The People (Reflections on the 12/9 sermon)

Kevin spoke last week about how part of the fulfillment of God's great prophecy is the formation of a particular group of people.  This means that God's plan to redeem the world came, in part, through the everyday worship and faithful living of the people of God.  Our Old Testament tells of this plan - that through creation in Genesis, law-giving in Exodus through Deuteronomy, prophecy, worship, sin, and repentance God was preparing a people who knew him, loved him, and followed after his ways which were given in his word and in his law.  I don't know many Jewish people, so I experience them primarily through the OT.  Perhaps many of us do.  But even if that is true, we should remember that not just anybody wrote the Bible, but a particular people who lived, dressed, ate, and related to one another in very specific ways according to what God had revealed to them.

If we remember that, behind the life-giving words of the Old Testament were actual lives, we will remember that we're no different.  We speak what we live.  We live what we speak.  Traditions come from the way we live together over time.  Traditions characterize our church life.  They also characterize our family life.  They shape and form our year, forming pillars around which we decorate.  Valentine's in February.  Birthdays.  Easter in March or April.  Halloween in the October.  Church on Sunday.  Thanksgiving in November and Christmas now.

Traditions are hard to sustain.  I once started a tradition of watching "Mary Poppins" with my family on New Year's Day.  It fizzled out after a few years.  Even nations that seem like they'll go on forever seem to have an expiration date.  Rome was called "the Eternal City" and its empire sure seemed to fit the bill.  When it collapsed, after 1000 years of existence, it caused a crisis.  It may be hard to believe that we are only several hundred years into our American government!  Now think of the Jews!  Their traditions have survived for over 3000 years!  This is because the Jews were never people who read their Bible in private, but folks who developed their whole life around reading, praying, worshiping God, sacrificing, confessing, observing sacred days such as Passover and Pentecost.  They did this as a whole community, presenting every person, animal, acre of ground, and thought to God so that they would be formed into his people.  Israel - the ones who love God and love one another.

As Christians, we believe that the gospel - that Christ came, lived, died, and rose from the grave - allows us to live, die, and rise in Christ so that his Holy Spirit can come and form within us this holy life that God revealed to his people over so many centuries.  The gospel makes us gospel people - living risen-from-the-dead lives in freedom.  Just like the Jews, in fact because of them, we offer every person, place, and thing in our lives to God in worship.  We can't do that as private Christians.  We need each other for this.  None of us can live the Christian life alone.

Reflection Questions:
1) Do you have someone with whom you can share your prayers and experiences of who God is?
2) What seasons and traditions most form the rhythms of your life?
3) What opportunities are there for you to live the Christian life with others this coming year?

The Promise (A Reflection on the 12/2 sermon)

Gary Parrett, a professor of ministry at Gordon Conwell, tells a story of teaching in Sri Lanka.  He was addressing a group of pastors about implications of the Fall of humanity.  He spread his hands outwards and downwards and said as pointedly as he could: "Everything fell apart."

Parrett continues: "My translator - a dear friend and key church leader in Sri Lanka - did his part well, matching me not only in word but also in gesture.  As he spread his own hands outward and downward, his right hand struck a glass full of water on the table in front of us.  The glass flew onto the concrete floor and shattered, water flowing everything.  After a moment's pause, I remarked, "Perfect!" and, following the translation, we all laughed at having witnessed, accidentally, the ideal illustration for my point." (Parrett, Teaching the Faith, Forming the Faithful, 24)

It is hard for me to imagine my life like this.  I am "flawed", "not perfect", "rough around the edges", "a work in progress".  I struggle to look at my life like this shattered glass.  Because even with my flaws, I like to think that I'm still functional.  I'm still good.  But unless I were an artist, I can't think of a single functional use for this sort of shattered glass.  Indeed, Parrett's story continues.  A pastor in the front row quietly swept up the glass and threw it away.

He notes that God might have easily done the same.

How differently the story would be if that were the case.  Imagine how small your Bible would be if it only ended at Genesis 3!  99% of your Bible tells the different story - the story of a promise-making God, a redeeming God, who has a plan to make it all right again.  A God who did not sweep us up and throw us away.

As we continue in the sermon series, we will see what God did with us instead of throwing us away.  After making his promise, he chose for himself a people.  Then, he informed them of his plan.  Finally, "in the fullness of time" he set the place, and arrived as the person.

The shattered glass is destined to be remade.  As C.S. Lewis writes in his Screwtape Letters, "(God) did not create the humans - He did not become one of them and die among them by torture - in order to produce candidates for Limbo; 'failed' humans.  He wanted to make Saints; gods; things like Himself." (193)  Picture the stained glass window in the sanctuary!  This is our destiny.

And this is what it means for the promise of Genesis 3 to be fulfilled, for the offspring of the woman to crush the head of the serpent. (Genesis 3:15)  "The God of peace will shortly crush Satan under your feet." (Romans 16:20)  "For (Christ) must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet." (1 Corinthians 15:25)  "But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law..." (Galatians 4:4)  "Since, therefore, the children share flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared the same things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death." (Hebrews 2:14-15)  "Everyone who commits sin is a child of the devil; for the devil has been sinning from the beginning.  The Son of God was revealed for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil." (1 John 3:8)

The life, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ deals with our most formidable adversaries - sin, death, and the devil - which have hounded us from the beginning.  We are destined to become like Christ in his resurrection - unable to die again.  If we are in Christ, no sin is too great to hinder this promise.  There won't be a piece of that shattered glass that God won't use in remaking you in Christ.  None of it will be wasted.  None of it thrown away.  This is the Promise.

