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?

unChristian Week 2

Below you'll find the text of the message from yesterday as well as the discussion questions that we unpacked together during our 2nd week of unChristian. Last week we began what will be a four week long series called unChristian, looking at the perception that young Americans, many of our peers, neighbors, and even friends, family members have about Christianity and Christians. This postcard says it well, “Christianity has an image problem.” Last week we talked about the idea that people’s perception of Christians is their reality, whether it is actually true or not. And people’s perception right now of Christians is not that great. In fact when asked by a survey group what they thought of Christians, many 16-29 year olds gave 6 repeating thoughts. Christians are often considered to be: judgmental, anti-homosexual, too political, too sheltered, hypocritical and too concerned about getting others “saved”. Over the next 3 weeks we’ll be looking at 2 of these perceptions each week. This week we’ll be looking at the perception that Christians are judgmental and anti-homosexual.

In fact when asked about Christians these perceptions were the top two listed. The interesting thing about these two perceptions about Christians were both held by those outside the church and also, believe it or not, within the church as well. Now we are combining these two because being anti-homosexual is just being judgmental applied to a certain issue.

So I have to ask, why when asked what people think of Christians, are the top two things listed (especially from young adults) judgmental and anti-homosexual? Why are Christians perceived this way? Is it because Christians are trying to legislate morality? Are we more known for what we are against than what we are for? Is it because we suggest to people that they have to change their sinful behavior before God will love them and accept them? Is it because we say that we hate the sin and not the sinner when people that are homosexuals see their behavior as an aspect of their identity (and so what they hear is that we hate the sinner)?

Are we really following Christ’s own example when we judge the sinful behaviors of others? During Jesus’ own ministry, he was often put in the position of judge. The rich, young ruler wanted Jesus to “judge” him as someone who was good and would inherit eternal life (Lk 18:18-23). Martha wanted Jesus to “judge” Mary as not having done the right thing (Lk 10:38-42). The man who wanted Jesus to tell his brother to split the inheritance with him (Lk 12:13-15). Consider Jesus’ response: “Who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” But did Jesus accept this role of “Judge”? Let’s look at a defining passage.

The passage we’ll be looking at today is one that many older manuscripts of the Scriptures don’t actually have. But we don’t have any reason to believe that this story isn’t actually an authentic story. The passage that I am talking about is John 7:53-8:11.

“Then they all went home, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

Now what we see here in this scene is almost like a courtroom with the teachers of the law and Pharisees as prosecutors, the woman as the defendant, the crowd as the jury, and Jesus positioned as the judge. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees think they have trapped Jesus. They believe he had only two ways to answer their question of whether they should stone the woman. They said that the law of Moses says you should stone such a woman who was caught in the act of adultery. But they were only partially right because you see adultery is not an act you can commit alone. The law of Moses said you should stone both parties involved. So they were setting up the woman, and letting the man off the hook, all because they were hoping to trap and trip up Jesus.

Now they believe that if Jesus were to say, “Go ahead and stone her”, he would have brought down the strong hand of the Roman empire, because only the Romans had the prerogative to execute someone. The Jews had no power to put someone to death. Now if he said, “Don’t stone her” he would be accused of breaking the Mosaic law. So they thought, “Now we have him.” But how does Jesus respond? In a way that none of them even considered.

Now let’s go back to something that the teachers of the Law and Pharisee’s said when they brought the woman in. They said, “she was caught in the act.” Now we mentioned that adultery is a sin that can’t be done alone. And we wondered where the man was. Now Jesus response to their question of whether they stone her or not, touches on these facts. You see in Jewish law, witnesses to the capital offense began the stoning. When Jesus said, He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first, He was really said, "All right, let's execute her. But let's do it right. One of the witnesses has to have a hand in her execution. So who among you is the one who witnessed this crime, but only brought to Me the woman, not the man?" Jesus makes it plain - whoever the witness is, whoever the one who has the right to cast the first stone is, he is as guilty as the woman taken in adultery, because of his hypocrisy.

In verse 7, Jesus implies that if he is to take the role of judge, then everyone will stand guilty—no one is without sin in their lives. And so the men with the stones in their hands, ready to stone her, go away, one by one, starting with the oldest ones first, until no one was left. Not one person was left holding a stone. Everyone leaves; no one is left to judge or condemn her except Jesus. The only one who would have any right to condemn, judge and throw a son, is the only one who has no sin. All the people that were there before were also sinners just like she was. Jesus the only one that could throw a stone at her, didn’t. He didn’t condemn her. Jesus says it this way, “Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” He acknowledges her sin and calls on her to leave her life of sin and to change her ways, but no where in this story (or any story for that matter in the gospels) does Jesus ever condemn or judge the woman. In fact, as John 3:17 says, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” Or put in the words found in the Message version, “God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again.”

What if we applied this truth as followers of Jesus? Isn’t this how we want to be treated? None of us is without sin in our lives; all of us are in need of God’s grace and we are so thankful that Jesus loves us and accepts us in spite of our sin. Like the woman caught in adultery, our sinful ways and lives will only change when we have first received, accepted, and experienced the unconditional love of Jesus. If that’s true, then shouldn’t we be people who are focused only on showing unconditional love and grace, and not judgment and condemnation toward others? What if Christians and local churches became places known for their grace and love and not for their judgment? Do you think that would be attractive? Who have you judged in your life and what can you do to change your posture, and consequently, begin to change the perceptions? All of this does not ignore the complex issues surrounding such topics as homosexuality. But it does mean that we have a new and different starting point for our attitudes and actions: love and grace. Why? Because “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8). Are we willing to follow his example?

Let’s continue the conversation about the text and the perception that Christians are judgmental and anti-homosexual. But let me throw this in there. This is a hot button issue with people on all sides of the issue. We, as the body of Christ, even if we disagree with each other, need to do it in the spirit of love and grace with each other. So feel free to disagree with each other, do it publicly, but do it in the Spirit of Jesus, best shown in this text.

1. When you hear the word “homosexual” what are your first reactions? Discuss your opinions and try to assess the reasons behind them.

2. If judgmentalism means you marginalize someone, describe a time when you have been judgmental towards someone else (whether regarding homosexuality or some other behavior you considered sinful). Compare that to a time when you were judged by another Christian who seemed wrongly motivated to find fault.

3. Have you ever heard the statement, “Hate the sin but love the sinner”? Have you ever used that phrase? Is that really possible? How does this approach help or hurt your ability to unconditionally accept anyone (whether they are followers of Jesus or not)?

4. What is God saying to you through the scripture, message and conversation? What are you going to do about it? What do you think God is saying to us as a community, and what should we do about it?

Losing My Religion and Rediscovering Jesus

The other night I started coming down with something. I wasn't sleeping very well. I was tossing and turning at night. I wasn't going to bed when I should. I wasn't feeling good at all. I was very short with my wife and kids. I wasn't sure what was going on so I started wondering what was wrong with me. That's when I got an e-mail with a book offer to read and blog about. The book was called Steeple Envy: Losing my Religion and Rediscovering Jesus. That's when it hit me what was wrong with me. I had a severe case of steeple envy.

At times this book helped me with my case of steeple envy. The author's (Victor Cuccia) openness and authenticity with his struggles was a breath of fresh air. His passion for the work of the Kingdom, and not just church, resonated with my spirit. At times when he described his work and his churches work in Guatemala and his "12x12 Love Project" (visit www.1212loveproject.org for more information), I began to tear up and dream how Veritas could be involved in something that really matters in the world. Helping move the Kingdom of God forward and not just the church. I appreciated his desire to just be and do church with people, and not worry about things like buildings, budget, numbers, growth, etc.... At times I was blown away by his story and how God moved and worked in providing them space, finances to fund kingdom projects, and how people's lives were changed.

