Escaping Temptation Island: Week 5 Lord's Prayer

Below is the text from our 5th week looking at the Lord's Prayer. Feel free to respond, engage, ask questions, and push back after you read it. Also below the text of the message is the questions that we dialogued around following the message.

This week marks our 5th week in our 6 week series looking at the Lord’s Prayer found in Matthew 6:9-13. This prayer, which probably should be better entitled The Disciple’s Prayer as I believe it is a prayer that encompasses much of what it means to be a disciple and to live out the Upside Down Kingdom of God.

Over the last 4 weeks we have looked at such Kingdom issues as the Fatherhood of God, being Adopted as sons and daughter’s of God, dreaming about what it would be like if heaven touched down on earth, God’s provision for us, and through us, and forgiveness (from God, towards each other, and in relation to the word Debt and Debtors).

Today we cover Matthew 6:13. Let’s look at the entire prayer and then zero in on verse 13. “This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’ It is the last part, “And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one” that we’ll be looking at together this morning by using this verse and also Luke 4:1-13. The first thing that should catch our attention is the same thing that stood out to us when we looked at verse 11 and 12, the usage of the word us. As I mentioned before, the concept of the individual is a modern understanding. The Hebraic worldview, of which the Bible is a part, doesn’t have the understanding of the individual as we do. In fact, most of the usages of the word “you” in the Bible are in the plural form and actually refer to “you all,” as in the corporate church family. The fact is that the ancient culture in which the Bible was written tended to think collectively rather than individually. They thought first in groups of people and community rather than in individual terms.

So this prayer, as I mentioned before, is not so much an individual prayer as it is a communal prayer that the community of follower’s of Jesus need to be praying, and living together. Secondly, we have to understand what is meant by temptation. It literally means a test, and not always a solicitation to do evil. God has promised to keep us from any testing that is greater than what we can handle (1 Cor. 10:13). In fact, tradition throughout early Christianity is that testing of one’s faith is a necessary part of discipleship. In fact Jesus whole public “career” was marked by trials of one sort or another. So what Jesus is doing in this prayer, is inviting us to share his own struggles and to experience the same deep of faith that sustained him. You see there is an intimate connection between this part of the prayer, and the ministry of Jesus. With the prayer about deliverance from temptation and the evil one of Matthew 6:13 we are back again with Jesus. Immediately we think of the temptation narratives of Matthew 4:1-11, and Luke 4:1-13, as well as the scene at Gethsemane. We see in those other stories Jesus praying this part of the Lord ’s Prayer to be lead out of temptation, and delivered from evil.

