When we think of heroes, we often think of people who gave their lives – sometimes literally – for the good of others. The kind of people that come to mind are people who, faced with the choice to lay it all on the line or walk away, choose the good of all over simply the good of themselves. Naturally, military heroes make it on our list. Firefighters and police officers who risk their safety in order to provide it for others usually make it, too.
But did you realize the story of Christ’s birth is also filled with heroes and sheroes?
While we may be tempted to adorn Christmas with warm, fuzzy thoughts depicting a simply glorious scene in Bethlehem that night, we’d be better off in the long run to see it for what it was, and let reality speak into our lives. What was the reality? The in-breaking of God into humanity in the person of Jesus Christ was the most revolutionary, rebellious, and scandalous event in history.
The prophecies foretelling Christ’s birth emphasized that this anointed One would have all the authority and power of God, that He would be a King above all Kings, and that his kingdom would never end. These words give us hope. But for the reigning authorities that existed before and during Christ’s birth, these words signaled a threat to their throne and kingdom. Those who followed this anointed One would be seen as guilty of insurrection, punishable by death.
Who were some of these heroes and sheroes?
Mary and Joseph. To say yes to God’s invitation to bring Christ into the world was to go against their self-interest, their family’s “name” in the community, and directly against the ruling Roman authorities. The personal challenge was tough enough without throwing in the political mess.
The Shepherds. For them to respond to the message of the angels put their livelihood in jeopardy, and their necks on the chopping block as they proclaimed what they heard and saw. All so that the community around them would hear the good news of the son of God’s birth.
The Magi. These guys saw the invitation in the stars and followed it, at great personal cost. By approaching Herod, they put themselves and the newborn’s life in danger. By not honoring the king’s wishes, and returning to their homeland by another way, they risked being hunted and killed by the roman soldiers. Yet their gift communicated great meaning to Mary and Joseph – and to all people everywhere – about the nature of this newborn king’s person and purpose.
John the Baptist. A distant cousin of Jesus, John’s proclamation of Jesus as the Lamb of God, the long-awaited Messiah, put his life at risk. He was so overwhelmed by what God was doing that he didn’t care about who his message offended – he was keenly focused on how his message would help those who were seeking after God. His boldness eventually caught up with him, and he was beheaded.
David, Chris, Dan and Kerry. These four guys could leave the life they had behind, and have a life of greater comfort. But instead, they have committed themselves to serving the community in which they were raised, in an effort to raise the community by helping its most vulnerable segment: the orphans. Their school is the only hope these kids have, and the feeding program we support gives them the calories needed to learn and grow. These guys are heroes.
Ray and Adaliah. Just blocks from their home in Tijuana, high ranking government officials were gunned down. Kidnappings are a normal occurrence, poor people holding other poor people for ransom. Human trafficking is right in their face, and the children of prostitution and rape are under their care. They have chosen to reside in an oppressive state just across our border so that the Kingdom of God can take root and grow. These two, along with the other servants of Deborah’s House are servants.
I guess what makes these people stand out is the contrast between them and what seems to be normative in our world. These folks have gone beyond Christian “niceness” and moved on to sacrifice. Their sacrifice is to not order their lives the way most people do – to go against the flow, to break free from the system(s) of this world – and to allow their footsteps to mirror Christ’s. It’s like they have caught on to something that is more compelling than the way they’ve left behind – some better has convinced them to shed their old ways for new ways, old clothes for new ones.
Felicitas and Perpetua lived in the third century in North Africa. They both converted to the Way of Christ and became sisters and dear friends. They were imprisoned for their faith. Felicitas was eight months pregnant. Perpetua nursed her newborn baby in prison. An edict made it unlawful for pregnant women to be killed, so the two stayed in there for awhile. Their families pleaded with them to renounce their faith and be released. They refused. Two days after Felicitas gave birth, they women were fed to the beasts in imperial games. They were said to have given each other a kiss of peace as they met their deaths together. Sheroes.
Basil of Russia is a saint of the Orthodox Church. He was quite a fool for Christ, walking around, barely clothed, looking the part of a vagrant and beggar. During the reign of the Russian tsar Ivan the Terrible, known for his iron-fisted leadership sprinkled with a little religiosity, people cowered in fear. As people were committing themselves to a vegetarian diet throughout Lent, Basil sent a bloody slab of beef before Ivan with a message: “Why abstain from meat when you are shedding the blood of your people?” Ivan didn’t lay a hand on Basil. Rather, he was said to have given gifts to Basil, who in return gave them to the poor. He went against the grain. He was a hero.
You are called to be a hero or shero. If you have accepted the God’s invitation to do life with Him by following the Way of Christ, then you have been given a mission. That mission is to be in the world but not of it. To be set apart. To wear a different wardrobe. To cultivate the fruit of the Spirit. To be different. To be a catalyst for the Kingdom right where you are. To not be driven by the winds of the world but by the breath of God. When you do these things, you are being heroic, because not too many people – even professing Christians – live, intentionally, as they understand Christ leading them.
But when we do, the world changes for the better. That’s incentive.
When we do, we discover our desire for a meaningful life is met. That’s a good deal.
When we do, we find joy and love and peace that we didn’t expect. That’s a great surprise.
When we do, we find ourselves becoming more whole, and we discover that those who we lovingly serve are becoming more whole, too.
When we do, we discover that sacrificing the ethic of this world for the Way of Christ was not much of a sacrifice at all, really, and we’d be the first to deny our heroism.
Do you want to see the world change? Do you want your deepest desires met? Do you want more love, joy, and peace in your life? Are you interested in becoming more whole, more “well”? Would you like to see those you love and serve more “well” as well?
Then make the decision to sacrifice the MO of our culture and pick up the Way of Christ. Be heroic.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Revolutionary Christmas: Beyond Words
Before his arrival, the word would get out: the Good News is coming.
When he came, the crowd would cheer his arrival: “The Son of God is here!”
Others would call out: “You are Lord and God!”
His message as he met the crowds was simple and powerful: The Kingdom was here. If people – ekklesia – would follow him, they would certainly be assured of peace, eventually for the whole world. If they would just have faith, like a faithful husband, they would experience everything Emmanuel – God with us – offered.
As he left, the masses wondered when the parousia – the presence – would return.
All of these commonly heard phrases in the first century referred, of course, to… Caesar, the ruling emperor (anointed by the gods) of the Roman empire.
Unless you’ve read up on first century Roman politics, this may come as news to you – that they stole all these words of Jesus and used them for their own purposes.
But that’s bassackwards, as my college choir director used to say… Jesus used the commonly known language of the Roman Empire to describe himself and his ministry. To create an immediate tension among his listeners. By referring to himself as Son of God, Son of Man, Lord, Savior, giver of the presence of God, the Christ (anointed one), the King of the Jews, he pushed his audience to answer some big questions: who is the real King, which is the real Kingdom, and what does it mean to pledge allegiance?
This line of questioning raised the hackle of those ruling the Jewish religion at that time. They were trying to keep the peace with Rome, and trying to keep themselves in power at the same time, enjoying all the luxuries their positions afforded them.
Jesus’ statements eventually caught the attention of the Roman authorities as well, especially when they caught wind of people referring to him as “King of the Jews” – a Rome-appointed king already existed over the land of Judea.
If Jesus simply said these things and then died, it wouldn’t really have amounted to much. In fact, lots of self-proclaimed Messiahs were popping up around that time. All of them fizzled out soon enough. Except Jesus.
Jesus was different. He was born of the Holy Spirit. He was born in the city the prophets predicted – Bethlehem – one of hundreds of prophecies that came true in this one person. His actions backed up his words. When he would speak about God’s salvation – making people whole again – he would follow it up with a miracle that restored people, usually by healing them – an act of His authority over all things sin and death.
His message of peace was backed up with words of forgiveness and expressions of grace. A woman “caught in the act” was forgiven and directed toward new life. Another woman who had been ostracized from her faith community because of continual bleeding was healed and restored to health and wholeness.
His message of hope in times of hopelessness was supported by his great act of hope in raising Lazarus from the dead on the very day all hope was totally and completely abandoned.
His own death symbolized a final sacrifice for those with eyes to see.
His resurrection provided confidence for all those who wondered if they could really believe in some form of life beyond the grave.
This Jesus was the One making such claims.
Rebellious words. Revolutionary cries in the face of a global super power that claimed to hold the answer to the world’s problems.
It took a certain kind of person to fully get the experience Jesus came to provide. It took a person who could look at the vision cast by the super power, contrast it with the reality of life, and make a scandalous observation: the super power isn’t super enough to deliver the world from the miry clay it’s stuck in.
This same special person would also have the capacity to take a look at Jesus’ words and life and take a huge leap of faith in declaring: this is the One who is worthy of my total allegiance.
This was a huge risk because their life was literally on the line. In that era, pledging allegiance to something other than the super power could lead to death – even on a cross.
Today, it still takes a special person to really get the full Jesus experience.
Because it still requires a person to assess all the claims of promises of every power which would like to be super in our lives. Claims of happiness, peace, and prosperity. That special person has the perspective to see clearly that these promises have not been fulfilled.
The same scrutiny is used by these special people to assess Jesus Christ, to see whether or not He is worthy of complete allegiance. These special people today take a huge risk, a leap of faith, in declaring their commitment to this Jesus.
It’s a huge risk because their life is still on the line. Not because some ruler (in the US, anyway) will cut their head off, but because to follow anything or anyone less than the Way God has shown us is to literally throw their lives away into the garbage dump, to use Jesus’ words.
I guess the question today, and everyday, is: are you that special kind of person who hears the revolutionary, rebellious, scandalous call of Jesus, and answers yes?
How are you answering yes? With your time? With your priorities? With your wallet? With your attention? In your relationships? Your sex life? Your devotional life?
As you say yes to this invitation, how will you choose to grow in your relationship with Christ in 2009? With whom will you gather to support and be supported as you walk in new ways? How will you give yourself to the mission to which God has called you?
This Christmas, as you give and receive gifts, may you accept the gift given in Christ’s invitation to you to follow with everything you’ve got, because everything matters much.
May you have ears to hear that Jesus’ call is still one of life and death – your life – and may you have sense enough and courage enough and faith enough to say yes.
When he came, the crowd would cheer his arrival: “The Son of God is here!”
Others would call out: “You are Lord and God!”
His message as he met the crowds was simple and powerful: The Kingdom was here. If people – ekklesia – would follow him, they would certainly be assured of peace, eventually for the whole world. If they would just have faith, like a faithful husband, they would experience everything Emmanuel – God with us – offered.
As he left, the masses wondered when the parousia – the presence – would return.
All of these commonly heard phrases in the first century referred, of course, to… Caesar, the ruling emperor (anointed by the gods) of the Roman empire.
Unless you’ve read up on first century Roman politics, this may come as news to you – that they stole all these words of Jesus and used them for their own purposes.
But that’s bassackwards, as my college choir director used to say… Jesus used the commonly known language of the Roman Empire to describe himself and his ministry. To create an immediate tension among his listeners. By referring to himself as Son of God, Son of Man, Lord, Savior, giver of the presence of God, the Christ (anointed one), the King of the Jews, he pushed his audience to answer some big questions: who is the real King, which is the real Kingdom, and what does it mean to pledge allegiance?
This line of questioning raised the hackle of those ruling the Jewish religion at that time. They were trying to keep the peace with Rome, and trying to keep themselves in power at the same time, enjoying all the luxuries their positions afforded them.
Jesus’ statements eventually caught the attention of the Roman authorities as well, especially when they caught wind of people referring to him as “King of the Jews” – a Rome-appointed king already existed over the land of Judea.
If Jesus simply said these things and then died, it wouldn’t really have amounted to much. In fact, lots of self-proclaimed Messiahs were popping up around that time. All of them fizzled out soon enough. Except Jesus.
Jesus was different. He was born of the Holy Spirit. He was born in the city the prophets predicted – Bethlehem – one of hundreds of prophecies that came true in this one person. His actions backed up his words. When he would speak about God’s salvation – making people whole again – he would follow it up with a miracle that restored people, usually by healing them – an act of His authority over all things sin and death.
His message of peace was backed up with words of forgiveness and expressions of grace. A woman “caught in the act” was forgiven and directed toward new life. Another woman who had been ostracized from her faith community because of continual bleeding was healed and restored to health and wholeness.
His message of hope in times of hopelessness was supported by his great act of hope in raising Lazarus from the dead on the very day all hope was totally and completely abandoned.
His own death symbolized a final sacrifice for those with eyes to see.
His resurrection provided confidence for all those who wondered if they could really believe in some form of life beyond the grave.
This Jesus was the One making such claims.
Rebellious words. Revolutionary cries in the face of a global super power that claimed to hold the answer to the world’s problems.
It took a certain kind of person to fully get the experience Jesus came to provide. It took a person who could look at the vision cast by the super power, contrast it with the reality of life, and make a scandalous observation: the super power isn’t super enough to deliver the world from the miry clay it’s stuck in.
This same special person would also have the capacity to take a look at Jesus’ words and life and take a huge leap of faith in declaring: this is the One who is worthy of my total allegiance.
This was a huge risk because their life was literally on the line. In that era, pledging allegiance to something other than the super power could lead to death – even on a cross.
Today, it still takes a special person to really get the full Jesus experience.
Because it still requires a person to assess all the claims of promises of every power which would like to be super in our lives. Claims of happiness, peace, and prosperity. That special person has the perspective to see clearly that these promises have not been fulfilled.
The same scrutiny is used by these special people to assess Jesus Christ, to see whether or not He is worthy of complete allegiance. These special people today take a huge risk, a leap of faith, in declaring their commitment to this Jesus.
It’s a huge risk because their life is still on the line. Not because some ruler (in the US, anyway) will cut their head off, but because to follow anything or anyone less than the Way God has shown us is to literally throw their lives away into the garbage dump, to use Jesus’ words.
I guess the question today, and everyday, is: are you that special kind of person who hears the revolutionary, rebellious, scandalous call of Jesus, and answers yes?
How are you answering yes? With your time? With your priorities? With your wallet? With your attention? In your relationships? Your sex life? Your devotional life?
As you say yes to this invitation, how will you choose to grow in your relationship with Christ in 2009? With whom will you gather to support and be supported as you walk in new ways? How will you give yourself to the mission to which God has called you?
This Christmas, as you give and receive gifts, may you accept the gift given in Christ’s invitation to you to follow with everything you’ve got, because everything matters much.
May you have ears to hear that Jesus’ call is still one of life and death – your life – and may you have sense enough and courage enough and faith enough to say yes.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Revolutionary Christmas: Be Scandalous
That day was not unlike many that preceded it except for the investigation team. John the
Baptist wasn’t doing his powerful preaching in the outskirts of the Temple. He didn’t fit there.
His message, his style, and his wardrobe was for an entirely different audience – one that was hungry, dying for hope, ready to give their lives to something worth living and dying for.
The investigation team from the Temple was on a mission to discover who this preacher was.
Was he the Messiah? Was he the long-anticipated Elijah, returning from his whirlwind tour of heaven? Was he a prophet?
John wasn’t happy to see them, and gave them an answer they could not have expected. He was the one prophesied about in Isaiah, the forerunner to the Messiah of God.
John was so impacted by the reality of the Messiah’s coming that his whole life reflected it. He wore weird clothes. He ate weird food. He preached a weird message. He was against the flow. His whole life was objectionable by many. He was scandalous.
He probably got some inspiration from his second cousin, Mary, the mother of Jesus.
Mary and Joseph had hopes for where their life would go. It involved a Chupah – the prayer cloth beneath which they would take their vows and even consummate their marriage.
But they never got the chance because God invited them into a scandal. The greatest scandal in history. A sex scandal no less.
Think about the core of the conversation that buzzed around Nazareth when Mary’s news started getting around. This was juicy stuff. And God orchestrated it.
In order for Mary and Joseph to say yes to God’s scandalous act of grace incarnate, they had to say yes to a host of other things as well: yes o humiliation; yes to misinterpretation; yes to broken relationships; yes to hurt feelings; yes to loneliness and fear. The list of difficult yes’s goes on and on.
But the most important thing they said yes to was God’s scandalous idea that God could dwell among us in the flesh. That God’s dream was bigger than theirs. That God’s plan would have greater impact than their plan. That God’s plan would ultimately be better for them, and better for all people that their plan.
To say yes to the scandal, to the revolution, was worth the struggle they would endure.
If you could go back in time and walk in their shoes knowing what you do know about how it all turned out, would you be up for it? It would be pretty cool to experience some of those miraculous things, wouldn’t it? You would, of course, do it knowing that it was going to work out incredibly great. You would probably say yes to the invitation to the scandal.
Do you realize, however, that being a Jesus follower is scandalous? Revolutionary? Rebellious?
How is your scandal going for you?
Not specific enough?
Okay, how’s your sex scandal going?
We live in a culture where sexuality has become so ordinary and commonplace that it is no longer treated as sacred, let alone as set aside for marriage.
So, I’m wondering, is your view of human sexuality scandalous in this world we live in?
What formed your view of sexuality? Until you have a clue as to the answer to that question, you and your view are not your own.
What is God’s call for your sexuality? How is it different than our culture’s? Is your way any different? Is it so Jesus-like that it may even be considered scandalous?
How about other areas of your life? What about you would others see as so obviously Jesus that they would say it’s scandalous, revolutionary, and rebellious against our cultural systems?
Mary and Joseph said yes in spite of all the struggles their yes implied. They said yes because they knew what was being offered. They said yes because they knew who was making the offer.
May it be so for you.
Baptist wasn’t doing his powerful preaching in the outskirts of the Temple. He didn’t fit there.
His message, his style, and his wardrobe was for an entirely different audience – one that was hungry, dying for hope, ready to give their lives to something worth living and dying for.
