I was thinking the other day about a time when I was called by God to jump up and go do something. My oldest daughter Alex had asked me if she could go to her friend Andrea’s house to play. When she asked, I remember thinking it is only down to the end of the street and left two houses. As a matter of fact, if there had not been a hill and houses in the way I could have easily seen Andrea’s house from our house. I told Alex to go ahead with the understanding that she was to be home by dark. She agreed to the deal and walked from our home to Andrea’s.

I remember, like it was yesterday, sitting and watching TV when suddenly I looked outside and realized Alex was not yet home. Something inside of me said to immediately leave the house and I jumped up and started walking, because I was “dad” scared. I fully intended to walk all the way to Andrea’s house and was preparing my “dad speech” about following the rules, when I saw her. We walked in the pitch dark toward each other until we met at the end of our street. Before I could say anything, Alex asked me a question in a way only an innocent child could ask. She asked, “Did God send you?” I remember thinking for a second, looking at her and then saying, “Yeah He did” and I can tell you it was my best “Dad speech ever.”

As we walked home the light from her countenance lit my way and hers, until we were home. You see the pitch black had turned to light instantly, for both of us.

I share this personal story because these appear to be dark times for our church, but that is not true. I can’t tell you how many times someone from my church family has said something to me at just the right time, or I look in the newspaper or online and see church members recognized for doing good things, when I see acolytes serving, our ministers preaching and teaching, Sunday school teachers, Lay Servants and readers, people preparing meals, and what about the lessons I have learned from people like Buddy Liner, Ken and Dana Higgins, Alma Broyles, Hal Buttram, Pat and Ric Chester, Neil Ensminger to mention just a few who I see as my mentors of Christ and Keith Church. At one time or the other I have looked at them and wanted to say, “Did God send you?” because the light of the countenance of these people, and everyone else like them, before and after, keeps the church from being dark.

My church family means the world to me and like you, I can’t wait to get back to what we know as church normal. In the meantime, I will continue to do church things including giving my offering, praying, and helping others where I am needed. My church, Keith Church, has been there for me in darker times than this and I know it has for you too. You and I are the light of Jesus Christ through Keith Church. I plan on keeping the lights on and invite you to do the same. I figure I owe the church that much for all it has done for me, and my family. 

“In Jerusalem at the time, there was a man, Simeon by name, a good man, a man who lived in the prayerful expectancy of help for Israel. And the Holy Spirit was on him. The Holy Spirit had shown him that he would see the Messiah of God before he died. Led by the Spirit, he entered the Temple. As the parents of the child Jesus brought him in to carry out the rituals of the Law, Simeon took him into his arms and blessed God: God, you can now release your servant; release me in peace as you promised. With my own eyes I’ve seen your salvation; it’s now out in the open for everyone to see: A God-revealing light to the non-Jewish nations, and of glory for your people Israel. 33-35Jesus’ father and mother were speechless with surprise at these words. Simeon went on to bless them, and said to Mary his mother, This child marks both the failure and the recovery of many in Israel, A figure misunderstood and contradicted— the pain of a sword-thrust through you— But the rejection will force honesty, as God reveals who they really are” (Luke 2:25-35 MSG).

This is a tough passage to relate too for me. As I scroll through the list of characters I find very little in common with any of them. I suppose I too had an eighth day experience. I recall very little about it, other than I was unable to walk for a year. (that’s actually a joke) I’m a stepdad, and didn’t arrive on the scene until my girls were 9 and 6, so it’s hard for me to relate to Mary and Joseph. Simeon seems like a nice man, as does Anna seem like a nice women, but I don’t think I really relate to them either. They seem to be really into church and hangout there a lot. But as I continued to read the passage, I finally did see where I fit, and who I am in this story. The Message translation says it this way:

God, you can now release your servant; release me in peace as you promised. With my own eyes I’ve seen your salvation; it’s now out in the open for everyone to see: A God-revealing light to the non-Jewish nations, and of glory for your people Israel.

