There are some things that need to be buried if we want to see new, better life emerge.
Some of the things that need to be buried are bad things that we know are bad because they feel bad, and lead to bad results almost immediately. Getting stoned on meth or some other illegal drug? Needs to die. Do you use physical violence when you get angry at someone? Needs to die. Do you wallow in shame-filled guilt even though you know you’re covered by the grace of God you discovered in Jesus Christ? Needs to die.
Some of the things that need to buried are bad things that feel sort of good, so we’re not always sure they’re bad unless someone we trust (maybe a pastor…) brings it up. Inappropriate sex feels pretty good – maybe even really really good – but if it’s outside of a healthy marriage, you’re doing more harm than good, even if you don’t see it and if everyone else is doing it. Needs to die. Excessive use of alcohol or prescription drugs – takes the edge off, helps you escape, no big deal? Think again. If you’re using substances to escape, you’re only allowing more destruction to ensue in yourself and those around you. Needs to die. What about a bad attitude? That doesn’t hurt anyone, right? You’re only venting! Guess again – hurts you, hurts the recipients, smells up whatever room you’re in. Needs to die.
Some of the things that need to be buried seem really good, but are severely lacking. A thorough knowledge of scripture seems good, but if it never gets practiced, we’re just clanging gongs and cymbals. Unapplied biblical knowledge needs to die so that we may live the teaching of Jesus and experience life in the Spirit. A lukewarm faith feels safe, and is very common. Needs to die, however, lest we get spit out of God’s mouth. God desires life to the max for us, which simply cannot take place unless we let go of some junk.
Some of the things that need to be buried are good things that need to go in order to allow the best to sprout and grow. Looking only after our own interests is good and responsible. But it gets in the way of the best – looking after our needs and those of others at the same time. The former needs to pass away in order for the latter to take root. One is good. The other is clearly best. Self-centeredness needs to die. Commitment to former ways of thinking need to die if God is trying to break in with something new and different. Settling for the status quo in our current life experience – which may be good – needs to die if the Way of Christ is calling us out of our comfort zones, ushering us toward abundant life.
Jesus knew that if he stuck around in his body that the Kingdom he came to create would never grow much beyond himself and what he could do while in his physical body. Only if he died and lived again would people understand that the era of sacrifices to win God over was complete. False hope in the law died, making way for life fertilized by forgiveness and grace. (See John 12:20-33).
U2 recently released their latest album, No Line On The Horizon. I’m sure you’ve all been listening to it as much as I have. In one particular song about bringing about change, the chorus cries out, “It’s not a hill, it’s a mountain, when you start out the climb.” It’s hard to change.
It’s hard to let stuff die to make room for new life. Even if it’s bad stuff that everybody knows is bad. Especially hard to let good stuff die, because it really requires faith that God will lead us to something better.
So, in light of all this, what does a genuine CrossWalker look like? What does the picture of a fully devoted follower of Jesus include? What are things that must be dead or absent? What are the things we suspect should be growing? Seriously – write it out.
May you figure it out, trust God, and let things die for new things to live.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Undeniably Well
The Backstory. The Israelites were on their way to the Promised Land. By incredible, better-than-Hollywood sci-fi-like miraculous works of God, these former slaves were now free. Feeding hundreds of thousands of people every day is a serious challenge in our advanced culture where modern conveniences abound. What about them? God provided where Mrs. MacDonalds’ catering services could not! Every morning, the Israelites would wake up to discover a strange edible, bread-like substance that would nourish them for the day. They called it manna, which literally translates: what is it? Sort of like school cafeteria food. Adding to the weirdness, on most days it could not be kept overnight – if a person tried to hoard, the next day they found maggots in their meal. But on the Sabbath – the one day a week they were to do no work, the manna would stay fresh for an additional day, so that they wouldn’t have to gather on the day they were to rest. Crazy stuff.
I don’t know about you, but I think that kind of miraculous display every day would keep me pretty excited about walking with God. Moses probably thought the same. For awhile, that was the case.
But Israelites are people, too, and their humanity began to come through with great strength. They began complaining about the food. It probably started as minor moaning and groaning about wanting a little variety, or maybe some more pepper or perhaps some salsa on the side. But it went deeper and darker. By the time we read about it in Numbers 21:4-9, the Israelites were downright rude, basically stating that the food was garbage – detestable, disgusting. Nice.
Remember from a few weeks ago that as much as we hate this about ourselves, our primary conditioning has a way of presenting itself until it is fully addressed. So it was with these ancestors of ours – despite the incredible works of God in their midst, they still had a lot of learning to do, a lot of junk to work out of their system.
Their grumbling led them into destruction. The scriptures say that God sent snakes into their camp, with many dying as a result of their venomous attack. The snakes in question were probably carpet vipers, the most venomous of snakes in that region. There are a couple ways to understand this. The first way is to simply see it as black and white – God got ticked off at the whining people, and decided to give them a memorable object lesson that would impact their own lives. Another way to think about it this: as their focus shifted away from appreciating God’s daily miracle and consequently following God’s direction, they stumbled into a habitat of deadly snakes that they should have seen coming, but didn’t due to their blind arrogance. Either way you slice it, their focus led them to their destruction.
This happens in our lives all the time, to people of faith and people who have yet to consciously walk with God. Just like in the Garden of Eden, we find ourselves giving in to very natural, very human, very worldly self-centered ways of thinking. We begin to question God’s character and trustworthiness, and turn instead to old patterns and paradigms that never really worked well before for us, but are comfortable nonetheless. Wives go back to their abusive husbands. People turn to the bottle or the bong. Men turn to internet porn. People overeat. Or starve themselves. Balance and perspective is off – we become blind – and we find ourselves walking into places of pain, suffering, and sometimes even death. Not what we really want. Not anything close to life at its best.
