Christmas 2012 Greetings from The Singletary Family

Christmas 2012 Greetings
from The Singletary Family

24 December 2012

Dearest Family and Friends,

Soiled diapers, smelly wipes, odoriferous shirts and blouses reeking of an infant’s projectile vomiting, loads of urine soaked children’s laundry due to accidents, glaring volumes of kids television programming and radio, tripping over myriad toys throughout your house, repeated trips to the pediatrician, serving as a chauffeur and any other daily parental chores, all, are amongst the greatest gifts we have as we celebrate Christmas and other religious holidays this year.  In the aftermath of Super Storm Sandy, countless fellow citizens painstakingly strive to find “a new normal” as they rebuild their lives.  The recent tragedy of mass murder of twenty innocent first grade students and six undeserving adults in Newtown, Connecticut compels us to reassess our cardinal principles of faith, politics, finance and public policy.  As a father of a fourteen year old son and ten year old daughter, my heart bleeds continually for the parents and families of those victims whose lives have been ravaged with an unimaginable horror.

Utilizing the enduring and rich spiritual disciplines of the Christian faith, I pray genuinely for them and seek practical and pragmatic ways to concretize divine love and compassion.  I will join with like-minded people of faith and social justice advocacy to use the power of community to combat evil with the steadfast hope that we can spare other parents such an unspeakable atrocity.  Yet, chief among the Christian practices from which I draw strength, comfort and hope is gratitude.  I am most appreciative this holiday season for my two beloved children and gifts of parental obligations as I realize I am greatly blessed as a recipient of their unconditional love.  This year, my heart swells with thanksgiving for my family and their well-being with appropriate soberness as I consider the regrettable plight of my neighbors in the Northeast.

One of my family’s most recent joys is Curtis’ success in freshmen basketball tryouts!  His number is 44.  With all due humility and objectivity, if I may say, Curtis is a very good defensive player who refuses to allow taller and bigger players to intimidate him “in the paint and the post.”    As my basketball skills equate with my readiness for the next phase of the space program, I sit in the bleachers and marvel as I watch him play.  He is a quintessential athlete who strives for excellence.  Most fortunately, his efforts also extend to his academic subjects as he missed honors by a couple of points.  Personally, I wish he were in Ashburnham, Massachusetts yielding such academic and athletic achievements.  His mother, my beloved wife, will not entertain the thought!  Accordingly, I harbor this dream within my Walter Smitty flights of fantasy.

Our daughter, Sariel, spent the fall semester balancing soccer, swimming and voice lessons in addition to attaining honors in her classes.  A magnanimous creative soul which sings openly and freely and even literally in the morning as we attempt to leave punctually for school without familial drama, Sariel enjoys Disney radio (the Wakey Blakey Morning Show), fashion design books, and Archie comics of late.  It is a sheer joy to view the world through her innocent, generous and compassionate eyes.  What an antidote to the jadedness that emerges within years of adult living!  Her joy erodes the cynicism that easily overwhelms the optimism of my youth.

In February, Carol Joy and I will celebrate twenty years together.  Already, I am very excited about this milestone.  How amazing to spend 7300 days in relationship with the same person!  We look forward to another twenty years.  She serves as a Dean of Culture at a charter school in Brooklyn where she is able encourage elementary school students as they begin their educational odysseys and empower their parents as they collaborate with teachers and administrators in a very fluid and vibrant learning community.  As teacher and educator at heart, Carol Joy is suited ideally for her current position of service.

In addition to the drastic challenges of natural disaster and inexplicable, maniacal mass murder, this year has yielded other professional accomplishments and personal delights.  As I write, I reach the two and a half year mark at Cambria Heights Community Church.  My family’s return to our beloved New York City remains a progressive answer to a heartfelt prayer as I yearned for an existential space where each of our souls could be fully alive as we embrace our dreams and goals.  I continue to visualize the completion of a few goals which linger in the sanctuary of my mind and heart.  Inspiration spontaneously erupts in the middle of the night.  I am silly with enthusiasm as I enter the afternoon of life and willingly encounter life’s mystery and serendipity.  Admittedly, I agreed with the outcome of the presidential election but I particularly rejoiced when I observed the willingness of countless diverse American citizens to stand in line for several hours on end to vote.  As a student of history, I saw their relentless will to exercise democracy’s greatest gift to the common person as a vindication of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 for which many of my forbears of the American South sacrificed their lives.  Mostly, I relish the accomplishments of my wife and children whose smiles, happiness and joy unquestionably yields the very same for me.