In fact there is a deep connection that I found between the Lord’s Prayer, the subjects that that have been dealing with each week and the story of the temptation of Jesus found in Luke 4:1-13. Let’s go to Luke 4:1-13, read the narrative, and see where the temptations that Jesus faced are the temptations that we face, and how the Lord’s Prayer speaks directly to those temptations. “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’ The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’” The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’ Jesus answered, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.” So the first temptation that we find in this text is the temptation to turn stones into bread. Jesus, being hungry, after not eating for 40 days, was surely starving, and Satan knew that. This is why he went that route first. But what is Satan really tempting Jesus with? Is it just to turn stones to bread, or to just eat? Is there more to it? I believe the temptation is the temptation to become our own provider, our own Father if you will. To base our identity in our own power, provision, and position instead of, as we talked about the first week, upon our status as an adoption son or daughter of our heavenly father. And there in lies the connection. Satan wanted Jesus to provide food for himself, and not trust in the provision that God had for him. Satan wanted to have Jesus pray, “I’ll give myself this day my daily bread”, as he wants all of us to pray that. But Jesus was rooted in the prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Jesus knew that ultimate provision (and not just in relation to bread, but also in temptation and strength) comes from the hand of God the Father and not from the self. The second temptation that Satan tested Jesus with was in relation to Jesus giving worship, rule and reign to Satan. Satan says, ““I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours.” What is Satan tempting Jesus with? With being King, and ruling and reigning over the earth, by not going to the Cross, and putting Satan before God the Father. If Jesus would have fallen for that temptation, his prayer later wouldn’t have been, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” It would have been the Kingdom of Satan and not the Kingdom of God if Jesus would have worshipped him. It would have been on earth as it is in hell. No, the rule and reign of Jesus had to go through the temptation, and the trials, and all the way to the cross. Not circuited by worshipping Satan. The last temptation that Jesus had to endure, in this narrative, is the temptation to not trust God’s protection. And in this temptation Satan is smart, and even uses Scripture, to get Jesus to not trust in his heavenly Father. Satan tells him to throw himself off the temple, because after all Scripture does say, “He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’ And this gets at the heart of two parts of the Lords’ prayer, the very beginning, “Our Father who art in heaven.” And the part that we are looking today, “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one.” Jesus needed to trust his Heavenly Father and have the strength through His Heavenly Father (and the word of God) to ward off the evil one and the temptation to test the love of His Father. When we look at the root of these temptations that Jesus faced, we notice something about them. It isn’t something that just Jesus faced. No these temptations strike at the heart of what it means to be fully human (as Jesus was). These temptation strike at the heart of what we have been praying together this entire series. Our temptations are no different than Jesus’ temptations. I believe, but I can’t prove it that the words in the Lord’s Prayer came because of his testing in the wilderness as they directly speak to the temptations. You see we all struggle with the temptation to be our own Father, so to speak. To base our Identity and self preservation on ourselves, our power, our wisdom, our positions, instead of praying, “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name.” Secondly, we don’t want to live under the rule and reign of Jesus and his Kingdom. We want to live under the rule and reign of King Me. We want to pray “My kingdom come, my will be done.” We want to worship ourselves, instead of worshipping the true King, King Jesus. When we pray, “Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” it is directly confronting the very issue of whose rule and reign are we living under, our own (and by definition, the evil ones) or under the rule and reign of Jesus. Pray that part of the Lord’s Prayer means calling Jesus not only savior but also King and Lord. Thirdly, when we pray “Give us this day our daily bread” we are directly confronting the temptation to provide for ourselves, and think we can do it all. That we are in control. That we don’t need anyone else whether than anyone else is God or even other people. We want to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps, and make it on our own. Life in the Kingdom of God, and in living out the prayer means trusting that God will give you your daily bread, and also means that he trusts you to also provide that daily bread for other people. So in the Lord’s Prayer we see Jesus directly confronting the struggles and temptations that all humans, including him, face. And in the Lord’s Prayer he has given us words to use to confront the evil one when we are tempted. But what does this mean when the rubber hits the road? What can we learn and apply to our lives about escaping from temptation island through the Lord’s Prayer and the Temptation of Christ in the wilderness? Let’s spend sometime unpacking these stories and their relevance and application to our lives for the next few minutes.

1. What insights, questions, comments, push back, etc.. do you have regarding the Scriptures and the message? 2. What other connections do you see between the Lord’s Prayer, the Tempation of Christ and our own temptations? 3. In what ways, and how, can you resist temptation when it comes? Is there something in the Lord’s Prayer that can help? 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 should we do about it?

Jesus: A Theography

So a few months ago I received the book "Jesus: A Theography" by Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola to review through the blogging program booksneeze. Normally it doesn't take me 4 months to review a book, but due to a combination of busyness, holidays, and the depth (and length) of the book, I am finally getting around to reviewing this book.

The first thing you need to know is just what a theography is. A Theogrpahy is basically the combination between the words Theology and Biography. It can be defined as writing about God. Or a Theological Biography. And in the case of this book a Theological Biography of Jesus and reading Scripture through the lens of Jesus and finding Jesus in both the 1st and 2nd Testaments (words that the authors use instead of Old and New Testament.)

