My Mission, Should You Choose to Accept It - Sermon from Jan. 24, 2016.

“My Mission, Should You Choose to Accept It”
Sermon, Year C, Epiphany 3, January 24, 2016
Plymouth United Church of Christ, Eau Claire, WI
©2016 Rev. David J. Huber
Focus Scripture: Luke 4:14-21



I think we have in the way that this passage is presented, and where it is in Luke’s gospel, a beautiful construction by the writer, to place this here. Last week we read out of John’s Gospel Jesus was at a wedding in Cana at which he turned water into wine, which in John’s Gospel is Jesus’ first sign or declaration of who he is. And now here in Luke’s Gospel we get Jesus’ first public declaration of who he is. Jesus is saying things about himself. When he is at the synagogue to read from the scroll of Isaiah, he has already been baptized, had his forty days in the wilderness to be tempted, has come home and been teaching in his home territory. But then he comes to his home town, his home synagogue in Nazareth, and declares himself, as we read in the passage.

He’s not teaching in this moment. He’s proclaiming who he is. He’s setting his agenda, declaring his mission, and setting it against the scriptural tradition of his people - the Jewish people. He reads from the prophet Isaiah, one of many texts in the Jewish scriptures that looked forward to a messiah. The prophets offered challenge and calls to repentance when they were written, as well as warnings about a bad future, vt that also looked ahead to a time when God would continue to act on behalf of the people, including sending a messiah. And Jesus takes these words on himself:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.”

Then he does a sort of first century Palestine version of the mic drop. He rolls the scroll up, hands it off, and sits down, saying, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Jesus is firmly in his Jewish tradition here. He also announces that he is not only *in* in the tradition, but is the fulfillment, or at least one fulfillment, of that tradition. He is doing something new, but he is doing it in line with the tradition.

So when I said earlier that I think this is a beautiful way for Luke to begin Jesus’ public ministry in this gospel, the beauty that I see is in what Jesus’ mission is. How Luke establishes Jesus’ mission right here at the first, when he sets his agenda. It’s a mission of compassion. A mission of attention to individuals. A mission which says that each person matters. A mission that is not to support the position of the political and the religious powerful, but to minister to the human needs of all, wherever we are in life’s stations, but especially toward those who are powerless. To remind people that he is coming to the powerless. That there is, in God, this call to pay attention to the least. So the mission of Jesus is to bring the good news to the poor, ot proclaim release to the captives, to proclaim recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. Jesus is there to turn things upside down. Not upside down through violent revolution, civil war, military take over, or political coup. He’s not looking to replace people in positions of power with himself, because he knows that doing so would not change the systems of oppression, it would merely replace who the oppressors are.

This is a turning upside down by boldly stating that the poor, the blind, the captives, the oppressed also have the God-given right to exist. That they also have a story to hear. They are to be noticed, to be recognized, to be known, and to be favored. That God is watching over them as well, and that they also just as much as anyone else deserve God’s attention, and deserve the attention of the powerful. That’s a radical nature of how Jesus introduces himself here.

“I have come to minister to all people, but especially to the least. To those who often get ignored by the religious and political systems.” Jesus says he has come on behalf of people. Not a nation, a tribe, or other group identity. But for individuals, for all people.

Jesus and God care about individuals. About each of us, personally and uniquely.

In the letter from Paul to the Corinthians that we read is a parallel to what Jesus said:

“On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.”

That also is part of the mission of Jesus that he announces here. Then Jesus ends with these words, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Today! Today it is fulfilled. Not some day this will be fulfilled. Or at the end of my life this will be fulfilled, or that we need to wait. It’s today! God’s realm is today. Jesus’ presence is today. What God is doing is today.

I think these are good words up against those who have said over the centuries, before Jesus’ time, and words the church has too often said since Jesus’ time, said to the poor and the suffering, the slaves and outcast, the marginalized and oppressed, “We can’t relieve your suffering today. You just have to wait until you die, and then you’ll go to heaven and everything will be great because today we need you as a slave, or we don’t have the resources to lift you out of poverty, or to give you healthcare…” or whatever the excuses may be. might be. To lift up only a vision of some future time of goodness is to completely miss Jesus’ words here that it is fulfilled today.

