Presby-Musings

Evangelism Re-defined: Missionaries with a Mission Field

2012-02-10T11:47:00.000-08:00

This week I am continuing the sermon series I'm developing entitled, "The Missionary Next Door: Learning to Be A Witness Right Where You Are."

Evangelism is a loaded term for many Christians, and a dirty word for others. Most of us who call ourselves Christians struggle to be witnesses And yet, it is one of the three basic commands that Jesus gave to his disciples--love God, love your neighbor as yourself, and go make more disciples.

The old "tried and true" forms of evangelism don't seem to be all that tried and true any longer. Sitting down with someone and giving them the four spiritual laws complete with graphics and Scriptural references is not really going to be that effective in our culture any longer---if it ever really was.

Neither is banging on their door and asking them if they died right this second, do they know where they would spend eternity---in Heaven or in Hell?

We need a new approach. We need to start looking at Evangelism through a Jesus-centered lens, and we need to re-define what it means to be an "evangelist"--a bearer of good news.

Let's read Acts 1:7-8

Before we dig into what Jesus said here, let's get a bit of background first. To begin, Jesus has been raised from the dead, and the disciples are pretty fired up about this--to say the least. They are thinking to themselves that the time for the kingdom that Jesus kept talking about before he was crucified has finally arrived. And their understanding about this kingdom was that they were going to be in charge. They also thought that Israel was going to be on top of the world, and out from under the heel of the latest in a long line of Gentile empires. The prophecies had come true at last!

You can't blame them, really. The defeat, the loss they felt on the Friday Jesus was crucified... the fear that filled them when they thought them might be next... all of these things must have been absolutely paralyzing and awful. But then Jesus was alive... and they must have been thinking that they were finally going to turn the tables on the haters and religious leaders. It was time to win.

Then Jesus tells them his plan, and it looks nothing like that at all.

He tells them, you will be "martyrs..." Which in Greek means "witnesses." But still... that's a far cry from saying, "You will all rule with me at once! Now, let's go pay a call on this Caesar fellow and take over his digs."

Isn't it sort of awesome that the word "martyr" which meant witness became a word that was synonymous with sacrifice?

So... martyrs, not rulers.

Then he tells them that they need to be heralds of the kingdom that is coming and is already here. A herald goes before the king and announces that he's coming and/or has arrived.

Heralds aren't shy. Heralds use trumpets. Heralds aren't afraid to extol the virtue of the king. Heralds believe so fervently in the glory of their king that they will go to great lengths to make sure everyone knows it.

And... heralds, not rulers

Then Jesus outlined his disciples mission field. He told them, "Go to Jerusalem, to Judea, to Samaria and to the ends of the earth..." Jerusalem was easy enough... they were already there. Judea? They were familiar with it, too, so not that difficult. But then there was Samaria. The Jewish disciples couldn't stand the people from Samaria and the feeling was mutual. Then there was the whole "to the ends of the earth" statement. Now this could be taken in a couple of ways. The ends of the earth could mean literally to every part of the known world, and then some. Or, as some scholars think, it could have meant Rome---which was considered the "end of the world" for the known world at the time.

Either way, those last two places were not exactly the best places to go and be martyrs and heralds---which were both pretty daunting tasks to begin with.

So what can we learn about Evangelism from this little exchange?

First, it's not about winning. Jesus made this perfectly clear. There is nothing triumphant in this for you and I. The only triumph, the only glory is to Christ himself. The Apostle Paul said "if I boast, I boast in the Lord." Second, this is not about recruiting people for the "winning team." Lots of Christians don't get this. They feel like the entire purpose of evangelism is for them to convince people that they are losing and the only way to win is to fulfill their church's membership requirements.

So what is it about?

This is what it's all about...

If you call yourself a Christian you are also a Missionary with a Mission field

When I was a kid I remember missionaries coming to my church and doing presentations with slide shows---only they used slides... real slides projected from a projector with one of those carousel things on top of the slide projector.

They would tell tales of the exotic foods they ate, the exotic people they encountered and all of the hardships they encountered... Then they would say that they were called by God to the mission field, and they needed our support to fulfill that calling.

And the entire time I would be thinking to myself, "Please God, don't ever call me to mission field." The "mission field" was for brave souls who didn't mind living without running water and McDonald's. These people were missionaries. I wanted no part of it. Let's be honest. Most of us don't. We are quite content to send other people to do that kind of thing so we don't have to...

Here's where we need some of that re-definition that I was talking about earlier.

First, if you call yourself a Christian, you are also a missionary...
This isn't something that you can just ignore. It's part of your DNA if you are a follower of Christ. It's not a by-product of discipleship, it's the goal of it. I know that's hard for most of us to hear because we want our own fulfillment, peace and serenity to be the goal of discipleship.

Jesus didn't die so we could be comfortable.

We are martyrs---witnesses---heralds---evangelists---missionaries... It's both who we are and what we do. You can deny it, run from it, ignore it, choose to interpret what I am saying differently... it doesn't matter. To be Christian means to be a disciple of Christ, and to be a disciple means that you are a witness.

Second, we all have a mission field...

Draw a circle that represents your first priority area in life. This should be something like family, spouse, etc.

If you are tempted to put "God" or "Jesus" just don't do it. Let's just assume that all of us would put that down as our first-first priority... Okay? I'm talking about the other first priority. Label it.

Draw a second circle around the first one that represents your second priority in life. Now label that one.

Now Draw a third circle around the second one that represents your third priority in life.

The little drawing to the right is mine, if you need a guide.

This diagram is the beginning of your mission field. Like Jesus told his disciples to start close to home--maybe your mission field begins within the four walls of your house. Maybe it's your church. Maybe it's your community.

Your family needs the grace and peace of Jesus. They need to hear it, they need to experience it, they need to embrace it.

Your church needs the grace and peace of Jesus. There are people that you worship with each and every week that don't know Christ. They might say they do, but their demeanor and their actions show otherwise. They need you to tell them, to encourage them, to help them embrace grace and peace.

Your community needs the grace and peace of Jesus. Everywhere you go---your job, the corner store, your children's school... It's a mission field full of the lost and lonely. They need you to share your faith, and to lead them to the author of grace and peace.

What would this look like for our church?

It starts with our neighborhood, I think. And then it moves outward to our regional context and to the world. How are we supposed to be the "light of the world" as a church if we can't even be a light in our own neighborhood, right? If something happened to us, our neighbors should miss us.

This is it. One circle at a time. It's not complicated.

So, you might be saying "But how do we do this? I can't really do this."

That's right, you can't. Jesus told his disciples that they would accomplish what he asked by the authority of God alone and through the power of the Holy Spirit.
The difference between power and authority is subtle, but telling.

We do nothing by our own authority. Not by our own name, standing, success, wealth, achievement...

All the authority comes from God. We do not herald ourselves, but Jesus.

And power is the means by which we do this, but it's not our power. The word that is used here is dynamis--which is the same root word for dynamite. I love this. The explosive power of the Holy Spirit will provide every ounce of courage, knowledge, steadiness, discernment... whatever it is that you require to enter your mission field and be a missionary.

My wife does this kind of thing really well. The other day she was doing something beauty-related (I know what it was, I'm just being gentlemanly) and the young woman that was doing the treatment was chatting her up. In the course of their conversation, my wife talked about how we recently added a little baby boy to our life, and what a blessing it has been despite our (ahem) advanced age.

The young woman revealed how she desired to have another child, but her husband wasn't enthusiastic about the idea. My wife felt compelled at that point to tell the young woman the story of how little Jacob came to be. She attended a Beth Moore conference a couple of years ago, and during the conference she felt that God was calling us to have another baby. When she came home and told me this... I was less than thrilled. I was thinking about how old I would be when the baby graduated from high school (60). So I said, "No way!"

Then after a day or two, I began to feel like maybe I had spoken to soon. I told Merideth that I was praying about it, and I did. God changed my heart. And Jacob is here because of it.

So Merideth shared this deeply personal story with this perfect stranger, and the young woman began to cry. She told Merideth that it was exactly what she needed to hear... And for the first time in a long time she felt peace and hope.

You are a missionary. And you have a mission field.

You know who you are. You know your calling. You know where to go.

It's time to start witnessing.

Evangelism Re-Defined: The Missionary Next Door

2012-02-03T09:23:00.000-08:00

This week I am beginning a new three-part sermon series entitled, "The Missionary Next Door: Learning to Be A Witness Right Where You Are."

The question that really drives this series is one that should cause anyone who calls themselves a Christian to straighten a little in their chair: "Why don't more Christians share their faith?"

I think there are a lots of reasons, but here are a few of the most prevalent---according to me. Most of us are worried that we'll get asked a question that we can't answer and then we'll look stupid. Some of us worry that if we share our faith that we'll be labelled as "one of those" Christians and then we'll look stupid. Then there are others of us who are afraid to say that we're a Christian because we don't really act like one at all in front of people...and we know that makes us look stupid.

Did you know that you get opportunities every day to be a witness to what God has done for you? Are you taking them? Seriously. There's the waitress that serves you coffee at your favorite diner. The barista at Starbucks. The person at the McDonald's drive thru. The young woman at the reception area of your gym. Your mechanic. Your grocery bagger. Your mail person. The UPS guy.

Or how about this?

What kind of neighbor are you? Are you the person that everyone in the neighborhood knows and waves to happily every time they see you, or are you the one they mumble about and talk behind your back because you're a jerk?

What kind of co-worker are you? Are you the one that everyone relies on, pours their heart out to, knows is the "go-to" person on the team? Or are you the one that doesn't get invited to the after work gathering because you're a hopeless gossip and busybody?

What kind of customer are you? Are you gracious and generous, or a huge pain in the....? Did you know that it's common knowledge in the service industry that the very worst tippers at a restaurant are people who are eating lunch after church on Sunday.

What kind of family member are you? I think I'm going to leave that one alone... it hits too close to home for all of us?

Most of us don't take the opportunities, we let them pass us right by.

The title of this sermon is "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" I'm shamelessly ripping of one Fred Rogers, the beloved host of the Mr. Rogers Neighborhood television show.

Mr. Rogers sang this song hundreds of times over the course of his career. His little show offered a glimpse into what a neighborhood---both real and imaginary--could look like. For generations of children, this image of neighborhood was in sharp contrast to their own realities.

The decline of community in America has been widely reported, documented, commented on, written about, mourned, etc. In many ways we are slowly becoming a much more isolated, fearful, wary society. Mr. Rogers idealized view of society is something that we just sort of remember fondly---like our own idealized versions of the neighborhoods of our childhood, perhaps.

This is where those of us who call ourselves Christians should feel the weight of conviction. We don't have to acquiesce to the pressures of culture. We don't have to give in to increasing cultural isolation. We are called to something greater and more beautiful.

We need to embrace this calling, and to affirm that when you know Jesus, you show Jesus to your neighbors.

Robert Putnam wrote a book several years ago entitled, "Bowling Alone." In his book Putnam wondered aloud what happened to all of the organizations, neighborhoods and associations that were filled to overflowing in the late 1960's. His book title comes from the idea that more people are "bowling alone" rather than in leagues, which used to be one of the only ways that people ever really went bowling.

Our cultural isolation can be written off as the by-product of too many channels on TV, the overall busy-ness of our cultural, the rise of individualism, changing roles and families... The reasons aren't what is important any longer. We basically wave to our neighbors, but don't really have the energy or the time to chat them up. I heard once that the garage door opener was the invention that killed neighborly chats. Now we press our garage door opener when we are half a block from our house, roll into it and shut it behind us without ever having to talk to the guy across the street.

Yogi Berra said something profound. "If you don't go to somebody's funeral, they won't come to yours." Good old Yogi. It's true, though isn't it? We've become unconnected to one another. We don't go out of our way to be neighborly, and typically we get the favor returned.

God had something else in mind, though.

I'm teaching from Leviticus this week. I don't ordinarily teach from Leviticus because it's... well sort of boring. It's full of rules and regulations, many of which we pretty much ignore. There are some folks who use some of the laws in Leviticus to back up their social world views, but could care less about the rest of them. But I digress...

Read Leviticus 4:13-16

The offering that is being referred to in this passage is the "Sin" or "Purification" offering. The passage indicates that when someone in the community commits an "unintentional" sin that the whole community basically assumes responsibility for that sin.

So what is "unintentional" sin as opposed to "deliberate" sin? Essentially this doesn't really mean what we assume it means. It's not a sin of ignorance, but it's also not sin with "a high hand," as deliberate sin might be described. In the ancient Hebrew language, sin with a "high hand" meant sin that was committed as if one was shaking a fist in the face of God. "Unintentional" sin is basically a slip, a falling short, a mistake. You know, the kind of sin that we all commit.

But there was nothing individualistic about this sin. The whole community was called to assume responsibility for it when they discovered it. It doesn't say that the person who commits the sin should be asked to leave until they get themselves right. The community takes it on as if every member were guilty. Then the elders acting as representatives bring the sacrifice on behalf of everyone.

So here's what we gather based on what God is commanding here: Individual sin affects the whole community. The whole community had to assume responsibility. The elders confessed and repented on behalf of the people. God obviously had some clear ideas about responsibility, connectedness and community.

Here's what I think that we need to take away from this.

Until you assume responsibility for your neighbors, you will never see them as God sees them.

I am that neighbor who flees into his garage. I am often exhausted when I come home. I barely have enough energy for my family. I had a neighbor across the street from my old house that I spoke to when I moved into the neighborhood and then again when I moved out. This hits me hard.

Do you pray for your neighborhood? Do you offer prayers while you're walking or driving through it?

Do you volunteer to help you neighbors when they need some help?

Are you breaking bread with your neighbors? Have you invited them over for dinner?

Do your neighbors know where you go to church?

We have no idea what is going on in the houses of our neighbors. We don't know the pain or the loss they might be feeling. We don't know their stories because we aren't seeing them as God would have us to see them. We aren't taking responsibility for them before God.

Now I am not advocating that God needs us to witness to them or they will never hear the Gospel. I have heard that in fundamentalist churches---that the blood of the "lost" will be on our hands if they die without Christ and we didn't witness to them. God doesn't need us to carry the Light to the world, he wants us to join him.

I heard the story of a lady in Miami who endured Hurricane Andrew several years ago. Her house was damaged badly, and she got a settlement to have it fixed. The money ran out in the middle of the repairs, however, and the contractor left. The house had no wiring for power and no plumbing. She lived this way for 15 years right under the noses of her neighbors.

What sort of spiritual darkness might our neighbors be experiencing that is going unnoticed?

You might be saying, "But I don't know what to say. I don't know the Bible that well. I don't know a lot about Christian doctrine. I don't want to look... stupid."

Just tell your story. Tell the story of how God's grace has changed your life. Tell the story of how encountering Jesus transformed you forever. Tell about the hope you feel, the joy that fills your life, the purpose that you have...

Be a neighbor... a real neighbor. And let God do the rest.

Thy Word: Why the Bible is a Guide

2012-01-29T05:00:00.000-08:00

This week I am preaching the last in a three-part sermon series on the Bible. As I've said, there is no way to plumb the depths and complexity of Holy Scripture in three sermons. Which is why I set out to answer three very important questions.

For the previous two questions, visit here or here.

This week's question is "How is the Bible a guide for my life?"

There are lots of Christian-y people who claim that the Bible is the only guide for faith and life, but then seem to live their lives in ways that appear to contradict what the Bible teaches.

Then there are those who refuse to be guided by the Bible at all---preferring to be "led by the Spirit," which sometimes is shorthand for "doing whatever it is that I want to do."

In my denomination, the Presbyterian Church (USA) we say as part of ordination vows, that we promise to be "guided by Scripture." But do any of us really know what that means? If our lives are being guided by Scripture does it mean that we have to start living biblically---like literally? There's some pretty strange stuff in the Bible, to be honest. I mean, do we really need to start stoning adulterers or dkids who talk back to their parents?

Well, maybe the last bit.

Or is it something deeper? Maybe when the Bible is the guide for your life, you discover that in the moments when you find yourself disoriented, you know---just know--- there's a way through it.

Let me tell some stories...

I went scuba diving once. I did the requisite training to get "resort" certified. When when got to the dive location, I plunged over board just like I was taught and began breathing through my regulator as I began to make my way down. I think I was about twenty feet under water when I suddenly panicked. I felt like I couldn't breathe, the surface seemed like a mile away, and I began to freak out. Just at that moment the dive master swam up and grabbed my hands. He motioned for me to look into his eyes as I descended. I fixed my gaze on his, and we went to the bottom together.

Once I found myself driving in the early morning hours before dawn in the middle of a dense fog. I literally couldn't see a hundred feet in front of me. I was petrified that I would miss a curve and find myself plummeting over a cliff---although there were no cliffs nearby, it was still a thought that raced through my head. My hands were gripping the steering wheel so tight I thought that I would break it. Then suddenly I saw two red tail lights in the distance. It was a car driving ahead of me. The closer I got to the car, the more I realized that I could see the road better because it was in front of me. I fell in about 50 yards behind my newfound guide and followed him.

I read an article this week about what it is like to fly an airplane in dense fog solely by instruments. The article was written by someone who was commenting on the untimely and tragic death of JFK Jr, who crashed his small plane while flying in an incredibly dense fog near Martha's Vineyard. The pilot said that it is so easy to become disoriented when you take your eyes off your instruments. He related how he nearly crashed himself when he did just that and began banking his plane without even realizing it. Relying on one's instruments, he affirmed, is the only way to get through it alive.

Now let's read Psalm 119:105-112

This is an interesting Psalm. There are 22 sections that correspond to each letter of the Hebrew alphabet. There are 8 lines per section, and there are 8 basic terms that appear throughout the Psalm repeatedly. They are: law, zdecree, statutes, commandments, ordinances, word, precepts and promise.

This tells us that this Psalm was meant to be read aloud to others or to oneself--like a poem---which it was.

This also tells us that it was meant to be memorized--the words were repeated and the way it was structured was designed for easier memorization.

It was also a declaration of faith in weakness. The Psalm returns again and again to the idea that the singer is weak, helpless, falling apart, afraid, etc., but is going to lean hard on the veracity and reliability of Scripture for guidance.

Here's what I think about Psalm 119 in our own context:

It's a call for both obedience and faith. It tells us that when we have faith to obey, our obedience gives us faith. I know. It doesn't seem to make sense, but it will.

I also think that this Psalm is a reminder that God's word is given, never possessed. It isn't our words to manipulate as we wish. This is God's word for us.

Along those lines, Psalm 119 tells us that God's word is authoritative because it is God's alone. It doesn't need anything or anyone else to affirm it.

And Psalm 119 also tells us that Scripture is a revelation of God that must become part of us if we are to be guided by it. (I talked about this last week)

So what does all this mean?

Here's the one thing I want to convey more than anything else: When it comes to being guided by Scripture, We believe in order to understand. Our belief comes first and then it seeks understanding. If we seek to understand before we believe, we tend to "lean" on our own understanding.

Listen, the Typical Christian Formula for Biblical Authority goes something like this: The Bible + My Interpretation = My Interpretation

Most Christians use the Bible as a means to support their already well-thought out and well-reasoned views on everything. The believe because they find proof for what the believe in the text. But if we are to genuinely be guided by Scripture, we need to believe first, and then let our belief guide us to understanding.

Someone may have a question at this point: "So what you're saying is that I have to suspend disbelief when I read the Bible?"
The answer: Yup.

This is not anti-intellectual or anti-scientific. I am not asking anyone to check their brains at the door.

This is an invitation to something bigger, something greater. It's an invitation to recognize the limits of your knowledge and power. It's an invitation to accept the Biblical claim that life is a gift of God through Christ that depends entirely on God.

This is an invitation to certainty, light and trust.

The Bible is not a dead letter but a dynamic, living word. You need to handle it with care. You need to read it with an openness to the Holy Spirit---ready to be transformed and changed by it. You need to be accosted by the Bible--willing to let it overwhelm your imagined strengths that are nothing but brokenness.

And here's something else, the Bible is meant to be "taken on the road." It's not something that stays in the distant past. The Psalm clearly bespeaks of a path, and of someone walking on it, led by the guiding light of Scripture. It has a past, but it doesn't live there. It is relevant for this path in this time.

I read this statistic this week: Americans who say the Bible is the actual living word of God that should be used as a guide for our lives: 28%. Ten year ago that statistic was 38%.

We are losing this one. When people become disoriented, they don't even think twice about picking up Dr. Phil's latest tome, or tuning in to Dr. Oz. They may even come to church, hoping to hear something uplifting.

This has to change. It's not about knowing all the answers, or being able to find all the references. It's not about what we know, but it is about what we believe.

When it comes to being guided by Scripture, we believe in order to understand. And just like when I looked into the eyes of the dive master, when I saw the tail lights of the car on that foggy road, when the pilot focuses on his instruments rather than what he thinks he sees... then we began to know. We are not making it. It is making us.

Why I Am Not A Progressive Christian [a response]

2012-01-24T05:28:00.000-08:00

Image via Wikipedia

To begin with, I have to thank Landon Whitsit, the Vice-Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA), and (as he describes himself) writer, speaker, theologian and artist for posting this:

The 10 Commandments Of a Progressive Christian Faith.

What Landon did was summarize in a few sentences the "essential tenets" if you will of "progressive," mainline Christianity. I respect Landon a great deal for putting this out there even though I have some disagreements with him.

[As an aside, I put progressive in quotes because calling something progressive connotes actual progress. I don't see the "progressives" in the Church doing anything that is actually giving it life, growing it, expanding it's mission. Most liberal mainline churches are dying on the vine. I don't think that's progress. But that's just my opinion. ]

First, I must share that I agree with many of Landon's commandments:

1. I believe the Grace and Peace of God in Christ is free, and was given to me to set me free in all things (ie – physically, spiritually, emotionally, relationally, materially, politically, intellectually, etc.). I should freely give what I have freely received.

I AGREE.

2. I believe that everyone should be able to come into relationship with Jesus Christ without having to understand his work and person exactly as I do.

I AGREE, as long as their understanding is not outside the bounds of what is revealed about Christ in Scripture.

4. I believe that my understanding of Christ, while valid and transformative, is limited. I do not posses the original, sole, or correct understand of the work and person of Jesus Christ.

I AGREE. Christ cannot be bullied into our narrow categories or theologies. Jesus isn't a Republican, but he's also not a social worker or a hippie sage.

5. I believe that no person or group should be implicitly or explicitly excluded from the Body of Christ.

I AGREE, but I do believe that there are some that exclude themselves.

6. I believe that I should pray for and support all endeavors which seek to set others free.

I AGREE.

7. I believe that I am called to help set people free without requiring they enter a relationship with Christ.

I AGREE.

8. I believe that the truth of the Gospel cannot be restricted to a particular theology.

I AGREE. "TRUTH" isn't a concept it's a person and that person is Jesus Christ, who also happens to be God, who cannot be restricted to a particular theology. [not sure if this is what Landon meant, but there you go.]

10. I believe that the benefit of the Gospel cannot be restricted to a particular group of people.

I AGREE...SORT OF. The "Good News" that Jesus Christ is Lord should be "Good News" for everyone. I do believe that for some people it's not good news, particularly if they don't want him as Lord.

Now, here is where we start to diverge, and where I find Landon's list so very helpful in articulating why I am not a progressive Christian.

3. I believe that the Gospel will mean different things in different places. Incarnation = Contextualization.

The Gospel message might take on different forms in different contexts and there might be various ways that the Gospel is conveyed that are contextualized. But it doesn't mean something different. The message itself doesn't change. Either Jesus is Lord over all, and the only way to know the Father or he isn't. This smacks of relativism---"what's true for me, really may not be true for you." The Jesus who is Lord over all is the same "yesterday, today and forever." How that message is conveyed might change, but the message doesn't.

8. I believe that while God has called me into relationship through Christ, others may be called into relationship in other ways.

To use an old word that really needs to make a comeback in the church... this is heresy. On the surface, these are the arguments of Universalists, who believe that it's God's intention to save everyone regardless of what they believe or confess. But the heresy in this kind of argument isn't in the universalism.

[Honestly, EVERY Christian should be a universalist at heart. We should desire fervently that all should be saved, and hope for that even as we preach repentance and confession of Jesus as Lord and Savior. For the record, I am NOT a universalist in theology and belief despite my desires for all of Creation and humankind.]

What is heresy is the belief that there are ways other than Christ to be in relationship with God. There aren't. HOW that works is beyond me, but there really is "no other name under heaven whereby you must be saved." When we speak of God we speak of Christ. Christ brought God to us and brings us to God. If you want to be a CHRISTIAN Universalist at least say that somehow God is going to bring all of Creation into relationship with him through Christ. We may not agree on that theological point, but at least it wouldn't be heretical.

And if I may be so bold...

Here are some things that the list of progressive commandments lacks that also reveals why I am not a progressive Christian:

1. A call to holiness. I find progressive Christianity seems to be very interested in calling corporations, conservatives, Republicans and Wal-Mart to holiness, but is fearful of naming sin when it falls below the systemic level. The Gospel should transform us and give us a desire to lead holy lives, which is evidence of the Spirit of Christ within us. It's easy to call Wal-Mart out on sin. It's much harder to do it to a friend or a co-worker... or ourselves. I have found that progressives shy away from this for fear of seeming intolerant and judgmental.

