Welcome to Pastor Jack Buckley's weekly blog and podcast.
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Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Children Always Welcome
1 Samuel 3:1-10; Mark 10:13-16
It's a sweet picture, and one of the all-time favorites among our Sanctuary's ten stained glass windows depicting Jesus and his meaning.
He's sitting with some children, each of them obviously happy to be close to him and to have his undivided attention. In the background we see some grown-ups bringing more children to join the joyful scene.
I have in my office another picture that represents this brief story in Mark's Gospel. Its mood is much darker than our stained glass version, and understandably so.
Drawn by a 10-year-old Sunday school boy, it's a kid's-eye view of how the story begins. A 10-year-old boy stands facing us, visible from head to toe. On his right we see the feet and legs of two adults, the rest of their bodies disappearing above the picture. To his left an arm reaches into the picture to push the boy back and away.
Now it becomes clear that we the viewers are standing in Jesus' sandals, and the boy is looking us in the eye to ask, "What will you do now?"
Our young artist has supplied his own answer as an inscription: "I'm a kid. All kids are important to Jesus. I am too."
What a shame the disciples didn't think of that when they tried to shoo away the children on that busy day so long ago.
I can see why they were distracted and forgot their manners. Here was Jesus putting in one more long hard day of teaching and preaching and healing and all. Who had time for any kind of interruption?
Besides that, he'd been telling and retelling the hard bad news that when they got to Jerusalem for the Passover he would be captured and killed! Who had mental or emotional space for anything else, with all that weighing heavy on their hearts?
Well, Jesus is who.
He invited the children to come sit with him. He held them, smiled at them, spoke to them, probably laughed and winked and mussed their hair a bit. And he blessed them in God's good name.
And he said to his disciples (and to us), "Never underestimate how important a single child is in the heart and mind of God. In fact it's absolutely essential for every person -- no matter how long in years and wise in worldly ways -- to have the attitude of a child when it comes to knowing and trusting God."
Psychology tells us there's a child inside every one of us all the days of our lives, who will not tolerate being forgotten or ignored for very long. By ourselves, or by other selves with whom we live and move and have our being.
I discovered several years ago that inside my psyche there live at least three such kids: one age three, another age seven, and a very edgy sixteen-year-old. It took me a long time to get to know these kids, an even longer time to come to terms with them. All these years later, I'm still working on how best to team up with them occasionally, to have some fun for one thing, and also to become the mature man that God has in mind whenever my name is mentioned around heaven.
Meanwhile, words fail me to fathom this amazingly wonderful fact: Every kid is infinitely important to Jesus, especially the kids who live inside you and me!
Listen to the GODcast!
posted by Jack Buckley at
2:41 PM
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Three For The Price Of One
Good friends,
Several months ago I made the life-changing decision to retire from pastoral ministry as of September 30, 2012. I first announced that commitment to our three adult children, then to the elders of our Alameda church, and then to the members of our congregation.
That was in June, giving us all just over three months to process together exactly what needs to happen for an orderly transition for the church -- and for me. The Presbytery of San Francisco has been most helpful, and will continue to be as the church's leaders seek a new pastor to guide them into a new season of congregational fellowship and service.
And now it's not only September already, but the middle of September! All of us here have been swept up in the process of winding up my nineteen years as pastor in this place. We're now experiencing the bittersweet sequence of "lasts" -- Monthly meetings with elders, deacons, working groups.... Personal visits to express gratitude, have one more prayer together, say goodbye.... And soon, one last benediction at the end of one last worship gathering....
When I pondered what to preach about as my pastorate comes to a close, I chose to repeat some favorite sermons that interpret the beautiful stained glass windows of our Sanctuary -- ten lovely representations of Jesus and his meaning for our faith and faithfulness. If the old adage holds true, each of my sermons has a 1,000-word head start towards effectual communication.
At this point I must apologize for not getting the recordings of this series' first three sermons posted on schedule. We had some technical difficulties, yes. We've all been caught up in the busy-ness of pastoral transition, for sure.
Even so, here I am inviting you to listen in on not one, not two, but three "Sermons in Stained Glass." Each one starts with some timeless truth about Jesus' grace and peace at work for our well-being. By each sermon's end, we're taking heart from the ways that truth applies in this time of our church's hopeful uncertainty.
Listen to the GODcasts!
First Things First
When Christ Comes Calling
Storm-Tossed Salvation
posted by Jack Buckley at
5:33 PM
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Youth Group Mission Trip Report
I gladly gave up the sermon time in this week's worship meeting.
Not because I didn't want to preach.
If you know me at all, you're well aware of (a) my love of words, (b) the way I get energized by preaching or teaching, and (c) my deep desire to inspire people to know and do what the Bible says about faith and faithfulness.
No, I gave away the sermon this time, so Russell Mowry could share with us the good news about our youth group's mission trip to Los Angeles' "skid row" a few weeks ago. When they got there Russ, our youth ministry leader, volunteer Laura Reid, and three of our youth hooked up with scads of other groups in intensive hands-on outreach work with Next Step Ministries' dedicated year-round staff.
Russ' report included a spiffy slide show that surveyed the scope of Next Steps' total ministry, summarized the works of compassion our kids and others got to help with, and featured dozens of candid pix taken throughout the week. I'm afraid some copyright rules will keep us from posting that slide show for you here (think soundtrack selections like "L.A. Woman" and Jeff Buckley's rendition of "Hallelujah").
Even so, I want you to take a few minutes now and tune in to Russ' lively commentary on the week-that-was for our youth ministry team down there on the mean streets of Skid Row.
Listen to the GODcast!
posted by Jack Buckley at
6:14 PM
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