Anticipating Easter

Easter is the time in the Christian year to celebrate the hope we have through faith in Christ. In Easter we can truly say that the powers and authorities of this world have NO power and authority over us.

I've been struck in recent conversations by the hopelessness of followers of Jesus as they digest the dismal news of our day. They see the economy collapsing. They hear of all the conflicts of the world and the uncertainty of our times. They worry about what the future will bring.

Isn't this the time we are to have hope? When all the powers of the world seem to fail, aren't we about a Kingdom that stands in the midst of the smaller ones failing? I realize it rattles our security...or sense of security, but then shouldn't we be examining exactly where we find our security?

Easter says to us that the powers of this world don't have the power. We identify with Paul's hope. They can beat him, lock him up in chains, and try to silence him, but they cannot take away his hope. The powers cannot take away our hope. No matter how much the choices of the powers (our government, bailouts, jobs, etc) effect our lives because of the resurrection of Jesus we have hope.

N.T. Wright writes the following in Surprised By Hope:

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"Who, after all , was it who didn't want the dead to be raised? Not simply the intellectually timid. It was, and is, those in power, the social and intellectual tyrants and bullies; the Caesars who would be threatened by a Lord of the world who had defeated the tyrant's last weapon, death itself.

Hope is what you get when you suddenly realize that a different worldview is possible, a worldview in which the rich, the powerful, and the unscrupulous do not after all have the last word. The same worldview shift that is demanded by the resurrection of Jesus is the shift that will enable us to transform the world."

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Dear Jesus Followers:

It is now during the times of worldwide despair in the season of Easter that we remember we have a hope that is beyond the death that we are currently seeing. It is our job to be livers of this hope...proclaimers of this hope...beacons of light that scream out against the darkness that pervades the lives of the hopeless. Put not your trust in the powers of the day that are fleeting and crumbling, but put your hope in the resurrection of Jesus who gives us the power to hope in the midst of death.

Parched

Last week was decent, but it seemed to be laced with times of spiritual dryness and apathy. My reaction toward these times was less than stellar. I didn't view them as a chance to press on, but a chance to soak in the doldrums of seeming spiritual emptiness. At times I even thought to myself, "now is a time to take a break from all this spiritual stuff."

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It's pretty amazing, isn't it, that the times when we need to press into those things that bring us to God we retreat from because we feel too weak, too empty, to inept? It's the first and easiest thing to do. Much harder is to press through the desert to get to the spring.

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Toward the end of the week I began reflecting on this seeming emptiness, and I began seeing it as an opportunity to draw more into God rather than retreat since He was apparently just not 'showing up.' Adversely, it was probably me who wasn't showing up. One of our bishops not too long ago used the phrase 'pressing into our humanity', and I think this was one of those times for me. To me it meant that I bring this sense of humanity...this spiritual ache...this seeming emptiness...to God. Instead of retreating from all the things I would normally do as part of a 'devoted' life I might have instead pressed into the deeper disciplines of the spiritual life in order to lean more into God, facing the present feelings of emptiness and inadequacy.

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Pursue, not retreat. Greater intensity, not throwing in the towel. These are the next roads to take when I face this kind of dryness.

Giving Jesus or Demanding Morals

I was struck by something coming out of my pastor's message last weekend and some reading that I'm currently doing. I was struck by the fact that Christians have the reputation of requiring someone to be morally in agreement before they can come to Jesus.

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It's more than a reputation, really. It's a pretty accurate description. One of the factors that leads to this is our uncomfortable nature with messy spirituality. Take for example a good friend of mine I baptized not too long ago. I've known him for many years, however (like many followers of Christ) he didn't have a crisis point of faith. For him it was a journey of Christ revealing Himself. It wasn't neat and clean and well defined, but it was genuine and sincere.

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We have to have defined lines. You must believe this, this, and this in order to be accepted. Before introducing people to Jesus we introduce people to our sense of morality, or what we think it should be. The thing is, we're called to first introduce them to Jesus...to the love of God and the acceptance of sinners through the sacrifice of Christ...to the freedom from sin and bondage that Jesus brings to us. But instead, we offer them bondage to our senses of morality before introducing them to Christ.

