Who Are We Following?

In the last week, television programs, radio talk shows, and the internet have played host to all kinds of arrogant, combative, hateful tirades aimed at those whose political views differ from the speaker or writer. Such an atmosphere unfortunately has become the norm in our society and can hardly be said to be surprising. Sadly, much of the inexcusably hateful chatter I have come across this week has come from those who claim to be followers of Jesus. The name-calling, slanderous slurs, inaccurate insinuations of folks on both sides of the political aisle have been disheartening. The claims by people on both sides that God is on their particular side have been discouraging. Politically charged attacks on philosophical enemies shrouded in prayer language have been disgusting.

Certainly there is a time and place for vigorous, even heated dialogue regarding issues that affect the lives of so many. What is more, there is a time and place for serious disagreement and a time and place to take a stand. But if we follow Jesus, we must never allow our passion for or commitment to a particular political philosophy to lead us to engage in behavior that flies in the face of Jesus’ call to love and pray for our enemies. If we follow Jesus, we must never allow our passion for or commitment to a particular political philosophy to lead us to take the Lord’s name in vain by claiming to know with certainty that God is on this side or that side.

If we truly follow Jesus, we trust that our future is not dependent upon the triumph of big government or limited government. We trust that our future is not dependent upon privatized healthcare or government-run healthcare. Our future is not dependent upon whether Democrats or Republicans control the House of Representatives, the Senate, or the White House. Rather, if we truly follow Jesus, we trust the enemy-loving peacemaker who said, “Seek first God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness.”

O God purify our speech and actions. Help us in our speech and actions to seek first your kingdom and your righteousness. Lead us not into the temptation toward hateful speech and deliver us from the evil of attacking our enemies. Give us the courage not to follow those who spread hatred or incite fear, but to follow Jesus whose love for enemies overwhelms hatred and drives out fear. By your Spirit conform us to the likeness of the Peacemaker, in whose name we pray. Amen.

One Body

Ours is a DIY (do-it-yourself) era. Ours is a technological time. Ours is an independence obsessed society. We’d rather do it ourselves 90% correctly than have a trained professional do a perfect job. We’d rather consult webmd than a trained doctor or Wikipedia than a thoroughly educated, specialized teacher. We’d rather use TurboTax than enlist a certified accountant to file our tax returns.

There are all kinds of benefits to living in this era. Money is saved on labor expenses. Time is rescued from waiting rooms and put back into the lives of patients. Effort toward the goal of increased knowledge is spared and funneled into other areas of life. Time and money are wrested back into the hands of taxpayers as they don’t have to wait as long to get back guaranteed larger tax returns.

But there are drawbacks to living in this age and downsides to living in this era. For the more and more we do ourselves, the less and less we need each other. The more and more we can handle ourselves, the less and less we value the gifts of others. If we are not careful, before long, we have bought into the myth that is independence and autonomy. We don’t need anyone’s help. Training is irrelevant. Expertise is immaterial. Sooner or later we begin to think we can exist entirely on our own.

Such a mindset is harmful enough in our everyday lives. It is even more devastating, however, when it shapes the way we approach the community of faith into which we’ve been reborn as sons and daughters of God. So we devalue the unique gifts of others, content to try to imitate them, even if our best efforts barely come close to others’ worst efforts. In the process, we begin to see others as disposable or replaceable.

Paul will let us have none of that, however. For as one body, every part has a role to play, every component has a function. The minute we forget it, we begin to die a slow death. But in the moments we remember, we experience life like none other.

Burn Out Bright

It’s incredible how attached we are to comfort. She will shop at the same grocery store every week for years, but when the store’s management decides to reconfigure the layout of the store so that “everything is out of place,” she will walk out the door and never come back as a way of protesting the loss of her comfort zone. He will go to the same place every morning for coffee and a biscuit, but when others who look different and smell different begin to adopt a similar pattern, he will walk out the door and never come back as a way of demonstrating his displeasure with the loss of his comfort zone.

