Scott Hagan

May 22, 2013

Original post at http://dscotthagan.blogspot.com/2013/05/pay-attention.html

It was a simple act. The woman pulling off of busy Manchester Expressway looked into the parking lot of Dunkin' Donuts before she entered. I was in the parking lot, still some distance away, but the simple act of paying attention caught mine.
The earth is spinning around its axis at 1,041 mph, the same as always. But most of us have the feeling that our little worlds seem to be spinning faster and faster. Information is coming more quickly and opportunities to 'do things' seem to be on the increase. Life rarely slows down. Even trying to slow things down takes some work. So we all take note of the people around us who seem to be able to slow things down and pay attention a little better. I thought I would take that nameless driver's lead and pay attention to what is around me:

Jack Osteen is faithful at delivering the remaining flowers from worship each week to persons in need of a little boost in the hospital, nursing home or at their home.
Martha Conklin arrives quietly each week, almost never missing, and cares for the most precious ones at Epworth each week in the nursery.
Fred Scanling is not in worship with us very often, but has an important ministry of paying attention to what we post online and in our bulletins and helping us catch errors.
Janie Nellums pays attention to the preacher's typos, comma mistakes, and never misses anyof them. See what I did there!
Jan Shackleford sends hand-written cards to people in need us a word of encouragement with no fanfare or special praise.
Ella Kate Conkle is on the lookout for me every week to run and give me a hug. Even on the weeks my sermons go too long.
Jeannie Guilbeault walks the halls of Epworth every week during Sunday School to look in windows and around corners to make sure kids and youth are safe and cared for.

My friend from the Pastoral Institute, Stephen Muse, wrote recently, "Belovedness is essential nourishment to the human soul and this remains true our whole lives. When it is missing, violence emerges, both with the mind and body, in the form of various diseases and higher mortality rates as well as with betrayal and addiction within our families and communities." (find his book here). He was talking about the critical role parents plan in raising children. I think he is saying we must pay attention to children and then pour on them our love. Attention is important to keep them from harm right now, but love is critical for them to grow up well later on.
I think the same is true for adults. Paying attention and showering others with love helps us grow well later on. Grace and Peace, Scott

Permanent link to this article: http://methoblog.com/3_0/2013/05/pay-attention/

May 14 2013

Reflections on the The Word and World: A Better Way to Lose Sleep

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May 14, 2013

Original post at http://dscotthagan.blogspot.com/2013/05/a-better-way-to-lose-sleep.html

Charles Ramsey is a hero. He is also very funny. I am laughing because he speaks the truth in a way that we rarely hear from people pushed into the light of national attention. Charles speaks the truth. In the days after he rescued Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight, held captive for 10 years in a Cleveland, Ohio home, he talked about having trouble getting to sleep. It wasn't because of all the excitement that followed his knocking down a neighbor's door, freeing three women and a girl who police say were held hostage for years. Instead, Ramsey told CNN's Anderson Cooper on Tuesday, it was about knowing he had lived for a year near the captive women on the city's West Side.

"Up until yesterday the only thing that kept me from losing sleep was the lack of money," the restaurant dishwasher told Anderson Cooper on CNN.

After rescuing these women from across the street, he was now losing sleep for an even larger purpose. What he had seen and done had changed his vision. [You can read the story on CNN here]
I am not suggesting we should lose sleep. In fact, most people I know need to get more sleep. Americans don't sleep enough, and television, smart phones, and worries contribute to that unsettling trend. But if losing sleep is a phrase we use to describe what we give our attention to and what we yearn to have solved, then Charles Ramsey has found a better way to lose sleep. I have seen it happen time and again. When a person has their eyes open to the real needs of others around them - Jesus calls these others our neighbors - then their attention is forever changed. The way we see the world is different, like the Samaritan in Luke 10.
I've been sitting and learning from Epworth folks for a project for school about the dreams of our leaders. One person told me that they were now dreaming about the future of the church more than ever because of the new things they had seen and were doing. This is so true. What we see is supposed to change what we dream about.
I am dreaming for Epworth because I have seen what happens here. I'm dreaming of a future so bright we cannot make out all of the details, just yet. I don't know exactly what is to come, but I pray you will join me in dreaming and doing to make great things happen. Grace and Peace, Scott

Permanent link to this article: http://methoblog.com/3_0/2013/05/a-better-way-to-lose-sleep/

