121230 Rekindle Christmas: Q&A

What is the American Dream? When you think of people who have realized the American Dream, who comes to mind? What are their common denominators?

We don’t know much about what happened to Jesus between his birth and his adult ministry (which began when he was in his 30’s). In some of the less historically credible books about Jesus that did not make it into the Bible there are some stories, but they don’t fit too well with the Jesus we see in the Bible. Luke is the only book that gives us anything (see for yourself – Luke 2:41-52).

In this account, the twelve year old Jesus and his family celebrated the Passover Festival as usual, and were headed back to Nazareth. But Mary and Joseph realized after the first full day of travel that he wasn’t with the caravan, so they traveled back to Jerusalem the next day, perhaps rehearsing the tongue-lashing he was about to receive. The third day they searched Jerusalem and found him in the Temple chatting it up with the priests, who were greatly impressed by his understanding.

Luke had an agenda with the inclusion of the story. He tied in the Temple once more – central to Jesus’ story and for anchoring him to Judaism. But he also wants us to see what an outlier Jesus is, even as a boy. How many twelve year olds like to talk theology with pastors? I can tell you from experience: none. But Jesus does. At twelve.

Twelve is an interesting age to give us. It’s not really a nod to the Twelve Tribes as it sometimes refers – doesn’t really make sense here. But it does raise a Jewish eyebrow. The age of accountability for Jewish boys is thirteen (for girls, twelve). This is also the age that they go through some educational experiences culminating in the bar mitzvah. We would expect a kid to know a lot of right answers after his seminars were complete. But you wouldn’t expect it beforehand. This is what Luke wants us to see: Jesus is extraordinary.

What rang my bell, however, was what impressed the priests. Because it would impress me, too. They were impressed by his understanding and answers. But what gave them this impression? For three days he sat with them, listened, and asked questions. Sure, they undoubtedly asked questions right back to get him thinking, but he was asking.

People who ask questions are rare. Especially really good questions about the deeper stuff of life.
Most of us get comfortable with our understanding of things. We have to, I suppose, to give ourselves a sense of foundation. But I think we are prone to getting so accustomed to our worldview that we never question it. It works for us on some level, so the thought never crosses our mind to challenge it.

Our worldview shapes everything we do, right down to New Year’s resolutions that some will make very soon. I bet lots of people living in America will make resolutions that somehow reflect the values in the American Dream.

Do you suppose Jesus was asking the priests about the American Dream? Was he wondering what it was going to take for him to be a good American? Some might actually make a case for a “yes”, but I think not.

Priests, rabbis, pastors, and religious leaders of all kinds give their lives to helping people connect the dots of life and faith. My hunch is that the priests that day were impressed because he was asking bar mitzvah questions – what does it mean to be a son of the covenant? I don’t think they were quizzing him on the 600+ laws he would have to obey to live up to the code. I think they were talking about what it really means to walk with God faithfully. What God was really hoping for when God breathed life into humanity. Those kind of conversations are wonderful. Unheard of from a pre-pubescent kid.

So hear is my question for us. When we consider resolutions we publicly or secretly make for New Years or just life in general, what are we asking? Are we wondering how we can pursue the American Dream? What if there are parts of it that run counter to what it means to walk with God? Have we ever asked that question: how is the American Dream and God’s dream for humanity similar and different?

My prayer for you is that you will raise your standard beyond the American Dream. My prayer is that you will follow in Jesus’ footsteps and ask what it means to be a son or daughter of the covenant: what does it really mean to live in a dynamic, life-informing relationship with God? If think if we pursue the answer to that question, bigger dreams than those that are particularly American will be realized.

121223 Rekindle Christmas: How we do

What do Zechariah and Elizabeth, Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, Simeon and Anna, and the Wise Men and King Herod have in common? For one thing, they all had unique experiences of God showing up. They all said “Immanuel” one way or another. Apparently, there isn’t just one way God shows up to people. Zechariah was doing his duty in the Temple. He and his wife Elizabeth were known for being good, faithful people. God showed up to them in a very peculiar way in their old age, with an unexpected invitation.

I think we can assume Mary was a nice enough gal. She had hopes and dreams much like any peasant-class young woman of her day. We don’t know how she felt about her engagement to Joseph, but we can be sure that the invitation she received from God was more like a nightmare, initially. But the broader point is that God showed up, personally, to an ordinary, poor, young woman.

Joseph was a carpenter, which meant he wasn’t going to get much money or respect in his life. But he was getting things in order: a career was chosen, and so was a wife. All set. Until God showed up to him: a poor, less-than-peasant man of little education and no social status.

The shepherds watching their flocks had a decent gig – they may have been tending sheep used at the Temple. But they were commoners at best. They probably smelled like sheep. They probably felt like pawns in a giant game of the gods, where nobody cared what happened to them. And then they got a visitation from not just one angel, but a choir of them. Who could have anticipated that?

Simeon and Anna both spent their time in prayer at the Temple. Both incredibly devout, both looking for God to make a move. When they laid eyes on Jesus, they had eyes to see and hearts sensitive to what God was doing – they experienced God in the baby himself.

The Wise Men experienced God speaking to them through their study of the heavens. The stars aligned, and they sensed significance.

Even King Herod experienced God – through the surprise visit of the Wise Men, and again by their refusal to return with Mary and Joe’s address. He knew something was up that was bigger than him.

God shows up. Are we paying attention? Are we expecting God to show up like God shows up for someone else? And when it doesn’t happen that way, do we wonder if God really shows up? Perhaps a good approach is to bank on a fundamental reality we witness in the birth narratives: God does show up. Building on that premise, maybe we simply need to be open to God showing up, and pay attention more and doubt less. Perhaps then we will have our focus sharp enough to catch a glimpse of Immanuel.

But my teaching really isn’t about God showing up. It’s really about us showing up. My thoughts this week aren’t about believing, but doing.

The characters listed above had another thing in common: they did more than believe.

Zechariah and Elizabeth named their miracle son John – an act of obedience and faith even though their lifelong hopes were probably to have a little Zechariah or Elizabeth running around.

Mary responded to God’s news with humility and willingness to be used however God saw fit. That set in motion lots more doing…

Joseph did as the angel instructed, which required him (like Mary) to eat a lot of crow, face certain amounts of inner turmoil, and endure family scorn. His journey was no picnic, no mere mental ascent that God was up to something. Joseph was in the game. He had grass stains on his uniform and scrapes and bruises from being on the field.

The shepherds didn’t wait until dawn to see what was up with that crazy choral announcement. They hurried to find the scene that was described for them. The sheep could wait. This was too important to push off to another day.

Simeon prayed and prayed and prayed. And once he saw the baby, he embraced the child, and then blessed the parents with love and honesty about the significance of this kid. Similarly, Anna praised God when she saw Jesus. But she took it a step further. She also let other people know what she was experiencing.

The Wise Men didn’t send a Hallmark card when they got they noticed the astrological birth announcement. They went to great expense of time and money to make their way to the land where the new king had been born. Once there, they gave even more as an act of worship: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

We are not called to hear the good news of what God has done in Jesus and then sit on our hands. We are not called to a belief where we just come to some theological conclusions that give us inner peace. The Good News calls for action. Yes, we are saved by faith, but our works work out the salvation in our lives and in our world. Most of the characters in the birth narratives are heroes not simply because they believed, but because their beliefs motivated them to act. As they were enlightened, they were called.

A retired woman at our church came to see me awhile back. After some good catching up conversation, she said she had something for me. During her working life, she would set aside money each month for travel in retirement. But once she retired, she really didn’t feel like traveling! And her family was well provided for, so she pondered what to do with this nest egg. She handed me four envelopes, each holding $2,000 in cash. She said she thought the church could use it. Her funds bought everyone’s dinner at our Thanksgiving Feast, which inspired people to donate more than we ever have before for that meal, generating over $3,600 for Furaha’s feeding program for our orphans in the slum of Huruma, outside Nairobi, Kenya. Her donation provided funding for Rebecca DeMatteo to attend a conference which will no doubt light her fire, and make her an even more powerful force in her ministry here. The rest will help renovate CrossWalk’s building through our Legacy campaign, which means many more people will be impacted by the Gospel. Faith doesn’t sit around and spectate. Faith moves.

