Merry Christmas from Veritas

Light in the Midst of Darkness

During this Advent season we have seen our world seem to grow darker. With discussion of financial cliffs, shootings of innocent children, more violence in the world, war, and supposedly the end of the world (according to the Mayans), our world seems to be on the brink. The world 2,000 years ago was surprisingly very similar to our own right now. Into this world 2,000 years ago the Christ Child came, in a small, insignificant town, in a corner of the empire, to a frightened and poor teenage girl and her husband. The Christ Child came to liberate us from the darkness, to defeat the powers of sin, death and evil, and to shine the light of the Kingdom of God. And so in this Advent Season he is calling us to the same thing... to shine the light of the Kingdom of God in this dark world. May this Christmas be filled with the light of the Christ Child burning from within you.

Advent Credo: From Testimony: The Word Made Flesh, by Daniel Berrigan, S.J. Orbis Books, 2004

It is not true that creation and the human family are doomed to destruction and loss— This is true: For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life;

It is not true that we must accept inhumanity and discrimination, hunger and poverty, death and destruction— This is true: I have come that they may have life, and that abundantly.

It is not true that violence and hatred should have the last word, and that war and destruction rule forever— This is true: Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, his name shall be called wonderful councilor, mighty God, the Everlasting, the Prince of peace.

It is not true that we are simply victims of the powers of evil who seek to rule the world— This is true: To me is given authority in heaven and on earth, and lo I am with you, even until the end of the world.

It is not true that we have to wait for those who are specially gifted, who are the prophets of the Church before we can be peacemakers— This is true: I will pour out my spirit on all flesh and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions and your old men shall have dreams.

It is not true that our hopes for liberation of humankind, of justice, of human dignity of peace are not meant for this earth and for this history— This is true: The hour comes, and it is now, that the true worshipers shall worship God in spirit and in truth.

So let us enter Advent in hope, even hope against hope. Let us see visions of love and peace and justice. Let us affirm with humility, with joy, with faith, with courage: Jesus Christ—the life of the world.

Water from an ancient well: Celtic Spirituality for Modern Life

The other week I received an offer to review the book Water from an Ancient Well: Celtic Spirituality for Modern Life by Ken McIntosh through the blogging program Speakeasy that I am a member of. As someone who has some Irish heritage and roots, I jumped at the chance. I have always felt a connection to Ireland and since I have been a follower of Jesus, a connection with Celtic Christianity and people like Saint Patrick and Saint Brendan (I sometimes joke that I have 3 patron saints from Ireland...the 2 previously mentioned, and then for a good laugh I throw in Saint Guinness)

It took me a while to work through this e-book not because it was tough reading or hard to understand. It took awhile because of a combination of my families schedule and my desire to go chapter by chapter savoring each chapter and the jewels contained within them.

There are 15 chapters in the book and each chapter seeks to tie together ancient Celtic Christianity and modern day life of following Jesus and how they can intertwine and impact us today. Some of the chapters cover the themes of God in the everyday, the meaning of the cross, solitude, spiritual friends, community, nature, Scripture, arts, and hospitality.

I found many chapters encouraging and challenging as well as thought provoking. Many of the themes in the 15 chapters I strongly resonated with and many of these themes I have been seeking to embed them within the life and ministry of Veritas and in my own personal life of following Jesus.

The one downfall that I experienced while reading the book, really had nothing to do with the book at all. It had to do with my longing to have a spiritual pilgrimage to Ireland. To walk where Saint Patrick walked. To see the Book of Kells firsthand. To climb Croagh Patrick (maybe not barefoot like people do on Reek Sunday). To visit St. James Gate and take a tour of the Guinness Factory as well as consume a pint. To see the beauty of the Island and immerse myself in the land of some of my forefathers (both in the sense of my actual descendants and those who followed Christ before me).

If you feel a strong connection to Ireland and also to Celtic Christianity, and have ever wondered what it might look like to live out some of the same values that the Celtic Christians lived out, only in our time, than grab a copy of this book and drink the Water from this ancient well.

Give More: Advent Conspiracy Week #3

Below is the text of the message from yesterday as well as the discussion questions that followed the message.

For the last 2 weeks we have been walking through our theme of Advent Conspiracy, with the hope of bringing the subversive nature of Advent back into reality. And with the hope that Advent becomes more than just a time of running around like crazy, spending money that we don’t have, to give people gifts that have everything. That it becomes about 4 main tenants.

When we launched this series two weeks ago we talked about the tenant of worship fully. We started Advent at the right place. We didn’t start advent where most people seem to start Advent, on Black Friday, at the church of the mall, and worshipping the god of stuff (and deals). We started Advent with worshipping the Christ child born in an out of the way, corner of the Empire, born to bring the Kingdom of God that would liberate people, and not enslave them. Whether being liberated from sin or liberated from consumerism, Jesus still liberates today.

Last week we talked about spending less. We talked about the fact that every year American’s spend a total of 450 billion dollars on Christmas. In comparison it would take 5-10 billion to give clean water to everyone in the world who doesn’t have access to it. So we look at which yoke were we going to live under. The yoke of Christmas (ie Consumerism) or the yoke of Christ, who would free us to not buy happiness, but spend less on ourselves.

This week our theme seems to be almost in contradiction to last week. The theme is Give More. We are going to unpack together what I mean when I say Give More. We are called to give more Presence this advent season than Presents. And our model for giving presence is Jesus, the center of our Advent Season.

So today we’ll be looking at Matthew 1:18-25 and taking time to focus specifically on one part of this passage. But before we get to that one part, let’s look at the Scripture together. Matthew 1:18-25 is the first of two narratives of the birth of Jesus in the gospels. The other is in Luke (which we’ll look at next week). Matthew 1:18-25 says, “This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.”

In the story we find out that Mary is found to be pregnant with Jesus, and has shared that information with Joseph. I am sure that all kinds of thoughts went through his mind before he went to bed that faithful night. Thoughts like, “I thought I knew her. Who was the guy she was fooling around with behind my back? What will my family and friends think or say?” And so before he hit the sack for the night, he had made up his mind to divorce her quietly. Now this is odd in our day, because at this point Mary and Joseph aren’t yet “officially married”, even though it does say in the text “Joseph her husband.” We need to take a look at the Jewish understanding of marriage and betrothal to understand this statement. In the 1st Century Jewish world engagement was as legally binding as marriage is in our day. The only way to break the engagement (or betrothal) was to get a divorce. But along with that divorce came all kinds of possible issues, mostly for the woman, who would be ostracized, condemned, and probably would never marry. And so Joseph had a lot to think about regarding his next steps. But in the Scriptures we see that Joseph is called a righteous man. And because of his righteousness, he was going to divorce her quietly. He was kind, tender and merciful. He was so attached to Mary, that he was not willing that she should be exposed to the public shame, so he sought to secretly dissolve the connection and to restore her to her friends without the punishment that was commonly inflicted on those who committed “adultery.” So he heads off to sleep with his decision made, until he has a dream in which an angel appears to him, and changes everything. The Angel verifies the fact that Mary hadn’t been running around on Joseph. But what was conceived in her was from the Holy Spirit. Not only did the angel verify the fact of where the baby came from, but also let Joseph in on what the name of the child should be. The name Jesus, which means the Lord saves. And so even the given name of Jesus, points to the next thing that the angel says, “that he will save his people from their sins.”

But the next part of the text is where I want to spend most of our time on this morning, as I believe it gets at our theme Giving More in a very real way. Verse 22-23 says this, “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”[ (which means “God with us”).” This part of the story points back to the Old Testament and a prophecy that would be ultimately fulfilled by Jesus. The Old Testament text that the author of Matthew is quoting is Isaiah 7:14. Jesus, in his birth, was fulfilling a 700 year old prophecy.

And so Jesus, here is referred to as Immanuel, which we see means God with Us. Jesus was not only the first and greatest Present, but the first present he gave to mankind, and continues to give is his Presence. That God is with us. But there is more to this term Immanuel than just that God is with us. I believe there are 3 more parts to his presence, than just God with us.

Look at the screen and you’ll see that Giving More in terms of Immanuel means 4 things.

First, that God is for us. All too often in our world people think God is against them, but if we read John 3:16-17 it shows all of us, that God is really for us. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” That is really really good news. But God being for us isn’t really enough. That is where we move to a big part of God giving more.

Not only is he for us, he is with us. God is with us all throughout the Old Testament and New Testament, and especially in the person of Jesus. He is God with Us. Immanuel. But that also is just the beginning.

It is good that God is for us, and it is good that God is with us. But probably even better is that God is One of Us. There was a song a few years back with that title, If God was One of us by Joan Osborne. And the answer to that question is that God was one of us in the person of Jesus. Colossians 2:9 puts it this way, “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form,” and John 1:14 (in the message) says, “The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood.”

Jesus moved into our neighborhood. Jesus lives as One of us, loves as one of us, even likes us while he is one of us. That is what theologians call the mystery of the Incarnation, that God becomes one of us, through Jesus.

And lastly, when we understand the implications of God being for, with and one of us, that often compels us to invite Jesus to be in us. That that changes everything. God himself passes the DNA of Jesus into our very lives, which empowers us to live as Jesus here on earth.

These four things (For, With, One of, and In) is all about our theme this morning, Give More. In Jesus, God gives more presence. In the Incarnation God displays that he is For, With, One of, and In. We are talking about the incarnation this morning because I believe it suggests, in very real terms, what it means to give ourselves to one another. I believe that the incarnation is full of giving. Or as one of my favorite authors says about the incarnation, “Jesus exploded into the life of ancient Israel – the life of the whole world, in fact – not as a teacher of timeless truths, nor as a great moral example, but as the one through whose life, death, and resurrection God’s rescue operation was put into effect, and the cosmos turned its great corner at last.”

So but what does all of this have to do with us living 2,000 years after Jesus walked this earth? What does it mean to us and our life that God is for, with, one of, and In? And what do those 4 things mean for how we live our lives and how we are to Give More in this advent season? It is to those questions that we turn to now to unpack, and to put it where the rubber hits the road in terms of our everyday life and existence, living in the USA in the 21st century.

1. What thoughts, comments, insights, questions, push back, etc.. do you have regarding the Scripture and/or the message? 2. What does it mean to you that God is for us, with us, one of us and in us? 3. How do these four realities tie into our theme of Giving More? 4. What is God saying to you and what are you going to do about it? What is God saying to us and what are we going to do about it?

Spend Less: Advent Conspiracy Week 2

Below is our message from our second week of Advent Conspiracy, looking at the tenant of Spend Less. The discussion questions follow the message.