May 08 2013

Reflections on the The Word and World: Career Day

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May 8, 2013

Original post at http://dscotthagan.blogspot.com/2013/05/career-day.html

Paul writes to the church in Philippi to share his current status, for he was suffering in prison, and to say that he longed to see them face to face, again. He goes on to lift up persons as examples of faith for the believers who would read his letter to follow. After referring to Jesus, Timothy, and Epaphroditus, Paul gets around to his own life in the third chapter. He describes the career he made for himself and then uses choice language that is translated into English as rubbish or refuse to say that all of the career he made for himself before encountering Jesus was worth nothing. (read more here)
Since 'retiring' from a career in college basketball, I have thought about the ways in which my path was similar to Paul's. While Paul reached the pinnacle of excellence at an early age and was admired by his peers, my career trajectory was slightly lower as a junior college coach and then a Division II coach. I did have the chance to help Georgia Tech win a couple of championships, and spent a couple of summers working in the NBA and for the Olympic Dream team. Yet, like Paul, the accomplishments of those days pale in comparison to the work Christ has called me to now.

Teresa, Quinley and Leighton

Blaire and Leslie

On Monday evening, a couple of Epworth's very best walked across the stage as they graduated from Columbus State University. The names Blaire Delane Morris and Quinley Augusta Russell were called out as their families looked on with pride. Their stories are awesome and they deserve a moment to bask in the glory of such an accomplishment, as do all of the graduates this year who will be celebrated in the coming weeks.
It was on this same Monday night that my father, Dan Hagan, came into town to visit. He was speaking at Sam and Jack's elementary school for their Career Day. This is the fourth or fifth time he has done so and each year he returns more excited to talk about science, bugs, and the neat things he has been able to do. But, how do we reconcile a successful career with Paul's words about counting it as refuse?
I think Paul was right. Our careers and accomplishments are rubbish compared to the glory of knowing Christ. But, I think we have misread Paul if we come away thinking that our careers cannot be used for the glory of Christ. My father is a Christian who happens to be a biologist. Blaire and Quinley are Christians who are now college graduates, both of whom have the chance to take the past and leverage for the Kingdom. God calls us to use all that we have to be about his Kingdom agenda: bringing healing to broken places, putting the world back together and sharing the amazing love that was first shared with us. I think if Jesus had ever spoken at a Career Day he would have shared those very ideas like he did in the parable of the sheep and goats in Matthew 25.
May we all make such accomplishments be our goals, as well. Grace and Peace, Scott

Permanent link to this article: http://methoblog.com/3_0/2013/05/career-day/

May 03 2013

Reflections on the The Word and World: The Holy Spirit

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May 3, 2013

Original post at http://dscotthagan.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-holy-spirit.html

A friend joked recently about me coming into their class to help teach on the Holy Spirit, implying they needed help because the topic is so elusive. They were right, for sure. It is hard to get your arms around something called Spirit or Ghost!

The Spirit portrayed as a
dove, on a stained-glass
window in Epworth's Sanctuary.

The Apostle's Creed we recite is built upon the three parts of our we understand God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The teachings of the church since its earliest days center on the three-part nature of God, which we call the Trinity. We use such language to get our minds around how God has operated through history and how the Bible teaches us about God. In truth, most of what we know about God relates to the first two persons of the Trinity. We believe God to be like a powerful, creative, loving Father. This is the first person. We know God as humble, miracle-working, obedient, suffering Savior. This is the second person. Yet, we know little of the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit.
If you went searching a textbook you'd find that the Holy Spirit functions to reveal truth to us. The Holy Spirit is critical to the relationship we have with Christ. The Holy Spirit is also the power of God to bring us together as one, which is the highest goal of God for all believers. Basil of Caesarea, who lived in the 300's, wrote this:

All who are in need of sanctification turn to the Spirit; all those seek him who live by virtue, for his breath refreshes them and comes to their aid in the pursuit of their natural and proper end. Capable of perfecting others, the Spirit himself lacks nothing. He is not a being who needs to restore his strength, but himself supplies life; he does not grow by additions, but possesses abundant fullness; he abides in himself, but is also present everywhere. The source of sanctification, a light perceptible to the mind, he supplies through himself illumination to every force of reason searching for the truth. By nature inaccessible, he can be understood by reason of his goodness; filling all things with his power, he communicates himself only to those who are worthy of him, not by sharing himself according to a unique measure but by distributing his energy in proportion to faith.

In addition, I offer one small story of how the Spirit is working this week. I was invited to attend a breakfast meeting about a pressing need at Open Door for volunteers to help with childcare during the amazing Circles meetings that now happen every Thursday night. This is where lives are being changed forever for the good. Well, I committed Epworth people to help this week - they needed us badly! As the meeting was ending, I get an email on my phone from Julie asking if I could watch the boys so she could volunteer at Open Door on Thursday because Becky Britton has sent out an email seeking help. But, no one from Open Door knew Becky was asking - she just knew of the need and was trying to help. So while we were meeting, there were others are work to meet the need! Some could explain this away as coincidence. I say otherwise. The Spirit of God is working for good in and around us. May we have eyes to see it.

