Category: Ministry (Page 11 of 35)

Flesh and Blood

March 23, 2016 / Allan / 0 Comments

“The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood.” ~John 1:14 (MSG)

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God doesn’t wave a magic wand and cast a spell on the earth to restore it to its original condition. He doesn’t judge the world as beyond salvation and destroy everything. God comes to us. That’s his answer. That’s our God’s strategy. He enters our humanity with us, he puts on our skin and bones and blood, and participates in our problems. Immanuel. God with us. Jesus joins our mess.

This is how God works in the world. He takes on our humanness. He became one of us. The Son of God not only died for our sins as a human, he lived here as a human, too! He got hungry and tired with us. He laughed and cried with us. He bled. He sweated. He experienced joy and pain with us. He got surprised and he got frustrated. He was tempted. He struggled. He was betrayed by his best friends. He had to make hard decisions. He lost loved ones. He became one of us with us. This is God’s strategy.

Entering. Sharing. Engaging. Participating. All in.

That’s very, very different from Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam. All the other world’s religions worship a god who stays in the heavens, who has removed himself from creation and demands that his people come to him. People are required to find secret knowledge and spiritual codes and work and strive and struggle to get to these gods. But our God comes to us. He comes here to us.

It’s important for us to know that Jesus is both 100% God and 100% man. I can’t explain it all, I certainly don’t understand it all. But the Scriptures declare it, the Apostles’ Creed affirms it, and Jesus’ life on earth proves it. He is both God and man. And this is critical to our Christian faith.

If Jesus wasn’t a man, then he didn’t really enter our mess. He came here, yes, but he remained above all the dirt. He didn’t really enter or share or participate in the ugliness of what is our situation. He wasn’t human, he was God! It was easy!

And if Jesus wasn’t God, then he didn’t really sacrifice anything to come to us. He didn’t risk anything. He didn’t really put anything on the line. And it didn’t really make an eternal difference. It didn’t matter in the long run. He wasn’t God, he was human! He was born here, he didn’t have a choice. And then he died. It was unfortunate, that’s all.

No.

Jesus the Messiah, the Alpha and the Omega, the Creator and Lord of Heaven and Earth, equal with God the Father from before the beginning of time, left his home in glory and put on our skin and bones in order to enter our mess. He entered your mess. He did. Jesus Christ entered your situation, he shared in your experiences, he carried all your burdens, he participated in your problems. He got very intimately involved in your situation at a tremendous personal cost. That’s the Gospel! Praise God!

Christ Jesus put on our flesh and lived with us. He entered the fray. And so we disciples of Christ today enter the fray with our money and time and resources and energy and talents and houses and everything we’ve got. By the power of the Holy Spirit, Christians shine light into darkness, we bring life out of death. We join in the problems. We jump into the ugliness. That’s why so many hospitals are named Methodist and Presbyterian and Baptist-St. Anthony’s — because Christians have been entering the mess and sharing and carrying and engaging and participating since that very first Easter Sunday.

It’s obvious that this is the way of our Lord. God’s Church is not called to just hang on until the uncleanness is destroyed. We’re not called to just pray about the mess so God can take care of it. And we surely don’t lock ourselves up in a gated monastery and ignore the problems. We enter it. We engage it. Heaven and earth, God and humans, present together in the redemption and restoration of the world.

Peace,

Allan

The Personal Way

March 7, 2016 / Allan / 0 Comments

People matter to Jesus. Individual people — men, women, and children; young and old; rich and poor; educated and ignorant — mean a whole lot to Jesus. We find Jesus in the gospels calling crowds and feeding multitudes. But the main image is of Jesus with individuals. He heals individuals. He comforts and encourages individuals. Nothing’s abstract with our Lord. It’s not theory. It’s not impersonal. The Jesus Way is clearly a very personal way to be.

We’re carefully considering the Gospel of Mark here at Central. And I’m impressed by this picture Mark paints of a very personal Jesus.

