Sharing Naturally

Paul meets Lydia and the women at the river.

“From there we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days.
On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshipper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. If you consider me a believer in the Lord, she said, come and stay at my house. And she persuaded us.”  (Acts 16:12-16)
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:13-16)
Is there a correct way to evangelize the world? Some people would lean toward having to walk up to perfect strangers telling them they have to be saved. That seems to be the approach that Paul and Timothy took in Macedonia that led the conversion of Lydia and her household, whatever that meant in those days.
Others would say to take a more passive approach to evangelism that allows your lifestyle to speak for itself. Again, that seems to be what Jesus is saying in the famous Sermon on the Mount. So which one is correct? I think most of us are smart enough to say, “Well, both are correct depending on the circumstances,” and that is fair enough.
But I think both miss the point in a major way because both are being used from the wrong starting point.  The general sense in which most view these scriptures comes from a version of the Gospel that goes something like this:
When Adam and Eve fell, God was pissed, so he threw them out of the Garden. From that point mankind spent its time trying to get back to God. This was not possible of our own, so we invented our own religions or tried what God gave us but our way. So the Word came to be made flesh as Jesus and die for our sins because there was a legal requirement of death to pay for sin. But Jesus also rose from the dead showing the power of the atonement for sin and eternal life that was offered. He went back to his follower and told them to scurry about preaching the Gospel of this atonement and how God was offering them a choice. They could either follow Jesus or they could burn in hell. Those, and only those, who heard the message and followed Jesus would spend eternity in Heaven and everyone else could go to Hell; and we followers better make sure we’re doing it, or else.
OK. I don’t want to get into the depth of theology necessary to analyze this. If you have followed my posts at all you know most of the points I would argue. I think I’ll just limit my comments to a couple of things that just don’t make sense.
1)    This version of the Gospel has Jesus working at odds with the Father. The Father is pissed and Jesus offers himself up to satisfy the Father’s anger toward humanity. Logically, this doesn’t make sense. God has existed in perfect harmony and unity for eternity before our creation. How do we have such power over God to change that nature?
Jesus and the Father are one. (John 10:30) They always have been one and always will be one. So whatever Jesus is doing to reconcile humanity, he is doing it with the full knowledge and approval of the Father.  Not only that, but it is the Father’s plan that humanity would be saved.
2)    This version of the Gospel puts the power and responsibility for salvation in the hands of us people. Didn’t we already say that we’ve tried our ways of getting back to God with abysmal results? What makes us think we can do a better job now? And before you start saying, “Because the LOOORRRDD will guide us by the Holy Spirit,” let me immediately respond to you with a few reminders: Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Southern Baptist, Free Will Baptist, Methodist, Four Square Gospel, Grace Communion International. These are just a few denominations who all have their own idea of what it means to be Christian and who gets to be one.
No, God is NOT relying on us to get people saved. That is a gift of God to humanity by grace. (Ephesians 2:8-10) God gives us the blessing, even the responsibility of telling people what He has already done.  It is a blessing to tell people God loves them and sent Jesus to bring them home.
So now, what do each of these portions of the Scripture mean in that light? What is evangelism in that light? First and foremost is Christ’s example and teaching.  Our first responsibility is in our transformation. As we respond to the Spirit and are changed and people notice.
I was told a story about a woman who was really unapproachable. She was rude to people. She was judgmental and just very difficult to be around. One day she was rude to a woman at church and the woman was offended. She sulked home angry about how she had been treated. She really wanted to give that woman a piece of her mind.
She went home and in the course of prayer, told God how angry she was. The woman offended told me God’s response to her, “How do you know how far she has come since she got to know me? How do you know what she has experienced in her life that makes her this way?”
This woman told me that her heart melted. She knew that regardless of how that woman treated her, she needed to apologize and reconcile with her. The next time they were at church she threw her arms around her and begged her for forgiveness. The offending woman was overwhelmed and the two became very close. The offended woman, who was younger, cared for the offending woman, who was older, even after the offending woman entered an assisted care facility. It was the overwhelming love of God that transformed both women, but it was the willingness of the offended woman to respond to the work of the Spirit that caused this reconciliation.
That being said, are we just supposed to sit back and wait? No. We also have the responsibility of going to people. What does that mean in light of the love of God?
Each of us has a sphere of influence in which we exist. People accept and trust us in that sphere of influence. Christ is asking us to be his spokesperson in that sphere of influence. We can reach out and tell these people about God’s love because they trust us.
There are two well-documented statistics that you can find in the research of George Barna. One says that the overwhelming majority of people who surrender their lives to Jesus did so because of the influence of a close friend, co-worker or relative on their lives. The other is that the overwhelming majority of those who do not attend church don’t because no one has asked them. So we really do have lots of opportunity to reach out and share the love of God with those we love. We just have to do it.
Lastly, what about meeting strangers? I have learned that to become someone “who doesn’t know any strangers.” Although an extrovert, I am fairly shy when it comes to meeting new people.  I can’t just walk up and introduce myself to someone I don’t know. Yet I know it is important for me to share the love of God with as many as I can. How do I solve the problem? Icebreakers.
Icebreakers are people I know who introduce me to people I don’t know.  In conversation I look for places where we have interests or experiences in common. I’m a husband and a dad. I’m a teacher and coach. I have experience in business and love sports. I use those interests as starting points for conversation.
Inevitably, conversations will get around to the fact that I am a minister (some like to say, “preacher”) or some problems people are facing. Those are doors the Holy Spirit is opening for me to help (and I do mean help) reveal God for who He is in love; to reveal who Jesus is and what how he helps us.
This is the example we are seeing from Paul and Timothy.  They went out to pray. The Spirit opened the door for conversation with the women at the river. Notice it doesn’t say, “Paul walked up to Lydia.” Instead, notice how it came about, “We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. One of those listening was a woman named Lydia.” Lydia was among those with whom Paul was having a conversation. She was probably dyeing stuff purple with her “household.” It doesn’t say Paul gave a sermon. We make that connection because of a cultural belief based on the itinerant preachers of the 19th Century who went from place to place preaching.
Paul and Timothy probably were welcomed by the women and after they had prayed. Then they got into the conversation of who they were, where they were from and why they were there. Paul probably talked with Lydia about her business. That was how the door likely opened. It was a natural outpouring of the love of God in each individual identifying itself and joining the “strangers” in the communion of conversation. It is after that that Lydia has her heart opened, that she and her “household” are “dyed white” in baptism, and she invites them to go to her home to eat and continue the conversation with the rest of “those in her household.”
It is easy for some of us to talk politics, but we had to learn about them first. It is easy for some to talk about sports, but we had to learn about them first. It is easy for some of us to talk about child rearing, but we had to learn and experience it first.  In the midst of our natural conversations about the things that interest us the door will open and we will have to choose to share or not share what our experiences are with the love of God through Jesus.
The power of the transformation of Jesus on our lives, our experiences of the love of God are the things we can talk about naturally. We can talk about God while gardening, while sharing coffee and cake, while watching our kids at the playground or tae kwon do class, while talking on Facebook.  It becomes a natural outpouring of our experiences. The Spirit is opening the doors, it’s time for you to walk in.

