Crossing the Abyss

My daughter, Kristi, shared this piece by Dan Wolgemuth, president of Youth for Christ USA:

December 3, 2010
"Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men."  ~ Philippians 2:4-7 (ESV)

Mary had reluctantly agreed to be a part of a skit that I had prepared for the Youth for Christ/USA Christmas program. The platform was set with two overstuffed chairs that were located center stage. A substantial jazz band with five vocalists was immediately behind us. The script included three interspersed worship songs and a surprise guest just after the second song.

Malia, our granddaughter who is nearly three years old, was the surprise. I had written her into the performance knowing the inherent risks that such a step might introduce. I wanted her to join me on stage, to sit in my lap, to listen attentively as I read to her… and then to join a chorus of singing Holy, Holy, Holy.

I had talked her through the flow, but there was no way to prepare her for what it would be like to execute the plan with 150 strangers in the room and a significant crowd on the stage. Andrew and Chrissy (Malia’s parents) found two empty seats about thirty feet off of the left side of the stage.

I moved through the script until the moment when I would deliver my cue… "Hey, Mary, did you hear somebody at the door?" And with that, Malia was to enter. What I hadn’t counted on, or prepped her for was THE WALK; the thirty feet between the reassuring arms of her father and the familiar and welcome lap of her Pops.

Andrew released her and with focused resolve she began her march in my direction. She was invisible at first… her tiny frame hidden among the tables, chairs, and adult bodies. Her eyes locked on mine as she moved. She walked without official invitation… there was no coaxing; I had to remain in character and on script. For thirty feet; thirty very, very long feet.

Yes, I scooped her up. Yes, she sat tenderly in my lap. Yes, she attentively listened as I read to her in the oddest of situations. And yes, she even pushed out some of the beautiful lyrics of the first verse of "Holy, Holy, Holy."

But it was the thirty feet that I will remember. The thirty feet without companionship. The thirty feet of silence. From safety… from comfort… from familiarity… into the void. To be part of a story. A powerful and beautiful story.

Across the abyss. Into the wilderness. From heaven to earth.

Jesus left the throne room… He left the arms of His Father to bring the embrace of grace. He walked the thirty feet. For us. For hope. For love.

It was Malia’s first Christmas program… and little did any of us know that she would play the role of Jesus.

From June 1996

Having to recently replace my hard drive and restore backed up files, I unearthed this article from 1996.  Especially for those of you who are still parenting children who have not yet "launched," you may find some encouragement in this piece.

There are moments in our lives that serve as markers of the passage of time. As I anticipate my firstborn crossing the platform on Friday night and becoming a high school graduate, I am struck again with the pace at which life flies.

It seems only a few years ago that we were bringing her home after her birth. Only a few years ago she was in kindergarten, playing with her Playskool toys and lighting up the room with her smile (which she can still do). Only a few days ago she was being pushed down the street on her bike by her grandpa in an attempt to teach her to ride her "two wheeler". Only a few moments ago she going to her first Junior High dance, learning to drive, going on a summer-long missions trip. The days turn into weeks, the weeks turn into months, the months turn into years and suddenly (it seems) she is an adult with plans to have a life all her own.

It becomes increasingly obvious that whatever imprint Sharon and I had hoped to have in her life has already been pressed into her character. When she looks back on her childhood and her adolescence, only she can determine how good a job we did as parents.

My prayer, like generations of parents before me, is that when she looks back, she'll look back in kindness. Like generations of Christians before me, I pray that she will realize that above all else we loved her and what we most desired is that she fall in love with the Savior.

It is at moments like this that I ask the question again, "What does it profit a man if he gain the world and lose his family?" (Schliep paraphrase of Mark 8:36) I don't regret the late night walks around the living room with my baby girl trying to get her to sleep. (I don't miss them either.) I don't regret the nights at "open house", the concerts, the plays, the awards ceremonies, the disagreements over "matters of consequence". I don't regret being unable to buy her a car for graduation. I don't regret the trust I gave and the way she kept that trust. I don't regret what an amazingly balanced adult God has made her because of, and in spite of, me.

