In Preparation for Giving Thanks

Dear Faith Family,   

Tomorrow, you'll likely be around a meal with friends, family, or both. Whether the meal is labored over in traditional preparations or arriving via APP, is part of a more extensive day of activities, or humble hospitality, there will be a moment around the table where you'll be encouraged to remember with gratitude the actions and relationships that brought about your living, here and now, testifying to the light in your life. In other words, tomorrow, you will be encouraged to witness to grace and encouraged by the witness of grace.

Some of our friends and family witnesses may not accredit the light of their life, the grace from which gratitude flows, to the Giver of grace, but my prayer is that you and I will.

My prayer is that we will recognize the "true light which enlightens everyone" (Jn 1:9) of the thanksgivings we hear tomorrow, seeing in them "the glory of the only Son from Father, full of [the] grace..." of God with us and God for us (Jn. 1:14). And, in seeing in our shared lives "the Life which is the light of humanity" (Jn. 1:5) we would speak with humble, bold gratitude the name through which "we have all received grace upon grace": Jesus Christ (Jn. 1:16-17). For, as we've been reminded lately, 

 ...from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be the glory forever. Amen.
(Romans11:36)

So today, amid all the other preparations for tomorrow, perhaps we could take a moment to prepare our hearts and minds for what we might see tomorrow around the table in our thanksgivings by remembering what we've received in, 

the Word becoming flesh, dwelling among us...
from his fullness we have all received grace up grace...
grace and truth...through Jesus Christ
(John 1:14, 16-17) 

I am giving thanks for His grace that is you and manifest through you. Love you, faith family! Happy THANKSGIVING! 

Are You Prepared?

Dear Faith Family,   

It's probably no surprise to you to hear that our home, inside and out, is prepared for Christmas. Yes, we are "those" people who start the move towards everything Christmas on November 1st. Just as quickly as the calendar moves from October to November, Fall decorations disappear, trees a light roll out, and holiday sounds and scents fill the house.

While the transition always starts on November one, sometimes it takes us a couple of weeks to complete the decorative process, especially since I always seem to discover a few extra "pieces" to unpack and find a place for each year! But eventually, the house, from front to back, top to bottom, room to room, is fully immersed in the affections of the season. 

Part of the reason the transition drags out a bit is the fact that for everything put out, something has to be put up. Preparations are not merely an addition to the usual decor; they replace what is common with something new, something special. We can not just layer Christmas on top of what sits on our shelves, hangs on our walls, or fits in a particular space; we have to prepare the way for Christmas by moving out some of the usual stuff. 

Similarly, our All About Jesus story from Sunday is meant to help you and me clear out the usual stuff in our hearts in preparation for Christmas, for Christ with us.

If you missed Sunday, I'd encourage you to take a few minutes and let Chaz guide you through the heart-paving way of John the Baptizer from Luke 3. If you were there, and after you've listened, continue with the prep work, especially with Advent just over a week away.

Below are some of the questions John's All About Jesus story invites us to consider. As with the Pace home, so with our hearts, transformation takes time and preparation. 

"Prepare in the wilderness the way of the LORD;

make his path straight." 
(Luke 3:4) 

• Who are the unexpected heralds of the Good News in our present culture? In my life in particular?

 

• What in my heart is crooked and rough and needs clearing away? 

 

• How is God calling me to put away these tendencies?

 

• Where have I seen the fruit of repentance decorating my actions, words, or thoughts?

 

• What is God refining (replacing the common with something special) in me so that I can live more fully into his purpose--into who he has made me to be? 

 

• Am I prepared for Jesus' arrival? 

Love you, faith family! God bless. 

Exactly What You Should Expect

Dear Faith Family,   

And Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After forty days and forty nights of fasting, he was hungry. (Matthew 4:1-2)  

Let's be honest with each other for a moment; we tend to read scripture with ourselves at the center, don't we? We'd, of course, never say that we are at the center of any of the stories. Still, we can't help but read incredibly familiar stories like The Temptation of Jesus in Matthew's gospel without identifying ways we are like Jesus. 

Like Jesus, we are living our lives led by the Spirit, perhaps even feeling led by the Spirit into unknown places. Like Jesus, we feel the pangs of hunger, the fatigue of faithfulness, the disorientation of knowing who we are and what we are here for (Matt. 3:15-17), and yet with still so much further to go. Like Jesus, we, too, experience the temptations to do what we are able to do to fulfill our desires rather than be sustained in our waiting. Like Jesus, we are tempted to twist scripture to our advantage, forcing God's hand in our favor. Like Jesus, we are tempted to speed up God's promises, to get what is ours through the means directly before us.

Relatively easily, and perhaps inadvertently, we've made this story about us! About what we are going through and how Jesus has been through something similar. And, there is great comfort in knowing that Jesus has been through what we are going through, especially as we struggle to be faithful like Him, as the author of Hebrews attests: 

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
(Hebrews 4:15-16)

Yet, as we discussed on Sunday, while the similarities of Jesus to us are comforting, it is how He is different than us that makes all the difference for us. 

While it is easy to get lost in the individual temptations and Jesus' particular responses to each, the story, taken as a whole, should remind us of another story, the story of our first parents, Adam and Eve, and their run in the woods with the tempter (Genesis 3). Like them, the tempter comes to Jesus, playing on his needs, desires, and even his promised destiny. Like them, Jesus is forced to discern truth and choose to trust, to have faith in what He has heard, even if he can yet see it, even if he would want something different and immediate. Yet, unlike them, He stays faithful to the one who has led Him here and who will finish what has been started through Him. 

In this story, Jesus resets the world as we know it. Here, in a place similar to places we've been in, Jesus recreates the universe and reality as we know it, becoming for us what we could not become in sin nor through our efforts alone: righteous. 

