The Hunger Games

Catching Fire is the next installment. A friend of mine has done a great job of giving a cultural picture of how we are dealing with it.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire... thoughtful and captivating review

http://bit.ly/1c9UEH3

Alpha Cites: Can We Dream Together

New Blog on CRCNA Network: Alpha Cities: Can we Dream Together

Only the Lonely

New post on CRC Network
http://network.crcna.org/content/church-planting

CPDLT's blog has moved to the Network! New blog post
http://network.crcna.org/content/church-planting/alpha-and-omega

Stepping into worship in the face of tragedy is always hard...

http://network.crcna.org/content/church-planting/alpha-and-omega

Dealing with Realities

The New York Observer is a culture watch newspaper. The paper keeps an eye on the culture and movement in New York City.  While some may say that reading a paper like this doesn't give a broad look at our culture, the truth is that all studies say NYC is the number one city of influence in the U.S. and the world. So knowing what is going on in NYC helps us see what is or what will be happening in the rest of culture.

The March 25 issue had as its lead article, "No Divorce is the New Divorce: Moms and Dads Navigate Messy Breakups in Marriage-less World." The article points to a new struggle: breakups where there is no marriage. In reflecting on one marriage the article says, "When it came to call it quits, there was only one problem: how could they get divorced when they had never gotten married in the first place?" 

The article also points out that not only are marriage rates in the U.S. at record lows (I would guess that Canada is in a similar place), but more than 1/2 of the children born to women under 30 have unwed parents.

The question that I have is, "Is there a place for these folks in our churches?" Not only those struggling with breaking up when there was no marriage in the first place, but those who are struggling with marriage itself. (It is worth noting that how we understand marriage has changed over time, or at least the way people get married. In the early middle ages all it took to get married was two people agreeing they wanted to be married and it was done. In Calvin's Geneva if you didn't get married within 6 weeks of announcing your intentions you got a call from the elders). Often we seem more concerned with nailing down the rules than we do helping people seek answers, weeping with them over past brokenness that has caused them to stay away from marriage, and finding pathways to wholeness. 

While we may want to lay down the rules, the reality is that this issue and many others are not only finding their way to the door of our churches, they are already in many of our churches--perhaps especially in our church plants. How do we begin to share biblical wisdom on this and other important issues (it is hard to ignore other issues such as gay marriage which apparently is not supported by 58% of Americans and the struggles of young women that is reflected in shows like HBO's Girls see http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2013/april/girls-talk.html?start=2). 

Somehow the early church managed to navigate a culture that feels a lot like our own. Can we learn to navigate this well and so open our doors to people who are trying to find their way to a life that is truly life? At moments I have great hopes that we can become excellent cultural navigators who work not from rules but from tears and a broken heart. At other moments I am not so sure.

What do you think? Are we going to be able to navigate this cultural wave that steps far beyond where many of us are comfortable?

Kingdom Fail II

The promise of the kingdom in Luke 1-3 is a kingdom of great hope where the rich and powerful are brought down and the poor and struggling are lifted up. The promise builds and builds and then it comes crashing down: John the Baptist, the great announcer of this kingdom, the harbinger of the kingdom is put in prison by Herod. The powerful take over the weak, hope is dashed (see blog post from March 14).

As soon as John is put in prison by Herod we hear these words in Luke 3, “Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” (Luke 3:21–22 ESV) The line about Jesus being God’s beloved Son comes from Isaiah 42, “Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law.” (Is 42:1–4 ESV) 

Jesus begins his ministry with the same powerful promise we have been hearing: justice will come, it will be established, and God’s law (Torah) or way of right living will be brought to the coastlands (coastlands is a way of speaking of the remotest corners of the earth). Again, the promise of the first three chapters is raised, but with a difference. For all who thought that Jesus was going to be a Herod or a Cyrus or take on the ways of a Roman Emperor, Isaiah smashes that idea. Jesus is the suffering servant. He comes not to imprison like Herod, but to set people free. He comes not to crush the weak, like Herod and a hundred other despots down through the ages, but to bring sight to the blind, to bring the year of the Lord’s favor. And by the way, he does this for the nations, not just Israel.  God’s law, his Torah will be not just for Israel but for all.