I guess somewhere along the way we also began to think faith was all about our comfort: So some of us have faith because we long to be comforted by the notion that our past sins have been forgiven. Others have faith because we long to be comforted in the present by a God who will make things easy for us or at least make us feel better about ourselves. Still others of us have faith simply because we long to be comforted eternally instead of punished.

Certainly God is a comforting God, who comforts people in distress. But the God who comforts is also the God who calls people to lives of risky sacrifice and service. Perhaps this is why so often when God calls, the people being called try to come up with all kinds of excuses not to answer. Moses and Jeremiah both say they can’t speak well enough. The people of Israel say they would be better off back in Egypt. Some of the folks Jesus calls say they have urgent tasks to complete before they can follow him.

Sometimes we’re not all that different from those we read about in Scripture who grasped for any possible excuse not to move outside their comfort zones into God’s calling. Sadly the consumer attitudes that lead us to boycott our favorite grocery store or abandon our regular breakfast haunt can all too easily find their way into the church. What’s especially dangerous about this is that we can find ways to spiritualize our excuses and relieve ourselves of taking any responsibility for our own unwillingness to get out of our comfort zones. So they will worship with the same congregation every time the doors are open for years, but when the church’s leadership, called into service by the Holy Spirit and the congregation makes intentional and thoughtful efforts to help the congregation grow in faith and live out their faith, they will walk out the door and tell folks they weren’t being spiritually nourished as a way of expressing their frustration with the loss of their comfort zone.

Sadly we often miss out on opportunities to do God’s will when we latch onto flimsy excuses to stay in our comfort zones. Imagine how different the world would be if Moses had refused to go back to Egypt or if Peter and Andrew and James and John had refused to hop off their boats and follow Jesus. May God give us courage to embrace the opportunities to break out of our comfort zones and let our lives burn out bright to the praise of God’s glorious grace!

Here's a song by Switchfoot which first introduced me to this wonderful way of putting the calling of God on our lives: to "burn out bright."

How might you be able to burn out bright this week?

Cards

Perhaps it is because the tendency to focus on self is universal. Perhaps it is because the inclination to reshape selfless faith into selfish religion is an inherent part of what it means to be human. Perhaps it is because the propensity to get stuck in our own little worlds is as intrinsic to our identity as our gender or the color of our eyes. Whatever the case, the authors of Scripture, the representatives who speak to God’s people on God’s behalf, and even Jesus repeatedly find themselves in the position of having to remind God’s people what it means to be God’s people.

We sometimes speak about the circumstances of life as though they are like a hand of cards that has been dealt to us. As anyone who has played cards knows, as a player you simply have no control over the cards you are dealt; all you control is the way you play the cards. Some hands are stacked with trump card after trump card. Others are full of worthless low number cards. Then there are those hands that are a mixed bag, some good cards and some awful cards. Complicating the analogy is the fact that the quality of the hand depends on the game you are playing. For instance, a hand flush with face cards and spades is perfect for playing Spades but not so ideal for playing Hearts. Then there’s the fact there are different ways to be successful. One could, for example, seek to rack up as many points as possible throughout a hand of Spades by capturing as many books as possible or rack up points at the end of the hand by avoiding capturing any books at all. Regardless of one’s skill, however, what often plays the biggest role in the outcome is sheer happenstance, pure luck; so much depends on the cards you’ve been dealt and the way you play them and the way others play the cards they’ve been dealt.

The Christians James writes were in a situation in which it would have been easy to dwell upon the crummy cards they had been dealt. Everybody deals with a few bad cards, but some of these folks were dealing with poverty, feelings of isolation from other believers, and an environment fairly unwelcoming to their faith. But James, like Moses and the prophets before him, knew that if God’s people get stuck dwelling on the bad hand they’ve been dealt, they will likely neglect one of the major elements of the calling God places on the lives of God’s people: to stand with and support those who have been dealt terrible cards. So James reminds his audience that God desires for them “to look after orphans and widows in their distress” (1:27), that is, others who have been dealt awful hands.