The investigation team from the Temple was on a mission to discover who this preacher was.
Was he the Messiah? Was he the long-anticipated Elijah, returning from his whirlwind tour of heaven? Was he a prophet?
John wasn’t happy to see them, and gave them an answer they could not have expected. He was the one prophesied about in Isaiah, the forerunner to the Messiah of God.
John was so impacted by the reality of the Messiah’s coming that his whole life reflected it. He wore weird clothes. He ate weird food. He preached a weird message. He was against the flow. His whole life was objectionable by many. He was scandalous.
He probably got some inspiration from his second cousin, Mary, the mother of Jesus.
Mary and Joseph had hopes for where their life would go. It involved a Chupah – the prayer cloth beneath which they would take their vows and even consummate their marriage.
But they never got the chance because God invited them into a scandal. The greatest scandal in history. A sex scandal no less.
Think about the core of the conversation that buzzed around Nazareth when Mary’s news started getting around. This was juicy stuff. And God orchestrated it.
In order for Mary and Joseph to say yes to God’s scandalous act of grace incarnate, they had to say yes to a host of other things as well: yes o humiliation; yes to misinterpretation; yes to broken relationships; yes to hurt feelings; yes to loneliness and fear. The list of difficult yes’s goes on and on.
But the most important thing they said yes to was God’s scandalous idea that God could dwell among us in the flesh. That God’s dream was bigger than theirs. That God’s plan would have greater impact than their plan. That God’s plan would ultimately be better for them, and better for all people that their plan.
To say yes to the scandal, to the revolution, was worth the struggle they would endure.
If you could go back in time and walk in their shoes knowing what you do know about how it all turned out, would you be up for it? It would be pretty cool to experience some of those miraculous things, wouldn’t it? You would, of course, do it knowing that it was going to work out incredibly great. You would probably say yes to the invitation to the scandal.
Do you realize, however, that being a Jesus follower is scandalous? Revolutionary? Rebellious?
How is your scandal going for you?
Not specific enough?
Okay, how’s your sex scandal going?
We live in a culture where sexuality has become so ordinary and commonplace that it is no longer treated as sacred, let alone as set aside for marriage.
So, I’m wondering, is your view of human sexuality scandalous in this world we live in?
What formed your view of sexuality? Until you have a clue as to the answer to that question, you and your view are not your own.
What is God’s call for your sexuality? How is it different than our culture’s? Is your way any different? Is it so Jesus-like that it may even be considered scandalous?
How about other areas of your life? What about you would others see as so obviously Jesus that they would say it’s scandalous, revolutionary, and rebellious against our cultural systems?
Mary and Joseph said yes in spite of all the struggles their yes implied. They said yes because they knew what was being offered. They said yes because they knew who was making the offer.
May it be so for you.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Christ the Revolutionary or Snuggle Me Jesus?
The coming of Christ was not a Hallmark card.
Mary didn’t have her make up on, her hair looking just right, with a soft halo-like glow around her lily-white skin. She gave birth in a shelter for animals after a journey that lasted for several days with no rest areas.
Joseph came to grips with Mary’s “condition”, but not without great inner turmoil before, during, and after Jesus’ birth. Lots of pride to swallow.
The shepherds who heard the angelic choir that night most certainly soiled their loin cloths.
The Wise Men spent loads of dough heading for the castle, only to discover the newborn king in a feeding trough.
I believe that the prophets who were used of God to foretell the Messiah’s coming struggled as well. How could they not struggle? They could not know what kind of world or religious culture into which this Christ would be born.
Christ’s entrance into the world came as a terrific shock that nobody really expected, even though they had been looking and praying and hoping for the Messiah’s arrival.
Christ’s entrance was a shock to his own religious tradition. In his adult ministry, Jesus bucked the system. He ticked off the religious leaders left and right (both sides of the aisle – he was an equal opportunity offender!). But even his birth didn’t hit the radar of those watching. Who would have guessed that the person God would send to reestablish the Kingdom would be born in the most humble of circumstances? Who would have guessed that his arrival would come in such a provocative, seemingly immoral way? From the very beginning, Christ challenged the religious system he came to recalibrate.
Christ’s entrance into the world was also a shock to the political system. There was one superpower nation on the planet when Jesus drew his first breath. It wasn’t the United States. It was Rome. The Roman government was ruled by Caesars over a long period of time, each with their strengths and peculiarities. In the first century, the prevailing belief among the people was that the gods had appointed the Caesars to their throne. Some of these Emperors really took that idea to heart. Domitian, for example, believed himself to be a son of God. He demanded that Roman citizens call him Lord and God. As a general rule, the Caesars believed themselves and the empire they ruled to be the Savior of the World. They proclaimed the good news (using the same root word for our evangelism) of Pax Romana – peace under the Empire’s rule. The prophecy of the long-awaited Messiah used terms like Lord and God to describe him. The prophecy (Is. 40:1-11) painted a picture of one who would have authority to level the playing field completely – ultimate power and authority. The words further describe his dominance in contrast with humanity’s frailty.
Whichever lens you use to view this – the religious or political - all of this was provocative. Subversive, actually. This Messiah, this Son of God came to bring about a revolution.
Tickle Me Elmo and Snuggle Me Jesus…. Without question, we have created Jesus in our own image. We have custom-made Christ into a vehicle to satisfy our need for a little inner peace, and a little intellectual assurance that when our bodies give out, we’ll live forever. We want a stuffed doll – a Snuggle Me Jesus – who is only there when we have trouble sleeping at night.
But that’s not really a choice we have. Christ is who he is.
The question is: do we want the real Christ?
The Christ that was prophesied is radical. Provocative. A rebel who is leading a revolution, an eternal movement that bucks all systems in favor of one that actually changes – and saves – the world. To embrace this Christ means that we allow him to challenge how we think about our precious religion. To embrace this Christ means we allow him to challenge how we think about our nation. At first, you may give a quick nod to this invitation.
But wait.
The only comfort this Christ offers is the comfort that comes from knowing you have finally found and are growing in Truth, in Reality instead of the façade we’ve created. Following this Christ does not allow room for devotion only when you really feel like you need it or feel it’s necessary to get rid of your guilt. Remember, we’re talking about a revolution-leader, not a stuffed animal.
If we’re really honest with ourselves, I think we’ll admit that if we’ve settled for Snuggle Me Jesus, our deepest needs haven’t been fully met. Not even close, actually. Snuggle Me Jesus only offers momentary, shallow peace during difficult times, but does not compel us toward changed behavior or changing the world. Snuggle Me Jesus only offers slight intellectual satisfaction about heaven, but hardly enough confidence to actually commit our lives to the King’s cause (I’m speaking of total devotion, not suicide bombings).
I usually, quickly define the word “fear” as “reverence” when it shows up in a passage where fearing God is instructed. Maybe in my efforts to make the Bible relevant I’ve done the word a disservice. Maybe we need to shake in our boots a little when we consider this invitation that Christmas proclaims, because the invitation is coming from the one who has the power and authority – forever – to level the playing field, to outlast all of us, and to do whatever the Kingdom needs done.
Do you really want the Christ that came, and still is?
Or do you want a Snuggle Me Jesus for Christmas?
Questions to Journal, then Dialogue in Community…
What emotions do you typically feel or think of (if you’re void of emotions) when the Christmas season arrives?
What warm, fuzzy traditions do you celebrate during the Christmas season?
What is the emotional tone of our beloved Christmas carols? How about the covers of Christmas CD’s? Christmas movies?
Do we generally associate Christmas with a revolution? Why or why not?
We live in a consumer-driven economy and national system. How has this reality shaped the way many of us celebrate Christmas?
We live in the only superpower nation of the planet (for now). How do you process Isaiah’s prophecy that paints a picture of the Messiah as one whose power dwarfs and outlasts our incredibly mighty nation?
What might it mean if our primary allegiance is to God, which may at times significantly challenge our allegiance to what has become construed as Christianity in America? Can you handle it?
What might it mean if our primary allegiance is to God, which may at times significantly challenge our allegiance to the United States? Can you handle it?
What keeps you content with your Snuggle Me Jesus? In other words, why have you embraced Snuggle Me Jesus in the first place, and why do you still?
What is compelling about the actual Christ? What would compel you to give up Snuggle Me Jesus in favor of Christ? What hopes do you have? Fears?
Mary didn’t have her make up on, her hair looking just right, with a soft halo-like glow around her lily-white skin. She gave birth in a shelter for animals after a journey that lasted for several days with no rest areas.
Joseph came to grips with Mary’s “condition”, but not without great inner turmoil before, during, and after Jesus’ birth. Lots of pride to swallow.
The shepherds who heard the angelic choir that night most certainly soiled their loin cloths.
The Wise Men spent loads of dough heading for the castle, only to discover the newborn king in a feeding trough.
I believe that the prophets who were used of God to foretell the Messiah’s coming struggled as well. How could they not struggle? They could not know what kind of world or religious culture into which this Christ would be born.
Christ’s entrance into the world came as a terrific shock that nobody really expected, even though they had been looking and praying and hoping for the Messiah’s arrival.
Christ’s entrance was a shock to his own religious tradition. In his adult ministry, Jesus bucked the system. He ticked off the religious leaders left and right (both sides of the aisle – he was an equal opportunity offender!). But even his birth didn’t hit the radar of those watching. Who would have guessed that the person God would send to reestablish the Kingdom would be born in the most humble of circumstances? Who would have guessed that his arrival would come in such a provocative, seemingly immoral way? From the very beginning, Christ challenged the religious system he came to recalibrate.
Christ’s entrance into the world was also a shock to the political system. There was one superpower nation on the planet when Jesus drew his first breath. It wasn’t the United States. It was Rome. The Roman government was ruled by Caesars over a long period of time, each with their strengths and peculiarities. In the first century, the prevailing belief among the people was that the gods had appointed the Caesars to their throne. Some of these Emperors really took that idea to heart. Domitian, for example, believed himself to be a son of God. He demanded that Roman citizens call him Lord and God. As a general rule, the Caesars believed themselves and the empire they ruled to be the Savior of the World. They proclaimed the good news (using the same root word for our evangelism) of Pax Romana – peace under the Empire’s rule. The prophecy of the long-awaited Messiah used terms like Lord and God to describe him. The prophecy (Is. 40:1-11) painted a picture of one who would have authority to level the playing field completely – ultimate power and authority. The words further describe his dominance in contrast with humanity’s frailty.
Whichever lens you use to view this – the religious or political - all of this was provocative. Subversive, actually. This Messiah, this Son of God came to bring about a revolution.
Tickle Me Elmo and Snuggle Me Jesus…. Without question, we have created Jesus in our own image. We have custom-made Christ into a vehicle to satisfy our need for a little inner peace, and a little intellectual assurance that when our bodies give out, we’ll live forever. We want a stuffed doll – a Snuggle Me Jesus – who is only there when we have trouble sleeping at night.
But that’s not really a choice we have. Christ is who he is.
The question is: do we want the real Christ?
The Christ that was prophesied is radical. Provocative. A rebel who is leading a revolution, an eternal movement that bucks all systems in favor of one that actually changes – and saves – the world. To embrace this Christ means that we allow him to challenge how we think about our precious religion. To embrace this Christ means we allow him to challenge how we think about our nation. At first, you may give a quick nod to this invitation.
But wait.
The only comfort this Christ offers is the comfort that comes from knowing you have finally found and are growing in Truth, in Reality instead of the façade we’ve created. Following this Christ does not allow room for devotion only when you really feel like you need it or feel it’s necessary to get rid of your guilt. Remember, we’re talking about a revolution-leader, not a stuffed animal.
If we’re really honest with ourselves, I think we’ll admit that if we’ve settled for Snuggle Me Jesus, our deepest needs haven’t been fully met. Not even close, actually. Snuggle Me Jesus only offers momentary, shallow peace during difficult times, but does not compel us toward changed behavior or changing the world. Snuggle Me Jesus only offers slight intellectual satisfaction about heaven, but hardly enough confidence to actually commit our lives to the King’s cause (I’m speaking of total devotion, not suicide bombings).
I usually, quickly define the word “fear” as “reverence” when it shows up in a passage where fearing God is instructed. Maybe in my efforts to make the Bible relevant I’ve done the word a disservice. Maybe we need to shake in our boots a little when we consider this invitation that Christmas proclaims, because the invitation is coming from the one who has the power and authority – forever – to level the playing field, to outlast all of us, and to do whatever the Kingdom needs done.
Do you really want the Christ that came, and still is?
Or do you want a Snuggle Me Jesus for Christmas?
Questions to Journal, then Dialogue in Community…
What emotions do you typically feel or think of (if you’re void of emotions) when the Christmas season arrives?
What warm, fuzzy traditions do you celebrate during the Christmas season?
What is the emotional tone of our beloved Christmas carols? How about the covers of Christmas CD’s? Christmas movies?
Do we generally associate Christmas with a revolution? Why or why not?
We live in a consumer-driven economy and national system. How has this reality shaped the way many of us celebrate Christmas?
We live in the only superpower nation of the planet (for now). How do you process Isaiah’s prophecy that paints a picture of the Messiah as one whose power dwarfs and outlasts our incredibly mighty nation?
What might it mean if our primary allegiance is to God, which may at times significantly challenge our allegiance to what has become construed as Christianity in America? Can you handle it?
What might it mean if our primary allegiance is to God, which may at times significantly challenge our allegiance to the United States? Can you handle it?
What keeps you content with your Snuggle Me Jesus? In other words, why have you embraced Snuggle Me Jesus in the first place, and why do you still?
What is compelling about the actual Christ? What would compel you to give up Snuggle Me Jesus in favor of Christ? What hopes do you have? Fears?
Sunday, November 30, 2008
In God We Trust: Go Global
In Mark 13:32-37, Jesus uses an illustration to make a great point about how we should approach life: live every day as if Jesus was going to show up for dinner. Do your best; do the right thing; be Jesus to people wherever you go.
This approach through life not only blesses God, it is the Way that leads to the greatest life possible.
We've been looking at what it means to follow Jesus wholeheartedly over the past few weeks, and especially talking about our relationship with our stuff. Here's a brief recap in case you missed a week:
And in terms of finances: make a plan to budget your way to the tithe. You may not be able to do this right away, but in time you can. It feels so great, and it makes such a difference. We do a lot as a church right now. Imagine what impact we could have if we had the resources to do more!
I also want to challenge you to give just a little extra - $10, $20, $30, $50 per month - toward missions in which CrossWalk is deeply invested. CrossWalk gives a trickle amount to a number of missions, but the ones we frequently support with money, time, and trips are funded solely by over-the-top giving. Furaha needs $1,100 a month for the lunches to continue. Coats for Kids is expanding to assist Napa's poorest kids reach their potential. Deborah's House graduates a handful of women every Spring -out of abuse, and into new life - we can help them and their children get a good restart on life. Now the orphans in Cabo are on our radar. The good news is that if we all just kick in a little extra, we can continue doing these great things and more.
Thanks for being a great church, and for taking your walk with Jesus seriously and with a positive attitude. Christ is cool, fun, and is a kick in the pants to follow!
This approach through life not only blesses God, it is the Way that leads to the greatest life possible.
We've been looking at what it means to follow Jesus wholeheartedly over the past few weeks, and especially talking about our relationship with our stuff. Here's a brief recap in case you missed a week:
- We live in a consumer driven culture where the economy is King, which means to live with balance will be difficult when faced with an unrelenting call to buy, buy buy!
- We learned from some of our own who prevailed through the Great Depression that simplicity and good stewardship works, and works for everybody.
- We learned that we have been given much to manage, but don't really own anything. We have the opportunity to do great things if we apply sound principles to our lives and livelihood.
- We learned also that we there is a connection between our heart and our primary focus in life. If you're all about your money and personal wealth, there's not much room for God - don't expect a vibrant life. But if we make God first, amazing things happen.
- We learned that the Way of Christ is whole-life, not just a Sunday thing. We're called to total devotion - it's what Jesus said would led to great life.
- We learned that it's possible to be generous even if we feel impoverished, and that the result is joy.
- We heard a story of six CrossWalkers who vacationed together in Cabo. They were confronted with an abundance of Tuna, and instead of thinking selfishly, worked to get it to a local orphanage that we will hopefully be able to continually support. They had ears to hear the Spirit's prompting because their lives are fully devoted to Christ.
- When we get it right, we not only experience personal and community blessing, but we get to be a part of changing the world in places like Nairobi, Tijuana, Cabo, and who knows where else?
And in terms of finances: make a plan to budget your way to the tithe. You may not be able to do this right away, but in time you can. It feels so great, and it makes such a difference. We do a lot as a church right now. Imagine what impact we could have if we had the resources to do more!
I also want to challenge you to give just a little extra - $10, $20, $30, $50 per month - toward missions in which CrossWalk is deeply invested. CrossWalk gives a trickle amount to a number of missions, but the ones we frequently support with money, time, and trips are funded solely by over-the-top giving. Furaha needs $1,100 a month for the lunches to continue. Coats for Kids is expanding to assist Napa's poorest kids reach their potential. Deborah's House graduates a handful of women every Spring -out of abuse, and into new life - we can help them and their children get a good restart on life. Now the orphans in Cabo are on our radar. The good news is that if we all just kick in a little extra, we can continue doing these great things and more.
Thanks for being a great church, and for taking your walk with Jesus seriously and with a positive attitude. Christ is cool, fun, and is a kick in the pants to follow!
Sunday, November 23, 2008
In God We Trust: What Are You Doing Unto Me?
I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me...