In a powerful contrast as Jesus’ ministry begins all those who believed that the Messiah was there to raise an army to defeat the enemies of Israel, all those who believed that the Messiah would crush like a Herod, find that their hopes are turned on their head. Jesus comes in a different way, his agenda is still justice, but that justice (don’t be fooled, this is not just individual salvation, this is justice to the nations) will be accomplished in a way different than Israel thought.  It will be accomplished first of all by taking on Satan in the verses that follow.

But there is another piece to this, namely, how many of us find ourselves right where the people of Israel were as Jesus entered the world? We expect Jesus to come and crush as he shows himself for the second time. Is it possible that we are mistaken as they were in our understanding of New Testament language as they were by the language of the Old Testament? If we are wrong what would his second coming look like?

And one more thing: do we let our understanding of his second coming impact our way of seeing the world right now? Do we imagine that the world is a battlefield because that’s how we see things in apocalyptic literature? Could it be that if we saw the startling contrast that Luke makes between Jesus and Herod that we would see not a battlefield but a mission field? A mission field where people long to be set free from their prisons, where people long for God’s jubilee?

Why Translations Matter

I was reminded recently why getting a good Bible translation for study and getting the full sense of the text matters. While reading the book of Judges I was reading the story of Samson. The English Standard Version in talking about Samson's desire for the woman at Timnah says, "But Samson said to his father, 'Get her for me for she is right in my eyes.'" The NIV translates the same verse, "But Samson said to his father, 'Get her for me. She's the right one for me." 

The ESV in staying true to the original immediately calls our mind to the theme that we find at the end of the book, "In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes." Judges 21.24-25 ESV This connection helps us see that Samson is nothing less than a picture of Israel. He does what is right in his own eyes instead of following after God and God's commandments. His lack of following God finally leads to his destruction. To get that connection it is really helpful to have the words of the text tie things together. (By the way the NIV translates Judges 2.25 as "In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit." So it further obscures the connection).

But the importance of the connection does not stop here. The writer of Chronicles picks up on the theme of "in his own eyes" when David becomes king. When it is time for the Ark to come back David calls the people together and they decide together as a community to bring the Ark back into the cultic center of Israel. The ESV reads, 1 Chr. 13:4 "All the assembly agreed to do so, for the thing was right in the eyes of all the people." The connection back to Judges is made. Israel now has a king, people no longer do what is right in their own eyes, they live in community with a king who leads and who desires to make God central. They make wise decisions together under the leadership of a godly king. (The NIV reads, 1Chr. 13:4 "The whole assembly agreed to do this, because it seemed right to all the people.")

While the NIV is a wonderful translation for worship, for ease of understanding and for memorization some of the choices it makes for translation obscure vital connections both within a book and to other parts of Scripture. If you are contemplating digging more deeply into Scripture the NIV is not the best choice. For that kind of work you need to head to the ESV or the NASB.

Kingdom Fail

The opening of the book of Luke is filled with hope and lofty speeches and songs. Underlying it all is the promise of God's kingdom where the rich and powerful are put in their place, the poor and weak are lifted up and all is made right. It is pretty heady stuff. 

As John the Baptist comes on the scene Luke uses words not from one passage in Isaiah, but multiple passages that all ring with future hope for God's people, "As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. (Isaiah 40.3-5)  Every valley shall be filled,(Isaiah 57.14)   and every mountain and hill shall be made low, (Isa. 49.11) and the crooked shall become straight, (Isa. 42.16 & 45.2)  and the rough places shall become level ways, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.(Isa. 52.10) ’” (Luke 3:4–6 ESV.  All of these passage connect with the return of Israel to the promised land, of a life where, in biblical language, every person lives under his/her vine and fig tree. Which is a way of saying that you live in great community enjoying the multiple gifts of God and in particular, God himself.

The future is filled with hope. The people are streaming out to be baptized by John to become part of this great kingdom of God movement. And then suddenly, without warning all the forward movement grinds to a halt, "So with many other exhortations he preached good news to the people. But Herod the tetrarch, who had been reproved by him for Herodias, his brother’s wife, and for all the evil things that Herod had done, added this to them all, that he locked up John in prison. (Luke 3:18–20 ESV)"

So here is the huge irony.  The declarations have been of the coming kingdom, the declarations have been of the mighty being brought down--yet the man who declares the kingdom and baptizes and calls people to the new way of life, who some believe is the Messiah is put in prison by the one in power. Where can this story possibly be going….