2. Authority of Scripture. I have discovered that progressive Christianity doesn't like the words "authority" and "Scripture" to be used in the same sentence. In fact, I believe this is why progressive Christianity has done it's best to discredit the Bible and toss out all the difficult bits. I've noticed that when conservatives declare that Scripture has authority over their lives, progressives will accuse them of Biblolatry. "The Bible isn't God!" they might exclaim. Of course when it comes to social justice issues, progressives seem to have no trouble claiming passages that affirm their worldview as authoritative.

If you're saying at this point, "Hey! You are simply defining yourself by what you are not!" let me commend to you a list of the things that I do affirm, click this to read my recent blog post on the topic.

Why I Want to Support The Fellowship of Presbyterians #fellowshippres

2012-01-20T10:04:00.000-08:00

This week in Orlando, FL a tectonic shift in the Church occurred. A new "denomination" appears to have been born, and the Presbyterian Church (USA) is about to be transformed in yet-unknowable, but challenging ways.

The Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians was unveiled at the Fellowship of Presbyterians gathering in front of over 2,000 participants (pastors & elders from churches in the PCUSA)---a "new reformed body," a new denomination for all intents and purposes. The ECO, as it is being called, offers some options for pastors and churches in the PCUSA:

The Fellowship offers three different options for affiliation so congregations can pursue what best honors their ministry context. The options are:

affiliate with the Fellowship as a ministry association (involves no change in status with the PC(USA));
pursue a union membership with the PC(USA) and ECO;
and join ECO as full members (requiring dismissal from the PC(USA).

To learn more about what is happening, and read the ECO documents, simply go to the Fellowship website.

I have been following the Fellowship of Presbyterians Gathering in Orlando from afar. I'm currently studying Christology & Ministry with Dr. Andrew Purves as part of a Doctor of Ministry program with Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.

I can't tell you how important it has been for me to be learning more about Jesus and Ministry while I have been struggling with how I feel about all of this. I've become deeply convicted about my own lack of piety, my neglect of good theology and my desire to do ministry for Christ rather than in Christ.

As I read the theological documents of the Fellowship, I must admit that I agree with them completely. I also affirm these core values that the Fellowship espouses:

Jesus-shaped identity
Biblical integrity
Thoughtful theology
Accountable community
Egalitarian ministry
Missional centrality
Center-focused spirituality
Leadership velocity
Kingdom vitality

And when I saw this diagram from the new ECO, I have to say that I affirm it completely as well:

I also affirm what I have read in the Polity Document that the ECO has adopted. I like that jokingly it has been referred to as the "Pamphlet of Order" rather than the "Book of Order."

But I cannot set aside my ordination vows to join the ECO. I know that there are a number of people at the the Gathering in Orlando, including some of the organizing pastors and church leaders who are with me.

Which is why I believe the road of the Fellowship to be the one I feel drawn to travel. I love the idea that it is essentially an "Order" within the PCUSA. It feels true to me. I am intrigued by the implications of being part of something that has the potential to draw me into deeper faithfulness to Christ in ministry.

I also understand the impulse to leave the PCUSA. There is something to be said for starting over again and leaving what is cumbersome, bureaucratic and dying behind. But as Dr. Purves said to me yesterday, "Sin will enter into this new denomination as well."

I believe that this tectonic shift will be for the PCUSA what the Reformation was to the Catholic Church---a call to faithfulness, a return to essentials and an impetus for reform.

As to whether I am ready to begin fully traveling down the road with the Fellowship---that remains to be seen. For now it will simply be enough to know that I am not alone where I stand.

Staying Presbyterian

2012-01-17T18:03:00.000-08:00

This week the Fellowship of Presbyterians (a conservative organization and movement within the Presbyterian Church USA) is meeting in Orlando to begin the process of forming a new denomination. This "New Reformed Body" is hoped by many within the Fellowship to be a new way forward for theologically conservatives, who are in a tail spin over the "liberal" direction that the Presbyterian Church USA denomination seems to be heading.

The recent passage of an amendment to the PCUSA constitution that now opens the door for churches and presbyteries to approve the ordination of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered deacons, elders and ministers was the final straw for many pastors, elders and sessions. More than a few churches in the PCUSA have already begun the process to leave the denomination---some moving to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, and others hoping that the New Reformed Body can be approved as a legitimate denomination to which their church can move.

I am paraphrasing what could easily take several pages to explain. Hope you get the gist of it.

I would be at the meetings in Orlando, but I am actually in the midst of a Doctor of Ministry seminar with Dr. Andrew Purves from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary on Christology. It's actually on Education, but really it's all about Christology, because that's what Dr. Purves lives and breathes. He is probably the ranking Reformed theologian in America right now. And he's Scottish. And we drank scotch together.

Dr. Purves, who has been a part of Presbyterians for Renewal (another conservative renewal group and movement within the PCUSA) indicated that he would also have been at the Fellowship Gathering had he not been teaching my group. But his being there would not have been in support of what is transpiring. He believes that leaving the denomination is something that he could never do. It's the denomination that ordained him, married him, baptized his kids...

I know this is going to shock some of my liberal friends and colleagues, but I agree with him.

I know that many liberals in the PCUSA really are hoping that the conservatives will all leave the PCUSA. It would make it easier for them to do their thing---which at this point seems to be subjecting their churches to long, slow deaths. I know that many conservatives are being tempted to leave the PCUSA because then they can go be surrounded by a bunch of people who totally agree with their theological bent---until they find the next group of people to fight with...

As for me, I'm not going anywhere.

I have no desire to subject my growing, thriving, vibrant church (a church that has added nearly 200 members in the last three years, and is on the way to complete metamorphisis from a traditional to a transformational congregation) to the divisive and possibly life-threatening ordeal of exodus. We honestly don't care what the PCUSA does, we are going to focus on being the Church at the corner of Citrus Street and Center Street in Eustis, FL. That's our address by the way. It's in a neighborhood where we are living out our mission to know Jesus and to show Jesus.

Plus, I kind of like the idea of spoiling the party for the left wing of the PCUSA. For the past few months, they've been acting like they own the place. That's cool... conservatives did the same thing a while back. Everything, and I mean everything comes back around again.

Plus, I am tired of being made to feel less than because I'm not a culturally sensitive theological relativist.

I should put that another way.

I don't feel like I have to apologize for my faith. I don't have to stick my finger in the air to see which way the cultural wind is blowing before I take a stand. I am not ashamed of the fact that Jesus is the Way the Truth and the Life and that NO ONE comes to Father-God except through Him. I may not understand that completely, and some of it is a mystery, but Jesus said it, and he believed it. So I believe it, too and hold on to it as if my life depended on it... because it does. ALL our lives depend on it. All of CREATION depends on it.

So as many of my conservative brethren and sistren in the PCUSA start to beat a hasty exit to the denominational door, know this... We've got your back.

While you're off trying to find peace, unity and purity with your new deal, there will be a bunch of us sticking it out here in the old one. And I promise you that we won't make it easy on the liberal-types who might want us to go with you. They can't shake us. We're their brothers and sisters whether they like it or not. And while some people might say all kinds of touchy-feely stuff about family---we'll actually be living out the truth of what it means to be in a family. Families argue. Families sometimes duke it out in the back yard after Thanksgiving dinner.

But they're still families.

I don't have any patience for pseudo-religious platitudes, hand-wringing and namby-pamby Presbytery resolutions for everyone to "just get along." Let's struggle together. Let's wrestle in the basement. Let's throw water balloons at one another when we're not looking. I'm all about us getting real with one another. And I am not afraid of conflict.

And I am betting that there are some liberal-types out there who actually agree with me, and who really don't want conservative-types to leave and really do want to wrestle in the basement, have water balloon fights, and then go eat popsicles in the backyard, stare up at the clouds and talk about life together.

But make no mistake, I'm not leaving. Try and make me.

The Bible: Book of Rules or a Tasty Snack?

2012-01-15T03:53:00.000-08:00

This Sunday I am continuing my sermon series on the Bible as we seek to answer this all important question: "What authority does the Bible have over my life?"

We used this text last week, which speaks right into the heart of what we'll be discussing this week: 2 Timothy 3:16-17

Last week I took a slightly different approach to answering questions of inspiration and the Bible. Rather than turning the discussion into an apologetic exercise with big theological words and lots of footnotes, I simply encouraged the congregation to have inspirational encounters with Scripture.

If you think that's cheating, sue me. Apologetic exercises with big theological words and lots of footnotes aren't really doing a very good job of convincing both Christians and unChristians alike that the Bible is the inspired word of God. I figured that actually reading it, studying it, engaging it and letting it fall afresh on us might be a better way of "proving" inspiration.

So along those same lines, I want to take a different approach to answering the question I asked earlier: "What authority does the Bible have over my life?"

But first, let's talk about the Bible as a weapon.

When I was growing up in the fundamentalist Baptist world, we often referred to the Bible as the "Sword of the Lord." Obviously we were speaking in metaphors, and drawing on the "sharper than any two-edged sword" imagery, but we did our best to take it up a notch from metaphor. In the Christian culture I was raised, you were encouraged to use your Bible knowledge at the drop of a hat in any circumstance where someone needed some Scripture dropped down on them like a big old sword to the noggin.

So naturally we had "Sword Drills" to prepare.

A Sword Drill is where everyone in the room sits with their Bible in their lap. The emcee will call out the name of a book in the Bible, a chapter and a verse. When the signal is given, everyone grabs their Bible and turns as quickly as they can to the passage. When they have it, they stand up. The first one up wins.

I almost always won. I was so fast on Sword Drills it boggled the mind. Hey, it's not bragging if it's true.

If an evolutionist or Episcopal crossed my path, I would have been ready to throw down with them and drop some serious Scripture passages on them with blinding speed. Atheists and feminists would have trembled in the presence of my lightning draw.

I could go on with that... but I won't.

Interestingly enough, we were all being taught to be quick with Scripture, but not to spend time with it, savor it and let it live in us, so to speak. Does it matter how quickly you can find a text, if you don't really own what you are reading?

There was this Guy I Knew Once (we've all had them in our lives), who had vast amounts of Scripture memorized. He had a text for every moment. If you made a statement, he would quote Scripture in response. Question? Yup, he'd quote a text for you. Sometimes out of the blue he would just spit out Scripture for no good reason. It was unbelievably obnoxious, and so was he. He took such pride in his abilities to have a quickly drawn two-edged sword, but he didn't actually take the time to be transformed by the Bible.

In Ezekiel 3:1-2 we have this:
1 And he said to me, “Son of man, eat what is before you, eat this scroll; then go and speak to the house of Israel.” 2 So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat.

And then there's this from Revelation 10:8-11

8 Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me once more: “Go, take the scroll that lies open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.” 9 So I went to the angel and asked him to give me the little scroll. He said to me, “Take it and eat it. It will turn your stomach sour, but ‘in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey.’[a]” 10 I took the little scroll from the angel’s hand and ate it. It tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour. 11 Then I was told, “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages and kings.”

Eat the scroll. Two distinct visions, two identical commands.

What does this mean?

It's about guts. You know, innards... bowels... the stuff inside you that mysteriously makes your body work. This is a moment when the prophet Ezekiel and John the Revelator show us what it means to make Scripture a part of oneself.

They are commanded to eat it. And when they eat it, it changes them, becomes part of them, is absorbed by them.

It wasn't about being able to recite what was on the scroll word for word. It was about knowing it, believing it, and feeling it.

What you consume, you absorb and what you absorb becomes a part of you and what becomes a part of you in some way directs you. You see I have this notion that the true authority of Scripture is an inward rather than an outward authority. In other words, "You Are What You Eat."

Let's talk about following recipes.

Would you trust the recipe of a chef who never tasted his/her food? Seriously, how would you feel if a chef deposited some food in front of you and said, "I just sort of came up with this. I have no idea how it tastes. I try to never taste my creations before I serve them."

This does not instill confidence, does it? I mean it might be good. I suppose a renowned chef could produce a recipe that he/she never tasted and it could be tasty. But Culinary 101 establishes a very important guideline for chefs---you have to taste a dish before you serve it. Or sell it.

What's the best thing you ever ate?

There is this verse in the Bible that reads, "Taste and see that the Lord is good." This was obviously said by somebody who had already tasted to see that the Lord was good... and He was. And then they want you to taste and see, too.

Do you have in your head what the best thing you ever ate might have been?

I can tell you exactly what mine was. Here it is:
It's Chicken & Waffles from the Metro Diner in Jacksonville, Florida.

What you are seeing is perfectly fried chicken, unbelievably created waffles, a side of maple syrup mixed with hot sauce and topped with some heavenly strawberry butter. Oh, and powdered sugar.

Right now. Right this second I am wishing that I could get in my car and drive to Jacksonville to eat this.

You can take my word for it that eating this is about the closest to Glory that you can get this side of Glory. Because I ate it, and it was good, I want everyone to enjoy it, too.

When you consume something so good, so satisfying, so unbelievably good that you feel it down to your toes...

You share it. You desire it again. You never forget it.
It becomes a part of you.

Which is why I say that the authority of Scripture is an inward rather than an outward authority. Because you are what you eat. If you consume Scripture, you will absorb it, and if you absorb it it will become a part of you, and once that happens you are directed by it somehow.

The question was: "What authority does the Bible have over my life?"
The answer I am proposing is this: "Does it taste good to you?"

You see, it's not about having a set of rules, laws, warnings and directives---although those things do exist inside the Bible. But if that was the sum total of the message of the Bible it wouldn't be very tasty.

Here's a way to understand this better: When John the Revelator eats the scroll in Revelation, the angel tells him, "It's going to taste as sweet as honey in your mouth.... But it's going to make your stomach sour, pal."

It was a Maalox moment for the prophet. Sometimes there are things in Scripture that might not sit well with us---things that are hard for us to hear. But the taste is still sweet, because the WHOLE of the message is one of redemption, love and undeniable grace.

That Guy I Knew who spouted off Scripture in every moment didn't see the Bible as Chicken and Waffles. He saw it as a hefty, old law book. It's not. It's Chicken and Waffles. Or whatever the best thing you ever ate was. The Bible wields authority over us when we consume it, absorb it and it becomes part of our very DNA.

It changes us then. We find ourselves living by it not because we are afraid but because we feel it so deeply inside of us. We discover that we desire it more and more, and can't stop thinking about it.

And we want everyone to sample it with us.

Go ahead. Take a bite.

Tebow After Tonight's Game

2012-01-14T19:11:00.001-08:00

It's already begun online and the Broncos/Patriots game isn't even over.

I made the mistake of checking my Twitter feed and caught at least twenty tweets from people making fun of Tim Tebow---some more than once. Almost all of them had to do with his faith.

Most of them were Christians. More than a few of them, pastors.

I post my fair share of stupidity online and I'm a pastor, so grace abounds.

I get why there are a lot of evangelical Christians who jumped on the Tebow bandwagon recently. Many of them went way overboard, to be sure. But I get it.

On the other hand, I've never understood why so many Christians want Tim Tebow to fail so badly.

Christian blogger and recording artist Carolos Whittaker had this to say about Tebow and this very same topic in a post entitled, "I'm Embarrassed by Tim Tebow." His point: Tebow's very real, very genuine displays of his faith put most of us to shame. The kid is the real deal---win or lose.

I tend to agree with him. Most of us walk around ashamed to share our faith. We say really superior things like, "While Tebow is praying about football games, thousands of kids are dying of hunger..." As if we are doing anything about those thousands of kids...

Which Tebow actually is through his mission work and generosity.

Or we say, "God doesn't care about who wins a football game!" As if there weren't a thousand things we pray about, care about, give our time to that are pretty trivial, too.

The truth is, Tebow doesn't pray that he wins---he prays that he will play well. And he full well knows that sometimes he doesn't.

What he does after the games, however, reveals the truth about who he is and what he believes. Read this article from ESPN's Rick Reilly

So after this game, that is quickly turning into an absolute debacle, Tim Tebow will find the person he is hosting at the game, and he will spend time with them. Because that is what he does, win or lose. Whether the cameras are on or not. And he'll live out his faith in the open, unashamed of his devotion to Jesus.

And he'll keep embarrassing most of us Christian types---especially those of us who have cheered so lustily for him to fail.

If only to feel better about ourselves for a while.

And as a lifetime Broncos fan I now have to say... "Wait until NEXT YEAR"

Is The Bible The Inspired Word of God, or What?

2012-01-05T11:55:00.001-08:00

This week I am beginning a brief sermon series on the Bible entitled, "The Book." This series had it's origins in a sermon planning workshop that I held with church members and staff recently. One of their greatest concerns had to do with what they perceived as a lack of biblical literacy among the average church member.

They're not the only ones concerned about the lack of biblical literacy in the Christian community. You wouldn't believe how much ink has been spilled and hands have been wrung by pastors and denominational authorities over the fact that we seem to be fighting a losing battle when it comes to passing on Bible knowledge to emerging generations.

Here's the thing, I am aware that it's nigh to impossible to cover the complexity and depth of the Bible in three sermons---which is why I am only taking on three major questions about Scripture that most of ask:

1. Is the Bible the Inspired Word of God?
2. What sort of authority does the Bible have over our lives?
3. Is the Bible really a guide for Christian living?

As you can tell by the title of this post, we'll be dealing with the question of inspiration first.

After we take a quiz:

A Bible Knowledge Quiz

How many books are there in the Old Testament?

__ A. 39 __ C. 55__ B. 40 __ D. 66

How many books are there in the New Testament?

__ A. 24 __ C. 35__ B. 27 __ D. 37

Who is the traditional author of the Gospel of John?

__ A. John the Baptist __ B. John, son of Zebedee

__ C. John of Arimathea __ D. The Beloved Disciple

Place these Old Testament Kings in order:

__ A. David __ C. Solomon__ B. Josiah __ D. Saul

Number these in chronological order

__ Moses __ Noah__ Abraham __ Ezekiel__ David

In which Gospel is found the story of Jesus’ ascension into

heaven?

__ A. The Gospels of Matthew and Mark

__ B. The Gospel of John

__ C. The Gospel of Luke only

__ D. The Gospel of Thomas

__ E. None of the above

What is the name of the last book in the Old Testament?

How long was Jesus’ earthly ministry?

__ A. 1 year __ C. 3 years__ B. 2 years __ D. 4 years

Answers: A, B, BorD, Saul-David-Solomon-Josiah, Noah-Abraham-Moses-David-Ezekiel, E, Malachi, C

So be honest... how many of those did you get right?

I read this awesome quote this week in a book by Peter J. Gomes:
"The Church is in bad shape when the only person who knows anything about the Bible is the pastor."

Here's the truth of the matter... Most of us are quite content with surrogate living. We cheer for other people who play sports while we sit on the couch. We read newspapers and watch particular news shows so we will know what to think and how to vote. We let advertisers tell us what we need to buy, wear, drive and eat.

We're consumers. And Christians in our culture are consumers, too.

And so it shouldn't be a shock that like good consumers most of us Christians go to church so that someone else will read the Bible for us, and tell us what it means. Even further, in most churches across America worshippers don't bring their Bibles to church with them, and don't even open the ones that are typically provided in the pews.

And this is why I think it's important for us to address the three questions I posed earlier... We need to reverse the trend of biblical illiteracy in our churches, and learn to fall in love with Scripture as our inspiration, authority and guide in life.

Now to inspiration...

If you asserted that the Bible is the "inspired Word of God" in a crowd of people there is bound to be some controversy. It's a loaded term in our current culture. Some might argue about which parts of the Bible you might be referring to. Others would begin picking apart the definition of "inspired." Still others would question your motives for saying it in the first place. It might turn out to be a spirited discussion about theories and theology.

But in the end, those spirited discussions aren't going to matter a whole lot. And they certainly aren't going to lead to transformed lives or a transformed world.

We need inspirational encounters with inspired Scripture not theories about how Scripture is inspired.

Read 2 Timothy 3:16-17

The key word in this passage is "God-breathed"

Paul used this term because he wanted his readers to understand some things about Scripture---that because of it's status as "God-breathed" it is infallible and authoritative.

I realize that this statement raises the hackles of some people. "Infallible?" they might say, "Certainly not! There are discrepancies, contradictions, questionable authorship, blah-blah-blah-blah!"

Manuscripts were lost throughout the centuries. Monks copied things incorrectly from time to time. Scholars have spent over a century or more trying to debunk Scripture and discredit it.

And still the Bible remains and is the most widely read book in the world. And still we have this line from Paul: "God-breathed."

Human authors did speak in Scripture, but they were carried along by the Spirit of God. We use the language of metaphor when we have no words to describe what we experience. And we can be confident of the way the heart of God becomes thoughts expressed in words, even words that don't do God justice.

When Paul wrote this letter to Timothy he wanted to express something called a "present relevance"---that Scripture was relevant for today's issues even though it may have been written in another context and another time. Of course the Scripture that Paul was referring to was the Old Testament, which leads some people to say, "See! You can't say that the New Testament is God's Word! Even Paul didn't believe that."

While it is true that Paul didn't have the Gospels, Epistles and History "books" of the New Testament, he did have an understanding of how the "Old" Testament pointed to Jesus---what some scholars call "authoritative continuation." Jesus said that the Old Testament Scriptures "testify about me." In it's entirety Scripture declares God's promises, the human plight and God's solution for salvation.

Paul also outlined four ways that "God-breathed" Scripture should be used:

1. Teaching - Paul believed that the study and exposition of Scripture helped to build up the Body of Christ
2. Rebuking & Correcting - this is the most challenging use of Scripture for most of us, but Paul meant it as "discipline" and "adjustment." When we know what needs to be corrected to lead a "God-breathed" life, we can make the necessary adjustments to do so.
3. Training in Righteousness - this is the application and progression aspect of Scripture. When we ask, "What does this mean for me today, and how can I apply it?" when we read the Bible, we can then begin to move forward in discipleship.
4. Complete Sufficiency - through Scripture we can come to a knowledge of God's will in the world and how we fit into it. This is the "others-oriented" aspect of the transformational work of Scripture.

I have to say this... We need this now more than ever. In a world that seems more and more uncertain... When the Church seems to be straying farther and farther away from it's mission and purpose... Surrounded by a culture that devalues truth, purity, peace, hope and love...

We need the kind of inspiration that comes from the God-breathed words of Scripture. The kind of inspiration that changes lives.

This week I read the story of a priest Signor Antonio of Minas who prior to entering the priesthood did everything he could to destroy Christianity. He bought a New Testament to burn and as he tore the pages out, his eyes fell on the words of the Sermon on the Mount. He began to read, and stayed up all night reading the Bible. By morning, he knew that he believed.

There is the story of Vincente Quinoga of Chile, a nonbeliever who was walking the beach after a tidal wave had destroyed the coastline. A few pages of Scripture floated ashore and he began to read them. He immediately sought out a Bible to finish reading and gave his life to Christ.

I read the story of a robber in Sicily who sought to rob a minister of his money and as an act of terror was about to make him burn his books. The minister began to read from his books, which were all Bibles, and the robber would say, "no not that one, not that one..." Eventually he took one of the Bibles with him, left the minister without robbing him and fled. Years later, he became a preacher.

When I was a kid I remember hearing our pastor tell the story of a man who checked into a hotel room intent on killing himself. He laid the gun on the bed and sat on it. He was looking for something to write a suicide note when he saw the Gideon's Bible in the drawer. He began to read it, and stayed up all night engrossed in the pages. By morning he gave his life to Christ and returned home.

All over the world people are reading smuggled Bibles in countries where Christianity is persecuted and the Bible is forbidden, both officially and unofficially. As they read their Bibles, sometimes in fear for their own life, they find life and hope in the pages.

I have been studying the Bible my whole life. Sometimes I did it because I was made to by my parents, teachers and youth leaders, but even then I secretly didn't mind. I've memorized long passages from the Bible, taken Bible classes in school, was on a Bible quiz team when I was a high schooler, and then spent several years in Seminary and nearly 15 years serving in ministry, teaching, preaching and talking about the Bible.

And it still lights me up. I still don't feel like I read it enough. Every time I open it, I learn something new about God, faith, life and everything.

The inspiration contained in the Bible saved my life---correction is saving my life.

We need inspirational encounters with Scripture, not theories about how Scripture is inspired.

A Charlie Brown Christmas Sermon

2011-12-25T06:41:00.000-08:00

Image via Wikipedia

When I worked in a church near Chicago, I discovered just how serious people up North are about Christmas pageants. Every church worth it's salt up there had a fancy Christmas pageant, it seemed.

I also discovered that it was something of a status symbol for families to get their kids into the pageants. I knew a lady who had been Mary in the pageant at our church with her baby daughter standing in for Jesus. The last year I was at the church, her grown daughter was Mary and her grandson was Jesus.

They were quite proud of the legacy.

Parents lobbied hard for their kids to be involved in these pageants, which were conducted with a great deal of solemnity and pomp.

But there was always at least one little shepherd who would do something crazy in the middle of the thing to mess it all up---like burp, drop his shepherds crook a hundred times or break wind. And then the organizers and director would be filled with anxiety---which is to say they were filled with rage and red-faced.

