August 2, 2010
Yesterday, I began a new chapter as Pastor/Head of Staff at Glendale Presbyterian Church (@glenpres). My first sermon ventured into the space of “Waiting,” since both the church and family Harrison had both done quite a bit of it. You can hear the whole sermon here.
I began with these three short narratives concerning waiting and different shapes it can take; I fully acknowledge that I only mention three and that there are a literal million more.
A young man saved all he had and bought a ring, you know the kind, big ol’ diamond set on top. He placed the ring on a pile of nerves he carried with him everywhere he went. She had waited this long, why not a while longer? He could save more, build more, provide more. She, meanwhile, had been waiting on him. Did he really love her, she wondered? Was she the one for him? The pressure of the present was enough to bring her to tears without warning. How could she hide how she felt while she waited? How could she love him if he just kept her waiting? One night, he took her to a crowded yet breath-taking restaurant and got down on knee. As she said “Yes,” she whispered to herself, “I would have waited forever for you.”
Sometimes waiting isn’t what it seems. Sometimes what we are waiting for is worth the wait. Sometimes the grief and pain waiting can cause is completely made up for in joy and healing when it is over.
A soldier, feet planted in the sand of Afghanistan, waited for a command. Today, he would fight a battle from which few thought many would return. The seconds passed like years…the beating of his heart pounded in the rumbling cadence of a tympani drum. As he gripped his rifle, waiting, he began to think of home. He thought of the distance he had kept between himself and his family. A distance that should have never been. He thought of how proudly he had behaved in their presence. He wanted to see his mother, to tell her he loved her, to hear her say she forgives him. As the drum beat on, he thought of his ex, man…he could have played that one way differently. He could have kept some of those vows. He loved her, not that she would know. As the infantry were called forward, he took a step and thought of their son. He would make it home. He would be a father. He would be forgiven.
Sometimes waiting is exactly what it seems. Sometimes waiting works to remind us what is important. Sometimes waiting isn’t working against us at all…it’s a process geared to wake us from the sleep of self.
A child lies awake. She can’t sleep and won’t sleep. No tonight, she will put seven years of wondering to rest. Tonight, she will have answers, she will have truth. Tonight she will know for sure, because tonight she will see Santa Claus face to face. The milk has been out a while now, and she worries that the tepid temperature may spoil it and her’s would be the house where Santa caught a belly ache. In silence, she waits on the downstairs sofa, comfy on the pillows. The click clack clicks of the Schnauzer’s paws make her think she hears reindeer on the roof. The warmth of the fire and its dancing flames convince her to close her eyes and soon she is rubbing them again. She stares at the place where Santa has been. She supposes that the milk was fine after all and plans no fire for next year.
Sometimes waiting brings wonder, like a Christmas morning, or a baby.
Sometimes waiting points to a challenging road ahead, the need for perseverance, the hope of transformation.
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June 29, 2010
Life two days after ordination has certainly brought its share of surprises. Here is a list of the top five things I can do since becoming a new Minister of the Word and Sacrament:
5. Walk on Water: I began day one with a leisurely stroll atop our swimming pool — just to see if I could. This was fun until attorneys for Criss Angel arrived with a Cease and Desist order.
4. Food Miracle: All of the sudden…we can’t run out of cereal. Seriously, every serving we pour and the darn box is full again. I would ordinarily be pleased at something like this, but the only kind we had in the house at the time was Corn Flakes. All you can eat corn flakes? Some miracle.
3. Immaculate Memory: With absolutely no work on my part, the whole Bible is on the tip of my tongue ready to be recited whenever I want. It’s simply amazing. Who knew that after taking a few vows that God’s word would be so easily and painlessly downloaded into my brain (no word yet on whether the Book of Order is in the cue)?
2. Converting Heathens: I’m not sure what a heathen might really look like, but everywhere I have walked in the last two days, men and women, boys and girls, bow in my passing shadow for prayer. I assume they are giving their lives to Jesus. It’s just awesome how easy evangelism has become.
