Enemies of the Cross

Philippians 4:18  "For many...conduct themselves as enemies of the cross of Christ."
Many people interpret this to say and apply it as people who are enemies of Christianity or of Christ or of Christians.  Simple persecution.  But this is not what it says.  It says "enemies of the cross."
So why would people be enemies of the cross?
This is a pivotal point in one's transformation.  The cross is a pivotal point in the history of God's work with His people.  What the cross is, is a statement from God that while the cross is all about you - saving you - it is more than that, all about God and that God's glory is the ultimate aim in all this.  That is why the cross has enemies.  No one wants to live their life according to someone else's agenda.  It is a simple as that.  Even if there were a God, most people would not be interested in placing themselves at His disposal.  The whole concept is repugnant.
Most Christians don't even believe this, that God is for God.  That life is for Christ's glory.  That our lives are for Him.  Most people have "accepted Christ into their lives" which is a huge theological and practical problem.  When we try to include God in our lives then things get messed up very quickly because that is not God's plan.  He is not Mr. Fixit.  The exhortation to pray unceasingly does not mean that we are to spend every moment asking God for stuff.  Psalm 95 says, "Oh that today you would listen to His voice."  Our job is to listen for God's voice, hear what He is telling us and then to do it regardless of the consequences.  This is the cross and why it has enemies.  The cross is the perfect example of someone who listened to God and did whatever God asked with disastrous consequences to himself.  Following that example were all the disciples and martyrs throughout the ages.  Even today there are Christians all over the world who live their lives doing God's bidding putting themselves in great peril.  However, we find very few of those people in US churches, me included among them.
It is a terrifyingly transformative thing to simply do what God asks us to do.  It requires that we first listen and then act on what we hear (after bouncing it off historical Christianity and our community).
We must no longer be enemies of the cross as it steals our agenda away and give ourselves to its humiliation and suffering and power. 

After "Yes" II - New Creation

Be a better caterpillar or become a butterfly. 
      OK, so women will get this but guys...I know this doesn't sound very manly but suspend your reality for a moment to get the metaphor.  What does one do to be transformed, not into a better caterpillar but into a new creation, a butterfly?  God calls us to be not re-newed creations but "new" creations.
The main thing that we as Christians must do after saying "Yes" to Christ is to change our thinking [the Greek word for repentance is not turn 180 degrees like most teach but it is "metanoia" which means to think again].  We must change our thinking.  We must think not about learning/understanding/applying more but about getting a suntan.  If we spend time in the sun we will get tanned.  Our "work" consists not of doing anything about our tan but about our position.  We can't learn enough about Christ to become transformed and we can't apply or ply enough understanding into our lives to enact change.  What we can and must do is put ourselves in the sun.  We must spend time doing what we were made to do which is worship and serving others.  If we do those things then transformation happens, not because we are making it happen but because our position with God allows it to happen.  God  operates on us when we put ourselves in His environment.  When we set ourselves up as the arbiter of our lives and control it then God cannot work.  He has bound His power by giving us free will.  We can choose to ignore Him.  We can choose to live lives outside His will.  We can choose, as Christians, to live lives that are "right" but have no relationship to what He is doing and that leave our lives lackluster and shallow and broken....and un-transformed.
      I know many Christians who live pretty exemplary lives doing the do of church attendance and are pretty happy and content with life but whose lives do not exhibit Christ.  I worry about them.  More perhaps than I worry about non-believers.  At least I know, and non-believers know, where they are.  It is this muddled group that rocks my boat.  They have been Christians for years and yet seem to live lives no different than the life of a non-believer.  No greater comfort or solace.  No better relationships.  Same divorce rate.  Same pornography usage rate.  They suffer the same devastation and frustration and despair during trials.
       I also know a few Christians who are in love with Jesus and for whom the tossing of the world seems to have no impact.  They do not seem pressured to perform.  They play well.  They serve easily and have open hands to others.  They engage often in church activities but are not hyper-religious or self-righteous or proud.        They forgive easily and are pliant with others.  They lead if pressed into service but follow well even in leadership with a servant heart.  "How can I be Christ to you?" seems to be the lens through which they look at every encounter.  Not Christ the teacher or lecturer or judge but Christ at the well, Christ with the adulterous woman, Christ washing feet.
      After "Yes"?   Worship and serve.  Those will compel you to learn and understand more about this God we adore.  Metamorphosis happens in His presence, better caterpillars are made the other way around.

