My One Word: Follow… Warts and all

The August 30, 2012 daily thought from Emergent Village featured this quote from E. Kent Rogers and his book 12 Miracles of Spiritual Growth

The goal is not perfection. The goal is love … It is not  necessary to be perfect to be loving. On the contrary, were it not for
our own imperfections and the imperfections of those around us, love would be impossible … When we continue to give to others despite their warts and flaws, then love is becoming something real.

“Hi, I’m Jim and I am a recovering perfectionist!”

I often say that to my congregation in a sermon or to someone in conversation. I often laugh after I say it because I say it half-jesting and half-serious. (Sometimes more serious than jesting.)

In this post, I am all serious. I AM a recovering perfectionist.

Perfectionism I have discovered is a joy killer in my following Christ. It also kills the ability to truly love well and that is what caught my attention in Rogers’ quote.

‘But Jim, Jesus said be perfect as I am perfect.’

You are right, but that word can also be translated as mature and, without getting preachy here (something that I do not like to do) when we read what Jesus has just said about our relationships with people, I think that a case can be made for Jesus say to His originial audience- ‘grow up!’

Perfectionism keeps us from growing up. It causes us to raise the bar on the wrong metric – that of performance. The right metric is motivational or attitudinal (re-read Matthew 5 again from the perspective of motivation and attitude and not performance). Perfectionism is fear-based not love-based. Perfectionism and shame go hand-in-hand.

As I think then about the following of Jesus by the twelve, the warts became clear. Peter with his implusiveness. Judas with his betrayal. Their ‘not getting it’ at times. And if Jesus expected perfection out of them He was, I am sure sorely disappointed.

But He didn’t, did He? He made clear in His final words before His arrest and cruxificion that love was the greatest sign of obedience to Him and NOT perfection.

I am a ‘recovering’ perfectionist. I still judge, very unfairly at times, others and how they do or not do things. I expect my kids to NOT fail. They do. Sometimes disgust is more rampant within me than patience (a great sign of love, by the way.)

But, I have been reminded by a wise person that love is the goal and not perfection… warts and all.

I can aim at that…warts and all…

These are my Thursday thoughts

A Review of Andrew Byers’ Faith Without Illusions: Following Jesus as a Cynic-Saint

The brokenness of human misery before God may recede into bitterness, but healing comes when we bring our maladies to him and check into his healing ward. We do this not by avoiding him in disillusionment but by crying out to him from the depths and striving with all our might to grasp onto something hopeful from his hand.  Andrew Byers Faith Without Illusions, page 175-176

As a pastor who has been in full-time parish ministry for not quite 25 of the past 31 years, I have read books, attended seminars, and had numerous conversations, face to face and in writing, regarding those who either become disgruntled with the Christian faith and church or have been for quite some time whether having been a part of a church or not. Cynicism has never been in short supply just ask St Paul… and Jesus.

And Andrew Byers does, in a manner of speaking, as he addresses the issue of walking the line between despair and cynicism in a new book published by InterVarsity Press in 2011, Faith Without Illusions: Following Jesus as a Cynic-Saint.

He begins with a first person account of how  ”we fall into” cynicism with a grade school love story. He then goes on to state something that all of us know to be true, namely that, “cynicism often arises from painful disillusionment-when the rug gets violently jerked out from under us…” and then he turns to the focus of the book  ”What if we are disillusioned by the church- that one safe harbor of community on which Christians are told to rely on when all else comes crashing down? What if we become cynical toward the faith that is supposed to sustain us through all life’s trials?…what if the object of our disillusionment is…the God we worship?

Focusing then on this last question, Byers takes us  into a review of what he calls “pop Christianity” which he claims makes us cynical and chapters related to the common themes found in his view and discussion of pop faith: Idealism, Religiosity, Experientialism, Anti-Intellectualism, and Cultural Irrelevance. Along the way, he challenges some very common view and assumptions that are part and parcel of common and wide spreading thinking across the Church such as “just follow your heart” when he reminds us that scripture reminds us that the “heart is deceitful.”

Then, as a solution, Byers offers “hopeful realism” and supports his solution with a walk through the Old and New Testaments as he draws line between cynicism and a hopeful realism based in God’s grace through Christ that does not side-step questions which come from hearts of disillusionment, pain and brokenness. Along the way he reminds the reader of the passionate angst of the Psalms and the anguished cry of the prophets which are ultimately sent God ward for resolve. And he makes a case that Jesus Christ himself had every opportunity to become a cynic because of the hostility and disillusionment that he faced as he walked this earth.

I, too, have been at times, a cynic of the faith and the church. And in my journey I have had to face the truth that my cynicism was based on some of the assumptions and views presented in this book. And what I like about this book is that Byers addresses the pain and the disillusionment I too felt and understood when the rug was pulled out from under me, by my own poor and flawed attitudes and choices, that had made me a disillusioned cynic.