A God-revealing light to the non-Jewish nations. That’s me. Simeon says “the non-Jewish nation”. Simeon was talking about me. Having grown up in church, I tend to just assume that God has to love me. It’s just who he is. And in turn, I try my best to live right and do his will. And when I fail, He must forgive me and we move on. Seems like a really sweet deal from my side. But does he have too? Up until this point in time, the God of Israel was just that, the God of Israel. Simeon saw him not as he was, but who he would become. Everyone else saw a baby boy heading into the temple and knew what was about to happen.

Simeon saw the Son of God headed into temple and knew that the world had changed.

He saw that, not only had the religious leaders of Israel just lost their control of the system, but that the entire world had just gained a savoir. Israel would serve as the starting point, but Simeon says ultimately the world would know God.

Fast forward to every church across our nation. Picture the padded pews, the stained glass windows, and the hand carved alters. Or maybe it is wooden pews, folding chairs, and a simple pulpit. Now look out over the congregation. These are the people Simeon talked about. We are the people he saw when he witnessed Jesus entering the temple. Simon knew that the love of God would reach us. Simeon says the savoir of the WORLD has arrived.

Now look back over the same congregation you just imagined. Why so empty? Why aren’t we scooting over to make room on our pew? Why aren’t we hurrying to bring in more folding chairs? Where are the people? I’m not sure where or when or how we lost the excitement that Simon had. Honestly, I’m not sure I ever had it quite like Simeon did. But if the “non-jewish nations” aren’t sitting next to us in our sanctuaries, that must mean they are still out there searching. They may be hanging out in the “temple courtyard” unaware that salvation just walked passed them. They may not be anywhere close to the temple, still waiting on salvation to reach them. They may be wanting salvation, but not wanting our padded pews and stained glass windows. Simeon says this to Mary. This child marks both the failure and the recovery of many in Israel, The NIV says the rise and fall of many in Israel. Simeon says that with the coming of Christ, many would hold on to the old way and fall, and others would embraced the new way and rise, or recover. The choice is clearly yours, but Simeon says choose salvation. Simeon says God sent us his son and a better way of life. Simeon says this act of God will reveal who we truly are. Simeon says a lot. And at the end of the day, Simeon rejoices and worships the great gift that God sent him. Simeon was a pretty wise fellow, who saw what others missed. It might serve us all well, to do what Simeon says.

All but one of the birthday cards I can remember receiving from my dad were signed in the same way: simply, “Love, Dad.” Clearly, his native “love language” was not words of affirmation, either written or spoken. He was more of an “acts of service” kind of guy. My brother and I knew Dad loved us more by what he did for us than by what he said or wrote to us.

I can picture my mom going to the store to pick out our birthday cards and bringing them home for him to sign before giving it to us on our birthdays. I’ve kept a few of them from across the years. But there’s one that is one of the very few things I own that I always know exactly where it is. If our house were ever to catch fire, it’s one of the things I would try to grab on my way out. It’s the last birthday card I ever got from him. It’s the one he signed with more than just “Love, Dad.”

It was my 21st birthday. I was a senior in college. My dad had just been diagnosed the month before with cancer – non-Hodgkins lymphoma. He was undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatments that we all were optimistic would do the trick.

I had gone to the college’s post office that day after class, and there in my mailbox was an envelope addressed to me. It was in my mom’s handwriting. I opened it up and found a card in the shape of a golf ball, with the pre-printed message inside, “I hope your birthday suits you to a tee!” But there, filling up both sides of the card, was handwriting. It was my dad’s handwriting.

He started off telling me how proud he was of me. (Finally, he’s speaking my love language!) He told me he knew how hard a time I was having deciding what to do with my life after I graduated. I was thinking about going into teaching. I was thinking about following in his footsteps and going to law school, which probably would have pleased him to no end. But still nothing felt quite right. He expressed his confidence that in time I would find my way, and then he added, “and if you want to become a bishop, that is ok with me.” That made me chuckle, because I thought I had shelved an earlier sense of calling into the ministry. And who actually wants to become a bishop anyway? But maybe he was trying to give me his advice in an indirect sort of way. Or maybe he had a suspicion that a sense of a call into ministry would eventually come back around.