Pete Duenas got his life turned around by Christ while serving time in prison. ever since he got out, he has been a force for the Gospel in profound ways. If you ever want to get inspired, spend a meeting with them talking about how they can give back out of the blessings they have been given. Their faith is not simply one about a decision they made once to follow Jesus; theirs is faith in action, and lives are being changed and the world is improving because of it.

What do you believe about God? Instead of telling me, show me what you believe with your life. You believe God is graceful and loving. Are you? You believe God shows up to be with people in need. Do you? You believe God forgives. Do you? You believe God stands alongside the oppressed. Do you? You believe God is generous. Are you? You believe God wants peace. Are you a peace-seeker?

As we celebrate Christmas, let’s remember that the authors of these narratives had an agenda. It wasn’t that we’d sit around arguing about whether or not Mary was a virgin. It was that we would get a thumbnail of what the rest of the Gospel would include. A story about a man greater than John the Baptist. A story about God breaking into history through some of society’s least-appreciated: the elderly, women, the very poor, and all humble. A story about God loving and reaching across the aisle to non-Jews. A story about an incredible person – Jesus – whom God used in such powerful ways that people exclaimed “Immanuel”! A story that describes the response of those who first found themselves engaged in God’s epic movement in Jesus Christ. A story written with the hopes that we would be moved to believe, and that we would do much more than just believe. That we would do.  Because that's how we do...

But don’t just listen to God’s word.

You must do what it says.

Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.

– James 1:22

121216 Rekindle Christmas: Immanuel King

Immanuel still? In Matthew’s account of the birth of Jesus (Mt. 1:18-24), Joseph is the central character, as opposed to Luke’s Mary. Joseph gets the tragic news of Mary’s “condition”: his fiancé is pregnant, but they haven’t consummated their marriage yet. Naturally, Joseph wanted to dump her. But Matthew paints him nobly – no need to make the situation worse by having her stoned – just let her suffer the consequences of her indiscretion alone. Before he moves forward, he decides to sleep on it first. Usually a good idea. But then he has a profound dream that goes against whatever internal stuff might be going on. God shows up, not to applaud him for his graceful decision, but to correct him and point him in a Kingdom direction.

Immanuel means “God with us” – something people would call Jesus when they experienced what God was doing in and through him. Joseph began experiencing Immanuel before the birth, though, and it changed his life. He wasn’t expecting it. While there were pockets of Jewish folks who claimed to have spiritual knowledge – gnostic – they were definitely not mainstream. The leading Jewish class, the Sadducees, were much more interested in a theology and practice which maintained their prominence as leaders in Jerusalem. Pharisees, who taught mostly outside of Jerusalem, were focused much more on understanding and applying the scriptures. They are painted by the gospel writers as being dogmatic and often judgmental, focusing more on the letter than the spirit of the law they loved. In which camp was Joseph most comfortable? It is nearly impossible to say with certainty. Either he was open to God speaking to him and therefore recognized it when it happened in the vehicle of a dream, or his got his mind blown when God showed up beyond the pages of scripture. Either way, the point is that God showed up and he knew it.

Does God still show up? Is “Immanuel” descriptive of our faith experience?

The in-breaking of God into the human experience is what makes the birth story of Jesus so controversial, isn’t it? This isn’t a neat and clean amazing story. The inference is that something extraordinary happened. Supernatural.

Do we have any room in our lives for the supernatural?

The Bible is full of examples of God breaking into the human experience. Abraham sensed God leading him to do life and faith completely different than he had at home in present-day Iraq. His grandson Jacob had a vision of angels, and even experienced wrestling one. His son Joseph had strange dreams that were incredibly vivid. He could interpret the dreams of others, too, with great accuracy. Moses experienced a burning bush that talked, as well as incredible miracles and mountain-top moments. Joshua walked through a divided Jordan River, and got military advice from an angel. Elijah was part of an incredible fireworks display on God’s part, yet also discovered God’s voice in silence. There are many, many more – and these all took place centuries before Jesus was born!

I wonder if we have mixed feelings about this whole thing. We like the idea of Immanuel, but perhaps fear its reality. We like to control things, and Immanuel requires us to acquiesce to Another’s control. I want God to give me good health, good parking spaces, winning lottery tickets, etc., but do I want to be called to a difficult path? I want God to show up, but how much am I really comfortable with?

Immanuel has been experienced in a variety of ways. The trouble comes when we assume one way is THE way God should be experienced. Maybe we need to drop the shoulds. And maybe we also need to drop our need to explain everything – especially if it is really just a way to keep God at arms length.
The witness of the Bible on the whole is that Immanuel lives up to his name, that “God with us” is a good thing and not a dreaded thing. If this is who God is, maybe we need to spend more time discovering just how Immanuel lives up to his name with us. You might have experiences of God’s presence like mine. But you might not. Yours might be very different from mine because we are different. It doesn’t matter. What does matter is that Immanuel is a reality that Jesus embodied and enabled for many. He opened the door for countless millions to say "Immanuel" with personal conviction.

Do you want Immanuel?

King of who? The Magi were interesting characters for Matthew to highlight. They were men from another tradition who recognized spiritual activity through astrology and other signs.  Perhaps the stars (or planets) aligned, which they interpreted as a sign that a king was born to the people of Israel. Off they went to Jerusalem, the Capitol City, where they assumed they would find a newborn king. With them they brought appropriate gifts that carried great meaning for kings of that era who naturally claimed a certain amount of divinity, since the gods put them in that position in the first place. Gold – always a safe gift for a ruler. Frankincense – a tool for interacting with the gods in priest-like fashion. And myrrh – extremely valuable and used for burial rites (an allusion to his martyrdom, perhaps?). They came because they knew the appropriate thing to do was go pay homage to the king.

Going along with Matthew’s story, we can also safely assume, I think, that Joseph interpreted the message from the angel that Jesus was going to be the long-awaited Messiah – a king-like ruler who had the beloved King David in his bloodline. The Greek name, Jesus (Hebrew: Joshua), means the “Lord saves”. “Saves” could have easily been translated “rescue” as well. Many Jews at that time were looking to God to rescue them from the hands of the Roman Empire – saving them from the sins that got them there in the first place. Joseph knew a king was being born, too. So he rose from his dreamy slumber and did what you do for a king – obey.

Here in the United States, we don’t do well with kings. It’s in our national DNA to rebel against kings. We like our independence, and don’t like anyone telling us what to do or how to do it. Am I right?

How do we, as freedom people, embrace the idea of Jesus as King? Do you want a King Jesus?

I wonder if we really prefer a Consultant Jesus. An on-call Immanuel who is only with us when we really want him, and serves mainly to advise – no real power or authority to tell us what to do. Is this what you prefer?

The problem, of course, is that while we have the freedom to not embrace Immanuel King, it does not reflect God’s dream, which turns out is also our deepest, greatest, and best dream as well. God’s dream is that we experience Immanuel, and that happens the more we let him be King. The abundant life which is found following Jesus on the Way requires us to be on the Way – not just the parts we feel like. God is not forcing Immanuel on us. But Immanuel, by definition, is with us always. The real question whose answer truly makes all the difference between getting through life versus living abundantly is not whether or not God is with us, but are we with God?