After "Yes"

      After one says "Yes" to Jesus and you are in the boat, what happens next?  In James, Scripture says that no one who is double minded can expect anything from God.  Another Lowcountry way to say this is that you can't be double boated and expect to go anywhere.  If you have a foot in the boat of the world and a foot in Jesus' boat, you are not going anywhere.  Jesus can't help you and the world won't help you.  Can't be double-boated.  So we are assuming from last week that both of your feet are in Jesus' boat.
      Interestingly, this is where most of the divisions between Christians takes place.  All denominations believe that to be a Christian someone has to make a decision to follow Christ.  The "now what" hinges on how much of our growth rests on us and how much is pure grace or gift.  To fine tune the argument a tad more, almost every denomination believes that the recipient of grace has to perform a work to get into heaven.  (The strict predestination-ists believe that a few people are created for heaven and the rest are created for hell. This is unpalatable for most people and we can deal with that later if someone comments on it.  For now we will ignore this group.)  So...everyone has to do a work to get into heaven.  The work can be set on a scale from the work being simply saying, "Yes" [Eph 1:4] all the way to the work being cooperating with the Holy Spirit one's entire life [Rom 2:6,7].  An image that may be helpful is communion.  In the Catholic church, one is handed the cup and one must grasp the cup and take a drink - obviously indicating that you are responsible for accepting and actively engaging in the grace that is offered you.  On the other hand, in that same tradition, the bread is placed on one's tongue, obviously indicating you have very little to do with God's grace getting into you - opening your mouth is the extent of your work and the "grace" is put in you.  This is done the opposite way in the Anglican church where one does not hold the cup but the server holds the cup to you, you open your mouth and the server pours the wine into your mouth indicating that you have nothing to do with the grace poured into you - except to open your mouth.  On the other hand, in that tradition one is handed the bread and one must put it into one's own mouth indicating that you must act on the grace place within your grasp.   In most protestant congregations, there is a table set up and you have to do all the "work" yourself of getting to the table and helping yourself which doesn't work as a metaphor of their theology of grace only but that is another discussion. 
       To bring this back into perspective, we all have to somehow act on the grace that is offered to us.  There is no action possible if the bread and the wine of grace do not exist.  God does not bring us into relationship with Him without our consent and even simple consent is a work.
      So now, back to our topic, what next, whether we work a lot or a little?
      Paul in his letter to the Romans tells us that we are a new creation.  Many Christians want that to mean that Walt becomes a better Walt.  The best Walt that he can be, the "perfect" Walt, as it were.  What that means is that I am going to participate with the Holy Spirit in re-tooling myself.  I am going to "study myself to be approved" and obey because the result of my cooperation and obedience will change who I am.  As I spend time in prayer and the simple disciplines of contemplation and recollection and simplicity, the desires of the flesh will fall away and I will gradually move toward holiness.
      The problem with this is that what I am doing is being a caterpillar who is becoming a better and better caterpillar.  What needs to happen is for me to become, not a different species of animal - still a monarch, if you will - but a completely new creation than the caterpillar.  This is the word used by Christ in His transformation on Mt Carmel and Paul's call for us to not be conformed to the world but transformed - to be "metamorphized".  So how in the world do we do THAT?
 ~After "Yes" II~

Formation 3

You have decided to follow Christ.  Now what?
Plumbing has been used many times regarding the simplicity of formation and it remains one of the best metaphors for me.  Plumbing is simple: water flows downhill unless it is under pressure.  If it is under pressure it will go anywhere and find even the smallest means of escape.  Pretty simple.  And not to disparage the plumber's work, but it is actually pretty simple. However, small mistakes can easily and completely ruin a multi-million dollar home.
    After deciding to follow Jesus, the concept of formation is pretty simple.  Spend time worshiping Him, learn about Him, and do some kind of ministry.  You are now good to go.  We can expand this and there are many models which try to get these three concepts across, but it is all very basic.  One easy way to remember it is, Up, In, and Out.  We must direct our focus Up to God which is worship, In as to inwardly learn and digest about God, and Out, take God's message and love out to the world.
    As an aside, there is no pressure regarding failure in formation.  That is what grace is about.  The working out of salvation is like a child in a school play.  The parents (God) would, of course, love for their sweetheart (you) to put on the performance of a lifetime but the performance is really irrelevant to the love they have for their child.  They will love their child standing ovation or rotten tomatoes.  God loves us no matter our performance.  Note however, importantly, that unlike performance in a recital, our performance really does matter in an extraordinary way.  Not in its effect on God's love for us but on the working out of God's story.  What we do has eternal, profound consequences.  That should scare us a bit driving us to our knees to discover what part God wants us to play in this drama of His.  He has created both us in all our glory and designed our work to be done so doing our part is like lungs doing theirs.  The consequences of our activities should also drive us into the fact that He is big and is redeeming.  Should we, on a rare occasion mess up, He can fix things and grow flowers out of our...manure.
    You have decided to follow Jesus.
    The first thing to do next is to begin to hang around Christians.  Unlike most others, this religion is not a philosophy or a system of beliefs but a lifestyle within a group.


spend time telling Him wonderful things about Himself.  Seems very egotistical on His part and yes it is.  Egotism on our part is a sickness believing the world revolves around us and it doesn't.  For God it is simply a fact.  As someone said, "There is one God and you are not Him."  Telling Him who He is is called praise, adoration, worship.  God is great.  God is good.  Yes, but you can be more creative than this.  Reading the Psalms and Isaiah can help with ideas should you get stuck.  For you in particular as you read this, He is your hope, your rescue, your family counselor, your will and ability to reconcile with ________ , your direction, your light on your path in this world.
Many people think that prayer is just asking God for things but perhaps the most substantial part of prayer is to in-form God who He is and that you know what kind of character He is.  This process of telling God who He is changes you.  It is a peculiar spiritual process for which I know no analogies.
    Now many people will say that one needs to start formation with reading the Bible.  That is reasonable advice however most people today join a church family not by an assent to their beliefs but because they find the community warm and welcoming, the experience of being with Christian's astonishing. 

