My Father and Your Father, My God and Your God

I got the movie 12 Years A Slave in the mail yesterday from Netflix. It won the Oscar for Best Picture of 2013 and I was glad that it did. Even though I had not seen it, I was pulling for it to win the Oscar. I was excited after their name was announced at the end of the Oscar telecast.  I felt like celebrating with Steve McQueen the director and the various other cast members. It was nice to see. But, within a few moments it was all over. Ellen DeGeneres said good night. I turned off my TV and went to bed. Ultimately, while it was fun to watch the Hollywood celebration, it was their joy and not mine.

It's a mistake if people of faith approach Easter the same way. When we take a look at the resurrection stories in any of the four Gospels, are we just reading something on a page, or listening to someone tell this old, old story again? When we worship on Easter, do we go to hear a staff performing at the top of their game like it's their Super Bowl? Are we looking for an amazing show with trumpet sounds and colorful paraments and the smells of spring?  Easter is our celebration. Easter is our time. God turns our mourning into dancing... our sorrow into joy. John's telling of the resurrection puts that to us in a powerful way.

In one of the most touching stories of all Scripture, Mary Magdalene is overwhelmed with emotions on that first day of the week. She goes to the tomb, sees that it is empty and then goes to tells others that "they have taken the Lord." The other disciples believed right away when he saw the empty tomb, but Mary is still bewildered. After the rest had returned to their homes, she remains and weeps.  Angels appear to her first and then the resurrected Christ. She doesn't recognize him until he calls her by name: "Mary." Immediately her mourning turns to joy. It's a powerful story.

Jesus says something interesting to her that reveals that Mary is not the equivalent of me watching 12 Years A Slave win the Oscar. She is not simply a witness to something great that happened to Jesus. Instead something has also happened... or at least will happen... for her as well.  "Jesus said to her, 'Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, "I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God (John 20:17)."'"

Jesus' gift to Mary and to all of us, is that through the cross, the empty tomb, the ascension, and his promise to return... all of us have been united with these events. His life is our life... His celebration is our celebration.

When you celebrate Easter... Celebrate that Christ has done all of this for you. This is your hope. So join the party. Share the good news. Don't hold on to Jesus, or the performances of others. Celebrate and share the good news. Hallelujah! Christ is risen!  

Love and Humility

On this Commandment Thursday I once again think about the Law of Love. It is so tempting to rip out the page with John 13 from my Bible and start waving it around as I get into people's faces with some smug moral indignation. "Look at this guys. You're so quick to snub your nose at others in judgement. You're so certain about who is saved and who is going to hell. Well, let me show you this. There's a new commandment Jesus has given us. It's a commandment to love. How are you doing with that? I don't think he's making some suggestion here.  He says commandment. You need to love. So, what do you think of that? Hmmmmmmm?"

Judge not lest ye be judged.

The wonder of John 13 and much of the way that John describes Jesus' passion, is that Jesus is giving us all of this out of love and concern for his sheep. Followers of Christ are going to face all kinds of dangers. The temptations of sin are going to pull those who ought to be united, apart.  He prays for our unity and gives us a new commandment... not as some law to dangle over us again. This is not "do this and live." This is: "I know what it means to be empowered, to be liberated,  and live in peace as people of the Kingdom of God, and it all stems out of love. Love one another, my children, and you will be blessed."

All the images of John 13... the foot washing, the conversation between Peter and Jesus, the talk of betrayal, and the commandment to love... they all stem from the underlining reality of God's Kingdom: Greatness comes through service and humility. Freed from fear and doubt, you are now able to sincerely serve your sister in need. Freed from fear and doubt, you are now able to sincerely open up and be vulnerable... to allow your brother to minister to you in your need. All of this stems from a love that goes hand-in-hand with humility. The one living as Christ is the one who humbly approaches the other with compassion. The one living as Christ is the one who is not afraid to listen and receive what the other is offering.

Foot washing becomes the ultimate symbol of humility and Christian love. It calls upon us to serve. It calls upon us to be vulnerable.  When done with a sincere heart, it truly reveals what Christian community ought to be.  Jesus does command us to wash one another's feet and there are many ways that it has been done in Christian community. It is nice when a whole community ritually washes one another. It's touching when a spiritual leader can submit to the least in the community and wash. It makes a great point when a community may choose to wash hands instead of feet. It's all very nice.

But Jesus wants our hearts. Have genuine compassion for the friends in your community. Love through service. Allow yourself to open up and be served. When those are happening: it is foot washing and Jesus is present. I like the way Jesus puts it: It is not just in the act that your blessed... but it is in the knowing. You are blessed by what is found in your heart. "Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them (John 13:16-17)."

The Great Flood of Human Sinfulness

I got to see the movie Noah a week ago... a movie that has had its fair share of controversy. Among film-geekdom the question was: "Why would such a cool director want to make an old-fashioned Bible epic? What's he going to do next, Ben Hur? Among conservative Christians the question was: "Why would an atheist make a movie about Noah and change the story? Where's he going to go next, Hell?"

Noah is a breathtaking movie. It's good film-making and it does speak to life... even a life of faith. It looks amazing and its story pulls you in. It does get distracting when the director Darrin Aronofsky goes way off course in terms of sticking with the story. There were times I wanted to scream "come on" while I was twisting in my seat. It's not everyday you are exposed to rock monsters building the ark and a Noah wandering the narrow, short-sighted path of a zealot. But in light of where Aronofsky wraps up the film, I can now appreciate the struggle I had. It pays off in a fair way.  
Abandoning the priority of sticking with the Biblical account, this Noah seeks to go deeper into the very human sinfulness that led to the flood in the first place. That human sinfulness is why we still cling on to the promise of the rainbow.  Aronofsky lifts up in a powerful way the horror of the events that revealed to us in the early chapters of Genesis. Honestly, do baby nurseries full of cute pandas, giraffes, and elephants waltzing two-by-two into the sweet old man Noah's big boat really portray the story accurately?

In Noah we witness the title character's struggle with the enormity of what is about to happen, and with the realization that he is not so squeaky clean himself. In a terrifying scene, Noah goes among the humans to seek wives for his son, as if they are available for a price at a market. He witnesses unspeakable horrors and in the midst of all that he realizes that he is no different. The human sin that leads people to treat others with contempt is even found within him.

In the past when I have led conversations about the Noah story in Genesis, people are often surprised by what happens to Noah once he is able to re-establish life on land. Look at Genesis 9:20-29. I call this "The Naked Noah." You won't find this scene in any nursery.  Sin continues after the flood. Noah, like all of us, are at the mercy of a loving God who promises to never again do this.

Wonderfully, Aronofsky includes "Naked Noah" in his story. Of course he has, because it ends up being at the heart of his message.  We hurt one another. We don't understand life. We are afraid. Real meaning and real life is found only in love, when we can break away from the asinine choices we make out of fear.  Noah needed to discover that and we do as well. God is not going to leave us. He's not going to destroy us again. He has given us a Savior in Christ who points the way to this reality called love... called the Kingdom of God. I am thankful for what Noah contributes to our continuing struggle with what it means to live as God would like us to live.