Today is our second week in our Advent Conspiracy series. Last week we looked at the first tenant of Advent Conspiracy, that of Worship Fully. The right place to begin when it comes to any season, but especially in the season of advent, which can get so crazy and off-kilter, that by January we realize that we didn’t worship fully in this most holy of seasons.

Next week we are looking at giving more. Giving more not in terms of presents and things, but giving more of yourself and in presence. Spending time with people, which is what truly matters. And giving of yourself, even in areas of gift giving…giving people things that you put time, thought, etc.. into and not just a sweater that will end up in the closet.

And the last week we’ll look at Love All and how, in this season especially, we should be loving all and seeking to be a blessing to those who are less fortunate than we. Which is one reason we went from 10% of our offering in September-November for Forgotten Voices, to 20% in December.

And this week we are covering the tenant of Spend Less. As I mentioned last week, Americans as a whole spend around 450 billion dollars on Christmas. Which boils down to an average of 750-1000 per family on Christmas spending. (As a side note, it takes 10-30 billion to give clean water to every one in the world that needs it).

Now, I am not saying that we should just not give gifts at all, or not spend a dime on Christmas (though if that is what you feel called to, go for it). But how often have we bought gifts out of a sense of obligation? Or how often have we been given gifts out of a sense of obligation? Or even a sense of fear, like what if they give me a gift and I don’t have anything for them? All these things, the obligation, the fear, and sometimes the one-up-manship, of getting someone a better gift, as well as the amount of money that we spend on Christmas each and every year, is what I would refer to as the yoke of Christmas.

So this morning we will be conversing around the concept of the yoke of Christmas vs. the yoke of Christ, and to do that we’ll be looking at Matthew 11:28-30, which says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

So let’s take some time to unpack the yoke of Christmas and the yoke of Christ by looking at this text together. The first thing we see in this text is Christ’s call to all who are weary and burdened and he will give rest. Jesus directs his call to those who are burdened. He calls those who sense they must come to Him to relieve their need, instead of living in self-sufficiency. Here in this text Jesus is, as we are today, contrasting two different yokes. We are contrasting the yoke of Christmas and the yoke of Christ. Here in this text Jesus is contrasting the yoke of religion vs. the yoke of relationship. And specifically the yoke of the religious leaders, the Pharisees, and teachers of the law vs. a relationship with Jesus.

The burden that Jesus is speaking of in the first verse of the Scripture that we looked at, is that of the Pharisaical and scribal religion; the contrast between the heavy yoke and the genuine disciple-joy of Christ is implied in this passage, but at the same time we can’t limit it’s application.

So Jesus calls all who are weary and burden, and he will give rest. The Yoke of Christ is one of rest and peace. After all, isn’t he called the Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6 says, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Rest from striving to gain approval. Rest from trying to please God. Rest from trying to live up to the standards that even those teaching the law couldn’t live up to. In contrast, the yoke of Christmas is not of rest and peace but of busyness and consumerism. Of the endless to-do lists. The burden of making sure everything is just perfect. The burden of debt, buying the right gift, and the burden of buying stuff for people who already have more than they ever need. The yoke of Christmas, for the average American means months if not years of paying their debt off. Not to mention the stress, anxiety, and worry that comes with debt and the possibility of not being able to pay it back.

The next thing Jesus calls his followers to is in verse 29, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Now before we go any farther into contrasting the yoke of Christmas vs. the yoke of Christ, I think it would be wise to unpack the word yoke in all it’s meanings. There are many different meanings for the word yoke, and it definitely doesn’t refer to an egg. One of the first meanings of a yoke when we look it up in the dictionary is an animal harness. Or to link things together.

So when training a new animal to plow, ancient farmers would often yoke it to an older, stronger, more experienced animal who would bear the burden and guide the young animal through his learning. So in this teaching, one way to look at it, is that Jesus is using the metaphor of yoking two animals together to get at a deeper meaning of being a disciple of his. That we are to take up his yoke, be tied to him, and learn about what it means to live our lives by the way he lived his life. And that when we are yoked with him, we will see him pulling our load for us. That he wants us to give him our burdens, cares, struggles, sins, etc.. and he will put them on his shoulders so that we can be yoked with him without feeling those things.

Another meaning of the word yoke, not found in our world today, but common in Jesus day, is that yoke often meant religion or teaching of a Rabbi. So when Jesus says that he is gentle and humble in heart, he is contrasting his yoke (his “religion”, his teaching) as based on him being gentle and humble in heart, with the fear based, forced, condemning religion of the Pharisees and teachers of the law. And that when we take his yoke we will find rest for our souls. In contrast again to the yoke of the Pharisees which doesn’t produce rest for our souls, but a constant state of guilt, frustration, and fear from not measuring up and not living up to the letter of the law. Jesus yoke, when taken up, can free us from religion. Can free us from the yoke of Christmas. Of never measuring up to the standards of others in how they celebrate Christmas. Freeing us from the yoke of Christmas that says that the best Christmas is where there are a ton of Christmas presents under the tree and that the bigger gifts are the better gifts. Jesus can free us from the yoke of Christmas that says more, more, more. Can free us from the let down after all the presents have been unwrapped and we still cry out for one more present. Or the disappointment of not getting the gift that we really wanted. Jesus can free us from the demands of our consumer culture that cries out that if I only had this one thing, that I would be truly happy. And then when we get that one thing, we realize that we aren’t happy and we need just one more thing.

The Yoke of Christ is easy and light. His gift to all of us this advent season and every season is rest for your souls. It is a gift that is simple as it is powerful and profound. The Yoke of Christ is easy and light because he bears it with us, and bears the brunt of it for us.

The Yoke of Christmas is burdensome and heavy. The Yoke of Christmas’ gift to us is worry, stress, fear, guilt, busyness, and the pile of credit card statements that will come in January.

Which yoke we choose is up to us. Jesus won’t force his yoke on us, which would defeat what he and his yoke are all about. But I find it so strange that the yoke of Christmas, or we could even honestly say the yoke of Consumerism and debt, reach their pinnacle on the morning we celebrate the birth of Jesus- the Savior who came to liberate us from these things.

So let’s unpack the yoke of Christ vs. the yoke of Christmas a little more, and come up with some concrete, on the ground ideas, plans, and goals when it comes to living out the second tenant of the Advent Conspiracy, that of Spend Less.

1. What thoughts, comments, insights, questions, push back, etc.. do you have regarding the Scripture and/or the message?

2. The founders of Advent Conspiracy suggest that the fastest growing religion in the world isn't Islam or Christianity, but "radical consumerism". Do you agree or disagree with this statement? In what ways are we drawn to this kind of worship?

3. The Yoke of Christmas is the yoke of excess. Unfortunately, this is more accurate than most of us want to admit. In what ways do you put on the Yoke of Christmas? Food? Drink? Overstuffed schedule? Overspending? How does the Yoke of Christmas leave you feeling after it is over?

4. What is one practical way of putting on the yoke of Christ or one practical way of taking off the yoke of Christmas this advent season? How can you spend less in this advent season?

Worship Fully: Advent Conspiracy Week #1

Below you'll find the text of the message from yesterday's gathering in which we looked at the theme of Worship Fully from the Advent Conspiracy series that we just started. The discussion questions that we talked about follow the message.

So today we are starting a new series. The new series corresponds with the 4 weeks of advent and is called Advent Conspiracy. For those who don’t know Advent is the 4 weeks before Christmas. Advent is a season observed in many Western Christian churches as a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus at Christmas. The term is an anglicized version of the Latin word adventus, meaning "coming.” So for the next 4 weeks we will be looking at Advent and wait to celebrate the coming of King Jesus, born in a lowly manager in an out of the way town in the corner of the Roman Empire. We will seek to untangle the cultural celebrations of Advent from the Biblical.

We will focus on four broad themes. This week we will start off advent in the right way by focusing on worship fully. To untangle ourselves from the cultural expectations of this season, we will need to be spending time worshipping Jesus, the real reason for the season. Next week we will look at spending less. The average American spends somewhere around 1,000 dollars on Christmas each and every year. In 2010 Americans spent 450 billion on Christmas. So we’ll also seek to untangle our celebrations by spending less. The 3rd week we’ll look at what might sound like an exact opposite of the week before. The 3rd week theme is Give More. We’ll be talking about giving more presence than presents. More time with people and also giving more away to those in need. Lastly, we’ll warp up the Advent season with the theme of Love All. If we worship fully, spend less, and give more but don’t do it from a heart of love, than it is all for naught. So my prayer for us is that we would, in a small part, recover the conspiracy that is Advent. Recover the subversive nature of Christmas and the upside down Kingdom that worships a King that doesn’t come with pomp and circumstance but comes to lowly parents. Not with a silver spoon in his mouth, but lying in a feed trough.

So let’s begin unpacking what it means for us as we begin Advent to worship fully. We’ll look at probably the two most familiar stories of the coming of Jesus into our world. We’ll also draw out 6 principles of what it means to worship fully.

So let’s turn to our first text of the morning, Luke 2:8-20. And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.”

So the first thing that we can draw from this text in relation to the idea of worshipping fully is found in verse 15. After the angels left and went back into heaven, the shepherds now had a choice to make. Do they continue watching the sheep on the hillside, or listen to the Angels and seek out Jesus. Obviously if a company of angles shows up and tells you some amazing news, your choice would be pretty obvious. So the Shepherds set off and began to seek out Jesus in the town of Bethlehem. So to worship fully in our day and age is no different, in some respects to what the shepherds did after the angels appeared to them. We need to seek after Jesus just as the shepherds did. Seeking after Jesus in our day and age means to spend time seeking Jesus in the Scriptures and in prayer, both individually, but also corporately. It wasn’t like the shepherds said, “Let’s designate one of us to go and seek Jesus, while the rest of us stay here and keep watch over the flocks.” They all went and they all searched together.

So our Veritas community needs to seek after Jesus together not only in this advent season but all year round. Everyone taking time to pray, read, and seek God on a daily basis. But also getting together to search the Scriptures, pray together, and seek Jesus together.

The second thing that we can relate to our theme of worship fully from this text is found in verse 17. Not only did the Shepherds seek after Jesus, they also turned around and shared what they had found. Scriptures say that “they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child.” Worshipping fully not only means seeking Jesus in prayer, scripture, etc…. but it means then taking what you find into the world and sharing it with others. The really amazing thing about this part of the text is who God uses to spread his message. Shepherds were regarding as social outcasts. They had a bad reputation and were considered unreliable and were not allowed to give testimony in the law courts. But here God was redeeming them and spreading the kingdom through the most unlikely of people. In a very real way the shepherds were the first preachers and missionaries of the gospel of Jesus. They didn’t and they couldn’t keep it to themselves and when we worship fully we shouldn’t be able to keep it to ourselves either.