On the opening page he presents Jesus as taking Peter’s mother-in-law by the hand and helping her up. He touches the man with leprosy. He calls Levi and then eats dinner with him at Levi’s house. The bleeding woman touches him and he calls her “daughter.” He takes the dead girl by the hand, it says, with her mom and dad there in the room with him. “Little girl,” Jesus says. On and on Jesus is touching people, hugging people, eating with people, meeting with people. Jesus’ Way is personal.

And we don’t always think about it. We write checks. We build buildings. We create programs. We serve on committees. And those are all really great things. Praise God for those wonderful things! But I feel like there are fewer and fewer visits in one another’s homes. I think there are fewer and fewer face-to-face conversations. Fewer touches and hugs. Fewer confessions. Fewer prayers lifted up together through streams of tears. Fewer and fewer deep, close, personal relationships.

In the gospels, Jesus doesn’t stand on the edges of the scene. He never waits for something to happen. He grabs people, he walks toward situations. He makes things happen.

The way of Jesus is in bearing the burdens of others. Carrying the pains of others. Sharing their hurts. Not avoiding it. Not shielding yourself from it.

You can never go wrong showing up at somebody’s house to pray. That is always the right thing to do. You can never go wrong showing up at a funeral to cry. That is always the right thing to do. You can never go wrong showing up at a hospital to sit with somebody. That is always the right thing to do. And you’ll take it home with you. You won’t be able to shake it. It’ll keep you up at night. It’s heavy and it’s hard. It will burden you. It’ll impact you.

But it’s so like our Lord.

It’s so like Jesus who did not one time shy away from entering your mess and carrying your burdens. He walked toward you and your mess, he never walked away from you. He came to us and waded right into the middle of the tragedy of our lives to love and heal and restore. And it cost him. It cost him his life.

Peace,

Allan

Bringing the World to a Halt

December 15, 2015 / Allan / 0 Comments

“I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me… I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these, you did for me.” ~Matthew 25:35-40

You can stop the world with these acts of mercy in the name of Jesus. You can bring the whole world to a screeching halt when you do these little things to bless others with the grace of our God that maybe they’ve never experienced.

You’re not going to stamp out illiteracy, but you can read books once a week at the elementary school in your neighborhood. You’re not going to solve the problem of world hunger, but you can buy a hot meal for those two guys down at the corner. You can’t stop all sex trafficking, but what if you threw a birthday party for a prostitute?

Seriously. What if your Bible class or your small group threw a birthday party for a prostitute? Can you imagine? That would interrupt the world. That would make the world pause and take notice and pay attention. Those kinds of things give the world a sign that there’s another reality here.

You can’t say anything to this world with an act of power. Big, loud acts of power and numbers and strength don’t say much. Jesus Christ stopped the whole world when he died. On a cross. The kinds of things that make a real difference have to come out of our weakness and submission, out of forgiveness and sacrifice and service.

A cup of cold water doesn’t sound like much. Apparently, it means a whole lot to Jesus. It’s not what you do, it’s what God does with it.

Peace,

Allan

Nouns and Verbs

December 12, 2015 / Allan / 0 Comments

“Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” ~John 20:21-22

The Father sent the Son here on a mission. God perfected Jesus through his obedience, he protected Jesus and provided for him, he confirmed him and filled him with the Holy Spirit. And he promised ridicule and rejection and even death. But God sent the Son here to serve and to bless the world. Now the Christ tells us, “I’m sending you to do the same things in the same way.” And he empowers us. He breathes on us and gives us his Spirit.

What are we afraid of? Why do we hesitate or hold back?

Mission is not one of the Church’s programs. As followers of the King, mission is who we are. All of us are sent by God in Christ to be a blessing. To serve. To rescue and heal and love and bless just like Jesus who says the student should be like his teacher and the servant should be like her master.

Student and teacher. Servant and master.

You know, it’s a lot easier to just be a fan of God. I can be a great fan of God. Jesus is the mascot. Weekly worship and a Bible study now and then is the show. The church is the audience. And I can get my religious fix when I want it.

Or I can be an admirer of Jesus. I can read a lot of books about Jesus, I can learn a lot of Scriptural language and I can quote Jesus and become a real Jesus expert. He’s so great!

