Well, the Big Lug got his shoulder patched up this summer. At least a lot of us are praying Curt Schilling came through with the operation a healthy success. His surgeon says he his quite content with the procedure, although there is no guarantee the shoulder will be good as last time, when Shilling was in his late twenties. Now he’s 41. The doc says there is nothing he can do to fix that.

Life tends to judge us by how we produce. Schill has produced for the Red Sox. And how! It seems he breezed into town just yesterday and announced to the world he was here to break the 86 year old curse. He did it big time! He has produced for us, bloody sock and all.

Curt Schilling seems quite content with the possibilities his future holds. Of course he would like to pitch again. But in a recent WEEI interview he says “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to do a case study. I’m 41, I’ve got over 3,000 innings under my belt....” As far as Red Sox Nation goes, he’s also got the curse firmly buried under his feet, deep under the pitcher’s mound at Fenway. He seems to have it all in perspective: “I don’t want it to end this way but if this is the way it has to end, I’m ok with that. If it’s over and my last pitch was in the 2007 World Series, honestly, I’m ok with that....I have not a regret in the world.”

A major part of who Curt Schilling is goes far beyond his pitching arm, and even, believe it or not, beyond his big mouth. The core of Curt Schilling is his faith. He is a Christian, a personal Christian who takes his faith public, and who is not afraid to express his opinions. Oh yes, he opens his mouth at the wrong time, but he also opens it at the right time when a witness to the power of Jesus Christ might make all the difference is someone’s life. Schill draws constantly upon the strength God gives. That is what gives him the perspective to handle his shoulder surgery and his future. He knows what’s important.

My daughter Christine has a friend, Bridget. They attended the same church, until Bridget, her husband and three year old daughter moved to the west coast. Bridget is a radiant Christian, with the healthy glow appropriate for someone 26 weeks pregnant. She also has stage four cancer, and six to nine months to live. Curt Schilling has been talking to Bridget, ministering to Bridget, even while facing his own troubles. He knows it’s all about perspective, and that whatever happens here, from the viewpoint of eternity, everything looks ok. That’s because Jesus Christ stepped up to the mound, and buried the curse -- the real curse -- forever. The curse has caused much grief throughout human history. Worn out shoulders. Cancerous bodies. Even death itself. It took Jesus considerably more than a bloody sock to be successful, for the mound he stepped upon was the mound called Calvary. It was there he spilled his blood, an atonement for sin. Because of what
he accomplished we have the possibility of living lives that are whole, complete and productive.

The Big Lug says “This is all about perspective. Wouldn’t we all like to throw a no-hitter in the World Series at the age of 40 in our last start and walk away? Who wouldn’t? That’s not real life.” Schill knows. He knows real life is found in Jesus Christ. There’s nothing else like Jesus in the whole ballpark.

Jon Dale Hevelone, D.Min.
Pastor

Most of my life I have heard people say “Jesus is the answer.” Well, yes, in one sense, obviously Jesus is the total answer. The trouble is I go back and forth whether this is an incredibly profound statement, or simply a shallow, easy bone thrown to the really hard, doggy things life sometimes presents us.

I have a better slogan for us to ponder: “Jesus is the question.” In fact, as we recover from celebrating Easter, and realize there was a spiritual dimension to it, even if sometimes buried in all the bunnies, ham and easter parades. Jesus Christ rose from the dead. Did you hear me correctly? Jesus Christ rose from the dead. With something incredible like that being affirmed Easter Sunday how can we focus on anything but “Jesus is the question”?

Just who is this Jesus Christ who did something that was literally death defying? Someone who threw the brakes on the whole natural order, who refuted the universality of the second law of thermodynamics, and who audaciously claimed that we, too, would experience what he lived through?

“Jesus is the question.” And how! Questions. This event unleashes all the mystery of the universe, all the excitement of discovery, all the thrill of exploration, all the extreme limit pushing a person can handle. It should keep us up nights praying and wrestling and struggling. What does this mean for me? What does this mean for our world? Do I believe it? If I do not think I believe it, can I casually ignore and dismiss it, or must I treat it with the respect it’s enormous implications deserve?