Inevitably, the kid's mother would end up giving him the death look from across the room, and he would spend the rest of the pageant looking like he'd been shot instead of rejoicing at the birth of Jesus.

And guess what kinds of things that people usually remembered about those pageants? Not the stuff that went right, you can be sure.

Read Luke 2:1-20

The story of Jesus' birth is the story of humble beginnings.

It's a story of misfits. You have Joseph, who married a girl who had gotten knocked up out of wedlock. They were basically homeless in Bethlehem that night, to boot. You have a bunch of shepherds--dirty, uncouth fellows who wouldn't be welcome in any decent home.

It's a story of things that don't look cool in a pageant. There was no stable made of newly hewn wood. It was probably a cave carved into the side of a hill. The manger was a big rock with a trough carved in it. And let's be honest, none of this happened in the bleak December...

Which brings me to "A Charlie Brown Christmas"

When A Charlie Brown Christmas was screened to the CBS network executives in 1965 it almost didn't see the light of day. After it was over, they were all silent. Like an awkward, "we hated that" kind of silence. One of the animators had been drinking and he stood up and pronounced, "I don't care what you guys think, this show will be around a hundred years from now!"

The show gained a 50 share when it aired. That means that half of the people who owned TVs in 1965 were watching it.

Even now, with more than just three networks to choose from, it still gains an 11 share or better. The show won an Emmy and a Peabody award. It was also the first show of its kind to be voiced entirely by children.

And it's only got 64 years to go to make it 100 years.

Oh, and right in the middle of the show there is a soliloquy by Linus where he basically quotes a big chunk of Luke 2.

The basic story line is a classic Peanuts story. Charlie Brown is disillusioned by the way that Christmas has become commercialized. In order to cheer him, the gang lets him be the director of their Christmas pageant. When he and Linus are sent out to find a Christmas tree for the pageant, they return with the worst looking tree ever. Even though the tree needed Charlie Brown, buying it got him criticized and ridiculed. The gang feels bad and transforms the tree into something beautiful after Linus quotes from Luke and reveals the true meaning of Christmas.

Charlie Brown's dilemma is a familiar one: humble beginnings, misfits and all of the wrong elements for a pageant.

We love stories like this, which is why it has endured. Just like the story of the 1st Christmas.

So why do we keep trying to make that story perfect with our pageants and our programs. Why do we fret so much with it being "right?"

Because we long for the wonder that comes from the weak being favored over the strong. We long for brokenness that is made whole. We want to believe that the bad guys don't get to win.

But it wasn't perfect. And that's okay. It needs to be imperfect. If Jesus had been born in a palace, it wouldn't have that sense of "us." Most of us aren't anything special. We need to know that someone thinks otherwise.

I think that this is our story and Jesus keeps showing up in it.

He shows up as the hungry man begging for food.
He shows up as the child no one wants.
He shows up as the single, teenaged mom with no options and no future.
He shows up as the family member we need to forgive.
He shows up as the family I encountered a few Christmas Eves ago outside of my housing development. They were digging through a dumpster from a construction site--salvaging things that might have been valuable.

And that whole day I had been worried about our worship service that night, and how we were going to distribute candles and keep everything on time and make it all inspirational.

I wanted it perfect.

But then I saw Jesus digging in a dumpster. And I knew that my worry over perfection was absolutely misguided and foolish.

Its not perfect, but it has a perfect ending. And that perfect ending is what saves, redeems, transforms and resurrects everything in Creation.

A Christmas Eve Post: "Destiny"

2011-12-24T10:00:00.000-08:00

This night.

This night is full of mystery and... hope.

Forget what the scholars say about how Jesus was probably born in the summer.

That the stable was probably a cave.

That Mary could have been as young as thirteen. And Joseph as old as fifty.

This isn't a night for historical criticism. This is a night for wonder. A night for miracles.

It's a night that reminds us that peace is possible, that joy is possible, that hope is not lost and that love is the answer.

For centuries the faithful have gathered on this night to celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace, the Savior who is Christ the Lord.

Some are drawn to gather for reasons entirely their own.

But drawn they are, because there is something about this night that cannot be denied--a sense of the magical, if I might border on heresy.

Some gather because they always have gathered. Worshipping with family, wearing Christmas-y clothes, holding candles, singing carols.

Some gather because they were driving by the open door of a church and a glimpse of the lights and the warmth inside compelled them to stop.

Some gather because their mom guilt-tripped them into gathering, and when they are sitting in the pew and smelling that church smell, and begin hearing the choir sing "Hark the Herald Angels Sing," they feel something stirring in their heart.

That last one was me when I was about 19 years old.

I think that one of the feelings that stirs within our hearts on this night is our sense of destiny. After all, this night reminds us that because of the birth of the King of Kings the destiny of the world was changed forever.

And we also can't help but think of the destiny of the little baby lying in that manger. Because there is a shadow that falls across that peaceful scene of a starry night, a stable and shepherds gathered in adoration---a cross shaped shadow.

The Gospel story reveals to us that the destiny of that little child was to suffer and to die. If we think about it long enough, and let ourselves sink into the story for a moment, it is enough to break your heart.

It should break our hearts.

You see, the destiny of that little child changes our own destinies.

Because of that cross-shaped shadow, we know that we can live in hope instead of fear.

We can live in joyful freedom instead of guilt and shame.

We have the certainty of a destiny that is filled with promise and fulfillment.

Because of this night.

And that child.

And the cross shaped shadow.

Farewell, Rob Bell

2011-12-20T04:42:00.000-08:00

If you know anything about me at all, you know that I am kind of a Rob Bell fan.

I've written about him on my blog from time to time.

I confessed a man-crush here.

And I wrote about his controversial book Love Wins Here and Here

The first time I heard Rob preach was in 2002 at a Youth Specialties conference. I sort of wept halfway through his sermon. I had never heard anyone preach the way Rob preaches. I still haven't.

For the past ten-plus years, Rob has been the teaching pastor at Mars Hill church in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Rob made an announcement earlier this year that he would be leaving Mars Hill to pursue other kinds of ministry.

And on Sunday he preached his last sermon to the congregation he founded.

I am going to miss listening to the Mars Hill podcasts---at least the ones where Rob is preaching. I hope Rob's leaving doesn't translate into a diminished ministry for Mars Hill---although it's probably inevitable to some extent.

I wanted to include some of the letter that Rob wrote to his congregation for his last sermon to them. He read/preached this on Sunday. If you've read Rob's books, or listened to him preach, you will understand why it's written the way it's written.

dear mars hiill,

to all the brothers and sisters of this church

to those who have been here from the beginning

who remember the old building, who braved that one?

ten foot wide hallways, clogged shoulder to shoulder

with people leaving the hangar to pick up their children

who had spent the previous hour packed into oxygen

deprived classrooms,

to those who hiked through the snow and slush and

mud that first day to sit on the floor

who idled in long traffic jams to listen to sermons from

the book of Leviticus on blood and guts and fire

and then to those of you who showed up for the first time

last week

to those who have complained for ten years that there's

no sign out front and heard me respond time and time again

'yes, but you found it'

to those who were baptized in that nearby lake in those

early days-especially those of you who were baptized that

one sunday when we didn't know that all of those

hundreds of fish had died earlier that week and washed

up on shore and so before you got baptized, you watched

in horror as your fellow church members wearing waders

collected the dead, rotting fish in black trash bags and cleared

out enough space for you to wade in and celebrate your new life-

and then to those of you who have been baptized in this room,

in an old former mall, standing here soaking wet, surrounded

by friends and family, cheered on by your tribe, not sure how

to put it in words but absolutely convinced that you in some

had tasted heaven on earth

to the young and to the old

to the hunters in your trucks who can't grill it if you don't kill it,

to the vegetarians in your prius' wearing hemp underwear

to those on the right and those on the left

to the Dutch, and to the not much,

to Lions fans and to infidels,

to all of you wherever and however you find yourself-

whatever size, shape, color, perspective, history, and background

you bring to this gathering-

grace and peace to all of you on this day.

To read the rest of Rob's sermon visit it at THIS LINK.

"Stuff" Week Four - "Putting the Christ Back In Christmas"

2011-12-16T11:02:00.000-08:00

Every year at Christmastime my family sacrifices a few Christmas ornaments in the name of progress---or carelessness, to be more precise.

When you have kids, these things happen. Adults are pretty adept at smashing ornaments, but kids make it an Olympic sport.

This year my 15 month-old son is experiencing his first Christmas as a sentient being. Last year he basically just sat where you put him and didn't do much. And he definitely wasn't capable of wrecking ornaments.

So in order to avoid Armageddon-like activity with our ornaments, we determined that the bottom portion of our Christmas tree needed to be filled with ornaments that were unbreakable, homemade, stuffed animals and the like.

Wouldn't you know the little knee-biter found a way to break one of the unbreakable ornaments.

When a Christmas ornament (especially one that has some sentimental value) breaks it's a sickening moment. When it hits the floor with that tell-tale crunch, everyone freezes at the sound of it, and slowly turns their heads to find out which one bought it.

I think that when we shatter a Christmas ornament that has meaning for us, one that contains a memory, if you will, we kind of think that the memory just might shatter with it. Even though we intellectually know that it doesn't work that way, it sort of feels like it.

Not too get too strange about it, but it's almost as if we grieve the loss of a broken ornament because it reminds us that the moment it represented is gone just like the shards of broken glass we're sweeping up.

And all of this is another reminder that stuff wears down, breaks, and is just... well, stuff. If we want to get at the truth of Christmas, and the truth of the goodness of Christmas we have to look beyond stuff.

So most of us Christian-types get our underwear bunched about how stores are making their employees say "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" and how Jesus is no longer "the reason for the Season." But then we participate in the very systems that are perpetuating this shift.

We focus on Stuff, instead of a Savior, in other words. And what we participate in, more than what we say reveals the heart of our worship.

The Apostle Paul had some Christmas memories of his own that he shares in what I call the 2nd Christmas Carol ever written, which is found in Philippians 2:5-11.

Go ahead, read Philippians 2:5-11 here.

This passage of Scripture is thought to be one of the oldest Christian hymns. When you read it though, you realize that what Paul is talking about here is a very deep and wonderful Christian belief called the Incarnation---the idea that God took on human form in the man Jesus Christ in order to save all of Creation. How that happens is a topic for another blog, but suffice it to say that it does, and is and will happen--the whole salvation thing.

The most beautiful way to imagine the Incarnation and all that it must have meant for the very Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity, the Christ... is in the Nativity. 2000 years ago on that starry night, in a rough hewn stone manger the Savior of us all lay wrapped in cloth, newly born, probably hungry and undoubtedly crying, helpless, small and lowly.

In Philippians 2 the Apostle Paul tells us that we should have "the same mind as Christ" (vs. 5), who was "in the very nature God," and who "made himself nothing." The Word of God, the Logos that John writes was present with God "in the beginning," the source, the creative, loving impetus for Creation humbled himself and became a tiny infant, born in impossibly awful circumstances.

And saved us.

Which is why Paul goes on to say that God then "exalted [Jesus] into the highest place," which we know to be Heaven or Where God Lives, and that one day "at the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord."

Holla.

I know what you want to ask me. "What was the first Christmas Carol?"

It appears in Luke chapter 2 verse 14 and it's sung by the angels who filled the skies over the shepherds fields outside Bethlehem, "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests."

There's that "highest" word again. And a promise of salvation.

When the angel appeared to the shepherds prior to this first carol, he told them, "I bring you Good News..." Funny. At the time of Jesus when the exalted Roman emperor Caesar Augusts proclaimed something it was called "Good News." Caesar Augustus was also said to have been born in unusual circumstances, and that star burned bright in the sky over the place of his birth.

Caesar. Who brought about peace through superior firepower. Who imposed Roman culture around the known world with an emphasis on materialism and consumerism and worship of what wasn't God.

It seems to me that right here, right now the very same thing happens in our own culture. We're being told that the our only means of salvation is to spend more money. Maybe you've seen the same bumper sticker that I've seen, "He who dies with the most toys wins." I think it should say, "He who dies with the most toys...dies."

It's not about Stuff, it's about a Savior.

But in an effort to be more mainstream, accepted, and well, popular, us Christian-types have watered down our faith so much that we've forgotten what it means to need a Savior. We need some nonnegotiables in the mix:

First, we need to lift up that Jesus, the Son of God became one of us.
Second, we need to affirm that Jesus showed us how we should live with his selfless life.
Third, Jesus demonstrated unconditional love through his humility and sacrifice.
Fourth Jesus was raised from the dead to "the highest," which us Christian-types affirm every time we recite ancient beliefs like the Apostle's Creed.
Fifth, Jesus is Lord, yesterday, today and forever. Although God is God and we are not, and we can't possibly know everything about who God saves and how---what we KNOW is that believing in Jesus and making him Lord of your life cuts out the uncertainty.

So what does this all mean for us and our Stuff and Christmas and everything?

Here's the thing, when I think of my most memorable Christmas memories, I don't really think of stuff. I think of moments. Moments when my family and I were together, when there was laughter, joy, love and warmth.

I remember sitting in the back of a car smashed between my cousin and my mom as we drove around looking at Christmas lights on a frigid Christmas Eve.

I remember waking up on Christmas morning and smelling breakfast cooking and knowing that it was Christmas, which was just about the best thing in the world.

I remember family Christmas dinners, singing around a piano and everyone from out of town sleeping all over the house.

I remember the first Christmas Eve that my wife and I spent together before we were married. We went to a late night candlelight service at a Methodist church in her hometown. When we began to sing "We Three Kings" I sang under my breath to her, "We three kings of Orient are... tried to smoke a rubber cigar... it was loaded, it exploded..." We spent the rest of the service laughing, and upsetting the worshippers.

I remember all of the wonderful, magical Christmases with my kids...

I also remember something else...

Every year when I was young my dad would basically bring the festivities to a halt when we were all gathered together. He would bring out his Bible and would insist on reading the Christmas story from Luke chapter 2.

I used to hate that.

It was awkward, and everyone sort of got all uncomfortable when he did it.

I used to think that making everyone uncomfortable was kind of his point.

I was wrong.

The Story was the most important thing.

It still is.

The Story defines us. The Story tells us that evil doesn't get to win. The Story helps us understand that Stuff doesn't save us, Jesus does.

So this Christmas focus on the Story and the Savior and not your Stuff.

Love the Story.
Live the Story.
Tell the Story.

Stuff Week Three - "The Worst Thing Jesus Ever Said"

2011-12-08T09:21:00.001-08:00

This week I am continuing the sermon series, "Stuff: Are the Things We Buy Killing Christmas?"

Over the course of the last two weeks we have determined that we have a problem with stuff, and that we need to get rid of our stuff. Stuff, it seems, is getting in the way of our truly celebrating Christmas with Christ at it's very center.

For the past two weeks my family and I have been practicing "The Big Giveaway" during this season of Advent. We have given away 5 things a day since December 1st. If you do the math, by Sunday we will have given away 55 items a piece. There are four of us, so (55 times 4, carry the one, subtract something) that means that we piled up 220 items.

The truth of the matter is that there will be more than 220 items on the pile that I am planning on bringing to church on Sunday. Because I discovered that I had way more stuff than I thought and while I was sorting through items, I decided to give a little extra.

It doesn't make me a better person---trust me on this---it just means that I had too much stuff.

No matter what we say we believe, most of us who call ourselves Christians are going right along with our culture in placing the emphasis on this blessed season on all the wrong things.

What we participate in, more than what we say, reveals the heart of our worship...

Which brings us to this week's topic: "The Worst Thing Jesus Ever Said."

What do you think the worst thing Jesus ever said might have been?
When he called Samaritans dogs?
When he said that not everyone who called him "Lord" would be saved?

It sort of depends on your point of view, right? If you were a Samaritan, that bit about being called a dog by the Son of God would not be too warm and fuzzy. Or if you were one of those who called Jesus "Lord" and discovered that you didn't really "get" it in the end... yeah, that would also be a bummer.

So, what's your point of view? What is your location right this second?

Mine is: Christian, Middle-aged, Middle-class, white, male, American, Southerner, husband, father, son, minister, preacher

You could probably add a bunch of other descriptors to that, but you get the idea. Sometimes our point of view holds a lot of influence over what we see, perceive and even how we hear things.

Which is why this passage of Scripture in Luke might just be the worst thing that most of us who call ourselves Christians AND Americans could ever hear from our Lord and Savior.

Read Luke 18:18-27

This is the story of the "Rich Young Ruler" Which most of us know just because it contains the worst thing Jesus ever said---for those of us who have a lot of stuff, that is.

In verse 18 the rich young man approaches Jesus and calls him "good teacher." Jesus replies that there is "none good, but God." What Jesus wants the young man to know is that he cannot be flattered. He also wants him to know that he is going to shoot straight with him.

The young man wants Jesus to let him know how he can be sure that he will have eternal life. Jesus replies by telling him in verse 20 that he basically just needs to keep the Commandments, which the young man claims that he is already doing. He's confident that he can make it on his own merit, in other words.

Some might say that Jesus' response to the young man is problematic--he seems to be espousing that the way to salvation is through keeping the rules. But Jesus next words give us a deeper understanding of what Jesus is getting at here. In verse 22, he tells the young man, "You still lack one thing..."

It's almost like Jesus let the guy think he had it made, and then hits him with this little "one more thing," hand grenade.

And the "one more thing" was that Jesus wanted the guy to give away all of his stuff and come follow him. There have been countless debates about whether Jesus actually meant this. I think he did. I think that he knew the young man had been going through the motions, depending on his own strength and put all of his faith and trust in his wealth and stuff. Clearly, Jesus wanted him to understand that when it comes to eternal life, it's not about the rules, it's about a relationship. And if your relationship with God is right, things like losing all your stuff doesn't scare you.

We all know that the young man went away sad, because he had great wealth. But most of us stop there and don't keep reading.

In vs. 23-24 Jesus has a teaching moment with his disciples about the whole thing. He tells them, "How hard it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God...It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

Lots of commentaries interpret Jesus' words here as a description of the "Needles Eye Gate" in Jerusalem. I don't think that's the case. I think he literally means the eye of a needle. When we consider that compared to almost everyone else in the world, even the poorest Americans would be considered "rich" it sort of makes you pause. It made the disciples pause a tad. "Who then can be saved?" they asked.

Jesus goes on to tell his disciples that what is impossible for human beings is possible for God.

There is another moment when Jesus is teaching that he does use the metaphor of gates and riches---although most Christians seem to interpret it as something altogether different.

In Matthew 7:13-14 we have this: "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."

When I was in Israel recently, I took this photo of an ancient gate near Nazareth:

The larger gate could be opened wide to allow many people to walk through at a time. But when it was shut, and the smaller gate was open, only one person could enter at a time and if you had a bunch of stuff with you, or a donkey with a bunch of stuff strapped to it, you would not make it.

Could Jesus have been referring to this kind of gate when he was teaching? I think he was. The way to destruction, he seems to be saying, is one that is easily accesible on your own terms.

The way to life is one in which you leave behind all of the things that you think will save you and just simply follow Jesus. If your stuff, in other words, is keeping you from following Jesus, maybe your stuff needs to go.

I think that for those of us comfortable Christians here in America, hearing Jesus say that we need to give away our stuff and follow him qualifies as the worst thing he ever said.

We have the same problems that the Rich Young Ruler had:

1. He was obsessed with keeping up appearances. It was important to him that he do the right things and be recognized as such. I call this kind of Christian a CINO--Christian In Name Only. This kind of person looks like a Christian, but there isn't any real evidence of it outside of church world.

2. He depended on his individual strength. The young man wanted some validation that he was doing what he needed to do in order to get into heaven. When Jesus initially offered that affirmation, the young man was content. "Ah," he thinks to himself, "I've got it under control. I knew it!" Most of us simply want affirmation that what we are doing in terms of our Christian life is a-ok.

3. He had a fear of not having enough. The young man was unable to do as Jesus asked, because his wealth was what defined him. He had safety, security and a future because of his wealth. He was afraid of what would happen if he did not have enough. So many Christians fall into this trap---worrying that if they truly let go of the things that are keeping them from drawing closer to Christ that they will have to change the way they live.

4. He lacked a real relationship with God. In the end, the young man revealed that his relationship with God was defined on his terms. It verified and affirmed his world view. He kept up appearances, worked hard and did everything "right" and then God blessed him with stuff. So many Christians find themselves doing the very same thing---seeing their stuff as blessings for a life well lived. Or the absence of stuff as an indictment of how they aren't living "right." God doesn't deal in commodities. God's currency is unconditional love, generosity beyond belief and grace beyond measure to people who don't deserve it.

So... Do you rule your Stuff, or does your Stuff rule you?

Be careful how you answer that. Because if you say, "I rule my stuff, man, and not the other way around," you'll have no problem letting it go, right? You'll have no worries about losing it all, right? Right?

What we participate in more than what we say reveals the heart of our worship.

Stuff: Week Two "The Big Giveaway"

2011-12-01T09:31:00.001-08:00

Last week I preached on how our garages, storage units and closets full of stuff have become our temples where we worship idols and sacrifice to demons.

It was a rousing sort of sermon as you can imagine.

If you read the previous post, then you know that my wife took what I said pretty seriously. And because my wife has the spiritual gifts of discernment, prophecy and persuasion... I basically just do what she says when she's had a "word" from the Lord.

I'm learning.

The sermon that I preached last week was essentially an admission that we have a problem... Christmas is in crisis. Our culture worships the false gods of Materialism and Consumerism at Christmas, and Christians are doing a lousy job of resisting the very same idolatry.

But as most of us know, it's not enough to just admit you have a problem, you have to do something about it.

So... what do we do about all of our stuff?

Read 2 Corinthians 9:6-15

Here's the back story on that passage of Scripture:

The Apostle Paul was gathering an offering for "the saints" who were in need. Presumably this was for the Christians in Jerusalem, who had fallen on hard times and were in abject poverty for the most part. Paul solicited gifts from the churches he planted around the world to show some love to the church in the Holy City. One of those churches was the church at Corinth, which apparently did have some fairly wealthy folks in it.

Funny thing, though, Paul didn't ask the Macedonians to participate in the offering for the saints. It seems the Macedonians were pretty poor, and Paul didn't want to take advantage of their good nature. Apparently, their good nature was a whole lot more good and more forceful than Paul because they demanded to be included in the process. Paul was overwhelmed by the generosity of these poor Christians, who gave way beyond their means to help fellow Christians they had never met.

Paul indicates earlier in 2 Corinthians 9 that he is planning on bringing some of the Macedonians with him when he comes to Corinth. He basically comes out and says, "Listen, you need to come correct, and make sure that you aren't ashamed in front of these people who gave more than they should have... so pony up."

That's not what he said... he actually said that the Macedonians "gave out of their poverty." Who else said something like this? Oh yeah, Jesus did when we was teaching his disciples about giving when he saw a widow give two small pennies at the temple.

For Paul the whole thing comes down to a generous spirit. He has three guidelines for generosity in fact.

First, he believes that generosity requires resolve. "Those who sow sparingly, will reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will reap generously" Paul says. And "Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give." Generosity is intentional. You don't just haphazardly live a generous life, it's planned and it's done with a great deal of hope. Being generous means that you are going to give without fear and trust that the harvest will be bountiful.

Second, generosity is not coerced. When your generosity is linked to guilt or shame, it's not generosity---it's guilt or shame. Love that is coerced isn't love, for that matter. A generous spirit is a direct reflection of the love that we feel inside for God and one another---the kind of love that is sacrificial, unconditional and overflowing.

Third, generosity should be a joyous act. Every single Sunday at my church we remind ourselves of the words of the Apostle Paul in this passage: "The Lord loves a cheerful giver." If generosity isn't coming from a place of joy, if it doesn't bring joy and if you don't feel joy when you're doing it... it's probably not generosity.

Paul then goes on to explain what happens when you have a generous spirit and live in generosity.

He declares that "in all things and at all times," you will have "all that you need." He asserts that when you plant generosity, you will "enlarge the harvest of your righteousness."
He also says that you will be "rich in ever way, to be generous on every occasion."

Now I'm no prosperity gospel preaching fool by any means. I don't believe that we give so that we will get. God isn't a slot machine that we put in a coin and get out a bunch of coins.

But I do believe that God's ideas of riches and blessings are infinitely more intense and expansive than we could possibly imagine. AND as Paul points out in verses 12-15, the REASON we are generous is to bear witness to what God has done for us.

So what does this have to do with STUFF?

Here's a basic question: Is your stuff keeping you from being generous?
What makes it so hard for us to give something away?
For me it's one or more of the following:

"I might need it." Classic. As in, "I have never really used that [insert item here] but I can't give it away... I might need it."

"It has sentimental value." Honestly, just about everything could have sentimental value if you so desired. "It's not just a spoon. I was eating ice cream with this spoon when David Archuleta didn't win American Idol."

"It's part of a collection." So what if it's a collection of mixing bowls, or toilet brushes or chairs from Big Lots? If it's part of a collection, you simply can't part with it, right?