Resources
1. Faith is meant to be a dynamic relationship, not simply a belief system o guide our moral behavior. All people find themselves at times feeling disconnected from God. Just speaking practically, how do you manage your life to foster a relationship with God? Do you have times of quiet when you can simply breathe, listen, think, express, etc.? Are you serving in some capacity – giving back with no interest in being repaid in some way? Are you reading anything that will help grow your relationship with God (the Bible; books that touch on God themes – even if not overtly; fiction lovers: read Les Miserables – lots of God in there). Are you talking on deeper themes with trusted friends that will give you support and nurture growth? Most of us struggle to do this “quality time” stuff. If it were any other kind of relationship, we would know that we haven’t invested in quality time, and that was what was causing relational distance. What changes do you need to make in order that the most important relationship in life works?

2. Our relationship with God is unique in that we believe God knows more and better than we do about everything. Sometimes we have roadblocks in our faith because there are things we know God is asking of us and we refuse. This would hamper any relationship, right? Is there an area of your life, or a behavior, or an attitude, etc., where you sense God calling you to trust and obey but you aren’t? What is keeping you from going for it?

3. Watch and share Dave Matthew’s Band Mercy video shown today and pray the message catches fire. Read and ponder the lyrics below:

Mercy

Don't give up
I know you can see
All the world and the mess that we're making
Can't give up
And hope God will intercede
Come on back
Imagine that we could get it together
Stand up for what we need to be
‘Cause crime won’t save or feed a hungry child
Can't lay down and wait for a miracle to change things
So lift up your eyes
Lift up your heart

Singing mercy will we overcome this
Oh one by one could we turn it around
Maybe carry on just a little bit longer
And I'll try to give you what you need

Me and you and you and you
Just wanna be free yeah
But you see all the world is just as we've made it
And until we got a new world
I've got to say that love is not a whisper or a weakness

No love is strong
So we got to get together yeah
Gotta get gotta get gotta get
Til there is no reason
To fight

Mercy will we overcome this
Yeah one by one could we turn it around
Maybe carry on just a little bit longer
And I'll try to give you what you need

Mercy will we overcome this
Have we come too far to turn it around
Ask too much to be a little bit stronger
Cause I wanna give you what you need

Mercy what will become of us
Oh one by one could we turn it around
Maybe carry on just a little bit longer
And I'll try to give you what you need

121209 Rekindle Christmas: There's more to the Story

It’s Christmas time again, which means the Peanuts Christmas will be airing soon.  For many, Linus' recounting the Christmas story is the only time they will hear it.  His rendition comes from the Gospel of Luke, which was written sometime between 70-80 AD by a person commissioned to put the story together on one scroll.  Luke get’s the billing, but it probably wasn’t him – just a distant admirer of Paul’s missionary companion.

For critical thinkers, Luke’s story is difficult to swallow.  A virgin teenager gets “with child” by God?  That’s hard to believe.  I think some people get so hung up on whether or not the virgin birth literally happened that they fail to see what the author (whom I will refer to as Luke for convenience’ sake) was really trying to communicate.

Luke was a masterful writer whose command of language makes his education obvious.  He wasn’t simply writing a biography about Jesus, which many scholars thought was the case until the last few centuries.  He had an agenda: to give Theophilus confidence in the Jesus who captured his faith.  Luke cared about accuracy, but he also cared about shaping the story with themes that he felt represented Jesus and God well.  Luke had his own theology – and it wasn’t always similar to that of Paul, or Matthew, or Peter, or James or the other Gospel writers.  And, since Luke wrote after Mark, and after the fall of Jerusalem, his tone is different than Mark – shaped by the reality of a not-as-soon-as-we-thought eschaton.

Luke makes some big statements about Jesus in his first two chapters.  He begins with the story of John’s incredible birth to very aged parents, Elizabeth and Zechariah.  These two prayerful people certainly thought their hopes for a child were long gone.  But they weren’t.  An old woman gets pregnant by and old man, and carries to term.  Even today some would call that miraculous!  God certainly must have had a hand in it...

What could be more impressive than that?  How about a betrothed teenage virgin who gets pregnant without the help of a man?  That’s even more miraculous than John’s birth.  And that was the point.

Let go of your ultra-literal tendencies for a moment and see what Luke is doing.  He is using a tool called step parallelism where two characters have similar (parallel) stories, but one is a step greater than the other.  It was a common storytelling technique back in the day.  What is Luke really trying to tell us here above all else?  Is he wanting us to focus in on Mary’s virginity?  Would he want us to spend lots of time wondering how God got her pregnant?  No!  Luke simply wants us to see that John was great – everybody knew that – but that Jesus was even greater.

While Luke is crafting a story about Jesus, however, he is also telling us much about the God he believes in.  This amazing person isn’t born to royalty, but to peasants.  These were low-on-the-totem-pole folks.  He was born in a stable alongside farm animals, cradled in a feeding troph.  What could be more humble than that?  And the first to hear the news?  A bunch of graveyard-shift shepherds.  Humble beginnings, indeed.  What kind of God would start his star character off this way?  A God who wants to make a statement about who God values: everyone, and especially the least in the world, because they probably need God’s favor the most.  Interestingly, in Jesus’ genealogy, Luke takes Jesus’ family line back further than does Matthew – all the way back to Genesis’ Adam.  Jesus is related to everyone, great and small alike.

Luke doesn’t just give us a picture of Jesus and God, though.  He also plants some seeds for his readers regarding what good followers look like.  Simeon had been praying fervently for years.  God showed up to that man who prayed so much and told him he would see the Christ with his own eyes.  Anna, a widow who devoted herself to praying at the Temple for decades, knew who she saw when her eyes met Jesus.  Some famous people have been attributed for saying, “the harder I work the luckier I get.”  I think the more people pray the more they hear God.  Coupled with Zechariah, the dedicated father of John the Baptist, and the picture gets all the more clear: pray more to hear God more.

Of course, the picture-perfect example of discipleship here is Mary.  She is given the news and humbly offers herself to God’s service, knowing that doing so will be incredibly challenging.  The picture of a whole-hearted follower of Christ.

Did you notice, by the way, that Luke’s story begins in Jerusalem?  Guess where the climax of the story is?  John is killed by the region king, Herod.  Jesus is sentenced to die a far more painful, more humiliating death by Pontius Pilate, the king overseeing all of Israel.  Jesus was born bigger, and dies bigger.

As you move through the Christmas season this year, I pray that your wonder will be rekindled.  May you move your gaze beyond the nativity scene and look at what Luke is trying to communicate.  A God breaks into history in a special way through Jesus, born to the humblest of peasants in the most humble of places, to call the same to trust and love and serve in order that the world, somehow, might be saved.  Will you heed such an inherent invitation?

121202 Rekindle Christmas

Remember that song, The Twelve Days of Christmas? When that song was penned, would anyone have guessed that by 2012, the Twelve Days would have grown to twelve weeks? It seems to me that every year, Advent has begun earlier. Nothing has changed in the liturgical calendar that has guided the Church and its faithful for generations. The season of anticipation which once donned our lives for four weeks has stretched now to more like twelve. It used to be that we would think little of Christmas until after Thanksgiving. Now, as we all know, Christmas for Wal-Mart, Costco, and most of retail begins in early October (even late September in some corners of the stores), long before Halloween. Our culture has stretched – tripled – our season of anticipation.

Can we get too much of a good thing? Christmas is certainly a favorite holiday for many people, so is it so bad to have more than less Christmas in our lives? I think so. I think Christmas can get overwhelming. What is meant to be a season of joy and giving can becoming over stimulating. The pressure to give more and more and more and more drains our resources. I think we can actually get a little burned out on Christmas – I love holiday food, but twelve weeks of it would get old. How is your passion for Christmas this year? A robust flame, or a diminishing flicker?

How our culture approaches Christmas bleeds into our spiritual life, too. I think that all the commercial noise makes it harder to really spend time reflecting on what this season is all about. It’s not just about buying stuff – our desire to celebrate in this season means TV schedules are packed with favorite movies that I don’t want to miss, and a plethora of Christmas Season festivities can easily crowd our calendar. Maybe we all suffer from Advent-induced ADHD?