Reflection Questions:
1) What are some of the shattered pieces of your life that you hope for Christ to put back together?
2) Paul says that these shattered pieces, these sins, are nailed to the cross of Christ, and have died with him.  How would your life look if you trusted that this were true?
3) What pieces of shattered glass from your life have you already seen God make into the beautiful stained glass window of your life in Christ?  In other words, what failures on your part has God already used to make you more like him?      

Attitude of Gratitude (A Reflection on the 11/25 sermon)

Jeff encouraged us on Sunday to reach out to people we love and let them know we are grateful for them.  With the Wednesday mens' group, we were actually given a sheet with which to list those people, and a blue ribbon to pin on them!  I was grateful for this mid-week reminder to express how grateful I am.

Jess and I just returned from a trip to Dallas, TX for Thanksgiving.  I saw my family - my father, mother, grandmother, uncle, brother, sister, and my sister's (surprise) new dog.  Since we weren't there on a Sunday, I was glad to know that my family planned to go to a Thanksgiving morning worship service at my home church.  Going to worship with my family was such a, well, familiar feeling.  The same people were early and ready to go.  The same people (including me!) were running a little late.  When we walked into the narthex - the street entrance to the church - the space was cramped with robed choir members and pastors preparing to process, all beginning to sing the opening song.  I found a few faces I hadn't seen in seven or eight years.

A minute later, the whole family was together, taking up an entire pew.  We weren't the only ones, either.  The family seated behind us had reunited from as far away as South Africa.  How many other families were celebrating Thanksgiving this way?  Meanwhile, as the choir proceeded down the center aisle, I recognized person after person from my time in the choir there.  Then, I watched as the pastors followed them. Some I have known for years and two, a Kenyan and a Chinese pastor, reflect a changing community.  As I thought about my time with the choir and the beautiful music we sang together, about the pastors who have been God's instruments for giving me faith in Christ, and about the new outreaches of my church to reach the world through the Dallas community, the entire church was singing "Now Thank We All Our God".  I was way too choked up to sing at this point.  And I love to sing!  Ask anyone!  I literally couldn't sing a word of the song because my soul was so flooded with the beauty of our faithful God.

A mountain top experience, for sure.  Perhaps you had one this past week too!  But what is God saying to me through that?  What is God saying to you?  For me, I think it is something like this: "Chris, you are so protective of the most valuable parts of your life.  But I spoke all things into being.  Your life, your faith, your church, your family - they are all words I spoke into being.  I sustain everything, and I sustain you."

Perhaps you had a mountain top experience this past week as well.  Perhaps you feel depleted and aren't sure how to give thanks.  Either way, take this into a conversation with your heavenly Father.  As you give your thoughts and words to him, he will show you who he is, and who you are.

Reflection Questions:

1) What surprised you this past Thanksgiving week?  Did a particular moment catch you off guard, and become less or more than what you expected it to be?

2) Who is the hardest person for you to thank?  What do you wish you could say to that person?

3) Read Psalm 33, and reflect particularly on verses, 8-9.  What does it mean for your life that God spoke everything that exists into being?  What are the implications for the things that are most under your control?     

Psalm 44, Romans 8, and "being killed all day long"

"Because of you we are being killed all day long, and accounted as sheep for the slaughter." (Psalm 44: 22)

Wow!  Perhaps we can read this and say, "I've felt that way."  Thanksgiving often brings extended families together.  And perhaps it is with our families that we see this idea played out.  Mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, brothers and sisters, and so on and so forth, saying one version or another of: "I've worked so hard for you...don't you care?"  The people we are closest to can be the hardest to love.  There are joyous, mountain-top experiences for sure.  But there are also deep valleys.  It is difficult, (even agonizing sometimes) to learn to live with the ones we love.  "For you we are being killed all day long."

If you read Psalm 44, you can recognize this same tension that we all know: "I've worked so hard for you...don't you care?"  Only Israel is a nation often at war with other nations.  Their soldiers were literally "killed all day long."  As hard as this sounds, it is worsened by the hope they have of a better life.  For Israel is the family of God.  They are his special possession and family.  The family struggles are all the more painful because they believe so strongly in the faithfulness of God.  Their faith is being tested.  They wonder, "Where are you, God?"

We all know what this is like: we encourage, remind, "love on" one another to make the right decision.  And sometimes it blows up in our faces!  We think, "Surely, if God was really here right now, things would be different."

Jesus and his cross make sense of all of this.  He gave everything up for us.  He came down from his throne in heaven to become like us.  If you think that is a long way to go, he then gave up that life to die for us.  He gave everything. 

Just think about "everything" for a second.  Everything you are afraid of.  Everything that poses a challenge to you.  All obstacles.  Jesus promises us that all of it is placed under his power through his death on the cross because he gave everything.  Do you believe that?

Paul did.  He thought about "everything" to describe this.  "Who will separate us from the love of Christ?  Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?" (Romans 8:35) These were probably things Paul was afraid of.  He placed them under Christ's power because he believed Christ dealt with them for good.

