Carlan's Corner

12/7/11

2011-12-07T09:47:00.000-08:00

Today is the 70th anniversary of Pearl Harbor Day, that “day that will live on in Infamy” as then President Franklin D. Roosevelt put it. In the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, 353 Japanese planes attacked the Hawaiian Islands, launching our country into World War !! It was the previous generation’s 9-11, for more than 2,400 Americans were killed by that surprise attack that shocked the nation. Only WWII veterans and families and those older than 70 would have experienced the day; yet we remember it because it teaches us how vulnerable our security is. It is an occasion to renew our faith in the only real security in this world: God, Our lives, our hopes and dreams, our futures can change in a moment; yet no sudden turn of events should make us dismay or surrender to despair. Whatever happens was known to God long before it took place, and that assurance and the assurance of God’s love should give us courage and confidence for all our tomorrows.

I noticed a neighbor of mine putting up Christmas lights today. I was rather surprised because it is an Asian family and I would bet money that they are not Christians. That just goes to show you that this whole dispute about “Happy Holidays” vs. “Merry Christmas” is rather ludicrous. As far as I know, there is not Asian “holiday” at this time of year, so my neighbors are just getting into the “Christmas spirit” regardless of what their religious preference is. If we Christians were a little less paranoid, we might convince a lot more people to join Jesus. After all, it’s not what we say, but what we live that makes a difference for the Lord.

11/30/11

2011-11-30T09:46:00.000-08:00

Dear Family of faith,
"Thirty days have September, April, June, and November..." That's the little jingle I learned as a child. Can you believe that we are already at the last day of the month? The year is fast ending and with it comes the darkness of winter. I can't believe that the sun sets at 4:30 p.m. these days-- not good for someone who loves the light like I do.
Speaking of light, have you noticed the lack of it these days? I'm talking about the "darkness" I've seen in people as of late. There are so many people who are struggling with health issues, struggling to keep their homes, struggling to pay insurance bills or get coverage, struggling to keep kids from poor choices, struggling to make ends meet in every conceivable way that it is making many lose hope. Both young and old talk to me about their fears and lack of confidence that anything is ever going to change. This sense of resignation troubles me greatly, and yet I understand it. Maybe I'm hanging with the wrong crowd, but I don't know a single person who would say that they are "better off today" than they were ten years ago. That's where this season of Advent comes in-- this season of waiting for the coming of the Light of the world, for the Hope of the world, namely, Jesus. The church is the one place where the light still shines in the darkness because the gospel is good news-- that God's love will stick with us whatever happens, that God's family is a place where we can share our burdens, that God's Holy Spirit prays for us when we don't even know what to say. Rather than getting stuck in a mire of desperation, we can trust God to guide us on to better days. That's what Sunday worship is about-- believing in promises, experiencing God's power, and feeling the love of people who care.
Last Sunday's worship with communion was a wonderful way to begin our journey towards Christ's birth--- and that is the reason for Christmas. [I was discussing the whole "Happy Holidays!" greeting with a friend today. There are some Christians who are put out by the store policies that forbid their employees to say "Merry Christmas." I think we make too much of it. The word holiday comes from "holy day. Whether they know it or not, those who wish us "Happy Holy Days!" are being religious! The joke's on them! Besides, if someone wishes you "Happy Holidays!", you can just say back, "Thanks, and Merry Christmas to you, too!"] Back to last Sunday-- we sang familiar Christmas choruses and lit the first Advent Candle. Linda Bixby introduced the Giving Tree project where we have the opportunity to buy presents for needy children in our county (it is set up in the narthex), and Sue Mattson reminded us of the need for cookies for the Bazaar's Cookie Walk, as well as baked goods of all kinds. The season has begun, and I thank God that Christ's birth is celebrated in the middle of the darkest season of the year to bring us the gifts of joy and expectation.

11/23/11

2011-11-23T09:45:00.000-08:00

Dear Family of Faith,
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you! I have been back and forth today over to the Fellowship Hall where preparations are being made for 48 people to share the meal tomorrow. Sue and Dick Mattson, Sherri and Wayne Raymond, and Jill have been busy cooking up a storm. They have made homemade noodles, homemade sweetpotato casserole, homemade dressing, and will bake multiple homemade pies tomorrow. (Martha Stewart, eat your heart out!). They are even making homemade bouillon from the turkey carcasses. They probably would have come up with a homemade turkey, too, if that had been possible! I'll have to get my Pilgrim costume out and wear it! One man told me this week, "I'm so glad to be able to eat Thanksgiving Dinner with my family. The church is my family."
What are you thankful for in this season of Thanksgiving? I'm thankful that I'm such a popular guy! The reason I know this that I've been getting so many emails from adoring fans. When I checked out my spam box a couple of days ago, I found an email from Iri, one from Irka, one from Irena, two from Irinka, one from Irishka, and two from Irinochka! I didn't bother reading them all, but the first line always started with "I would like to get ot know you" or some variation of such. I don't know if the emails were sent from some Eastern European woman who was trying to beat my spam blocker or a local lady who didn't know how to spell her name!! At any rate, it's nice to be wanted and I hope all of you are appreciated by somebody.

11-16-11

2011-11-16T09:44:00.000-08:00

Dear Family of faith,
Thank you, thank you, for all the blankets that you have been bringing! You can stop for now; I have quite a supply of them (but we now know that some warm stocking caps and gloves would be appreciated). Last Friday night I made my first trip down to the streets of Tampa to distribute them to the people sleeping on the street. Ray Gomez and Ben Shinn went along. We passed out 11 blankets, 1 to a woman and the rest to men. For the most part we unrolled them and covered the guys. They were appreciative. It was one of the coldest nights of this season, so the timing was good. One man had even built a cardboard barricade between two trash containers to protect himself from the wind. I couldn't but help think about how little those people lived with in this world-- only what they could carry around with them. I wondered what it would be like to have so little and yet still have the will to go on. I have known a lot of people who have so much more and find life difficult. In this season of Thanksgiving, it gives us a reason to pause and be grateful for what we have. What's ultimately important is not the things of life, but life itself. If you are reading this, you are alive-- what a wonderful gift!

11-9-11

2011-11-09T09:44:00.000-08:00

Dear Family of faith,
Congratulations to you! The response to our Mission 1 Project during the first 11 days of November has been fantastic! Our goal was for the congregation to send 111 letters to Congress regarding proposed cuts in hunger aid, and as of today you sent 145! We also wanted to collect 2 carloads of groceries last Sunday to give to the Salvation Army, and you came up with three car loads (trunks and back seats) for a total of 139 bags which was approximately 1,579 food items! You want to know what really meant so much about this? When those delivering the food arrived at the Salvation Army, there was a sign on the door that said the Food Pantry was closed because they were out of food! The only area where we didn't, as of yet, reach our goal was in the special offering. We were aiming for $666 but took in only $415 ( $251 short). If anyone still wants to contribute to this by Friday, please send it in and call us to let us know that it is coming. Thanks for all your generosity. One of the people who helped bring the food items to the pantry emailed me saying, "I felt proud to be in a church of Givers and we all spoke about what a great church we go to. I feel so honored to be part of a church that participates in so many programs to help those around us who may not be as fortunate." I feel honored, too, and I hope that all of you do.

11-2-11

2011-11-02T09:43:00.000-07:00

Dear Family of faith,
Tonight at Bible Study we learned again how gracious and loving God has been to us extending us forgiveness and welcoming us back after every failure of our lives. God's grace brings us such peace and joy, such lack of fear and delight in life that we are changed people. I shared this definition of these twin blessings of the Gospel: "Peace is joy resting; joy is peace dancing." When our hearts are filled with gratitude and life seems right, we have an inner calm that refreshes our spirit. And when we have an inner assurance of God's love we can rise up and express our delight and love of life in winsome and captivating ways. My wish for all of you is that you know that kind of peace and joy in your lives-- enough so that you sleep well and dance with gusto.

10-27-11

2011-10-27T09:43:00.000-07:00

Dear Family of faith,
Have you ever felt beaten up by the stresses of the day? That was the kind of day I had today. Jill and I were supposed to take our hot air balloon ride this morning (second attempt) but it was called off due to wind. When I got to the office, I discovered that my newly installed email account did not work correctly (A big thanks to Karen Schrader who spent hours straightening it out!). Then the smoke alarms started going off so I was scrambling to disable them for the sake of those of us in the building. I answered the phone about two dozen times and the door about half a dozen times, not to mention all the calls I made to try to straighten things out with the alarm company and cable company! I was ready for a stiff drink and it wasn't even five o'clock! But then, I went to choir rehearsal and, there, as if appointed by God to be my angel, Addy Hackl (who knew nothing of my day) gave me a sheet of 29 little thoughts to think about. Among them were these two: "No one can ruin your day without your permission" and "When things go wrong, don't go with them." Coincidence? Hardly! After singing about God's beautiful world and going on to Bible study to teach about the grace of God and the sacrifice of Jesus, my rattled spirit grew more calm, and I "came to myself" again. Gratitude does wonders for the soul. If you find yourself beaten up by life, do something that will bring you close again to God's beauty and love. And be thankful, for what rattles you today will pass tomorrow.

10-19-11

2011-10-19T09:42:00.000-07:00

Dear Family of Faith,
By now you should have received the special email that I sent out today about the unexpected death of Bob Maas. We hold Carol and their family in our prayers. If you would like to send a card, Carol's address is 5331 Harbinger Road, Spring Hill, FL 34608. A memorial service will be held next month of honor of Bob's life.
Every unexpected death causes us to pause a moment and consider our own mortality. As Christians, we do not fear death, for we know that God promises us life that goes beyond our physical death. Even so, the knowledge that our time in this world is limited should always remind us to do the things that are important today. The only day of life we have for sure is today. If we need to tell others that we love them, today is the day. If we need to help those in need, today is the day. If we need to get our spiritual house in order, today is the day. The greatest freedom in life comes not from pretending that we will live forever in this world (which is not true), but rather from being ready for our last day whenever it comes so that we can enjoy the time at hand. That's one reason Jill and I are going on a hot air balloon ride (now postponed until next Wedesday morning). We only pass this way once; don't live with regrets. Celebrate and mourn, laugh and weep, dance and sit still, write letters and listen to others-- do what is important today.

10-12-11

2011-10-13T07:35:00.000-07:00

Dear Family of faith,
I had the chance to be in Tampa last weekend on Sunday evening to see a movie. When I exited the theater and walked to my car, I noticed about a dozen or so men curled up on the sidewalk under a cement overhang on one of the buildings. They were sleeping or attempting to sleep. It was one of those moments in my life when I was struck by the inequity of life and felt God calling me to do something about it. I hope to return to Tampa streets one night a month with a bundle of blankets to pass out to those people who are living on the street. I can't solve their problems, but I can show some compassion and give them at least one warm night, if not more. If any of you would like to help provide blankets for this ministry; please let me know. For a few years now God has put it in my heart to help those who are cold (since I like to be warm). And if anyone would like to go with me when I go, I would like a companion in this ministry. Let me know. Even as Christians we can't change the world all at once, but we can change life for one person at a time.

10-5-11

2011-10-06T07:33:00.000-07:00

Dear Family of faith,
It's been a fun evening around the church. Today was Wayne Raymond's 62nd birthday and his last day at school. He is officially retired now from teaching, so the choir had a surprise party for him after rehearsal tonight. Wayne began as our church's Music Director when Rev. Dr. Dan Horn was the pastor back in 1990. We have been so blessed to have him and Sherrie (and their girls) with our congregation all these years. The Hernando County Schools are losing one of their best, but we get to "keep" him!
Speaking of schools, recently I have become aware of three of our own youth who are struggling to stay in school-- not so much because the requirements are too demanding, but more likely because they don't see how education will help them in their future. When I was young, I had one thing going for me-- hope-- hope for a good job if I got an education, hope for a happy life, hope for a world that seemed to be getting better with new inventions and technologies and new breakthroughs in medicine. What I sense lacking in today's youth is this sense of hope and promise...and I regret that maybe we adults are to blame. For sure, the connectedness of the world especially among the youth through Ipad and twitter and the web have contributed to their gloom because they hear about every tragedy and uprising, every disaster and riot in the world. Yet how many times do we find ourselves talking in front of our kids about how things were "better in the good old days?"
And how often do we talk about how bad the economy is and how we are struggling to get by and how we don't know how anybody is going to make it in today's world? All of these comments can't but add to the sense of futility and desperation that our youth feel. We need to think more about encouraging the next generation and giving them dreams.
Nobody will care about doing well in school or even staying in school if they think it's worthless. We know things can be tough, but they were tougher eighty years ago and things got better. As Christians we can affirm that with God, life is always full of promise, and tomorrow always holds hope for us. If you know any kids who are having a tough time, listen to them, affirm them, and help them to believe in the God of hope.

9-28-11

2011-09-29T07:32:00.000-07:00

Dear Family of faith,
I hope you are all enjoying this beautiful fall weather after the monsoon on Monday!
I have a friend that both irritates me and inspires me for the very same reason. When he is talking with someone and I try to get his attention to say a few things, he completely ignores me. Even in the midst of a crowd of people, he is focused on what he is doing at the moment and he is unable (or unwilling) to be distracted. You practically have to grab him by the arm or stand right in front of him to get his attention. That's the irritating part. And yet this person gives you his complete and undivided attention when carrying on a conversation with you. He is not talking on his cell phone or texting or even looking through you or around you. He is looking right at you and speaking to you as if you were the only one in the world. That's the inspiring part, and I have been the recipient of that kind of attention from him. I wish I could be more like that myself. Especially on Sunday mornings I find myself having to talk with so many different people and see people wanting to say something to me that I often feel like I'm cheating the person in front of me. I imagine Jesus to have been someone who was completely absorbed by the person in front of him at the time. That was surely part of his charisma. What does it take to become more like that? Concentration and the will to do it! I'm going to try harder. It's so encouraging and affirming to receive someone's complete attention!

