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Lent:: Holding Onto Faith

Wednesday, March 19, 2008 10:59 PM

It is the time of the year when myself and the other "camp guys" begin to form ideas and plan lessons, activities, and programs for the upcoming summer sessions. This is a wonderful time of the year for me, because I get to slip into youth minister mode. this period is also a challenge for all of us, as we plan to attempt impact in so many lives in such a short period.

This process led me to desire to revisit a concept from a previous post back in December. I included a quote by C.S. Lewis from Mere Christianity. He stated:
We have to be continually reminded of what we believe. Neither this belief nor any other will automatically remain alive in the mind. It must be fed. And as a matter of fact, if you examined a hundred people who had lost their faith in Christianity, I wonder how many of them would turn out to have reasoned out of it by honest argument? Do not most people simply drift away? - C.S. Lewis
I wanted to return to this idea again as I reflect on the outcome of camp and youth ministry in the lives of these many young people we work with at camp and examine their faith experience during their college years. It should be noted that as I have watched many of these young people transition from the protection of their parents household to the freedoms of collegiate life, the decision to attend a Christian college over a secular college has virtually 0% impact on the eventual outcomes of their faith experience. Since getting the desired outcome is not as easy as a road map to the right University, we must genuinely examine our ideas and methods of discipleship.

I read this quote today from a campus minister with Campus Crusade for Christ in San Fransisco:
"My experience... is that 80 percent of all incoming college freshmen who are 'saved' youth group kids become 'lost' college students very quickly. Why? Because they didn't follow Jesus to college. (Instead, they followed their friends, parents, 'the system,' or whatever.) They are usually good kids but not very godly. They are nice Christians but not very Christ-like. They are kind of spiritual but not very Spirit-filled."
The author points out from observation that spiritual success has more to do with the instilled manifestation of their faith to maintain them the through these years rather than a compelled sense of participation in religious services.

Instilling only a duty to religious participation is shallow and leaves our teens with a need to a search for fulfillment. Since the fulfillment brought by empty religious ritual matches the emptiness of the world's offerings the responsibility of religious morality becomes burdensome and gives way to the ease of self fulfillment. Having never been offered true meaning for life, pleasure becomes that purpose.

The contrast to pleasure as a purpose teens is young people who were inspired by their parents and other authority structures to live out the service oriented aspects of the Jesus lifestyle. The young people who have committed to renew their faith regularly by participation in Jesus style evangelism. Please understand that this means more than an occasional "service project" and the periodic "mission trip." This structure to bring meaning to faith requires commitment to it's application.

As I look over the majority of our youth I see only lifeless skeletons. Biblical education has provides a framework to build a Spirit Filled life upon, and yet by our lack of diligent commitment to this growth most of the teens are spiritually emaciated with no robust body of Spirit Filled experiences to promote growth. The gods of greed and pleasure have left our students shattered, withered, and perishing.

This is not a white flag! I have not accepted the atrophy and coalesced to merely offer a shallow ala carte consumerist schedule. Instead it is a prophesy!

Ezekiel 37:1-6 The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry.
He asked me, "Son of man, can these bones live?"
I said, "O Sovereign LORD, you alone know."
Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones and say to them, 'Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.' "
God has brought Ezekiel on survey trip. He has placed him in a valley of death with one instruction, "Speak words of life." I indict myself, my peers in youth ministry, the parents of these young people, and our churches. This indictment is offered as I stand like Eziekel in the valley created by our efforts and I see only wilted remnants of our grave mistakes. The lifeless bones of those entrusted to our ministries are calling out, "Speak words of life, that we may hear the word of the Lord!"

Ezekiel 37:7-10 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.' " So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.


I challenge us as the fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers of these young people to a new commitment of evangelism to our youth. We must enter into the death and reclaim them from the gods of this world we have surrender them to. We must begin to teach new lessons, not in the classroom, but in the praxis of purity and justice.

We must demonstrate the freedom in Christ we have to choose the narrow road that denounces greed and pleasure. We their leaders have been joined to these whores of worldly religion in their midst. Our first words of life must be tears of repentance!