1. Seamless Illustrations: All the sudden, I can illustrate any point with a story from my life…or any other life for that matter. I can take your lawn mower and turn it into a spirit enriching illustration for faith development. Remember the time you ran out of gas on the way to the mall? I have a whole sermon built around that event that will change the way you look at laziness.
With all this in just two days, I can’t wait to feel the full blessing after a life of ministry. It’s almost like a superpower.
The downside is, I have noticed that ordination did nothing to curb my propensity to make up stories that just plain aren’t true. I’ve also realized that I still have an appetite for sarcasm and can communicate it with ease. The above 5 things may or may not be true. But it would be cool if they were…right?
Posted in ordination, thinkingoutloud 2 Comments »
June 16, 2010
Jesus Manifesto: Restoring the Supremacy and Sovereignty of Jesus Christ
Let’s begin with Narcissism.
Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola write in chapter six, “Our problem is this: we have even created a narcissistic form of Christianity, in which ‘conversion’ is less a turning toward Christ than a turning toward success or fame or fortune…Of the top 100 [CBA best-selling] books, just 6 were about the Bible, 4 were about Jesus, and 3 were about evangelism.”
If what the authors presume here is correct, and I agree that it is, then the Jesus Manifesto is Cipro for rank bowels of religious publishing. Jesus Manifesto is penicillin for the self-adulating, one with my inner Jesus, navel gazing virus that has taken over the Christian imagination. This aptly titled book is an explosive collection of thoughts and ideas designed to rock the heart of the reader from the cold, steely complacency of religion. Anchored in Paul’s letter to the Colossians, Sweet and Viola sweep us into a journey of faith, where Christ is the north star, Christ is the ship and Christ is the sea.
Jesus Manifesto is both a manifesto and story of manifesting. It is both a creedal conversation and commentary on Christ’s incarnation. What Walsh and Keesmaat did for Paul and Empire in Colossians Remixed, Sweet and Viola accomplish in respect to Christ and Cosmos. What many believers need is a redux of belief, a reminder that what we believe in is worth believing in. Certainly, this was part of the problem in Colossae and the problem remains still. Like the genie in Aladdin, we are content to imprison the cosmic, infinite power of the resurrected Lord in a little bottle that we rub when it suits us on Sunday or we need something.
Usually, I’m turned off by books that make the statement I just did, but it’s because they leave it there – take a shot, complain and hope you’ll buy the next book. Jesus Manifesto, by contrast, only makes the point in passing. The rest of the book, ala manifesto, is a statement of why our belief is so worth believing. It doesn’t take much to pick out a problem. There also isn’t a whole lot of art in revealing a new model where the old model will just be replaced by a new one. However, a manifesto — buy nature — is meant to reveal why we are who we are and how we are going to become more of who we are. Just as Paul meant for the church in Colossae, Sweet and Viola intend for their audience. Jesus Manifesto is a New Living Commentary on the book of Colossians, for those in the church who are no longer able to connect with it. The authors have even managed to compress Colossians into a four page letter from Jesus at the end of the book. The letter alone is worth owning on Kindle.
Caveat Emptor. While I’m sure the goal was to write in mass spectrum appeal, Jesus Manifesto may not be an easy read for you. It may take you a while to get through it, but it takes a while to tune a piano, too. I imagine this to be a great discussion starter for a small group or book club. Jesus Manifesto is about Jesus, who Jesus is, where Jesus belongs in the world and how we can live in the fullness of his life.
Narcissism is a disease that causes us to focus so inwardly, we scarcely exist at all. Jesus Manifesto distracts our gaze from small living and points the way to an expansive, musical, creative and faithful existence founded in our cosmic Creator.
Supernova-size it.
** reviewed in part for booksneeze **
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June 15, 2010
We made it back from Africa with out beautiful son, Desmond. What a trip. It’s amazing how demanding a choice adoption is. You commit to a long-term process, a life long process. It begins with a willingness to endure whatever happens. You have to be ready to accept the hardship of longing ending in what could easily become disappointment. Next, of course, comes legality, paperwork. For those who don’t like to sign on the dotted line, adoption — as a process, will be challenging to say the least.