9-21-11

2011-09-22T07:54:00.000-07:00

9-21-11
Dear Family of faith,
It's a sad day when our nation has to wait to hear whether a man may be wrongfully executed in Georgia for a crime he probably didn't commit. As I write this, Troy Davis, is scheduled to be put to death in spite of witnesses recanting their testimony, the concerns of dozens of prison wardens and executioners across the country, even Jimmy Carter and the Pope. Why would a governor turn a deaf ear to such a cacophony of voices calling for a stay until the matter can be resolved? Because we have this desire to blame someone, anyone, for the troubles of our lives. In this case the family needs closure, and it doesn't matter to them whether they have the right criminal or not. This incident makes me think about my own life and how often I want to blame someone else for the things that go wrong. Yet our New Testament teaches (in Romans 12) that revenge is not part of our Christian lifestyle. Vengeance belongs to God. We are told not to judge others and to leave the justice to God because our judgments are often faulty and our justice imperfect. We misjudge too often, so rather than add to our own sin, God wants us to practice Jesus' way-- the way of the One who said, even as he was being unjustly put to death on the cross, "Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they are doing."
Recently I saw a photo in the newspaper about a local group that has been helping to feed children. Under the photo was a caption that said that the particular program was "providing food to deserving families with children in Hernando County," When I read that, I thought to myself, "I wonder what their criteria are to be a "deserving family." It made me wonder whether the group might withhold food from kids if they thought the parents were not worthy of help. This is the problem we get into when we're trying to help others. Who is deserving? Are little children to go hungry because they have bad parents? Certainly there are unfit parents in this world-- we have all seen them and heard of them, but can we punish the children because of their parents? No doubt our government assistance programs help out a lot of "undeserving parents" in an attempt to keep the children from poverty and worse. What would Jesus do? He told us in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:42): "Give to everyone who begs from you." I'm glad Jesus doesn't keep his love and grace from me because I'm undeserving.

9-14-11

2011-09-15T07:53:00.000-07:00

Dear Family of faith,
Being a pastor is an impossible job, except by the grace of God; but it certainly is not a boring one. Today I got a phone call from a woman who was distraught because she had been to a Bible Study in another church and had heard the leader say that children with physical disabilities were cursed by God. When she went to the pastor of the church, he said the same thing!! Isn't that sad? In previous times I would have thought the whole thing too far-fetched-- that anyone in today's world would consider physical disabilities a punishment from God. But these days this is how bad it has gotten in the "church." That's one of the reasons that I put on our church sign this week, "We don't beat people up in here." The woman called me because she had seen a UCC ad on TV and had heard that we were an accepting church. It's so incredible to think that so many self-righteous Christians are in the business of keeping people away from God!
Also today, a zip lock bag of pamphlets was left in the church mailbox. There was no name to indicate who had left it there, but the bag was full of religious brochures from such diverse groups as the Mormons, fundamentalist churches, the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Roman Catholics. Whoever left the bag was probably making a statement of some sort. I took it as the ultimate sign of disgust with the Christian Church as a whole-- that all those groups had become so loathsome with their judging and condemnation of everyone in the eyes of the bag owner that he/she was giving up on religion completely. The statement was perhaps, "Here, you can have it all back. I want none of your religion."
Dear family, we can rejoice that we are different from 'the pack.' People who come to our church are looking for affirmation and acceptance, for caring and compassion. I'm so glad that you are a people who have seen that as your identity--that you care less about what others think than about what Jesus thinks. Keep loving and caring!

9-8-11

2011-09-10T07:36:00.000-07:00

Dear Family of faith,
It seems like forever since I wrote my last midweek news to you. Jill and I certainly missed you while we were gone visiting family and friends. We bring warm greetings to you from Peter and Jan Bastow and John and Sylvia Chapman (in Maine), Walt and Marilyn Wiwczar (in New Hampshire), and Duke and Polly Yaguchi (in Georgia). They are all fine and we shared some marvelous memories with them. We put on over 4,000 miles on our car during the trip, but I it was so affirming to see so many wonderful people who have been with us in good times and bad. The relationships of life are what make life real and beautiful. It's a lesson to be reminded of, especially in difficult economic times like we face today. Life is never about things; it's always about people.
Being gone from the church so long also reminded me of the privilege it is to be your pastor. You are wonderful people, so accepting and loving, and I never take that for granted. I only wish everyone could experience the bonds of caring that we have in our church!

8-10-11

2011-08-10T08:32:00.000-07:00

Dear Family of faith,
I finished the Sunday crossword puzzle today! I love doing the puzzles because they are a weekly reminder to me of a powerful spiritual truth. You see, when I first glance through all the clues in the puzzle, often I can come up with only one or two answers that I am sure of. But as I continue to struggle with it, looking again at it day after day, trying new possibilities in the blanks, I am amazed at how what once seemed an impossible task actually gets finished. Even though I go through this same journey from hopelessness to conquest almost every week, I am always in awe of the lesson it teaches me: that nothing is impossible; it only looks that way in the beginning. I pray that each of you will learn that life lesson, too, if not through difficult crossword puzzles, then through your own history of not giving up but continuing to believe that what seems hopeless is not hopeless at all, especially when we turn over the struggle to God.
Do you long for "the good old days?" A friend of mine recently gave me a book that belonged to his mother. When I was leafing through the pages, I saw an old, discolored obituary, stuck between them. I didn't know the deceased nor do I know if my friend knew the woman either. There was no year printed in the paper, only the month and day, so I have no idea how long ago the person died. Yet I read with interest the details printed in the item. Not only did the obituary list the time and place and officiating clergyman, but it also reported who sang the solos and who the pallbearers were. At the end of the obituary were listed the names of those persons, eighteen not counting children, who were "from away" (i.e. out of town) and even the towns they came from! I was amazed at how much press the funeral got, and, of course, it was all a free service of the newspaper. Compare that to today when you have to pay exhorbitant prices just to get the fewest of details listed, and nobody would dare include such "frivolous information" as who attended the memorial service from out of town. It's no wonder we long for days gone by when people truly cared about people and not just about making a buck. And yet, in the kingdom of God, those days are still a part of our lives. Within God's realm, and especially in the church, we are still called to care for and about one another. When someone is down, we cry with him. When someone is happy, we rejoice with her. When someone needs help, we come to his aid. That's what it means to be part of the family of God. Just today I was the recipient of such care when both of our vehicles ended up in the shop for repairs and I was left car-less. A friend in the church offered me her car for the day. 'The good old days' are still with us! May each of you know that truth in your lives as you share your love and care with others because you belong to the kingdom of God!

8-4-11

2011-08-04T08:34:00.000-07:00

Dear Family of faith,
Nobody wants troubles and turmoil in their lives; yet there are some good things that can come out of our trying times. I have been in an emotional turmoil of late, and it has turned my head to remember the simple blessings of life-- blessings like a day that is peaceful and productive, an invitation to dinner, an email of encouragement, a surprise left in my office, a doctor who treats you kindly, friends who promise faithfulness, and the beauty of those around us. Too often we take such little things for granted, not appreciating what gifts they are to us and how they make our lives worth living. When trials come, then it is that we see most clearly how precious those we love really are and how many good things God puts in our everydays. If you find yourself in a "funk" right now because life isn't the proverbial 'rose garden,' take a moment of feel the breeze, breathe in a flower's fragrance, marvel at a little hand in yours or the pet in your lap, or find new beauty and promise in the things that happen around you. And, remember that when we feel our backs are up against a wall, "God will make a way where there seems to be no way."

7-27-11

2011-07-28T06:35:00.000-07:00

Dear Family of Faith,
Is anyone making your life miserable? In my years of ministry there have been two people in my last two churches that come to mind as people who became enemies. I'm sure that I'm not alone in this experience. Sometimes relationships that begin as friendships turn sour. People get hurt, and those who hurt begin hurting others. The same thing can happen even in marriage relationships and partnerships and between children and parents. When people get angry at us and seek to hurt us, our natural reaction is to want to do the same to them in return. This "eye for an eye" mentality pervades our culture, even the Christian world, even though Jesus decried such a vindictive nature. What, then, are we to do when someone gossips about us, tries to turn friends and family away from us, or tries to run us down to make themselves look better? In the Book of Romans the Apostle Paul wrote these words: "Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them....Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all....Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." Several years ago a couple in the church tried to destroy the unity of the congregation. People thought I was crazy not to "fight back" and discredit them. I struggled with it much, but the congregation was supportive of me and helped me through that. That's what I would say to any of you who are facing difficult people in your life. None of us can do life on our own; we need others who can support us in tough times, and we need to remember to cast all our cares on God who cares for us. This allows us to be different from the world, to hope against the odds that people can be different, to find peace in the midst of all the storms of life. After all, why should we become like those we don't like? As best as you can, let go of the pain in your life and move on. God has better things for you.

7-20-11 Blog

2011-07-20T06:34:00.000-07:00

Dear Family of faith,
I grew up in a little country church with an average attendance of less than 50. Everybody had to do their part. Ushers for Sunday morning would often be chosen from among the "warm bodies" that showed up for worship. Sometimes the pastor himself passed out bulletins to the first folk at church (who tended to be the oldest of the elderly, who were not good candidates for ushering). Some summer Sundays I recall the pastor stopping the service before the offering and calling out from the pulpit, "Jack and Ed, would you take up the offering today?" Whoever was asked always seemed to help. Through my years of ministry I've seen this personal ownership in the church fade away, regrettably. Today when they see a need, many are just as likely to think, "Let someone else do it. It's not my responsibility." There are a few, though, who still understand the meaning of serving by doing whatever is needed. This past Monday in the midst of Vacation Bible School and funeral service preparations, our custodian Bob cut his hand and needed to be taken to the Emergency Room. I was busy getting ready for the funeral so our Administrative Assistant, Marty, drove Bob to the hospital. Marty didn't think twice about doing it. Even though it wasn't in her job description and she had much to do, it was what was needed. So, too, for many weeks I have noticed the unsightly weeds growing in our shrubbery beds around the church. I was planning on bringing my weeding fork this week to remove some when yesterday I noticed someone on her knees in front of the church doing that very task. Sandy Symbal had, without talking to anyone, taken it upon herself to do what she saw needed to be done. You know what is really amazing in these stories? Neither Marty nor Sandy are members of our congregation! If anyone could have use the excuse, "It's not my job," these two could have. Yet they chose to do what was needed. I hope that I never get too "high and mighty" to do the little things in the church that need to be done. I remember often the words of Psalm 84:10: "I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than live in the tents of wickedness."

July 12, 2011 Blog

2011-07-12T06:32:00.000-07:00

Dear Family of Faith,
Do you ever get frustrated by our over-specialized world? I have been battling a terrible cold and sinus infection in the past few days. I had an annual appointment yesterday with my urologist. "Oh, good," I thought. "I can get an antibiotic to help me deal with my problems." I made it to the appointment with the help of over-the-counter medicines, cough drops and Kleenex. When I asked the physician if he would mind writing me a prescription to help me heal, he replied curtly, "That's not my specialty." Then he went on to defend his refusal by saying that it probably wouldn't help anyway. At that moment I wondered whether the Hippocratic Oath ("I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures [that] are required") had become the Hypocritic Oath! You can't help someone because it's "not your speciality"?? It made me think about my own ministry and how I treat people who come to me for help. I remembered the times people knocked on the door and wanted money for something that was "outside the parameters of our mission." It also made me think about the times that I "didn't want to get involved" helping people because I had other things to do. In our Bible Study tonight we looked at Jesus' words in Matthew 5:42: "Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you." The implication of that verse is that if we have it, and someone needs it, we are give it. I'm going to try to do better about not being too "specialized" to help those in need. Maybe you can, too.

July 7, 2011 Blog

2011-07-07T06:31:00.000-07:00

Dear Family of Faith,
I missed you when I was gone!! I had a fabulous time visiting family in Calgary, Alberta, and hiking through valleys and up mountains in the Canadian Rockies. I have lots of photos to show, too! I even got to drive a fancy car when I was there-- a red Porsche Boxter convertible (stick shift, of course!) I felt like a movie star :-) More recently I spent time at the General Synod meeting in Tampa with other volunteers from our church and Conference. It was a marvelous time. I know that those of you who went by bus last Sunday to enjoy the service appreciated the once-in-a-lifetime chance to worship with our brothers and sisters from around the nation (even if it did take us three buses to get there and back!! Andrea Gleason has threatened never to do a bus trip again!! Encourage her next time you see her!) . Meredith Suld expressed so well what we experienced: "Words fail me when I reflect on Sunday's Synod worship experience. It was so creative, fresh, dramatic in every way. I think we were all totally blown away. I've been poring over the marvelous liturgy ever since. How privileged we were to share that great experience! It's great to be part of the UCC!" If anyone would like to see the entire worship service on the Internet, you can access the video at the following website: www.ucc.org/synod/video/sunday-worship-service.html Talia Raymond and her youth dance group from Winter Park were part of the worship, too! I'm sure that Wayne and Sherrie couldn't have been prouder! Thanks to all the cookie bakers, too. I know that Jill and Kim and Kevin West did a lot of work along with others. Thanks to all of you we met our 200 dozen goal!! I was feeling pretty smug about that until one lady said, "Our church brought 1,000 dozen!" Of course their church is four times larger than ours! The cookies were piled to the ceiling-- just ask Karen and Linda Schrader who worked one day sorting them! They were all so delicious. I should know, I took one every time I passed the cookie tables! Maybe that's why I have this 'cookie ring' around my middle right now?
During the Opening Worship Service at Synod the Rev, Marilyn Pagan-Banks, Director of A Just Harvest, spoke. One thing she said greatly challenged me to think: "When I give bread to the poor, they call me a saint. But when I ask why people are poor, they call me a Communist." Her words brought out how reticent we are to hear anything that might upset our way of living. So much of help and assistance given these days is really a band-aid approach to a systemic problem. Why is it that the richest country in the world still has hungry people? I am so proud of all of you for contributing regularly to our Food Sunday offerings; we need to do that because people on our backstep are hungry. Even so, the money we send to our UCC missions (OCWM) helps others to advocate for changes that will fight the poverty that causes hunger. We must never be afraid to ask the hard questions about any of the injustices in our nation.
Another memorable idea came from Sunday's preacher, the Rev. Dr. Laurinda Hafner, of Coral Gables Congregational UCC, who quoted Bishop John Shelby Spong. Bishop Spong said of the UCC that 'no church committed to social justice will ever be a majority denomination; but that, even so, the entire Christian world benefits from the witness that the UCC bears to justice issues.' I so agree with that statement, for it means that we at Spring Hill UCC have an important witness to make in our own community because even those who don't agree with everything we stand for can benefit from our understanding of God's grace and our extravagant welcome. Not only that, but even in our own personal lives we can stand up for what is right even if the majority of the group around us wants to continue in old ways that hurt and abuse. A small voice for good is still a voice for good. One lone candle can brighten a dark room. John the Baptist was a lone voice in the wilderness; Jesus himself was left pretty much alone in the end; yet both of these men were sent from God to bring truth and light to the world. That is our own vocation as well. Never be intimdated because your opinion is not shared by the majority. God never calls us to be popular or even successful, only faithful.