"I paid too much for it to give it away..." This is a ludicrous excuse. The first computer I bought cost nearly $1000 and it was a 100 mghtz, non-pentium hunk of junk that had a modem slower than molasses in Vermont in February in the middle of the night. The computer I am typing this on right now is more powerful than the one that sent dudes to the moon. Who cares what you paid for it ten years ago? It's not worth jack today... unless it's a Honus Wagner baseball card.

So when we finally get rid of all the excuses, maybe we can get rid of all of the stuff. And if we can get rid of all of the stuff, maybe we can focus on something else.

Here's the thing...

The less you want, the greater the means for relieving the needs of others... of being generous... of getting rid of what you don't need...

I recently blogged about what my family and I are doing with our own Big Giveaway.

We are beginning to realize that our stuff has been keeping us from being who God wants us to be: generous, giving, open and loving people.

So we are getting rid of it.

We're not going to participate in the madness this year. Because what we participate in, more than what we say reveals the heart of our worship. I want it to be evident that the heart of my worship is God and not my junk.

Let's get busy. I've got stuff to give away.

The Big Giveaway Pt. 1

2011-12-01T08:26:00.001-08:00

Sometimes you have to be careful what you preach.

Last week I preached the first sermon in an Advent series called "Stuff: Are the Things We Buy Killing Christmas?"

I had a lot of people approach me after that sermon and tell me how much it affected them.

One of those people was my wife. She told me on Sunday that she had been really moved by what I said---particularly the part about how when we put our focus on acquiring "Stuff" we participate in idol worship and by extension collude (albeit unwittingly) with the demonic.

I also essentially said, "Christmas is in crisis, and Christians aren't helping."

So a couple of days later, my wife came to me and said, "I know what we need to do." Apparently she had been listening to the morning radio show on our local Christian radio station. I do my best not to listen to morning radio shows--even Christian ones--but my wife is a better Christian than I am. I am serious when I say this. She is. Ask anyone.

One of the talking heads on the radio show had an idea for the Christmas season. "Give 5 things away every day throughout the month of December," she said. The idea was by the time you got to Christmas Day, you would have given away 125 things. My wife realized that this was exactly what we needed to do---all of us, me, my three boys and her, too.

And that's what we are doing, starting today.

Honestly, I think I can do her one better. I bet I can give away more than 5 things a day. I literally have that much stuff.

I am going to be using my Facebook Page, Twitter and this blog as a way to give away books, movies and anything else that I happen to discover that I have more than one of, or just need to let go.

For the first person to leave a comment on this blog, I will send a copy of Dave Kinnaman's new book "You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving Church and Re-thinking Faith."

Let's see where this leads us.

A Thanksgiving Post

2011-11-24T08:14:00.001-08:00

Image by techvt via Flickr

Here is a list of things that I am thankful for in no particular order, as you will soon see...

1. I am thankful that I was born in the U.S-hallelujah-of-A. I don't feel like I need to apologize for being a citizen in the best country in the world. Sure, Americans have faults. Sure, our history is spotty at times. There's not a nation on earth that has moral high ground when it comes to it's past (I'm looking at you, Germany), but I'm thankful and proud to be an American where at least I know I'm free... (sing it, Lee Greenwood)

2. I am thankful for George Lucas. He brought the world Star Wars AND Indiana Jones. I even forgive him for Jar Jar Binks and for casting Hayden Christiansen as Anakin.

3. I am thankful for how much better my life is because of Apple products.

Cover of David Crowder Band

4. I am thankful for Will Farrell's movies--the ones that are actually funny and quotable.

5. I am thankful for the David Crowder Band. I will miss you, boys. I hope your hiatus isn't very long.

6. I am thankful for Tim Tebow. I don't know how long this Broncos winning streak is going to last, but dang it's fun to watch my team again. John Elway, I don't think I need to remind you that during your first two years as Denver's QB people wanted you gone, thought you would never be a real QB and you once lined up behind the guard instead of the center. So lighten up on the kid.

Image via Wikipedia

7. I am thankful for Starbucks Venti Cinnamon Dolce Lattes. I have resorted to only buying them if I have a Starbucks gift card---because they cost $5 a piece.

8. I am thankful that the ONE photo of me in leiderhausen when I worked at Disney World is hidden safely in an unnamed location.

9. I am thankful that I have not yet gotten too old to enjoy playing air guitar.

10. I am thankful for the turkey that is now in the oven, the collard greens that are simmering in fatback on the stove, the homemade dressing that my wife is fixing along with some mashed potatoes and gravy... Lawd have mercy!

Here's where I get serious...

I am thankful that I married up. My wife is unbelievable. I look at her every single day of my life and wonder why God saw fit to make that happen---the whole making her fall in love with a guy like me. Everywhere we go I know there are a bunch of dudes wishing they were going home with her. And I get to do that. Thank you sweet baby Jesus!

I am also thankful for my boys. They are all over the map when it comes to their stages in life. I've got teenage angst, legos and light sabres, and diapers and Baby Einstein. It's beautiful and wonderful.

I am thankful for my parents, who live less than a mile down the road, and without whom my family and I would not be nearly as blessed, at peace or joyful.

I am thankful for my church, which is awesome and full of incredible people. I can't believe I get to get up in the morning every day and be the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Eustis. It's vibrant, growing, and doing incredible things to further the kingdom of God.

Last and certainly not the least---- I am thankful for Jesus. I know I sound like one of those sports stars who thanks Jesus when he wins... but I'm serious about this. Jesus saved my life. Literally. And he keeps saving it each and every day. Stumbling after him is my life's calling and I love pursuing it even though sometimes I don't do it very well.

Happy Thanksgiving! Pass the turkey.

Stuff - Week One "What Do You Worship?"

2011-11-23T12:21:00.001-08:00

This week is the beginning of the season of Advent.

At this very moment, I am listening to the David Crowder Band's Christmas album. This is the first Christmas music I have heard since last Christmas.

This makes me happy.

I have also cranked down the air conditioning in my office so that it will actually feel a little like the beginning of Advent.

It's literally 80-something degrees outside. Florida. What can you do.

This Sunday I am beginning a new sermon series for Advent entitled, "Stuff: Are the Things We Buy Killing Christmas?"

Watch this video from the TLC series, "Hoarders: Buried Alive."

How does this kind of compulsive behavior emerge? How do people spend their life savings, and go into ruinous debt because they can't stop buying things that they don't need?

Here's the news... if it wasn't for garage sales and storage units there would be a lot more people like this unfortunate woman. Because in our culture, we buy stuff. A lot of stuff. And around Christmas time we buy even more stuff.

Here's a question for you, "Is your garage a temple?" Do you feel as though your garage is a place of worship? Do you find yourself drawn to your garage when you want to pray or to sing "Lord I Lift Your Name on High?"

No?

What about that storage unit that you rent?

Or what about your closet? Do you ask your friends in church to come over to your house for a little Bible study in your closet?

Nothing?

If this sounds ridiculous, it's because it is. But then again, Jesus told his disciples once, "Wherever your treasure is, there is where you heart can be found." And for many of us, our treasure (if you want to call it that) is what fills our closets, our storage units and our garages.

We might scoff at the notion that these have become temples for us, but our actions tell another story.

You see, What we participate in, more than what we say, reveals the heart of our worship.

Read I Corinthians 10:14-22

Paul is addressing some serious issues here in this passage.

Let's be honest. When wasn't Paul addressing some serious issues, am I right?

There are basically three gists to this passage, however: First, Paul addresses the nature of the Lord's Supper--what it means. Second, he speaks pretty strongly against idolatry and how quickly and easily we participate in it. Then he winds it up by saying pretty unequivocally that idolatry and the Lord's Supper don't mix.

One can surmise from that last bit that Paul would extend his notion of idolatry not mixing to the Christian life in general. But back then the Lord's Supper was a fairly important aspect of the early Church's life together, so it was undoubtedly implied.

In vs. 14 Paul delivers his tried and true answer on how to avoid idolatry...
FLEE!!!

The only writer of the New Testament to use this form of "flee" is Paul, actually. And he really means it.

In vs. 16 Paul writes about the "cup of thanksgiving," which speaks to the 3rd cup of wine that was drunk at Passover. Clearly he is talking about the Lord's Supper here and he begins to get closer to it's meaning in vs. 17 when he talks of eating from "one loaf." This speaks to the unity that we share as Christians when we gather and break bread and drink from the cup together. Paul indicates that when we share this meal, we are participating in the body and the blood of Christ. It's clear that this is more than just a remembrance meal. There's a sense that when Christians partake of the Lord's Supper, they are somehow proclaiming that they are "all in" when it comes to following Christ.

Then Paul does something strange, he begins to talk about "eating sacrifices???"

Here's what this means... In the ancient world the Israelites were permitted to eat portions of the animal sacrifices that were offered to Yaweh, while other portions were burned up "by God." Paul uses this as an example of how they "participated" in the sacrifice with God.

What Paul is doing here is making sure that his Jewish/Christian audience understands that what you do more than what you say reveals more about who we really are.

Because the issue that he brings up is Christians who eat meat that have been part of sacrifices to idols, which he equates with eating food "offered to demons." Pauls then goes on to tell his hearers that they "cannot drink" of the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons.

In the world of ancient Rome, pagan worship was diverse, and everywhere. You could not avoid the smell of sacrifice in virtually every city. And there was a huge industry between pagan temples and the marketplace. Whatever wasn't burned up in sacrifice was sold to the marketplace where people would go to buy food. It was a corrupt system where people would offer up their livestock and then basically have it sold back to them at a premium.

Oh, and Paul indicates that God is "jealous" when people support the evil powers opposed to God and that are destructive of human well-being.

So what does this all mean for us?

Let me tell you a story...

When I worked for Best Buy, Co. back in the day I was the assistant store manager of one of the busiest stores in South Florida. One Christmas the hot gift was the brand new Nintendo 64 game system. Everyone wanted one. HAD to have one. We didn't have many in stock. On Black Friday we had people lined up outside the store to get a shot at one. The crowd crushed against the door so hard that it broke the entire door. One of my staff nearly got trampled when the doors gave way and people began pouring into the store.

People have been killed on Black Friday in similar scenes. Remember the stories of people fighting over Tickle Me Elmo dolls, or Furbees or Cabbage Patch dolls?

Most of the people who HAD to have these things probably can't remember what happened to them. But still every Black Friday we line up outside stores waiting to get in so we can get the next big thing.

There is what we say... and then there is what we do. What we do reveals more about who we really are.

Why don't we take this a bit farther.

Our stuff and the way we pursue obtaining it, revelas even more about who we are.

We say that we are part of a new community, transformed by Jesus and commissioned to live differently...

Then we fill the real temples of our life with stuff sacrificed to idols. And make no mistake, Consumerism, Materialism and Acquisition are idols.

But how is this demonic? Was Paul just being over the top? I don't think so.
Demons could be described as false gods seeking human worship.
So follow me on this... What is more false than a garage full of stuff that you don't need?
When we participate in the worship of Materialism, Consumerism and Acquisition we very well could be going along with the plans for the demonic.

You see, the Enemy (aka Satan, The Devil, Lucifer, the Evil One) is real, and so is the Evil that the Enemy actively perpetuates. The Devil wants nothing more than for Christ-followers to look and act just like everyone else---to eat food sacrificed to idols, so to speak. So if the Enemy can paralyze our finances with stuff that we have to buy, and keep us from living, saving and giving generously, then the Enemy has won.

And the Enemy especially loves it when Christ-followers cry and moan about how Christ isn't in Christmas, but then go out and spend money like crazy people to fill up our temples where we worship the gods of stuff.

What we participate in, more than what we say, reveals the heart of our worship.

This year, it's time for Christians to push back against the demands of those false gods, those demons that want to destroy our well-being.

Make different choices this year. Reduce the amount of money that you're spending on Christmas gifts to what you can afford, and then take it one step lower. If you want to spend money on something, make a huge meal for your family and friends and have memories at the end of it all instead of credit card bills. Don't let anyone tell you that it is your patriotic duty to go out to the mall and try to save the poor retailers from a dismal Christmas buying season. If you don't got it, don't spend it.

And that's just a start.

Because What we participate in, more than what we say, reveals the heart of our worship.

The Tebowing of the NFL: Change Don't Come Easy

2011-11-18T13:51:00.001-08:00

Last night my oldest son and I watched as the Denver Broncos got the football with less than five minutes to go in a close game with the New York Jets. They were down by three points and had the ball on their own 5 yard line.

Now I have been a Broncos fan my entire life. I was watching when the "The Drive" happened---that legendary moment when a young John Elway marched the Broncos down the field to win the AFC Championship game against the Cleveland Browns.

Since John Elway rode off into the sunset and into the Hall of Fame, things haven't been that rosy for us Bronco fans. 95 yard game-winning drives don't happen anymore.

Until Tim Tebow, that is.

For the first time in years, I watched my childhood team take the field with the game on the line and 95 yards to paydirt and I actually believed they could do it. And the fans who were in the stadium believed it, too. We all believed it because it was Tebow Time.

When the game is on the line, when all hope is lost... that's when Tebow seems to come to life. And the Broncos with him.

It wasn't completely pretty, but it was awesome. The drive was capped off by a 20-yard touchdown run by Tebow himself---the longest 4th quarter, game-winning drive touchdown rush by ANY quarterback in HISTORY.

And yet another page in the Legend of Tim Tebow got written.

The owner of the Broncos, Pat Bowlen was rumored to pass by John Elway, who is now the VP of Football Operations, and said to him, "That kid is going to be a great quarterback someday, you might want to keep him around."

All week long leading up to that game the NFL analysts chewed Tebow up and spit him out. Sports writers and pundits can't stand Tebow. He's too Christian, too squeaky clean, too good to be true. His throwing motion is too elongated, they say. He can't read defenses, they say. He was the third best quarterback in the Broncos training camp, they say. He only completed two passes in the Broncos win over the Chiefs, they say.

The Broncos are 5-1 with Tebow as a starter. They were 1-4 with Kyle Orton, who has the kind of throwing motion that the NFL analysts seem to think is acceptable, and who doesn't pray in public, and who doesn't really display any kind of leadership ability or a will to win.

Apparently, this is more acceptable to the pundits.

Or maybe it's something completely different.

Take Michael Vick... Michael Vick is not the prototype for an NFL quarterback. He's too short, and doesn't stay in the pocket. He throws lots of interceptions because he tries to force the ball into coverage. He relies on his legs too quickly to get him out of trouble instead of throwing the ball efficiently like an NFL quarterback should (allegedly). Vick is an athlete, like Tebow. I remember hearing years ago when he came into the league that he would reinvent what it meant to be an NFL quarterback.

The sports pundits want so desperately for Vick to succeed. Who cares that he is a convicted felon? Who cares that he epitomizes all that is wrong with professional athletes today---rampant individualism, lack of character, etc.

Who cares?

At least he's not Tebow.

I'm sick of hearing from the washed up has-beens on ESPN how Tebow will never be a quarterback in the NFL. I'm tired of listening to idiots on sports radio ( most of whom were too nerdy and anemic to even pick up a football when they were young enough to play) spout off about all of the things that he's doing "wrong."

Maybe it's Tebow who is destined to reinvent the quarterback position in the "No Fun League." Maybe he represents the kind of change that the NFL so desperately needs, but is terrified of embracing.

He WILL get better. He WILL learn to read defenses. He WILL improve on the things that the pundits think are so necessary for him to be a "real" quarterback.

What he HAS cannot be taught, cannot be learned. He HAS character, and leadership qualities that are off the charts. He HAS an unbelievable will to win that is infectious.

He HAS a winning record as a starter.

And now he HAS the support of the owner of his team, who watched in wonder last night as a stadium full of long suffering fans came to life and shook the stadium when Tebow Tebow'd the Jets with that historic twenty yard run.

I'm a Broncos fan, so I usually wait for the other shoe to drop. There have been a lot of shoes dropping these past few years. Maybe the other shoe will drop. I choose to be optimistic, though. It's been a long time since I sat on the edge of my couch watching a game winning drive like the one last night.

Carry The Vision - Week 2: "You Are The Vision"

2011-11-17T14:58:00.001-08:00

This week I am concluding a two-part sermon series on the vision of our church with a sermon entitled, "You Are The Vision."

We spent a lot of time last week talking about what happens to a church when it loses it's vision, purpose or direction. The bottom line? It begins to die. If nothing is done to regain the vision or find a new one, it's almost inevitable that such a church will die.

Since these two sermons are virtually one sermon in two parts, I am going to pick up where I left off last week... with Jesus.

The vision that my church has embraced is grounded in Scripture and in experience. We decided several years ago that we were being called by God to be the kind of church that didn't exist just to exist. We asked ourselves a question: "If we ceased to exist tomorrow, who would miss us?" That question led us to believe that our church was supposed to "Reflect and Reveal the Unselfish Love of Christ."

In Philippians chapter 2, the Apostle Paul encouraged the first century church to have the "same mind as Jesus Christ" who "humbled himself" and took on the "form of a servant." Jesus love was unselfish and sacrificial. People need to see this kind of love from Jesus' followers. My church has the crazy notion that when you know Jesus, you want to show Jesus to the world.

This week I am preaching on something that Jesus told his followers in the Sermon on the Mount: "You Are The Vision."

Don't remember that particular phrase? Well, it's probably because I interpreted what he actually said---"You are the light of the world"---a little differently. But at it's very essence, that famous commissioning phrase could easily mean "You Are The Vision."

There can be no vision without illumination, right? Works for me.

Let me shift gears here a moment, since we're starting to talk about light, and say a few words about darkness.

Think of the darkest place you have ever been. There was this old gold mine in Cripple Creek, Colorado that I remember when I was a kid. When you travelled down the mine shift on an elevator you would go hundreds of feet below the surface of the earth. And then they would turn out the lights just so you could experience the darkness. It didn't matter how long you were down there in that darkness, your eyes never really adjusted to it. It was oppressive and smothering.

Think about the darkest place you have ever been spiritually or emotionally. Sometimes we have dark spaces in our life where it feels like the light of hope will ever reach. Maybe you've been there. Maybe you are there.

In John chapter 1 we have this fantastic introduction to the Gospel that basically mirrors the Creation story in Genesis. It goes on to say, "In [Jesus] was life, and that life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."

The darkness has not overcome it.

The light of the New Creation isn't stifled by smothering darkness. It just isn't.

But God didn't leave it there. God's plan for bringing light to the world began with Jesus, but it continues through his followers.

You see God has an annoying habit of using broken, imperfect people like you and me to accomplish his will.

He likes it when people take the light into the darkness. He wants us to be the vision.

When Jesus was preaching the Sermon on the Mount, he told his followers,

"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven."

My imagination has always been captured by the phrase, "city on a hill." What was Jesus talking about? When Jesus was preaching the Sermon on the Mount he was high above the Sea of Galilee in an area that had a wonderful panoramic view of the surrounding area. High above Jesus and the crowd was a town on top of a mountain. That town, Zefat, was an ancient city that was already considered a holy place in Jesus day. It still exists today, and is still high above the area where Jesus was teaching. I looked at this village in the evening when the lights in the houses there were twinkling brightly. The city was the only thing on the hill, which was dark. It glittered like a jewel on that hill. I bet it did the same thing in Jesus day.

You see, Jesus wanted his disciples to clearly understand that being the vision that God had in mind came down to three things. Being Obvious, Illuminating and Welcoming.

When a church, a community of faith possesses these three qualities, people feel it when they walk in the door. They don't know exactly why, but they know that something is happening in such a church.

Oh, and we are also called to be light, to be the vision, because our destines more than our past defines us. By focusing on sharing our light in the darkness we can't help but move forward. History is important, but we were never intended to live in History.

So this Sunday everyone at my church is being asked to wear their "I Am The Vision" t-shirts to church. I am sure that there will be some grumpy folks who don't care for our endorsement of a "casual Friday" on Sunday morning. But we need to do this. I feel it in my bones.

First we need to be reminded who we are. The sight of a bunch of people wearing black and white t-shirts that read "I Am The Vision" in church will be one that most of us won't forget. Jesus commissioned us to be the vision. Don't forget it.

Second, we need to be unified. We need to know that we are not alone in this. There's nothing like a crowd of folks all dressed alike to make us feel like we are part of something bigger than we are.

Third, it's inviting. When we wear our shirts, people wonder what in the world it means. Maybe they'll ask us. Maybe we'll get a chance to share. Maybe they'll think that a church that believes that kind of thing might not be a bad place to visit.

Listen. You Are The Vision. Hear that. I know that's true because it's grounded in Scripture, but I also see it happening right in front of me.

Our church feeds the hungry each and every week. We started Center Street Kitchen over two years ago and fed 6 people on the first day. Now we feed an average of 170 a week, and through generous donations we are adding bag lunches to the mix, and a second day of feeding folks. A few days ago we prepared nearly 300 meals for hungry people. You Are The Vision.

Our church clothes closet provides clothes to the needy every week. We have helped people find clothes to wear to job interviews, helped needy moms clothe their children and much more. You Are The Vision.

Every week we welcome children into our church both from our church and from our neighborhood. Through our Children's Ministries, children are learning what it means to be a follower of Christ and a member of a church family. At Crossfire Ministries, children who are at risk---many of whom have parents in jail, and who seldom get a decent meal during the week---are loved on, introduced to Jesus and allowed to be kids for just a couple of hours a week. Our teenagers at Revolution Youth are learning what it means to be more fully committed follower of Christ in word and in deed. You Are The Vision.

Ministries like Lifetree Cafe are reaching out to people who are struggling with faith and doubt. Many of these folks are not Christians, many more have been wounded by the church, and church people. And they are finding space to discover Jesus. You Are The Vision.

Over the past year over 170 prayer requests have been made through our prayer chain, and have been prayed for by our prayer warriors. Recently, one of our members was battling cancer and she was surrounded by friends who drove her to her chemo treatments, took care of her dogs and just loved on her when it became apparent that the treatments weren't going to work. Another member who is on our visitation team makes regular visits to shut-ins who are suffering from Alzheimer's. This member helped one of her regulars, who suffers from Alzheimer's, write a note to her daughter to tell her how proud she was of her. Even though she doesn't always recognize her daughter, this lady was so happy to write that letter, and when her daughter---a church member---received it, it was as if she received a message from God himself. You Are The Vision.

You Are The Vision. You carry it with you wherever you go.

On the night before my very first sermon at First Church over three years ago, I walked through every room in every building on our campus praying over my new church. As I walked these buildings, praying, God began impressing on my heart that this church, which had lost it's vision, would find it once again. I was filled with an overwhelming sense of hope. I had no idea where God was leading, but I knew that it was my calling to ensure that we followed.

It's time for us to renew that sense of call, and to covenant with one another to keep following. My beloved congregation... You are that city on a hill. You cannot be hidden.

You Are The Vision.

"Where There Is No Vision"

2011-11-12T14:40:00.001-08:00

There is this vacant lot I drive by every day on my way to work that until just a couple of weeks ago had this partially constructed house on it. Whenever I looked at it, I wondered what happened that it was never finished.

Here's a video on the site of the unfinished house and a short message to my congregation about the sermons I am preaching for the next two weeks:

Funny thing. I shot that video before leaving on a trip to the Holy Land for two weeks. While I was gone, whoever owns the property decided to tear down the house.

Ironic.

Whatever plans that someone had for that house a long time ago when they started building it are fairly irrelevant now. The vision was lost and now even the reminder of lost vision is gone.

Maybe somebody with a better vision will come along and make something happen on that vacant lot.

Here's why a vision is necessary: When you don't have one, or you lose the one you had, things start falling apart. And sometimes things fall apart so badly that they cease to be.

Proverbs 29:18 puts it like this: "Where there is no revelation (vision) people cast off all restraint, but happy is the one who heed's wisdom." In the old King James Version of the Bible it reads, "Where there is no vision, the people perish..." It gives you the idea that without a vision, there's no direction.

Here's what I'd like everyone to take away with them on Sunday...

Without a vision, there is no direction and when there is no direction, there is destruction.

Proverbs 29:18 was a reminder of what happened to the Hebrew people at the foot of Mt. Sinai when the threw off restraint and began worshipping a golden calf.

At the end of the book of Exodus we see the Hebrew people losing their vision at the foot of Mt. Sinai. It seems that Moses had been on top of the mountain talking to God for a solid month. The people he was leading were sitting and waiting for him in the middle of the desert. I've seen the kind of desert that they were stranded in, and it's barren.

So they get tired of waiting and they tell Moses brother Aaron to build them a golden calf to worship. Their intent was to build the calf, which was a pretty standard image of worship in Mesopotamian cultures at the time, and then follow it out of the desert and on to the Promised Land. Initially, they claimed that they were still wanting to worship Yahweh... they just needed something to point to Him. Moses was gone. The pillar of fire and cloud they had been following was gone. So they needed a calf.

They had lost their vision and their direction so they cast off restraint and decided to create something to replace both. Pagan worship in the ancient world involved orgies, self mutilation, drunkenness and a bunch of other stuff that God wasn't too keen on.

It didn't end well. When Moses returned he found a full on sex party in swing. He broke all ten of the Ten Commandments at once, and then ordered that the calf be ground up into powder, thrown into a stream and then drunk by everyone. Oh, and a whole bunch of sexed-up Israelites were executed.

Without a vision, there is no direction and when there is no direction, there is destruction.

