Our Integrity for Seven Pizzas

In worship yesterday, I told of a recent email I received from a stranger. He was angered by a situation he watched unfold before him at a Pizza Hut. From his vantage point in the pick-up line, he watched a young clerk deal with an United Methodist youth minister from a corridor area church. As the Pizza hut employee placed the seven Mamma Mia pies on the counter, the man watched as the youth director handed the check to the clerk. The youth director quickly picked up the pizzas and pointed to a sign that said "if we don't show you our pizza, it's free." The youth director snatched the check out of the hands and left. I called Pizza Hut to confirm the story. The story was true. The employee said, "He didn't give me a chance to show the pizzas. He (the youth minister) just picked them up off the shelf." The story made the rounds through the restaurant.

I don't tell the story to skewer the youth director from another church. Failings happen. The stranger's email was forwarded to the church. I hope he does the right thing. The reason I told the story was to remind us how our actions speak louder than any sermon ever preached. It is easy to sell our integrity, our beliefs, our Christ for seven pizza pies. When we fail to understand our critical role as ministers in whatever situation we find ourselves in today, then we have great potential to wreak havoc with our witness.

You have taken Jesus to work today, to the gym, to school. What's your integrity going for these days? It's something I am pondering.

As we are in Lent, I leave you with this prayer of confession from the book, The Awkward Season by Pamela Hawkins.

Sometimes, O God, my thirst for you

is pushed aside, ignored,

or simply quenched by something other--something more reasonable,

something more popular than you.

But you never go away,

never stop,

never leave the depths of me.

Like an underground spring,

you are fresh and free,

breaking through.

Help me prepare a place for you in the caverns of my soul.

Amen.

By the way... the bill to Pizza Hut (if it has not already been paid) will be taken care of by this church today, along with a generous tip thanks to several of you.

On the journey,

Alecia

A Chocolate for the Road

I need the Lenten journey this year. I haven't needed one so desperately for quite awhile. I find myself craving the quiet, the solitude, the Holy. I must be walking too close to the edge on this spiritual road.
Pamela C. Hawkins in The Awkward Season, writes this Ash Wednesday prayer of confession:

O God, who makes all things new,

new stars, new dust, new life;

take my heart,

every hardened edge and measured beat,

and create something new in me.

I need your newness, God,

the rough parts of me made smooth;

the stagnant, stirred;

the stuck, freed;

the unkind, forgiven.

And then, by the power of your Spirit,

I need to be turned toward Love again.

Amen

The Awkward Season in its simplicity is a good companion guide for me. I don't know where your journey will take you during Lent. Whatever you do, pursue it passionately. Hunger after God. At 7 pm tonight, I'll have one more chocolate for the road, as this pilgrimage begins.

On the journey,

Alecia