Then you wait…
After that, you are judged by the state and charged beyond your ability to pay.
Then you wait…
You travel long hours and enter into unfamiliar territory. You avail yourself to the sicknesses of the region and try to maneuver within the peculiar culture milieu of the indigenous people.
Finally, you see your child, the one who cries when he sees you because you are foreign, because you are unexpected. Over the next little while, you show him love. You love him, then you love him some more. And when it seems that you can’t love him anymore than you already do…you love him more anyway. You tell him about is home. You tell him about the family that is waiting for him. You show him pictures that are beyond his ability to comprehend, but you show him nevertheless. Oh, and you love him.
You don’t notice his imperfections because, well because they don’t matter. He’s yours and because he’s yours he doesn’t have any imperfections. He’s just…perfect. Perfect because you love him.
The journey of getting to know him is also the journey to get back home, to belonging. The way you get to know him is stick with him while is asleep and vulnerable, awake and vulnerable, curious…and vulnerable.
Finally, you get him home and there is rest. There is a sense of sunrise after a storm. Not a bad storm. A necessary storm. A healing storm. A welcome one. One that you probably won’t choose again. One that has built a kingdom, built a home.
“How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He’s the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) 6 He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son. Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we’re a free people – free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free! [Eph 1:3-7; MSG]“
I wonder if this is how Jesus sees adoption…our adoption.
Posted in adoption, africa 4 Comments »
May 31, 2010
On an endless list of things that shouldn’t be, but are, here are three that appear in the news today:
3. Israeli raid on aid flotilla leaves 9 (or more) dead.
“Do not take advantage of foreigners who live among you in your land.Treat them like native-born Israelites, and love them as you love yourself. Remember that you were once foreigners living in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. [Lev 19:33-34 // NLT]“
While reports vary on whether or not members of the aid flotilla were armed, international aid activists were attacked in international waters. While I can’t put into succinct perspective the horrifying drama of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as a human being I can identify with the desire to bring aid and assistance to the suffering. As a Christian, that’s like…the whole job description
The Hebrew Scriptures talk about a God who identified with the displaced. God provided instructions for caring for them (such as the Lev passage above). To purposely blockade is to deny the God shaped reality of an obedient faith. Starvation is not political, it’s personal — very personal. To murder those who seek to live out Torah, knowingly or not, who load boats with food and basic living necessities…that’s a whole other level of deplorable.
Hopefully, this event will rock some of us from our sleepy malaise and thrust us into some form of productive action (blogging notwithstanding). The most potent form of protest is done with the heart. Let your heart lead your voice.
2. Child Brides Escape Marriage, but Not Lashes
A video has been release of the flogging of a child bride in Afghanistan. A flogging??? Really??? I have children, probably close to the age of these children. They get lippy. They spill things…you know, make children mistakes.
What did these little girls do that was so wrong?
They would not have sex with their elderly husbands. That’s what.
Right now, my 12 year old is in her room, which is not a room, but a palace where kings and queens and dragons are real. Let’s put this into perspective…shall we? These girls weren’t fighting off dragons. They were fighting off the sexual advances of their husbands. Wow. After receiving beatings for defending themselves, these two girls ran away, dressed as boys. They were arrested a while later aboard a bus and brought to a local mullah who hurt his hand flogging them with a leather strap. This is a front row seat in the theater of the painful degradation of humanity.
When religion becomes a weapon, when it finds itself exercised by a leather strap, it has become malignant. Let us pray for its healing before it spreads…further.
1. The belief that technology will save us…
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May 28, 2010
“You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it. (MT 7:12-14)”
Lately, I’ve been confronted with the the profound need to…make choices. I know, right? I want to be able to stay up late and wake up early. I want to be able to watch TV at night and read through increasing pile of deep and encouraging books. I want to be able to sustain a high level of operating chaos and formulate and produce ideas into more tangible forms. I want to be able to shut myself down and develop intimacy in my most important relationship. I want to do all these things and feel like I’m having a successful life.
The trick is…I can’t. I don’t think anyone can.