According to the authors, their purpose in writing this book is that, "the Bible is the narrative of Jesus- the Christ, the Savior, the living Lord, and our All. On every page of the First Testament, God poured out his heart. He bled with his people long and hard before He entered earth through the womb of a young virgin girl in Bethlehem."

The book helped me to see the author's premise that the Bible,from beginning to end, is the story of creation, revelation, redemption, and consummation and that Christ is present in every word, every book, and every narrative. Even in sections that I struggle with understanding or struggle to fit into my theology, that Jesus is working this overarching redemptive narrative.

Even the way that the author's structure their chapters pushed their premise of Christ in the Old and New Testament. They started with Christ before time, than Christ in Creation (both in Macro and Micro), and then entering into the stories and narratives of the New Testament including his birth, his boyhood, the missing years, and into his ministry years of healing, teaching, and finally his death, and resurrection.

I would probably say that the most helpful part of the book for me dealt with Chapter 14 entitled, "The Atonement and the Harrowing of Hell." and how it helped me to again understand, in some small way, what took place that fateful day over 2,000 years ago when Jesus hung on the cross. It helped me to see that our human theories of atonement (cristus victor, penal substitution, ransom, non-violent, etc...) all have some basis in Scripture but in the end they all come up short in fully explaining the cross and Jesus death on the cross for all of humanity. Or as the author's put it, "Because the work of Jesus Christ at Calvary is too enormous in its scope and too rich in its meaning to be captured by a single image or definition."

I would say that overall, while this book is a long read, and took me some time to wade through, overall I am glad that I did. It helped me to wrestle with Jesus in the books of the Old Testament, with the overarching narrative of redemption that God started even before time, and will bring into consummation when he remakes heaven and earth (and all those who call on his name). It helped me to reframe the way that I see the Bible, not as a series of books held together by glue and binding, but a series of books held together by Jesus, his redemptive narrative, and his blood.

The Real F Word: The Lord's Prayer Week 4

Below is the text from this past Sunday's worship gathering dealing with the 4th part of the Lord's Prayer along with the questions that we discussed. Would love to hear your thoughts, comments, insights, etc..

Today we continue our 6 week series looking at the Lord’s Prayer found in Matthew 6:9-13. Or as an author has said that we should call the Lord’s Prayer, the Disciple’s Prayer, due to its significance and what it teaches in respect to being followers of Jesus Christ.

We started 3 weeks ago with the Lord’s Prayer at the beginning (which is a really good place to start). We started with Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be thy name. We spent time talking about the struggle that some of us have in praying to God the Father, due to our struggle with our earthly Father’s. We also talked about the beautiful fact that we are adopted as sons and daughters of God the Father, and how he has redeemed our past, and give us an inheritance in the Kingdom of God.

Two weeks ago we covered the next part of the prayer “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” We talked about the idea of what it would look like if heaven touched down on earth, and the fact that heaven did touch down on earth 2,000 years ago with the person, work, ministry, and mission of Jesus. We also talked about the mission of Jesus found in Luke 4 and talked about that it was his mission, that by definition, if we are followers of Jesus, it should be our mission as well. Things like preaching good news to the poor, setting the oppressed free, proclaim freedom for the prisoners, recovery of sight to the blind, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

Last week we talked about the third part, “Give us this day our daily bread.” We talked about the communal nature of this prayer, and that we can be the answer to this part of the prayer for others who need their daily bread, especially when we have 365 daily breads all ready stored up for ourselves. We talked about God’s provision that happens daily whether that would be food, or encouragement, or whatever sustenance that can get us through.

Today we cover the next part of this radical, Kingdom of God, upside down, prayer. The part that says, “Forgive our debts as we forgive our debtors.” So let’s look again at the prayer and then we’ll unpack it together using a parable that Jesus told that I believe connects nicely to this part of the prayer. Matthew 6:9-13 says, ““This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’

So the first thing that I noticed about this part of the prayer is the usage of the word debt and the word debtor. In the Lukan account in chapter 11 we see Luke rending the prayer, “Forgive our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” So right there we notice a tension between the two texts. But I believe this goes to show the fact, that as we learned and talked about every week of this series that try as you might you can’t separate spiritual needs from material needs.