I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me. - Jesus (Mt. 25:40, 45 NIV)
The religious leaders had a temple to take care of, at least. They had fancy clothes with which they were set apart and treated with great reverence. Reading Jesus’ attitude toward those who ruled the religious life Jewish people, you get the idea that he was none too impressed with their leadership. They were proud. They had a tendency to recognize great fault in others, and yet seemed blind to their own imperfections.
In reality, the Kingdom suffered under their leadership. The Jewish people as a whole had been suffering now for hundreds of years under various oppressors. The land which was theirs had been taken away from them. Actually, according to the prophets when things went from bad to worse, it wasn’t taken away at all – Israel gave away their land to whoever was strong enough to claim it.
They gave it away with every apathetic action that denied their own Jewish culture and principles.
Collectively, they stopped living out the system God showed them. They stopped supporting the work of the temple, which meant the priests could not perform their duties at a competent level because they had to devote their time to other work to put bread on the table. The physical Temple began to reflect the inattention as well, and began falling apart. Within a few generations, the cult was barely hanging on. They became easy prey.
This broke God’s heart. Because God’s hope was to change the world through those who fully devoted themselves to the Ways of God.
Jesus shows up centuries after the last prophet has died. Rome rules the world, not the Kingdom of God. He came to recalibrate our thinking about where our hope really lies, and challenge our behavior to become aligned with that hope.
There is at least one thing wrong that Obama said during an interview with David Letterman (well-known source of deep, thoughtful interviews). He said that the United States is the last great hope for the world.
Whatever the question, it was the wrong answer.
No nation is the final and greatest hope of the world. That title has already been given to the Kingdom of God.
When Jesus is giving this parable about who did and didn’t care for the least of these, I believe that his primary focus was the disciples (there is an ongoing debate about this in academia). Jesus was reiterating what the prophets of old were saying to Israel hundreds of years before Jesus was born. He was restating the basic instruction that God gave to the people through Moses in the earliest covenant. He was simply saying this: take care of the Kingdom work, and it will take care of you. Neglect it, and expect all hell to break loose.
The Kingdom is the only plan God has. There’s no back up. In our view as Jesus followers, the Church is the agency on earth through which the Kingdom is proclaimed and perpetuated. We, the gathered people of God, are the ones who have been given the charge to present the Good News in ways that our audience understands. It is in the cult of the Kingdom where we discover our True Self and learn how to shed our old nature and embrace the new. It is in the Church where we learn that we are the hands and feet of God, and maybe the bread bakers, too.
So the question is, do you understand how critically important the Church is in bringing about changes in the world that must happen in order for all of our hopes and dreams to be realized?
At least one thing Obama said in his speech on election night in Chicago was right. He challenged the citizens of the US to roll up their sleeves, to all pull together, if we want to see ourselves pull out of the difficult times we now face. As honorable citizens, we should.
But how much more should we do the same for the actual greatest hope for the world?
When we are all in for Christ, more happens than we can ever expect. We invest in the Kingdom, and we find ourselves living in it, more and more attuned to the Spirit’s leading. There is a direct connection, I believe, between your level of life-investment in the Kingdom of God and the potency of God’s power and presence in your life.
So, six of CrossWalk’s devoted Jesus followers took a vacation together to Cabo San Lucas. One day they fished. They caught a tuna that was so big, they didn’t know what to do with all the meat. Enter the Spirit. Before you could say Chicken of the Sea, these six found themselves connecting up with an orphanage in town, offering them the meat. They discovered that these kids don’t have coats or jackets for the evening, when the breeze off the sea gets pretty cold. Just so happens that these six are leaders in our Coats for Kids mission here in Napa. Now the kids have tuna in their tummies, and jackets on their backs.
I am confident that if these six were not so invested in the Kingdom, they would not have been sensitive to the Spirit’s prompting. The kids would miss the meat, and would be shivering tonight. But because these six got it and get it, the Kingdom expanded.
How invested are you in God’s Plan A? In terms of your support for the Kingdom work – the Church of Jesus Christ in our view – what does the way you manage your life report about your investment?
If you are fully devoted, fully invested Jesus follower, then take great comfort and confidence that you have chosen wisely, and that your sacrifices have not gone unnoticed, not are they without a significant return. Your devotion is keeping these lights on, and helping get The Light into dark places.
If you have never thought about this stuff in this way, then I urge you consider carefully where your greatest hope lies, and whether or not that belief is supported by the way you order your life.
May we all come to grips with the great privilege we have been given to literally serve Christ by supporting His Kingdom. May we all live our lives so that in the final analysis, we will discover that we are more like a sheep than a goat!
I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me. - Jesus (Mt. 25:40, 45 NIV)
The religious leaders had a temple to take care of, at least. They had fancy clothes with which they were set apart and treated with great reverence. Reading Jesus’ attitude toward those who ruled the religious life Jewish people, you get the idea that he was none too impressed with their leadership. They were proud. They had a tendency to recognize great fault in others, and yet seemed blind to their own imperfections.
In reality, the Kingdom suffered under their leadership. The Jewish people as a whole had been suffering now for hundreds of years under various oppressors. The land which was theirs had been taken away from them. Actually, according to the prophets when things went from bad to worse, it wasn’t taken away at all – Israel gave away their land to whoever was strong enough to claim it.
They gave it away with every apathetic action that denied their own Jewish culture and principles.
Collectively, they stopped living out the system God showed them. They stopped supporting the work of the temple, which meant the priests could not perform their duties at a competent level because they had to devote their time to other work to put bread on the table. The physical Temple began to reflect the inattention as well, and began falling apart. Within a few generations, the cult was barely hanging on. They became easy prey.
This broke God’s heart. Because God’s hope was to change the world through those who fully devoted themselves to the Ways of God.
Jesus shows up centuries after the last prophet has died. Rome rules the world, not the Kingdom of God. He came to recalibrate our thinking about where our hope really lies, and challenge our behavior to become aligned with that hope.
There is at least one thing wrong that Obama said during an interview with David Letterman (well-known source of deep, thoughtful interviews). He said that the United States is the last great hope for the world.
Whatever the question, it was the wrong answer.
No nation is the final and greatest hope of the world. That title has already been given to the Kingdom of God.
When Jesus is giving this parable about who did and didn’t care for the least of these, I believe that his primary focus was the disciples (there is an ongoing debate about this in academia). Jesus was reiterating what the prophets of old were saying to Israel hundreds of years before Jesus was born. He was restating the basic instruction that God gave to the people through Moses in the earliest covenant. He was simply saying this: take care of the Kingdom work, and it will take care of you. Neglect it, and expect all hell to break loose.
The Kingdom is the only plan God has. There’s no back up. In our view as Jesus followers, the Church is the agency on earth through which the Kingdom is proclaimed and perpetuated. We, the gathered people of God, are the ones who have been given the charge to present the Good News in ways that our audience understands. It is in the cult of the Kingdom where we discover our True Self and learn how to shed our old nature and embrace the new. It is in the Church where we learn that we are the hands and feet of God, and maybe the bread bakers, too.
So the question is, do you understand how critically important the Church is in bringing about changes in the world that must happen in order for all of our hopes and dreams to be realized?
At least one thing Obama said in his speech on election night in Chicago was right. He challenged the citizens of the US to roll up their sleeves, to all pull together, if we want to see ourselves pull out of the difficult times we now face. As honorable citizens, we should.
But how much more should we do the same for the actual greatest hope for the world?
When we are all in for Christ, more happens than we can ever expect. We invest in the Kingdom, and we find ourselves living in it, more and more attuned to the Spirit’s leading. There is a direct connection, I believe, between your level of life-investment in the Kingdom of God and the potency of God’s power and presence in your life.
So, six of CrossWalk’s devoted Jesus followers took a vacation together to Cabo San Lucas. One day they fished. They caught a tuna that was so big, they didn’t know what to do with all the meat. Enter the Spirit. Before you could say Chicken of the Sea, these six found themselves connecting up with an orphanage in town, offering them the meat. They discovered that these kids don’t have coats or jackets for the evening, when the breeze off the sea gets pretty cold. Just so happens that these six are leaders in our Coats for Kids mission here in Napa. Now the kids have tuna in their tummies, and jackets on their backs.
I am confident that if these six were not so invested in the Kingdom, they would not have been sensitive to the Spirit’s prompting. The kids would miss the meat, and would be shivering tonight. But because these six got it and get it, the Kingdom expanded.
How invested are you in God’s Plan A? In terms of your support for the Kingdom work – the Church of Jesus Christ in our view – what does the way you manage your life report about your investment?
If you are fully devoted, fully invested Jesus follower, then take great comfort and confidence that you have chosen wisely, and that your sacrifices have not gone unnoticed, not are they without a significant return. Your devotion is keeping these lights on, and helping get The Light into dark places.
If you have never thought about this stuff in this way, then I urge you consider carefully where your greatest hope lies, and whether or not that belief is supported by the way you order your life.
May we all come to grips with the great privilege we have been given to literally serve Christ by supporting His Kingdom. May we all live our lives so that in the final analysis, we will discover that we are more like a sheep than a goat!
Sunday, November 16, 2008
In God We Trust: We Reap What We Sow
Transformation Doesn’t Just Happen. It rarely happens in a person’s life, and usually not voluntarily (because it is difficult). Yet Christ calls us to a transformed life, where we align ourselves more and more with the Way of Christ, and less and less with the systems that hold our world in its clutches. We are to be in the world, but not of the world (2 Cor. 10). Academics agree on a basic process that, if followed, makes the likelihood of genuine transformation more likely. The process assumes community – we are not alone and indeed will probably fail if we attempt transformation all by our lonesome! Here is the process in a nutshell: identify your current viewpoint/position regarding the area you’re seeking to transform; identify the truth about that area (from scripture, in our case); compare and contrast what you have believed with what is true; imagine how your thinking and actions would be different if you lived by truth; commit to live by truth (start doing it); report to community about how your living-according-to-new-truth is going.
My goal today is to help you with the creative imagination piece, by giving you an example of one couples choice on how they did parenting. They happen to be my parents. You can blame them for all the bad stuff you see in me. Not my fault whatsoever! Seriously, blame them. I’ve done it for years. Works really well. Here we go…
The Formation of Pete. My parents were raised in the church. They were both preachers’ kids (P.K.’s), which, I am sure, greatly informed the way they chose to raise me and my older siblings. I offer the following to you as food for thought. How I was raised was different than how my friends were raised, and I knew it. In other words, my parents decided not to go the way of the culture. I am choosing to focus mainly on my high school years, because these had a profound impact on me as I was navigating my way toward early adulthood. My parents weren’t perfect, and they didn’t raise a perfect son – I’m referring to my brother, Mark, of course, and not myselfJ. Seriously, I hope that what they did will give you a reference to consider as you make your own decisions, and how you influence those who are trying to navigate their journey as well. I am also focusing on how they related family life and the church. All four of us kids are grown up, we all love Christ, and we are all committed to the Kingdom. They must have done something right! BTW, my wife’s parents raised her family about as identically as you can get, with practically the same result with her sisters. But that’s her story to share.
Sunday Worship Wasn’t Optional. Honestly, I never thought to ask if I could skip out, because making Sunday worship was such a priority. It was our ethos. Even when we didn’t have commitments to fulfill, worship was what we did on Sunday mornings. This idea stuck with me. When I was in college, and had the option to go or not, I went. Not going felt foreign to me.
Our church was a traditional church in downtown Lansing, MI, and was not particularly culturally relevant. Services were thoughtful and well done, but most of the younger set would have had difficulty connecting with it. I can’t say that I can remember a single sermon from all those years. I can’t remember what we ate every Sunday after church, either. But I know that I was fed – in the service and after the service. Sitting in that environment however, had a lasting, positive impact.
Lesson learned: Don’t feel guilty about taking the “optional” out of worship. The environment in worship has a greater impact than you realize, even if you or your kids can’t recognize it immediately. It’s an ethos thing. It’s a practice thing. It’s a being thing. It’s a rhythm thing.
Sow the seed of worship being a priority, and you amy reap a re-prioritized life that works better.
Ministry Was Normal and Expected. During my sophomore in high school I began singing in the church choir. I was one of the only youth in the choir at that time, and at first I felt a little conspicuous. That year, I played football, sang in the elite school chorale that traveled a lot during Christmas, and played in the jazz band which also had a lot of gigs. I also began working a part time job that year (my parents hadn’t heard of the allowance idea – sucks to be Dutch sometimes). I was very busy. And yet I still made it to rehearsal every Thursday evening, even when ice hit the roads – common in central Michigan. With the 20 minute commute included, that became around a two hour commitment every week, on top of my other stuff. I was able to stay on the honor roll all the way through. I tell you this not to in any way brag, but to let you know that because we made ministry a priority, we fit it in, and the rest of my life did not suffer. In fact, it was greatly blessed, because that weekly rehearsal was another touch point with my faith community.
Lesson learned: we make time for our priorities. Make the Kingdom a priority, and you’re not going to suffer – in fact, you will be blessed.
Seed sown: ministry is important. Reaped: Blessing.
Relationships Happened. Al, Stan, Don, and Fred. These were men who sat around me during rehearsal. Al was a bicycle repairman near Michigan State University. Stan worked for the State in some sort of office job. Don and Fred were professional something-or-others. Each of these guys was well over 40 – ancient from a teen ager’s perspective. But we served together in the music ministry. We laughed at each other when we screwed up. We helped each other learn our parts. We sang passionately the words and phrases that proclaimed our faith. When the evening would end with prayer, I heard about the life struggles these guys were facing, and prayed for them. They cared about me in their words, their presence, and their demeanor toward me. They showed up for my musicals. They came to my graduation open house. They were genuinely excited to see me when I came home from college during breaks. They were supportive all through my seminary years. They cheered me on through my ordination at that church, and made a big deal out of my pursuit of ministry. More than other youth who were around (there weren’t many anyway), these guys were my community.
I felt connected not because we had a tremendous youth group (it sucked, to be honest). I felt connected because I was connected. Their presence in my life helped me stay engaged.
Lesson learned: Get involved somewhere, because the value goes way beyond completing the task of the ministry. This journey we’re on together is all about relationships – with God, with each other, with ourselves, with our world. Relationships don’t just happen. Sometimes, working alongside each other is one of the most powerful ways to build relationships with people you might not normally engage.
Sown: Time/place/excuse for relationships to develop. Reaped: Formative relationships.
Giving Was Modeled. My parents never clued me in to how much they gave when I was in high school, but I knew they gave consistently. I would later learn that they had begun giving ten percent of their income to the Kingdom – a tithe. A few moments of giving stand out for me. We had a man named Zau Ya from Burma immigrate to the US. He was a wonderfully humble, polite middle-aged man. One Christmas, we bought a bunch of stuff and took it over to his apartment to help him out. He was poor, we were not, and we helped because we could, and because we knew him and his need. Another moment was when they inherited some money, and gave something like $10,000 toward missions through our church. I remember thinking to myself how cool I thought it was. Looking back, I wonder why I didn’t go to more selfish places, like, “Why aren’t we getting a new TV, or boat, or whatever?” I think those thoughts didn’t occur to me because the idea of being generous toward the Kingdom was instilled deeply in me. Turns out my parents learned it from their parents. Hmmm – maybe modeling works pretty well.
Lynne and I have had our financial ups and downs. Most of our years, we’ve been able to make the tithe happen. The economy affects us, too, as do stupid decisions we’ve made from time to time that throw us off course for awhile. But our desire to support what the Kingdom is doing is deeply ingrained into both of us. Giving of ourselves and our time, and making the Kingdom a priority is home for us.
Lesson learned: making the Kingdom a budget priority gets noticed by your kids, especially if they know you’re doing it! If they wonder why you choose the Kingdom, remind them of your priorities. Sometimes making the Kingdom a top priority means you recognize some of your wants aren’t worth much. Sometimes it means you just have to wait a little longer before you get the thing that’s worth it. Your pattern will have an affect on your kids.
Sow: Generosity. Reap: Better-managed finances, better world.
When We Weren’t At Church. I’ve heard of Sunday Christians – people who show up on Sunday and then become completely different people the rest of the week. My parents were 24/7 Christians, and still are. My mom usually had a book laying around that she was working through, and a devotional book of some sort could usually be found where she would encounter it at some point in the day.
The tone of our home was peace. The influences were monitored. I was given trust, but also a leash. When I broke trust, I paid for it. One prom night, I stayed out all night because our group date crashed at one house, watched movies, and finished the experience with breakfast the next morning. It wasn’t a party – there wasn’t alcohol; it wasn’t an orgy – there wasn’t any “purple” as I recall. But I missed my curfew by about five hours… My folks didn’t yell at me. Their initial silence, however, was deafening! They let me know they were disappointed in me, and that I was grounded for awhile. The thing that stuck me was that my mom told me that trust had been broken, and that it would take time to rebuild. I hurt the most important relationship in my life at that time. That hurt. My fault. Ours was not a legalistic home at all – but certain things were simply not a part of our picture. My folks have never gotten into alcohol on any level – it is an acquired taste, after all – they never acquired it. So I never saw my folks out of control (except maybe at a dessert bar, I suppose!). Their language was clean, and the shows we watched were clean.
Lesson learned: be wise about the influences you allow to impact yourself and your kids, and remember that holding your kid accountable is a good thing – that’s one way they learn.
Sow: Shalom. Reap: Shalom.
Things We’re Adding Into Our Ethos. There are some things my parents didn’t do that I wish they did. I don’t blame them for it – they did the best they knew to do, improving upon what they learned from their parents. My kids will certainly do the same. Such is life. We do a lot of the stuff our parents did for us: Sunday isn’t an option; we live with the Kingdom mission in mind; we serve and have our kids serve right alongside us; we let them rub shoulders with folks of all ages here, and they feel at home here because of it.