We know the answer to that...it is heading toward the coming of Jesus, but even with his coming we find those in power hang him from a cross like a lamb in butcher's shop on a darkened Friday afternoon (in the colorful picture of Neil Plantinga). Those in power are not beaten down, they exert their power and both John and Jesus die.

It feels like a kingdom fail. Of course this is heading for the resurrection of Jesus. Still, what of all those great promises? What of the promise of this kingdom? One Jewish scholar whose name I can't recall says he actually believes in the resurrection of Jesus but doesn't believe he is Messiah because the kingdom didn't come in the way the Jewish people believed it would.

All of this to say that what must have felt like a kingdom fail to John the Baptist, to the disciples of Jesus as he hung on the cross, that feeling of kingdom fail is something we all experience regularly. And it is something that as church planters, pastor's of established churches and members of a congregation that we have to deal with when people wonder about faith, about God, and about whether he is really active in the world. 

It seems to me that we have to acknowledge this sense of kingdom fail. We have to own the reality that at times it is hard to see the kingdom, that we grieve over places where it seems the kingdom has made no impact. We should not short-change how so often it looks like "kingdom fail". We need to wisely, honestly work with those who struggle with "kingdom fail." (Actually Jesus will do this with John the Baptist.  As John is sitting in prison his question to Jesus is basically, "What is going on, this is a kingdom fail, get me out of this prison."  Jesus' answer from Isaiah is that the time has not come for the kind of kingdom John is looking for, there must be grace first, then there will be judgment.)

At the same time when the question becomes--especially for us when we deal with "kingdom fail"--"Where can this story possibly be going?" The answer we remind ourselves of is, "Finally the kingdom will come in all of its fullness: when we and all of creation will be redeemed, liberated, and made new." And when we wonder about, when others wonder about the reality of that vision our eyes look back to a God who sent his son into the world, to an empty tomb, to a resurrected and ascended Lord, and to the words of Paul,    What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Rom 8:31–32 ESV)

What Happened to Disney Rescues?

Disney movies. For the most part we feel comfortable taking our kids to them. The language is decent, the plots are kind with the good guys winning at the end, and there is a lack of ambiguity in them.  The right people do the right things--they may wander for a bit, but they get back to it in the end. Meanwhile, the bad folks get what is coming to them--gently.

Sometimes people look at the Bible and the stories it contains with Disney eyes. We expect everything to be done decently and in good order. There are to be no shades of gray. The good people do good things, the bad people do bad things, and all turns out right in the end. But the truth is that looking at the Bible with Disney eyes glosses over a lot of what makes us uncomfortable or makes us ignore what is uncomfortable. Not only so, but in putting a Disney gloss over the Bible we miss that God not only calls people in the Bible to struggle through and figure things out, he calls us to do the same. Or putting it another way: the Bible doesn't offer all the answers. Instead what God often does is call us to think, struggle and do the best we can to come up with answers that seek to honor him, do good for others, and bring his redemption to the world. In the Bible this kind of person is known as a person of prudence (see Proverbs 1.1-8)

There are few places where we feel this more than in Esther's rescue of the people of Israel. The simple truth is that this rescue feels like an improper rescue i.e. it lacks all the clean lines of morality, the proper references to God and more. We like our biblical rescues to be Disneyesque, but a close read of Esther takes it out of Disney and into a movie we wouldn't want our children to go to. Let's take a look:

1. Esther is taken into the king’s harem. Now things get a bit uncomfortable—after all, what is a nice Jewish girl doing in the harem of gentile king? The truth is that some Rabbis have asked basically that question. One Rabbi in the Middle ages wrote, “When Mordecai heard the king’s herald announcing that whoever had a daughter or sister should bring her to the king to have intercourse with an uncircumcised heathen, why did he not risk his life to take her to some deserted place to hide until the danger would pass?.... He should have been killed rather than submit to such an act…. Why did Mordecai not keep righteous Esther from idol worship? Why was he not more careful? Where was his righteousness, his piety, his valor? Esther too should by right have tried to commit suicide before allowing herself to have intercourse with Xerxes. P. 101 NIV Application CommentaryThere were any number of Rabbis, not to mention Bible translators who have first questioned what Mordecai and Esther did and in the case of the translators, tried to make things look better by adding a verse here or there or getting rid of a verse here of there.

