James Glanzer 1949-2014--A Passion For Healing

James Robert Glanzer

James Glanzer, who died of cancer at age 65 on December 29, made an immeasurable impact on my life.

As a friend and colleague from the time I began to work at the Family Life Resource Center 26 years ago, Jim blessed the lives of hundreds of people through his ministry of spiritual and emotional healing and through his many gifts of service as a professional counselor.

Jim lost his first wife Jan to cancer over two decades ago, and developed a special ministry of working with people who were going through experiences of grieving and trauma.

Not only was he a much sought after clinician, he left an indelible mark on the FLRC office building on 273 Newman Avenue the agency purchased in 2000.

Prior to our moving in, Jim stripped each of the oak paneled doors in that century-old, two-story former residence and restored them to their original beautiful condition. Both his hands and his heart were always about restoration and recovery.

He will be sorely missed, and we pray God's special blessing on his wife Sherrill and his three sons Marshall, Murray and Monte and their spouses, and on the three grandchildren, Elijah, Wyatt, and Lola. May his good legacy live on in each of us.

The following version of Psalm 23, from the New Living Translation of the Bible, was adapted and read by his older brother David at his memorial service:

The Lord has been my shepherd;
The Lord has been my shepherd,
 I have had all that I needed.

He has provided me rest in green meadows,
 led me along peaceful streams
    and to lakes where fish abound.

He has ever renewed my strength.

He faithfully guided me along right paths,
 bringing honor to his name.

Even when I have walked, have often walked,
 through the dark valleys,
    through the fearsome canyon of death....knowing you were close beside me,
    I was not afraid,
        when I knew you were close beside me.


Your rod, to guide, and your staff, to rescue,
 have protected and comforted me.

You prepared a feast for me
 in the presence of my enemies;
 honored me by anointing my head with oil.
You prepared feasts for me, and my cup has overflowed with blessings.

Truly - most truly - your goodness and unfailing love did pursue me
 all the days of my life,

and now, I come to live in your house,
    to be at home in the house of the Lord...
            
    forever.
  
Memorial donations may be made in Jim's honor to Family Life Resource Center scholarship fund, or Sentara RMH Nursing Scholarship Fund www.supportrmh.org.

Ray Kuykendall--Simple Faith, Amazing Grace

Ray Kuykendall 1930-2014

"Better is one day in your courts
    than a thousand elsewhere;
I would rather be a doorkeeper 
    in the house of my God
    than dwell in the tents of the wicked."

Psalm 8:10 (NIV)

One of the first persons I met when Alma Jean and I first visited the Zion Mennonite Church over 50 years ago was Ray Kuykendall. I will always remember him, among other things, as the usher who greeted folks at the door with a smile and a welcome as warm as Florida sunshine.

I can't count all the times or recall all the ways Ray blessed me with his friendship in the twenty plus years we served as pastor at Zion, a relationship that came with lots of warm embraces, hearty greetings, and generous acts of kindness.

Ray really knew how to love people, not only in the way he welcomed folks at the church door, but in his acts of service to help people wherever he could, or in his years of driving the Summer Bible School bus, or in his later years, in working as a volunteer at Gift and Thrift. He was the kind of servant with a heart that made you feel like Jesus himself had just reached out to you and blessed you.

Ray would be the first to admit he wasn’t perfect, but in my mind he was truly a man of God, one I will always visualize as being assigned doorkeeper and usher duty in the life to come, making sure we each have a good seat at the welcome table.

So many of us will always love him and miss him.
 

Ben Risser, a former Zion member and now a pastor at Ridgeway Mennonite, composed the following song about Ray, one that was sung at his memorial service December 27.

Simple Faith

He was born back in the mountains, went to school through the sixth grade
Times were hard, his family poor, rich memories that seldom fade
He learned to love the forests, working hard with tender care
A reverence for God's handiwork and all things living there

He can spin a tale of huntin', turkeys, deer, and sometimes bear
He's loved the same woman, raised his children with great care
He knows the anxious wait for prayers to reach God's ears
Yet he's kept on keeping on for all his 84 long years

Chorus:
With a simple faith, simple plans
He's lived his life just trying to do the very best he can
Simple faith, simple plans
The way he loves the Lord makes him a giant of a man

He'll tell you he's not perfect and still stands in the need of grace
But his life's been used of God to let us see the Master's face
At church on Sunday morning, there's a hug and a welcome smile
Everyone's his neighbor and he'll go the extra mile

His hair has turned to silver and his hearing's somewhat poor
But his heart is just as big as God's great out-of-doors
He desires to follow Jesus with a soul that's young and strong
A simple testament to faith he's lived his whole life long

On the Twelfth Day Of Christmas--Pray That The Church Will Overcome Its 'Ediface Complex'

Richard Jacobson website

"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands."