The last thing we can draw out from the story in relation to worshipping fully is found at the end of the story. What happens when they leave Bethlehem? They returned to their flocks, their vocation and their families glorifying and praising God for everything that had seen and heard and experienced. They didn’t just stay in Bethlehem. They didn’t just stay on the mountaintop, if you will. They came off the mountaintop experience of seeing and experiencing the birth of the savior of the world, and continued worshipping and praising God in the midst of their daily routine and life. The same needs to be said of us. We are so often tempted to try to stay on the mountaintop. You know those times when God shows up in an amazing way, and we just want to stay there and never come down. We don’t want to go back to our jobs, families, school, neighborhood, etc… But life is lived off the mountain, and I believe true worship is the kind of worship that is fleshed out and lived in the everyday and the ordinary. In the times when you don’t “feel it”. So to worship fully means that true worship is not just music, a gathering, an emotion, etc… but true worship is probably best described by Romans 12:1-2 (The Message), “So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”

So let’s turn to the next story and see what it has for us in relation to our first theme of the Advent Conspiracy, that of worshipping fully. The text is found in Matthew 2:1-11 and is the story of the Magi coming to Jesus. “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written: “‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’ ”Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.” After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.”

The first thing that we can draw from this text regarding worshipping fully can be drawn from what might seem like an incidental detail, the place of Jesus’ birth. Bethlehem can be broken down into two words in the Arabic language. First there is Beth which means house. Secondly there is Lehem which means flesh. So Bethlehem can mean the house of flesh. Or it could be called the House of the Incarnation. The place where God was manifested in the flesh for the salvation of a lost world. So part of worshipping fully, not only in this advent season, but also all year round, is incarnating Jesus in our world. Be the hands and feet of Jesus wherever you are. We are called to be incarnational in our community, in our work, in our school, in our families, wherever we go. To flesh out the Kingdom in the world. Or I could ask each one of us, where is our Bethlehem, where we flesh out the life of Jesus? To worship fully we need to be incarnational.

We also see in verse 2 that the purpose of the visit of the Magi was “to come to worship him.” The Magi, wise man from the east, coming to worship a child, who had been born in a manger, not in a palace. They understood their purpose. Do we? Do we understand that our overarching purpose is to worship him and that everything we do can be worship? We talk about this every week when we do the triangle, that they are totally connected and in all of those 3 areas we are really worshipping Him.

Part of the way the Magi’s expressed the purpose of worship, was what they did when they found Jesus. The gave him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. These were things that were highly valuable in their country, and they gave them as an act of worship. It again is no different for us, it might not be gold, frankincense, and myrrh that we are called to worship Jesus with. It might be our money, our time, our talents, and our abilities. Part of worshipping fully is what we call stewardship. God calls us to give back in worship what he has entrusted to our care. God calls us to be generous, just like the Magi were generous. Generous in our finances, in our time, in our relationships, and in every part of our lives. When we are generous than we are worshipping fully.

Finally, the last of the six principles we can draw about worshipping fully from this text is found in the last verse, verse 11. The Magi were warned in a dream about Herod’s true intentions, and they were obedient to that dream. Their worship went beyond their purpose in the trip, and the gifts that they gave Jesus. Their worship was also manifested in obedience. They were obedient to what God had communicated to them through a dream. Worshipping God fully means obedience to his will in all of life. Jesus said it himself in the last thing he said before returning to his father, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” A Dallas Willard said it this way in The Great Omission, “life in Christ has to do with obedience to his teaching.”

So we are going to spend sometime unpacking this idea of worship fully, especially in the midst of advent, by asking a few questions about what it looks like in the everyday and ordinary of all of our lives.

1. What thoughts, comments, insights, questions, push back, etc… do you have regarding the Scriptures and/or the message? 2. Out of the 6 principles of worshipping fully found in the two Scriptures (Seeking, Spreading the word, Life as Worship, Incarnating Jesus, Stewardship, and Obedience) do you have the most trouble living out? What can you do during this Advent season to grow in that area? 3. How might starting Advent by talking about worship fully and Jesus, change or influence what you do and don’t do this Christmas Season? 4. What is God saying to you and what are you going to do about it? What is God saying to us and what are we going to do about it?

Schooled: Week 3

Below is the message and discussion questions from our 3rd and final week of our series called Schooled, looking at the Old Testament book of Jonah. Today we wrap up our series “Schooled” looking at the Old Testament book of Jonah. Two weeks ago we looked at Jonah chapter 1. We spent time unpacking the hatred that Jonah had towards the Assyrians, his call to his enemies, his willingness to sacrifice himself for pagan, gentile people that he knew, but wasn’t willing to sacrifice himself for those he didn’t know, and didn’t want God to have mercy on them.

Last week we looked at Jonah chapter 3 and talked about how Jonah, even though he was shown mercy, didn’t extend mercy. That the Assyrians were the heroes of the story, because they took God at his word, and acted immediately, unlike Jonah who had to be called twice to take up his missionary mantle. Also that Jonah was only obeying God out of duty, and not love, grace, compassion, and mercy for the Assyrians, based on the love, grace, compassion, and mercy that God showed to him.

Today we wrap up Jonah by looking at Jonah chapter 4 and how we can get schooled in the ways of the Kingdom of God. So let’s look at Jonah 4 and unpack the text, as it will definitely show us something about living in the Kingdom of God in our 21st century context.

“But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. He prayed to the LORD, “Isn’t this what I said, LORD, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.” But the LORD replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?” Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. Then the LORD God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.” But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?” “It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.” But the LORD said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?” So we see Jonah reacting to the fact that God was having mercy on the Ninevites and wasn’t going to bring upon them the destruction that Jonah was hoping and praying for. Jonah was angry because God granted repentance to the Ninevites, and the Assyrians were enemies of Judah and Israel. Jonah wanted God to bring judgment upon these people that he hated. Jonah knew that God was full of grace and mercy and that was why he was afraid to tell the people of Ninevah. He ran the other way. He ran from his missionary calling. He ran from doing what God was calling him to do, all because he knew that God was gracious, compassionate, merciful, and relenting. And he didn’t want God to be all those things, or at least not to his enemies. He wanted God to extend mercy, grace, compassion, and forgiveness upon him and his people, just not to those evil, no good, rotten, pagan, Gentile enemies.

What is even worse is the fact that no only does he want God’s grace, mercy, compassion, and love for himself, he actually calls on the mercy of God while in the belly of the fish and enjoys it when it was extended to him. But now he resents it when it is extended to others. What if God treated Jonah the way Jonah wanted God to treat the people of Ninevah? Jonah could be merciful to the pagan, Gentile sailors in chapter 1 but he is unwilling that God should be merciful.

All this talk of God’s grace and mercy and Jonah’s attitude that God showed it to the people of Ninevah remind me of a quote from the author Mike Yaconelli that I might have shared before. ““Nothing in the church makes people in the church more angry than grace. It's ironic: we stumble into a party we weren't invited to and find the uninvited standing at the door making sure no other uninviteds get in. Then a strange phenomenon occurs: as soon as we are included in the party because of Jesus' irresponsible love, we decide to make grace "more responsible" by becoming self-appointed Kingdom Monitors, guarding the kingdom of God, keeping the riffraff out (which, as I understand it, are who the kingdom of God is supposed to include).” Sounds exactly what was happening with Jonah, doesn’t it? And honestly, what happens with each one of us, if we aren’t careful. We can end up just like Jonah, being shown God’s mercy and being unwilling to show mercy to others, or even worse, praying that God wouldn’t show others mercy.

And so Jonah is ticked at God for showing mercy to his enemies, but he is still holding out hope that maybe, just maybe God will still bring judgment upon the city of Ninevah, and so he goes outside of the city to wait for the destruction to come. As he sits there he tells God that it would have been better for him to die, than to see the forgiveness, grace and mercy that God was showing the Assyrian people. So central was the hatred of the Assyrians in Jonah’s existence than when they escape from threatened destruction, he seemed to have nothing left to live for. Not only was this a condemnation of Jonah and his attitude, but Jonah also represented the people of Israel. That they had let hatred of the “pagans” become so dominant in their thoughts that to be frustrated in the desire for vengeance robbed life of all meaning. In fact, their hatred of the “pagans” robbed them of their original call, the call of Abram found in Genesis 12:1-3. The calling to be a nation that was blessed, not to the exclusion of others, but for others. That they were blessed to be a blessing. And so in order for Jonah to be confronted with his hatred of the Assyrians, his lack of living out his Abrahamic calling, and his lack of love, mercy, grace and compassion, God puts together a giant object lesson using a plant and a worm. God makes a plant grow up to give shade to Jonah, and then only a day later, God also sent a worm to eat the plant, so that Jonah was wilting in the hot sun.

Jonah was so pleased with this plant, that it had eased his discomfort and helped him avoid the hot blistering sun, but when the worm ate it, Jonah went back to wishing he had died. He cared about the plant because it gave him shade. In the end, the plant was all about him. Everything was all about him. Jonah was a very selfish man. But the point of the object lesson is that Jonah cared more and grieved more over the condition of the plant, than the condition of the people of Ninevah. God challenged him in his heart condition. God asked Jonah questions, because they revealed his heart. God likes to ask us questions, because they reveal our heart.

God boils it all down to this. How much more should God be concerned about the destruction of persons- those made in his image, even if they are Assyrians. God’s response to Jonah showed Jonah, the prophet, that he really didn’t know God as well as he thought. You see something that the people of God in the Old Testament (shown so well in this book) and the people of God in the New Testament (shown so well in Acts 10..where Peter has a vision) and I believe the people of God (those who call themselves Christians) in our day, need to realize, that God is the God of All People, and not just a certain group of people.

But the story of Jonah comes to a close, but not with a nice and tidy bow. It just sort of ends with God questioning Jonah. The story isn’t really finished. There are a lot of questions left unanswered. Does Jonah fall on his face and confess his sinfulness to God? Does he go into the city of Ninevah and repent with them? Does he begin to show the Ninevites the love, grace, mercy, and compassion that God has shown both to him and to them? Does he sulk off and write off God as not fitting into his agenda? And so maybe that is the point? Maybe we are supposed to wrestle with the lack of ending and ask the same questions of ourselves. And so that is what we are going to do, wrestle together with some of the open ended questions that the book leaves us hanging with.

1. What thoughts, comments, insights, questions, push back, etc.. do you have regarding the Scripture and/or the message? 2. Share a story with us when you have been a recipient of the mercy and grace of God. Now share a story with us when you have been a Kingdom monitor and didn’t extend the mercy of God that was shown to you. 3. What is God saying to you and what are you going to do about it? What is God saying to us and what are we going to do about it? 4. What has stood out to you during our Schooled series and how has it schooled you in the ways of the Kingdom of God?

