Love in the Face of Our Prejudices

Tags

Categories, Love, Lynn Anderson, Prejudice, The Jesus Touch, Wes English

Do you have a tendency to pre-judge people?  Did you hear me ask you if you were prejudiced?  I think we have something in us that seeks to place people in a context.  I don’t know if we can avoid it completely.  Do you think we need that skill in order to navigate in the world?

I have been living in multiple worlds lately.

I have long known that when people find out that I am a preacher that I am treated a particular way.  Often that category is a conversation killer.  Sometimes the category allows me to ask serious questions, or even to take charge in a crisis situation.  Other times being a preacher is to be a generally irrelevant (silly) person.

Recently I have been spending time in the university environment.  Having a doctorate is useful there.  People believe that you have something to offer that is important and significant.  That is not always true.  I am about a decade older than my boss.  When we walk into a non-ACU situation together, the people look to me first.  I walk and talk and greet with confidence.  I look like I could be the boss.  And I begin to wonder if I need to act differently, because I am not the leader.

How do people categorize you?  Have you ever been pigeon-holed?  You do fit some categories, right?  Do you have blue eyes? Do you have a college degree?  Where were you born?  We also categorize by gender and ethnicity, right?  Do we categorize by ability and disability?

Lynn Anderson tells a story about his son-in-law, Wes English.  Wes worked for me for a while back when I was the manager of Crystals in Abilene.  He was a college student, working his way through college singing and playing his guitar.  The first time I remember hearing Jesus is Coming Soon, Wes was singing it.  The story that his father-in-law tells happened just after Wes and Michelle were married (1/9/82 – they sang at our wedding and then got married themselves the following Saturday).  They moved to Castle Rock, Colorado.  They put a deposit on an apartment, filled out the lease agreement, agreeing to rent the apartment.  They came back a while later to get the key, but the manager had changed his mind.  Wes was a musician.  The manger did not want to rent to a musician.  They were looking for more reliable clients.  (I must tell you that the whole category of renter is difficult!).  Wes English was anything but unreliable!  The category was mis-applied.

We are thinking about the Jesus Style of Relationships.  Jesus comes to model God’s intention for the world.  He comes to set our priorities in line with God’s interests.

You know the greatest commands, right?  This is how we hear them in Luke.

Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.”

But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

• If you asked people if they loved God, what do you think they would say?
• Do we love God with our whole being?
• However, for our conversation, the important focus here is embodied in love your neighbor as yourself.
• Is the lawyer looking for a category?  Who must I love as I love myself?
  • Does this include Democrats?  And people of different races and different sins than your own?  What about homosexuals?  (There is a good label for us to manage.)  What about people on welfare?  What about people who are ragged?
  • I had a young mother in my office this week who is struggling to do the right things.  She is injured.  She is almost married to a man who works in chicken processing.  He works.  They come from a fractured family background.  And they are hanging by a thread.  Love your neighbor as yourself.
  • I think the lawyer in Luke is thinking that his neighbors are fellow Jews (racial and religious homogeneity).
  • So Jesus tells a story.

Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.’ Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise” (Luke 10:25-37).

A Samaritan was not considered a Jew.  He was a half-breed (Assyrian/Israeli mongrel).  He did not worship in Jerusalem.  He was the wrong race and the wrong religion, yet he was following the Greatest Commands.  He loved his neighbor.  He took the risk to engage him regardless of the possible difference between them.  “A man” was also in a category.  Hurt. Helpless. Needy.  The Samaritan was available.  I am sure the priest and the Levite were busy.  They did not make themselves available.  The Samaritan was sensitive.  He approached.  He bandaged.

Two weeks ago (Friday, November 4, 2011), there was a bus accident involving students and faculty from ACU.  A football team from Winters was on their way to a game when they were the first to come across the scene of the wreck.  They stopped and gave aid.  That was not in their plan. Tending to critically injured college students had to be costly in time and trauma, don’t you think?  Would it have mattered if it had been a bus full of Iraqi college students?

They were helpful.  The Jesus style also involves creativity.  Sometimes there are problems that need to be solved or worked. The Samaritan had ‘things to do.’  He worked the problem of continuing care by pre-funding the possible costs and assuring the innkeeper that the hurting man was not being dumped.

I wonder if we could resist labeling.  Could we navigate through our tendency to pre-judge, realizing that the Way leads us to love across our differences?  Every human being is created in the image of God.  God loves them.  God cares for them.  I wonder if we could be His instrument for that love and care.

Learning Responsibility

Tags

Industrial Food, Justice, Keeping Our Children, Red Thread Movement, Responsibility, Singing, Stewardship

Are you responsible?  I am responsible.  I accept responsibility.  It may not even always be appropriate, but I am inclined to accept responsibility. Are you responsible for global warming?  Why, yes, I probably am.  Are you responsible for the industrialization of the food supply?  Well, I have had plenty of twenty-ounce soft drinks.  I have super sized my fast-food order.  So, I suppose, on some level, I am responsible.  Are you responsible for the NBA lockout or Conference Re-Alignment?  Well, I suppose I have watched sports on TV and somehow have supported the maker of Tostitos!

I lost a job, once.  I was so very hurt by that.  But then, as I thought about it, I began to take responsibility for that, too.  It was not that I did not work hard.  It was not that I failed to cooperate.  It was not that my work was less than full of energy or Bible, or truth.  Matter of fact, I think it was because I did not drink enough coffee…with my critics.  And I have my critics.  I wish that were not the case.  And you need to intentionally love those who are your critics.  That is difficult work, don’t you think?

I know that you are interested in responsibility.  Those of you who are parents are eager to teach responsibility.  You know that responsibility is in some relationship to freedom.  The more responsibility you assume, the more freedom you may have.  When you accept more and more financial responsibility, the less you have to ask permission of your parents.  And as parents, we know that we are preparing our children to be responsible.  We begin to teach them to make choices and decisions for themselves.  As they make better and better decisions, our confidence increases, and more freedom is granted.

Parents are responsible for the launching of their children.

1 Corinthians 4:1-2 (NRSV) Think of us in this way, as servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries.  ² Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy.

Stewardship is a funny church word, don’t you think?

I know that we don’t use that word much in every day life.  We don’t know much about stewards.  We have a hint of an idea about a stewardess!  We think of her as an airline waitress, which of course is a misrepresentation of the work of a flight attendant. 

What is a steward and are you one?

Genesis 1:26-28 (NRSV) Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” ²⁷ So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. ²⁸ God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”

Dominion.  That sounds like you can do anything you want, doesn’t it?  However, this is our Father’s world.  He gives us custody for a season.  And with God there is always a reckoning.  God gives us so much.  Sometimes, I think we forget that we are responsible.

What has God given to you and me?

We are stewards.  We are entrusted with a number of critically important resources.

Every good and perfect gift is from above.

And we are held accountable for how we handle that trust.

The founder of Scouting Robert Baden-Powell said this in his last message in 1941, and I think it is essentially and fundamentally right before God: Leave the world a little better than you found it.

We are Responsible.

We are responsible for the earth.

The world is not going to take care of it, right?

I have been thinking about food.  The industrialization of food is interesting to me.  Farmers are pushed to produce greater and greater yields.  We squeeze the most possible out of the land.  Is that a good thing?  We have moved away from diversity to specialization.  We process everything.  For example: General Mills began as a flour mill in 1926 selling whole wheat flour.  Then when the competition was also grinding wheat flour they needed to step it up. They sold bleached flour (white) and then they sold enriched flour.  They were improving on nature.  Competition demanded more ‘value added’ and lower prices.  We get things like Tang (fruitless juice) and Cheeze Whiz (cheese-less cheese) and Cool Whip (cream-less whipped cream).

