Penguin Sex, Sexy Carrots & the Kingdom

Laura’s Struggle.  Donald Miller had a friend caught in struggle.  The youngest daughter of a pastor, she never really “got” faith.  But during one particular season of her life, she sensed that God was trying to reveal himself to her.  Part of the reason she had not yet believed was because she just wasn’t sure it was true.

Peter’s Confession.  One day Jesus was with his disciples, and he asked them who people thought he was.  Lots of answers came floating up.  But it was Peter who took a risk and said that he believed Jesus was the Christ/Messiah.  Jesus celebrated Peter’s confession, and declared that his Church would be built on that foundation of faith in him as the Christ/Messiah.  Along with that faith came the power to free people from all sorts of dark struggles they might find themselves in – no darkness was too dark for the Light of the world to overcome.

It’s a Mystery.  Faith isn’t blind, really.  It is not without great thought, and growing faith requires thoughtfulness to be sure.  But we need to come to grips with an arrogance of limitation that permeates our worldview.  Somewhere around the time Newton began making great scientific discoveries, people began to define truth as whether or not it was factual, provable scientifically.  This narrow definition has been good for much scientific advancement, but it has severely handicapped the way we think about God and faith.  Love is true, but can you prove it?  Light is true, but can you define it?  We live in a world that wants to define things in order to understand, and ultimately in order to control.  But love cannot be so easily quantified, and as soon as a person tries to control love, it is lost.  God and faith are similarly true, but impossible to define, and this is very good.  God is far greater than any definition we can create, leaving us with more mystery than hard facts.  But God is true just the same.  Laura concluded that Jesus was true, and that faith was real, in spite of her Western tendency to doubt such mysterious realities.

Don’s Fun(damentalist) summer.  After spending a summer serving at a Fundamentalist Christian camp, Don and his friends made a pact together to help them stay on the “straight and narrow.”  Don kept it up for awhile, but slowly and surely, he failed the resolutions he had made.  He was miserable, and angry at everybody around him who was having fun in their lives.  Christian faith wasn’t fun via fundamentalism.

Peter’s Shadow Side Comes to Light.  Just after Peter made his declaration, Jesus gave a vision-casting talk about what was ahead for him (and them), which included his own death.  At this, Peter stepped in and corrected Jesus, assuring him that this was not the way things were going to go.  Jesus, in response, reprimanded Peter, pointing out that he was not thinking from God’s perspective, but humanity’s.

Our Internal Struggle.  Since we’ve been talking about truth, let’s be honest with ourselves.  Aren’t we more like Peter than we would care to admit?  Don’t we usually find out the hard way that we are out of step with Jesus?  Or am I the only one?

Don Rabbit & Sexy Carrot.  Take a minute (literally), and enjoy this high-budget film based on Donald Miller’s cartoon depicting the struggle we find ourselves in: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxCmaxWoXdI

Jesus’ Invitation.  After the reprimand, Jesus gives a clear statement of how we are to proceed if we want to walk in truth:

Matthew 16:13-26 (The Message)

 ^24-26Then Jesus went to work on his disciples. "Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat; I am. Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I'll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself? What could you ever trade your soul for?

May you be honest with yourself about what is true.  May you find joy in a real relationship with God.  May you, with God’s help, grow in your capacity to follow Jesus as he leads you to true life for yourself and everybody else.

To Save A Penny

I guess one of the reasons I resonate so much with Donald Miller’s Blue Like Jazz is because when he writes about the struggle he and others encountered with the religion side of Christianity, writes of my own.  In the opening chapters of his book, we encounter his friend, Penny, who was born unto hippies, welcomed into the world with the scent of marijuana in the air, or at least on her mother’s clothes.  Her family’s free-lovin’ ways made it unlikely to experience a genuine welcome in most sanctuaries.

     This reminds me of the story of Jesus calling Matthew to become his disciple (Mt. 9:9-13).  Matthew, unlike Penny, chose his place among those rejected by the faith when he became a tax collector.  He was disliked by all except other swindlers.  Religious leaders no doubt considered them the scum of the earth since they robbed their own people of what little money they had.

     But Jesus did call Matthew – no placement tests required.  The growing-in-fame rabbi and healer called him to be one of his disciples.  Jesus believed in him – perhaps more than Matthew believed in himself.

     Penny felt a cold distance from the Christian religion as well.  More than that, she loathed what she saw – politically driven hypocrites on the opposite side of every social position she considered.  What she knew of Christianity was anything but grace.