Our second phase of dialog must be action. We must STOP acting like Christ called his church to be philanthropic purveyors of charity! Augustine's words have never been more timely, "Charity is no substitute for justice withheld." Our day timers need to be realigned to afford greater priority to being light in the darkness. We must seek out opportunities to join with God constantly in his work of reconciliation in the world.

We will not be successful in discipling our young people to hold onto their faith until we learn to live out gospel in front of them. The cross is redemptive, meant to resurrect us from the impoverishment of pride and self gratification. We must physically invest in their restitution through constant participation with them in the work of God among our world. Purity and Justice demonstrated will be more foundational to holding on to faith than any lesson, program or activity we can ever plan. We must breathe life into these slain.

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Lent:: Palm Sunday Politics

Saturday, March 15, 2008 10:22 PM

One of the most intriguing stories in the Bible is the sheer mystery of the Passion Week. In a period of 5 days Jesus goes from a celebrated entrance to a despised death. As our churches celebrate Palm Sunday, we are forced to reckon with the realities that take us from Sunday to Thursday.
As Jesus rode into Jerusalem the crowd crowned him with adoration. By Friday morning, he would be paraded through these same streets with detestation.

I am leading the Bible Class with our teens this morning. Our focus is what happened in those 4 days? How did Jesus' political message change a people's entire view of his Kingdom? Why was His Kingdom so terrifying to the powers that be that he had to die?

We are looking at the power of earth's kingdom compared to the power of the Kingdom of God. Rather than detail this thought for you in text, I invite you to read through my class outline, and come to your own conclusions.

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Lent:: Hypocrisy and the Do As I Say Mess

Friday, March 14, 2008 8:11 AM

My daughter and two of her friends got themselves into a bit of trouble at school. There is a boy who we will call Bob. Bob, according to my daughter's side of the story, was being aggressive and unfair to the three girls. In response to Bob's hostile actions the three girls chartered a club. This is where the issue is. The school has a policy against student initiated clubs. Although, I am completely against my daughter violating rules, and also feel like returning aggression with an allied offense is a carnal rather than spiritual response, I still can not seem to miss the irony that this policy is being legislated and enforced by a unionized workforce.

"Do as I say, not as I do!" I think there is no cliché that is more lived our before children than that one. It is the general policy that your behavior is subject to my rights, but my behavior is not subject to your rights. My wife is the QUEEN of this in regards to cell phone. She can not answer a cell phone. No matter the time of day, her location, and even her known urgency she CAN NOT flip her cell phone open with a friendly, "Hello!" Now I and most her friends have accepted this bizarre personality quirk as just part of the fabric of who she is. Yet, she has gotten literally IRATE at me, because by some weird chance I have left my phone at my desk, in my car, etc... and for the ONCE in a blue moon occurrence, was unable to answer her call.
"Do as I say, not as I do!" She heralds a carry and answer your cell phone so you are available at my every whim policy, yet will not avail herself to the same courtesy to you.

Now I chose the above issue, since it is light hearted and I heckle her about it frequently. Yet the issue behind the hypocrisy is serious in my accounting. Many children, and adults alike have been wounded by the double edge of this selfishness. Parents have wounded children by punishing them for lies, while the children see their parents lying to ease their way out of a stressful engagement. Church leaders have wounded their congregation by preaching against sexual immorality, while being ensnared to it personally. The church as a whole has preached a message of concern about the least of these, while building bigger auditoriums, with better audio, projection, and lighting systems.

As people watch the duplicity of those in authority is perverts their ability to see beyond the falsity of their lip service and engage on any level of truth with that individual. This is why Paul makes the issue of transparency so important to Timothy while giving instructions on the selection of elders:

1 Timothy 3:2-7 Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect. (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God's church?) He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil's trap.

I included this text, not for your consideration in your congregation's next elder selection, but instead to challenge all of us to practice the kind of maturity Paul is stating needs to be present in the life of a leader within God's church.

It is important to my sincerity that I not claim to speak with authority on matters of eternal truth if I am not practicing gentleness, peacemaking, simplicity, and compassion that substantiated Christ message through his lifestyle. It is an anathema to the cause of the Kingdom when our conduct is not in submission to our message.

My mother was kind enough last time I was home, to point out a glaring hole between the lifestyle I live and the message I speak. I don't want that disparity. I want to practice the incarnational presence of Christ through mending the gaps in the fence between my carnal struggles (greed, lust, pride, and laziness) and my spiritual freedom in Christ to not be bound by that old nature.