He had started writing on the right side of the card, under the message, but he kept going. He continued over on the left side, and as he got closer to the bottom of the card, as he was running out of room, he wrote these words to me:

“Nothing can separate you from my love. Dad.”

There’s a world of difference between “Love, Dad,” and “Nothing can separate you from my love. Dad.”

I don’t know if he even faintly suspected it at the time, but it was a promise he was making to me in the face of his own impending death, which would come just sixty-some days after he wrote that birthday card. He died 25 years ago today.

When he died, it felt like that promise had been broken. Not so much broken by him as by his death. It was a promise that I know he wanted desperately to keep, and he did everything in his power to try to keep, but in the end, he simply couldn’t keep. It seemed like it would remain a promise unfulfilled, unrealized.

But in the 25 years that have passed since then, as I’ve held this card and his promise in my heart, I’ve come to learn something. I’ve learned that death may mark the end of life, but it need not mark the end of love. There is something of my dad’s love for me that outlives his life, that has outlived his death. The Apostle Paul promised that “neither death nor life…nor anything else in all of creation” can separate us from God’s love for us in Christ, and I have found that to be true for Dad’s love for me.

His love for me is there whenever I think of that birthday card. It’s there when I go through old pictures and papers. It’s there when my mind wanders onto old memories and stories. It’s there when he comes up in conversation with my mom and my brother and with others who remember him. And it’s there as an inspiration to me as I try to be the best dad I can be with my own two sons, as I try to show and share my love for them in their own love languages. Maybe it can be a promise that I can pass on down to them, too, the promise that my dad passed down to me:

“Nothing can separate you from my love. Dad.”

When you think of the book of Revelation, do you think of doom and gloom? Or do you think about God’s glory and majesty? Let’s study the songs of Revelation, both the songs in the book as well as those inspired by the book, and see what the songwriters can teach us.

A New Song delivered at the Pleasant Grove United Methodist Church on Sunday, November 3, 2019 by Tim Womac

The opening scripture was Revelation Chapter 5. In this chapter, John describes three different songs that were sung. In particular, I want to focus on where it says they sung a “new song.”

Now when most people hear about the book of Revelation. They think of doom, gloom, and despair. If they think of a song, it would be the old Hee-Haw song, “Woe with me. Doom, gloom, and despair. If I didn’t have any bad luck, I would have no luck at all.” And a lot of that comes from preachers who are using scare tactics to scare people, especially when you listen to the TV and radio. They will tell you that prophecies are being fulfilled and the world is going to end real soon. So you better hurry up and buy their book and send in your donation. Which, if the world is going to end….why do you need a donation?

And it comes in waves. I remember back in high school, the class of 2000, we heard all about Y2K and how the computers will crash. Then again in 2012, everyone was talking about how the Mayan Calendar ended on December 24, 2012. And there were preachers who were saying that Jesus was going to make his second coming on the anniversary of his first coming. But the reason that Mayan Calender ended on December 24, 2012, because their civilization ended. My Snoopy calendar ends on December 31st 2019, but that doesn’t mean the world is going to end. It just means that I need a new calendar. Then, a few years ago, you had that false prophet Harold Camping who took out ads in the paper and billboards about how the world was going to end.

So let’s set aside all these wild predictions. Let’s just agree that Jesus is coming, and we better get busy.

Now before I get started with a “new song,” I need to make it clear about what a good song is. The Devil has so confused God’s people about songs. In fact, many churches split and fight over music. And how it happens is that the Devil will whisper in the ear of a young a person, “You don’t want to hear that music. It’s old!!” And then the Devil whispers in the ear of an old person, “You don’t that music. It’s new music.”