I do regret how often I jumped to conclusions. I do regret not asking more questions about how she was doing, really. I do regret that I couldn't model Christ more clearly to her.

One of the things I've learned in my role as a parent is that, as Christians, we need never parent alone. God has given us His wonderful family to keep us balanced. I am eternally grateful for the many adults in this fellowship who have invested their lives in the lives of my children. They have learned from you things they would never have learned from me.

As Kristi launches out into this new season in her life, may she find that, like those young adults who have gone before her, the things she has learned and the things she has seen modeled are those things which have lasting value no matter where her Lord may lead her.

Every Saint Has a Past and Every Sinner Has a Future

In his novel, Father Elijah, author Michael O’Brien puts these words into the mouth of his lead character, “First of all, you let yourself be drawn away from prayer. You weren’t distracted by evil things, for the enemy knows that you have been converted from them. He drew you away by legitimate pleasures… The second temptation is of a more sinister nature. The temptation to hate yourself because you have not lived up to your ideal. That is pride, and it is very dangerous. It opens the door to much worse things.”

That quote could take this column in two directions.  The first would be a monologue about how easily it is to be drawn away from prayer by “legitimate pleasures.”  With the Christmas season approaching there would be plenty of examples I could use from my life or yours.

But it is the second part of the quote that I would like to focus on because as we move into the new year we are probably already looking back on this year and despairing of how little we accomplished or bemoaning the changes we were going to make, but didn’t. This is one of those tensions that must be held by Christians if we are going to be faithful to what God has revealed about what it means to walk with Him.

We are not what we should be.  We are not what we were.  Peter writes, “So you must live as God’s obedient children.  Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires.  You didn’t know any better then.  But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy” (1 Peter 1:14-15 NLT).  John writes, “If we claim that we’re free of sin, we’re only fooling ourselves.  A claim like that is errant nonsense” (1 John 1:8 The Message).  Paul writes, “Because we have these promises, dear friends, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that can defile our body or spirit. And let us work toward complete holiness because we fear God.” (2 Corinthians 7:1 NLT)  Eliphaz, in the book of Job asks, “Do you think it’s possible for any mere mortal to be sinless in God’s sight, for anyone born of a human mother to get it all together?” (Job 15:14 The Message)

While we cannot give ourselves permission to sin, neither can we hate ourselves because we have failed to live up to either to God or our own ideals.  As Chuck Leckie used to say (and maybe still does) we need to have our noses pointed in the right direction.  Paul said something similar in his letter to the Christians at Philippi: “I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection.  But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me.  No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing:  Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.” (Philippians 3:12-14 NLT)

Oscar Wilde was right when he wrote, “Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.”  In Christ, that past is forgiven and that future is secure.  So, like the apostle Paul, let us forget the past and look forward to what lies ahead, pressing on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.

Sweet Spot

A pastor recently mentioned working in his "sweet spot."  This got me thinking again about this concept in American business (and therefore the American church, but, as usual, about 5 years later).  I agree that I don't want my auto mechanic doing brain surgery because he feels that's his "sweet spot."  There is something to be said for functioning in areas where you have training and experience.  What is usually meant in these conversations among pastors and church staff is that they are working in ministry areas they enjoy.  The measure is not "Am I working in ministry for which I am equipped?"  The measure is, "Do I enjoy working in this aspect of ministry and can I avoid the aspects of ministry that I don't like?"  If you don't believe me, ask yourself about the rise of "teaching pastors".  I know I'm painting with a broad brush, but has anyone else noticed that most of these teaching pastors are guys who have reached middle age and don't want to deal with the messiness of shepherding a congregation.  They want to preach and run.  O.K., I'm exaggerating a bit, but it strikes me as suspicious that a "sweet spot" is often used as the rationale for not doing things that we don't enjoy doing.