How can you push back?  I suppose you can be determined to be food conscious and environmentally conscious.

I wonder if somewhere down the line, it means that we do not yield to the price pressures that drive the world.  I will tell you that an emerging capitalist society such as China will show us what pollution and bio-risk is all about.

What can you do?

I think you cannot do nothing.

You can garden.  You can shop in the Farmer’s Market.  You can avoid McDonalds and soft-drinks and corn-fed beef.  I know that sounds crazy, but I think we are responsible.

We are responsible for pushing against the Principalities and the Powers.

Ephesians 6:12 (KJV) For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Who else is going to stand up for justice?

Amos 5:14-15 (NRSV) Seek good and not evil, that you may live; and so the LORD, the God of hosts, will be with you, just as you have said. ¹⁵ Hate evil and love good, and establish justice in the gate; it may be that the LORD, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

In the time of Amos, there was a foreign power about to descend upon Israel.  They would come with terror: Threshing sledges of iron to tear people up (1:3), carrying whole communities into exile (1:6), killing without pity (1:11), and even ripping open pregnant women (1:13), a sort of terrorism.  And Judah and Israel are not without evil of their own, slavery, corruption, oppression, sexual immorality, and abuse of the poor, and abuse of credit (2:6-8).

That is just Old Testament life, right?  Nothing of the sort would be a part of our world.

Who is responsible for making the world a better place?

And can you just complain that the world is full of darkness?  Is that the sum of our work?  Namely, complaining about how dark it all is.  I don’t think that is enough.

I think we will need to prayerfully consider how we can do just what God has said.

Love good and establish justice at the gate.

You have seen my Red Threads (http://www.redthreadmovement.org/).  Two ACU students decided they wanted to do something about little girls in Nepal being sold into sexual slavery in India.  They took a journey to Nepal (an ACU Honors College Travel Grant) and got an idea!  They could raise awareness and money.  They are funding safe houses and employment opportunities for young women who are rescued from the sex trade.  Two college girls are doing something.  They are smart.  They are industrious.  But they are just like you.

Can you do nothing?  I don’t think you can.  I don’t think we are.

I am thankful for what you are doing in the Harvest House.  I am thankful for what you are doing in Haiti.  I am proud of what you are doing in Africa.  Success is not counted in baptisms, I hope you know.  Success is counted in disciples of Jesus.  It is counted by seeing people who live into the authentic practice of being the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

We are responsible.

We are responsible for this community of faith, too.  (I mean North Street!)

You do know that God loves his church, right? Sometimes I think we are lulled into thinking it is unimportant.  School is more important than church.  When was the last time anyone was grounded from going to school?  But I hear about parents grounding their children from church activities.  Teachers in the public school are there early before class and late after. But when it comes to church activities, often we say, “If I’m not tired.”  It is just apparently less important.

I want you to know that your children are listening.

Someone has said that six out of ten of our high school students will leave this church tradition.  I wonder if that has everything to do with authenticity.  If we are on target, if you are passionate about our God given responsibilities, your children will know it.

Let’s say we had ten of our teens stand here in front of you.  What would you do to convince them to stay?  Would you need to listen to them?  Would you need to show them why your spiritual life is genuine and important?  Would you insist that they do things the way you like them done (especially if it is what you prefer instead of what is Biblical)?

And young people, you are also responsible.  You are responsible to God for your life.  God has made you able.  He has placed a Spirit in you.  Your mind is alive and full of ability and passion and energy.  You may not believe it yet, but I so want you to know that you have the capacity to change the world.

Sometimes I think we think it comes down to an argument about music.  Will we sing what you like?  Will we sing what the old people like?  Here is what I wonder.  I wonder if it is not the Spirit of God in us that really matters.  If you find a way to worship, if your heart is full and the words are full of Spirit, then it does not matter.  We could sing in Latin and it would be powerful.  We could sing in Hebrew and it would move us deeply.

How will this change?  How will we keep our children in church?

I think we will have to take responsibility for that.  Church will have to be the real deal.  The Word will have to become Flesh and Dwell Among Us. (That is a Christmas idea!!)

Jesus said:  John 15:12-13 (NRSV) “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. ¹³ No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

It will be an emotional day when we learn to do that.

Paul said, Romans 12:1 (NRSV) I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

If we are available to God, then it is no trouble at all to be good stewards.  We are a living sacrifice.  And spiritual worship will be the result.

The Wisdom Writers say, Proverbs 3:9-10 (NRSV) Honor the LORD with your substance and with the first fruits of all your produce; ¹⁰ then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.

AND, Psalm 24:1 (NRSV) The earth is the LORD’S and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it.

This is not about writing a check, or making a contribution.  It is about surrendering your life.  You belong to Him.  You are the contribution.

And God said, Leviticus 26:12 (NRSV) And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be my people.

And still God allows you to choose.  Freedom and Responsibility go hand in hand.  When you take responsibility, then you will be free.  When you push against the destructive ways of this world, when you do battle with the Principalities and Powers, when we openly challenge the rulers of the darkness of this world, and the spiritual wickedness in high places, then you will be free.

You were made for this.

You are responsible.  We are responsible. We are stewards of the mysteries.  And we are called to be trust-worthy.

We are responsible. (Is that one too many times?)

Responsibility will take nothing less than everything.

Encountering Broken Folk

Tags

Adultery, Broken, Condemnation, Lynn Anderson, Mercy, The Jesus Style

In October we were thinking about power in relationships.  The practice of vulnerability is a key to having relationships that are distinctively Christian.  Last week, we were thinking about the balance between grace and holiness.  God is merciful and gracious, slow to become angry and abounds in steadfast love, but that does not mean that you can live outside the boundaries with impunity.

Have you followed the scandal story out of Happy Valley, Pa.?  A Penn State assistant coach has been arrested for sexual assault of young boys at the university during and after his tenure as a coach.  When you hurt people, you will he held accountable.

•  2 Corinthians 5:10 (NRSV) For all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense for what has been done in the body, whether good or evil.
•  1 Corinthians 3:17 (NRSV) If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

The “you” here is plural, but I think it still applies to everyone who is knit together by the Maker.  I think this has everything to do with the essential commandments of God.  They are all about relationships (with God and among us).  When we hurt each other, God cares about that in powerful ways.

I want to return today to the very end of the story we call The Woman Caught in Adultery.  She was brought to Jesus and the report was that she was caught in the very act.  What I would like for us to think about is her condition of brokenness.  Moments come when we cannot live in denial.  Or, perhaps you can, but you meet someone else in this kind of place where their world has come undone.

What do you do?  When someone comes with a revelation, when they call you and say, “I’m in real trouble.”  Of course, you know that over the last twenty-seven years that has happened to me a number of times.  It comes with the job.  I have heard people say, “My life is ruined.  It’s over.”  That has yet to be an accurate assessment.  What do you do?  It is not an easy situation to manage.

What does Jesus do?  Here is a woman who cannot deny her sin.  She has been publically exposed.  We don’t know her personality, but I would suppose that she is fearful.  She knows her physical life is on the line.  Then she heard the stones drop and she is left before this one man who has saved her life.  It is a turning point.  We know that she is having and encounter with God.  God straightens up and looks at her and extends mercy (withholds condemnation).

John 8:10-11 (NRSV) ¹⁰ Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” ¹¹ She said, “No one, sir.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.”