At the same time some of the time my case of steeple envy came flooding back. (Nothing that was his fault...just my insecurity, frustration, and steeple envy). While he said he wasn't about numbers, he shared how many people came in such a short time (I believe it was 75 people in a relatively short period of time). My steeple envy started to grow. He mentioned how God provided for them and his community in crazy ways (100,000 dollars towards a new building with no funding campaign, no solicitations, etc..) My steeple envy grew some more. He told stories of life change, people giving selfishly and radically, and people becoming disciples of Jesus. My steeple envy grew.

I began to realize that my case of steeple envy was really really bad. I couldn't rejoice in the story of another. I couldn't rejoice in the story how God continued to provide for some awesome Kingdom projects. I couldn't rejoice with stories of life change, the Kingdom moving forward, and God being glorified...all because I was envious and jealous of "their steeple". This book showed me that I have a long way to go in losing my religion and rediscovering Jesus. It showed me that I sometimes an jealous of what God is doing somewhere else and I don't see where God is moving in me, my family, and my community. I forget the stories of how God has continually provided for my family and I (and our community) over the last 3 years. I forget the stories of lives that we have engaged with. I don't celebrate the wins that we have seen. Sometimes my case of steeple envy is so bad that I don't thank God for the people that he has brought alongside us to partner with us, because I am so focused on growing and looking at finding others.

So while it was a "painful" read as it showed me the extent of my brokenness and steeple envy, it was helpful as it also helped me to see God is working in Lancaster just like he is working in Jacksonville. That I need to focus on what God is doing and has done in me, my family and my community as well as rejoice with the story of God moving in awesome ways through the author and his faith community.

So pray for me. Pray for my case of Steeple Envy. Pray that I would be able to sleep better. Pray that I would be able to pray blessing on others (as we are on the same team). Pray that I would spend time in confession when my case of steeple envy comes back. Pray that I could be thankful for all that God has blessed us with and not focus on what others have. Pray that I wouldn't compare myself to others (because when I do I always lose).

Thanks to the Speakeasy Blog program for the opportunity to read the book and start to diagnose what was wrong with me. Thanks also to Victor Cuccia for sharing his story with others through his book and helping me to learn how to rejoice in what God is doing through him and his community. And my prayer is still that I might get to see some of the same things (life change, Kingdom impact, growth-spiritually, missionally, relationally, etc..) in Veritas.

unChristian Week 1

Below is the message from the beginning of our unChristian series which started yesterday along with the discussion questions that we unpacked together.

So today we are starting a 4 week series called unChristian looking at how Christians are viewed in the world. Today our theme revolves around the idea that Perception is reality.

So before we jump too far into the message, I want to ask you if you have ever been misunderstood. Of course, we all have. Just this week I was picking up my kids from the bus stop and walking them home and started a conversation with my neighbors son who plays football. I asked him what position he played, he told me linebacker (if I remember correctly). I gave him a look that to me meant isn’t he a little small to play that position. The neighbor thought my look was, I don’t know what that means and so she started to explain football and the position to me. My look was misunderstood. This was both a case of being misunderstood and a case of mistaken perception.

Just like my look was misunderstood, and perceived as I didn’t understand, Christians are misunderstood as well. That is what this series is all about, the perceptions that others have of Christians and Christianity. In fact the first question that we’ll be discussing together is just that, “What are some of the perceptions that our non-Christian friends, neighbors, and co-workers have of Christians?” (Dialogue)

We all know that there are misconceptions, misunderstanding, and perceptions that people have about Christians. We just shared a bunch of them together. But, just like Christians are misunderstood sometimes, so was Jesus. Let’s look at two verses of Scripture found in the New Testament book of Luke. The 3rd book in the New Testament around 2/3 the way back in a bible, or just three books back from the New Testaments on the table. We’ll look at this text and see Jesus coming into some misunderstanding as well.

So let’s look at Luke 15:1-2 and see what it might say to us about perceptions. Luke 15:1-2 says this, “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

Now you see the Pharisees and the teachers of the law were the religious establishment of the day. They had strict rules of what you did and what you didn’t do. In fact they tried to live by 613 Old Testament Laws. Some of those laws included who you ate with, whose house you could go into and not go into, what you could or couldn’t eat, and who and who wasn’t unclean. In that time, as in ours, perceptions were important. If one was perceived as keeping the Jewish law, maintaining purity, and avoiding contact with “sinners,” he or she was considered a righteous person. That didn’t mean you actually you were a “righteous person” according to God’s standards of lowing God with everything you have and loving your neighbor as yourself. You could live out external rules and regulations but your heart could be as black as night and still be consider to be a “righteous person”. (Doesn’t seem all that different than now, when we can have the same issue.)

But Jesus seemed to break all these rules. He didn’t keep to the letter of the law (such as healing on the Sabbath), maintain purity (he touched lepers and impure people), or avoid contact with “sinners.” He not only did he hang out with tax collectors and sinners, he actually ate with them.

Now there are a few things we need to unpack about that last statement so we understand just how radical, subversive, and upside down it was from the religious establishment of his day. First we have to understand what we mean by tax collectors and sinners. You see, some of you may know this already, but Israel at the time of Jesus was under Roman rule. Rome was controlling their land, and the Jewish people were living under their thumb. And so at the time there were three different ways that people were dealing with the Roman occupation. One was to avoid the situation all together, go off into the wilderness and not be involved at all. This was the Essenes way of dealing with the Roman occupation. The Zealots were the ones who wanted to use violence and go after the Romans and forcibly remove them from their land. That was the second way. The last way was to work with the Romans and by definition against your own countrymen. This is what the tax collectors were doing. They were working for the man, so to speak. They were collecting taxes from their own people, to finance the roman occupation. Not only that, they were also known to rip off their own people so that they could get rich. So these men weren’t looked on to favorably by the religious establishment.

The sinners who are grouped with the tax collectors were not ordinary sinners. The Pharisees along with others could readily admit that everyone is, after all, a sinner and in need of God's mercy and forgiveness. But the sinners associated with tax collectors were in a special class. These were people who deliberately and persistently transgressed the requirements of the law. Included in this group would be money-lenders who charged interest on loans advanced to fellow Jews. This was a clear violation of the law of God stated in Leviticus 25:36-38. Also in this group of sinners might be prostitutes who made their living by their ill-gotten gains. These were individuals who sold themselves to a life of sin in deliberate disregard of the law of God. The second thing we need to unpack about this statement that the Pharisees’ made was that Jesus ate with them. Now you and I say, so Jesus ate with them, what’s the big deal? But in the culture of that day and age to eat with someone was a huge deal. You see in the social world of Jesus’ day, meals had four basic functions: 1. To support kinship – to create solidarity. One ate with the clan and by doing so established the boundaries of who was “in” and who was “out.” Meals reminded the household where their loyalties lay. The concentric rings of table fellowship were: extended family, household servants or hired workers, and members of your social class (those who could reciprocate), who were invited to special banquets.

2. To enforce boundaries – hierarchy, status, and gender – especially through seating arrangements. During these meals the social group was reminded who sat at the head of the table and who was at the foot (or in their case who washed the feet). Women’s roles and paternal hegemony were reinforced.