This is a problem because there are some deep things to think about at Christmas. Big questions that go unattended because we don’t have time. Left on their own, the questions churn away in our consciousness. As we grow in our intellectual capacity, we naturally wonder about the credibility of the Christmas story itself. Nobody of any academic merit denies that Jesus was an historical person. But conceived by the Holy Spirit to a virgin teenager? A journey to Bethlehem for a census that doesn’t make sense? A host of angels singing to some half-asleep shepherds? Wise men from a distant land following a star that marks the spot where Jesus was born? Herod killing innocent toddlers to protect his throne? These credibility questions beg to be addressed. The meaning of the story regardless of historicity longs to be the subject of deep dialogue. But to do so requires time and attention, which are both in short supply this time of year. Instead of being a season aflame with beauty and mystery and awe and joy and reverence, it can be reduced to just a flicker of faith, filled with doubt and disconnect.

It is kind of like booking a trip to hike Yosemite's Half Dome without thinking of the implications. You just show up in your Converse All Stars and get moving. At some point, you are bound to wonder if you really though it through. Even though you had your heart set on peering over the cliff, you realize that this hike is going to require more time and thought. Christmas is like that. We just jump into it unprepared, and we miss some of the beauty because we wear down sooner than we thought we would.

As we come within view of Christmas, how bright is your faith’s flame?

A word of hope for Christmas skeptics… If you find yourself struggling to get on board with Christmas theologically, it may be challenging for you to connect with God during this season when so much attention is given to the in-question birth narratives. Go ahead and doubt. You are in good company. The historical accuracy of the birth narratives have been debated by God-loving, academic-oriented Jesus fans for a long time. One of the most revered and published biblical scholars of our time, N.T. Wright, is open to the possibility of the birth narratives happening as Matthew and Luke portray. But, he writes, if the first two chapters of Matthew and the first two of Luke had never existed, I do not suppose that my own Christian faith, or that of my church to which I belong, would have been very different (The Meaning of Jesus, by N.T. Wright and Marcus Borg, p. 164). If one of the most respected scholars has serious questions, then you can, too. At the same time, however, realize that these question need not impact your flame’s strength.

I think focusing on the historical part too much can be as blinding and deafening as doubting it all. We miss some themes that the writers wanted us to see when we don't step back and take a look at the bigger picture.

The Christmas Stories are replete with beauty, symbol, and meat for any stage of a spiritual seeker’s journey. We don’t have to have all the answers to appreciate the depths of the story or apply its principles. As we move forward in this series, I think you might find yourself thoroughly impressed with the message Matthew and Luke worked hard to share. I think your appreciation for Jesus will increase if you listen carefully to what they have experienced and feel compelled to share.

Christmas can be overwhelming theologically. Our flame can be reduced to a flicker.

Is there a way to rekindle Christmas? Yes, there is. But it won't happen quickly. To get to the heights we have to use tools that are available to use. We have to pace ourselves, too, realizing that we are talking about more than a 30-minutes cardio walk. We are talking about a trek that is unbelievably challenging yet profoundly inspiring.

How will we choose to approach Advent this year? Will we simply let it pass by? Or will we choose to ask ourselves if there might be more to discover here? Will we slow down enough to breathe? Will we quiet ourselves long enough to ask the writers what their intent was when they put their stories together?

This truly is where discovery begins: when we choose to admit that there is more to see, and are willing to take the time to look. Let's rekindle Christmas together over the next few weeks.

Homework: read Luke's first and second chapter in preparation for next Sunday.

121125 Walk with Me: Overwhelmed

Storms happen.

Jesus had just finished a significant amount of ministry, and wanted to head to some other area along the shores of the Sea of Galilee (Mark 4:35-41). Fishing boats in those times had low sides to make it easier to lift the haul of fish inside. Jesus was wiped out – a sign of his humanity – and was crashed in the back of the boat where they likely stored the nets. A storm picked up in that Tahoe-sized lake and, like the lake we know and love, meant potential calamity, especially in an overloaded fishing boat.

The winds and waves worsened, and the little boat started taking on water. The disciples panicked. Jesus slept. Finally, out of their desperation, they roused Jesus with unvarnished incredulity: don’t you even care that we’re all about to die?

Earlier this month, I think a lot of people were praying similar prayers as Super Storm Sandy attacked our eastern seaboard. How could God allow such a thing to happen? But we don’t reserve such prayers just for natural disasters of earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, or drought and heat. We have plenty of other occasions which seem to call forth our inner disciple, questioning whether or not God exists, gives a rip, or is able to do anything about it. Cancer. Dementia. Alzheimer's. MS. MD. HIV. PTSD. Schizophrenia. Bi-polar. Rape. Divorce. Unemployment. Domestic violence. War. Terrorism. We have plenty of storms that threaten us all throughout our lives. Just like the disciples, we tend to freak out. For many, it is at that moment that prayer is finally uttered to a God we tend to ignore until it hits the fan.

The “prayers” did rouse Jesus. He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Immediately, peace and still happened. Mark recounts this event portraying Jesus as treating the wind and sea as he did a demon-possessed person in need of exorcism. Mark offers this take to help us see that the God who handled the individual struggles is big enough to handle the biggest challenges that atmospheric conditions can throw our way.

This would not be the first time the disciples would face faith-challenging situations. Around the time Mark’s Gospel was being circulated, the disciples were facing severe persecution from Jewish leaders as well as Roman authorities. These forces would not just tell them that they were wrong – they would illustrate the fact by beating them severely to show that the disciples’ god was powerless against Roman brutality. The boat was going down…

Sometimes we wonder if God is making all this happen, as if it all is part of God’s perfect plan. I don’t prefer this way of thinking about the awful realities we face in life. It implies that God wills the good and the bad, the holy and the evil. It means that rapists rape in accordance with God’ will. It means all the “organic matter” we face is somehow exactly what God intended. This portrays God as an apparently unjust deity where the playing field is not level, and sometimes the people who honor God most get rewarded with what seems like hell. How do we make sense of this? Why doesn’t Jesus rebuke those storms?

Because of this apparent disparity, some wonder if the story is even credible. Did this actually happen? Did Jesus really rebuke the weather into submission? Does it matter if this story is to be taken literally? Does the story’s impact change if it is not taken literally? This is for you to mull over, along with hundreds and thousands who have done the same.

The point is the same regardless of your hermeneutic: peace followed prayer.

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything.

Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.

Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.

His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. – (Apostle Paul, Philippians 4:6-7, NLT)

“Organic matter” happens. Some of it we bring on ourselves. Some of it comes from others. All of it a reality of living in an imperfect, unpredictable, multi-variable world. Sometimes we think we simply want a miracle to give us relief from whatever we are facing. But like those in Jesus’ time who were healed, we discover there is something more important. None of the people who were healed by Jesus are still walking around today. They have all passed on. But when they drew close to their last moments, I am sure many of them did so with peace, knowing that there was a God who was bigger than cancer, the sword, their mistakes. A God who would soon welcome them into his loving embrace.

So, when you are feeling overwhelmed, pray. Pray in unvarnished ways. Worry more about being honest than about offending God with your panicky prayers that might come off offensive. Pray for the obvious problems you face. But place your hope on being in the presence of God now and forever, where true strength and peace reside. Miracles of healing and calmed storms may sometimes happen. The experience of the peace and presence of God which transcends our pain and suffering can happen regardless of our immediate prayer being answered. This is the greater answer to our prayers, that we are not alone, that we are loved, and that hope remains.

May you, as you find yourself living life with all of its storm fronts, call out to the God Jesus found himself in, and find a peace that truly does pass understanding.

121118 Walk with Me: Miracle Grow

Has there been a particular season of your life when you felt especially close to God?  A time when your faith truly motivated your attitude and actions, when you were in the spiritual “zone” so to speak?  Think about that season for a moment.  What was happening in your life?  How were your friends supporting you on your journey?  What do you remember about what you were doing with your time?  Where was your focus?