Words of Acceptance

Has no one condemned you? Jesus had invited the one who had no sin to cast the first stone of condemnation.  Who is without sin?  When someone comes to you in a moment of humiliation, it is important to be empathetic.  Put yourself in their shoes (situation).  Imagine everyone knowing about your worst sin, your worst impulse, your worst thought or action, your most selfish moment, or most destructive action.  Or imagine this happening to one of your children.  How do you feel in that moment?  How would you want your children to be treated?

Romans 3:22-24 (NRSV) For there is no distinction, ²³ since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; ²⁴ they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

The very reason that Jesus died is that we all have fallen terribly short.  You join the hurting people, because you share their fundamental condition.

Words of Forgiveness

Neither do I condemn you.  Of course, I think you need to be honest in your emotions, too.  You might be very disappointed in them.  You will at least hurt with them.  Also, there may be very real consequences that are still to unfold.  My usual metaphor is a wreck.  There may still be more wreck to unfold.  However, my usual words are, “You are not ruined unless you just insist.”  Forgiveness is crucial. People cannot move forward when there is no realization of forgiveness.

Words of Change

Go your way and do not sin again.  You cannot just keep creating wreckage!  We can learn from our mistakes.  Sometimes we need to consider the issues below the line of sight.  Why are we behaving in destructive ways?  Is there some character work that we need to do?  How do we stop?  That is critically important work.

Romans 6:2 (NRSV) ² How can we who died to sin go on living in it?

We offer (and receive) mercy.  We advocate change.  We are determined to stop hurting people.   That is what we are going to do!

Thanks Be To God!

Tags

Carlyle Marney, Giving, Thanks-doing, Thanksgiving, Worship

People have probably asked you about your favorite books of the Bible.  For me, it could always be the one that I am reading.  However, there are some that give me significant encouragement.  There are places that I find myself going again and again.

Philippians is one of those places.  I think it is mostly about getting along.  There are a couple of women, Euodia and Syntyche who are having an argument about something.  It is interesting that Paul, the author of the letter, does not take sides.  Rather, he sets out several examples for the ladies.  He offers himself as an example.  He is in prison and people are trying to take advantage of his situation, but Paul is not distressed.  What does it matter? (1:18), he says.  I think he is suggesting that they adopt that attitude.  There are workers like Timothy and Epaphroditus who are putting their lives on the line for the sake of the believers.  They are risking their lives (2:30).  And the ladies might consider if they are also willing to put their lives on the line.  Then, of course, the chief example is Jesus.

You know this verse.  It draws me so often.

Philippians 2:3-8 (NRSV) Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. ⁴ Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. ⁵ Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, ⁷ but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, ⁸ he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross.

You two ladies need to stop your disagreement and get with the program.

Do nothing out of selfish ambition.  Regard others as better than yourself.

Jesus was right.  He was blessed.  He was rich.  And he saw that his powerful position was not to be exploited selfishly.  He emptied himself.  He humbled himself.  He died on a cross.

And that provokes me!  Have I humbled myself?  Would I surrender, even if I was right, for the greater good?  And would I hold everything, even my very life, loosely?

Have this mind in you.

Today, I want to think with you about next week’s Thanksgiving Offering.

Philippians 3:1 (NRSV) Finally, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is not troublesome to me, and for you it is a safeguard.

Three years ago I shared some words from a preacher (FBC, Austin, TX) named Carlyle Marney.  He died in 1979.  It is a bit like Philippians, I keep returning to these ideas from his sermon called Thanks Be To God. He is asking us, “Why do we come to the Assembly?”

We come because…

1. You have an appointment.  You are expected.  The eternal may be encountered.
2. You come here to un-choke. To bring in to the altar what is due.
3. What is the point of our coming together or being together?
1. Didn’t come to get anything.
2. (We have come) to do our thanks.  We have come to do a thanks.  There is no emptier thanks than a do-less thanks.  The reluctant doer is a reluctant thank-er.  He does not know his benefactor. They hold cheap the gifts they have received.
3. This may be the deepest crime.  We do not do our thanks.  No one can do it for us.  We have to do it for ourselves. We have come to respond. To render some signal service to show our thanks.

“You can’t fix it with preaching. Preaching never was too good, except here and there.

The complaints have always been greater. Preaching never was as effective as preachers have thought. It was never especially important who the preacher was.  It never was as consequential. One saving grace for preaching is that it contemporizes the gospel, if it is any good.  It turns a once upon a time into a now.  Preaching won’t fix things because there are so many ways to lie when one preaches. Through innuendo. Through clichés. Through avoiding subjects. By being a monumental bore.  To turn it into a dull thing is a stupid deadly lie.”

I just love that whole section of his sermon.  It speaks to me.

We come because God call us, not because we thought it was a good idea.

We have an appointment.  Could you just not show up for an appointment with God?  I don’t think I will treat God like that.  If He is expecting me, I am going to show up.

And every week, not just once a year, we come to un-choke.  We come not to consume.  We come to set ourselves on God’s altar.  We come to say, “I am baptized.”  I am at your disposal.  And we look around and say, “And I am not alone.  What could God do with this group of people, who are all at His disposal?”  Can you imagine?

We have come to do a thanks.  Do you know that thanks (Eucharist) is one of the words that is used for communion, for the Lord’s Supper?

1 Corinthians 11:24 (NRSV) ²⁴ and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

We have used the words “separate and apart” perhaps too strongly, when we end the supper and begin the collection.  We are still doing our thanks.  We are still participating in the life and death, the gift of Jesus.  When we eat the bread, we are participating in the body of Christ.  When we are drinking the cup, we are participating in the grace of God.  When we bring our gifts, we are participating, in thanks-doing, in the on-going work of Christ in the world.  You and me, we put our strength together, acting out of gratitude, to do a thing.

I have heard people say about the regular Sunday collection that is was a matter of expedience.  I want you to know that the giving is Worship!  We are acknowledging that God is the source of our strength.

Do you know where you strength comes from?  In the Old Testament book of Hosea, God addresses the problem of ignorance about the Source.

Hosea 2:8 (NRSV) ⁸ She did not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the wine, and the oil, and who lavished upon her silver and gold that they used for Baal.

They received their blessing and then paid their honor to a god of their own making.

Paul says it this way in Romans.

Romans 1:20-21 (NRSV) ²⁰ So they are without excuse; ²¹ for though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless minds were darkened.

Who makes you able?

Who has given you talent and strength and ability?  Who makes the crops grow?  Who is the source of your hope for tomorrow?

Next week, we are going to have a special offering.  Our history here has called this a First Fruits Offering.  I like that!

Cutts Cranberry Harvest, Tabernacle, NJ

Let’s look at First Fruit Offerings.

God is the Creator.  Because of that, everything belongs to Him.

Psalm 50:8-10 (NRSV) ⁸ Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you; your burnt offerings are continually before me. ⁹ I will not accept a bull from your house, or goats from your folds. ¹⁰ For every wild animal of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.

God does not need our money.  And if you give the money without real recognition and gratitude for what you have received, it is unacceptable.  These people are not being rebuked for withholding their sacrificial giving.  They are being rebuked for withholding themselves.

That cattle on a thousand hills is remarkable.  You who are literalists, will need to over come that.  Who owns the cattle on Hill 1001?  The thousand hills are all of them.

You cannot give God money.  Money is an illusion.  It is insignificant apart from people.  It represents something, however.  In our nation, the money says, “In God We Trust.”  It is the national motto.

I wonder if we should not start printing that with a question mark.

