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It Won’t Kill You

January 28, 2015 / / 0 Comments

“He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.” ~Isaiah 40:29

We find great assurance and comfort in the eternal promises of our God found in his Holy Scriptures. Our God’s great love and his immeasurable mercies are continually poured upon us to give us strength and courage when we absolutely cannot make it on our own. Which, by the way, is all the time.

“I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” ~Isaiah 41:10

The command passages in the Bible should not be viewed as overbearing demands as much as descriptions of and invitations to participate in the divine power that is available to us when we offer ourselves wholly and completely to this great God.

“A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.” ~Isaiah 42:3

When we are wounded, he will not let us be destroyed. When our zeal or our fervor is barely smoldering, he won’t let it be blown out. You can’t say, “If I sign up to serve in this ministry, it’ll kill me.” You can’t say, “If we volunteer to work in this ministry, it’ll kill us.” God says it won’t. He won’t let it. It’s a promise. He won’t let you die from loving and serving one another in his holy community.

Peace,

Allan

Banquet Sounds

January 27, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Here’s a quote I didn’t have time to include in this past Sunday’s sermon about eating and drinking at Christ’s table:

“There is little that we can point to in our lives as deserving anything but God’s wrath. Our best moments have been mostly grotesque parodies. Our best loves have been almost always blurred with selfishness and deceit. But there is something to which we can point. Not anything that we ever did or were, but something that was done for us by another. Not our own lives, but the life of one who died in our behalf and yet is still alive. This is our only glory and our only hope. And the sound that it makes is the sound of excitement and gladness and laughter that floats through the night air from a great banquet.”    ~Frederick Buechner

The table of our Lord has always been the place to experience his great love and mercy, his forgiveness and peace, and righteous relationship with him and all his children. Praise God for the weekly grace of the Lord’s Supper. And for the seats he has reserved for us at the wedding feast of the Lamb.

Peace,

Allan

Eating and Drinking with Losers

January 26, 2015 / / 0 Comments

“When you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind.” ~Luke 14:13

“Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” ~Matthew 9:11

“Bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame!” ~Luke 14:21

“Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.” ~Matthew 11:19

The gospels show us that the Kingdom of God is a big party with a bunch of losers. Jesus wants us to see that God’s idea of a great time is a huge feast with a bunch of people you wouldn’t be caught dead with on a Saturday night. Or any other time of the week. Jesus came eating and drinking with losers.

And you are one of those losers. So am I. We are all losers together at the table of our King.

We’re all coming to the table with a limp. We’ve all got a wound or a chronic pain. We come to the table with a horrible story or a distorted view or a serious issue. All of us are maimed. Or dysfunctional. Or disabled. And broken. All of us.

The Pharisees at these dinner parties — the ones “watching closely,” the ones criticizing Jesus and complaining — are so self-righteous and smug with their nice and tidy lives in their pressed and flowing robes. They set themselves apart from and above the losers. “They’re sinners; but we’re saved. Their lives are a mess; but we’ve got it all together. They need a whole bunch of God’s grace and forgiveness; we just need a little grace to get us over the top.”

No! In Luke 14, Jesus says, at these dinner parties, don’t choose a place of honor for yourself. You’re not as great as you think you are. And these people you categorize as losers are my cherished children.

We are all sinners, every one of us. We have all sinned and fallen terribly short of the glory of God. And we are all being saved together by the lavish grace of our Father. Yes, the ground is level at the foot of the cross. And, yes, all the seats are the same around the table of our Lord.

Scripture says we’re all going to eat and drink together with Jesus forever. We’re all going to take our places with him around the table at the wedding feast of the Lamb. And I think Sundays are the warm-up. I think Sunday mornings are party practice. Sunday mornings together are like the chips and hot sauce to the fajitas and enchiladas. Eating and drinking with sinners, sharing a meal with broken losers, with each other, together on Sundays, teaches us how to live together. It’s one of the places we learn to bear one another’s burdens. We learn to help each other, to encourage each other, to challenge each other.

We look at all the faces around the Lord’s Table on Sundays and they’re all looking back at us. No doubt, seeing very clearly our messes, knowing fully our sins. And, yet, still choosing to eat and drink with us. And we know at that moment that Jesus was crucified for the lousy company he kept. And he still is.