 

There Is No Fear In Love

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. (1 John 4:18)

I live in fear. I live in it all the time. I’ll bet you do, too, even if you don’t admit it.

Fear doesn’t show itself as shaking knees, trembling hands or a quickly beating heart. Sometimes it shows itselv in much less obvious ways. Le me prove it too you.

Today I was proctoring the SAT test at the high school where I teach. The day started normally and I was having as good a time as one can in an all but silent room. Then came the first mistake. In my oral instructions I accidentally misread “work in section 3 on page 4.” Instead, I said, “work in section 4 on page 3.” Understand, if I let students work in the wrong section, that is a misadministration. That’s bad.

I quickly felt the fear of what these students thought of me. “What an idiot. Duh, we can’t work in section 4 before we work in section 3. Loser.” All of this took about 5 seconds after which I corrected the mistake instructing them to work in section 3.

The sense of inadequacy was unnerving. My cool had been blown. I made a mistake. No big whup, right?  We all make mistakes,” I told myself. “Five minutes remaining in section 6,” I later said. Then I looked. There were actually 6 minutes left. The fear of rejection again flowed over me.

Don’t deny you haven’t felt this at some point in your life. We all have. Mistakes are the equalizers, the humblers, the humanizers of life. Men, maybe you walked into a meeting with your zipper down and a white flag flying. Ladies, maybe you tucked your skirt into your pantyhose or your panties. Maybe you trailed toilet paper stuck to your shoe.

On one of the Food Network’s shows a professional chef mistook salt for the sugar that was to go into his dessert. Much as the judges tried to downplay it, it was the determining factor in not selecting him as champion. We fear these kinds of mistakes because we fear the rejection of others. All of us fear not belonging to someone or some group.

We learn this fear of mistakes from the very beginning. We are taught to do good or fear punishment. Often what the child thinks is that the parent has stopped loving him or her when they are corrected. This fear causes him or her to lie about the choices she or he makes, to not try, to avoid decisions.

In society, this fear is enforced in the same two ways: We accept those like us and ostracize or push away those who are annoying, obnoxious or just not like us. So we make sure we are doing what is acceptable by whatever group we want to remain a part of. We also punish in fear. Don’t believe me? Answer this: What do you do when you are driving on the highway and a police car enters into it.

God tells us we belong. He says, “I will never leave you or forsake (read this as reject) you.” (Hebrews 13:5) Jesus told the woman caught in adultery, “I don’t condemn you.” She had been held out as rejectable by those who had caught her. He also told Nicodemus, “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn it, but that the world through him might be saved.” (John 3:17) God’s nature is love not rejection or punishment.

When God does punish (Hebrews 12), He punishes in love. He will allow or even encourage the consequences  of our decisions to happen to us to teach us. He loves us and wants us to choose Him, His nature, His mind and thought process.

As we choose Him, He will reveal more of Himself to us. As more of God’s nature  is revealed in us, we leave less room in which Satan can work. God’s perfect loe is casting out our fears. What God has given us in Jesus is His personal attention, His personal correction and His personal direction for our lives. He is doing this from the inside out.What He is doing is showing us His acceptance. That acceptance transforms us from the inside out. We obey because we know we are loved. We don’t fear His rejection when we make mistakes.

Danny Silk points out in his book, “Loving Our Kids On Purpose,” (2008, Destiny Image Publishing, ISBN 0-7684-2739-8) that it wasn’t Satan who planted the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden; God did. He didn’t hide it atop a barren, snow-capped mountain top where still naked Adam and Eve would not want to go. Nor did He hide it behind a thorn bush, another challenge to our naked couple. He placed it in the middle of the Garden, next to the Tree of Life so Adam and Eve would have to choose.

Choice and discovery are parts of the joy of life. God will not take that way from us. Satan has turned that choice into something that has to be done right or else cause us to be rejected by God. He has made choice something to be feared when we make bad choices. But God’s own perfect love will cast our fears away from the inside out.