(By the way, I just double-checked using my WordSearch 9 software and there is not a single verse using the phrase "sweet spot."  I found verses with the word sweet and some with the word spot, but none of them had to do with using gifts, abilities or talents in ministry.  I should probably provide this caveat:  I only searched the ESV.  I did not search The Message or New Living Translation, so maybe I narrowed my focus too much.  I know the word Trinity doesn't appear in the concordance either, but I can't even find the concept of "sweet spot" in Scripture while I can point to passages that indicate the existence of the Trinity.)

Consider, if you will, the ministry of some of the people whose lives are mentioned in Scripture.  Noah obviously worked in his sweet spot.  He spent over 100 years building a boat and preaching.  I'm sure that brought him great joy.  It might have been a downer that he only had 8 converts, but at least he was working in his sweet spot.  Then there's Isaiah who obviously had a naked fetish since God asked him to walk around naked for three years.  I'm sure he was glad God called him into his sweet spot.  Or Elijah's call to confront Ahab and Jezebel.  Who wouldn't feel like that was the best use of their gifts and abilities?  And what about Jonah?  If God only calls us to our sweet spot, then what was Jonah's problem anyway?  Why wouldn't he want to go preach to those living in Nineveh? Just because they might repent and avoid the judgement Jonah wanted God to execute on them.  Or how about Hosea who God told to marry a wife who God knew would be sexually unfaithful to Hosea and would bear children Hosea wasn't even sure were his?  That's some sweet spot.

Maybe sweet spot is a New Testament concept.  The apostle Paul certainly lists the results of being in his sweet spot in his second letter to the Corinthians.  Being in his sweet spot resulted in "far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death."  Paul goes on to list his other "sweet spot" experiences.  ^"Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches." (2 Corinthians 11:23-28)  So much for Paul taking a position as a teaching pastor.

And then there's Jesus.  You remember his sweet spot prayer in the garden of Gethsemane.  "Father, this ministry has been great fun.  I'm really looking forward to what comes next.   In fact, it's so much fun, I'm thinking maybe I don't deserve to participate, so if you want to do this some other way, I'm open to that."

Maybe our problem is in our definition of sweet spot.  I do think there is a biblical concept of sweet spot, but it is that spot where God's will and my obedience come together.  Noah builds a boat. Isaiah walks naked. Elijah says what needs to be said to Ahab. Jonah goes to Nineveh, however reluctantly.  Hosea marries Gomer.  Paul preaches the good news.  Jesus goes to the cross.  Sometimes our sweet spot may be the place where our strengths, passions and enjoyment come together.  But not always.  In fact, looking at Scripture, maybe not often.

Don't Believe Everything You Think

At church last evening my pastor began his sermon on the Lord's Prayer saying that we've all heard "Don't believe everything you read" and "Don't believe everything you see"  Then he said something that continues to rattle around in my brain.  He said, "Don't believe everything you think."  


How easily we deceive ourselves and how desperately we need to take the things we think and run them past the truth found in God's Word.  I know this is true.  I have said things like this to others in my more than 35 years in ministry.  But there was something about the way he said it that caused me to stop and consider again the importance of the Bible as my North Star. (Some of these thoughts may also be fueled by seeing "Inception" twice.)  How quickly I assume that my understanding of reality is the correct one.  How wrongly I assume that my thinking on issues is accurate.  How often I am wrong.


I did listen to the rest of the sermon, but his opening was worth the price of admission.  I'm off to spend to some time in the truth, asking God to show me what is real.

Full Maturity

In my personal life, my ministry, my church and my Home Group, the issue of maturity keeps rising to the surface.  What is it?  How do we know when we get there?  What do we do with those who claim to be mature (or others make that claim for them) but who are emotional basket cases or who inflict emotional and spiritual harm to others by their words, attitudes or actions?  

I would abandon ever defining or seeking to achieve maturity, seeing all the evidences of spiritual immaturity, but then I run into passages like the one from Paul's letter to the Christians at Colossae which says, "Him [Jesus] we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me. Colossians 1:27-29 (ESV)  Paul was putting a lot of energy (provided by God) into doing things that would be used to present EVERYONE mature in Christ.