June 15, 2011 - Pastor Carlan's Blog

2011-06-15T07:51:00.000-07:00

Dear Family of Faith,
Last Sunday was awesome! The attendance was superb for summertime (176), the special music of the choir and bell choir was moving, the banners and flowers were beautiful, the communion was renewing, but it was the release of the dove that was the most powerful of all. When it flew out of its cage so gracefully and perfect, I was stunned by the message of freedom it carried with it-- the Holy Spirit is at large in the world!God is loose in this place, never to be confined. There is so much potential in us because of God's abiding Spirit-- potential to change the world for good. Thanks to all the musicians and those who gave the red begonias and especially to Kathy Hackemer who arranged for the dove. It was a day I will always remember.
Sometimes when I'm doing nothing or something of little consequence, God's Spirit gives me a great thought about life or a sermon theme or a word to share with others. Many times these best thoughts of God end up sliding into the great oblivion of forgetfulness. It is so frustrating! I have learned to counteract that loss by keeping a pad and pen by my bed, in my car, and at my desk. Yet I wonder why it is that such powerful inspirational moments seem so fleeting-- as if there is but a moment's chance to fasten on to truth before it evaporates forever. Could it be that such times of communion with the eternal are much more common than we realize-- that those instances of recognition of God's favor and inspiration are just a fraction of the times God speaks to us? Maybe we are so focused on worldly things that we miss the eternal in our midst. Maybe we work too much and meditate too little, calculate too much and contemplate too little. Maybe we are too fixated with life's duties that we don't take time to daydream the thoughts of God. This summer I encourage you to take time out for God-- go fishing on a quiet lake, sit in the hammock without a book, sun on the beach with nothing to do but listen to the waves, or even just stare into space while sitting at your kitchen table. No doubt you will sense the presence of God. Just have your notebook ready!
When I first came to Spring Hill, I kept my Pastoral Prayers to a two-page limit-- two hand-written pages of thoughts and petitions to offer to God on all our behalf. Lately, though, there is never enough room on those two sheets for all the needs of the congregation and our world. I'm spilling over into the margins every Sunday! So many people who are dear to us are going through rough times. Sometimes it can be overwhelming. If you feel like that, don't give up praying. You don't have to pray for everybody every moment of the day. When someone comes to mind who needs your prayers, just lift that person to God right then wherever you are. Then you can go on with your life. That's what it means to me to "pray continually" as the Apostle Paul admonishes. It's never a burden, but a joy to bring people to God, for God is the Source of all our blessings.
With affection,
Pastor Carlan

June 8, 2011 - Pastor Carlan's Blog

2011-06-08T07:50:00.000-07:00

Dear Family of faith,
Have you ever really wanted one of your kids to do something that they didn't seem much interested in? That's a little how I feel in regard to the bus trip to the Synod worship on July 3rd. So far only 15 people have signed up for this incredible opportunity. Although I myself have been a delegate to the meeting five times, most people rarely, if ever, get a chance to experience the denomination together in worship. It is spectacular, inspirational, and educational-- all at the same time. Judging from previous experience (there have only ever been 27 Synod meetings before in the history of the U.C.C.), I can predict that there will never be another General Synod meeting in Florida in my lifetime. That's why I'm so keen on having as many of you go as can. The $13 bus ticket cost is so small when you consider what you would pay for gas to drive to Tampa, for parking, and for tolls. Even so, if anyone wants to go and cannot afford it, please talk to me, and I will find a way for you to go. Also, for those of you who are concerned about bringing walkers, etc.: the bus has room underneath for such things. As you can tell, I really don't want any of you to miss the chance to meet the denomination's officers and experience the best we have-- not to mention all the booths and kiosks with information about everything the U.C.C. does. It will be a wonderful experience, one we will talk about for a long time. You still have two weeks to get your tickets.
This past week I read some words that kept echoing in my head: "The best chance to be whole is to love whatever gets in the way until it ceases to be an obstacle." It was an excerpt from a book called The Book of Awakening by Mark Nepo. There are many things that get in our way in life, many obstacles that seem to block where we want to go. Sometimes those obstacles are people, sometimes they are circumstances, sometimes they are unexpected events, sometimes they are diseases. They break up our wholeness, make us anxious and discouraged, ill and unfocused, obsessed and angry. Yet if we can only accept what irritates us, like a grain of sand in a pearl, and surround it with acceptance and see it as something we can learn from, then our "obstacles" cease to keep us from being whole inside. Although we may not be able to get to where we wanted to go or do what we wanted to do at the time, we can still be content and grateful and joyful. Who is getting in your way? What is stopping you from doing what you really wanted to do? Embrace those people and those things that stand in your way and find your inward peace by wrapping them up in love.
With affection,
Pastor Carlan

June 1, 2011 Pastor's Blog

2011-06-01T07:49:00.000-07:00

June 1, 2011
Dear Family of Faith,
Sometimes the newspaper has stories that are almost unbelievable because of the sorrow they engender in my heart. There were two this past week that brought great sadness to me. One was an incident at the Redneck Games Festival in Inglis where a 15-year-old New Port Richey boy stabbed a man to death because the man got in a dispute over revving an engine with the boy's father. The father's anger will likely result in a long prison term for the boy. The second item was the picture of a grieving Tampa woman at the funeral of her 13-month-old grandson who was killed by her daughter's boyfriend. If that were not enough pain, the grandmother stood out on a Tampa street the day after the child's death to raise money for his funeral expenses! A fifteen-year-old killer and a thirteen-month-old victim, a father who will spend the rest of his life regretting his anger and a grandmother who will spend the rest of her life wishing she had been home! Life doesn't get much rawer than this. On those days when I struggle to pay my taxes or listen to people complain or wish that I lived closer to my kids, I think about such sorrows and how small my problems are when compared to many in this world. I was thinking that same thought this past Monday on Memorial Day when I thought about all the young men and women who gave up their lives on foreign battlefields who had barely graduated from high school-- and how much of life I have lived since those school days-- a life they never got to experience. It's no wonder the Apostle Paul admonishes us (Philippian 2: 14) to do all things without murmuring or arguing. What do we have to murmur or argue about when compared to the burdens of so many others? Surely we are blesssed. The trick is to remember it, and live with gratitude. I hope to do so, and I pray that you can, too.
With affection,
Pastor Carlan

May Blog

2011-05-03T09:27:00.001-07:00

Dear Family of faith,

I believe in evolution!…or more accurately said, “I believe that evolution is a theory which helps explain a lot of things in this world.” Having said that though, I do agree that Pope Benedict had a point when he said in his Easter Vigil homily last Saturday that it is a mistake to think that at some time “in some tiny corner of the cosmos there evolved randomly some species of living being capable of reasoning and trying to find rationality within creation, or to bring rationality into it….If human beings [lit. man] were merely a random product of evolution in some place on the margins of the universe, then [his] life would make no sense or might even be a chance of nature, but no, reason is there at the beginning: creative, divine reason.”

For me personally, I have no problem with an even more far-reaching view of evolution than the Pope. I can accept the randomness of evolutionary development at the DNA level. And I don’t think that the concept of Intelligent Design (the idea that God breaks into the evolutionary process to make “corrections” periodically) really does justice to the magnificence of God’s creation. Even so, I do agree with my brother in the faith that there was Divine Reason behind our humanity. Let me tell you my most recent experience that makes me believe that.

On Sunday evening, April 17th, Jill and I had the privilege of attending the Florida Orchestra performance at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater. That particular evening I was mesmerized by pianist Lilya Zilberstein’s performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3. The Moscow native who currently lives in Germany was captivating, to say the least. She performed flawlessly from memory the grandest of melodies with fingers flying over the keys and dynamics that swept us away into emotional ecstasy—the result of which was an immediate standing ovation from the audience when she had played the last note and four curtain calls to an appreciative crowd that didn’t want to quit. As she was playing the Russian composer’s concerto, I was awestruck thinking about all that was happening before me on the stage: a Russian-born woman just two days shy of her 46th birthday with a fantastic memory, perfect technique and a gargantuan reservoir of emotion, playing a magnificent piece of music composed by a giant of Russian Romanticism whose own compositions stunned audiences more than a century ago, and performing the piece on an exquisite instrument (Steinway Grand) that is the finest in the world today. Then there was the orchestra and all the musicians who were capable of accompanying the soloist with their equally-fine musical instruments (no doubt some Stradivarius violins among them). As I pondered all the intelligence, all the artistry, all the soul and stamina, all the spirit that was represented on that stage in a single city on that single night; I thought to myself: “Accidental freak of nature? I think not!” Not only that, you see, but I and the hundreds of admiring listeners also had to bring to the musical extravaganza an appreciation for something that has nothing to do with “survival of the fittest.” In other words, being captivated by Rachmaninoff’s music performed by Lilya Zilberstein came from lofty aspirations so much greater than a base impulse just to stay alive. Somewhere in the distant past, somehow in ways we will never fully understand, a Divine Spirit set in motion the processes that resulted in that fabulous night at the symphony. That Divine Spirit is God, the same God who raised Jesus Christ from death and promises the same to us. Talk about a symphony of life! Life is all around us every day. I encourage you to recapture the ability to wonder at it—to wonder at what a stunning world we live in, and especially to marvel at the life that you and all that is around you enjoy.
With affection, Pastor Carlan

April 2011 Blog

2011-04-03T09:29:00.000-07:00

Dear Family of Faith,

I’m writing these words from the Holy Land where I am leading a pilgrimage of Christian devotion and understanding. The tour has been amazing. In the past two days we stopped on the Mount of Olives at a church that commemorates where Jesus stopped on Palm Sunday and wept at the lack of faith of the people of Jerusalem. We prayed where Jesus sweat drops of blood in prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. I stood on the ancient steps over which Jesus was brought as a captive on the night of his arrest. We stood in the damp stone dungeon where Jesus was kept before his trial. We trod the Via Dolorosa, the Way of Sorrow, that commemorates the path that Jesus was forced to walk toward his death, carrying his cross until he couldn’t bear it any longer. I touched the top of the rocky knoll on which Jesus was crucified; and we stood before the shrine containing a stone slab, which is the only remaining part of the tomb from which the good news of Jesus’ resurrection went forth to change the world. All this in just two days!

One of the things that a trip like this does is to make the Gospel of Jesus real—grounded in real geographical places and historical times. No longer does one wonder whether the first disciples just made up a good story. When you see the same Sea of Galilee on which Jesus sailed, baptize in the same Jordan River where Jesus was baptized, and gaze upon the same barren wilderness where Jesus met the devil’s temptations; you can’t dismiss the story of Jesus as mere myth any more.