3. To perpetuate social values. During meals certain rituals were maintained such as washings, prayers, and symbols. In addition special feasts, fasts, and Sabbath observances were celebrated. In some ways meals were quite liturgical, sometimes even mirroring the events of the temple (cf. Neufeld 16; Lev 23:2-44) 4. To gain honor through hosting banquets or through clever discourse as a guest. The wealthy were able to show off as well as demonstrate benevolence to guests. The guests were able to show deference as well as entertain their host and other guests with wit or wisdom. In fact Luke, who describes Jesus’ table fellowship in more detail than the other gospel writers, portrays them somewhat like the Greek “symposia” where wit and conversation are central.

This is the world in which Jesus lived. Yet he didn’t abide by its rules. In fact, he used meals as a means of disrupting social values and overturning normal standards of behavior and honor. First, Jesus used meals to reconfigure who he considered his true kin. Rather than capitulating to his family’s request to see him, he created a fictive family around the table based on one’s devotion to hearing and obeying God’s word. This was never clearer than at the Last Supper. Second, “Jesus’ open table fellowship was a strategy used to challenge social and religious exclusivism wherever it was accepted as normal or officially sanctioned” (Koenig, 20). Because he ate with all class of “sinners” he offended the sensibilities of the religious elite. Third, he refused to perpetuate religious traditions about washing, fasting, and Sabbath regulations. This was more than a faux pas. This was an assault on a religious system that prioritized rules above people. Finally, when invited by prominent teachers, Jesus often offended both the host and the guests by pointing out their misguided priorities. Moreover, he often honored some sinner who happened on the scene. He turned the tables of social rank upside down at these banquets.

So as we see Jesus eating with tax collectors and sinners got him in trouble with the religious leaders of his day. Perceptions of Jesus were rampant and he considered a breaker of the law, unclean, and a “sinner” himself. In a sense, Jesus was misunderstood. Was Jesus okay with being misunderstood? Yes—because his actions and the resulting perceptions were driven by his mission to bring God’s love and grace to all people. But This begs a question: are Christians today misunderstood and are the perceptions of us driven by our mission to bring God’s love and grace to all people? Who are the tax collectors and “sinners” of our day and do they respond to us the same way that they did to Jesus? If we are honest, we definitely have to say no.

Unfortunately, the perceptions of Christians today are not very similar to those of Jesus. We are not known as people of unconditional love and grace toward outsiders. Instead, here are six of the dominant perceptions of Christians by young outsiders (unChristian, p. 28): -- Judgmental -- Anti-homosexual -- Hypocritical -- Sheltered -- Only concerned with getting people saved -- Too political

Are these surprising? Are these really the perceptions we want people to have of us? More importantly, are these perceptions based on our mission to bring God’s love and grace to all people? Perceptions are not bad; they actually reflect reality because they are often driven by our own actions. Actions drive perceptions. The problem is not the negative perceptions of us. The problem is us.

Over the next three weeks, we’re going to look at each of these negative perceptions and ask the questions: What are we doing to drive these perceptions? And how can we change them? This week, consider how your actions—the words you speak, the people you engage, the ideas you communicate, the posture you present—drive people’s perceptions about you.

If our mission is to be judgmental, anti-homosexual, hypocritical, sheltered, political, or only concerned with getting people saved, then we’re doing a good job— we’re creating the right perceptions of us. But if our mission is different—bringing God’s love and grace to all people—then we must make some radical changes.

1. Do you know anyone who isn’t a follower of Jesus”? Would you consider them to be friends? What do you think their perceptions are of Christianity?

2. When a person was asked what Christian meant to them, this is their response, “Christian means conservative, entrenched in their thinking, antigay, anti- choice, angry, violent, illogical, empire builders; they want to convert everyone, and they generally cannot live peacefully with anyone who doesn’t believe what they believe.” What is your reaction to this comment? Why do people come to these conclusions?

3. The book “unChristian” describes a movement of young Christians who are reluctant to admit they are Christians. They are not simply trying to be cool or popular, but they are concerned that the current way Christianity is expressed toward outsiders actually makes it more difficult to express what Jesus was about. Are you encouraged or troubled by this trend? In what situations are you more or less likely to say you are a Christian?

4. In what ways can your life help to redeem the term Christian? How can you be a Christian, rather than simply telling people you are one? What does a Christian who represents both truth and grace look and act like?

Viral Jesus: Recovering the Contagious Power of the Gospel

The other week I received a copy of the book "Viral Jesus: Recovering the Contagious Power of the Gospel" by Ross Rohde, who is a house church planter and coach in San Francisco, through the Speakeasy blog program that I am a part of.

The premise of this book is to recover the viral movement nature of the church. Rohde puts it this way, "In the early centuries Christianity was an explosive, viral movement that spread by word of mouth." He then continues, "But today, the gospel is no longer spreading like wildfire throughout the western world. Slowly, Christianity has morphed into something much different...a stable institutionalized religion that no longer grips us with the excitement and spirituality of the early years."

Rohde then spends a good bit of the first part of the book unpacking the history of the early church and the viral nature of the movement. He does a great job looking at the early church, the persecution that fueled the movement, the adoption of Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire by Constantine, and then the slowing down of the viral nature of the church due Constantine's decision.

He then moves on to some more historical examples of kingdom movements such as the Waldensians, the Anabaptists, the Great Awakenings, and also modern day China.

But we also need to ask, "Just what makes a viral Jesus movement, in the first place?' Rhode lays out 5 key aspects of a viral Jesus movement. 1. Apostolic teams found organic churches and networks that follow Jesus in every gathering. Yet every component, from individual Christians to networks, is easily reproducible and simple in design; simple but not simplistic. 2. Viral Jesus movements are focused on the kingdom, not on the church per se. This is because they are focused on the King and his commands. 3. Viral Jesus movements are founded with the fivefold ministries mentioned in Ephesians 4:11. 4. Viral movements, by their nature, are supernaturally powerful because they are under the authority and power of Jesus. 5. Finally, viral Jesus movements are led by Jesus alone. He is the one who provides stability and control.

Probably the most helpful part of the book, to me, was the chapters on Viral discipleship and Viral Church Planting. The one on Church Planting was especially timely. You see the other week I was reading Matthew 9 and came upon this verse, "Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” It struck me like never before. For me and my church planting journey, I needed to ask God to send workers into the harvest field, to join Veritas in our mission.

And so with those words ringing in my ears, I read the chapter on church planting and was again reminded that it isn't about programs, marketing, flashy websites, or other "gimmicks". It is about God bringing the growth. There were several quotes from the book that struck me about the importance of praying and seeking God and asking the Lord of the Harvest for the growth. Here are a few that stuck out to me:

"I believe that Jesus gives ministry success to a person or team because they are obedient, not because they have great technique."

"We can do everything technically right; but if we aren't obeying the Lord of the harvest, we shouldn't expect much fruit. And some are getting disappointed because 'it isn't working'. The 'it' they are talking about is some technique or set of techniques." (This one really resonated with me.)

"The first question anyone should face who believes himself truly called of God is the financial question. If he cannot look to the Lord alone for the meeting of his daily wants, then he is not qualified to be engaged in His work, for if he is not financially independent of men, the world cannot be independent of men either. If he cannot trust God for the supply of needed funds, can he trust Him in all the problems and difficulties of the work?"

"If we can't go without the security of a 401(k) plan or a retirement package, we are probably not ready for apostolic work."