Be that as it may, we’ve got this nice Jewish girl in the harem of a gentile king. Now what—well, God seems to get to work. Mordecai and Esther make their choice and now God works in the context of that choice. Look at Esther 2. "When the king’s order and edict had been proclaimed, many girls were brought to the citadel of Susa and put under the care of Hegai. Esther also was taken to the king’s palace and entrusted to Hegai, who had charge of the harem. The girl pleased him and won his favor. Immediately he provided her with her beauty treatments and special food. He assigned to her seven maids selected from the king’s palace and moved her and her maids into the best place in the harem." (Esther 2.8-9 NIV) Go back to Daniel 1. ^"But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. Now God had caused the official to show favor and sympathy to Daniel…." (Daniel 1.8-9 NIV) God at work, at work making the officials favorably disposed toward his kids who find themselves in foreign situations. Now again, most of us are more comfortable with Daniel here, with God stepping up to the plate for Daniel, after all, he’s a good guy, who is determined to stay faithful to God no matter what the cost. Esther on the other had as we are told in Esther 2.10, hides the fact that she is Jewish which probably means that unlike Daniel who struggles to stay pure, that Esther probably eats food she ought not to eat, does things she ought not to do, and doesn’t pray in the manner prescribed, and a bunch of other stuff besides.

Perhaps the greatest irony in this is that back in Israel Ezra is decrying intermarriage (Ezra 9.10-12). While he cries out, Esther is making all the right moves to do what Ezra says shall not be done. And Esther does it at a time when things really are not desperate (they will be, but she doesn't know that). And when times do get desperate Esther tries to get her uncle to find another way to deal with the situation (Es. 4.12-14). Mordecai’s take--relief and deliverance will take place for the Jewish people, I think the best option is for it to come through you as the queen, I think that maybe God has put in you in place for such a time as this—but if God doesn’t use you, he will rescue us in some other way. If that is the case, then why doesn’t God choose another way, why does he continue to work through Mordecai and Esther who have made choices that would make many of us blush?

The answers don't come in the book. Maybe God is just letting us know that he will do his work, even through imperfect people. Maybe God is letting us know that he will do improper rescues that need some forgiveness in the midst of them. Or perhaps God knows and understands that in life choices are not always as easy as we’d like them to be, that life is not as black and white as we’d like it to be and he wants us to know that when we struggle with making the right choices that seek to honor him, to live in a way that brings about his kingdom, that when we do that he can still work through our less than perfect choices. Whatever his reason, an improper rescue is the way of this day and the author never takes the sharpness off and lets us move back into the world of Disney.

God is Love

There is a continual theme that pulsates through our culture. The theme is "God is love". The thing that always intrigues me about this idea that God is love is that love gets defined in a way that reflects whatever a person wants. So if I want my god to be loving so that he would never demand anything of me, then that is love. If I want my god to be the kind of god who would never separate someone from him for all eternity, then that is love. If I want the kind of god who just is a feel good, kind, and grandfatherly kind of god, then that is love.

I was reflecting on this while reading the epistle of 1 John a bit ago. This, of course, is the epistle that declares "God is love". I've read the epistle and those words many times before, but for some reason for the first time I stopped and realized that John doesn't just tell us that God is love, but also defines that love. Here's the text:

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. 1 John 4

Rather than leaving the definition of what it means to love God up to us, John spells out that God's love reveals itself in sending his Son into the world as a propitiation (see definition below) for our sins. God's love is connected to the sending of his Son into the world. It is a love that compels us to love others, especially those who are fellow believers as John points out.

Love, as it turns out, is not defined however we desire. Love is always connected to Christ. If someone tries to give definition to "God is Love" without this connection they are not being true to the text. Not only so, but God's love far from freeing us to do whatever we wish actually obligates us to follow God's love by loving others. To divorce "God is love" from this obligation to love also brings a failure to the true definition of God is love.

Maybe the next time someone says, "God is love" it might be an interesting conversation to graciously inquire of them where they get their definition. Such an inquiry might open up a wonderful conversation.

Propitiation
This means the turning away of wrath by an offering. It is similar to expiation but expiation does not carry the nuances involving wrath. For the Christian the propitiation was the shed blood of Jesus on the cross. It turned away the wrath of God so that He could pass "over the sins previously committed" (Rom. 3:25). It was the Father who sent the Son to be the propitiation (1 John 4:10) for all (1 John 2:2).

Telling the Story?