In fact all 3 Aramaic versions of this text, Jesus uses the Aramaic words Khuba, which means both material debt and sin. Jesus knew how all-consuming financial debt was for people. Debt, in Jesus time, could land a person in indentured servitude or even prison. When people become slaves to debt, they forfeit their freedom and will. Jesus also knows that sin, can also be all consuming. When we become slaves to sin, we end up as indentured slaves and in prison and when we become slaves to sin; we forfeit our freedom and will. The bondage of sin and material debt limits our ability to be faithful and submitted servants of God. This just goes to show again that our physical conditions and situations impact our spiritual conditions and situations. That you can’t separate the flesh from the spirit, even though many others in the past and even now try to. I wonder if we have so easily resorted to the words trespasses and sins instead of the word debt and debtors because it is easier to talk about my own sins and God’s forgiveness instead of talking about the idea of physical debt. Plus if taken this way, this text becomes exceedingly countercultural and super radical. More radical than we realize.

What if and this is a what if. What if this text means that we are literally to forgive people’s material debts? And trust that God will provide for us and the ones we forgive. What if Jesus, in this text, is calling communities of Christ followers to work to help each other get freed from debt? Be freed from the bondage and enslavement to Money. What would it be like if the Christian community would literally help someone get out of material debt (and help them stay out of it) by using the pulled resources of the Christian community? If this is true, then he is calling his people to live counter culturally. To do otherwise in this respect is not only an act of disobedience but an active step into the very bondage that robs us of our freedom to live obediently. To forgive people their debts frees people to live with that same single-minded devotion to God, which would otherwise be compromised.

Another thing I noticed was it’s placement in the prayer, right after the commitment to trust God with the daily bread that he gives to us. This statement, “Forgive our debts as we forgive our debtors” is first and foremost a declaration of our absolute dependence on God’s grace and forgiveness, daily and ultimately. Further, it is a reminder that our forgiveness is entirely undeserved, extended to us before (or whether) we asked for it. Therefore, for us to expect the gracious forgiveness of God while holding back forgiveness from others is absolutely unacceptable to God. Jesus goes so far as to say that forgiveness for our own sins is contingent on our extending entirely undeserved forgiveness to those who have wronged us, before (or whether) they ask for it. In fact Jesus tells a story that helps to unpack this idea of forgiveness of debts and sins. That story can be found in Matthew 18:21-35.

“Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go. “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded. “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’ “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened. “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

So in this text we see the connection that Jesus makes between debts, forgiveness, and sin. He tells this story, which while it was a parable; no doubt it was played out many times through Israel in the first century (as far as debts). Peter comes to Jesus and asks him how many times he should forgive someone who sin against him. We don’t know if Peter had someone in mind who had wronged him, and if he wanted to have an excuse to not forgive this person. And so that begins the story that Jesus uses to show Peter (and us) that our debtedness and forgiveness is intrinsically linked to our forgiveness of others debts that they owe us. That story is what we call the Parable of the unmerciful servant.

What we see in this parable is the story of a servant of the king who had a 10,000 bag of gold debt to be paid to the King. He couldn’t pay the debt no matter how much he promised. It clearly represents an unpayable debt. So he begs for forgiveness and also for patience from the King, and the King compassionately and mercifully wipes away this servant’s debt. But apparently this act of grace, mercy, and forgiveness shown to the servant from the King didn’t have a huge, lasting impact on the servant as you think it would. No, instead the servant turns around, finds another servant that owes him a fraction of what he owed the King, and proceeds to try to beat it out of him. The other servant has the exact same plead that was used by the servant with the greater debt, but to no avail. Instead he threw the man into prison until the debt could be paid. Well of course, if you were witness to this lack of mercy from someone who received even greater mercy, you would be flabbergasted and would say something to the King. So that is what the other servants did. And the King went off on the servant and threw him into prison to be tortured and until he could pay off his debt. Jesus ends the story by saying this is exactly how Jesus will treat you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.