The Israelites recognized this correlation between their bad attitude toward all things God and their suffering, and came to their senses. They admitted their mistake to God. They asked for forgiveness and help. This process is called repentance – literally turning away from one pattern and looking instead toward God.
God responded with loving grace and a path to salvation – healing in the fullest sense (which is what biblical salvation literally is: total and complete healing of every part of us). The method God used to provide healing was brilliant (imagine that!). God instructed Moses to make a snake made of bronze (or copper), and attach it to a long pole so that, when lifted up, people could see it. Then God issued a promise: all who would look upon the snake on the pole would be healed.
Why a snake on a pole? Because every time people would look at it, they would be reminded of what they had done, what the consequences were, and who was saving them. A snake reminded them of their pain and suffering caused by their decision to let their ugliness prevail, their old selves live again, turning their back on God and God’s ways that lead to life – sin. The snake would also remind them of the consequences of their decision – painful death from the venom. But as they looked at this serpent on a stick, their eyes would gaze heavenward – they could not miss the obvious truth that the healing to come was coming from God alone, who had the strength to overcome even the sting of death inflicted by the viper. Like I said: brilliant.
Even though God was the healer in this exchange, something was required of the people who were suffering if they wanted to live. The English language doesn’t really give us the full meaning of what was required. Interpreting the people’s responsibility as merely glancing at the lifted up snake is an easy error to make, and also perilous, because it suggests that this transaction was entirely passive, and that the snake-on-a-stick held magical powers all by itself. That’s not what’s happening here.
In the original Hebrew language, the kind of gaze being described is one filled with belief – faith that the exercise will heal. The idea is that if people casually looked at the fabricated snake, their situation would remain unchanged. But if they understood what was taking place – their need for repentance coupled by God’s saving grace – they would be healed. They would live another day. God made life possible, but the people had to choose it if they wanted to live. God provides, but in order for the provision to work, the people had to decide whether or not they believed, and if they did, embrace what was given.
The obvious application for this passage of scripture is for parents with picky-eater children who complain about the food presented to them for dinner. God has given us some sweet ammunition here to get kids to eat broccoli.
But wait – there’s more…
Fast forward roughly 1500 years. Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus, a highly respected, well-trained leader of the Jewish people in Jerusalem. Jesus pushes the conversation past the comfort zone and begins talking about how to experience the very best life possible. He calls this potentially abundant, meaning-filled life lived here on earth “eternal life.” He’s not talking about afterlife in this conversation at all – this talk is about getting the life we’ve always wanted.
So, in the third chapter of the Gospel of John, Jesus starts saying things that Nicodemus should understand, but doesn’t. Talk of being born again – that we have to die to our old ways if we want to live in new, better ways, and that the new, better ways are provided by the Holy Spirit – God’s presence and power. Nicodemus fails to get it, but Jesus keeps pressing on, hoping the dots will soon connect. Jesus said, “And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.”
Well that’s interesting.
Now that you know the story to which Jesus was referring, try to connect the dots.
Something is being lifted up on a pole. Since the reference point is the story in Numbers, we can safely assume that there was a need for such a thing to happen – pain, suffering, and death must have been pretty strong for such a measure to be taken.
The Bible verifies our experience along these lines. Only the most arrogant, in-denial person would suggest that we as a human race have “nailed it” – that we have so evolved that we are pretty much perfect. Hardly! We are acutely aware of our desperate disposition on a national scale – AIG bonuses and Bernie Madoff come to mind. We are fully aware of our capacity for perpetuating evil on a global scale – genocide, preventable disease, and hunger still thrive. And, if we’re honest, we know our depravity shows up in the mirror. Our poor patterns have caught up with us. Our decision to give in to our way has led us to many forms of snake habitats. Paul reminds the Jesus followers in Rome: all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God… [and] the wages of sin is death. Snake bites.
So God offered a remix of an old song: put something on a pole for people to see that will bring about a reminder and healing at the same time.
The something that God chose to use was the very best that humanity and God had to offer: Jesus Christ himself – Son of Man, Son of God. When people would gaze upon Jesus as he was being crucified, they would not be able to miss the point: look what we are capable of doing – look at what path we have chosen – we have so given ourselves over to destructive ways (sin itself), that we are killing the very best of us. The visual cannot be missed – collective sin hung on that pole-cross.
In an exchange with self-righteous religious people (John 8:31-47), Jesus told them that if they knew the truth, the truth would set them free. The truth to which he was referring was the cross – that it means on our own we are dying and that we need healing. Every time we look at the cross we need to be reminded of two things. The first thing we need to be reminded of is that we needed it. Just as the Israelites long ago recognized in the snake on the pole their waywardness, so we, too, need to eat humble pie every time we see the cross. The first thing we need to be reminded on when we see the cross is that we needed it – we still need it.
It was only some time after the resurrection that Jesus himself explained the full meaning of the cross – its communication of forgiveness. The meaning of Jesus’ death on a cross is deep and rich – so much so that volumes have been written, countless songs sung, and millions upon millions of lives have changed. But in our view today, in light of the context Jesus chose to use as a backdrop in his conversation with Nicodemus, I believe there is a correlative meaning here. The second thing we need to be reminded of when we look at the cross is that when God gets hold of the sin that has been killing us, he is powerful enough to overcome it. God forgives. God restores. God can take the symbol of our collective depravity and turn it into the very redemption we need. Death is transformed into life. That’s why the resurrection is such a big deal – death lost while life won. The worst was dished out, and it wasn’t enough to kill off life and hope.