Paul, Acts 17:24 NIV

It's almost impossible to think of congregations these days without associating them with the buildings in which they meet. Architecturally these special structure are highly visible, easily recognizable, and say a lot about the faith and finances of the people who worship in them. And for the majority of the week, much of their heated and air conditioned spaces are unused.

But where did the idea of Christ's followers needing to own, or meet in, special kinds of real estate come from? There is no hint of Jesus ever giving his disciples instructions about forming building committees, raising funds for temple construction or electing trustees to look after church property.

On the contrary, Jesus and his apostles made it clear that the current temple of their day wasn't  relevant to the Kingdom of God movement, and it was that insistence, as much as any one thing, that got both Jesus and his follower Stephen killed. "The temple will be destroyed," Jesus declared, and in in the future "Wherever two or more are gathered in my name there I will be in their midst." And he told a Samaritan women, "The day will come when God will be worshiped neither in Jerusalem nor on this mountain (the one sacred to Samaritans)" (John 4). 

In his best selling book, "What Jesus Meant" Catholic author Garry Wills writes, "Jesus did not come to replace the Temple with other buildings, whether huts or cathedrals, but to instill a religion of the heart, with only himself as the place where we encounter the Father."

For the past 26 years Alma Jean and I have been members of a small house church congregation that meets weekly in member homes, much as first century believers did. We welcome newcomers joining us for our informal two hours of worship and Bible study, followed by a fellowship meal, but our main focus is on equipping each other for our various ministries between Sundays rather than on carrying out some well scripted liturgy when we're together. We share responsibility for leading the sharing and prayer time and the Bible studies, and our services are more like spiritual "carry-in meals" rather than sit-down banquets prepared by professional chefs.

We don't claim that ours is the only right way to experience church, but we do believe that Jesus never meant for his followers to be highly dependent on burdensome real estate or a trained and professional clergy to continue Jesus' mission on earth.

And giving more of that money to the poor instead might be the kind of action even unbelievers could understand.

On The Eleventh Day Of Christmas--Intercede For Fair Wages For the World's Workers

Bangladesh garment workers, paid $68 a month

"You have made a fine pile in these last days, haven’t you? But look, here is the pay of the reaper you hired and whom you cheated, and it is shouting against you! And the cries of the other laborers you swindled are heard by the Lord of Hosts himself. Yes, you have had a magnificent time on this earth, and have indulged yourselves to the full."

James 5:3-5 (J.B. Phillips translation)

We hear lots of talk about income inequality in the U.S. these days. There's a widening gap here between rich and poor that's only getting worse.

Of course, even the minimum wage working class in this country has benefits most of the world's poor would envy, most of whom will never enjoy amenities like air conditioning, flat screen TV's, cell phones, and in some cases, subsidized housing, access to food stamps and other forms of public assistance. Thus poverty in this country often means something different from that experienced by most of the world's poor, a point I make in a 2011 blog "Two Levels of Poverty".

But a God of justice calls for some reasonable form of equity and equality everywhere. Surely the Creator never intended some of his children to a enjoy a surplus of wealth while others barely survive and millions around the world are malnourished to the point of starvation.

On the home front, a young adult friend of mine was told he no longer had a job at a Walmart in Richmond, not because he isn't an excellent employee, but because it is their policy to hire as many people as possible for only three months at a time so they do not have to provide health insurance. An older friend of mine, a department manager with a local Walmart for years, can barely make ends meet, and is seldom able to get any overtime pay because of their strict policies against it. Yet this corporation, said to be the most profitable in the world (and with the majority of its stock owned by members of the Walton family) threatened to not build another store in the D.C. area a year ago because the city was about to raise its minimum wage.

It may be OK for us well-to-do folks to disagree over how to best provide a needed safety net for the poor, but it's not acceptable to keep people in poverty because we're afraid we might have to pay a dime more for a hamburger if fast food workers got a fair raise.

And let's not whine about government benefits for those below the poverty line while overlooking all of the ways the wealthy, with the help of a well paid cadre of lawyers and lobbyists, manage to get their own forms of government welfare through tax loopholes large enough to drive their RV's through, along with generous federal subsidies for corporately owned farms and by having poorly paid workers subsidized with food stamps and other benefits so they can afford to work at barely subsistence wages.

The solution to poverty is not more charity, but more opportunity for the able-bodied to earn a living wage, here and everywhere. The Bible says so.

For The Tenth Day Of Christmas--Pray For Hospitality For The Stranger And Alien

"Rest on the Flight into Egypt" Luc-Olivier Merson

 "The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the LORD your God."

Leviticus 19:34 (NIV)

The Bible is a story about immigrants. From the time of his birth, Jesus and his family experienced homelessness, with no room for them in the inn and with their being forced to become refugees in Egypt. Their ancestors Abraham and Sarah were likewise wandering Aramaens, strangers and immigrants on earth, and their Abrahamic descendants were by turn exiles in Egypt, Assyria and Babylon.