This world has shallow. It has superficial. Often we take our faith in easily digested sound bites, and then when divorce or cancer or even our own human failure hits us, we fall apart. “Jesus is the answer” rings untrue, and our faith fails. Only when we do real soul-searching, heart-and-mind-expanding grappling with the question of Jesus, and how to connect what we discover there with our life do we realize both slogans are profound hints of heavenly mysteries. Jesus. The Question? The Answer? Absolutely. So what? How does he fit in my life today?

He is Risen!

He is Risen!

HE IS RISEN!

The cry arose that first Easter morning in the garden when the women came to Jesus' tomb and realized that his body was no longer there. Then He appeared and the cry increased in intensity and echoed down the ages of history. It reverberated through the disciples' hiding places and emboldened them to speak out to all who would listen. He is risen!

It overtook the disheartened disciples on the Emmaus Road. He is risen!

It swelled and exploded with power at Pentecost. It traveled along the trade routes of ancient Europe and Asia. It created a bond between those of different skin colors and languages and cultures. He is risen!

It echoed through the catacombs as the early church met amid danger and secrecy. It was cried out as those early Christians faced the lions and gladiators. He is risen!

It empowered the early church councils and medieval monasteries. It brought comfort through the Plague and Black Death. He is risen!

It strengthened the reformers! It set Christianity apart from all the other religions whose founders lay buried in their tombs. He is risen!

It was whispered in the foxholes of the many wars. It has power to unseat and dispel evil. He is risen!

It resides among the Christians across our troubled world. He is risen!

It is clung to by immigrants seeking help and
desperate believers who have no hope apart from their Savior. He is risen!

It is emblazoned upon our hearts and souls. He is risen!

It mirrors the wonder of the scared and mysterious! He is risen!

It spread across the world and is still moving and gathering strength! Death is defeated! Hallelujah! He is risen!

Happy Easter!
HE IS RISEN!

I remember as a child wrinkling my nose and saying “Yuk!” when I heard the the story of Jesus healing a blind man. What prompted my response was the way Jesus went about getting the job done. Jesus, you see, spit into the dirt at his feet and rubbed some of the little puddle of mud he created into the man’s eyes. It’s not that I as a young boy objected to dirt, but the spit was another thing. I remember struggling with whether I would want Jesus to heal me or not if it involved him rubbing spit on me. Yuk!

As an adult I still have trouble with the way Jesus sometimes does things. It seems to me that often my ideas and my standards are so much more acceptable and appropriate than his. And, I confess, sometimes much more convenient and to my liking.

The people with Jesus were convinced there was a place to lay the blame for the man’s blindness. “‘Rabbi, who sinned: this man or his parents, causing him to be born blind?’ Jesus said, "You're asking the wrong question. You're looking for someone to blame. There is no such cause-effect here. Look instead for what God can do.” (The Message, John 9)

Have you ever wondered why Jesus used spit to heal the man? The Jewish believers didn’t wonder - they knew exactly why he did it. In the beginning God took the dust of the earth, breathed on it, and brought to life the first human being. Now Jesus symbolically takes the dust of the earth, repeats this act of creation and for the very first time the man sees.

Right before everybody’s eyes -- including the blind man’s -- Jesus was showing what God can do. By creating sight, Jesus was revealing that he was God the Son. Jesus wasn’t just a traveling rabbi, he wasn’t a small time evangelist who went from town to town putting on a carnival show of old fashioned revival meetings. Jesus was and is God’s only begotten Son who originally created the world, who still held the powers of creation in his hand, and who today brings healing and life to his people.

During lent we do a lot of talking about sin. Sin! That’s something I’m quite comfortable pointing out in the lives of other people. Facing the sin in my own life? Yuk! I’d avoid that like spit. We also talk about God’s solution for sin. It involved such nasty things as Jesus’ blood, cross, and death. Yuk!

As an adult I wonder if God couldn’t have done it some other way. Maybe it would have been more acceptable and appropriate to deal with sin by using nanotechnology, or holding a big fund raising rock concert, or having Congress pass a law. But bringing sight, forgiveness, healing and life by using spit, mud, a cross, and a grave? Yuk! I guess the question we must struggle with is whether we want Jesus to get the job done in our lives. If so, let’s stop wrinkling our noses, yield control of our lives to Jesus Christ, and be amazed as we “Look instead for what God can do.”