I know I certainly have a long way to go. Yet still I say, "Here Am I Lord, Send Me!"

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Lent:: Abundant Life

Thursday, March 06, 2008 11:17 PM

"He found that he was often angry...that they were satisfied with their lives which had none of the vibrance his own was taking on. And he was angry at himself, that he could not change that for them." -Lois Lowry
In Lois Lowry's "the Giver" Jonas learns the truth of the world that everyone around him has given up in order to live in the comfort of their mundane lives. The people have given up all memory for the familiarity of a sterile prosaic monotony. There is no war, or hunger, or poverty; for this there is no color, no creativity, and no dreams. Jonas as he discovers the true joy of a life filled with color and promise is forced to flee the flat routine of his worlds uneventful utopia.

The Giver has been one of my favorite books since I first read it. Other books have come and went, but The Giver has maintained it's secure hold as my top fiction title. I am wild at heart spontaneous dreamer and a free spirited radical. I relate the awkward tension between Jonas' world and my own.

My seditious temperament often finds itself deeply pleased by the revolutionary subversion in the interactions between Jesus and his audience. Jesus wasn't safe to invite to a dinner party. I LOVE THAT!!!!

In my personal "pledge of allegiance" John 10:10 Christ contrast his abundant life promise to that of a thief. The thief wants to steal, kill, and destroy. The contrast to the opulence of Christ is not average mediocrity, it is barren poverty.

I am a communicator and yet it frustrates me that so many of the people of God are willing to accept the dearth of complacency despite it's negative effects on their marriages, their children, and their own peace while I am unable to herald a commission to change. Exasperation peaks within me as I look at the requiem of our cars, homes, clothing, and entertainment realizing the routine pursuit of these things are cancerous to us.

I will step off my soap box, put away my bullhorn and "end is near" sign and admit that I need a lot more abundant life too. I am amazed at how opposite the values, challenges, and activities of Jesus from our "norm." I want to be obsessed with His insurgence to a greater measure than I have sought the vacancy of this world's ways. I want abundant life! Here I Am Lord Send Me!

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Lent::: Water Water Everywhere

Wednesday, March 05, 2008 10:20 PM

Next to air, we humans have no physical need more fundamental to us than water. Our body's water supply must be constantly replenished since it is used by so many life systems. This need is made into a dilemma by the fact that though we live on a planet that is 70% water, 97% of that water is poisonous saline.

James makes the parallel between the poisonous nature of bitter talk and the spring of pure refreshment that encouraging talk is to those we encounter. The world is FULL of the pity and pain that bitter, angry, and slanderous talk have caused. Most the conversation of our world, like it's water to the body, is poison to the soul of it's listeners. There is yapping of tounges everywhere, yet so little is an oasis safe to drink and take in deeply.
James 3:9-10 Sometimes it praises our Lord and Father, and sometimes it curses those who have been made in the image of God. 10 And so blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth. Surely, my brothers and sisters, this is not right!
I asked my oldest daughter after we read these verses what James was saying, and her exegesis of the text was that God created our mouths to praise him and when we say mean things to each other that doesn't praise him. Talk about profound truth from the simple world view of a child.

James isn't advocating some superfluous cliche filled God talk, as some people pretend between their quips of gossips. Instead James is demanding a relational alteration of our mindset. Our encounters with our coworkers, our families, our communities, even our enemies must be filtered through the fact that every word and action must be seen as worship as God.

Isaiah, uses the water parallel also to celebrate the pure refreshing nature of communion with God -
Is 55:1-2
“Is anyone thirsty?
Come and drink—
even if you have no money!
Come, take your choice of wine or milk—
it’s all free!
Why spend your money on food that does not give you strength?
Why pay for food that does you no good?
Listen to me, and you will eat what is good.
You will enjoy the finest food."
If we are to be the physical presence of Christ in the world the whole combination of the 2 verses must be a deeply personal conviction for me. My words, my actions, my choices - am I a place where people in poverty (physically, emotionally, and spiritually) can come and drink freely of the Good News of God or am I a bitter pool of poisonous saline?