Jesus says against the thinking that people have to wait, that the good news begins today. It is centered in this life, in the lives of people, of real people. The people around us, and also us! The God who is present in our lives watches over us today. Gives us the spirit today. Offers us hope today. Loves us today. I hope you all can feel that. Feel some sense of God’s presence in our lives because God is active in the here and now. I hope that you feel that. And I hope also, or I like to imagine anyway, that the people when Jesus was reading from the scroll of Isaiah that they felt that morning a shudder of hope in hearing the words. Or goosebumps of divine possibility. That there was some sense of energy in them that something has changed. Something significant has changed in the world and the way of God. Something is going to be different after this remarkable moment of Jesus’ proclamation of the good news. I hope that we can feel that today as well.

And I know also that too often the world around us seems to awfully different from God’s vision. Horrible things happen around us. Wars going on. Political fighting. Terrorism and fear of terrorism. Domestic abuse. The nastiness that you might see in on-line comments. Poverty and homelessness. Shootings in schools and elsewhere. Bombings. Natural disasters. People embezzling from those they are charged to be watching over. Houses burning down. There is a lot going on that make it very easy to forget that we have a loving God who is present, and alive, who loves. So it is good to go back to scripture. To continue to read our story, and to come together on Sundays to hear again our story that is embedded in the scriptures, and also the story that we continue in our lives and the story of history. Good to come together to remind us who we are and whose we are. Like watching over and over a favorite movie, or re-reading a favorite book, or re-hearing a favorite story. To remind us of God’s promises, even in the face of a world that seems to have forgotten or refuses - or is afraid - to believe them.

Especially good to re-read this passage in which Jesus says who he is, and in which he says that it is fulfilled today. Jesus is with us. Jesus is present. And to remember that we are the recipients of that legacy as Jesus has called together his body, which is the Church. As Paul says, the Body of Christ, in which all our individual skills, gifts, passions are included. We are the recipients of Jesus’ legacy, and we, too, are bearers of the hope because we have the Spirit as well! The Spirit of God is upon us. That is one thing we proclaim in the church, that the Spirit of God is upon us and that we can be the proclaimers, and the freedom-givers, the hope-bringings, the sight-giving. That it is fulfilled in us as well. It is fulfilled as well through our work, our hospitality, through our love, through our invitations extended to others to share in the good news, inviting others to hear the good news through hearing it and also by living it out.

Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.

Amen.

"Sell All You Own and Follow Me" - Sermon October 11, 2015.

“Sell All You Own and Follow Me”
Sermon, Year B, Proper 23, October 11, 2015
Plymouth United Church of Christ, Eau Claire, WI
©2015 Rev. David J. Huber
Focus Scripture: Mark 10:17-31, Amos 5:6-7,10-15

It says in here, “Sell all you own and give the money to the poor and then you will have riches in heaven; then come and follow me.”

Sell all you have and give it to the poor and then follow me.

There is a part of me that has always liked these words, when I came across them in high school. I thought, “Ha! There’s a prophetic voice! Tell those rich people. Yeah! Give it to ‘em!” Always liked those words, “Sell all you have and give it to the poor and then follow me.”

But these words also haunt me, because I know they are being spoken to me. Not just to the “rich”, whoever that might be, but to me as well. They haunt me because I know I am not living them. I have not at any point in my life sold all that I have and given the money to the poor. I’ve given to the poor, and to charities, and to many good causes, but I’ve yet to sell everything on their behalf.

So I like these words, but they are also a challenge and a haunting because I know that I cannot live up to them. Or I haven’t lived up to them, anyway. What Jesus does here is what he often does: he offers an extreme vision of God’s realm. We can say the words are hyperbolic, but that might let us off the hook too easily. Jesus is offering this extreme vision of God’s realm, and that’s what Jesus does. He likes to push and push and push the boundaries and expand the margins to push us out of our comfortable places to at least get us to think differently about how we live, how we relate to the world.