 

True Freedom

To the Jews who had not yet believed him, Jesus said, If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?” Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth; everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:31-36)
Jesus was a problem for the Jews.  He didn’t fit their mold. Here he had just denied the law, as far as they were concerned, because he didn’t agree to stoning a woman caught in adultery, and now he wants to accuse them of being slaves to Satan. What?! Is he serious?!
You could almost hear them saying, “Whoa, whoa, whoa! Let’s get this straight: You let this sinful woman, this woman CAUGHT breaking the Law, you let her go without condemning her or her sin, but to us you say we are slaves to the devil? Don’t you have your positions off a little bit?”
Then there is “us”. We sit back, read the story, tell the Jews 2,000 years after the fact, “Duh, you guys just don’t get it do you? Hello! This is the LOOORRDD!! He came to die for you”
But most of the time, we don’t get it either. We truly are sons and daughters of the devil until and unless “the Son has set us free.” That is what Jesus did for the woman. He set her free. He didn’t condone her actions. He didn’t condemn her. Notice what he didn’t add to his statement, he didn’t say to her, “I don’t condemn you, but wait until my Dad gets you. Boy, then you’re in for it!” He said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.”
Do not continue to be a slave to sin, he told her and tells us. But we do. We run from the “God-stuff.”I have to borrow this statement from Wayne Jacobsen (http://www.lifestream.org/transition.php), “There are two ways to run from God-rebellion and religion” We excuse our sinfulness behind wild living because, “We are free.” Or we hide behind it in religion and become slaves to the Law, to a legal requirement we believe we are under now that we have been, “Washed in the blood of the Lamb.”
I wish I could truly say I understand completely what it means to live my life free from sin, to live in the freedom Jesus has given me. But the fact is I run “from ditch to ditch” either falling into the trap of rebellion by not wanting to look religious in my presentation of a life of freedom in Jesus; or in the condemnation (of self and others) and fear of trying to live a “pious” life. I either cuss too much, drink too much, lust too much, or I am looking down my nose at people I see cussing, drinking and lusting.
But I CAN give you a glimpse of what this life is like because I truly have experienced it. I can share what is the crux of a life in Jesus’ freedom. It starts with knowing deep down, “Neither do I condemn you.” (John 8:32) To know that you can stand before the Lord and have him tell you, “I am not condemning you” automatically takes a weight off our shoulders.
I had a conversation the other day with someone who was a bit pre-occupied by death. He didn’t understand it. Wasn’t sure what, if anything, waited on the other side. But he was burdened, and it was obvious, by his life. We all know who we truly are on the inside, don’t we? He didn’t want to say it, but you could easily get the sense of his main concern, “What will God say to me. How bad will hell be? I certainly know I don’t deserve heaven.” What if he knew he would say, “I don’t condemn you.” How would that change him? How would it change you?

But that is only part of the story and part of the problem. You see, in John 8, Jesus is standing before the Jews, people who need to know his freedom. He is saying he won’t condemn. He is setting people free because the Father sent him to proclaim “freedom for the captives.” Isaiah 61:1 says, “The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.”
What the Father-Son-Spirit has given us in Jesus is not only the key to the prison cell door, he is giving us training and a purpose for living. I saw a great story on Fox News a few weeks back. It is a story about a business called, “Felony Franks.” It is a hot dog stand in Chicago that hires ex-convicts to run the business. They serve “Pardon Burgers” and “Misdemeanor Wieners.” Their slogan is “Food so good, it’s criminal.”
The owner, Jim Allen, only hires ex-cons. Here’s the rub: Mr. Andrews is legally blind. He also owns a paper company that hires ex-cons as well. “Best crew I’ve ever had,” he says.  It is his mission to give people that second or third or fourth chance no one else will give them. (http://www.november.org/stayinfo/breaking06/FelonyFranks.html) When you are in prison you know it. You have no freedom. Even if someone lets you out, you still feel like you’re in prison because you can’t find work.  Mr. Andrews is truly setting people free. He is giving them a life to live, not by watching them, he can’t, but by giving them a reason and a means to get on with life.
That is what we get in and by and through Jesus. Once we recognize Jesus for who he is and what he is giving (it’s still an active giving) to us, we don’t need to live like hellions nor saints. In fact, the best way for us to live is just to spread the blessing of this freedom with people we know. Set prisoners free. Proclaim this great news to the poor in heart. Let those who are caught up in their own darkness that they are free.
So what about me? How did I know it? How did I sense it? How do I know I am free? I know I am free because I don’t condemn people for who they are as often as I did. I am free to love and forgive and accept people for who they are. I am free because I know that Jesus doesn’t condemn me, doesn’t condemn you and isn’t asing me to do anything to earn his love. I don’t need to feel religiously superior because other people are either caught up in their own sin, or religiously locked in a prison of performance.

I have friends in imprisoned in both categories. Some feel they can do whatever they want. They condemn themselves to hell, in their own minds, because they would rather be in hell having lived a “free” life than to be caught up in the condemnation of religion. On the other end of the spectrum I have friends who feel it necessary to quote scripture at the drop of a hat. Of course they leave the blessings for themselves and the curses for others.
Both groups are in prison, still, because neither believes there is a way out. The way of freedom is too scary for them. They fight and kick and scream that there is no other way. But there is for Jesus said, “I.” Let me emphasize that word, “I.” He didn’t say religion. He didn’t say church.  He didn’t say the Bible. He said, “I.” “I am the way.” I don’t feel freedom because of something I’ve done or do. I feel freedom because Christ says, “I am the way.” In other words, I (Frank) don’t have to worry about the how as long as I am focused on the who.
This is hard. I have moments and days where I believe I’m free. I live in the lack of pressure to live up to what my society thinks I am supposed to do. Then I feel the pressure of not being what I or others feel I should be. I’m not a good enough dad. I’m not a good enough husband. I’m not a good enough neighbor or teacher or pastor or coach or whatever.
None of this can change the reality of what the Son of God has done. That is why HE is the way. HE has lived a life in perfect obedience to the Father, something I could never do. HE has destroyed the pain of death by providing resurrection. HE has destroyed the corruption of sin that would have otherwise destroyed all humanity and me. HE has given me a place in the Father. HE has given me a union with the Trinity and with all humanity that makes me feel as if I belong. I feel free and know I am free because HE has done for me what I cannot nor would not do for myself.
I am free to love. I am free to give. I am free to care. I am free to care. I am free to mourn with those who are mourning and laugh with those who are laughing. I am free to rejoice with the rejoicing and free to comfort those who are hurting. I am free to enjoy a snoring baby, a cool waterfall, the roar of the ocean and the dance of dolphins. I am free to roast marshmallows and free to smoke cigars. I am free to dance with my wife and free to cry when my son or daughter is in pain. I am free.
The Jews just couldn’t get this because they wanted to hold on to their idea of what God wanted. The evangelical right is doing the same thing. They set up standards, all in the name of the glory of God, that are nothing but prisons; prisons because no one, not even they themselves could live up to those standards.
True freedom only comes when we trust that God is doing something in us and for us and to us that is happening solely because of his love for us. We don’t earn it, accept it, have a personal relationship with it, get baptized in it (unless it is he who is doing the baptizing), or anything else. “It is the gift of God lest any man should boast.” (Ephesians 2:9) Remember, Jesus HIMSELF is telling you, “Neither do I condemn you.”  Be free.