Life Swimming through the Sea of Time

I recently watched three movies directed by Richard Linklater, made nine years apart, that look at three days, nine years apart, lived by characters played by Ethan Hawk and Julie Delpy. In the first, Before Sunrise, a young man and woman meet on a train and spend an evening together in Vienna, sharing their philosophies of life, falling in love, only to depart with a promise to meet again. In the second, Before Sunset, the characters meet again after a nine year absence (they didn't make that promised connection from the first movie). Now 32, they spend the day wandering the streets of Paris, talking about their philosophies of life and throughout you wonder if this will only be a brief encounter again. In the most recent film, Before Midnight, they are now married with twin daughters, on a sabbatical in Greece. Now 41, and parents, (I'm also 41 and a parent) they get the all to rare opportunity to have a night to themselves to share their philosophies of life and for the first time in these films, they argue about their disappointments and failures.  At the end of each of three films you wonder, what's going to happen next with these two. Unfortunately, I'm now going to have to wait nine years instead of sliding in the next DVD right now.

What is love? What is life? What does it mean to commit to another? What do we gain and lose when we are tied to a lover, children, family, jobs, locations, and ideas?

I recently listened to a podcast of the NPR program This American Life. The topic for the week was Valentines Day and love, but the stories shared were certainly no Casablanca or even Before Sunrise. In one story a young man, now in his late thirties, described the amazing relationship he had with his ex-wife. They had been great friends in high school, the model of a perfect couple in college, and had a great marriage going until they made the conscious choice to take a break for a month. They never had experienced being with someone else sexually, and they were curious. After all, being children of our society, shouldn't they have the chance to experience being free and having fun? So they did. And one month became two and two become three. Soon, the writing was on the wall and they were finished. At the end of the story the man shared the lesson he's learned. He feels that all relationships need a seven year review (they had been married seven years) and that he will never be in another relationship without that. Which, then at the end of the story, the show host Ira Glass expressed how he disagreed. The "hip" and respected Glass actually shared an old fashioned, romantic view of commitments and marriage. The guy was left almost speechless. "I don't usually hear people say that. I'll have to think about that," is all he could say.

There is a really nice dinner scene in Before Midnight where our 41 year-old couple dine with three other couples; friends they are spending the summer with. The youngest couple (about the age our couple was in Before Sunrise) speak of their long-distance romance and Skypeing together as they fall asleep each night (If only there has been Skype, or even the internet in 1995... yes we 41 year-olds are old). They expressed the same philosophy of commitment and romance as the guy on This American Life. They know it's only temporary. Why not enjoy the here and now, and let's not pretend its forever. This fairly common view among young adults today, and was no surprise.

It's interesting though to compare this common belief among young people with what I experienced last week when I got to meet two couples in one day. The first couple I met has been married 63 years. They were together as the husband was continuing to recover from illness his wife was by his side. The second couple I met has been married 70 years. Yes, SEVENTY years! They live in their home and the husband does all he can to take care of his wife as she struggles with cancer. I immensely enjoyed meeting all four of them.

I'm sure for both of those couples they've had their share of philosophical conversations as well as many ups and downs in their relationships. Marriage is work, just as all relationships are work. So many of our instincts are to just take care of ourselves. Leave me alone and let me do what I want. We have instinctive radar that tells us what is fair and who has sacrificed more. The fight they have in Before Midnight, is a conversation every healthy couple is going to have.

But underneath all of this is a deep truth about life. We are simply sojourners. We only take up temporary residence here. Even the man who has lived in the same home since he was four is a sojourner. After he's died, the home sits empty with the residue of former dreams, conversations and arguments still echoing the halls. A point beautifully made in the three Before movies is that our characters briefly pass through centuries of history in Vienna, Paris and Greece. They are surely only sojourners. The question is, will they choose to sojourn together?

There is wisdom in Psalm 90:10 "The days of our life are seventy years, or perhaps eighty, if we are strong; even then their span is only toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away." How do we spend those years. They surely could be only "toil and trouble," for we all get our share of that. The intelligent, successful characters in the Linklater movies don't hesitate to express their struggles with life's toils. But those toils need not define us.

Over the past couple years I've read the four John Updike novels about the character Robert "Rabbit" Angstrom. Updike re-examined the life of this character every decade covering the years 1959, 1969, 1979 and 1989. They were fascinating to read, and not so much because Rabbit was such an appealing character, but to examine the way life swims through the vast sea of time, free to go all sorts of directions but always within that sea. Like the Before movies, I got to read them all after they were completed. How fun to view the sea... to view life... from hindsight.

But we're swimming in it, and it's hard to think straight, especially when the winds pick up and waves rock us to and fro.  It's no surprise that people struggle with these questions, and that new generations would dare to choose to give up on commitment completely. Selfishness is at the heart of sin... and humans have been sinners for a long time. I think about that young couple in last movie, Before Midnight, who seem so liberated and free.  They're not going to be bogged down in sentimental romanticism. They don't believe in God, or marriage, or duty... just themselves and the moment. Having the view of hindsight, we have a good idea of what lies ahead for him and for the guy telling his story on NPR. The days will tick away and they will "fly away."

Just as Genesis speaks of selfishness being central to sin, so does it speak of us needing others to make it through this life. God made a partner for the first human, and so we will continue to struggle with how to be independent and free and still yearn for the companionship of a partner. Instead of pulling my hair out in frustration because "kids today just don't get it," I'm going to be optimistic because there have always been "kids today." Hindsight is surly 20/20. Hindsight through faith is truth.  

Integrity

I often say that Jesus wants our hearts, but what I mean by that is that Jesus wants our whole self: Every bit of us, completely. People can be really good at having their hands do something to gain others approval, or have their words be pleasant so others hear what they want to hear. Children can even do that. People, for the most part, can obey rules well enough to keep the peace and possibly gain the admiration of those expecting them to toe-the-line. Many can do all of that without one smidgen of sincerity.

So when I say that Jesus wants our hearts, I'm saying that Jesus wants our hands, our actions, our words and our deeds to be consistent with our hearts as well.  Jesus not only wants us to obey, he wants us to want to obey. Jesus seeks our hearts and calls on us to live with integrity, where every bit of ourselves lives, breathes, acts, and thinks out of our love for Jesus Christ. When I say Jesus wants our hearts, I'm saying little more than Jesus wants us... all of us. Jesus says: "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (Matthew 6:21)." But flip it around and its still speaks to truth. Where your heart is, your treasure will be also... as well as your hands, and words, and actions.

When the heart is centered on Christ, the words will follow, so will the hands and the actions. The call of Jesus is the call to live with integrity. The life that lives in two worlds and with two standards will not last for long. The person who acts, not out of core beliefs, but to please others only, will not please them for long, because the truth found in the heart will reveal itself. The person who shares Valentine's wishes on the surface, but swims in a sea of hate in their heart, will not be able to convince others of their loving kindness for long. The truth found in the heart will reveal itself.

This becomes the point of Jesus's Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7. It's not good enough to pat an enemy on the back while holding on to your hate in your heart. Sure you didn't kill your enemy, but Jesus wants you! Get your heart right, and allows your action of "not killing" come from your heart and NOT through insincere obedience.  It goes that way with adultery as well. Don't be "faithful" to your spouse and then bury your mind with desire for others. Jesus wants all of you. Live with integrity. Don't wait until your on the witness stand in the court room to be honest, under penalty of law. Forget the oaths. Instead live with integrity. May your "yes" always be yes and your "no" always be no.

Stories like "The Boy who Cried Wolf" from Aesop's Fables teaches the lesson well.  The person without integrity will not be trusted for long. Without integrity, your "yes" will be heard by others with skepticism and scorn. Just when you need them most, they won't be there for you. Go ahead and say "Your word is your bond" till you're blue in the face. It won't matter. You won't be believed.