But if you’ll listen to the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth and Common Sense, you’ll immediately see the lies involved in this. For folks who like those “old songs,” you have to remember, at that one point, that old song was a new song. “How Great Thou Art” didn’t come out until the 1950’s. But we think of it as an old hymn, because it’s been around so long. And for all you young people who like the “new music,” I’ve got some bad news for you. The music that you call new now….it will be the music that your kids will call old. They’ll say, “That song’s been
around forever.” The question is now whether a song is old or new. That’s the Devil’s nonsense. The question is whether is song actually based out of scripture and can you sing it? If it’s not based out of scripture, it’s not a song of worship. And if you can’t sing it. It’s not a song.

So let us begin. In Chapter 1, we meet John who has been imprisoned on the Island of Patmos for preaching the world of God. He was on the beach one Sunday, not making sandcastles, put praying when he got a surprised visit. He saw Jesus in all his glory. And Jesus gave him messages to give to seven local churches. At the end of those seven messages, in Chapter 4, John hears a voice from heaven, saying “Come up!” And he is taken to the throne room of heaven.

For me, when I read about John’s vision, I’m reminded of the song, “John the Revelator” written by Rusty Goodman of the Happy Goodman Family. He wrote that song around 1976:

Talkin’ ’bout John the Revelator
he saw Jerusalem coming down
Yes it was John the Revelator
And when he looked around
He saw feet like brass
Eyes like fire
Heard a great voice saying
Come up higher
He was John the Revelator
He wrote about the city of God

So when John is taken to the throne room of heaven in Chapter 4, what does he discover? He finds worship taking place. Around the throne of God are 24 elders with gold crowns, worshipping God. And then you had the four beings, who praised God by saying,  
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty—
the one who always was, who is, and who is still to come.”

The 24 elders place their crowns at God’s throne and sing,  
“You are worthy, O Lord our God,
to receive glory and honor and power.
For you created all things,
and they exist because you created what you pleased.”

When I read these words, I’m reminded of two hymns. The first is “Holy, Holy, Holy” written by a Mr. Reginald Heber. He died at age 43, and his wife published his poetry in 1826. In it was poem that was set to music. Listen to these lyrics.

1 Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee.
Holy, holy, holy! Merciful and mighty!
God in three Persons, blessed Trinity!

2 Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore thee,
casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;
cherubim and seraphim falling down before thee,
who wert, and art, and evermore shalt be.

All he did really, was take the scripture and set it to music to where we can better know it. Notice that he referenced the part of golden crowns. That reminds me of another hymn, “Crown Him with Many Crowns” by Matthew Bridges in 1851

1 Crown him with many crowns,
the Lamb upon his throne.
Hark! how the heavenly anthem drowns
all music but its own.
Awake, my soul, and sing
of him who died for thee,
and hail him as thy matchless king
through all eternity.

2 Crown him the Lord of life,
who triumphed o’er the grave,
and rose victorious in the strife
for those he came to save;
his glories now we sing
who died and rose on high,
who died eternal life to bring,
and lives that death may die.

I realize that a lot of people get very materialistic, thinking about heaven. They got their mind on streets of gold, and crowns, and mansions. That’s not what heaven is about. The saints of heaven are not going around comparing their crowns. Instead, they place them at the throne where Jesus will be crowned with many crowns. And these two gentlemen, one in the 1820’s and one in the 1950’s realized that.

Now, we get to chapter 5. There is a scroll with seven seals, but no one on earth or in heaven is worthy to open it. This gets John all upset and weeps bitterly. But one of the elders says, “Stop weeping. Look it’s the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.” John turns expecting to see a Lion. Instead he sees a Lamb who had been slain. 

This, of course, is all symbolic. He’s referring to Jesus, the Lamb of God, who was slain on the cross and rose again on the third day. Only Jesus is worthy to open the scroll concerning human history. Only Jesus is worthy to set into motion the events of the future.

This is why the 24 elders sing a new song:
“You are worthy to take the scroll
and break its seals and open it.
For you were slaughtered, and your blood has ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation.
And you have caused them to become
a Kingdom of priests for our God.
And they will reign on the earth.”

And then millions of Angels start singing a hymn of praise
“Worthy is the Lamb who was slaughtered—
to receive power and riches
and wisdom and strength
and honor and glory and blessing.”