Schooled: Week 2

Below is the message and the discussion questions from our worship gathering yesterday.

So last week we began a three week series entitled Schooled, looking at the Old Testament book of Jonah. We spent last week in Chapter 1 talking about God’s missionary call on Jonah, his outright hatred of the Assyrian people, his running away from the call of God, and his willing sacrifice for the gentile Pagan sailors who he looked eye to eye with, but not for the gentile, Pagan people in the city of Ninevah.

This week we are looking at the 3rd chapter of Jonah together and next week we’ll wrap up our series with the conclusion of the story in Jonah chapter 4. So let’s turn to Jonah chapter 3 and see what this chapter might say to us and how it might school us in the ways, values, and life of the Kingdom of God.

“Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.” Jonah obeyed the word of the LORD and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.” When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.” So the first thing we see in this text is the second call of God to Jonah. The second call to live out the Abrahamic covenant found in Genesis 12:1-3 as well as the second call to be a missionary of God and to share the redemptive narrative found in the God that Jonah worshipped. The interesting thing about this call in 3:1-2, is that it is a direct parallel to the beginning of Chapter 1, almost word for word. The author is skillfully trying to convey the idea that Jonah is being offered a new beginning, a second chance. A second chance to take up the missionary mantel that God was placing on him. A second chance to show love, grace, mercy, and compassion to the people of Ninevah as he had shown to the gentile, Pagan sailors. A second chance at faithfully living out the call that God was putting on him.

But he still had a choice to make. God was still not forcing him to go to Ninevah. He was just giving him a second chance and doing what God was calling him to do. He realized the first time that he couldn’t outrun or run away from God’s call on his life. (Anyone experience something similar, trying to run away from a call on your life and only realizing that in the end it was impossible?) And so we see in verse 3 that Jonah obeyed God and sent off for Ninevah.

What I find very interesting though is the words obeyed God. Why did he go to Ninevah and preach to it? Was it out of love, mercy, grace, and compassion? Was it out of duty to God because he couldn’t outrun God? Was it out of a sick desire to look people in the eye, and hope that he could see their destruction? Was it because God showed Jonah mercy in chapter 2 by saving him from death by having giant fish swallow him, and then spit him up on dry land? Was it from a heart of love that God had given to him for his enemies? Was it from a heart of repentance and wanting others to experience that same forgiveness that he experienced from God?

It seems like, at least to me and my reading of chapter 2 and chapter 3, that Jonah’s obedience to God’s call on his life, to be a missionary to the people of Ninevah, does not come from a heart of mercy, repentance, love, grace, and compassion. In fact, at no point is there an acknowledgement of disobedience or an expression of repentance on the behalf of Jonah. So I believe Jonah’s listening and going to Ninevah was not a willing obedience but a temporary forced compliance. He was taking up the missionary commission grudgingly. There was no mercy in his heart. God’s mercy upon Jonah in the belly of the whale didn’t kindle mercy in Jonah. So Jonah heads off to Ninevah, ever the reluctant missionary to a people that he, I believe, still despises in his heart and still desires to see God’s hand of judgment fall upon them. So Jonah gets to Ninevah and begins to proclaim “Forty more days and Ninevah will be destroyed.” Not a great message for the Assyrians to hear, but I can almost hear the love and hope that Jonah had that it would indeed happen. Almost like, I can’t wait for you guys to be destroyed and get what is coming to you. But something happens that I am sure Jonah wasn’t counting on, and I’m sure he was hoping that it wouldn’t happen. We see in verse 3 that a visit to Ninevah would require three days, and in verse 4 we see Jonah starting out on the first day. The very first day, when he had only gone 1/3 of the way through the city, is when his words took a starting effect on the population of Ninevah. We see in verse 5 the reaction to his preaching, “The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.” This verse is one of the most striking in the entire book of Jonah. In fact this verse and this chapter stand in direct contrast to the people of Israel, and in particular to the prophet Jonah. The lack of repentance on the part of Jonah himself through the book stands in striking contrast to the universal repentance and humiliation of the Assyrians. Jonah is singularly unmoved by his sin against God, while the pagan, Gentile citizens of Ninevah repent at the first word of judgment. This is surely intended to indicate how hardened against God, Israel had become in its proud, self-assurance and how wrong the Israelites were to think that they stood in a relationship with God of which the pagan, Gentile citizens of Ninevah were incapable of. Jonah was still a first class nationalist, exalting his own country, his own people, and “his” own God. This should strike us to the heart. The hero or heroes of this story isn’t the people of Israel represented by Jonah, (or the people of God if you will) but the pagan, gentile people who took God at his word, repented, and were justified. I’m sure that Israel hated this story, because God was showing that he showed no partiality and was no respecter of people. It was what got Jesus into the most trouble, because he was saying that it was the sick that needed a doctor, not the healthy. He said that the prostitutes, tax collectors, and sinners were entering the Kingdom ahead of the religious leaders, Pharisees, and upright Jewish people. (Mt. 21:31) He told stories where the tax collector who humbled himself and was repentant went away justified, and the Pharisee who honored himself and condemned the tax collector went away not being justified by God, only by his self righteousness. (Luke 18:10-14)

Lastly, Jesus himself points his hearers back to this story that we are looking at today and paints the pagan, Gentiles of Ninevah with a beautiful brush of faithfulness, repentance, and justification. And paints his hearers as faithless, unrepentant and unjustified. In Luke 11:29-32 we read this, “As the crowds increased, Jesus said, “This is a wicked generation. It asks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation. The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the people of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom; and now something greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and now something greater than Jonah is here.” Jesus was driving home the same point that the writer of Jonah was driving. That the pagan, gentile people (whether of Jesus day) or of Jonah’s had a more open heart to the things of God than the religious people of Jesus’ day (or Jonah’s day for that matter). Could we say that about our own day? That people who are “outside” the Christian faith might have a more open heart to the things of God than “Christians”? Interesting question that we’ll explore together. So to end the story, the entire city of Ninevah, from greatest to least, from the King of Assyria to the livestock, sitting in sackcloth and ashes, fasting, and calling upon God in repentance. God hears their cries of repentance, their cries of mercy, and their pleading for forgiveness, and he relents from the destruction that he had planned (which would be an interesting discussion sometime).

So let’s turn to the question that I just asked about people outside the Christian faith having a more open heart to the things of God than Christians and a few other questions to unpack and apply this Scripture into our lives here in the 21st century.

Discussion Questions:

1. What thoughts, comments, insights, questions, push back, etc.. do you have regarding the message and/or the Scripture? 2. Who is God calling you to be on mission with and on mission for? Have you obeyed this call and if so out of what? (Love, Compassion, Duty, etc..) 3. Have you ever experienced a person who wasn't a "follower of Jesus" looking more like a follower of Jesus, than someone who claimed the name of Jesus? If so, share with us the story. What do you do with that? 4. What is God saying to you and what are you going to go about it? What is God saying to us and what should we do about it?

Schooled: Week 1

Below is the first message in our three week series entitled Schooled, looking at the Old Testament book of Jonah. I have also included the discussion questions that we used to guide our conversation following the message.

Today we are starting a new series at Veritas entitled “Schooled”. In Schooled, we will be taking the next 3 weeks to look at the Old Testament book of Jonah and what it can say to us today. Throughout the 3 weeks we will be seeking to take the story out of the realm of Children’s Bible story books and into the realm that it should be, a deeply challenging, convicting, subversive, and radical call to those who would follow after the God of love, grace, and mercy.

I won’t be spending any time talking about whether this story is a true story or a parable. Whether it truly happened or is a story told for a point. I won’t get into try to defend or disprove whether Jonah was actually swallowed by a great fish, lived inside the fish for 3 days, and then vomited back up on land. I’m going to take the book as a story with an amazingly deep and challenging message for anyone who has or will read this story. You can argue if you want whether the story is true or a parable. I’m going to just look at the message that I believe God wants each of us to take away from this book and apply it to our lives. And if we apply it to our lives, I believe we will look more and more like the God of love, grace, compassion, and mercy that is described within its pages, and that in turn our communities will be flooded with radical followers of Jesus who want to, what Jeremiah 29:7 says, “seek the peace and the prosperity of the city.”

So let’s turn to Jonah chapter 1 and see what we might get out of this text that was written so long ago, but has some very relevant things to say to us gathered together in the 21st century.

The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD. Then the LORD sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish.” Then the sailors said to each other, “Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.” They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. So they asked him, “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What kind of work do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?” He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” This terrified them and they asked, “What have you done?” (They knew he was running away from the LORD, because he had already told them so.) The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?” “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.” Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. Then they cried out to the LORD, “Please, LORD, do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, LORD, have done as you pleased.” Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. At this the men greatly feared the LORD, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows to him. Now the LORD provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”

So the first thing we see in this first chapter of Jonah is God’s calling of Jonah to be a missionary to the people of the great city of Ninevah, which was the capital city of Assyria. Jonah represents the people of God called out from other nations to be a channel of God’s redemptive purposes. Now Ninevah was not a city of Israel and God was calling Jonah to go to a pagan, Gentile city and call them to repentance. As if God calling Jonah to go to a pagan, gentile city wasn’t bad enough, it was worse because the Assyrians were responsible for a number of Israel’s greatest disasters. God chose Ninevah to be an object of His mercy, because its inhabitants were more hated by the Israelites than people of any other city. You see the hatred of the Assyrians and by definition Ninevah comes from several places. First of all, as I just mentioned it was a pagan and Gentile city, of which good Jewish people should have almost nothing to do with, according to the OT law. Secondly, Ninevah was known for violence, plotting evil against the Lord, cruelty and plundering in war, prostitution, witchcraft, and commercial exploitation. Look at Nahum 3:1-4 to get a feel of the evil within Ninevah, “Woe to the city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without victims! The crack of whips, the clatter of wheels, galloping horses and jolting chariots! Charging cavalry, flashing swords and glittering spears! Many casualties, piles of dead, bodies without number, people stumbling over the corpses— all because of the wanton lust of a prostitute, alluring, the mistress of sorceries, who enslaved nations by her prostitution and peoples by her witchcraft.” Lastly, in the years following the exile of Israel out of their land to Babylon, there grew up in Israel a spirit of bitterness and vengefulness towards other lands. The nation had endured so much at the hands of enemies that there was little inclination to keep alive the vision of Israel as God’s servant through whom redemptive truth would one day reach all nations. The most passionate desire wasn’t for the redemption of all nations but for God’s wrath to utterly consume all if Israel’s enemies.