As we survey the hands we have been dealt, each of us can spot cards we wish we could trade. Certainly there are times when the most faithful way we can respond is by begging God to act to change them. But as we have been reminded by the images of the hundreds of thousands of people suffering from the effects of a bad card in Haiti this week, more often the best way to respond is by doing whatever we can to stand with and support others who have been dealt awful hands and to trust God with our own hands.

Who are the "orphans and widows" in your life that God desires you to look after? What are some of the bad cards others they have been dealt? What can you do to stand with and support them as they deal with those cards?

Fifty-two

Fifty-two weeks ago today Mindy and I were worshipping with the Skyline Church in Jackson, loaded U-Haul parked outside the church building, and as we worshipped I must admit I was a bit distracted wondering what the future would hold. The following Sunday would be our first Sunday to worship in Hohenwald, the first Sunday for me to teach and preach, the first Sunday to begin learning names and corresponding faces.

They say time flies when you are having fun. We have certainly enjoyed fun times with so many, sharing stories over meals, laughing out loud while playing games, singing God’s praises with one voice. Sometimes, though, time seems to crawl. We’ve also had opportunities to weep with so many who have endured not-so-fun times of fretting about surgeries and mourning the losses of loved ones over the last year. Through it all, the Hohenwald Church has come to feel like home to us.

What a blessing it has been to sit in front of J.B. Brown and hear him lift his beautiful bass voice in praise to God. What a blessing it has been to sense the love for our church family in Stephanie Fielder as she shares with us the latest updates on those who are sick and asks us to be sure to keep them in our prayers. What a blessing it has been to witness the dedication and compassion of the ladies who send out cards as a part of the Encouragers. What a blessing it has been to observe the servant heart of Jerry Carroll in action as he chauffeurs several of our members to and from worship. What a blessing it has been to observe Paula Brown and Bill Skelton sharing God’s love with our neighbors in the community through our benevolence ministry. What a blessing it has been to see firsthand the love and care our elders have for each member of this flock.

As we come to the end of our first year of ministry among and alongside each of you, we are filled to overflowing with thanks for the tremendous blessing you have been to us. As we begin a new year of ministry, we are filled to overflowing with anticipation for all that God will do to strengthen and deepen the love and the faith of each of us individually and our church family as a whole. Here’s to fifty-two more weeks of journeying together as the body of Christ, inhabited by the Holy Spirit, to the glory of God the Father!

The Faithfulness of Doubt

If anyone knew well the story of God’s promising and providing a child to Abraham and Sarah it was Zechariah. He was, after all, a priest whose life calling it was to know the story of God’s relationship and interaction with Israel through the years. Not only would he have known the story, it seems reasonable to suspect he might have held the story close in hopes that what God did for Abraham and Sarah, God might also do for Zechariah and Elizabeth. The two couples were quite alike. Just as Abraham and Sarah were faithful and righteous people, so Luke tells us both Zechariah and Elizabeth “were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly.” But the more obvious commonality that makes me think Zechariah might have prized this story is the fact both couples, though faithful, were unable to conceive and give birth to a child.

It is not difficult to imagine that month after month, perhaps for several years, each time Zechariah and Elizabeth came face to face with the reality it would at least be another month until she could get pregnant, they would pray hopeful prayers: “God of Abraham and Sarah, who can create life even in the midst of lifeless wombs, grant us the blessing of raising a child to whom we might pass on our faith.”

But there’s only so much hope that can be drawn from a thousand year old story. And there’s only so many times one can pray the same desperate, pleading prayer, without growing tired and weary. So which of us can fault Zechariah for being rather skeptical when an angel appears and tells him Elizabeth will bear him a son? And yet, just as the angel declares, Elizabeth does indeed give birth to a son we know as John the Baptist.