Therefore, as the trespass of one [Adam] led to condemnation for all men, so the act of righteousness of one [Jesus] leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience, the many will be made righteous.
(Romans 5:18-19)

What we do not do, are unable to do, He has done. It is Jesus' faith and faithfulness, His "obedience," that makes you and me righteous (in a right relationship with God) and so able to live righteously (in a right relationship with God and one another). In Jesus' faith, we can anticipate our faith's beginning, persevering, and end: 

...let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith... (Hebrews 12:1-2) 

May being reminded of this essential truth lead us to see that not only this story but everything that makes up our daily living is All About Jesus for us, 

For from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be the glory forever. Amen. (Romans 11:36) 

Love you, faith family! God bless. 

An Unexpected Recommendation

Dear Faith Family,   

And Jesus said to her, 'Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.' But she answered him, 'Yes, Lord; yet even the dog under the dogs under the table eat the childrens' crumbs.' (Mark 7:27-28) 

The story of the Syrophoenician woman in Mark 7 and Matthew 15 is admittedly an uncomfortable passage. Even if the story ends positively, the disgusting lack of compassion and disturbing and evident prejudice cloud the entire scene. Ironically, the "cloudiness" is actually the point of the story! 

As we discussed on Sunday, Jesus' bias towards this particular woman was actually a display of what clouded the hearts of his disciples. Jesus' actions expose the unarticulated prejudice, pride, fear, and resentment clouding the hearts of his friends and keeping them from living fully by the faith that was theirs. Clouded hearts kept their faith small, just as they do you and I still today. 

And still today, Jesus doesn't clear up the cloudiness by condemning what is small but rather commending what is great:  

Then Jesus answered her, 'O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.' (Matthew 15:28)

What Jesus saw and commended in this woman seared this story into the disciples' minds, clearing their hearts and expanding their faith into the persons of great faith we met in the Book of Acts. In this way, the unnamed woman was more than an example of faith; she was a means of grace for the faithful. 

Through one they least expected, the disciples' faith was both exposed as small and strengthened for their life in Christ still to be lived. The same is true for the disciples of "the church" in Barbara Robinson's The Best Christmas Pagent Ever. You may have read this little Christmas book, which has recently been made into a feature-length film.

Our family saw an early release of the film this past weekend. While many funny, human, and entertaining moments make this an enjoyable movie, there is more to it in the same way that there is more to the story of the Syrophonecian woman. I won't spoil it for you, but let's just say that Deedra and I left the theater in tears, with the twins asking, "Why are you crying?" To which we could only respond, "Because Jesus is so awesome!" 

Typically, I end these notes with an encouragement to participate in a faith practice or consider the questions our scripture demands. But this week, with the unnamed woman's story seared in our minds, I encourage you to watch this movie. Remember a story, watch a movie, and let Jesus clear up what clouds your heart so your faith might expand. That's my prayer for you anyway! 

Love you, faith family! God bless. 

What's The Real Difference?

Dear Faith Family,   

Mary has chosen the better portion,
which will not be taken away from her.
(Luke 10:42) 

I don't know too many friends and followers of Jesus who would not say that they are after "the better portion" in their life of faith. What that better portion is and how they are going after it, now that's where these friends and followers have their differences! 

The story of Martha and Mary (Luke 10:38-42) has, at least in modern times, pitted "the doers" against "the thinkers," those geared toward action against those geared toward contemplation, and perhaps worst of all, those inclined to service against those inclined to worship. "Are you a Martha or a Mary?" is a question asked either to convict a particular response or as an indicator of personality type. Yet, as Dylan pointed out to us on Sunday, the sad irony of our misguided reduction of this story is that we have separated and put into conflict the singular image of a disciple of Jesus our scriptures give us: a person who hears and obeys, who sits a the feet of Jesus and follows him into action, because they are a child of God. 

The true question the story of Martha and Mary demands we ask is: "What is keeping us from taking full advantage of the better portion?" 

As we discovered on Sunday, "portion" means "inheritance." Specifically, in the context of our scriptures and story, an inheritance was not something earned with effort or even character but rather a given and sure promise based solely on being a child. Of course, parents could squander the future inheritance, and children could choose to turn down an inheritance or squander it after the fact, but no one could "earn" what could only be gifted. The expectation for the inheritor was to make and perpetuate life on what was given her or him, taking full advantage of what is theirs because of the relationship. 

Martha's issue is not that she was a doer. Martha's frustration stems from the fact that she was "distracted" (v. 40) from what was hers to enjoy fully: a portion of God's life that invited her to lay down her anxious toil, to cross the societal boundaries keeping her from dinning as a child and not a servant, let Jesus (his life and words) shape her expectations of life with God, freeing her from the fear of losing what "will not be taken away."  

Why can we "present our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God" (Rom. 12:1), offering our day, lives, and selves wholly to our Father without anxiousness and fear? Because our lives are lived (made and perpetuated) on "a better portion which will not be taken away" because it was gifted, not earned; given because of familial relationship, not our ability or lack thereof. So, what is distracting you from taking full advantage of what is yours because of the life, death, and life forever of Jesus? That's the question the story of these two sisters, two friends, and followers of Jesus, compels us to ask each other as fellow friends and followers of Jesus. 

May our asking and answering free us to sit and listen at the feet of Jesus, following him into actions of our day, joyfully confident that we can make a life, good, because of the portion we've received. 

Love you, faith family! God bless. 

When Believing Is Not Enough

Dear Faith Family,   

This week in class, I had my students read Acts 16-22, asking, "What is the message, and why does it cause so much trouble?". In case you don't remember from our summer in the Book of Acts, this is the section of the story with riots, arrests, beatings, murder plots, and a tremendous deepening and expanding of the picture of "church."  

The way our discussions work in class is that a student will throw out an observation or interpretation, and then we will "work it," trying to see if we can move the initial thought closer to the text and context to see the why undergirding it. In this particular discourse, one student offered a first attempt at the message in the section: believe in Jesus. Whether in Sunday School class or Theology class, an answer like that is a safe starting place! Ha!