And so here God was calling his prophet Jonah to go to the very enemy of Israel preach to it, be a missionary to it and Jonah has a choice. Does he go, knowing that God is a God of compassion and mercy and if the Ninevites repent that destruction won’t come. Or does he disobey God and his calling as a missionary, and also the call to reawaken a nation to their missionary call to be a blessing to all nations, that they were called to all the way back in Genesis 12? Does he go the other way hoping that the Assyrians will be judged, condemned and destroyed? We find out his choice in verse 3 when it says, “But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish.” So the 2 questions that I immediately think of is: 1. Does he really think he can run away from God? And 2. Why and where is Tarshish? Well the first question I believe points us to the thought at the time, not so much from the Jewish perspective, but from other belief systems, that there were gods of various areas, and once you left a certain area, you could leave the god of that area behind. So maybe Jonah was trying to get away from God by leaving Israel, which we know was futile. But more than that, I believe the presence of God is intolerable to Jonah because it demanded of him the renunciation of his prejudices and his lust for divine vengeance upon Israel’s enemies. That I believe was the real reason behind Jonah’s running. He didn’t want to face up to the reality of his vengeful spirit and his hope for God’s wrath and judgment to be poured out on his people’s enemy. The second question I think is directly related to the first, in that Jonah thought, where is the farthest place I can go, to get away from God’s call on my life, and God’s desire to redeem these people. So he thought Tarsish, a city most likely to be identified with the Greek Tarteses in the south of Spain. It was as far west as ships were likely to sail from Palestine, and some thought it was almost at the end of the earth. Ninevah was east of Palestine and Tarsish was as far west as you could go, at the time. So he gets on board and ship heading to Tarsish and runs into trouble. The one thing that I find very interesting in this part of Jonah chapter 1 can be found in verses 11-13, “The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?” “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.” Jonah was willing to give up his life to save Gentile sailors, but couldn’t bear the thought that God should save Gentiles in Ninevah. Jonah’s readiness to die to save the sailors contrasts with his later callous departure from Ninevah to watch while the city perish, or so he hoped. To Jonah, and to the Israelites, it was harder to hate individuals than it was to hate groups of people. And it was harder to hate these gentile sailors when he was in relationship with them, knew their names, and were face to face with them. For Jonah, it was by far easier to condemn and hate a group of people who were not in relationship with him, that he didn’t know and never were face to face with. And so the last thing we see in this chapter is when Jonah is thrown into the sea, and the Lord provides a great fish to swallow Jonah, and that Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights. And so know we turn to our time of discussion and application. The time where we can unpack the text into our local context and what God is saying to each of us about living this reality out in our neighborhoods, workplace, school, families, and communities. So let’s unpack this together and see what God might be leading each of us as individuals and as a community to.

Discussion Questions: 1. What thoughts, comments, insights, questions, pushback, etc... do you have regarding the Scripture and/or the message? 2. Who does Ninevah represent to you? Are you running away from them (and by definition away from God as well)? 3. Who is God calling you to be on mission with and on mission for? 4. What is God saying to you and what are you going to do about it? What is God saying to us and what should we do about it?

When the Empire gets Baptized

Below is the text for our last week in the Jesus for President series as well as two questions that guided our discussion time following the message. This morning we are wrapping up our 3 week series entitled Jesus for President. 2 weeks ago when we started we talked about Before there were Kings and Presidents, and we talked about 1 Samuel 8 where the people of Israel when to Samuel and demanded a King. They wanted a flesh and blood King who would fight for the nation, and would sit on the throne. They took the King of the Kingdom off the throne and put a human on the throne. Don’t we all do that as well?

Last week we talked about A New Kind of Commander-in-Chief. We talked about the coronation process of Caesar and the upside down Coronation process of King Jesus. We talked about the upside down Kingdom of God that followers of Jesus need to live out, in following our King.

Today our theme and topic of conversation is entitled “When the Empire gets baptized.” And so I thought I would kick off our conversation by asking, when have you seen or do you have an example of when the empire got baptized?

One example of when the empire gets baptized comes from the debate from the other night. At the very end of the debate Mitt Romney said these words, “America is the hope of the world.” Another example is closely tied into that comment but comes from a former president who said these two things, “There’s power, wonder-working power, in the goodness and idealism and faith of the American people.” And “The ideal of America is the hope of all mankind…That hope still lights our way. And the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.” But of these statements are ripped from the Kingdom of God and used to describe the Kingdom of the World. The wonder-working power, in that quote, is not the blood of the Lamb (which is a hymn) but puts America there. And the other quote comes from John 1:5 and originally was addressed about Jesus, but the politician who said it said it wasn’t about Jesus, but about America. If that isn’t when the empire gets baptized, I don’t know what is.

To talk about when the empire gets baptized we’ll be looking at two different Scriptures. The first one is from John 18:36 and the second is Revelation 18:2-5, 11-14. So let’s take a look at John 18:36 which says, “Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”

This Scripture is in the midst of the trial of Jesus before Pilate. Jesus response in verse 36 is derived from a question that Pilate asks in verse 33, “Are you the King of the Jews.” Pilate’s only understanding of King was based on worldly Kings and worldly Kingdoms and probably from his viewpoint; Jesus didn’t quite fit that label. Jesus Kingdom and his kingship, as he says in verse 36, is not of this world. This doesn’t mean that it is only concerned with another world, and another time. It doesn’t mean that he is only King of heaven and that the Kingdom of God is only for the hereafter. No, that isn’t what Jesus means when he says that his Kingdom is not of this world. What Jesus is really saying here, is that he is a King all right, and that he has a kingdom. But that he is a King and his Kingdom are both radically different than the Kings and the Kingdoms of this world. His Kingdom is one that doesn’t have soldiers to protect it, not does it come, like most kingdoms, through power, force and violence. But instead comes through love, sacrifice, freedom, and grace.

The early church theologian Augustine observed from this verse that earthly kingdoms are based upon force, pride the love of human praise, the desire for domination, and self interest, all of these displayed by Pilate, the Roman Empire, and honestly America as well. The Kingdom of God, unlike the Kingdom of the world, which is exemplified by Jesus and the cross, is based on love, sacrifice, humility and righteousness/justice. So that is why, to Pilate, it didn’t seem like Jesus was actually a King. He was having his blood shed by “his enemies”, instead of shedding the blood of “his enemies.” He was showing power not by dominating and having people serve him, but by taking off his outer garment, getting a basin of water, and taking on the role of a servant and washing the feet of his disciples.

We need to really take a look at that idea again, that true power, true leadership, true change comes from serving, humbling yourself, and sacrifice. As followers of Jesus must take care that we live and serve with the power of the cross and not by the power of Rome (or America). The key to living in Jesus’ Kingdom is not found in trying to rule over things or others, but in being more fully ruled by God. You see, however, that in Jesus’ day (and ours as well) they were conditioned to look for salvation in political solutions- we are also tempted to further the purposes of the Kingdom by the power of this world. To seek to bring the Kingdom of God though the power of the Kingdom of the world, and that never ever goes well. Just look at the Crusades as an example when the empire gets baptized. How did the Kingdom of God come through the violence, murder, and power in the Crusades? It didn’t and it never does.

We need to come out of that understanding, and that way of life, that the Kingdom of God can be brought through Kingdom of the world values. That the Kingdom comes through power over. That the Kingdom of God can come through voting. That the Kingdom of God can come through the American lifestyle or foreign policy. Or that the empire of the United States is actually part of the Kingdom of God, or put in another way, that the United States is a Christian nation. We need to come out of that. After all, as writer, speaker, theologian and professor Tony Campolo said, “We may live in the best Babylon in the world…but it is still Babylon and we are called to come out of her.”

Let’s look at what John the Apostle, said about Babylon in the last book of the Bible, Revelation, Revelation 18:2-5 and 11-14. With a mighty voice he shouted: “‘Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great!’ She has become a dwelling for demons and a haunt for every impure spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable animal. For all the nations have drunk the maddening wine of her adulteries. The kings of the earth committed adultery with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries.” Then I heard another voice from heaven say: “‘Come out of her, my people,’ so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues; for her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes.” “The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargoes anymore— cargoes of gold, silver, precious stones and pearls; fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet cloth; every sort of citron wood, and articles of every kind made of ivory, costly wood, bronze, iron and marble; cargoes of cinnamon and spice, of incense, myrrh and frankincense, of wine and olive oil, of fine flour and wheat; cattle and sheep; horses and carriages; and human beings sold as slaves. “They will say, ‘The fruit you longed for is gone from you. All your luxury and splendor have vanished, never to be recovered.’ Some very interesting points can be found in this passage. First we see that Babylon and the merchants who live under her rule and reign are drunk, drunk on the blood of the saints. Her wineglass is filled with the blood she has shed throughout the earth of “saints, prophets, and all who have been killed on the earth.” Her is the cup of empire, slaughter, genocide, and power over. Everyone has grown drunk from the blood, and they stand back and marvel, ‘Who is like Babylon?” Babylon the beautiful. But there are those who do not drink from her cup, who do not grow drunk on the cocktails of culture. Their cup is filled with the blood of the lamb. It is the cup of the new covenant. The question for you and I is which cup will we drink from? The cup of the empire or the cup of the Kingdom of God? One that sheds others blood, demands power, force, and power over or one that has his blood shed, and is all about the power under of service, love, and peace? Also John was seeking to make a point about the empire of Babylon and the Kingdom of God. You can’t walk the line between them. John’s language couldn’t be clearer. We are to come out of her, literally to pull ourselves out. Let’s be honest, this is Rated R. Scholars point out that this is erotic language and that the words John uses are the same ones used for coitus interruptus- to interrupt sexual intercourse before climax. As John is speaking of this steamy love affair with the empire, he calls the church to pull out of her, to leave the romance with the world and be wooed by God, to remember our first love, to say no to all other lovers. To say no to the empire of the world, whether that was Rome or America, and to say no to the values of the empire, and instead say yes to the Kingdom of God and it’s values, which are totally upside down from those of the Kingdom of the world.

But what does that mean for you and I gathered together here today? What does it mean to say no to the empire and the Kingdom of the world and say yes to King Jesus and the Kingdom of God? Well let’s unpack that together now.

Discussion Questions: 1. What thoughts, comments, insights, questions, push back, etc... do you have regarding the Scriptures and/or message? 2. What is God saying to you and what are you going to do about it? What is God saying to us and what should we do about it?

A New Kind of Commander-in-Chief

Yesterday was our 2nd week in our Jesus for President series and we covered the theme: A New Kind of Commander-in-Chief. Below is the text of the message and the discussion questions we used after the message.

So today we continue our series entitled “Jesus for President”. Last week our theme was Before there were Kings and Presidents. And this week we are looking at “A New Kind of Commander-in-Chief.

As I was watching the Presidential Debate (this is the only reference to current politics that I am going to make) this past week a thought struck me. These men are talking as if they are the Messiah of America. They have a Messianic Complex. Now they wouldn’t come right out and tell you that, but when you listen to them they come off as “I can fix that. I can do this. I can do that.” Blah Blah Blah.