I want ALL my words, conversations and thoughts to bring restoration, renewal, and regeneration. There is NO PLACE for any talk that does not encourage the beauty and humanity of the person I am talking to.

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Lent: Because It's Just So Hard To Choose

Tuesday, March 04, 2008 8:56 PM

As I was putting the girls to bed tonight we read from James as is our custom, and then prepared to say our prayers. My three year old REALLY wanted to say her prayers first tonight, but it was the six year old's turn to say her prayers first. Now I explained to the three year old that she said her prayers first last night, it was still apparent her "delicate feelings" were saddened by the prospect of praying second.

Since the three year old was so pathetic, I thought I would use this as a teaching moment for the six year old. I asked my oldest, "Can your sister go first?" To which I got the much expected no. So I asked her about what we just read.

James 2:14-26 - My brothers and sisters, what good is it if people claim they have faith but don't act like it? Can that kind of faith save them?
Suppose a brother or sister has no clothes or food. Suppose one of you says to them, "Go. I hope everything turns out fine for you. Keep warm. Eat well." And you do nothing about what they really need. Then what good have you done? It is the same with faith. If it doesn't cause us to do something, it's dead.

But someone will say, "You have faith. I do good works."

Show me your faith that doesn't do good works. And I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that. And they tremble!

You foolish man! Do you want proof that faith without good works is useless? Our father Abraham offered his son Isaac on the altar. Wasn't he considered to be right with God because of what he did? So you see that what he believed and what he did were working together. What he did made his faith complete. That is what Scripture means where it says, "Abraham believed God. God accepted Abraham because he believed. So his faith made him right with God." And that's not all. God called Abraham his friend. 24 So you see that a person is made right with God by what he does. It doesn't happen only because of what he believes. Didn't God make even Rahab the prostitute right with him? That's because of what she did. She gave the spies a place to stay. Then she sent them off in a different direction.

The body without the spirit is dead. In the same way, faith without good works is dead.
My question to her was how do we show God's love? "Through doing," she sighed back to me.
"So do you want to show love, or do you want to go first," I asked?
"But it's not fair," she pleaded hoping I would excuse her from the exercise.
"Showing God by doing isn't fair," I responded "It makes us suffer, to give up that right. You have the RIGHT to go first and you can choose that."
At this point I stopped preaching to her because tears were rolling down her little cheeks.
"Why are you crying," I tenderly asked?
"Because It's just so hard to choose!" she cried back at me...

My heart was breaking with her decision. I could not let off her to make the choice and apply the text, yet I knew PRECISELY where she was at. I mean don't get me wrong, I don't go to fisticuffs with my wife because I care who says a prayer first at bedtime. I do know and do struggle with the tension between what is "fair" (mine by right) and living out this Jesus lifestyle, this faith stuff. I deal with her tension myself, when I see a need to meet in a person I encounter, and still want to be lazy and selfish.

It is hard to choose. I want to be like Jesus every decision, every day. I want to be MORE outward focused. I want to not only see but also respond to the physical, emotional, and spiritual poverty around me. I want to be moved, not by the casual, the comfortable, and the convenient, but instead by the Christ. Yet, I am wretched, pitiable, and poor. As Paul says Romans 7:24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death ?

Thank God for the grace of Christ. Thank God for HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS! I can choose, as my daughter did, to submit not to the reality that is mine by right, but instead to the faith that works in the needs of other. I am so grateful for my daughter, my little hero, for showing me what it meant to sacrifice without the pretense of acting like the decision was an easy one.

I have spent these lenten days in extra prayer for poverty and suffering. My prayer, is all the more that God would empower me even more to NOT JUST PRAY about poverty and suffering, but to surrender my rights and enter the WORK of this faith. Here am I Lord, Send Me!

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Lent: Walls, Windows, and Maturity

Thursday, February 28, 2008 12:30 PM

I am married to the girl of my dreams. She is gorgeous, and a pleasure to converse with. We have a peaceful home (other than three rambunctious children) where we love, challenge and mature each other. Disagreements are seldom, and resolved quickly. We both enjoy the others company over any of our other relationships. My wife is my best friend, and I could not be more in love.