Think of it this way, any debt that you have owed to you is absolutely insignificant in relation and in comparison to the debt that God has forgiven you. If Jesus, while having been beaten, abused, whipped, scorned, and then hung on the cross, could, from the cross, utter these words, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”, how much more should we be able to forgive someone when they wrong us. And this isn’t to minimalize, negate, or say what someone has done to you is right, okay, or you should just forget about it. But none of us has been crucified, beaten, whipped, etc….

The truly repentant truly understand the radical nature of God’s grace and their own undeserving nature. Knowing this, how can we refuse to extend to others what he has give to us so freely? In other words, when we refuse to extend forgiveness to others, our own supposed repentance comes into question.

Let’s spend some time together discussing the implications of these texts on our everyday lives. Let’s discuss the ideas of debt forgiveness, forgiveness of sins, and the difficulty we face with applying these things to our lives.

1. What questions, ideas, thoughts, comments, insights, push back, etc... do you have regarding the text and the message? 2. What are your thoughts regarding the use of the word Debt and Debtors in the Lord's Prayer? How might these ideas be played out both in the world stage (nations, jubilee etc..) and also personally and communally? 3. Are there people in your life that God is calling you to forgive and if possible reconcile? What steps might you take in making this a reality? 4. What is God saying to you and what are you going to do about it? What is God saying to us and what are we going to do about it?

Needing the Dough: Lord's Prayer Week 3

Below is the text from this past Sunday's message and the discussion questions as well. Would love to hear your thoughts, feedback, etc...

Today we continue our six week series looking at the Lord’s Prayer, found in Matthew 6:9-13, which sits right in the middle of, what I believe, is one of the most significant teachings of Jesus, and one of the best descriptions of what life in the Kingdom of God is truly all about, the Sermon on the Mount.

Right smack in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, the crucial teaching about life in the Kingdom, is probably the most recognized prayer ever recorded in history, and a prayer that encompasses so much of a disciple’s life in the Kingdom of God, and what each of us should really be all about, and put our hope, time, energy, effort, and all of our life into. As I said last week it might be best called The Disciples prayer.

So 3 weeks ago we kicked it off with the first part of the Prayer, focusing on where all prayer should be focused on, “Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name.” We spent time talking about the difficulty that we sometimes have in calling God Father, due to the struggles many of us have in our relationships with our earthly fathers. But we also talked about the great fact that because of God’s redemptive work through the life, death, and resurrection of His son Jesus, we are now adopted sons and daughters of our heavenly Father and we can literally cry out to him Daddy or Abba Father. We are adopted into a new family with our past wiped clean, and a new slate and a new inheritance, a Kingdom inheritance.

Last week we talked about the second part of the prayer, “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” We spent time looking at what can be called the Mission of Jesus that he lays out in Luke 4, which is based off of Isaiah 61. We talked about what it looks like when heaven touches down on earth, that it looks like Jesus, and as disciples and followers of Jesus, we are called to continue his work and his mission. And that by continuing his work of proclaiming good news to the poor, freedom for the prisoners, recovery of sight to the blind, to set the oppressed free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s Favor, we are partnering with Jesus to see his Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. That is what it looks like when heaven touches down on earth.