I have occasionally heard well-meaning Christians respond to others’ doubts by suggesting greater familiarity with the stories of Scripture would prevent such doubts. The story of Zechariah, however, testifies to the fact that doubts will arise in the life of faith no matter how well one knows the story. Thankfully, what Scripture calls us to is not a doubt-free life, but a faithful life of growth toward maturity. Which is why I love the story of Zechariah. Because if a knowledgeable but skeptical priest can question God’s honesty only to sing a beautiful song of praise and raise a child who would prepare the way for the Lord, surely that gives us hope that our moments of greatest doubt are not discouraging signs of the death of our faith but reassuring signs of the life of our faith.

Who's Got My Back?

No one would have faulted him for being nervous. In fact, most probably would have expected him to be at least slightly unnerved. Yet when asked after pitching a masterful complete game in game one of the World Series whether he had been nervous, Cliff Lee responded quite matter-of-factly, “I really never have been nervous in the big leagues. This is what I’ve wanted to do my whole life; it’s what I enjoy doing. I put all the work in between starts . . . there’s no reason to be nervous if I did all the work. The game is the time to go out there and have fun . . . and trust your teammates and your skills.”

Listening to the interview, I was struck by Lee’s confidence. Confidence in the skills he had spent years practicing. Confidence in his teammates to have his back and cover his mistakes. Confidence in his coaching staff to provide strong leadership and appropriate guidance. In some ways, his confidence almost seemed absurd. He was, after all, pitching in the home of the greatest team in the history of baseball. He was surrounded by tens of thousands of screaming fans and dozens of reminders of the great players in history who had roughed up pitchers as good or better than he. He was going up against one of the most potent Yankee lineups in the last few decades. Yet during the game he looked so relaxed the commentators noted it was like he was throwing batting practice, not pitching the opening game of the World Series in which his team was the underdog.

It is interesting how often church people talk about the circumstances in which they find themselves living. If you listen closely you can hear all kinds of conversations about the devil’s well-chronicled history of success in convincing people to accomplish his purposes. You can hear all kinds of chatter about the hostile environment of people who seem to want Christians to fail and see dozens of reminders of those who have gone before who have been roughed up by evil. You can hear all kinds of short-sighted speculation about how it’s harder than ever to live a faithful life in these times.

It is altogether appropriate to have a healthy respect for your opponent. But there is a huge difference between worrying yourself into losing before you’ve even taken the field, deciding you’re likely to lose before you’ve even thrown the first pitch, and throwing yourself fully into practice and preparation, aligning with a team to watch your back and cover your mistakes, and submitting yourself to the leadership and guidance of a coaching staff. It seems to me as we enter into the Yankee Stadium of life we have no reason to be nervous. This is, after all, what we’ve spent so much time preparing for, and we have a wonderful team to support us and an unrivaled coaching staff to lead us and to guide us!

An Infusion of the Holy

Here are two related quotes I rediscovered today in Eugene Peterson's outstanding book Tell It Slant: A Conversation on the Language of Jesus in His Stories and Prayers:

Jesus, equally at home in heaven and on earth, equally at home in his "Father's house" and in Joseph and Mary's house, used the same language--personal, metaphorical, particular, relational, local--wherever he happened to be, whether in the synagogue or out on the street, and with whomever he was talking to, whether a Samaritan or God. He didn't debase the holy into the secular; he infused the secular with the holy. (268)

I want to eliminate the bilingualism that we either grow up with or acquire along the way of growing up: one language for talking about God and the things of God, salvation, and Jesus, singing hymns and going to church; another language we become proficient in as we attend school, get jobs, play ball, go to dances, and buy potatoes and blue jeans. One language for religion and another for everything else, each with its own vocabulary and tone of voice. I want to break down the walls of partition that separate matters of God and prayer from matters of getting food on the table and making a living.(267)

Peterson's longing to eliminate bilingualism resonates deeply with me. However, what often results when we become aware of this discrepancy is the contrived usage of religious vocabulary in unnatural, attention-getting kinds of ways. It seems to me Peterson's aim is not to embolden Christians to wear their religious vocabulary on their conversational sleeves or wave it around like a flag. In addition to destroying communication with those who don't share our faith, such a practice would fail to heed Jesus' repeated reminders not to show off our faith. Rather, his aim is to guide us into an awareness that we are being shaped as whole beings into the likeness of Christ, including our capacity for using language. It is vital, therefore, that we exercise great care when utilizing this gift of language we've been given.