And then all nature, in earth, sky, and sea, begins to sing.
“Blessing and honor and glory and power
belong to the one sitting on the throne
and to the Lamb forever and ever.”

This reminds me of “Revelation Song” by Kari Kob, released by Phillips, Craig, and Dean in 2009.  
Worthy is the Lamb who was slain
Holy, holy is Thee
Sing a new song to Him who sits on
Heaven’s mercy seat
You are my everything and I will adore You, I will adore You

So the Lamb opens the seals, releasing the famous Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse as they gallop through history. Then in Chapter 7, we hear an angel take a census of 144,000 Jewish people. Now the cult leaders will rise up and claim the 144,000 are the people in their cult….that is until their cult has 144,001 members. Then they change their doctrine. 

But that’s not what it’s about. Earlier John heard about a Lion and turned and saw a Lamb. Here he’s expecting to see 144,000 Jewish people. He turns and sees a vast crowd, so large that it cannot be counted. And it’s not only Jewish people, but African people, and Asian people, and European people, and American people, and all tribes and languages. 

They are rejoicing and shout,  
“Salvation comes from our God who sits on the throne
and from the Lamb!”
The angels and saints start singing,
“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanksgiving and honor
and power and strength belong to our God
forever and ever! Amen.”

Now this idea of a group of people so vast that they cannot be numbered, inspired a popular song from the African-American community in the 1920’s and 1930’s, When the Saints Go Marching In.
Oh, when the saints go marching in
Oh, when the saints go marching in
Oh Lord I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in

This was a song that they would play as a funeral procession. On the way to the graveyard, they would play it slowly and stately. But on the way back, they played it proudly and loudly, symbolizing victory over death.

In the Chapter that follow, we see the forces of Evil align together. We see Satan, the Great Dragon, being cast from Heaven to Earth. He summons the Beast from the Sea and the Beast from the Land, which represent the Roman Empire and its False Religion. He sees the prostitute Babylon who is drunk with blood of the saints, representing the City of Rome.
But one by one, the forces of Evil are overthrown. “Fallen, Fallen. Babylon has Fallen.”

In Chapter 19, we hear the songs of victory. One song is
“Hallelujah! Praise the LORD!  
Salvation and glory and power belong to our God.
His judgments are true and just.
He has punished the great prostitute
who corrupted the earth with her immorality.
He has avenged the murder of his servants.”

Another song is
“Hallelujah! Praise the LORD!
For the Lord our God, the omnipotent Almighty, reigns.
Let us be glad and rejoice,
and let us give honor to him.
For the time has come for the wedding feast of the Lamb,
and his bride has prepared herself.
She has been given the finest of pure white linen to wear.”
For the fine linen represents the good deeds of God’s holy people.

Why are they rejoicing? Because Jesus, like a cowboy in a western movie, comes riding in a white horse. And comes riding with the title of King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

So this passage with the various hallelujahs, the reference God’s omnipotent power, and the title of King of Kings and Lord of Lords, inspired one of the famous pieces of music. In 1741, George Frederick Handel wrote “Messiah” a musical performance based on scriptures….about the Messiah. The most famous section is the “Hallelujah Chorus.”  
Over and over, the choir sings Hallelujah because the Lord God reigneth. And toward the end it proclaims the “The Kingdom of this world is become the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ and He shall reign forever and ever. King of Kings and Lord of Lords.”

According to tradition, when Handel performed this in London, King George II who sitting in the balcony was so moved that he stood up. And being England, when the king stands, everyone stands. And that’s why people stand today during the Hallelujah Chorus. Even King George II recognized that though he was King of England and its empire, Jesus was the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

In the 22nd chapter, we read these beautiful words: “Then the angel showed me a river with the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. It flowed down the center of the main street. On each side of the river grew a tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, with a fresh crop each month. The leaves were used for medicine to heal the nations.”