Or I can be a believer in Jesus. I can memorize all the doctrines and recite all the theological truths and win a lot of arguments.

No. The student should be like his teacher. The servant should be like his master.

Here’s where I get into trouble. See if this is true for you. When I read the Scriptures, my tendency is to pay more attention to the nouns than the verbs. When we put the nouns first, when we concentrate on the nouns, we spend all our time translating and defining and exegeting and interpreting. And we go back and forth with different contexts. The culture was like this. The name of the mountain means that. This word in the original language implied something else. And we don’t have to land anywhere or do anything. Nouns in the Bible are tough. And if we emphasize the nouns, they can actually separate us from the Story. They can create distance between us and the script.

Verbs, though… verbs are every day and easy. Verbs are cross-cultural. They’re timeless. You don’t need a translation. There’s no distance. We share the verbs with all peoples for all time. We share the verbs with Jesus. The fastest way to make a script out of Scripture is to emphasize the verbs.

God tells Abram to go. He tells Moses to speak. God tells Joshua to lead. He tells Isaiah to prophesy. Mary, give birth to the Savior of the World. Paul, take Christ to the Gentiles.

God has put his Church on a mission. He’s put you — you forgiven and saved and Holy Spirit-indwelled Christ-follower — he’s put you on a mission. We’re in a position right now, you’re in a place right now, to do more for the Kingdom of our Father and to proclaim the Good News of salvation in Christ Jesus than has ever been done in your community before! That’s the call. And that’s our Lord’s expectation.

Pick your favorite Bible story this weekend — I don’t care which one, just pick one. Now read it out loud and pay special attention to the verbs. Maybe try employing a couple of those verbs into your prayers this weekend. Become more like the student, more like the servant our Lord is calling you to be. You’ve got his Spirit inside you. What’s holding you back?

Peace,

Allan

Wake Up!

October 29, 2015 / Allan / 0 Comments

There’s a scene in the first Vacation movie (the original 1983 version with Chevy Chase, Beverly D’ Angelo, Randy Quaid, and John Candy) to which everybody with a drivers license can relate. The Griswolds are driving in the Family Truckster from Chicago to California to visit Wally World. They’re driving super late at night. It’s dark. Super quiet in the car. The moving shadows caused by the street lights and the glow from the dash board is about it. All you can hear is the Fleetwoods’ “Mr. Blue” on the car radio. The camera shows the kids in the back seat, sound asleep. Rusty: sound asleep. Audrey: sound asleep. Aunt Edna: sound asleep. Ellen in the passenger seat: sound asleep. The camera moves to the driver’s seat where we see Clark Griswold behind the wheel: sound asleep!

As God’s children and recipients of his eternal salvation, we have a divine purpose. We play a critical part in all of God’s new creation plans. We are his vital agents. But I think, sometimes, a lot of us are missing it. Some of us are dozing right through it. Sleeping. Maybe you’re in a full-on coma.

And we need a wake-up call.

“Wake up, O sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you!”
~Ephesians 4:14

Paul says it’s time to wake up. Living at the level of the non-heavenly world around you, living like everybody else, is like being asleep. Or, worse, it’s like what sleep is the metaphor for: death. When our daily and hourly lives do not reflect the glory of God and his eternal purposes for his world, we’re sleepwalking. We’re just going through the motions. And we’re really missing out.

Paul says it’s time to wake up. Come alive to the real world, the world where Jesus is Lord, the world to which your baptism calls you, your new creation, the world you claim to belong to when you say Jesus is Lord and that, yes, God has raised him from the dead! What we all need from time to time is a friend, or even a stranger, somebody to remind us. We all need a sermon or a verse of Scripture, something to wake us up. You’ve been asleep long enough. We need to be told the sun is shining, it’s a wonderful day out there. Wake up and get involved in it!

If God really is fixing everything that’s broken, if he really is repairing everything and making everything new, then our purpose as his children is to live like it. To really live like it. To join him, even, in repairing and restoring and renewing. That’s the goal. That’s what God is doing.