In Mark’s Gospel (chapter 4), Jesus is referenced speaking about the kingdom of God being like a seed that, though small, grows into something quite large.  Jesus was probably referring to the broader view of the impact of the kingdom on the world – that is spreads quickly, surprisingly, and has the potential to grow very large and be very productive.  On a personal, individual level, this gives a glimpse of faith’s potential in life – God can do incredible things is and through us.  In this view, faith makes a massive impact on our life.  A person experiencing this kind of faith finds it pretty mind-blowing.

How would you rate your faith’s vitality today?  Nearly lifeless?  Brief, shallow moments of God’s presence?  Stuck in a rut – you haven’t experienced fresh wind for quite some time?  Or growing and thriving and producing more and more life for yourself and others?

There is reason why we experience faith at varying levels of vitality, and why some people take off when they hear the news of Christ while others seem indifferent.  Jesus told his disciples that it all had to do with the soil in which the kingdom seed is planted (Mark 4:1-20).  This was important for the disciples to hear.  Not just for themselves, but to give them insight as to why their message would be received or not in the coming years.  Jesus identified four types of soil.  The hard-packed path offers no chance for the seed to take root – birds come and eat it before it has a chance.  Rocky soil allows for the seed to get started, but roots can’t develop, and when the heat of the sun comes, the plant withers and dies.  Weed or thorn ridden soil allows the seed to develop, but the plant gets choked by its competition and doesn’t thrive.  Good soil allows the seed to really take root, and develops a mind-blowing harvest.

Could it be that if your faith seems pretty lifeless it is because the environment will not allow it to live?  I have counseled many people who have felt that God was quite distant – maybe nonexistent.  Upon hearing about their lives, I am usually not surprised.  Except for a casual prayer during the day, there is no though or time given their faith.  The seed is just left to sit out in the open.  Faith is dead.  I remember a time in my youth when I was so busy with everything but God that God really didn’t have a chance to break in.  Maybe you had no choice up to this point – your parents or peers didn’t allow you any other option, and you didn’t know any better.  But now you know: you have the capacity to change your soil.  Want a better faith experience?  Trade up from your hard-packed, lifeless soil to the good stuff.

If you find yourself experiencing an occasional spiritual high followed by long periods of drought, you may have rocky soil.  I personally experienced this when I discovered the power of worship in connecting me up with God.  I would get a serious spiritual buzz from worship.  Naturally, I would look for opportunities to lose myself in worship services.  But after awhile, I couldn’t get my fix any more, and I wasn’t terribly interested in hearing the teaching.  It’s like I enjoyed the buzz, but then it faded.  Jesus’ audience had folks like me in the crowd.  They came to get their fix – see a miracle or two, maybe catch and exorcism.  But when Jesus began to address how God wanted to change their lives with the Way, they walked.  Are you a user like that?  Are you only into God for the buzz?  If so, you’ll find yourself perennially on the faith roller coaster, with moments of sheer ecstasy followed by long periods of feeling lost and out of touch.  Oh, and your life won’t really be any better.  Neither will your impact on the world around you.  The good news is that you have a choice, now that you are aware, of what kind of soil you are going to provide for your faith.  Why not upgrade to some “Grade A” soil?

If you can see that you are stuck in your faith, it’s probably because something is choking out your faith.  Your passion to follow Jesus has been compromised by competing concerns.  Money often makes the top ten list here.  Work.  Relationships.  What others think.  Unexamined theology.  Politics.  Sex.  Apathy.  Indulgence.  Self-centeredness.  But enough about me – what’s on your list?  The good news is that you have a choice.  You can choose to get rid of the competing weeds and thorns which are strangling your faith.  Why not get a little dirty and give your faith room to flourish?

The goal, of course, is to provide our faith some good soil in which to take root and prosper.  With this kind of environment comes big things from that kingdom seed.  But how do you get such soil?

Miracle Gro.  Go to Home Depot and buy a bag and call it good.  You’re welcome.  We’re done here.

If only it were that easy.  The fact is that good soil doesn’t just happen.  Even if there is good dirt to begin with, you don’t just walk into a field and throw seed around.  You have to cultivate the soil, which takes time and energy: worthwhile effort.  You are also going to need some fertilizer.  Once you work the fertilizer into the soil, churning it up pretty good, you’ll be about ready to sow the seed.

Where do you get fertilizer?  Good news, here: you already have it in abundance, and you will never run out for the rest of your life.  It’s not really free, but you’re buying it with every day of your life whether you like it or not.  Life is not perfect.  We all do really stupid things on a regular basis.  Sometimes people do really stupid things pointed in our direction.  All of this creates loads and loads of “organic matter” that we are left to deal with.  I am referring, of course, to manure, poop, fecal matter, crap, etc.  “Organic matter” sounds so smart, though, doesn’t it?

What we do with our “organic matter”makes all the difference to our soil.  If we choose to ignore it, it will just lay there like a landmine in a pasture, waiting for some innocent, inattentive farmer or hiker to step in it.  When we ignore or deny our “organic matter”, it doesn’t add to our lives.  It just sits there, stinking things up around it, and stinking up those who step in it.  When we ignore the hurts of life, the disappointments, the tragedies, the let downs, the shattered dreams, the injustices, the betrayals, the aches and pains, etc., they do us no good.  They do us harm, really, because we have to walk around those areas carefully – as do others who know where our “organic matter” is – all to avoid the stink.

But if we choose, we can see the “organic matter” in our lives for what it is: fertilizer.  We can work it out and work it into our lives.  This is cultivation.  We acknowledge it.  We address it.  We process it.  We learn from it.  We gain value from it.  We make it work for us.  We help others when they find themselves dealing with similar crap.  The “organic matter”, which was once just a stinky pile of steaming mess we wanted to flush or bury (deny), is transformed into a key contributor to beauty in our lives.

I do not believe that God orchestrates “organic matter’s” entrance in our lives.  But I have found, in my own life, that when I ask God to help me understand my “organic matter” and grow from it, and when I choose to let God use my “organic matter” for the benefit of others, beauty replaces the ugliness.  This is why good soil is so good.  It represents a grand reversal.  Instead of being forever defined by our “organic matter”, the “organic matter” gets cultivated into something which allows beauty to emerge.

What kind of soil represents your life?  Want to trade up?  Your hope just may be in how you deal with your “organic matter”…

May God bless you and your “organic matter”.  Amen!

121104 Walk with Me: Crazy Candidate Jesus

The last half of the third chapter of Mark’s gospel includes the calling of Jesus’ disciples, criticism from the religious right, serious concern from Jesus’ own family members regarding Jesus’ mental stability, and Jesus’ response to it all.

When Jesus put together his team, I find it very interesting – and refreshing – that he didn’t stack it with one type of person. He had a great mix of guys around his table: small business owners, religious and political conservatives, and religious and political progressives. He did this because he wanted to hear their perspective, and he knew that to reach many people of varied backgrounds required servants of various backgrounds. The dinner conversations must have been incredible…

While the twelve may have been gung-ho for Jesus, there were others who were less enthusiastic. His own family, for instance, wondered if he was really in control of himself. his ability to overpower demons and heal people seriously threatened the Washington elites (Jerusalem leaders), who simply wrote him off as a servant of Satan. Negative campaigning has gone on for a very long time, it seems. Jesus refused to play along, reasserted his authority, and kept doing his thing.

This Tuesday the United States will hold its next presidential election. Some pastors in pulpits across the nation have used their position to make their case for a particular candidate, often using some sort of Christian measure to make one stand out apart from the other. I think it’s right to vote – it is a privilege and responsibility. But I think it unwise to try to make a case for one candidate being more Christian than another. I think it makes the same mistake the Sadducees made in the first century – trading in their integrity for political power, and ending up with little of either.

As you live through this week, consider the following litany we read before taking communion in worship this morning, and remember where our allegiance really lies.

We remember and renew our vow with Christ as our primary leader in life.