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This speaks heavily to our understanding of the Spirit's work of sanctification. We feel the need to pigeonhole someone into a certain moral standard in our own time frame. Get saved, then get clean. Oh...I love this one...it's a slogan I saw on a church sign: "Catch em', Clean em', Clone em'. Nice and neat process, huh (by the way, I DISDAIN church slogans and cliches...they're utterly unhelpful).

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But this is not the way it works. Does it work for you that way? I have another friend who is a recovering addict. They also deal with a number of other issues. I've told them time after time - just allow God to work on one thing at a time. He'll work with you and deliver you from these addictions. And God has. But it's not been neat and clean and timely. It's been a long process and it's been a difficult one. But God is doing it.

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I say all that to say this: Share Jesus and demonstrate the moral you want others to live. Don't even speak it. Let your good works shine before men so THEN they may see and glorify our Father in heaven.

Clean Conscience

The following is a quote from Brother Lawrence from the book, The Practice of the Presence of God. What is helpful in what he writes is how he moves on from his failure, and how he acknowledges the Lord in all things that go well.

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I believe the former - moving on from failure - is a major challenge of the Christian disciple of Jesus. We have issues forgiving ourselves for the small and big failures of our lives. Granted, our sin has consequences we have to live with, and sometimes they have a big impact on our relationships with others. However, I think one of the biggest challenges followers of Jesus face is how to deal with the things few people (if any) know about. How do we handle our failure? How do we accept the grace of God and move on?

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The following excerpt from his book I find very helpful (and it's a good little read if you've never heard of it nor read it yet).

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When he (Brother Lawrence) had finished, he examined how he had discharged

his duty; if he found well, he returned thanks to God;

if otherwise, he asked pardon, and, without being discouraged, He set

his mind right again, and continued his exercise of the Presence of God

as if he had never deviated from it.

What is Present Day Discipleship?

The task of the church and all believers is to make disciples...in other words we are to make people look more like Jesus. The typical approach is information assimilation. If you give the people enough information from the pulpit and teach them enough through whatever type of education, then that will make disciples.

I'm challenged with this task because I'm not sure teaching does it. Discipleship deals heavily with transformation. It deals with the "new creation" of the person where the "old has gone and the new has come." This transformation doesn't always come about by information but rather by submission, and submission is not something you can teach as it is something you can model. It also takes willingness on the part of the person to submit to Christ. How then does the church model submission?

One of the ways I see this could happen is through what the church itself vests its time and resources in. The way to get your people to look more like Christ is to have the activities and ministries of the church look more like Christ. I suppose one challenge is not to have a ministry to help others learn to be like Jesus but rather to create a ministry where the ministry itself mimics Christ. The trap we fall into is creating a wheel where we become mice perpetually chasing the information to make us better disciples. After an undergrad and a graduate degree I still don't feel like I know enough. I've talked to others further down the line and more educated and they feel the same. While I don't want to underplay education or information as forms of discipleship I believe our task in making disciples is more than to just educate. Whatever we do should lead to and provide challenges and opportunities for transformation.

Another point to be made is that information can many times be taught one way and caught another, or vice versa. So we can talk ourselves till we're blue in the face about doctrine and such...and we may never come to agreement on everything. However, can we really disagree on loving people more? Can we disagree on giving our money and resources to those in need? Can we disagree that the elderly who are lonely need a friend or just someone to talk to, much like the orphan? Can we disagree that we've all got sin issues that Christ needs to deliver and set us free from? I'm not sure those are disagreeable points.

So then discipleship in the church could/should be the church itself being about the things it wants its people to be about. It's not only about equipping the saints, but it's about being an example for them giving them the opportunity and guidance toward greater submission to the lordship of Christ.

Who is the Modern Day Prophet?

I had a fascinating conversation with my pastor the other day, and he posed a challenging question. He asked, "who is the modern day prophet?"

Let's first clarify what he meant and what we're looking for here. We're not looking for the date of the apocalypse. We're not looking for the moment when Jesus will break through the sky. My understanding of the prophetic voice is not so much one who foretells the future but more as one who interprets the current situation (of the church). The Old Testament prophets would operate in this way, confronting the injustices of the people of Israel and calling them back to the way of the Lord. In present day this person would see the injustices of the church and call us back to faithfulness to our God.