So many of us, though, see the Church as the goal instead of as the means to the goal. So many of us, when we talk about fixing and repairing and restoring and renewing, we’re talking about fixing and repairing and restoring and renewing the Church. As if that’s the mission. We get so wrapped up in what happens inside our church walls, we spend so much of our time and energy and money and passion on what happens in the church, we don’t have any time or energy or money or passion for what God is doing out in the world!

Wake up!

Now, hear me clearly: God’s Church is important. It’s vital. Christ died for his Church. The Church of God is paramount to the mission of God — as a means to that mission end, never as the end itself. The Church is not Wally World. The Church is the Family Truckster. The Church is the imperfect, beat-up, unbeautiful, sputtering, backfiring vehicle God uses to take his creation to its intended destination. And a lot of us are asleep at the wheel!

The Church is not a retreat from the world. It’s not a safe place to hide from the world. No! Shades of reason, neighbor! The Church is a vehicle into the world. But we’re not supposed to be asleep while God buckles us in and takes us to our destination. God saves us, he redeems us, and he brings us together as a church in order to work through us to save others. Our purpose as a church is to live and give and sacrifice and serve for the sake of others.

“Be very careful how you live — not as unwise, but as wise, making the most of every opportunity.” ~Ephesians 4:15-16.

Peace,

Allan

What Are You Afraid Of?

October 12, 2015 / Allan / 0 Comments

The third servant in Jesus’ story in Matthew 25 buried his master’s talent in the ground because he was afraid. He was afraid if he didn’t perform well, he would be punished. He was afraid of displeasing his master, of making his master angry. He believed it was better to play it safe, better to minimize the potential risk, better to avoid embarrassment or loss, by just sitting on the talent and returning it to the master unharmed. That third servant was afraid.

What are you afraid of?

We are God’s children, remember? We are disciples of the Christ, right? We’re not merely talking about faith or teaching religious principles or believing theological ideas or keeping biblical rules. We are living our lives — our whole entire lives! — with God in Christ.

And we can’t be scared.

God doesn’t just give us talents. He gives us life. And the life given to us by God is not to be lived in some kind of rigid, cramped, crowded, small, compromised, legalistic way. We are empowered by God’s Spirit to live life in a full, wild, joyful, exuberant, cheerful, celebratory way. We courageously live in ways that apprehend and assimilate the freedoms we have in our Lord. Those holy freedoms radiate out of our bold actions, Christ’s commission pulsates through our radical works. It’s brakes-off, no-looking-back, full-steam-ahead salvation activity that blesses others with God’s mercy and grace.

What are you afraid of?

Are you scared that, while showing radical mercy and grace, you might mess something up? While forgiving and healing, blessing and helping others, you might make God mad? Are there rules you’re afraid you might break if you try to advance the Kingdom? Are there people you’re scared you might upset if you think outside the box?

The way I see it, a full grasp of the life we have in Christ and the grace and mercy we receive from our Father means we’re no longer afraid of messing up. We don’t hold back because of an anxiety over doing something that might displease God. At the very least, avoiding sin should not be the main thing that drives us as we partner with God in his salvation mission for the world.

Our God wants his beloved children to operate out of joy and freedom and faith to do what is good and right, not out of fear of making a mistake. Isn’t that the whole point of the story in Matthew 25? If we faithfully pursue his mission and maybe — maybe! — mess something up, he’s not going to punish us. He’s going to use it for his purposes and to his eternal glory and praise.

So, don’t just sit there on your talent. Go do something. Do something bold and outrageous, something you’ve never tried before, something for the sake of somebody else in the name and manner of our Lord. Trust God to make it work, even if you don’t see the results immediately. Have faith that God isn’t concerned about the results — that’s his job, by the way, not yours — as much as he is about your eagerness to enter his mission.

And don’t be scared. We know the Master.

Peace,

Allan

Category: Ministry (Page 11 of 35)

Flesh and Blood

The Personal Way

Bringing the World to a Halt

Nouns and Verbs

Wake Up!

What Are You Afraid Of?

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