So Jesus is pushing on the commandments here. The Commandments, that list of ten that God gave to Moses. They are certainly important. He doesn’t say that they aren’t important or that we should forget about the ten commandments. Following and keeping them is a good thing. The commandments are very much a way to keep society intact and functioning. They offer us a way to show love to our neighbors by at least not negatively affecting them. When they were given to Moses, they were a people who had just escaped hundreds of years of slavery. They were in the wilderness on the way to the Promised Land, ready to form a new society, a new way of living together, so the commandments very important in forming that community about not negatively affecting your neighbors. Don’t murder, don’t steal, don’t covet. And don’t bear false witness. That’s one we don’t often talk about, bearing false witness, but I have thought a lot about it the past couple years. Don’t bear false witness. I’m thinking about it because I see it all over. It seems to be a commandment forgotten far too often, especially by people of faith. I see it in online dialogues and political discourse. Attacking the person instead of an idea, or attributing false motives to a person’s thoughts. Building strawmen. strawmen. Taking things to an extreme. Basically lying about each other, or even themselves, to make a point. I would like to see us stop that. A lot less bearing false witness. We’d be a lot more polite and more gentle.

The Commandments are very important, and we don’t want to let them go. But Jesus is also telling this man who comes to him, who says that he has kept all the commandments, Jesus says, basically, “that’s not enough. It’s good, but not quite enough.” The man says “I have kept them from my youth” to which jesus says, “But you lack one thing.” You may have kept the commandments, but you have missed something. The commandments are a beginning, a minimum, but not enough,. “You have to go beyond”, Jesus is saying. “Don’t just not hurt your neighbor, but go out and help and heal. Be a positive force for your neighbor. Show them love and mercy and gratitude.”

And maybe Jesus is also telling this young man that however much he feels that he has kept the commandments since his youth, that maybe at some level his wealth is a sign that he hasn’t kept to them at the level he thinks, or at the level that Jesus would prefer. That maybe this man’s wealth, at least at some level, a theft of some sorts from the poor, from his neighbors, and it ought to be given back.

We had in the reading from the prophet Amos, “Don’t just avoid evil, but seek what is good.” Seek what is good. “And let the first be last, and let the last be first”, Jesus says. “Leave all behind for the sake of the good news,” he says.

That is easier said than done, I know. I’ve not done it. I’ve not left everything behind to follow Jesus. I still have possessions. A place to live. I do, however, find some consolation in my failures in Jesus’ statement that no one is good but God alone. There is no expectation that we have to god-like. We should strive for God’s realm, and strive to be better followers of Jesus. But God knows we’re not perfect. So God offers us grace to rely on, to fall back on. To know that in our imperfection, God doesn’t stop loving us. Even if we don’t fulfill everything the way we should, God still loves us. God is still there for us.

So we are not going to hear Jesus’ words and sell all we own and follow him. At least, I don’t think most normal people would. I’ve not known many, probably none, who have done that. Maybe the men and women who join monasteries or other religious orders with vows of poverty do that. But we’re not going to sell all we own. Especially here in Wisconsin. You can feel the change in the weather already here. How do you sell all you own and yet still survive the winter? Do we all also have to move to the desert or a tropical place where we don’t have to worry about winter cold? You can see how truly difficult it is to survive winter without a place to live if you join us in the street ministry during the winter. Without clothing, shelter, food, it’s really difficult to survive. It is life-draining to be homeless. So I don’t think Jesus is saying to make ourselves homeless. You can also come Saturday to make the meal with us at Community Table, and be in contact with people who aren’t necessarily homeless, but who do have a lack of food. Jesus is not saying that we should go hungry. Join us and see how difficult it is to go on in life when you have a shortage of food, even if you do have a place to live.

So Jesus isn’t saying be homeless, or go hungry, or put yourself into financial bindings. But he does like to push us out of our comfort zone, and to think about what it might look like if we were closer to what he asks, if we were more generous. What would it look like to sell all we own? What would it look like to sell half of what we own, and give it to the poor? What would it look like to reduce your lifestyle at some level, by a quarter, say, or maybe even to just buy less and get out of the consumption ratrace and have more left to give away.