So who is this person...is there even one...or does there need to be? The initial question rose out of a conversation dealing with how to awake the church from her slumber and becoming so akin to the cultural norms that there is no longer distinction nor a desire to be a people called apart (a holy nation...a people declaring the praises of Him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light). This has been a conversation I've had with many different people over the past years. A similar response we've all come to is persecution...that persecution would be what wakes the church out of such a slumber.

I'm not sure. I almost think if we all tended to live a little more prophetically that in and of itself would invite persecution. This is a very broad read, but I think it's a just one. The times of persecution in the prophets and the New Testament were brought about by one of two things: idolatry or boldness. The Old Testament prophets were concerned with the idolatry of Israel...going after other gods, forming alliances with other nations, etc. This literally destroyed them as a nation and sent them into exile...indefinitely. The book of Acts reads like a similar prophetic book, although the suffering and persecution endured by God's people was for a completely different reason: because they were bold in their proclamation.

Boldness or idolatry.

So who is the modern day prophet? Who is calling us away from idolatry and to bold living? Is there anyone? Or perhaps is it a lot of people we don't really hear much about? In some ways I suppose that we are all called to live prophetically. Living boldly I believe is living prophetically. It's calling us to a higher Kingdom with a greater faith in the power of Christ and the Spirit no matter what the cost.

Ah yes...the cost...

Missional for the Wrong Motive

So what happens if we're missional for the wrong motives?

I'm reading an excellent book by Michael Frost and he gives some great insight into such a question. He writes in Exiles pg 206 (on my reading list on Shelfari :-)...

"It seems that the very nature of mass movements has changed. Whereas people once acted because they believed strongly in a cause and were prepared to invest their time, energy, and money in a collective of like-minded people, now they are more inclined to protest or donate money in short bursts to express how they 'feel' about a particular situation. Protest marches and donations to aid organizations are now forms of self-expression, ways of conveying our feelings about a particular issue.By saying this, I am not dismissing the genuineness of those feelings...what I am saying is that people seem to need a valve for regular, brief responses to global issues, rather than being motivated to join long-term movements for change."

If we're missional for the wrong motives we'll fade out. Our commitments will be shorter. We will have less vested in the relationships. If we are doing it out of proper motives there will be times, perhaps frequently, where there is a great wrestling in our hearts with sticking it out. The issues we ought to be dealing with should be difficult, and they should demand something that will cost us. In truth, we should not be able to achieve a commitment to mission on our own.

This is where Jesus' words in John speak so loudly to me...I am the vine, you are the branches. If a man remain in me and I in Him he will bear much fruit. Apart from me you can do nothing. Apart from Him I can do nothing. I again come back to the challenge of the Spirit working within our mission. Galatians 6 says something to the effect don't give up...for if you persevere you will reap a harvest in the proper time. Perseverance. Long-suffering. Depending on what version of the Bible you read...these are words that describe one of the fruits of the Spirit.

When one commits to the coming of the Kingdom of God they are not committing to a popular movement among Christian or cultural circles. They are committing themselves to Jesus and the agenda that Jesus was all about. It's an agenda that has spanned time. It is not short term, but it is life-long. As we seek to be missional we can't have the idea that we're going to go in and help someone less fortunate. It's not only about going in, helping someone, and leaving. It's not only about sending money for relief, aid, or benevolence. It's about YOU changing as you do these things and build relationships with those you are serving.

That's why this has to be a move of the Spirit of God within the believer attempting to be missional. This is not a part of our natural inclination. It's not a part of our culture. It goes against the grain of every selfish bone in our body. It is easy to give aid or serve someone without actually changing as a result. So we give a little of our excess money to a good cause without actually changing our spending habits. We continue to gorge ourselves with food after serving at the shelter. Something happens as we consider the needs of those we serve: solidarity.

THAT is what happens as we do this missional thing. We allow God to work in us and on us in how we live and how we act. We become new creations that are more beautiful because they are changing as the Spirit uses what we see and experience to mold our hearts of clay.