Yet, unlike Sunday School, in our class, such an answer is only the start of the conversation, not the end. Quickly, another student jumped in, offering a pivoting observation: "It doesn't seem like belief is not enough; even the demons believed Jesus." Referring to the sons of Sceva story in Acts 19:11-20, the student observed that the exorcists who believed in the power of Jesus got beaten by the demons who knew Jesus and Paul, but not them. The story is a fantastic, if not a bit comedic revelation, that belief in Jesus is more than an affirmation of who He is or what He can do, but a giving ourselves over to Him because of what He has done. At least that's how "the believers" in Acts 19 interpreted the scolding of Sceva's sons: 

And fear [awe and wonder] fell upon them all,
and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled [highly praised].
Also, many of those who were now believers
came confessing and divulging their practices.
(Acts 19:17-18)

Our class discussion and the story in Acts 19 remind me of our conversation on Sunday through John 8, where Jesus invited those who believed who He said He was (8:12-20) and what He would do (8:21-30) to make themselves at home in belief by submitting their lives to Him: 

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him,
'If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,
and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.'
(John 8:31-32) 

Giving ourselves over, submitting ourselves to Jesus as "Lord" or "Master," is, as we discussed on Sunday, not always an easy thing for us, even us "believers" (see Jn. 8:33-38). Yet it is precisely this giving over, which the Prayer of Examen aids us in doing, leading us to "confess and divulge our practices," reviewing our days and weeks in a manner where we can make ourselves at home in who we are in Jesus, because of who Jesus is and what Jesus has done.

So, let the Spirit examen us this week! And in so doing, may we discover, just as the believers in Acts 19 did, that belief is not enough, but it is the beginning of a truly free life given and giving over to our Lord Jesus. 

if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
(John 8:36) 

Love you, faith family! God bless. 

A Hard Truth To Accept

Dear Faith Family,   

You are a product of economics, conditioned to perpetuate the economic system in which you are formed. 

If you are like me, the above statement is unsettling on several levels. At one level, I want to claim more agency in my formation than the statement implies. Who wants their outcomes determined by some "system" they happen to be caught up in? At the same time, I also want to claim that I am caught up in some higher good than "economics" implies. Who doesn't want to believe their life is a part of something purposeful, even divine, not merely a base exchange?  

While we may recoil at the statement's blunt humiliation, we cannot escape the accurate reality it depicts. You and I and our neighbors are products of economics, conditioned to perpetuate the economic system in which we are formed. Until we admit to living in this reality, we'll have difficulty moving into "the new world" that Jesus has prepared for us.

As Dylan helped us see on Sunday, we, yes, even we disciples of Jesus and those longing for a life full and forever from Jesus, are products and producers conditioned by the economics of our time. 

Did you know that the root of "economics" comes from the Greek word oikonomia, meaning "household management"? That's right, the word that brings to mind money, its production, consumption, and transfer, originates in the ordering of our most fundamental and intimate relationships. As the American Economic Association claims, economics "...is not all about money... It's the study of scarcity, the study of how people use resources and respond to incentives, or the study of decision-making." In other words, economics is how we relate to one another. While we may consider economics primarily in relation to external goods and services and our role in the exchange of the two, the essence of the term is something more internal to our person, our identity as a person in relation to other persons.

It is no wonder then that Jesus, in Matthew 19, once again overturning the economic system of faith, brings in all the "household" relations: husbands and wives (19:1-9), children (19:13-15), fathers, mothers, homes, lands, brothers, and sisters (19:29). As Dylan pointed out, the disciples then, like us today, had been conditioned by the economics of their time and place to perpetuate a system of scarcity and competition, investing in others out of an expectation that there would be a return on the invest (19:27), making decisions to end relationships when the expected benefits changed (19:7), and dismissing those relationships which seemed to be of little resource or provide no incentive (19:10,13). 

It was this same economic conditioning that produced the question from "the rich young man":  

'Teacher, what good deed must I do to possess, make use of, eternal life?' (Matthew 19:16) 

Like us, the young man was thinking economically, considering how best to use the resource of eternal life, of life with God. Jesus reminds him, and us, that it is not what he gives God that will allow him to receive his inheritance (19:29), but rather relating to others as if he was already in possession of a whole and forever life: 

'You shall not murder...not commit adultery...not steal...not bear false witness...Honor your father and mother, and...love your neighbor as yourself.' (Matthew 19:18-19)

Jesus reminds the young man that God's already given us what we need to possess and take full advantage of life with him in the way in which we manage our households. Jesus uses those simple Ten Words, that “natural law,” we looked at last summer:

Don't take life; cultivate its flourishing.
Don't break covenant; keep it.
Don't take advantage of others; take responsibility.
Don't speak to corrupt; speak truth.
Don't strive to overcome; honor because you're free.
Don't covet your neighbor's life; love it,
because you are content in what you've been graced. 

Still, like you and I, the young man has a hard time accepting that simply living for the good of others and not self or profit or production value is the economics of life eternal. So he asks another conditioned question, "What do I still lack?" (19:20). "What then," says the young man, and you and I, "do I need to get or give actually to take possession of life full and forever?" 

Jesus' response, 'If you would be perfect [whole, complete], go sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will possess treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.' (19:21) has haunted believers for millennia. How could Jesus require such a payment? Does he require the same from me?! 

Well, in a way, yes. We've already said that what God demands is the only thing we have to offer: our life. But notice that Jesus isn't requiring payment from the young man for eternal life, but rather making a way for him and us into a new world (19:28), a new economic system.

Jesus does not say to give to the temple, the church, or even himself, but simply to those in need. Jesus is not demanding anything more than "the commandments" demanded; that the young man step out of the economic system that has conditioned him and give himself over to the economics of the life eternal. A life caught up in the flourishing of others because it is a life possessing, making full use of what is received (19:29), the abundant riches of God with us. 

Entering true life (19:17), daily living in the economics of the kingdom of heaven (19:23) that is so different than the life we are conditioned to live, seems impossible at times, as impossible as a camel going through the eye of a needle (19:24). Good thing for you and me and our neighbors, "with God all things are possible" (19:26). 

May we be products of the economics of life complete and forever, conditioned to perpetuate the system of relating which is forming us: 

And from Jesus' fullness,
we have all received grace upon grace.
(John 1:16) 

Love you, faith family! God bless. 