Pastor Jon

There are words I do not understand. These include the words of the year for 2007. Merriam-Webster has has chosen “w00t”, which is an expression of happiness, similar to “hooray”, as in “w00t! I won the lottery.” You might find this word in “facebook”, which is their runner-up. As in “Facebook me some time and we’ll talk.” The American Dialect Society has chosen “subprime” as their word of the year, and nobody likes that. The New Oxford American Dictionary has decided on “locavore.” Now that is a word I can live with. You might be a locavore if you pass up the supermarket and buy your apples and tomatoes at the Arlington farmer’s market. Locavores prefer to eat something that is environmentally friendly, and they don’t mind shaking the hand of the farmer that grew the thing.

Then not only do hundreds of new words pop up every year, but there are words that change their meaning. This is what makes me feel sorry for middle school English teachers. For example, even I know that if you’re hot you’re really cool, and if you’re good you’re bad, and if you’re really good (or is it bad?) you’re wicked good. As an uncool clergy person I know enough to recognize when somebody says the Patriots are wicked, they are not specifically talking about Randy Moss’s alleged behavior off the field. To make this even more confusing, when somebody tells you something exciting, your wicked cool response is “Shut up!” That is not a rude comment, but an affirmation.

“We just got back from a vacation surfing in Hawaii.” “Shut up!”

“I got a brand new Toyota RAV4!” “Shut up!”

“I’ve lost ten pounds since New Year’s.” “Shut up!”

You get the idea. Frankly, I sometimes don’t know what to say. Speaking of “frankly,” that’s a word I just can’t stand. People use it: “Frankly, we’ve always done blah blah blah...” It’s as if using “frankly” gives the statement more importance, more authority. It’s like a “win-win” situation. Lots of business types use this to describe an arrangement that is best for everybody. I doubt it. When the saleswoman who’s selling that Toyota starts talking real fast about a “win-win” deal, I usually suspect the poor customer is about to lose his shirt. Can you imagine Bill Belichick talking about a “win-win” outcome for the Patriots and the Giants in the Super Bowl?

So there are words I do not understand, words that change their meaning, and words I do not like.Then there are words so clear and unchanging, that I just cannot escape their call upon me. Words like Jesus said in Luke 11:28, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it."

I wonder what words would be used to describe First Baptist Arlington if we took that comment of Jesus most seriously in 2008? “w00t!”

Jon Dale Hevelone
Pastor

1. The Bible will still have all the answers.
2. Prayer will still work.
3. The Holy Spirit will still move.
4. God will still inhabit the praises of His people.
5. There will still be God-anointed preaching.
6. There will still be singing of praise to God.
7. God will still pour out blessings upon His people.
8. There will still be room at the Cross.
9. Jesus will still love you.
10. Jesus will still save the lost.

God whispers in your soul and speaks to your mind. Sometimes when you don't have time to listen, He has to throw a brick at you. It's your choice: Listen to the whisper, or wait for the brick.
-- Author Unknown

This was sent to me by Shirley and Jack Donaldson.

My name is Pastor Jon and I approve this message.

I’ve heard the story of a three year old who jumped up and down with glee when her aunt visited at Christmas time. She grabbed her aunt’s hand and led her to the nativity set the child and her mother had just set up. “Look! Look!” she exclaimed with excited pride.

Her aunt asked the child “What is that?”

With a very big girl attitude the three year old replied, “It’s breakable!”

Breakable. Fragile. The child’s answer is wise. The Christmas of faith is so fragile and breakable. So many forces seem to compete in distracting us. Retailers call this time the shopping season, where often their profitability for the entire year is determined. The watchdogs of politically correctness call it the winter holiday season. Others see it as the social focal point of the year.

Christians call these days leading up to the celebration of Christ’s birth Advent. People of faith value Advent as a time to reorient and focus on the marvel that God actually came into our world as a tiny baby so we might be saved. Grasping that holy truth is a precious yet fragile insight.

Jesus was so much like us. He was breakable. Vulnerable. He came into a world of broken people knowing that the only way to bring healing was to be broken himself. On the cross he made it possible for breakable people like you and me to be redeemed, made whole, and to live as God’s people. He then empowers us so we can help other broken people find wholeness.