In Paul's letter to the church at Ephesus he writes, "And he [God] gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. Ephesians 4:11-16 (ESV)

So while me may never be able to say this:

I do think we can get to the place where we can recognize in ourselves, and in others, the maturity that God calls His children to.  Why else would Paul insist that maturity was an attainable goal and especially so when looking for leaders in the local church?

But when we think about maturity, we would all do well to look for biblical definitions of maturity rather than those handed to us by our church culture.  The church cultures tends to be skewed toward the amount of biblical information one possesses in one's memory while, by contrast, Jesus and Paul looked at other measurements such as loving God and loving people or not being tossed around with every new idea but growing up into Jesus.

As usual, I have no definitive answer about what maturity is, but I'm getting clearer on what maturity is not.

The Help

I am almost finished with the book, The Help, by Kathryn Stockett.  (Already I highly recommend it to you.)  The story takes place in 1963 in Jackson, MS.  It recounts life in white households with black househelp, particularly those women who helped raise the white children.  The question that keeps coming to mind as I read is "What would my own response have been to white/black relations if I had lived in the 1960's South?"  I'd like to think I would have been one of those who would have treated blacks as equals, created in the image of God.  But there were institutional and societal barriers in place that made this complicated.  Would I have been willing to cross those barriers?  What is the equivalent barriers today that I have been unwilling to cross to connect to people who are unlike me?  I don't have answers, but I do have lots of questions.

Playing in the Shallow End

Robert Campbell, the pastor of Santa Margarita Community Church, posted a quote on his Facebook page from Dick Keyes, the Director of L'Abri Fellowship in Southborough, Massachusetts: 

“If we avoid life’s complexity and confusion, if we can’t face pain in ourselves or others, if what we feel most deeply always references ourselves, then sure enough, we have already become –deep down– very shallow.”

Ecclesia Americana

Ken Myers, host and producer of Mars Hill Audio Journal writes an insightful article in the latest Touchstone Magazine entitled, Ecclesia Americana.  You can read the article at Ecclesia Americana.  Touchstone is the only magazine produced by Christians for Christians that I read through each issue.  It always forces me to think more carefully of my theology and my life.  You can subscribe by going to Touchstonemag.com.  Subscribers now have access to an electronic version of the magazine.

It's Only Fair

Let's be honest.  Most of us function on a daily basis like Lucy VanPelt.  Oh we say we believe something else, but our theology has not caught up with our internal wiring.  My wife recently re-read one of our favorite novels, Peace Like a River, by Leif Enger.  On the whiteboard in the hallway just outside our bathroom, she wrote a quote from this novel.  "Fair is whatever God wants to do."  I agree with that statement on the meta level, but what about the daily-ness of my life?  I find myself agreeing more with that great theologian Calvin than I do the character in Enger's novel:

I want life to be fair as long as it is fair in my favor. As long as things go along in a direction I desire, I think life is fair and I trust that God knows what He is doing.  But just let a circumstance come into my life, or a season of life take turns I hadn't planned on, and suddenly I am in Lucy and Calvin's camp.  It's only fair when my life turns out the way I wanted and it's unfair when life isn't unfair in my favor.

This tendency in all of us is one of the many reasons why God keeps repeating Himself throughout Scripture, "You're going to have to trust me, I know what I'm doing."---SLP version (Schliep loose paraphrase version)  This does not come naturally to me or to you.  It comes super-naturally.  It is something that is "above natural."  Jesus perfectly followed the will of God and yet it is appeared that, as he hung on the cross, God must have forsaken him. If ever things were happening that were "not fair" in light of the character of the person involved, it was this event in the life of Jesus. It is, in fact, this apparent unfairness that prompted Jesus' quotation from Psalm 22, "My Elohim [strong God who is able to deliver], my Elohim, why have you forsaken me?"  What the psalmist goes on to write (and what I think Christ was pointing to by using the opening phrase) is that God had not, actually, forsaken him.  In fact, God was very much present, even in the suffering. Part way throught his song there is a shift from a prayer for deliverance to an acknowledgment that God has delivered, or at least will deliver.  "...You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen! I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you: You who fear YHWH [the promise-making, promise-keeping God who is to His people all that He is], praise him! All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him, and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel! For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him."---Psalm 22:21-24 (ESV)