We give because the answer is yes.  Yes, we trust the Creator.  If you do not trust in God, then you will be reluctant to give (or do).

We offer first fruits in acknowledgement that every good and perfect gift is from above (James 1:17).

That is why the first fruits were offered to Him.  It was recognition of ownership.  We would say to God, “This child belongs to you (not to me).  These talents belong to you.  These sheep, this grain, this field, all belong to you.”

Couldn’t you just be generous and let that be your Thanks-Doing?

If is after the manner of first-fruits in the Bible, the answer is no.

If God has made an appointment for you, if God is asking you to unchoke (to be unselfish, to not exploit your own blessings, to do nothing out of selfish ambition) and to do your thanks, then there is some drama in the midst of community that is important.

Here is what would happen at the holy convocation of the First Fruits Offering!  It is a drama!

Deuteronomy 26:1-11 (NIV) ¹ When you have entered the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance and have taken possession of it and settled in it, ² take some of the firstfruits of all that you produce from the soil of the land the Lord your God is giving you and put them in a basket. Then go to the place the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his Name ³ and say to the priest in office at the time, “I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come to the land the Lord swore to our forefathers to give us.” ⁴ The priest shall take the basket from your hands and set it down in front of the altar of the Lord your God. ⁵ Then you shall declare before the Lord your God: “My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down into Egypt with a few people and lived there and became a great nation, powerful and numerous. ⁶ But the Egyptians mistreated us and made us suffer, putting us to hard labor. ⁷ Then we cried out to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our misery, toil and oppression. ⁸ So the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror and with miraculous signs and wonders. ⁹ He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey; ¹⁰ and now I bring the firstfruits of the soil that you, O Lord, have given me.” Place the basket before the Lord your God and bow down before him. ¹¹ And you and the Levites and the aliens among you shall rejoice in all the good things the Lord your God has given to you and your household.

This was their ritual.  It was a Thanks-doing.  It was a drama full of meaning.  It was acknowledgement of God.

• It is interesting to me that the worshipper says, “My Father was a wandering Aramean.” This is more than remembering.  This is re-living as if it were happening right now (anamnesis)!  It is what we do with Eucharist.  It is not remembering something that happened way back when.  It is a right now moment.
• And we bow down before God as we bring ourselves into the convocation, and bring our offerings.  It is worship.

You are offering yourselves, a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God (Rom 12:1).  That is not a theoretical offering.  There is no emptier thanks than a do-less thanks. First fruits are a harbinger.  They are the sign that the best is yet to come!

Has God made you able?

Do you trust that there will be more?

Have you joined yourselves with others who are also giving their lives away for the sake of the world?

The elders are asking us to assemble next week to make an offering above our usual sacrifice.  They think this is good for us.  It is clearly not that the church is desperate for dollars.  You know that.  It is that we need to give.  We need to do our thanks.  No one can do it for you.  Someone else’s gift cannot help you.

Honor God, and give thanks.  Give yourself as a first fruit offering.  And the best is yet to come!

Balancing Grace

Last week we were thinking about power in relationships.  The practice of vulnerability is a key to having relationships that are distinctively Christian.

And in the next hour, I want to say a few important things about the Jesus Style of friendship (Lays down one’s life for one’s friends/ Speaks Openly and Boldly/ Shares All Things).

Today, I want to think about the need for balancing diversity.  Creation reflects God’s interest in diversity.  I have some deep concerns when there is a lack of balance.

• I continue to work my way through Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma (http://michaelpollan.com/books/the-omnivores-dilemma/).  We humans are engineering food for profit, maximizing yields, and transforming the world.  Is it a good thing? It might be, but I am troubled by the seeming imbalance.
• Do you like diversity in music?  I suspect that you do!  One note, one tone, one rhythm, is annoying, right?
• Do you like diversity in your dinner?  I am fairly habitual. However, what I know is that we were designed for a balanced diet.  We need what diversity provides.  We were designed for it!
• I think diversity in the community of Christians (the Body of Christ) is also the plan of God.  We are different from each other.

1 Corinthians 12:4-7 (NRSV) Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; ⁵ and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; ⁶ and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. ⁷ To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

Balance.  Variety assembled into a whole.  That is the Way of the Creator.

You remember this statement of the character of God.  This is how God describes his own nature, which I think well describes his intention for his people.

Exodus 34:6-7 (NRSV) The LORD passed before him, and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, ⁷ keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, yet by no means clearing the guilty, but visiting the iniquity of the parents upon the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

How might this announcement speak to the issue of diversity?  Are you troubled by the “yet by no means” shift?  What do you think about the visitation to the third and fourth generation?  (I have some ideas for you, by the way.)

When we see Jesus at work in the story of the Adulteress, do we see the balancing act?

John 7:53 – 8:11 (NRSV) Then each of them went home, ¹ while Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.  ² Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and began to teach them. ³ The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them, ⁴ they said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. ⁵ Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” ⁶ They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. ⁷ When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” ⁸ And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground. ⁹ When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. ¹⁰ Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” ¹¹ She said, “No one, sir.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.”

Jesus is dealing with a rather complex situation.  Don’t you find that you are in complex situations all of the time? He has his critics who are trying to put a stop to him.  Whatever he says could end his career (so they think).  He is dealing with the crowd, who are listening to see what he will do.  And he is dealing with a woman, a person who is in real trouble.

What does Jesus do?  (What does God do?)

What I am wondering is, “Do we operate this way?”

• Place all of the interested parties in the same context.  What is your relationship with God?  Do you fall short of the glory (intent) of God?  What is the penalty for that?
• Do you suppose the accusers are helped (blessed) by what Jesus says to them?  How might they be helped?
• Is the woman helped?  Are we in the condemning business?  Or are we in the healing business?
• Is there balance in the final statement?

How can we practice the balance between grace and holiness?

Can we be helpful without being judgmental?

A Community of Friends

Tags

Church, Friends, Mission Lazarus

Over our years together, you have been discovering that I am up to something.  I remember something that Ken Warlick had said to me when we were considering coming to spend this season with you.  He said, “Could you help us make it real?”  What I heard him saying was, “We need to learn to live the same way that we talk.”

Did your parents ever say, “Do as I say, not as I do?”  They were confessing.  And they were hoping.  They were hoping that we would learn from their mistakes.  And we do make them.  That is the story of the Bible.

We are in a persistent pursuit of making it real.

Part of what I have been seeking to make clear for you is that you are the salt of the earth.  You are the light of the world.  You are God’s Plan A for making the world what He hopes it could be.  We are those who pray, Thy will be done ON EARTH, as it is in heaven.

For most people in America, church (this kind of gathering in the name of Jesus) has become irrelevant.

Henri Nouwen, a Christ-follower and author, tells about a time when he was serving as chaplain on a cruise ship.  That would be interesting work.  How often do you need a chaplain on a cruise?  One day he was on the deck of the ship when they were coming into a foggy harbour at Rotterdam. The captain was pacing anxiously on the bridge, fretting over the blinding fog.  He collided with the chaplain and cursed him and told him to stay out of the way.  Nouwen was about the leave the deck, feeling incompetent and guilty, and the captain called him back.  He didn’t apologize exactly.  He said, “Why don’t you stay around.  This might be the only time I really need you.”

Most of the world sees church this way.  Church is not taken very seriously when everything is going fine.  Church is for children, to teach moral values, to communicate right and wrong.  Church is for the anxious.  When we are in the fog, we seek some outside help.  However, most of the time, we think we can see.  We think we are grown.  And we think we know right from wrong.