Overturning The System

Dear Faith Family,   

We said last week that what God demands of us is all we are actually able to offer: our life. Yet, if you are at all like me, you wonder: Is what I have to offer really enough? Do I need to exchange what I have for the proper sacrifice, the correct coinage, the right kind of life before I can enter into the presence of God and receive from God what He offers: righteousness, life full and forever, communion, forgiveness? Our All About Jesus story on Sunday addressed this economic tension of faith.

In the story, we see Jesus turning over the economic system of faith (Mark 11:15-17), stopping the flow of exchange between persons and between persons and God. 

And Jesus would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. (Mark 11:16) 

Jesus, enacting the prophecies of old, says, "No more 'pay this particular price...get this particular thing from God.'" Jesus, as we said on Sunday, has judged such a system as lifeless, having only the appearance of life like "a fig tree in leaf" but finding "nothing but leaves," not even the anticipated budding of fruit in the making (Mark 11:12-14). Such a system of faith won't reproduce life, much less satisfy even a passing hunger. 

Like those who witnessed Jesus' prophetic display, we are astonished but left wondering, for overturning the economics of faith seems impossible. Like those present and participating in the exchange when Jesus taught, we, too, look around at what continues to transpire despite Jesus' actions. Is there any escape from the perpetual marketing of faith products and propaganda exhorting us to exchange our lives' resources for the promise of something we need? For that matter, isn't the whole world built on an economic system of exchange? Those who have, barter with those who need what is had, for what can be exchanged for (sometimes) mutual benefit. To live like Jesus overturns this system, that indeed, God operates in a completely other system, seems, well, about as possible as you or me throwing a mountain into the sea (Mark 11:23). 

Perhaps because life with God through Jesus operates in a completely other way than we are conditioned to exist, Jesus says to His apprentices then and today, 

"Have faith in God. Trust what He's doing through Me. Don't doubt what He's offering from Me to you. Believe He's given it to Me, for you. You can ask Him yourself!" (Mark 12:22-24, Jeremy's paraphrase)

No bartering or bettering is required. What God has, you need, and He offers to you without exchange: righteous, life full and forever, communion with Him, forgiveness. Have faith. Not as a currency to trade for these things but as a trust that they are yours already through Him. Pray. Not as a means of bartering but a means of receiving what is freely given.

If Jesus had stopped there, perhaps the economic tension of faith would have been resolved. But then again, Jesus is not one to merely level our expectations without rebuilding our anticipation for something true. So He says, 

And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. (Mark 11:25) 

We often hear these words as an echo of the economics of faith: exchange forgiveness for forgiveness. But wait, how do the economics of this exchange work? Jesus seems to be saying, "Give your dollar, get my dollar."

Even if we say that God's "dollar" is better than my "dollar," I think we'd all attest that receiving forgiveness from a spouse, a parent, a sibling, a friend, a co-worker, or even an enemy we've wronged is still of pretty tremendous value. Add to that, Jesus' saying comes after He's overturned and stood in the way of the economics of faith, and after He's said that what God has and what we need (desire), He freely gives. So maybe Jesus isn't talking about how the system of faith works but rather what He anticipates to find on a "fig tree in leaf."  

While the economics of faith is overturned, the anticipation for the fruit of faith--the produce of life with God, given us from Jesus, lived through Jesus, and offered to Jesus--remains. Jesus says the system of exchange has been overturned through Him. From Him, a new world order is being established, in which God is doing the impossible, has done the impossible, has forgiven and fulfilled (listen here for what's been fulfilled), and so we too can do the impossible…forgive for the reproducing, the flourishing of life. 

The anticipated fruit of All About Jesus life is forgiving faith. Faith that we are forgiven, so no exchange is necessary for us to "stand and pray." And faith that reproduces the life we've received in forgiving others. Being rooted (abiding) in right relationship with God and others because we are forgiven and immersed in His Spirit, we can anticipate bearing fruit in every season:
  

Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit. (Jeremiah 17:7-8)

May Jesus find in our lives today, in whatever season we are in, the budding fruit of faith. 

Love you, faith family! God bless. 

You Know You've Asked It!

Dear Faith Family,   

"The Bible is an answer to the question:
What does God require of man?"
(Abraham Heschel)

Every genuine journey of faith is an asking of this ultimate question. Whether we ask from a place of desperation, dissatisfaction, disillusionment, or, like the rich young ruler, out of a desire for more, we all, in some way or another, ask, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" (Lk. 18:18). 

Whatever circumstances, whether internal or external, compel the question of faith, our natural human tendency is to deduce a calculable return: X amount of time, X amount of effort, X amount of activities, services, and attendance to get the right offering. "Just tell me what to give," we seemingly say to God. "The more precise, the better, and I'll give it." 

The problem is, in our calculations, we presume that God demands a return, a gift to honor Him. We have become, as Rabbi Heschel points out, "Oblivious to the fact of [our] receiving infinitely more than [we are] able to return," and so our presumption keeps us at the center of faith--what we can "do" and give. After all, as another Jewish writer said, 

'Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?'
For from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be the glory forever. (Romans 11:35-36)

In the next verse, the apostle Paul, like Jesus did with the rich young ruler, gives us the answer to the ultimate question: What does God require of man? NOT YOUR GIFTS, BUT YOUR LIFE.  

...therefore present your bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and acceptable to God... (Romans12:1) 

Our All About Jesus story from Sunday gave us the same answer, revealing that what God desires more, is not the gifts to honor Him but a life given over to Him. A life, whatever and only the life we have, offered to Him with the expectation that the question is not about what we can give in return but what will be produced when life is where it is meant to be, in His Life. 

Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit...By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit
and so prove to be my disciples. (John 15:5,8)

As we said on Sunday, the good thing for you and me is that what God demands of you is all you have to give...nothing more and nothing less. May we not withhold what Jesus did not withhold from us. 

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us...
(1 John 3:16) 

Love you, faith family! God bless. 

You're Being Pilated!