But that is nowhere near what the political scene was like in Jesus day. Let me read to you an inscription that was found on stone from the 1st century. “The birth date of our God has signaled the beginning of good news for the world.” Now this sounds like it was written about Jesus, but in actuality it was written announcing the birth of Caesar Augustine. In fact many of the titles and words we find in the Scriptures are directly confronting the Roman Empire. You see the title Son of God wasn’t just in reference to Jesus, but was a popular title for Kings and Emperors. Savior was a title also given to Caesar as was Lord and Emmanuel. Caesar if you will was the original Commander-in-Chief and ruled over the Roman Empire in such a way that he was definitely viewed as the messiah. So you want to talk about a messianic complex, this guy would have one huge one.

This morning we are going to do some looking at what kind of Commander-in-Chief Caesar was. We are going to look at the Coronation and Procession of Caesar. We are going to then contrast Caesar, the Commander-in-Chief of the Roman Empire, with Jesus, a new kind of Commander-in-Chief. We are going to also look at the Coronation and Procession of King Jesus and realize that this King and the Kingdom he rules over is an upside-down Kingdom and differs greatly than the Kingdom of the Roman Empire and by definition every other empire that has ever been on the face of the earth, including the Empire of the United States. And we’ll look at what it means to each one of us to live for commander-in-chief Jesus instead of ourselves and for his Kingdom and not the kingdom of our own making.

We all know, if we have done any study of history, that the Caesar’s were known for their insane, violent and power-hungry egos. As I mentioned before, the Caesar’s and Roman emperors were worshipped as gods on earth. So the emperor gained the title Son of God. Inaugurations of Caesars were ornate, public and meant to impress. The ceremony originated with the Greeks and was called a thriambas. Then the Romans adopted this ceremony. At the center of these ceremonies was the triumphant person to be deified- the triumphator. Both the Greek and Roman ceremonies were affiliated with gods that died and rose again. Dionysus and Jupiter.

The Christians in the Roman Empire recognized the power and devotion of the imperial cult. They also recognized that you could not serve the god of the empire and the God of Jesus. This is why they did not choose small language to communicate about Jesus, language such as ‘it’s just a personal spiritual conviction, not political.” No, they chose language and imagery with the weight of the empire behind their words. But probably the most poignant language in the Gospels that contrast Jesus with the power of his day is the crucifixion story in Mark (which we’ll turn to shortly). Ray Vander Laan notes the following 8 steps in the inauguration of a Caesar. Listen carefully to them, and then note the powerful and satirical method Mark uses to paint what he sees as the true inauguration of Jesus, the suffering and loving triumphator- or anti-triumphator.

So we’ll look at each of the 8 steps one by one of the coronation and procession of Caesar then we’ll look at the account of Jesus coronation and procession. Hopefully we’ll see clearly that this Kingdom that is the Kingdom of God is upside down, radical, and subversive and that it calls us to be upside down, radical and subversive as well.

The first step in the coronation and procession of Caesar was that the Praetorian Guard gathered in the Praetorium. The would-be Caesar was brought into the middle of the gathering. Now let’s look at Mark 15:16, which is the beginning of the Coronation and Procession of Jesus, which says, “The soldiers led Jesus away into the palace (that is, the Praetorium) and called together the whole company of soldiers.”

The next step in the Coronation of Caesar was that guards went to the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, got a purple robe, and placed it on the candidate. The candidate was also given an olive-leaf wreath made of gold and a scepter for the authority of Rome. In Jesus coronation we see this in Mark 15:17, “They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him.” We see the soldiers bringing Jesus a wreath of thrones, a scepter (which they use as a weapon on him) and a purple robe.

Next in Caesar’s coronation was that he was loudly acclaimed as triumphant by the Praetorian Guard. Jesus however was sarcastically acclaimed, mocked, and paid homage to by the soldiers. Mark 15:18-19, “And they began to call out to him, “Hail, king of the Jews!” Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him. Falling on their knees, they paid homage to him.”

After loudly acclaiming Caesar as triumphant, the procession would begin through the streets of Rome, led by soldiers. In the middle was Caesar. Walking behind him was a sacrificial bull, whose death and blood would mark Caesar’s entrance into the divine pantheon. Walking next to the bull was a slave, who carried an axe to kill the bull. Some accounts note that some people would spread sweet-smelling incense around the procession. Looking at verses 20-21 is the start of Jesus’ procession, “And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him. A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross.” Instead of a bull, the would-be king and god became the sacrifice, the bull. But he could not carry the instrument of death and be the sacrifice. So they stopped Simon and gave him the cross.

Caesars’ procession then moved to the highest hill in Rome, the Capitolene hill (head hill). On this hill is the Capitoleum temple. The account in Mark has Jesus also ascending a hill, “They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means “the place of the skull”). In Aramaic, Golgotha is not precisely ‘skull hill’- that’s Calvary. To split hairs, Golgotha means ‘head hill,’ like the Roman Capitolene. Next, the candidate stood before the temple altar and was offered, by the slave, a bowl of wine mixed with myrrh. He took it as if to accept, and then gave it back. The slave also refused, and then the wine was poured out either onto the altar or onto the bull. Right after the wine was poured, the bull was killed.” Jesus, was offered wine as well, and he refused. Mark 15:23-24a says, “Then they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. And they crucified him.” The seventh step in the coronation process of Caesar was that the Caesar-to-be would gather his second in command on his right hand and his third in command on his left. Then they would ascend to the throne of the Capitoleum. In Mark 15:27 we read the words, “They crucified two rebels with him, one on his right and one on his left.” Lastly, the crowd would acclaim the inaugurated emperor. And for the divine seal of approval, the gods would send signs, such as a flock of doves or a solar eclipse. In the last step of Jesus coronation and procession we see Jesus again being acclaimed (mocked) and a divine sign confirming God’s presence (the temple curtain ripped in two.) Mark 15:29-38 bears this out, “Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, come down from the cross and save yourself!” In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! Let this Messiah, this king of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him. At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).When some of those standing near heard this, they said, “Listen, he’s calling Elijah.” Someone ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to take him down,” he said. With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.” Other accounts have the whole sky becoming darkened, tombs bursting open, and the dead coning back to life.” So is it any wonder than that at the end of this story of Jesus crucifixion we read these words, “And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died, he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!” After all he had probably seen a coronation and procession of “the son of God/Caesar” before, but here was the true Son of God and he pledged his allegiance to Jesus.

So now you might be saying, that is all very interesting, or not, what does it have to do with my life. But let me finish up with a few thoughts that hopefully will guide our discussion time. The commander-in-chief, the King Jesus, the true Son of God, comes to the throne not from power, violence, killing his enemy, etc..but from living a life of peace, justice, forgiveness and compassion. You see Caesar achieved the peace of Rome (Pax Romana) through violence (can Peace reached through violence and war ever be true peace??). The pax Christi (peace of Christ) is not a peace of conquest bur rather the peace of true reconciliation. The King achieves peace not by shedding blood, but by shedding his own blood. What does this say how we respond to violence? What does this say about how we (as a country or a society or individuals) respond to our enemies? Jesus lived out the upside down Kingdom of God. He calls us to the same thing. This upside down Kingdom says love your enemy, pray for those who persecute you, deny yourself, die to yourself, put others first, bless don’t curse, serve others, etc….. Let’s spend time talking and unpacking more implications of how this new commander-in-chief lived the upside down kingdom of God and how we can apply it to our own lives.

1. What thoughts, comments, insights, questions, pushback, etc… do you have regarding the message and the Scripture? 2. What stood out to you regarding the coronation and process of Caesar vs. the coronation and procession of Jesus? 3. For you what are some of the implications of the upside down Kingdom of God are you currently wrestling with? 4. What is God saying to you and what are you going to do about it? What is God saying to us and what are we going to do about it?

Giving everyone a voice

A few years ago Stuart Murray while promoting his book "The Naked Anabaptist" came to Elizabethtown College to speak and share. During that time he gave out a document called "Anabaptist Network Core Convictions". Number 5 of the Core Convictions is "Churches are called to be committed communities of discipleship and mission, places of friendship, mutual accountability and multivoiced worship." When I read that the term multivoiced worship jumped off the page at me and gave me words for what we had been attempting at Veritas. I wanted to know more.

Jump forward to a few months ago when Stuart Murray Williams and his wife Sian released the book "The Power of All: Building a Multivoiced Church." I knew that I wanted to read it and that is when I was given the opportunity to review the book through Herald Press. So I want to thank Herald Press for the opportunity to review this book.

The question that the authors are seeking to answer is how can a New Testament model help empower and renew the church in today's post-Christian society? And they spend the next 180 pages unpacking what it means to be a multivoiced church. They unpack what it looks like in worship, in leadership, in discernment, and in discipleship.

One of the first things though that needed to be explained by the authors is what a multivoiced church actually is. They define a multivoiced church as, "an alternative to the dominant traditions in which large numbers of the Christian community are passive consumers instead of active participants. It replaces reliance on one person (variously designated as priest, vicar, minister, pastor, lead elder, or whatever) or a small group of people (elders, deacons, leadership team, church board, parochial church council or whatever) with an expectation that the whole community is gifted, called, empowered and expected to be involved in all aspects of church life."

This approach, the multivoiced approach, to church life, ministry, and mission is something that we at Veritas have been trying to live out on a weekly basis in our gatherings. We have sought to move away from passive spectators to active participants by having discussion following the message as well as dialogue around our weeks and how we have been a blessing in the world, what God is teaching us, and how we are doing life with other followers of Jesus. Multivoiced worship takes longer. There is no in and out in under an hour. And that might scare some people away, because they want to come to church on Sunday and get out and get on with their day. But we are committed to being multivoiced even if it takes longer (in terms of worship but also in terms of leadership, decision making, etc..)

There is a wealth of information in this book. There is a lot to chew on and think about. There is a lot of ideas and concepts to think about and dream about, and figure out how to make it a reality in our faith communities. Here are some of those things that I will be chewing on in the days to come:

"Most Christians are not engaged as participants in the mission of God and Churches are structured for passivity." - Quotes from Ed Stetzer.

"It is not a big step from there to the notion that we come to church to be entertained and inspired by specialist."

"Post-Christendom represents a much more serious challenge to the churches in Western societies than post-modernity, although this also opens up many fresh opportunities."

"In post-Christendom there will be fewer cultural supports for faith, many more lifestyle options, and numerous disincentives to discipleship. Passive attendance at weekly front-led worship events, however inspiring, and passive consumption of sermons, however well crated, will not do."