I own a decent house, in a nice suburb of Chicago. I walk to work, so I am able to place my daughter on the bus each morning before I mosey to the office. I have a great job, where I get to be challenged intellectually and work with a group of people I genuinely like a lot! I have an amazing employer, who uses his resources in AMAZING ways to build the Kingdom of God. I have great friends, a home church, and a wonderful extended family. We are financially comfortable and within reaching distance of being debt free (other than the house).

My life is near perfect. So I had to wonder to myself, why I resonated with James 1:2 -"Consider it pure joy my brothers when you face trials of many kind." After all, I live a fairly trial free life. I have no challenge to make ends meet, no challenge in my relationships. and no health issues looming over my head.

So, to be most honest I must confess it was all the physical things like the house, the job, and the financial security, that came to the forefront of my mind. These comforts, which I have deep gratitude for, feel like a wall between myself and my relationship with God. My trial is being on hand to the Kingdom in the midst of all these comforts. I need to be free to be at hand for obedience to God.
When we do something out of obedience to the Lord, there can be no other explanation-just obedience. That is why a saint can be so easily ridiculed and misunderstood.- Oswald Chambers
Even amazing Godly people whom I love have ask me
I can not answer these questions to any satisfaction of my inquisitors. The reality is I'm still here. I'm still doing everything the same as I have always done. The question I ask myself is if this is obedience? Would choosing the path of foreign missions be the difference between a wall and window? Is Chambers right that the path to maturity, is not the well travel road that seems right and logical instead it is the overgrown trek through brambles and weeds that can not be understood and is constantly questioned and second guessed.

The whole first chapter of James deals with this. The wisdom of God is in James 1:22 - "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. DO WHAT IT SAYS!" I am thankful for this trial which is calling me to side step the wall, and instead choose the window that leads to obedience. Here Am I Lord, Send Me!

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Lent: Abnormal

Wednesday, February 27, 2008 3:55 PM


Not everything that steps out of line, and thus 'abnormal', must necessarily be 'inferior'. - Hans Asperger (1938)

It is rare that you read a single quote that moves you to a flood of tears. This one did for me! I struggled most of my childhood with being abnormal and still work VERY HARD to maintain an illusion of coolness and self confidence. I prefer to be on a stage or behind a podium rather than one on one with people mostly because if you spend to much time with me, you will discover my bizarre idiosyncrasies. Ask my wife, she broke up with me while we were dating and struggled with them considerably during our early marriage.

Abnormal is my normal. So I am forced to process all reality through this "abnormal" lens. I often see things SO CLEARLY, and get so sad when I can not bring people along to understand the issue through my lens. I get very discouraged! I get down on my church, my family, my wife, etc...

For the longest time I have struggled with this, and recently due to some changes God is bringing in our family life, I have felt more "weird" than I normally feel. God has crazy cool plans for revealing himself to us. We were reading James 1, and God spoke the reality that wisdom comes only through asking Him for it. So as we continued reading, I prayed for wisdom about these things right as I was reading. Then after finishing the section I had planned to read my oldest daughter asked me to read just a little more.
James 1:16-17 Don't be deceived, my dear brothers. every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
This was invigorating to me! I am made to be me. My abnormalities are gifts from God to prepare me for his purposes. God's purpose for myself and my family is clear to Him, and I am made FOR THAT PURPOSE!!!

I have spent most my life seeing myself as broken. Yet last night when I was called by one of elder's wife, "the pied piper" it was an amazing affirmation of what God had spoken to me the previous night. "I AM MADE FOR A PURPOSE!!!"

I read this as I started my day today:
God is revealing himself to them in this storm. Right in the middle, in the height of the storm when they are beginning to give up hope; right then they strain one last time to see salvation and see God. He is there. Right there. Not pushing himself on us, or begging us to notice him. He's there in the thunder, in the pounding of the waves, in the flash of the lightening - that is the evidence of his power. God is passing by. - Karen Gerber
I hope the connection makes sense, because it was third block to a foundation of something great God is about to do in my life. God is calling me to be available, made as I am, not as defective, but as a reminder that I am a clay pot, made for his purposes and to be beautiful for his eyes.

Thank you Lord, for an amazing few days. - So where the is an hunger in an orphans belly, where there is a hurting forgotten ragamuffin, where there is a stray child who faces hopelessness and homelessness, I will Go! Here Am I Lord, Send Me!

