, given enough time, we will.”

 What might it mean for you to recapture this ancient practice of renewal and re-creation?

• It could mean having a silent retreat, for a day or a weekend. No cell phones, no laptops, and no talking.
• It could mean going without television or internet for a period of time, using the time instead in the quiet of one’s home or the outdoors.
• It could mean simply carving out a fixed amount of time each day – 30 minutes, or an hour or more – to intentionally retreat, listen for God, and be quiet.

One of the foremost authorities on spiritual disciplines, Richard Foster, suggests that homeowners actually build into their home plans a specific room for solitude. Just like there are designated rooms for eating, sleeping, and entertaining, he suggests creating a space that offers a place of uninterrupted silence. In lieu of a whole room, the family may have a designated chair or sofa where the person is not to be interrupted.

 Living Sabbath requires intentionality, and it need not be exclusively defined by an hour at church on Sunday morning. Rest, renewal, and re-connection with God ought to happen regularly, without fail.

 Happy Sabbath keeping,

THIS SUNDAY: GOOD AND FAITHFUL LOVE
We continue our worship series “Good and Faithful: Life Done Well” with an exploration of love, one of the five core qualities of Christian ethical and moral character. We will also be integrating a story and song from live musical theater. To watch all the prior services in this series, click here. For additional resources for each of the themes of these series, including video clips of the songs, click here.

September 28, 2023

Dear Hyde Park Family,

But let justice roll down like water, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. (Amos 5:24)

Years ago, I had a seminary instructor say that no prospective minister should graduate from seminary without being able to fully explain the biblical concept of justice. It is, in his opinion, the single most important theological idea in the Christian faith.

What do you think of when you think of justice? Maybe the first image that pops into your mind is the Lone Ranger or Dirty Harry. Perhaps it’s something like vigilante justice: an eye for an eye, dishing out to people what they deserve.

When the Bible speaks about justice, it’s not like that. It’s not about retribution or revenge. Jesus said, “You say an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I say, pray for your enemies, and bless those who persecute you.”

In the Bible, the opposite of justice is not injustice, or even mere criminality. It is brokenness. A world that lacks justice is fractured and tarnished, from its most basic units to the widest scale:

• It is a family where members are no longer willing to speak to each other.
• It is a community where opportunities for people to thrive are diminished, and there is a growing gap between the flourishing and the suffering.
• It is a religious environment in which churches are part of the problem, rather than the solution.
• It is a planet where the environment is hemorrhaging from misuse and abuse.

And the only thing that can bring a remedy to this brokenness is not revenge or retribution. God’s remedy for a broken world is a more wholistic vision of justice.

Biblical justice is closely related to the Hebrew word shalom. We most commonly translate that word as peace, but there is much more to it than that. It is more than just the absence of conflict; it means bringing healing and restoration.

• Justice is what happens when a perpetrator confesses, a victim forgives, and a relationship is restored.
• Justice is what happens a cycle of revenge is broken with a surprising act of grace.
• Justice is what happens when people see themselves as connected to each other and the earth rather than exercising domination.
• Justice is what happens when warring parties see the image of God in each other, and therefore see one another as equals.

We’ll explore this theme further as part of our worship series “Good and Faithful,” and discover how justice is a central part of Christian character. And, as with every Sunday in this series, we’ll bring in a story, illustration, and song from live theater. Additional resources for each of these themes can be found here.

Grace, Peace, and Justice,

September 21, 2023

Dear Hyde Park Family,

Today is the feast day of St. Matthew, the person traditionally credited as the author of the first gospel. Born into the Hebrew tribe of Levi, Matthew was a tax collector who met Jesus, became his disciple, and wrote an eye-witness account of his life, death, and resurrection.

Matthew’s gospel is similar in many ways to the others, especially Mark and Luke. But there are passages that are unique to his: the Sermon on the Mount, the Parable of the Sheep and Goats, and most especially, the Great Commission.

But one special passage that catches my attention today is in Matthew 11:18-20, about exchanging the burdens we are carrying for the lighter yoke of Jesus. I suspect it’s one that you need to read and reflect on today:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

I invite you to read this scripture a few times, slowly and prayerfully. Note what is happening in your body to indicate the heavy burdens in your mind and heart. Envision accepting the invitation of Jesus, literally handing over those burdens and exchanging them for the lightness of God’s love and favor.

Remember that Jesus never promised us a life free from burdens. Jesus instead offers us a lighter one. Imagine the feeling of letting go of a 30-lb weight for a 5-lb one. Your muscles have been both fatigued and conditioned by the heavier weight, so picking up the lighter one feels so much freer, maybe even joyful.

This is the kind of life that God desires for you.

THIS SUNDAY: SACREDNESS OF LIFE

We continue our worship series on Christian ethical and moral formation called “Good and Faithful: Life Well Done.” This Sunday we will be focusing on the sacredness of life. We will again tie it into stories, illustrations, and songs from live theater, to help these ideas come to life.

We invite you to click here for additional weekly resources, including lectures by Dr. David Gushee, who wrote Introducing Christian Ethics, on which this series is partially based. The website will also have links to YouTube clips that feature songs from the musicals we are referencing.

Grace and Peace,