Dear Faith Family,   

If we are going to make running into Jesus a regular habit, as we encouraged one another to begin to do last week, it might be a good idea to consider what we'll do when Jesus shows up and shows off. While the "WWJD" bracelets got us thinking about what Jesus would do, the real question of faith is, what will I do with Jesus? But I guess "WWIDWJ" doesn't quite roll off the tongue in the same way! 

As Chaz led us to consider on Sunday, the first thing we must do when we encounter Jesus is make a judgment call. Playing off of C.S. Lewis's famous "Liar, Lunatic, Lord" trilemma, Chaz encouraged us to answer the question Jesus asked His apprentices, "Who do you say that I am" (Matt. 16:13). Do we judge the Jesus we meet in Scripture and throughout our day as mad man, a bad man, or God? Jesus wouldn't let His friends dismiss Him as sage, teacher, or prophet; He doesn't let us either. 

Let's say for the sake of argument that you say Jesus is Lord, is God. He's more than a voice like Jimmy Cricket trying to steer you in the right way, and He's more than a wise man providing you proverbs and principles by which to stay on the way. Jesus is, as He said, "I am" (Jn. 18:5,6,8). Okay. Now what? What do we do when "I AM" shows amid the tensions of our daily duties? Now, that is the question Pilate's story (Jn. 18:28 - 19:16) confronts us with! 

As Chaz walked us through on Sunday, the story shows Pilate literally judging Jesus, working his way through the possibilities of Jesus' lunacy and deception to the potential of His other-worldly personage. However, Pilate's story isn't told to walk us through this universal experience with the living God, but rather to confront us with the universality of the human response to Jesus we judge.

Pilate is like us. He sees resolution to issues through power and truth as convenient to the moment and a good life as a matter of practical decisions. To a person like us, it really doesn't matter who we judge Jesus to be; what our conviction compels us, "From then on Pilate sought to release him" (Jn 19:12). What matters is, will keep what we have or will we give our lives for His? 

Pilate ran into Jesus amid his daily duties, judged Jesus rightly, and chose to keep his life rather than risk what was his for the sake of Jesus. Ultimately, like us, the external pressures and internal desires outmuscle the spirit within, and we end up "washing our hands" of what Jesus is doing in this place of ours. 

Perhaps Pilate's plight was inevitable, destined to deliver Jesus over to the death that changed the world; after all, Jesus said his crucifers "knew not what they do" (Lk. 23:34). Perhaps Pilate's plot was not finished, maybe his journey of faith not concluded, after all, he is venerated as a saint in the Coptic Church. Regardless of how we view the person, Pilate, and the role he played, his most detailed (literally) run-in with Jesus compels us to consider: What will I do with Jesus? Just a warning: doing anything other than "washing our hands of this" (Matt. 27:24) will cost us more than we thought, though we'll gain more than we can imagine. 

For whoever wants to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.
(Matthew 16:25) 

Love you, faith family! God bless. 

From Surprised to Seeing

Dear Faith Family,   

Where does Jesus show up and show off? Not the "wise sage" Jesus or the "gentle shepherd" Jesus, both of whom I am grateful for! But the "Truly this was the Son of God!" Jesus. Where does the "living one...died...and alive forevermore" Jesus make His presence known? 

Well, as Dylan shared on Sunday, Jesus seems to show up right in the middle of our divided hearts and lives. Whether the divide is the tension between our given responsibilities and His unanticipated revelation, like the centurion (Matt. 27:51-54), or within the mixed emotions of mourning, fear, and joy, like the Marys (Matt. 28:1-10), or between the action of obedience and worship while doubt lingers, like the disciples (Matt. 28:16-20); Jesus consistently shows up and shows off amid our muddied anticipations, attentions, and affections. Which is good news for us! After all, if we are honest, much of our day is spent with our hearts divided between competing internal and external forces and circumstances. 

And while it is indeed good news that the "Son of God," "dead but alive" Jesus, does not require an unmixed existence for His presence, the truth of the matter is that our heavenly Father desires Jesus' presence to be less of a surprise: 

Blessed [happy, complete]
are the pure [the unmixed or divided] in heart,
for they shall see God.
(Matthew 5:8)

Purity of heart is not the prerequisite for Jesus' presence, but it does help us recognize Him rather than be merely surprised by His showing up and showing off. The Examen, an old faith practice we're practicing together this season, is for divided people seeking to be unmixed, desiring to see Jesus and not just be surprised by him. 

So, here is my challenge to you this week. Follow the Daily Examen Guide twice, in place of (or in addition to) your usual time with Jesus. Then, do the same next week, and the week after, and the week after. Set the days and times when you'll practice the Examen for the next three weeks. Then, let someone in your Gospel Community, your spouse, or a spiritual companion know, and see if your run-ins with Jesus are less of a surprise (even if no less incredible!). 

Love you, faith family! God bless. 

Continuing From The Start

Dear Faith Family,  

Where do you expect to meet God?

What do you expect to give witness to God's power, purposes, and providence? 

Those are the questions compelled by the first Jesus conversation in our All About Jesus series. As we discussed on Sunday, Jesus both "throws down" our culturally accepted expectations while simultaneously "builds another" anticipation of the place and witness of life from, through, and to Him. 

My invitation to you this week is to continue what we started on Sunday. If you missed the Gathering, take a few minutes to listen to the sermon here. Then, in a quiet place with the Spirit and with your Gospel Community or a spiritual companion, consider your experiences of life with God and ask: 

• What are the places where I expected to meet God and be a witness to God that Jesus has "thrown down"?

• What (who) has He raised in their place?

Whether the meditation and conversations lead to some new insight or not, in the Spirit and with those following Jesus with you, conclude your time offering up your expectations and experiences to Jesus as we seek to learn to live in the reality that it really is All About Jesus. 

"...all things were created through him and for him...in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church."
(Colossians 1:16-18)

Love you, faith family! God bless. 

Competing Forces

Dear Faith Family,  

I don't know about you, but I am feeling that malicious strain of "busyness." Maybe it is the shifting of the seasons, from the semi-relaxed time of Summer to the overcrowding of Fall. Or, it could be taking on new responsibilities without relinquishing any old ones. Whatever its source, the feeling of a full plate affects not only my calendar but also my ambitions. 