If you are cynical about the “popular” claims of Christianity today and have found your faith wanting, I recommend this book. If you know someone who is dealing with doubt, despair, and cynicism, I recommend this book to you to share.

I rate this book a ‘great’ read.

Note: I bought the Kindle version of this book for my own personal reading and thought it worthy of a review.

A Review of Andrew Byers’ Faith Without Illusions: Following Jesus as a Cynic-Saint

The brokenness of human misery before God may recede into bitterness, but healing comes when we bring our maladies to him and check into his healing ward. We do this not by avoiding him in disillusionment but by crying out to him from the depths and striving with all our might to grasp onto something hopeful from his hand.  Andrew Byers Faith Without Illusions, page 175-176

As a pastor who has been in full-time parish ministry for not quite 25 of the past 31 years, I have read books, attended seminars, and had numerous conversations, face to face and in writing, regarding those who either become disgruntled with the Christian faith and church or have been for quite some time whether having been a part of a church or not. Cynicism has never been in short supply just ask St Paul… and Jesus.

And Andrew Byers does, in a manner of speaking, as he addresses the issue of walking the line between despair and cynicism in a new book published by InterVarsity Press in 2011, Faith Without Illusions: Following Jesus as a Cynic-Saint.

He begins with a first person account of how  ”we fall into” cynicism with a grade school love story. He then goes on to state something that all of us know to be true, namely that, “cynicism often arises from painful disillusionment-when the rug gets violently jerked out from under us…” and then he turns to the focus of the book  ”What if we are disillusioned by the church- that one safe harbor of community on which Christians are told to rely on when all else comes crashing down? What if we become cynical toward the faith that is supposed to sustain us through all life’s trials?…what if the object of our disillusionment is…the God we worship?

Focusing then on this last question, Byers takes us  into a review of what he calls “pop Christianity” which he claims makes us cynical and chapters related to the common themes found in his view and discussion of pop faith: Idealism, Religiosity, Experientialism, Anti-Intellectualism, and Cultural Irrelevance. Along the way, he challenges some very common view and assumptions that are part and parcel of common and wide spreading thinking across the Church such as “just follow your heart” when he reminds us that scripture reminds us that the “heart is deceitful.”

Then, as a solution, Byers offers “hopeful realism” and supports his solution with a walk through the Old and New Testaments as he draws line between cynicism and a hopeful realism based in God’s grace through Christ that does not side-step questions which come from hearts of disillusionment, pain and brokenness. Along the way he reminds the reader of the passionate angst of the Psalms and the anguished cry of the prophets which are ultimately sent God ward for resolve. And he makes a case that Jesus Christ himself had every opportunity to become a cynic because of the hostility and disillusionment that he faced as he walked this earth.

I, too, have been at times, a cynic of the faith and the church. And in my journey I have had to face the truth that my cynicism was based on some of the assumptions and views presented in this book. And what I like about this book is that Byers addresses the pain and the disillusionment I too felt and understood when the rug was pulled out from under me, by my own poor and flawed attitudes and choices, that had made me a disillusioned cynic.

If you are cynical about the “popular” claims of Christianity today and have found your faith wanting, I recommend this book. If you know someone who is dealing with doubt, despair, and cynicism, I recommend this book to you to share.

I rate this book a ‘great’ read.

Note: I bought the Kindle version of this book for my own personal reading and thought it worthy of a review.

 

Sunday Sermon: What in your life needs resurrected by God?

Scripture Passage – 1 Corinthians 15:13

Description – June 3, 2012 Communion Meditation

I begin this morning by expanding our main text to include verses 12 through 23 of 1 Corinthians 15.

“But tell me this—since we preach that Christ rose from the dead, why are some of you saying there will be no resurrection of the dead? For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless. And we apostles would all be lying about God—for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave. But that can’t be true if there is no resurrection of the dead. And if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins. In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost! And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.

But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died.

So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man. Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life. But there is an order to this resurrection: Christ was raised as the first of the harvest; then all who belong to Christ will be raised when he comes back.”

Now much of the Christian faith focuses on the cross when it comes to talking about the forgiveness of our sins. And that is good because of the fact that when Jesus died on the cross a new way, a new covenant, to God was created. Out was the very old system of sacrificing animals in a certain way according to certain customs and in was a direct way to God via Jesus Christ that has become available to everyone who desires it.

But the resurrection was and is also a part of this new way to God. In fact to talk about the cross is telling only part of our salvation story. Without the resurrection, Paul notes there is no hope for anyone. So in light of our main text, I ask each of us this morning to consider this question What in your life needs resurrected by God?

Paul wrote our main text this morning in light of belief by some in the Corinthian church that the dead will never be resurrected. But that is not what the scriptures teach.

Jesus faced this same challenge as we read in Matthew 22 and verses 23-32. The Sadducees, who did not believe in the resurrection of the dead posed a story about a woman who was widowed seven times with the question, “whose wife will she be in the resurrection? For all seven were married to her.” Jesus’ response points to His belief that there will be a resurrection of the dead and that one’s marital status will not matter.