Because Christ hanging on a cross is a generalized symbol for all sin for all time, we can claim the truth that all that we have ever done and ever will do has been addressed. The second thing we need to be reminded of is that we are forgiven.
So what do we do with this now?
Just as with the Israelites, the means of restoration through Jesus being lifted up is not passive. The cross you wear or see is not magic. A simple glance does nothing for you. Neither will lip service. Please note that over the last 150 years, there has been a concerted effort to create an entire approach to evangelism based on lip service. It finds its foundation in what is known as the Roman Road, which has as its climax the overused and misunderstood verse: all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. Some Christians have been good salesman with this approach – I used to be one myself – and have gotten people to simply say a few phrases that sound pretty holy, and called them Christian.
But that’s not being fair to Paul’s teaching there or anywhere. And it certainly does not jibe with Jesus’ teaching on the subject.
Just as the original Hebrew language helps us understand that the gaze required was one of faith, belief, and understanding, so the Greek words used to describe Jesus’ Aramaic words lead us to the same conclusion. When Jesus speaks of being born again, of seeing him lifted up, and of believing, all of it was in reference to experiencing life now as it is meant to be. Getting our life back – the life we’ve always wanted. The way to embrace it was and is the same as it was for the Israelites – looking with faith, belief, and understanding at this thing God has done. Humbly coming to grips with the reality that we have an incredible capacity for sin, for destroying life. And looking at that reality (as we look heavenward) in the hands of a loving God who longs to restore us.
Have you come to grips with the meaning of the cross?
Are you dying, wondering how to deal with your sin, your brokenness? Have you finally come to a place where you’ve recognized your arrogance?
Confessing our need for the cross is confessing our sin to God, admitting that we don’t have it as together as we’ve let on, and that we are probably very fortunate to not know how many people our waywardness has hurt.
Do you recognize that God is fully aware of your reality? Do you understand that God knows you are scarred with snake bites, and are full of venom? Do you realize that God wants for you to live?
The beauty of this symbol is that it keeps us humble and hopeful at the same time. The cross demands humility, but lifts us out of humiliation with the love and grace of God that keeps us humbly grateful.
To look to the cross is to say to God I’m sorry, and I’m yours. I’ve had enough of running my own direction – right into pit of vipers after pit of vipers – and I am ready for a new direction. I choose your Kingdom, your Way, your Life. You.
I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Think…
Did you enter into lip-service Christianity – simply making a confession of faith without really having a clue what it meant, hoping that it would somehow get you through the Pearly Gates? If so, how well did it deliver on the promise of an abundant life?
Do you still need the cross? Explain.
How does the cross remind you of your “snake bites” today?
How does the cross restore you to a healthy life?
What impact do you suppose a healthy understanding of the cross has on a person’s self esteem? Interpersonal relationships? Work ethic? Personal health? Drive to help others understand?
Who do you know that is struggling with a snake bite or two who need you to help them find healing? Pray for them, and pray that God gives you understanding and courage on how to help them.
I don’t know about you, but I think that kind of miraculous display every day would keep me pretty excited about walking with God. Moses probably thought the same. For awhile, that was the case.
But Israelites are people, too, and their humanity began to come through with great strength. They began complaining about the food. It probably started as minor moaning and groaning about wanting a little variety, or maybe some more pepper or perhaps some salsa on the side. But it went deeper and darker. By the time we read about it in Numbers 21:4-9, the Israelites were downright rude, basically stating that the food was garbage – detestable, disgusting. Nice.
Remember from a few weeks ago that as much as we hate this about ourselves, our primary conditioning has a way of presenting itself until it is fully addressed. So it was with these ancestors of ours – despite the incredible works of God in their midst, they still had a lot of learning to do, a lot of junk to work out of their system.
Their grumbling led them into destruction. The scriptures say that God sent snakes into their camp, with many dying as a result of their venomous attack. The snakes in question were probably carpet vipers, the most venomous of snakes in that region. There are a couple ways to understand this. The first way is to simply see it as black and white – God got ticked off at the whining people, and decided to give them a memorable object lesson that would impact their own lives. Another way to think about it this: as their focus shifted away from appreciating God’s daily miracle and consequently following God’s direction, they stumbled into a habitat of deadly snakes that they should have seen coming, but didn’t due to their blind arrogance. Either way you slice it, their focus led them to their destruction.
This happens in our lives all the time, to people of faith and people who have yet to consciously walk with God. Just like in the Garden of Eden, we find ourselves giving in to very natural, very human, very worldly self-centered ways of thinking. We begin to question God’s character and trustworthiness, and turn instead to old patterns and paradigms that never really worked well before for us, but are comfortable nonetheless. Wives go back to their abusive husbands. People turn to the bottle or the bong. Men turn to internet porn. People overeat. Or starve themselves. Balance and perspective is off – we become blind – and we find ourselves walking into places of pain, suffering, and sometimes even death. Not what we really want. Not anything close to life at its best.
The Israelites recognized this correlation between their bad attitude toward all things God and their suffering, and came to their senses. They admitted their mistake to God. They asked for forgiveness and help. This process is called repentance – literally turning away from one pattern and looking instead toward God.
God responded with loving grace and a path to salvation – healing in the fullest sense (which is what biblical salvation literally is: total and complete healing of every part of us). The method God used to provide healing was brilliant (imagine that!). God instructed Moses to make a snake made of bronze (or copper), and attach it to a long pole so that, when lifted up, people could see it. Then God issued a promise: all who would look upon the snake on the pole would be healed.