The gospel of Luke has always drawn my attention. Perhaps it stems from the 

radical edge of the gospel from Jesus' proclamation in Luke 4 of the "year of the Lord's favor" to his positive treatment of women to his concern for the poor. Yesterday I decided to start again on Luke's gospel taking time to read and study it closely. In the first few chapters there is the wonderful unfolding of the story--rich with hope and wonder. But I also noticed something else that I want to keep my eye on as I continue, namely, the story is never kept quiet, it is always shared with others. The angel appearing to Zechariah is told to the crowd outside. The birth of John the Baptist leads to the telling of the story in the hill country of Judea. The birth of Christ is proclaimed by the angels to the shepherds and the shepherds to people they come into contact with. In these opening acts of the story, the story is contagious, people have to tell others what they have seen and heard. 

The opening of Luke is a stealth call to share the story. A stealth call that becomes a clear call in Acts 1. "So when they had come together, they asked him, 'Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:6–8 ESV)

All of this reminds me of something far back in history, back to one of the early acts in God's story. From the beginning of God's story there is the call to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. This command is given first to Adam and Eve and then to Noah. Noah and his descendants are doing a pretty good job of this as we read in Genesis 10, but in Genesis 11 they stop spreading and decide to build a tower (ziggurat) and take control of their own destiny, making God their servant. Rather than allowing them to stop their spread through the earth God comes and confuses their language and compels them to follow his command.

Here's my connection: in Acts 1.8 the call is to be witnesses. While this is Christ's command, the church seems slow in doing it--unlike the eager tellers in Luke's gospel. They keep themselves centered around Jerusalem. It takes the death of Stephen and the outbreak of persecution to get them to move into the world. (Acts 8.1 "And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.") Is it possible that there is a dual connection here? The first connection is that fill the earth is now includes the command to make disciples of all nations. The second connection is that when we refuse to get out and bring the gospel that God finds ways to compel us to do so.

So here is a question: Are we telling the story or do you see God finding ways to compel us to tell the story?

TGIF (Monday, Monday)

The TGIF (Thank Goodness it’s Friday) idea is not one that rings true for pastors. Friday is that moment of reality that Sunday is soon to be here. For some of us we are prepared, sermon written, and pretty much everything is in place. For others of us who work best under pressure we are getting ready for the pressure cooker of Saturday research and message writing. But whichever camp we fall into Friday is the precursor to busyness, not its end.

While Friday is a precursor to busyness somewhere in our rhythm there needs to be that TGIF moment. The time when we look and say that there is a time (as mentioned in the previous blog post) to stop running, to start breathing we have to trust God. 

Something that can make us a bit uncomfortable, especially as established and new church pastors is recognizing the reason a lot of us keep running, even on the day when God says it’s OK to stop: the reason is we don’t think that our small part of the world can get along without us for a day, that it can’t get along without the work that we do, the efforts we make. We don’t trust that God can get his work done (this is not revealed in what we say, but what we do), if we really take the one day off in seven that he himself has given us.  Until we trust that God can really get that work done, that God’s kingdom will not fall apart if what needs to get done gets done a day later or even two--because we’ve taken God at his word and taken a sabbath.  Until we trust God we’ll keep running on the day he tells us to breathe.  In the Old Testament book of Jeremiah there are some words that might help us here, to take God at his word.   “⁵This is what the LORD says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD.  ⁶He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives. ⁷“But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him.   ⁸He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”  (Jeremiah 17.5-8 NIV)  

One last thing about Sabbath (there are more, but for this blog, one more). On the Sabbath we get to be like God.  During the other six days of the week we get to be like God, we show we are made in the image of God, by working just as he worked six days to create the world.   On the seventh day we get to show we are like God, that we are created in the image of God by resting.   Here’s what we should t know about God resting.  When God rests it means he looks over his creation, sees that it is good and he enjoys it. So when we are like God on sabbath we have the doors opened to enjoy God’s creation.  To enjoy the wonder of it, to enjoy the beauty of it, to enjoy the fascinating pieces of it.  On this one day in seven God invites us to take a breath and immerse ourselves in his creation, immerse ourselves in creation in a way that renews and refreshes us. Enjoying creation in its fullness comes with taste, smell, sight, sound, and touch. On your sabbath, take the time to enjoy the last one: touch. For many of us we fail to not only stop and smell the roses but also to touch the roses (carefully!). Steve Jobs understood the importance of this in when Apple products were created. They not only had to look beautiful, they had to feel beautiful.  If you have an iPhone and never pulled it out of its protective plastic case and felt the lines and materials, you’ve not fully appreciated all that went into creating the iPhone.  By the same token, if we never stop and touch God’s creation we have not fully enjoyed the work of the creator.