I would have enjoyed more communication with my parents, even as a youth. I probably didn’t give any indication of this to my parents – I wanted them to think everything was just fine, of course. I did not want to disappoint them, which meant I kept my mouth shut about sensitive subjects. When I had a faith meltdown that kept me in a faith crisis for the last two years of high school and the first two years of college, I wish I could have picked their brain on some of life’s biggest questions. But I didn’t instigate, which I bet is pretty common among youth even today. They didn’t think to instigate, because they didn’t see any symptoms of trouble. I could have benefitted from more communication about grown-up issues like sex and alcohol. Basically, the implied answer was “Just say no” to both. The reasoning behind that good answer was never talked about. Talking about these two whoppers probably would have been good for them, too. They would have had eyes to see some things differently, and would have known to pay attention to some things a little more closely.
There were a couple times when my immaturity caught up with me, and I should have died. Once, because I was driving myself and a date home heavily buzzed and was driving on the wrong side of the highway. (Side note to parents: your kid can get their hands on booze or whatever they’re into). And another time, I should have died from alcohol poisoning after I lost badly playing quarters and downed so much beer, so fast, that I should have made the evening news with my death. Luckily, friends knew not to let me drive home. We never talked about this stuff. I wish we had.
Lynne and I have learned that balance matters a lot. My most important relationships in this life after God are with my wife and kids. I struggle to leave work at the office. I struggle to turn off my brain because I love Christ, and I love what the Kingdom is all about. But I have learned to boundary my time to insure, as much as possible, that I am available to my wife and kids. This is difficult, because being a pastor is more a way of life than it is a job. I work hard to make sure that I am being a good steward to my first calling – my family. Obviously, I think it makes me a better husband and father. But I also think it makes me a better man, and even a better pastor.
Nowhere Near Perfect. In no way do I claim to have all the answers. I am not perfect. My wife is not perfect. My kids are not perfect. The family I grew up in was not perfect. The way my parents raised me? Imperfect. I share it with you simply to stir your creative imagination so that as you consider what God is calling you toward, you have what might be a totally different reference to compare and contrast. Some of you excelled where my parents struggled. Share your story with others. We need to learn from each other. I need to learn from those of you who have navigated the teen years helping your kids be responsible with sexuality and substances. I don’t know how my kids are going to be once they graduate high school. We may face some major challenges ahead. We need you. You may be dealing with some stuff I’ve noted. You need us. We need each other.
Sowing and Reaping. Paul, in speaking to the church at Corinth (2 Corinthians 9:6-15), uses a simple statement to communicate volumes of truth: you reap what you sow. We often use this phrase when something negative happens. A person gets drunk and does stupid things for which he or she has to pay – they are reaping what they sowed. People have unprotected sex outside of marriage and face some serious decisions – reaping (literally) what they have sown. Poor life choices affect families, poor communication strategies wipe out marriages, poor behavioral choices significantly deter a child’s development – all reaping what was sown.
But imagine if we take seriously the positive side of this truth? What if we take seriously God’s invitation to do life according to the Way of Christ? What will be reaped if we sow Christ into our lives? God’ promise is clear: abundant life for you and greater likelihood of abundant life for everybody else. For the way you parent or grandparent, what you sow will be reaped – so what are you sowing? What can you expect to reap? For your life balance and passions – what are you sowing, and what can you expect to reap? For your finances – what are you sowing into? What can you expect to reap?
The Way of Christ looks after your best interests and at the same time looks out for all others. Shalom is what our Jewish ancestors dreamed of. Shalom is global salvation. Salvation is what the Way of Christ brings. Salvation is wholeness. Salvation is healing. Salvation in it’s fullness is a Spirit-led journey where our minds are open enough to be transformed, where we’re humble enough to turn away from things that are destructive, wise enough to embrace God’s invitation to live differently, convicted enough to stand for and in Christ’s Way no matter what, affected enough to believe in the face of despair, and in community enough to learn how to love and be loved. Salvation/shalom is the Way we are invited to sow. What will be reaped is life abundant (John 10:10). The question for all of us to ponder throughout our lives is: are we sowing Christ in order to reap Christ? Are our lives reflecting the Way so that we can expect the Way to be reaped?
My goal today is to help you with the creative imagination piece, by giving you an example of one couples choice on how they did parenting. They happen to be my parents. You can blame them for all the bad stuff you see in me. Not my fault whatsoever! Seriously, blame them. I’ve done it for years. Works really well. Here we go…
The Formation of Pete. My parents were raised in the church. They were both preachers’ kids (P.K.’s), which, I am sure, greatly informed the way they chose to raise me and my older siblings. I offer the following to you as food for thought. How I was raised was different than how my friends were raised, and I knew it. In other words, my parents decided not to go the way of the culture. I am choosing to focus mainly on my high school years, because these had a profound impact on me as I was navigating my way toward early adulthood. My parents weren’t perfect, and they didn’t raise a perfect son – I’m referring to my brother, Mark, of course, and not myselfJ. Seriously, I hope that what they did will give you a reference to consider as you make your own decisions, and how you influence those who are trying to navigate their journey as well. I am also focusing on how they related family life and the church. All four of us kids are grown up, we all love Christ, and we are all committed to the Kingdom. They must have done something right! BTW, my wife’s parents raised her family about as identically as you can get, with practically the same result with her sisters. But that’s her story to share.
Sunday Worship Wasn’t Optional. Honestly, I never thought to ask if I could skip out, because making Sunday worship was such a priority. It was our ethos. Even when we didn’t have commitments to fulfill, worship was what we did on Sunday mornings. This idea stuck with me. When I was in college, and had the option to go or not, I went. Not going felt foreign to me.
Our church was a traditional church in downtown Lansing, MI, and was not particularly culturally relevant. Services were thoughtful and well done, but most of the younger set would have had difficulty connecting with it. I can’t say that I can remember a single sermon from all those years. I can’t remember what we ate every Sunday after church, either. But I know that I was fed – in the service and after the service. Sitting in that environment however, had a lasting, positive impact.
Lesson learned: Don’t feel guilty about taking the “optional” out of worship. The environment in worship has a greater impact than you realize, even if you or your kids can’t recognize it immediately. It’s an ethos thing. It’s a practice thing. It’s a being thing. It’s a rhythm thing.
Sow the seed of worship being a priority, and you amy reap a re-prioritized life that works better.
Ministry Was Normal and Expected. During my sophomore in high school I began singing in the church choir. I was one of the only youth in the choir at that time, and at first I felt a little conspicuous. That year, I played football, sang in the elite school chorale that traveled a lot during Christmas, and played in the jazz band which also had a lot of gigs. I also began working a part time job that year (my parents hadn’t heard of the allowance idea – sucks to be Dutch sometimes). I was very busy. And yet I still made it to rehearsal every Thursday evening, even when ice hit the roads – common in central Michigan. With the 20 minute commute included, that became around a two hour commitment every week, on top of my other stuff. I was able to stay on the honor roll all the way through. I tell you this not to in any way brag, but to let you know that because we made ministry a priority, we fit it in, and the rest of my life did not suffer. In fact, it was greatly blessed, because that weekly rehearsal was another touch point with my faith community.
Lesson learned: we make time for our priorities. Make the Kingdom a priority, and you’re not going to suffer – in fact, you will be blessed.
Seed sown: ministry is important. Reaped: Blessing.
Relationships Happened. Al, Stan, Don, and Fred. These were men who sat around me during rehearsal. Al was a bicycle repairman near Michigan State University. Stan worked for the State in some sort of office job. Don and Fred were professional something-or-others. Each of these guys was well over 40 – ancient from a teen ager’s perspective. But we served together in the music ministry. We laughed at each other when we screwed up. We helped each other learn our parts. We sang passionately the words and phrases that proclaimed our faith. When the evening would end with prayer, I heard about the life struggles these guys were facing, and prayed for them. They cared about me in their words, their presence, and their demeanor toward me. They showed up for my musicals. They came to my graduation open house. They were genuinely excited to see me when I came home from college during breaks. They were supportive all through my seminary years. They cheered me on through my ordination at that church, and made a big deal out of my pursuit of ministry. More than other youth who were around (there weren’t many anyway), these guys were my community.
I felt connected not because we had a tremendous youth group (it sucked, to be honest). I felt connected because I was connected. Their presence in my life helped me stay engaged.
Lesson learned: Get involved somewhere, because the value goes way beyond completing the task of the ministry. This journey we’re on together is all about relationships – with God, with each other, with ourselves, with our world. Relationships don’t just happen. Sometimes, working alongside each other is one of the most powerful ways to build relationships with people you might not normally engage.
Sown: Time/place/excuse for relationships to develop. Reaped: Formative relationships.
Giving Was Modeled. My parents never clued me in to how much they gave when I was in high school, but I knew they gave consistently. I would later learn that they had begun giving ten percent of their income to the Kingdom – a tithe. A few moments of giving stand out for me. We had a man named Zau Ya from Burma immigrate to the US. He was a wonderfully humble, polite middle-aged man. One Christmas, we bought a bunch of stuff and took it over to his apartment to help him out. He was poor, we were not, and we helped because we could, and because we knew him and his need. Another moment was when they inherited some money, and gave something like $10,000 toward missions through our church. I remember thinking to myself how cool I thought it was. Looking back, I wonder why I didn’t go to more selfish places, like, “Why aren’t we getting a new TV, or boat, or whatever?” I think those thoughts didn’t occur to me because the idea of being generous toward the Kingdom was instilled deeply in me. Turns out my parents learned it from their parents. Hmmm – maybe modeling works pretty well.
Lynne and I have had our financial ups and downs. Most of our years, we’ve been able to make the tithe happen. The economy affects us, too, as do stupid decisions we’ve made from time to time that throw us off course for awhile. But our desire to support what the Kingdom is doing is deeply ingrained into both of us. Giving of ourselves and our time, and making the Kingdom a priority is home for us.
Lesson learned: making the Kingdom a budget priority gets noticed by your kids, especially if they know you’re doing it! If they wonder why you choose the Kingdom, remind them of your priorities. Sometimes making the Kingdom a top priority means you recognize some of your wants aren’t worth much. Sometimes it means you just have to wait a little longer before you get the thing that’s worth it. Your pattern will have an affect on your kids.
Sow: Generosity. Reap: Better-managed finances, better world.
When We Weren’t At Church. I’ve heard of Sunday Christians – people who show up on Sunday and then become completely different people the rest of the week. My parents were 24/7 Christians, and still are. My mom usually had a book laying around that she was working through, and a devotional book of some sort could usually be found where she would encounter it at some point in the day.
The tone of our home was peace. The influences were monitored. I was given trust, but also a leash. When I broke trust, I paid for it. One prom night, I stayed out all night because our group date crashed at one house, watched movies, and finished the experience with breakfast the next morning. It wasn’t a party – there wasn’t alcohol; it wasn’t an orgy – there wasn’t any “purple” as I recall. But I missed my curfew by about five hours… My folks didn’t yell at me. Their initial silence, however, was deafening! They let me know they were disappointed in me, and that I was grounded for awhile. The thing that stuck me was that my mom told me that trust had been broken, and that it would take time to rebuild. I hurt the most important relationship in my life at that time. That hurt. My fault. Ours was not a legalistic home at all – but certain things were simply not a part of our picture. My folks have never gotten into alcohol on any level – it is an acquired taste, after all – they never acquired it. So I never saw my folks out of control (except maybe at a dessert bar, I suppose!). Their language was clean, and the shows we watched were clean.
Lesson learned: be wise about the influences you allow to impact yourself and your kids, and remember that holding your kid accountable is a good thing – that’s one way they learn.
Sow: Shalom. Reap: Shalom.
Things We’re Adding Into Our Ethos. There are some things my parents didn’t do that I wish they did. I don’t blame them for it – they did the best they knew to do, improving upon what they learned from their parents. My kids will certainly do the same. Such is life. We do a lot of the stuff our parents did for us: Sunday isn’t an option; we live with the Kingdom mission in mind; we serve and have our kids serve right alongside us; we let them rub shoulders with folks of all ages here, and they feel at home here because of it.
I would have enjoyed more communication with my parents, even as a youth. I probably didn’t give any indication of this to my parents – I wanted them to think everything was just fine, of course. I did not want to disappoint them, which meant I kept my mouth shut about sensitive subjects. When I had a faith meltdown that kept me in a faith crisis for the last two years of high school and the first two years of college, I wish I could have picked their brain on some of life’s biggest questions. But I didn’t instigate, which I bet is pretty common among youth even today. They didn’t think to instigate, because they didn’t see any symptoms of trouble. I could have benefitted from more communication about grown-up issues like sex and alcohol. Basically, the implied answer was “Just say no” to both. The reasoning behind that good answer was never talked about. Talking about these two whoppers probably would have been good for them, too. They would have had eyes to see some things differently, and would have known to pay attention to some things a little more closely.
There were a couple times when my immaturity caught up with me, and I should have died. Once, because I was driving myself and a date home heavily buzzed and was driving on the wrong side of the highway. (Side note to parents: your kid can get their hands on booze or whatever they’re into). And another time, I should have died from alcohol poisoning after I lost badly playing quarters and downed so much beer, so fast, that I should have made the evening news with my death. Luckily, friends knew not to let me drive home. We never talked about this stuff. I wish we had.
Lynne and I have learned that balance matters a lot. My most important relationships in this life after God are with my wife and kids. I struggle to leave work at the office. I struggle to turn off my brain because I love Christ, and I love what the Kingdom is all about. But I have learned to boundary my time to insure, as much as possible, that I am available to my wife and kids. This is difficult, because being a pastor is more a way of life than it is a job. I work hard to make sure that I am being a good steward to my first calling – my family. Obviously, I think it makes me a better husband and father. But I also think it makes me a better man, and even a better pastor.
Nowhere Near Perfect. In no way do I claim to have all the answers. I am not perfect. My wife is not perfect. My kids are not perfect. The family I grew up in was not perfect. The way my parents raised me? Imperfect. I share it with you simply to stir your creative imagination so that as you consider what God is calling you toward, you have what might be a totally different reference to compare and contrast. Some of you excelled where my parents struggled. Share your story with others. We need to learn from each other. I need to learn from those of you who have navigated the teen years helping your kids be responsible with sexuality and substances. I don’t know how my kids are going to be once they graduate high school. We may face some major challenges ahead. We need you. You may be dealing with some stuff I’ve noted. You need us. We need each other.
Sowing and Reaping. Paul, in speaking to the church at Corinth (2 Corinthians 9:6-15), uses a simple statement to communicate volumes of truth: you reap what you sow. We often use this phrase when something negative happens. A person gets drunk and does stupid things for which he or she has to pay – they are reaping what they sowed. People have unprotected sex outside of marriage and face some serious decisions – reaping (literally) what they have sown. Poor life choices affect families, poor communication strategies wipe out marriages, poor behavioral choices significantly deter a child’s development – all reaping what was sown.
But imagine if we take seriously the positive side of this truth? What if we take seriously God’s invitation to do life according to the Way of Christ? What will be reaped if we sow Christ into our lives? God’ promise is clear: abundant life for you and greater likelihood of abundant life for everybody else. For the way you parent or grandparent, what you sow will be reaped – so what are you sowing? What can you expect to reap? For your life balance and passions – what are you sowing, and what can you expect to reap? For your finances – what are you sowing into? What can you expect to reap?
The Way of Christ looks after your best interests and at the same time looks out for all others. Shalom is what our Jewish ancestors dreamed of. Shalom is global salvation. Salvation is what the Way of Christ brings. Salvation is wholeness. Salvation is healing. Salvation in it’s fullness is a Spirit-led journey where our minds are open enough to be transformed, where we’re humble enough to turn away from things that are destructive, wise enough to embrace God’s invitation to live differently, convicted enough to stand for and in Christ’s Way no matter what, affected enough to believe in the face of despair, and in community enough to learn how to love and be loved. Salvation/shalom is the Way we are invited to sow. What will be reaped is life abundant (John 10:10). The question for all of us to ponder throughout our lives is: are we sowing Christ in order to reap Christ? Are our lives reflecting the Way so that we can expect the Way to be reaped?
May you choose to carefully examine the way of life you've chosen.
May you compare it to the Way of Christ.
May you choose the latter more than the former.
May you and the rest of God's kids on the planet might live life to the full.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
In God We Trust: Beyond the Cliché
Everybody wants the very best life possible for everybody.
Every way does not lead to the best life for everybody.
Jesus says He is the Way that leads to the best life for everybody. Now. Forever.
Cost: Everything. Because everything matters much.
Beyond the cliché: more than words…
The Good News: Doing life Jesus’ Way is innate for every human being; there is a strange familiarity with The Way in all of us.
The Bad News: We have become so unfamiliar with the Way that it is more foreign than familiar.
The Need: Holistic Recalibration. New wardrobe. New lens. New mindset. New paradigm. New Way of life. This is the primary mission of the Church.
Gather, Grow, Give… all because of Grace
Gather: You cannot do it alone, nor will you.
o You need large groups (worship) to remind you you’re in a movement. Make weekly worship a priority!
o Smaller groups where you can’t hide from reality. Coming soon.
o Close relationships where you can bare your soul without fear.
Grow: We don’t know much, no matter how much we know!
o Grow through weekly teachings of many kinds. Even Pete’s.
o Dialogue in smaller groups where you can sort stuff out.
o Daily devotional reading to give God the chance to speak into your life. Are you in the Life Journal? Are your doing SOAP?