The Kingdom of God is much more than that, however. And Jesus wanting your heart is more than a morality tale. The thoughts of others is secondary to the truth that living for Christ with integrity means finally being free. In the Kingdom of God we are freed of the pain of living as two selves, for two sets of values. That tight rope walk will only conclude with a great fall.

You're are united in values, in purpose, in truth, and in faith when your "yes" means yes and your "no" always means no. In Jesus Christ you can truly, fully, be yourself. No convincing. No pleading. You never will say "Your word is your bond" nor with even think of saying it... because you will just be... and speak... and act as wholly you.

I see it everywhere. People are tired. It's hard to keep your work you separate from your family you and then still keep that separate from your paling-around-with-your-friends you. Just be you: a disciple of Christ who loves the Lord and seeks to live as the light of the world consistently and always. Life with integrity is life in, with and for Christ, whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light.

Listen, Notice, Discover, Change

"The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned." From that time Jesus began to proclaim, "Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven has come near." - Matthew 4:16-17

You never know what you're going to find when you start looking at things from a whole new perspective. A walk in the woods, along a path you have always taken, doesn't change all that much. You walk past the same trees, the same plants, the same abandoned tractor, the same squirrels even seem to be jumping from oak to birch to maple. Sure the seasons change, but its the same drill for the most part.

Do something different though, and you'll be surprised. Come at your woods from a different angle, and a whole new world appears.

A month before I moved to Rockton there was a cute article in the Tribune about a couple who build a pirate ship outside their Rockton home for their wedding. Yes, they got married on life-size pirate ship that they built in their yard and they've kept that pirate ship, even after their wedding. It's been getting quite a bit of attention, enough to attract the Chicago paper, local TV stations, and Good Morning America.

Well, for the first three months I lived in Rockton, I never came across that ship. Now, Rockton is not a really big place so figured I would come across it eventually.  But I never did... until one day recently. You see, I've been on all the main roads going to and coming from Rockton. Highway 2, Hononegah Road, Rockton Road. I've even taken a few other roads like Highway 75,  Rockton Ave., and Old River Road. Whenever I've taken Old River Road it was after dropping my kids off for school to then come down to Rockford... Going south. But then, one day recently, I needed to go to Stephen Mack Middle School from Rockford so I took Old River Road north...

And wouldn't you know. As I drove on that road into a big clearing, with lots of open, frozen farmland, and crossed Roscoe Road going north.  There it was... the jolly roger flying high and waving in the brisk wind above a big old pirate ship behind a farmhouse on Old River Road.  I had driven by that house a least a dozen times going south.  But it wasn't until I did a "180", and drove north instead south, was I able to discover the pirate ship that brought eyes of the country to Rockton just weeks before our move this summer.

"The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light."

In Matthew's Gospel the first message that Jesus had for the world, as he began his ministry, was very simple: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." Jesus was ahead of his time. The constraints of just 140 characters for a Twitter post would not have crimped his style one bit. "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near."  It fits perfectly in a tweet. What a message.

But does it mean? "Repent" just on its own means a whole more to it than you think. Sure it can mean "stop doing bad things." Yeah, it can mean I'm sorry for what I've done and I'm not going to do it again. But that's the beginning. Literally, to "repent" is to turn around. To change. If Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life (as he claims to be in John's Gospel) then to repent is go another way... the opposite way... to do a "180." To turn around and to repent means that a new life lies ahead, because you're going in a whole new direction. To turn around and to repent means discovering that truth is a whole lot bigger than you ever imagined.  

That's a lot for one word: Repent.

It's gotta be a lot because the Kingdom of heaven means a lot. Sure it can mean the heaven of our future. Our eternal home with God. But that's just the beginning. the Kingdom of heaven which has come near has always been near. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. But our knowledge of that Kingdom and our participation in what God is doing with the Kingdom of heaven has never been closer... because we now have Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us, to show us the way. Jesus is our guide who opens our eyes to what God is doing. Jesus is our light who reveals the Kingdom to us, pulling us out of the darkness.

Isaiah wrote that "The people who walk in darkness have seen a great light." No wonder Matthew quotes that for us. Our light has come and we can live as Kingdom people right now.

But how do we?

It means more than going to church. It means more than being nice. Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven has come near means more than wearing the right clothes and watching the right shows. Remember, "repent" is an enormous word. Its an upside-down, flip around, twisting 180 and seeing the truth for real... kinda word.

The difference between living as Kingdom people in the light and living in darkness without hope can be a simple as driving south down Old River Road, or driving north up Old River Road. The same road, the same places, but from the one direction you only see barren frozen tundra and in the other you see a cool pirate ship where no pirate ship should ever be.

It's time to change perspective. Take a different road. Look in a different direction. Go into that woods you walk through every week and sit down, lay flat on your back and look straight up. Discover branches and leaves and sky and clouds and birds you never had noticed before... at least in that way.

Look at the ceiling right now. Look straight up! Describe the angles in the architecture and the the play of light and shadow in the corners you never noticed.

Stand for what you believe in and be firm in your principles, but today, do something different. Listen first before you share.  Listen to a person you have never listened to before. If you have a home, converse with someone who does not. If you are a senior, talk about the economy with a teen. If you are woman, discuss 21st century marriages with a man. If you are American, talk with a Norwegian about the Olympics. If you are Christian, listen to a Muslim describe Allah's love.

In Matthew's Gospel, Jesus called fishermen to become disciples. He wanted them to follow him. If they were going to follow him they were going to have to repent. No... not confess their sin. Repent. They would have to do a  "180" and turn around.  If they were going to follow Jesus they would have live a new way. Yes they would be fishermen, but now without any nets. Yes, they would be fishermen, but they would not catch trout or perch or walleye. They would now catch men and women.  They will live as Kingdom people.

If they had held on to their nets, they would have missed it: the Kingdom.

If they had continued catching fish, they would have had food, but they would still have hungered for truth.

Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life."  Don't miss this Kingdom of heaven which has come near. Do a "180." Throw down your nets and listen, notice, discover, and change.

The truth is waiting for you. Led by the Spirit, open your hearts and live today as Kingdom people.

Genesis & Tornadoes

What a way to begin the story of God and God's creation. Genesis lays it all out for us. God is the source of all creation and proclaims that it's all good. God creates humans in his image, giving us the unique ability to make our own choices and pull away.  Being created in God's image comes with a calling: you will be blessed by being a blessing to others. The story of Abraham and Sarah and their family over the generations reveals that our families are not quite so flawed after all. If God can do amazing things through them, God will do amazing things through us as well.

I love then the way Genesis ends. Joseph, the unjustly mistreated favorite son of Jacob, forgives his brothers and shares a truth about God that still gives us hope.

Then [Joseph's] brothers also wept, fell down before him, and said, "We are here as your slaves." But Joseph said to them, "Do not be afraid! Am I in the place of God? Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today. So have no fear; I myself will provide for you and your little ones." In this way he reassured them, speaking kindly to them. - Genesis 50:18-21

Being human means living the ups and downs of life. At times we feel like we are king of the world. David felt that way in Psalm 8.

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor. - Psalm 8:3-5

At other times we know we deserve no forgiveness and feel deep bitterness and regret for our actions. That's the way Joseph's brothers felt at the end of Genesis. But God never gives up.