As we finish this season of Lent, climbing our way past the crucifixion to the resurrection of our Lord, I encourage you to make the story of Jesus real in your life. Because our Savior has been raised from death, you don’t have to travel to the Middle East to meet Jesus or experience the power of the Holy Spirit. You can meet Jesus in your own home and in our church. You can experience the Holy Spirit in God’s creation and through others in whom the Spirit lives. More than that, Lent is the time to follow in Jesus’ footsteps. My prayer for you in these last days of reflection is that you, by the gentleness and kindness, love and compassion you show to others, would walk where Jesus walked—not perhaps in the Holy Land this year, but in an even more powerful pilgrimage of faith right at home in Florida. Then, at long last, when you smell those lilies and sing those resurrection songs on Easter morning, you will understand the hope that makes not only the past real, but the future as well.
With affection, Pastor Carlan

March 2011 Blog

2011-03-03T09:31:00.000-08:00

Dear Family of Faith,
Nobody listens to anyone anymore! I was reminded of that again at a recent meeting that I attended. Everyone seemed to be talking at once, and the topic of conversation changed more frequently than the scenes on a music video. At one point someone asked, “What are we talking about?” No one seemed to be sure!
When people, especially children, have difficulty focusing their attention on things, they are often diagnosed as having Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) or Attention Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Yet sometimes I wonder whether our whole society is ADD when it comes to listening to others. Maybe this is why compromise is so lacking in every venue of life from government to marriage. Nobody gets what the other party is trying to say! Isn’t this lack of listening and understanding what has fueled the uprisings in Egypt and Libya, Bahrain and Iran? For years the people were speaking and the governments weren’t listening. Isn’t this intransigence in attitude why the Democratic lawmakers in Wisconsin have fled the state to avoid voting to negate bargaining rights for the teachers’ union as proposed by the Republicans in that state? No one is listening; it’s the attitude of “my way or the highway.”
We will never solve this world’s social or political problems by running away from them. Yet if we have no listening skills, we won’t be able even to understand those with whom we disagree. Dear Friends, there is a reason that we have two ears and only one mouth! The wisest people I have known in my life are those who listen long before they speak; and, when they do speak, what they say is usually worth hearing.
Maybe in this world that seems ever more impersonal we feel like our identity and worth are disappearing. Maybe we feel that we are becoming less and less relevant in the grand scheme of things, and such a frightening thought makes us determined to tell everyone we can what we think and know. Admittedly it’s a tough place to be—especially if you are an introvert. We feel stuck between a nebulous, meaningless existence and a boisterous, out-of-character self-promotion that goes against everything we ever learned about humility from the Bible. What are we to do? How can we stop dominating conversations and ‘shutting down’ the voices of others with our insistent talking? How can we ever understand one another?
I have two suggestions. First of all, we need to seek peace—inner peace. We can let go of our campaigns of self-aggrandizement if we are confident of our value as persons. As Christians our self-esteem and self-worth come not from any worldly acclaim or accomplishment, but rather from our identity as God’s children and from God’s love for us. We need to carve out quiet moments of reflection in our days when we can be quiet in God’s presence and so remember who we are and that inner affirmation of God’s care for us. God loves us not for what we say or do, but simply because we are. Knowing that amazing grace allows us to be silent. We don’t have to promote our opinions or get our own way. After all, why would we get anxious or upset over what has no bearing on our worth?
Secondly, we need to get some perspective. We need to step back and see what really matters in the end. Does it matter if a room is painted blue or green? Does it matter if we eat chicken or pork for dinner? Does it matter if something costs $10 or $12? Not in the end! And even if we are “right,” and others are mistaken, I have found that a peace-filled relationship is always worth more than the strife that comes from a verbal battle over whose ideas are best.
Peace and perspective help us listen to each other. Does this mean, then, that we should never speak, never share our good ideas and dreams? Of course not! It only means that letting others share is just as important as our own sharing, and one person speaking at a time is just common courtesy. I think we all learned that in Kindergarten…or weren’t we listening?
Grateful for all you teach me,
Pastor Carlan

February 2011 Blog

2011-02-03T09:33:00.000-08:00

Dear Family of Faith,
While cleaning off my desk at home recently, I ran across a letter from an old friend. He shared about what had happened in his life in the six years since we last saw each other. He went through homelessness, disease, and mental illness. At the end of the letter he left his email address and told me to write back sometime. I grieved when I re-read his letter because that “sometime” never came. You see, in the meantime I got word that he had died. The chance to reconnect with a guy that had few friends and many troubles was lost for good. It reminded me again, with sad regret, how fleeting life can be and how fleeting the chances of life can be.
A lot of us live under the assumption that we can do tomorrow what we don’t want to do today; yet tomorrow never comes. It reminds me of a sign on a seafood restaurant in Canton, Ohio, which reads, “Free Crab Tomorrow.” They never had to serve a single plate of free crab to anyone because tomorrow was always tomorrow.
If tomorrow is always tomorrow in our lives, then today is all we have, and we have to do what is important today. This is especially true in our relationships with the people that matter most to us. James lays it out forcefully in his letter (4:13-14): “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money.’ Yet you do not ever know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” We don’t know anything about what tomorrow will bring, so we can’t assume that we can do or say what needs to be done or said tomorrow. We have only the present (which is the only place God dwells, too—in the eternal present). What does this mean for us? Carpe diem! Seize the day! Today is the day to be who you are; today is the day to do what needs to be done; today is the day to say what needs to be said;’ today is the day to choose what needs to be chosen.
In this month of February when love is on many people’s minds, it is time to love broadly and boldly. If, as Mother Teresa of Calcutta famously said, “loneliness is the greatest disease of humanity,” then love is the great antidote to the world’s greatest problem. Love takes many forms, from intimate relations to friendships to compassion. All are needed in our love-forsaken world. I challenge you to live just one day thinking to yourself as you meet the people of that day’s activities, “This person needs to be loved.” Whether it’s your partner or spouse, a child, someone at work, a friend of many years, or a stranger on the street, look at them and think, “This person needs to be loved.” Isn’t that exactly what Jesus did? If you see people in this way, you will surprise yourself at how easy it is to be helpful and kind, considerate and caring—the very marks of being Christian. If you undertake this ‘experiment,’ let me know what happens. Cast your love far so that all may find in you a reflection of the love of God. Love broadly!
So, also, love boldly! Don’t keep your love bottled up inside. Let it be what it is. Many of us are timid and hesitant to love because we have gotten “burned” in the past. We have loved those who didn’t love us in return or loved those who misunderstood our love. Don’t let those experiences keep you from loving again. Anybody who has ever “made it big” in the entertainment or business world has always lost a lot of time, money, and emotional capital before they ever succeeded. Risking is part of the gig, so to speak. Christian is our name; love is our game! I am continually amazed at how many people, men and women alike, look for the hugs I so freely give after worship. First-time visitors, complete strangers to me, open their arms when they see others hugging. Always show a little tenderness to others; either it will bring back a lot of good memories or it will create good memories to replace the painful memories of the past. Either way you become a blessing. Love holds and hugs, love dances and laughs, love cries and prays. Love does what makes another whole. And love let-loose in us gives us the freedom to be who and what we are. Love boldly!
Don’t lose the chance you have today to make a difference in our world. Love broadly and love boldly!
With affection from one lover to another,
Pastor Carlan

January 2011

2011-01-01T08:16:00.000-08:00

Dear Family of Faith,
On Christmas Eve we had more than 80 visitors in our Candlelight Service! That’s the good news. The not-so-good news is that most of those visitors won’t be back again until Easter. That’s the way it is for many people in today’s world. Sometimes we call them “C & E Christians” (for Christmas and Easter Christians). They appear suddenly on Christmas Eve, many with families in tow; then they disappear into the secular masses, only to reappear on Easter Sunday. One wonders whether they think the sum total of a preacher’s repertoire consists of preaching (or in our case, singing) about Jesus’ birth and about Jesus’ resurrection! Surely those two days are the most joyous in the Christian year—maybe that’s why they choose to appear only on those occasions. Maybe they are afraid of hearing something mean-spirited and condemning; maybe they cautiously avoid any risk of a sermon on hellfire and damnation (as if they would get one of those at Spring Hill UCC!). Whatever their reasoning, these C & E Christians come only twice a year.
I have heard a lot of ridicule of such two-times-per-year worshippers in my years as pastor, and on occasion I myself have lamented their lack of faithfulness to the church. Yet the older I get, the more I look on the positive side of things. (I’d hate to grow old and crotchety and become cynical like some people I’ve met!) At least these people are coming to worship twice a year, and at least their kids have been inside a church sanctuary, which is more than a lot of children have experienced today. And although they may not understand much of the Gospel and how to live in the freedom of Christ (although I’ve met nonchurch people who know more about the Bible than those who sit in the pews regularly), and they don’t contribute much to the support of the church; still they are heirs to the same grace as we are. That’s not to say that they don’t miss out on a lot—like the chance for fellowship and support from other Christians, and the chance to participate in mission work and justice causes, and the chance to learn more about who Jesus is and experience the awesome power of God in worship. Even so, Jesus’ death covers their sin just as it covers ours. And God loves them no less than any of us who delight in worshipping together every Sunday. Yet isn’t there something inherently unfair in God’s paying so much attention to those who pay so little attention to Him? That’s what grace is all about.
The week before Christmas some of the Mission Team got together to wrap all those wonderful gifts you gave to the families in need. They had brought in a lunch to share when they were finished wrapping. I showed up just at the very end and didn’t wrap a single present. I felt a little sheepish when the Team members invited me to stay for lunch. They had done all the work; I had done nothing. Like the tail-end laborers in Jesus’ parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard, I had shown up at the last hour and was getting the same reward as those who worked ‘all day.’ And yet, that’s what the church is—the purveyor of grace, the herald of Good News, the embassy of God’s love. Next time you see someone in worship who comes just “once in a blue moon,” instead of condemning their lack of activity, why not encourage them by the warm welcome you offer? Sure, they don’t quite get the meaning of being a community of faith, yet; but we’re not perfect either. And who knows, maybe some of those C & E Christians may become dynamos for Jesus one day! One stranger said to me going out the door on Christmas Eve, “We’ll be back!” I’m glad she came….aren’t you?

With affection for all of you,
Pastor Carlan

December 2010

2010-12-01T07:49:00.000-08:00

Dear Family of Faith,
The Season of Giving is soon upon us. Already last week I received a Christmas letter! [I just don’t get how some people can be so organized! Getting a Christmas letter before Thanksgiving is like writing your own obituary before you even get sick!] Every day between now and December 25th the clock ticks off one more chance to buy that “perfect gift” for those we love. Some of us are at such a loss as to what to give to those who ‘have everything’ that we scour the Sunday ads, hoping that something will perk our interest as a possibility. I’ve been thinking about buying everyone on my list a gift box of Burt’s Bees lip balm this year—I just saw it advertized in the CVS ad. I bet nobody else will be giving them that! I’m not really going to buy a case of lip balm, but sometimes I just don’t know what people would enjoy or need.
What do people need for Christmas? According to the Bible, Jesus is what we need. His very name expresses it. In Matthew’s Gospel (1: 21) the angel tells Joseph that Mary will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins (Jesus means “Savior”). What we need is to be rescued from our sins. How, then, does that have anything to do with us? Simply this: because we are forgiven by God, we are called to forgive others. This Christmas why not give the gift of forgiveness?
On November 9th the auditorium of the Pasco Hernando Community College auditorium was packed to hear a special speaker brought in for Peace Week. Eva Moses Kor, a Holocaust survivor, told in vivid detail about being a ‘guinea pig’ for the horrible experiments of Nazi doctor Josef Mengele at Auschwitz. Mengele was doing experiments on twins, and ten-year-old Eva and her twin sister Miriam were sent there after being taken from their home in Hungary. Daily they were humiliated and poked, measured and compared, given mysterious injections, and subjected to many other tests. Out of 1,500 sets of twins in the camp, only 200 survived. Eva and Miriam were one set that did. Summarizing her experiences, Eva told of three life lessons that she learned: (1) Never give up no matter what; (2) Respect everyone; and (3) Everyone has the power to forgive. You can use it as you wish. Eva said of the last one, “A person who has forgiven is a liberated person.” “I would like to talk to God and tell Him to add an 11th commandment: Forgive your worst enemy,” she added.
All of us need forgiveness. That’s why we need a Savior. More than that, we need the forgiveness of the people in our lives whom we have hurt. Eva Kor astonishes us with her ability to forgive those who did such horrible things to her as a child. Yet even those we love offend us and hurt us, sometimes on purpose, but mostly unintentionally. They need our forgiveness and we need to forgive them. We need consciously to take away our feelings of resentment for those who hurt us and knock down that barrier that keeps us from feeling as close to them as once we did. We need to forgive our children, our parents, our spouses and partners, our siblings and cousins, our friends and neighbors, our employers and workers, our doctors and pastors, our teachers and students, and even strangers…even our worst enemies. This Christmas, why not give the gift of forgiveness. It never goes out of style, and you don’t have to fight the crowds at the mall to get it. And in the giving of the gift, you will find yourself released, liberated, freed from the burden of resentment and anger. Yes, forgiveness is a great present. I’m putting it on my own Christmas wish list. I hope to get it, and I hope you get it, too.
With affection,
Pastor Carlan

November 2010

2010-11-01T07:47:00.000-07:00

Dear Family of faith,

Which would you choose: a million dollars or one good friend? The events of the past few weeks made me ponder that question.

Ever since my wife, Jill, returned in mid October from spending time in New England with our new granddaughter, she has had back pain which remains, to this date, undiagnosed. A visit to our General Practitioner resulted in an anti-inflam-
matory drug. The pain kept getting worse. At first Jill could not stand; then she could neither sit nor stand without great pain. Last week she could not escape excruciating pain in any position. We called the doctor; three days later he called back. In the meanwhile Jill had been taking some pain pills from a prior prescription. By the time the GP said that he would contact an orthopedic specialist, Jill was down to one pill left, and that wasn’t giving her any relief. When finally we spoke to the specialist’s office, they told us that the first available appointment was November 2nd!

It is a horrible experience to see someone you love writhing in pain, knowing that there is nothing you can do about that pain. Not only that, but the prospect that such trauma was not going to last just one day, but for weeks was terrible. At that point in time all the money in the world would not have brought relief; the medical system was simply unresponsive and unavailable.

Then I remembered…I remembered that life is not about things but people. I recalled that I had a friend who had been living with severe back pain for years. I called him, and he was willing to share some of his stockpiled medicine to help Jill go on with living. (As a young homeless boy put it a couple days later when I engaged him in a conversation outside the Brandon Mall, “You gotta do what you gotta do!”)

At the time of this writing Jill’s appointment with the orthopedic doctor is still more than a week away, and her appointment with a pain management specialist is more than a month away (again the earliest available date!) The reason that she can walk, eat, go to church again, and sleep is that I had a friend.

Dear people of God, recent social studies have revealed that the social networks in our country are shrinking fast. The percentage of Americans who say that they have no one with whom to discuss important matters rose from 10% in 1985 to almost 25% in 2004. The number of adults ages 45-49 who claim to be lonely is a whopping 43%! Even in the church we can feel alone. What should we do about it? Cultivate friendships!