Why a snake on a pole? Because every time people would look at it, they would be reminded of what they had done, what the consequences were, and who was saving them. A snake reminded them of their pain and suffering caused by their decision to let their ugliness prevail, their old selves live again, turning their back on God and God’s ways that lead to life – sin. The snake would also remind them of the consequences of their decision – painful death from the venom. But as they looked at this serpent on a stick, their eyes would gaze heavenward – they could not miss the obvious truth that the healing to come was coming from God alone, who had the strength to overcome even the sting of death inflicted by the viper. Like I said: brilliant.
Even though God was the healer in this exchange, something was required of the people who were suffering if they wanted to live. The English language doesn’t really give us the full meaning of what was required. Interpreting the people’s responsibility as merely glancing at the lifted up snake is an easy error to make, and also perilous, because it suggests that this transaction was entirely passive, and that the snake-on-a-stick held magical powers all by itself. That’s not what’s happening here.
In the original Hebrew language, the kind of gaze being described is one filled with belief – faith that the exercise will heal. The idea is that if people casually looked at the fabricated snake, their situation would remain unchanged. But if they understood what was taking place – their need for repentance coupled by God’s saving grace – they would be healed. They would live another day. God made life possible, but the people had to choose it if they wanted to live. God provides, but in order for the provision to work, the people had to decide whether or not they believed, and if they did, embrace what was given.
The obvious application for this passage of scripture is for parents with picky-eater children who complain about the food presented to them for dinner. God has given us some sweet ammunition here to get kids to eat broccoli.
But wait – there’s more…
Fast forward roughly 1500 years. Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus, a highly respected, well-trained leader of the Jewish people in Jerusalem. Jesus pushes the conversation past the comfort zone and begins talking about how to experience the very best life possible. He calls this potentially abundant, meaning-filled life lived here on earth “eternal life.” He’s not talking about afterlife in this conversation at all – this talk is about getting the life we’ve always wanted.
So, in the third chapter of the Gospel of John, Jesus starts saying things that Nicodemus should understand, but doesn’t. Talk of being born again – that we have to die to our old ways if we want to live in new, better ways, and that the new, better ways are provided by the Holy Spirit – God’s presence and power. Nicodemus fails to get it, but Jesus keeps pressing on, hoping the dots will soon connect. Jesus said, “And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.”
Well that’s interesting.
Now that you know the story to which Jesus was referring, try to connect the dots.
Something is being lifted up on a pole. Since the reference point is the story in Numbers, we can safely assume that there was a need for such a thing to happen – pain, suffering, and death must have been pretty strong for such a measure to be taken.
The Bible verifies our experience along these lines. Only the most arrogant, in-denial person would suggest that we as a human race have “nailed it” – that we have so evolved that we are pretty much perfect. Hardly! We are acutely aware of our desperate disposition on a national scale – AIG bonuses and Bernie Madoff come to mind. We are fully aware of our capacity for perpetuating evil on a global scale – genocide, preventable disease, and hunger still thrive. And, if we’re honest, we know our depravity shows up in the mirror. Our poor patterns have caught up with us. Our decision to give in to our way has led us to many forms of snake habitats. Paul reminds the Jesus followers in Rome: all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God… [and] the wages of sin is death. Snake bites.
So God offered a remix of an old song: put something on a pole for people to see that will bring about a reminder and healing at the same time.
The something that God chose to use was the very best that humanity and God had to offer: Jesus Christ himself – Son of Man, Son of God. When people would gaze upon Jesus as he was being crucified, they would not be able to miss the point: look what we are capable of doing – look at what path we have chosen – we have so given ourselves over to destructive ways (sin itself), that we are killing the very best of us. The visual cannot be missed – collective sin hung on that pole-cross.
In an exchange with self-righteous religious people (John 8:31-47), Jesus told them that if they knew the truth, the truth would set them free. The truth to which he was referring was the cross – that it means on our own we are dying and that we need healing. Every time we look at the cross we need to be reminded of two things. The first thing we need to be reminded of is that we needed it. Just as the Israelites long ago recognized in the snake on the pole their waywardness, so we, too, need to eat humble pie every time we see the cross. The first thing we need to be reminded on when we see the cross is that we needed it – we still need it.
It was only some time after the resurrection that Jesus himself explained the full meaning of the cross – its communication of forgiveness. The meaning of Jesus’ death on a cross is deep and rich – so much so that volumes have been written, countless songs sung, and millions upon millions of lives have changed. But in our view today, in light of the context Jesus chose to use as a backdrop in his conversation with Nicodemus, I believe there is a correlative meaning here. The second thing we need to be reminded of when we look at the cross is that when God gets hold of the sin that has been killing us, he is powerful enough to overcome it. God forgives. God restores. God can take the symbol of our collective depravity and turn it into the very redemption we need. Death is transformed into life. That’s why the resurrection is such a big deal – death lost while life won. The worst was dished out, and it wasn’t enough to kill off life and hope.
Because Christ hanging on a cross is a generalized symbol for all sin for all time, we can claim the truth that all that we have ever done and ever will do has been addressed. The second thing we need to be reminded of is that we are forgiven.
So what do we do with this now?
Just as with the Israelites, the means of restoration through Jesus being lifted up is not passive. The cross you wear or see is not magic. A simple glance does nothing for you. Neither will lip service. Please note that over the last 150 years, there has been a concerted effort to create an entire approach to evangelism based on lip service. It finds its foundation in what is known as the Roman Road, which has as its climax the overused and misunderstood verse: all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. Some Christians have been good salesman with this approach – I used to be one myself – and have gotten people to simply say a few phrases that sound pretty holy, and called them Christian.