Formation Sermon 2

So... life is good enough?  Not quite?
As a start to this journey, as in a marriage (from last week) the first major hurdle is to simply say "yes."  But a "Yes" that is not "OK", not assent, not compliance or obedience, not a "Yes, I'll give this a go." We are talking here of a "Yes, I am getting into this raft that is unalterably going through the white water rapids of the Colorado River with no opportunity to change my mind".  There is simply no way for you to make progress in a marriage or in your relationship with Christ if you don't commit.  One may think we can dance with Christ and gradually get to know Him well but this is simply not true.  There is something critical about a decision.  The honeymoon is wonderful and the flutters a delight...but fleeting.  There are difficult things to deal with as the journey together becomes longer and authentic.  Unless you have committed to each other to press through those difficult times of learning to love, you can never experience true marriage or true Christianity. 
    In our spiritual walk, the beginning can be easy and exciting and one can continue to walk without a commitment not even realizing that we are not even true friends with our walking partner.  But, most people will realize at some point that the relationship is stale, stagnant or boring or unfulfilling.  Often then one looks for a new relationship.  We all know people who hop from relationship to relationship because they cannot find "the" one.  Generally, it is because they refuse to commit.  If we stay in the relationship, we soon realize that we are being asked to change, to pay attention to someone else, to become someone different than we are, to sacrifice some things, in Jesus' words, to die to ourselves.  This time in our life pivots on the decision we made.  What I am finding in my conversations with many people is that those who think they have committed to Christ have often based their decision on an idea that Christianity will be good for them and their family, a good practical decision, will provide a good return for their investment, Jesus is true but true because He makes life better.  I have even heard this preached - that if you give to Christ you will get back more than you give.  Nice tooth-fairy theology but hardly Christ's.  And as often I hear people begin to doubt Christ.  Their expectations are not being met so where is He?  So... there are two critical components to the "Yes" that is required by Christ.  One is that you are convinced that you are getting married for good.  You are marrying, not the person but the relationship, marrying marriage as it were.  The second depends on the first.  You are deciding that, "yes," you will give up your welfare, your agenda, your dreams for the other person. 
    If you are not a Christian then take a moment to decide whether Christ is God.  If He is God, then you have another choice to make...will you follow Him.  If you are a Christian - or have thought yourself to be one - then your next step in your growth as a disciple is to give yourself up to Him for ever, despite how you feel and despite what may come.  You must decide that you will ride these rapids out - and better put, you will make sure the raft makes it through the rapids no matter what happens to you.  Everything does get better if you stay with this.  Everything but your life and circumstances. 

Formation Sermon 1

In order for any of this to make sense we have to have an understanding that formation is a process.  If you believe that being a Christian is an event, only a wedding if you will, then formation doesn’t make sense.  Ben Johnson, professor emeritus at Columbia Theological Seminary states that our relationship with Christ does not grow, that we do not grow closer to Christ but that our relationship only becomes different.  The relationship with Christ changes, he contends, but this ”does not mean improvement.”  He even uses the example that his marriage is different now but is not better than it was on their wedding day.  How sad.

If our relationship with Christ is not improving, getting better, then it is dying.  As with any relationship, there is no middle ground.  So we have to have this understanding that there are stages of actual growth, there are mature and immature Christians  We are all un-formed Christians but some of us are less formed than others.  This is easy to see in children but adults have a harder time thinking that they are immature or need to grow. 

To return to the wedding/marriage analogy, my position at St Johns is like a marriage counselor for your marriage to Christ.  A wedding is a great thing and it is critical to make a public statement of fidelity to your wife.  Making a public confession of Christ is critical, but, as with marriage, is there more?  Are marriage preparation and marriage quality an issue?  In his book, Unchristian, Kinneman’s research shows that 85% of Americans state that they have made a public profession for Christ.  Now, only about 30% of the population says they attended church “last weekend” so where are the other 55% of believers.  Obviously we have a lot of “wedding” Christians with little or no marriage.  So….

How are you doing?  Is Christ there for you, walking with you through the tough spots that you can’t handle on your own?  You obviously participate in church since you are here.  And most of us are involved in a Bible study or Sunday School class.  Jesus has an impact on who you are and how you act.  Got your ticket and you're done? 