Then he quotes Psalm 44, "As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all day long."  Like the Hebrews, we wonder why God isn't with us when we suffer.  But Christ makes sense of this.  Suffering is awful.  But look at Christ's life.  Wasn't God with him all the way?  Didn't God do the most amazing things through him, especially the things he suffered? So it is with us.  From this Thanksgiving to the next, as we encourage, remind, and love on our friends and neighbors, it will get messy.  Like anytime I'm about to cook anything, I remind myself, "it will get messy."  But when it does, we pray, "Christ, bring life from this death."  Bring joy from this pain!  This is the power of God at work in everyday life.  Pride and ego will keep us from loving others because we don't want to get hurt.  We can't let that happen.  This sort of thing has to die.  So may we let Christ kill it in us all day long through his Spirit alive in us.

So when we are with our loved ones, don't settle to be "close, but not too close"!  We are meant for so much more.  More of you, God, and more of those I find hardest to love.       

I Believe in Jesus...but it's my Stuff (Part 1) (Reflection on 11/4 Message)

Kevin preached on Sunday about “our stuff”.  But before we get to the specifics, let’s think again about the big picture of the series.  Each week, the sermon title begins with “I Believe in Jesus…”.  The meaning of this is clear.  As Christians, we all want to be in a position in life where we are saying “Yes” to Jesus.  None of us wants to be in the position of taking exception to what the Lord longs for us to do anywhere in his word.  We leap to him, are content with him, and long to be with him forever.

And each week we move from this ringing affirmation to a different topic where we hesitate.  These are the topics that cause us to wonder what we’re getting ourselves into.  Are we in over our heads?  Can we afford to follow Jesus in this way and what will that mean about the way we have been living our lives?  Aren’t I the boss of myself?  Isn’t my sex life entirely up to me?  Isn’t my stuff my stuff?

As we go through the series, the challenge to each of us is to ask: “Is my affirmation of Jesus whole-hearted?”  “Do I hesitate?”  If we do hesitate, we do well to look into our lives for the obstacles to a more joyous, whole-hearted walk with the Lord of the universe.  He is the vine.  We are the branches.  But a branch with too much on it needs to be pruned.  Why?  Because it will break if the burden is too heavy.  Our load is lightened as we give more of our possession, our “stuff”, to be used for God’s glory.

God will use it.  Jessica and I moved into our home two weeks ago.  Our four U-Boxes were waiting for us.  Within them were all the sofas, chairs, mattresses, books, file cabinets, dishes, and all manner of “stuff” that we hadn’t seen in months.  It was great to see it all again.  But our time without them had been of a long enough duration, that we had started to wonder, “How much of this do we really need?”  Well, we haven’t sold anything yet!  Nor do we necessarily intend to.  (In fact, we’ve bought more stuff!)  But we are living the question Kevin posed to us.  “Whose are these…really?”  We are comforted in our hearts that our prayer is: “Lord, use this space for ministry.  Use our home for Christ’s glory.”

In Revelation 21, John is describing the glorious city of God.  There’s no temple, for the Lord God himself is the temple.  The city has no sun or moon to shine for the glory of God is its light.  In verse 24, we find this line: “The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.  Its gates will never be shut by day – and there will be no night there.  People will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.”  What might this glory and honor be?  We might have a clue from another passage that speaks about God’s eternal city: Isaiah 60:11,13.  “Your gates shall always be open; day and night they shall not be shut, so that nations shall bring you their wealth, with their kings led in procession…the glory of Lebanon shall come to you, the cypress, the plane, and the pine, to beautify the place of my sanctuary; and I will glorify where my feet rest.”

What do these texts tell us about our “stuff”?  Well, it appears that we can expect some redeemed, transformed version of cultural goods to furnish the heavenly city.  “The cypress, the plane, the pine” will be in the city.  In another part of Isaiah, we learn that “the ships of Tarshish” will be there.  Can you imagine building a grand enough ship that God himself considers it worthy to adorn his heavenly courts? 

It is true that nothing and nobody will simply sail into heaven.  Everything of this earth must undergo a transformation, a humbling, a judgment. And indeed, both Isaiah and John in Revelation both condemn goods that are used to worship anything other than God.  God promises to “shatter” the ships of Tarshish in Psalm 48.   We all have to get the death out of us.  This is why Jesus came.  He is the life from death.  It is given to us through faith in him. 

As we look forward to the last day, these passages lead us to expect that the city of God will be populated not only with redeemed people, but redeemed things, possessions – redeemed “stuff”.  Andy Crouch writes, “The new Jerusalem will be truly a city: a place suffused with culture, a place where culture has reached its full flourishing.  It will be the place where God’s instruction to the first human beings is fulfilled, where all the latent potentialities of the world will be discovered and released by creative, cultivating people.” (Culture Making, 169)

Perhaps we can say this: you can’t take it with you.  But if it the Holy Spirit used it to make you more like Christ, don’t be surprised if you see it in the heavenly city. 

David had a slingshot and five stones with which to accomplish God’s will.  Will they be in heaven?  Only God knows!  But these passages teach us that your stuff matters to God.  The stuff of creation is of eternal use to God.  What does that say about our things?  What is our prayer for our possessions?

Reflection Questions:

1)    Have you ever found difficulty parting with a prized possession when you found a better purpose for it?

2)    In his fascinating book, Culture Making, Andy Crouch writes “…human beings, in God’s original intention and in their redemptive destination, cannot be separated from the cultural goods they create and cultivate at their best.”  Think of tables, chairs, meals, vehicles, clothing, roads, (or anything else humans make of creation).  What role did these play in making you who you are in Christ?