What might it look like today for us, like Jesus, to infuse the secular with the holy? Surely to take up this task is to recognize that all language occurs in the context of relationships and to begin by recognizing Christ has called us to a new way of engaging in all our relationships. What if we saw every interaction with a cashier, every moment spent in attendance at ballgames, every encounter with a fellow driver on the road, every conversation with an employee, as an opportunity to infuse the secular with the holy? God only knows.

Paying The Cost To Be The Boss

Many years ago B.B. King recorded a song that would become a blues classic with its recurring refrain, “As long as I’m paying the bills, I’m paying the cost to be the boss.” Perhaps more accurately than any other song, “Paying the Cost” expresses a widely held sentiment in our society that by “paying the bills” one earns the right to be the boss.

It’s not difficult to comprehend the logic behind such a declaration, nor to be persuaded by it, for in many areas of our lives this is a very tangible reality. Moreover, many of us have experienced times when no clear decision-making structure was in place and an entire organization suffered because of a power struggle. Given the necessity of strong, decisive leadership and the ease of organizing along the lines of ability to “pay the bills,” many of us have grown quite comfortable with this approach to life.

Sometimes outcomes resulting from this approach to leadership are ideal. Unfortunately, however, we don’t have to look far to recognize the difficulties of such a philosophy. All too easily this organizational principle can become a fortress behind which abusive behavior is protected. A working spouse can oppress a stay-at-home spouse because he or she doesn’t work hard to pay the bills. A parent can manipulate children into all kinds of unhealthy or even inappropriate behavior by pointing to his or her bill-paying ability. A boss can coerce employees into compromising actions because as boss he or she is ultimately responsible for the success or failure of the company, not the lowly employee. A member of an organization can even try to force that organization’s leadership to submit to his or her agenda by threatening to withhold funds necessary for the organization’s financial stability.

Sadly these abuses are all too common among people who claim to follow Jesus. May God have mercy on us and forgive us for all the times we’ve tried to seize power. May we look to Christ to lead us into lives of service. And may the Holy Spirit teach us and shape us along the way.

Amen

For a few brief moments, it was as if time were standing still. It was lunchtime Thursday, and I was trying to catch up with a few more people before leaving Abilene to journey back to Hohenwald after my trip to ACU’s Summit. I was excited to catch up with an old friend and to hear about the changes that are just around the corner for him and his family. I was excited to share with him stories of friendships developed in my new surroundings. Perhaps most of all, I was excited we were going to be able to share one more fantastic meal at Harold’s Pit Bar-B-Q.

But it wasn’t the smell of the mesquite-smoked beef brisket as we walked through the door that seemed to cause time to stand still. Rather, it was the sound of owner Harold Christian’s voice stopping all conversations in their tracks by inviting everyone in the room to join him in a song and launching into the familiar refrain of the gospel spiritual, “Amen.”

Harold and Drucilla Christian

For a few moments, in the unlikeliest of places, it was as if we were standing on holy ground. The line stopped moving. Customers set their sandwiches down. Conversations ceased.

Sure there were some who didn’t sing along. Sure there were no conversion experiences. But that wasn’t the point. The point was that, for a moment, in that most ordinary place and time, Harold shared his faith, his foundation, with all who would listen in the way most natural for him: by using the beautiful, baritone voice God gave him.