These talks are an invitation to take a step, for some a leap maybe, to see if there is more to your life with Christ than what it is now.  Kind of like -

You got married to Christ at baptism and confirmation and now... what? You’re on speaking terms?  Life perks along and is happy enough.  Nothing is really wrong with life – troubles but everyone has troubles.  Not quite content but is anyone?  Being a Christian doesn’t mean I supposed to be happy all the time, does it?  So what are you talking about?  Life is good enough. 

Well… is it?

Which teens persevere in their faith?

1.  I am the youngest man in my Bible study.  I'm just about 61.  Almost all of the men in the study are saddened by the fact that one or more of their children no longer attend church.  Their children claim Christ but....
2.  There is a child in our congregation who is very smart.  Well instructed in the Bible.  Knows the stories.  Does not attend Sunday School or any of our youth groups or events.  
3.  Our theology at our church is so jumbled up it is hard to know what denomination we are.
4.  Most people don't care what our theology or doctrines are.
5.  There is no knowledge test you have to pass to walk through the Pearly Gates.
6.  You do have to know someone to get in, though.


These six little statements are very important for parents.  Our relationship with Christ is primarily held together not by theology or principles or Bible knowledge or miracles or even an experience with God.  What we know is good and informs our faith.  It helps us keep our understanding of Who Jesus/God is cleaner, more pure.  But the thing that keeps us in the faith, that keeps most people at St. John's coming to St. John's and returning to Jesus in the midst of crises is their relationship with someone here.  Same with kids.  In Smith's book, Soul Searching, it becomes abundantly clear to him and the reader, that to persevere in the faith, it takes Christ-centric friends.  Doesn't mean going to Bible studies all the time with them but just having them around.

Want your child in heaven with you?  Make sure their social life is heavily engaged with other Christians their age.  Their main peer group really must be a Christ-centric group.  Ohhh and adults....  Ditto.

Storybook Bible Advent

Here is a great Advent blog by a missionary in Australia.  Thanks Paige for pointing us to Adriel!

Adriel's Blog

Un-Holiness and Grace

Everyone has wondered at some point how they can grow spiritually. 

                Perhaps you feel God’s absence.  “Where IS He when I am praying?  It seems that I am just praying to the wall.”  Perhaps you feel frustrated at God’s lack of action.  Haven’t seen a miracle like in Acts lately.  Relationship with your kids is still on the rocks and, boy, have you prayed a lot about that.

Or you don’t get a thing out of church.  Singing is ok.  Sermon is ok.  Fellowship is ok.  But you still go home not feeling like you had any experience with God or made any progress towards Him…and don’t’ know how to move.  Feeling isolated and lonely.  God should take care of that shouldn’t He?  He is for me, isn’t He?

                First, anyone who is actually engaged in their faith is always going through this.  And it will never end…sorry for that bit of bad news.  It is a peculiar thing about Christianity among all other religions, that as you grow in holiness, instead of felling better about yourself and more holy, you actually become increasingly aware of how great your sin is and how much distance your sin creates between you and God and between you and others.  In essence, you feel worse about yourself.  Not very encouraging I know.  “Hey come and join us at our church and you’ll feel worse and worse about yourself.”

                But therein lies the beauty of grace.  As you begin to more fully understand the depths of your sinfulness and the impossibility of you making things better, you begin to despair of yourself, others, the world and self-help.  As you grow into spiritual maturity, God reveals more and more the state you are in.  God does not do this to punish you or to rub it in, but He shows your sickness so you can be made increasingly holy….which makes you increasingly understand how really unholy you are and the process begins all over again.

                Now here is the payoff for this unseemly process:  As you enter more and more fully into what would appear a hopeless downward spiral of despair, you begin at the same time to uncover how much God must love you.  You begin to experience in a real and tangible way, the peace that God has promised.  You begin to have experiences of God that are so profound that words cannot adequately explain them.  You become less and less dependent on miracles and overt signs from God because you interiorly, as Charlie Walton used to say, “know in your knower”, that God IS actually for you and that He IS there listening to your prayers and that He IS working on your children. 

                I have talked with many of you who have had an extraordinary closeness to God at some point in your life.  Unfortunately, the result of this experience for many of you has been increased frustration, in some cases to the point of anger at the church or others or the leadership - sometimes ending in church hopping trying to duplicate that experience or even leaving Christ.  The problem is that God has allowed you to taste this experience not so you will have a 2 year old’s hunger for more but so that you will grow the tree that produces it.  He wants to develop in you and through you in those around you, the tree that the fruit comes from.  Water flowing from you.  John 4:14  Simply handing you another pear will not help you.  It will taste good but you will sit on your couch waiting for the next delivery instead of being in His story of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:16-20) which is His – and, in reality, your – deepest desire.

                So how can you get on this bandwagon of understanding your unholiness and therefore grace?

                First, accept that you are treasured by God.  God’s relationship with you is as intense as marriage. 