“Your mistake is that you don’t know the Scriptures, and you don’t know the power of God.  For when the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage. In this respect they will be like the angels in heaven.

 “But now, as to whether there will be a resurrection of the dead—haven’t you ever read about this in the Scriptures? Long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had died, God said, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’So he is the God of the living, not the dead.”

I know that people have a lot of questions about heaven and the final judgment and the resurrection of the dead, but those are best addressed in another message or a study setting with others. My focus this morning is on the resurrection power of Christ and how it is vital for our faith and life. And to give us some focus as we consider the need of a resurrection I offer 1 Corinthians 13:13: “Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.”

Clearly, our greatest resurrection need is for our soul to be resurrected. Romans 10:9 makes this clear “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Communion is a remembrance of Christ’s death AND resurrection on our behalf. Paul clearly links the two parts together in this verse.

We are in need of a resurrection, coming back to life, of our souls. Without allowing the grace and mercy of God through Jesus Christ to operate in our hearts and souls, there is no hope for us. The human race needs a transformation! It is needs a resurrection experience. We cannot be, as Paul says, “new creation” without believing the resurrection of Jesus Christ!

 

What we believe in is what gives us hope and what gives us hope is where our faith lies.

And if we are honest, the glow of our early commitment to Christ eventually fades as time goes on. The devil and this fallen world wipe the sheen off of our souls. And, to borrow from the armor analogy in Ephesians 6, we get dents in our armor as we do battle with the enemy of our soul.

And our faith gets a workout. And it gets thin and weak.

 

We need a resurrection of our faith.

 

We are familiar with King David’s weakening faith. It led him to be involved in the murder of an innocent and honorable man because of an illicit affair with the man’s wife. Abraham’s faith weakened as he posed Sarah as his sister and not his wife and it caused problems for those who graciously welcomed them.

Truth be told, we all have dark spots on the skin of our faith. Cancerous lesions, that if left unchecked, can cause death.

Maybe the word “revived” instead of “resurrected” should be used in this message. And yet I think that we toss the word revival around like a well used baseball.

But instead of being revived, maybe our faith needs to be resurrected! That it is in need of major surgery and not a simple booster shot.

How is your faith in Christ this morning? Does it need a resurrection?

 

If we believe that “what we believe in is what gives us hope and what gives us hope is where our faith lies” then if our faith is need of a resurrection our hope must also be in need of a resurrection.

Peter is an example of this kind of a resurrection and I suggest that his campfire conversation with Jesus in John 21 is a resurrection of his hope as well as his faith and love.

Think with me for a minute. Have you ever betrayed someone? It is a very painful thing, isn’t it? A relationship is wounded and perhaps, like Humpty Dumpty, can never be put back together again.

But Peter did not betray Jesus did he? He denied Jesus.

Judas betrayed Him.

Denial, too, is a very powerful thing. There have been parents who have denied that their kids can do anything wrong or did anything wrong in the face of clear evidence to the contrary. There are spouses who deny the truth about the abuse in their relationships to the point of death.

As I think about Peter standing there, first next to Jesus at the moment of his arrest, then in the courtyard, at a distance, I cannot help but believe something in him died as he watched Jesus be led away and be crucified.

It was his hope.

He was not alone in those hours. Others’ hope died as well.

I don’t know about you but I would rather feel anything but hopeless. To feel hopeless is to feel like there are no more options. That nothing better is going to come along.

No one cares. No one can help.

It’s no use.

Our hope needs a resurrection from time to time.

What about yours?

 

Finally I ask “Does your love need resurrected?”

I am beginning to believe at this point in my life, that we have two choices when it comes to love. That we can both ignore the roots of love and constantly pick its fruit for our self-centered enjoyment or we can tend the roots of love and allow the fruit to become rich and full and more nourishing to our hearts and souls. We seem in our culture to want to pay attention to the fruit, the glamour, the pizzazz of love and forget about the need for love to have deep roots.

Peter’s faith and hope had taken a beating. I think Jesus knew this.

So He (Jesus) was going to see if there was any love left. And there was. “A third time he asked him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”

Peter was hurt that Jesus asked the question a third time. He said, “Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Then feed my sheep.”

Notice please that Jesus did not say, “Ok, good to know that Peter, thanks, I needed to hear that.”

No, He told Peter, “Then feed my sheep.”

He is saying, “Show me that you love Me. Take care of those to whom I have given you responsibility. Do something with your love for me.”

 

So what does all of this mean for us this week?

We all believe in something. That is what faith is about.

We all hope for something grand and meaningful in life. That is why we dream and have hopes for the future.

We all want to love and be loved. That is why we seek to love and be loved in return.

Faith, hope, and love bring meaning to life. But to bring the right kind of meaning to life, a Christ-centered meaning, we must have a faith, a hope, and a love that is alive and powered by and through the Holy Spirit.