No one should ever sit by himself or herself in worship. If you come to church alone, sit next to someone else! Talk to each other; eat together during the Fellowship Hour. Seek out people with whom you can relate. Way back in the Garden of Eden God said that is was not good for us to be alone. Jesus called his disciples “friends,” and he called the church to be a community of support for each other. Let me put it this way: If you miss worship one or two weeks and no one notices, you don’t have enough friends! Work on it! In the end you will discover what I did—that one good friend in a time of need is worth more than $1 million!
With affection,
Pastor Carlan

October Article

2010-10-01T08:07:00.000-07:00

Dear Family of faith,
We are afraid! We are all afraid of life. That’s the reality I hear expressed around me these days: “I’m afraid that I’ll come home one day and find my house in a sinkhole.” “I’m afraid that I won’t be able to go on without my partner.” “I’m afraid that I’m stuck in a job that is grinding me down to nothing.” “I’m afraid that I won’t be able to keep paying for insurance.” “I’m afraid that I’m going to have to sell my home at a huge loss.” “I’m afraid that I have a tumor.” “I’m afraid that my children will be bullied on the bus.” “I’m afraid that I’m going to end up in a nursing home.” All these fears and others are a reflection of our insecurity about life. We don’t feel safe any more.
We feel helpless against the threats that lurk around us, powerless against the circumstances of life. We have a Department of Homeland Security to protect us from radical terrorists, but what most of us wish for more is a Department of Inward Security to protect us from the anxieties of our hearts. Once we thought the government would ensure our well-being and financial security. But when we look around and see the poverty and desperation of neighbors and friends and know first-hand the struggles of family members for jobs and insurance and housing, we realize how misplaced our confidence has been. There is no true security in insurance companies, for they can drop your coverage tomorrow. There is no true security in government programs, for they come and go with political whim. There is no true security in pension plans and investments, for Wall Street can go south in a week.
Are we, then, destined to wander this life in fear and inner desperation? Not as God’s people! Countless times God tells His people, “Do not fear!” Jesus taught us that trusting in the God who cares for even sparrows is the way to inner peace. You see, God has provided that “Department of Inward Security” that we long for in the Christian community called the church. We who trust a common Savior become family to one another. We look after each other’s hearts—caring, listening, empathizing, holding, praying for, and helping in countless ways. I was reminded of that myself this past week with all the expressions of sympathy and love over my father’s death. I received as many as 15 cards a day in the mail and phone calls and hugs. Why, last Sunday even St. Paul the Apostle Church, which meets in our Fellowship Hall, dedicated a mass to my dad! Such is the care of God’s people.
We open our homes to others when storms threaten. We hug each other when life hurts. We encourage each other when the future looks dark. We help each other when we are alone and lonely so that we can go on. And we teach each other by the way we live and the words we share that life is more important than the things we will someday haul off to the rummage sale or leave behind for our executors to deal with. Life is about relationships that make us whole—relationships among ourselves and our relationship with God.
If you are holding on to fear right now, why not let go of it? God will make a way where there seems to be no way. As Jesus taught, “I am with you, even to the end of the age.” And the Jesus we meet most often is in the face of those whose lives Christ inhabits. You are not alone against the world’s trials. God has given you family in the church.
Grateful for you and your care,

Pastor Carlan

September 2010

2010-09-01T08:46:00.000-07:00

Dear Family of faith,

Having just returned from a wonderful tour of Central Europe and the chance to see the world-famous Passion Play in Oberammergau, Germany; the sights of the Alpine villages are still fresh in my mind. Overall, it was the Austrians who most impressed me with their faith and love of life. It didn’t matter how small the village was, there was always a beautiful church in the middle of it. Even those burgs that had but a few hundred people hosted a magnificent edifice, usually overflowing with stucco, gold, and marble inside. The majority religion in Austria is, by far, Roman Catholic. Our Austrian guide could not, on one occasion, even think of a Protestant Church to visit. But as beautiful as the cathedrals and abbeys were, the common buildings most impressed upon me the fervor of the faithful. Shops and businesses, even homes and schools, had murals of religious scenes or statues and crucifixes affixed to their facades. In most hamlets you could turn your head in any direction from the public square and see the creative marking of a Christian presence in paint, stucco, or metal. Many off-the-beaten-path homes of a humble nature had a Virgin Mary shrine or crucifixion scene. Yes, you couldn’t go anywhere in the country without knowing that the Christian faith was important to those people.

We live in an increasingly secularized society in which many are hesitant to display symbols of their faith. Indeed, court rulings have rightly upheld the Constitution’s neutrality on religion in public life. Unfortunately what has happened, however, is that this neutrality has often been interpreted as a ban on religious symbols and affiliation. There is no law against a business owner or a homeowner displaying their faith on personal property. Would anyone walking up to your home know that you are a Christian? Would anyone entering your home know that you follow Jesus? Do the places you do business make it known that they follow an ethic higher than civil law?

Certainly many of us have become “gun shy” about such overt displays of faith because those who do so often come from conservative, often legalistic, groups. Perhaps we have forfeited too much. Yet exterior symbols of the faith can also be symbols of hypocrisy. That was so in Jesus’ day as evidenced in his criticism of the Pharisees, whom he called “whitewashed tombs” because they looked nice on the outside but were dead on the inside.

Even so, Christians are called to witness publicly to their faith. In the Book of Revelation God stamps the faithful with a seal on their foreheads. This is symbolic language to indicate that a Christian’s faith should be visible to all—just as if it were painted on our foreheads. Crosses around our necks, shrines in the front yard, murals on the walls—these are all fine and good; but what God really wants of us is a faith that is know by the way we live and act. People are supposed to know about the God we love by the way we treat creation and other people made in the image of God. Others should recognize us as people of faith by the words we speak and the attitudes we have, by how we spend our money and time.

I encourage each of you to think about this question: Outside of the church, do others know anything about my faith? If not, why not? May the hospitality you show, the encouragement you give, the sacrifices you make for others, and the respect you have for God’s world be your “symbols” of faith, so that the world may know that you belong to Jesus.
With affection,

Pastor Carlan

Summer: July/August 2010

2010-07-01T07:25:00.000-07:00

Dear Family of faith,

We human creatures can be so foolish! I was reminded of that earlier in the year when I was getting ready to mow the lawn for the first time after the winter frosts. I was on a weed hunt, plucking out all the unwanted invaders that had taken advantage of the weakened grass. As I looked around, my eyes fell on a tall stem shooting out from underneath the mulch in a flower bed. Atop the stalk was a beautiful, pastel-colored pinkish blossom. Without a moment’s hesitation I plucked out the bloom, then spent a bit of time examining it more closely. As I held the soon-to-be-withered flower in my hand, marveling at its simple elegance, I thought to myself, “You fool! There wasn’t a single blossom in all my flower bed except this unplanted interloper, and you have just destroyed the only thing of beauty in the garden!”

I wonder how many beautiful things we have uprooted in our lives because we thought they were out of place. How many serendipitous blessings has God sent our way that we failed to see because we had other plans and missed the splendor of the moment? More than that, how many people have we ‘written off’ because they didn’t fit our concept of a friend or good church member? In our haste to get on with our schedule, we have pushed aside divine encounters with angels sent to teach us about God and ourselves.

Now that summer has come my garden has a lot of blossoms; yet the memory of that one early gift still lingers. Like far too much of my life, I rue past days when I ran roughshod over opportunities for beauty, wisdom, joy, and peace because “I had other plans.” Just how old does one need to get to learn that God has plans of which we know nothing? As the ancient proverb teaches (Proverbs 14:12): “There is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is the way to death.”

This summer I encourage you to live with humility—the humility of recognizing that God has a better plan than you to bring beauty and blessing to our world. I encourage you to live aware of your surroundings, to live open to what is happening in the present moment, to live with the expectation that the people you meet may have been sent from heaven itself. Don’t end up plucking up what is meant to bring goodness! Some word you hear, some song you listen to, some smiling face that catches your eye, or some glimpse of beauty that you see today may be just what you need to bring you the peace and joy you are seeking. And for heaven’s sake, don’t destroy the only beautiful thing in your life because you weren’t expecting it.

With affection, Pastor Carlan

June Blog

2010-06-02T09:41:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends in Faith,
Are you lonely? …I’m only asking the question because my encounters with people in the past few weeks have convinced me that there is a pandemic of loneliness in our society today.
I was talking with a single friend who shared that he didn’t have any relatives younger than he and was wondering aloud who would take care of him in his old age. Another acquaintance emailed me and wrote about the lack of affection from his partner and how he had become addicted to drugs to “hide his pain.” A woman tracked down our church from our website and gave me a call. In subsequent emails and calls she spoke about moving down to our area; in every single communication she talked wistfully about her hope of finding “a lifelong partner.” Another guy I met shared the frustration he had with his partner’s abuse and how he feared that the relationship was at an end. So, too, a wife spoke to me about her worst fear—that her husband would leave her. Yet another woman told me about her inability to share her thoughts with her husband. “He just doesn’t understand,” she said. Still another friend became somber and sad while talking about living alone with no one to come home to. My own mother has become discouraged because she has to make so many decisions on her own now that my father has had a stroke; and my father, for his part, is feeling the abandonment of being in a nursing home for rehab—a very scary experience for him. People have shared their weariness from the burden of caring for ailing spouses, the loneliness of being widowed, and the inner pain they suffer from dealing with demons from the past that keep haunting them. I’ve heard all of this and more in just the past few weeks! Mother Teresa was right when she said that the greatest disease of humankind is not cancer or TB or AIDS or polio, but loneliness.
If so many people are lonely; if single people, spouses, partners, and widows are all lonely; if those in the church and outside the church, those we know well and those we just met are all walking solo through life and discouraged, what are we supposed to do? Just this: Be family to them!
We can’t solve everyone’s problems. We aren’t God! We don’t have enough money, enough contacts, enough wisdom or time to rescue everyone from their desperation…but we do have the ability to listen, to care, to help people understand that, even though they may feel alone, they really aren’t alone. I couldn’t change the circumstances for any of the people that shared their lonely feelings with me, but I did listen and encourage them; I responded to their emails and helped them hope. It may not seem like much, but it means the world to those who feel abandoned and disheartened.
If you aren’t lonely, then help someone who is. But if you do find yourself feeling lonely, then look for someone to share with. Ask God to send an angel to walk with you and help you through the valley in your life; just make sure that you keep your eyes open for that special person you’re praying for. God promises never to abandon us; and one of the ways God shows us that truth is to send someone to be family to us. When we are all part of the family God intends, none of us will feel alone.
With affection for you, Pastor Carlan

May 2010 - Pastor Carlan's Blog

2010-05-01T08:49:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends in Faith,

This past week I opened my copy of the local newspaper Hernando Today to read about the Hernando County Fair and all the events scheduled for April 16, 17, and 18th—the bands and shows and tractor pull. I went on to read in the paper about our Kids’ Karnival held last Sunday. I even perused the Bealls ad for their 2-day sale on Friday and Saturday, April 16th and 17th. The problem? I didn’t get a copy of the paper until Monday, April 19th! All those events described in the newspaper had already passed by the time I knew about them. I found out what was happening too late. The episode got me to thinking about all the things in our lives that we realize too late—as the saying goes,“Too soon old, too late schmart!”

What have you realized too late? What are you in danger of learning too late to be of any use?

As a pastor I have often been asked what my understanding of hell is—mostly by people who were concerned that they might end up there! The New Testament gives us a lot of images of the place of punishment. Perhaps the most prominent among them is the idea that hell is a place of unending flames of torment. That image comes from the word itself, because the Greek word is derived from the phrase “Hinnom Valley” where ancient pagan peoples used to offer human sacrifices and where the Jews, subsequently, had their garbage dump for the city of Jerusalem (hence the burning fires to destroy the trash). For me, however, hell is not some place that God sends us as much as a state we end up choosing for ourselves. It is a ‘place’ of weeping and gnashing of teeth because those who reject God find out too late what they have done and have no one but themselves to blame for missing God’s peace and joy. The punishment of hell is not God-inflicted, but self-inflicted, coming from the regret of a wasted life and a blindness to spiritual truth that was so evident. It’s the ultimate, continuous experience of “kicking yourself” for not acting on what you should have done. It comes from realizing what is happening too late.

In many places in the Bible we are encouraged to “seize the moment.” This life is fleeting; we don’t have forever to show love and kindness, generosity and compassion. The people we are with today may not be with us tomorrow. The opportunities to rise above the world’s self-serving ways and shine like lights in the darkness will disappear with the passing of time. It’s like the Sunday offering: when the plates pass by, you only have one chance to put something in; then it’s too late. Life passes by as quickly. The chance to make amends, the chance to seek forgiveness, the chance to hug and kiss, the chance to dance, the chance to learn and grow, the chance to make a difference, the chance to go where you’ve never gone and see what you’ve never seen may only come once. Don’t wait too long. Take a good look at your life and live out all the opportunities of today. Don’t end your days looking back at life like reading an outdated newspaper, wishing you had known about all the things you could have done. Look around and live without regret now.
With affection,
Pastor Carlan

April 2010

2010-04-01T09:34:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends in Faith,

Is resurrection real? That’s the Easter question. That’s the question millions of Christians have when they flock to the churches around the world on Easter Sunday. Death has touched all our lives, and the longing for the ultimate hope is highest on Christianity’s most popular holy day. In this age when we can track the changes in distant galaxies, peer into the very secrets of the human brain, and track the evolution of life and the universe; is resurrection real…or is it just some myth created to make us feel better about the inescapable reality of death?