TGIF.  What is the rhythm of your life where a moment comes and you say, TGIF?

Monday, Monday

For a certain number of pastors Monday is their Sunday. A time when they catch their breath, try to do a bit of revival, and re-center their lives. Personally, I rarely take Monday off. I think that Rick Warren got it right when he said that he didn’t take Monday off because it was the day he was most wiped out, “Why,” asked Warren, “would I take the day off when I feel the worst?”

No matter where we end up on this one the truth is that for a lot of church planters and a lot of pastors taking even one day off in seven seems like the impossible. There is always one more thing to be done, one more call to make, one more…you can fill in the blank.

One of the wonderful gifts that God gives in this world of always one more thing to do is the command (sometimes we do like to be told to do things) to take one day off in seven. To have a Sabbath. Here’s what it says in Genesis 2. ²By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. ³And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.  Genesis 2.2-3 NIV The seventh day--God takes off on the seventh day, rests on it.  And as he does so he gives us this gift that just like him we get to pause, catch our breath once a week.

But to get to this place of catching our breath we have to have to own some things about ourselves and God.  On this Monday morning one of those things (another coming in the Friday posting). First thing we learn about Sabbath is this, it is God’s permission to us to admit that we are not infinite, that we can not do it all.  But more than that, Sabbath is a time to says, “You know what, it’s not a sin that I’m limited, it’s OK that I can’t do it all.”  

Do you ever get that feeling from people that really you are supposed to be able to do it all? I love those studies that tell us that we are supposed so spend so much time working out, so much time studying, so much time improving this part of our life or that part of our life, and when you get all done, you discover that if you did it all it would take about 36 hours a day to do everything the experts tell us we are supposed to do, not to mention you’re supposed to get about eight hours of sleep a night.   Once every week, God gives us this gift, it’s the gift of admitting the truth, that we are limited, finite people.  That as those people life is going too fast and we need to breathe. 

Not only do we need to breathe, God tells us that we have to breathe. Have you ever seen one of those movies where someone is frantic, running from place to place, looking for something or someone, trying to get something done and another character comes alongside of them, and says, “I just need you to breathe, take in a deep breath, take a few deep breaths, Ok, got it, now, let’s talk, what’s going on.” That’s kind of how it is when we do Sabbath, God looks at us and says, I just need you to breathe, take in a few deep breaths, slow down, Ok, got it?  Now let’s talk—what’s going on.

On this Monday can you admit you are not infinite? Can you admit it not just by saying it but by taking time to breathe? 

Candy or Bricks

When I was growing up and doing Sunday school I remember going to other churches and seeing the cool prizes you could get for perfect attendance and for memorizing scripture.  To be honest, I always felt a bit bummed that we didn’t get those things in my church. 

As I grew up however, I began to wonder about these ways of getting kids to places and getting them to memorize. Shouldn’t the reward be in line with the action? If we are memorizing, for instance, Micah 6.8,  “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Mic 6:8 ESV), shouldn’t there be a connection to the joy of justice, kindness, and a humble walk?  Or to do a play on Paul from his letter to the Corinthians (see 2 Corinthians 6.14-16), “What does getting a plastic race car have to do with justice?” Without the entire argument about what the car is made of, its origins of manufacture etc. which is lost on most kids, I’m guessing the answer is, “very little”.

In that light I was pleased Sunday morning. I was at our church (EverGreen Ministries) and during the announcements we were told that our kids were memorizing scripture in their classes (a good thing).  However, rather than getting candy or a plastic race car for their efforts every verse memorized was raising money to build an orphanage. The driving force of memorization was mission. The very act of memorizing took the focus off of the child and onto God’s mission in the world (“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” James 1:27 ESV)

So here’s what I’m wondering: How much of what we do in our teaching and discipling of our kids thinks about how to focus them on God’s mission rather than on themselves? When we work with our kids do we think about offering them candy to get them to be places, memorize the text and all the rest or do we offer them bricks--that build both orphanages and their faith.

By the way if you want to think more deeply about this issue the book What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of the Market” is a great primer.