       3) What is your prayer for your home and possessions? 

I Believe in Jesus Christ...but I'm Not Loving "Them" (Reflections on October 28 message)

Listening to Kevin's sermon, I was struck with the great longing for peace.  How I wish we could all get along!  Two close friends of mine sit down together.  Both are wonderful people.  Both probably have similar deep longings for a peaceful world.  But they vary dramatically on the sort of policies they would support.  In the course of their discussion, they are pushed farther apart.  We experience the same thing as a national community.  We yearn for the same peace, but in the process we push "them" - the ones we disagree with - farther away.     

What is God's perspective?  Well, Jesus' command to love our enemies was, is, and always will be shocking.  Jesus even prayed for those who were crucifying him on the cross!  Even then, Jesus sees the heart.  And the heart yearns for good, even when it finds only evil ways to accomplish it.  He sees this in us and he is willing to forgive us our heart-blindness.

We might wonder how to love our enemies and still take our disagreements seriously.  God loves people more than discussions.  God might favor your cause, but he is absolutely smitten with the person with whom you disagree.

And even if we think we vote the way God would, that doesn't mean we haven't been God's enemy.  Without Christ, every human person would be an enemy of God.  We can't vote this problem away because it is a problem of the human heart.  Jesus tells us to love our enemies because this is what God does all the time: he loves enemies.

Where is a Christian's confidence?  It is not in the government or a particular leader.  It is not even in the candidate we think has enough backbone to make a difference in Washington!  How about ourselves?  After all, we are a government by the people and for the people - surely we must have confidence in ourselves to be worthy of such an honor.  No!  We don't!  I praise God that we can vote sinful systems out of existence.  But we can't vote sin out of the human heart.  I wish we could!  Alas, we cannot.  Thinking we can majority-vote human sin out of office by trying hard enough or hiding our faults from one another only leads to spiritual and emotional exhaustion.  And being Christian does not keep us from being crabby and unpleasant when we are tired.

But Christ is our refreshment.  An ancient Christian said, "To the one who hungers, grace is food."  Together, we are a new creation in Christ.  The old life has gone and the new has come.  Everyday, we have a storehouse of words from the Holy Spirit.  We also have a storehouse of words from enmity and bitterness.  Which will give us purpose and identity today? 

If you are in Christ, I thank God that you are voting!  Because whatever political party you line up with, the kingdom of God is coming in you.  You don't vote so that someone else can be salt and light when they get to political office.  You get to do it through your words, actions, and prayers everyday!  If you are in Christ, you are truly changed.

We all long for peace.  But do we long with hope?  Do we long with joy?  Through his death and resurrection, Christ has brought peace to our hearts and to the world - new life from the dead.  We already have the peace that counts - God's peace, not ours.  And it will be fully sealed when Christ returns.  But until then, we pray, "God, let your kingdom come in me".  We ask that the world would see the truth by faith until he comes and every eye can see him. 

Waiting is hard.  We pray for patience in the same way we pray for peace.  But God's will can't be impeded by any earthly power.  The people of Israel were liberated from mighty Egypt.  Jesus Christ lived, died, and rose at the apex of the Roman Empire's power.  This week, we elect a new president of the United States.  Whether we elect Obama or Romney, we pray that God will be honored with the president's tenure.  But we have our King - and it is in him and the world he loves that we delight.

Reflection Questions:
1) Kevin mentioned the Alfred Smith event in NYC during his sermon.  Has there been a moment in the 2012 presidential campaign that seemed particularly redemptive to you?
2)  What do we pray for those who have a hard time during campaigns like these, like the candidates' families?
3)  If you were running for president, how would you reach "across the aisle" and invite those who disagree with you to a common purpose?     

 

      




    
1 - we want to get along but we can't
2 - what is God's perspective...love one another
3 - doesn't God care about the issues?  Yes
4 - voting doesn't solve our biggest problem - the heart.  Jesus does.
5 - a Christian does not have confidence in the flesh.  Sin is not a problem that can be voted away.  This leads to spiritual and emotional exhaustion.  And none of us are pleasant when we are tired.
6 - put on the new self. 

I Believe in Jesus...but I'm in Charge of my Sex Life (reflections on 10/21 message)

I have re-written this post several times now.  I wish sex were easier to talk about!  The first post moved toward the topic from a round-about way…no good.  The second one went straight for it, aiming to debunk a lot of the myths about sex and the Christian faith out there.  A little too challenging.  I felt led to hold onto that for some other time.  This is attempt number three.

I prayed about how we might, as a community, reflect further on this topic for our lives.  It has been a conviction of mine that some of the unpleasantness of discussing the gospel implications for our sexuality would go away if we were more comfortable sharing our own experiences of striving toward faithfulness.  So I’ll try to lead the way with that.

For me, sexual faithfulness was a difficult struggle.  And who am I kidding – it still is and probably always will be!  From high school through my young adult life, times of loneliness or depression caused me to yearn for some kind of outlet.  Like many Christians, I knew that God’s standards were good.  The problem was when I failed to meet them.  I would grow discouraged about myself.  I would also be tempted to think God wasn’t doing his part.  Why wasn’t he “delivering me from evil”, as the Lord’s Prayer puts it? 