Except for native Americans, we are a nation of recent immigrants, and in the case of our local community, a wonderful mix of people representing dozens of different nationalities, languages and cultures.

My prayer on this Tenth Day of Christmas is that we become truly welcoming toward all of our neighbors, inviting them into our homes and into our friendships in the spirit of the text that says, "Do not neglect to show kindness to strangers; for in this way some, without knowing it, have had angels as their guests" (Hebrews 13:2 Weymouth).

I love this Celtic Blessing, referred to as the Irish Rune of Hospitality:

I saw a stranger yesterday;
I put food in the eating place,
drink in the drinking place,
music in the listening place,
and in the name of the Triune
he blessed myself and my house,
my cattle and my dear ones, and the lark said in her song
often, often, often,
goes the Christ in the stranger's guise,
often, often, often, 

goes the Christ in the stranger's guise. 

Here's a link to an earlier refection on "Christians Should Welcome Their Muslim Neighbors".

And here are some interesting numbers:

On The Ninth Day Of Christmas--Pray That The Church Will Truly Embrace Its Gay Members

“Come to me all of you who are tired from the heavy burden you have been forced to carry. I will give you rest. Take my yoke on you.  Learn from me. I am gentle and humble in spirit. And you will be able to get some rest. Yes, the teaching that I ask you to accept is easy. The load I give you to carry is light.”  

- Jesus, Matthew 11:28-30 (ERV)

This piece doesn’t address the divisive question of whether the church receives as members same-sex couples in committed relationships. That’s an important concern, to be sure, but this post is about the church being truly pastoral in the way it cares for its already committed members, that silent minority of gays and lesbians among them who wait to be welcomed as a vital part of the church’s conversation on this and all other issues.

On this ninth day of Christmas I am praying that our congregations become totally safe places for people to come out of any imposed isolation and fully walk in the light alongside the rest of us. It’s about our freely loving and fully embracing everyone, celebrating God’s image in each.

We all know cases of sons and daughters of our fellow members (including church leaders) who have either suffered in silence year after year under our "Don't-ask-Don't-tell-and-Don't-talk-about-it" policy or who have quietly left the church and in some cases entered into some kind of partnered relationships. By now most of us realize that differently oriented persons make up around 3-5% of our number, that they are not going away, and that they are who they are through no choice of their own. Yet they seldom feel free to tell us what it's like to be in their shoes.

The results have often been tragic, with good people struggling with feelings of intense isolation, self-doubt, spiritual turmoil, social estrangement and even suicide. Our heterosexually dominant church communities are often experienced by these members as unfriendly, inhospitable and rejecting. Thus we have become guilty of inflicting deep hurt to those who are born different from us. I know many of them, some who have poured out their hearts to me in the privacy of my office. They are our sisters and brothers.

So please join me in praying that as a church we will finally pledge, loudly and clearly, that nothing anyone tells us about their private life or their secret longings will make it worse for them for having done so. That our love and acceptance, our willingness to walk and talk with each other and to lovingly encourage each other toward faithfulness, will not be affected in any negative way.

We are, after all, all flawed and needy people, each of us in our own way. We need each other's help--and God's help--to work things out, no matter what it takes or how long it takes. We are dedicated to finding Jesus' way, and how we can together take on his well-fitting yoke.

Click here for something I posted on this subject over three years ago, and here for another more recent blog on how this issue is affecting the church

On The Eighth Day Of Christmas--Pray That Weapons Of War Will Be Abolished Forever

 "God will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore."

Isaiah 2:4 (NIV)

It's hard to imagine a world without weapons. But imagine it we must, if we are to survive on an earth with just enough resources for all, but not enough to waste on ever more efficient instruments of death.

Throughout history people and nations have tried to maintain peace through every means except to follow the example and teachings of the Prince of Peace. We have dismissed as naive Jesus's commands to "love our enemies, pray for them, and do good to them", especially when we realize that kind of response may result in suffering and even crucifixion. We have refused to believe that the only way to peace is through the costly practice of it.

People of faith envision a God-ruled world that will one day result in wolf and lamb lying down together, and have begun to eagerly demonstrate that new way now, just as Jesus and other prophets of peace have done. 

I read an example of this in the December, 2013, issue of Sojourner's magazine, in which a group of Mennonite blacksmiths in Colorado have formed a group called RAWtools, in which they literally do just that. Philadelphia preacher and peace activist Shaine Claiborne narrates a  short Swords to Plows clip about them, one you should be sure to take time to see.

Swords to Plows

So join me in praying on this Eighth Day of Christmas for a forever end to the insanity, horror and brutality of armed conflict. From God's perspective, war is over, a thing of the past. God's forever future is all about shalom, harmony and enduring peace.

You and I are invited to become living demonstrations of that reality. It begins wherever, whenever and in whomever God is sovereign.

This is the time. The world can wait no longer.

For more posts on this topic check this link.