"Those who urge us to abandon, or at least de-emphasize, attractional forms of mission in favor of an incarnational approach rightly recognize that in post-Christendom the church is no longer at the center of society but on the margins, that 'going to church' is culturally alien and unattractive to most people in this society, and that the onus is increasingly on all of us to engage in dispersed forms of mission in teh various spheres of life in which we spend most of our time. Our calling is to live out, and when appropriate speak out, the gospel in our homes, neighborhoods, workplaces and social networks."

I could continue on in quoting various sections of the book that inspired, challenged, convicted, and made me think. There is just so much richness in this book. Anyone interested in moving from a passive spectator form to worship, church life, mission, and leadership should read this book. Anyone interested in post-Christendom forms of church, mission, discipleship, and leadership should read this book. Anyone interested in missional forms of church, mission, discipleship and leadership should read this book. I can't recommend this book any stronger. It was a privilege to read this book and I will be continually referring to it and using it to help our community become a multivoiced community.

Thanks to Herald Press for the opportunity to review this book.

Before there were Kings and Presidents

Here is the text from my message yesterday as we started our new series Jesus For President. I've also included the discussion questions that followed the message. So today we begin a three week series entitled Jesus for President roughly based off of the book of the same name, and also as a tie into to the election season that we are currently undergoing.

Over the next 3 weeks we’ll be looking at what it would be like if Jesus was President, what his platform would be if he did run for president, what type of “president” he would be. We’ll also look at what it looks like to be about the Kingdom of God and ultimately where we put our hope, trust and longing in.

Our theme today is Before their were Kings and Presidents. Next week we’ll be looking at: A New Kind of Commander-in-Chief. And the following week we’ll be looking at: When the Empire gets Baptized.

So today, as I mentioned our theme is Before there were Kings and Presidents, and to look at this theme we’ll be looking at 1 Samuel 8. 1 Samuel 8 is the account of the people of God, their dealing with the judge/prophet named Samuel and the radical turning point in the history of the people of God.

So let’s look at 1 Samuel 8 together and see what it might say to us gathered together in a different culture, a different time, and a different political system. 1 Samuel 8 says, “When Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons as Israel’s leaders. The name of his firstborn was Joel and the name of his second was Abijah, and they served at Beersheba. But his sons did not follow his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice. So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not follow your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.” But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD. And the LORD told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will claim as his rights.” Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who were asking him for a king. He said, “This is what the king who will reign over you will claim as his rights: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. Your male and female servants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use. He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, but the LORD will not answer you in that day.” But the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We want a king over us. Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.” When Samuel heard all that the people said, he repeated it before the LORD. The LORD answered, “Listen to them and give them a king.” Then Samuel said to the Israelites, “Everyone go back to your own town.” So in this story we find Samuel getting older and due to his increasing age he began thinking of a succession plan. Who would follow in his footsteps, and continue the work that he was doing. He was wondering who he could leave his legacy to. And because he had sons, the answer to him was very easy, why not appoint his sons as judges for Israel. But it wasn’t just as simple as appointing them Judges for Israel.

You see, his sons, Joel and Abijah, weren’t the kind of sons that you would hope for, as a prophet and judge. They were kind of like the stereotypical “Pastors’ kids. You know what I’m talking about. You see they didn’t walk in the ways of their father. They decided to make their own path. They went after fame and fortune, so to speak by going after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and also perverted justice. These things were explicitly forbidden in the Mosaic law.

But the elders of Israel challenged Samuel’s succession plan, and probably rightly so. His kids weren’t the kind of kids that you would want to be leading God’s people. They didn’t exactly follow in the ways of God or their father. So the elders decide to approach Samuel and let him know their thoughts and feelings around the succession plan. In verse 5 we read, ““You are old, and your sons do not follow your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.” The elders cite Samuel’s age and the misconduct of his sons as justification for their request for a king. It soon becomes apparent however, that the more basic reason for their request was a desire to be like the surrounding nations- to have a human king as a symbol of national power and unity who would lead them in battle and guarantee their security. They were declaring that they didn’t want God to reign over them and be their king.

They wanted a king that they would see and touch and worship. With growing fear of neighboring empires like Assyria and Babylon, they were succumbing to the empty dream of domination. The very people who suffered so deeply for the things kings do demanded another king. Something whispered inside the Israelites that they needed a king “to be like the other nations”- a paralysis of faith and imagination. They still didn’t get that they were to be a people “set apart” from the nations and from the patterns destroying them. Moses may have freed their bodies, but Pharaoh still colonized their conscience.

And so Samuel is distraught. He realizes that what the people are saying is that they don’t want to live under the rule and reign of the true King, and instead live under the rule and reign of a flawed, broken and human king. They didn’t trust God to save them and deliver them. They wanted a human king to save them and deliver them. They wanted someone to rule with pomp, and power and military might, and not a God that was calling them back to their original calling as a people, that of being a blessing to all nations. (see Genesis 12:1-3)

And so when he was distraught by the demands of the elders, what did he do? Something that we all should do (whether distraught or not) turn to our King and pray. And the King of Heaven and Earth responds to Samuel in verse 7, “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.” And then the Lord tells Samuel what to share with the Elders, about what a Human King will demand from them, nothing more than total allegiance. And so we see Samuel sharing everything that the Human King will demand of his people in verses 11-18.

But to no avail. The people still demanded a human King and turned from the one true King and Kingdom. Putting their hope and trust not in the King of the Universe to save them, redeem them, and form them into a set apart nation of blessing, but putting their hope and trust in a human king that would enslave them, use them, tax them, and demand allegiance from them. And to form them into a nation, like all other nations, and not a nation of blessing but of conquest, power, and might. And the rest of the Old Testament bares this out, that they forgot who they were called and set apart of be, and the Kings mostly led the way not into the true calling of the people of God, but in the way of all the other nations.

So you might be asking yourself, what does that mean for us today? What is the relevance to my day in and day out life here in the USA where we don’t have a King of the land, but a President that we elect? If our series is called Jesus for President, what does that have to do with our text that we looked at this morning?

Well, that is where our discussion will take us now. Here are some of the questions that we’ll be talking and wrestling through and seeking to apply what we have just looked at in 1 Samuel 8. 1. What or Who are you putting your hope, allegiance, and trust in? 2. What or who is the King that you are living under their reign and rule? Is it the King of Heaven and Earth or is it a King of another kind? 3. What Kingdom are you seeking to live out in your everyday life?

Discussion Questions: 1. What thoughts, comments, insights, questions, etc.. do you have regarding the message and the Scripture? 2. What or Who are you putting your hope, allegiance, and trust in? 3. What or who is the King that you are living under their reign and rule? Is it the King of Heaven and Earth or is it a King of another kind? 4. What Kingdom are you seeking to live out in your everyday life? 5. What is God saying to you and what are you going to do about it? What is God saying to us and what should we do about it?

Neighborhood or Network Based Missional Communities

While spending a good deal amount of time, dreaming, praying, and wondering how and when we should launch missional communities that happen in various locations through Lancaster/York, I came upon this video that has helped me. I struggled because we have people all of the map as far as locality and people don't live in the same neighborhood so I wondered what the next step was. This video is helpful in that it gives other options than just a Neighborhood based Missional Community. So take some time to watch it. I think you'll find it helpful as well.

Neighborhood or Network Based Missional Communities? from Caesar Kalinowski on Vimeo.

unChristian: Week 4

This past Sunday was our 4th and final week in our unChristian series. This week we covered the last two perceptions that people have regarding Christians. So take some time to read the message that I gave yesterday as well as the discussion questions that we talked about after. This is our 4th and final week in the unChristian series that we have been doing. Over the last 4 weeks we have been looking at the perception that young Americans (16-29) have towards Christians. We have used the research done by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons in the book unChristian as the basis for our series. Kinnaman and Lyons found that when asked what the perceptions of Christians were, many young Americans answered in very much the same way. In fact, when all of the findings were done, the perceptions could be broken down into 6 different ones.

The first week of our series we cover the fact that people’s perception is their reality. That what they perceived about Christians, whether accurate or not, was their reality. Then we did a week on two of the 6 perceptions. Two weeks ago we covered the perception that Christians were judgmental and anti-homosexual. Last week we covered the perception that Christians were too political and too sheltered. And this week we cover the perception that Christians are hypocritical and too worried about getting others saved.

So one of the most common issues that people raise when it comes to Christians is this idea of hypocrisy. All too often we see this come to light, when a Christian leader has a moral failure. We saw it this week where a former Pastor in Lancaster County was charged with the murder of his 1st wife. We also saw this week the story where the former Lancaster Mennonite administrator got 3-9 years for molesting 3 male students. But if we are honest with ourselves we see it in smaller ways in each one of our lives. None of us live perfectly congruent lives with the faith that we profess. So when people say Christians are all hypocrites, they are totally being truthful, because we are all hypocrites, Christian and non-Christian alike.

One of the other common perceptions that people have of Christians is they are too concerned with getting others saved. People believe that there is always this hidden agenda with Christians and they bring it into every relationship. Reminds me of the time that a former youth pastor that I hung around with when I was a youth pastor, called me after leaving youth ministry and wanted to catch up and grab lunch. So we had lunch and after we were finished he made a sales pitch to me regarding finances, insurance, and a bunch of other services. I was rather ticked off because he scheduled the lunch not because he was interested in catching up with me but interested in me as a client of his business. It was his agenda. And that soured my relationship with him.

One thing that we all hate is when someone isn’t authentic and genuine. We hate it when they don’t practice what they preach, or when they only care about their agenda and what you can do for them. It really comes down to an issue of integrity.

We all long for people to have integrity in how they live and how they relate to us. That’s the image of God in all of us, not just believers. And that’s why so many non-Christians are so frustrated with Christians who are hypocrites or who only care about one thing: trying to convert them. The research from the book unChristian shows us that the perception regarding Christians is that we are hypocritical. They say that we say one thing and do another and they are very skeptical of our morally superior attitudes. They also say that Christians pretend to be something unreal, conveying a polished image that is not accurate. And all too often Christians think the church is only a place for virtuous and morally pure people (though none of us are virtuous and morally pure).

Also those interviewed for the book wondered if Christians genuinely cared about them. They felt like targets rather than people. They questioned Christians motive when we try to help them “get saved” despite that many of them have already tried Jesus and experienced church before.

So let’s take a look at some Scriptures that seek to address these two perceptions that people have towards Christianity. Because you see Jesus had plenty to say about being hypocritical and the Scriptures have plenty to say about seeing people as more than a project and/or an agenda. He even reserved his harshest condemnation for those religious people he considered hypocrites. Just look at Matthew 23. But the first text we’ll look at together regarding hypocrisy is found in Matthew 7:1-5, which says, ““Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”

This text is all about hypocrisy and trying to remove the sin from someone else’s life while totally ignoring your own issues. Or pretending that you don’t have any issues. Jesus does not prohibit judgment of others, inside the family. He does prohibit judgment of others outside “the family”. He only requires that our judgment be completely fair, and that we only judge others by a standard we would also like to be judged by. Most of our judgment in regard to others is wrong, not because we judge according to a standard, but because we are hypocritical in the application of that standard - we ignore the standard in our own life. We judge others by one standard, and ourselves by another standard - being far more generous to ourselves than others.

