We moved to Northside Church seven years ago. Here are some helpful “Buckhead Driving Rules” for those new to the community.

• Speed limit signs are mere suggestions.
• Blinkers are optional.
• Peachtree Road is a 4 lane street divided into 6 lanes.
• “No Turn on Right” does not apply to YOU.
• Horns work better than brakes.
• The bumping sounds you hear are lane dividers.
• Our zip codes are exempt from the hands-free, cell phone law.
• Northside Parkway from Howell Mill to Paces Ferry is known as “The Quarter Mile of Death.”
• Pot holes serve as speed bumps.
• Neighborhood lanes make great shortcuts.
• Others tailgate, you draft.
• The car in the next lane cost 6 figures.
• Traffic is light from 2:00 a.m. to 4:00 a.m.
• Do not play “Chicken” with an Amazon delivery van.

The good news is Buckhead traffic will inspire your prayer life and make you cry out to God!

Be still, and know that I am God;

I will be exalted among the nations,

I will be exalted in the earth.

Psalm 46:10 (NIV)

Breathe.

Inhale through the nose 4 seconds.

Hold the breath for 7 seconds.

Exhale through the mouth 8 seconds.

The ancient 4/7/8 discipline relaxes body, mind, and soul. Breaths calm, heartbeats slow, and muscles relax.

Baptize the breathing exercise with sacred significance. Memorize the first words of Psalm 46:10: “Be still, and know that I am God.” Repeat the phrase while inhaling, holding, and exhaling. Claim the space as holy ground and recognize the moment as divine epiphany.

Experience inspiration with its dual meaning of inhalation and encouragement.

Experience enthusiasm with its dual meaning of divine passion and Godly zeal.

Incorporate the spiritual discipline into daily routine.

Breathe.

Inhale through the nose 4 seconds.

Hold the breath for 7 seconds.

Exhale through the mouth 8 seconds.

“Be still, and know that I am God.”

This Sunday, June 16, we observe Father’s Day. It is the fourth most popular greeting card day of the year according to Hallmark. Every dad KNOWS that our special day ranks far beneath Mother’s Day.

According to the snopes.com web site, Mother’s Day boasts the largest number of long-distance phone calls annually. Father’s Day records the largest number of COLLECT calls placed during the year.

My sister and I carefully planned Mother’s Day gifts during our childhood. Father’s Day was a no-brainer. My dad ALWAYS got Old Spice cologne. If we were feeling especially generous, he got a gift set of Old Spice aftershave, Old Spice deodorant, and Old Spice talcum powder. Do you sense a theme here?

It’s funny—I cannot recall my dad ever actually WEARING Old Spice.

Another perpetual “can’t miss” gift for Father’s Day was a fashionable tie. Most dads own some “interesting” ties that their children hand-selected. Other gifts are even more creative.

I recall one such a memorable gift from my own son. He had gone on a church trip and spent his OWN money to buy his dear dad a special present. It was a gold and black vanity plate for my car that declared in large, bold letters: “PASTOR!”

I might not be the most patient of drivers. It’s better for my witness, our church, and the kingdom that no one knows my vocation when I’m on the road. I told my son him that I wanted to keep the special gift in my officer in order to view it all the time.

Fortunately, most fathers ascribe to the philosophy that “It is the thought that counts.” We cherish homemade gifts and cards; but sometimes you have GOT to wonder what your children were thinking!

“Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said, ‘Lord, teach us to pray.’” (Luke 11:1) Jesus taught his followers what we now know as the Our Father or the Lord’s Prayer.

Jesus taught the disciples a Model Prayer that informs all prayer. It’s so simple that young children recite it. It’s so rich that sanctified saints adore it. The Lord shows us how to pray at specific times and places along with all times and places.

Christ’s example provides a template for individual and corporate prayer. Disciples repeat the words in personal devotions, reflecting upon their meaning. Christians recite the prayer in communal worship, using the plurals of “our,” “us,” and “we.”

I learned the words by osmosis as a child in worship, and they still inspire and instruct. During a recent weekend, I recited the Lord’s Prayer multiple times in a 24-hour period at a funeral, wedding, Sunday morning worship services, a confirmation service, and personal prayer.

The New Testament provides two versions of the prayer:

• Matthew 6:9-15:         Contains the more familiar words that we use in worship
• Luke 11:2-4:               Recounts a shorter form of the prayer

The first-century church used a third version of the Lord’s Prayer. The Didache, which is a Greek word for Teaching, was written by second-generation church leaders. It described worship in Christian communities, including the Lord’s Prayer. This version adds the closing doxology “for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.”

Northside Church’s summer worship series is exploring the meaning of the Lord’s Prayer. Disciples continue to ask Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray.”

I graduated seminary with an immodest opinion of my preaching prowess. I imagined congregants hanging on my every word. The stirring homilies would save sinners, sanctify saints, and transform communities.

Four decades later I possess a more realistic estimation of homiletical results. I have witnessed congregants sleep through stirring sermons. Members have complimented and chastised me over words I never spoke. The Holy Spirit still speaks in, thru, and despite me.

I have developed the Bill Burch Sermon Accretion Theory. Accretion refers to the incremental accumulation of material over an extended period. Growth occurs unnoticed until one compares the past and present.

Our granddaughter accompanied us on a recent beach trip. We enjoyed building sand castles, using her plastic toys to form a base before drizzling the structure with watery sand. Most of the sand drops washed away; but some grains remained. The structure slowly rose.

