SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2012
8:30 am    Pancake Breakfast
8:30 am     First Light (Chapel)
8:55 am     First Word (Gym)
8:55 am    Glory Singers (Choir Room)
8:55 am    Quarter Notes (Rm 245)
9:00 am     Telelinks
9:45 am    Sunday School
11:00 am    Teach Me Worship (Chapel)
11:00 am     First Tradition (Sanctuary)
12:15 pm    Strategic Planning Team (Rm 209)
3:30 pm    Youth Band (Youth Studio)
4:30 pm    VOICES (Choir Rm)
5:30 pm    Youth (Youth Studio)

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2012
8:30 am    L.I.F.T.
6:00 pm    Spiritual Growth Study (Off Campus)

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2012
7:00 am    Tuesday Study Group (Rm 204)
8:30 am    L.I.F.T.
10:00 am    Staff Meeting (Rm 204)
3:30 pm    FirstArts
5:00 pm    First Word Worship Team (Pastor’s Study)
7:00 pm    9th & 10th Grade Basketball Practice
8:00 pm    11th & 12th Grade Basketball Practice

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2012
8:30 am    L.I.F.T.
9:00 am     CDC Chapel
11:00 am    Weight Watchers
(Parlor, Study, and Chapel)
12:00 pm    Ash Wednesday (Sanctuary)
3:30 pm    eStem Basketball Practice
5:30 pm    S.W.A.G.  (Youth Lounge)
5:30 pm    First Word Band Practice (Gym)
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2012
8:30 am    L.I.F.T.
10:30 am    Companions in Christ
12:00 pm    Pastor’s Bible Study (Rm 204)
3:30 pm    FirstArts
7:00 pm     Chancel Choir & Ensemble (Sanctuary)

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2012
4:30 pm    Youth leave for Veritas (Hot Springs)

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2012
10:00 am    Chancel Choir & Ensemble (Sanctuary)

Since 2007, First Church has been visibly present in the Little Rock Marathon. With church members lining both sides of the street just in front of the church on Center Street, we’ve been dubbed “The Methodist Mile” at mile-marker 9. That’s a good thing too, as runners tell us about the lift our cheering gives them as they ascent quite a difficult and gradual hill beginning at the 9th mile. Rev. Mattox has been asked again this year to offer the opening invocation early that day at the starting line in the RiverMarket. Be sure and don your warm attire and join us outside on the sidewalk and parking lots as we live up to this nickname the city planners have given us-”The Methodist Mile!” Sunday School Classes are invited to participate in a challenge for the most members present. The winning class we be awarded a cocktail party at the home of Greg and Becky Hubbard.

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the season of Lent.  Lent is a time when many Christians prepare for Easter by observing a period of fasting, repentance, moderation and spiritual discipline.  Ash Wednesday emphasizes two themes: our sinfulness before God and our human mortality.  The service focuses on both themes, helping us to realize that both have been triumphed through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  During our Ash Wednesday service, the ministers will lightly rub the sign of the cross with ashes onto the foreheads of worshipers.  Historically, ashes signified purification and sorrow for sins.

Arkansas Interfaith Power & Light and First United Methodist Church will host a Cool Congregation Coffee on Sunday, February 26, at 12:15 pm in the Youth Studio. All are welcome to learn about IPL projects. Find out how congregations can reduce energy consumption, save money on utilities and keep more money for ministries. Anyone interested in becoming part of the FUMC Green Team is invited to join us right after worship.

All proceeds will go to the Child Development Center for the purchase of new cribs.  There are new mandatory federal regulations in place requiring that all drop-side cribs be replaced by December of 2012.  CDC has already replaced 53, but there are still 37 more cribs to replace in the next 12 months.  Each crib cost $200, so any and all support will be greatly appreciated!