I don't know what this season holds for you, but I believe, deep down and contrary to the apparent evidence, that Leif Enger's character got it right.  "Fair is whatever God wants to do."  Now if I could just trust Him enough to live like I believe it...  Lord I believe, help my unbelief.

I Wish I Went to a Church Like This...

"Sunday's Coming" Movie Trailer from North Point Media on Vimeo.

I've had days like this. Being a dad is hard work

Practice Resurrection

I recently finished Eugene H. Peterson's latest book, "Practice Resurrection."  It is the fifth and final book in his latest series.  This book is basically a distillation of his understanding of the book of Ephesians (which is one of my favorites).  It was my privilege to take a class on Ephesians from Peterson at Regent College in Vancouver, B.C. some years ago.  It was amazing.  Anyway, here are some select quotes to challenge your thinking:


Americans in general have little tolerance for a centering way of life that is submissive to the conditions in which growth takes place: quiet, obscure, patient, not subject to human control and management...Typically, in the name of "relevance," it adapts itself to the prevailing American culture and is soon indistinguishable from that culture: talkative, noisy, busy, controlling, image-conscious.


[A recent convert to Christ began attending church.]  These churches seemed to her to be full of ideas and projects that they used as she had once used alcohol, drugs, and sex--to avoid God, to avoid being present to life, being present to a neighbor.  They were doing everything religious except following Jesus.  They were feeding their most childish and adolescent impulses and refusing to take up the cross of Jesus.  They were not growing up in Christ.  Lots of doctrine, lots of Bible study, lots of moral and ethical concern, lots of projects.  But it struck her as pretty thin soup...It took her a while, but eventually she found a few friends, a teacher, a pastor.  She now had companions to a life of growing up to the full stature of Christ, becoming mature.


Church is the textured context in which we grow up in Christ to maturity.  But church is difficult.  Sooner or later, though, if we are serious about growing up in Christ, we have to deal with the church.  I say sooner.


Church is an appointed gathering of named people in particular places who practice a life of resurrection in a world in which death gets the big headlines...The practice of resurrection is an intentional, deliberate decision to believe and participate in resurrection life...This practice is not a vague wish upwards but comprises a number of discreet but interlocking acts that maintain a credible and faithful way of life...These practices include the worship of God in all the operations of the Trinity; the acceptance of a resurrection, born-from-above identity (in baptism); the embrace of resurrection formation by eating and drinking Christ's resurrection body and blood (at the Lord's Table); attentive reading of and obedience to the revelation of God in the Scriptures; prayer that cultivates an intimacy with realities that are inaccessible to our senses; confession and forgiveness of sins; welcoming the stranger and outcast; working and speaking for peace and justice, healing and truth, sanctity and beauty; care for all the stuff of creation.

Out of Abundance

It was my privilege recently to interact my brothers-in-Christ among the Balangao (Mt. Provinces of the Philippines) using the book of Deuteronomy as our text.  I was invited to work with these church leaders, using the Old Testament as the basis for my encouragement of their lives and ministries.  It didn't take long to discover that they were, in the main, subsistence rice farmers who also serve as leaders in their local church.  There is no real concept of being on "paid staff."  Many of them walked hours to attend the seminars.  In the United States it's difficult to get full-time pastors to drive across town for teaching and encouragement.  Sharon reminded me that these pastors were responding out of their need, while so many of the U.S. pastors respond out of their abundance.  Myself included.  What those of us in the States often fail to recognize is our need.  Even in the midst of abudance.