I Samuel 3:1 reads, "The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions."

In the days of Samuel's childhood, the Hebrew people had lost the vision they once had. Things had gotten pretty bad in their worshipping life, too. The religious leaders of the day were corrupt, and everything in "the church" was falling apart.

It was the custom of the priests to get a share of the sacrifices that people brought to the Tabernacle. They would stick a three pronged into the meat of the sacrifice while it was being boiled in preparation. Whatever meat peeled off on the fork was for the priests. It was intended to be enough for them, but not too much. In Samuel's childhood, the sons of the high priest, Eli, would force people to give them portions of raw meat to ensure they got more than their fair share. They didn't see the offerings as God's, but their own. The Bible says that they had "contempt" for the offering. On top of that, they were having sex with the women who were supposed to be serving outside the Tabernacle. Basically, they were treating them like the temple prostitutes who "worked" at the Canaanite temples around them.

Ewww.

I see this as a metaphor for a church without a vision.

Such a church is marked by a lack of trust in God. Like the priests who wanted to ensure they didn't have to rely on a fork, churches without a vision tend to fret and worry that they won't have "enough."

Churches without vision also seem to value Control over Generosity. They show a contempt for the offering, seeing it as beneficial only for the perpetuation of the church, and not for the glory of God.

Churches without vision often find themselves compromising instead of constituting. Like the priests who slept with women at the tent because it was what the culture demanded, churches without vision chase after what the world believes to be right instead of honoring God.

I have some questions for my own church.

What will be said of us...?

Will people say, "They had a good vision statement" or "They had a Godly vision?"

Will people say, "They had good programs" or "They helped to transform lives?"

Will people say, "They had nice buildings" or "They showed Jesus to the world?"

You see, it's not enough to have a vision... you have to actually pursue it, or you might lose sight of it.

Without a vision there is no direction, and when there is no direction, there is destruction.

Several years ago, I heard the story of two guys in Madison, Florida who had a church. Yup. Two guys. They were the last two guys in the church. Everyone else had left. These two guys would pool their money and hire a preacher to come preach in the church once a month. They kept the lights on, and did all of the maintenance work themselves. No one else ever attended their church. Because there were just two guys in it.

I often wondered what their neighbors thought. I am sure they all had a good laugh at the two guys and their church. Either that or they felt sorry for them. Both responses are pretty awful, if you think about it.

At some point the Church of Two Guys lost it's vision. The two guys refused to admit that it had all fallen apart. But everyone else knew it had.

Which brings me back to the vacant lot.

Isaiah 5:8-13 gives us a glimpse of what it's like when things fall apart due to lack of vision. If you click and read the reference, you'll see just how awful it is.

As long as that abandoned, almost-done house was still standing on that lot, everyone who passed by would see it as a sign and symbol of a loss of vision.

Only after tearing it down and starting over will the constant reminder be robbed of it's power.

Kind of like Resurrection, isn't it?

And what is our vision? What will we lift up to both ourselves and to the world as the banner that we follow?

Simple. Jesus.

That's all the vision that we need.

If you need something more...

When you know Jesus, you want to show Jesus.

This is our vision, our purpose, and our direction. We must desire to know Jesus intimately. And when we know Jesus---really know Jesus---we will want to show Jesus to the world.

And the world needs to see that...

The Church & The Gates of Hell

2011-11-04T15:30:00.000-07:00

The photo to the right was taken at the Gates of Hell.

This was the ancient name of this massive cave at Caesarea Philippi where the Banias River began as a spring, flowing from its mouth.

3,000 years ago the ancient Canaanites believed this site to be mystical - a doorway into the afterlife. They worshipped the god Baal here, particularly for fertility rites. Their worship included depraved, sexual immorality, temple prostitution and child sacrifice. Babies were laid upon the super-heated outstretched arms of the bronze statues of Baal where they were literally roasted alive. And all of this was done to ensure a good harvest--the safety and security of the people.

In the time of the ancient Greeks this same spot was considered holy and mystical and also a place where fertility was honored and prayed for fervently. It was also a place that was believed to be the gateway to Hades. Adherents engaged in sexual depravity, temple prostitution and child sacrifice. Babies were thrown into the cave, where the spring flowed to be drowned. If adherents saw blood in the water, it was a failed sacrifice and had to be repeated.

In the time of the ancient Romans, when Jesus visited Caesarea Philippi, the temple was refashioned in Roman splendor in honor of the god Pan, Roman god of fertility. There were other shrines and grottos at the site, but Pan was worshipped fervently... by depraved sexual immorality, temple prostitution and child sacrifice.

These were known as the Gates of Hell.

This is where Jesus brought his disciples before he journeyed to Jerusalem and to his death. He told them here that it was upon "this rock" that he would build his church and that the "Gates of Hell" would not prevail against it.

Think about this... Jesus establishes the church AND proclaims that it will withstand the evil that is present at the Gates of Hell---an evil that had been prevailing for a very long time.

Jesus would have known this passage from 2 Kings:

They threw out everything God, their God, had told them, and replaced him with two statue-gods shaped like bull-calves and then a phallic pole for the whore goddess Asherah. They worshiped cosmic forces—sky gods and goddesses—and frequented the sex-and-religion shrines of Baal. They even sank so low as to offer their own sons and daughters as sacrificial burnt offerings! They indulged in all the black arts of magic and sorcery. In short, they prostituted themselves to every kind of evil available to them. And God had had enough.

Jesus would have known this passage from 2 Kings. I am sure as he and the disciples stood there at that evil, pagan site they would have felt the weight of God's words to their ancestors.

"And God had had enough."

It's not a stretch to see the connections between those pagan cultures of the ancient world and our own.

It also seems pretty clear based on where Jesus was when he taught his disciples that he had some clear ideas about what the Church should be. The Church was established to stand in sharp contrast to what was happening at the Gates of Hell---to be a community that would not give in to the prevailing depravity of the culture, to be a community of grace and peace... and redemption.

Which is why it seems odd that some Christians claim that sexual immorality is best left in the bedroom when we discuss the values of the Church and the Believers within it...

Or why some Christians believe that it's perfectly fine for someone to end their pregnancy by aborting their baby and that the Church should stay out of matters of "choice."

Or why some Christians bow like the ancients to worship Safety and Security no matter what it costs and believe the Church should do the same. Even if it means abandoning the poor, the lost, the needy and those who need the Gospel.

So if Jesus claimed that the Church---the true Church--would not be prevailed upon by the Gates of Hell, then what must be said of a "church" that turns a blind eye to those very Gates as they are represented today? Or worse yet---perpetuates the culture of the Gates by very nearly blessing them.

"And God had had enough..." Those words land upon this form of a "church" as they landed upon the children of Israel in 2 Kings.

I think there is a reason why so many denominations are hemorrhaging members, why so many churches are dying or dead, why so many Christians look, sound and act just like the culture around them.

Perhaps God has finally had enough with that form of a "church."

The congregations that I see that are thriving, growing and attracting people to the Gospel are the ones who get what Jesus said at Caesarea Philippi. They get that the Church really is a new community and not one that tries to water down the Gospel to the point that it loses it's scandalous nature, and is absolutely unoffensive to the culture.

These are churches who transcend the "conservative" and "liberal" divide and simply act like the Church that Jesus established... one that withstands the immorality and decadence of the Gates of Hell---wherever they happen to be in our own culture.

The Sermon Takes The Fall

2011-10-31T22:08:00.001-07:00

The photo here is nothing more than a nod to Reformation Sunday. This is a photo of a statue of Luther in the largest cathedral in Helsinki. Luther stood up to the religious hierarchy in the late Middle Ages.

I am sure he preached sermons that were longer than 20 minutes...

Yesterday both of the worship services at my church ran over the time that we allotted for them. The reason for the overrun was two-fold: First, we received 12 new members into our church at both of our services, and second, we had a member give a personal testimony of how God was transforming her life and making her more content with less.

Both of these events during worship took extra time. They were also both awesome. Our congregation needed to experience God "adding to our number" and to see the joy of the new members as they solidified their commitment to our family of faith. We also needed to hear the story of transformation that the testifying member shared.

I always get comments after our worship services run "late." Most of the time the comments are directed at the sermon---jokes about my being long-winded, mostly. Sometimes the jokes don't feel like jokes. The ironic thing is that yesterday my sermon was EXACTLY 20 minutes in length at our Traditional service, which is a good eight minutes shorter than usual.

Once I was told by a regular attendee that one of the reasons why she and her husband did not join our church (although they continued to attend) was because my sermons were too long.

Seriously?

Since when is 25-28 minutes a long sermon? When I was growing up, a sermon wasn't really a sermon if it wasn't in the forty minute range: including the invitation.

We did a time study during one of our staff meetings to address the curmudgeons who always seemed to have something sarcastic to say about my preaching and sermon length.

We discovered that everything we do in the worship service is something that blessed a number people and to cut these moments might do more harm than good.

In the end, we made a decision that we would trim what we could, and put up with the rest. Honestly getting out of church 15-20 minutes later than you expected shouldn't be a problem, right?

Because maybe over time they will get the picture that church is just going to be an hour and 15 minutes in length.

Yesterday at a stewardship meeting the comment was made "if we can cut your sermon time in half, can we reduce your salary?"

It was said in jest, supposedly. But again the focus was on my sermon for that day, when the sermon was actually shorter than it has been in years.

My response was to smile sweetly and say, "well I know one way to save you my entire salary, and I'd be happy to talk to you about it."

Nothing more was said at that point, in Fact a couple of elders approached me to ensure I didn't think he spoke for them. It's all good.

So here's the thing: I'm not shortening my sermons. They aren't terribly long and they aren't too short that you leave wishing there'd been more. They average in length fro 24-28 minutes. They might be long by tired old mainline Presbyterian standards--- which dictate a preacher should preach no longer than 15-20 minutes whether the congregation needs it or not. And when they do bust out with their pithy little homily, they read it word for word from their notes.

I'm not preaching for 45 minutes like Rob Bell does, I'm also a believer that you should be able to say what you need to say in 30 minutes or less. If you haven't gotten it all out at that point, then you might want to refine your thoughts a bit. And you need to say what needs to be said without reading it off some script. Reading your sermon isn't preaching. It's reading. Preaching is an event where people feel the transformative power of Christ from an authentic delivery of a relative, engaging, Bible-based sermon.

So why are we so hung up getting out of church "on time?"

I need to go back to my age old argument: people will choose to watch movies like Avatar or Titantic which are both over three hours long without battling an eyelash. And when it comes to concerts including Christmas Eve, they don't have a problem with it. At our upcoming Christmas concert the doors open at like 5:30 and there's 30 minutes of instrumentalists before the service starts. Yet some of the same parishioners who give me a hard time about being long winded will sit there for two hours just to have the seat they want.

And yet Every year someone walks up to me prior to the Christmas Eve service and they say "you're not preaching very long tonight are you?"

It's always the sermon that gets hammered, isn't it? Not singing every single stanza of ever hymn... Not the announcements (at least not the ones that are funny) Not the children's sermon (although some "get off my lawn folks" have expressed their desire for it go away...) Not hours of bells, orchestra, carols and candlelight.

The sermon.

It's always the sermon that takes the hit.

And yet it's the most important thing I do each and every week. it's at the top of my list of 5 important things I must do as the pastor of a large church. (we are considered "large" and we grew to 632 this Sunday!)

60% of my time is spent focused on worship at both services and more specifically on the sermon. I begin thinking and praying about the scripture passage at the beginning of the week. On Tuesday I begin working on the notes for the sermon, but reading commentaries, doing word searches and dreaming. On Wednesday I finish the sermon notes, and I work on my power point and on possible videos to run. By Thursday I'm just reading over notes, finishing power point and then preparing the schedule for the Crossing. On Friday I may take some to practice through the sermon tentatively. I also try yo put the finishing touches on my blog, where i basically write out what will be saying, On Saturday I will finalize worship stuff, and do a few practice runs of the sermon. On Sunday, I get here at 7:00 AM and get one more practice done before time to go!

And one of my main concerns through all this is that it not go too long. But in the end, I will say what has been given me to say and do it to the utmost of my ability. Even if it adds (horrors!) a few minutes to the worship service.

Those who feel they can't get out on time at our later services should attend our early morning service First Light which will be a traditional service with a twist and will only last 45 minutes.

iLife Week Three: "iWin"

2011-10-30T11:16:00.000-07:00

This week I am concluding the sermon series that I have been working for the past few weeks, entitled "iLife: living the life you were meant to live."

My sermon is entitled "iWin."

When I was a sophomore in high school my basketball team went to the state championship. We lost by three points. I don't remember much about the game, to be honest. I do remember the game that we won in order to get into the championship, though. THAT was a great game. We were playing a team that had just shellacked us earlier in the season. Their three point shooting just destroyed us, and we couldn't score.

I remember walking into the locker room after the game and I was so angry about the loss that I put my fist through a door. It was a low moment, I admit. In my defense, the door was fairly cheap, and gave way far too easily. Besides, I hurt my hand. But the principal from the school we were visiting was fairly irate when he saw it. I ended up paying for the door, and writing a letter of apology.

So when that same team came to our house to play a semi-final game to determine which of us would move to the championship... I REALLY wanted to beat them.

I won't go through a play by play of the game. But there was one moment toward the end when things were close. I got loose on a fast break after a rebound. One of my teammates, a guy named David Thompson, threw the ball baseball style down the court. That ball hung in the air forever it seemed. I caught it, dribbled like I was being chased by the devil and went up for a layup with authority. When the ball went into the basket, it put the game virtually out of reach for the other team. The fans were on their feet, and the place roared.

And then I saw my dad, virtually on the court with his arms raised and a huge dad grin on his face. My dad and I struggled when I was a teenager. I often said and did things that my dad didn't approve of all too much, and I was fairly sure he didn't like me a whole lot sometimes.

So when I looked up and saw him cheering like that... it was a pretty big deal. I just didn't know it then.

You see, in that moment I was just glad that we had won, and beat down the team who made me pay for their balsa wood door with money I had earned by the sweat of my brow mowing lawns. Booyakisha!!

Clearly I bought into our culture's view of success. You know the view that states, "Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing."

Where do we first learn the importance of winning?

My kids learned on soccer field when they were very little. Even though they were part of the soccer leagues where no one keeps score... the kids still kept score. And when they all got the same trophy at the end of the season, the kids on the team that won most of their games all knew that they deserved a bigger one.

But everybody's a winner, yay!

It's sort of like we are all winking at each other when we try to downplay the importance of finishing first---because we all know that the only thing our culture really values is finishing first.

So what do Christians have to say about all of this? Not much that's different, to be honest.

Let's take a very famous passage of Scripture from the book of Joshua.
Read Joshua 1:1-9.

Many Christians read this passage of Scripture and they hear two things: "be strong and courageous," and "then you will be prosperous and successful."

For Christians who want to buy into our culture's view on success and winning, this passage gets interpreted in one of two ways:

1. "If I do whatever God wants, I'll have a successful life."
2. "If I live a holy life, I'll have success."

What's the problem with this approach? Well, for starters it misses the point of the charge to Joshua by God, and completely sidesteps God's promise not to leave or forsake him. But more importantly it doesn't define "success." It assumes that "success" is as it is defined by our culture: winning.

But God's view of success is somewhat different, as you might expect. In this passage, it's the very acts of obedience and holiness that are defined as success. Attaining success as our culture defines it is not success.

Or you can say it like this: If you want to be successful, you have to give up your desire for success.

In Mark 9:33-37 Jesus confronts his disciples who had been having an argument about who would be "first" when Jesus' brought about his kingdom. He had been talking to them about what had to happen to him---that he must die. Just like many of us who read Joshua through our success lens, the disciples didn't get it. They didn't want to hear him, really. The life that he was calling them to lead, a life of self-denial and then resurrection was too hard, too uneasy, too uncertain to embrace.

The disciples were still focused on an idea of "success" that was out of step with what Jesus had in mind.

See in the NORMAL ORDER OF THINGS. the poor and the needy serve the rich and the powerful. Those without standing depend on those with standing. And the Cubs never win the World Series.

Jesus didn't really care for the NORMAL ORDER OF THINGS, which is really good for all us. And for Cubs fans.

Jesus brought a "little child" into the conversation. I kind of imagine that he just sort of took the child on his lap as he told the disciples that if they wanted to find "success" in the eyes of God they needed to re-orient the way they viewed it. In the normal order of things, a child was on the bottom of society with no legal standing, no power, nothing to offer, you name it. Jesus equated receiving a little child with receiving himself.

What does this mean for us?

First, it means that there is a difference between how our culture values people and the way that God values people. This may sound very simplistic, but it's a point that we miss literally all the time. When we begin to fully understand that God doesn't value us for what we have to offer or bring to the table in our relationship with Him, it changes everything.

Second, We need to learn what it means to value the free gifts of God over the things we "earn." Again, this seems very simple... which is probably why we mess it up so much. We like "Free," we want "Free," but we don't really believe that "Free" is as good as "Not Free." Which is why we treat God's offer of grace and forgiveness as if there is a catch---like we have to sign up for a four hour presentation on time shares, or we have to subscribe to twenty magazines...

Third, we need to learn that a life of self-denial and resurrection is the only way to truly "prosper." This is the most difficult part of what Jesus asks of us. At it's essence this looks like us giving up what we most "want" in order to receive what we truly desire. The impulse for selfish living is so strong in each of us that we often blind ourselves to the unbelievable ways that God would resurrect what we believe to be dead, lost, gone, damaged, broken and wounded.

Here's a sound bite: It begins by doing what God wants you to do, and being where God wants you to be. So if you want to go back to our Joshua misinterpretation it's not just about keeping the rules or being holy. It's about keeping the rules AND being holy AND giving up your desire to do anything else but THAT.

And all of this requires trust and hope. Because when we begin to live this brave new way, our culture might see that as "losing." Heck, we might even see it as losing. Heck, we might even lose.

Which is kind of awesome, because when we lose we get to answer this question:

"Do I serve a God who is in the resurrection business... or not."

Because if you do, some stuff is about to get resurrected.

Here's what it looks like if you need some help...

When I am an old man, I will tell my grandchildren the tale of that basketball game from yesteryear---the story of my "big win." I will tell them how their old granddad was a moron and punched a hole in the door and had to pay for it with lawn mowing money. I will tell them of the pass that hung in the air forever and of the way it felt when I shot that shot and watched it roll in, sealing the victory for my team.

And then I will tell them what really matters. I will tell them how I looked up and saw my father cheering on the sidelines. Cheering so hard for his son, who he loved more than anything, that he was virtually on the court screaming.

Because winning the game wasn't the point.

That memory was. And I will have that forever.

Because in the end it's not about winning or success the way our culture defines it. In the end, If you want to be successful, you have to give up your desire for success.

And then you will find it.

Occupy Wall St: What Can We Learn from The Occupation?

2011-10-27T06:10:00.000-07:00

The "Occupy" protests that are taking place in cities all across America and the world have polarized Americans once again---as if we needed something else to polarize us, right?

Like the TEA Party protests prior to the mid-term elections, the Occupy protests began as a grass roots movement. The difference between the two is that the Occupy movement started with a bunch of disaffected students, underemployed young people, and leftists with an axe to grind. The TEA Party was made up of mostly middle class, conservative Americans who were tired of always being tapped to foot the bill for government bailouts, entitlements and excessive spending.

Both movements got co-opted by political parties and corporate entities eager to cash in on them.

They do share some common gripes, to be sure. And they also share the fact that both movements had fringe elements that enabled the news media to distract from the group's message.

The Occupy protesters declare that they are "The 99%." Which means they are not the "1%" of the wealthiest among us. A counter protest group has risen up in the wake of the Occupy protests that declares they are "The 53%." This is a direct reference to the fact that 47% of Americans pay absolutely no taxes whatsoever. The "I am The 53%" movement presume that most of the Occupiers are among the 47%.

So what can we learn from all of this? What should be our Christian response?

There are plenty of liberal Christians (many of whom are pastors in my denomination) who have joined the Occupy protests. These same Christians spewed vitriol and hatred upon the TEA Party movement but embraced the Occupiers uncritically.

There are also lots of moderate Christians who try to find common ground between the two movements, and who do their best to be "above the fray."

There are also a slew of conservative Christians who are incensed and angry by the Occupiers---particularly when they hear of how much money the protests are costing taxpayers, the number of rapes and crimes that have occurred at the protests, the amount of people arrested and all of the reports of disgusting behavior, illegal drug use and the like.

To be honest, most days I find myself in the latter group, although I know I should be in the moderate one. This is why I need Jesus every day.

I was emailed this by the Dave Ramsey Team, and I thought I would include it. Dave Ramsey has begun his own movement called 'The Great Recovery." He believes that the recovery of our economy will only happen when people learn some godly principles of managing their finances. You can find the entire article HERE if you want to read it all. I believe this straddles the ground between conservative and moderate, while addressing some of the concerns of the liberal point of view, too. Enjoy:

1. Know What You Stand For: One of the most fundamental problems with the Occupy Wall Street group is that their message is not clear. Few seem to have any idea what their goals and visions are. Proverbs 29:18 tells us that "without vision, the people perish." The concept applies to any kind of movement. OWS will likely fizzle because of its lack of central goals. Let this remind you to have a clear vision for your life, job, family, political beliefs and your spiritual life. Know why you're a part of The Great Recovery and what it's all about. Be able to articulate it to yourself and others. Like Dave says, if your explanation won't fit on a 3x5 a notecard, it's not concise enough—yet.

2. Hard Work Wins: No, not everyone who is working hard is seeing their desired results right this second. But God tells us that "the diligent prosper." (Proverbs 13:4) Dave describes diligence as discipline with excellence over time. It's the spiritual principle that we will reap what we sow (Galatians 6:7). Griping about corporate greed, begging for bailouts, lamenting that Wall Street is "evil," or crying for the redistribution of wealth won't solve things. Ever. Taking personal responsibility will. That is the message people need to hear from us right now louder than the cries of disgruntled protesters. It's time for Americans to celebrate the privilege we have to work hard and achieve our dreams here in the land of opportunity!

3. People Need Hope: Demonstrations are rooted in a desire to see change. But as followers of Christ, we know that hope comes from God—not circumstances, Wall Street or the government. "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but with desire comes life." (Proverbs 3:12) Because our hope is in the Lord, it's not based on any situation. As part of The Great Recovery, we choose to believe that turning back to God's principles with money can turn this nation around and ultimately lead people to Christ. We believe that brighter days are coming. We aren't going to sit around and wait for someone to fix the problem. We're going to turn to the One who has the power to change our nation and the hearts of its people!

Why We All Need Tim Tebow To Succeed

2011-10-24T11:22:00.000-07:00

There was a time when I didn't care for Tim Tebow a whole lot.

He wrecked my Florida State Seminoles every year he played against them when he was the Quarterback of the Evil Empire (aka University of Florida).

There was a time when I was critical of the way he wore his faith on his sleeve pretty much everywhere he happened to be.

Two things happened that changed all of that.

First, he was drafted by the Denver Broncos, which happens to be my favorite NFL team---like my childhood NFL team that I've been cheering for since I was ten. When this happened I forgot all about the fact that he was a Gator. He became a Bronco and that was it.

The second reason is way more important, though. Tebow became my son's favorite athlete, and when I realized this I also realized how wrong I'd been about the guy.

Because my son saw him as a guy who had overcome tons of obstacles, ignored the haters who told him he would never play QB in high school... or in college... or in the NFL. He also saw him as a guy who wasn't ashamed of his faith. He also saw him as a guy who wasn't ashamed that he was waiting until marriage to have sex. He also saw him as a guy who went on mission trips and gave of himself to others. He also saw him as a guy who was humble, hard-working, full of great character and heart.

I want my son to think these are good things. Because they are.

Yesterday Tim Tebow started as QB for the Broncos in an ugly game against the Dolphins. He played terribly for 3 quarters, and then suddenly when the game was on the line, he drove his team down the field to score twice to tie the game and send it into overtime. The Broncos won on a 52-yard field goal. When the camera cut away to Tebow after he knew his team had won, he dropped to his knees and began to pray.

Of course the camera immediately left him. The mainstream media outlets (and ESPN for that matter) don't want to show athletes praying. They'd rather show them fighting, cussing, getting arrested, sporting their zillion tattoos, acting like idiots, bragging, acting like gangsters... you name it.

Merril Hoge is a commentator on ESPN. Hoge was a second-rate running back on the Steelers. I can't remember when he played. I don't really remember him playing, to be honest. Hoge has been a Tebow-hater ever since Tebow was drafted. The vitriol that he displays when he talks about Tebow is shocking. He hates on his throwing motion, his decision making, his abilities...

On the other hand, Hoge sings the praises of Cam Newton the rookie QB for Carolina like he wants to marry him. Everyone knows that when Newton left the University of Florida (where he had some character issues and problems) he sold himself to the highest bidder and the highest bidder was Auburn. There is no question that Newton is an unbelievable athlete.

He's also a cheater, who just didn't get caught red-handed.

The NFL is full of idiots like Ben Rothlesberger the QB for the Steelers who has been busted for sexual assault not once, not twice but three times. Of course the charges always seem to get dropped... amazing.