                Second, quit having an opinion/agenda.  Take a back seat.  Do what others tell you to do.  Offer your agenda-less service and then simply be humble and do what you are asked to do.  If you cannot do this with your spouse, with the people around you, you will not do it with God.  (1 John 4:19, Philippians 2)

                Third, evaluate everything you do by starting with Christ.  He is not first on your list.  He is the arbiter of the list.  Christ controls you at work.  Christ tells you how to act in your marriage.  Christ controls the course of your hobby.  God speaks to you about your ministry.

                Lastly, for this short note, show up… no matter what.  Don’t miss your 6:00am appointment with God each morning.  Be at church.  Meet with a discipler.  Take on a job at church (Walt has a list if you need direction.)  Say “God” to someone outside your church family every day.  You can do this….You want to do this.  This is what grace is about...the freedom to do what will fulfill you instead of being controlled by desires.

Stepping across the Jordan

Stepping into the kingdom of God is a scary thing.  Too scary for the Hebrew nation.  With our past and our fears and failures and our oppressors nipping at our heels the Red Sea opens up.  Then in a cleansing baptism, they are all washed away.  Grace has set us free.  Just travel across a short desert while we get some basic operating procedures and step into the kingdom.  It is not a sea step with threatening walls of water on each side and the army at our heals.  Just waltz on across the river.  Why is this so hard?  Why can't I, we, embrace this gift of grace and provision?  Why let fear and uncertainty create new oppressors?
This is the work now.  A labor of love.  To move into happiness.  Move into a land of honey.  Move into a house already built.  It takes a battle or two but battles God has won already.  Just go through the motions, Walt.  Claim the riches of Jericho - the walls are down already.  Walk with Gideon through the valley of the enemy conquered with clay pots.  Crest the hill with Hezekiah to find the enemy slain over night.  Go ahead and join Ezra.  Cyrus, unbidden, sends us to rebuild temple walls.  A kingdom for the taking.
Has the surety of desert so much more appeal than risk?  Is the memory of leeks so much more lovely than the hope of figs?  Let the waters cover the chariots of Egypt.  Let them drown the memory and security of servitude.  Let the mighty waters crush the way back home.  Let our new security be not in what we had or have but in who parts the second water.  You are not far from the kingdom.  Indeed.  Not far.

Puzzle

Community must be a “means”.  The rights, privileges, advantages of simple community life will not support community.  We will create the end by our pettiness and rivalry and selfishness and agendas.  We will alienate our loved ones and create alliances with those we dislike.  We will sabotage the entire mess if the goal is community.  Community, in order to be community and make it as a community, must be based on the missiology we are called into in Christ.  If we try to achieve community by living together and learning how to get along and sharing, it will always collapse upon itself.  It is the same as sadness or introversion or non-medical depression.  If we try to make things/ourselves better, happier, we will fail because we are looking at the problem for the answer.  We were designed to be outward focused.  The major result of the Garden fall was that we turned our focus inward, self looking at our own nakedness.  Adam’s first sentence after the fall has five “I’s” in it.  Five in one sentence.  Living in community was/is our design but not as an end but as a means to participation in God’s plan.  This is part of the genius of Michael Breen's 3DM www.weare3dm.com.  We all must be missional.

Community/belonging is like puzzle pieces.  We are meant to fit together to create a unified picture/story.

Each piece must be authentically that particular piece and not try to be something different than who they are -no covetousness.  Each piece must fit in with others and must be willing to fit together.  It must submit to the group.  It must move with the group.  Groups of puzzle pieces are not community.  Community is much easier if all pieces can see the outcome picture.  This is why not vision casting but vision revealing and buy in are critical.  Leaders are not the biggest pieces or even the vision caster but facilitators, helping all the pieces including themselves to discern the picture and come together in the right order/sequence/placement.  It can work but it is much harder if only a prophet has the picture but no one else can see it.  Much better for the prophet to teach.  It is not then required nor essential nor even desirable for the leader to have the puzzle picture in mind.  The leader only has to get everyone in on the game.

Fear

Augustine says that Peter's denial was not one of unbelief but of fear.  No surprise there.  Peter still believed that Jesus was who He said He was but Peter was so afraid of the consequences of that belief that he lied and denied Christ.
Our actions are based only partly on our belief.  Our actions are generally based on trust or fear.  Fear about what might happen or trust about what might happen.  Not trust that God will make everything go well but trust that God can make wine out of water, redemption out of a cross, something good out of suffering if need be.  We must not be afraid to suffer.  We must believe that God is a God who does not end all suffering but does use suffering. 

...we exist for the praise of God's glory - Eph 1:11

Our occupation is to praise God.  It is not propriety or social action.  It is not to make money.  It is not to be happy.  It is not to provide for our families.  Our occupation is to praise God.  We must do that at all costs.  In doing that, the poor may be fed and our behavior perhaps redeemed.  Our families provided for.  Our happiness, and perhaps even with money, may settle in our hands.  Yet we must never be deterred if all else is lost.  We must never let up.  We must never lose our focus.  We must never give in to anything but that which praises God. Not for what He gives us or does for us but praise for who He is.  If you desire to be in God's will and be a part of His plan, simply spend time praising Him and you are there.  It really is that simple.
God, you are..........