But that’s not being fair to Paul’s teaching there or anywhere. And it certainly does not jibe with Jesus’ teaching on the subject.
Just as the original Hebrew language helps us understand that the gaze required was one of faith, belief, and understanding, so the Greek words used to describe Jesus’ Aramaic words lead us to the same conclusion. When Jesus speaks of being born again, of seeing him lifted up, and of believing, all of it was in reference to experiencing life now as it is meant to be. Getting our life back – the life we’ve always wanted. The way to embrace it was and is the same as it was for the Israelites – looking with faith, belief, and understanding at this thing God has done. Humbly coming to grips with the reality that we have an incredible capacity for sin, for destroying life. And looking at that reality (as we look heavenward) in the hands of a loving God who longs to restore us.
Have you come to grips with the meaning of the cross?
Are you dying, wondering how to deal with your sin, your brokenness? Have you finally come to a place where you’ve recognized your arrogance?
Confessing our need for the cross is confessing our sin to God, admitting that we don’t have it as together as we’ve let on, and that we are probably very fortunate to not know how many people our waywardness has hurt.
Do you recognize that God is fully aware of your reality? Do you understand that God knows you are scarred with snake bites, and are full of venom? Do you realize that God wants for you to live?
The beauty of this symbol is that it keeps us humble and hopeful at the same time. The cross demands humility, but lifts us out of humiliation with the love and grace of God that keeps us humbly grateful.
To look to the cross is to say to God I’m sorry, and I’m yours. I’ve had enough of running my own direction – right into pit of vipers after pit of vipers – and I am ready for a new direction. I choose your Kingdom, your Way, your Life. You.
I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Think…
Did you enter into lip-service Christianity – simply making a confession of faith without really having a clue what it meant, hoping that it would somehow get you through the Pearly Gates? If so, how well did it deliver on the promise of an abundant life?
Do you still need the cross? Explain.
How does the cross remind you of your “snake bites” today?
How does the cross restore you to a healthy life?
What impact do you suppose a healthy understanding of the cross has on a person’s self esteem? Interpersonal relationships? Work ethic? Personal health? Drive to help others understand?
Who do you know that is struggling with a snake bite or two who need you to help them find healing? Pray for them, and pray that God gives you understanding and courage on how to help them.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Clearing The House
The people who went to the Temple to purchase and offer their sacrifices were probably so used to what they experienced that they probably didn’t even blink at being robbed by those exchanging their money or selling sacrificial animals with too high of a mark up. Like parents who simply shell out big bucks for Disneyland trips, the people in Jesus’ day just accepted the fact that “that’s the way it is.”
The sellers of money and goods probably saw their earnings as a gift from God – a blessing from helping people worship. Like vendors at airports, they likely justified their ridiculously high prices as the cost for providing service in such a confined market. They had a right to make whatever amount of money the market would give them – capitalism in the Temple Court.
The priests who oversaw the whole show were obviously okay with the status quo as well. Centuries had passed since the Temple was in operation – they were simply grateful to have their cultural center back. Besides, people were coming, sacrifices were being made – what’s the problem?
Jesus immediately recognized the problems that others couldn’t see or didn’t want to see. The Temple was to be the place that epitomized communion with God. Instead, it became a den of thieves, where helping people experience God took a back seat to the bottom line. God’s passion to have relationship with humanity overwhelmed Jesus to the breaking point. He hit the reset button that day when he overturned the tables. Nobody could figure out their profit margins. The bottom line got smudged, and for that brief moment, amidst the chaos, correction took place at the Temple.
After last week’s teaching on following the Way of Christ especially if it seems contrary to our immediate way of thinking (remember “Opposite George”), one of our longer-term members who has served in many forms of leadership over the years emailed me, and posed a question for our church to ask: What if Jesus was our pastor? How would our church be different? How would our individual lives be different if we could no longer write off the teaching as simply one man’s opinion?
Another way to think about this is this: if Jesus strolled into your life, what things would he immediately tear down because he could see how they were getting in your way of experience a life of communion with God, which is the life you’ve always wanted? As CrossWalk, what would Jesus see in our attitudes and practices that would cause him to bring out a whip? As the global Church, what would Jesus do that needs to be done that we simply can’t see because the barriers to communion have become so normalized?
As Paul did for the church in Rome, I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then, you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Clearing The House Questions…
What things in your physical life would Jesus wipe out immediately?
What things in your relational life would Jesus correct immediately?
What things in your emotional life would Jesus force you to look at?
What things in your work life would Jesus question you about?
What things in your spiritual practices would Jesus drill you on?
In general, what known attitudes or behaviors would Jesus flip over that would help you have better communion with God and thus a life that much more reflects your highest hopes and dreams?
Tip: At a minimum, actually read and think about the above before throwing this in your recycling bin. I recommend that you journal through each question, devoting as much time and space as needed. Because we are usually blind to certain aspects of our own junk, I urge you to also process these in loving community for peer support.
The sellers of money and goods probably saw their earnings as a gift from God – a blessing from helping people worship. Like vendors at airports, they likely justified their ridiculously high prices as the cost for providing service in such a confined market. They had a right to make whatever amount of money the market would give them – capitalism in the Temple Court.
The priests who oversaw the whole show were obviously okay with the status quo as well. Centuries had passed since the Temple was in operation – they were simply grateful to have their cultural center back. Besides, people were coming, sacrifices were being made – what’s the problem?