In 1864, a Baptist pastor named Robert Lowery read those words and was moved to write the song, “Shall We Gather at the River”
1 Shall we gather at the river,
Where bright angel feet have trod;
With its crystal tide forever
Flowing by the throne of God?

This song was written during a low point of the Civil War. Gettysburg was in 1863 and it seemed that war would never end. And yet this Baptist preacher was moved to write:
4 Soon we’ll reach the shining river,
Soon our pilgrimage will cease;
Soon our happy hearts will quiver
With the melody of peace. 

The melody of peace. What an encouraging thought for such times. And then when you think about the people who were killed in the war, lives cut short, the chorus takes on new meaning:
Yes, we’ll gather at the river,
The beautiful, the beautiful river;
Gather with the saints at the river
That flows by the throne of God.

Then at the end of the chapter and Revelation itself we read Christ’s words:
He who is the faithful witness to all these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon!”
And John replies, “Amen! Come, Lord Jesus”

And that leads me the last song, around 1970, Bill and Gloria Gaither wrote, “The King is Coming.”
The King is coming, the King is coming
I just heard the trumpet sounding and soon His face I’ll see
The King is coming, the King is coming
Praise God, He’s coming for me

So as we have seen, the Book of Revelation is not all doom and gloom and despair. It is a book filled with praising God. And the book has inspired songs in hymns, contemporary Christian, African American spirituals, classic music, and Southern Gospel. There’s a song for every genre. As children of God, we shouldn’t fear the future. We shouldn’t be walking around looking like the cruise director for the Titanic. But rather we should be people of hope. The Lamb has overcome. Satan has been defeated, and his ultimate defeat is coming soon. That should put a song in all of our hearts – both a new song and those old songs that are dear to our hearts. Thanks be to God.

I was 27 years old when I was first appointed to serve as the associate pastor at Keith Church in 2001. I was 29 when I completed my ordination process and was ordained as an elder in the Holston Conference.

Will Shelton was 30 years old when he was appointed as the associate pastor here at Keith in 2012. He was 33 when he was ordained an elder in 2015.

Andrew Lay was 26 years old when he was appointed as the associate pastor at Keith last year. He was commissioned as a provisional member of the conference this year and, if all goes according to plan, will be ordained as an elder and full member of the annual conference in 2022 at the age of 30.

I don’t know how old Jason Gattis or Nicole Hill Krewson were when they were appointed as the associate pastor at Keith, but I’m sure they were in the age range that the church considers “young adult” – under age 35.

I share all this age-related information because last week, the Lewis Center for Church Leadership at Wesley seminary in Washington DC issued their annual report on aging trends in clergy (https://www.churchleadership.com/research/clergy-age-trends-in-the-united-methodist-church-1985-2019/). This report shows that the number of pastors serving as elders in our denomination who are under age 35 is down for the third consecutive year. This means there have been fewer young people, men and women, entering ordained ministry. This trend is reflective of an overall decline in the number of elders of all ages in the UMC, from 21,378 in 1985 to 13,155 this year. Fewer people of all ages are entering into ordained ministry.

This past Sunday afternoon at our Hiwassee District Conference, which we hosted in the Gathering here at Keith, Rev. Hugh Bryan shared with us that for the first time he can remember, there was no one from our district who is entering the candidacy process for ordained ministry this year.

It makes me wonder: Where will our future pastors come from?

As a child growing up in the church, I wasn’t exactly sure where our pastors came from. Sure, they may have most recently come from this or that church in this or that town. But even though I knew they came TO our church, I knew they didn’t come FROM our church. It wasn’t clear to me back then where pastors came from at all. They were always just there.

Since then, I’ve come to discover where pastors come from. Do you know where pastors come from? Let me let you in on an apparently well-kept secret: They come from local churches. Most of them do. Some of them may come out of campus ministries or other settings, but most pastors still come from local churches, like Keith.

On the wall in the conference room at Keith is a row of framed photographs of people who have entered the ministry from Keith Church.