One way to make this process easier is to pretend the Bible doesn't say what we think it says.  This is the easiest and, in my opinion, the most typical solution to not wanting to do what a text says - we persuade ourselves it doesn't really say it.  On the other hand, if we acknowledge God’s standards, but find ourselves failing to meet them, we can find ourselves living a half-hearted Christian life with no sense of victory over temptation.  This is just plain frustrating.  Neither of these is what God has in mind.  Kevin’s message gave us an inspiring alternative: a challenge for us to help each other live into the sexual faithfulness God has planned for us.   So where do we find the grace to pick one another up again if we fall?  How do we encourage one another to set both feet firmly upon God's path of sexual faithfulness?

I think the answer has to do with knowing how we needed help, who God sent to help us, and being able to explain the sense of positive change.  God has sent people to me when I needed them.  One became a friend during a time when I worked in a Christian bookstore.  He was about my parents’ age.  He was honest, had a great sense of humor, and I could tell he took God very seriously.  We became friends.  We were meeting at Starbucks one time and he asked how he could pray for me.  I might have thought of an easier request, but I said to myself, “OK, here goes…”.  I asked him to pray for my struggle with sexual sin.  And we had a great conversation.  We talked about how common this struggle was, but how few can admit it.  He almost seemed relieved that I could admit it!

He loaned me a Roman Catholic resource on Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body that I could drive around and listen to.  It presented a vision of sexual flourishing and faithfulness that went way beyond questions of what to say “no” to.  I was fascinated.  I read St. Augustine’s Confessions.  It was a very tough read – very philosophical.  But a beautiful idea flowed through it – our desires, misguided though they can be, are good.  God gave them to us, and he longs to direct them to the purpose for which he created them.  This is our joy.  This is the best life for us!  I also read C.S. Lewis’ books such as The Great Divorce, the Four Loves, Weight of Glory, and the Screwtape Letters which helped me to see that as wonderful as creation is, nothing on earth can satisfy the true desire of our hearts except for God.  We have a God-shaped hole inside of us.  He is the one we are restless to know.

Pretty heady stuff!  But the grace of Christ kept me grounded.  When I would fail, I had to trust that Christ would make me whole again.  Christ’s death for me was intended to give me a sure hope for fulfillment in this life and beyond it.

There was a time when I thought that this struggle was God’s way of preparing me for a life of singleness.  Well, as you may know, God had surprises down the road and I fell in love with Jessica.  But whether I had been single or married, these lessons helped me to realize something important about myself.  When I was single and not having sex, it did not mean I lacked maturity.  It did not mean I was closed off to people or repressed in any way.  I was surely lonely sometimes, but it didn’t make me half a person or inadequate in any way.  I had good friendships, a strong sense of purpose, and a faith that was growing stronger through learning to struggle well.  I was learning the meaning of true maturity that is expressed in James 1:2-4: “My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.”

Now of course, I’m not fully mature and I still struggle.  But I am encouraged to see that I have opportunities everyday to say “thank you” for each blessing.  When we live by gratitude, we are less tempted to grasp more for ourselves than God would want us to have.

Reflection Questions:

1) What struggles in your life do you find embarrassing and difficult to share with others?  Has someone surprised you with his or her gentleness and faithfulness?

2) Some people - ok, most people - struggle with sexual weakness.  (Augustine once prayed to God, "give me chastity...but not yet.")  Others have been hurt by someone else's sexual weakness.  Which best fits you?  Neither?  Both?

3) Look at the James passage above.  Put into your own words what you think it means to be "mature and complete, lacking in nothing."

Prayer: Lord, give us grace to cherish the gift of our bodies and desires while also having a God-fearing respect for the way you have designed us and for the boundaries you give us for sexual wholeness.  Prune away anything sinful or false in us so that we may abide perfectly in the vine, Jesus Christ.  Amen.

I Believe in Jesus...but I Don't Trust Him! (reflection on 10/14 message)

Last Sunday, Kevin talked about the difficulties of trusting God.  He used the text of Psalm 121.  I thought of this text again today when I read an update on an old friend.  He is a musician named Jon Abel.  Like many of us, he had to endure a time when it was difficult to trust God.  I first met him when he became college minister at my home church.  I felt a kinship with him because he liked songwriting and so did I.  He made a CD and it was part of a gift basket that was sent to me while I was a young Christian, studying at college far away.  That gift meant a lot to me, and I was especially excited that the new ministry coordinator and I might have similar music tastes.

I remember meeting with him once.  He bought me lunch and bought me a copy of a great book about staying Christian in college called Blue Like Jazz.  He was a great listener and I remember he cared a lot about nurturing my growth in Christ.  When I became a worship leader for a local ministry, he taught me some songs on the guitar.  He would sing and play often.  And he was quite talented.  At one point, he heard God's call to go into full-time music ministry so he left the college ministry position, but he stayed at the church.  As he released two albums, he found success as the primary writer of the worship song, "Awesome is the Lord Most High" which can be found on one of Chris Tomlin's albums.  I was thrilled for the way God was confirming his call on my former college minister.