Give: Everybody has much to give to impact the world for good.
o Love those closest to you well. If you stink at loving those closest to you, you’ll be stinkier with those who aren’t.
o Use your skill set in the marketplace to the best of your ability – “work as unto the Lord.” Where you spend most of your time is one of your biggest opportunities to be a Kingdom conduit. This is your primary mission field.
o Use your gifts to help the church – the Bride – to be as beautiful as she can be. Find a place to serve that fits and help out – many hands make light work! Don’t be a pew potato.
o Spend some time serving a local or global need – Coats for Kids, AA, NA, NAMI, Al Anon, Food Pantry, Project Hope (serving meals to homeless), Deborah’s House (Tijuana Women’s Shelter), Furaha (Nairobi, Kenya school for orphans and clinic for HIV+ women). Do something beyond your normal scope!
o Budget your financial support. Not everyone can tithe (10% of income) right now, but every can work toward it, and should. Disciplined giving to Kingdom causes keeps personal spending balanced, and blesses the world in ways we cannot fully comprehend. CrossWalk and the missions we support is incapacitated when financial support is limited. We need help to reach this community. What is your current monthly income? What is ten percent of that? What are you currently able to give? Are you willing to take steps to discover where you can shift your budget to get on the road to the full tithe?
Grace: If you look at Christ long enough, you’ll start looking like Him. Have you taken at look at Jesus lately? Have you fallen in love with Jesus yet? Is He “Lord” yet? See Matthew 7:21-23. To know is to master – those whom Jesus did not know never gave themselves over to the ways of God, and missed God their whole lives. Listen up! Until you surrender, you are missing it. You are already surrendered to something or someone; make it Jesus and begin living. Now. Forever.
Every way does not lead to the best life for everybody.
Jesus says He is the Way that leads to the best life for everybody. Now. Forever.
Cost: Everything. Because everything matters much.
Beyond the cliché: more than words…
The Good News: Doing life Jesus’ Way is innate for every human being; there is a strange familiarity with The Way in all of us.
The Bad News: We have become so unfamiliar with the Way that it is more foreign than familiar.
The Need: Holistic Recalibration. New wardrobe. New lens. New mindset. New paradigm. New Way of life. This is the primary mission of the Church.
Gather, Grow, Give… all because of Grace
Gather: You cannot do it alone, nor will you.
o You need large groups (worship) to remind you you’re in a movement. Make weekly worship a priority!
o Smaller groups where you can’t hide from reality. Coming soon.
o Close relationships where you can bare your soul without fear.
Grow: We don’t know much, no matter how much we know!
o Grow through weekly teachings of many kinds. Even Pete’s.
o Dialogue in smaller groups where you can sort stuff out.
o Daily devotional reading to give God the chance to speak into your life. Are you in the Life Journal? Are your doing SOAP?
Give: Everybody has much to give to impact the world for good.
o Love those closest to you well. If you stink at loving those closest to you, you’ll be stinkier with those who aren’t.
o Use your skill set in the marketplace to the best of your ability – “work as unto the Lord.” Where you spend most of your time is one of your biggest opportunities to be a Kingdom conduit. This is your primary mission field.
o Use your gifts to help the church – the Bride – to be as beautiful as she can be. Find a place to serve that fits and help out – many hands make light work! Don’t be a pew potato.
o Spend some time serving a local or global need – Coats for Kids, AA, NA, NAMI, Al Anon, Food Pantry, Project Hope (serving meals to homeless), Deborah’s House (Tijuana Women’s Shelter), Furaha (Nairobi, Kenya school for orphans and clinic for HIV+ women). Do something beyond your normal scope!
o Budget your financial support. Not everyone can tithe (10% of income) right now, but every can work toward it, and should. Disciplined giving to Kingdom causes keeps personal spending balanced, and blesses the world in ways we cannot fully comprehend. CrossWalk and the missions we support is incapacitated when financial support is limited. We need help to reach this community. What is your current monthly income? What is ten percent of that? What are you currently able to give? Are you willing to take steps to discover where you can shift your budget to get on the road to the full tithe?
Grace: If you look at Christ long enough, you’ll start looking like Him. Have you taken at look at Jesus lately? Have you fallen in love with Jesus yet? Is He “Lord” yet? See Matthew 7:21-23. To know is to master – those whom Jesus did not know never gave themselves over to the ways of God, and missed God their whole lives. Listen up! Until you surrender, you are missing it. You are already surrendered to something or someone; make it Jesus and begin living. Now. Forever.
May you give it all to Jesus.
May it be more than words.
May every aspect of your life be radically transformed by Christ.
May you then live.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
In God We Trust: Give Up To Trade Up
When Jesus taught using the analogy of storing up treasure in heaven (Mt. 6:19-24), what he was really saying is this: make God and God’s Kingdom calling #1 in your life. Give up whatever other allegiances you may have that are competing with God for the number one slot, so that you can trade up to a better life, better relationships, a better world, and a better word at the end of your journey on this plane. Give up to trade up.
Making God First Feels Difficult... When I was in college, leading various ministry events or simply talking to friends about selling out to Christ, there would always come a point where the person would realize that what Jesus was calling for was total and absolute surrender to Himself as the Leader of their life. This is what the Bible means by Lord – we voluntarily make Christ our Master, our Owner. When my friends or audience would wake up to this reality, one basic thought seemed to run through their collective minds:
We feel like we’re giving up all the fun stuff… In other words, they thought that in order to follow Christ, they had to become a dork, and embrace a sucky life. In their minds, everything cool that made life interesting had to be dismissed in order to be a Jesus follower, and that seemed like an awfully high price tag – extra emphasis was usually on the AWFUL part.
Sort of like marriage… When I got married back in 1992, I knew I would be giving some things up. My freedom. My hopes. My dreams… Just kidding! Actually, I knew that I was giving some things up, but that they were well worth what I would get in return. I was trading up. I was choosing covenant in order to experience lifelong companionship. The things I’ve given up paled in comparison to what I was trading up to – no contest! After sixteen years, I can tell you that it was well worth the price!
Christ as the Perfect Partner… With Christ, however, it is much better than an earthly marriage. Marriages are made up of two imperfect people – eve the best couples face disappointment because neither person is perfect. But God is perfect. God is always faithful. God’s love is always unconditional. God is always true. God never lets us down.
What we’re really giving up… If you’re worried about what you may have to give up in order to make God number one in your life, here are some examples. We have to give up our insistence on following blind guides and choose clarity instead.
We have to give up destructive behaviors that hurt ourselves and others, even distant others who live half a world away that are affected by our self-centeredness, all for a life that is blessed and is a blessing to others more than a burden.
You don’t necessarily have to give up your beer and hotdog at the baseball game, or your cabernet with your prime rib, but you are called to give up hangovers, embarrassment to friends and yourself, and other avoidables caused by drunkenness or getting wasted.
We have to give up keeping up with the Jones’ in favor of enjoying what we have for all it’s worth.
We have to give up a driven lifestyle that wears us thin and pushes our children beyond their physical and emotional limits in favor of quality time that goes beyond the cliché which lead to deeper relationships, really knowing your spouse, your kids, and your friends.
So, if you are hesitant to follow Jesus wholeheartedly because of what you give up, you are right to wonder. But I would strongly encourage you to really ask yourself the question instead of just using it as an excuse to avoid commitment. What does your question say about your true belief regarding the character of God? If you’re worried your life will suck, aren’t you implying that God’s desire for you, then, is a suckfest life? C’mon! Wake up! Think deep! The God of all creation is inviting you to really, really live – maybe for the first time in your life! What do you really have to lose by following Christ fully except for dust and rust? Give up to trade up!
Making God First Repels Complacency… Sometimes I think we say “God first” a little too flippantly. Especially for those who have been brought up in church or have been in church a long time, we are quick to give a confident “Amen!” to a call for putting God first. We think we’ve nailed it because we show up regularly, read our bibles on occasion, throw some coin in the plate, serve a little – we’re nailing it, right? Sometimes, however, we can have all the outward stuff in place and yet have a very cold heart regarding the things of God. We usually don’t know we’ve gotten stuck in a rut of complacency until something or someone happens upon us and challenges us to move out of our comfort zone. It could be as silly as moving to another quadrant of the sanctuary. All of a sudden, the perspective changes.
We know we’ve let God slip when… We know that something other than the Kingdom has become central when the Great Commandments and the Great Commission are displaced by something else that is also very good, but not nearly as significant. When loving God and loving others as ourselves gets beat out by serving ourselves, we’re in trouble. This indicates that the Great Commandment has become the Great Suggestion. When being and proclaiming the Good News that there is another Way, and that this Way has a name – Jesus – leading people to turn their lives around and follow Him; when growing in Christ and helping others to grow in the Way of life to which we’re called gets trumped by some other good thing, Christ is no longer Lord. In this case, the Great Commission has become the Recommended Elective.
Now, there are marriages, and there are beautiful marriages. You know the ones I’m talking about? Couples that grow in love with each other all the way through. Their love inspires others to continue growing in love.
There are some Jesus followers who are so alive, so full of purpose, so fruitful, that others were naturally drawn to them, and wanted to emulate them. The disciples were like that. The disciples were like that because they were so intimately familiar with Jesus. They loved Jesus with everything they had. They gave up everything to trade up to life with Christ. And they were not disappointed.
Why I love Christ and His Kingdom… I love this church, and you the people who are this church. But I LOVE the Kingdom and her King. LOVE it. I LOVE what the Kingdom represents. I LOVE how Jesus restores people to the dream of life that they never thought was possible. I LOVE what happens when people who are passionately in LOVE with Jesus and God’s Kingdom walk in faith – ministries like Coats for Kids get born and develop into incredible vehicles of grace. Food pantries get organized, food and money gets donated so those who are desperate can get through another week. Project Hope gets born and homeless people are fed through the weekend when everything else closes. Women and children who have suffered horrible abuse by their husband or pimp in Tijuana are loved by our people and gifts for a new start. 400 orphans get fed every day they go to school in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya. I LOVE King Jesus and His Kingdom, because this Jesus has LOVED me beyond my deserving time and time and time again. Sometimes I am tempted to walk away and drive a truck or something because I get overwhelmed by the task at hand. But I am always won back by His LOVE, and my LOVE for the Kingdom to be ushered in.
Benediction… For those of you who are reluctant to make Christ Lord, to make Him number One, to pledge allegiance to the Kingdom of God before any other person, country, or thing, I beg you to allow the eyes of your heart to be opened, to unclog your ears, that you might see the LOVE of God that is so permeating all of creation. Fall in LOVE with the One who LOVES you beyond reason.
For those of you who are stuck in a rut of Christian comfort, for those of you who think a member of the Trinity is La-Z-Boy, I say to you as Paul said to Timothy: fan into flame the gift that has been given you – the Good News of Christ! If it has become a mere ember, let the wind of the Holy Spirit blow on you that you might be fully engulfed in the flames of the God of Glory.
Fall in LOVE with and follow Jesus with all you’ve got. Make Him priority #1 in your thought life, your prayer life, your love life, your financial life, your free time – all of it – trust Him with it all – and just see what the God of all creation can do with you and in you. In prayer today, confess to God that you’ve settled for a far lesser ruler over your life – name it if you know it. Tell God that you choose to turn it around, to claim his forgiveness and shot at a fresh start. Make a commitment to begin or begin again today keeping God as number 1. Choose your Master today. Do it, and do it today, because your only other option is dust and rust. Give up to trade up.
Making God First Feels Difficult... When I was in college, leading various ministry events or simply talking to friends about selling out to Christ, there would always come a point where the person would realize that what Jesus was calling for was total and absolute surrender to Himself as the Leader of their life. This is what the Bible means by Lord – we voluntarily make Christ our Master, our Owner. When my friends or audience would wake up to this reality, one basic thought seemed to run through their collective minds:
We feel like we’re giving up all the fun stuff… In other words, they thought that in order to follow Christ, they had to become a dork, and embrace a sucky life. In their minds, everything cool that made life interesting had to be dismissed in order to be a Jesus follower, and that seemed like an awfully high price tag – extra emphasis was usually on the AWFUL part.
Sort of like marriage… When I got married back in 1992, I knew I would be giving some things up. My freedom. My hopes. My dreams… Just kidding! Actually, I knew that I was giving some things up, but that they were well worth what I would get in return. I was trading up. I was choosing covenant in order to experience lifelong companionship. The things I’ve given up paled in comparison to what I was trading up to – no contest! After sixteen years, I can tell you that it was well worth the price!
Christ as the Perfect Partner… With Christ, however, it is much better than an earthly marriage. Marriages are made up of two imperfect people – eve the best couples face disappointment because neither person is perfect. But God is perfect. God is always faithful. God’s love is always unconditional. God is always true. God never lets us down.
What we’re really giving up… If you’re worried about what you may have to give up in order to make God number one in your life, here are some examples. We have to give up our insistence on following blind guides and choose clarity instead.
We have to give up destructive behaviors that hurt ourselves and others, even distant others who live half a world away that are affected by our self-centeredness, all for a life that is blessed and is a blessing to others more than a burden.
You don’t necessarily have to give up your beer and hotdog at the baseball game, or your cabernet with your prime rib, but you are called to give up hangovers, embarrassment to friends and yourself, and other avoidables caused by drunkenness or getting wasted.
We have to give up keeping up with the Jones’ in favor of enjoying what we have for all it’s worth.
We have to give up a driven lifestyle that wears us thin and pushes our children beyond their physical and emotional limits in favor of quality time that goes beyond the cliché which lead to deeper relationships, really knowing your spouse, your kids, and your friends.
So, if you are hesitant to follow Jesus wholeheartedly because of what you give up, you are right to wonder. But I would strongly encourage you to really ask yourself the question instead of just using it as an excuse to avoid commitment. What does your question say about your true belief regarding the character of God? If you’re worried your life will suck, aren’t you implying that God’s desire for you, then, is a suckfest life? C’mon! Wake up! Think deep! The God of all creation is inviting you to really, really live – maybe for the first time in your life! What do you really have to lose by following Christ fully except for dust and rust? Give up to trade up!
Making God First Repels Complacency… Sometimes I think we say “God first” a little too flippantly. Especially for those who have been brought up in church or have been in church a long time, we are quick to give a confident “Amen!” to a call for putting God first. We think we’ve nailed it because we show up regularly, read our bibles on occasion, throw some coin in the plate, serve a little – we’re nailing it, right? Sometimes, however, we can have all the outward stuff in place and yet have a very cold heart regarding the things of God. We usually don’t know we’ve gotten stuck in a rut of complacency until something or someone happens upon us and challenges us to move out of our comfort zone. It could be as silly as moving to another quadrant of the sanctuary. All of a sudden, the perspective changes.
We know we’ve let God slip when… We know that something other than the Kingdom has become central when the Great Commandments and the Great Commission are displaced by something else that is also very good, but not nearly as significant. When loving God and loving others as ourselves gets beat out by serving ourselves, we’re in trouble. This indicates that the Great Commandment has become the Great Suggestion. When being and proclaiming the Good News that there is another Way, and that this Way has a name – Jesus – leading people to turn their lives around and follow Him; when growing in Christ and helping others to grow in the Way of life to which we’re called gets trumped by some other good thing, Christ is no longer Lord. In this case, the Great Commission has become the Recommended Elective.
Now, there are marriages, and there are beautiful marriages. You know the ones I’m talking about? Couples that grow in love with each other all the way through. Their love inspires others to continue growing in love.
There are some Jesus followers who are so alive, so full of purpose, so fruitful, that others were naturally drawn to them, and wanted to emulate them. The disciples were like that. The disciples were like that because they were so intimately familiar with Jesus. They loved Jesus with everything they had. They gave up everything to trade up to life with Christ. And they were not disappointed.
Why I love Christ and His Kingdom… I love this church, and you the people who are this church. But I LOVE the Kingdom and her King. LOVE it. I LOVE what the Kingdom represents. I LOVE how Jesus restores people to the dream of life that they never thought was possible. I LOVE what happens when people who are passionately in LOVE with Jesus and God’s Kingdom walk in faith – ministries like Coats for Kids get born and develop into incredible vehicles of grace. Food pantries get organized, food and money gets donated so those who are desperate can get through another week. Project Hope gets born and homeless people are fed through the weekend when everything else closes. Women and children who have suffered horrible abuse by their husband or pimp in Tijuana are loved by our people and gifts for a new start. 400 orphans get fed every day they go to school in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya. I LOVE King Jesus and His Kingdom, because this Jesus has LOVED me beyond my deserving time and time and time again. Sometimes I am tempted to walk away and drive a truck or something because I get overwhelmed by the task at hand. But I am always won back by His LOVE, and my LOVE for the Kingdom to be ushered in.
Benediction… For those of you who are reluctant to make Christ Lord, to make Him number One, to pledge allegiance to the Kingdom of God before any other person, country, or thing, I beg you to allow the eyes of your heart to be opened, to unclog your ears, that you might see the LOVE of God that is so permeating all of creation. Fall in LOVE with the One who LOVES you beyond reason.
For those of you who are stuck in a rut of Christian comfort, for those of you who think a member of the Trinity is La-Z-Boy, I say to you as Paul said to Timothy: fan into flame the gift that has been given you – the Good News of Christ! If it has become a mere ember, let the wind of the Holy Spirit blow on you that you might be fully engulfed in the flames of the God of Glory.
Fall in LOVE with and follow Jesus with all you’ve got. Make Him priority #1 in your thought life, your prayer life, your love life, your financial life, your free time – all of it – trust Him with it all – and just see what the God of all creation can do with you and in you. In prayer today, confess to God that you’ve settled for a far lesser ruler over your life – name it if you know it. Tell God that you choose to turn it around, to claim his forgiveness and shot at a fresh start. Make a commitment to begin or begin again today keeping God as number 1. Choose your Master today. Do it, and do it today, because your only other option is dust and rust. Give up to trade up.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
In God We Trust: Owner or Manager?
Here are some obvious things from the parable of the Talents found in Matthew 25:14-30…
The first two guys knew exactly what they were supposed to do, did it well, and doubled their Master’s holdings.