In that spirit of divine love, we wish you, your family and friends our heartfelt wishes for the genuine blessings of this sacred season.  I believe our most invaluable gift is God’s love as it is personified through our most precious relationships.  Ironically, the recent unimaginable and irreversible loss suffered by our neighbors New Jersey, Colorado and Connecticut forces us to re-examine life’s true riches.  As you celebrate the holiday of your respective faith traditions, Carol Joy, Curtis, Sariel and I hope love, joy, peace and wholeness will be your daily and constant companions.

With warmest personal regards,

Victor   

Honesty, Morality and Ethics

Honesty, Morality and Ethics

“You can never be as moral and ethical in any situation as you are when you are most honest about what lies in your heart.”  I gave that long-winded reply to two college contemporaries in two recent conversations.  As our paths crossed and we shared the latest news in our personal lives, these two men have difficulty resolving relational challenges with their significant others.  One must decide whether he will marry his intended.  She certainly desires nuptials.  He is not sure that his heart is telling him that marriage is the right choice.  The other gentleman possesses a heartfelt wish for reconciliation in a strained relationship.  Yet, both of them want “to do the right thing and honor our Lord in so doing.”

In addition to his girlfriend, their families encouraged the first gentleman to do the right thing by marrying her.  He feels the fires of the pressure to conform to their expectations and the social norms that accompany them.  Initially, I was tempted to agree with them and offer the weight of my pastoral office and that of the scriptures.  By the grace of God, I paused and responded with the foregoing statement.

“The right thing” emerges essentially from the depths of our hearts.  The Lord teaches us that “out of the heart flows the issues of life.”  That verse says that we cannot betray our hearts.  Whereas our egos will enable us to lie to our hearts for a time, eventually the simplicity, substance and strength of the truth that lies in our heart arise like a roaring wave.  They overshadow the shallow waters of the ego. 

In primary relationships, I submit that we are most loving and caring toward people when we are the most honest with them.  We respect their personhood and dignify their feelings with simple yet sincere honesty.  I recall two personal friendships that became relationships which were ruined by the dishonesty of my self-seeking ulterior motives and unquenchable thirst to satisfy my selfish instincts.  Most regrettably, I grew up at the expense of these two women.  These friendships should never have become relationships.  In my heart, I knew that my love for these women did not parallel their professed love for me.  I also knew that marriage was not a possibility.  Yet, I enjoyed their attention, praise, physical intimacy and gifts.  Had I been honest with them and with myself, I would have honored God by respecting them and remaining friends.  Being honest with them was the most moral and ethical thing that I could do.

Likewise for the first gentleman, if he does not desire to marry this woman in his “heart of hearts,” then he should find the strength of will and moral courage to resist the urge to appease her pressure.  He should not do her the favor of marrying her because she and her family think that it is the right thing to do.  She deserves to be loved for the unique and wonderful person she is.  She should have someone as a husband who wants deeply to share his life with her.  Her husband should be someone who appreciates the ways in which her idiosyncrasies define her personality rather being traits to avoid or characteristics that she must change.  Arguably, our eccentricities make us special rather than identify our quirks and failure to conform socially.  Nevertheless, this young lady needs a helpmate who proactively determines that he wants to travel the journey of life with her regardless of where the road leads.  My college contemporary cannot be such a man to her if he does not love her within the depths of his heart.