Preaching sometimes feels like building a drip sandcastle. Progress occurs one drop, dribble, and drizzle at a time. Thanks be to our God who provides the water and sand.

The church celebrates its birthday on Pentecost Sunday, May 19. Acts 2 describes the Holy Spirit descending upon the assembled apostles. Christ fulfilled his promise of heavenly power, which enabled the church to make disciples of all nations.  

The United Methodist Hymnal contains An Invitation to the Holy Spirit. Let us make the prayer a part of our personal devotions this week.

O God, the Holy Spirit,

come to us, and among us;

come as the wind, and cleanse us;

come as the fire, and burn;

come as the dew, and refresh;

convict, convert, and consecrate

many hearts and lives

to our great good

and to thy greater glory;

and this we ask for Jesus Christ’s sake.

Amen.

I spoke at a high school baccalaureate service in the 1990s. Rather than a typical address, I brought a camo fanny pack used for deer hunting. I discussed the meaning of the pack’s contents, including a whistle, compass, knife, bandage, and lighter.

My best friend and fellow pastor, Glenn Ethridge, developed the idea into a creative series of Graduate Sunday sermons. He dressed up as different characters each May and shared Godly wisdom with the congregation’s seniors.

I decided to reborrow the idea at Northside Church. I have spoken to our high school seniors on the first Sunday of May wearing various guises:

• 2018    Camos and boots with my original hunting pack
• 2019    Two Atlanta Braves jerseys featuring a pro’s name and my own
• 2020    Suit and tie delivering a David Letterman Top 10 List
• 2021    1970s, 100% polyester, bright orange, leisure suit
• 2022    State Farm’s Mayhem with black suit, tie-bar, bruises, and bandages
• 2023    Top Gun’s Maverick flight suit

This year’s sermon is “Indiana Jones and the High School Graduation.” Check out the Northside Church’s social media platforms for videos starring yrs trly as Harrison Ford’s younger body double.

I hope you’ll join us onsite or online this Sunday, May 5 at the 9:00 Contemporary Service as we honor our seniors. Visit the church’s website for the live stream at www.northsideumc.org. The sermon will be archived for future viewing, too.

If Adventure has a name, it must be Buckhead Burch!

The 20^th century psychologist, Carl Jung, coined the word, “synchronicity.” The term refers to “meaningful coincidences” in life. An individual experiences profound significance in seemingly random events.

I wrote a pastoral letter that highlighted Jesus’ words in Matthew 11:28, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” The following Sunday’s anthem planned weeks ahead of time by the music team echoed the same passage. The next week a devotional from another source quoted the verse.

The world might call this happenstance. Christians experience a spiritual synchronicity that sees divine meaning in worldly coincidence. The Holy Spirit wanted to impress Christ’s words upon my heart.

“God-winks” occur on a daily basis for those with eyes to see and ears to hear; but we are a goal-oriented people who have no time to turn aside for burning bushes. The tyranny of the immediate blinds us to theophanies along the way.

Jesus called out to God in John 12:28-29, and the Lord answered. Some said they heard an angel speak. Others said it thundered. The crowd experienced the same event in two radically different ways.

Pay close attention to the coincidences of life. We might just spy the Holy Spirit hovering in the wings.

April showers bring May flowers.

My mother taught me this couplet in childhood. The meaning seemed obvious even to a little boy. Flowers need rain to grow.

According to the Internet, the source of all factual knowledge, the short poem originated in the 12^th century. Thomas Tusser included the verse in his collected works titled, A Hundred Good Points of Husbandry. I apologize, good reader, but I did not research the other ninety-nine points.

Tusser may have “borrowed” his rhyme from a passage in “The Canterbury Tales.” Chaucer wrote:

When in April the sweet showers fall
That pierce March’s drought to the root and all
And bathed every vein in liquor that has power
To generate therein and sire the flower.

I personally prefer Beverly Burch’s version to Geoffrey Chaucer’s verse!

Others seek deeper meaning in the words. We live in a fallen world where it rains on the just and unjust alike. God uses life’s storms to cultivate spiritual virtues. All sunshine a desert makes. We discover divine blessings grow in the aftermath of earthly torrents.

April showers bring May flowers; but do you know what May flowers bring? The Pilgrims!

May God grant appropriate measures of rain, sunshine, and flowers in our lives.     

I lived beside church cemeteries during my first two pastoral appointments. I often visited the graveyards, pausing to read the monuments. The tombstones inspired me to write my own epitaph, including:

• Gone But Not Forgotten Asleep in the Lord
• Beloved Husband, Father, and Nobel Prize Winner
• I Told You I Was Sick!

Regardless of the words they grave for me, one day I will not be. Even lines etched deep in granite will weather and fade over time; but I will not be forgotten. One will still know me by name. God’s children never perish.

John Donne wrote in this class poem, Death Be Not Proud: “One short sleep past, we wake eternally, and Death shall be no more: Death, thou shalt die.”

The apostle Paul declared in 1 Corinthians 15:55-57: “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!”

We celebrated the good news of the Resurrection on Easter Sunday. No tombstone marks Jesus’ grave. The first disciples discovered an empty tomb. The angelic proclamation echoes in our ears, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen, just as he said!”

Simply inscribe my name and the two customary dates on my gravestone. Place a comma rather than a period after the date of death.

Easter reminds us that death is not THE END but a new beginning for all who trust in the Lord.