Yet, people like Hoge gloss over these things because... why? Why wouldn't he want Tebow to succeed? There are far worse quarterbacks in the league who haven't nearly the heart or the leadership qualities that Tebow has. So why not hack at them, too? I can only assume that it has to do with Tebow's faith.

Which brings me to why I believe that we all need Tim Tebow to succeed.

The Merril Hoge's of the world need to proven wrong. They need to see that there is more to being a football player than talent or pure mechanics and flawless technique.

And the NFL needs more heroes. It's got way too many Cam Newtons and Rothlesbergers. I don't want my boys rooting for these selfish, morally bankrupt athletes who get a free pass from a system that is corrupt, greedy and needs to be overhauled.

So next Sunday when the Broncos square off against the Detroit Lions, my boys and I will be watching, and cheering for them because they're our team. But mostly we'll be cheering for Tim.

Because we need him to win for all of us.

iLife Week Two: "iRest"

2011-10-21T14:14:00.000-07:00

This week I am going to be preaching on Sabbath as part of the "iLife" sermon series.

Whenever I think of the word "Sabbath," I think of lying on the couch on a Sunday afternoon after a huge meal with football on the television, and the knowledge that I will soon be sleeping.

I'm pretty sure that over half of the people who come to church on Sunday have a nap in their future. Some of my parishoners don't wait until they get home to start their nap---they just catch forty winks right there in their pew.

I can see them. I don't think they know that. In my last church there was an elderly lady who would come to church and would sleep through half of the service, but very nearly all of my sermon. Without fail, she would leave, shake my hand and tell me what a good sermon I preached.

Remember when things were "closed on Sunday?" I am old enough to remember these things. You didn't just pop in to the store on Sunday after church to grab some Publix fried chicken. Publix was shut tighter than a drum on Sunday. So was K-Mart and a bunch of other stores.

Now the only real example we have of that kind of commitment to "closed on Sunday" is ChikFilA. When he started ChikFilA, Truett Cathey made a commitment to stay closed on Sundays due to his conviction that Sunday be a Sabbath for he and his employees. Did you know that even though ChikFilA has way fewer stores than McDonald's, and is closed on Sundays they have a higher per store revenue than McDonald's? Betcha didn't.

The definition of the word "Sabbath" in ancient Hebrew had two elements to it:
1. Rest
2. Cessation of Labor
What the ancients basically believed was that you didn't do the things that you normally had to do on the Sabbath.

There was something freeing about it.

In Exodus 20:8-11 we find the Fourth Commandment. "Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy." You can click on the reference to read the whole passage.

Wanna know how serious God was about His people keeping this commandment?

Read Exodus 31:12-18.

Did you notice the parts where God commanded that anyone who broke the Sabbath command should be put to death?

I don't know about you, but that's pretty serious.

Busy-ness in our culture is something that we wear like a Badge of Honor. But what about the ancient world? Did they do the same thing? In sort, yes, but not for the same reasons.

There was no such thing as a day off in the ancient world. That was lazy talk. Only really rich people had a day off. Besides, the Hebrew people had been slaves for 400 years in Egypt, so having a day off was not part of their DNA. Sabbath keeping for the ancient Hebrew people was much deeper than just taking a day off, though.

It was about obedience. It was about a lifestyle. It was about being different. It was about saving your life. The lesson here is one that we need to hear and heed:

Ignoring God's commands to live a Sabbath-centered life will be hazardous to your health.

Hopefully you read the Exodus 31 passage. Do you ever wonder what really happened on the mountain with God and Moses? I mean Moses was up there for a month... with God.

I like to imagine that when they were talking about the commandments that Moses sort of paused when they got to the Fourth. "The rest of these kind of make sense, God." He might have said. "But this fourth commandment seems kind of... well, unreasonably harsh, man."

If Moses asked these questions, I am sure God had some answers. Maybe his answer was Exodus 31:12-18.

You see God has a purpose when it comes to the Fourth Commandment. What God wanted then and wants now is for His people to recognize who He is and what He has done for us.

For a bunch of former slaves, who had known nothing but slavery for 400 years... he gave them the freedom to stop.

God also led by example. In Genesis, God rested after creating. In our culture, Busy-ness is the ultimate achievement, and we create things that are far less intricate than the Universe. Yet, we don't see the need to follow the example of the Creator. We believe that rest is something you do when you're too old, or dead.

Did you know that the Chinese pictograph for "busy" comes from two images: the image for "heart" and the image for "killing." That preaches.

But here's how all of this can get messed up if we are not careful. We can get too freaky about the rules, and miss the point that the Sabbath is about a relationship.

Jesus was criticized for letting his disciples gather food and eat on the Sabbath by Pharisees who often selectively kept the Sabbath laws as it suited them, but wanted everyone else to keep to the letter. Jesus responded to them that "Man was not made for the Sabbath." They had begun to keep the Sabbath so rigidly that they became a slave to the rules.

SO WHAT CAN WE DO?

First, God wants us to keep his "sabbaths" and make them "holy." I bet you were wondering about the use of the plural for Sabbath in Exodus 31. So what does the world "holy" mean? It means "set apart," "sacred," or "points to God." There isn't just one day that is set apart, it's our very lives that are set apart.

Second, God wants us to Re-Order our set apart lives. In the Creation account in Genesis, we hear these words at the conclusion of each day of creation: "and evening and morning were the first day... and evening and morning were the second day..." "Evening and morning..." For the ancient Hebrew people, the day actually began at night---when they returned to their homes and their families.

What if your day began when you got home? What if your sacred space was your dinner table?

We need to begin living this Sabbath lifestyle...

Ignoring God's commands to live a Sabbath-centered life will be hazardous to your health. God meant what he said when he said that death was the punishment for ignoring the Sabbath.

Here are some questions that we need to begin asking if we plan on making the Sabbath holy and re-ordering our lives:

1. What will I shut down turn off, stop doing this week to begin living differently?

2. What will I do to re-order my day, and begin saving my life?

Your answers (and mine) to these questions could very well change everything for us.

iLife - Week One: "iWork"

2011-10-15T10:29:00.000-07:00

This week I am beginning a new sermon series entitled, iLife - living the life that you were meant to live.

As some of you may have figured out by now, I am a bit of an Apple nut. And by Apple I mean the corporation, not the fruit. I have an iPod, an iPhone, an iPad and a MacBook Pro, laptop. I would like to have an iMac for my home computer but my wife said enough was enough for the moment.

Apple just announced the release of it's newest iPhone, which is already breaking pre-sale records. More importantly, though, Apple released it's newest software update for all of it's devices in order to support the iCloud---an innovation that will change the way we listen to music, interact with one another, work and create...again.

There's something about the names of all of these new Apple innovations that we tend to gloss over because we get so enamored with their coolness.

They all start with "i"

What Apple tells us through the names of their products is that it's all about us. It's all about what we want, what we desire, what we need... what we deserve. But Apple didn't invent this concept, it just uses it to sell stuff and make money. Lots of money.

Our culture has been telling us for quite some time that there is a life that we deserve to live---a life full of success, happiness, fulfillment and stuff. And all of this sounds pretty good on the service, but it's what's underneath it all that really messes us up.

In order to have that life that we deserve we need to buy things, and in order to buy things we have to have money and in order to have money we have to be "successful" and in order to be "successful" we need to be ready to make some concessions.

Like not spending as much time with our families as we would like, going into debt, adding stress, neglecting our health, buying things we don't need... Consider this the "fine print" to the iLife Terms of Agreement that we click "agree" to without reading.

But God has something else in mind, and that's the focus of this three-part series, which begins with "iWork."

What's the worst job you've ever had? Mine was working for Mr. Davenport. He was a guy who had a lawn care service, who took me on as an apprentice. My parents paid me $5 a day to work with Mr. Davenport, who paid me nothing. We started at 7:30 AM and mowed lawns all day long. I pushed a lawn mower while Mr. Davenport rode around on his lawn tractor. One day he disappeared on his lawn mower when we were mowing a two-acre yard on a golf course. He told me to just keep mowing until he got back. He was gone for three hours. I mowed the whole thing with that push mower. I think he was down at the 19th hole the whole time.

One of the lies that our culture passes off as truth is that "you are what you do." Seriously, what do you usually ask someone when you meet them for the first time? "What do you do?" Based on their answer we make determinations as to what kind of person they are, don't we? Because we believe the lie, that we are what we "do."

But what if you hate your job?
What if you don't have a job?
What if you're retired?

Our culture warps us. We spend our youth looking forward to doing something meaningful. We spend our middle age trying to get ahead so we can retire. We spend our old age reminiscing about when we were productive.

Oh, and in the United States of Getting Ahead we believe in the separation of Work & Faith.

So is this how God intended us to view work? I don't think so.
Here's what I think...

When we work to the best of ability in whatever work we do, we show Jesus to the world.

Read Thessalonians 3:6-15

This is THE most misinterpreted passage of scripture regarding work in the Bible--and mostly because of the verse that reads "those who don't work, shouldn't eat."

Here's a little background on what Paul was talking about: First, the people to whom Paul addressed this letter, the Thessalonians, were Greek and in Greek culture if you didn't have a job, you were the lowest of the low. BUT if you were poor and could somehow find a wealthy patron to foot your bills, that was okay. So there were a whole bunch of people in this church in Thessalonica that thought it was okay to not work and to lean on their wealthy Christian brothers and sisters for patronage. They used the excuse that Jesus was returning "any day" to justify why they didn't have a job. Basically, they refused to work, and as a result people in the community were trashing them.

Paul is basically issuing a command to not let these kinds of people be a bad influence on your life. He used the word "atatkos" a word that was most often used in a situation where an apprentice didn't show up for work and the parents of the apprentice were on the hook to pay the master for the time lost. In this instance it refers to the difference between what is orderly and disorderly.

These were the kind of people who Paul says are busybodies rather than busy. Work has lost it's value for them. They used their faith as an excuse and as a result they did damage to the gospel with their disorderly behavior.

So what do we do with all of this?

First, Christians have to bring it at a different level. For us there is no separation of work and faith. Our "career" is to demonstrate the Gospel in every single thing that we do---to do our work "heartily" as Paul once wrote, "as if you were doing it for God himself."

Second, Christians need to realize that people are watching us. If someone knows that you are a Christian and you behave poorly in your work, or are lazy and indolent that's the impression they have of Christians. Dave Ramsey says "If you're going to put a fish on the back of it, you better drive it right." He's referring to people who put Jesus fish on the back of their cars and then drive like a maniac.

Third, we need to realize that Opportunity is attracted to Excellence. Even if you feel that you are doing something that you don't love---do it better than anyone else. God will provide for you in unbelievable ways.

Fourth, do you work with such a level of passion that the competition steals you. That kind of speaks for itself.

Fifth, in every single thing that you do, ask yourself if you are doing that as if you were doing it for Jesus.

Finally, you need remember that you are not what you "do," but what you "do" reflects who you are.

By now you might be asking yourself, "But what if I am unemployed?"
Even in the middle of that trial, are you doing to the best of your ability whatever work that you can do? What do people say of you as they watch you struggle through unemployment?

"But what if I am retired?"
Just because you're retired doesn't mean that you no longer have anything to offer to your family, your community, your church and to the world. Are you doing whatever work that you can do to the best of your ability?

"But what if I don't like my job?"
I've had employees who hated their jobs and it showed. Rather than working hard and diligently and demonstrating Jesus with their efforts they almost always took another road. It never ended well. Remember, Opportunity is attracted to Excellence.

"But what if I can't work like I used to?"
Then play to your strengths.

You have to stop believing the lie that you are what you do.

When we work to the best of our ability in whatever work we do, we show Jesus to the world.

And in the end, that is our number one job: To KNOW Jesus and to SHOW Jesus.

It's All Good - Week Four - "Good Actions"

2011-10-09T03:55:00.000-07:00

What's the point of Christianity?

Ever thought about that? I have been lately.

Can you name it? The point of Christianity, I mean. The purpose of it.

Say this is Family Feud and you are sitting with Richard Dawson (the creepy, womanizing original host) at the final challenge where 100 people were surveyed to come up with the purpose of Christianity...

What would you think?

Eternal Life, you say? Escaping Hell, you say? Survey says! 60
Peace that Passes Understanding? Survey says! 15
Having a ready-made Community? Survey says! 10
You get to sing hymns? Survey says! 1
Doing good deeds, you think? Survy Says! 5
Worshipping God? Mmmkay. Survey Says! 7

These are entirely made up stats. But I bet my eye teeth that if we did a real survey it would look sort of like this made up one.

Because most Christians think the main purpose of Christianity is to save their own... ahem.

Do you think we need a better story? Seriously. Escaping Hell doesn't seem to have the kind of impact that it did back in the day. We've seen too much of Hell on Earth, haven't we?

Besides, when you define your entire belief system in negative terms, why would you be surprised when people feel negatively about it?

Changing the focus of Christianity is not going to be easy, though.

I read an essay written by Malcom Gladwell about Korean Airlines and how it turned around from a complete failure of a company to wildly successful. There was a time when many international airports refused to let Korean Airlines land on their runways. It seems that Korean Airlines had the worst crash record of any other airline in the world. They finally hired some American consultants to help them. What the consultants discovered after researching crashes and accidents of Korean Airlines airlplanes was that the fault lay directly in Korean culture.

Co-pilots and Navigators in Korean culture never contradicted the pilots of the plane---even when the pilot was dead wrong. It was their culture to respect the pilot, defer to the pilot, never question the pilot's decisions... they even carried the pilot's luggage at the airport.

So without anyone to challenge their decisions, Korean pilots were pretty much on their own in the cockpit. If they made a mistake, several hundred people paid for it with their lives.

It took an entire paradigm shift, a monumental change in culture, a shift of epic proportions for Korean Airlines to turn things around. But they did. Now they are one of the most efficient, advanced, safe and well-run airlines in the world.

Christianity needs this kind of monumental shift when it comes to realizing it's purpose.

Here's what I think it is: You are Called, You are Redeemed, You are Equipped for a Greater Purpose

And that Greater purpose is to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the world by both speaking it, and showing it.

Read Titus 3

Basically what the Apostle Paul is doing here in this part of his letter to Titus is answering the question, "What good is it to be a Christian?" or "What's the purpose in all of this?"

Essentially he gives a three pronged answer, one that we've already alluded to.

Paul says that Christians are Called. We should be ready to serve, above reproach, kind and grace-filled. We are called to be different, to do what is often counter-intuitive when it comes to the way our culture dictates we act.

Paul says that Christians are Redeemed. And this is not something that we did ourselves. Our redemption is due to the "goodness" of God---the Greek word here is "christotes" which means always eager to give whatever gift might be needed. Awesome.

Paul says that Christians are Equipped. We are equipped, given the authority, commission, resources and tools to practice "fine deeds." Paul uses the word "proistasthai" to describe this. It's a word that means something like a shopkeeper standing in front of his shop showing his wares. Further it carries with it the sense of doing something beneficial.

When Christians talk about evangelism--sharing their faith---they tend to refer to a passage of Scripture known as The Great Commission. This is the passage of Scripture where Jesus tells his disciples to "go into all the world," "make disciples," and "baptize."

The problem with focusing only on this passage as the guide for our greater purpose is that it can tend to turn people into objects. Many Christians get the sense that we are in some sort of race to get as many people saved as possible before it all ends. So they take Jesus words, and they focus them narrowly and the next thing you know Christians only see people as numbers, ticks on a tally sheet... objects.

But Jesus' goals for evangelism were much different. Before Jesus gave the Great Commission, he gave The Great Commandment. He was asked to weigh in on a religious debate about which of the 600-plus Jewish religious laws was the most important. He told them, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength." This was fairly orthodox. Then he goes on to say, "And your neighbor as yourself." This led to a whole discussion about what he meant by "neighbor," but I'll let you read Luke 10 on your own.

Here's how The Great Commandment gives us a framework for evangelism.

Jesus appealed to our instinct to love and connect relationally first with someone and then with something bigger than ourselves. There is something deep in each of us that calls out to the deepness of God. We want that relationship. Even those who deny they want it, deeply desire it at some point in their life. We also want to be connected to others, to know that we are not alone in this.

Jesus' ideas for evangelism begin with love. This is what the Gospel essentially does, really. It asks, "Who else?" and "Where else?" It doesn't settle for the people who are already in church (although there is a continuing conversion taking place with that group, too). It also doesn't allow those of us who call ourselves Christians to stay right where we are. The Gospel moves and motivates us.

How can we tap into that kind of motivation? How can we truly change our focus?

1st we need to turn up the dial on Wonder and Passion in our faith. We have a shortage of both in the Church. You see when we do this we will truly learn what it means to be the Church and not just go to church.

We also need to have a real burden for people who need the hope that comes through Jesus. I heard this story some years ago about a small town in Germany during WWII. It seems that this town had a railway station that was a stop for the many trains that were taking Jews to concentration camps in Eastern Europe. On Sundays a train would stop at the train station loaded with desperate, doomed people. The station was so close to the church that worshippers could hear the groans and screams of the people on the train while they were in church. Their solution was to play the organ louder and sing more hymns while the train was in the station. Is this what we do? Do we focus so much on our own church experience that we ignore a lost and hurting world?

We also need to leave room for doubts and fears. Expressing doubts and fears in church is not exactly a safe thing to do, which is why most people on the outside of Christian faith shy away. We all have doubts. We all have fears. We need to move beyond absolutism. Listen, if two people board a plane and one is deathly afraid of flying and one isn't, will either of them change the direction of the plane? No! One might enjoy the trip more than the other, but they'll both land in the same place. Doubts don't damn us. We've got to stop damning those who have them, including ourselves.

We need to claim God's story. Have you ever gone to a restaurant and the server had no idea what was on the menu? Doesn't exactly make you feel good about ordering the food, does it? Contrast that with a server you've had who knew all about the food. You dug that didn't you? So how do we expect people to embrace the Christian faith, when we aren't drinking the kool-aid?

And to that end, we also need to align our life with the "better story" that God is telling. I heard a story recently about a dad whose daughter was dating a guy he didn't approve of. The guy was just "wrong." The dad went to a friend in despair and asked, "Why would she want to date that loser?" The friend surprisingly told him, "she thinks there's a better story with him." The dad thought about that, and realized that the story of his own life wasn't very compelling. He worked too much, and didn't really live out his faith. He signed his family up for a mission trip to Mexico, making his daughter go, too. The trip changed her life. When she returned she broke up with the boyfriend. "I don't know what I saw in him." she told her father.

You are Called. You are Redeemed. You are Equipped for a Greater Purpose---to tell the story of how God has transformed your life through Christ.

Bring your passion. Bring your wonder. Bring your doubts and fears. The world needs you to tell your story.

Get to it.

You Lost Me - Book Give Away

2011-10-08T05:19:00.000-07:00

David Kinnaman, one of the co-authors of the influential book "unChristian" and the president of Barna Group (one of the most on point research companies in the country) has a new book: You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving the Church and Rethinking Faith.

I had the chance to see Kinnaman this past week at the Catalyst conference and to hear him speak a couple of times. The thing about Kinnaman is that he backs up his assertions with data, which is what made "unChristian" such an eye-opening work. I fully expect that "You Lost Me" will be just as eye-opening, and sobering.

I have an extra copy of "You Lost Me" that I will give away to the first person who offers a comment on this blog. Leave your email so I can contact you.

Visit the book site at www.youlostmebook.org

It's All Good Week Three - "Good News"

2011-10-02T04:08:00.000-07:00

This week I am preaching the third installment of our four-part sermon series on the book of Titus, entitled "It's All Good."

This week's sermon is entitled, "Good News," and as you might imagine by the title (or maybe not) we're going to be talking a bit about evangelism. Come to think of it, it's not that evident by the title exactly what we'll be covering in this sermon. Oh well, we all need a little mystery, don't we?

I am going to start with a parable that I ripped off and paraphrased from the great Peter Rollins, who wrote this in his book The Orthodox Heretic, which will blow your mind if you read it. So, if you prefer your mind unblown, don't buy it.

It seems there was a pastor, who had a gift for preaching. He was a fiery preacher, who was highly sought for revivals, conferences and the like. He also had a gift that he kept a secret. It seemed that whenever he prayed a blessing over someone, they would immediately lose their faith. After this happened a few times, he learned that it was best not to pray a blessing over people, no matter how they might desire it.

So one day he was flying on an airplane and found himself sitting next to a well-known businessman---a CEO, with a ruthless reputation. He was both feared and respected in the business community. When he discovered that he was sitting next to the famous preacher, the businessman began relating how important his Christian faith was to him. "I love going to worship and to Bible studies," he told the preacher. "Those things remind me of what's really important when the stress of my business gets to me. It reminds me of who I really am."

As he listened to the man, the preacher grew heartsick. He decided to use his gift, and prayed a prayer of blessing over the man. Immediately the businessman discovered that his faith was a distant memory. "What a fool I've been!" he said, "The most important thing is my own happiness and success. All of this belief and Christian living has gotten in my way all of this time."

When the businessman returned to his life, however, he soon discovered that his ruthless ways and fearful reputation led him not into happiness but deep despair. He eventually left his vocation and devoted himself to charitable work, philanthropy and the like. His soul became renewed and he discovered true joy and bliss.

One day he saw the famous preacher on the street and ran to him. He fell to his knees, grabbed the preacher's hands and began to weep. "Thank you for helping me find my faith again!" he said through the tears.

I read Pete's interpretation of his parable, and he essentially breaks it down to this: Sometimes our Christian faith gets in the way of our truly being Christian. In the parable, the man has to lose his faith in order to find it. Someone fairly important said once that in order to find our lives, we need to lose them. Yeah, that would be Jesus.

What evidence of your faith is visible to others?

Do people know what you believe based on how you act?

I was in the University of Georgia football teams locker room once. Yes, I just said that. I saw a sign on the wall that head coach Mark Richt had placed there. It read, "There can be no success if what you do is different than what you believe."

I think one of the main reasons why so many people don't really see the point in being Christian anymore is because Christians have lost their passion. And we've lost our passion because we've lowered our expectations. And when we lower our expectations, people (like us) lower their standards in order to meet them.

People in our culture are desperate to believe in something worth believing in.

Let's say that we made the following announcement on Sunday:
Monday evening we will be gathering together for a little door to door witnessing in our neighborhood. We're going to knock on people's doors, tell them where we're from and then find out the status of their immortal soul, by asking them where they would spend eternity if they died right this minute---in Heaven or Hell.

Would you show? Probably not. I'm fairly sure I would have something else to do, too. It's impossible to truly witness to someone about your faith if you don't spend time with them first. There has to be a context for your evangelism, right? Most of us would agree that we should evangelize with our lives. "Just let me live my life, and be a witness wherever I happen to be."

But we're not doing a very good job with that, are we? If we were, then there would be a whole lot more people desiring to hang with us. Instead they're going in the opposite direction.

And don't blame Jesus. They like Jesus. They just don't think we represent him all that well. And we don't because we are in love with the idea of Jesus, instead of being in love with Jesus himself.

Here's something my congregation has heard a few times:
When you KNOW Jesus, you SHOW Jesus.

Read Titus 2:1-15

Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote, "I fear that Christians who stand with only one leg upon earth also stand with only one leg in heaven." We aren't engaged with our neighbors, and when we are, we don't seem to demonstrate how awesome the Gospel really is. And lets be honest. We don't really care a whole lot about the people on the outside of the walls of our church buildings.

We don't mind talking to them about Jesus once in a while, as long as it doesn't take a lot out of us, or move us out of our comfort zone.

But our task is not to talk to people about Jesus, but to show Him.

In Titus 2 Paul helps Titus out with his problems of evangelism in Crete. He addresses three main areas in the culture at the time where Titus needs to pay close attention. He speaks to Generations, then to Gender and then to Class. These were the hierarchical ways that the Cretan culture would have divided itself.

What Paul is doing here is exhorting Titus and his flock to acknowledge the things that were important to the culture around them, and to make sure that they were living exemplary lives in those areas. Because those were the areas of life that the Cretans would be really watching.

You see what Paul understood was this: "The Christian message is the source of Christian life." There is no Christian life apart from the saving grace we have through Jesus Christ. But Paul also understood that "our greatest witness is when we live in a way that adorns the gospel and makes it attractive to look at."

All of his exhortations were done with the outsider in mind.

He tells "Senior Men" that they should be sober, prudent and basically be aware of the gravity of life. He tells "Senior Women" that they should be free from gossip, sober and engaged in "sacred things." He also encourages them to tutor young women. He tells "Young Women" to be submissive. We'll come back to that. He finally tells "Young Men" to use self-control and prudence.

Now to the "submissive" issue:

There are some "temporary" aspects to Paul's letter. It was, after all, written to a particular context. There are also some "permanent" aspects to Paul's letter that are universal in meaning and applicable today. We also don't have all of Paul's teachings on the meaning of mutual submission here either. We can assume that these issues were of great importance in the culture of the day, regardless of what Paul might have taught elsewhere. Again, he's speaking to how Christians should act, keeping their neighbors in mind.

He goes on to write that Christians are "periousios" which means "reserved for." Through the work of Jesus, the Christian becomes fit to be the special possession of God---ready to be used for God's work and to be a living witness of God's grace through Jesus.