So, I would have gladly obliged my friend but am teaching the Young Adults class right now as we move through the Gospel of Luke each week. I left him to fend for himself. Except he wasn't by himself, was he? That is the very essence of the role of the Holy Spirit. We are not alone. Grace and Peace, Scott

Permanent link to this article: http://methoblog.com/3_0/2013/05/the-holy-spirit/

Apr 24 2013

Reflections on the The Word and World: What Fills in the Gaps? [version 2.0]

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April 24, 2013

Original post at http://dscotthagan.blogspot.com/2013/04/what-fills-in-gaps-version-20.html

Two weeks ago I asked, What fills in the gap for our congregation's dreams for the future? I want to press the question to a more personal level: What fills in the gaps in your life? Things don’t connect all the way, plans don’t work out, little fractures become larger ones. Often external forces, caused by others or by accident, push our plans off track and create gaps we never expected. What matters is the ‘substance’ that we use to fill in the gaps. It is true for organizations and true for our personal lives.
Certainly no one predicted the events of last week. Those runners, exhausted from 26 miles of running, did not expect the explosions that maimed and killed. The onlooking families and fans did not expect two from their midst to deposit such devastating packages underfoot. Yet, at 2:50 PM all of our stories were suddenly different. The same could be said of the people of West, Texas in the moments before the deadly accident there. Things happen. We do not plan for them, but things happen nonetheless.
Here is a question for those of us watching from Columbus. What fills in the gaps that these events leave in us? How do we fill in the blanks? Many of us followed along on Friday evening to see how the pursuit of the younger Tsarnaev would turn out. But when that story is over and we are left with unanswered questions, what is our response? Some of us jump to conclusions: it must be their family origins, their faith, or lack thereof. Some even appear to be reduced to hate. Is this the best we can do?

When bad things happen what do you allow to occupy the new space created? When something or someone is taken from you, what do you allow to fill in the gap? When we don't know all of the answers - and we rarely ever do - what do we allow to take the place of the space in between? Do we extend grace? Are we forgiving? Do we assume the worst in others or consider another explanation? Jesus forgave a woman caught in sin, saw something in rag-tag fishermen worthy of a second chance, and even forgave those who tortured and killed him because he knew they did not know what they were really doing. No one expected Jesus' story to turn out the way it did. No one saw Easter coming like it did.
Gaps happen. May we continue to fill in the gaps that life causes with substances worthy of the high calling we have as children of God. Faith, hope, and love would be a good place to start. Grace and Peace, Scott

Permanent link to this article: http://methoblog.com/3_0/2013/04/what-fills-in-the-gaps-version-2-0/

Apr 16 2013

Reflections on the The Word and World: Heroes Move Ahead

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April 16, 2013

Original post at http://dscotthagan.blogspot.com/2013/04/heroes-move-ahead.html

Our prayers go out to the victims, families, and citizens affected by the attacks in Boston Monday. Like the first disciples before Easter morning, afraid and confused in the wake of the crucifixion, may they receive peace from the God of Peace who makes things right and offers hope in dark places. Let us pray they are comforted and that they know they are loved.

We watched and followed the news of Monday's attacks on innocent people with a sense of unrest and concern. I encourage all of us to pray for the victims and the perpetrators. Whoever committed such crimes is in need of our prayers and Jesus specifically commanded us to pray for our enemies and those who would do us harm (read Matthew 5:39-48).
People turn to each other in the face of tragedy and more than ever they are going online for both news, comfort and explanations. One of the popular posts on Monday referred to a quote from Mr. Rogers that said, "When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.'" He is right. It might have taken only one or a handful of people to commit the destruction, but the streets were immediately filled with those who were moving, or even running, to help. Heroes Move Ahead.
Such movement is not limited to tragic events, or those that fill the news channels. Bud Carroll is a hero to the lives he has changed in Hong Kong for five decades by living out the Good News. Meg Olive, who moved back home when she never thought she would, is a hero for her efforts to love and lead Columbus families out of poverty. Our church has silent heroes who gather on the last Thursday of every month to serve a meal to our neighbors. We have women and men who visit hospital rooms, write cards and make calls to check on those who otherwise can be forgotten too easily. Our pews are filled with quiet heroes who leave the sanctuary and move out to serve and love as God has instructed.
Epworth is filled with movers. Not all of us are the movers and shakers as the world defines it, but everyone of us is called to move to where the need is and offer some aid. That is what heroes do. Heroes move ahead. God wants you to be a hero. Get up and get moving.
Grace and Peace, Scott