Most of us aren’t going to interrupt a crowded restaurant by launching into songs. Indeed, most of us shouldn’t; God hasn’t placed us in a position like Harold’s or gifted us with that kind of voice. But Harold’s ability to allow his faith to permeate everything he does and to keep him grounded, even if it means sacrificing efficiency during the lunch rush, is an excellent example for us all. It is a picture of what it means to do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Here's a video of the scene that day.

Infomercial Jesus

Donald Miller has quite a way with words. These, in particular, caught my attention this morning as I was finishing his latest page-turner, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life:

Growing up in church, we were taught that Jesus was the answer to all our problems.... But the idea that Jesus will make everything better is a lie. It's basically biblical theology translated into the language of infomercials. The truth is, the apostles never really promise Jesus is going to make everything better here on earth. Can you imagine an infomercial with Paul, testifying to the amazing product of Jesus, saying that he once had power and authority, and since he tried Jesus he's been moved from prison to prison, beaten, and routinely bitten by snakes? I don't think many people would be buying that product. Peter couldn't do any better. He was crucified upside down, by some reports. Stephen was stoned outside the city gates. John, supposedly, was boiled in oil. It's hard to imagine how a religion steeped in so much pain and sacrifice turned into a promise for earthly euphoria. (203-204)

It's one thing to recognize the truthfulness of these words. It's quite another to allow them to critique our own expressions of faith and practice of ministry.

• How do we honor this truth when ease and comfort are among society's ultimate values?
• How do we honor the true Christ when the primary hope of many Christians for future generations is that they be excited about church or Jesus, thus leading to the praise and exaltation of Infomercial Jesus?
• How do we honor the Servant who prays "Not my will but yours" in a made-to-order world in which we've made Jesus into a product pitch-person selling a customizable, made-to-order version of himself?

Surely our attentiveness to the stories of Jesus about the good Samaritan, a selfish older brother, a persistent and dedicated gardener, and others has helped us see that one of these things just doesn't belong here: ThighMaster, Salad Shooter, Awesome Auger, ShamWow!, Jesus.

May the Holy Spirit root out any desire we have for Infomercial Jesus and draw us nearer to the One who willingly lays down his life for others!

One More Year: God and Manure

Yesterday was a day of celebration for our congregation. Each year in August we have a homecoming assembly, when we celebrate God's work in and through our congregation. Yesterday marked 113 years of worship and ministry for our church. I am thankful to have had the chance yesterday to meet many former members who are a part of the legacy of our congregation, but who have moved on to other places.

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Here are the thoughts I shared in my bulletin article regarding homecoming.

What a wonderful joy it is to be able to gather together today as God’s people. This day, which we have designated “homecoming,” affords us the opportunity to join together with God’s people to celebrate the past, present, and future.

We celebrate God’s work in and through this congregation for 113 years. It is a joy to welcome back many who have worshipped with us through the years and have moved on to other locations. Though we are separated from some by many miles, we celebrate the unbreakable bond we share in Jesus. While the faces and songs and building may have changed, the gospel entrusted to us is the same.

We celebrate God’s work in and through this congregation today. We celebrate the parents in our congregation whose commitment to Christ flows into a commitment to raising their children intentionally and thoughtfully, and who have worked toward such a goal by participating in a parenting class this summer. We celebrate the work of Hohenwald Christian Counseling. Due to the increase in clients seeking counseling from a Christian perspective, AGAPE will be sending a graduate counseling student as an intern with Paula Wiemers. We celebrate the lives of faithful witness being lived by our members, who in their daily routines allow Christ’s light to shine through them, whatever they do.

We celebrate with anticipation God’s work in and through this congregation in the future. We wonder how God will call us to serve our neighbors here in Lewis County. We wonder who will join us in that service. We wonder how God will work to unite followers of Jesus who have a tendency to divide. We wonder and we hope and we pray, all the while celebrating God’s promise to carry on to completion what has been started.