Mr. Ricks is a native Arkansan who graduated with honors from Lincoln High School in Ft. Smith.  He then attended Philander Smith College for his undergraduate degree and went on to receive a Masters in Education from Ouachita Baptist University.  He retired from the Pulaski Country Special School District after 30 years as a social studies teacher. During a break from his education career, he once worked as a block manager for Opportunities Industrialization Center for the Manpower Training Program.  He also taught African American History at Philander Smith.  Mr. Ricks is married to Edna Ricks.  Nolan and Edna joined First Church last year and attend the Koinonia Sunday School Class.

In the movie, “50/50” a young active, gifted man named Adam is unexpectedly diagnosed with a rare form of cancer in his spine. When his doctor delivers this news – in a very bland and not very compassionate manner, Adam is of course in shock.  Upon hearing this, he says to his doctor, “What me?  Cancer! How could this happen, I don’t smoke, don’t drink and I recycle!”  The film is an honest and often humorous account of this one person’s journey toward healing.

I read something this week that hit home with me about today’s Gospel text and our sermon series on “Healing Stories” – and it was this:  in ministry, there is nothing more frustrating than Jesus, doing or saying something that offers people the hope of healing. [1] I know that doesn’t sound very pastoral, but as we approach this week’s healing story, I just want to get some of the hard stuff out of the way right off the bat.

This story about Jesus’ encounter with the leper in Mark’s Gospel is simple and beautiful – as long as you don’t think about it too much.  There is a man with leprosy – a disease which is not only physically debilitating, but socially as well. He sees Jesus and begs him to heal him, saying, “If you choose, you can make me clean.”

The same writer I read suggests that this leper represents all of us – anyone who is in need of healing of any kind which is pretty much all of us. Most of us have something broken in our lives – illness, broken relationships, pain, heartache – you name it and one of us has it.

In our story, Jesus hears the leper’s plea and what does he do?  The nerve of him – he heals him. He reached out and touched him and healed him. This is not the part that disturbs me.  The part that disturbs me is when it says, “If you choose to make me clean…and Jesus responds, “I do choose.  Be made clean.”

So here we are.  Many of us at one time or another are in the same situation as the leper – crying out for help, healing, begging Jesus to heal us or someone we love.  And sometimes it feels like he chooses to do so and sometimes not.  And we are often left with this mystery called healing.  It is a mystery and I must admit that it has always been a mystery to me.

The other issue that hit home was as I was working on the sermon this week – within a span of two days – I learned that two friends were diagnosed with cancer and one dear friend who is in hospice care is going down slowly, and someone who touched my life was killed in a car accident.  I found myself asking God, “What is going on here – enough already – please!”

Healing!  A lot of people could use some it.  My friend in hospice care is a dear person whom I’ve known since we were ten years old.  We are the same age.  We grew up together.  She has been in my life longer than anyone and even though we don’t live in the same place or talk every day, it is hard to imagine a world without her in it somewhere.  When her cancer returned and she was presented with treatment options, I asked her – out of my own desperation, “Will this HEAL you?”  And she said, “Well, I’m going to be healed one way or another.”  I knew what she meant.  If she wasn’t healed through medical science, then she would be healed on the other side of this life.  And ultimately, the treatment was making her so sick, she has chosen to stop treatment and CHOOSE healing in the other way she knows how.  She is a person of faith and this is her belief.

What I had forgotten is that there is a difference between “healing and curing”.  What I had forgotten is that there is suffering that is worse than what we imagine death is.

So this story of Jesus healing the leper is frustrating yet hopeful.  Because Jesus’ type of healing must mean more than physical restoration as we usually think of it, because I’ve actually experienced people being HEALED although their physical condition didn’t change at all. On a different level they were restored to peace, wholeness or right relationship with God or another person.

Several of us here are involved in a wonderful and life-giving study called, “The Cup of Our Life” by Sister Joyce Rupp.  The idea is that a simple cup represents our spiritual life – it can be full, empty, open, chipped – and it can be broken.  The broken cup reminds us of those times when hurts, wounds, pains, and adversities of all kinds invade our lives and change us forever.  During those times, it seems all we can do is try to survive – put one foot in front of the other.  It is difficult to give and receive during brokenness.  The cup of our life is knocked over on its side and all that is within us is drained out.