What I have been proposing to you, over these years, is something else.

I do not think church can proclaim its relevance.  We cannot effectively cry out, “Hey!  We are relevant!  We are important!  What we are doing here is worth doing!”

We can only live out the good news, showing ourselves to be authentic (broken, healed, fragile, hopeful, full of light, thinking, dreaming, worshiping, doing, creating a place where we are practicing that life that God has in mind.)

Last Wednesday night we talked about this statement from Jesus in the Gospel of John.

John 7:38 (NRSV) Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.

Is that what pours out of your heart?  From the depth of you, from your inner being, what is it that comes pouring out?

If it is the Spirit of God, which is what Jesus has in mind when he says this, then this has such great power!  Love and joy and peace and patience, flowing out of your heart, pouring forth in your words and in the work of your hands.  Kindness and generosity, and faithfulness and gentleness characterize your professional and private lives.  You love God by loving your neighbor.

Wouldn’t you want to spend some time with a group of people who lived that way, whose heart pours forth living water?

Church is a people gathered.

And church is a people sent.

I want us to spend a few minutes with Jesus this morning, thinking specifically about friendship.

We are friends.  And when Jesus defines that, I cannot over say how important that is.

Friendship, however, is not the same thing as companionship or camaraderie.

Friendship is not being buddies…at least not the friendship that Jesus has in mind.

Friendship, Christian friendship, is an extra-ordinary thing.  It is about love.

But not a greeting card kind of love.

This love, this friendship, as Jesus offers it, is vital, energizing, animating, important, and perhaps central to being the human being that God has in mind.

Listen:

John 15:12-17 (NRSV) ¹² “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. ¹³ No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. ¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command you. ¹⁵ I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. ¹⁶ You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. ¹⁷ I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

Those phrases are powerful, don’t you think?

No greater love.  Lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you.

You are my friends.  I do not call you servants.  I have made known to you everything.

I appointed you to go and bear fruit that will last.

Here is our model for friendship.  What does it mean to be a friend?

A Friend Lays Down Their Life

When Jesus says this to his disciples, he has not gone to the cross, yet.  He is going.  And maybe they will not fully understand this phrase, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends, until they look back.  Jesus begins laying down his life in the incarnation.  The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.  Out of the Ivory Palaces.  Into our lives and into our chaos.  Jesus came.  No greater love, than to join us here.  (My friends who are in Haiti, remind me of Jesus.  They give their life by joining the chaos of others.  That is so powerful in it’s faithful witness. (http://haiti.missionlazarus.org/)

He says I lay down my life for the sheep. John10:15.

When he washes their feet, he is showing us, laying down our lives.

Would you be a friend who lays down a life?

What does that look like?  When Judas came to the garden where Jesus and the disciples were praying, the authorities came with lanterns, torches and weapons.  It was like the good shepherd, with the sheep (disciples) in the pen, protecting his own.  When Jesus saw them coming, he came forward, he stepped up.  “Whom are you looking for?”  he asked.  “Jesus of Nazareth,” they said.  “I AM,” he answered and they fell back.

Laying down your life is making a purposeful sacrifice for your friends.  It is to resist the use of power for selfish means.  It is to ask, “What do you need?”  Instead of being desperate about what we need.

It is not dying.  At least not necessarily…today.  It is the willingness to put up with discomfort (The Giving Tree – Shel Silverstein- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Giving_Tree ).  It is a willingness to pray through your difficulties rather than lashing out in anger (Psalms).  It is handling disappointment with grace and determination.  It is thinking about what you can do to make your family, and your church better.

In your family, in your church, are you a friend?  And do you live in a community of friends?

A Friend Speaks Openly and Boldly.

The servant does not know what the master is doing (15:15), or thinking.  Jesus tells them everything.

Do you have people around whom you guard your words?  Would you tell a friend the truth about their talents?  Often we will say the good, but sometimes not.  Rarely will we offer a frank opinion about weaknesses.

Jesus was traveling with his disciples when his friend Lazarus died.  He told his disciples that Lazarus had fallen asleep. They missed the metaphor.  John 11:14 (NRSV) ¹⁴ Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead.” (No metaphor required!)

Why don’t we speak frankly?  It could be because we are not friends, yet.  (Love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness.) We have not been Spirit filled.  Our hearts are not overflowing with living water, yet.  You have to trust that people will not hurt you for your thoughts, ideas, feelings and plans.  Of course, if you are laying down your life then maybe we could choose to be friends.

Most of us would rather hear a true evaluation than flattery.  Flattery is not friendship.  You cannot trust a flatterer.  To know everything is to be treated as equals.  It is in situations of fear, in situations of power, that we will not speak openly, or boldly.

I wonder what church would be like, if we were better friends.  What if we were reluctant to use power in discouraging ways?  What if we were not concerned with economic influence (tip-toe through the tithers)?  What if we really laid our gifts on God’s altar? (time, talents, treasure)  What if we were really egalitarian, brothers and sisters (all second born)?  What if we did not need positional authority?  What if men and women were equal?  And what would it be like if skin color or heritage was of no account? Is that too much to ask?

Can parents be friends with their children?  You can speak openly with your children.  Sometimes this happens because you think as a parent you are in the power position, but I will tell you that is fleeting.  That power will one day be reversed, and you reap what you sow.  That is a rule.  And, what about children?  Can they speak openly with their parents? Out of the believer’s flows rivers of living water.  And how about husbands and wives?  Are you operating as confident friends?  

How many times do you come to church, to the assembly and have little deep conversation?  I don’t think it can happen, if your community is limited to an hour and a half on a Sunday morning. 

It is not that you are just missing out, it is that you are missing the power of being the church. 

A Friend Shares All Things     

Jesus shared himself.  He is in the bread and in the cup.  The bread means that you are participating in the body of Christ.  His work is your work.  The cup means that you are participating in the grace of God.  Be free and whole.  He shares that with you!

Jesus shared his mission.  John 20: 21 – “As the Father sent me, so I send you.”  He gave them purpose.  Change the world.  Peace.  For God so loved the world that he gave Jesus.  Jesus even shared his tribulations.  John 16:33 (NIV) ³³ “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”  Trouble comes.  And Hope, too.  You share that.

As he shares with you, so you share.  I wonder if that is what it means to bear much fruit.  You invite them to know the peace of the Good Shepherd.  You invite them to receive love.  You welcome them to the realm of God’s intentions for the world.  And you invite them to participate in the work of God (bringing order out of chaos) with you.  You invite them to be your friend!  You invite them to a different heart, a heart full of the Spirit of God!

Would you share all things in common?  In a competitive world it is not a great plan for selfish success.

Is it too bold to call us to be better friends?

I think Christianity can change the world.  I think it is supposed to change the world.  We pray that wars will cease.  We pray that children, all children, could be spared from the ravages of injustice and violence.  And remember that as we pray, we also find our lives drawing in line with the work and way and will of God (function of prayer).

What a friend we have in Jesus!

Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

We are Christians.  We walk in the Way.  We lay down our lives.  We make friends.  We speak boldly and openly.  We share our strength, and we bear one another’s burdens.  And we do that with joy!

This is the life that is vital, energizing, animating, important, and central to being the person that God has in mind.

Out of the believer’s heart flow rivers of living water!  That is relevant, important and transforming.

What is flowing out of your heart?

Want to be friends?  I think you do!

Power and Weakness in Relationships

Tags

Lynn Anderson, Power, Relationships, The Jesus Style, Weakness

Relationships almost always involve a power dynamic.

