Perhaps growing up you heard your mother guilt you into taking a shower or cleaning your messy room by declaring with biblical authority: “Cleanliness is next to Godliness.” News to all the parents out there…that is not in the Bible!

However the scriptures mention “clean” quite a few times. In the Jewish laws, to be unclean or impure separated one from God. In Leviticus “clean” is mentioned in 44 verses. One of the main jobs of the priests was to check to see if the people performed the rituals of purification, and then declare them clean (or not!). In the Beatitude for Sunday we have Jesus saying: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. (The same Greek word for “pure” is also used to mean “clean.”) I never knew how to feel about this beatitude because I never understood what “pure” in heart meant, and I was sure I’d only see God after I was dead.

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If these words of Jesus are really true: “You’re blessed when your commitment to God’s all-inclusive love provokes persecution” then I should feel really blessed! I would guess that all of us at West Hollywood Church have at one time in our life experienced persecution. If you’re gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, a woman, African-American, Latin-American, or Asian-American, an immigrant, a person committed to peace and non-violence, a person committed to justice for everyone, you’re going to experience persecution. Persecution is the systemic mistreatment of an individual or group by another group. The most common forms of persecution are religious persecution, ethnic persecution, political persecution and persecution based on sexual orientation or identity.

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Last week Dan began our sermon series on the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12). This Sunday we will look at the first two blessings in verses 3-4: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” Usually when the Beatitudes are read, everyone feels all warm and fuzzy. I suspect it is the repeated use of the word “blessed” that evokes these sentimental feelings in us. Truth be told, the Beatitudes are rather unsettling. It seems that Jesus’ values are very different from our values and the world’s values. In fact, from God’s perspective, the world is upside down and needs to be turned the right way around. According to the values of the world, one is considered blessed if you are successful, wealthy, powerful and have a wonderful life. But according to Jesus you are considered blessed if you are poor, mournful, meek and persecuted. How can people possibly feel blessed when they are poor or beaten down, when they cry their hearts out, or are abused or run out of their community? Really, the word “blessed” did not come to mind as I watched the tragedy unfold in Haiti!

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I’m still in shock and angry over a phone call I received last week. Tracy Lewis called and asked us to hold her brother in prayer. Her brother and a friend had stopped in a convenience store on their way home from work and as they were leaving the store they heard gun fire. Instantly Tracy’s brother felt one of the bullets hit him. He was shot in the back and the bullet went completely through his body and exited through his chest. Fortunately, Tracy’s brother was not killed or paralyzed. They rushed him into surgery and closed is wounds. After some healing, he’ll be “OK.” Well, as “OK” as one ever is after being shot!

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Actor Matt Damon was featured in the Oct 11, 2009 issue of “Parade” magazine (one of those Sunday inserts in the Los Angeles Times) in an interesting article entitled: “Be Part of the Solution: We Can Move Mountains.” In this article he told his personal story about how and why he offers his life in service to others. He said, “When I was a boy, my mom had a magnet on the refrigerator with a little picture of Gandhi along with a quote from him. It said: “No matter how insignificant what you do may seem, it is important that you do it.” As a child, I was raised to believe that, and to this day I do my best to live it.”

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Breaking News: “Ten Members of Central Valley Baptist Church, from Boise, Idaho, arrested for attempted kidnapping and child trafficking of Haitian children.”

This week we’ve certainly seen how NOT TO DO international Christian Mission and Service! I have to say I’m not surprised by this story, and I hope and pray this truly was motivated by “good intentions.”

If you haven’t followed the story, in short, a group of 10 members of Central Valley Baptist Church of Boise, Idaho, were arrested Feb. 2, by the Haitian government, on charges of attempted kidnapping and child trafficking of Haitian children. The group from this church was detained at the border of Haiti while trying to enter the Dominican Republic with 33 children, many of whom turned out not to be orphans.

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Who would have ever believed that for our first all-church service opportunity we have over 33 people signed up for our own version of “EXTREME MAKEOVER” as we partner with our friends at Oportunidad! WOW. This is fabulous!!!

Last Sunday, Julia Garcia – the minister/director of Oportunidad spoke during the sermon. She spoke with such passion about the ministry of Oportunidad. Oportunidad is a spiritual community serving gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender homeless people who live mostly beneath freeway underpasses near the MacArthur park area. Almost all of the people they serve are addicted to drugs and alcohol as a means of survival. These persons have been told they are worthless by their culture and their churches and have become “throw-aways.” Kobie wrote about us being a “throw away” society in this week’s reflection. (If you missed it, check it out on our website: Bread for the Journey.)

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When we look at many of the problems in the world today, we feel overwhelmed. They appear so large and we often feel so small, so powerless.

Wednesday evening on ABC’s news program, Nightline, I saw an interview with President Obama by George Stephanopoulos. I certainly have not been thrilled with President Obama’s leadership, nor is a lot of the nation. George Stephanopoulos really pushed President Obama on issues of the economy, healthcare reform and the growing anger in America over many issues, particularly the economy. Obama, to his credit, tried to explain how difficult it is to try and “fix” the economy after the magnitude of collapse it went through. He explained once again that we are dealing with the effect of decades of bad economic policy and it just isn’t able to be fixed easily.

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You would have to have slept through the last 40 years or not dated anyone in a long time not to notice we have a new social phenomenon “out there” called “the ME Generation.” In 2006, Jean M. Twenge, Ph.D., who is an Associate Professor of Psychology at San Diego State University wrote a most interesting book entitled:
The ME Generation: Why today’s young Americans are more confident, assertive, entitled – and more miserable than ever before.

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Happy New Year, everyone. In the last weeks we’ve been “teasing you” about an exciting new year of ministry opportunities coming up at WeHo Pres. Well, here we are.

Welcome to
LifeServe 2010
Whose lives are different because of you?

All this year we are going to be focusing on the question “Whose lives are different because of you?”

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