Or maybe wealth and riches are not your issues. I know you all in this congregation, and I don’t know of anyone in this church who suffers from too much wealth. As a church we don’t, and as individuals we don’t, not as we normally think of “the rich”. So maybe this is not a problem in this congregation. And we can hear Jesus’ words and then question not about money, but “What is it that I cling to that keeps me from following Jesus more fully?” My sense of self, my ideas about how things ought to be. It could be ideas, things, people, fear. What is it that I cling to that keeps me from fully following Jesus? That’s a good question to ask. And then give that up, and find riches in heaven as you follow Jesus. Then after you’ve gotten rid of that one, maybe you find something else that gets in the way, so let go of that. Then maybe something else. It’s a journey. Not something that we perfect, and certainly don’t perfect in one moment, but a constant journey of shedding or letting go of what gets in the way, and growing stronger in discipleship and growing closer to God and Jesus’ way. That involves doing more ministry, like helping with the street ministry, or going to the Community Table. Or letting go of the fear and anxiety of being invitational: invite someone to the Halloween party, to introduce people to the people in this congregation, and maybe even introduce them to God.

It’s not that we must be perfect today. We are all on a journey, that is a life-long journey. We never truly complete it. We never achieve perfection, but do it one day at a time. Letting go of one thing at a time, moving closer to joining in Jesus’ footsteps. A life-long journey, one day at a time, trusting that God’s grace never condemns but is always lifting up, forgiving, sending a Spirit of renewal and new life, continually saying, “Keep following me”. To keep growing, to keep following, and to keep making the world a more loving world.

Amen.

"Faith is a Verb" - sermon from August 30, 2015.

This is getting posted many months late, but I like it enough that I thought it should still be shared even given the lateness. May you find a blessing in this sermon!

“Faith Is a Verb”
Sermon, Year B, Proper 17, August 30, 2015
Plymouth United Church of Christ, Eau Claire, WI 
©2015 Rev. David J. Huber
Focus Scripture: James 1:17-27, Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23





Over the last couple of years I’ve been slowly growing more and more into the thought of not liking the word “Christian” so much as a description, or a way to talk about the faith that I proclaim or how I think of myself. Though that is what I am. But there is something about the word that is not as active as I would like it to be. To me, the word implies that the importance is on what I believe. THe precepts, the doctrine, the faith claims. 

But the first Christians did not call themselves by that name. They called themselves “Followers of Jesus”. Or disciples or apostles of Jesus, or most commonly they called themselves “followers of The Way”. Words that described how they lived. The key words being “follower” or “disciple” are action words. Words about how they lived, not about the belief of abstract concepts. To be a follower of Jesus is to be a verb. 

To live the way that Jesus would have us live.

There is the old question of, “If you were to be put on trial for being a Christian (or being a follower of Jesus) would there be enough evidence to convict you?” 

Something to think about Would you life *show* what you believed? Were the hungry fed, were the prisoners released, were the suffering cared for, were the poor championed, did you treat your neighbors with love and fairness, did you share the good news and invite people to share in the good new with you, did you deal ethically with people at work and in the rest of your life, did you offer forgiveness, did you bridle your tongue, did you watch what you say, did you strive to lift up and not to destroy, did you live humbly, meekly, peacefully?

That’s why I like to say that I am a follower of Jesus, or a disciple of Jesus. I am trying to live like him. I want to live like Jesus did. And I certainly don’t do that well by any means. I stumble and fall and make mistakes, as we all do. But it is a striving to be more like Jesus wants us to be. 

The writer of the letter of James is saying here that it is not enough to believe, to accept a set of belief statements, or to make intellectual assent to whatever you are “supposed” to believe. One has to live it. Go beyond the believing and live it. 

Later in the letter, and we will read these words next week, he says that faith without works, he says, is dead. Not in this passage, but elsewhere in the letter. You’ll hear that in a few weeks.

He did say in this passage: “But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.”

He goes on to say, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”

For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror.”

It’s to be a disciple. A lived faith.

That’s what the church is about, discipleship. Everything we do is related to discipleship in one way or another, but this coming year we’re focusing on it specifically, with our discipleship plans and ideas. Connect - Grow - Love. To connect with others, to grow in faith, and to live the faith through acts of love. We’re focusing on it specifically this year.

And I want to mention that over the years, some people have wanted to remove this letter from the Bible or even to keep it out when the early Christians were deciding which ones to put into the New Testament. Martin Luther wasn’t a fan of it. 