There are some who would chastise a Christian pastor for raising the question, but I have never been one to avoid being honest. I have officiated at too many funerals not to question the truth. The Apostle Paul himself told the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 15:13-14, 19), “If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain…If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.” In other words, if resurrection is some ancient hoax, then we Christians are fools. We all ought to just close up the church and go home!

Obviously the New Testament message proclaims the resurrection of Jesus and of all those whose trust is in God, but is there any other “evidence?” In my 30 years as a pastor I have learned that all true faith is experiential. We only really believe at the core of our being that which we know from personal experience, that which has touched and changed our lives. In the end it doesn’t matter what the Bible says or what preachers and teachers of the faith say. They can lead us to the gates of faith, but they can’t make us go through to genuine assurance. My firm conviction of the hope of life eternal is informed by the teaching of the New Testament, but it is anchored in the experience of God’s presence in my life.

This is my question for you: “Have you known the presence of God in your life?” If your answer is “yes,” then you can have the confidence of resurrection. How? Because God isn’t interested in dead-end relationships! The matchless Sovereign of creation’s glory is not about to spend His time creating a relationship that has no future. The relationship God begins with us in this life does not end when we cross into the next. This is affirmed by the resurrection narratives about Jesus in John’s Gospel. After Jesus’ death Mary Magdalene comes looking for his body in the tomb. Not finding it, she is distraught, so distraught in fact that she believes the resurrected Jesus to be a gardener. It is not until Jesus calls out her name that she realizes to whom she is speaking. Then the relationship is reestablished for her. She knows that Jesus knows her, and she knows him. The same is true when Jesus appears to Thomas a week later. Earlier Thomas had missed Jesus’ coming to the disciples and had doubted their story of seeing the risen Lord. But when Jesus came again to the disciples and met Thomas face to face, the doubting disciple needed no further confirmation. He did not need to “touch the nail prints in his hand and the wound in his side,” as he as proclaimed earlier. Thomas knew Jesus, and Jesus knew Thomas. It was about relationship. Mary and John’s relationship with Jesus did not end at Jesus’ death because Jesus was not dead. If God has the power to sustain life beyond this world, why would God terminate the relationships He has already begun?

For me, to know God’s presence is to know that someday I will know the presence of others who are in God’s realm of eternity. Death may be the great spoiler of life, but death is not the last word for a still-speaking God. We ought never to put a period where God puts a comma. As the German playwright Goethe once wrote, “Those who live in the Lord never see each other for the last time.” Let us rejoice in that assurance in this season of Easter! Resurrection is real.
Pastor Carlan

March 2010

2010-03-01T09:13:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends in faith,
The Olympics have always been my favorite sporting event. Not only is it the pomp and pageantry of the opening and closing programs that captures my excitement. Even more captivating are the daily competitions among the best athletes from around the globe. I’ve always considered the quadrennial winter games as a wonderful showcase of the fastest, brightest, strongest, and most artistic young men and women in the world and an example of peace and harmony among nations. That’s why I was disheartened recently when American Evan Lysacek’s gold medal in figure skating was challenged by the second-place Russian Yevgeny Plushenko. Not only did the Russian figure skater complain about the multinational judges’ award given to Lysacek, his wife also called for a “thorough investigation,” and even Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin weighed in with a derogatory remark.
Without a doubt, losing any contest is painful; yet this most public display of self-pity by a sore loser highlights how self-centered and presumptuous the world has become. Whether it’s a world-class figure skater griping about a lost medal or a parent threatening a teacher for a child’s poor grade, somewhere society has lost the ability to live with defeat or even with less than expected. Is this the product of a spoiled life, of a ‘no-failure’ policy in education that refuses honestly to evaluate poor performance, or of the overzealous movement to affirm mediocrity? Whatever the cause, the outcome has disastrous consequences in society when so many youth and adults believe that they have a “right” to succeed regardless of performance and fly into angry rages when they don’t get their way. Whether it’s a disgruntled employee returning to work with a gun to go on a shooting rampage or an angry tax payer who flies a suicide mission by crashing his plane into a Texas IRS building, such actions a blatant portrayal of our inability to accept less than we wanted.
In this season of Lent when we are encouraged to reflect on our spiritual lives, each of us needs to consider how we ourselves react to the disappointments of life. Do we get angry? Do we blame others unfairly? Do we seek revenge? Do we gripe and complain? Do we demand our own way? Do we become bitter and hateful? Dear Friends, did not Jesus teach us to rejoice with those who rejoice? Did he not show us how to count others better than ourselves? Did not the Lord give his life to save us from selfishness and hatred? Does not the Gospel teach us that God’s love is sufficient to give us contentment and security in life whatever comes so that we suffer no loss of esteem when someone stronger, smarter, more experienced, or just plain luckier does better than we?
In this season as we ponder the cross, let us surrender our disappointments to God so that we may be free from bitterness and blaming others; let us rise up instead with a new desire to do the best we can and be satisfied with that. James wrote that this world’s wars begin with the fiery anger within us. Let us keep calm within so that the world will learn how to live in peace. As that much-sung chorus encourages: “Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.”
With affection, Pastor Carlan

February 2010

2010-02-11T09:28:00.001-08:00

Dear People of faith,
For most of us the news uppermost in our consciousness in the past few weeks has been the reports of devastation and suffering in Haiti following the earthquakes in that region. The flattened buildings, the homeless and hungry people, the orphaned children, and bodies lying in the streets—all these images have left a lasting impression in our memories. We feel compassion for the poorest of this hemisphere’s people. We feel sorry for them. Governments and aid agencies are rushing relief to the region, and millions of dollars of donations have already been given, some from our own congregation through our special offering for Haiti relief.
In the midst of the reports of destruction and despair I had an experience that gave me a different perspective on those ‘poor’ Haitian people. I was in Orlando for the day with a friend who needed to use the Internet briefly to report to his office. We went to the public library, to which I had a card from previous days and where they had multiple computers that were open to the patrons. I went to the service desk and explained that I had forgotten my card but would like to use the Internet for a moment. They took my driver’s license and found that I did, indeed, have a library card, but that it had expired. They wanted proof that I was still a property owner in the area—a tax or utility bill, which I did not have with me. They politely, but firmly, told me that I could not log on to the Internet until I had brought in the proper paperwork to update my information with them.
Since communicating with his work was imperative, my friend and I set out to find an Internet Café or somewhere else to find a computer. Just as we drove around the corner, we saw a sign that read “Computers and Internet.” I pulled into a parking space and we walked toward the doorway, which was right next to a Caribbean market with some of the colorful locals hanging around outside—people that were different enough from our usual Spring Hill crowd that I’m sure many would have thought twice about leaving the safety of their car! But my experience with third world people from Egypt to Jamaica has made me either fearless or foolish, and we marched right in. Entering the premises we found the place a wreck, computers and miscellaneous computer parts stacked in disarray from the floor to the ceiling on every conceivable shelf. The store itself was no bigger than a broad hallway and put me in the mind of many I had encountered in poorer nations. There, in the midst of the mess, sat a lone man in front of a laptop. His dark skin made his white teeth seem all the brighter as he smiled at us. “Is there a computer in here hooked up to the Internet that we could use for a couple of minutes?” I asked boldly. By this time another similar-looking man had followed us into the store from outside and had perched himself amid the chaos across from us.
“If you give me a moment, I think I can help you out,” said the man at the computer in a distinctive Caribbean accent. In no time he got up from his seat and said, “You can sit here. It’s ready now.”
As my friend logged onto his website, I heard the two men speaking Creole to one another. My French background enabled me to understand a word here and there. “Are you from Haiti?” I asked. When they answered affirmatively, I asked whether they had family members in trouble back home. They said that they had not yet heard from some of them, but were waiting for a word. By that time my friend had logged off, his taks finished. “What do we owe you?” I asked.
“Oh, nothing,” replied the owner. “I’m glad to help.” I left the store amazed as I compared my two most recent experiences with people—the one in the library and the other in the little shop. The library, funded by the government and taxes, wanted paperwork before they would even let me near a computer—and they had more information on me than they needed: name, address, phone numbers, driver’s license number, card number, probably even Social Security number! Still it was not enough. The Haitian shop owner, on the other hand, knew nothing about us, except that we needed to use a computer for a minute. And he moved away from the one Internet connection in the little store to let us use his own laptop! And that for no charge at all! And although he probably could have used some money to help out, if not for himself, for family in his homeland; we could not bring ourselves to lessen his gifts of hospitality and kindness by offering him any.
The whole experience made me wonder again who the “poor” in the world really are. It is not the poverty-stricken and destitute who are this world’s poor; it is those who, in spite of their material wealth and financial security, are so trapped in routines, so stuck in rules, so blind to basic human kindness that they can’t even dare to risk helping others. We have much to learn from those we consider “charity cases” in this world. As you give with generous hearts to help alleviate the suffering of the Haitians in this season of their need, never give with a condescending spirit; for when the last trumpet has sounded and we all stand before the Judgment Seat, it is more like we, than they, who will stand most in need of God’s grace.
With affection for all of you, Pastor Carlan

January

2010-01-25T08:45:00.002-08:00

Dear People of faith,
Have you ever wondered why we begin our new calendar year in January? Originally January (named after the Roman god, Janus) was the eleventh month of the year. March was the first month of early Roman calendars; hence September was the 7th month, October the 8th; November the 9th; and December the 10th (corresponding to prefixes we know: septa, octa, nova, and deca); that’s also why we add the extra day every leap year at the end of February (which was originally the end of the year). In 153 B.C. the Roman Senate declared January 1st to be the first day of the calendar year (Not a lot has changed in 2,000 years—the government is still changing our lives!). Janus was a two-faced god, with one face looking in one direction, and the other in the opposite direction. He was a fitting god for the change of years—looking back at the previous one to evaluate the past and looking forward to the next year to plan for the future. For us at Spring Hill UCC 2009 was a wonderful year, blessed by God in many ways: new members, new enthusiasm, new missions, and new visions. The coming year promises to be even more exciting. All our Council Team Leaders have pledged to continue to lead us and we have new financial officers ready to be elected at the Annual Meeting. We have stable finances and many new and creative people helping us to grow. Every Sunday we have new people visiting our worship services for the first time. With so many blessings brought to us by God, we need to pray for the wisdom to use them.
There is something else to be noted about beginning a new year. For us in the church New Year’s Day falls in the midst of the Christmas season (the 12 days from December 25th to January 5th). We Christians start our new year with thoughts of Jesus’ birth on our minds and melodies of Christmas carols in our heads. Christ’s birth sets before us two important truths as we start afresh: (1) the love God made known in the Incarnation (God becoming flesh); and (2) our own sinfulness, which is the reason for Jesus’ birth in the first place—he came as Savior. While others look back over their lives and resolve by sheer willpower to do better in the new year (a promise which often doesn’t work out too well!), we who know Jesus really only have one “resolution” to make—that of yielding our lives to God anew. When we humble ourselves—our thoughts and plans, our attitudes and emotions, our desires and our relationships —even our pain and worry; then we will be able to live fuller and more peaceful lives. Instead of setting yourselves up for failure by making resolutions that you have never been able to keep in the past, why not rely on God’s guidance and the power of the Holy Spirit to help you be what you need to be and do what you need to do? Then you won’t end up feeling guilty and depressed in February because you’ve broken your promises to yourselves made in January!
This New Years may we all pledge to let God’s love woo us to a more beautiful 2010. As Paul wrote in Philippians 1:6: We can be confident that “the One who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” To that end I pray for you and ask your prayers for me.
With affection,
Pastor Carlan

Pastor's Thoughts November 2009

2009-11-25T08:45:00.000-08:00

Dear People of Faith,
The calendar we use makes November the penultimate (next to last) month of the year. It is a fitting season to look back at the blessings God has given us. So thought presidents and congress going all the way back to George Washington, who affirmed November as the month for Thanksgiving Day. It is also no accident that Stewardship Sunday falls in the same month as Thanksgiving, for it is out of gratitude that true generosity is born.
If you look up the definition of steward in the dictionary, you will find it defined as one who is put in charge of the affairs of another, a manager or supervisor of another’s resources. In the church we are stewards of resources that don’t belong to us—namely the material and spiritual blessings of God. It’s the reason that I don’t handle the offering plates on Sunday mornings—to reinforce the truth that what is put in those plates goes not to me, not even to the church, but to God. The church only manages what belongs to God.
I have been involved in Stewardship Sundays for three decades, and I have heard a lot of talk about the church’s asking for pledges of support. One question I’ve heard often is “Why does the church need so much money?” Another comment is “I won’t give until I know where every dollar goes.” A third, more sarcastic remark is “If our offerings go to God, since when does God need anything?” It reminds me of the man who said that he always throws a handful of money up into the air toward God, saying “Whatever God wants He can take; whatever falls back to the ground is mine to keep.” In reality, most of these comments are made by people who want to know how cheaply they can get by with God. They think frugality, but God calls us to abundance. Jesus once made an example out of a poor widow who threw her last penny in the temple treasury. Small though the offering was, it was all that she had. She didn’t ask if her little bit were needed, nor did she ask to see the Treasurer’s Report to see if her penny would be spent wisely. She gave out of gratitude. It had nothing to do with need, only her need to give, her need to express somehow how she felt about God’s blessings in her life.
For me personally, giving is the ultimate form of worship on Sunday mornings—giving our praise to God, giving our attention to God’s Word, giving our offerings to God on the altar, giving our lives to God in response to God’s call. As we sing in the offering response, “The greatest thing in all my life is serving You [God].”
Many of us are in the Novembers of our lives—the penultimate season just before the last years. It is a time to look back and remember what God has been to us. It is also a time to ponder what our purpose has been in this life. That is a much broader question than how much we should pledge or what activities we should sign up for next year. Just what is life all about? For what reason were we born? Why have we lived? Surely we live for something greater than ourselves! Surely God has given us our material and spiritual blessings for the sake of others, not just ourselves! I encourage you to ponder the marvel of God’s trust in us as stewards when you fill out your Giving Card and Church Ministry Form this month. There is a reason God has blessed you and made you part of Spring Hill United Church of Christ. Knowing how God can use you makes all the difference in how you live and give. Many in our congregation have shown us that with their generosity of time, talent, and money. How about you?