• We’ll remember that real power in this world — the power to save, to transform, to change — ultimately rests not in political parties or presidents or protests but in the life, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus.
• We’ll remember that, through the Holy Spirit, this power dwells within otherwise ordinary people who as one body continue the mission of Jesus: preaching good news to the poor, freeing the captives, giving sight to the blind, releasing the oppressed, and proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor (Luke 4:16-21).
• We’ll remember that freedom — true freedom — is given by God and is indeed not free. It comes with a cost and it looks like a cross.
• We’ll remember our sin and our need to repent.
• We’ll remember that the only Christian nation in this world is the Church, a holy nation that crosses all human-made boundaries and borders.
• We’ll remember that our passions are best placed within the passion of Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:2).
• We’ll remember that we do not conform to the patterns of this world, but we are transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2).
• We’ll remember that God’s strength is made perfect in weakness.
• And we’ll re-member the body of Christ as the body of Christ, confessing the ways in which partisan politics has separated us from one another and from God.

121028 Walk with Me: What's in a name?

Mark’s Gospel had an agenda.    Mark’s author wanted to convey a composite picture of Jesus – and a compelling one at that – so that his hearers would have the capacity to make an informed decision about whether or not Jesus was worth following.  In his book, we see Jesus as one who has authority over unclean spirits, as a healer, a wisdom teacher, a proponent of social justice, and a movement initiator and leader, all wrapped in the persona of a Jewish mystic/prophet.  Quite a package.  Mark 3:7-12 gives us an overview of Jesus’ ministry.  He was popular among a wide range of Jewish people, with a scope beyond what John the Baptist commanded.  People were coming to him to see and experience healing and exorcisms.  Jesus offered them a bonus: wisdom regarding walking with God.  In that passage, we see again unclean spirits identifying Jesus as God’s anointed one, and Jesus taking away their voice (as he cast them out of their host).

Name it, claim it, tame it.  Naming our enemies gives us more control over them.  First century Jewish peasants believed this is why the demons used the name of Jesus, and why, on some occasions, Jesus sought the name of the demon.  On the one hand it seems a little superstitious, like the Rumpelstiltskin story.  Naming our issue, however, is a big part of overcoming it, because it means we are aware of it, no longer in denial, and can then take steps to deal with it.  But if we remain in denial, or dark ignorance, we simply perpetuate our painful reality – we aren’t managing the issue, the issue is managing us.  Recovery programs see success because they begin with identifying the obvious problem (which often is symptomatic of deeper problems, right?).  But it goes way beyond substance abuse.  Anger management, depression, substance abuse, obsessive and compulsive behavior, marital conflicts, personal finance woes, personal health problems – none of these issues disappear with denial – they just keep on destroying us.  In the ancient world, to know or understand a subject or person was to gain control or mastery over it.  Have you named your issues?  Or have your issues named you?

Sometimes naming comes with maturity and reflection.  There are some layers that cannot be addressed before earlier layers are unearthed.  Years need to pass sometimes.  A couple of years ago I discovered some painful stuff buried in my formation history that just blew my mind – foundations for insecurities that I could never pinpoint until some reading opened me up.  I know I had to live through some years, wade through some muck before I was able to get to that stuff.  I had to be open and honest with myself about myself, which requires the swallowing of pride.  I think one of the most sobering and healing things we can do is to be humble about ourselves, and realize that we all have some really painful stuff running in our veins.  I think this is important because it helps break down our defensiveness when we’re called on our stuff.  Nobody likes to be called on their stuff.  Especially if we don’t think we have any stuff…

Son of Man, Son of God.  Jesus didn’t disagree with what these demons were saying about his identity – and was this audible for everyone, or just Jesus? – but he did take away their voice.  This meant that naming him didn’t trump Jesus – the demons didn’t have Jesus under their control.  Silencing them at this point is interesting, and worth thinking about.  Mark wants us to recognize that Jesus’ fullness in his role would be incomplete apart from the cross.  The idea of what Son of God, servant of God, anointed of God meant had to incorporate Jesus’ most shocking choice – sacrificing himself for the sake of the cause.  It was only when Jesus laid his life down that the centurion said he surely must be the son of God (Mark 15:39).  Mark wants us to understand that the Christ we follow isn’t Iron Man, or the Hulk, or even Captain America.  Christ is one who lays down his life in a radical act of non-violence to thwart the powers of this world.  The Son of Man isn’t the Son of God apart from laying himself down for the work of redemption in the world.  The fullness of the name requires the full expression of Jesus’ life – not just the fun stuff of exorcism, healing, teaching, protesting, and leading – but to lay it all down for the cause of bringing more and more of God and God’s Way into the world.

Aside: despite the Christian tradition’s emphasis on the sacrifice of Christ atoning for the sins of the world, I really wonder if we fully appreciate the depths of what the Passion represents for how people thought of God, Messiah, and how God would choose to redeem the world.  It is weird that the apocalyptic vision the early church had went right back to a Christ who would return wielding a sword, leading the deadly assault on all God’s foes.  How does that fit with the cross?  Would the earliest disciples still hold to that same way of thinking today?  I don’t think so.  If we have a similar eschatological understanding where the world ends with a militaristic finale – which is what the Jewish leaders envisioned in Jesus’ day – I wonder if we would miss the messiah just the same way they did.  Or, I wonder if we are missing Christ even now because we are looking for a sword instead of an olive branch.  I know, I know - warm up the tar and feathers for Rev. Dr. Heretic…

Living up to the name.  If we want to see transformation happen in our world through the power of God, we need to live up to our name: Christian.  Christian means “little Christ”.  To change things the way Jesus changed things requires Christians to act like Christ.  This can be both daunting and inspiring.  My name reminds me frequently of my legacy, because it bears reference to both of my grandpas and my dad, all of whom were great pastors/leaders wherever they served.  Sometimes their legacy acts like a dark shadow cast by giant buildings or mountains – I can feel swallowed up, like there is no way I can live up to what has been done before me.  I think we can feel that way as Jesus followers.  We tell ourselves there is no way we can live the life Jesus did, and we feel defeated before we even begin.  Perhaps there is another way to see…

I have running through my veins the DNA of some incredible people.  I am a continuation of their story.  I am building on the legacy they began long before me, but a legacy intended for future building.  The greatest tribute I can offer my parents and grandparents is to use all they have given me and do the best I can to continue following God where God leads.  As a Jesus follower, I believe that I have the same Spirit giving, animating, healing, empowering, and guiding me as Jesus had.  I am not Jesus, but the resources he had he shared freely with all who would embrace and integrate them into their lives.  When we shift our perspective to the side of possibility, we have genuine hope.  Remember, however, that his core DNA was to love and serve to the point of his personal sacrifice.  A high price.  Redemption, apparently, was worth that price.

The way to reconcile, restore, and redeem the issues we struggle with in our interior world as well as in the world at large require greater courage than that of a warrior.  The courage of a hero is required.  Courage to give ourselves fully to the cause – living up to the Name.  Courage to be honest about our stuff.  Courage to humbly walk with God.  Courage to allow God to speak into our lives, to breathe into our being, that we might be restored by Peace.

I don’t know what you are struggling with today, but I hope you’ll choose not to avoid it.  I pray that you will pursue it until you can name it, so that you can claim it, and then tame it.  There is genuine power there.

I also pray that you will reflect on Jesus’ name, and when Mark wanted his readers to really understand it – at the cross.  As you choose to be inspired to become like Christ – to take on Jesus’ name –  I pray that you will recognize the redemptive potential you have, and willingly, sacrificially offer yourself to what God calls you to do as a person being restored, and as an agent of restoration in a world in need of healing.  That’s what saving the world is all about.