 

The Whole Duty of Man

This is a discussion introduction, I don’t really give sermons anymore, I gave on Memorial Day Sunday 2009. Nothing about patriotism is in it. I think the subject is a bit more important because in it is the seed of a lasting world peace so there will truly be no more war.
Ecclesiates 12:13 – “The whole duty of man is to fear God and keep the commandments.”
The Shorther Westminster Catechism says, “What is the chief end of man? Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.”
We sing praise songs and hymns.
We lift up supplication and adoration to God in our prayers.
We enjoy fellowship and communion with each other – and then we go home.
People who go to church don’t always “get” what it’s all about. They don’t understand  the pageantry or the symbolism, the words (like perichoresis or homoouisios) or see the point of all that goes on. But what they do know, what they clearly recognize is that they enjoy being around others that are doing the same thing.
Now I know that those of us who do not have a long history in our denomination (What was the Worldwide Church of God and is now Grace Communion International, www.gracecommunion.org) don’t always understand some of the things we talk about from our past like:
•    Third tithe
•    Night to be Much Observed
•    The Young Ambassadors
But I want to describe one thing that I hope will stay in your mind, because keeping it always in mind will help you understand what this “whole duty of man” concept is all about.
I want to tell you about an annual event we experienced known as the Feast of Tabernacles. You can find it described in Leviticus 23:33 and Deuteronomy 16:13. Jesus, himself, spoke in the Temple during the Feast in John 7. But for us, the feast was THE big event of the year.
•    We were commanded to save a second tithe, yes I said second as in another 10% of our money, so we could celebrate – and, boy, we knew how to party.
•    We were to gather “at the place where God would place his name” together.
•    Our kids would count the full moons until the Feast would arrive.
Our excitement grew as we would get closer and closer to the Feast site and you would start seeing the little green stickers, just like you had on your car, on cars from different states and Canada.
Or there would be an awe in the eyes of people who traveled with their second tithe mone to lands they’d previously only dreamed about.
The next thing you knew, you were checking into your hotel, or pull up in your RV or set up your campsite and you knew you had arrived. WOW! It brings a smile to my face just to think about it. But the excitement wasn’t over, it was still building.
And it continued to grow as the first night’s church service would open with rock concert anticipation. The roar of people in conversation and in joy was deafening, yet pleasing as you could see smiling faces everywhere and hear laughter. Then the worship conductor would welcome us and we would all start singing in unison:
Glorious things of thee are spoken;
Zion, city of our God
He whose words cannot be broken
Formed thee for His own abode!
For the next 8 days you were together eating, drinking, talking and singing in glory to our God. Friendships were made. Romances started. Games would be played. Sites would be seen. Serving and giving and loving and sharing would be in abundance. City officials would tell us how we had transformed an area in such a short time. There was a genuine joy everywhere you went.
Then, on the eighth day, after the last song of the 10th church service was sung and the closing prayer had been done, it was over.
•    Tears were shed as good-byes were made.
•    Promises to stay in touch were made
•    See you next year!
The let down and sadness were obvious. We were leaving the joy of the Feast, to enter back into “The World.”
What we had then we did not understand, for God was still revealing his true identity to us. What we now understand, we long for even more since the Feast is all but gone in its celebration. For what we experienced then at the Feast, and experience now every time we come together, is the joy of communion, real communion with God. It is the communion He has enjoyed for all eternity and for which we have been made.
So now what? Now that we know we are united in Christ in communion with the Trinity
Now that we can understand what communion is like and the joy and love that comes from it (1 Corinthians 13)
Now we have a choice to make. It’s not a one-time choice either.
Now we have to choose whether to take this communion with us, choose to remain in its joy, or we can surrender to Satan’s whisper, “But God doesn’t do this in the ‘real’ world.” Or “That’s just an emotion. You can’t live on emotion.”
The joy of communion with God is a choice. It’s there. It’s real. We can surround ourselves and wrap ourselves in its presence; or we can deny its presence because of what we see going on around us. All of that is really there, too, but all that is what you get when you don’t live in God’s communion. As Morpheus tells Neo in the movie, “The Matrix,” as God told the Israelites and tells us still today, “Choose wisely.”

 

What are you afraid of?

There I was, clutching the top of the 30-foot pole as tightly as I could. All I needed to do was to go from the last spike, which I used to effortlessly climb the pole to that point, onto the flat top. My then 6-year-old son pleaded with me to do what he had seen other do already: jump from the top onto a trapeze swing just 15 feet away. Besides, I was safely cinched into a harness and had an experienced assistant belaying me from the ground. But there I was frozen. I came down because I couldn’t get over my fear.

1 John 4 verse 18 tells us, “There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love.” (The Message) Fear of what God thinks of you is crippling. The Gospel is supposed to be freeing, but the story many have received as the Gospel only adds to their fears.