I don't know about you, but our time in the Book of Acts and conversations and prayers through The Great DeChurching, stirred in me a desire to "Proclaim Christ in the Everyday Until He Cannot Be Ignored," as our faith family is fond of saying. Our origin stories cast a compelling vision for life with Jesus, especially considering the stories from our time and place where such a vision is so desperately needed. Stories that rise in me a longing to join Jesus in what He is doing for the life of the world. 

But, if I am honest, accompanying my renewed aspirations is the weight of "busyness." How can I do more for Jesus and others when I don't feel like there is capacity in my calendar or body for more? What Jesus said to His first disciples seems to be true for this disciple, "The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Matt. 26:41). 

I don't know about you, but that is where I find myself: stirred up by the Spirit through Scripture and stories, and weighed down by the duties of the day and anxieties of tomorrow. So, what am I (maybe we?) to do? 

Well, as we shared on Sunday, maybe in being caught up in the Spirit and Jesus' Story, we are not asked to offer more, but rather to present what we have:

For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.
To Him be the glory forever...
I urge you therefore, brothers and sisters,
by the mercies of God,
to present your bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and pleasing to God,
which is your true and proper worship,
not conforming to this world
but being transformed
by the renewal of your mind."
(Romans 11:36 - 12:2)

As we did together on Sunday, I encourage us to do together today and tomorrow and in the days to come.

• Take a moment on your knees or with your head bowed and hands held up toward heaven, praying: This Life and This Day are Yours...

• Pause to let all your aspirations, weights, ambitions, and anxieties be offered to Jesus. Say them or see them rise to Him...

• Then pray again, This Life and This Day are Yours, adding May Both Be So. 

May you and I discover that our living sacrifice leads us to what we desire: the ability to "discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect" (Rom. 12:2). 

Love you, faith family! God bless. 

Picking Up The Path

Dear Faith Family,  

Well, we've done it. We've reached the end of the Book of Acts and, at least in the author's time, the end of the earth: Rome. Rome, the place where all roads flowed from and through and to...

And when we came into Rome, Paul was allowed to stay by himself, with the soldier who guarded him...He lived there two whole years at his own expense, and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance. (Acts 28:16, 31) 

The witness of Jesus alive and Lord, having begun in Jerusalem, has reached all the way where Jesus said it would: 

'But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.' (Acts 1:8)

We've discovered quite a bit along the way from Jerusalem to the end, though perhaps not what we anticipated. We found no blueprints for worship, no step-by-step instructions for constructing an institution, much less a building, nor did we find a how-to for "doing" church. 

However, we were given a vision of being the church through the stories of those whose lives and lives together were becoming the church all those millennia ago. In the Book of Acts, we see who we are to become as those gathered to Jesus together, marked by our loyalty and love for Him, and immersed, baptized, in His Life as we make our everyday lives with Him. 

The Book of Acts ends not with a grand image of completion but rather a company of spiritual companions bound by circumstances, choices, and the providential Spirit, being who they were re-created and called to be "with all boldness and without hindrance." As we said on Sunday, the Book of Acts ends with the image of one bound and free. 

Free in person and place. Free because he is bound…in God's Story and God's life, a baptized witness, gathered and gathering others to Jesus. That's where Acts ends...and the path we are taking up. Free in our persons and place. Free because we are bound in God's Story and God's life as baptized witnesses gathered and gathering others to Jesus.

So, before we get too far away from this image and these stories, I invite you to consider where the Book of Acts encourages us to pick up the path of those who have journeyed before us. Consider and share: 

• Looking back on your life, how have you recognized the ever-present, intimate, loving providence you are bound by?

• How does being bound by the Spirit, free you? And what does it free you from?

As we ask these questions together, I pray that we may find ourselves bound and free as we live into all we desire and are made to be in Jesus. 

Love you, faith family! God bless. 

Practicing Our Posture

Dear Faith Family,  

As I have read the Book of Acts and listened to Chaz and Dylan over the last several weeks, I've been struck by just how modern our gathered origin story is. Sure, the setting is ancient, so the features of how life functioned then differ drastically from our present particulars. Still, the human experience of the first faith families jumps out as undeniably familiar.

Like us, the forebears of our faith family struggled to orient their lives to Jesus, being pulled from the center by misguided religious traditions on one side and divergent cultural norms on the other. Like us, they felt the pressure of the economics of mind and body, both being bartered over and pandered to by "those" desiring to shape our way of life for "their" purposed good. Like us, the earliest faith families had to be attentive to external pressures and internal inconsistencies of thought, practice, and character. And, like us--though perhaps for different reasons--the moniker "Christian" was an unflattering label. 

While we have come a long way in appearance and reality, by God's grace, since the last half of the first century, there is a reason we continue to go back to the founding stories of our faith family. The stories, at first reading, can feel distant and dramatic, yet what we've observed throughout Luke's chronicle is a witness to God's intimate providence in and through the witness of those who've found/submitted their lives within His Life and leading. In these stories, the Book of Acts has given us the end of church as we know it, our purpose as the gathered to Jesus today, to be witnesses to and of His intimate providence in our lives together lived with Him. 

As we conclude our time in these paradoxically modern ancient stories, I want to encourage you one more time to consider "the call" of the Book of Acts, 

"The Book of Acts…[is]…a call to Christians to be open to the action of the Spirit,
not only leading them to confront values and practices in society that may need to be subverted,
but perhaps even leading them to subvert or question practices and values within the Church itself."
(Justo Gonzalez)

Being "open to the action of the Spirit" requires more than consideration; it requires a posture: an openhandedness to God. This week, take the posture literally. In your reading of the final stories of Acts and in your praying, turn your hands palms up. Keep your hands open as you read, meditate, and converse with the One whose love you've witnessed.

In doing so, you might just discover that your bodily posture becomes the posture of your heart, which better allows you to be a witness to and of life with God. 

Love you, faith family! God bless. 