We think we can write the story from there.  God's call is confirmed with more and more success in Jon's life.  But, it didn't happen that way at first.  My dad called one day and told me to pray for him.  He had been mowing the lawn and had lost part of his left hand ring finger - a very important finger for guitar playing.  The direction of his new call by God looked very much in doubt.  He had a wife, several children, and he was a guitarist/singer who couldn't play guitar.  (You can meet him through this video. http://hppc.org/mediaarchive#!/swx/pp/media_archives/144529/episode/30684)

That was several years ago.  I read just today that my friend won a music award for co-writing a song that has been receiving a lot of airplay on Christian radio - "My Help Comes from the Lord" by the Museum. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MecgrJvbk24  He has learned how to play the guitar again and he is back to touring, writing, and recording.

If you listen to the words of the song, you will notice that it draws inspiration from our scripture text this last week.  "I lift my eyes to the hills.  Where does my help come from?  My help comes from the Lord."

I remember being afraid for my friend and his family when this happened.  But now he has helped to write this powerful song about trusting the Lord when that is a hard thing to do.  Jon already inspired me before the accident.  But I can't deny that he inspires me even more now. 

As Kevin said on Sunday, God will make everything ok...but that does not mean everything is always ok!  Things happen all the time that seem to make absolutely no sense and we ask, "Why, God?"  I think of my friend Jon Abel and am encouraged that God has indeed provided for him and his family.  He has delivered them through a big trial.  And whatever we are going through, the story isn't over yet!  God is busy bringing us to maturity as new creations in Jesus Christ - and Christ went to the cross out of love for us.  He is with us right in the middle of everything and he knows our sorrows better than we do.  He has great plans.  He has watched over my friend, Jon.  Surely this great God watches over you and I as well. 

Reflection Questions:
1) Is there someone you know whose story of trusting God inspires you?
2) How has God proved trustworthy and dependable in your life?
3) Who might benefit from hearing about this good news?
   

I Believe in Jesus...but You Aren't the Boss of Me! (Reflection on 10/7 message)

Isn't it important to think your boss is intelligent and competent?  If you thought your boss was completely wrong about the articulated goals of the organization, how likely would it be for you two to have a trustworthy relationship?

Turn in your Scripture to Sunday's passage, Matthew 16:15-26.  Peter confesses Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of the Living God.  I'm not going to go into this, but it is a big deal.  Peter just recognized God in disguise.  But then Jesus warns his disciples in verse 21 about his suffering, death, and resurrection.  This is what is coming.

Kevin asked us to consider on Sunday what Peter was thinking in verse 22.  "Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.  "Never, Lord!"  he said.  This shall never happen to you!"  Kevin told us about Peter's misguided expectations.  Like everyone else during his time, he expected the Christ to be a ruler, to be the boss, not someone who suffers and dies!  But how could Jesus be "Lord" and be mistaken on this point of his ministry?  How could Jesus be "Lord" and be this confused about his destiny?

We may think of Jesus as being holy, the Son of God even. (And this is true!)  But the question we must ask with Peter is: do we think Jesus is smart?  For instance, do we think he could do our job better than we can?

Think about this as you read this great passage from Dallas Willard (By all means read the whole thing, or at the very least skip to the last paragraph):

"At the literally mundane level, Jesus knew how to transform the molecular structure of water to make it wine.  That knowledge also allowed him to take a few pieces of bread and some little fish and feed thousands of people.  He could create matter from the energy he knew how to access from "the heavens," right where he was.

"It cannot be surprising that the feeding of the thousands led the crowds to try to force him to be their king.  Surely one who could play on the energy/matter equation like that could do anything.  Turn gravel into gold and pay off the national debt!  Do you think he could get elected president or prime minister today?

"He knew how to transform the tissues of the human body from sickness to health and from death to life.  He knew how to suspend gravity, interrupt weather patterns, and eliminate unfruitful trees without saw or ax.  He only needed a word.  Surely he must be amused at what Nobel prizes are awarded for today.

"In the ethical domain he brought an understanding of life that has influenced world thought more than any other.  We shall see what this means in chapters to follow.  And one of the greatest testimonies to his intelligence is surely that he knew how to enter physical death, actually to die, and then live on beyond death.  He seized death by the throat and defeated it.  Forget cryonics!

"Death was not something others imposed on him.  He explained to his followers in the moment of crisis that he could at any time call for 72,000 angels to do whatever he wanted.  A mid-sized angel or two would surely have been enough to take care of those who thought they were capturing and killing him.  He plainly said, "Nobody takes my life!  I give it up by choice.  I am in position to lay it down, and I am in position to resume it.  My father and I have worked all this out" (John 10:18).

"All these things show Jesus' cognitive and practical mastery of every phase of reality: physical, moral, and spiritual.  He is Master only because he is Maestro.  "Jesus is Lord" can mean little in practice for anyone who has to hestitate before saying, "Jesus is smart." (Divine Conspiracy, 94-95).

Wow.  Read that last line again and think of Peter.  He confesses that Jesus is Lord, but thinks Jesus doesn't understand his own ministry.  If we are going to trust our boss, we have to think our boss is competent.  If we are going to let Jesus use our lives for his glory, we have to believe that he is not an amateur or a novice.  Jesus is not just nice.  He is brilliant.

Reflection Questions:
1) Who are the smartest people you've ever met?  Do you think of Jesus this way?
2) Do you trust Jesus with the tasks that are most important to you?  Do you think Jesus could perform these as well as you can?
3) How do you think Jesus may be leading you to face the challenges of the week?