We celebrate with anticipation the day in which the renewal of all creation will be complete, the moment when that which began on the day of creation is fulfilled in the day of re-creation. We anticipate that day when humanity’s selfish destruction of God’s creation is eclipsed by the new heavens and the new earth, when God’s people from past, present, and future, from Jerusalem, Rome, Hohenwald, and everywhere in between, are united together in the presence of God. Today we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face!

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Lastly, here is the audio of my sermon, "One More Year: God and Manure," based on Luke 13:1-9.

The Silence of God

I’ll never forget the firestorm of controversy among many of my well-meaning Christian friends when Garth Brooks released his chart-topping single, “Unanswered Prayers.” “How could he say such a thing?” they asked. “Doesn’t he know there is no such thing as an unanswered prayer? Sometimes God just says, ‘No!’ I can’t believe he’d suggest God just doesn’t answer.”

It’s amazing how sometimes we’re so anxious to correct someone’s theology that we completely miss the point of what he or she is saying. Because the truth of the matter is, “Unanswered Prayers” was not intended to be a theological argument that God doesn’t answer prayers. Instead, the notion of unanswered prayers is reflective of the feelings so many have had at one time or another in life. We’ve asked and nothing’s been given to us. We’ve sought and we’ve found nothing. We’ve knocked and the door hasn’t been opened. It feels as though all we’ve been given by God is the silent treatment. These are the deep-down heart cries of one who feels (or felt) wronged by God.

The unfortunate truth is many of us are just as uncomfortable with cries of protest to God as we are the notion of unanswered prayers. In spite of the fact scripture is full of examples of people protesting what they feel are wrongs committed by God, we find ourselves jumping to God’s defense, as if God needs a defense team of amateur lawyers.

I wonder what might happen if instead of attempting to correct the finer points of another’s theology or jumping to God’s defense, we instead allowed ourselves to be vulnerable and share our own doubts. What if we shocked the world by acknowledging that sometimes all we experience in response to prayer is the silence of God? What if we told them of a man after God’s own heart who felt abandoned by God, or the Word made flesh who felt forsaken by God, or a suffering apostle who felt neglected by God? Could it be that opportunities for argumentation might be transformed into opportunities for spiritual friendship? Could it be that situations with the potential for conflict might be transformed into situations with the potential for conversion? Could it be that chances to correct others might be transformed into chances to love others? Could it be that the greatest opportunities for ministry occur in the face of the experience of the silence of God?

Here's a video of the song that inspired these reflections: "The Silence of God" by Andrew Peterson.

What experience have you had with the silence of God?

Nobody's Business?

One of the common ways people pass time is to play what I call the “Desert Island Game.” The idea is to pose a question to a group about what they couldn’t live without were they to find themselves stranded on a desert island. I must admit I’m not a huge fan of the game; I’d prefer not to have to make such choices. But if I were forced to choose just one type of music I could listen to while stranded on a desert island, it would probably be the blues. There’s something about the honesty of the lyrics and the dynamics of the music that surpasses most other music.

What fascinates me is the schizophrenic attitude at the heart of blues music. On the one hand, blues is, at its core, a means of opening oneself up, of revealing one’s inner turmoil to anyone who will hear. Often the songs give voice to cries of deep hurt or to shouts of protest. As such, they serve to invite others into those stories, and to take action of some kind as a result, whether reaching out to the narrator to comfort or rescue, or to join in the narrator’s cries. On the other hand, however, there’s a deeply ingrained notion of privacy inherent in many blues standards. Perhaps no song represents this better than “Ain’t Nobody’s Business,” which has been recorded by numerous artists, including B.B. King, Willie Nelson, Jonny Lang, and Susan Tedeschi. The song's chorus, which repeatedly declares, “Ain’t nobody’s business what I do,” serves to build walls between the singer and the audience. The incoherence of these two sentiments is quite clear: you can’t invite people into your mess and then tell them to stay out.

