New Life UMC

•“Cold As Ice” – at first glance Foreigner’s “Cold As Ice” (circa 1977) may not seem like a practical song choice for a series on parables; but the more time I spend with it, the more I wonder if it wasn’t inspired by today’s parable. I’ve heard this song hundreds of times and always assumed it was about a woman who was a…cold as ice. But the lyrics really never spell that out. The lyrics, “you’re as cold as ice, willing to sacrifice our love” speak true to one of the characters in today’s parable and unfortunately to many people who think they are following Christ. Tonight we are looking at the parable of the talents and we are going to have a chance to live this parable out.

•“Blue Collar Man” – we’ve heard some interesting songs the last couple of weeks; and “Blue Collar Man (Long Nights)” by the band Styx circa 1978 is no different. I suppose the difference is that most Styx songs were set with a different mold from the music of their time. “Blue Collar Man” is a song about a man struggling with unemployment. The late 70s saw a recession and many layoffs. Unemployment can be a terrible thing. It causes issues financially, but also threatens your self-worth. Jobs and careers give many people meaning in their lives. The opening lyrics of the song really emphasizes this: “Give me a job, give me security. Give me a chance to survive. I'm just a poor soul in the unemployment line. My God, I'm hardly alive.” Today our parable is the parable of workers in the vineyard. Just like our opening song, it’s a story about a bunch of men looking for work.

•“Everybody Wants You” – “Everybody Wants You” by Billy Squier is another odd song of its time (1982). The 80s were a pretty good time for us. We had just come out of conflict and recession and our economy was on the rise. The lifestyle that late 70s and early 80s rock portrayed was one of excitement and decadence. It’s where the mantra; “sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll” came from. “Everybody Wants You” paints another picture. The picture of a man who was the life of and the center of the party. The man, to paraphrase another old adage, “every man wanted to be and every woman wanted to be with.” That life seems good for a while, but as Squier puts it, “you never realize what you do to yourself.” Before you know it your in greater debt than you could ever have imagined.

•“Sweet Child O’ Mine” – for a song by a hard rock band in the late 80s, “Sweet Child O’ Mine” is pretty distinct. Most love songs from rock/hard rock bands of the late 80s/early 90s were about how painful love is or about sex. But the themes of “Sweet Child O’ Mine” are innocent and childlike love. Comparing love to childhood joy and security was a very unique thing for Axel Rose and Gun N’ Roses to do. That being said, this became their most recognized song. Perhaps these themes of the simple joys and even worries of childhood remind people of what is most important, where they came from, and even give us a desire to return home.

•Forgiveness – today we are going to look at another one of our Forwarder’s Fruits, forgiveness. You may think you understand how and who to forgive but I think we all need a little refresher course in forgiveness and ultimately as we look to forward our ministry out into our community and world we need to people be who can offer forgiveness and second chances.

•Not Just Potlucks – food has always been an important part of Church life, and I’m not just talking about Potlucks. Moses brings the Israelites in the wilderness and God provides bread from heaven. God also provides a lot of quail; but I don’t like to linger on the story for too long because it get more disgusting the more you think about it. The prophet Elisha feeds 100 people with some loaves of barley. Daniel uses fasting from food (or eating certain foods) as a way of prayer and obedience to God. While the Temple in Jerusalem still stood the Jewish people would present offering of food to the Lord. Then Jesus comes along the stories of food in scripture literally multiply. As we look to live out this call to “feed” others; we know sometimes people literally need food and sometimes they need something else, spiritual food that only Christ can provide.

•Finding, Forming, Forwarding – Here at New Life we believe we can live out our Christian mission to “make disciples” by Finding, Forming, and Forwarding. We believe we need to find those in need of Christ and share the Good News with them. Then we need to form them (and ourselves) in Christ. Finally we need to forward them (and ourselves) into the world so that it can be transformed. This year our focus is “Forwarding” and for the next four weeks we are going to focus on the “Forwarder’s Fruits” or ways we can share in Christ’s transforming work in our world.

•4 Seasons – author Gary Chapman writes this about marriage, “Marriages are always moving from one season to another. Sometimes we find ourselves in winter: discouraged, detached, and dissatisfied; other times we experience springtime, with its openness, hope, and anticipation. On still other occasions we bask in the warmth of summer: comfortable, relaxed, enjoying life. And then comes fall with its uncertainty, negligence, and apprehension. The cycle repeats itself many times throughout the life of a marriage, just as the seasons repeat themselves in nature.” Too many of us enter into marriage with our fairytale glasses on. We believe the courtship/dating is the hardest part and once we get married we will live, “happily ever after.” But marriage is hard work. And every marriage has seasons; ups and downs; mountaintops, valleys, and a whole lot of plains. As we end our series on marriage and relationships I want us to spend some time on the seasons of marriage and hopefully learn a bit about creating a love that lasts.

•We Fought About – I recently heard about a couple that had started using Twitter to fight. They have a Twitter account (“We Fought About” is the name) and anytime they fight, they post about it on the shared account. Here are the reasons behind some of their recent conflicts. “Alan said I had enough stuffed animals.” “Claire asked if I would choose her on the Bachelor.” “Alan couldn’t hear me over his computer game.” “Claire sang to wake me up.” “Alan didn’t take my ‘hair journey’ slideshow seriously.” “Claire called our pet fish ‘baby’ in front of me.” “Alan went on a lovely sushi dinner for our 8-month anniversary, and didn’t invite me.” “Claire fell asleep halfway through an important talk.” I’m certainly not suggesting you air out your grievances on Twitter; but when you are in a relationships, especially when you live with someone and are married to them, you tend to get on each other’s nerves. Every couple fights and irritates their partner; the Good News is we can move through that and build a love that lasts.

•Love to Stay – we have spent the last three weeks looking at marriage and relationships. We have shared the mission and vision of marriage: to be a partnership of mutual help and agape, or sacrificial love. We have learned about what our partner needs and desires and last week discussed the significance of sexual intimacy. This week the topic gets a little more serious. We’ve had some fun in the last few weeks but the subject matter tonight isn’t very light and certainly isn’t very fun. In fact some of the topics we will discuss tonight will have affected some of you in very real and very painful ways. Tonight we are going to talk about habits that hurt and habits that heal. We will look at abuse, addiction, and adultery and see how those habits can derail a marriage or any relationship. I realize these topics may be difficult for many of you; so before we begin let me assure you of the Good News. Through Christ we can overcome any hurt and we can find true healing. My hope is that in the midst of hurt and pain New Life is a community that can surround and support one another in love.