The Bible and Women - Reflection on the 9/30 message

Many reflections came to mind from Sunday's sermon - including gratitude for the great women pastors who have shaped me.  But what impacted me most were the stories of women who heard the call to ordained ministry as God's call to further growth into the image of Jesus Christ.  It wasn't that ordained ministry was super great - it was just the specific call from God for these women.  And they had to persevere through a glass ceiling where "biblical" ministers were male, not female.  And perhaps even more painfully, they had to face situations where male ministers were simply "preferred".  Ouch. 

The message addressed the question of whether the Bible on the whole prefers men to women.  The short version of the response is that, though in Christ all is restored, sin led to the dominance of one gender over another.  The reign of sin in the world saw to it that instead of completing the image of God in one another, men and women have competed.  And when we compete, we ask "who has it better?"  

This question has been fodder for humor over the centuries and I'll indulge it briefly.  It is what one character in one Garrison Keillor's fables wonders.  Though he isn't speaking of the spiritual life, all the same, he wonders whether men or women have it better on the road to maturity.  And if you are wondering the character's gender, your first instinct is probably the soundest:

“Girls had it better from the beginning, don’t kid yourself.  They were allowed to play in the house, where the books were and the adults, and boys were sent outdoors like livestock.  Boys were noisy and rough, and girls were nice, so they got to stay and we had to go.  Boys ran around in the yard with toy guns going kksshh-kksshh, fighting wars for made-up reasons and arguing about who was dead, while girls stayed inside and played with dolls, creating complex family groups and learning to solve problems through negotiation and role-playing.  Which gender is better equipped, on the whole, to live an adult life, would you guess?” (from The Book of Guys by Garrison Keillor, p. 12)

Humorous generalizations aside, neither men nor women “have it better” when it comes to God. 

Apart from God’s grace, none of us are equipped for drawing near to God at all.  Christ completes us now.  We all need Christ to gather us into his new life through giving us the gift of faith.  Men and women both need this.

For every Christian, man or woman, Jesus has come to us in our life situations.  Women and men alike have called him friend, savior, shepherd, Lord, and many more.  They know him.  Yes, Jesus was a man.  But Jesus gives his new life to women.  And men can become like his mother Mary – inviting the Spirit to bring forth the life of Jesus within us.  As men and women, we are all redeemed sinners who, God willing, will be presented as fully mature when this life ends.
 

As women grow in Christ and feel the Spirit may be calling them to leadership in ministry, we want to remember that God is busy forming them.  We want to encourage Christ’s life in them to grow more and more, whether ordained ministry is its destination or not.  What matters is the growth in Christ in character and morals, into increasing joy and devotion to the author of life who gave his life.  The job, ministry, city, or even country where this life gets played out is up to the God working in us.

There was a quote from the great novelist and theologian Dorothy Sayers in the bulletin last week that bears repeating.

“Perhaps it is no wonder that the women were first at the Cradle and last at the Cross.  They had never known a man like this Man – there never has been such another.  A prophet and teacher who never nagged at them, never flattered or coaxed or patronized; who never made arch jokes about them; who never treated them either as ‘The women, God help us!’ or ‘The Ladies, God bless them!’; who rebuked without (demeaning) and praised without condescension; who took their questions and arguments seriously; who never mapped out their sphere for them, never urged them to be feminine or jeered at them for being female; who had no axe to grind and no uneasy male dignity to defend.” 

So who has it better?  We both have it best.  Though men and women bicker in this life, though we know isolation from God and one another, Jesus completes us.  He restores to every one us - men and women - whatever dignity the world has neglected to give us.

Reflection Questions

1) Has anyone ever limited you in ways you could grow as a Christian?  Have you limited yourself?

2) Who first showed you what it could mean to be a Christian?  What attracted you about Christ that you wanted to follow him?
3) Do you experience the church to be a place where both men and women can grow into the fullness of Christ's call?  Why or why not?

The Old Life Has Gone - A New Life Begun

A new beginning, a fresh start is possible for us each day.  We have a new life from Jesus.  But so often we feel as though nothing has changed!

How do I trust God to have given me new life in him?  For I am still anxious and fearful.  Surely these don't reflect the new life.  I still seem the same guy I've always been.  Of course, in many ways that's a good thing!  I don't expect to be anybody other than myself.  But in the way of sin, I do expect to be changed.  What about transformation?

My comfort for what will happen comes entirely from what has happened.  My hope for today and for the future rests in the faith I have in what Jesus has done in the past.  He lived a life with God - proclaiming, healing, drawing constantly on the Lord for his own survival.  He died on a cross and then rose from the grave.  By faith, I believe this death and new life has already taken place within me.  Already, as in today.  Those who are in Christ are a new creation.

The old life still has power somehow.  He's still there - or at least the memory of him is there and maybe that's enough for sin to persist.  But faith believes that Jesus' new resurrection life will be made ours.  We will rise like he did from death.  As the Jeremy Camp song puts it, we will "taste and see the fullness of his peace."  We will know "the healing hand of God."

And while it is harder to believe that this gift is already ours, looking again at our Savior is a great place to start - for it is his peace that is given.  "So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!" (2nd Corinthians 5:17)

Lord, give us new hearts through Jesus to live a magnificent day.

Is the Bible Culturally Out of Step? (Preached Sept. 16, 2012)

Anyone who hasn’t heard it is encouraged to listen to Kevin’s message from this past Sunday. This blog begins a weekly practice of publishing additional thoughts about the message and asking the important question: how does this message encourage us to live life in God this week?