God, you are the harbor.  Safety in the storm and a place for refitting.  A place for caulking my leaking seams and cleaning my hull.  A place of mending sails.  A place for fresh meals and supplies for the journey.  A place not home but preparation.  The place for new charts and orders.
God, you are the keel.  You steady my course and right me when I yaw.
God, you are the rudder, guiding me on my course through doldrums and gale.
You, Father, are the wind in my sails.  My energy.
God, you are the captain, of course. 
You are Polaris and sextant.  The truth and the way to find it.

And you are God, without me.  You are.  You remain.  I am a speck yet you love me the more.  I rebel and You call me back.
You are the God of lithium before there was "electricity".  You are God before.  You are God after.
You are the God Who plans and the God who redeems and re-plans.  Grace.

Hands and Feet Un-nailed

I have a bonsai plant that I nurtured for several years.  Its nurture wasn’t particularly hard but it did mean I had to pay attention to the water level and pruning and bugs and weeds.  I keep several bonsais.  They remind me of the mountains but mainly I keep them because they teach me.  They teach me to be patient and remind me that caring is not hard but takes a steady hand over time.  I can train an oak bough to bend if I do so gently.  And though I can persuade an oak branch to bend, I can never make it into a willow.  My long work on this particular bonsai was for naught when I neglected it for a couple of weeks this fall and never saw the spider mites that took it over.  Nurture is a long work, however easy it is – “Oh, look at them. They are such nice kids,” did not happen over night.  “Why in the world would he do that?” also has a history.

                I hate to bring up what are now, for some, fading memories of the terrible December day in Connecticut but, truly, it is essential that I do.  The world is not learning and we Christians are not standing up with the answer.  Amidst the endless calls for justice – a place for blame - and the tired pleas once again for gun control and more police in schools, we must reconsider our lives of independence and power and immediacy as those 15 families are forever reconsidering their lives without ones held so dear. 

                The world has cried out that if there is a God then He certainly does not love us any more.  Or, if there could be a God, truly God – big and strong - then evil would not happen.  He must not exist.  What the world (and many of us if the truth be told) wants is a genie-god to fix evil but leave us alone. 

                What the world does not want to hear is that the answer to the terrible crimes we have witnessed in the last few years is the same answer to our own lack of faith and the answer to the diminishing following of Jesus Christ and the answer to our children leaving the faith, following the world.  The answer is not a big dramatic heave-ho as we all are apt to do and which feels good and productive and for which we can hold our breath long enough to do before we get back to life.  The answer, rather, must be a “long obedience in the same direction” as Peterson has titled his book.   The answer is to show up not incidentally but every day for a lifetime.  There is no answer truly for anything except to sit daily with God.  To be with Him long enough every day for His presence to wash away the defilement of our own nature and to dissolve the filth that clings to our hearts from our TV and movie driven culture.  The answer is to sit with God long enough every day so that the corruption tugging on us from the world, bidding us to be like the world is but a pestering snag.  The answer is listening and hearing from God His plan… for today… for you.  Then taking that plan to the street. 

                The answer is someone simply embracing their God-job in the life of a man named Adam Lanza.  This is the answer for December 14ths.  The answer is us.  We are Luther’s “little Christ’s.  You do so, so much.  Yet we must show up even more dedicatedly in God’s presence every single day and then be in the world, as we are told to be, in a long obedience as Christ’s feet and hands no longer nailed to the cross.

An Approach Towards Revelation

Boy I wish I had come up with this phrase.  It is from Georg Huntemann in The Other Bonhoeffer.  Everything we do as Christians must eschew the pursuit of anything but revelation from God and our acting on revelation.  If we pursue knowledge of Scripture it must be so that we can know that the revelation we think we have received is from God.  If we pursue understanding it must be so that we can understand God's revelation to us.  If we pursue a woman or a man it must be so that we can act on the revelation from God that we have received.  If we go to work it must be so that we can make money to act on God's revelation to us or to implement His revelation in that setting.  Everything must be "an approach to revelation."  Bonhoeffer was not nearly the first to embrace a "mystic" point of view by any means but he is one of the very few evangelicals who have blessed, sanctioned, taught that knowledge is not the key.  That "a Christian worldview" is not the answer to our ills both in the church and without.  He is one of the few evangelicals who not only accepts "mystery", not as an unfortunate spiritual blindness that we must try to figure out, but as a great grace.  We cannot learn enough.  We cannot understand enough.  There is no system that has God figured out.  There is no theology that is correct.  There is no "squaring" God with our understanding.  We are not equals to God and His revelation, though complete enough to get us to heaven, it does not give us a complete picture of God.  So, we must depend on revelation.  We must humble ourselves and wait on God.  We must, like Joshua, ask God for directions and then respond with a "Yes Sir," with a cavalier disregard for  Kant's "religion within reason".  Hard for westerners.  We want our relationship with God strained through the sieve of analytics so we don't do anything stupid or unseemly.  God wouldn't ask us to do anything dumb. 
Really? 
Read your Bible again more slowly. 