One of my favorite hymns begins, “I serve a risen Savior, He’s in the world today. I know that He is living whatever man may say.”

As we take communion together this morning I remind us that we serve a RISEN savior! We do not believe in a dead god!

And because He is risen, we can be risen from spiritual deadness as well!

Let us be resurrected this morning by the Lord! Let’s have a resurrected faith, a resurrected hope, and a resurrected love!

Let us celebrate as we take communion together!

 

He is risen!

 

Amen

Thursday Thoughts about “One Word” – Follow

In my sermon this coming Sunday I give an early peek at the next sermon series that I will be doing. It has to do with prayer, fasting, and evangelism. Now I realize that those three words together scare many people – both those who believe in Christ and those who do not believe in Christ. I understand the fear and concern.

But as I look back at my life and the opportunities to talk deeply and meaningfully about faith, I recall that the most meaningful and helpful conversations were ones that “simply” occurred in the course of  a conversation. One even took place during pre-marital counseling with the bride-to-be who said “I want God in my life and I don’t know to do it!”

Now in my sermon this Sunday I speak of first responders who are a person’s initial contact with persons of faith and whose words and acts of caring open the door, perhaps years before a faith commitment is made, for a person to walk through toward God.

Then, there are the kindergarten teachers who help, again often before a faith commitment, learn the basics of faith and provide essential information about it.

Then some are delivering physicians who help ‘birth’ faith in people at a certain point.

And finally some are personal fitness trainers who help us get fit and stay fit with the proper kind of diet and exercise.

I have been privileged to be all four ‘persons’ as I have followed Christ throughout the years. Paul spoke of the tasks of planting and watering but God giving the increase. It is still true today.

My point: as I follow Christ, the opportunities to help people along their faith journey are numerous and being alert to them is essential.

These are my Thursday Thoughts

 

Thursday Thoughts: My “One Word” for 2012

My mom always told me that I took the long way from point A to point B.

My wife continuously asserts that I am “time-challenged.”

I did, and still do, take long ways from time to time.

I am time challenged (I should be home for dinner right.now!)

And I need to be more sensitive to the time issue.

But I am also wired differently.

Every time I have taken the Myers-Briggs personality test I have had an N for ‘intuitive.’

What does this mean? It means that I don’t do well with details or math or something precise.

I am a global person that thinks in many different directions.

This has held true for my faith journey.

I came to faith in Christ at age 8. It was Sunday and I had a deeply spiritual experience where I knew that I needed God in my life.

That took place nearly 46 years ago now.

But my journey of faith has meandered to and fro, and away from God at one point, over the years.

It was not a goal setting, get there at all costs journey.

It was a measured, and at times, deeply intense and introspective journey.

That is why my one word for 2012 is ‘follow.’ Just look over to the right hand side of the page and you will see a button with it.

I have joined the One Word campaign for 2012 and look forward to seeing what God has in store.

See more at www.oneword.org

I am seeking to follow Jesus much more intentionally this year.

What does that look like?

Well, I think that the Fruit of the Spirit is a great checklist but other than that…

I have no idea…

When Jesus called me to follow him, I took it as a journey to somewhere and not a performance check list.

Well, by the time you read this, I will have eaten dinner late (it’s 5:07 PM on Monday) and probably will

be hustled out the door to whatever is on the schedule for tonight.

But I am following Jesus this year…

and I will dedicate this blog column to sharing my journey.

Sunday Meditation: A New Year, A New Opportunity, The Same Mission

Scripture Passage – Acts 8:26-38

Image via Wikipedia

Description – Communion Meditation for January 1, 2012

 

One of the questions I ask myself as I sit to write a sermon each week is “What course of action does God want us to take as a result of this message?”  I think that what we have witnessed here today is the course of action God wants us to take in a new year with new opportunities while we are on the same mission that has been God’s mission for centuries.

In Acts 8 and verses 26-38 we read: As for Philip, an angel of the Lord said to him, “Go southdown the desert road that runs from Jerusalem to Gaza.” So he started out, and he met the treasurer of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under the Kandake, the queen of Ethiopia. The eunuch had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and he was now returning. Seated in his carriage, he was reading aloud from the book of the prophet Isaiah.

The Holy Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and walk along beside the carriage.”  Philip ran over and heard the man reading from the prophet Isaiah. Philip asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?”

The man replied, “How can I, unless someone instructs me?” And he urged Philip to come up into the carriage and sit with him.

        The passage of Scripture he had been reading was this:

“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter.
And as a lamb is silent before the shearers,
he did not open his mouth.
He was humiliated and received no justice.
Who can speak of his descendants?
For his life was taken from the earth.”

The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, was the prophet talking about himself or someone else?”  So beginning with this same Scripture, Philip told him the Good News about Jesus.

            As they rode along, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Look! There’s some water! Why can’t I be baptized?”He ordered the carriage to stop, and they went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.”