I was thinking with a friend this week about a particular person that she encounters on a regular basis.  The man says things that seem awkward.  She feels uncomfortable.  I explained to her that I thought that he was trying to connect, to engage her in a ‘normal’ conversation.  He is not flirting (I don’t think).  I said, as if I knew anything about dancing, that a conversation is like an old-fashioned dance.  Conversation has a flow.  You listen.  You pay attention.  You interpret the intention.  Then you can respond appropriately.  This man is not reading the conversational landscape very well.  He is closing off the possibilities for conversation.  You cannot demand and be successful in a conversation.

We are thinking about the Jesus Style.

God is El Shaddai, The Almighty.  He has the power.  He reveals Himself to Abram and says this: “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless” (Genesis 17:1).  That would be difficult to resist.  And it would be powerful, if it were spoken audibly to you, right?  You could wish for it, for yourself, or for others, but is that typically how it happens?

We have spoken about the vulnerability of God.  God risks the pain of being vulnerable.  How so?  Do you suppose that God is setting out a model of relationship for us?

There was this moment when James and John came asking for the power positions in the coming Kingdom.  Of course, their power-grab irritated their companions.  And Jesus responded.

Mark 10:42-45 (NRSV) So Jesus called them and said to them, “You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. ⁴³ But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, ⁴⁴ and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. ⁴⁵ For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

This is an inversion of our inclinations.  We tend to think that being great is about positional power (positional authority).  Can you offer some examples of positional power?  When is positional power necessary?

Paul, the Apostle, has a problem.  He has a thorn in his flesh.  The specifics of that thorn are not relevant.  The truth is that he was plagued with a weakness.  What do we typically do with our weaknesses?  Why do we do that?  Paul prayed that the Lord would take his thorn away, removing his weakness.  This is how Jesus answered him.

2 Corinthians 12:9 (NRSV) but he (Jesus) said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

The Weakness of Power

• When we are in the power position, it is nearly impossible to determine the authenticity of our relationships.  Let’s say you are wealthy; can you see why you might have wealthy friends?  Other wealthy people are not seeking you out of a false motive.  There are other power positions that can undermine the confidence of your relationships.  Such as?
• When we are in the power position, it is easy to become an instrument of discouragement or diminishment.  You can use people to accomplish your agenda.
• When we are in the power position, we face a temptation to dethrone God (which is idolatry).  That is why greed is considered idolatry (Col 3:5).  We love control.
• Power likes to be ‘fed.’  Once in that mode, it is easy to want more.

Strength

• There is a link between weakness and the practice of vulnerability and the gift of intimacy.  We are dependent (interdependent) creatures.
• The story of God is one of grace and mercy.  If we are going to live that story, we will have to be open to receiving as well as offering these gifts.
• Confession has the capacity to engender trust (depending on what you might confess!).
• When we relinquish our fearful hold on power, we have the capacity to learn.
• Authenticity, in the path of faith, is much stronger than positional power.  Perhaps that is relational power.
• You are prepared to field criticism differently.  If it is right, you adjust your way.  If it is wrong, you do not respond desperately.  You are not trying to retain your reputation.  You don’t crumble.
• My grace is sufficient for you.  Do you believe that?
• God defeats the work of the Devil through a Cross. That is a fascinating power tool!  Power is made perfect through weakness.

Where is Your God?

Last week’s question was, “What is that in your hand?”  The Lord was asking Moses to make himself available for a demonstration of power.  It was just a staff, a walking stick, a shepherd’s crook, maybe.  However, in the hands of God, a simple tool was powerful, full of life and energy and potency.  Whatever you have in your hands, when surrendered to the power of God becomes something transformed.  Do not count yourself small and of no account.  And most of all, my thinking from last week was that you should in fact turn that talent, that simple something that you have, over to God.  I cannot just sit in church.  Neither can you!

I have asked our elders about some of the things that they would like for me to share with you over the weeks ahead.  Today’s conversation emerges from that question.

Today, I want to think with you about something that is so very fundamental.  Fundamental does not mean simple, necessarily.  I want to think with you about belief.  You know that I have a great passion for awe.  You have heard the words facinans and tremendum.  (Rudolph Otto, The Idea of the Holy – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Otto). We are fascinated and drawn toward beauty and power, to grandeur.  And when we drink from those wells, when we are in the presence of that BIGNESS, it is unsettling and we have to hide our faces.

The scene in Isaiah 6 offers a good example.  Isaiah saw the Lord in heaven.  And it was awesome!

Isaiah 6:3-6 (NRSV) And one called to another and said:   “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.”

⁴ The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. ⁵ And I said: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”

The whole earth is full of His Glory.

We have also spent some time thinking with Barbara Brown Taylor’s An Altar in the World.  Where do you see God?  My answer is everywhere.

I was reading this week about corn (The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan).  If there was a contest for plant supremacy on earth, Corn would be the winner.  Somewhere in ancient Central America, according to Pollan, a mutation occurred that created Zea Mays.  It could not have survived very long if someone had not come along and shucked it, peeled back the husk to expose the seeds!  He says, “What would have been an unheralded botanical catastrophe in a world without humans, became an incalculable evolutionary boon.”  My marginal note was, “Accident?  Incident?  Provident?”  My point is that God is in the Corn.  God loves to feed his people.  That is what I believe.  I believe that God is creative and exuberant!  I think God is extravagant.  I also believe that God is seldom predictable and so very hard to grasp.  God does not act according to our expectations, as far as I can tell.

How many times do you find the story surprising?

Could we take a sample?

Abraham was not a particularly remarkable man.  He was just the one that God chose.  He obeyed God.  He left his home, not knowing where he was going (Heb. 11:8).  I think God could have explained.  He could have given him an itinerary.  He could have explained how he was going to survive (or even prosper).

Was there anything unusual about the Abraham story?  Anything that you can think of that you would think, “That’s just strange!”

Abraham was 100 and his beautiful wife was 90 when they had Isaac.  That is enough to make anyone laugh (Sarah did. Gen. 18:12).  From one as good as dead (Heb. 11:12), God brought forth his promise of numerous descendants, too many to count.  Out of Abraham’s weakness, God worked.

Jacob was a cheater.  He ended up with thirteen children, the whole of Israel, with four wives simultaneously!  Is that how God drew up the plan?  Isn’t that amazing?  If you have not spent time in Genesis, you should!

Then, there is Moses, who was a stutterer and a murderer.  He was God’s chosen instrument to bring His people out of Egypt.  Moses took the more difficult path.  He could have been a son of Pharaoh.  Yet, he answered God call.  Moses!  “What is that in your hand?”

In Hebrews, you even get a mention like this:

Hebrews 11:30-32 (NRSV) By faith the walls of Jericho fell after they had been encircled for seven days. ³¹ By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had received the spies in peace. ³² And what more should I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets—.

Isn’t that an amazing list.

Rahab was a prostitute.  That is her label forever.  And she is justified by her faith.  And not ruined by her label.

James 2:25 (NRSV) Likewise, was not Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by another road?

Gideon fleeced God.  Checking and double checking. (What’s wrong with that, you may ask!  But what I see is his weakness, and I think that is the point.)

One of the things I really like about Gideon, is that he had this conversation, the very one we are having, with the Angel of the Lord.

Judges 6:13 (NRSV) Gideon answered him, “But sir, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us?”

Where is Our God?

Barak is weak and fearful.  His weakness brings a judge named Deborah on the scene.  Samson is a sensuous man.  Delilah brings him down.  And Jephthah (the son of a prostitute) is rash in his promises and it costs him the life of his young daughter (Judges 11:29-30).