Every Day

Acts 2:46 "every day"

..."it is precisely in retreats of short duration that the human element [desires of the flesh] develops most easily.  Nothing is easier than to stimulate the glow of fellowship in a few days of life together, but nothing is more fatal to the sound, sober, brotherly fellowship of everyday life."  Life Together - Bonhoeffer p39

     Events are such a draw for people.  They are fun and exciting.  They give us a new spirit of engagement.  They get into our memories and stay there.  One still remembers what was on the table for Thanksgiving three weeks ago but no one knows the breakfast of last Thursday.  So why is Bonhoeffer so hard on short events?  "Fatal"? 
     We can hold our breath for a short event.  We can agree to disagree for a few days.  We can make it through Spring Break with Uncle Fred because we know that it will end soon.  We can "be nice" during the reception because we are headed home.  The trouble is that we fool ourselves into thinking that since we can do this for a few moments or even days that we are redeemed.  Our souls have been changed.  And our ministry is done for the year.  We have sacrificed our lives for four hours a day for a week.  That is enough on the time clock.  And we have been pleasant besides.
     "What care I for the number of your sacrifices.  I have had enough of whole burnt rams and fat of fatlings; in the blood of calves and lambs and goats I find no pleasure.  Bring me no more worthless offerings.  Your incense is loathsome to me.  Your new moons and festivals I detest."  Isaiah 1:11
     However small your daily time with God is, it is better.  If all you can do is one minute while on the john, telling Him that He is still God, it is better. We must attend to the God of the universe every day, every day, every day.  It is no use to think that a fun date once a week or month is a relationship.  It is a lie.  Worse than that.  It is a disease that will kill you.  Every day...say something to the lover of your soul.
 

Lens

Ever looked in a circus mirror?  Ever looked through an antique window pane?  Ever tried on someone else's glasses?  What we look through to see the world is critical to how we act.  Les Newsome from Ole Miss frames it this way, "a person's behavior will match the reality they live in.  A person whose reality is being underwater will behave in a certain way - swimming and not breathing."  If we think our true "reality" is the now and the circumstances around us, then we will act like the world.  If we see reality through a lens that is distorted then we will reach for our Coke and knock it over instead of picking it up.  One of the major tasks in our life is to un-distort our lens, to learn the true reality of the Kingdom of Heaven so our behavior can be congruent with who we are in God's story.  The problem with this is that when all you have seen has been distorted then you think that is normal.  An abused young girl that I worked with could not accept that I cared for her because all the care she had ever known included being beaten.  Since I did not beat her as her mother and father did, I must not care for her, she assumed.  It is a long therapy to move her from her "reality" to the truth.  It is a long transfiguration to move from an earthly perspective/lens/reality to God's true one.  Generally, you cannot do it by yourself because you see what you have always seen.  Even new information is not helpful because you process that through your old lens according to your old reality.  Another reason that community is essential.  However, in order for the community to be helpful, the people in the community must also realize that their lens is distorted as well.  Fortunately, the Holy Spirit is with us and can...will step in if you let Him.  The upshot of this then is to let Him.  How?  The main transfiguring experience in our lives is worship.  Most people want Bible study to be the transforming experience because that is easy and clean and predictable and we can control it.  The problem again is that all we get is processed through our perspective/lens.  In worship, sitting with God, orienting ourselves to Him, we get a tan, as it were.  We cannot, of our own will, tan ourselves but we can step into the sun.  The same with our transfiguration.  We cannot control the re-formation of our reality or lens but we can allow God to do that.  So worship Him.  Spend time with your attention on Him.  This does not mean singing worship songs necessarily though it can.  It does not mean giving God your laundry list of wants - even unselfishly for others' healings or well-being.  It does not mean showing up at the church when the doors open.  What worship is is telling God He is great and worthy of you telling Him that He is great.  Tell Him in all the ways you can that He is wonderful.  Not because He made giraffes or healed Aunt Sue.  Not because He gave you a beautiful baby.  Not because He got you home when the car was acting up.  Not because.....  Telling Him that He is good even when you don't understand how that squares with what you see in the circumstances around you is what He desires.  Acknowledge Him as powerful, loving, just, right, patient in every way you can think of.  This will change your lens and you will begin to see aright.  Then truth will be your reality and the life you are longing to lead will be congruent with His plan and you will be amazed at who you are and more and more and more amazed at Who He is.  Worship... the lens changer.

You've lost that loving feeling....