Consider these examples Genesis:
1. Adam & Eve eat the forbidden fruit, are banished from the Garden, but God still provides for them.
2. Cain murders his brother and is banished to wander, but God protects him from those who would kill him.
3. The wickedness of humanity moves God to flood the earth, but God saves Noah and promises never again by giving us the sign of the rainbow.
4. Abraham and Sarah take matters into their own hands and Abraham fathers a son Ishmael through Hagar, but God still blesses them with a son Issac.
5. Jacob tricks his father Issac into giving him the blessing, but God still creates a great nation through him.
6. The brothers of Joseph sell him into slavery, but God makes sure that they eventually will be saved from starvation through him.

I think of the tornadoes that struck central Illinois this past Sunday and I know that many families are devastated. Genesis reveals that God has not abandoned them. God will work through such disasters for good. In Christ, God is one with those who have perished. Look for the stories to come out in the aftermath of the tornado and the other disasters that surround us, and find our Creator God of Genesis in action.

Lectio Divina

Lectio divina is a four-step process: reading, mediating, praying and contemplating, traditionally known as lectio, meditatio, oratio and contemplatio. It could be said these four steps are like a path that leads away from the noise of the city to the beauty of nature. These steps can be seen as relational – a deepening exchange between two friends. Or they can be called transformational – a microcosm of the change taking place in us as we go from creatures dead in sin to a new creation in Christ. It’s important to see these steps as natural, for they are common to any meaningful experience we have in life. First, we “read” the experience, then we reflect on it. Next, we talk about it, and finally, we bring it into ourselves and let it become part of who we are.

Lectio – Reading and Listening to the Text

Place yourself in a comfortable position and allow yourself to become silent. Some Christians focus for a few moments on one thing to block out the noise of life. A favorite prayer or Bible verse gently recited can help you become peacefully aware of God’s presence. Examples include verses from the Psalms like “Be still, and know that I am God,” or “Your word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”  Then turn to the text and read it slowly, gently. Savor each portion of the reading, constantly listening for the “still, small voice” of a word or phrase that somehow says, “I am for you today.” Do not expect lightning or ecstasies. In lectio divina, God is teaching us to listen, to seek God in silence. God does not reach out and grab us, rather, he softly invites us ever more deeply into his presence. Once you have found a verse or phrase that is special to you, stop your reading and move into the next phase – meditation.

Meditatio – Meditation

Now make the selected word or phrase of Scripture your own. Treasure it as a special message from a loved one. Although mediation is commonly understood as very passive, Christian meditation on God’s Word is an active encounter with the text. This is God’s Word for you. Deny for a moment the temptation to apply it to one specific situation in your life. Repeat it slowly to yourself, allowing it to interact with your whole world of thoughts, concerns, memories and ideas. Don’t worry if you are distracted by seemingly unimportant or unrelated thoughts. Memories and other thoughts are simply parts of yourself that, when they rise up during prayer, are asking to be given to God along with the rest of you. God wants all of you, and that includes even your most commonplace or most annoying thoughts. Allow this pondering to invite you into dialogue with God.

Oratio – Prayer

Speak to God. Whether you use words or ideas or images, or all three, is not important. Interact with God as you would with one who you know loves and accepts you. Give to God what you have discovered in yourself during your experience of meditatio. Experience God using the word or phrase that God has given you as a means of blessing. Give to God what you have found within your heart.

Contemplatio – Contemplation

This part is difficult to describe because it is God’s initiative – it is God acting on his desire to be present to you. All you have to do is be there. Simply rest in God’s embrace. Be patient. When God invites you to return to your pondering of the Bible passage or to your inner dialog with him, do so. Learn to use words when words are helpful, and to let go of words when they no longer are necessary.  Rejoice in the knowledge that God is with you in both words and silence, in spiritual activity and inner receptivity.

Remember

Sometimes in this process one will return several times to the printed text, either to savor the literary context of the word or phrase, or to seek a new word or phrase to ponder. At other times, only a single word or phrase will fill the entire time set aside for lectio divina. It is not necessary to anxiously assess the quality of one’s lectio divina. This is not a performance. The only goal is BEING IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD BY PRAYING THE SCRIPTURES.  

Like Trees Planted by Streams of Water

When I think about why anyone should bother digging into the Scriptures and becoming comfortable with studying the Bible I can come up with many reasons. But ultimately the answer is found within the Bible itself. Psalm 1 is an introduction to the entire collection of 150 Psalms and it makes a good case as to why you should continue to not only encounter the rest of the Psalms, but the whole of Scripture.

Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked,
or take the path that sinners tread,
or sit in the seat of scoffers;
but their delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law they meditate day and night.
They are like trees planted by streams of water,
which yield their fruit in its season,
and their leaves do no wither.
In all that they do, they prosper.
The wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
for the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish. (Psalm 1)

In the next few months I'm going on a journey with some of my friends in my church through the Greatest Story, which is the Scriptures. Psalm 1 will remind us why this journey is worth taking and continuing on. There are many paths we can take as we go through life. Most of those paths travel through the same worldly values and priorities and actions we're used to seeing and living every day. In Psalm 1 those paths are very familiar: going with the crowd, doing the same thing every day, cynically seeing only the poison that's out there.

Those grounded in the Bible travel a different path, one of hope. "They are like trees planted by steams of water." The Word of God reveals our Creator's love for us and the hope that we can abide in God's love for an abundant life right now.

Look at Chapter 1 of the Greatest Story: Bible Introduction and think about how the stories of Scripture can have that kind of power for you... to lead you on a path beside life-giving water.

What stories in your life have come to define you?
What stories and books from others do you find yourself referring to over and over again?

Let's go on this journey together.

Lord, Teach Us to Pray

I had the chance to watch the new the movie Gravity yesterday. In 3D, its about as close as you can get to actually walking in space yourself. It's quite a movie.

Without giving too much away, there was a point in the movie that touched my soul. At a critical moment for Ryan, the Sandra Bullock character, when she seemed to be at the end of her rope, she was moved to pray. But in fear and frustration she admitted: "I don't know how to pray. Nobody taught me." Wow!

Many things ran through my mind at that point. How beautiful to naturally seek communion with God in a time of great terror. Even without prayer, and even in the vacuum of space, God is there. God certainly was with Ryan. It also confirmed what I have always believed: How are people going to know about Christ, and how are people going to know about God, about prayer, and about the hope about the Kingdom of God... IF NOBODY TELLS THEM?

Every moment we take to share the good news with a child is valuable. Even taking five minutes to pray with a child who might never have another opportunity to pray, matters. What a tragedy it is to ponder how many people are out there who are desperate to know the love of God, but don't because "Nobody taught me."

In Luke 11, Jesus' disciples see Jesus praying. Surly they have prayed before, but there is something about how Jesus prays and the power that it gives him, that leads them to say to Jesus, "Hey, Teach us to pray. John taught his disciples."

Jesus lays it out simply. The model of the "Lord's Prayer" lays it out this way: Call on the holy name of God, ask for his Kingdom to be fully be realized among us, and ask for all our daily needs, for forgiveness, and protection from the wickedness around us. Praying is boldly laying it all out to God with specific requests. Go ahead. God can take it.

Then after teaching these steps, Jesus, in Luke 11, shares stories to reveal to us that prayer should be done persistently... even without ceasing, as Paul puts it in 1 Thessalonians. If a person can be persistent in asking a neighbor for bread and if a child can be persistent in asking a parent for lunch... how much more should we be persistent in prayer? If the neighbor and the parents respond affirmatively to persistence, rest assured that God will respond to your prayers as well.