 

This event takes place during a time of persecution some time after Christ returns to heaven and the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost.  The young Christian church and the remaining disciples, now referred to as apostles, are scattering as a result of the persecution and the Christian faith is now being shared with other people. It is a new day in the life of the church but it is the same mission that Jesus gave to the twelve of “Go, and make disciples of all nations.”

Philip is sent to a desert road and he is directed by the Holy Spirit to talk to a very important government official from Ethiopia. He does so and in doing so he does two things:

1. He makes clear the essential teachings of the Christian faith. Philip asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?”

The man replied, “How can I, unless someone instructs me?” And he urged Philip to come up into the carriage and sit with him.

        The passage of Scripture he had been reading was this:

“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter.
And as a lamb is silent before the shearers,
he did not open his mouth.
He was humiliated and received no justice.
Who can speak of his descendants?
For his life was taken from the earth.”

The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, was the prophet talking about himself or someone else?”  So beginning with this same Scripture, Philip told him the Good News about Jesus.

This man was reading out of Isaiah 53 which is a familiar passage to us, especially during the weeks leading up to Easter. It is a passage about Jesus Christ and His attitude and demeanor as He was lead to His crucifixion.  But it needed some explaining as the eunuch did not understand who was being talked about.  “…was the prophet talking about himself or someone else?” So Philip, as our text says, told him the Good News about Jesus.

As I sat down Thursday with those who have been baptized today I realized how often we need to take the time to explain things. We have an ‘inside language’ that we often forget we have and as we talk about Christ and what He has done for us and what Christianity is truly about, we sometimes have to simplify our language and explain things. Philip did this and this is part, a key part, of our mission. To tell what Jesus Christ did and why he did it for us in simple terms is an essential part of our mission because it is our message.

And included in our message is the essential practice of baptism, the second thing he does, which the official picks up on. “As they rode along, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Look! There’s some water! Why can’t I be baptized?”He ordered the carriage to stop, and they went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.”

There are different views of baptism within the Christian community. Some baptize infants and some do not. We do not within the Church of God because we believe that there needs to be a personal experience of faith with Christ followed by baptism.

Baptism of children at a certain age is followed in some denominations within the Christian church while others do not and believe that there has to be what is often referred to as an ‘age of accountability’ being reached before baptism and salvation is fully comprehended. We stand in this latter tradition.

But the value of baptism is very much a part of our practices within the Church of God and more important a key part of our message of forgiveness and life in God through Christ.

But finally this morning is a third and very important practice we do on a monthly basis and for which I invite us to prepare our hearts this morning. Communion.

And while there is differing views of what the elements mean, there is no doubt that Communion is very, very important to our faith. It is a remembrance of our saviour’s death on our behalf to free us from the bondage of sin and death and hell! Amen?!

AMEN!

So as we begin this year, 2012 (remember when we hit 2000? That’s 12 years ago now!), we do not know what it is going to hold. But we do believe that God walks with us and so let us walk with Him…

 

And let us now take time to confess our sins and seek God’s gracious forgiveness. Amen and Amen.

Christmas Sunday Sermon: Where You There When Jesus Christ Was Born?

Scripture Passage – Luke 2:1-21 and Matthew 2:1-12

Image via Wikipedia

Description – 2011 Christmas Message

 

During the Lenten season we often sing “Were You There When They Crucified My Lord.”(Slide one)This morning I ask us, “Where You There When Jesus Christ Was Born?”

Let’s walk for a few moments, from the distance of nearly 21 centuries into and around the scenes described in Matthew and Luke’s account that form our main texts for this morning and spend some time with each of the people that are noted in the gospel accounts of Christ’s birth.

(Slide two) And let’s start with Mary.

I cannot relate to Mary.

I’m a guy.

I have never given birth to a child though I have given birth to several kidney stones which I was told was the closest men come to the child birth experience!

You who have given birth can relate to Mary’s experience. But on another level, you can’t (and none of us can) relate to giving birth to God’s son in a supernatural way.

There is a wide distance with Mary regarding her experience in which we cannot relate at all. It was a unique pregnancy.

But we can relate to Mary in other ways. In Luke’s account we notice, (chapter 1 and verse 29) that Mary was troubled by the words from the angel announcing God’s purposes to be enacted through Mary.

Sometimes God’s movement in our lives troubles us. He speaks and we tremble because when God speaks and moves it is for His plans and purposes and not ours. We all like to live, including us creative types, with some measure of control over our lives. But we live under an illusion of control. There is much that is out of ‘our control.’ But Mary, ever the obedient servant, finally says, “I am the Lord’s servant…may your word to me be fulfilled.”

(Slide three) Then there is Joseph.

 

Humble, careful, and committed Joseph.

 

His lineage, as we note in Matthew 1 is the one who goes back to King David and then all the way back to Adam. In some ways, some ways, he could be considered royalty! Think about it for a moment.

By the time Christ is born, Israel is just another Roman state. We read of the rule of Herod in Matthew 2 but some simple research reveals that Herod is referred to as a ‘client king’ though he converts to Judaism at some point.  He is merely an appointed or hired king. He does not share Joseph’s heritage.