Overall, I appreciated the opportunity to read the book and it challenged, encouraged, and at times, convicted me, especially in relation to our continued effort of planting Veritas, as a missional community of authentic worshippers.

To make disciples, you need to be a disciple

Here is the text and the discussion questions of the last message of our Scattered and Gathered Series that we have been doing since April. We tackled Matthew 28:16-20. This Sunday we have a picnic, then the following 4 weeks we'll be tackling the unChristian series. So today we come to the end of our series that we have been working through since April….looking at the two natures of the church….the Scattered nature of the church…being sent out into the world to be the hands and feet of Jesus, bringing blessing to the world. And the gathered nature of the church, where we gather together for community and discipleship. So therefore we’ve been looking at the three very things that drive what we are all about. The values of mission, community and discipleship.

April through May we looked at the value of mission, and ended our time together as we spent time at the Block Party on Queen Street. June through July we looked at the importance of community and how it is impossible to be a follower of Jesus and try to do life alone. We continue working on developing community in various ways (next week is our End of the Summer picnic at my house, and we are looking at holding a Guys Night in the next few weeks, and hope to throw a lot more community building “events” during the next few months).

July through August we have been unpacking what it looks like to be a disciple of Jesus through the lens of stories and teachings found in the book of Matthew. I won’t summarize all that we’ve looked at, but suffice it to say, a disciple of Jesus is one who is a learner or apprentice of Jesus, and seeks to orient and reorient their life around Jesus. To look like Jesus.

As we come to the end I thought we would unpack, what can be a very well known passages, for followers of Jesus, that I believe combines the two natures of the church, the scattered nature and the gathered nature. This passage is sometimes called the Great Commission by followers of Jesus and can be found at the end of the book of Matthew. Specifically it can be found in Matthew 28:16-20. And this is what it says, “Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

So I want to spend time this morning unpacking this text and what it says about being a disciple of Jesus and also how it combines both natures of the church.

The first thing that I want to look at in this text is this surprising words found in verse 17. “When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.” These were disciples of Jesus, who spent 3 years with him, seeing his miracles, his teaching, seeing his death on the cross, and then 3 days later seeing him come back to life, and then spend the last 40 days in the resurrected Jesus presence. This statement might weird you out, like how can these disciples, who have the resurrected Christ right in front of them, doubt? This actually brings me hope, that even the early disciples didn’t have it all together. And they, on this day, as Jesus gets set to go back to heaven, are capable of doubt. So honestly, I believe a disciple of Jesus is one who doubts. A disciple realizes that they don’t have it all figured out, and that they are okay with that.

Now I truly believe that doubt is not the opposite of faith, but only faith’s misgivings. That we shouldn’t fear doubt unless it comes from sin; there is faith in honest doubt. So if doubt isn’t the opposite of faith, what is? I believe the opposite of faith is cynicism. And so here is the early disciples who gave their life to Jesus, doubting Jesus. So if you feel like you are struggling and thinking, man I can’t be a disciple of Jesus because I just have too many doubts, than realize that even the disciples of Jesus who looked eye to eye with Jesus doubted. And that doubt has a way of leading to faith, when we wrestle with our doubts.

So the next thing we read is what could be called Jesus’ most important message. Think about when someone is on the verge of passing away, they usually say things that they want to get across to their family, and friends. The thing that matters most. And so Jesus here is doing just that, letting his disciple in on a most important issue. His call for his disciples, is for them to go and make disciples and to teach them everything that Jesus had taught them. Dallas Willard, a theologian and author has this to say about the importance of this text, “The greatest issue facing the world today; with all its heartbreaking need, is whether those who by profession or culture, are identified as Christians, will become disciples- students, apprentices, practitioners- of Jesus Christ steadily learning from him how to live the life of the Kingdom of the heavens into every corner of human existence.”

Jesus told us, as disciples, to make disciples. Not converts to Christianity, nor to some particular faith and practice. He told us that while we are going, that we are to make disciples. That wherever you go this week, to school, to work, to play, in your neighborhood, etc… that you are to make disciples. This could also mean going to other parts of the world, but it doesn’t negate the fact that we are also to see where we are as a mission field to be about the work of discipling others into the ways of Jesus. This is one side of the nature of church, the scattered nature. If you want to obey this great commission, then you need to go. You can’t just stay. You can’t just stay in the gathered nature of the church all the time. But you can’t just go out alone trying to disciple others. You have to gather together, help disciple each other, teaching each other to obey everything that Jesus commanded, and then scatter out to make other disciples (which I believe includes the process of evangelism as well)

But all too often we have not made discipleship a condition of being a Christian. The current assumption is that you can be a Christian without being a disciple, but Jesus never made that assumption. To be a Christian, to Jesus, means looking like little Christs (where the name Christian came from) and that looking like little Christ’s means living under the teaching and life of Jesus. We have made disciples the elite within the Christian world, but Jesus calls each and every one of us to be and make disciples. We have said come to know Jesus, secure your place in heaven, than wait around till you die to go to heaven. Which has made what Dallas Willard calls “vampire Christians” who want Jesus for his blood and nothing else. Who don’t care about obeying everything that Jesus commanded, or who think being a Christian is just about a future destination and forgiveness of sins. Maybe that is why it seems like the 20th century/21st century evangelical church has had little impact on societal problems? Maybe the lack of care for social justice issues (all though this thankfully is starting to change) is because we believe Jesus wants us to be Christians and that means only being forgiven so we can go to heaven when we die and not truly understanding that Jesus doesn’t want us to be Christians in that sense, but disciples who live out Jesus call to “Follow Me.”

But what does it mean to be living out the Great Commission? What does it mean to “obey everything that I have commanded?” What does it look like to go and make disciples? How does it work for you and I and our community? That is what we will unpack together in our time of conversation and discussion.

1. What are your thoughts, comments, insights, questions, pushback, etc.. do you have regarding the text or the message? 2. What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus? How does or how could it look like on the ground, day in and day out for you? 3. How are you and I seeking to make disciples who obey everything that Jesus taught? 4. Who are you intentionally investing in, or intentionally discipling? (Whether they are a Christian or not)

What a Waste

Yesterday during our gathering, I shared the text from Matthew 26:6-13 about Jesus being anointed by Mary. Below you'll find the message and the discussion questions we used for our time of unpacking of the Scripture. This week is our next to last week looking at what a disciple of Jesus looks like through the lens of the gospel/book of Matthew. Next week we finish this series and take a week off for the End of the Summer Picnic, and then on September 9 start a new series called unChristian, looking at the perceptions that younger Americans have of Christians. Look at the postcards on your table about this series, and if someone comes to mind that you can invite that this series would connect with, take a postcard or three and invite some people.

As I said we have been looking at what it means to be a disciple of Jesus through the lens of the New Testament book of Matthew for the last several weeks. When we started this part of the series we began by looking at the story of the woman who was hemorrhaging for 12 years, touched the robe of Jesus and was healed. We talked about the boldness of the woman and how she had basically ignored social rules and norms (as she was “unclean”) to go into a crowd and talked about how disciples of Jesus need to be bold and sometimes ignore social rules and norms to follow Jesus.

We then talked about the parable of the sower and talked about how as disciples of Jesus we have two roles, one as a sower of the seed of the Kingdom of God, and the other to be the receptive soil for the seed of the Kingdom of God to fall into. We can’t be either the sower or the soil as a disciple. We have to both give and receive.