Keep on praying then. Go ahead. God can take it. Don't be afraid to lift up your needs... all of your needs to God. Keep on teaching prayer as well. May there never be another child of God in the position to say they can't pray because "Nobody taught me"

Biting Off More than You Can Chew

When you think of the Fourth of July I'm sure your mind fills with images and memories of fireworks, parades, Uncle Sam, summer picnics, John Philip Sousa and the "Stars and Stripes Forever." For the past couple decades, however, our American traditions for the Independence Day holiday have also included ESPN at around noon and Coney Island, New York. The annual Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest is held every year and since a small eating machine from Japan, Takeru Koybayashi demolished the former record of 24 hot dogs by eating 50 hot dogs in 12 minutes in 2001, a couple million viewers have made the Hot Dog Eating Contest a part of their tradition every July 4.

The current monster of the frankfurter, Joey Chestnut, has won the context the last seven years, setting a brand new record of 69 dogs just last year. And to look at Joey Chestnut or Koybayashi you wouldn't think they could eat 2 hot dogs, much less 69. There was a time that a big old schulb could just show up eat a dozen red hots and come away a winner. In fact for several years all it took was 9 to win the contest. That was before ESPN and before true professionals did daily, extensive training of their body and mastering their technique to consume dozens of Nathan's dogs at a sitting.

So don't look for me to join in on some hot dog eating contest. When you bite off more than you can chew, you just end up sick; with a dejected look on your face.

In many things in life its a whole lot better to train and prepare than to just step up to the plate and take your swings cold. It might look easy, but to be a success it takes dedication. The baseball image is an example. Likewise any child knows that riding a bike and learning to swim takes a whole lot of practice. A few years ago I tried cleaning a walleye after just watching a YouTube video.... It didn't work.  I gave up. Might we put living out a living faith in Jesus Christ in the same category?

I had an epiphany many years ago that while I believed I had been graciously forgiven and saved through the cross of Christ and my baptism into Christ, just a belief in an idea didn't in itself have the power to transform. That was the purpose of this blog: Love Christ Live Faith. Through a living faith in Jesus your life is transformed. Living faith, or discipleship, opens up the Kingdom of Heaven into your reality and gives you permission to live with love, freedom, hope, and joy.

Before my transformation, I saw being a Christian as simple as belong to a church and worshiping on a regular basis. Let God do the work and let me live my life. But something Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote struck a cord with me: "Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ." And life without Christ is a life of darkness and death... and not because I was evil or that I was a sinner and now I'm not. No, instead a life without Christ is a life where hope is not real and cynicism rules. It's going to church and just coming home sick and with a dejected look on your face.

Jesus warned us about this. Living in the light of Christ and allowing that light to fuel you means giving up your own selfish ways and desires and trading them in for the ways of Jesus Christ our Lord. Sounds pretty costly: The ol' cost of discisipleship that Bonhoeffer made famous. There is no half-baked way of approaching discipleship and life in Jesus. In Luke 14 the message is put starkly when Jesus flat out says that you can't be married to your old priorities and desires and be open to the freedom of the Kingdom of Heaven. He says you need to "hate" family. You need to give up your possessions. You need to take up the cross. You need to follow me. There must be complete clarity of purpose in order to produce the hope-filled, light and free life Jesus wants for us.

Jesus puts this many ways in the Gospels. In Matthew 13 we are given two parables in three verses that say it quite well. The Kingdom of Heaven is like stumbling on a field that contains the most valuable thing you ever could imagine. Without out hesitation, and with complete clarity, you would sell everything you had to do what ever it takes to claim that field and make it yours. Or think of this way, its like searching for the most precious pearl in history, finding it, and giving everything up so it can be yours.

Joey Chestnut and Koybyashi made a life commitment to being a hot dog eating champion. They have succeeded and they have received their reward.

But the reward of a life of discipleship, a life following Jesus and wanting to live your life as he would live it, is what I desire more than hot dogs. It is a life in the Kingdom of Heaven that opens up to you the truth in a way that is not always revealed easily before our eyes. It is a life that reveals hope when others only cry despair. Life in the Kingdom is a life of joy while the world only projects misery. Such a life in the Kingdom opens you up to true greatness so that you can be more and do more than you could ever have imagined. As Jesus says so well and so often: "The Kingdom of God is at hand, it is among us and around us, so repent, change your life, give up your selfishness and follow the way of Jesus."

Committing yourself to a life of discipleship might sound like biting off more than you can chew... and with texts like Luke 14, Jesus is completely honest about how you will change. Your old priorities will not be your priorities any longer. Know this. Know what it takes. It's like a army preparing for war, or a church preparing for a building project. It's going to be big.

Ultimately, though, the truth is that the Kingdom of Heaven and the way of Jesus is actually easy. It becomes as easy as Joey Chestnut with a dozen hot dogs: no problem. It is easy because Jesus had trained you, the Spirit has encouraged you, and your friends in Christ are right by your side.  It is easy because you know the truth.

There are many spiritual exercises that we can use as we train, but it is the discipline of prayer and dwelling the Word are the best places to start. If going for a walk, a jog, or a bike ride is important first step for physical fitness, having a regular routine of communication with God through prayer is central to growing as a disciple. Jesus modeled this for us. He needed prayer and we need prayer. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus puts the power of prayer this way: "Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and the door will be opened for you." Made into a habit, prayer becomes a very "easy yoke" in our training to be disciples.

Dwelling in God's Word is just as easy once its a habit. And like a jogger longs to runs, a disciple hungers to dig into Scripture. We can see this in a favorite passage of Lutherans, John 8:31a-32, "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." Freedom... It's such a gift. Freedom to be you. Freedom from fear. Freedom from hate. Freedom to love and be a light for the world. This is why we come forward and follow Christ Jesus our Lord... our Master... our Teacher.

The cost of discipleship is great... Yes it is. But the cost of not being a disciple is greater. To not be a disciple is to be chained to the dark cynicism of this world. To not be a disciple to to be a Christian without Christ. To follow the way of Christ, though, is freedom.

That's Not Fair!!!!

Kid's know all about "That's Not Fair!!!" Adults do too, because we were kids once.  At a very early age children just naturally know when they are being short changed of what ever it is they want. Just imagine the child who got one scoop of ice cream while the other kids got two... or got stuck with strawberry because all of the chocolate chip ice cream was gone. "That's not fair!"

Jesus often uses children as examples of how we are to live as disciples working for the Kingdom of God. "It is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs." It's a great analogy because children are completely dependent on their parents or other adults. Their simple and absolute faith is to be admired and is an excellent example of how we are to dwell in Christ. Children are not the best example of faith, however, when we start thinking about their natural, in bred, "That's not fair" radar.

While Jesus often compares the Kingdom of God to children, he uses many other parables and analogies to make the picture for us even richer and clearer.  Faith in the kingdom is not simply like being a child.  In Matthew 20 Jesus throws a wrench in our sweet, comfortable picture of life in the kingdom by telling us a story that flat out offends our American sensibilities. The kingdom is also like workers working in a vineyard, for various amounts of time, but all getting the same amount of pay when the day was over. They all earned the fair wage for working a full day, even those who only worked an hour.  I don't even need to type our gut reaction to that, do I? Just look at the picture of the kid.