The reason being that this letter could be twisted into ways to turn our faith, to turn being a Jesus follower, into a never-ending attempt to earn God’s love by doing good works, and losing God’s love if we do bad works. That could be twisted, and has been twisted, into toxic religion of fear and anxiety. 

But that is not the intent of the letter at all. The intent is to say, “Okay, now you’ve been baptised, you’ve made a faith claim, you’ve accepted God’s unconditional love: now go spread it to others! Don’t keep it yourself, don’t rest on your laurels, don’t think you’re done.” You have the salvation; but Jesus has called us to work for the realm of God, so go do stuff. Do it with a sense of joy, because we all already have God’s love. We are all loved by God unconditionally. Show your gratitude by living the way Jesus wants you to. Align yourself with God’s vision. Follow where Jesus has gone. 

Jesus also said in the Gospel passage that it isn’t what goes into a person that defiles, it’s what comes out. What comes out, whether it be speech or action. Not about making sure you’re doing the proper rituals or following the rules to a T, with no regard how you live in community or toward others. But Jesus says it’s not failure to follow the rules or traditions that defile us, it’s what we say and do that can do it. As James said, “If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless.” 

Ouch. I say “ouch” because I know that applies to me. I don’t always bridle my tongue, and too many times have let it go very much unbridled in snarkiness, sarcasm, or just shutting down a conversation by shutting down the person.

So I made a New Year’s resolution coming into 2015 to bridle my tongue a lot better than I have been when I disagree with someone, or an idea, or see something that is so utterly ignorant it enrages me. Especially in online conversations where the consequences of unbridled tongue are much less, but in person as well. My heart, my spirit, were feeling the effects of the negativity. I think we see too much of that negative dialogue in our culture. Too much shouting and dehumanizing, and not enough conversation that leads somewhere helpful. We can disagree in positive ways; we can be angry in ways that don’t lash out to hurt others or demean or dehumanize; use that anger to build new ways of compassion instead of just destroying people.

I’ve not kept to that resolution like I’d like to. I’ve fallen. But I have faith that God loves me anyway, and that makes it easier to keep trying to live the way I want to live. That even if I fail, I don’t lose God’s love. God does not condemn me, God always forgives. 

I also know that when I misbehave, I know that it does not mean I’ve lost God’s love, but it does mean that when I am misbehaving, I make it impossible for others to see God’s love coming through me, because it isn’t. 

Being a Jesus follower really is about actions. Even if I wrote the most perfect four hundred page treatise proving the doctrine of the Trinity and believed every word of it, it’s worthless if I am not treating people, or the world, or my community, with respect and dignity.

Worthless if I don’t act like I believe it. Worthless if my belief has no positive impact on how I live as a disciple. 

So you have some opportunities to live your discipleship. 

Tuesday night you have a chance to be out doing and living discipleship: we’ll be serving watermelon and lemonade as part of our Tuesday night street ministry. This is a pretty low commitment, and not scary, opportunity. We will let the street ministry people be the ones in charge of praying with people, listening to their stories, helping them with water, food, clothing, and whatever needs they have. So you won’t have to do that. All you have to do is serve watermelon and lemonade, greet people with a smile, look them in the eye, tell them we’re doing this as an act of love and connection - there’s that word I’ve been using a lot lately! - with our community, and maybe chat a bit with them. It will expand your world, and that’s a good thing.

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God is to take care of widows and orphans - and in this case, people who are homeless. 

Another way is to become part of a pastoral care ministry. I’d love to see us have a group of a few people, or even a lot of people, who would live their discipleship through prayer: praying for this congregation, praying for Eau Claire. Praying that God send us the people God has designated for us, praying for the success of our ministry, praying for the strength of our fellowship, that we beacons of light and hope in the Chippewa Valley. It would also be connecting with people, but does not have to be physical: not visiting per se, but I’d like to see each member of this congregation receive a phone call or a letter every three months from someone just to say “I’m thinking of you today, people are praying for you”. It would include something I’d like to see: connecting with people a year after a death, be it a spouse or a child or a parent, to call or write them to say “I know the first anniversary after the death is coming up - please know that you are in my prayers and thoughts.” 

It’s a way for us to connect more closely within our fellowship - either by being the intentional connector, or being connected to. 