We then talked about Matthew 14:22-32 about Jesus spending time on the mountain with his heavenly Father, then coming out on the lake, and having Peter come walking on the water, only to sink when he took his eyes off Jesus. We talked about how Peter was the only disciple to get out of the boat and how following Jesus means taking risks and sometimes stepping out of the comfortable and known to embrace the risky, uncomfortable, and the unknown.

Then we talked about Jesus call for those who want to follow Him to deny themselves, take up their cross and follow him. The radical call of following Jesus, to die to yourself, and raise to new life, his new life living in you.

And finally last week we talked about another radical call that Jesus had to the rich young ruler, to give all that he had to the poor and then to follow him. And we talked about the idea that we all need to figure out what is holding our hearts from truly following after Jesus.

This week we encounter the story of a woman who was all out in her worship of Jesus, the response of those around her, and what Jesus is calling us to through the act of this woman.

So let’s look at Matthew 26:6-13 and see what we might learn about being a disciple of Jesus through this story. “While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table. When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked. “This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.” Aware of this, Jesus said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”

Let’s spend sometime unpacking this text and see what it might say to us about what it looks like to follow Jesus. So the first thing we see is that Jesus is in Bethany at the home of Simon the Leper. Now Bethany is also home to Mary, Martha and Lazarus (whom Jesus’ raised from the dead). So Jesus is in the home of Simon the Leper, who was probably a well known victim of leprosy who had been healed by Jesus. And probably as a means of thanking Jesus for restoring him to his family, his community, and restoring his health, Simon invites Jesus and his disciples over for dinner while they are in town.

Into this setting comes a woman, which we find out in other texts, to be Mary, sister of Martha and Mary. She takes an alabaster jar full of very expensive perfume and pours the whole jar out on the head of Jesus. Now this is a lavish display of worship from Mary to Jesus. It was costly perfume, in other texts it was called Nard. There was probably enough nard in the container that it probably was valued around a years wages. But this isn’t the only reason why her act of worship was so costly. There are other reasons why this act of worship is radical, convicting, and subversive to the way we follow Jesus.

Let’s take a look at the alabaster jar and what exactly that jar was all about, and what it symbolized in the time of Jesus in Israel. In the days Jesus was on earth, when a young woman reached the age of availability for marriage, her family would purchase an alabaster box for her and fill it with precious ointment. The size of the box and the value of the ointment would parallel her family’s wealth. This alabaster box would be part of her dowry. When a young man came to ask for her in marriage, she would respond by taking the alabaster box and breaking it at his feet. The gesture of anointing his feet showed him honor. Perhaps this story takes on a new meaning. Mary’s perfume was very valuable, worth a year’s wages. But what stands out to me is that Mary didn’t save this special gift for her earthly bridegroom. She chose to use it on Jesus. I think the word of Mary’s actions spread rapidly. First, Mary was a woman. In that day, that fact alone held expectations. 2nd, the Bible says, I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her. In this part of Jesus’ story, everyone knew of Him, and although there were no phones, I am sure they had a way of spreading any news of Jesus quickly. He was the biggest celebrity. 3rd, what Mary did could have totally killed her chances for every marrying. I think that is very noteworthy. You can find plenty of women out there who never marry, but I think there are few out there who willingly say: “I choose Jesus over a man.” or “I don’t want to marry. I just want Jesus.” We sometimes call those women crazy, or that they are giving up on something that they are going to regret. I say: “Way to choose Jesus first!” and I think Mary of Bethany would say the same thing. She realized that no man would be better then her Jesus. When she broke that alabaster jar and poured her expensive perfume over Jesus in front of a room of men, she was giving up a portion of her dowry, her reputation, and most importantly her heart. The question is, could we do that today? In Jesus day, it was a big deal for a woman to turn down marriage, because that was how she was provided for, taken care of, watched over. And by breaking the alabaster jar over the head of Jesus, she was basically giving her whole life and self, her future, her provisions, her everything to Jesus.

The response to this all out worship, devotion, and giving of her whole life to Jesus, from Jesus’ own disciples was “Why this waste? This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.” His own disciples failed to see the beauty behind this act of worship. His own disciples called it a waste. They were looking purely at the financial cost and they also weren’t truly caring about the poor. In other texts of this account we see Judas being the head complainer as he held the money bag, and many times would help himself.

So I believe it is quite possible for us to live in such a way, giving ourselves to the Kingdom of God and to the King of the Kingdom, and still be looked at by other “Christians” as living a life that can be seen as a waste. To be spending ourselves on behalf of the world, to be a blessing, to confront the status quo inside and outside the church, and be marginalized from the church and “good Christians” As I mentioned before we went to see Shane Claiborne on Wednesday and I believe many Christians probably look at his life and say “What a waste.” So let’s unpack what this text looks like on the ground, lived out in the everyday life that we live. What do we sense God speaking to us about and what are we going to do about it?

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

2. What is God saying to you? What is God saying to us as a community?

3. What are you going to do about it? What are we going to do about it?

unChristian

Join us September 9-30 for unChristian:

September 9: Christians in Culture: Perception is reality September 16: Judgmental and Anti-Homosexual September 23: Too political and sheltered September 30: Hypocritical and Get Saved

Subversive Kingdom

So the other week I was privileged to receive a review copy of Ed Stetzer's new book called "Subversive Kingdom: Living as Agents of Gospel Transformation." The only thing that I needed to do to get the book was to blog about it, put the review on Amazon.com and tell others about the book. So this is the first part of my assignment.

The point of this book is for followers of King Jesus (one of the best parts of the book in my mind in referring to Jesus as King) to be about the work of the Kingdom of God and to see that work as utterly subversive to the Kingdom of the world. To see life as a follower of Jesus as more than just going to a certain place, at a certain time, on a certain day of the week. To fully live out the subversive Kingdom of God.

Stetzer defines living out the subversive Kingdom of God in three different parts.

The first part is about Subversive Ways of Thinking. In this part he talks about rebelling against the rebellion and living for the Kingdom of God. He also talks about the Secrets of the Kingdom and he also defines the Kingdom of God as already but not yet. Some of the quotes that connected with me in this section include:

"He (Jesus) talks about the kingdom more than eighty times in just over eighty chapters."

"Political subversion polarizes kingdom citizens from the mission of the King." (super relevant in our world today in relation to the Chick-Fil-A mess, and the upcoming 2012 elections)

"They (large churches) know that the small interactions of disciples, lives, and groups is what makes their life together matter."

"Kingdom work is typically most recognizable by how small it is."

"Your church (and mine) does not exist to keep us away from the world."

"Small things, subversively placed, lead us to big things in God's kingdom."

One of the best parts of the first part is where he lays out what the mission that God has given to us, his church. Stetzer lays out 3 parts to our mission. 1. Our mission is to share Jesus with a broken world. 2. Our mission includes alleviating the needs around us. 3. Our mission focuses on both the local community and the larger world.

The second part of the book revolves around the idea of a Subversive Way of Life. This part of the book is divided into 4 chapters (Becoming your kingdom self, Uncommonly Good, Rules of Engagement, and Idol Elimination).

Some of the quotes that I really liked in this section include:

"But this call to 'engage in business' is what gives muscle and meaning to our Christian lives and to the fleshing out of our kingdom selves."

"God has made relationships his chosen delivery system for the gospel of hope."

"Relationally dysfunctional kingdom citizens are terrible advertisements for life with God being a better way."

"When we hold our rights and privileges too tightly and refuse to let anyone take advantage of us, when we resist opening ourselves up to being hurt or disappointed- under any circumstances- we do not live as one who's on the receiving end of God's grace."