“God is an angry God,” many hear, the statement being taken from the famous 1741 Jonathan Edwards sermon. “Your sins have separated you from God,” is the scriptural warning. This concept of God comes in defiance of what the church preached for 1700 years. The writings of Ireneus of Lyons and Athanasius of Alexandria are consistent in telling us that all of humanity has been joined to God. God loves us.

Jesus himself talked about how we are in the Father and the Father in us (John 14). We find our very being held together, “for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’” (Acts 17:28, The Message)

But fear became the common concept. Where this came from, I’m not sure. Some blame Augustine whose constant battle with what he had done in his past often choked his writing of a loving, forgiving, accepting God. Some blame Western theologians who either mistakenly accepted Augustine’s neo-Platonist duality where spirit was good and flesh bad, or were power hungry trying with all their might to maintain control over the minds and hearts of lesser educated Christian laity.

Wherever it came from, however, it is contrary to the basic idea of God’s love for humanity. (Psalm 103) He longs for us to return to him for he doesn’t hold our sins against us. He understands our blindness and sin. He doesn’t condone it. (John 8:11) He loved us enough to send Jesus, not to condemn us, but to save us from the doubt and fear that is the basis for all sin.

In Genesis 3 we see that Satan used doubt to sew the seeds of fear against God in Eve’s mind. He tells her God is holding back. He says God can’t be trusted. She shares this with Adam and they take things into their own hands. Next, we see the two cowering in the bushes. Since they can’t trust God anymore, they believe that revealing themselves would cause God to act in an unknown way.

Since most of us hold onto that Augustinian/Western concept of duality and separation, we act much like our forebears and have a wrong concept of fearing God. We believe God can’t stand us because we sin. We avoid church or use it as a measuring stick to show how much more worthy we are to God than someone else. 

But fear is a useless enterprise. It does not draw us any closer to God. Fear does not draw us closer to each other. Fear separates. It destroys. It keeps us from moving forward, much as I could go no further up that pole. 

As far as the church thing goes, I’d like to have a dollar for every time someone said to me, “I need to get my act together before I can go to church.” I’d be cash rich. My portfolio is another story. But since we are at it, is the downturn in economy causing you to fear? Do you question whether God loves you? Do you think a declining portfolio value is a sign of God’s rejection?

Only when we recognize the reality of the Triune God can fear be overcome. We can only move forward when we realize that God is saying to us, “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.” Some believe that the woman who was caught in adultery is the same one who anointed Jesus with the expensive ointment just prior to his own death. She felt free from her own past and free from the worry of what “wasting” her portfolio of ointment.

Only when you understand that God in his mutual indwelled self is love (1 John 4:8) can you release your fears about Him, your fears about life. Only then will you realize that God is out to get you, get you to realize that in Jesus he has collected you in His arms to tell you, “I will never leave you or forsake (reject) you.”

 

What you may not know about Christmas will make you Merry

Sorry I haven’t posted in awhile, but my other hats as husband, dad, pastor, high school teacher and volleyball coach have just been eating my time up. By the way, please check out my church’s new website at http://newdirection.ws. There is a lot of really interesting material, audio, visual as well as written, that will help you on this great journey with the Father, Son and Spirit.

It is the Christmas season and we have endured all kinds of challenges regarding what was meant to be a joyous occasion for the world. You remember the scene in Matthew: “For I bring you tidings of great joy. For to you this day is born in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the King.”

Yet this message of the fact that a Savior is born is lost in the cacophony of, “Secularists are trying to destroy Christmas,” or “There is no gods or angels,” or “Christmas has become too commercial.” I love that last one because it assumes there can be a level of commercialism that is acceptably attached to the birth of the Savior.

I don’t want to add to the cacophony, but I do want you to know somethings about what early Christianity (and some still do today) called, “The Incarnation.” It was in the Incarnation that early Christians found hope, joy and peace, which is why the Angel Gabriel declared, “Peace on Earth!”

 ”Incarnation” is a funny way of repeating what was written about Jesus in the Bible and taught in the creeds of the early church, that Christ became man. Often this story of the Incarnation gets lost in the birth of a baby. That is not to say that Christ wasn’t born a baby, but it is the identity of that baby that so often gets lost. We proclaim the son of God, but that story gets lost in the myriad of other stories, chief among them being stories from pagan mythology where the gods come down, have sex with a woman and the child borne is said to be the son of a god. By the way, I use the word pagan solely as a means of separating the source of the stories from the story of Jesus. But more on that in another post.

Let’s start the story of Christmas in another place. Let’s start the story at its literary beginning. Let’s start at the beginning of the Bible, in the Pentateuch or Torah, in the first line of Genesis where the first words hit us like a ton of bricks. “In the beginning God created.” (Genesis 1:1)

The beginning of the story tells us a few things: 1) There was a beginning. This is something that scientists have proven. At some point there was nothing and then there was something. There was no pre-existent mass as the law of half lives of matter would beg to differ. But a beginning there was.

2) God was there before the beginning. Note that it doesn’t say, “stuff was about to happen and then God showed up.” This is poignantly portrayed in the New Testament in the first chapter of John’s Gospel, “In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God (Theos) and the Logos was God (Theos).” The Greek here denotes a time of existence in which the Logos and Theos and Pneumos (Spirit) existed, but there was no physical creation. This is an important point to remember as we get into the story.

3) This God that was before the beginning created. Again, the first chapter of John’s Gospel gives us another view of this same story: “All things were made by him (the Logos) and there is nothing in existence that he didn’t make.” (John 1:3) By the way, this is my paraphrase of the text, so don’t freak if your bible doesn’t say exactly that.