My guess is that we feel differently about the Bible’s authority at different times in our lives. “Love is patient, love is kind” from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians sure seems right when it is read as an authoritative word at weddings. And “honor your mother and father” from the Ten Commandments has given many children (apparently including our pastor!) cause for resentment against the Bible quoted so authoritatively by our parents. We respect the Bible’s authority. But then sometimes, maybe when we feel the Bible is just “picking on us,” we aren’t so sure.

In the Scripture text on Sunday, we saw how Jesus referred authoritatively to Scripture to explain his view of the truth to others during a disagreement. For Jesus, Scripture was a constant guide – never irrelevant or misguided – but always leading him into deeper union with his Father. It was used for building up his own life in God and those of others, and never used merely to win an argument. The one Son of God became human and learned to think, speak, pray, make decisions, to live, and even to die from Scripture.Henry Ward Beecher once said:

“Sink the Bible to the bottom of the ocean, and still man’s obligations to God would be unchanged.  He would have the same path to tread, only his lamp and guide would be gone; the same voyage to make, but his chart and compass would be overboard!”  

This journey is to become like Jesus Christ. The Bible is beyond valuable not only for teaching us the ways of Jesus Christ, but also in showing us the good news – that Jesus’ eternal life does not get into us through greater exertion or discipline on our part. Through faith, we participate in Jesus’ death and resurrection. The Holy Spirit brings this new life in us to a firm maturity – a Christian, a little Christ, at last! Only the Bible tells this to us. Other books will tell you how to be a better cook, a better manager of time, a better communicator. But if we are living to glorify God and enjoy Him forever (forever!), it will only be because the Bible has had authority in our lives.

Reflection Questions:

Where does your faith feel most vulnerable to outside attacks? Is there a book you read, or a friend you speak to in order to find reassurance?

How does your faith help to shape the culture – the humor, the rules, the relationships, the sharing of responsibilities – in your home or at your job?

What steps are you currently taking to answer some of the questions you have about the Bible and the Christian faith?

The Bible is Boring! (preached September 23, 2012)

When I was in college, my home church published these pamphlets.  They were filled with daily Scriptures.  If I were to follow that plan, I could get through the Bible in a year.  I remember grabbing them.  I’d give them to friends but I’d keep a lot of them.  Why?  I thought I might lose them.  I also thought that if I was so sure that God existed from the little Scripture I’d read up to that point, imagine if I’d read the whole thing!  I was sure I’d know God so well.

Like many I’m sure, my first few attempts at this were abortive.  The Tabernacle, all the names in Numbers, the rules about birds and clothing and fields in Leviticus – my excitement absolutely plummeted.

What was so disappointing was not the books themselves.  After all, God speaks in those books.  The people and customs are strange indeed, but the God who speaks commands our attention.  What disappointed me was that I wanted to be an expert.  I wanted answers and wisdom and I wanted them to be easy.  But as I read, I knew they wouldn’t be.  The answers given in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers all sounded like “Because I am God!  Because I said so!”

 This was not relevant enough to my life.  It was direct, which is why I wasn’t bored.  But I didn’t like it.  Now I knew Jesus was the fulfillment of the law.  We don’t have to do everything we see in Leviticus.  But I started to realize that God might want me to be more than a good reader who had answers to tough questions.  He might want me to be an obedient follower.

I think I became more interested in God and his people than I was in finding answers.  “Who is this God?”  “Who are these people who he has called to be his own?”  But it took moving beyond my initial expectations and desires from the Bible.  Like Kevin said in his sermon, many of us expect either 1) information, or 2) comfort.  But the Bible will disappoint us if this is all we look for.  What should we look for?

There is a verse tucked into Psalm 95 that reads, “O that today you would listen to his voice!”  Chris Webb writes: “Here is the work of today – which is also the work of the whole of life.  I’m called daily to open my heart afresh to the living Word of God.  I know I need this reminder but, to tell the truth, I’m daunted by the possibility that God might actually speak…what will I hear?  How will I be called, how changed?  Will I be comforted or inspired?  Or is it today that my life will be turned inside out?  It has happened before – to others and to me.”

This is what we look for – a word from the God of the Bible.  As we read the Bible, we learn about his character and learn to recognize his voice.  We learn that it is ok to be afraid to do what he says, but that we should trust him to know what is best for us.

Your daily Bible reading will bore you sometimes.  I guarantee it.  But the morning might come that we say, “OK, God” to something Scripture asks of us.  It might be inconvenient and uncomfortable.  And looking back, we might wish the day’s Bible reading had been boring because then nothing would have happened.   But it might feel like “I was made for this.”  “Wow, I wonder what God will say to me tomorrow, and the next day…and for all eternity.”

As we follow Jesus Christ, may we feel plenty of both!  And then, even boredom can prompt us to consult God!  Just ask (Old St.) Augustine: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”

Reflection Questions:

1)      Rev. Pound said that if we read the Bible only for information or for comfort that we will be disappointed.  The Bible is meant to give us those, but much more.  What do you normally expect to get out of your Bible reading?

2)      In the sermon, an author was quoted who wrote of the Bible, “I think I’m going to read it, and it starts reading me, I’m going to judge it and it starts judging me, I’m going to weigh its words, and it starts weighing my life.”  When, if ever, have you felt this way about reading the Bible?

3)      Is there a Bible passage that has inspired you to say “Yes” to God recently?