We have all experienced coolness with our friends, neighbors, family, lovers.  Sometimes it just hits you in the face.  Other times the warmth slowly ebbs away.  Then things warm again (hopefully).  This happens in our relationship with God, too.  You should be encouraged when it happens because that very coolness indicates that you once had warmness and also that you are engaged with a personal God and not a philosophy or head trip. Though we can't control emotions directly, emotions will follow experiences.  For example, if you and your flame are not so warm any more, some time together having dinner and watching a movie can help.  Remembering past good times can re-ignite things a bit.
One of my standard remedies for a coolness in my relationship with God is from a man who lived in the 1500's named Ignatius.  His idea was to spend time in prayer looking at and then trying to "be" in specific moments of Jesus' life.  Spending time with Jesus in this way almost always helps me to re-engage my heart with my mind and beliefs.  Just as one must recognize as a married couple, that even though the ooey gooey isn't there all the time, the relationship is not over, so must Christians recognize that feelings of passion are icing on the cake and not the meal with Jesus as well.  But it is nice to feel something.  If you get down and discouraged and have lost that loving feeling with God you may want to take some time to try Ignatius' prayer method.  An example:
I set aside 20 minutes.  For a few minutes I try to still my mind - like getting a child with a cut finger to be still so you can put a Bandaid on the cut.  Then I choose a theme like joyful events in Jesus' life.  I choose one moment and consider 10 things about it.  The presentation of Jesus at the temple.  I look around.  The temple walls are light colored stone. It's a bit dim inside and smells dusty.  A little cool.  Simeon takes the baby Jesus carefully but firmly.  Simeon is old but his age seems to dissipate as he talks about finally seeing the Messiah.  Mary and Joseph are a little worried about what this means and lean into each other.  Could this really be true?  Why them?  Jesus is a real baby...asleep.  He's wrapped up in a fairly nice cloth but Mary and Joseph aren't rich by any means but it doesn't matter at all to them.  I am there.  Watching from the corner.  They notice me and nod with a nervous smile.  Me too.  The Messiah.  Really?  Time's up.  I go into my day but that was cool, to spend a little time in the temple with the family.  And now I feel something.

Missions

K. Norris says in The Cloister Walk that often the people who know the exact cost of something, have no idea of its value. 

Who knows what the woman who anointed Jesus’ feet with expensive nard was thinking?  She wasn’t preparing Him for burial as Jesus Himself suggests.  She was not, as some authors have suggested, breaking open and emptying her dowry, hoping for a spouse (though that is what she ultimately got spiritually).  She was not even giving Jesus a gift, for surely she knew that this man poorly appreciated the world’s treasures.  There was not even extravagance in this gaudy display.  She knew, as we all know, that extravagance relies on the audience and Jesus is not impressed…with the oil.

What did she bring?  Fragrance. 

This money is being wasted, sending all those people to Africa.  With that much money we could build a school there.  Why, we could put in twenty wells with that much money.  A van.  They really need a van.  Why wasn’t that money given to the poor?

The world looks and never sees.  The world listens and never hears. 

A child’s tin can phone conversation across the dining room table or her gathering of weeds to garland your hair carry an unseen weight of glory to which the world is forbidden or is unable to bear.  The world in its poverty can only see what could be and not what is. 

The fragrance of nard filled the room.  Missionaries’ hands hold foreign dirt and hands.  Missionary fingers plait honey brown hair into peace and loved-ness.  Missionary feet miss the goal with balls of rags and all feet rejoice that no one fails alone.

Fragrance.  The fragrance of love is much too dear to be sacrificed for houses or vans.  The weight of a forehead kiss brought 5000 miles for a sleeping child in acacia shade trumps many schools or wells.

Don’t weary yourself with the world’s concerns.  Bricks and mortar can never sweeten a sad and desperate world.  Let love walk beggarly and empty pocket-ed if it must into other’s darknesses for a ragged love will fill more stomachs than bread.  Speed the missionaries on.  If they need more money to dig the well, there is enough to go around… if there is love enough.

God's Absence

Though God's absence is a common experience for most Christians, it is always fresh and frightening for those in the throes of it.  Mother Theresa prayed to truly enter into Christ's passion on the cross and spent the next 50 years feeling God's abandonment.  For most of us, God's kindness is that we feel His presence more than not.  For me personally, though, it is more often the depth of the emptiness that assures me that I was made for filling. Today, well, for months now actually, Jesus is asleep on the cushion in the back of my boat.  It is a gift to sail alone - with Him nearby - though I would like some conversation.  It is a great disciplining to pray to a empty ceiling, to pray to a God with flat affect.  It is important for me to pray though, learning again that I don't require His feedback to believe that He hears.  It is a comfort to pray knowing that He doesn't require my affect or gyrations or goosebumps or heavy heart or goo-ness for Him to be moved.  It is nice to be a part of the swell when worship explodes with such inward force that expression just happens.  It is nice to be able to surf down the face of that wave, exhilarated and free with a power behind you that is huge and scary and so amazing that you go after it again and again.  The bigger those incredible waves, the sadder it is when swells still.  When you just sit there.  And sit there.  And sit there.  Doldrums.  The ocean is still just as deep.  The water is still water.  There is still surf somewhere.  But it is hard to keep believing that swells will come again...here.  It is disheartening to look toward the horizon and see calm.  Time to swim, I guess.  And hope.