•             Erbin Baumgardner.
•             Bill Climer.
•             David Ensminger, Neal and Maggie’s son.
•             Cheryl Foree Gans, Bill and Carolyn Foree’s daughter.
•             Lauren Johnson Jackson, Bob and Joan Johnson’s daughter.
•             Reed Shell, Becky Smith’s brother.
•             Peytyn Kiblinger Tobin.

Not all of them went into the Methodist ministry and not all of them went into local church ministry. But they all sensed a call from God into Christian ministry out of the Keith church congregation.

There are others who have heard and answered a call into ministry here at Keith Church. People like Rick Lay who is currently being credentialed as a certified lay minister in our district. People like Joe Ratledge who left our youth director position years ago to enter seminary and is now serving as a licensed local pastor here in the Hiwassee District. People like Emily Liner who is exploring a call to ministry while she is already serving in leadership in campus ministry at Tennessee Wesleyan. Keith Church played a formative role in their sense of God’s calling them into Christian ministry.

So how does God’s call come to folks like these in churches like Keith?

Well, God’s call comes to different people in different ways. But I can tell you it often happens like this. Someone feels a stirring, a whispering in their heart and mind that they begin to wonder, to suspect might be a calling to consider ministry. Very likely they question that call. Wait for further confirmation. All the while wondering if (maybe even hoping that) God got the wrong number.

Some of them might reach out and discuss these stirrings with someone else, to check signals with them, to see if they might be hearing things right. But more likely, they keep it to themselves, put it on the back burner, or dismiss it entirely.

But sometimes the spirit of God inspires someone to say something to them, something like, “have you ever thought about the ministry?” To which the person might reply, “whatever on earth gave you that idea?” To which this someone might say, “oh I don’t know. I’ve just watched you for a while and I think you have some gifts that may be well suited for ministry.” To which they may, like Mary, choose to ponder these things in their heart. Or they may respond with something like, “funny you should ask, but yes, actually I have been giving it some thought.”

There’s a saying going around these days about reporting suspicious behavior: “if you see something, say something.” I’d also want to suggest that if you suspect someone you know may have gifts for ministry in the church in some way or another, if you see something like that in them, then literally for the sake of Christ and his church, say something to them about it. It may end up being nothing more than a nice compliment. But it may be the very thing they needed to hear.

That’s kind of how it happened with me. I was in high school, wondering whether my questions that spilled over into our family’s Sunday lunches about the Bible and the Sunday school lesson and the Sunday sermon constituted a call to ministry. But I hid those thoughts in my heart. One day, my tennis coach, Dallas Brown, who didn’t even go to our church but who knew I was thinking about being a high school teacher like he was, caught me after practice one day, and he asked me, “have you ever thought about going into the ministry?”

You may never know what difference a question like that can make in someone’s life. Or in the life of the church.

I’ve spent the better part of these past two weekends either at or in between presentations of Frozen Jr. by the Athens Community Theatre over at the Arts Center. It was an abbreviated, hour-long version of the wildly popular 2013 Disney movie. If you remember all the little girls wearing their Elsa or Anna gowns and singing “Let It Go!” at the top of their lungs, then you can imagine it wasn’t difficult for the directors to find folks to try out for parts in this musical!

Our sanctuary musician Matthew Crabtree was the music director. Our son Wesley had a “hygge” (look it up if you need to) role as Oaken, the owner of a Nordic trading post and sauna, and some other children and youth from the church had some really “chill” parts as well. Tracy helped out backstage during the rehearsals and performances. And me? I just went to the shows. Well, at least 5 of the 8 of them.

But I’m glad I went to see it several times, because I can be a little slow on the uptake sometimes. The themes of books and plays and musicals and such don’t always hit me at first. So it wasn’t until that second weekend of the show that its theme of the power of true love really began to crystallize in my mind and I also began to see how its message mirrors that of the scriptures.

The quest for true love runs right through the story. Princess Anna hopes she’ll find it meeting some tall handsome stranger at the coronation of her sister Elsa as the queen. Then she believes she has found it when she meets Prince Hans. But when Elsa disapproves of their getting engaged on the same day they met, despite Anna claiming it’s true love, Elsa asks her, “what do you know about true love?” Later on, the mysterious, mystical Hidden Folk proclaim that “the only fixer upper fixer that can fix a fixer-upper” like Kristoff the unrefined ice-harvester is “true, true love!” But all of that is just, shall we say, the tip of the iceberg.