     Matthew could relate.  When he threw a dinner party for Jesus and the disciples, he quite naturally welcomed his friends to join in.  The religious leaders (who were not invited) pulled aside the disciples and asked them why Jesus was mingling with such scum.  Gee, I wonder why Matthew didn’t invite them to the party?

     Jesus overheard and answered, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor – sick people do….  I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”

     Jesus wanted to change the world not with well-polished, invulnerable statues of people, but rather with people who were humble and honest enough to recognize their need for God in their lives.

     Even though I knew I was going to be a pastor since the summer before my sophomore year of high school, I managed to veer off course quite a bit over the next several years.  Because I was fully aware of my ongoing struggle, I don’t think I copped much of a holier-than-thou attitude toward those who were wandering alongside of me.  While I definitely had friends who were trying their best to walk tight with Jesus, they were generally not harsh toward me.  But through this experience of knowing my calling yet not behaving like one who was called, I think I have come to appreciate Penny’s and Matthew’s struggle.

     I was not attracted to the Christian religion.

     When I was at my lowest, however, I was won over by Jesus.

     When my walls came crashing down, even though there was plenty to be self-loathing about, I didn’t feel condemned.  I felt wooed.  While I didn’t hear an audible voice as did Penny or Matthew, I knew what I was being invited to embrace.  Jesus.  His absolutely fulfilling love and presence.  His Way which would change my world and help change ours.

     If you feel like Penny, or Matthew, or me, may you begin to see Jesus for who he was and is, and realize that he not only loves you – he likes you.  May you find wholeness in every part of your life as you begin to walk with Jesus.

     If you find yourself with an attitude more like a Pharisee than lover of people, then may you experience a wake-up call to a much brighter morning than you’re stuck in, and may you discover the incredibly hunger-satisfying Way of Jesus: loving people into a relationship with God that improves everything in their world.

God Breaks In

Abraham heard God call him to leave where he was and go wherever God led.

Isaac saw an angel of God keep his father from sacrificing him – something he probably wanted to but could never forget.

Jacob had a vision of angels ascending and descending a stairway leading to heaven.  Later he wrestled an angel all through the night.

Joseph had some dreams that rivaled anything some particular varieties of mushrooms could induce.

Moses heard God speak through a burning bush, and that was just the beginning for him.

Joshua witnessed God do incredible feats, and met God’s angel outside of Jericho to get his marching orders.

Gideon used a fleece to make sure God was behind the crazy military strategy that was breaking into his mind.

Samuel heard God call him at a very early age.

David experienced God’s anointing through Samuel.

Elijah saw God pull off incredible feats, expected to hear him in the thunder and lightning, but heard him in a still, small voice instead.  He left the earth in grand fashion: a chariot of fire.

Jesus heard God call him “son” at his baptism through a vision of a dove.

Paul heard Jesus – post ascension – in a blinding light that changed his vision of the world.

John caught a glimpse of Jesus in perhaps his truest light while on Alcatraz (Patmos).

God broke into the reality of people in the past in a multitude of ways.  And God still does.

Sometimes I wonder if God is much more present than we’ve allowed ourselves to realize.  I wonder if we have preconceived notions about how God interacts with humanity that block our capacity to see anything different.

Actually, I wonder if we do not expect God to break in at all, except with a warm fuzzy feeling on occasion.  Could it be that we have pared down our relationship with God to mental ascent – that faith is just a mental thing, a decision that stays buried in our heart but doesn’t interrupt our day, let alone our lives. 

May you choose to open your eyes, ears, mind and heart to God’s presence each day.  May you say yes to the invitation to follow that will lead to redemption for you and those you influence.  What story will you share when asked how God breaks into a person’s life?

“As autonomous subjects we have closed ourselves off to the calling of the [God], and it is in this sense that we have banished [God].  Nobody seems to have noticed this.  Martin Buber talks about the eclipse of God, Beckett about how we are waiting for God to return.  Others talk about God’s absence, withdrawal, or death.  But the picture we are offering turns on its head the traditional twentieth-century narrative.  [God has] not withdrawn or abandoned us, we have kicked [God] out.  [God is] waiting plaintively for use to hear [God’s] call.  Ask not why [God has] abandoned you, but why you have abandoned [God].”  - Dreyfus and Kelly, All Things Shining