Sometimes the brokenness is not so severe.  It may be smaller, daily obstacles and irritations. The pieces of our lives may be troubles that go on, that ebb and flow – physical pain, negative moods, unhealthy habits, and difficult relationships.  Whatever it is – it can be a source of our spiritual growth – if WE CHOOSE.  Our brokenness can be an instrument for change.  Pain received rightly has the power to transform our lives.

Now, I know this might sound unpleasant.  But perhaps we demand too much of Jesus to be the One to do the CHOOSING to bring healing.  Maybe we too have a choice. Remember the leper in our story who wanted to be healed by Jesus?  Well, he receives the benefit of Jesus’ healing but he did not embrace the benefit of Jesus as his Teacher because he runs right out and does the thing Jesus told him NOT to do – tell people about his experience. There is a difference between coming to Christ to receive benefit only –clinging to the hope of being saved, for example, for healing or happiness – and coming to Christ to be a disciple! We often choose the former, but Christ calls us to the latter.  The leper’s disobedience and deliverance  of the news of his healing portrayed Jesus as a “wonder worker” and caused him to be mobbed before he could be HEARD – before he could teach people the important life lessons for which he came to teach.

Most of us surely know that pain received wrongly can lead to all kinds of unhealthy and destructive habits.  But what would happen if we met our frustrations, pains, and heartaches as we would meet a visitor having something to teach us?  What if we lingered a bit with our brokenness and asked it to help us to grow?[2]

In our Cup of Life study last week, we were invited to consider for each day of our reading and prayer time, some aspect of our personal brokenness.  It was not the easiest of weeks in this study, but it was powerful.

Anne Lamott says: “Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come.  You wait and watch and work, and you don’t give up.”[3]  CHOOSE HEALING – JUST SHOWING UP IS THE FIRST STEP TOWARD ACHIEVING IT.

Do we approach our faith this way – looking to Jesus for what we can get out of this relationship – or are we willing to do our part toward our own healing?  Like the leper who gladly accepted his healing, but he failed to accept his commissioning from Jesus.

You’ve heard the old joke about the man who is caught in a flood and goes up to the roof where he intends to wait for God to rescue him.  Person after person comes by in a rowboat, offering to take him to safety.  No thanks, he says, I know God’s going to save me. Finally, the waters rise over him and he dies. When he gets to heaven, he complains, I prayed and prayed, but you didn’t save me! And God answers, I sent four rowboats and you didn’t get into any of them.

We don’t claim the healings that come to us. We wait and wait for something to happen and then don’t recognize it when it does.  We want evidence and proof of miracles and set the bar so high for a miracle of healing that a dozen miracles could happen to us and we don’t notice any of them.

There are all kinds of pains, broken places, and messages we’ve received throughout our life about ourselves, relationships – all those things are places in need of restoration within our souls.

But here is another hard part of today– sometimes there are parts of our lives that are unmendable. There are times when the pieces can’t be put back together: lost jobs, shattered relationships, loved ones who have died, dreams unfulfilled, permanent bodily changes from disease, accidents or aging.  Some things cannot be restored. But maybe it is never too late to mend our hearts and spirits.  Old hurts, heartaches, memories, destructive behaviors and other wounds do not have to break us apart forever.  They do not have to define us.  There is no greater truth than expressed in the Serenity Prayer. Do you know it – if so – say it with me – God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference

We tend to look at healing from the vantage point of What we are being healing from – but may be real question from today’s healing story is WHAT ARE WE BEING HEALED FOR? 

Maybe the real issue is not to be HEALED but to be made WHOLE – to be made into a whole and complete person.  So then the question becomes  – WHAT IS IT THAT BLOCKS OUR PATH TO SPIRITUAL GROWTH?  For the leper in our story – he didn’t take the time to listen and learn from Jesus.  Do we miss the moments when God seeps into the cracks and crevices of our lives?  Do we really recognize when God in present and at work?