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Lent: A Fransican Benedection

Monday, February 25, 2008 9:44 AM

Larry James, from Central Dallas Ministries posted the following Franciscans prayer on his blog.

May God bless you with discomfort
at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships
so that you may live deep within your heart

May God bless you with anger
at injustice, oppression and exploitation of people
so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace

May God bless you with tears
to shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger and war
so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and
to turn their pain into joy

And may God bless you with enough foolishness
to believe that you can make a difference in the world
so that you can do what others claim cannot be done
to bring justice and kindness to all our children and the poor.


All I can say is WOW!!! That is my life prayer, for myself personally that I can be the radical foolish Jesus follower the benediction challenges us to become. May the Lord bless you with the wisdom of heaven, and the foolishness of man, to pray this prayer daily!

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Lent: Do I Love

Monday, February 11, 2008 3:57 PM

"No, no, we are not satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream."

In this one of Martin Luther King Jr's most famous quote he makes reference to Amos 5:24. His struggle is not a quest for fairness and equality, instead it raises a standard to demand no less than Biblical Justice. Biblical Justice is about correcting the divide between the oppressed and free. Compassion and Mercy must be equal to all people, of all means, from all backgrounds. One could read Zechariah 7:9-10 or Isaiah 1:17 for more thoughts from the prophets. Christ reading from the prophet Isaiah in Luke 4 or painting the picture he does of judgment in Matthew 25 shows that participating WITH GOD in this realignment of equality is at the heart of being a follower. Yet these ideas were not new from God in the time of Christ, they were not new in the time of the prophets. These ideas were meant to be part of the fabric of God's people from the very giving of the law.

Read Leviticus 19:9-18
When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest.
Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the LORD your God.

Do not steal.
Do not lie.
Do not deceive one another.
Do not swear falsely by my name and so profane the name of your God. I am the Lord.
Do not defraud your neighbor or rob him. " 'Do not hold back the wages of a hired man overnight.
Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind, but fear your God. I am the Lord.

Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly.
Do not go about spreading slander among your people. " 'Do not do anything that endangers your neighbor's life. I am the Lord.
Do not hate your brother in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in his guilt.
Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.
The law places the responsibility to provide for the poor on equal par with the expectation of truth, fidelity, and honesty. Christ highlighting the command to "love your neighbor" and his explanation in the parable is an affirmation of the important place the unlovely have in the Kingdom of God!

As I reflect on this I am reminded of my personal favorite, when it comes to MLKjr quotes. “Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.” In this sermon MLKjr reminds he audience,

"By its very nature, hate destroys and tears down; by its very nature, love creates and builds up. Love transforms with redemptive power...The relevance of what I have said to the crisis in race relations should be readily apparent. There will be no permanent solution to the, race problem until oppressed men develop the capacity to love their enemies...Time is cluttered with the wreckage of communities which surrendered to hatred and violence. For the salvation of our nation and the salvation of mankind, we must follow another way...While abhorring segregation, we shall love the segregationist. This is the only way to create the beloved community."


This is exactly the kind of truth Christ was calling love when he spoke of loving one another. "Love you neighbor" and "Love one another" are serious demands that require our full effort. These commands are as serious to the Kingdom and more burdensome to the human condition than the commands of righteous living. Embracing the discipline of love will lead us to face the force of forgiveness toward our enemies and the ugliness of the least of these. Love can not be practiced from the comfort of our pews, or the type pads of our laptops. It must be lived among the stench of the dying and the offense of our enemies. It is in our entering of those places we ask the question, "Do I Love?"

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Lent:: Limited Risk, High Reward Investing

Friday, February 08, 2008 11:46 AM

Have you ever heard of a Nigerian 419? Your answer should have been yes, though you probably did not know it by that name. A Nigerian 419 is a scam artist best friend since it comforts the individual being scammed with an apparently legitimate large sum of money upfront, only later after a portion of those funds have been returned or forwarded is it revealed the original money was fraudulent. Many intelligent people have fallen for a Nigerian 419.

Have you ever sent in your $49.95 to learn the insider secrets of making money? I got an email just yesterday promising "Limited Risk, High Reward Investing." I am convinced step one is to send out spam asking people to pay for your investment advice.