Thank God for the Simple!

Dear Faith Family,  

The "church" can be and do a variety of things. Many of the edifices, services, and traditions are rich and wonderful, blessing those who come in contact with them. Unfortunately, some "church things" are also dusty and demeaning, degrading rather than cultivating flourishing. Still, when we strip away the could, can, and have been of the centuries since its origins in the Book of Acts, we find the "church" at its simplest as those gathered to Jesus...sharing His table and life. 

"Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it
and gave it to the disciples, and said, 'Take, eat: this is my body.'

And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, 'Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for the many for the forgiveness of sins."

(Matthew 26:26-28)

Jesus' invitation to receive what is His gathers us from all of our different places, backgrounds, and affiliations to make us "the Church."
And sharing His life through the witness of our living in, by, and for Him around the table with others is the end of church as we know it. 

"the shared table is a shared life."
(Walter Kasper) 

As the last several Sunday stories in Acts have shown us, sharing Jesus' life (and life with Jesus) around the table with others is the simplest -- "fundamental, free from complication in form, nature, or design; without much decoration or ornamentation" -- way of being and doing "church."

While there is more we can and will be and do together as the church, let us consider today how blessed we are to be loved by a God who makes life with Him simple. May our meditations lead us to praise, and dinner invitations! 

Love you, faith family! God bless. 

What About That "But"?

Dear Faith Family, 

Therefore, my judgment is that we should not trouble
those of the Gentiles who turn to God
but should write to them to
abstain from the things polluted by idols,
and from sexual immorality,
and from what has been strangled,
and from blood. (Acts 15:19-20) 

"But" is a mood changer. This common conjunction has the power to turn our attention in a bad situation to see something more: "My car wouldn't start this morning, but Sarah got me to and from work." But, the power goes the other way, too: "I got that promotion I wanted, but I'll have to travel more than expected." Whether to lift up or drag down, "but" wields a power that supersedes its tiny stature. 

Perhaps the "but" in James' judgment has dampened the mood for many who've worked their way through the stories Acts. After all, we've witnessed the movement from Jesus' ascension in Jeuresualm towards the earth's end. This expansion was utterly inclusive, distinguished in allegiance and affection to Jesus and nothing else. James even affirms the movement, saying, "...we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God," with all those traditions and regulations that make him Jewish. That's good news for us gentiles! We don't have to become physically and ritually Jewish to be caught up in God's Kingdom, but, James adds a "but"! 

For several millennia, James' but has been used as permission to build all sorts of boundaries around life in Christ. It is Christ's work and affection for and allegiance to Him that makes true and forever life our reality, we contend, but...don't ________, abstain from ________. The blanks have been filled in differently throughout each generation on both the "traditional" and "progressive" sides. It wouldn't take too much thinking to come up with a few you've heard, and perhaps even ascribe.

While living captured by Jesus, being ever drawn into true life with Him will undoubtedly require us to forgo particular things, to hear James' exhortation as 
a stereotypical list of regulations added to the free in Jesus would be to miss the context and heart of Acts 15. Dylan did a great job on Sunday helping us see that Acts 15 is not the "mature" or "traditional" requiring the "new" and "different" to add something to live in the faith, but rather, make room for the entire family of faith! 

"What is the goal of James's words?
They seem to be aimed at removing impediments for communion."
(Wille James Jennings) 

As Dylan pointed out, the "don'ts" that follow James' but, is a singular encouragement to be fully aligned with Christ in a way that makes room, opens the table, to communion with all the sisters and brothers of Jesus. James judges that "communion and joining" in Jesus with others, a life given over in allegiance, awe, and affection to Him with others, really is the end of faith as we know it. That is why when the Gentile church heard James' judgment and but, "rejoiced because of its encouragement" (Acts 15:31). 

Life together in Jesus, orbiting around Jesus together as we're drawn into full and forever life in following Jesus together is what it means to be "the church," the gathered to Jesus. 

And we know that for those who love God
all things work together for the good,
for those who are called according to His purpose.
For those whom He foreknew He also predestined
to be conformed to the image of His Son,
in order that He might be the first born
among many brothers {and sisters}.
(Romans 8:28-29) 

Love you, faith family! God bless. 

A Conviction To Live By

Dear Faith Family, 

And in Antioch, the disciples were first called Christians.
(Acts 11:26)

It's difficult to imagine a "pre-Christian" world, a time and place where the term and title did not carry some sort of significant meaning. Of course, there are still some places where the term is as novel today as it was in Antioch some two thousand years ago; that's why many in our faith family over the years have given themselves to going to the ends of the earth and especially taking the "Christian" message to new tongues and tribes. Still, for most of us, the word Christian is a common identifier, a label that paints a particular image of the person named. 

Let's think about this not-so-novel term for a moment. What does it mean to be called "Christian" today? I guess it depends on who is doing the "calling," though most use the term to describe someone belonging to a certain ideology--whether moral, religious, or even political. "Christians are...." people who act a certain way, believe a certain thing, and align themselves with certain purposes. Admittedly, the specifics of "certain" are found along a spectrum these days, even if the stereotypical portrayals are rather narrow. Still, depending on the context, the reference to such a person could carry either an air of respect or disdain. Ironically, this modern moniker's association with even a relatively narrow spectrum of ideas and ideals has moved us quite away from its simple origin. 

As Chaz detailed for us on Sunday, our collective delineation originated because of men, women, and families who did not fit within any common continuum of ideas and ideologies. Certainly, the faith family of Antioch was made up of people from diverse but identifiable groups ethnically, geographically, religiously, politically, and the like (Acts 11:19-24). Yet there was something distinct about this kaleidoscope of persons that resisted the typical associations and stereotypes. There was One very particular peculiarity that unified their disuniformity: they spoke of Jesus, a lot! 

Scholar and minister David Peterson comments on the first occurrence of our now common title, arguing that "The name suggests 'belonging to Christ' or the people who 'habitually named the name of Christ..."  They literally could not shut up about Jesus! The first "Christians" were always talking about Jesus, who he was, what he'd done, and what he was doing. In praise, proclamation, and pedestrian chit-chat, their awe, affection, and allegiance to Christ Jesus was discernably evident. 