And it’s a group that would never have to have a meeting, or a chairperson, or an annual report, or a secretary. It would take some reporting back to the office just to let us know what you’ve done, but that’s it. 

If you’d like to be part of this ministry - being doers of the word - please drop the card in your bulletin in the offering plate. 

It could include sending birthday cards, anniversary cards, get well cards. I’ve been sending birthday cards to people since I came here, but I’m thinking that would be good for someone or someones else to do - and I could send out cards on the anniversaries of your baptisms! I think that would be pretty cool, and a reminder to us who have been baptized that we don’t have just birthdays, but we also have re-birthdays. A reminder that on such and such a date, you took a vow (or perhaps later confirmed vows made on your behalf) to live by the Way of Jesus. 

And today we celebrate a baptism! The entry of a person into the fellowship of the Church. That outward and visible sign of an inward invisible grace. A death to the self, and rebirth into the body of Christ that is the Church. Baptism is always a beginning of a journey. Whether it be a baby or an adult being baptised. It is the beginning of a journey into a life of faith. And just as the act of baptism is outward and public with the application of water and the words we speak, so also our faith is to be lived outward and public through acts of generosity, compassion, and love done in Jesus’ name as disciples. 

So I challenge you to consider if the Spirit is leading you to help on Tuesday night or maybe on the pastoral care team. I also ask that as we come to the baptism today, pay attention to the words that we are saying. Pay attention to the words that we are saying in the baptismal covenant. Be mindful to what is being said, and ask yourself, “Have I been living up to that?” And don’t ask it in a way so that you beat yourself up for not living up to it. I never want people, and I don’t think God wants people, to beat ourselves up for making mistakes. Know that absolutely and for sure God loves you, God forgives you, and you always have God’s grace. But admit to where you could do better in living up to those vows, and let it change your heart. 

And see where that takes you in your discipleship. See where that takes you as a follower of Jesus.

Amen.

Just having some fun tonight - a bit of levity in stressful times. A simple "share of yourself" kind of game.

Everything is so serious on Facebook these days. Let's have a little fun.
Three names I go by
1. David (and *NEVER* Dave- not ever; nope, not in any way, ever ever ever; either David, or something that is entirely unlike it, except for #3 below)
2. Hubes
3. Dare

Three places I lived
1. Harlem
2. Morningside Heights
3. Manoa Valley

Three places I have worked
1. McKinsey & Co.
2. Lehman Brothers
3. A number of wonderful congregations, including Plymouth (Eau Claire) and Plymouth (Brooklyn) and Central Union UCC and Broadway UCC

Three things I love to watch
1. Fish and birds and other wildlife
2. Sunrises and sunsets
3. Blacklist

Three places I have been
1. The Janesville GM Plant Manager's private bathroom
2. Mercy Hospital, Janesville
3. "The zone"

Three things I love to eat
1. Foie gras (and any liver, whether chicken, duck, monkfish, lamb, etc.)
2. Shellfish of any kind
3. My mom's rhubarb pie

Three people I think will respond
1. Sloeberry "John Smith" Beltpenhammer-Fruitdrinkgorer
2. Gatorade Bill
3. Susan "Porterhouse" Swivelbottomthistleboor

Three favorite drinks (not water)
1. Coffee
2. Tea
3. Sake (drier the better)

Three things I am looking forward to:
1. Festival of Homiletics (not sure I'm going, but I'm hoping to!!!)
2. MADD camp
3. Having my lungs removed in a blender/surry accident

Now here is what you're supposed to do. Please don't spoil the fun. Copy and paste the blank version below in your status with your answers. Don't forget to copy a blank copy in your comments for other people to copy.

Everything is so serious on Facebook these days. Let's have a little fun.
Three names I go by
1.
2.
3.
Three places I lived
1.
2.
3.
Three places I have worked
1.
2.
3.
Three things I love to watch
1.
2.
3.
Three places I have been
1.
2.
3.
Three things I love to eat
1.
2.
3.
Three people I think will respond
1.
2.
3.
Three favorite drinks (not water)
1.
2.
3.
Three things I am looking forward to:
1.
2.
3.
Now here is what you're supposed to do. Please don't spoil the fun. Copy and paste the blank version below in your status with your answers.
Don't forget to copy a blank copy in your comments for other people to copy.