The most amazing part to these is that people believe there is a "secret" money making plan, or that a person wants to part with 25% of their hard earned cash in a "secret" agreement. As there is no secret plan to easy money, there is no easy plan to a reconciliation lifestyle. Relationship with God is a HIGH RISK ADVENTURE, and if it is traveled as a low risk experiment, there will be no reward for the investment.

Abraham experienced the risk of relationship with God. In a three day journey with Issac by his side he traveled to the place God had told him to place his son on an altar. Moses experienced the risk of relationship with God. Standing before his close relative the Pharaoh of Egypt, Moses aligned himself with God's demands despite the great power of the king he was addressing. David experienced the risk of relationship with God. Though he was king the prophet called out his sin with Bathsheba and claimed the life of their son. Hosea experienced the risk of relationship with God. Called to marry a prostitute and then reclaim her a second time from her whoredom he paid the price for her redemption. Paul experienced the risk of relationship with God. Standing before kings, being jailed, beaten, and shipwrecked he still lived boldly the gospel that caused his abuses.

Experiencing God is a high risk proposition. It will cause us to feed the hideous, to bathe the foul, to clothe the unappreciative, to fellowship with the crazies. Reconciliation is high risk with few tangible rewards. It is not about community with our homogeneous neighborhoods. Instead it is about becoming family with those most different than ourselves. Reconciliation is high risk with few tangible rewards. It is not about teaching the secrets of eternal life to our Bible Class peers. It is about entering the places where death is most present in our world, and BEING LIFE in that darkness. Reconciliation is high risk with few tangible rewards. It is not about sharing an inspiring cliché to ease our BFF's guilt over a harsh word spoken or another failed diet plan. It is charging headlong into the places of our greatest fear, like the altar where our son is to be sacrificed, like the throne room where the powers that be are about to be challenged, like being open to an exposing rebuke by God's prophet, like at the pimps door to redeeming a whoring wife, like in the face of physical abuse and imprisonment. It is entering the places of where our fear s are most realized, and resting in Christ peace!

Isaiah 58 is famous for it's contrast of two kinds of Fasting. The first limited risk fast is that which informs God of our offering, waiting for his approving reward of our efforts. The second fast is the High Risk Adventure of ENTERING WITH GOD into the practice of Jubilee. God promises when we enter into that fast he will be our rear guard, or as we Gen Xers says, "God will have your back!"

Here I Am Lord! Send Me High Risk And All!!!

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Lent:: This One Goes To 11

Thursday, February 07, 2008 8:39 AM

Rejection, Denial, & Self Loss. Imagine the church attendance if you posted that on the sign out front as this weeks sermon. If I drove past that church I would drive wide the other way to avoid the hell fire and brimstone that may be eeking out the front doors.

Yet that message is one of the core tenets of Christianity. No, not in the condemning way that I would so deeply fear from our imaginary fundamentalist church where the shout does not go out. Instead is comes as a promise of greater fulfillment, and more rewarding meaning. It comes as the path to reclaim the fullness of what it means to be fully human. These 3 are the restorative building blocks to reconciliation.

It is impossible to live out reconciliation without experience and participation with these elements. Look at Christ's words:
Luke 9:22-24 - And he said, "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life." Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it."
Christ own work to bring restoration began with rejection. As I read the gospel and experience Christ passion for the poor, the rejected, and the lost I see no fire that burned in him like the flame to pursue restorative justice. Yet, my experience in Christian circles does not reflect this passion. The marginalized and the lost are relegated to the remnants of the church budget. The passion for pursuing the sick and the hurting will cause repeated rejection by the leaders, movers, and shakers of most Christian communities. The enemy of the restorative ministry lifestyle is not the world at large, instead like in the case of Christ it the religious elite.

Rejection is an outside force, and is as likely to occur as the sun is to rise. The second two elements of becoming the fullness of ourselves are personal decisions that require daily commitment to the purpose of our journey. Christ speaks of his followers continual reaffirmation to denial and self loss. He speaks of choosing to be dead to personal pursuit, and instead choosing complete loss of ones of rights.
I must deny my right to the promise of the American lifestyle as I enter into the pain of the migrant farmer, or the political refugee. I must share in the loss of social and economic standing of the elderly and the racially oppressed. I must be more concerned with meeting the needs of my coworkers and family, than my own needs and desires. I must be as actively involved in the alleviation of extreme poverty as if it were my own child dying of AIDS in a southern African desert or starving from lack of suitable food.