In so many ways the story is just not fair.  Stop right now and read it. Here's a link to the text in Bible Gateway. Read it in a couple versions. I bet you can read it ten times and still look a whole lot like the kid in the picture.

So is Jesus just wrong here?  Is there some stretch of an interpretation we can make of this text that will satisfy our fairness radar? Some have made the point that those seeking work would have been hanging around without work because of their great shame and their suffering and not because of laziness.  Does that now make it fair? Maybe it should open our eyes to another reality.

God so loved the world that he sent his only son. He loves us all. Everyone of us: the righteous and the unrighteous; the insiders and the outsiders; the deserving and the undeserving. We simply are not equipped to know what our neighbor, our friend, our colleague, or our enemy has been through. We are in no position to judge. What we learn in Christ is that when he does judge, he chooses to be "generous."  

I like the way Thomas a Kempis puts it in The Imitation of Christ. "In judging others a person works to no purpose, often makes mistakes, and easily does the wrong thing, but in judging and analyzing ourselves, we always work to our own advantage." The workers who worked all day fall into this trap as does the child with only one scoop of strawberry ice cream. They do not know the truth underneath. Instead they simply are blinded by their passionate cry: That's not fair!

God wants our heart and gave us Jesus to show us the way. Our calling is to love and that is hard to do. You don't just wake up one day and decide to turn off the fairness radar. It takes a life lived in Christ daily to get to the point where you can sincerely desire others to receive what you have.

Thomas a Kempis puts it this way: "If you lean more on your own reason or diligence than on the strength of your life with Jesus Christ, you will have only a slim chance of becoming an enlightened person - and if you do, it will happen slowly, indeed. God wants us to conform our lives perfectly to his will and to reach beyond our passions and prejudices through an intense love for him."

The first step to even desiring to turn off the fairness radar is to love God. How do we love God? Pray about it. 

So Great A Crowd of Witnesses

Fifteen years ago I was a rookie pastor called to serve a small congregation in northeastern Ohio. While Faith Lutheran Church, in the harbor of Ashtabula, was far from my friends and family it truly was a great place for me to have my first call. The faithful brothers and sisters in Christ there took me in as a green twenty-six year old single guy, fresh out of seminary. They made me feel welcome and taught me so much. They also challenged me, which was important, because it allowed me to grow.

In Ashtabula, God blessed me with pastor colleagues who were willing to help me and support me with a listening ear just when I needed it the most.  There were only five ELCA churches in Ashtabula County (the largest county, size-wise, in the far northeast corner of Ohio.), which is a reason, I believe, the pastors of those five churches became really close. At the time I thought such camaraderie was just what always happened, but the last decade-and-a-half has taught me otherwise. Clyde McGee in Conneaut, Fred Grimm in Jefferson, David Hofer, just three blocks from Faith in the harbor, and Liz Eaton at Messiah in Ashtabula taught me so much during those early years and I honestly thank God for everyone of them.

Liz Eaton was elected on Wednesday as the next Presiding Bishop of the ELCA and I couldn't be prouder of her. I am grateful for my experiences working her and my other friends as a team to plan confirmation retreats, organize community gatherings after the Columbine tragedy, to talk and sometimes argue theology (Liz and David had some doozies), to cover for one another in case of emergencies, and to work together

for funerals and weddings.  Those experiences cemented within me the belief that the work of being a pastor needs to be collaborative work whenever possible. They had gifts that I didn't have, and visa-versa. They had stories and experiences of faith that opened my eyes to the work of Christ. It was the Holy Spirit that brought us all together for a few years around the time of the new millennium, and it was faith in Jesus Christ that gave us the power to do what we were called to do as pastors.

In Hebrews, the author makes a strong point about the power of faith to us by lifting up the examples of some of the great men and women God worked through in the Old Testament.  In Hebrews 11 we learn about the many things Abraham and Moses where able to do through faith. We also are reminded of the faith of great women like Sarah and Rahab and others who "received their dead by resurrection (Hebrews 11:35)", referring to the ministries of Elijah and Elisha. Hebrews 11:1 says this about faith: "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." All these great people of God lived their lives by that type of faith. They are among the "so great a cloud of witnesses" who did amazing things through faith, even though, as the author so carefully points out, they did not have Christ to fulfill the ultimate promise of faith: life everlasting.

The Bible contains so many of these great stories of faith. They inspire us and point out God's presence in our own lives. They are "so great a cloud of witnesses" who cheer us on as we move ahead in the Lord. When I look back at my own life, there are so many witnesses who have shared their lives with me and helped me grow in faith. They are men and women, like my friends and colleagues in Ashtabula, who I'm so grateful for. As it says in Hebrews, where there was just not enough space to include the great faith stories of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David and Sameul, "time would fail me to tell" of all the people God has blessed me with.

But I know as I live by faith today, they are cheering me on, some even praying for me, as I move ahead into the next chapters of my life.  By faith the heroes of the Bible "conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, and won strength out of weakness..." (Hebrews 11:33-34). By faith my friends have also done amazing things. It is through faith in Christ that Liz Eaton is now the Presiding Bishop of the ELCA, not through ambition and not through chance.

As we journey through faith it is so important to have a community of witnesses to grow with. Be a part of a church, and allow yourself to be fed through the stories of faith found in your brothers and sisters in Christ. Tell your story as well and let the Holy Spirit create shared stories and experiences you can grow through together.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-2)

If our faith-life is a race... a marathon let's say... then its a race for which we have been cheered on by countless witnesses who have helped us along the way. We are not alone today on this track. Our friends run with us and hand off to us the water and encouragement we need to press on. When the race is ended we will enter the arena (think of the end of the marathon during the Olympics) and so great a crowd will cheer us on. Our faith has not been in vain, it has gotten us this far and oh what a journey. So live by faith today and allow the cheers and support of others help you as are taken to amazing places.

Be the Community... In Your Own Small Way

Recently, Rich Melheim had a brief article included in The Lutheran magazine about reaching out to people without a faith community. The basis for the article was the age old question of whether it is right to baptize a baby, whose parents are solely motivated by an overbearing grandparent.  It's the "when are you going to get the baby done" question asked in countless grandparents homes across the country.

Our Theology of Grace says that power in baptism comes from God alone, and is not dependent on the parenting skills and good choices of mommy and daddy.  But our concerns about Cheap Grace call us to share expectations with parents: We expect you to raise your child as a Christian, to be a part of a faith community, to help your child to know about the love of Jesus Christ.  Do we baptize a baby who's parents do not intend to be part of a faith community?

Melheim's suggestion speaks to our call to be disciples. Yes, baptize the baby, BUT allow yourself to be the faith community in your own small way afterwards for the months that follow that baptism.  For as much as I like to emphasize to parents that baptism is not getting your child done... likewise pastors need to recognize that the act of making a disciple is not done after the water dries and the chrism washes off.

Both a blessing and a curse, our world is a whole lot smaller because of social media. Melheim reminds us that being that faith community is really only 12 clicks away.  He suggests monthly, brief, connections with those parents. What used to take a note card and a 46 cent stamp can be done via Facebook, or a text message or an email. Of course, if those parents respond to any of those attempts to reach out it's going to take a little bit more of your time, but isn't that what it's all about?

Community is a collection of friends, brothers and sisters, children of God supporting one another, growing together in faith, and witnessing together the power of Christ in their lives. But let's not forget that community is also a collection of individuals, all with unique gifts and talents to offer others.