In these verses, I know that Jesus is asking his disciples to make a choice for real discipleship, but I think he’s also inviting us into another kind of obvious reality: in order to have a real life we have to make real choices.
When we walk through the wide gate, we have room for our entitlements. We can carry them all on the camel we rode in on. When we walk through the wide gate, we don’t have to engage words like sacrifice and discomfort. We don’t need to alienate those around us because of our need to choose one thing over another. The fact of the matter is, the elimination of options also eliminates the possibilities for certain relationship or opportunities and, believe me, no one wants that.
Except Jesus…
When we choose, we eliminate. When we choose, we become focused. When we choose, we open ourselves to the new. We become capable of taking on something that was never even a possibility before. When we choose, we make room for the narrow gate — the gate that requires that we decide what the most important thing is.
Jesus told the disciples to follow him…and the path was gate specific.
PS: It’s so cool that Jesus quotes AC/DC in this verse!
Posted in jesus and the kog, teachable moments 1 Comment »
May 28, 2010
Otherwise entitled, How not to preach the Greek.
When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority be light in the darkness and to exhibit a hands on ministry of presence where hurt are tended, hearts are mended and lives and relationships are restored, and he sent them out to tell their story and to have faith that God is going to do what God is going to do.
This past Sunday, I gave my first candidating sermon. While preparing the Scripture, I ran into the old familiar, “Sure this worked for them, but what the heck does it have to do with me?” Like any good academic hermeneutician, I knew that it was time to dive into the Greek and see what surfaced. For me, the Greek made the sermon come alive, but I faced a dilemma. I wanted the sermon to be accessible to the theologically educated in the congregation, but also — and perhaps more so — to those whose educations lie in other disciplines, or simply life itself.
I found myself asking, Where does the line between intelligent and inspiring begin to blur? How do you preach the Greek in plain English?
Luke 9:1-2 (TNIV)
When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons (ἐξουσίαν ἐπὶ πάντα τὰ δαιμόνια) and to cure diseases (θεραπεύειν), and he sent them out to proclaim (κηρύσσειν) the kingdom of God and to heal (ἰᾶσθαι) the sick.
The obvious is that this verse is a sending verse. Jesus is speaking to the group of disciples that he is equipping and putting them to the test. It’s a great verse for a church, it’s just that not many of us have gifts of exorcism, curing, preaching and healing. And why curing and healing? How do you take those ingredients and produce a digestible recipe in one sermon?
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in exegeticalness, jesus and the kog, preaching No Comments »
May 17, 2010
The other day, in my prayer time, I began to think of this image of leaning into God. As the events and circumstances of our lives grow more intense, chaotic or unknowable, the more we need to lean into God.
Imagine an injured hiker traversing a trail that is littered with rocks and logs and water, as it angles higher and higher. While his instinct and nature might dictate that he do it alone, to show how strong and indestructible he is, the gospel requires him to do the opposite.
Wherever we find ourselves on this journey, first, we have to acknowledge that we are not alone, that God is with us. Second, we remember that our weakness is appropriate and that as God speaks into the situation, His words sound like, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness [2Cor 12:9].” So…we lean. We lean deeper and deeper into God’s embrace. We trust in his ability to shoulder our burden. We allow His support to strengthen our walk. We embrace the fact that we can’t reach the top without Him.
We lean.
Where are you going? Are you leaning?
Posted in mere christianity, prayer, sacred rhythms 1 Comment »
April 19, 2010
I’m not much of a golfer, but I admire integrity in any form. This week, “Brian Davis called a two-stroke penalty on himself on the first playoff hole Sunday to give Jim Furyk a victory at the Verizon Heritage in Hilton Head Island, S.C.” via
Davis chipped into some rocks and upon settling his next shot, moved a reed on the ground., and thus created a penalty situation. Talk about a small infraction. Talk about practically doing nothing wrong.
Noone saw this but him.
Noone knew what happened, except him.
Noone would have been the wiser had he played through and taken home the $1.02 million paycheck — except him.
Some people value their integrity more than their bank accounts. Are you one of them?
Shout out to Bryan Davis for wanting to win a game honestly.
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