Today we turn the corner from looking out to God and the world, to the part of the prayer where it turns internally into our own lives but at the same time even while it is internal, much like everything in the kingdom, it also has an external part of it as well. The 3rd part of the prayer where we focus on thoughts, and prayers on God and his provision for us. Let’s turn to Matthew 6:9-12 and look at the prayer again. “This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’ Jesus says we are to pray, Give us today our daily bread. With this part of the prayer we realize that our provision comes from Him and not from ourselves, our hard work, our “pulling ourselves up from our own bootstraps” but they are a gift from our Heavenly Father. There are a few things that stand out with this part of the prayer, besides the fact that it’s about God’s provision for us. First it is daily bread, which is enough to get us through or as someone once said earlier in the Scriptures, give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, 'Who is the LORD?' Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.” Secondly, the first word in this part of the prayer is give. Our daily bread, our sustenance, our provisions are a gift from God. We can’t earn them, we can’t work for them, and we can’t put God in our debt so that he has to give us our daily bread. No, it is a free gift because God the Father wants to provide the needs of his children. I find it that he provides all I need, not all I want or hope for. We provides enough for us. Like the Israelites in the wilderness where God would send enough manna for the people for the day, and if they tried to save it, it would get moldy. God provided enough daily bread for his people Israel, and he continues providing enough for his people today. This is where I believe the rubber hits the road, we want and have more than enough, but we worry and we sweat and we yell, scream, swear, and get angry that it isn’t enough. And so we focus on money and our wants and our materialism, and not primarily on the Kingdom of God. Jesus honestly cares a lot about our everyday things, and wants us to come to him in prayer and give over these things to him, and then we can live freely in the Kingdom, and not worry about stuff (easier said than done) but just have a simple trust that God knows and God will provide. But it’s also not just about our own needs, but the third thing I noticed is that I find it very interesting that this part of the prayer doesn’t say “Give me today my daily bread.” This prayer, as most of the Bible “commands” are meant more for communal application, than individual application. Also I believe that the community can be the answer to their own prayers and “give us today our daily bread.” This means that we can provide for each other in the community, and also others in the wider community and the world. So this is where this part ties in with the part we talked about last week. That bringing heaven to earth, means being the vessel of God to provide daily bread for others.

Apparently this was supposed to be what I was speaking on today because as you know 2013 hasn’t been a great year in relation to money for the Braught’s. Seems like money is like water through a sieve right now due to some stupid things, garage door, car, hospital visit, and this week our furnace went and needed to be replaced. So I worried, I yelled, I got angry, I got frustrated, Kim and I were on edge with each other, all because money became the focus, or more like the lack of money became the focus. And then I remembered what I was speaking on and the text that I am about to read, and realized that this message is for me, and if you hear something that applies to you (which I am sure we all have this issue) than I am thankful. I am preaching the gospel to myself this morning. I am preaching that when we focus on the Kingdom of God and seek it first, everything else will be taking care of. That doesn’t mean it will go according to your plan, the way you want it to go, or have exactly everything you could ever want. No, but we are invited to know a freedom from worry and anxiety that comes from undue concern for material things.

Let’s go a few verses later in Matthew chapter 6 and see what it might say about God and our daily bread. Matthew 6:31-34 says, “So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Honestly, this is probably once of the most challenging passages in the entire Bible to truly live out. Especially in the midst of the consumer culture that we find ourselves. But this is also where the first part of the Lord’s Prayer gives us some help. The first part places our identity squarely on being children of God, adopted sons and daughters and not on things that can be bought, sold, manufactured, and worn (or driven, or lived in, or etc..). When our identity is wrapped up in all the wrong things, all the material stuff, than we truly worry about looking a certain way, eating at the right places, living in the right place, having the right car, etc…. But when our identity is wrapped up in being adopted sons and daughters, and our focus is seeking first his kingdom and his righteousness, than God will provide the daily bread that we need. And tomorrow will worry about itself, instead of us taking on this worry that most of time we have absolutely no control over anyway.

So my question to each of us is this: What Kingdom are we living? Under whose rule and reign do we live? Do we live under our own rule and reign and seek out our own Kingdom? Trying to buy, consume, and wear an identity as King and Queen? Which then, by definition, we then believe we are the ones who work for the daily bread. We are the ones who worry, not about having enough, but worry about not having everything that everyone else has and what we want. We place our Kingdom ahead of the Kingdom of God and wonder why we are more stressed out, more unhappy, sleeping less, worrying more than those in other countries who have far less than we do but are far more well balanced and happy. Because I believe many of those people have learned what Kingdom they want to live for, the Kingdom of God. They have learned to seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and God continues to provide. Or are you seeking first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, praying each night “Give us this day our daily bread”, and trusting that he will indeed answer that cry of dependence of his children?