It’s funny that a delicate, fragile baby can turn out to be the strongest person the world has ever known. It’s paradoxical that the vulnerable infant turns out to be the invincible Savior. It’s incredible that the little child of the nativity turns out to be the the Mighty God, the Prince of Peace. But that’s the truth of Advent. Jesus Christ came to earth. Christ the Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer of the universe came to live here that first Christmas so we who live here this Christmas can experience life in a new way. Let us use this Advent season to prepare ourselves, to let God prepare us, so that our faith might be strong and unbreakable. And be sure to share some of the same excitement of the three year old as we show others the nativity.

Jon Dale Hevelone
Pastor

Somewhere along the road to maturity most of us made the transition from being thankful for all the toys our parents bought us to being thankful for our parents themselves. I am impressed with how easily I fall into the immaturity trap at Thanksgiving as I focus on the toys my Heavenly Father has given me, rather than being thankful for God himself.

Part of this attitude comes from living in a society that has substantial materialistic blessings. When our affluence reaches the point where we complain we cannot afford the $313 it takes for an average family of four to attend a Red Sox game, so instead we are buying a 52” flat panel HDTV to economize I believe it is past time for a reality check.

If our thanksgiving is based on our response to the gifts we get, rather than our response to the giver, then it is likely to be a measured and calculated sense of gratitude, rather than true thankfulness. We might be thankful when David Ortiz hits a ball half way to Quincy, or wherever it goes when flying off into the night sky. We are thankful when the wine is truly memorable or the puppy is house broken. However, our thankfulness may be quite different when Big Pappi strikes out, the wine turns out to be Two Buck Chuck, or the puppy decides the living room carpet looks like green grass.

As Christians we are called to a higher thanksgiving. We are called to live our lives showing thankfulness for God, the giver. As we respond to God our hearts and lives will be filled with unmeasured and uncalculated gratitude. We will discover joy and delight in everyday living, whether or not we own a hi def television. We will even discover the satisfaction of living for God’s kingdom values. As doing good, acting with righteousness, advocating for justice, and practicing kindness become ingrained, we will experience the promise of Jesus for those who live God’s way: “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

Being thankful for God comes first, then follows everything else, as certainly and as naturally as God feeds the birds and clothes the flowers of the fields. May the joy of thankfulness for God the great giver fill your life this Thanksgiving season, and may you then know the bounty of his gifts.

Blessings

Pastor Jon

Southern preaching is the last remnant of a great oratory tradition that used to be found in American politics before the days of sound bites. In contrast, Yankee preaching sounds like a lecture given to MIT under grads on nanotechnology.

I remember being captivated by Lee Roberson of Highland Park Baptist Church in Chattanooga. Lee recently died at almost a hundred, but when I knew him years ago he looked like a rabid Old Testament prophet with flowing white hair and piercing eyes. He preached with fire. He dominated the auditorium, striding from one side of the platform to the other, his audience following with every gasp, roar of laughter, and 'Amen.' Each point of a sermon on the weight of sin was punctuated by Dr. Roberson lifting high a brick and pitching it onto the platform like it was a Red Sox fast ball. Nobody slept.

There is an old hymn that says:

“I love to tell the story of unseen things above. Of Jesus and his glory, of Jesus and his love,”

Someone asked me recently what we do at First Baptist of Arlington, and I thought of that hymn. Our purpose is to tell the old, old story. We teach, we preach, we study the Bible so that we can know the story better and better. The better we know it, the better we can teach it.

“I love to tell the story because I know ‘tis true, It satisfies my longing as nothing else can do.”

We know the story is true because we have lived out the story in our lives and seen it lived out in the lives of others. We know that the power of God revealed in his son Jesus has and does change lives today as surely as it did in the time he walked on earth.

“I love to tell the story for some have never heard, The message of salvation from God’s on holy word.”

We witness of God’s love and salvation in Arlington, throughout Massachusetts and our own country and across the world. We strive to help those in need both physically and spiritually.

“I love to tell the story for those who know it best, Are hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest.”

We who know the story, love it, base our lives on it, love to hear it again and again. It gives us strength and fills us with joy as we worship together. If you are interested in hearing the old, old story join us on Sunday.