The climactic moment in the musical comes (spoiler alert!) when Anna has had her heart accidentally frozen by her sister Queen Elsa who has magical powers to turn things to ice. Anna’s companions call for the Hidden Folk to use their curative powers to heal her. But the Hidden Folk tell them that “only an act of true love can thaw a frozen heart.” They assume they have to take Anna to her fiancé Hans, but when she arrives, she discovers that Hans really doesn’t love her. He was just using her to get to the throne and become king himself, and leaving Anna to die and putting Elsa to death for harming her would certainly expedite that.

Anna, locked up in her cell and becoming colder by the minute, bemoans to her snowman friend Olaf, “I was wrong about him. It wasn’t true love. I don’t even know what love is.” But Olaf does. “Love,” he tells her, echoing the words of the Apostle Paul from a prison cell, “is putting someone else’s needs before yours” (Philippians 2:4). Then Olaf picks the lock with his cute carrot nose and they are free. They arrive at the palace just as Hans has drawn his sword and is about to strike Elsa down, when Anna rushes over and steps in front of her sister to intercept his sword, sacrificing herself for her sister just as she herself becomes frozen solid.

Elsa breaks down and cries as she embraces her sister, and everyone else watches in heartbroken despair. But then Anna, miraculously, begins to thaw and to stir back to life. “Oh Anna,” Elsa exclaims, “you sacrificed yourself for me?” And Anna responds, “I love you.” And they give each other a big warm hug, just like Olaf likes. And Olaf remembers: “An act of true love will thaw a frozen heart.” To which Elsa affirms: “Love. Of course. Love will thaw.” (They repeat it like that, you see, to try to help those of us who are a little thick in the head to get the point.)

One of the things I find particularly fascinating in this story is that true love isn’t found where we might expect it (certainly in most movies, Disney and otherwise), that is, in romantic love. Instead, it is expressed in the love of family and friends. The love Oaken shares, for example, with his big family at his trading post and sauna, and with the travelers Anna, Olaf, Kristoff and his loyal reindeer Sven. And the love they share for one another, the risks they take for each other. But especially, the love between these two sisters and the self-giving, self-sacrificing love Anna has for Elsa.

As I reflect on her act of true love, I can’t help but think of what Jesus said was the greatest, highest, truest form of love there is: “There is no greater love than this, to lay down your life for your friends” (John 15:13). He said this, of course, the night before he did just that, laying down his own life for his friends, for his followers, for all of us, at the cross.

Of all of the various theories and interpretations across the last two thousand years of how exactly it is that the cross of Christ accomplishes our atonement – our reconciliation, our at-one-ment – with God, the one that has captivated me the most is from a French philosopher and theologian by the name of Peter Abelard from way back in the 12^th century. Rather than the cross accomplishing some sort of a change in God or in how God looks at and relates to us, Abelard asked what if the cross was meant to accomplish a change in us and in how we look at and relate to God.

He suggested that the cross of Christ reveals to us the fullest extent of God’s love for us. It shows us how far God will go to get through to us that God loves us. God will go all the way to the cross so that we might see how great is God’s love for us, in spite of our hard-heartedness, our cold-heartedness. Christ’s act of true, self-giving love for us on the cross is meant to evoke a response of love for God from us. As he put it, at the cross, God “has more fully bound us to himself by love, with the result that our hearts should be enkindled by such a gift of divine grace, and true charity [or true love] should not now shrink from enduring anything for him.” In other words, witnessing the great love of God for us at the cross is meant to melt our hearts that have become frozen by sin, so that we might do all within our power to love God and to love one another, our sisters and brothers, with the warmth of true self-giving love ourselves.

Turns out, the Hidden Folk might have known this all along: “Only an act of true love can thaw a frozen heart.”