The third guy presumably knew what to do (otherwise the Master is the moron, which isn’t possible here), but didn’t carry out his responsibilities out of blatant disregard or terrible fear or championship-level laziness.
It seems like Jesus’ cautionary tale is directed at all of us who might choose a path that is motivated out of fear, or laziness, or simple foolishness.
The talents with which we’ve been entrusted are all that makes up our lives. Our mental capacities, emotional intelligence, physical attributes – everything that we are. We’ve been given this thing – life is a gift after all – none of us made ourselves. The inherent hard-wiring we all have been born with is to live life to our fullest potential. We haven’t been born into equal gifts, capacities, or opportunities, but we all have been created with the same goal to reach for our personal best.
So why don’t we?
I don’t think our issue is fear. Besides, the Master already called the guy (and us) on this. If we were truly afraid of God, we’d be motivated, at least toward a conservative return on our life.
I’d like to think that we’re all hard-wired for the first two responses. I think we are. But I think we may have adopted some software along the way that allows us to bypass our hard-wiring.
In July, our home computer crashed. The warning that my hard drive was shot came on the day it died. Thanks, Microsoft! A lot of the stuff on my hard drive was backed up, but not my iTunes – over 5,000 songs. I wasn’t worried, though, because I had recently synched my iPod with my iTunes, which meant that all my music was on my iPod. Cool. No problem. That is, until I tried to simply move my music onto iTunes on my new home computer. No can do. I wasted a few hours reading up on stuff, and finally went against my gender’s predispositions and called Tech Support. Oh the pain! I found out, unofficially from the iTunes support person, that I would have to buy a third party software program to work around iTunes. Silly that iTunes wouldn’t let me put my own stuff on my new computer… Grrr!
Apple blew it on that one. Bad programming. But I believe our human programming from God is perfectly designed to do well. What I think messes it up is lots of add-ins we allow or were given us that have become such a part of us that we don’t even know they are running in our background. Maybe this has something to do with us reflecting the third servant more than we would care to admit.
I wonder if we in the West really believe that it’s all God’s stuff in the first place. I think our drive for the American Dream has produced great results, but may also have shaded our vision. I don’t think we really believe that we are managers and not owners.
If we really believe that we’re managers and not owners, then we’d be asking different questions.
Instead of: “What can I do with my stuff to make myself more comfortable and happy?” we might ask: “What does God want me to do with all this stuff God has entrusted to me?”
Instead of: “What can I do to make sure I have more than enough?” we might ask “Since I’m not taking any of it with me anyway, who needs help that I can provide?”
There are a million questions we are tempted to ask as owners, few of which are related to the questions we need to ask as managers.
Note: If we get the right answers to the wrong questions, guess what? We’re still wrong!
Owner question: “What kind of God is going to hold me accountable?” Answer (wrong): “God is mean and unfair – I can’t win no matter what, so what difference does it make how I live my life?”
Wrong question.
Right question: “How can I best manage this life God has given me to produce the most and best fruit possible for the Master’s interests?”
Think about the possibilities now.
What is possible if we get this thing right? How much fruit can we produce? Especially over several seasons?
If the world ended in a few weeks, what could we accomplish? Only a little.
But what if we really let this paradigm take hold, how could we increase the Kingdom – the Master’s interests – over the next three, five and ten years?
All of the challenges the Napa community faces can be alleviated if people begin living in the Way of Christ, which is getting back to how God wired us for life in the first place.
Think about it…
Gangs aren’t so attractive if families are loving each other modeled after the love of God.
Gang leaders aren’t so motivated if they’ve discovered a movement and a community that will love them, empower them for great good, and redeem instead of destroy.
Domestic Violence disappears as couples learn the principles of mutual servant hood.
Unwanted pregnancies go way down as men and women learn the principles outlined in the scriptures.
Racial tensions ease as we see each other as equals, and treat each other as equals by respecting our respective backgrounds – a deeply Christian value.
What could Napa look like if we get this principle right? How would you do your life differently if you treated it as a gift instead of something you somehow earned?
This parable was leveled against the leaders of the faith that buried the potential when they should have been investing it wisely.
This passage, of course, also addresses finances, since it is a parable based on finances.
How will your spending change if you begin adopting a new worldview as a manager instead of owner? What do you suppose God thinks about you getting out of debt? God’s for it. What do you think is God’s take on financially supporting the Kingdom work of the Church so that we can move into Napa with greater strength? God’s for it.
I’m aware that we are potentially facing the worst financial chapter of our nation’s life since the Great Depression, and that talking about money may be the stupidest thing we could do. But understand this: the principles of financial stewardship that will get you through these tough times are the same principles that will enable you to get to a place where you can do great things for the Kingdom in this world.
We can take on some of Napa’s greatest challenges and redeem them as we trade in our falsified papers of ownership and embrace our title as managers.
We can not only lift up Napa, we can help redeem Tijuana from the ground up as we restore life to battered women and their children through Deborah’s House. We can take on human trafficking there and win, but only if we see ourselves as managers.
We can not just lift up one part of one slum outside of Nairobi, Kenya, but we can begin lifting the entire slum as we think “manager” instead of “owner.”
This series will give you lots of opportunities to trade in one hat for the other. Together we will see areas of our lives that reflect that third servant, and we will confess and repent, choosing to turn in God’s direction lest we end our lives with nothing but the skin of our teeth.
May you come to grips with the reality that you are not an owner, but a manager. May you begin living accordingly.
The first two guys knew exactly what they were supposed to do, did it well, and doubled their Master’s holdings.
The third guy presumably knew what to do (otherwise the Master is the moron, which isn’t possible here), but didn’t carry out his responsibilities out of blatant disregard or terrible fear or championship-level laziness.
It seems like Jesus’ cautionary tale is directed at all of us who might choose a path that is motivated out of fear, or laziness, or simple foolishness.
The talents with which we’ve been entrusted are all that makes up our lives. Our mental capacities, emotional intelligence, physical attributes – everything that we are. We’ve been given this thing – life is a gift after all – none of us made ourselves. The inherent hard-wiring we all have been born with is to live life to our fullest potential. We haven’t been born into equal gifts, capacities, or opportunities, but we all have been created with the same goal to reach for our personal best.
So why don’t we?
I don’t think our issue is fear. Besides, the Master already called the guy (and us) on this. If we were truly afraid of God, we’d be motivated, at least toward a conservative return on our life.
I’d like to think that we’re all hard-wired for the first two responses. I think we are. But I think we may have adopted some software along the way that allows us to bypass our hard-wiring.
In July, our home computer crashed. The warning that my hard drive was shot came on the day it died. Thanks, Microsoft! A lot of the stuff on my hard drive was backed up, but not my iTunes – over 5,000 songs. I wasn’t worried, though, because I had recently synched my iPod with my iTunes, which meant that all my music was on my iPod. Cool. No problem. That is, until I tried to simply move my music onto iTunes on my new home computer. No can do. I wasted a few hours reading up on stuff, and finally went against my gender’s predispositions and called Tech Support. Oh the pain! I found out, unofficially from the iTunes support person, that I would have to buy a third party software program to work around iTunes. Silly that iTunes wouldn’t let me put my own stuff on my new computer… Grrr!
Apple blew it on that one. Bad programming. But I believe our human programming from God is perfectly designed to do well. What I think messes it up is lots of add-ins we allow or were given us that have become such a part of us that we don’t even know they are running in our background. Maybe this has something to do with us reflecting the third servant more than we would care to admit.
I wonder if we in the West really believe that it’s all God’s stuff in the first place. I think our drive for the American Dream has produced great results, but may also have shaded our vision. I don’t think we really believe that we are managers and not owners.
If we really believe that we’re managers and not owners, then we’d be asking different questions.
Instead of: “What can I do with my stuff to make myself more comfortable and happy?” we might ask: “What does God want me to do with all this stuff God has entrusted to me?”
Instead of: “What can I do to make sure I have more than enough?” we might ask “Since I’m not taking any of it with me anyway, who needs help that I can provide?”
There are a million questions we are tempted to ask as owners, few of which are related to the questions we need to ask as managers.
Note: If we get the right answers to the wrong questions, guess what? We’re still wrong!
Owner question: “What kind of God is going to hold me accountable?” Answer (wrong): “God is mean and unfair – I can’t win no matter what, so what difference does it make how I live my life?”
Wrong question.
Right question: “How can I best manage this life God has given me to produce the most and best fruit possible for the Master’s interests?”
Think about the possibilities now.
What is possible if we get this thing right? How much fruit can we produce? Especially over several seasons?
If the world ended in a few weeks, what could we accomplish? Only a little.
But what if we really let this paradigm take hold, how could we increase the Kingdom – the Master’s interests – over the next three, five and ten years?
All of the challenges the Napa community faces can be alleviated if people begin living in the Way of Christ, which is getting back to how God wired us for life in the first place.
Think about it…
Gangs aren’t so attractive if families are loving each other modeled after the love of God.
Gang leaders aren’t so motivated if they’ve discovered a movement and a community that will love them, empower them for great good, and redeem instead of destroy.
Domestic Violence disappears as couples learn the principles of mutual servant hood.
Unwanted pregnancies go way down as men and women learn the principles outlined in the scriptures.
Racial tensions ease as we see each other as equals, and treat each other as equals by respecting our respective backgrounds – a deeply Christian value.
What could Napa look like if we get this principle right? How would you do your life differently if you treated it as a gift instead of something you somehow earned?
This parable was leveled against the leaders of the faith that buried the potential when they should have been investing it wisely.
This passage, of course, also addresses finances, since it is a parable based on finances.
How will your spending change if you begin adopting a new worldview as a manager instead of owner? What do you suppose God thinks about you getting out of debt? God’s for it. What do you think is God’s take on financially supporting the Kingdom work of the Church so that we can move into Napa with greater strength? God’s for it.
I’m aware that we are potentially facing the worst financial chapter of our nation’s life since the Great Depression, and that talking about money may be the stupidest thing we could do. But understand this: the principles of financial stewardship that will get you through these tough times are the same principles that will enable you to get to a place where you can do great things for the Kingdom in this world.
We can take on some of Napa’s greatest challenges and redeem them as we trade in our falsified papers of ownership and embrace our title as managers.
We can not only lift up Napa, we can help redeem Tijuana from the ground up as we restore life to battered women and their children through Deborah’s House. We can take on human trafficking there and win, but only if we see ourselves as managers.
We can not just lift up one part of one slum outside of Nairobi, Kenya, but we can begin lifting the entire slum as we think “manager” instead of “owner.”
This series will give you lots of opportunities to trade in one hat for the other. Together we will see areas of our lives that reflect that third servant, and we will confess and repent, choosing to turn in God’s direction lest we end our lives with nothing but the skin of our teeth.
May you come to grips with the reality that you are not an owner, but a manager. May you begin living accordingly.
Monday, October 20, 2008
In God We Trust: To Caesar and To God
They thought they had Jesus cornered.
They'd tried before, but this time they brought politics into it, and politically savvy people to make their move.
If he moved in one direction, the religious community would call him heretical. If he moved in the only other direction they could see, Caesar would have him killed.
Check mate.
The question posed to him (recorded in Matthew 22:15-22) was simple: should a good Jew pay taxes to Caesar or not?
After Jesus let on that he knew these inquisitors were up to no good, Jesus asked for a coin (he didn't have one of his own). He asked them whose image was stamped on the denarius. It was Caesar.
"Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and give to God what is God's," was Jesus' reply.
Those who sought to trap him walked away in dismay.
Not check mate after all.
Jesus' words were quite profound. Caesar thought himself a god who ruled the world. He sort of did. Good Romans who also realized his power and authority over their life and death did not publicly hesitate to give Caesar the worship he demanded. So when Jesus instructed to give God His due, this was quite radical - He was saying that Caesar was not God. In fact, the only thing due Caesar was the coin made in his image. Everything else? God's.
On Sunday, I interviewed five women who lived during a time when one of our cultural gods died for awhile: money. During the Great Depression and on into WWII, money was scarce. These women shared stories of their life experience during that era, and gifted us with principles that give us hope as we go through the closest economic crisis since 1929.
Give the audio a listen. Enjoy it. Live differently in response to the truth you hear, choosing to trust the real God when your false gods are shown for what they really are: false.
They'd tried before, but this time they brought politics into it, and politically savvy people to make their move.
If he moved in one direction, the religious community would call him heretical. If he moved in the only other direction they could see, Caesar would have him killed.
Check mate.
The question posed to him (recorded in Matthew 22:15-22) was simple: should a good Jew pay taxes to Caesar or not?
After Jesus let on that he knew these inquisitors were up to no good, Jesus asked for a coin (he didn't have one of his own). He asked them whose image was stamped on the denarius. It was Caesar.
"Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and give to God what is God's," was Jesus' reply.
Those who sought to trap him walked away in dismay.
Not check mate after all.
Jesus' words were quite profound. Caesar thought himself a god who ruled the world. He sort of did. Good Romans who also realized his power and authority over their life and death did not publicly hesitate to give Caesar the worship he demanded. So when Jesus instructed to give God His due, this was quite radical - He was saying that Caesar was not God. In fact, the only thing due Caesar was the coin made in his image. Everything else? God's.
On Sunday, I interviewed five women who lived during a time when one of our cultural gods died for awhile: money. During the Great Depression and on into WWII, money was scarce. These women shared stories of their life experience during that era, and gifted us with principles that give us hope as we go through the closest economic crisis since 1929.
Give the audio a listen. Enjoy it. Live differently in response to the truth you hear, choosing to trust the real God when your false gods are shown for what they really are: false.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
In God We Trust: The Banquet or The Dump?
Today begins a new series: In God We Trust? The days in which we now live are begging this question. Ironically, the dollars we use have this phrase written on each of them. But is it true? Is trusting God simply a catch phrase, a slogan, or is it a core belief from which every decision is derived in some way?
To help us dissect where our motives originate, I had you watch a film that illustrates one of the systems we find ourselves in; one which challenges our allegiance to God.
If you haven’t already, watch The Story of Stuff: http://www.storyofstuff.com/.
In this short film, Annie Leonard, an internationally recognized authority and proponent of sustainability and environmental health, helps us understand the origins of our consumerism tendencies and suggests some solutions.
It would be easy to simply journey through life and not be aware of the larger, more complex issues we find ourselves in. Indeed, that’s what systems do: they become such a subtle undercurrent that we don’t even realize we are enveloped in a system in the first place.
Enter Jesus.
Jesus came to call humanity to live another Way. A Way with the blinders off. A Way where Truth is the guide. The earliest people who followed Jesus’ teachings did it so well that they became known as the people of The Way.
In Matthew 22:1-14, Jesus taught with a parable about people who were so stuck in their particular system that they didn’t know a great opportunity when it came their way. People were invited by their King to join him for a banquet, yet none of them heeded the call. Chagrined, the King ordered that people who understood the value of the invitation be invited and welcomed. Those who understood the value of the invitation enjoyed the banquet. Those who despised the invitation missed out entirely.
This passage certainly can be immediately applied to its original context where the people who should have understood Jesus’ teachings first and most did not, and those who would not have been the most theologically astute found themselves at the Master’s table.
But a more broad application is fitting, too. Jesus came to proclaim that a different Kingdom was arriving, governed by different laws and ruled with a different tone. Living in this new Kingdom meant living differently than how life was lived in the other kingdom. One Kingdom led to a banquet, the other kingdom, the dump. Those who recognized the value of the invitation to live by the Kingdom enjoyed the banquet, those who didn’t, the dump.
This is true regarding how we interact with money, materials, stuff. If we continue living by the rules that the world has allowed, we will literally be living in a toxic dump. But if we live in the Way of Jesus, which is Kingdom of God living, we will experience life at a much richer level – a banquet by comparison.
The fact is that we live in a materialistic culture where consumerism reigns supreme. Don’t believe me? Then why are Christmas trees already on display in many stores? If you have lived most of your life in the US, then you have been heavily influenced by this system. Are you aware of this reality?
Maybe the system – especially in light of our current economic crisis – has caught up with you. Maybe you are overwhelmed with debt. Maybe you now recognize just how much junk you have, and how much you blow through without thinking.
There is another Way. We cannot live apart from a relationship with money, material, and stuff. But we can live in such a relationship where we do not serve money. We can do life serving God, where it really is God we trust, and we really do discover a banquet instead of a dump.
Are you ready to eat?
Supplement: Another Way (http://www.storyofstuff.com/anotherway.html)
Many people who have seen The Story of Stuff have asked what they can do to address the problems identified in the film.
Each of us can promote sustainability and justice at multiple levels: as an individual, as a teacher or parent, a community member, a national citizen, and as a global citizen. As Annie says in the film, “the good thing about such an all pervasive problem is that there are so many points of intervention.” That means that there are lots and lots of places to plug in, to get involved, and to make a difference. There is no single simple thing to do, because the set of problems we’re addressing just isn’t simple. But everyone can make a difference, but the bigger your action the bigger the difference you’ll make. Here are some ideas:
10 Little and Big Things You Can Do
1. Power down! A great deal of the resources we use and the waste we create is in the energy we consume. Look for opportunities in your life to significantly reduce energy use: drive less, fly less, turn off lights, buy local seasonal food (food takes energy to grow, package, store and transport), wear a sweater instead of turning up the heat, use a clothesline instead of a dryer, vacation closer to home, buy used or borrow things before buying new, recycle. All these things save energy and save you money. And, if you can switch to alternative energy by supporting a company that sells green energy to the grid or by installing solar panels on your home, bravo!