What's Going on in 1 Corinthians 11

Every once in a while someone asks me about the passage in 1 Corinthians 11 that deals with the Lord's supper. There is that verse that can is very disquieting, 1Cor. 11:27 "Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself." What does one do with this verse and who can dares to take communion in the light of eating and drinking judgment on yourself, after all, even the most committed and faithful of us never gets the faith completely right. Knowing this I've talked to some from very conservative traditions who have never taken communion for fear that they will eat and drink judgment on themselves.

So how do we take these verses? The first is we have to take them in context. The problem in Corinth is that people are coming to the Lord's Supper and focusing only on themselves while ignoring the needs of the body of Christ (the church). The rich are coming, eating, and getting drunk while the poor, who have to work first, come to the worship service hoping to get their one good meal of the week and find the food gone and their "fellow" Christians fully sated. What this tells us is that the people in Corinth are missing out on the body of Christ in two ways. The first way is they are missing the reality that Christ has sacrificed his body, given his body so that they can be reconciled to God. In the supper they come face-to-face with this wonder and it should floor them in such a way that they desire to imitate the sacrificial heart of Christ. As Christ's heart was broken for their need so their hearts should be broken for the needs of those in their community who are poor. As Paul will say in 2 Corinthians 8 concerning the need to give to the poor, 2Cor. 8:9 "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that sthough he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich." The second way they miss the reality of the body of Christ is that the church is the body of Christ and they are dishonoring this body when the rich ignore the needs of the poor in their community.

The important thing to get here is that "not discerning the body of Christ" is not that these people didn't know who Jesus was or didn't understand that the bread represented his body (that's easy to get, a couple of seconds of instruction and a person can tell you the bread represents the body of Christ and the wine the blood of Christ), no the problem is much deeper than that: these people didn't get that bread in their hand was a call to be like Jesus, to act in a Christ-like, self-sacrificing manner for others in the community. We would say that these people didn't get depth of the second greatest commandment, "love your neighbor as yourself" or as John will says in 1 John 4.19 "We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother."

At one level this levels a lot of people who come with confidence to the table and declare they get that the bread is the body of Christ. These people are not discerning the depth of what Paul is after. He's not looking for some intellectual assent (certainly he wants us to believe rightly, but right belief doesn't get us into the core of his desire), he is looking for a people whose hearts are breaking over the poor, the struggling, and broken in their midst. He is looking for people who really to love their neighbor as themselves and as they take the bread are overwhelmed with a God who loved them, so overwhelmed they can't help but bring his love to others, can't help but be those who though they are rich become poor for the sake of others.

Each of us who have come to the table know that we are basically lousy at this becoming poor deal. We are self-absorbed, watching out for ourselves, we want people to care for us because we deserve it. But it is just here that the table does two things: first it confronts us with the body of Christ and we are laid low with our failure to love others; Second, it reminds us that the table is both a place where we see the grace of God in the bread and the cup and a place where the only way we can come it by God's grace. We come asking his forgiveness for failing to discern the body of Christ. For fail to discern it we do, over and over again. The simply truth is that without grace we can't get to the table for our failure to discern the body plagues us. The failure to act in a Christ-like, sacrificial manner walks with us like an unwanted shadow.

But this raises another question. As I mentioned earlier, it is easy to understand that the bread is the body and the wine is the blood of Christ. This concept of the bread is a call to see the sacrifice of Christ and to act in accord with that sacrifice is a harder thing to grasp. It is harder to think through the implications of whether I am loving my neighbor as myself, if my life really does reflect becoming poor so that others may become rich. Given how difficult this can be who can take part in the supper? Can a 30 year old downs syndrome person take part in the supper? Can an 80 year old who has alzheimer's? Can a 50 year old who has never been overly self-reflective come to the table? Can a 10 year old who knows they love Jesus but can't wrap their mind around the fullness of what it means to discern the body?

My take is that the supper is open to all of these people. Open not because they get the fullness of what it means to discern the body (after all, which one of us does, which of us really gets the fullness of Christ's sacrifice and then has it so impact our lives that it shapes and molds every move we make?), but because rightly taught and led they, and indeed all of us, can discern the body at the level of understanding that God has given us at any particular moment in our lives. God does not asks that down's syndrome child or the person with Alzheimer's to be more than they are, only to be what he has made them to be. With a child or a 50 year old we want to help them think more deeply, grow more in discerning the body, but we don't withhold the gift and grace of the supper from them until they get it all right. We withhold the supper only if they don't believe or for a child, if the community and particularly the parents discerns the child is not yet ready--so their faith is a mere mimic of the parent's and doesn't yet have a voice of its own or if it's clear the child wants to take part because taking part looks cool or their faith is childish rather than child-like.