"Both a king and his kingdom exist in every person's life, creating within us an impulse or desire for something more than we have right now."

"The church exists on earth as an outpost of the Kingdom of light."

The Last third of the book revolves around A Subversive Plan of Action and is made up of 3 chapters (The King's Mission, A Sign of Things to Come, and Instrumentality.)

Here are some quotes that resonated with me in this section:

"If it is God's mission, then it should also be the church's mission."

"The church doesn't have a mission; the mission has a church."

"And so he has placed us here in the church for one reason: to participate in his mission."

"The church, therefore, remains his central tool for accomplishing the subversive kingdom agenda."

"Any church daring to call itself missional might consider doing three kingdom things: (1) serving locally; (2) planting nationally; (3) and adopting an unreached people group globally."

"Jesus was sent to establish his kingdom. As kingdom citizens, we live sent. We must realize that for subversive transformation to take place, it must happen no only in times of gathered worship but through a whole week's worth of kingdom-oriented living and going."

"When the church scatters to do its kingdom work, lives are transformed in the process both physically and spiritually."

"the chuch is a present-day sing of the Kingdom of God."

"In living together as God's people under his reign and lordship, our churches provide to the world the closest resemblance of the kingdom of God on this side of eternity. We are the invisible kingdom made visible through the people of God and their shared lives on earth."

Now I am sure that I could go on for a while quoting some more things that stood out to me in Stetzer's book. For the most part, I really enjoyed the book and was challenged in it's content to continue seeking to live a subversive Kingdom life as an individual, as a family, and as a community of faith. There were alot of ideas, thoughts, and practical ideas that we could take and implement in Lancaster to subversively live out the Kingdom of God.

There, I believe, was some issues that I struggled with however while reading the book. One of the biggest for me related to how long it took him to get around to the communal aspect of living out the Kingdom. All too often the church in America sees itself in individual terms, and how "I" can live out the Kingdom, while the Scriptures, I believe, speak more to the idea of how can the community live out the Kingdom of God. As I was reading, I was thinking, he is missing a huge piece of the equation, but then was relieved that he finally did get around to the communal aspect.

A second issue that I struggled with (and maybe I am pretty sensitive to this as one who tries to follow the Prince of Peace), but some of the language revolving around living out the Subversive Kingdom lent itself to militaristic language. I realize that we are in a spiritual battle, but he lost me when referring to D-Day, Normandy, and being agents.

Lastly I wondered why he chose to put the book in the order that he did. To me it seems like he thinks that if we just think differently about something it will translate into acting differently, and sometimes that does happen. But I wonder if instead we flipped it. Here is a quote that I found in relation to the idea of thinking and acting. "it is very difficult to get people to think their way into a new way of acting. Instead, people must act their way into a new way of thinking. It's action innovation, not thinking innovation, that makes the difference."

So other than those three small critiques, I really enjoyed the book. I truly appreciated the opportunity to read it and review it.

Take up your Cross

This is the text of what I shared today at our Gathering. I haven't included the questions because I only really had one and that led off the conversation and it just took off......

The last few weeks we have been looking at what a disciple of Jesus looks like through the lens of different stories and texts in the gospel of Matthew. We’ve looked at the story of the woman who had hemorrhaged for 12 years and the boldness it took for her to go after Jesus, setting aside religious laws and customs in order to get healing.

We looked at the parable of the sower and the seed and how we are called to be both the sower and the good soil both. That discipleship is about partnering with God in the building of his Kingdom by sowing the seed of the Kingdom. And also preparing ourselves to be good soil for the seed of the Kingdom to come into our lives.

Then last week we talked about Jesus walking on the water, and then having Peter get out of the boat, because his rabbi was walking on the water. We talked about taking risks for the Kingdom is essential to the life of a disciple. Being a disciple is not about the status quo. It is about shattering the status quo, and getting out of your comfort zone, where the magic happens, so to speak.

Today we are tackling a text that I believe is the crux of the matter when it comes to being a follower of Jesus, and a disciple. One that I, honestly, wish wasn’t part of the deal in following Jesus. One that, when I read it, sounds like it is really really hard to live out and is honestly a downer. But to be a disciple of Jesus means following in his footsteps, and Jesus footsteps led him to the cross, and our footsteps should lead us there as well.

So let’s turn to Matthew 16:24-26, “Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?”

So to properly understand this text we need to look back and see what was happening before this. We need to frame this in its context. In the previous section we see Jesus asking the disciples who people were saying that he was. Peter, being the brash one, opens his mouth first and says these words, which are spot on, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” But then only a few verses later we see Peter not truly understanding what the mission of Jesus was all about. Jesus starts talking about going up to Jerusalem, suffering, dying on the cross, and then coming back to life on the third day. This understanding of Jesus’ true mission had no place in the mind of Peter. You see Peter’s understanding of the messiah was a political messiah, one who would kick butt first, take names later. He had no category for a suffering, crucified messiah and so he rebukes Jesus. Jesus then tells Peter that a powerful, roman-butt kicking, power over, Messiah is a pawn of the evil one, and has no place in the Kingdom of God. And that is where we pick up the text from this morning.

Now when Jesus makes reference to carrying the cross, all the disciples knew exactly what he was referring to. They had seen enough condemned criminals on their way to their own execution carrying their own instrument of death. It would be like today for a criminal who was going to be put to death in an electric chair, to carry the chair into the execution chamber. The disciples understood what the cross was really all about, death. It was unavoidable in Jesus’ day to not understand what the cross was all about. Almost every time that they would enter the city of Jerusalem, they would see the condemned criminals hanging on crosses outside the city walls.

And so here Jesus drops this bombshell. That this discourse was intended to show Peter and the rest of the disciples the nature of his kingdom. And that nature was that the cross is a necessary condition of discipleship. Death to self is the radical command of the Christian life. When Jesus called his disciples to take up their cross, it meant only one thing, you were going to certain death, and your only hope was in resurrection power. So Jesus is pretty clearly giving his disciples what it true meant to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, and by definition, also to us. To be a disciple of Jesus Christ, plain and simple (I didn’t say easy) is to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow him. It is all about getting on the cross yourself, and following him.

Now let’s remember the context of this part of the Scripture. I believe the disciples are just sitting there shocked to think that their Messiah was going to suffer, and then go die on a cross. And that he was calling them to do the same (most likely not literally). Jesus was getting at the very heart of being like God. He was great at the heart of how you transform the world and be about the Kingdom of God.

You see God is an awesome and powerful God! But God’s power is so unlike how the world wields power. He reveals his power not by control or force, but through love and sacrifice. God so loved the world that he sent his Son, Jesus, into the world, not to condemn it but to transform it, ultimately laying down his life for all on the cross. This kind of power and love was shocking then, and it is still shocking to our world today.

What Jesus was calling them to was not to a position of power and self-righteousness, but rather to a life of humility, service and self-sacrificial love. As followers of Christ, we are called to do the same and reflect this kind of outrageous love and service, even to those who persecute us.

Jesus teaches his disciples about a new way of living. It is a life found only in God, which is abundant life. The source of all love, joy and peace is found in living for God. Trying to get life from any other source is futile and leads to death. Our call as followers of Christ is to die to our old ways of living life and to start living in love, as Christ loves us. By doing so, we find real life!