So let’s talk about the Lord’s Prayer, daily bread, God’s provisions, and which Kingdom we are seeking to put first in our lives. And let’s share stories of how we have seen God provide our daily bread lately.

Discussion Questions: 1. What are your insights into these passages of Scripture? What are your thoughts, comments, questions, etc.. about this part of the Lord’s Prayer? 2. Share an experience or a story when you have seen God provide for your “daily bread.” How did this experience deepen, challenge, convict, etc.. you and your faith? 3. 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?

Bringing Heaven to Earth: Lord's Prayer Week 2

Below you'll find the second message in our series on the Lord's Prayer. The message was focusing on "Thy Kingdom Come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." And below the message is the questions that we discussed following the message. Would love to hear your thoughts, comments, etc....

This morning we continue our series that we started last week looking at the Lord’s Prayer, or as one author that I have been reading called it, the Disciple’s Prayer. Over 6 weeks we will be breaking down the Lord’s Prayer into six sections and themes, that I believe are crucial for a disciple of Jesus to understand, live out, and apply to their missional context. Or to put it in another way, to genuinely pray this prayer and live a live according to its truth is to walk in the way of Christ.

Last week we took time to focus on the very first part of the prayer, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.” and we talked about prayer needing to start with God the Father. But we also spent a lot of time talking about some of our struggles calling God by Father or even Dad. But in the end we talked and discussed most about the love of our Father in that he adopted us as sons and daughters. And how this should change the way we interact with not only Him but with all people, whether they are followers of Jesus or not, because in a way we are all children of God.

Today we are going to cover probably my most favorite part of the Lord’s Prayer, the second part. And in covering this part, we will be taking time to dialogue and discuss these provocative questions, “What would it be like if Heaven touched down on Planet Earth? What would happen? What would be different? And how are we called to live out that reality right now.”

So let’s turn to Matthew 6:9-13 where we find one version of the Lord’s Prayer. Mathew 6:9-13 are the words of Christ himself and he says this, “This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’

So we today we are focusing and unpacking this part of the prayer, “Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” We probably could have chosen to do this one in two parts talking about what the Kingdom of God is, and his will and also what it looks like when heaven comes to earth. But I truly believe that the Kingdom of God is what happens when heaven touches down on earth. And believe it or not, that question, “What does it look like when heaven touches down on earth?” has actually been answered for us, and the answer is in the person and work of Jesus, and by definition what we are then called to do and be about. This declaration that Jesus is making for his Kingdom is one that is affirming a distinct future hope. It is a declaration that God will, in human history, fulfill his covenant promises and establish his kingdom in fullness. Jesus is promising that the blessed kingdom of Shalom (Peace) is breaking through, if only in part, into the world here and now. So let’s take some time exploring the idea of the Kingdom of God and what our role in the Kingdom is. And the best place I believe to find out our role is to look at what people have called Jesus Manifesto or his mission statement for his ministry on earth. Let’s turn together to Luke 4:16-21 and see what it might say to us in relation to bringing heaven to earth and living out his will and his Kingdom.

“He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

So as I mentioned before this is kind of like Jesus mission statement for his ministry. And I believe by definition, if we are followers of Jesus, then in some way this should also be what we are all about as well. This is what I believe it looks like when heaven touches down on earth. This is how Jesus lived his life, and this is how we are to also live out the Kingdom of God here and now. As Luke 17:20-21 says, “Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.” The Kingdom of God is in our midst when we live out what we are called to do, which is live in such a way that the DNA of Jesus is lived, breathed, and spread into the world. But what is the DNA of the Kingdom or what is the mission of Jesus? He spells it out in verses 18-19. His mission was to and is to heal the fivefold damage that sin has brought. He did this in such a way that it wasn’t just spiritual healing but physical as well, and we are called to the same thing, to heal spiritually and physically.