As it relates more specifically to my second classmate, he struggles to achieve reconciliation with a person who does not demonstrate currently that her love for him equates with his affection for her.  He painstakingly strives to win her return with faithfulness, finances, and friendship.  These most commendable deeds merely cloak his deep-seated fear that his actions may not prove worthy to win her back.  Moreover, he does not even want to articulate his fear that when he states his non-negotiable conditions for her return that she may not love him enough to meet them.  Accordingly, he faces the greater challenge of refusing to allow his fear to become larger than life.  Thereby, he would appease continually her hurtful behavior and disrespectful words.  But, in his heart, he will know eventually what the right thing is.  As he is most honest with Almighty God, himself and then her, he will find the spiritual will and personal fortitude to take the appropriate actions.

Summarily, honesty in relationships yields the most moral and ethical dealings with people.  Loving people as we love God and love ourselves necessitates that we extend to them the same consideration for their feelings, values, bodies, dreams and hope that we want for ourselves.  The “Law of love” which Jesus implements in the Sermon on the Mount surpasses the technical reading and morally questionable manipulation of the black letter law.  We can never exceed the moral position and ethical actions of heartfelt honesty.

The Wonders of Willingness - Mark 9:14-39 Part Two - Sermon in Outline Format

The Wonders of Willingness

Mark 9:14-29

Introduction

v If you are willing, you can work miracles in your life.

v Willingness added to honesty, humility, open mindedness, acceptance and patience can result in wonderful changes in your life.

v Actually, willingness is sometimes the most powerful characteristic in our personalities.

v It is equal to that “mustard seed’s worth of faith” about which Jesus speaks in the parable of the sower.

v With a sincere effort to learn, grow, heal and resolve all of life’s challenges on a daily basis, one utilizes willingness to actualize one’s God given talents and natural endowments.

v Willingness empowers us to tap latent gifts.

v It allows us to excel rather than merely achieve and succeed.

v It is amazing what one can accomplish if one is simply willing to try.

v Remember that you have to be willing to fail before you can succeed.

v Success is never promised in advance.

v It comes to those who are willing to believe in themselves, invest in themselves and find the wherewithal to risk.

v Even the innumerable blessings of the Christian are reserved for those who are willing to take the “existential risk of faith.”

v Yet, willingness results I wonders and miracles.

v Willingness is your God-given power to work a miracle in your life.

Body

I.                  Biblical Examples – Lack of Willingness

A. Pharaoh                             Exodus chapters 1-12

B. Absalom                             2 Samuel chapters 13-19

C. King Herod              Acts 12

D. Eli’s sons                  1 Samuel

E. Samson                     Judges 16

F. Saul                           I Samuel 15

G. Miriam                     Exodus

II.               Characteristics of Willfulness

v Pride

v Ego

v Close mindedness

v Refusal to let go of the old way of doing things

v Intellectual laziness

v Self centered fear

v Desire to keep things as they are

v Preference of the familiar even if it is hurtful

v Clinging to one’s comfort zone

v Inflexibility

v Anal-retentive behavior

v Control freak

v Workaholism

v Superstition

v Lack of creativity or imagination

v Faithlessness and hopelessness

v Latent cynicism and skepticism

III.           Biblical Examples – Use of Willingness

1. Naaman the Leper             2 Kings

2. Woman w/Issue Blood       Mark 5

3. Bartimaeus                         Mark

4. Zaccheus                                      Luke

5. Leper                                  Mark 1

6. Hannah                              1 Samuel

The Wonders of Willingness - Mark 9:14-29 Part Two - Sermon in Outline Format

The Wonders of Willingness 

Mark 9:14-29

Part II

I.                  Attributes of Willingness

v Ability to do what is required to obtain favorable results

v Determination

v Unequivocal desire to be free

v Focusing upon the goal of healing and resolution

v Taking the necessary steps – one day at a time

v A journey of a 1000 miles begins with one step

v Steadfastly doing the work even when you don’t see immediate results

v Resilience

v Perseverance

v NYU motto – to excel and to persevere

v Desire to learn

v Faith in God

v Belief in self

v Goals for spiritual growth and personal development

v Humility

v Honesty

v Open mindedness

v Acceptance

II.               The Text – Mark 9:14-29: A Father’s Willingness

v (A) Mark 9:14-16

v They recently left the Mt. of Transfiguration

v Return to the world of ministry and challenge

v Jesus finds them arguing/discussing

v “What are you discussing?”