Jesus immediately recognized the problems that others couldn’t see or didn’t want to see. The Temple was to be the place that epitomized communion with God. Instead, it became a den of thieves, where helping people experience God took a back seat to the bottom line. God’s passion to have relationship with humanity overwhelmed Jesus to the breaking point. He hit the reset button that day when he overturned the tables. Nobody could figure out their profit margins. The bottom line got smudged, and for that brief moment, amidst the chaos, correction took place at the Temple.
After last week’s teaching on following the Way of Christ especially if it seems contrary to our immediate way of thinking (remember “Opposite George”), one of our longer-term members who has served in many forms of leadership over the years emailed me, and posed a question for our church to ask: What if Jesus was our pastor? How would our church be different? How would our individual lives be different if we could no longer write off the teaching as simply one man’s opinion?
Another way to think about this is this: if Jesus strolled into your life, what things would he immediately tear down because he could see how they were getting in your way of experience a life of communion with God, which is the life you’ve always wanted? As CrossWalk, what would Jesus see in our attitudes and practices that would cause him to bring out a whip? As the global Church, what would Jesus do that needs to be done that we simply can’t see because the barriers to communion have become so normalized?
As Paul did for the church in Rome, I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then, you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Clearing The House Questions…
What things in your physical life would Jesus wipe out immediately?
What things in your relational life would Jesus correct immediately?
What things in your emotional life would Jesus force you to look at?
What things in your work life would Jesus question you about?
What things in your spiritual practices would Jesus drill you on?
In general, what known attitudes or behaviors would Jesus flip over that would help you have better communion with God and thus a life that much more reflects your highest hopes and dreams?
Tip: At a minimum, actually read and think about the above before throwing this in your recycling bin. I recommend that you journal through each question, devoting as much time and space as needed. Because we are usually blind to certain aspects of our own junk, I urge you to also process these in loving community for peer support.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Be Humble or Be Humbled
Isn’t it interesting that two people can look at exactly the same thing, yet see something completely different from one another?
Sometimes it’s funny, and those two people end up laughing about it, maybe even turning it into an on-going inside joke between them.
Sometimes, however, a different experience results. Friendships have been destroyed over such varying perspectives.
So have marriages between once-loving partners.
So have nations been pitted against other nations with another viewpoint.
So has humanity struggled with God.
Jesus makes a declaration to his disciples that their destiny is to end up in Jerusalem, where he will be unjustly killed. Peter shares his better idea.
Uh-oh.
Jesus gently reprimanded Peter with these ever-so-delicate words: Get away from me Satan! You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s (Mark 8:33 NLT).
This is the story of our lives, isn’t it?
Countless are the ways and innumerable are the times when God has given us God’s perspective and we have thought ours more impressive. While none of us would be foolish enough to say that we think we have a better idea than God, our actions speak for us.
The Way of Christ is the way to life at its best. We either humble ourselves and embrace it, or pursue our own brilliant path and are humbled.
Jesus said at another time that his yoke was easy and his burden light. But that’s only true if his is the only yoke we’re wearing, and if the load he gives us is the only one we carry. All too often we try to wear the yoke the world throws around our neck and carry the load our culture demands, while at the same time trying to do life with Christ. That leads to exhaustion. And failure. And despair.
In telling the disciples what their future held, he was implying the Jerusalem was the destination. That news was too hard for Peter, for all that went with it.
What’s your Jerusalem – the place you don’t want Christ to take you?
By the way – you are not the only one affected by your obedience to Christ. Everyone around you, and ultimately the world itself is impacted for health or harm. Choose health.
I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Sometimes it’s funny, and those two people end up laughing about it, maybe even turning it into an on-going inside joke between them.
Sometimes, however, a different experience results. Friendships have been destroyed over such varying perspectives.
So have marriages between once-loving partners.
So have nations been pitted against other nations with another viewpoint.
So has humanity struggled with God.
Jesus makes a declaration to his disciples that their destiny is to end up in Jerusalem, where he will be unjustly killed. Peter shares his better idea.
Uh-oh.
Jesus gently reprimanded Peter with these ever-so-delicate words: Get away from me Satan! You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s (Mark 8:33 NLT).
This is the story of our lives, isn’t it?
Countless are the ways and innumerable are the times when God has given us God’s perspective and we have thought ours more impressive. While none of us would be foolish enough to say that we think we have a better idea than God, our actions speak for us.
The Way of Christ is the way to life at its best. We either humble ourselves and embrace it, or pursue our own brilliant path and are humbled.
Jesus said at another time that his yoke was easy and his burden light. But that’s only true if his is the only yoke we’re wearing, and if the load he gives us is the only one we carry. All too often we try to wear the yoke the world throws around our neck and carry the load our culture demands, while at the same time trying to do life with Christ. That leads to exhaustion. And failure. And despair.
In telling the disciples what their future held, he was implying the Jerusalem was the destination. That news was too hard for Peter, for all that went with it.
What’s your Jerusalem – the place you don’t want Christ to take you?
Your emotional health?
Your physical health?
Your mental capacity?
Your spiritual disciplines?
Your key relationships?
Your judgmentalism?
Your sex life?
Your addiction?
By the way – you are not the only one affected by your obedience to Christ. Everyone around you, and ultimately the world itself is impacted for health or harm. Choose health.
I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Going Deeper
1. When do you first remember doing something God instructed that went against your initial thinking?
2. What was required of you? What happened as a result?
3. What areas of your life do you know are off limits to God? Why? What statement are you making about God’s perspective and character if you do not allow God access to certain parts of your life?