Joseph is a person who wants to do the right thing. He cares for Mary but when he finds out that she is pregnant and it is not his, he seeks to divorce her (and divorce of that day was vastly different) and in a way that does not bring her shame.

But God shows up and tells him to remain faithful to Mary as this is God’s plan. Now I think that while Joseph ultimately said yes to God’s plan, he probably was a bit confused and mystified by the whole situation. Wouldn’t you be?

Have you ever been troubled and unsure what to do? You want to do what is right and allowed and yet you listen to God and maybe the right thing to do is entirely something else.

Joseph and Mary demonstrate faithfulness to God’s plan. Though they are troubled by what they hear, they do what they believe God is telling them do.

(Slide four) Then there are the shepherds. They live outdoors. They roam. They are, to some, truly ‘outsiders.’ But God includes them in the initial celebration. They are perhaps the first to know, outside of Joseph and Mary of course, about the birth of the Christ child.

There is something about the shepherds that is wonderfully simple. Not simplistic but simple.

I have not been around sheep very much at all. But I have read enough to believe that shepherds are quite adept with sheepherding. It takes a special skill set that is beyond merely reading about it to shepherd sheep!

There is a simple joy and profundity in their celebration of Jesus’ birth. They came as they were. Wide-eyed and excited like many children already have been this morning!

And listen carefully to what Luke says after they find Jesus, Joseph, and Mary. “When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them…The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

These shepherds were listened to by others. A group of people who were perhaps merely tolerated had something important to say.

(Slide five) Then there are the Wise Men.

Many, if not most, Biblical scholars believe that they showed up later when Jesus was an infant and not a newborn. And this is often asserted because of Herod’s command to kill all male babies in Bethlehem under the age of two which meant that Jesus could have been two years old by then.

It is believed that these men came from the regions of Babylonia, Persia, and points east which today, interestingly enough, are the countries of Iran and Iraq and perhaps further east into Pakistan and India. The word Magi was used to describe a vast segment of men who were astrologers, physicians, priests, and the like.

They probably were pagan and while interested in ‘religious’ ideas were not Christian at all. And yet the bright star they noticed, led them to worship this new king of the Jews.

These individuals were in many ways the total opposite of the shepherds. They were well educated and well travelled and even, I think, refined men. Jesus was not the Messiah to them, He was the King of the Jews.

But there they were worshipping Him with very expensive gifts. Gifts that probably were rarely given or even seen in Bethlehem because they were too expensive to give.

But here they were, worshipping the King of the Jews and they were clueless about what that truly meant and its larger implications; until God showed up in one of their dreams, something that they were used to paying attention to, and told them to go another way home. In this they were perhaps were the like the shepherds. They were truly ‘outsiders.’

They spoke a different language. They had different views and conceptions about God. And yet, they were worshipping this new King.

(Slide six) And then there were all the nameless and faceless people who heard the shepherd’s story and probably were even more interested in this Galilean baby that had been born in their town when three elegantly dressed men and their entourage showed up asking about some king of the Jews. They knew something about the Messiah, especially if they had grown up in the faith.

Some were expecting the Messiah to show up any minute. Others were hopeful that he would. And others? Well they were just trying to get through the day.

They had seen and heard much over the years. They knew a bit about their heritage and history but now they looked around and saw Roman soldiers milling about and causing more problems and tension than they wanted to deal with. So they kept a low profile. And low expectations.

Others were militant and ready to do battle in God’s name to get rid of the Romans and others who sought to control them. The Messiah was more a popular political idea and savior than one who would speak to them about their hearts and souls and love.

But Jesus came into their midst. And He would challenge their assumptions and views of and about the Messiah and God and life and death and faith.

Some of them would believe and stay true to this Jesus until the end of their lives.

Some of them would believe, falter, and give up on this Jesus.

Some of them would not believe at.all and they would turn on Jesus.

These nameless and faceless people mattered to God. So did the shepherds and the Magi. So did Mary and Joseph. So do we.

So, were you there when Jesus Christ was born? No, you and I were not present for we live in the here and now of human history.  But can you find yourself in the story of Christ’s birth and early years?

 

What I take away from re-reading and reflecting on these passages that we read and hear again and again this time of year is that God shows up first and then the others choose to respond or not. When I recall the time I came to faith in Christ, it was God who showed up first and I had to respond. I am glad that I made the response to join Him and not walk away from Him.

Please also consider that in these passages from Matthew and Luke, that all of humanity was represented at Christ’s birth and early life. It was not just one group of people present it was more than one.

There were rich and poor. There were Jews and Gentiles. There were educated and uneducated. There were men and women. There were those who would believe in Jesus as the Messiah as the years went by and there were those who did not believe in Jesus as the Messiah as the years went by.

We are all included in Christ’s plans. Salvation is available for all of us. No one is exempt from the grace and mercy of God through Christ.

When Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3:16 that “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” there were no qualifications put on who could, and could not, believe in Christ and accept the forgiveness of their sins through Him.

Christmas is about a child, a very special and perfect child, who would become an absolutely perfect human being, making things right with us because it was His desire and purpose to make things right with us.

 

At the beginning of this message I made the statement that “at the Lenten season we often sing, “Were You There When They Crucified My Lord.”” The season of Lent and the season of Advent are both about life, new life.

During this season it is about the new life of a baby, in this case the Christ child. And without this new life, we could not have Lent and Easter.

Lent is about new life. Yes it is about Christ’s death. But without His death, and resurrection, we could not have the new inner and more important life which allows us to live forgiven from our sins and freed from our past.

It is my desire on this Christmas day that each one of us take hold of the gift of salvation, God’s salvation, and open it and accept it and embrace it and allow it to change our lives forever and ever so that we live free from shame and guilt.

Amen.

Advent Thoughts for December 13th (2011)

Image via Wikipedia

From the pen of Dan Hotchkiss comes this gem of a story:

Once I helped a small church that had a hard time making a decision—any decision—and then carrying it out. I suggested that the governing board choose one modest, non-controversial goal. They did: the entrance to the church was almost invisible because a large tree had grown right in the doorway. The board approved the project, assigned it to a trusted leader, and approved the funds and the authority to remove the tree.

A few weeks later, I returned to lead a gathering on another subject and I asked how the tree project was coming. Apparently a small group in the congregation protested the removal on the grounds that,

1.) Trees are good, and

2.) This tree was a memorial.

My gathering turned into a forum on this issue. Eventually I was inspired to ask, “Who is the tree a memorial to?” After a brief pause, the protesters with a single voice said, “We can’t remember.”

We can’t remember…

It was George Santayana who said: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”

What can’t we remember this advent season:

The name of the latest top 40 songs?

The name of latest You Tube craze?

The three gifts given by the Magi to the infant Christ?

Traditions are a great thing but what is it that they are helping us to remember? Are they the right things?

Are we remembering a ‘what’ or a ‘who?’

 
for Dan’s complete thoughts go here http://www.alban.org/conversation.aspx?id=9829

Listening Beyond the Silence

Scripture Passage – Luke 1:8-20

Description – First Sermon in 2011 Advent Series

(This sermon was prefaced with a dramatic reading from the Advent Series by Arden W. Mead “The World Fulfilled: The Word Made Flesh” © 2011, 1995 by Creative Communications for the Parish.)

 His name has appeared on the list of the 12 most influential preachers in the English world and yet I’ll bet that no one here has ever heard of him. He wrote a book on preaching that one scholar has said, “Tilted the preaching world “on its axis” after creating a revolutionary method [of preaching.]”

His name is Fred Craddock and his preaching method, often called an inductive approach to preaching that is more like a conversational style, has carried great weight in the world of ministerial training. But to hear his back story, the story behind the story, is to understand the need to listen beyond the silence for God even if it is a period of years and perhaps even decades.

As our dramatic reading pointed out, it is essential to listen to and for God’s voice. But, as both the reading and the Biblical record points out, Moses and Zechariah, experienced God’s silence. For Moses, it came on the heels of taking justice into his own hands and killing an Egyptian who was beating an Israelite. Forty years would pass before Moses would hear God’s voice.

For Zechariah, it was more than forty years before God spoke to him about what he did not have, a child, something that was never far from his heart, and that of his wife Elizabeth as we read in Luke chapter 1:

“Unannounced, an angel of God appeared just to the right of the altar of incense. Zachariah was paralyzed in fear. But the angel reassured him, “Don’t fear, Zachariah. Your prayer has been heard. Elizabeth, your wife, will bear a son by you. You are to name him John. You’re going to leap like a gazelle for joy, and not only you—many will delight in his birth. He’ll achieve great stature with God.”

And then because he found it hard to believe, he would be silenced for the rest of the pregnancy.

This time of year because of the schedule, the demands of the season, and the expectations we put on ourselves, it is ironic that we find it hard to have some peace and quiet, at a time when peace and quiet should be a part of this time of year.

Have you ever wondered what Moses thought in those forty years of shepherding in the desert and never having to think about gift giving? He had been raised in the court of Egyptian royalty only to later find himself running for his life.

How often did the words that Zachariah and Elizabeth pray seem to be a waste of time and effort? How often did Zachariah go to the temple to worship God with a deep love in his heart for God and yet a heartache as well because he was childless?

What does this mean for us this advent season? What does all of this have to do with our tasks and responsibilities this coming week? What impact might this have on our relationships with family, friends, neighbors, and classmates?

 How do we learn to listen beyond the silence for God?

I believe, based on Scripture, that one of the things God wants us to hear this morning is this: Listen to me. Listen for me.