I am convinced you cannot become missional either as a church or as an individual follower of Jesus if you are not willing to have the Spirit do something transforming and changing in your own life (for me, it's a little thing called continual sanctification). It's not only bringing Jesus to people, but it's me becoming more like Jesus. And once again, this comes through the work of the Holy Spirit in my life...and as much as we do to serve others in our lives, we must do the same to nurture the work of the Spirit in our hearts.

Beware of the Bandwagon

We're aware of the dredded bandwagon when it comes to sports, but how often are we aware of it when it comes to movements of the Spirit. Throughout my brief lifetime of 29 years there have been some very generous moves of the Spirit in my own life and the church at large: the 'Seeker Sensative' movement that made us aware that there are actually people outside the church we need to reach...the Vineyard movement that brought into the church a new experience of worship...reaching way back there was the Pentecostal movement that brought an emphasis of the experience of the Spirit moving in the church...and currently there is the missional movement that is bringing a great awareness of God's concern for justice, orphans, widows, and the church being the hands and feet of Jesus.

I've gotten swept up in the missional movement over the past several years. It's amazing to read what's out there in books and magazines and see how much of it deals with the mission of the church and great concern with the poor. It is calling the church back to its work as the church.

What is interesting with each new move of the Spirit is that the past moves of the Spirit are less emphasized or forgotten about in favor of the new move. Does the new move invalidate the old or is the Spirit just trying to continue to move the church along? In the effort to follow the Spirit into the new places of ministry and paradigm changes we would do well to remember where we've been. Israel recounted time after time their history. The church today would be wise to do the same. While not longing for the days of old we should be learning from them. Our past should shape our present as we strive to be the faithful bride of Christ.

I was challenged last night in my own life in a conversation with a Christian brother. There has been an enormous move on my behalf and of our church to become missional. However for me the missional nature of things has eclipsed some of the past moves of the Spirit...especially the part of me that takes root in the Pentecostal tradition. I journaled this morning something to the effect that the danger of becoming too missional is that we become works oriented and lack the need and desperation of the Spirit (that brings salvation). The other end is that if we focus on the Spirit to do the work we tend to get lazy and say it's all up to God.

So in the end what I feel I'm called to is this: Live missionally. Live for the Kingdom of God. Base my decisions not on cultural standards but on Kingdom standards. Love the outcasts and orient my life to serve them. AND. Pray. Pray for the outpouring of the Spirit that has been experienced in times past through great revivals. Fast. Seek God. Don't let up on the pursuit of Almighty God to put the power and drawing of the Spirit of Christ behind the acts of service.

If living missionally and a deep dependance on the Spirit are not in consistent tension there is a danger of floating toward either legalistic unempowered service or simple laziness.

I know this may sound harsh, but this is something that I'm trying to flesh out myself. It's a tension I find myself in.

Justice in the Burbs pt.2

I've just finished Wil and Lisa Sampson's book, Justice in the Burbs. The final pages brought tears to my eyes as I realize the challenge before me as a husband, father, pastor, and follower of Jesus Christ.

Issues of justice abound all around us. I wonder if sometimes we don't address them because of their overwhelming nature. I think that's the part that brings me to tears. This life entails suffering. The work of our lives for the Kingdom will not alleviate the suffering factor. It may bring healing in some cases, but just as in the cases of those in Hebrews 11 it seems as though we work for a place that will not exist this side of eternity. However, that doesn't mean we don't seek it, live for it, and work for it with everything we have.

I'm making lifestyle choices. I want to live differently because I want to live justly. To live like Christ challenges the fabric of my being which is so ingrained with our present day situation of 'stuff' and personal securities. Think about it, how many relationships don't we have because they'll cost too much or because they're too inconvenient? Have to protect ourselves, right? How much of our personal resources are tied up because we're too far in debt to give anything away to those in need? Living justly requires a shift in thinking. I've begun and I hope you will too. From what I've experienced, living without is much more life-giving than living in so much excess. Blessings on a journey I hope you will take.