4. What areas of your life are you keeping off-limits that you are unaware of? Hint: you’re going to need community to help answer this one – let them ask you questions.
5. What is keeping you from following Christ to Jerusalem? How about letting go and giving God a shot?
Sunday, March 1, 2009
The Yes Before The Yes
Mark 1:9-15 (Jesus' Baptism)
Day one wasn’t really day one.
When Jesus went to get baptized, formally marking his entrance into his public, three year ministry that would culminate in his death and resurrection, it was hardly his first step. He was roughly 36 years old by then. Have you ever wondered what happened in his life before that moment? What was he doing? What was he thinking?
I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of him, but Tiger Woods is a golfer. This may be one of the grossest understatements I’ve ever made. Tiger Woods stepped onto the professional golf scene in 1996, and in April of 1997 won The Masters with a record-breaking margin of twelve strokes.
If you haven’t heard much about Tiger Woods, you need to know that he didn’t begin playing golf the day before he turned pro. His father began teaching him the game at a very early age, setting the foundation for an unparalleled professional career. If you want a glimpse of what Tiger did before he turned pro, look at his behavior and attitudes after he turned pro – you will see great similarity in his approach before and after his professional career took off.
The same is certainly true for Jesus. Look at his life after his baptism, and you’ll probably get some strong clues about what was going on in his life prior to his “professional” ministry. His patterns certainly only continued and perhaps increased over how he had lived previously. He had said “yes” to a certain way of life before he was baptized – agreements he would continue all throughout his life. This “yes” made it possible for him to say “no” to other, lesser things that did not agree with the life he was called to live.
Oftentimes, people come to faith wanting to live a new life of hope and meaning, only to find themselves in old patterns somewhere down the pike. I think one reason this happens is because they never really examined what they had been saying “yes” to before they said “yes” to life with God in Christ. The best predictor of the future is often the past, because patterns are hard to break, and continue unless addressed.
Many of you have a hobby or interest that you have developed over time – in some cases years. Do you remember when you first got into whatever it is you do? I really enjoy playing golf with first-timers. They’re fun to watch, and it almost always guarantees that I’ll beat somebody at least once! In your interest, you started out clumsy and lousy until you knew what to say “yes” to. When you figured out what to say “yes” to, it made saying no to stupid things easier.
I am amazed at how, over the years, I have noticed my parents’ behaviors and attitudes bubbling up in my life. Why? Because they raised me, molded me deeply and powerfully – more by how they lived than by what they intended to teach.
If we never ask ourselves what we’ve already said “yes” to, whatever new “yes” that comes along will likely be sabotaged by the old yes. In other words, all of those attitudes and behaviors you’ve been practicing throughout your life will naturally force you to continue along the same route. This has really far-reaching implications for your life. If you’ve never examined your formative education carefully, you’ve probably adopted some really bad ideologies unwittingly. You’re swinging your club like you were taught – but what if there is an entirely better way to swing? Would you still swing your club the lesser way? The way you swing your life’s golf club, good and bad, will continue to be the way you swing. Unless…
Tiger Woods has made a couple of major revisions to his swing over his professional career. Each time required coaching, hard work, and time to get into his new swing. No doubt, he first identified what was not working with his old swing, so he would know when he was simply falling into his old routine. During those periods of revision, his game suffered for awhile. But once he learned the new, better swing, his game came back. It could be that as his body changes with age and maturity, he will continue to look at what he has said “yes” to in his current swing, say no to some aspects, so that he can say “yes” to new and better ways to take him further in his journey. We have to know what we’ve said yes to before we can say no. We have to know what we have said yes to before we can say yes to something different.
You may be a golfer, and would love to have Tiger’s swing. Or, maybe you couldn’t care less. Deep within, I think everybody would want the kind of life Jesus had, which happens to be the very life Jesus offers to lead us toward. A life of great meaning, impact, connected to God and others, humble yet bold, caring yet firm, miraculous, everlasting. The list of Jesus’ desirable life qualities goes on for eternity. Remember, however, that he experienced the life he did because of what he said yes to before his baptism, and the agreements he continued to make along those same lines for the rest of his life.
What unhealthy stuff have you said “yes” to that you are still saying “yes” to? Have you ever thought about it? It is a good idea, from one season to the next in our life, to take inventory of the “yes’s” we’ve made. Lots of stuff we don’t even think about because it’s operating in our backgrounds, compelling us to think and do every minute of every day.
At this stage in my life, I have come to grips with the level of my golf game. In short, I stink.
Golf is one thing. Life is another. Golf is a game. Life is not. The world that raised you teaches one way of life, but the way of Christ leads to life. The way of the world is filled with disease, the way of Christ is the definition of health. What is keeping you from grabbing it?
One of the major metaphors God uses to describe his desired relationship with humanity is the image of a bride and groom where God or Christ is the groom. God has a proposal for you. In Christ, God has bent down on one knee to ask each and every one of us a question – will you be mine?
When we say yes to that question in human relationships, we all know that it means we say no to a multitude of options. We know the only way we can say yes is to say no to other things.
Have you said yes to Christ’s invitation to do life? Have you forgotten what it means to say yes? Have you allowed yourself to say yes to things you shouldn’t have?
For the sake of your own life, and for the lives of all you naturally impact, say yes.
Things to consider…
Day one wasn’t really day one.
When Jesus went to get baptized, formally marking his entrance into his public, three year ministry that would culminate in his death and resurrection, it was hardly his first step. He was roughly 36 years old by then. Have you ever wondered what happened in his life before that moment? What was he doing? What was he thinking?