When I was growing up, I heard more than a few people in the fundamentalist churches I went to say, "Be in the world but not of the world." The truth of the matter is that most of those people never really lived in the world. They lived in their own little world---a Christian ghetto filled with people who looked, thought and acted just like them.

We live in the world, but we don't do it uncritically.
We also don't live in it selfishly and unaware of our calling.
We're not in this for ourselves.

When you KNOW Jesus, you SHOW Jesus.

Years ago, when I arrived at my first ordained call as an associate pastor, I preached a sermon on Sunday morning to my new flock and everyone was excited and happy to hear it and to welcome me and my family. Later that week I had to go to Walgreen's because we needed a prescription filled. This Walgreen's repeatedly messed up our orders. They would not have them filled, have a problem with them, not have our information up to date---again---and much more. When I arrived I was expecting that there would be a problem, and the technicians did not disappoint. They had no record that we had called the prescription in earlier that day. I had been standing in line for ten minutes already, and was just told that I would have to wait another 30 minutes. I started to open my mouth and say some choice things to the tech. For some reason, I thought better of myself and just smiled a sad smile and said, "That's okay."

As I turned around I stood face to face with one of my new parishoners who had been sitting in the pews the previous Sunday when I preached. She had been standing right behind me.

What if I had blessed out that tech right in front of her?

This kind of thing happens to me all of the time.

I was in Five Guys burgers the other day and a lady asked, "Are you a pastor?" I said that I was. She told me that she recognized my voice from a funeral I had just preached that she attended.

What if she heard that familiar voice saying things that were not godly?

Everyone reading this is thinking, "But you're a pastor! That stuff never happens to me." Really? People are always watching. What sort of witness are you being with your life?

If you say you know Jesus, then why aren't you showing him?

It's All Good Week Two - Good Discipline

2011-09-24T12:23:00.000-07:00

This Sunday I am continuing the sermon series, "It's All Good," as study in Titus.

This week I was having a conversation with my teenage son. He attends a Christian school where Bible class is a requirement for every grade, every year. I don't mind this, honestly. In my opinion, the more opportunities that you have to interact with the Bible, the better.

But he had a bit of a confrontation with some of his classmates the other day when they were studying some of the Apostle Paul's writings. My son had the gall to ask aloud in class, "Do you ever wonder why Paul was so angry? He seems like kind of a jerk." Some of his classmates, who attend conservative churches couldn't believe that my son would actually say such a thing about the author of half of the New Testament.

So as he is relating this to me, he goes on to elaborate on the reasons that he doesn't like reading Paul's writings. "He's always yelling at someone," "He's all about rules and regulations," and "He says dumb things like women need to cover their heads." There were other comments, but you get the picture.

The moments when I get to talk to my son about Scripture---just the two of us---are pretty rare. You don't want to mess those moments up, you know what I mean?

My son was right. Paul does sound angry more often than not. And he does spend a lot of energy trying to discredit false teachers and prove why his teaching is correct.

And he does say some things from time to time that seem pretty dumb to the average teenager---or adult---or anyone.

St. Peter wrote, "The words of our brother Paul are difficult to understand." Peter would have known. He knew Paul. Peter and Paul had a throw down at one point about eating with Gentiles.

So, have you ever wondered whether Paul needed a chill pill? Or why he seemed so concerned with rules?

And what do we do with all of the rules and regulations we find in Paul's writings? What do we do with all of the tough language? What do we do with the words of our brother Paul?

I'm going to start with something personal...

Here are some things that I have learned from my one-year-old.

1. He will eat anything, and I mean ANYTHING. Decorative moss, toilet paper, grass, ABC gum, aquarium rocks and dog food... lots of dog food. I could go on.

2. If he can reach it, it's going to go on the floor. We've lost a lamp, a Disney collectable snow globe we've had for 15 years, photo frames, a small book shelf, remotes, and a whole bunch of other stuff.

3. When he's quiet... beware. He knows enough about what he's NOT supposed to do that if he's left alone for a moment, he'll get into it and be quiet about it the whole time.

4. He has no concept of how bad it will hurt him if he falls from some of the places he wants to climb.

It's for these reasons and a host of other ones that my son needs some boundaries in his life. If I didn't create boundaries based on the things I know that he will do without them, I would be a lousy parent.

Boundaries are acts of love.

In the book of Titus, Paul says some pretty hard things. Read Titus 1:10-16 to see what I'm talking about.

Paul straight up begins this passage by essentially saying, "Those lousy Cretans." He's talking about the people from the very community Titus is serving as a pastor. But Paul wasn't really saying anything new. Cretans were widely believed to be quarrelsome, greedy, sneaky and basically out for themselves. The Greeks even had a word that came from the Cretans reputation---"cretize" which meant to lie, cheat, etc.

Paul specifically calls out the Jewish Cretans by quoting a guy named Epimenides, who was Cretan himself---and who didn't have a very high opinion of his fellow Cretans.

So what were these people doing to raise Paul's ire?
According to Paul they were undisciplined.
They were also "Empty Talkers" - a word that had to do with worship, or rather worship that wasn't transformative, but just went through the motions.
He also said they were deceivers, spreading fals doctrines and false expectations.
Paul asserted that because of their behavior, they were disrupting families--causing division in the church.
They were also only concerned with their own personal gain.

But what they were really doing was trying to impose a works based, intellectualized, cold, going through the motions, counterfeit kind of faith on the excited new Christians in Crete.

Paul said that these Jewish Cretans needed to be muzzled. It sounds harsh, but what it really means is to "silence with reason."

Then he says, "To the pure, all things are pure..." This is a simple, but pretty deep statement that reflects a teaching of Jesus from Mark 7:15 where Jesus said that it's not what's on the outside that makes you unclean, it's what comes from the inside.

Paul is establishing a boundary here between authentic and counterfeit faith. He goes on to say that someone who has a counterfeit faith is adokimos

This is the term that is used to describe a counterfeit coin, a cowardly soldier, a loser in an election, a brick that doesn't fit.

It's hard to understand some of the things that Paul writes. He does seem angry at times. He does seem to be obsessed with getting things right. But when you begin to see boundaries a bit differently, it also helps to put Paul's writings into perspective.

We need to hear his words today just as the church at Crete needed to hear them 2,000 years ago. There are so many people in our culture, who see nothing good about Christianity. They don't see the point. In fact, they see many of us who are Christians as counterfeits---people who are going through the motions. Our insides don't match our outsides.

We need some boundaries in our faith. We need to know that there is a difference between what is authentic and what isn't. And it requires discipline to keep those boundaries in place and to adhere to them.

Has your faith transformed you? Do you feel joy and unbelievable hope in your Christian walk? Do you experience God in the world? Are you any different because of your faith?

Or have you been going through the motions? Is worship a chore? Do you know deep inside that whatever you call your Christian faith is not faith at all, but something else?

It's time for some discipline. Boundaries are acts of love.

It's All Good Week One - "Good Leadership"

2011-09-21T05:41:00.000-07:00

This week I am starting a new sermon series on the book of Titus entitled, "It's All Good." This little book in the New Testament began it's journey as a letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to his "go-to-guy," a man named Titus. I'm going to spend some time on the purpose for Paul's letter, and on Titus himself in just a bit. But first, let me begin this study with a few questions.

Have you ever asked yourself, "What's really good about being a Christian?" Or maybe you've wondered what sort of good comes from being part of a church. Or obeying all of the commandments that are in the Bible. Or sharing your faith.

The answer to all of these questions, according to the Apostle Paul in his letter to Titus is "It's All Good." Hence the name of the series...

Did you know that recent surveys indicate that only 4 out of 10 Americans indicate that they are a member of and/or attend church semi-regularly. And by semi-regularly, I mean some. Some could be defined as at least Christmas Eve &
Easter. So when you break it down the percentage of Americans who actually attend church on a regular basis is pretty low.

On the other hand, nearly 90% of Americans would identify themselves as spiritual even if they don't want to be part of a church, or necessarily define themselves as Christian. In fact the fastest-growing religious affiliation in America is "none."

When you contrast our emerging culture with the culture from even 25-30 years ago, you will find a huge difference. There was a time when the vast majority of Americans defined themselves as "Christian" and the number of people affiliated with a church was much higher.

What's happened?

There are a number of reasons for the change, but I think the most important reason lands right on those of us who call ourselves Christians.

I think that we've lost our passion. We spend way too much time apologizing for our beliefs and trying to fit in to society. We've lost our sense of what's good about following Jesus.

It's time we raised the bar a bit.

When the Apostle Paul wrote his letter to Titus, this was just the sort of thing on his mind. He wanted to impart to his young disciple just how good it was to be a Jesus-follower. Paul wanted Titus to elevate his passion and raise the bar for those who God called to the church in Crete, where Titus served.

Who was Titus?

He was a Gentile Christian, which means he was one of those converts that Paul led to Christ, who wasn't Jewish. He was also a guy who seemed to always get the nasty jobs. He was given the task of taking a harsh letter from Paul to the church at Corinth, which was probably a drag. He also got saddled with the task of ministering in Crete, which was one of the most decadent, hedonistic places in the known world. Some scholars believe that Titus may have been Luke's brother---Luke is the guy who wrote the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles.

Paul also thought the world of Titus. He called him is "true son," a "brother," a "sharer in the work," and a man of the "same spirit."

The basic purpose of Paul's letter to Titus was twofold: A pep talk and marching orders. Like I said, he wants Titus to elevate his passion and raise the bar for the Church.

So where does Paul begin his pep talk? With a treatise on "Good Leadership," of course.

If we are looking for a definition of a Leader in the Church? This is a good place to start: "The Christian offer is nothing less than the offer of a share in the life of God." - William Barclay. So, if those of us who call ourselves Christians are sharing in the life of God, it's like....we're family. So when Paul uses "elder" or "overseer," which makes us think of a steward that is taking care of a house, this fits the whole family/household/steward concept pretty well.

Which leads us to our main point: In God's House, Leaders Must Be Faithful In All Things. If we are going to elevate our passion, if we are going to raise the bar for what it means to be a faithful follower of Christ, then we have to begin with leadership.

Read Titus 1:1-9

First the bad news...
Here are the things that Paul says are absolutely the wrong attributes for someone purporting to be a leader in the Church.

1. A Prodigal Family Life - the word that Paul uses here is the same word that Jesus uses when he describes the Prodigal Son, and the way he speaks to his father. We might use these words to describe the family life of the wrong kind of leader: wasteful, willful, rebellious, undisciplined and unfaithful. The Scripture extends this kind of behavior to the children of the leader in question.

2. Overbearing/Angry - this a person who is intolerant, condemning and always angry. This isn't the kind of person who just flys off the handle and then cools off right away. This is the kind of person who has long-lived, purposeful anger. In other words, they like being angry, they thrive on it.

3. Controlled by Addictive/Violent Behavior - the way that Paul describes this is someone who acts like they are drunk even then they are sober--in other words, their decision making appears impaired. Paul also says this person is a "striker," someone who always seems to be looking for a fight.

4. Defined by Dishonest Gain - this kind of person is unscrupulous, greedy and has a distinct lack of morality.

Bleh.

Now the good news...
A good Christian leader is:

1. Hospitable and open - a person who is authentic, warm and inviting
2. Unselfish - Paul describes this a person as a lover of all good things, who is not interested in his own gain, but in what is good.
3. Prudent - a person who wisely controls his instincts
4. Just - a person who respects others and reveres God
5. Pious - reverences decency
6. Self-Controlled.

By now you might be saying, "Wow, Leon, this is pretty extensive, and fairly hardcore." I admit, it appears pretty stringent.

Have you ever had a lousy boss? Seriously, think about the worst boss you've ever had. You would want your lousy boss fired, wouldn't you? This would not bother you in the least. Because you have standards for leadership in your workplace, don't you?

So why don't we have the same kinds of standards in Church World?

You might be saying at this point, "But Leon... it's Church. We can't tell people no in Church. And how do you hold people accountable for things like this anyway?"

Here's the thing, a person's life is capable of measurement because the characteristics are observable.

Think about this for a minute... How many famous church leaders do you know who had some sort of moral failure that publicly ruined their ministry and gave Christianity a black eye? What about the sexual abuse scandals that are rampant in the Catholic Church, and the way that the leadership seems to always cover them up? What about televangelists and preachers who always ask for money.

And if you're sitting there saying, "yeah, those rotten pastors...."

What about the way some elders and deacons in churches cause division, gossip, undermine the pastor, try to get their own way, use money as a weapon, could care less about discipleship and live lives that are absolutely devoid of any kind of holiness whatsoever.

"But Leon, I'm not a pastor..."

So.

It's no wonder that people don't see anything good about Christianity. Our standards for leadership are terrible. Did you know that when you lower your expectations, people will lower their standards to meet them?

In God's house, leaders must be faithful in all things. If we are going to elevate our passion, we have to raise the bar.

If we want to change people's perceptions about the goodness of being Christian, it will begin with good leadership.

Westboro Baptist Church Gets Owned

2011-09-21T05:38:00.000-07:00

I've not been all that shy regarding my feelings about the Westboro Baptist Church, and it's congregation of nutjobs. This group of misguided souls has done more damage to the Gospel than just about every other televangelist---even Ernest Ainsley.

They spend most of their time picketing things while waving signs like "God Hates Fags." They picket the funerals of soldiers who were killed in Iraq with signs that read, "God loves dead soldiers." In their muddled brains a dead soldier is evidence of God's judgment on America for being so tolerant of gay people. They picket Jewish events, high profile funerals---pretty much anything where they can get some press.

The pastor of this wonderful group of loving folk is a man by the name of Fred Phelps. The church is largely made up of his rather large family. Westboro recently won a case before the Supreme Court where their presence at high profile funerals had been challenged. Phelps' daughter, a Harvard educated lawyer, argued the case for the church. So basically, that just gave them even more energy to go do dumb stuff supposedly in the name of Jesus.

Jesus isn't amused, I'm thinking.

There have been lots of counter protests at these Westboro Baptist love-fests. Lots of people have turned up to yell at them wave signs, throw stuff, you name it. That's okay. It's America, dang it. If these idiots have a right to be stupid and wave around hate-filled signs, then we've got a right to protest them if we want. Right?

The only thing is, most of the counter-protests have just been hate-for-hate, violence-for-violence.

Until now.

Westboro decided to protest a Foo Fighters concert in Kansas City, MO. Why? Because they feel that the entertainment industry in America is evil. As I peruse the new Fall Television shows, I think they might have a point, but I digress.

Anyway, the Foo Fighters decided to turn the tables on the Westboro protesters. Now there might be some PG-13 moments in this video. I apologize in advance to any PG or G-only readers I might have. But you seriously need to watch how this went down:

I've been a Foo Fighters fan since the band began back in the mid nineties. But I'm a serious fan now.

They owned the Westboro crowd by making us all laugh at them.

What can Christians learn from this? Well, for starters we should have thought of it first. People who are unChristian see these Westboro nuts and think that the reason they are the way they are is because there is something fundamentally wrong with Christianity. All along Christians should have gently, persuasively, creatively and with good humor protested the heck out of every single Westboro event.

Now we know. Their power to show and engender hatred is contingent upon our response. The Foo Fighters showed that it doesn't take much to steal that from them and make them look small and foolish in front of millions of people.

Instead of running for the hills every time a fringe group claiming to be Christian does something dumb, we need to stop apologizing and start proclaiming the Good News through both our words and our deeds.

And maybe wear fake beards when we do.

Preaching September 11th - It's Not About Flag Waving

2011-09-10T16:11:00.000-07:00

I've been reading tweets, blog posts and the like from pastors who are preaching tomorrow on the 10th Anniversary of September 11th.

Many of us are struggling with these sermons.

I've more than a few friends who have decided to basically let the anniversary go, and give it a cursory mention in their worship services tomorrow. I've also noticed a few others who are using the opportunity to preach sermons about how awful America is.

That came out a bit harsh. I think I'll leave it though. It's true.

When I saw that the 10th anniversary of 9/11 was falling on a Sunday this year, I knew that to ignore it would be a huge mistake. For the past few weeks there have been countless documentaries, news stories and the like on the upcoming anniversary. It's made all of the memories of that Tuesday morning come rushing back for both myself and my parishoners. When pastors make the decision (out of hubris) to completely ignore what's happening in the wider world, they do their congregations a disservice.

I'm also not going to be preaching about how terrible America is for the way things have gone since 9/11. Some progressive pastors seem to enjoy using their "bully" pulpit to take America to task every single time there is a remotely patriotic holiday on or very near to Sunday.

Stop it.

Lots of people love this country. It's not perfect, but for the most part, I bet there are members of your congregation is getting sick and tired of hearing you enumerate all the ways it isn't. You can call people to faithfulness without being boorish and high-handed.

And this isn't about flag waving, or melodramatic speeches on Sunday.

The 10th Anniversary of the tragedies of September 11th should be a moment when pastors cast a new vision for a way forward that isn't grounded in fear and anger. And no one feels like taking a bite out of the guilt burger when we do it.

The reconstruction of the World Trade Center and the memorial that will be at Ground Zero are just two of the many ways that we're showing that Evil doesn't get the last word.

Another of those ways is when we gather together in worship tomorrow morning and as pastors we begin to help our people imagine a world where the peace of God reigns over all of Creation, and every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

"An Enemy Has Done This" - A September 11th Sermon

2011-09-10T15:43:00.000-07:00

This Sunday is the 10th Anniversary of the September 11th.

Most of us remember vividly where we were on that Tuesday morning ten years ago.

There's something about the tragedy of that day that was---I don't know---more tragic than anything most of us had ever experienced before.

It haunts us, and we live with the reality of the new world it created each and every day.

On Tuesday, September 11th I was working at my desk in the church where I served as the Director of Christian Education. For some reason, there was no one else in the office with me that day. I think the secretary had a doctor's appointment and our very part time interim pastor wasn't there either. We shared office space with the local Fellowship of Christian Athletes branch, and the secretary who worked there came to office with an ashen look on her face to tell me the news that an airplane had crashed into the World Trade Center. We didn't have a television in the office and our internet was slow enough that we couldn't really get an video to play. So we were listening to the radio when another plane hit the second tower. My wife called me from the law office where she worked. She had been watching TV in their conference room when the second crash occurred. We all knew that it was an attack at that point. I listened to the reports of the crashes at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania on my way home. My wife and I took my son, who was in kindergarten, out of school and brought him home. For some reason, we just wanted him close. I remember sitting in front of the television alternately crying and just sitting, open-mouthed in disbelief.

What words do we use when there are none? There weren't a lot of words that really did justice to what we felt that day. Is disbelief good enough? What about horror, or sadness?

Or maybe anger...

For me it didn't take long for my shock and grief to turn into anger.

As it became apparent that the perpetrators of the attack were radical Muslims, I became even angrier.

When I watched video of Palestinians cheering in the streets and handing out candy to their children as they celebrated the destruction, my anger turned into blind fury.

I need to be real about that anger. It was and sometimes still is pretty raw.

It took ten years, two wars, countless lives and trillions of dollars before the mastermind behind September 11th received justice. When Osama Bin Laden was executed this year during a raid on his compound in Pakistan, there was a part of me that was relieved. But there was also a part of me that felt like it wasn't enough---that it would never be enough.

Sometimes the anger that still lives with me from that Tuesday morning burns fairly hot and makes me wish things that I am shocked I would even imagine.

Maybe some of you feel the same way.

In Matthew 13:24-30 we have the following parable of Jesus:

²⁴ Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. ²⁵ But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. ²⁶ When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.
²⁷ “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’
²⁸ “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.
“The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’
²⁹ “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. ³⁰ Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”

This is one of those very strange stories that Jesus tells that we read, and find ourselves wondering what they really meant. So let's dig a bit deeper and see if we can find ourselves in this story, and maybe even discover it's meaning.

In verse 24 we see that there is a Householder who sows good see in his field, but then an Enemy comes and sows weeds. There is a particular kind of weed called a darnel that actually looks like wheat when it's in a juvenile state. When the wheat begins to sprout, the weeds begin to show. The servants show up and want to know how this happened. "An enemy has done this," the Householder replies.

"An enemy has done this."

The servants are ticked. They want to go out and get rid of the weeds, but the Householder tells them to be patient. "You don't want want to pull up the good with the bad in your haste."

But then the Householder makes an ominous pronouncement. "At the harvest, the weeds will be collected, tied in bundles and burned... the wheat will be gathered into my barn."

There are some questions that need answering here...

First, who is the Enemy in the story? It's clear that Jesus wanted his hearers to realize that the weeds were not the Enemy, but that the Enemy was someone/thing else. I think we can safely assume that Jesus wanted his disciples to understand that the Enemy here was Satan--the accuser and deceiver. The Enemy planted the seed

Second, why does the Householder restrain the workers? I mean if it's clear that the weeds are weeds, and the wheat is wheat, then why wait? Wouldn't it be better for the wheat to live in a weed-free environment? The Householder shows restraint because there is a chance that an over-eager servant might just pull up some wheat by mistake. By waiting for the harvest, the Householder ensures that the differences between the wheat and the weeds are clearly defined.

Third, do the weeds escape judgement? They do not. I realize that there are lots of well-meaning Christians who would like for Jesus to always be full of sweetness and light, but here he sounds pretty hard. In the end, there's a difference between the wheat and the weeds, and that difference results in either life or death.

There are some truths that just stand out to me in this passage:

1. Evil exists and is at work to destroy what is good. If we believe otherwise, we do so at our peril. On September 10th, 2001 I don't think any of us really understood the magnitude of Evil in the world.

2. It's hard to determine who is good or bad at times. During my moments of blind fury after September 11th, I lose sight of this, and I start to not care a whole lot whether the wheat gets uprooted with the weeds.

3. We are too quick to label people, including ourselves. We believe that Americans are good and Middle Easterners are bad. We label ourselves accordingly. I hold on to my anger and the shocking things that I think or say as a result of it, and then call myself patriotic. I refuse to see any virtue in someone who embraces the Muslim faith and deem them to be radical, ignorant and hate-filled.

4. It's not our job to take vengeance. The Householder shows restraint for a reason: The servants are too emotional to show it. In their anger over the affront they have experienced, they may very well destroy what is good in their efforts to judge what is evil.

5. Judgment comes even though it may be slow. In the end, at the appropriate time, justice is served---by God, not by us.

Psalm 94:1 reads, "The Lord is a God who avenges." Another way of saying this, is "God is watching."

There are countless stories of heroism from that Tuesday ten years ago. We've heard how heroes rushed into the burning Towers without a thought to their own lives---and never emerged. I watched the story of two Port Authority employees who climbed the stairs of one of the towers, reaching the point of impact. They were responsible for leading over 90 people to safety, and were still in the tower when it collapsed. We've heard the stories of the heroes of Flight 93, who saved thousands of lives by rushing the hijackers and crashing their plane into an empty field.

And then there is the story of Capt. Jay Jonas and five of his guys from Ladder Six. These firefighters were making their way down the stairs of one of the towers before it collapsed. The encountered a woman named Josephine Harris who had climbed down 50 flights on a bad leg. The firefighters found a chair and began carrying her down. Other firefighters passed them, urged on by a Captain who was telling his guys to hurry. One of this group, stayed behind to help. When the tower fell, the entire group fell over 20 stories and none of them died. Everyone who had gone ahead was crushed to death.

There isn't any pattern to these stories. Some heroes died because they tried to save others. Some were spared because of their heroism.

What makes us look for stories of hope in the face of countless stories of tragedy? What makes us honor sacrifice in service to others?

It's because that's who we really are. We are not the angry, frightened people who want to tear up the ground pulling both weeds and wheat in order to avenge the acts of the Enemy. We are created in the image of God, and it his image that is at the heart of our restraint, our goodness, our moments of heroism.

We must live into the hope of God's image within us, and rest in the knowledge that Evil will be avenged, and justice will come to both the Enemy, and those who willingly choose the ways of the Enemy. And it will come in God's time and in God's ways.

It's time for us to let go of our anger. It's time for us to honor the memory of the fallen with our goodness and restraint. It's time for us to move forward without fear, knowing that Evil has not triumphed and it will be avenged because God was watching on that Tuesday ten years ago, and God is watching today.

In the Meantime Week Seven - "The Kingdom Is Coming"

2011-09-04T03:18:00.000-07:00

This week I will be concluding the sermon series that I've been working on with my congregation for the past few weeks: In The Meantime: Living the Christian Life in A Time of Uncertainty. This study of the book of Habakkuk has been a timely one. The past few months have been filled with a lot of uncertainty in our world and in our community. Lately, I have had more conversations with people who are struggling with issues of faith, doubt, fear, loss, you name it.

Habakkuk is a book that was written for faithful people in any time or place who find themselves living in the meantime between redemption and fulfillment. Habakkuk was a prophet who went to God with some serious questions about God's motives and actions. He wanted redemption. He wanted things to go back to the way they were when people were worshiping God faithfully, justice reigned and all was right with the world.

Who doesn't want that? I want that about a thousand times a day. Only going back isn't the answer. Because we all know that the past gets idealized and we only remember what we want to remember. God is all about moving forward.