2. Waste less. Per capita waste production in the U.S. just keeps growing. There are hundreds of opportunities each day to nurture a Zero Waste culture in your home, school, workplace, church, community. This takes developing new habits which soon become second nature. Use both sides of the paper, carry your own mugs and shopping bags, get printer cartridges refilled instead of replaced, compost food scraps, avoid bottled water and other over packaged products, upgrade computers rather than buying new ones, repair and mend rather than replace….the list is endless! The more we visibly engage in re-use over wasting, the more we cultivate a new cultural norm, or actually, reclaim an old one!
3. Talk to everyone about these issues. At school, your neighbors, in line at the supermarket, on the bus…A student once asked Cesar Chavez how he organized. He said, “First, I talk to one person. Then I talk to another person.” “No,” said the student, “how do you organize?” Chavez answered, “First I talk to one person. Then I talk to another person.” You get the point. Talking about these issues raises awareness, builds community and can inspire others to action.
4. Make Your Voice Heard. Write letters to the editor and submit articles to local press. In the last two years, and especially with Al Gore winning the Nobel Peace Prize, the media has been forced to write about Climate Change. As individuals, we can influence the media to better represent other important issues as well. Letters to the editor are a great way to help newspaper readers make connections they might not make without your help. Also local papers are often willing to print book and film reviews, interviews and articles by community members. Let’s get the issues we care about in the news.
5. DeTox your body, DeTox your home, and DeTox the Economy. Many of today’s consumer products – from children’s pajamas to lipstick – contain toxic chemical additives that simply aren’t necessary. Research online (for example, http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/) before you buy to be sure you’re not inadvertently introducing toxics into your home and body. Then tell your friends about toxics in consumer products. Together, ask the businesses why they’re using toxic chemicals without any warning labels. And ask your elected officials why they are permitting this practice. The European Union has adopted strong policies that require toxics to be removed from many products. So, while our electronic gadgets and cosmetics have toxics in them, people in Europe can buy the same things toxics-free. Let’s demand the same thing here. Getting the toxics out of production at the source is the best way to ensure they don’t get into any home and body.
6. Unplug (the TV and internet) and Plug In (the community). The average person in the U.S. watches T.V. over 4 hours a day. Four hours per day filled with messages about stuff we should buy. That is four hours a day that could be spent with family, friends and in our community. On-line activism is a good start, but spending time in face-to-face civic or community activities strengthens the community and many studies show that a stronger community is a source of social and logistical support, greater security and happiness. A strong community is also critical to having a strong, active democracy.
7. Park your car and walk…and when necessary MARCH! Car-centric land use policies and life styles lead to more greenhouse gas emissions, fossil fuel extraction, conversion of agricultural and wildlands to roads and parking lots. Driving less and walking more is good for the climate, the planet, your health, and your wallet. But sometimes we don’t have an option to leave the car home because of inadequate bike lanes or public transportation options. Then, we may need to march, to join with others to demand sustainable transportation options. Throughout U.S. history, peaceful non-violent marches have played a powerful role in raising awareness about issues, mobilizing people, and sending messages to decision makers.
8. Change your light bulbs…and then, change your paradigm. Changing light bulbs is quick and easy. Energy efficient light bulbs use 75% less energy and last 10 times longer than conventional ones. That's a no-brainer. But changing light bulbs is just tinkering at the margins of a fundamentally flawed system unless we also change our paradigm. A paradigm is a collection of assumptions, concepts, beliefs, and values that together make up a community’s way of viewing reality. Our current paradigm dictates that more stuff is better, that infinite economic growth is desirable and possible, and that pollution is the price of progress. To really turn things around, we need to nurture a different paradigm based on the values of sustainability, justice, health, and community.
9. Recycle your trash…and, recycle your elected officials. Recycling saves energy and reduces both waste and the pressure to harvest and mine new stuff. Unfortunately, many cities still don’t have adequate recycling systems in place. In that case you can usually find some recycling options in the phone book to start recycling while you’re pressuring your local government to support recycling city-wide. Also, many products – for example, most electronics - are designed not to be recycled or contain toxics so recycling is hazardous. In these cases, we need to lobby government to prohibit toxics in consumer products and to enact Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) laws, as is happening in Europe. EPR is a policy which holds producers responsible for the entire lifecycle of their products, so that electronics companies who use toxics in their products, have to take them back. That is a great incentive for them to get the toxics out!
10. Buy Green, Buy Fair, Buy Local, Buy Used, and most importantly, Buy Less. Shopping is not the solution to the environmental problems we currently face because the real changes we need just aren’t for sale in even the greenest shop. But, when we do shop, we should ensure our dollars support businesses that protect the environment and worker rights. Look beyond vague claims on packages like “all natural” to find hard facts. Is it organic? Is it free of super-toxic PVC plastic? When you can, buy local products from local stores, which keep more of our hard earned money in the community. Buying used items keeps them out of the trash and avoids the upstream waste created during extraction and production. But, buying less may be the best option of all. Less pollution. Less Waste. Less time working to pay for the stuff. Sometimes, less really is more.
To help us dissect where our motives originate, I had you watch a film that illustrates one of the systems we find ourselves in; one which challenges our allegiance to God.
If you haven’t already, watch The Story of Stuff: http://www.storyofstuff.com/.
In this short film, Annie Leonard, an internationally recognized authority and proponent of sustainability and environmental health, helps us understand the origins of our consumerism tendencies and suggests some solutions.
It would be easy to simply journey through life and not be aware of the larger, more complex issues we find ourselves in. Indeed, that’s what systems do: they become such a subtle undercurrent that we don’t even realize we are enveloped in a system in the first place.
Enter Jesus.
Jesus came to call humanity to live another Way. A Way with the blinders off. A Way where Truth is the guide. The earliest people who followed Jesus’ teachings did it so well that they became known as the people of The Way.
In Matthew 22:1-14, Jesus taught with a parable about people who were so stuck in their particular system that they didn’t know a great opportunity when it came their way. People were invited by their King to join him for a banquet, yet none of them heeded the call. Chagrined, the King ordered that people who understood the value of the invitation be invited and welcomed. Those who understood the value of the invitation enjoyed the banquet. Those who despised the invitation missed out entirely.
This passage certainly can be immediately applied to its original context where the people who should have understood Jesus’ teachings first and most did not, and those who would not have been the most theologically astute found themselves at the Master’s table.
But a more broad application is fitting, too. Jesus came to proclaim that a different Kingdom was arriving, governed by different laws and ruled with a different tone. Living in this new Kingdom meant living differently than how life was lived in the other kingdom. One Kingdom led to a banquet, the other kingdom, the dump. Those who recognized the value of the invitation to live by the Kingdom enjoyed the banquet, those who didn’t, the dump.
This is true regarding how we interact with money, materials, stuff. If we continue living by the rules that the world has allowed, we will literally be living in a toxic dump. But if we live in the Way of Jesus, which is Kingdom of God living, we will experience life at a much richer level – a banquet by comparison.
The fact is that we live in a materialistic culture where consumerism reigns supreme. Don’t believe me? Then why are Christmas trees already on display in many stores? If you have lived most of your life in the US, then you have been heavily influenced by this system. Are you aware of this reality?
Maybe the system – especially in light of our current economic crisis – has caught up with you. Maybe you are overwhelmed with debt. Maybe you now recognize just how much junk you have, and how much you blow through without thinking.
There is another Way. We cannot live apart from a relationship with money, material, and stuff. But we can live in such a relationship where we do not serve money. We can do life serving God, where it really is God we trust, and we really do discover a banquet instead of a dump.
Are you ready to eat?
Supplement: Another Way (http://www.storyofstuff.com/anotherway.html)
Many people who have seen The Story of Stuff have asked what they can do to address the problems identified in the film.
Each of us can promote sustainability and justice at multiple levels: as an individual, as a teacher or parent, a community member, a national citizen, and as a global citizen. As Annie says in the film, “the good thing about such an all pervasive problem is that there are so many points of intervention.” That means that there are lots and lots of places to plug in, to get involved, and to make a difference. There is no single simple thing to do, because the set of problems we’re addressing just isn’t simple. But everyone can make a difference, but the bigger your action the bigger the difference you’ll make. Here are some ideas:
10 Little and Big Things You Can Do
1. Power down! A great deal of the resources we use and the waste we create is in the energy we consume. Look for opportunities in your life to significantly reduce energy use: drive less, fly less, turn off lights, buy local seasonal food (food takes energy to grow, package, store and transport), wear a sweater instead of turning up the heat, use a clothesline instead of a dryer, vacation closer to home, buy used or borrow things before buying new, recycle. All these things save energy and save you money. And, if you can switch to alternative energy by supporting a company that sells green energy to the grid or by installing solar panels on your home, bravo!
2. Waste less. Per capita waste production in the U.S. just keeps growing. There are hundreds of opportunities each day to nurture a Zero Waste culture in your home, school, workplace, church, community. This takes developing new habits which soon become second nature. Use both sides of the paper, carry your own mugs and shopping bags, get printer cartridges refilled instead of replaced, compost food scraps, avoid bottled water and other over packaged products, upgrade computers rather than buying new ones, repair and mend rather than replace….the list is endless! The more we visibly engage in re-use over wasting, the more we cultivate a new cultural norm, or actually, reclaim an old one!
3. Talk to everyone about these issues. At school, your neighbors, in line at the supermarket, on the bus…A student once asked Cesar Chavez how he organized. He said, “First, I talk to one person. Then I talk to another person.” “No,” said the student, “how do you organize?” Chavez answered, “First I talk to one person. Then I talk to another person.” You get the point. Talking about these issues raises awareness, builds community and can inspire others to action.
4. Make Your Voice Heard. Write letters to the editor and submit articles to local press. In the last two years, and especially with Al Gore winning the Nobel Peace Prize, the media has been forced to write about Climate Change. As individuals, we can influence the media to better represent other important issues as well. Letters to the editor are a great way to help newspaper readers make connections they might not make without your help. Also local papers are often willing to print book and film reviews, interviews and articles by community members. Let’s get the issues we care about in the news.
5. DeTox your body, DeTox your home, and DeTox the Economy. Many of today’s consumer products – from children’s pajamas to lipstick – contain toxic chemical additives that simply aren’t necessary. Research online (for example, http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/) before you buy to be sure you’re not inadvertently introducing toxics into your home and body. Then tell your friends about toxics in consumer products. Together, ask the businesses why they’re using toxic chemicals without any warning labels. And ask your elected officials why they are permitting this practice. The European Union has adopted strong policies that require toxics to be removed from many products. So, while our electronic gadgets and cosmetics have toxics in them, people in Europe can buy the same things toxics-free. Let’s demand the same thing here. Getting the toxics out of production at the source is the best way to ensure they don’t get into any home and body.
6. Unplug (the TV and internet) and Plug In (the community). The average person in the U.S. watches T.V. over 4 hours a day. Four hours per day filled with messages about stuff we should buy. That is four hours a day that could be spent with family, friends and in our community. On-line activism is a good start, but spending time in face-to-face civic or community activities strengthens the community and many studies show that a stronger community is a source of social and logistical support, greater security and happiness. A strong community is also critical to having a strong, active democracy.
7. Park your car and walk…and when necessary MARCH! Car-centric land use policies and life styles lead to more greenhouse gas emissions, fossil fuel extraction, conversion of agricultural and wildlands to roads and parking lots. Driving less and walking more is good for the climate, the planet, your health, and your wallet. But sometimes we don’t have an option to leave the car home because of inadequate bike lanes or public transportation options. Then, we may need to march, to join with others to demand sustainable transportation options. Throughout U.S. history, peaceful non-violent marches have played a powerful role in raising awareness about issues, mobilizing people, and sending messages to decision makers.
8. Change your light bulbs…and then, change your paradigm. Changing light bulbs is quick and easy. Energy efficient light bulbs use 75% less energy and last 10 times longer than conventional ones. That's a no-brainer. But changing light bulbs is just tinkering at the margins of a fundamentally flawed system unless we also change our paradigm. A paradigm is a collection of assumptions, concepts, beliefs, and values that together make up a community’s way of viewing reality. Our current paradigm dictates that more stuff is better, that infinite economic growth is desirable and possible, and that pollution is the price of progress. To really turn things around, we need to nurture a different paradigm based on the values of sustainability, justice, health, and community.
9. Recycle your trash…and, recycle your elected officials. Recycling saves energy and reduces both waste and the pressure to harvest and mine new stuff. Unfortunately, many cities still don’t have adequate recycling systems in place. In that case you can usually find some recycling options in the phone book to start recycling while you’re pressuring your local government to support recycling city-wide. Also, many products – for example, most electronics - are designed not to be recycled or contain toxics so recycling is hazardous. In these cases, we need to lobby government to prohibit toxics in consumer products and to enact Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) laws, as is happening in Europe. EPR is a policy which holds producers responsible for the entire lifecycle of their products, so that electronics companies who use toxics in their products, have to take them back. That is a great incentive for them to get the toxics out!
10. Buy Green, Buy Fair, Buy Local, Buy Used, and most importantly, Buy Less. Shopping is not the solution to the environmental problems we currently face because the real changes we need just aren’t for sale in even the greenest shop. But, when we do shop, we should ensure our dollars support businesses that protect the environment and worker rights. Look beyond vague claims on packages like “all natural” to find hard facts. Is it organic? Is it free of super-toxic PVC plastic? When you can, buy local products from local stores, which keep more of our hard earned money in the community. Buying used items keeps them out of the trash and avoids the upstream waste created during extraction and production. But, buying less may be the best option of all. Less pollution. Less Waste. Less time working to pay for the stuff. Sometimes, less really is more.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
The Movement
We’re all moving. Even if we’re sitting as still as we possibly can, we’re still moving. Our breath causes our chest to rise and sink. And even if we hold our breath for a moment, or even for a world record 17 minutes, our blood is still moving inside our veins. We’re all moving.
There’s a word for us when we truly stop moving: dead. You’re not dead yet. You’re moving.
The question is: are we moving within a worthwhile movement?
The ten day period between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are called the High Holy Days by Jews worldwide. Rosh Hashanah celebrates the Jewish New Year (Happy 5769, by the way!), and Yom Kippur is recognized as a Day of Atonement when people confess their sins to God and ask for forgiveness.
Rosh Hashanah is more than a celebration of a new year – it is a celebration of the movement of God in creation and in those who have believed. In the Bible (Leviticus 23:23-25 and Numbers 29:1-6, specifically), God commanded Israel to celebrate these two highest of holy days by coming together as one huge family in celebration and reflection for what God has done, what they have done, and what God wants to do.
So, as you reflect on God’s creative work, take a moment and reflect. Who have you been created to be? How have you been gifted? What resources are you grateful to steward? How have you been blessed? What awful experiences have become lessons learned that will help you and others not to repeat them?
God called for this annual feast because God knew that people needed to be reminded of The Movement, and be encouraged to renew their commitment to it in community.
What is The Movement? The Movement is simply to save the world. To redeem it. To restore it to its original condition. To heal it. To make it whole. The entire created realm: the environment and the people who steward it.
The Movement had some significant milestones in history: the calling of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph to name some of the earliest Movers in the Movement. God called everyday people, peasants, nobles, men, women, educated, non-educated, Jews and Gentiles alike to invest in The Movement.
God has always been aware of the state of creation. God is not ignorant regarding humanity’s fouls against each other and the natural world. The goal of The Movement, however, is the Hebrew word Shalom, which refers to holistic peace and restoration in all of creation. In the story of creation, Eden is that prototype, and serves as the model for where we’re headed. An experience we really cannot fathom, yet one for which our hearts yearn.
If this reality happened tomorrow – shalom fully realized, The Movement fulfilled entirely – what would be different? What would be different about you? What would be different about your relationships? Your work? Your city? Your nation? The world? What would go away? What would replace it?
When God called people throughout history, God called them to a different way of life, a life of faith, where their actions were dictated not always by what the culture around them encouraged, but what they sensed God calling them to do. In the Bible’s Hebrews 11, we get a glimpse of what these people went through as they invested their everyday moving to The Movement.
Today reminds us that we are invited to join The Movement, which is still moving forward with us or without us. Today is a day when we take an honest look at ourselves and admit that we have been out of step, not in synch with The Movement at certain times over the last 12 months. Today is a day of collective confession, a day of repentance.
How have you been out of step with The Movement this past year? When have your priorities failed to coincide with the priorities called for by The Movement? When has your attitude not reflected that which propels The Movement forward? When were you lazy about your faith, apathetic about helping where help was needed, and stingy when generosity was necessary?
In ancient Jewish Yom Kippur services, the doors of the Ark of the Covenant were open for the entire service – the only service of the year when this happened. This symbolized Heaven’s Gates being open to people on that particular day. It was thought that those who confessed and repented would have their names written in God’s Book of Life, and God would bless them with a good year. Not so much for those who didn’t…
Actually, it makes sense. When we fail to recognize our propensity for idiocy, we usually repeat the same foolish mistakes, making our lives more miserable than necessary. But when we admit to ourselves, others and God where we recognize our error, we are less likely to repeat those mistakes, making for a better year ahead.
Confession was only half of the deal, however. The other half was commitment to The Movement. These High Holy Days were and are a time to remember what God has been up to, and decide to join God in The Movement.
How do we do this? With the very things we’ve been given to steward. Our relationships, our work, our gifts and abilities, our resources – everything.
God is calling us to recommit to The Movement. Should we commit, it will mean we bring more of God’s Kingdom in, which doesn’t leave much room for that which is not. It means the not-so-good stuff you mentioned earlier begins to fade. So, what can you do in order to be moving in The Movement’s direction? How can you pray differently? Speak differently? Love differently? Give differently? If you stop moving by this time next year, for what movement do you want to be remembered? What would you hope your obituary might say about the investments of your life?