I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of him, but Tiger Woods is a golfer. This may be one of the grossest understatements I’ve ever made. Tiger Woods stepped onto the professional golf scene in 1996, and in April of 1997 won The Masters with a record-breaking margin of twelve strokes.
If you haven’t heard much about Tiger Woods, you need to know that he didn’t begin playing golf the day before he turned pro. His father began teaching him the game at a very early age, setting the foundation for an unparalleled professional career. If you want a glimpse of what Tiger did before he turned pro, look at his behavior and attitudes after he turned pro – you will see great similarity in his approach before and after his professional career took off.
The same is certainly true for Jesus. Look at his life after his baptism, and you’ll probably get some strong clues about what was going on in his life prior to his “professional” ministry. His patterns certainly only continued and perhaps increased over how he had lived previously. He had said “yes” to a certain way of life before he was baptized – agreements he would continue all throughout his life. This “yes” made it possible for him to say “no” to other, lesser things that did not agree with the life he was called to live.
Oftentimes, people come to faith wanting to live a new life of hope and meaning, only to find themselves in old patterns somewhere down the pike. I think one reason this happens is because they never really examined what they had been saying “yes” to before they said “yes” to life with God in Christ. The best predictor of the future is often the past, because patterns are hard to break, and continue unless addressed.
Many of you have a hobby or interest that you have developed over time – in some cases years. Do you remember when you first got into whatever it is you do? I really enjoy playing golf with first-timers. They’re fun to watch, and it almost always guarantees that I’ll beat somebody at least once! In your interest, you started out clumsy and lousy until you knew what to say “yes” to. When you figured out what to say “yes” to, it made saying no to stupid things easier.
I am amazed at how, over the years, I have noticed my parents’ behaviors and attitudes bubbling up in my life. Why? Because they raised me, molded me deeply and powerfully – more by how they lived than by what they intended to teach.
If we never ask ourselves what we’ve already said “yes” to, whatever new “yes” that comes along will likely be sabotaged by the old yes. In other words, all of those attitudes and behaviors you’ve been practicing throughout your life will naturally force you to continue along the same route. This has really far-reaching implications for your life. If you’ve never examined your formative education carefully, you’ve probably adopted some really bad ideologies unwittingly. You’re swinging your club like you were taught – but what if there is an entirely better way to swing? Would you still swing your club the lesser way? The way you swing your life’s golf club, good and bad, will continue to be the way you swing. Unless…
Tiger Woods has made a couple of major revisions to his swing over his professional career. Each time required coaching, hard work, and time to get into his new swing. No doubt, he first identified what was not working with his old swing, so he would know when he was simply falling into his old routine. During those periods of revision, his game suffered for awhile. But once he learned the new, better swing, his game came back. It could be that as his body changes with age and maturity, he will continue to look at what he has said “yes” to in his current swing, say no to some aspects, so that he can say “yes” to new and better ways to take him further in his journey. We have to know what we’ve said yes to before we can say no. We have to know what we have said yes to before we can say yes to something different.
You may be a golfer, and would love to have Tiger’s swing. Or, maybe you couldn’t care less. Deep within, I think everybody would want the kind of life Jesus had, which happens to be the very life Jesus offers to lead us toward. A life of great meaning, impact, connected to God and others, humble yet bold, caring yet firm, miraculous, everlasting. The list of Jesus’ desirable life qualities goes on for eternity. Remember, however, that he experienced the life he did because of what he said yes to before his baptism, and the agreements he continued to make along those same lines for the rest of his life.
What unhealthy stuff have you said “yes” to that you are still saying “yes” to? Have you ever thought about it? It is a good idea, from one season to the next in our life, to take inventory of the “yes’s” we’ve made. Lots of stuff we don’t even think about because it’s operating in our backgrounds, compelling us to think and do every minute of every day.
At this stage in my life, I have come to grips with the level of my golf game. In short, I stink.
Golf is one thing. Life is another. Golf is a game. Life is not. The world that raised you teaches one way of life, but the way of Christ leads to life. The way of the world is filled with disease, the way of Christ is the definition of health. What is keeping you from grabbing it?
One of the major metaphors God uses to describe his desired relationship with humanity is the image of a bride and groom where God or Christ is the groom. God has a proposal for you. In Christ, God has bent down on one knee to ask each and every one of us a question – will you be mine?
When we say yes to that question in human relationships, we all know that it means we say no to a multitude of options. We know the only way we can say yes is to say no to other things.
Have you said yes to Christ’s invitation to do life? Have you forgotten what it means to say yes? Have you allowed yourself to say yes to things you shouldn’t have?
For the sake of your own life, and for the lives of all you naturally impact, say yes.
Things to consider…
Defining Life At Its Best…
- How do you describe life at its best? Be specific.
- How does the world at large describe life at its best?
- How did you parents and other key influencers define life at its best? What did they say about this quality of life? How did they live their lives in support of their quest for the very best life? Did what they say and how they lived match up?
- How do you think God or Jesus would define life at its best?
- How has your definition of life at its best been shaped by the above influences?
Discovering The Way To Life At Its Best…
- How did your parents’ behavior and attitude choices affect the outcome of their life?
- What cultural models have influenced your understanding of the best way to reach the best life?
- What from your upbringing and the culture have you adopted into the way you pursue life at its best?
- Read Romans 12:1-21 and Colossians 3:1-17.
- How do these two passages describe the way to life at its best?
- How is the way you’ve adopted similar and/or different from the way of Christ, and the way illustrated in the two passages above?
- Which way of life do you more want to say “yes” to?
- If you say “yes” to the way of Christ, what do you know you’ll soon be saying “no” to?
I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then, you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13
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