Now according to the teaching of some rabbis in Jesus' time, God had two measures that He used to judge people. One was a measure of justice and the other was a measure of mercy. Which measure do you want God to use with you? Then you should use that same measure with others. That’s what Jesus was getting at when he said “For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Then Jesus uses a metaphor for our hypocrisy. He uses the figures of a speck and a plank. And the speck and plank are real figures used humorously. Jesus shows how we are generally far more tolerant to our own sin than we are to the sin of others. Our hypocrisy in these matters is always more evident to others than to ourselves. We may find a way to ignore the plank in our own eye, but others notice it immediately. And that is what drives people in our culture up a wall. It is like we don’t even see our own issues, and are far more concerned with others issues. At the same time, Jesus doesn't say that it is wrong for us to help our brother with the speck in his eye. It is a good thing to help your brother with his speck, but not before dealing with the plank in your own eye. Maybe we need to worry more about taking care of the issues in our own lives before we turn our attention to others? Maybe the saying should be love the sinner, hate my sin, instead of love the sinner, hate their sin? This also applies to how we interact with others and to see them more as a project or as someone who needs saved, because if we are all honest with ourselves we all need “saving” in some way, even if you are a follower of Jesus. And these issues are, as I said, not new. They were important in the early church as well and Peter gives us instructions about how we are to make the most impact in culture and in the lives of those around us. 1 Peter 2:11-12 says, “Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” Peter tells us that this world (the Kingdom of the world) is not our home, we are foreigners and exiles in this place. And since this isn’t our home we have to abstain from sinful desires, which attack our very lives and souls. To live out the Kingdom in this world, we need to make our spiritual lives a priority. As followers of Jesus our main priority needs to be the Kingdom of God and one way to live out the Kingdom is found in verse 12, “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God in the day he visits us.” Unfortunately we have all seen the past 4 weeks that all too often we haven’t lived such good lives. We will make the biggest impact on others through our good works toward others. This doesn’t devalue evangelism—there is a time and a place to, as Peter says a few verses later, “to give the reason for the hope we have.” But our words should be an outflow of our deeds. As St. Francis of Assisi said, “Preach the gospel at all times; if necessary, use words.”

And I truly believe when we get the message of both Matthew 7:1-5, and 1 Peter 2:11-12 into our hearts and minds and into our lives, the perception that we are hypocrites and have an agenda with people will be brought into question. They will be brought into question because they see us dealing with our own sin or own planks in our eyes first. They will see that we truly care about them, whether or not they ever come to know Jesus. That they aren’t a project to God and they aren’t a project to us.

But again what does this look like on the ground lived out and fleshed out in the every day? Let’s spend some time talking through some questions about hypocrisy and too concerned about getting others saved.

1. What do you think the true definition of hypocrisy should be? What are examples of hypocrisy in your life that you should be more transparent about? 2. Only 34% of young outsiders believe that Christians genuinely care about them. But among Christians, 64% said outsiders would perceive their efforts as genuine. Why do you believe there is such a huge gap? 3. Read 2 Timothy 2:24-25. Discuss the role of the Christ follower and the part the Holy Spirit plays in someone choosing to follow Christ. 4. What is God saying to you and what are you going to do about it? What is God saying to us and what should we do about it?

unChristian: Week 3

Below you'll find the text of the message and the discussion questions that we used for our 3rd week of our unChristian series. So for the last two weeks we have been working through a series called unChristian, because as the art on the screen says, “Christianity has an image problem.” Two weeks ago we looked at the idea that the perception of Christians in the reality. That when someone has a perception of something it is true, to them. And when asked what the perception of Christians were, young Americans both outside and inside the church, said the same 6 perceptions. The 6 perceptions that were repeatedly shared were that Christians were: judgmental, anti-homosexual, too political, too sheltered, hypocritical, and only cared about getting others “saved”.

So we are taking 2 perceptions a week and tackling them together. Last week we looked at the idea that Christians are perceived as judgmental and anti-homosexual. This week we are looking at the perception that Christians are too political and too sheltered.

Now where in the world do these perceptions come from? Is it grounded in reality? Are Christians way too political and too sheltered? Before you say yes or no, let me share a few things with you. If you type in the word Christian vote into Google, the second website you find is called Christian Vote and here is their tag line, “How can a Christian vote Democrat.” And farther down the website you find this, “WHY PRAY TO JESUS ON SUNDAY AND VOTE AGAINST HIM ON TUESDAY?” So what they are saying is that Christians should only vote Republican because that is what Jesus would do. Personally I have a huge issue with that, and not because I believe the opposite to be true, that Jesus would vote democrat.

Politics and faith are some of the biggest issues that seek to divide people. And when you put them together, it seems like they just combust and blow up. Followers of Jesus, going to the same community of faith can’t get along because one is republican and one is democrat. Instead of letting the Kingdom be our true allegiance, we put our allegiance in this or that political party.

So this morning we are going to talk about politics and faith, and just like last week this can have the potential of getting pretty divisive. So the same ground rules apply. Speak your mind, and ideas, but do so out of love and respect for others, who may have a different opinion. Please share disagreements, we aren’t afraid of that, but do so in grace.

The reason we’re going to talk about faith and politics is because one of the greatest perceptions of Christianity is that Christians are too political. And more often than not, Christians are associated with right-wing politics. Maybe you don’t think this is an issue, because you yourself support right-wing politics. But, this is becoming a bigger and bigger issue among younger generations.

Another top perception of Christianity is that Christians are sheltered, old-fashioned, unintelligent, and out-of-touch with reality. Often, this is related to politics because Christians fight for values that many outsiders think are old-fashioned or out of touch with reality. All of this raises a question: is it a bad thing to be too political or too sheltered in the eyes of outsiders?

Now before we get into the Scripture this morning, I have to say that I really really wrestled with what Scripture we should even look at. I spend some time looking at various passages and nothing seemed to connect. Than I prayed and a weird statement came to my mind. Have you ever heard the statement, “politics makes strange bedfellows”? That thought came to my mind, and then that led me to the text that we’ll spend some time unpacking together this morning. We’ll be looking at Matthew 22:15-22.

“Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?” But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?” “Caesar’s,” they replied. Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.” Let’s look at this text and see what it might say about how our faith should play itself out in the political world. It might be easy to say that Jesus wasn’t involved in politics but it isn’t easy to say that people didn’t try to get him involved by trapping him with the big questions of his day. For example, one of the biggest questions that floated around Israel in the time of Jesus was whether or not a faithful Jew would pay taxes or not. Now keep in mind that Caesar’s coins were floating all over the empire, stamped with Caesar’s image and inscribed with the world “Long live the Son of God.” Now these coins were a sign that the entire economy belonged to Caesar and without him everything would fall apart. The interesting thing though is that the Jews even started minting their own coins, branded with the palm leaf (which is like their revolutionary flag). There was a group of Jews that refused to pay taxes. They “refused to call any man master” believing that they owed exclusive loyalty to God and could not render tribute to Caesar, who claimed to be Lord. Poor Jewish people like Jesus’ family in Galilee were usually so enslaved to debt and taxation that over 50 percent of their income went to Caesar. So it’s not surprising that people wanted Jesus to weigh in on the question, “Should we pay taxes to Caesar or not.” It is also not surprising that people would use this question to trap Jesus.

Now remember when I said politics makes strange bedfellows? This is such a case where politics certainly put together two opposing factions. You could almost say it another way, “An enemy of my enemy is my friend.” So these two groups of people come to Jesus, the Pharisees (and their disciples) and the Herodians. Two unlikely groups to work together. You see the Pharisees were at odds with the Roman occupation of Israel. And the Herodians who represented the Roman Occupation of Israel and were working for the man, so to speak.

So they come to Jesus and ask him to weigh in on this important question of his day, Should we pay the imperial tax to Caesar. You see they thought they trapped him. If Jesus would have said to not pay the Imperial tax, the Herodians would have passed that on to their superiors and the power of the Roman Empire would have been brought down on Israel. Jesus would have been seen as an enemy of Rome and then the hand of Rome would have sought to execute him before his time. If he would have said to pay Rome, he would have been accused of siding with the Roman occupation. He would have been accused of denying the sovereignty of God over Israel and would have been seen as an enemy of the Jews. So they thought they had Jesus trapped. But like our conversation from last week, Jesus had a habit of going above the conversation, not falling into the either/or trap. He went to a higher level, a third way if you will with his answer. He didn’t let either side dictate his position or his answer. His answer is brilliant. “Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?” “Caesar’s,” they replied. Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” A couple of thoughts regarding this answer. First, it was quite radical to speak of God and Caesar as two separate entities. Jesus then left it to the hearers to decide what was God’s and what was Caesar’s. Caesar could brand his image on coins, crowns, and robes, but life and creation has been branded/stamped by God. Caesar could have his coins but life is God’s. We are reminded that just as Caesar stamped his image on coins; God’s image is stamped on each one of us. Even Caesar had God’s stamp. God made Caesar and Caesar was not God. What does this say about how followers of Jesus should engage with politics? I believe we can learn something about engaging in the political process by not being subverted by either party. Jesus wasn’t subverted by either the Pharisees or the Herodians. He lived out a third way of dealing with the questions. Neither political party in America today speaks for God; he is not a Republican or Democrat. When our values become to closely associated with one political party, platform, or candidate, we become spokespeople for that party/platform/candidate rather than for God. And we lose our ability to be a prophetic witness for God’s kingdom, which is not of this world. When we become more know for what we are against (either a Republican or Democratic agenda), we are perceived as sheltered, ignorant, and close-minded.

Let’s take some time now to unpack this perception that Christians are too political and too sheltered together as well as what God might be saying to us through the story of Jesus’ interaction with the Pharisee’s and Herodians.

1. Why do you think Christians are perceived as being too involved in politics? What is your own level of involvement in politics? How much or little involvement do you think Christians should pursue through politics? 2. Many Christians view the political arena as a means to promote Christian morals within the culture. When does this work and when does it not work? Is this the most viable approach? What other ways can Christian values be infused into a community? 3. Do you think Christians should change the language and style of their approach to politics? Do you think we should avoid citing Scripture in explaining our position on different political issues? 4. How can you strike a balance of in the world, but not of the world? How can you live with purity and values while still being proximate to a broken world with often opposing values?