These are the instruments of God.

If you were to look at this on the surface, you might not know that God was present, or at work, at all!  You might doubt that even you could be a vessel of the Spirit of God.

And then, we think of these as just stories, as if Jephthah’s daughter did not really die.  Or Jesus, either.

We just let it pass, as if that was not God at work.

God, in his usual way of surprise sent a baby.  He sent a little boy child.  He grew up in Naza-nowhere. He didn’t go to Rabbi School.  He worked as a carpenter.  And he took on the forces of evil in the world.  He confronted the Principalities and the Powers that worked to diminish and discourage and destroy.  He had special compassion for those people who were disincluded by ‘the world.’

And you know how the story goes.

Three crosses on hill.

And the crowd watched and suffered and some taunted.

Matthew 27:43 (NRSV) “He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he wants to; for he said, ‘I am God’s Son.’”

You probably have heard the name Elie (Eliezer) Wiesel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elie_Wiesel ).  He survived the German death camps in the 1940’s.

Listen with me to this portion of his memoir, entitled Night.

I witnessed other hangings. I never saw a single one of the victims weep. For a long time those dried-up bodies had forgotten the bitter taste of tears.

Except once. The Oberkapo of the fifty-second cable unit was a Dutchman, a giant, well over six feet. Seven hundred prisoners worked under his orders, and they all loved him like a brother. No one had ever received a blow at his hands, nor an insult from his lips.

He had a young boy under him, a pipel, as they were called–a child with a refined and beautiful face, unheard of in this camp…the face of a sad angel…

One day, the electric power station at Buna was blown up. The Gestapo, summoned to the spot, suspected sabotage. They found a trail. It eventually led to the Dutch Oberkapo. And there, after a search, they found an important stock of arms.

The Oberkapo was arrested immediately. He was tortured for a period of weeks, but in vain. He would not give up a single name. He was transferred to Auschwitz. We never heard of him again.

But his little servant had been left behind in the camp in prison. Also put to torture, he too would not speak. Then the SS sentenced him to death, with two other prisoners who had been discovered with arms.
One day when we came back from work, we saw three gallows rearing up in the assembly place, three black crows. Roll call. SS all around, machine guns trained: the traditional ceremony. Three victims in chains–and one of them, the little servant, the sad-eyed angel.

The SS seemed more preoccupied, more disturbed than usual. To hang a young boy in front of thousands of spectators was no light matter. The head of the camp read the verdict. All eyes were on the child. He was lividly pale, almost calm, biting his lips. The gallows threw its shadow over him.

This time the Lagerkapo refused to act as executioner. Three SS replaced him.
The three victims mounted together onto the stairs.
The three necks were placed at the same moment within the nooses.
“Long live liberty!” cried the two adults.
But the child was silent.
“Where is God? Where is He?” someone behind me asked.

At a sign from the head of the camp, the three chairs tipped over.
Total silence throughout the camp. On the horizon, the sun was setting.
“Bare your heads!” yelled the head of the camp. His voice was raucous. We were weeping.
“Cover your heads!”

Then the march past began. The two adults were no longer alive. Their tongues hung swollen, blue-tinged. But the third rope was still moving; being so light, the child was still alive…

For more than half an hour he stayed there, struggling between life and death, dying in slow agony under our eyes. And we had to look him full in the face. He was still alive when I passed in front of him. His tongue was still red, his eyes were not yet glazed.

Behind me, I heard the same man asking:
“Where is God now?”
And I heard a voice within me answer him:
“Where is He? He is — He is hanging here on this gallows….”

You will have to be open and attentive to see.  When we read the story in the Bible, sometimes we distance ourselves from the strangeness of God.  Where is God?  Yes, God is in the beauty.  That’s right.  But God is also in the trouble.  Seldom interrupting in the way we want, but there He is.

Jesus says…

John 16:33 (NIV) “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

And we respond…

Mark 9:24 (NIV) “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

You do, don’t you?

Manage Yourself!

I am always impressed with people who are able to mange themselves.  That phrase is one that I hear in the voice of one of my mentors, Charles Siburt.  “Manage yourself,” he intones in that distinctively deep voice.

It is a key component in your relationship skill set.  Either you are pushed around by your emotional and physical circumstances (opportunities, threats, challenges, obstacles), or you are in a position to choose your reaction.  A phrase you have heard form me is Non-Anxious Presence.  If you can keep yourself from being anxious (sinking into the lizard brain), you can work the problem.

It is like playing baseball (or racquetball).  Either you play the ball or the ball will play you.  When the ball plays you, you are in a defensive position, or ‘back on your heals,’ or not in the best position to manage.  It is like the Rangers against the Cardinals in Game 3 of the World Series!

Let’s consider this story.

John 7:2-9 (NRSV) Now the Jewish festival of Booths was near. ³ So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea so that your disciples also may see the works you are doing; ⁴ for no one who wants to be widely known acts in secret. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” ⁵ (For not even his brothers believed in him.) ⁶ Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. ⁷ The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify against it that its works are evil. ⁸ Go to the festival yourselves. I am not going to this festival, for my time has not yet fully come.” ⁹ After saying this, he remained in Galilee.

• Mary’s other sons had an interesting relationship with Jesus.  James will become a leader in the church in Jerusalem.  At this point, they are pushing Jesus.
• Do they see, or have they heard about the things accomplished (wine at Cana, conversations with Nicodemus and the Woman of Sychar, feeding of five thousand)?
• You want to be famous?  You should go to Jerusalem and demonstrate!  Show yourself to the world!
• They were giving him good PR advice.  What they did not believe was the Way (self-sacrifice, counter to the top-down structures, a cross).
• Verse 6 is the manage yourself verse.  And he explains himself in verse 7.
• And then, remarkably, Jesus changes his mind about going.  He is going, but on his own terms.

John 7:10-13 (NRSV) But after his brothers had gone to the festival, then he also went, not publicly but as it were in secret. ¹¹ The Jews were looking for him at the festival and saying, “Where is he?” ¹² And there was considerable complaining about him among the crowds. While some were saying, “He is a good man,” others were saying, “No, he is deceiving the crowd.” ¹³ Yet no one would speak openly about him for fear of the Jews.

• I find this pretty interesting.  People are often complaining about preachers.  Most of us deserve it!
• Did Jesus want to become a public figure?  (visibility, fame, influence)

Can you be vulnerable without being anxious?  Can you describe that?

In what ways do you find Jesus practicing vulnerability?

Jesus was genuine.  There is no hint of guile or spin to the Way of Jesus.

For instance:

• He was from a lowly birth, but did not hide it, nor capitalize on it.
• He travelled with his mom, but did not always meet her expectations (Mark 3:31).
• He did not pursue the titles of Rabbi, or Teacher, or Father (Matthew 23:7).
• Sometimes we are socially political.  Why do we do that?

In our ‘John’ case, where Jesus’s brothers want him to splash into the festival in Jerusalem, we see the Jesus style.  He came to work.  He “walked in the side door” and began to teach.

How might this instruct our Way?

How can you practice an honest estimation of yourself? (Communities of Discernment?)

• Romans 12:3 (NRSV) For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
•  Often Paul introduced himself as a servant or a slave. Peter, also, did this. 2 Peter 1:1 (NRSV) Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ.
•  Don’t cover your flaws.  Is that risky?  Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed (James 5:16).  Perhaps there is a wise way to do this work.
•  Keep the message in focus.  Peace.  Harmony.  Help.
• Resist our attraction to ‘stars.’  Positional power is not the most potent.
•  Be defiantly joyful!  Philippians 4:4-5 (NRSV) Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.  ⁵ Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near.  ⁶ Do not worry about anything.