So be the community. Reach out to your friends at church. Pray for your neighbors in your town. Inquire how those people you met two months ago are doing, even if they live 1,000 miles away. Be a disciple by making disciples... in your own small way.

Prayer: The Conversation Continues

C. S. Lewis once compared the relationship between God and a person in prayer to the relationship between a school headmaster and a student. The student is given by the headmaster a clear description of what sorts of things he or she can and cannot do. The list comes with an invitation, however. If there is something the student would like to do that is not clearly defined by list then the headmaster is open to having a conversation about the matter. The student may lay out his or her requests for as long as it takes. There will be give and take within the conversation. Once the conversation is over between the headmaster and the student the result will be... we'll see.

In Luke 11, Jesus compares prayer to the relationship between neighbors in a world where hospitality was shamelessly expected for any stranger who would approach your home with a need. A man shows up at a neighbor's door at midnight with a request for bread because a stranger has showed up suddenly at his door and cannot offer him bread because he is fresh out.  The neighbor makes every excuse in the book for not helping the man in need of bread and shuts the door on him.  When the the man continues to knock and continues to remain at the doorway, the neighbor grants him the request.  Ultimately Jesus makes this point: "I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs... how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him (Luke 11:8, 13b)!"

Both of these analogies reveal prayer as a continuing and persistent conversation between you and God that lays out specific requests and continues beyond those requests.  This is not prayer as the "Magic 8-Ball" in which you ask your question and then see what turns up in the window after you shake. "It is certain."  Nor is prayer like putting a coin in a Nineteenth Century mechanical fortune teller who goes through his motions as the gears turns and the lights blink to spit out a card with your answer.

Prayer as "Magic 8-Ball" is prayer as a singular event, thrown up into the heavens, waiting to see what happens.  But Jesus describes prayer as continuous.  Had the man in need of bread only made is request and then walked away, the neighbor either never would have granted the request, or when he did finally decide the grant the request the man would not have been at the doorway anymore to receive the gift of bread.

One of my favorite lines of the Bible is Paul's concluding words in 1 Thessalonians: "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances for that the is the will of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)."  Praying without ceasing is the continuous and persistent prayer with God our Father that Jesus both teaches and models.

Did you catch that? I said "with" our Father and not "to" God our Father.  Prayer is continuous because it is conversation. The parables of Jesus about prayer compare it to conversations between neighbors or between a parent and a child. Prayer should play out in way similar to if I were talking with you face to face.

So does that kind of prayer look like the famous picture of the old man strenuously praying for his daily bread, or like a little boy knelling next to his bed praying for Aunt Jane and her knee replacement surgery? Yes it can... but the conversation continues. It means dwelling in the presence of God even while you eat that meal or feeling the presence of God even as you doze off in that bed ready for a good night's sleep.

Again I want to lift up the relationship between children and parents. On a beautiful afternoon three children are playing at a playground while their parents watch. They play for hours, having so much fun.  They know the boundaries. Don't leave the playground. Don't push your little sister. Take a breather if you start coughing.... things like that. The parents watchful eye is upon the children the whole time and every once in a while the parents have to yell "stop that" or a child comes and asks to go to the bathroom near by. There are moments of tears and moments of pure joy. At one point mommy pushes her son on a swing. It's a great afternoon at the park and while the kids are on their own to play on whatever equipment the choose and with any of the other children, as they choose.... they do it all while dwelling in the presence of their parents.  

What if prayer looked like that?

41

It's my birthday today. I came across a couple baby photos of me as I was working in my garage yesterday. I forgot that I had them. I know them quite well, they are the definitive baby pictures of me. I think my grandma might have had them on one of her shelves in her apartment. My parents have them out on display as well. But for the first time I did a double take yesterday: Are these really of me, or are they of my dad? After only a few seconds I reassured myself that indeed they are me... a much younger and smaller me.

It's my birthday today. I am grateful for all the ways that God has given me an abundant life. God has led me to where I am today and has blessed me with an amazing family and a wonderful life. I think about all the directions that little guy could have gone. I can remember many of the watershed moments that changed me for better and for ill. I know there are many more I neither remember nor understand just how significant they were. There were dark moments and times of dread. Those valleys could have defined me. But they don't. God made me. Christ defines me. The Spirit encourages me.

It's my birthday today. Late last night God presented me with a Psalm I know like the back of my hand. Psalm 121, more than even Psalm 23, is my staple and rock in bringing words of hope to people who are hurting and dread what they are facing ahead in their life. Last night, when Valerie and I entered a time of prayer it was Psalm 121, 122, and 123 that God presented to me. "Oh no," I thought, not Psalm 121. "Maybe its actually 123 I need tonight." But it was Psalm 121 that The Spirit presented us with and it is my song this morning.

It's my birthday today. I wonder what God has in store for me and my family. What's next? I know it's life in the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of the Heavens, the Kingdom of the Possible. I know it's life with a call toward compassion and not contempt. I know God will be my inspiration and my light, an ever present help in times of trouble. Of course God gave me Psalm 121 to guide me and to guide Valerie.

I lift up my eyes to the hills,

from where will my help come?

My help comes from the Lord,

the Maker of heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot be moved.

He who watches over Israel will neither slumber or sleep.

The Lord is your keeper.

The Lord is your shade and your right hand.

The sun will not strike you by day,

nor the moon by night.

The Lord will keep you from all evil.

He will keep your life.

The Lord will look over your going out

and your coming in

from this time forth and forever more.  

The Living Dead

There's another zombie movie coming out so the Chicago Tribune did an article in yesterdays paper about how over time the ever popular zombies have gotten faster and faster. It used to be that for as terrifying as zombies were, you knew you could always outrun them. Their strength was in their numbers and in their persistence. But lately zombies are as fast as we are, even faster. The dead suddenly have gotten a whole lot of pep.

You don't have to be a zombie though to be included among those called the Living Dead. We have an example of this in the story of the Gerasene Demoniac in the Bible. This is how Luke describes this demon-possessed man: "As [Jesus] stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs (Luke 8:27)." He lived among the tombs, with the dead. This is appropriate because the way his life was controlled by darkness it was like he was living a life of death.

Today we often look at this man and think of mental illness. In fact some translations he is even called a "madman." Mental illness would not have been on the radar of the first century audience that Luke was writing for. Its easy when looking at him to be caught up by our ideas of mental illness or by the scary thought of a mass of demons speaking in unison that we are "Legion."  Yes we find that here, but truth be known, people are constantly living in a reality that can be described as being "Living Dead" without ever getting to scary demons and severe mental illness.

Jesus came that we might have life and have it abundantly (John 10:10). Yes, if we were a zombie we would not be living abundant life, nor if we we were possessed with The Exorcist-like demons. But every day people are kept from living abundant-life through the forces of wickedness. The dangerous thing about the powers of darkness they usually work in an insidious manner. The Living Dead sometimes don't even know that they are living an existence that is not their own, bringing no life to themselves or anyone else.

But most of the time, though, we are fully aware when the life that we are living and the "choices" we are making are leading us to nothing but a dead end. When the man who was possessed fell down before Jesus' feet that was an indication that deep down this man was seeking help, though he could not express it or control his words. The demons were so strong within him. His only opportunity for freedom was Jesus Christ. And indeed it was Christ who gave him his life back. He became Alive... The Living Alive... The Living Abundant Life.