No Training Necessary

In his book, SoulTsunami, Leonard Sweet writes, "Our problem in evangelism is not a lack of training.  The problem in evangelism is that we don’t love enough.  Do you need training to talk about your grandchildren?"  I have used that quote off and on over the last few years in sermons, but now I know, by experience, the emotional impact of what he is saying.  


Raya Grace Mireles arrived yesterday at about 1:00 pm and I've told many people about her.  Her picture is on the desktop of my computer at work and my netbook at home.  She is also on the desktop of my smartphone.  When asked about her this morning by friends I probably told them more than they wanted to know about this incredible human being.  So go ahead, ask me about my grandbaby.  And about my Jesus.

ReJesus

Into my inbox this morning came an e-mail from my team leader containing the following short review from a friend of his.  

"One of the books I really enjoyed reading last year was ReJesus by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch.  The sub-title of the book is A Wild Messiah for a Missional Church.  The book explores the connection between the way of Jesus and the religion of Christianity.  The authors ask a variety of questions including: Why is what we experience as Christianity discontinuous with the way of Jesus?  How consistent is our witness with his life and teachings?  Can we move away from his prototypical spirituality without doing irreparable damage to the integrity of the faith?  How far is too far?

I enjoyed the whole book, but their chapter on ReJesus for the Church and Organization really challenged me.  Here are some excerpts from the chapter" :

As Jesus’ disciples we are called to a Christ like life, and no matter how we configure it, that must surely mean that somehow our lives and our communities must be in significant congruence with the life, teachings, and mission of Jesus.  The degree that we are living the life laid out by our Master is directly proportional to the degree that we can call ourselves authentic disciples.

We have built and established a massive global religion comprising thousands of organizations with massive capital and resources.  The problem is these organizations drift towards pragmatism over radicalism, although, we suspect, in more honest moments many of them would probably admit that much of what we do seems to only have an indirect correlation to the uncluttered, nonreligious, life-oriented faith so compellingly portrayed in the Gospels.  These objectors might, in spite of their deepest spiritual intuitions simply say that we have no choice but to continue to operate the services and maintain the system or else the whole edifice might crumble.  But we cannot escape the question:  “Is this what Jesus really intended for his movement?”

Does advancing in the kingdom of God boil down to this? Running programs and services and/or guiding the laity through liturgical complexities in order to help people get to the God they are all meant to access directly through Jesus anyhow? Was this what Jesus had in mind when he established the church (Matt. 16:18-19)? And, whatever happened to the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers that many within the Protestant movements are meant to adhere to (I Peter 2:9)?

Unless we can validate who we are and what we do by lining ourselves up with the measure that Jesus laid down in his life and work, then what in God’s name are we doing? His modus operandi, teaching, his critique of religion, his commitment to the way of the kingdom, must become our primary source of guidance.

We believe that in order to find renewal we need to discover Jesus afresh even though this be a dangerous course of action because it calls into question so much of what we might build our various religious houses on.  At the beginning of this new century, we have never needed so desperately to rediscover the original genius of the Christian experience and to allow it to strip away all the unnecessary and cumbersome paraphernalia of Christendom.

Roland Allen wrote about missional movements: The spontaneous expansion of the Church reduced to its element is a very simple thing. It asks for no elaborate organization, no large finances, no great numbers of paid missionaries. In its beginning it may be the work of one man and that of a man neither learned in the things of this world, nor rich in the wealth of this world. What is necessary is faith. What is needed is the kind of faith which uniting a man to Christ, sets him on fire.

We need to learn from the story of the Israelites in the wilderness.  They tried to store up manna from heaven for another day.  Religion can give in to the same temptation to try to store up and rely on souvenirs of a past spiritual experience.  For how many years did the church rely on the system of holy Christian relics – a bone from Peter’s finger, a wood shard from the cross of Christ, cathedrals and sacred buildings, inherited rituals, even creedal formulas, more than it relied on a fresh, daily encounter with Jesus?  We, like Israel, are called to be willing to collect the fresh manna every day – and we are to do this without becoming spiritual thrill seekers but rather lifelong worshipers.  To do otherwise is to “outsource your encounter with Jesus” to a religious system of souvenirs, ritual, and religious paraphernalia.