121021 Walk with Me: Rule v. Rules

When we have not met him in the center of our hearts, we cannot expect to meet him in the busyness of our daily lives. – Henry Nouwen

Eat or starve for God? Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, which was in itself an endorsement of John’s ministry on the part of Jesus. While Jesus was certainly making a statement about his relationship with God, he was also stating that he was falling in line with John’s ministry. John was an ascetic. His whole vibe was that of a spiritual outlier. Jews viewed his attire as a sign of being a prophet akin to Elijah. Romans and Greeks saw him as making a statement along the lines of contemporary stoics. Both assessments put John on the outskirts of society in order to speak critically of the culture apart from which they were distancing themselves. A good Jew in that region of Israel fasted twice a week to help focus attention and prayer toward God. Jesus and his disciples apparently lost that memo, however, because they were criticized by Jewish religious leaders for not adhering to the spiritual discipline of fasting (see Mark 2:18-22). Beneath this question is a bigger question humanity has wondered about from the earliest days: how much prayer and other disciples are we supposed to do to satisfy God so that we stay on his good side (and don’t get wiped out)? What are the rules God wants us to obey?

Sabbath for Humanity or Humanity for the Sabbath? The Jewish world in which Jesus did his ministry was very conscientious about keeping the Sabbath – the day of rest – holy. No other culture or religion up to that time had a weekly day set apart for reconnecting with God and community as did the Jews. To insure that the day was honored, much work was devoted to understanding what could and could not be done on the Sabbath. For instance, you could not reap your crop on a Sabbath, even if you were in the middle of crush in Napa Valley. You would have to relax from sundown Friday through sundown Saturday, and then resume your reaping. This is why Jesus and his disciples got in trouble (see Mark 2:23-28). Jesus and the guys were walking through a field, got hungry, and picked some grain to munch on – the fact that their critics called this reaping is ridiculous, of course, and says much more about the scribes than it does Jesus. Jesus answers their critique with a biblical reference that provides a precedent for their behavior. But the question was raised: how do we “do” the Sabbath as followers of Jesus? Strict observance? Apathy? Serious yet casual? Or somewhere in between? Beneath this question is a bigger one humanity has struggled with from the moment the idea of God became conscious: what rules must we obey to keep God happy (and not wipe us out)? What are the rules God wants us to obey?

Exception to the Rules? Later that day (or another Sabbath), Jesus went to a synagogue where he was invited to teach for the day. While he was teaching, he noticed a man with a withered hand (see Mark 3:1-6). The synagogue was a large room, with people sitting on benches that lined the wall. Jesus called the guy to place himself in the center of the room and asked what most probably thought was a rhetorical question: is the Sabbath a day for doing good or evil, to save or destroy? Nobody felt like talking, so Jesus kept rolling, and asked the guy to stretch out his hand (which he was unable to do because of his condition). The guy did so, and discovered that his hand was completely well. Jesus could have waited until sundown to heal the man, but he chose to do it right then and there, in the middle of the Sabbath day. Naturally, as any of us would, the religious leaders started meeting with political leaders to figure out a way to destroy Jesus… Jesus knew he was stirring the pot this time. He wasn’t being called out for eating some grain. He pushed the issue and raised the question again: what should we or shouldn’t we be doing to keep God happy (and keep ourselves from being wiped off the earth)? What are the rules God wants us to obey?

Rule verses Rules. These three stories, plus the two before it (forgiving and healing the paralyzed man; calling Levi and partying with him and his scummy friends) shifted the way the religious element thought about Jesus. They were increasingly leery from the get-go, and now Jesus brought the fight to them. What was Jesus getting at? Was he simply telling them, and his disciples, and everyone moving forward to forget rules? Would this have been in keeping with his Jewish sensibilities? And if so, why was he still honoring many of the rules?

When I first began my role as a Senior Pastor in northern Illinois, I was talking to the church secretary about what I wanted in the upcoming week’s bulletin: what songs we were going to do, which scriptures would be read, and in what order everything should go. All the way through the conversation she kept saying, “Are you sure? We’ve never done it that way before.” The church had developed an approach to worship that had become highly scripted and predictable. To divert from it was to break a law. While this is not a problem anymore at CrossWalk, many churches wonder what’s okay or not in worship. Coffee in the sanctuary? YouTube videos? Anything funny? Jeans? Theatrics? Rock music? At the core is a question: will this is some way offend God somehow and land us in some holy trouble? What are the rules God wants us to obey regarding worship?

I think there is another way to think that goes way beyond simply keeping God off of our back, or doing/avoiding things to get God to bless us (or at least not kill us). Instead of thinking about rules to keep us out of trouble with God, let’s think of a Rule (or Way) of life that keeps our relationship with God vibrant. A vital relationship with God is what the rules were trying to protect, of course, but we human beings have a hard time remembering that the rules were a means to an end, and not the end in and of themselves.

The Rule of Life. There is a Way of life that Jesus modeled and taught that, when practiced, fully satisfies all the rules and regulations we worry about breaking. It boils down to the two greatest commandments: to love God, and to love others. How we do this is the difference between a rich relationship with God and a religious life based on a bogus contractual agreement with a distant deity. The Way is about learning to live life in constant relationship with God, where we are continually open to God’s presence and prompting. We often allow a lot of clutter to get in the way, distracting us from this hand-in-hand daily walk with God. Do we maintain our status quo, at times, because we are afraid, perhaps, of what we might see in ourselves and God should we draw close to God? In their book on leadership (Leading the Congregation, p 49), Shawchuck and Heuser note the following: Sooner or later we must admit that we tolerate or initiate the clutter in our minds because it keeps us from having to face a reality we dread even more – that of coming home to ourselves. Then we discover that we ourselves cause the clutter in our minds; our own souls are running full force away from the voice bidding us to find rest for our weary souls.

So, how do we live in the Way? Shawchuck and Heuser note three elements of Jesus’ spirituality (Leading the Congregation, 55ff)…

1. Jesus established a rhythm of public ministry and private spaces. Cistercian monk Thomas Keating notes that in those private moments, the Spirit of God comes as a divine archaeologist, and digs down to investigate our whole life history, layer by layer, throwing out the junk and preserving the values that we appropriate to each state of our human development. What you do in those times of solitude may vary – some of us sit and read, others hike, others listen to music, others simply close their eyes and pray – but the point is to make time to do it.

A couple weeks ago I knew I needed to take a prayer hike. So, off I went. As I trudged up the hills, slowly letting go of whatever was on my mind, I started paying more attention to my surroundings. I looked at the trees, the vineyards, the rocks, the grasses, the lizards, the birds, the mountains, and the squirrels and became acutely aware of something: none of them gave a rip about our economy, politics, keeping up with the Jones’, etc. Later that week I spent my wife’s birthday with her at Dillon Beach – a rare, perfect, warm, sunny day with no coastal marine layer of clouds, wind, or fog. The sea lion just offshore, the waves, the seagulls, the sand, the kelp – none of them seemed to care about politics, the economy, or acquiring stuff, either. God used these two moments to give me perspective, and to remind me of my (our) capacity to become consumed by many things, to the point that we let our relationship with God go unattended. Without taking time out, I am confident I would have missed what God was trying to speak into my life. Jesus made sure he had private space in his life to be alone. It was those alone times that gave him the poise, clarity, and strength to carry out his ministry – his public life. Your public life is ministry, too, and depends on the private life for its sustenance. Jesus was a healer, an exorcist, a wisdom teacher, a justice champion, and a movement leader – none of which would have been carried out with great success apart from the time he spent alone with God.

2. Jesus surrounded himself with an intimate covenant community. This inner circle got to know Jesus more deeply than anyone else. They were close enough to him to know when he was tired, didn’t feel well, or was anxious. They knew his eyes, and knew when they were about to get in trouble with the scribes and Pharisees. It was in that community that life was shared most deeply. This does not happen by accident, but requires time and trust. It takes time to discover who we jibe with. It takes time to develop trust. Trust will be broken at some point, on some level. It will take time to heal and trust again. But community is where we experience love and life on a very rich level. It won’t happen all by itself. We have to take the leap, put it in the calendar, risk some awkwardness. Jesus modeled it as part of the Way of life. To not pursue it – even if it’s tough – is to set ourselves up for a very limited experience of God, and of life.