I wasn’t to talk about this, as it is pretty controversial, but I thought it really fit are topic this morning. This past week we saw a lot of people, a lot of “church” people respond to a call to “eat mor chickin.” To stand up for their American and some even said Christian right to free speech. I don’t care where you stand on the issues related to everything that surrounding the “appreciate Chick-Fila-a” day (free speech, gay marriage, etc..), I just want us to look at that day in light of our Scripture today and Christ’s radical call of discipleship, by denying yourself, taking up our cross and following him.

Jesus lived a life of power under, humility, love, and self-sacrifice, denying himself, and literally taking up his cross. Where do you think he would be in this whole mess? Where do you think he calls us, who call ourselves followers of Jesus, in this whole mess? Honestly, I can’t see Jesus showing up to “eat mor chickin” and I honestly can’t see him showing up protesting. I see him transcending the whole affair and loving, serving, and dying for all people involved. And if that is true of Jesus, shouldn’t that be true of how followers of Jesus respond to this issue and a host of other issues that we face everyday?

Let’s spend sometime unpacking on a deeper level what it really looks like to follow Jesus call to radical discipleship, to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow him.

If you want to walk on water, you have to get out of the boat.

So yesterday at our Veritas gathering we talked about the story of Jesus walking on the water, and having Peter decide that he wanted to be like Jesus, so he got out of the boat and walked on water. That is until he looked at the wind and the waves. So below is the text of the message and the discussion questions that we talked about after the message.

Over the last 2 weeks we have been unpacking a little bit about what the UP looks like as a disciple of Jesus, from stories found in the gospel of Matthew. And we’ll be unpacking some more stories during the month ahead until we transition in September to another series (called UnChristian taking a look at what the culture sees when they look at Christians).

Two weeks ago we looked at the story about the woman who was subject to hemorrhaging for 12 years before she touched the hem of Jesus’ robe and was healed. We looked at her boldness to ignore societal rule and regulations and go into a crowd, being unclean, to touch Jesus and how we need, a disciples, to get out of our comfort zone in order to grow deeper in our faith.

Last week we talked about the story of the Sower and the seed and talked about how, as a disciple, we are called both to sow the seed of the Kingdom in the world, and also be good soil for the seed when it lands. That it isn’t just about receiving the seed of the Kingdom but we have to be actively planting the seed in the lives of others.

This week we’ll be looking at, what might be one of the best known miracles that Jesus ever performed. We’ll be looking at Matthew 14:22-32, the story of Jesus walking on the water. We’ll not only focus on Jesus walking on the water, but we’ll also looking at what went on before that, and also later when he encounters Peter and what this story can tell us, and share with us about being a disciple of Jesus and what that looks like. So let’s turn to Matthew 14:22-32 and look at the text together.

“Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?” And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down.” So let’s take a look at this story in three parts, Jesus before walking on the water, while he is walking on the water, and Peter’s encounter with Jesus. Let’s see what each of these sections of the story might say to us as followers of Jesus gathered together 2,000 years after the story took place.

The first thing we see in the text is that after sending the disciples out in their boat onto the Sea of Galilee, and then dismissing the crowd that had just experienced the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus went up on the mountain to spend time communing with his heavenly father. Jesus was jealous for the time alone with his father. In the midst of his great ministry to others he did not- could not- neglect it. He realized where his true strength lie, and where he got his “batteries” recharged. He needed to get alone, slow down, and listen to the voice of His heavenly Father. When your whole life is about the mission of the Kingdom, as His was, you need to take time to slow down from doing the work of the Kingdom, to just be with the King of the Kingdom. All too often us missional types burn out on the Kingdom because we do things for the King and the Kingdom, and we forget that the King of the Kingdom wants to be with us.

I found a statement that I believe connects to this part of the story. It is this, “Isolation is not all that bad . . . it just depends on who you spend it with.” Now I’m sure that statement can be taken a number of ways, especially the idea that you need to like yourself if you spend anytime alone. But I believe that it also speaks to the idea, that our culture (and honestly myself as well) need to hear. That we do need to appreciate the times of isolation from others so that we can connect with the one who won’t shout to get our attention. A lot of the time I am so wrapped up in my preoccupations that I don’t take the time to get off by myself to pray, read, journal, and connect with my Heavenly Father.

So part of being a disciple of Jesus is taking time to “go up on the mountainside to pray.” Someone once said that true living is the alternation between rest and work, between prayer and the daily task.” But there is more to it than that. Let’s look at the next section of the story.

So Jesus, after connecting with his heavenly Father, begins to walk across the Sea of Galilee. The thought, I am sure is that he was going to continue right on by the boat (as we see in Mark 6:48) but the disciples saw him and freak out, thinking that he was a ghost.

Now what I want to mention right now is the fact that he was doing something that is totally impossible from our point of view. There are many different ways people try to get around the explanation of Jesus walking on the water. One of my favorite is the theory that he was really walking on a layer of ice. Here is a quote from an article about that, “The scientists note that Galilee has warm, salty springs along the western shore, an area Jesus frequented. The water above the springs does not convect when it is cold. If air temperatures dipped below freezing, as sometimes happened then, surface ice could have formed thick enough to support human weight and inspire the biblical story. From a distance, the scientists suggested, a person on the ice might appear to be walking on water, particularly if it had just rained and left a smoothed-out watery coating on the ice.”

So whether you think or believe that Jesus was walking on water, or it was some other explanation, which seems impossible, the truth is this, as Luke 1:37 says, “For nothing is impossible with God.” Part of being a disciple of Jesus, involves trusting God, following him, and realizing that sometimes God can do impossible things in and through you.

Maybe the impossible thing is trusting him to take a leap of faith in your personal life, or your vocational life or something else. Maybe you feel that if you trust him, get out of the security of where you are, you’ll drown. But just like Peter, Jesus will be there to catch you. Maybe the impossible thing in your life is related to people who you’ve been sharing your life and faith with and you feel they’ll never ever grab ahold of it. Maybe you feel like you can’t truly live out the Kingdom of God in this world due to your own brokenness. Whatever it is, realize that God can do impossible things in, through, and for you.

Let’s look at the last part of the text, where Peter decides to engage Jesus. He asks, “If it really is you Jesus, and not a ghost, then tell me to come out on the water.” So Jesus tells him to come out on the water, and Peter gets out of the boat and begins to walk on the water towards Jesus. Now so often when we’ve heard this story we come to the same conclusion, and Peter gets a bad rap for not keeping his eyes on Jesus, how he started sinking, and that he didn’t have enough faith, as Jesus said.

But lets look at it another way. If all 12 disciples were in the boat that night, only 1 of them took the risk of actually getting out of the boat. Only one of them was truly willing to trust Jesus, put their faith on the line, and to be like Jesus.

But why did Paul decide to get out of the boat in the first place? Why was he the only one? Why was he the only risk taker in the boat that night willing to put feet to water? Well in that day and age a disciple doesn’t just want to know what a rabbi knows, he wants to do what a rabbi does. So, and this is me getting in the head of Peter, I think Peter was thinking, “Look if my Rabbi Jesus is walking on the water, and he wants me to be like him, to imitate him, than I should get out of this boat, even though it doesn’t make any sense, and walk out on the water.” Peter was always the type of person that leapt before he looked, which is still better wisdom than that of a someone who looks for so long that they never leap.

And so he does get out of the boat, puts feet to water, stands up and begins to walk towards Jesus, step by step. But then, due to the winds and waves, takes his eyes off of Jesus and begins to sink. He cries out to Jesus, who catches him, and pulls him back to the boat. Immediately when they get into the boat the wind, and the waves die down and the story wraps up.