Does a miracle always have to be magical and full of special effects before we pay attention?  Healing takes a lot of patience and much time.

The mending of our wounds requires something of us:

• Naming and claiming it first of all. Owning our brokenness gives it much less power over us.
• Extending compassion toward ourselves and others.
• Letting go of resistance.
• Trusting and yielding to God.
• Receiving support from others.
• Extending and receiving forgiveness.
• Taking good care of our body and our spirit. [4]

We may not be able to undo or fix the past or change some of our situations, but we can be healed from what has wounded us. Today is a good day to remember that healing is a process – not a one-time event.  Most of the miracles are like rowboats. They come along regularly, but you have to get into them to get the full affect.

You know, all of us may not perceive we have brokenness in our lives –I understand that.  But in a sense – we all have the same story on some level when it comes to the business of how we are going to be human beings in this world.  How are we going to believe in a just and loving God in a world which gives us so many reasons for not believing in anything?  How are we going to survive what happens to us or to those we love?  On this level – we are all the same.

The character of Adam in the movie, 50/50 recognized something important through his journey – that the two people in his life who drove him crazy- whom he thinks are selfish and annoying, with whom his relationships are a struggle: his mother and his best friend – that they have offered him healing when he didn’t see it.  His mother has been attending a support group for parents of children with cancer.  His friend has been reading a book about going through cancer together with someone you love.  But Adam was so afraid.  He never saw these precious rowboats of people in his life as they were trying to lend him a hand.  In the end, he was healed because he recognized love!

God is at work in the broken places of our lives.  If we can only see that – then everything changes because we will know we are loved, forgiven and accepted. This is the Good News!

IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER AND OF THE SON AND OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. AMEN.

You experience this every Sunday morning, but you’re nice and don’t mention it to anyone.  Yet lately, it’s become more and more obvious, so you really can’t help but say something.  When you do that, you find that there are many who want to talk about it.  They’ve been experiencing it too, so let’s just get it all out in the open!  In churches all across America every Sunday morning, there’s a missing group of people.  Young people, ages 18 to 34, are finding other things to do on a Sunday morning besides going to church.  There are many reasons why this is happening, but First Church is seeking to be a part of a national movement to address the issue head-on.

Beginning this Lent, First Church will participate in a National Media Campaign called “Journey to Hope” that targets this missing demographic in all kinds of churches across America.  Senior Pastor Michael Mattox will begin a Lenten Preaching Series called “Journey to Hope.” The series will inspire people to reflect on Jesus’ experiences on the path to the cross in new ways. It will encourage them to see to real life situations with fresh eyes. And it will challenge people to interact with God no matter their “mile marker” in life. By addressing real life circumstances of relationships, self-esteem, work, temptation, money problems, suffering and death, travelers on the journey discover how faith in Christ is relevant to everyday life and how having a faith community can make all the difference.  We invite you to participate in this Journey and invite others to do the same.  This Sunday, February 12th, cards will be available for you to mail inviting others to experience this inspiring journey!

Beginning Ash Wednesday on February 22nd and continuing through important dates for Little Rock United Methodists like Marathon Sunday and Spring Break Sunday, we’ll be focusing on what it means to be on the journey that leads to hope.  What are America’s young people really looking for in a spiritual community?  What questions are America’s young people really asking?  Why do so many love Jesus but reject organized religion?

This Journey to Hope is crucial for all of us, not just those in a specific age category.  Those of us who have children, who are young adults, or grandchildren who are young adults have been searching for understanding and meaning too.  Who knows… as we ALL begin to try and answer some of these important questions, we may begin to find the hope we’re looking for!  I invite you to join us on this Journey to Hope, beginning in February and ending in early April with Easter.

Rev. Michael Mattox