3. Jesus included meaningful ritual in his life. He designated time for prayer. He went to church (synagogue) regularly, he studied the Bible, he had great spiritual conversations with people, and made worship an ongoing part of his life. He did not view these things as demands – that if he didn’t do them, he would be in trouble with God. He viewed them as sources of the Spirit – life-giving practices where he could reconnect with God. He practiced the disciplines with the expectation that God would meet him there. It wasn’t about what he conjured up – it was about making himself available so that God could speak, heal, restore, and lead. It did not just happen – Jesus put it in his calendar.

I wonder if we tend to let routine become just that – routine. Take worship, for instance. When we come to worship together on Sunday morning, do we come expecting to meet with God in a way that cannot be experienced in the same way when alone? Do we really expect God to be present? Do we come hungry for more God in our lives? What might happen if we moved away from thinking of these activities as just activities, and looked to them as sources of the Spirit? How would our mindset change if we looked at church attendance, Bible study,and spiritual dialogue as Spirit fonts available for our renewal?

I am so busy that unless I pray more hours every day I won’t get my work done. – Martin Luther

The Reformer John Wesley was known for keeping a discipline every morning beginning around 4:30 am. Here then I am, far from the busy ways of men. I sit down alone; – Only God is here, in his presence I open, I read his book; for this end, to find the way to heaven. A colleague of his complained to him that there wasn’t enough time for prayer and reflection, to which Wesley replied, O begin! Fix some time each day for prayer and reflection. Do it; whether you like it or not. It is for your life! Else you will be a trifler all your days.

Prayer of Examen. John Wesley knew that if he wasn’t intentional about his life, it would get tossed around liked a row boat on the open sea. In order to stay on track with God, Wesley practiced and encouraged others to engage in the Prayer of Examen in the morning and evening. In just fifteen minutes in the morning, he would look over the day he was about to encounter, and ask himself key questions to help him be more open to the Spirit’s work at every moment. For fifteen minutes in the evening, he would ask himself key questions to review the day he just lived, in order to learn where he struggled and triumphed, so that the next day he would grow more into the Spirit-driven person he was called to be. His goal was not perfection. His goal was intimacy with God in every moment, so that he was constantly tied to the Source, in step with God to be used as needed for God’s redemptive work of healing, cleaning out unclean spirits, standing with those who suffer injustice for justice, bringing wisdom, and calling others to be part of what God is trying to do in the world. Do you think you can carve out fifteen minutes in the morning, and another fifteen minutes in the evening for this practice? The following questions were ones that John Wesley used every day, modified a little for contemporization. Ask yourself the questions in the morning. Review how you did in the evening. Below the questions, please enjoy the “Soul of Christ” prayer – does it resonate with you as it did me?

Wesley’s Questions of Examen

1. With what degree of attention and passion am I praying today?
2. How will my actions today reflect the goodness of God?
3. What does my day hold for me, and what attitudes and actions are God inviting me to choose?
4. What good can I do today? Will I pursue the good with passion and joy?
5. How will I show genuine interest in others today?
6. How will I be open to hearing words that will help me grow as a person? How will I offer words that will help others grow?
7. How will I avoid speaking of a fault or failing of another person for no redemptive reason?
8. How will I avoid grieving anyone by what I say or do?
9. How will I be good news today?

The Prayer “Soul of Christ” by Joseph Tetlow, S.J.

I choose to breathe the Breath of Christ that makes all life holy.

I choose to live the flesh of Christ that outlasts sin’s corrosion and decay.

I choose the Blood of Christ along my veins and in my heart that dizzies me with joy.

I choose the living waters flowing from his side to wash clean my own self and the world itself.

I choose the awful agony of Christ to change my senseless sorrows with meaning and to make my pain pregnant with power.

I choose You, good Jesus, You know.

I choose You, Good Lord; count me among the victories that You have won in bitter woundedness.

Never count me among those alien to You.

Make me safe from all that seeks to destroy me.

Summon me when I come to You.

Stand me sold among angels and saints chanting yes to all You have done, exulting in all You mean to do forever and ever.

Then for this time, Father of all, keep me, from the core of my self, choosing Christ in the world.

Amen.

121014 Walk with Me: (un)Popular 2

This week we find Jesus doing his teaching and healing thing on the lakeshore near the border (Mark 2:13-17), and he comes across a tax collector named Levi.  The majority of Jews hated guys like Levi for at least two reasons.  First, they were Dodger fans.  Do we need to go further?

There were even more significant reasons, if you can believe it…  Being Jewish, Levi was working for the Roman government, which was essentially working for the enemy.  This made Levi a traitor.  The Roman government instructed Levi how much tax they wanted, but nobody else had access to that information.  So, Levi was free to get what he could.  He was probably wealthy, and was so because he took advantage of his own people.  A traitor and a cheat.  Just what Jesus was looking for.

Jesus extended the invitation to Levi, and much to everyone’s surprise, Levi accepted the invitation!  This meant he was no longer going to be a tax collector.  It also likely meant that his wealth was about to get used for Jesus’ movement in some or many ways.  Never in history has it been easy for people to part with their money.  The more people have, the harder it gets.  Levi had a lot.  What do you suppose he saw in Jesus that compelled him to say yes?  Has anything like that ever happened to you?

As an academic neurosurgeon, Dr. Eben Alexander never believed in anything beyond the grave, and always questioned the credibility of near-death experiences.  Until it happened to him.  E. coli bacteria attacked the neocortex of his brain – the part that provides near-death experiences.  This portion of his brain was completely turned of while he lay in a coma.  During that time, Dr. Alexander experienced another realm of reality that was more real than anything he had ever experienced before.  When he woke up, he was a changed man.  He had new convictions about what was real and what was not.  He began telling others about what happened to him, writing a book about it, even.  Big risk telling his professional colleagues about it, for sure.  He said the only place where his ideas were welcome was church.

I wonder if that’s how it went for Levi.  He saw something, felt something, experienced something that altered everything, and he responded with a “yes”.  And a party.  What do you do when something amazing happens?  You celebrate!  Levi threw a BBQ for all of his friends – an opportunity to let them know what happened to him, and why he couldn’t collect taxes anymore (at least not without ethics).

When was the last time you sensed Jesus calling you to do something?  When you did it, who did you tell?  Note: If you haven’t sensed Jesus calling you to do anything in particular, you are either dead or not paying attention.

Well, this all seems well and good – a nice feel good story of a changed life.  But while the party was going on inside, religious folks were sneering at the whole scene from the other side of the street.  Instead of rejoicing in Levi’s transformation, they were indignant that the prophet-like Jesus would fraternize with such losers.  Religion does this to people, doesn’t it?  Religion focuses our attention on rules so that we know where we stand, where others stand, and how far above others we stand.  All in the name of honoring God, even if it may be devoid of God.  How did they get that way?  What turns a person who was probably once warm toward God cold as ice toward God’s estranged kids?  How do we know if we are becoming more like those critics and less like Jesus?

I think when we find ourselves focusing on our own needs more than how we can serve others, we’re in trouble.  When we focus on how others are measuring up rather than looking at how we can grow, we’re in trouble.  When we find ourselves more and more critical of others instead of more and more compassionate, we’re in trouble.  What do you think?  How do we know we’re turning into the religious critic?

Jesus called them on the carpet, and made it clear to them that he came for those who knew they needed him, because they were the only ones he could really help, anyway.  Do you need Jesus?  For what?

May you be deeply disturbed by this story from Jesus’ life.  May it force you to wonder if you’ve got the same zing Levi experienced that moved him to follow Jesus.  May you be challenged to wonder how you might celebrate what Jesus is doing in your life by sharing the news with others.  May you be courageous enough to look in the mirror to see if there is any Pharisee there.  May you decide anew whether or not you still want to follow Jesus.  I hope it’s a yes.