With affection,
Pastor Carlan

October 2009

2009-10-01T06:55:00.000-07:00

Dear Family of faith,
As you read this first sentence, I encourage you to stop a moment and thank God for the awesome gift of life that you enjoy. Just think how many wonderful experiences God blesses us with—scenes of beauty, seasons of love, moments of joy, times of celebration and success, days to feel strong and help others on this journey called life as we make our way towards eternity! Who of us has deserved any of it? It is all gift, pure grace, that we who are finite and weak should not only delight in so much goodness but that we should, within ourselves, bear the very glory of God (as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4: 6-7).
Growing up in Minnesota and living most of my life in Ohio, I welcomed October as the month when the leaves changed color and donned their magnificent coats of red and gold. That transformation has always been an object of fascination for me—that just before the leaves are ready to die, their outer green covering fades and their true beauty beneath becomes evident. Is this not what God wants for our lives also? Should not we, as we get toward the end of our lives, become more beautiful, revealing what has been inside us all along? I learned a long time ago that there are only two ways to grow old. The one is to become more crotchety and unpleasant—criticizing more, becoming more difficult to live with, cynical and self-serving. The other is to grow old gracefully, to let loose of prejudices and self pity and make those around us feel loved and appreciated for who they are. We Christians claim that Jesus lives in our hearts, that the Holy Spirit inhabits our spirits, that God is with us always. If this be our confession of faith, then there is only one way to grow old for us—to let that inner beauty become more evident as the months and years pass. We, like the beautiful oak and maple leaves, need to let that light within us shine more brightly than ever at the end of our days in this world. As gawkers gasp in awe at the splendor of autumn hillsides aglow in color, so should those who watch our lives be amazed at our gentleness and patience, our confidence and kindness, our love, generosity, and acceptance. Instead of looking at the autumn of your life as the “twilight year,” why not look at this season as the “highlight years?” Why not consider the last decades of life your chance to shine, to show your family and friends and all who meet you the best that God has made you? The weaknesses that usually accompany aging can become one more way to let others see what you are truly made of, as an opportunity to look beyond the physical to that which is your very essence, your soul. I encourage all of you, as you grow older, to become more beautiful with age. I encourage even you, who live in this land of evergreens and palm trees, to become a landscape aglow with color that catches the attention of those in this often fearful and threatening world. Let them gasp at the unusual grace and beauty and faith that God has given you.
With affection for all of you,
Pastor Carlan

2009-09-01T06:18:00.000-07:00

I don’t usually get political, and you need to know that I have voted for both Republicans and Democrats in my life and have belonged to both parties at different times; yet this raucous debate about health care reform has ‘got my goat.’ What has annoyed me so much about this issue is not that people are debating it; debate is healthy in a democracy. What has irritated me is the purposeful dissemination of misinformation to scare people (Have we not tired of that yet?) and the lack of Christian principles by many who claim to be ‘Bible-believing Christians.’ Newspaper articles and Internet web sites have repeatedly discredited claims that the Obama administration’s proposal would set up so-called “death panels” to promote euthanasia, that the plan would require tax payers to fund abortions, that it would provide health care to illegal immigrants, and that the plan would take away the right for Americans to choose their health care provider. None of these assertions is true (check it out at www.politifact.com.); they are only a smoke screen for the real reason that the health insurance industry and other big players want to sabotage the idea—namely, that they will lose money or profit if health care reform becomes a reality. In the August 15, 2009, issue of The Tampa Tribune, a story pointed out that much of the money and strategy behind the so-called grass-roots groups organizing opposition to the plan and making a debacle of town meetings held in legislative districts comes from conservative political consultants, professional organizers and millionaires who often hold financial stakes in the outcome. That these people are against changing the status quo from which they profit immensely is not surprising, nor is there anything illegal in their desire to hold on to what they have. The only reprehensible thing is to front their opposition as if it were coming from the common people. I was appalled recently when someone gave me a copy of an insert in a bulletin from a conservative church that presented the above debunked assertions as fact and claimed that health care in our country would worsen if it were offered to all. What a horrible face for the Christian community to present—that we who are privileged should hold on to our rights and keep others from decent health care lest it detract from ours!
Who among us does not have someone in our extended family who lacks health insurance? Who among us does not know someone who is just hoping and praying that they don’t get sick enough to require hospitalization because they can’t afford it? How many older people have to choose between buying drugs and food? Just last week The Tampa Tribune reported that the number of uninsured people in Hillsborough County is 219,543 people (21.4% of the population) and in Pasco County is 80,350 people (21.9% of the population). Since our own Hernando County has an even higher unemployment rate, no doubt we are in even worse shape when it comes to the number of uninsured residents. Of course health care will cost us; it costs us now—for doctors and hospitals charge us more to offset the costs of treating those who can’t pay. Yet cannot a nation that spent $1 billion per day on the Iraq war consider spending less than that on taking care of its own people?
Is there a Christian perspective on this issue? Most definitely! Read the prophets of the Old Testament and they all repeatedly condemned the religious and civil authorities for failing to provide for the poor and needy. James, the brother of Jesus, writes in his letter in the New Testament: “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” In other words, if we want to be spiritually right with God, we need to be concerned about those who can’t take care of themselves and not be afraid to live counter to the world’s ways. I don’t know about you, but the health care that I have received since moving to Florida has not been so hot anyway. I have been overcharged and over-tested. It’s no wonder our premiums are rising for health insurance! How it will all come out in the end, I don’t know; but this much I do know: I have a responsibility to stand up for those who have no voice of influence. All are equal in God’s eyes; we dare not discriminate based on race or economic standing or societal position or any other reason—especially in a congregation that has gone on record as open to all and affirming of all! Whatever your politics or your economics, I urge you to consider this (a paraphrase from James 2: 14-17): “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is sick and lacks health care, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep well and see a doctor,’ and yet you do not supply their medical needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.” I don’t want a dead faith. Let us not determine what is right based on economics or opinion polls but based on what God desires and what Jesus has taught us. Pastor Carlan

Pastor's Summer Article

2009-07-02T10:43:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends in Faith,
This northern transplant has learned some lessons recently about gardening in Florida. I would like to share two of them with you.
The first lesson is this: Don’t let your plants get stressed or they will go to seed too quickly.
When I planted my basil and tomato plants a couple of months ago and seeded some pots with dill, chives, and cilantro; I didn’t yet quite understand the difference between an Ohio summer and a Florida summer. I was thrilled as my plants flourished and produced like crazy—in the first few weeks. But before long things had changed dramatically under the unyielding summer sun; the plants were drying out faster than I could water them, and they began nature’s desperate attempt to survive—namely going to seed. The once-lush basil and tomato plants and the thriving dill and cilantro shot up almost over night, and now I have only tall, spindly stems with seeds waiting to pop and drying branches with small tomatoes trying to develop seeds before they die. The stress of the heat of the bright sun has made the plants grow old before their time.
Could not the same be said of us? Do not the stresses and strains of life cause us to grow old before our time, too? This month researchers reported in the Science Daily that stress does, indeed, hasten the onset of gray hair; and watching people over three decades has convinced me that those with serious stress levels in their lives have grown weaker, older looking, and less healthy than those of similar ages who have been able to avoid such stress. Unfortunately we can’t just add more water and fertilizer to regain vitality and youth like we can to aid ailing plants. What we can, do, however, is to reduce the stress of our lives by letting God handle what we cannot. Too often we try to “tough it out” when it comes to life’s challenges. Instead we ought to accept our humanness and embrace our limitations and let the gentle rains of God’s Spirit water our parched and drying souls. Certainly we would age much more slowly and live more lush and productive lives for Christ!
The second lesson I learned is this: You have to pull the plugs out of the pots before it starts to rain.
Several weeks ago some friends from the church brought us two pink mandevilla plants. They were gorgeous, and their climbing tendrils promised a summer and fall of beauty. I bought two trellises and dutifully planted the flowers in new pots at the entrance to our home. Then the rains came. Day after day the pots were flooded, and each evening I tipped them over, trying to get rid of the excess water; but little by little the blossoms fell and the vines grew brown. Eventually there was nothing left to save; the rotting roots and stem died, and the decaying leaves that had fallen into the pots gave off an offensive smell. All of this could have been avoided if only I had pulled out the plugs at the bottom of the pots to let the water drain out.
There are seasons in our lives when we are deluged by cares and woes, times when troubles pour into our lives and threaten to overwhelm us. If we bottle up these cares, if we hold in these troubles, they will destroy us as surely as the floods destroyed the mandevillas. We need to learn to uncork our lives and let the cares of daily life find a way out of our lives. We must drain out of our spirits the hurts and regrets of life before they destroy our beauty and rot away our insides. We dare not remember all our pain nor obsess about our failures, but rather let the grace and pardon of God take away our sin and unpleasant past.
Nature is God’s first window of revelation, and my plants have taught me something for my life. May their lessons help you this summer, too.
With affection, Pastor Carlan

Pastor's Epistle - June 2009

2009-06-01T07:18:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends in faith,
The church in Florida is different! I was reminded of that again last Sunday when two men on their way out of worship told me, “This is it for pants! Next Sunday you’ll see us in shorts” The leisure look is in; the staid, dark-suit-and-tie look that many of the New England Congregationalists left behind is out.
Then there’s the “Church-up-north Syndrome.” Native Floridians are few and far between; and, of course, like all sentimental remembrances of the past, one’s experience of the church ‘up north’ becomes sweeter as the years go by. When someone in a group launches into those sweet memories, the rest of the group almost always nods with sympathetic empathy. It’s hard to leave the past behind.
There is the summertime heat and humidity, which helps to draw the battle lines between those with water-thin blood and those afflicted by hot flashes. On Sunday mornings the AC keeps some of the chosen frozen while I, from the pulpit, try valiantly to do my part to thaw them out with hot air. I usually know who is feeling the heat—they use their bulletins to fan themselves.
Of all the characteristics of the Florida church, the hardest for me to get used to is the continual need to say goodbye. In the nine months that I have been your pastor we have bid farewell to the Thompsons, the Lambourghinis, and Richard Olufs—all dear people who moved away to be closer to family. Then there were those who left this life and entered eternity—people whose love for our church was known only to the long-time members, but whose gifts of time and money have left a legacy for us. Even more frequent than these goodbyes are the ones given to the people who continue to leave silently, a little at a time, as the summer approaches. They are the migrant members who, for the past many weeks, have confided in me on their way out of the sanctuary, “This is our last Sunday until the fall.” I feel like a beachcomber standing at water’s edge, feeling the sand around my toes slowly sift away under my feet with every new wave that laps against the shore.
I’m not good at goodbyes, and this seeping away of loved ones is hard on me. I feel what Cole Porter expressed in a song many years ago, “'Ev'ry time we say goodbye, I die a little.” Oh, all the snowbirds taking flight assure me that they’ll be back, but none of us knows the future. As James wrote, “You do not even know what tomorrow will bring…Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that.’” What this means for us is that we need to appreciate people when we have the chance. Delight in those you love while you have opportunity. Don’t fall into the trap of ‘sometime’—“sometime we will have to get together, sometime I’ll have to spend a week with the kids, sometime we’ll have to have you over for dinner, sometime I’ll have to make up to the one I hurt.” Sometime has a way of never coming. Now is the time to make plans. Now is the time to express your affection. Today is the day for words that heal, for hugs that affirm, for acts of kindness that bless. The past, dear as it may have been, is gone; and tomorrow, hopeful as we hope it is, may never come. Today is all we have for sure. As a Florida church, let us be a church of the Now. God has given us this day to be His people in this place called Spring Hill. Hot or cold, formal or informal, sentimental or rational—use the chances you have today.
With affection, Pastor Carlan

The Pastor's Epistle

2009-05-01T09:14:00.000-07:00

Dear People of Grace,
I admit it. I’m not the most patient driver on the road. So far I’ve never gotten out of my car with a tire iron to smash in the window of another driver. That’s not to say that I haven’t muttered a few unclergylike words under my breath! Fortunately I have low blood pressure! At this point in my life I’ve come to the conclusion that if I ever stop getting “bent out of shape” over wacky drivers on the road, I will either be wholly sanctified by the Holy Spirit….or dead.

When I moved to Florida last year, I had “braced myself” for slow drivers. With all the elderly people on the roads, with supposedly sluggish reflex times, I had counted on getting behind a few “slow moving vehicles” once in a while. To my surprise, though, it’s not usually the older drivers that feed my frustration. More often it’s the younger set that makes me crazy with all kinds of unusual antics on the road. Without a doubt the one thing that causes me the greatest consternation about driving in Spring Hill and Brooksville is the driver who slows down for a green light. I confess that I have a heavy foot. So far, with four decades of driving behind me, I have never gotten a speeding ticket. Nevertheless, plenty of parishioners in previous congregations have prayed while riding with me, and a few have the wobbled out of the back seat with white knuckles. It should be no surprise, then, that, when I see a green light, I want to make it through the intersection. To me, green means “Go!” That’s why it makes me wild to be behind someone who approaches a green-lit intersection with his brake lights flashing. “Where did these people learn to drive?” I utter to myself in disbelief. “Red means stop. Green means go. Go, dog, go!” [Remember I collect children’s books!]