This Logos was the Creator we meet in Genesis 1:1. But the Creator is with God. OK, what gives here? Two Gods? Well, this is the beginning of the doctrine of the Christian Trinity, but let’s not get sidetracked except to say that the Father, Son and Spirit have always existed in love (1 John 4:8) such that it is part of their character. The point is that whoever this Logos is, he created everything. Not only did he create everything including you, but He is the one who sustains you keeping your heart beating and your brain waving. (Acts 17:28)

Let’s now continue the story of Christmas. You know the part where Gabriel tells Mary she is going to have a baby? This is where things get mixed up. Did Jesus become God’s Son when he was conceived, when he was born or what? To understand this you have to pay close attention to the storyline here. 

We know there is God. We now know there is this other God or part of God known as the Logos. We know that they existed before there was a Creation, and we know that this Logos was the one who created everything. Now notice John 1:14, “The Logos (Word) became flesh and dwelled among us.”

What is this saying here? Well first we have the Word, the Logos, and he became flesh. It doesn’t say he became a man, it says he became “flesh” which is even more important. It is saying that not only did the Logos become man, but he became man as you and I are man (human). He put on all of our limitations. He could die. He needed to eat. He needed sleep. He even needed to take a dump. 

What!! That’s disrespectful! That’s sacrilegious! But that’s true! He was every bit human as we are, subject to pain, sorrow, laughter, joy, anger and pooping. If he is not that way, and later theologians would paint a picture of him that was less than truly human, then we cannot be saved.

Now comes the part where the Incarnation should make us happy: When the Logos also becomes human, he the creator becomes part of His own creation. Creation now becomes permanently interlinked with its Creator. Jesus isn’t half god and half man, he is fully God and fully human.

That is why the Incarnation is great news! That is why the life of Jesus is great news! That is why his death and resurrection are great news and why his ascension into heaven where He sits at the right hand of the Father is amazing news!

Listen to the words of Athanasius of Alexandria from the 4th Century: “He, the Mighty One, the [Creator] of all, Himself prepared this body in the virgin as a temple for Himself, and took it for His very own, as the instrument through which He was known and in which He dwelled. Thus, taking a body like our own, because all our bodies were liable to the corruption of death, He surrendered His body to death instead of all, and offered it to the Father. This He did out of sheer love for us, so that in His death all might die, and the law of death thereby be abolished because, having fulfilled in His body that for which it was appointed, it was thereafter voided of its power for men. This He did that He might turn again to incorruption men who had turned back to corruption, and make them alive through death by the appropriation of His body and by the grace of His resurrection. Thus He would make death to disappear from them as utterly as straw from fire.” On the Incarnation of the Word,” Chapter 2:8

The Logos became flesh that he would permanently abolish the death and corruption we all face because of our sin, our disobedience, our inability to follow God as we were planned. He who made us “in his likeness” planned all along for us to live like Him for all eternity. The Incarnation is the beginning of the end for death. It was the beginning of the end for all the negative parts of our creation, the destruction, the disease, the mental illness, the war and hunger and arguments and pettiness that causes us to separate ourselves from each other. In Jesus’ body is the beginning of a fulfilling life that was always the plan of the Father. (John 10:10)

That is why the news of Christmas is “joy to the world,” because “the Lord, the Logos, Jesus, the Messiah has come! Let Earth receive her King.” 

- Merry Christmas to you all!

Frank

 

Facing the fact that you’re broken

“Sometimes I wonder if God will ever forgive us for what we’ve done to each other.” That is a Leonardo di Caprio line from the movie Blood Diamond. That line so well captures my feelings right now. Tonight the Father has provided for me that humanity, even in its most beautiful moments is fatally broken.

My wife and I attended an event that on one level was joyous. At the event we met a really nice guy, I’ll call him Ted. Ted was a friend of a friend who had planned the event. Ted had met this friend through one of those online dating services. I used to enjoy being around this woman because of her spunk. Being that way myself, I really enjoy being around people who speak their mind, are genuine and honest.

I understand that meeting people on an online service is a hit-or-miss thing. Sometimes you meet the love of your life just like you see all those people on TV. Most other times, however, you still wind up, as the old saying goes, kissing a lot of frogs before you find a prince.

But regardless of whether a person is your prince or frog, shouldn’t that person be treated well? This is a concept we learn in grade school. It is also the teaching of Jesus. You know, The Golden Rule: Treat others as you would have them treat you.

This is especially true when that individual sacrifices a great deal for your friendship. Such was the case with Ted. I don’t want to get into the details other than to say that Ted did a great deal to help our friend organize a major social function. Ted was everywhere helping with many of the details. He ran from store to store picking up to make sure that this event went well.

Yet when the event came around Ted was ignored. My wife and I could see that Ted was crushed. He wasn’t asking more than companionship and friendship. What bothers me most is that when this woman was confronted with the facts, she basically said she didn’t care about whether Ted was hurt. I finally got to the point where I had to walk away. I couldn’t face our friend and pretend to be fine when I knew she had deliberately crushed this man’s feelings. I was fuming.

Yet in writing this I know that I am no different. I do much the same thing to others. I find reasons to separate myself from others, call them names or give them labels to try to make myself feel somehow superior. Frankly, I too often don’t care about other’s feelings. “Forget them,” I think to myself. This reflects  just part of our broken nature, an inherited feature from our relatives Adam and Eve.

Adam started it off throwing Eve under the bus of blame when confronted by God about eating from the forbidden tree. You know the line: “The woman you gave me, she gave me the fruit to eat.” This is the core reaction we have when caught doing what we shouldn’t. We find scapegoats, people or things to blame for our faults. Just watch “Cops.” How many times does the suspect say something like, “I didn’t do it. I just saw this car with the engine running and thought I would move it to someplace safer.”

It is this state of brokenness that is the very core of what Jesus healed when he died on the cross. We are broken, inherently selfish, and are causing each other pain and suffering. Whether it is the way we treat Ted or the homeless or the way a government treats the people of Darfur, we always seek to serve our own interests, guard our own feelings, protect our own stuff even when others suffer as a result.