But it seems to me that we have less to worry about children failing to discern the body i.e. knowing that because Jesus loves them they need to love others, than we do with adults failing to discern the body since many of us as we have become adults have also put up our guard against loving others and have far less willingness to become poor so that others might become rich.

The bottom line for both children and adults is that we come to the table only by God's grace and each time we hold the bread in our hand we both celebrate that grace and are reminded how much we need it because we look so little like Christ who on the night he was betrayed took bread and said..

Momentum

Last week the Church Planting Teams of the CRC and RCA came together for two days of "meetings".  Some of you may be aware that the CRC and RCA are working together to catalyze mission in North America.  About two years ago the Church Multiplication Initiative was started. In the last 24 months there have been 10 regional areas (called Kingdom Enterprise Zones) that have been established to build sustainable church multiplication systems and to begin new churches. We never imagined that this would be the reality back in February 2010.

It is out of the multiplication effort that our "meetings" last week were birthed.  We have discovered that we can do more together and that we are better together. 

As you have noticed every time the word "meetings" comes up there are quotation marks. The reason is these "meetings" were not what some (certainly no one reading the blog, of course) would think of when two denominational teams get together. There was excitement, dreaming, casting vision, looking to ways to deepen joint church multiplication, and the beginning of a wonderful picture of our future together. In short, there was powerful, Spirit-charged momentum. 

In the coming weeks we will share those dreams and visions with you in more detail, for now celebrate with us and pray for the momentum. It is an exciting time to be part of the joint work of CPDLT and the RCA's Church Multiplication Team.

   Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Heb 12:1–2 ESV)

On Being Safe and Culturally Insignificant

 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.  (John 17:14–19 ESV)

Planting churches and revitalizing churches calls us to move outside the four walls and into the world. Moving into the world, however, presents more than a few challenges. I was looking back at some work I'd done in the book of Proverbs and came across the following words. I don't remember if I wrote them or if they came from another source, nevertheless they reflect a reality that many of us struggle with as we get outside the four walls.

"On the surface, cultural separation masks itself as a form of godliness, but a closer look reveals an enterprise driven more by self-preservation than anything. We may bemoan a moral decline in the country. Our actual concern, if truth be known, is not to see a vital Christianity flourish, but rather to secure a more orderly and less violent society in which to live out our comfortable and self-satisfied lives. In other words, we want a safer world. We are not as concerned about the salvation of those in the world as much as we want them to behave better around us for our comfort.

This is where so much of our current attitude and approach to the world differs from God’s will as expressed in the prayer of Jesus in John 17. We want to be safe in a safer world; God wants us safe in an unsafe world. We want to protect ourselves by removing ourselves from danger; God wants to protect us in the middle of danger. These differences may seem insignificant on the surface, but in fact they are huge, involving entirely different worldviews and ramifications.

This theory of safety through removing ourselves from the world could be one of the most dangerous doctrines to invade the church in recent years. It is now thought to be more spiritual to be safe from the world than to interact with it.

What would it look like if we traded in a doctrine of safety for a doctrine of engaging the world? What impact would it have on the way we do ministry, teach children, call adults to discipleship, and live out the gospel?"

In these bodies we will live

In these bodies we will live, in these bodies we will die, where you invest your love, you invest your life.

  Words from Mumford and Sons that call us to think about what we are investing our lives in. As Jesus begins his ministry he makes it clear what he will invest his life in, "And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:16–19 ESV) It is a startling word to the people of Nazareth for it takes their hopes and in so many ways stomps on them--but more on that in the days to come. 

 For today, simply this, we need to decide where we will invest our lives and how we wil pursue that investment. That's what we are going to explore from many different angles in this blog. We will dive into the theological, the Biblical, the pragmatic, and more as we seek to invest our lives in what pleases God.

  As you may have noticed, CPDLT is investing in building a learning community--a community of new churches and existing churches--that together catalyze and cultivate gospel movements as they transform lives and communities.  We like to think that the idea of transforming lives and communities is what Jesus was talking about in that inaugural message in Nazareth--and we guess that, if like Jesus, this is what we do we too will find ourselves on the edge of a cliff or two (Luke 4.28-29).