2 Kingdoms, pt. 1

Why do we need a better and more comprehensive understanding of the two kingdoms? Primarily I believe because our natural inclinations are to invest in the things of this kingdom, the kingdom of the world, without much thought toward the Kingdom of God. It's more than a monetary investment, it's how we think...where we spend our time...what we support with our convictions...how we view other people...how we view the injustices of the world...how we ignore the injustices of the world...and the list could go on. I also believe it's necessary because of certain elements of the Kingdom that are currently being emphasized.

The popular thing right now is making a difference in the world. Bill Clinton has even written a new book about it (if you want to buy it for me, I'll gladly accept!!!). Several years ago a couple we're close friends with felt the call of God to move into a city, begin a house church, and live among the people there to serve them and live as witnesses. Over the years following it moved from being a call to a trend among others. It was the trendy thing to do to 'revitalize' the city to the point where you would almost have Christian blocks of houses.

Here's the challenge: There is a big difference between working for a cause and working for the Kingdom of God. There's a difference between doing something because it's a cause and doing something because it's a call. On the surface the two can be linked, but under the surface they are far apart. To give a cup of cold water, as Jesus commands, is part of the Kingdom. The other part is teaching them the ways and life of Jesus. A life brought out of poverty but not brought into the light of the gospel I would challenge falls short of the Kingdom of God. Social improvement does not automatically mean Kingdom advancement, neither does simply preaching a message mean we're living out the gospel message. It's a both/and. Currently we're in a trend to meet the social needs, but it needs to be accompanied with the gospel message and the fruit will not only be justice but also inner transformation as well.

So this begins a series for me reflecting on the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world. It attracts me because I've been very caught up in the social elements of the Kingdom lately, but I'm realizing they must be fused with the proclamation elements of sharing the gospel story as well.

How do you help people follow?

Recently I have been challenged to help the church be the church...to live out its mission and serve the world around them. The emphasis has been on service, but there is a crucial dimension I've missed and not emphasized as I should: the cost of discipleship.

The word Discipleship doesn't have the greatest connotations today, but it's a terrific word. To be a disciple of Christ is to learn from Him and be transformed. For one reason or another, we've gotten away from healthy transformation. We've emphasized some things over others, and what we've tended to de-emphasize is the understanding of the story of God, namely, the Scriptures.

Perhaps it is the move in our culture to allow the Scriptures to be taught to us by one person, namely on a Sunday morning. Perhaps it is not working hard enough to ask the hard questions in order to understand the Scriptures better. Whatever the case, understanding of the Scriptures is key to faith. When Jesus gives us the great commission in Matthew 28 he tells us to go and make disciples..."teaching them to obey everything I have given you." You cannot obey if you do not know what to obey, and you only know what to obey if you listen to the instruction and truth of the Scripture.

So my question is, how do we do this better in our culture? How do we do a better job at wrestling with the Scripture? How does the church do a better job at helping their people understand God's Story and their place in it? The Church being the Church is still very important to me, but the foundation of that is a deep understanding of the truth of God revealed in the Scriptures.

Holiness, pt. 1

I'm not talking about piety. I'm not talking about works in a way that leads us to be justified before God either...although working is a part. What I'm talking about is holiness as a reflection of who God is.

I'm currently reading Called to Be Holy by John Oswalt. It's for our denominations credentialing process, but I'm finding it very helpful. Not quite through, but what struck me as I was reading so far was how our call to be holy is not necessarily a sense of being set apart. This is what I had interpreted to be before. We are God's and therefore we are set apart. However, it has to do with much more than just a state of being set apart. It has to do with how our character reflects that of God.

Leviticus 19 is an entire chapter devoted to holiness and what it means. You know what some of the things that describe holiness are? What do you think...prayer? Meditation? Reading the Torah (still being written at that time)? No. It's honor your parents. It's not taking advantage of people. It's giving your workers the wages they are due. It has to do with character.

So when God initiates the effort to bring himself to us...to bring us salvation...it is more than just salvation as we think. He wants us to represent. He wants us to reflect His character and the things He's about. We change. We become more like Him. That's why it's so important to me as I read the pages of Scripture to look for the character of God. What's He like? That question then defines my pursuits of what I need to be like. God must work through me...refine me...to be more like him.

Take a read of Leviticus 19 and think of how you think of holiness. It'll challenge your character.