Sometimes I wonder whether a lot of people approach life like they do those intersections on the road. I wonder whether they approach the opportunities of life with fear and hesitation, holding back, expecting the “light to change” so they won’t get through. By now you dear people know that I have plenty of joie de vivre. I sit down every chance I get to eat at life’s banquet, to experience the abundance of life that God has brought to us. It’s hard for me to understand why anyone would not go through an open door or drive confidently through a green light. In Revelation 3:8 the church of Philadelphia is told “Look, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut.” It’s an invitation to use the opportunities God sets before us.

In the past several months God has thrown open a door to us. Every single Sunday we have visitors in worship—people seeking a spiritual home. Our area is awash with those who have been turned away from or hurt by churches who are daring to try again with us. It’s the looming green light at the intersection, beckoning us to go forward, to keep the speed and travel into our future. We need to see it for what it is—a momentous blessing that God is offering to us. Let us not be hesitant. Let us not “slow down” in fear. Let us not expect something to go wrong (like a light turning red before we can make it through). Instead, let us expect wonderful things. Let us go boldly into our future. Don’t hold back! When you hear of someone who doesn’t have a church home, invite them to come to worship. When you listen to someone who has been hurt by negative experiences with a church, help them heal by treating them differently. When you sit next to someone in the pew on Sunday morning who is unfamiliar to you, don’t be hesitant; race through that door of opportunity by making a new friend. Let us walk through every open door and use every golden moment to go where God is leading. Never slow down for a green light—especially if you’re in front of me!
Pastor Carlan

THE PASTOR’S THOUGHTS….

2009-04-01T09:34:00.000-07:00

Dear People of Grace,
Sometimes the things that seem so small and insignificant turn out to be life-changing choices and momentous events when looking backward in time. When I was a boy of about fourteen years of age, a German lady moved into our small town in northern Minnesota. She was married to an airman who was stationed at the local radar base. It was about that time that I became interested in learning a foreign language, and, since my small school didn’t offer any foreign language until the Junior Year, my mother suggested that I contact the woman to see if she would be interested in teaching me. She was interested, and I started going to her home for personal tutoring in German. When I went to college, I took more German, spending a year studying at the University of Bonn in Germany and eventually majoring in the language. I earned my Secondary Teaching Certificate but never used it, for it was about that time that God got a hold of me and sent me off to seminary. Bethel Seminary in St. Paul had a college on the same campus, and since they taught German there, I ventured over one day to present myself as a free assistant to the German professor. A year later, when the intended replacement for the German professor backed out of a contract, I was asked to take over the whole German program, which I did. One of the bright young students in my Beginning German course was a beautiful blonde who caught my eye. After she had earned her minor from me, I proposed to her. She said yes, and we were married. After raising four children and 30 years later, Jill and I moved here to Spring Hill to meet all of you.
Little did I know that taking a few German lessons from a lady in my home town would lead me to the love of my life and to friendship and family and beautiful memories. That’s the way it is—such significant things come from such seemingly uneventful choices when we look back on them. No doubt all of you can find the same in your own lives.
On the 22nd of March, 2009, the people of Spring Hill UCC gathered at a congregational meeting to consider adopting a Statement of Inclusiveness. For most it was a wonderful event when those present adopted the Statement with a 98% approval. Even so, the day will probably not be touted as one of the “mountaintop experiences of the congregation’s life.” It was simply a choice to be open and affirming of all people. I personally believe that what happened on that Sunday will have immense significance for the way our congregation does ministry and mission in the years to come. No, we will not “veer off” and become a single issue church; the whole point of the statement was to be inclusive, not exclusive. And yet the public pronouncement that we are open to people of all ages, races, genders, ethnicities, sexual identities, health condition, economic status, and family structure makes us unique in the Spring Hill/ Brooksville community. From now on we will be actively seeking to open our doors to whole segments of the population that may have felt alienated or marginalized. By checking those little white ballots “Yes,” we have set ourselves on a journey to become more sensitive to everyone and to become the face of Jesus to all who are seeking to know God. None of us can possibly know at this moment in time what that will mean, but this much I can affirm: the importance of what we have chosen to do will grow mightily in the years to come. It is like the proverbial mustard seed; once rooted it becomes the largest of plants, offering safe haven to an amazing number of birds. We have planted the seed. Our task is to grow into what we have affirmed, learning what it means as new opportunities arise and remembering not only to say we are open, but to live out that openness and affirmation in everything we do. Then, when we see the multitude of people who come to find God in the “tree” that blooms, we will know just what we have done. Pastor Carlan

March 2009-Pastor's Thoughts

2009-03-01T09:23:00.000-08:00

Pastor Thoughts – March 2009
Dear People of Faith,
This month we observe the liturgical season of Lent, which is the forty days from Ash Wednesday to Easter, not counting Sundays—for no fasting was appropriate on the weekly anniversaries of the resurrection. From the earliest times in the church Lent has been a time for the twin disciplines of reflection and preparation. Reflection involves taking an honest look at what was and is; preparation involves readying oneself for what lies ahead. I suspect that most of us don’t do enough of either. I suppose some may say, “Well, I do a lot of reflecting these days. I spend a lot of time remembering the past, reliving the ‘good old days.’” But genuine reflection is much more than just remembering what happened to us, more than just recalling to mind all those happy experiences when we were younger and stronger, more virile and, often, happier. The reflection that Lent beckons us to practice is more akin to the ancient practice of contemplation. It considers not just what happened to us, but more importantly what did those experiences mean in our lives and how were we challenged and changed by them.
In the book of Romans the Apostle Paul tells us that “we know that all things work together for good for those who love God.” If that assertion is true, then we need to be asking ourselves “What good came out of the experiences of my life—both the difficult and the delightful experiences? How did God use what I went through to make me closer to God and a better person? Why did I meet the people I met, love the people I loved, confront the people who challenged me? Why did I encounter the troubles and pain I endured? Why did I receive the blessings and joy I’ve known?” This is what reflection is all about—finding meaning in the experiences of our lives. When we find meaning in the events and circumstances of life, then we reaffirm that God is with us, speaking to us, transforming us, and using us all the time. This reflection renews in us the faith that the eternal God is alive and present with us and we are alive and present in that eternity. Nothing is devoid of meaning for us as Christians. Life is not just a chance roll of the dice, but every encounter with another and every event of life becomes an opportunity to experience a moment in God. Every disease, every divorce, every darkness and heartache, every miracle, every healing, every lucky break, every unexpected success and blessing—all of these make us who we are, and who we are is whom God loves and whom God uses to bless this world. Lent is a time to consider these things, and to be our “best selves.”
Lent is also a time of preparation. In the early days of Christianity the period was one of preparation for baptism, which took place at the Easter Vigil, the worship service on the Saturday before Easter. It was a time of learning and instruction to get ready for the new life of being Christian (which was symbolized by wearing new clothes on Easter—which is where we get that tradition). For us who have already pledged our lives to Jesus Lent becomes a time to prepare ourselves anew each year for what it might mean to be people of the resurrection. When we reflect on what we have been and are, we naturally turn to thoughts about what we want to be. Lent is a time to look again at the life of Jesus and what it means to be his disciple (student) and follower. Who was he that we might be like him? At the Council Retreat in February we spent time spinning dreams and visions of what we wanted our congregation to be. All of us need to do that in our own lives. We get these visions from God, and we see these visions by looking and listening, by reading the Scriptures and meditating on where God is leading us. And mostly the newness of life comes to us as we act in different and more God-conscious ways. If you want to
be better pray-er, then pray. If you want to be more loving, then love. If you want to be a better witness of the faith, then start talking to people about God. If you want to be more generous, then give. If you want to help more people, then get involved in doing something to help. Act on your desire, and you will become what you do. This is how you prepare for what lies ahead, for every day of our lives is a rehearsal for tomorrow. This Lent, take time to reflect and prepare. Everything you’ve experienced is prelude for everything you can be.
With affection,
Pastor Carlan

February 2009

2009-02-01T09:41:00.000-08:00

Dear Family of Faith,
She was gone. With one brief gasp she left behind the precious gift of life and ended twenty years of friendship. We had traveled together far and wide in those two decades—to walk the land of Jesus’ birth, to gaze at Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel and inspect Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest. We had cruised the Greek isles and the Yangze, stood on the Acropolis and the Great Wall of China. Now this! My 80-year-old friend was gone. Betty was floating dead in the water off the beautiful St. Thomas beach—the victim of a snorkeling adventure gone terribly wrong. Face down with lungs filled with salty sea water, snorkel submerged and drifting to the whims of the current, she was helpless—and I, hundreds of yards away, blissfully ignorant of the tragedy, was marveling at underwater coral shapes and stunning tropical fish.
Someone noticed—not a non-existent call for help or a thrashing struggle—but the unusual calm of one of the snorkelers in the tide. He noticed that, unlike all the rest of the vacationers from the catamarans, this woman’s snorkel pipe was nowhere to be seen. He rushed to her side, saw the creeping blue of death upon her skin, and hauled her to the beach, calling for help on the way. A Hospice nurse and firefighting EMT happened to be onboard the boat that day and made a beeline for the beach. As spectators and a bewildered husband gathered around, they put to practice their best efforts. They pushed the water from her lungs, broke her ribs with heart-starting pressure, and blew the breath of life into cool lips. In the end the efforts of the frantic good Samaritans and the prayers of dozens of intercessors from a distance were heard. Blue turned back to pink; silent lungs coughed and sputtered; death gave way to life. Tuesday, January 13, 2009, was marked forever as the day of Betty Sole’s death and resurrection.
After spending several days in the island hospital, Betty and her husband Al are back home in Ohio again, enjoying with new appreciation the gift of life that days ago was gone. Easter came early for them this year—and for me, as well.
Reflecting on this near tragedy, I find two important lessons for our lives. The first has to do with paying attention. If the man who pulled Betty to the beach had not noticed her trouble, she would have been robbed of life before her time. I wonder how many times we have failed to notice those near us who are drowning in the waves—not just tidal waves, but waves of sorrow and despair, waves of loneliness and pain, waves of fear and hopelessness. It doesn’t take long to succumb to the onslaughts of life—to fall from happy days to pitch black nights where drugs and booze and even ropes and bullets tempt the unthinkable. We, like that anonymous Good Samaritan who saved the sloshing snorkeler, ought to live with eyes wide open to the needs of those around us. We need to walk this world with the peripheral vision of Jesus.
A second lesson branded into my consciousness anew is the importance of people in our lives. When Betty was floating lifeless in the sea, her material wealth was useless. Fabulous houses and fancy cars, millions of dollars, closets full of designer clothes, and chests of gold and diamonds—all these were ultimately worthless in the moment of greatest need. Neither she, nor we, will ever be saved by what we have. We are only saved by who we know—by the people of our lives who come to aid us in trying times and ultimately by the Savior who sacrificed all to bring us back to life.
As we make our way through 2009, let us live with wisdom and new understanding. Let us notice one another’s needs along the way and foster friendship as the greatest security in our lives. After all, isn’t this what Jesus taught us? Isn’t this Jesus’ way?
With affection,
Pastor Carlan

January 2009

2009-01-01T09:37:00.000-08:00

Dear Family of Faith,

Unlike what most people think, the Christmas season does not begin on Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) and extend to Christmas Day. In the church the Christmas season begins on Christmas Day and lasts 12 days, ending on January 5th. The day after the Christmas season ends is called Epiphany. The term means “manifestation.” On Epiphany, January 6th, the church remembers those shadowy figures from the east known as magi who came in search of the baby Jesus. Again in contrast to popular understanding, the wise men or magi got nowhere near the manger. According to Matthew’s Gospel they arrived perhaps two years after Jesus’ birth and found the child in a house. The word Epiphany is used to describe the day of their visit and the ensuing liturgical season because it was when the Savior was made manifest to those Gentile travelers from afar. We don’t know how many ancient astrologers trekked to Jerusalem in search of the new king; tradition numbers them at three because of the three gifts they brought. Nor do we know exactly where they came from or who they were. We don’t even know which route they took. The one thing we do know about the magi, however, was the reason for their visit. They came, as the Gospel says, to pay [Jesus] homage. The gifts these foreign admirers brought help us understand who Jesus was. They brought gold, the gift appropriate for royalty, reminding us that Jesus was born a King. They brought frankincense, the incense used in temple worship as an offering to God, reminding us that Jesus is Son of God. And they brought myrrh, the spice used for embalming, reminding us that Jesus was born to die, that the child they came to see would someday be crucified for the sin of the world.

It is coincidence that Epiphany lies so close to the beginning of our calendar year, but its significance could never be greater than it is for this coming year of 2009. In all my adult life I can remember no other new year that people entered with so much anxiety, so much concern about the future, so much hesitation to celebrate. The constant barrage of bad economic news, job losses, and bankruptcies is hitting close to home for all of us as we lose investment income, lose customers and lose jobs in our own families. In such a season we need especially to remember the epiphany of God—that God has made manifest to us a Savior whose power and authority does not hinge on the Dow Jones Industrial Average or the latest economic indicators. The One in whom we trust is the source of all we need—that’s what the magi’s gifts remind us: Christ our Lord is Sovereign, with riches beyond our imagination. Christ is divine, worthy of our praise and worship. And Christ loves us more than we can understand—so much that he surrenders his life to rescue us from death and a meaningless life. Next time you feel the fear well up inside yourself, remember Epiphany. Remember the all-powerful, all-holy, all-loving Lord. The season’s color is green for hope. That is exactly what we have. Whatever happens around us or to us, we have hope—for ourselves, for those we care about most, and for the world. I pray that all of you will know that hope and be able to celebrate 2009 because Christ goes with us.

With affection,
Pastor Carlan