Peace,

Allan

An Adult in All 50 States

January 24, 2015 / / 1 Comment

Today, our Little Middle, Valerie Nicole, turns 18, becoming a legal adult now in all fifty states. There are all kinds of interesting things one is allowed to do once turning eighteen. Valerie is now old enough to vote, to buy cigarettes, to play the state lottery, and to adopt a small child. She can rent her own apartment, get credit cards and open bank accounts without a parent, and join this country’s military. Today, Valerie can rent a Port-A-Potty (and put it in Greg’s front yard?), rent a car, and rent a power tool at Home Depot.

So far, none of that has happened yet today. She and three or four of her girlfriends are coming over here for C-A’s homemade pizza, going to a movie, celebrating at the Dessert Bar here in town, and then probably staying up way too late before finally crashing at our place.

Oh, Valerie, Valerie, Valerie.

I am very proud of you, sweetie. There are right at four months left in your last year of high school and, just like everything else, it’s going to happen before I’m quite ready for it or can take it all in. I’m so proud of the friend you are to others, the way you have grabbed this teaching / AmeriCorps thing and just excelled at it, the way you pushed through the auditions to make it to Sandie Revue, and the responsible ways you handle everything from the truck to your grades to your relationships to your walk with our God.

Thinking about how little time we’ve really got left to enjoy you on a daily basis around here gets all up in my feels. So, I’ll save the real mush for graduation. I hope you have a terrific time tonight and a wonderful birthday.

Keep swaggin’!

I love you,

Dad

Solitary Christian

January 23, 2015 / / 0 Comments

I love Jesus, but I can do without the Church. Jesus is Lord, but I follow him my own way, by myself. I’m a Christian, but I don’t need the Church. I don’t need to be part of a church to be a Christian.

Um… I’m not sure Christians have a choice.

The term “solitary Christian” is an oxymoron. Like Jumbo Shrimp. Rap Music. Military Intelligence. You can’t be “clearly confused,” you can’t fight a “civil war,” there are no “paid volunteers” or “open secrets.” And there’s no such thing as a “solitary Christian.”

Yes, there were times when our Lord went alone to the desert or up on a mountain to pray. But it’s much more typical in the Gospels for Jesus to be interacting with people. The eyewitnesses paint a portrait of Jesus consistently mixing with the multitudes, meeting strangers on the road, hanging out with friends and family. The most repeated picture is of Jesus eating and drinking with gusto in the homes of sinners and saints, with prostitutes and Pharisees, men and women, Jews and Gentiles. He was a people person.

Jesus was a supremely social, communal person. Whatever it was the Father called the Son to do, Jesus had no interest in doing it by himself. Just a casual glance at Jesus is enough to tell us today that we are living fully as God-created humans, not in our solitude and silence, not by ourselves, but in our connections and relationships with others. If we’re going to be Jesus-followers, then we have to be people people. You’re not really a Christian if you’re doing it by yourself.

Think about it: every time they asked Jesus, “What’s the single most important command?” he flatly refused. Instead, he always answered, “No, no, no. There’s not just one most important command; there are two: Love God with everything you’ve got AND love your neighbor as yourself.” Almost like one of those makes no sense without the other.

God in Christ is encountered, not in a solitary prayer in a closet, not in meditating on a mountain, or coming to the garden alone. In the Bible, Jesus mainly shows us God, reveals God to us, allows us to see God and experience God, at a dinner table, sharing good food and drink and conversation and hospitality with others.

We need God, yes. And we so desperately need one another.

Peace,

Allan

Snow Day!

January 22, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Well, our biggest snowman ever actually became the biggest and creepiest snowman ever. I was mainly the muscle for the project while Carley provided the artistic inspiration and interesting touches. As big as it is and as much snow is packed into that thing, I’m afraid I’ll be mowing around it in May.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Carley and I finished him up late this afternoon following our sledding adventure with the Dowells and the Schaffers and all their kids at Medi-Park. Nobody slid all the way into the pond a la It’s a Wonderful Life (“Not my sore ear!”) And I only plowed over one four-year-old kid while we were there. There’s nothing quite like screaming completely out of control down a steep hill with fifty other persons all around you, some of them quite large in their 40s and 50s, some of them quite tiny little pre-Kingergardeners, and every size and age in between. We didn’t lose anybody out there today. When everybody makes it home, it’s a good day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peace,

Allan

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