Alexander and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

If I wasn’t living it right now – my day would make a great Apatow movie about campus ministry.  I had a frustrating 2 hour conversation that eventually got resolved, but not before I was late to my next appointment.  Once I got there and hauled all of our orientation paraphernalia inside – we got asked to leave a new student fair at one school (the lady who ran the event left over the summer and the rules about outside groups changed).  But the death blow came when I got an email uninviting me to a program that I was really looking forward to and had re-arranged my whole week to attend.

In the midst of the carnage, I took the student helping me at the orientation fair to lunch.  They way he sees it, its better to try and fail than not do nothing at all.  I then sulked into our staff meeting – which I wasn’t suppose to be at – to be met with kindness by a team who genuinely felt my embarrassment and disappointment. I called Nikki to vent and she responded with all the right verbal cues I needed to feel heard.  I remembered that people all through the church are praying for campus ministers just like me for the next 39 days (40 Days of Prayer for Campus Ministry).  I swear Sonic had its happy hour just for me today.  Then I heard the verse I rehearse with Canon when he wants to give up . . . .

“. . . for though the righteous fall seven times, they will rise again”  Proverbs 24:16

Mawidge

About a month ago, I officiated at a wedding for a couple named Mandy and Ryan.  They were great – fun to be around, inviting, and they had this certain something that made me think . . . .

Princess Bride.

So without knowing it, I shaped the wedding homily to intertwine I Corinthians 13 with that fairy-tale love story.  Come to find out – it was one of Mandy’s favorite movies.

Score.  Here’s what I did with it.

1 Corinthians 13:4-11
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

One of my favorite date movies growing up was The Princess Bride.  So quotable (“Mawidge – come on, you are all thinking about this scene).

But for all of its humor – it’s reminds me of the same kind of love that Paul is talking about in 1 Corinthians 13.  It tells of a love that always said yes, of a love that would never quit, and of a love that only got better with time.

Love always says yes
Do you remember how Wesley slowly won Buttercup’s heart?  It was with three simple words . . . “as you wish”.  No matter what she asked for, no matter what she demanded, he always responded with “as you wish”.  For her, his answer was always “yes”.

Out of love for each other, I pray that your responses to each other are always in the form of a “yes”.  “Yes” that seeks the best in the other.  “Yes” that holds on when the other has lost hope.  “Yes” that won’t let you settle for anything less than who you are created to be.  “Yes” that gives the other the strength to keep trying.  “Yes” that believes and fights for the best in you both.

Love never quits
What would the movie have been if Wesley or Buttercup had ever stopped fighting for or stopped believing in each other?  Through years of imprisonment, fire swamps, and R. O. U. S.’s – they never gave up on each other.  My prayer is that you will both never stop fighting for and believing in each other.  If we learn anything from the movie and from this verse, it’s that love never quits.  I pray that your marriage would enflesh the words in 1 Cor 13:7-8 – Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never ends.

Love gets better with time.
Let me give you some homework – I want you to take 5 married couples out to dinner during your first year of marriage.  Find a couple who has been married 5 years, 10 year, 15 years, 25 years, and 50 years – then take each one out and ask them about their life together – the good, the bad, the finances, the kids, the in-laws . . .  anything you can think of.  But they have to meet these three basic qualifications:
1.  They should be couples in your church.
2.  They should reflect who you want to be at their age and stage.
3.  They have to still hold hands

Paul even says that we only see dimly now – but later it will all be as clear as day.  Whether we are talking about our love for God or the love that has grown between you two – here is one thing I know.  No matter how good it may be now, you ain’t seen nothing yet.  Live in such a way that you can go the distance.  Let the love you have for each other now grow and deepen over the years.  Time is not the enemy of love.  Love, true love, gets better with time.

But unlike the love between Wesley and Princess Buttercup in The Princess Bride, the kind of love Paul was writing about is not a fairy tale.  The kind of love he is speaking about is real.  It’s real because it’s the kind of love our God has loved us with.  God’s love says yes to the best of us.  God’s love never quits.  And God’s love will only get better with time.

May God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit fill your lives with His love so that you may live it out within your marriage.

Remembering Woodstock

Woodstock was billed as “three days of love and peace” – but who knew we would still be talking about its cultural significance 40 years later. Terry Gross of Fresh Air did a great interview with John Rosenman and John Roberts – the two original organizers. I especially love the announcement (at 2:40) when they announce from the stage:

It’s a free concert from now on.

(Soundbite of cheering)

That doesn’t mean that anything goes, what that means is we’re going to put the music up here for free. Now, let’s face the situation. We’ve had thousands and thousands of people come here today. Many, many more than we knew or even dreamt or thought would be possible. We’re going to need each other to help each other to work this out because we’re taxing the systems that we have set up.  We’re going to be bringing the food in. But, the one major thing you have to remember tonight, when you go back up to the woods to go to sleep or if you stay here, is that the man next to you is your brother. And you damn well better treat each other that way because if you don’t, then we blow the whole thing, but we’ve got it, right there.

(Soundbite of cheering)

I believe that it is fitting for us to begin the 40 Days of Prayer for Campus Ministry on the 40th anniversary of Woodstock. As I write this – Kansas City is getting pummeled by an August shower likes the ones shown in the old, pixilated footage.  Like Woodstock – we have had more people “show up” than expected. But unlike that 600 acre dairy farm in Bethel, NY – we can handle as many people who will show up. And they are coming. From across the nation to the Philippines (someone please tell me what is happening over there!!!!)– people are hearing about this sacred moment and joining in.

Finally, just like Woodstock, this is not political. Abby Hoffman and the radical underground tried to blackmail Rosenman and Roberts in order to push his political agenda. But the organizers had different intentions:

And it had been our very firm intention to keep this as non-political as possible. This was three days of peace and music. Abbie Hoffman summoned us down to his headquarters down in Greenwich Village in New York and announced that if we did not come across with some money, and some stage time, and booths, and so on, that he was going to like make our life a misery.

Well, his worst turned out to be he jumped up on stage during The Who’s performance and was booted off, unceremoniously, by Roger Daltrey. Later on, I think, he did manage to distribute some leaflets. But that weekend stayed, at least for the course of the weekend, resolutely non-political. It was just half a million people trying to have a good time.

While we can’t help if some can find a conspiracy theory in everything they see – the motivation for this season of prayer is to turn the Church’s heart back toward our college campuses. While I do agree that prayer is conspiring with God to make this world new – no agenda, no party, no model, or group will ultimately benefit from this except the millions of college students we are called to serve.

What would it mean for the United Methodist Church to commit itself to pray for and be in mission to this generation of college students?  I pray that these 40 Days of Prayer for Campus Ministry would be one of the sparks of revival and renewal we believe is coming.