The best thing is that he healed us once for all: all sins of all people for all time. How else could God do it? To do it one person at a time would have encouraged further suffering by categorizing people as those for whom Christ died as opposed to those for whom he didn’t. Wouldn’t that make God just as guilty as the rest of us? Wouldn’t that make God selective and selfish? Doesn’t that sound more like us than a good God?

We are broken: I am. You are. We need a Savior who understands what is broken, why we are broken and then acts to heal all parts of that brokenness. Thank God we have one.

 

Mike Huckabee, Christmas and How We Have Lost the Point About the Incarnation

Why is the Mike Huckabee Christmas ad causing such a fuss among Christians? “They are against Christmas!”they say. You are completely missing the point of the season. I say: What a blessing that people are speaking about God whether they like it or not! If people are seeing crosses and aligning 3 lights with the Trinity, how awesome is that?! For me, this just shows that despite what some may try, God finds these attempts to be foolish. Scripture reminds us that God can “raise up stones” to proclaim His glory. Why all the fuss? Maybe it is because we Christians have lost the point of Christmas.

No, we shouldn’t just hide in the closet and say nothing about attacks on our Constitutionally protected right to express our religion (the other part of Separation of Church and State). But we should use these moments to proclaim a message of the Kingdom that God is ushering in through Jesus by the Holy Spirit. We have to get off the ridiculous idea that if there is no America, there is no Gospel. If we believe that, how can we say we believe in an all-powerful God? We believe he can’t do jack without the good ol’ USA.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my country. But I love my God, my savior infinitely more. I refuse to ask anyone to adopt American values, Western ways in order to affirm their full transformation to Christ. That’s ludicrous!

At what point will we see that sin isn’t about actions. It never has been. We are intent on treating the symptoms and not the cause. The root cause is our selfish heart. It is believing that we don’t need God for everything. If anything, we need to destroy the concept of American-style independence because it hinders the Gospel.

Even our churches are greedy and selfish. Think of what could have been accomplished for the Gospel with the millions that have been spent on building huge church campuses and monoliths. For all the money that has been spent (all with the excuse that it is not “wrong” to have these things), why is it that the parts of the world where the Gospel is growing fastest, people meet in secret, in caves, in mud huts, and in open fields. None of the physical trappings. Can we not see our own greed?

I am equally as guilty of not being able to give up my God-provided luxury for a life of true faith. I am also not saying that we have to take a Franciscan vow of poverty to be real Christians. But we, I use that excuse as a reason for my lack of faith that God will provide, Yahweh Jireh. I am as guilty of those Israelites that gathered manna on the Sabbath. Until I, we start believing God, we will live in this limbo of fear of the Gospel’s destruction.

Now that we are in the Christmas, or as I prefer calling it, the Incarnation season, we are given an opportunity to be reminded that God will never leave us, never forsake us (Joshua 1:8, Hebrews 13:8). In the Incarnation the Creator, the Logos came down and put on flesh as prophesied (Isaiah 7:14, Matthew 1:23). This is the greatest event and the greatest testimony of hope the world has ever seen. Humanity and the eternal God are forever and inextricably intertwined. The fate of all humanity, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Taoist, and all others rests in the hands of this Immanuel, this God-with-us. But this story is rarely told at this time of year because we are stuck in the ridiculous battle of whether retailers should say “Merry Christmas” to you as they guide you to further self provision and self reliance.

Christmas has nothing to do with Mike Huckabee, Meredith Vierra, Wal Mart, creches in public places, Bill O’Reilly, or the battle for Christmas. God is not that weak. But it is a battle for the heart of the believer. It is a battle over whether we believe that God is with us. Whether we believe in his supreme ability to transform us! The battle for Christmas in the world truly can only be won if it is first won in our hearts.

Here are some suggestions:
Employers: Drop the Christmas party and give your people a dollar amount that must be donated to their preferred charity. Mandate that they return receipts within 30 days or have it docked from their pay. This is already being practiced by some.

Parents: Give your kids the time and/or money to donate to the welfare of or adopt a family to give gifts. Lots of places, like battered women’s shelters or rescue missions are in need of both during this time of year. Go with them to give coffee and peanut butter sandwiches to the homeless on Christmas. Only then may they be rewarded with one gift. This will reinforce the Spirit of Christ in their Christmas.

Spouses: Give each other a “Get Out of Jail Free” card. This will entitle the bearer to receive grace, a free unmerited pardon for one or more stupid acts of thoughtlessness during the year. Have a nice dinner together just the two of you (unless you have kids in which case it is important that you all spend the time together rehearsing what the Incarnation is about and how you have expressed and experienced the meaning of the season.)

Here is a “new” scripture for rehearsing the Incarnation together: So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture:

They kill us in cold blood because they hate you.
We’re sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one. None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us. (Romans 8: 31-39, The Message)

May the Christ-mass, the Incarnation, enwrap you in its unending love

 

Get a Sandwich and Come to the Table

America is the most obese nation in the world. I know, I are one.

We have an amazing fascination with food. We have restaurants of every kind up the wazzoo, whatever a wazzoo is. We upgrade our kitchens so we have the best cooking surfaces; I know, I have one. We will go to cooking shows, create celebrities out of chefs, and we even have our own television network dedicated to all things food. Call it the by-product of our prosperity, the great climate, a blessing of God, the fact still remains that we are hooked on food beyond a means for survival.

In church, food can be a good thing or a bad thing. It is a good thing when we come together as a community (the church building is not necessary to accomplish this) and share a pot-luck, the major cause of Christian obesity. It’s a good thing when my 86-year-old mom brings her famous cinnamon coffee crumb cake to the church social.