To ReJesus the church, we must first look in the mirror and ask ourselves whether the strange and wonderful God-Man has invaded our life with purpose and freshness. If Christianity minus Christ equals religion, then Christianity plus Christ is the antidote to religion.

Max Weber, the famous sociologist, noted that in order to survive the loss of the founder, the movement has to somehow build the charisma of the founder into the life of the organization.  We also know from the Gospels that Jesus spent significant and strategic time devoted to initiating his followers into the ways of the kingdom and to discipling and teaching them to recognize the dynamics of what it meant to be one of his followers.

Likewise for the Christian movement, the founder must be able to be seen in the lives of the found. This must surely partly be what it means to live “in Christ” and he in us. People observing us ought to be able to discern the elements of Jesus’ way in our ways. If they cannot find authentic signals of the historical Jesus through the life of his people, then as far as we are concerned they have the full right to question our legitimacy.

"Frost and Hirsch certainly have some challenging thoughts.  They cause me to reflect on my daily encounter with Jesus.  Am I living on day old, or even month old manna?  Do I see regular evidence that Jesus has invaded my life with purpose?  Do people in my orbit see authentic signals of the Jesus life in my life?  So this month I’m praying that you will ReJesus.  That you won’t mistake the programs and rituals of Christianity for the authentic Christ. "

Discerning God's Will

I'm one of those who believes that, generally speaking, "if it isn't sin, it's an option".  That is, God's will for His children is much broader than some would assume.  It seems from Scripture that God is far more interested in who you are than where you are, for instance.  He is far more involved in developing your character than your career.  He's far more concerned about the kind of spouse you are than who you chose for a spouse.  God's will is our salvation, our sanctification, and that we keep in step with His Spirit.  All the rest of our decisions should reflect the reality of these larger realities.  Proverbs calls it the way of wisdom--factoring in God's existence and our relationship with Him into all we choose to do.  There is great freedom in this.  And, as a corollary, there is great responsibility.  I wouldn't have it any other way.

Getting Ready

Sometime in the next few weeks my first grandbaby will arrive.  I've had about 36 weeks to prepare, but most of it has been happening these last few weeks.  We've been sorting through the toys that we saved from our own kids (which we used when company came with small children) and setting aside those which she will play with first.  We've even hung the Noah's-Ark-cloth-bath-toy bag on a hook in the bathroom in preparation of some crazy fun.  We discovered the windup turtle's legs still rotate, propelling him around the tub.  I was saddened that the clam still had his shell, but not the soft inner clam that shoots water into baby's faces.  (Where does one go to find replacement parts for cheap bath toys?)  This is going to be fun.  Raya will, no doubt, be the a topic of many conversations since she will, of course, be above average in beauty, intelligence and talent.


So, for both of you who read this blog, be prepared for stories about my amazing grandbaby compared to whom all other grandbabies will pale in comparison.

Seasons

I had my birthday again a few days ago.  It comes every year whether I'm ready or not.  I enjoyed the time with family and friends.  I received a number of iTunes gift cards.  What surprised me a bit is what I purchased.  Crosby, Stills and Nash (C, S & N), Cat Stevens (Tea for the Tillerman, Teaser and the Firecat), Simon and Garfunkel (Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme), Gordon Lightfoot (The United Artists collection) , and Carole King (Tapestry, of course).  I guess I was in a mood to hear music that is connected to a much earlier season in my life.  Every album I downloaded is one that I had previously owned on vinyl.  (I think I also had Tapestry on 8 track).  


I have no doubt that I'll play these mostly when I'm on one of my road trips.  I'll leave it to others to figure out the "why".  In the meantime I'll enjoy the music.