Paul understood all this. Famously he speaks for us all when he writes, "I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing that I hate (Romans 7:15)."  The devil thrives on this with greater success than through mental illness or zombies or The Exorcist. If we remain controlled by Living Dead-like actions then the days, months and years will just melt away without us ever experiencing the abundant life that is available to us now through Christ. Our hope to break free is the same hope that freed the demon-possessed man in the country for the Gerasenes: Jesus Christ. Through Christ we have abundant life. Through following our Lord's will and surrendering ourselves to him we have abundant life.

So many of us can feel it deep in our core when we are living a Living-Dead life. We want to change and want to be set free. For many it means being set free from addictions. For others its seeking to stop harming others and themselves. There is one source of freedom: and that is Christ. "Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 7:24-25a)."

The Living Dead are all around us. When we are controlled by forces that lead us to make choices and do actions that bring no life, we are right there with them. The Living Dead are not zombies... nor are they the mentally ill... they are children of God who are seeking the hope and peace that alluding them. Abundant life is available to them and to all of us when we give our lives to Christ and follow him. Now "declare how much God has done for you (Luke 8:39)."

Heaven Invading Human Space

I'm reading Dallas Willard's classic book The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God. For some time Dallas Willard has interested me and I just have never gotten a chance to start digging into his books. After he died a few weeks ago I took it as a wake up call to pick one up. The Spirit of Disciplines is probably his most famous. In that one Willard makes his case for living out the spiritual disciplines as a means of embracing the gracious and loving presence of God.  In many ways Dallas Willard embodies what my whole purpose of this blog has been: gratefully receiving the unearned, eternal grace of God through Christ by living out that love through a life of gratitude, hope and joy. It's about time I read some of Willard's works.

Yesterday I got into a section of the third chapter of The Divine Conspiracy called "Heaven Invading Human Space." The images and language that Willard uses there is festering within my mind and soul. Willard emphasizes in his book that heaven is not some distant place where God lives and people go after they die. "The kingdom of the heavens," as he puts it, is not only breaking in, but is and has been upon us throughout all of human history. Jesus, God incarnate, points the way to this "kingdom of the heavens" and teaches how we can live as people of this kingdom right now.  I understand all of that, and do agree with him. As much as any place, John's Gospel reveals to us how we can live in this spiritual, heavenly kingdom right now. The problem is that, like so many of us, what I can understand in theory does not always play out in my life. Again, that's the call of this blog: Love Christ Live Faith. Start living the kingdom. Start living in grace.

Willard has given me an image that's going to stick for a long time:

     The inability to accept the fact that our familiar atmosphere is a "heaven" in which God dwells and from which he deals with us leads to some curious translations of biblical texts. In Acts 11:5-9, within a span of five verses, exactly the same phrase, tou ouranou, is translated in three different ways by the NASV, and by most others. It is translated "the sky" in verse 5, "the air" in verse 6, and "heaven" in verse 9.
     This, you may recall, is where Peter in a trance sees a sheet with all kinds of animals on it being let down through the atmosphere (tou ouranou). Among them are birds of the atmosphere. and he hears a voice from the atmosphere telling him to rise and eat. 
     Now our English sky means something quite different from air, and heaven means something quite different from either. The translation becomes entangled in these meanings. The sky is more a limit than a place, and as a place it is farther away than the air. Hence, we say, "The sky's the limit," not "the air's the limit." Heaven, of course, is strictly out of sight for us, beyond the moon for sure and quite likely "beyond" the physical cosmos.
     A consistent translation of tou ouranou drawing upon the biblical context could use "air" or "atmosphere" in each occurrence, as I have just done, and thus give the precise content of Peter's experience. God spoke to Peter from the surrounding "thin air," where birds fly and from which the sheet came. This conveys quite a different impression than the standard translations, which usually only speak of "heaven" in this passage. (Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, Ch. 3)

Willard makes this point by lifting up a passage from Acts as an example. But even before Peter and the sheet full of food Willard gives many examples even in the Old Testament of heaven truly invading human space: from God appearing to Abraham to Jacob bridging the gap between heaven and earth. What happens when we truly no longer think of heaven as being some distant place in the sky, but present among us like air and atmosphere?

Jesus says "and remember, I am with you always until the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20).  The Spirit is given to the disciples like a gust of wind at Pentecost (Acts 2:2). Jesus compares being born of the spirit and living in the spirit to wind in John 3. "Do not be astonished that I said to you, 'You must be born from above.' The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."

Jesus' primary message to the world is that the Kingdom of God (or Kingdom of Heaven or "the kingdom of the heavens") has come near. "Repent, and believe the good news (Mark 1:15)." This repentance is more about changing your life than about confessing sin. It means breaking free from the confining structures of the worldly kingdom that limit us, tell us no, and enslave us to sin. Changing your life means loving Christ and living faith through embracing the consciousness of Christ. We are free to follow. We are free to live responsibly. We are free to live the Kingdom of God. And as Jesus says, this is "good news." Believe this "good news."

Back to the atmosphere, which is Willard's translation of literally "the heavens" in the Greek. What would it mean to feel a warm breeze and remember the presence of God and the inspiration of the Spirit? What would it mean to have the air conditioning blow upon you and remember you are a child of God, living the kingdom, partaking in the "Bread of Life" through faith.

As common as wind blowing through your hair are the moments of God's presence and guidance. God moments remind us of our connectedness and the helping hand of the Good Shepherd; they are moments of living in the freedom of the Kingdom of God.  And my friends, this is the truth you want to live in. It is a Kingdom of the Possible and a Kingdom of Hope. It is the reality of giving your burdens to Christ and taking upon yourself his yoke, which is so easy and light. The Kingdom of God, which is among us, is where we have life and have it abundantly.

Don't Leave Me

Today is Ascension Day. It's been forty days since Easter. A lot has happened, but it also doesn't seem so long ago. The ups and downs the disciples of Jesus went through over a two month span are enormous. The hope and optimism of Palm Sunday: Jesus will overthrow Rome. The bewilderment of the Last Supper: Surely not I Lord. The horror of the crucifixion: It is finished. The confusion of the resurrection: It seems an idle tale. The new hope and optimism of Jesus' resurrection life: My Lord and My God! Once we get to the Mount of the Ascension were right back to where the disciples started.

And then he leaves.

The disciples are left behind. Yes, they are left with a promise and a call... The promise: I will give you an Advocate, the Holy Spirit, to help, encourage, and empower you to serve. The call: look around you and reach out into the world that needs to hear about Jesus.

But you left us Jesus.

Those two months, between Palm Sunday and Pentecost, was a period of transition unlike any other in history. For those who lived it and experienced it, how painful it must have been. It concludes with Pentecost. Jesus fulfills his promise when the Spirit is given to the disciples. The Spirit gives them the ability to answer their God given call and the encouragement to persevere through enormous odds against them.

The same Holy Spirit serves as our Advocate as well. God helps us and inspires us through the Spirit. We stumble upon God-moment after God-moment and recognize them as such through the Spirit. The Holy Spirit helps us through our transitions. When we say goodbye to coworkers and friends, neighbors and family members the Spirit moves us forward with hope. We not only can get through this, we can come through transition stronger.

The Great Commission of Matthew's Gospel puts it well for us. Yes Jesus departs but he promises to be with us, to the end of the age. Jesus is with you and doesn't leave you stuck on the mount of your transitions. God has empowered with hope and gifts that move you forward.