And as I think about this listening I am reminded of a song called, interestingly enough, Still. It has been recorded by a Canadian band called Great Lakes Swimmers and is written by Anthony M Dekker. I think that it is a song about what one seeks to hear when one is still and it gets this message across by positioning two different and contradictory things, together (some people might call that juxtaposition!)

       Here are a few lines from the song:

I’m still mining for light in dark wells

I’m still, I’m still

I’m still searching for whispers in between yells

I’m still, I’m still

Now I am not sure what this group even believes but what this song has always said to me when I hear it is that there is a kind of listening that we do, perhaps not often enough, that causes us to hear things “in between.” To me this “in between” listening is about listening through the silence for God’s voice. But how do we do this? How do we listen for and to God through the silence of our days?

         There are four ways, all critical, all necessary for us to hear and then respond to the Lord:

Scripture

Prayer

Worship

Conversations (Fellowship)

This is a sermon series of itself but this morning they are avenues to listening to and for God to speak. Now Moses did not have the Bible as we have it or probably a place of worship like we do. But the God that we worship here and read about in the Bible is the same God that Moses encountered at the burning bush. And He is the same God who sent the angel to Zachariah and let him know that he was, finally, going to become a father!

To hear the Lord we have the Bible through which God still does speak to us! Prayer is a two-way line of communication between the Lord and us though at times it does not seem that way! And worship is a vital part of communication with the Lord! Zachariah found that out! And we need to be in conversations with other believers to be reminded that we do not walk the path of faith with Christ alone. God uses all of these things to talk to us and to neglect them is to risk losing our hearing of His voice.

But there are still moments, seasons of life, and certain issues in which God remains silent to us. I cannot tell you why he waited 40 years to speak to Moses. Maybe Moses was not ready to hear God yet. Maybe God was not ready to speak. The same for Zachariah. Why did God wait so long to send the angel to announce that he and Elizabeth would become parents and that John would be a vital part of God’s mission here on earth?

I cannot tell you why God has not answered an important prayer regarding finances, a family member, or a relationship issue.

How do we handle the long silences of God? How do we listen through the silence to and for Him?

Maybe the rest of Fred Craddock’s story might help us find some answers.

When he was deathly sick with diphtheria (which blocks up your lungs) at eight months of age, his mother finally told the Lord, “Dear God, if you will let him live, I will pray every day that he will serve you as a minister.” He lived and he became one.

But Fred Craddock struggled to hear words from his father, a marvelous story teller but an alcoholic who could not provide for his family, words of affirmation and love. All he heard was silence.

That struggle affected his work as a minister, causing him at one point to leave it because he was told by a counselor that he was in the ministry to “redeem his father.” But eventually he realized that the ministry was where God had called him to be.

One of the things that also caused pain for Craddock, and his mother, was the hardening of the Senior Craddock’s heart and mind toward God and the church. At first he would join the family in worship but as the alcohol took over, he gradually withdrew and began to say that all the church wants is more money and another name on the church roll.

But one day his mother called him and said, ‘you need to see your father, now.’ And so Craddock went to see his father, dying and unable to talk.

As they communicated in writing, the father took a Kleenex box and wrote a line from Shakespeare’s Hamlet “In this harsh world, draw your breath in pain to tell my story.”

“What is your story, Daddy?” asked Craddock. His father’s eyes welled with tears. He wrote: “I was wrong.”

He was wrong about the church and about God and the two men embraced one another in tears. Yet Craddock never heard the words he longed to hear from his father.

The pain Craddock felt did not turn to bitterness. It turned to ministry. It turned to tell God’s good news in a unique and, impactful way. I argue that in the silence of his father, Fred Craddock, Jr. heard God clearly and listened to Him.

 In this advent season, there are loose ends in our lives. We hang the greens, put Jesus in the manger, sing the carols, and give gifts with a very clear awareness that there are parts of our lives not neatly tied up. And God seems silent.

But.He.Isn’t

He is there. He is here. He is present.

He will speak to us. He does speak to us.

But are we listening? Will we listen?

Jesus was born into our world – a world of loose ends, a world where there is much silence, amidst all the noise, and not a world with a nice happy Hallmark ending.

I conclude with a word of encouragement. Maybe you feel like you are in a desert as Moses was and God has not shown up and you are not even sure that there is a God to show up. God knows you and He knows where you are and who you are.

Or that you have prayed and prayed about something as Zecharah and Elizabeth did. Maybe it was about kids or finances or work or something else. One day he will speak to you, maybe through somebody you will listen to, or through circumstances that you do not select, or in some miraculous way like it did to Zecharah.

Don’t give up! God is at work – somewhere doing something.

Faithfulness, I am learning, is something that is vital to our faith and walk with God. We are called to be faithful and faithfulness is often grown in the midst of desert or in the silence of our hearts as worship because to be faithful to God includes trusting Him day in, day out. So do not give up. Do not despair. Be still. Hear Him in the sounds of silence. Listen to Him for He does and He will speak. Amen.

To read Craddock’s story, click on the link below.

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