Certainly, the words and way of Jesus would shape this community's ideas and ideals of life together in their city, as they have for millennia since. Yet, what first set them apart, what first drew the attention of their fellow citizens, was the name habitually upon their lips, the name of the One who'd captured their hearts: 

....for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
(Luke 6:45)

I wonder, if we stripped the millennia of baggage (both good and ill) from the word "Christian," would its first descriptor still apply to your life, to my life, to our life together? Would our neighbors, co-workers, friends, and family recognize that what sets our life apart (and draws us together) is who we talk about a lot, because he has our hearts? 

The origin story of our collective calling compels us to consider this question, not in a spirit of condemnation but in hopes of the Spirit of conviction, as Chaz mentioned. If we let the Spirit examine and lead us, this question will allow us to live with conviction—the conviction that, indeed, it is a heart captured by Jesus, overflowing with awe, affection, and allegiance to Christ Jesus, that truly makes us "Christian." And maybe, just maybe, such simple conviction is what we need to stay true to our name in our time and place.  


Love you, faith family! God bless. 

From Application to Awe

Dear Faith Family, 

As we delve into scripture, listen to sermons, or read reflections like this, we almost instinctively ask, 'How does this apply to me?'

"What's in there for me?" is not a bad question or a wrong question. In fact, the question is valid and crucial, especially in our journey with God's word, as the apostles Paul and Peter affirm, 

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness... (2 Timothy 3:16)

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us...For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
(2 Peter 1:3, 21) 

Still, our conditioned pursuit of practical relevance sometimes leads us to skip over the most fundamental wonder of our faith stories: they are history. The events, whether directly depicted or functioning as the foundation for the exhortations and admonishments written, are more than chronological recordings of applicable narratives. They were actual happenings in time and space that shaped the time and space that followed, including ours. 

Of course, the event that fosters wonder and worship most is the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. A real happening that we remember every time we gather in the broken bread and the poured juice. An event in time and space that shapes our lives every day, in no small part because it led to another historical moment. The story of Acts 10, as we shared on Sunday, is especially important for you and me. It is, as one commentator notes, where, 
 

"we see into the world of the Bible,
then in an instant we really see our world,
there and here, our world in all its intensity…
[shinning] through because we see that
our world is actually God’s world."
(Willie James Jennings) 

In Acts 10-11, we see the history of God’s blessed to be a blessing people (Gen. 12:1-3) colliding with the history of Jesus and, for the first time in the freed life of Abraham’s descendants, the explicit crossing of ordained boundaries not as an act of mercy but as an expansion, the ordained expansion, of God’s desire. Once the boundary of Jew and Gentile was crossed, and since it has been crossed, there is no going back. Praise the Lord for that, for you, and I would not be here today otherwise.

But, since we are here, as Paul would later say, we

"formerly...Gentiles by birth...excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise... now in Christ Jesus...are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people...built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone...being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” (Eph. 2:11-22).

 
While there are treasured applications to draw from the stories of The Book of Acts, especially in Acts 10-11, before we rush too quickly to what we can get from the story, might we marvel at the millenniums merging at that moment in history that has given shape to the millenniums connecting us to that moment and one another through Jesus.
 

Praise the LORD, all nations!
Extol him, all peoples!
For great is his steadfast love toward us,
and the faithfulness of the LORD
endures forever.
Praise the LORD!
(Psalm 117)

Love you, faith family! God bless. 

Don't Get Hung Up on Your Hang-Ups

Dear Faith Family, 

Nothing is more debilitating in life than getting hung up on your hang-ups. Knowing that we are not doing what we desire to do and feel we are supposed to be able to do, especially when we think we know why, is one of the most frustrating experiences as a human. It's like a professional athlete "getting in his own head" or a novice guitarist whose fingers can't seem to sync up with the cord in her mind, neither being able to accomplish what they want and know how to do, both fixated and frustrated by what's keeping them from what they desire. Both are stuck, one digressing from peak performance and the other in danger of never getting there. The frustration of getting hung up on our hang-up not only keeps us from flourishing but keeps us from maturing. 

What is true in physical ambitions is also true in our emotional, relational, and spiritual aspirations. Let's take our faith goals. How frequently have you felt the frustration of knowing what you are supposed to, and supposedly able to do, in your faith but are not doing? How often have you listed out what's keeping you from doing what you want to do and why, only to wind up back in the same spot not too far down the road?

The truth is, when we get hung up on why we are unable to do what we want and feel like we are supposed to do it, our normal human response is to try harder or try a different technique. Yet doing so rarely leads to anything other than giving up—maybe not forever, but at least for a while until we have the energy or impetus to try again. The cycle of fits and starts can be exhausting, especially in something as important to us as life with God. 

The stories in the Book of Acts often hit us with hang-ups, revealing what we want to do but are not doing and why. This is especially true of the stories in Acts 8 that Chaz began walking us through on Sunday. While maturing requires us to recognize what's holding us back, the stories of our faith don't encourage us to try harder or even try a different technique. Instead, over and over again, the foundational stories of our life with God inspire us to yield to the Spirit's leading, to get out of our own head and way, getting in by giving in. That's what Philip did, and what we are encouraged to do. 

So this week, I would like to invite you to do a few things:

• First, listen to Chaz's sermon & read his sermon notes for the "real" end of the sermon! 

• Then, re-read Acts 8 and make a note of your hang-ups revealed, especially regarding the "E-Word." Write them down on a scrap piece of paper. 

• Then, read your hang-ups to Jesus, handing them over to him before you tear up the paper and throw it away. 

• Finally, yield to the Spirit, committing to give in to His love and leading, praying (with the rest of your faith family): 

Everlasting Father,
you desire that all should come to you
through your Son Jesus Christ:
Inspire our witness to him, 
that all may know the power of his forgiveness
and the hope of his resurrection; 
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, 
one God, now and for ever. 
Amen.  

Love you, faith family! God bless.