v “What are you arguing with them about?”

v The fallacy of extensive discussion and argument.

v At some point, we have to be willing to so some work.

v We cannot study ourselves out of our problems.

v Similarly, we cannot pray ourselves out of our problems.

v (B) Mark 9:17-18

v The father of the epileptic boy details his desperation

v (C) Mark 9:19

v Jesus’ irritation about our faithlessness

v “O faithless and unbelieving generation!”

v “How long shall I stay with you?”

v “How long shall I put up with you?”

v God asks us the same questions.

v The church’s impotence because of its faithlessness irritates God.

v Personally, we linger in our problems because we lack the faith to believe that they can be favorably resolved.

v We bargain with pain, failure, fear, disappointments, grief, resentments, illnesses, mediocrity, etc.

v Faith is the answer.

v Willingness is the key.

v (D) Mark 9:20-22

v Jesus talks directly with the boy’s father.

v The boy has been like this since childhood.

v The disease utilizes fire and water in its desire to destroy the boy.

v Note the father extreme desperation

v Barclay – “But, if you can, let your heart be moved with pity, and help us.”

v (E) Mark 9:23

v Barclay – “You say, ‘If you can,’ all things are possible to him who believes.”

v Jesus returns the question to the father.

v Faith is a two-way street between God and us.

v Mark 11:24

v Hebrews 11:1

v Ephesians 3:18-20

v (F) Mark 9:24

v Immediately the father responds, “I do believe.  Help my unbelief.”

v “Help me overcome my unbelief!”

v An earnest and empowering prayer

v Belief

v Theoretical

v Academic

v Probable

v Plausible

v Reasonable

v Ephemeral

v Unbelief

v Experiential

v Healing

v Resolution

v Wholeness

v Dynamic tensions of faith and reason

v Faith

v Intellectually respectable

v Avoid superstitions and wives tales

v Contrary to science, common sense, logic, verifiable knowledge

v Reason

v Acknowledge limits

v A lot remains to be discovered

v Faith and reason are compatible

v Room for growth

v Increasing revelation

v Experience and theoretical knowledge

v Learning in both mediums

v Faith and reason ask questions to achieve a greater revelation of the character of God

v A disciplined search for God

v Not cynicism, doubt and skepticism, etc.

v “Cursed with a sense of the impossible”

v Hopelessness

v Grandiosity

v View the problems of the world from a local perspective

v What are you going to do about them?

v View your personal challenges on a daily basis.

v What are you going to do about them today?

v Faith – Cavour, “A sense of the possible.”

v FDR – “Politics is the art of the possible.”

III.           The Tools of Willingness

v Honesty

v Humility

v Open mindedness

v Acceptance

v Patience

v TIME

v Oak tree analogy – 7/8 years to rid one’s self of bad habits

v Bamboo tree image – 6/7 years to incorporate preferable choices of behavior

v Pragmatism

v Work toward a miracle

v Acquired genius

v The power of prayer

v Determination

v James H. Cone

v Maya Angelou

v Les Brown

v Jesse Jackson

v Booker T. Washington

v Mary McLeod Bethune

Conclusion

v Mark 9:29 – The power of prayer

An Awkward and Incomplete Faith - Part One - A Sermon in Outline Format

An Awkward and Incomplete Faith

Matthew 26:1-5; 14-16; 31-35

Introduction

v These three passages in the 26^th chapter of the gospel of Matthew reflect three different types of faith.

v In verses 1-5, the chief priests and the elders gather at the palace of Caiaphas, the high priest that year, to plot the murder of Jesus.  They resolve that they are fulfilling the will of God.  Elsewhere, they reason that it is better that one man die than the whole nation be harmed.

v In the second passage, verses 14-16, Judas Iscariot volunteers himself, as the vessel through which the murder plot of the religious leaders would be accomplished.  For thirty pieces of silver, he betrays Jesus.  Judas reasons that his actions do not equate with betrayal rather they are a catalyst which will in turn ignite the revolution that will overthrow Rome and the religious leaders.