However, food is not such a good thing when it becomes the center of the worship, rather than who it stands for. It is not such a good thing when it becomes an expectation to provide for the pot-luck rather than it being a blessing out of a person’s generosity. “Did you notice that Mary didn’t bring the dumplings, again? How are we to have a Chickin’-n-Dumplins outreach if we don’t have the dumplings?”

Paul writes that it is not such a good thing when the coming together becomes a Bacchanalian Feast of gorging and drunkenness where some push for the front of the line. This in church! He wrote to tell us that there really is a right and wrong way to celebrate the Eucharist or Communion or Lord’s Table. He doesn’t write about what day or how often it is to be taken. He writes instead about our attitude whenever we take it.

You’ll find the description in 1 Corinthians chapter 9 in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. Paul goes so far as to state that some will wrongly take from Christ’s table to their own destruction. So while food is important as a part of our Christian/Church culture, we must use it in its proper place and in a proper way.

Now some of you who just read my previous post about wonder are saying, “but didn’t he tell us to move away from black and white concepts, away from the 10 Commandments for the 10 Commandments’ sake?” let me say that this is hardly a black or white issue. I’m not telling you you must do or not do something in taking the Communion. I am saying exactly the same thing that Paul, himself, asks in that same chapter. “So let a man (read “mankind”) examine himself and then come to the table,” he writes. What is your attitude in taking it?

In an underlying tone Paul is suggesting that there is nothing mystical or magical about the literal bread. (I know that at this point I may have lost my Catholic friends, but for a moment, let’s put away arguments about transubstantiation (now I’ve lost the Protestants) and focus on what the bread has become for us.) So rushing to the table to get the first or largest or “best” piece is really irrelevant. We can’t claim Christ in the Bread while reaching for it with the unclean hands of gluttony, greed or selfishness at any level.

It is in that vein that Paul asks whether the readers’ have homes in which to have dinner? The Communion isn’t the main meal, it’s just the most important one. So he suggests that you examine your motives, physical, spiritual and psychological, to put them in order before you come to the table. In essence if you are hungry, go home, get a sandwich first and then come to the table.

Tomorrow, as we do each week, my church and I will celebrate Communion. We will do it understanding that it represents the One whom the Father sent to set humanity free from our current foolish state. We will do it with reverence and respect. We will do it and then go have lunch to satisfy our physical needs. The Communion is a meal that neither Mario nor Rachel nor Giada nor Emeril could possibly prepare. Only Jesus can prepare this meal.

Bon Appetit!

 

Wow! or Whoa!

I love to read the Apostle Paul because he changes personalities so quickly and innocently. One paragraph sounds like the incredibly well educated and trained Jewish theologian he was. The next you find a caring friend trying to walk you through a difficult time. Then it is the nurturing pastor giving instructions on dealing with life and faith.

But my favorite personality is the mesmerized child watching a caterpillar crawl across the ground or the aspiring astronaut staring up at the Milky Way in the middle of clover field at midnight. It’s just that as you read his writings you find that here is a man who is still trying to discover “what’s all this Jesus stuff?” Sounds like me.

My last post was the musings of an amateur philosopher trying to nail down why the concept of “truth” is so elusive and yet always ultimately points directly back to Jesus. Previous posts are about my frustrations with why Christians are so uninvolved in their communities or churches, about my excitement over just how GOOD the Good News is, or about how far we are to take Jesus’ message of peace in our lives.

But for my first post in several months I would like to spend the majority of the time attempting to describe my amazement with God by looking at things we don’t yet understand. We tend to have a problem with that in our Christian world. We like orderliness. “God is not the author of confusion,” says the oft used Scripture. Paul nonetheless.

We like our church growth to be linear. We like obvious immediate responses to questions of faith. We like to start church at 10:00 and we damned well (am I allowed to use that expression in a Christian blog?) better be done by 11:00 because then the pastor is biting into my time. Life in the Christians world is to be black and white, even if we at least superficially concede to some modicum of gray.

That is how we get hung up on keeping the 10 Commandments and raising important issues in the courts and media like how the retired pastor greets me during Christmas/Chanukkah/Kwanza season at Wal Mart. In doing this we miss expressing the greatest part of our message: That this God who loves us gave us all of creation to explore and enjoy wonder about, and his Son to make sure we get to explore, discover, wonder and enjoy for all eternity.

That is what I see Paul expressing in Ephesians 3:2-12. In describing how his mostly Greek audience how they as Gentiles would be forever melded to the Jews, who were so opposed to them, forever in Christ. And here is the point: How this would happen is a, in Paul’s words, MYSTERY. Do you get it? Paul doesn’t know how it works. He just knows it does. So much for black and white orderliness.

We in modern American Christianity have lost so much of our Jewish roots that we have also lost one of the things Jews to this day still covet in their religion: They love to wonder about what God has done. David wondered about why, while man is such a seemingly insignificant part of creation, does God care so much about us. He describes how the angels sang in awe as God initiated the Big Bang (can I say that in a Christian blog?) and set the creation in motion. Isaiah marveled at 6-winged angels. We wonder how putting a red-hot charcoal briquette to one’s mouth by an angel can make someone’s speech pure? Why are we so afraid of wonder?

Closer to life, how exactly does a man and wife become one? How, as Paul writes, is that the mystery of Christ and the Church. What will our new bodies be like? Mystery is God’s gift to us so we can constantly be amazed at what He’s done, is doing and will continue to do “world without end, Amen.”

If you are one of those who is in constant stress over keeping the 10 Commandments, forget for a moment about the fact that you just cussed out the knucklehead driving in front of you who almost caused a chain reaction wreck on the parkway. Before you pray in repentance, go lie in the middle of a midnight black field looking at the Milky Way and wonder about the One to whom you are about to pray. How can he hear you? How do you know he did? It’s a mystery.
Peace.