That's what Habakkuk is all about in the end. People who have a right relationship with God live faithfully by trusting his plans, his ways, his will... and looking forward to the future in hope. And sometimes God's plans are hard to figure out, and don't seem to make a lot of sense---or worse, feel like the exact opposite of what we need.

Habakkuk found himself wondering what God was up to, and if God's plans were really perfect. He was at the end of his rope. And then God promised him that redemption was coming---salvation was on it's way. As Christians we view this promise through the lens of Jesus Christ, who was God's embodied promise.

So now like Habakkuk we wait. We have the promise embodied in Jesus Christ we have salvation happening all around us, and we can choose life over death. But we are still waiting for the kingdom of God to be present all around us and for the world to finally be right.

The last chapter of Habakkuk is a song. Check that. It's a song of rescue.

Think about what it means to be rescued. Here, maybe this will help... think about the greatest rescue movies of all time. What would be on your list? Here's a short list of mine:

1. Schindler's List - I mean come on, this has to be number one.
2. Black Hawk Down - more than just a guy flick
3. Last of the Mohicans - "whatever shall occur... I will find you!"
4. The Searchers - classic John Wayne movie
5. Taken - Liam Neeson comes for his daughter and kills everyone else
6. Castaway - Tom Hanks & Wilson traverse the ocean
7. Rambo I, II, III, IV, Whatever

There's others, but I'll probably wait to have the congregation fill in the ones I missed.

Every one of these movies taps into something that is at the heart of each of us---when we are in trouble, we want to know that Liam Neeson is going to wreck Paris to find us. Or Daniel Day Lewis is going to don his leather leggings, prime his musket and take out some Huron to save us. We want to know that when we need help, that help is on the way.

That's the take away from this sermon---the one thing that I want everyone to hold on to...

Do you need help? Help is on the way.

Read Habakkuk 3:1-19

After all is said and done, after all the conversations with God and after having nothing left but a choice to believe or not... Habakkuk sings at the top of his lungs.

In verses 1-2 we hear Habakkuk sing to God, "Renew your deeds." This is not bout Habakkuk's deeds, his works, his efforts, his abilities, power, success, etc. It's about God's. Habakkuk desires the kingdom of God, is prepared to work for it, pray for it, live for it---but he knows that he can't bring it. We need to hear this. We can promote the kingdom of God through out actions. Neither can we oppose it, because we've already seen what happens to those who do (take a look at last week's sermon). God's going to bring his kingdom---and is bringing his kingdom.

In verses 3-15 we see God "conquering the chaos"---taking a world that has been made formless and void by sin and reforming it and reshaping it. If it sounds a lot like Genesis---it's because it's meant to. We tend to mess everything up and then find ourselves without the ability to fix it. We discover to our dismay that we actually have to live with the consequences of our sin. God takes the chaos of all of this and conquers it.

In verses 16-19 Habakkuk declares at the end of his song that come what may---whatever calamity might befall him that he will wait and will rejoice. This is the final Amen of the prophet, and one that we are invited to join him in singing. Can we live with this? Can we live with just placing our future in God's hands? Can we affirm Habakkuk's faith? Can we join him in this song of trust? It's harder than it seems to sing at the end of it all.

Some have said that this vision by Habakkuk is a vision of Armageddon---when God will conquer the forces of evil once and for all and sin and death will disappear. When we put it like that it doesn't sound like such a bad thing---Armageddon. I don't know about you, but I want a God who is going to judge injustice and set things to right.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor who was executed by the Nazis for a plot against Hitler wrote in prison, "By good powers wonderfully hidden we await cheerfully come what may."

My prayer for each and everyone of the people who hear this sermon is that they catch the vision of the coming kingdom of God. I see it happening all around me. I see it in the faces of the people who line up at our Clothes Closet every Friday hoping to find clothes for their children. I see it in the way our congregation gives of itself to our community to feed our neighbors, the lost, the broken and lonely each week. I see it in the way we minister to children that no one wants to help. I see it in the way that our members are growing hungrier to know more about what it means to follow Christ, and to understand the Bible. I see it when someone who is hopeless and helpless finds a home in our midst and begins to understand the love of Jesus. In a world that seems to be falling apart, we have evidence, real evidence

The Kingdom is coming. We can't be afraid any more. We've got to start living into the hope of those words. We know we need help.

The kingdom is coming.

Don't be afraid. Help is on the way.

Sing at the top of your lungs.

Several years ago, I was on call at Florida Hospital when a man was brought in who had suffered a massive stroke. He was on a ventilator and they were about to remove it. I went to his room and discovered his brother and sister-in-law sitting there with him. I introduced myself, and the brother told me, "He's Jewish...we're all Jewish. Isn't there a rabbi on duty?" I told him that there wasn't and we wouldn't be able to contact one until the next day. He informed me that they were on vacation from New York, and his brother had collapsed in his hotel room. I asked him if it would be okay if I prayed over his brother. "Do you know any Jewish prayers?" he asked me. I told him that I knew one that was taught by someone who was Jewish---the Lord's Prayer. He looked at me and a small sad smile came over his face. "We did have him first, didn't we?" I prayed the Lord's Prayer over the man, and then all was silent. "He was a good brother," the man said in a choked voice. "He always took care of me." The nurses and technicians had gathered in the doorway. "I'm a cantor at my synagogue." he told me. "I'm going to sing to him now." I expected that the man would sing something in Hebrew. He didn't. He sang something else. He sang the Lord's Prayer in a beautiful tenor voice. A strange light seemed to be in the room. Everyone in the entire wing was still. I looked at the nurses standing in the doorway and they were crying. I was crying. The kingdom of God was all around us. The sadness, the uncertainty, the fear, the doubt---all of it got pushed back.

Do you need help? Are you tired of being afraid? Are you weary of doubting?

Then sing. Sing at the top of your lungs.

Help is on the way.

In the Meantime - Week Six "Woe!"

2011-08-27T19:14:00.000-07:00

In 2006 a judge in New York granted Jose Luis Espinal's request that his name be changed to Jesus Christ. Espinal stated that his reason for wanting the name change was simple: He wanted his name to match who he really believed he was on the inside. Since he firmly believed that he was living like Jesus Christ, acting like Jesus Christ, thinking like Jesus Christ and speaking like Jesus Christ, he felt his name should be Jesus Christ.

There's kind of a perverse logic there...but there's a problem.

He isn't Jesus Christ.

Several years ago a story broke in the news about a man named Werner "Jack" Genot, a politician in a small town, who was also a war hero. Genot had dozens of medals, a couple of Purple Hearts, citations, and awards. He had several uniforms he wore to special occasions that were festooned with his medals and ribbons. He was honored on Veterans Day events, was a regular speaker at patriotic programs and easily won elections to his city council seat.

There was one problem.

Genot had never served in the military. It was all a lie. He had purchased the uniforms, ordered the medals, faked the records and the citations and for several decades he passed himself off as a hero. A veterans group discovered problems with his claims and the official records and confronted him about it. For several years he denied there was wrongdoing, and his community came to his defense. But finally, he broke down and admitted everything.

He said that he wanted to come clean because the years of lying had caught up with him, and he wanted to be right with God.

And he got caught.

It's funny how so many of us work so hard to appear as if we are someone else. Sometimes it starts when we begin to tell ourselves that all we need to find a true life with true happiness is to change our name, create an identity, buy something expensive, get a better job, fix our relationship, find some purpose in life...

Should I keep going? And to make matters worse, our uncertain times add to our desperation. We have less money, less hope, more stress, more problems and we're running out of happy thoughts. There's not a single one of us who would turn down the chance to live a better life if it was offered to us.

Here's the thing... it is being offered to us.

This week our study in Habakkuk centers on what it means to truly live the life that God intends for us to live. Here's the take-away in a nutshell: True Life Requires A True Lord. Trying to find true life on our own isn't working, we need some Jesus.

In today's passage, God continues to answer Habakkuk's complaints. Last week we explored how God told Habakkuk about the amazing things that were about to happen. Redemption was coming, and Habakkuk might miss it if he wasn't careful.

Now we continue by picking up where left off as God declares to Habakkuk that not only does he need to be expecting some redemption, but he also needs to know who's in charge...of everything. So God unleashes some warnings about those who refuse to acknowledge his Lordship.

It's almost as if God is saying, "If you don't believe that I am going to do these things, then you'd better buckle up, pal...it's going to be a bumpy ride."

Read Habakkuk 2:5-20

Verse 5 of this passage uses the phrase "greedy as the grave," (because the grave is never "empty") to describe the unrighteous--in this case God is referring to Babylonians directly and indirectly with all those who do the very things that the Babylonians do. What are those things? Well, let's dig in...

Each of the warnings that are issued here begin with the word "Woe!" I don't think we use this word enough. It's a good word and one that deserves some resurrection back into our usable lexicon. God is pointing out what it looks like when people don't have a life with a true Lord.

Verses 6-8 begin with "Woe to him who piles up stolen goods..." This kind of person wants riches without work. Our culture is full of get rich quick schemes. The most honored and lauded people in our culture are the ones who started a company, sold it to a bigger company before it could threaten the bigger company and then became gazillionares. We celebrate people who win the lottery. We pay individual athletes more than the GDP of some developing countries.

Verses 9-11 begin with "Woe to him who builds a house with unjust gain..." This kind of person pursues success without humility. These are the people who think they deserve better, and desire better above all else. This is the person who steps on his co-workers to the top, is a terrible boss, an unscrupulous business owner, a cheater on a test.

Verses 12-14 begin with "Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed..." This is the person who uses their power without mercy. They delight when they can lord it over someone that they are stronger, wealthier, higher up on the corporate ladder. They don't care about the less fortunate, the broken and the lost.

Verses 15-17 begin "Woe to him who gives drink to their neighbors, pouring it from the wineskin till they are drunk..." This is the person who achieves victory without honor. They are not gracious or grateful. They love it when they can get one over on someone by gossiping and discrediting them.

Verses 18-19 begin with "Of what good is an idol carved by a craftsman," then say, "Woe to him who says to wood, 'Come to life!'" This is the person who worships without God. They put their faith and trust in everything but God. They trust their strength, their own power, their intellect, their ability to purchase happiness, their success.

Then there is verse 20, which is the answer to the "Woe's"

"The Lord is in his holy temple, let all the earth be silent before him."

This is both a warning and a lesson. God demonstrates that the punishment will fit the sin. Those who steal will have their stuff get stolen. Those who achieve success without humility will be made low. Those who use power without mercy will be shown no mercy. Those who achieve victory without honor will be shamed. Those who worship without God do so at their own peril.

But in the end, God is in control, on the throne and Lord. So be quiet.

I heard this story many years ago, it seems that Alexander the Great was receiving his generals and military leaders after a great victory. A young man was brought to him who was accused of desertion. It seems that he had become frightened at the battle, which had been his first. He had not run away, but had frozen in fear and not advanced with the army. The punishment for such a thing was death if Alexander so willed it. As he looked at the young man, Alexander pitied him. He issued a pardon with a strong warning that the young man would never show cowardice again. The grateful young man promised with all his heart that he would never disgrace the great king again. As the young man started to walk away, Alexander asked him his name. "Alexander, " the young man replied, smiling and lifting his chest. The great king's face grew red as he rose to his feet. "Either change your name," he bellowed, "or change your ways."

What does true life look like when we have a true Lord? I think it's when we realize that we either need to stop calling ourselves Christians, or begin acting like one.

When Jesus is Lord of our life we find riches in poverty, success in failure, power in powerlessness, victory in defeat and we learn what it means to worship God with all that we are.

Does your life look like it has a true Lord? Does mine?

True life requires a true Lord. That Lord is Jesus. Make him Lord of your life, and begin to truly live.

In the Meantime - Week Five

2011-08-20T10:40:00.000-07:00

This Sunday I'll be continuing the sermon series that I'm preaching on the book of Habakkuk entitled "In the Meantime." This week we'll be focusing on Habakkuk 2:4, the key verse for the book---a verse that is used by the Apostle Paul to help Christians understand their new life in Christ.

Before I dig into the Scripture I need to share something first so that we can all get on the same page. This is what educators would call "getting into learning mode."

I read a story this year about a group of IT workers in a New York business who always pooled their money and bought Mega Millions New York State Lottery tickets together. There were eight workers altogether, and they'd been buying tickets faithfully for a long time. It seems that one of the group decided that he wasn't going to participate on one particular week. When his buddies asked him why he didn't want to kick in for a ticket, he told them "I don't feel lucky this week."

The winning ticket for that week's $319 million jackpot was one of the tickets the group purchased.

But they only had to split it 7 ways instead of 8.

Can you imagine what that guy must have felt like? What if you were married to someone who came home with that story. "Uhhh, hey. I have something I need to tell you, and you'll probably want to sit down and let me remove any blunt objects from within your reach."

What would you say to this person? What could you say?

Here's the thing... what we'll be learning from this passage of Scripture in Habakkuk is that redemption happens in God's time, in God's way and sometimes the timing and the manner of God's redemption is just unexpected. You have to be paying attention or you'll miss it.

Why do you think that Jesus was always telling his disciples, "Let anyone who has ears, hear this." That's an ancient way of saying, "Shut up and listen!"

I used a strange title for this sermon: "Blowin' in the Wind." You might remember the song from the 1960's with the same title. It's a Bob Dylan song that has been recorded by Joan Baez, Peter, Paul & Mary, the Hollies and probably a few other bands along the way. For some reason as I read Habakkuk 2:1-4, I couldn't shake the tune and the following line of the song from my head:

"The answer is blowin' in the wind...."

Jesus once told a would-be disciple that the Spirit of God is like the wind and the Spirit blows where it wants to blow.

Those moments of redemption that we mentioned just a bit ago? Those jackpot moments? If you're not paying attention, you'll miss them because they show up unexpectedly, and when they do, you have a choice to embrace redemption or let it blow right by you.

You see, God's plan for redemption begins with a choice.

Habakkuk 2:1-4
¹ I will stand at my watch
and station myself on the ramparts;
I will look to see what he will say to me,
and what answer I am to give to this complaint.

The LORD’s Answer

² Then the LORD replied:    “Write down the revelation
   and make it plain on tablets
   so that a heraldmay run with it.
³ For the revelation awaits an appointed time;
   it speaks of the end
   and will not prove false.
Though it linger, wait for it;
   itwill certainly come
   and will not delay.
⁴ “See, the enemy is puffed up;
   his desires are not upright—
   but the righteous person will live by his faithfulness

What we find here in this text is Habakkuk waiting for a response (verse 1). I like how he tells God that he's going to wait. "Yeah God. I'll just be over here. On the ramparts. Waiting. Take your time."

God does answer in verse 2 of the chapter when he delivers a vision for a revelation. The imagery that is used in verse 2 is of a runner or a herald who has been given a message and has to run with it to deliver it. The literal Hebrew translation is "pants toward an end." It was kind of a colloquialism from the ancient world that Hebrew speakers would have gotten without all of the extra imagery that is thrown in our translation.

In verse 3 God says that the revelation will happen in the "appointed time." The Greek translation of this is kairos, which is a different understanding of time. This is God's time. It's a redemption moment. A glimpse of the kingdom of God.

Let's recap this a bit... God says that the time of redemption is coming, and the time of redemption is going to be full of revelation, and the time of redemption is going to be pregnant with the kingdom of God.

So what are we supposed to do in the meantime?

Verse 4 is the key to Habakkuk. "See, the enemy is puffed up; his desires are not upright---but the righteous person will live by his faithfulness."   This verse has also been translated, "The just shall live by faith."

The Apostle Paul picks this up and extends it to the Christian life in Romans 1:17 when he writes:

"For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last,just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

In the Jewish tradition this little verse in Habakkuk packs a huge punch. The Talmud reveals that in this verse all of the 613 commandments that are found in Leviticus are wrapped up in one sentence.

So what does it mean?

First, we need to understand the word "righteousness." Lots of people like to think that this has to do with leading a holy, upright life. A person who keeps the rules, so to speak. That is part of it, but to make that the sum total of what "righteous" means doesn't do justice to the text itself. In this context "righteous" means that you are ready to fulfill the demands of a relationship with God through faithfulness.

And "faithfulness" means placing your whole life in God's hands despite all of the fear, the guilt, shame, sin, circumstances, trials or tribulations that surround you.

It means making a choice when the wind of redemption blows---when that moment arrives and you see it, and know that you can choose it.

You see, God takes human activity and human decisions very seriously. We need to understand that God's ultimate plan for redemption of all the earth is going to happen, and we're moving toward it. Our decisions or lack thereof aren't going to thwart God's plans. So we can't delay redemption.

But we can hasten it, I think.   When we begin to embrace those redemption moments instead of letting them blow by us... When we choose wisely... the kairos is visible and the kingdom of God comes a little more into focus.

We can also miss it when it's happening if we're not paying attention, or we can miss out on it altogether by refusing to embrace it. We do get the chance to decide if we will live under blessings or cursings---whether we will choose life or death.

My wife and I have known each other since we were 13 years old. We dated all through high school and were together until a bad breakup our freshman year of college. That breakup lasted five years. We were still in love with each other, but had traveled life for so long apart that the idea that we might one day travel together wasn't even a possibility in our minds.

But all that changed one night that could have never happened.

My wife decided to try to call me on a whim, but she didn't know where I lived or what I was doing. And she didn't have a number for me. It was the five year reunion of our high school graduating class that year, and she had heard that I wasn't doing all that well in life.

So she called my mom.

Of course my mom gave her my phone number, and she called me that night. I just so happened to be home alone when she called. I had four other roommates who were all gone for some reason, and I was taking a nap before I went out to meet friends later that evening. We had one of those old fashioned answering machines that had cassette tapes, and that you could listen to the voice message while the person was leaving it. My roommates and I never answered the phone until we knew who it was and that we wanted to talk to them. So as I was sleeping, I heard the phone ring in the other room and the answering machine pick it up.

Then I heard her voice.

I thought that I was dreaming at first. But then I realized that I wasn't. I sat there for a second in my bed not really believing that I was listening to Merideth--my Merideth--on my answering machine. And then I ran to the phone like my life depended on it, and snatched it off of the receiver before she could hang up.

As it turns out, my life did depend on it.

She was about to married in three weeks.

We talked for three hours that first night.

And even longer two days later.

After she had dumped the fiancee.

Six months later we were married.

20 years and three boys have passed, and there isn't a day that goes by that I don't thank God for the fact that redemption blew threw our lives that night all those years ago, and that we were awake enough to see it and hear it.

And brave enough to embrace it.

God's plan for redemption begins with a choice. Will you make the right one when the kairos moment comes, when the redemption wind blows through you life? Will you miss it?

Emergent No More (If Anyone Cares)

2011-08-19T06:58:00.000-07:00

A couple of years ago I was grieved to hear that pastor, author and speaker Dan Kimball had officially separated himself from Emergent Village---the "organizational" aspect of what people were calling the "Emerging Church."

Kimball was one of the main reasons why I started self-identifying as an "emergent" church leader, and heavily influenced my development as a preacher and teacher through his creative approach to multi-sensory worship, and his postmodern approach to transforming existing churches.

So when I heard that Dan no longer felt that he could be a part of Emergent Village, I assumed that it had to do with his Baptist background, which probably imbued him with a great deal of suspicion toward more theologically progressive Christians. His separation was gracious, however, and I continued to read his books and occasionally hear him speak. But I never understood why he felt it necessary to disassociate from the movement he was such a part of from it's beginning.

A couple of years ago, I had a few of my blogs published on the Emergent Village website. I was thrilled. For several years I'd been immersed in books about the emerging church, emergent theology, emergent worship and the like. I'd attended several conferences where Tony Jones facilitated workshops and emergent luminaries like Diana Butler Bass, Phyllis Tickle and Brian McLaren were featured speakers. So basically I was all in. When an emergent movement took wing in my own denomination---the Presbyterian Church (USA)---I was more than a little excited and eagerly wanted to be a part of it.

My hope for the emergent conversation was that it would bring about wholesale change to what I saw as the "Existing Church," an institution that had become cumbersome, tired, stuck and dying. Additionally, I wanted to see the emergent conversation as a path to openness, innovation and vibrancy for the whole Church. I was also disillusioned with the way that the Religious Right had co-opted conservative politics into the very fabric of mainstream Christianity in America.

I thought that Emergent Village and the subsequent "denominational" emergent movements would help shepherd the Church into a new era of relevancy and dynamism. Based on what I saw early in the movement I thought we would see a shift in the way the church practiced evangelism. I thought that we would see a call for engaging, creative and innovative preaching. I thought that we would see a revolution in worship. I thought we would genuinely see churches become less interested in self-preservation and more in sharing the Good News. I thought a lot of things.

What I discovered was something altogether different.

Just as the Religious Right co-opted the language of conservative politics as its second "canon," the Emergent movement has done the same with liberal politics.

For example, the only issue in the Church that seemed to completely energize the Presbymergent group that I used to be loosely affiliated with was passing an amendment to the Presbyterian Church (USA)'s constitution that would allow the ordination of homosexuals. Once that was accomplished, I don't really think the group knows what to do any more.

I still follow quite a few Emergent-y "leader" types on Twitter. I read their blogs on occasion, and when they publish a new book, I usually will buy it. I've reviewed several on this blog, and enjoyed them immensely.

But many of the Emergent-y types seem to care very little about the revitalization of the Church. They have spent so long deconstructing it that they don't know much else. So now they spend their time twittering, blogging and speaking about politics. They've become the Left-leaning versions of what they once hated.

Rather than focusing on reforming the Church, they spend their time and energy tweeting and blogging about how evil Republicans (and especially the Tea Party) are, tearing down conservative Christians, elevating Obama in anticipation of the election, championing gay marriage rights, defending unions, abortion, illegal immigration...

The same people who were witheringly critical of the way conservative Christians blindly lionized George W. Bush (and many of them did--and still do), shower Barack Obama with praise in near-panegyric ecstasy.

Listen, I'm not offering these issues up for debate---only for the purpose of making my earlier point: the Emergent-y types have become the Religious Right---of the Left. They've lost the plot. And I don't want to go where they are going any more---if I ever did.

When Dan Kimball graciously withdrew from Emergent Village it made news. No one will really care about this little missive of mine. That's okay. I needed to say it.

I also need to say this: Pastors don't belong in politics.

I used to feel differently about this, but I've now seen how easily it corrupts both conservative and liberal Christian pastors, and distracts us from what should be our number one calling: leading our flock. It also sets us up as lightning rods for division and controversy when we should be instruments of peace.

If you are a pastor and you feel like you absolutely have to spend your time commenting, twittering, blogging, speaking, etc. about politics both within and without the Church---maybe you should become a full-time blogger, twitterer, writer, speaker or whatever.

But if you're a pastor, be a pastor. Read Eugene Peterson's book The Pastor, if you need some insight on what that really means. I did and it ruined me.

Listen, if you feel a burning in your heart to address an issue, or to right a wrong, or to speak out against injustice---do it in a sermon. Preach from the Word, and not from the New York Times editorial page or The Weekly Standard. Let the Scripture do the talking and the Spirit do the convicting.

Meanwhile, I'll keep hoping that the vision I had so long ago when the emergent conversation started will one day be realized, and the Church will be reformed. But now I'll lay my political tweets, facebook status updates and blogs to rest.

I've got a sermon to prepare.

Presby-Musings

Evangelism Re-defined: Missionaries with a Mission Field

Evangelism Re-Defined: The Missionary Next Door

Thy Word: Why the Bible is a Guide

Why I Am Not A Progressive Christian [a response]

Why I Want to Support The Fellowship of Presbyterians #fellowshippres

Related articles

Staying Presbyterian

The Bible: Book of Rules or a Tasty Snack?

Tebow After Tonight's Game

Is The Bible The Inspired Word of God, or What?

Related articles

A Charlie Brown Christmas Sermon

A Christmas Eve Post: "Destiny"

Farewell, Rob Bell

"Stuff" Week Four - "Putting the Christ Back In Christmas"

Stuff Week Three - "The Worst Thing Jesus Ever Said"

Stuff: Week Two "The Big Giveaway"

The Big Giveaway Pt. 1

A Thanksgiving Post

Stuff - Week One "What Do You Worship?"

The Tebowing of the NFL: Change Don't Come Easy

Related articles

Carry The Vision - Week 2: "You Are The Vision"

"Where There Is No Vision"

The Church & The Gates of Hell

The Sermon Takes The Fall

iLife Week Three: "iWin"

Occupy Wall St: What Can We Learn from The Occupation?

Related articles

Why We All Need Tim Tebow To Succeed

Related articles

iLife Week Two: "iRest"

iLife - Week One: "iWork"

It's All Good - Week Four - "Good Actions"

You Lost Me - Book Give Away

Related articles

It's All Good Week Three - "Good News"

It's All Good Week Two - Good Discipline

It's All Good Week One - "Good Leadership"

Westboro Baptist Church Gets Owned

Preaching September 11th - It's Not About Flag Waving

"An Enemy Has Done This" - A September 11th Sermon

In the Meantime Week Seven - "The Kingdom Is Coming"

In the Meantime - Week Six "Woe!"

In the Meantime - Week Five

The LORD’s Answer

Emergent No More (If Anyone Cares)

Related articles