So what can we learn about being a disciple of Jesus in the 21st century through the 3 parts of this story? Let’s spend some time discussing some questions, unpacking the story further, and seeking to apply it to our everyday life.

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

2. How are you doing when it comes to "going up on the Mountain to pray"? How and when can you take the time to do so and how can we help each other with this?

3. What "impossible" thing are you dealing with right now? How is God meeting you in the midst of the "impossible"?

4. What "risk" is God asking you to take? How can you get out of the boat? What "risk" is God calling us as a community to take? How can we get out of the boat?

Parable of the Sower and the Seeds

So yesterday in our gathering we were looking at the relationship between being a disciple of Jesus and the parable that he told in Matthew 13:1-9 which is entitled The Parable of the Sower and the Seeds. Below is the text of my message and the discussion questions that followed the message. So this for the next several weeks we are going to be looking at discipleship or UP from the perspective of several different stories in the gospel of Matthew. Last week we looked at the story of the woman who was hemorrhaging for 12 years that Jesus healed. We talked about the boldness of the woman, who would have been considered unclean, to come into a crowd of people, which she shouldn’t have done according to Jewish law, and to reach out and touch Jesus hem. And then to experience the healing of not only her condition, but also healing in relation to her faith, and to her social standing and relationships. Jesus cared more about this woman, than just her physical ailment.

Today we are looking at a parable that Jesus told, and is probably the only one that he then actually unpacks for his disciples after telling it. The parable that we are looking at, of course, is the parable of the Sower found in Matthew 13:1-9. Here is the Scripture again (after hearing it two different ways through videos).

“That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. Whoever has ears, let them hear.”

So what can we learn about being a disciple (the word disciple means learner or apprentice) of Jesus through these words of Jesus? I want to spend our time looking at two parts of this story, the sower/farmer and the seed, and see what we can learn about following Jesus from them.

First off, we see Jesus telling stories, or parables that were grounded in the everyday experiences of his hearers. Jesus was the master of contextualizing the message of the gospel to his hearers. Using stories straight from his hearers experiences. This story is no different. It wasn’t something he had to make up or invent. I am sure that Jesus, his disciples, and his hearers that day had seen a sower/farmer walking along their land throwing out the seeds into the soil. They would sow the seed by broadcasting it, and not getting down and planting row upon row like we would. They would throw it out and wherever it landed, it landed. Jesus knew that telling a story based on agriculture that it would connect with his hearers and so he tells the story of the sower/farmer and the seed.

Let’s take a look at the first part of the parable, the sower or farmer. The sower or farmer’s only responsibility in this parable is to make sure that the seed gets sown. He isn’t responsible for where it lands, if or how it grows, or that it grows. He was only responsible for sowing the seed liberally. I don’t know about you, but it does seem like he was wasting a lot of seeds by throwing them so liberally around. Don’t you think it would be better to investigate each type of soil, and then only spend time planting the seed in the soil in which it would grow? You know, take the seed out of the bag, dig a row or a few rows in the good soil, and then bury the seed in the good soil.

But the farmer doesn’t do that, he just casts the seed out from his bag and doesn’t worry about where they land. Part of being a disciple means also being like the farmer. We need to take the seed (which later in the chapter is referred to as the word of God, or the Kingdom of God) and scatter it liberally around our neighborhoods, our work, our school, our community, wherever we find ourselves. We need to be farmers for the Kingdom, spreading the Kingdom of God. When it comes to where we spread the seed, we can’t always determine who is the good soil, the rocky soil, the path, or the soil with thorns in it. We can’t go up to someone and determine which soil they are. Our only responsibility, just like the farmer in this parable, is to sow the Kingdom of God as liberally as we can.

I don’t know about you, but if a follower of Jesus looked at me in High School to try to determine which type of soil I was, and whether it was worth it to spend time sowing the Kingdom into my life, they might not have done it. In our flesh, we sometimes get it wrong about who is most receptive to the Kingdom. The good soil isn’t usually who we think it is. So I would say about the sower/farmer in relation to discipleship, that to be a disciple of Jesus also means to be an apostle (meaning a sent out one). I don’t believe you can be a disciple, just preparing your own soil to have the seed dropped into your life. To be a disciple also means spreading the Kingdom of God into the world to see it take root, grow and develop. In other words, words found in the parable, you have to be both the farmer/sower and also the soil, to which we turn to now.

In the parable we find that there are four kinds of soil that the seed (or the Word of God/Kingdom of God) can land in. The first is what is called the path, which is where people walked and nothing could grow because the ground was packed and hard from the foot traffic. The path is also where the seed (the Word/Kingdom) gets taken away by the evil one, before it can take root. The second soil is called the Rocky place, where there is soil but it is very shallow soil, and filled with rocks. So the seed grows but can put down deep roots. The Scripture says that when trials, struggles, and persecution come, the seed withers and dies because the lack and depth of the root system. The third type of soil is one in which the soil is full of thorns and weeds that end up choking out the seed and it’s roots. According to the interpretation later on in the chapter, this is the situation where the Kingdom enters into someone’s life but the concerns of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke out the kingdom life. The last type of soil is the good soil, which when the seed falls on this type of soil, sinks into the ground, and grows exponentially. The Scripture says that there is a hundredfold, sixtyfold, or thirtyfold harvest. This soil is according to the interpretation is the one who receives the Kingdom and understands it.

This idea that the good soil is one who understands the Kingdom and then bears fruit 100, 60 or 30 fold is important. I believe we have to get at the meaning behind the word understand. All too often when we think about understanding we limit it to getting a concept cognitively. But in the era of Scripture, and really in our day, to truly understand something you actually put it into practice. The “soil” (the disciple of Jesus) who is truly good soil, is one that doesn’t just receive the Word of God/Kingdom and cognitively understands it, but is one who then takes the seed that was deposited in their life, and then begins to sow it into the lives of those who are around them. Starts living out the missional Kingdom life that Jesus calls each of us to. So not only do you then receive it, you also sow it, and then that is when the harvest truly begins, not only in your own life, but in the life of those around you.

Know often when I have heard this parable the question that inevitably gets asked is which type of soil are you and then we spend time talking about which type of soil we are, and how we go about becoming good soil. We talk about spiritual practices such as prayer, Scripture, meditation, generosity, etc.. all which are great and needed things. But I have come to understand that if we are truly honest with ourselves and each other, we vacillate between each type of soil. Some times in our lives we have times when we are hard to the things of God, and we want to go our own way. Sometimes in our lives we are shallow and the roots of the Gospel don’t seem to penetrate our hearts too deeply. We become religious looking on the outside but the inside is still hard to the things of the Kingdom. Or the Kingdom life gets squeezed out by the concerns of this world, and the riches of it. Or we maybe in a season where the ground of our life has been tilled, worked, and is really fertile and you are just growing and learning and applying the Kingdom of God to all parts of your life and in turn you are sharing the Kingdom in your spheres of influence.

So we are going to spend the rest of the time to unpack what it looks like on the ground, rub hits the road. What it looks like to sow the seed of the Kingdom of God in our world and where we currently are in relation to the condition of our soil to the Kingdom.

1. What thoughts, comments, insights, questions, pushback, etc.. do you have regarding the Scripture text and the message?

2. Where or to whom do you think God is calling you to sow the seed of the Kingdom of God? How can this community support you as you sow the seed of the Kingdom?

3. What type of soil are you currently? What are some ways that we can cultivate good soil in our own lives and in the lives of each other as a community?

4. What is God saying to you and what are you going to do about it? What is God saying to us as a community and what are we going to do about it?