v In the final section, verses 31-35, Peter and all the other disciples insist that they would never deny Christ come what may.  In fact, they say, “Even if [we] have to die with you, [we] will never disown you.”  At the time of those adamant remarks, they really believed that they were 100% committed to the cause of Christ.

v Yet, all three examples demonstrate an awkward and incomplete faith.

v Faith that says murder is acceptable.

v Faith that says betrayal is appropriate.

v Faith that results in denial despite vociferous pledges to the contrary.

v Holy Week presents the opportunity for all of us to examine the nature and character of our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

v Do we believe the message to the point of death?

v Will we plot against the truth of the gospel if the world offers us something we find more appealing?

v Will we betray the Lord for the gain of fame and fortune?

v Will we deny Him in pursuit of our own selfish ambitions and achievements?

  

Body

Matthew 26:1-5 – The Chief Priests and Elders of the People

v “They plotted to arrest Jesus in some sly way and kill him.”

v This is “A Righteous Murder Plot”

v It is inexplicable!

v Yet, the room is full of religiously devout people

v Probably had commendable records of observance of the Law and the Prophets

v They were faithful in their duties to God and the people

v Yet, the human motives of greed, power, lust and self preservation took control

v Their religiosity was not strong enough to nullify this evil.

v Instead, they used it as a vehicle with which to sanction their ungodly actions.

v They possessed an awkward and incomplete faith.

v The dross of sin and selfishness had not been burned away.

  

Matthew 26:14-16 – The Betrayal of Judas Iscariot

v “What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?”

v They counted out for him thirty silver coins.

v Judas did not ask for a position or title with the priesthood or the Roman government.

v He took the money as an investment for himself in the new government that he assumed that Christ would inaugurate.

v Judas believed the arrest would precipitate the military revolution.

v You will recall his disgust about the waste of the alabaster jar of perfume that was worth a year’s wages.

v Judas thought the money should be given to the poor.

v Judas handled the treasury for the Lord and His disciples.

v Personally, Judas liked money and may have even loved money.

v He certainly had ulterior motives about what the religion of Jesus should accomplish.

v His vision was that of power, prestige, finance and military might not love, peace, sacrifice, mercy and patience.

v Judas had an awkward and incomplete faith.

An Awkward and Incomplete Faith - The Conclusion: A Sermon in Outline Format

An Awkward and Incomplete Faith - The Conclusion

Matthew 26:1-5; 14-16; 31-35

Matthew 26:31-35 – Simon Peter and the Rest of the Disciples

v Simon Peter and the disciples do on a collective level what Judas Iscariot does on an individual level.

v They rebuff the Lord’s prophecy that they will betray Him.

v They vow loyalty to the point of death.

v They remain committed until the arrest of Jesus with a large armed regiment.

v They flee to the wind to protect themselves.

v They underestimated their deep-seated fear and desire for self preservation.

v Their faith was too limited by a tremendous latent fear and a personal desire for positions of honor in the new kingdom.

v When Jesus used that term, they heard status, power, prestige, money, etc.

v They failed to understand the power of love, the force of kindness, the status of self-control, and the other fruit of the Spirit.

v They has an awkward and incomplete faith.

Practical Application

v Is your faith awkward and incomplete?

v Where would you have been during the first Holy Week?

v In the nameless crowd?

v In the meeting of the Sanhedrin?

v Celebrating Passover with the disciples?

v Agreeing with Judas Iscariot that it was high time that the revolution commences given that three years had already elapsed?

v Would you be encouraging Simon Peter in his refusal to hear the Lord prophesy about his impending denial?

v Would you be forcing your ulterior motives upon the Lord?

v This Holy Week, we have an opportunity to examine our faith.

v God will graciously reveal our blind spots to us.

v Furthermore, He will burn away any lingering dross of selfishness, self-centered fear and lust for the things of the world.

v In so doing, He will empower us to live under the lordship of Jesus Christ.

v Thereby, denying ourselves rather than Him and seeking to live to His honor and glory.

v If we find a mustard seed's of authentic faith, then we can know the abundant and eternal life that Christ offers.

Conclusion

v Reiterate central themes.