In Jewish circles, the Ten Days of Awe that mark the High Holy Days ends with a Yom Kippur service when the people recite seven times, with increasing volume, “The Lord is our God.” Seven times proclaiming that we know we have a choice as to who rules our life, and we choose God. Not sex. Not sloth. Not silver. Not self. But God. Only God. Seven times – the number of perfection – pure devotion to God.
We are hear confessing our shortcomings and considering this commitment because countless people before us confessed and committed to the God who created them and called them to The Movement.
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.”
May it be so for you and for me and for all we invite into The Movement by this time next year.
There’s a word for us when we truly stop moving: dead. You’re not dead yet. You’re moving.
The question is: are we moving within a worthwhile movement?
The ten day period between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are called the High Holy Days by Jews worldwide. Rosh Hashanah celebrates the Jewish New Year (Happy 5769, by the way!), and Yom Kippur is recognized as a Day of Atonement when people confess their sins to God and ask for forgiveness.
Rosh Hashanah is more than a celebration of a new year – it is a celebration of the movement of God in creation and in those who have believed. In the Bible (Leviticus 23:23-25 and Numbers 29:1-6, specifically), God commanded Israel to celebrate these two highest of holy days by coming together as one huge family in celebration and reflection for what God has done, what they have done, and what God wants to do.
So, as you reflect on God’s creative work, take a moment and reflect. Who have you been created to be? How have you been gifted? What resources are you grateful to steward? How have you been blessed? What awful experiences have become lessons learned that will help you and others not to repeat them?
God called for this annual feast because God knew that people needed to be reminded of The Movement, and be encouraged to renew their commitment to it in community.
What is The Movement? The Movement is simply to save the world. To redeem it. To restore it to its original condition. To heal it. To make it whole. The entire created realm: the environment and the people who steward it.
The Movement had some significant milestones in history: the calling of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph to name some of the earliest Movers in the Movement. God called everyday people, peasants, nobles, men, women, educated, non-educated, Jews and Gentiles alike to invest in The Movement.
God has always been aware of the state of creation. God is not ignorant regarding humanity’s fouls against each other and the natural world. The goal of The Movement, however, is the Hebrew word Shalom, which refers to holistic peace and restoration in all of creation. In the story of creation, Eden is that prototype, and serves as the model for where we’re headed. An experience we really cannot fathom, yet one for which our hearts yearn.
If this reality happened tomorrow – shalom fully realized, The Movement fulfilled entirely – what would be different? What would be different about you? What would be different about your relationships? Your work? Your city? Your nation? The world? What would go away? What would replace it?
When God called people throughout history, God called them to a different way of life, a life of faith, where their actions were dictated not always by what the culture around them encouraged, but what they sensed God calling them to do. In the Bible’s Hebrews 11, we get a glimpse of what these people went through as they invested their everyday moving to The Movement.
Today reminds us that we are invited to join The Movement, which is still moving forward with us or without us. Today is a day when we take an honest look at ourselves and admit that we have been out of step, not in synch with The Movement at certain times over the last 12 months. Today is a day of collective confession, a day of repentance.
How have you been out of step with The Movement this past year? When have your priorities failed to coincide with the priorities called for by The Movement? When has your attitude not reflected that which propels The Movement forward? When were you lazy about your faith, apathetic about helping where help was needed, and stingy when generosity was necessary?
In ancient Jewish Yom Kippur services, the doors of the Ark of the Covenant were open for the entire service – the only service of the year when this happened. This symbolized Heaven’s Gates being open to people on that particular day. It was thought that those who confessed and repented would have their names written in God’s Book of Life, and God would bless them with a good year. Not so much for those who didn’t…
Actually, it makes sense. When we fail to recognize our propensity for idiocy, we usually repeat the same foolish mistakes, making our lives more miserable than necessary. But when we admit to ourselves, others and God where we recognize our error, we are less likely to repeat those mistakes, making for a better year ahead.
Confession was only half of the deal, however. The other half was commitment to The Movement. These High Holy Days were and are a time to remember what God has been up to, and decide to join God in The Movement.
How do we do this? With the very things we’ve been given to steward. Our relationships, our work, our gifts and abilities, our resources – everything.
God is calling us to recommit to The Movement. Should we commit, it will mean we bring more of God’s Kingdom in, which doesn’t leave much room for that which is not. It means the not-so-good stuff you mentioned earlier begins to fade. So, what can you do in order to be moving in The Movement’s direction? How can you pray differently? Speak differently? Love differently? Give differently? If you stop moving by this time next year, for what movement do you want to be remembered? What would you hope your obituary might say about the investments of your life?
In Jewish circles, the Ten Days of Awe that mark the High Holy Days ends with a Yom Kippur service when the people recite seven times, with increasing volume, “The Lord is our God.” Seven times proclaiming that we know we have a choice as to who rules our life, and we choose God. Not sex. Not sloth. Not silver. Not self. But God. Only God. Seven times – the number of perfection – pure devotion to God.
We are hear confessing our shortcomings and considering this commitment because countless people before us confessed and committed to the God who created them and called them to The Movement.
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.”
May it be so for you and for me and for all we invite into The Movement by this time next year.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Bologna
I played football for a couple of years in high school.
We had a small team, which meant a few of us had to play both offense and defense. I was one them. I would play nose guard on defense – faced up against the center, ready to pummel him and the quarterback behind him as soon as the ball moved a millimeter. On offense, they put me in the tailback position. I was faster and bigger than most guys on the team, and so I got to run the ball for awhile. It was “fun-ish” – I never got the hang of running low, so I was an easy target and took a beating in games.
One day in school, I got a detention. It could have been for any number of reasons. Was it taking too long of a lunch? Screwing around in the halls when I was supposed to be in class? General goofing off? Who can remember such details? What I do remember was that I missed football practice, which, at the time, didn’t seem like too big of a deal.
The next day, however, when I got my pads on and went to the field, the coach called another guy to play my spot. It appeared that the coach was not too impressed with my absence the day before. Neither was he too concerned about my feelings of passing my position along to a guy named Jay who happened to be in the right place at the right time.
I got passed up. I lost my position because I got a detention. I got a detention because I wasn’t being a good student and got busted for it. Therefore, I lost my position because I wasn’t behaving like a good student. Another guy got in ahead of me because I was focused on other things.
The targets of Jesus’ parable (Mt. 21:28-32) were the teachers and the scribes – men who garnered significant power over Jews in Jesus’ day. They were keenly interested in preserving what little power they had, enjoying all the privileges their titles afforded them. Rather then acknowledge that Jesus’ interpretation of the law was accurate (and in agreement with some of the best Jewish scholars of his day), the teachers recognized Jesus as a threat to their comfortable, self-serving establishment. These guys looked holy, but something was terribly wrong. On the outside, they wore what everybody would expect a religious leader to wear. But on the inside, there was a terrible lack of holiness. After this exchange, Jesus called them sons of the devil. A little later, he called them white washed tombs: clean on the outside, death on the inside.
Some people keep themselves feeling positive by finding fault with others and keeping them down. It’s sick, for sure, but we all do it from time to time. Last Sunday’s teaching fleshed this reality out a little bit. Nobody was very comfortable imagining Ted Bundy as a greeter, welcoming us into Heaven someday. Why? Because his choices of serial rape and murder were awful. Much worse than you and me, right? As long as Ted Bundy’s and Osama Bin Laden’s are around, we’re in good shape, because somebody is a bigger loser than we are! We feel good, until we consider our zip code. At that point we realize that 2/3 of the world is barely getting enough food to eat while we are spending billions trying to keep our weight down. We generally don’t think of ourselves as being on someone else’s Biggest Loser list, but collectively, we are, because we, collectively, allow millions to die needlessly when we could choose otherwise. Hmmm.
Anyway, the Pharisees loved to keep a few hated people groups in their lowly loser place: tax collectors and prostitutes were among their favorites to condemn.
Interestingly, however, when John the Baptist began teaching in places sinners would show up with little threat of Pharisees attending, the sinners got the message, embraced the invitation from God to have a much better life, and started living anew.
Could it be that these sinners had no desire to become like the people who looked religious because they could smell death on their breath? Perhaps the tax collectors and sinners had heard the basics of the message before, but tied with it was a plea to become like the Pharisees, and they couldn’t understand how God’s character jibed with the Pharisees’ attitude and behavior.
So Jesus levels them. Please note that Jesus doesn’t jump on the bandwagon of accusers. Were there plenty of people to call naughty in the first century? Sure. Was Jesus’ primary role to let everybody know how naughty they were? No. His role was to redeem. To free. To restore. To lift up. To bless. To give hope.
This is one of those reversal accounts where Jesus turns everything upside down. To the ones who are confident in their religiosity, Jesus says, “You’ve so missed it that the people you hate are getting in ahead of you. They’re walking in new life while you remain in your decaying cesspool of an existence, telling yourself you’re one of God’s best!”
To the ones who joyfully discovered the good news of God’s grace through John the Baptist, Jesus gives assurance: “You may have been reluctant and stubborn for awhile, but you got it and are living it – you’ve found life that is rich and full and blesses the world.”
Donald Miller, a young gifted author, spoke of an experiment he conducted at his college campus. In the middle of the university square, he constructed a confession booth. With great curiosity, some people would take a risk and enter in. They would sit there and ask, “So, am I supposed to tell you all the stuff I’ve done wrong now or something?”
Miller would reply something along these lines, “No, this is a different kind of confession booth. I am here as a representative of the Church of Jesus Christ to tell you how sorry I am for all the obvious sins the Church has committed against God and humanity. The Crusades, for instance, was a terrible mistake. Perpetuating slavery, racism, and sexism would be right up there, too. If the Church has ever done anything to hurt you or keep you from embracing God’s love and life, I am so sorry.”
People were shocked. Many wept. Many began to think differently about God that day because they saw humility instead of arrogance.
None of you will likely confuse yourself with a Pharisee. But don’t worry, nobody else has this difficulty. If you try to paste on a smiley face, use Churchy language, and yet harbor feelings of hatred against others made evident by your tone, innuendo, facial expressions, lack of interest in reaching out, etc., everybody but you will see your inner Pharisee. They will hear your words and your invitation to walk with God and cry out “Bologna!” (or something smellier). They won’t be interested in your Jesus because they have no interest in becoming like you.
You might not care. After all, they’re losers, right?
But here’s the deal. We’re about redeeming the world with the power and grace of God. When we blow off someone who has rejected our disjointed version of Jesus, we keep them out. That ticks God off, because not only are they stuck thanks to us, but everybody they may be able to impact is put on hold. Because we care more about ourselves than we do about God.
So, if you’re full of bologna, may you hear Jesus’ scathing words of accountability, a not-so-subtle invitation to do an about face and start loving people into the Kingdom instead of trying to force grace.
If you’ve been kept out of a relationship with God because of Pharisees, I am so sorry, especially if it was me! I hope that you will give Jesus a shot, because even though I’m not perfect in any way, there’s no better hope, no better life, than that which is offered us by God.
Your life may need some serious redeeming. You may be dying on the inside, and dying for something bigger than yourself for which to live. God’s message is clear: identify and let go of old destructive patterns, and trade up to God’s way of life. God’s way leads to wholeness, healthy relationships, smarter finances, better work ethic, a healthier world, and even global impact. Your heart of hearts desires it, and the world needs you.
After all, you don’t want to get to the end of your life and find out you settled for a bunch of bologna because of a bunch of people filled with bologna.
May you be patient enough to see yourself clearly, quiet enough to hear the inviting whisper of God, and courageous enough to say yes.
We had a small team, which meant a few of us had to play both offense and defense. I was one them. I would play nose guard on defense – faced up against the center, ready to pummel him and the quarterback behind him as soon as the ball moved a millimeter. On offense, they put me in the tailback position. I was faster and bigger than most guys on the team, and so I got to run the ball for awhile. It was “fun-ish” – I never got the hang of running low, so I was an easy target and took a beating in games.
One day in school, I got a detention. It could have been for any number of reasons. Was it taking too long of a lunch? Screwing around in the halls when I was supposed to be in class? General goofing off? Who can remember such details? What I do remember was that I missed football practice, which, at the time, didn’t seem like too big of a deal.
The next day, however, when I got my pads on and went to the field, the coach called another guy to play my spot. It appeared that the coach was not too impressed with my absence the day before. Neither was he too concerned about my feelings of passing my position along to a guy named Jay who happened to be in the right place at the right time.
I got passed up. I lost my position because I got a detention. I got a detention because I wasn’t being a good student and got busted for it. Therefore, I lost my position because I wasn’t behaving like a good student. Another guy got in ahead of me because I was focused on other things.
The targets of Jesus’ parable (Mt. 21:28-32) were the teachers and the scribes – men who garnered significant power over Jews in Jesus’ day. They were keenly interested in preserving what little power they had, enjoying all the privileges their titles afforded them. Rather then acknowledge that Jesus’ interpretation of the law was accurate (and in agreement with some of the best Jewish scholars of his day), the teachers recognized Jesus as a threat to their comfortable, self-serving establishment. These guys looked holy, but something was terribly wrong. On the outside, they wore what everybody would expect a religious leader to wear. But on the inside, there was a terrible lack of holiness. After this exchange, Jesus called them sons of the devil. A little later, he called them white washed tombs: clean on the outside, death on the inside.
Some people keep themselves feeling positive by finding fault with others and keeping them down. It’s sick, for sure, but we all do it from time to time. Last Sunday’s teaching fleshed this reality out a little bit. Nobody was very comfortable imagining Ted Bundy as a greeter, welcoming us into Heaven someday. Why? Because his choices of serial rape and murder were awful. Much worse than you and me, right? As long as Ted Bundy’s and Osama Bin Laden’s are around, we’re in good shape, because somebody is a bigger loser than we are! We feel good, until we consider our zip code. At that point we realize that 2/3 of the world is barely getting enough food to eat while we are spending billions trying to keep our weight down. We generally don’t think of ourselves as being on someone else’s Biggest Loser list, but collectively, we are, because we, collectively, allow millions to die needlessly when we could choose otherwise. Hmmm.
Anyway, the Pharisees loved to keep a few hated people groups in their lowly loser place: tax collectors and prostitutes were among their favorites to condemn.
Interestingly, however, when John the Baptist began teaching in places sinners would show up with little threat of Pharisees attending, the sinners got the message, embraced the invitation from God to have a much better life, and started living anew.
Could it be that these sinners had no desire to become like the people who looked religious because they could smell death on their breath? Perhaps the tax collectors and sinners had heard the basics of the message before, but tied with it was a plea to become like the Pharisees, and they couldn’t understand how God’s character jibed with the Pharisees’ attitude and behavior.
So Jesus levels them. Please note that Jesus doesn’t jump on the bandwagon of accusers. Were there plenty of people to call naughty in the first century? Sure. Was Jesus’ primary role to let everybody know how naughty they were? No. His role was to redeem. To free. To restore. To lift up. To bless. To give hope.
This is one of those reversal accounts where Jesus turns everything upside down. To the ones who are confident in their religiosity, Jesus says, “You’ve so missed it that the people you hate are getting in ahead of you. They’re walking in new life while you remain in your decaying cesspool of an existence, telling yourself you’re one of God’s best!”
To the ones who joyfully discovered the good news of God’s grace through John the Baptist, Jesus gives assurance: “You may have been reluctant and stubborn for awhile, but you got it and are living it – you’ve found life that is rich and full and blesses the world.”
Donald Miller, a young gifted author, spoke of an experiment he conducted at his college campus. In the middle of the university square, he constructed a confession booth. With great curiosity, some people would take a risk and enter in. They would sit there and ask, “So, am I supposed to tell you all the stuff I’ve done wrong now or something?”
Miller would reply something along these lines, “No, this is a different kind of confession booth. I am here as a representative of the Church of Jesus Christ to tell you how sorry I am for all the obvious sins the Church has committed against God and humanity. The Crusades, for instance, was a terrible mistake. Perpetuating slavery, racism, and sexism would be right up there, too. If the Church has ever done anything to hurt you or keep you from embracing God’s love and life, I am so sorry.”
People were shocked. Many wept. Many began to think differently about God that day because they saw humility instead of arrogance.
None of you will likely confuse yourself with a Pharisee. But don’t worry, nobody else has this difficulty. If you try to paste on a smiley face, use Churchy language, and yet harbor feelings of hatred against others made evident by your tone, innuendo, facial expressions, lack of interest in reaching out, etc., everybody but you will see your inner Pharisee. They will hear your words and your invitation to walk with God and cry out “Bologna!” (or something smellier). They won’t be interested in your Jesus because they have no interest in becoming like you.
You might not care. After all, they’re losers, right?
But here’s the deal. We’re about redeeming the world with the power and grace of God. When we blow off someone who has rejected our disjointed version of Jesus, we keep them out. That ticks God off, because not only are they stuck thanks to us, but everybody they may be able to impact is put on hold. Because we care more about ourselves than we do about God.
So, if you’re full of bologna, may you hear Jesus’ scathing words of accountability, a not-so-subtle invitation to do an about face and start loving people into the Kingdom instead of trying to force grace.
If you’ve been kept out of a relationship with God because of Pharisees, I am so sorry, especially if it was me! I hope that you will give Jesus a shot, because even though I’m not perfect in any way, there’s no better hope, no better life, than that which is offered us by God.
Your life may need some serious redeeming. You may be dying on the inside, and dying for something bigger than yourself for which to live. God’s message is clear: identify and let go of old destructive patterns, and trade up to God’s way of life. God’s way leads to wholeness, healthy relationships, smarter finances, better work ethic, a healthier world, and even global impact. Your heart of hearts desires it, and the world needs you.
After all, you don’t want to get to the end of your life and find out you settled for a bunch of bologna because of a bunch of people filled with bologna.
May you be patient enough to see yourself clearly, quiet enough to hear the inviting whisper of God, and courageous enough to say yes.
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