While we may not all enjoy listening to the blues, the incoherence of these two sentiments reflects with incredible accuracy the incoherence in many of our own lives. We want to pour out our cries of hurt and shouts of protest to God, but we don’t want God getting involved in our business. We want to pour out our cries of hurt and shouts of protest to our brothers and sisters in our community of faith, but we don’t want them getting involved in our business. Whether it’s Jesus telling the woman caught in adultery to leave sin behind her, or Paul encouraging the loyal yokefellow in Philippi to intervene in the dispute between Euodia and Syntyche, or James instructing his audience to confess their sins to each other and pray for each other, the witness of Scripture is clear: our lives are not to be closed off from God and from others, but open that God through the Spirit and through others can work to transform us to be like Christ. May we never allow our culture’s obsession with privacy to keep us from Christ-like openness to God and to each other.

I wonder: what concrete steps can we take to be more open to God and to each other?

Today is the Day

Here's my bulletin article from a couple weeks ago.

There is a strange dynamic at work in each of our lives, one that has become so second-nature to us that we often fail to notice the way in which it shapes us. Make no mistake about it, however, we humans cannot escape the fact we were created to be bound by time.

As we do with other aspects of life, we have become quite proficient at dissecting the notion of time so that what is at times unmanageable can be spoken of and thought about in manageable ways using manageable terms. Our consciousness as people is shaped profoundly by such notions, particularly past, present, and future. In some ways this is extremely important. If we are incapable of distinguishing between past and present or present and future or past and future, we lose our ability to function rationally.

At times, however, the segmenting of time into these three categories can be dangerous, if not destructive. This is particularly true when we think about these categories generally instead of specifically. The past easily crystallizes into a set of bad circumstances and flawed decisions to be avoided at all costs instead of a complex combination of positive and negative circumstances and good and bad decisions. The future easily becomes something of which we are afraid because nothing is certain or for which we long because we have everything planned out, instead of a complex combination of uncertainty and certainty of hopeful and discouraging developments.

Unfortunately most of our time spent thinking about the present is not really thinking about the present at all, it is merely longing for a return to the past or longing for an escape to the future. I suppose this is why so many of us wake up discontent not just on occasion, but frequently, always longing to return to a treasured experience or to fast-forward to some imagined scene of bliss.

If, however, our faith is anything more to us than an insurance policy or a social status symbol, we cannot settle for such attitudes and behavior. Instead, we join with the Psalmist today and every day in proclaiming with our words and our lives, “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice today and be glad!"

What's your reaction? Do you find yourself longing for the past or living for the future, rather than embracing the present?

Mistaken

Here's today's bulletin article:

Every one of us spends a great deal of time and energy worrying about identity. For many of us one of the more frequent questions we ask ourselves is, “How will it look if…?” Or perhaps the question is, “What will he or she or they think about me if…?” We worry about the clothes we wear, the kind of vehicle we drive, the place we live, what we read, what we watch, and how each of these affects our identity and others’ perceptions of us.

None of these are bad questions in and of themselves. In fact, many of them can be quite helpful in guiding our reflection on the image we project to others. Moreover, the questions flow out of a healthy recognition that the universe does not orbit around us. It is possible, however, that questions originating in an awareness we are not the center of the universe can give way to constant worry about appearances that becomes very self-centered.

While there are times it is appropriate to ask questions about how others perceive us, I wonder if a better question wouldn’t be “Do people see Jesus when they see me?” This transforms our self-centered questions into Jesus-centered questions.

One of my favorite singer-songwriters, Warren Barfield, expresses this sentiment in a positive manner in his song, "Mistaken":

“‘Til everyone I talk to hears his voice, and everything I touch feels the warmth of His hand. ‘Til everyone I meet sees Jesus in me. This is all I want to be. I want to be mistaken for Jesus.

“May He touch with my hands, see through my eyes. May he speak through my lips, live through my life.

“I want to be mistaken for Jesus.”

I hope and pray that whatever we do, wherever we go, with whomever we interact, we’ll be mistaken for Jesus.

Here's a video from YouTube of Warren singing the entire song.