At this point, one could think I had preached the sermon of that firey fundamentalist preacher. However, this is a message of promise and hope. As I began to think on these issues my mind (the slippery slope that it is) I found myself remembering that famous scene in Spinal Tap when one band member is explaining to the documentary maker about the excellent amp that goes to 11 for that just little more.


As I take up my cross daily, I am entering into that life that has more. Jesus promises in John 10:10 a life that is more full, more abundant, more better than we ever dreamed of. Christ promises true life. Paul explains to us in Romans 5 that Christ through his righteous death became a new pattern for being fully human. I get a life that goes to 11! I get an experience that is filled with more meaning, more love, more peace, more of everything than I could fathom as possible.

The blessing of reconciliation outweighs the cost. That is not an easy truth to accept when I am tired. That is not a reality that is possible to understand when I am being carnal. Yet, in the rejection, through the denial and self loss it becomes a craving that leads to greater hunger for more and more abundant life.

So HERE I AM LORD!!! BRING IT ON!!!!

From Today's Lent Mediation:
Lover of mankind, inspire us to work for human progress,
- seeking to spread your kingdom in all we do.
May our hearts thirst for Christ,
- the fountain of living water.
Forgive us our sins,
- and direct our steps into the ways of justice and sincerity.

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Lent:: A Thousand Elsewhere

Wednesday, February 06, 2008 12:16 PM

i don't understand why he would choose to live on the street rather than at the center but for some reason that is a battle for him. - Sarah
My cousin Sarah who works at an orphanage in Mozambique wrote this on her blog about 2 weeks ago regarding a young man named Selso who ran away from the orphanage to return to the streets. The streets of a third world country are not a friendly place for a young person. Still Selso chose that life over the orphanage.

I get Selso. I know from experience that David is correct when he writes, "Better is one day in the tents of the Lord, than a thousand elsewhere." Yet I live in the tension between the two. My greatest peace and my greatest success comes when I am in the Lord's tents. Still I find myself drawn to the back alleys and slums of running from God.

Though the tent of the Lord has my every need: the brothel whores of lust, pride, and greed are able to detour me with lies of familiar comforts. I find myself faced with the same haunting questions I had for the men of Swaziland. In my arrogance I asked, "why do the keep having sex with the risk of infection and death so high?" Yet in my humility I can ask, "why do I keep repeating the same sin patterns when I know the infection of anger, and the death of joy they cause in my spirit?"

Familiar is an addictive drug. The street may be filled with pain and hunger, but it is a pain and hunger that Selso knows. The familiar haunts of my spirit are no different. The result of my lust, pride, and greed is isolated pain and lonely hunger.

This brings me to this Lenten season. I am following the Creighton University prayer guide this year. The opening reading contained the following 3 verses from Paul's second letter to the Corinthians.

2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2 We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. As God's fellow workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain. For he says,
"In the time of my favor I heard you,
and in the day of salvation I helped you."
I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation.


God made Christ sin! It is a statement whose depth is lost on us. It's depth is even more profound when linked with the sentence before it. As God made Christ our reconciliation, he has made us reconciliation as well. God has formed me to be reconciliation.

I intend these next 40 days to focus on reconciliation. I desire to first have my heart reconciled to the righteousness of God. I will fast and pray so that in my physical discomfort I learn to hunger for the tent of God. I will first focus on a pure and contrite heart. Second I will pray for the insight to be reconciliation to those in my circle of influence. I will humble myself, and not seek my agenda, but instead enter into their journey and bring the righteousness of God. I want to be an ATM of blessings. Third, I will pray to answer the calling of Isaiah. "Here am I Lord send me." I will pray for a future and a place where I can live out reconciliation to the refugee, to the racial minority, to the migrant worker, to the elderly, to the displaced, to the widow, to the orphan.

This lent I will pray that I stop leaving the center. I will pray into reality the words of Paul, "Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!" I will mourn, fast, pray, and act for the purpose of reconciliation.

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