 

Non-Anxious Presence.

In Your Hands – What Am I Going to Do?

We have eight more Sundays together.  I find that a very important and animating fact.  I am emotional about it.  In some ways it is like mortality.  When you see the moment of transformation of a relationship, you want to do important work, communicate important ideas.  The last six weeks have been about Love.  God’s love for you.  God’s love for the world.  Our love for each other.  And our love for the world.

I love our elders.  Without reservation, I can tell you, that you are in such good hands.  They are wise and careful.  They are learners.  They love God and they love this church.  They love Scripture.  I have confidence in them.

I was once a restaurant manager in Abilene. I became a Christian and began a journey of study and work.  The first church that I served was this one.  I did not know much about church, but I knew about hard work and preparation.  I was a good Bible student.  This congregation taught me a lot.  I listened to Bill Sherrill preach.  Someone has asked him how he managed to sit and listen to me preach and teach.  He answered them, “He sat and listened to me preach and teach for five years, I suppose that I could do the same for him.”

The time is coming, in nine weeks, for me to sit and listen once again.  That is a new chapter, isn’t it, Bill?  I am still learning from you, and I thank you for your goodness and your grace, for your gift of listening and encouraging and challenging in the most constructive ways.  You have helped me physically and professionally.  I am so very thankful.

But I am, in fact, thinking a lot about this next chapter in Abilene.

For twenty-seven years, my work has been about study and teaching in church.  Now, that is not going to be my work.  My work will be in the University.  My job is the Executive Administrative Director of the Honors College at ACU.  That is not a teaching position.  It is a management position.  I suspect it will still be 24/7 in many respects.  It will be a life.  A different life, too.

And I will find myself where you find yourself.

I will be ‘attending’ a church.  Sandra and I will be thinking about the place where we will plug in.  Someone asked Sandra the other day, about church in Abilene, and we just chuckled a bit and said, “Oh, she is still a member at North Street!”  You know she comes here almost every weekend, right?  But the time is coming when we will have some choices to make.

There are some churches in the Abilene area (more than twenty), but that is not the most important choice to make, I don’t think.  We have friends there.  We will find community.  The question is what am I going to do?  Is that a question for you?

I am certainly not going to sit back and critique.  That is not a spiritual gift, just in case you were wondering.

There are a couple of Bible passages that I think are relevant to this line of thinking, for you, and for me.

This first is from the Old Testament story of the call of Moses.  Moses met YHWH on the mountain.

Exodus 3:10 (NRSV) “So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.”

Do you know that I think this is your work, too?  You have caught on to that notion, right?  You are the peacemakers.  You are the Body of Christ.  You are the salt of the earth and the light of the world.  The elders have told me that they intend to continue the blessing at the end of our gatherings.  I am thankful for that.  It means that you are being sent out from this gathering into the world to do the work, full of the Light and full of the Power of God, for of the Love of God for the sake of the world.

And that work is bringing people out of Egypt, if you can see it.

And you are also the people who are on their way to the Promised Land.  Your work is to help the company get all the way home.

Do you see?  Church is not an organization that dispenses religious goods and services.  You do not come to the religious show on a Sunday, or the drama, to only receive.  You are the company.  You are the worshippers.  You come to listen and to sing and to pray and to unchoke (thanks-doing).

You are being transformed from glory to glory into the image of Him (2 Cor 3:18).

And you leave the Assembly to be about the work for the sake of the world.

God so loves the world that he gave…you (the Body of Christ).

Moses met The Lord.  He heard the Lord, and then he fretted over his capacity.  “No one is going to leave Egypt with me!  That is a hard trip!”  Well, here is one thing he did say.

Exodus 4:1-3 (NRSV) Then Moses answered, “But suppose they do not believe me or listen to me, but say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you.’”  ² The LORD said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.”  ³ And he said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw the staff on the ground, and it became a snake; and Moses drew back from it.

I sure like the question.  What is that in your hand?  Do you think God didn’t know what it was?  It is a rhetorical question, right?  “I see that you have a staff.  Throw it down.  See what happens.”

Here is what I am wondering about in this moment.  I wonder if God is saying to me (and to you, clearly!), how have you been equipped?  Your hands are not empty are they?  You are not without talent or resources, right?

Maybe it is like the little boy’s lunch in the story of the feeding of the five thousand.

Andrew says this:

John 6:9 (NRSV) “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?”

In the hands of God, what you have in your hands is more powerful than you can imagine.  I wonder if I am supposed to turn it over to Him.  Should I?  What do you think?  And you, what is that in your hands?

Then there is this parable that you would expect.  It is about the Way of the Kingdom.

A Lord was going on a journey and he gathered his subjects.  He entrusted his property to them.  He put something in their hands.  In this story it is money, but it isn’t about money or investments, necessarily.  It is about entrustment for a purpose.

One servant received five talents, another two, and another one, each according to his ability (Matt 25:15).  Two of the servants doubled the investment.  The third dug a hole in the ground and hid his Master’s money.  (That sounds safer than the Dow Jones!)

The Master returns.  He came and settled accounts with them.

I suppose we know there will be a settling of accounts, right?

The first man reported that he had made five talents.  Well done good and faithful servant.  You have been faithful with a few things.  I will put you in charge of many things.  Enter into the joy of your Lord!  So, also with the second man.  But the third, the one who buried his talent in the ground, heard a different word.

Matthew 25: 24-25 (NRSV) Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; ²⁵ so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’

This servant was judged and thrown out into the outer darkness.

What is that in your hand?

Here is what I am thinking.  When I place membership in a church in Abilene (or the surrounding area) I cannot do nothing.  God has been entrusting me with more than a staff.

What could I do in church?

1. I wonder if I could care for people?  Maybe I could be in a small group and make a contribution there.
2. I wonder if Sandra and I could co-teach a children’s class?  Maybe not Children’s Bible Hour.  I may not have the drama gift!  I may not have the singing gift.  Wait!  I might!  (Why do people say no to Children’s Ministers?)
3. Maybe we could work in Youth Ministry.  I have spent several years doing that professionally.  I wonder if I could be helpful as a teacher or in activities in youth ministry!  Maybe Wilderness Trek or Fortress, or Enchanted Rock.
4. I will be doing University Ministry already with a whole host of very bright (Honors) students.  I wonder if doing that all day will keep me from doing it in the evenings or on Sunday.  (24/7, I’m thinking.  I was baptized.  That means something.)
5. Those churches probably won’t need Adult Bible Class teachers, but I might be able to teach a class here and there.
6. What if they, at some point after I have been there a while, ask me to serve as a deacon?  I wonder if I could be helpful in some area?
7. I have also been in some elder’s meetings.  Not that I have found meetings to be delightful, but someone with experience in church, in pastoral care, and in ministry, with some professional training, might be useful.  There are times when I think I could facilitate a good meeting.

What is that in your hand?

Do you know that I am encouraging you?  That is what I meant.  I was thinking about me, but I was thinking especially about you.

There is more Holy Spirit in the pew than there is in the Pulpit.

What is it that will make a church great?  I think it is the Spirit of God in his people.  It is the People of God who are on a mission, drawing people out of Egypt, bringing order out of chaos, leading the people home.  It is you, in the Hands of God, that is great!  I have such confidence in you.