So Jesus was about preaching the gospel to the poor. Sin impoverishes and the Messiah will bring good news to the poor. Jesus had and has a soft place in his heart for the poor. After all just a few verses earlier in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor in Spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” So if Jesus was about bringing good news to the poor, one way that heaven comes to earth, is when followers of Jesus bring good news to the poor. Now this doesn’t just mean preaching to the poor about Jesus (though this includes that) but means figuring out what good news is for the poor and then when you find it out, acting upon that. Good news changes when you take time to listen first and you’ll then know what next steps to be undertaken. If we are truly the followers of Jesus, then the poor in our world should hold a special placed in our hearts and we should work to bring good news to them (that means taking care of their physical, emotional, relational, spiritual, and even economic needs). Jesus mission was also to heal the brokenhearted. Sin breaks hearts and the Messiah has good news for the brokenhearted. Think about the stories of loss and pain because of disease, sickness, and death that Jesus came upon in his ministry. Think about his ministry to these individuals, their families and ultimately their communities brought good news to the brokenhearted. If we are to see heaven come to earth, we need to work to heal the brokenhearted. Whether that means through praying for them, spending time just being with him (like how the 3 friends of Job did when they spent the first 7 days with him without saying a word), or listening to them to discern what would heal their broken heart (if anything…because we all know there are things that no matter what, only Jesus and Heaven can heal).

Next in the mission of Jesus is to proclaim liberty for the captives. Sin makes people captive and enslaves them and the Messiah has come to set them free. Jesus set us free from the chains of death, sin, evil, and Satan but all too often we all too often then choose to put the chains back on ourselves. His life, death, and resurrection has freed us from those things and we don’t need to go running back to them and be enslaved to them anymore. And as a part of bringing heaven to earth, followers of Jesus need to proclaim liberty for the captives. I believe that means both spiritually and physically. We need to proclaim the freedom that comes from giving your life to Jesus, but we also have to be on the forefront of working to end the issues of Human Trafficking, and Slavery, because believe it or not there are more slaves now in our world than ever before. There are between 14,500-17,000 humans trafficked in the US each year. And Human Trafficking is a 15.5 billion dollar industry. These numbers should not be and is an area which I feel strongly about, that followers of Jesus, who should work towards heaven coming to earth, should fight this, and there are many who are. I believe that this is one concrete thing that Veritas can be involved in and work specifically with. Jesus was also about bringing recovery of sight to the blind. Sin blinds and Jesus came to heal people from blindness. In this ministry, he healed people from both their physical and their spiritual blindness. Part of bringing heaven to earth includes working on bring sight to the blind. And just like Jesus this means spiritual blindness and physical blindness. Whether that means going to other countries with doctor’s and doing eye examinations, collecting eye glasses for people who need them, or sharing the gospel of Jesus and praying that the Holy Spirit will open the eyes of those you share with. And lastly Jesus worked at liberation of those who were oppressed. Sin oppresses its victims and He came to bring liberty to the oppressed. We also need to work for the liberation of the oppressed in our world. Oppression takes many forms including religious oppression (of all kind and not just Christian oppression), gender oppression (many women in our world are the victims of various forms of oppression- economic, domestic violence, spiritual, etc...), and ethnic oppression (based on ethnicity, etc...) Also we need to work for the liberation of the spiritually oppressed, those who need to experience the freedom that Christ came to give. The freedom from the oppression of the evil one. Only when oppression finally ceases will heaven fully come to earth. But we need to continue working for freedom for the oppressed, so that heaven begins to come to earth. So let’s talk more about what it looks like when heaven touches down on earth, what God is already doing, what he wants to do and how God might be calling Veritas to partner with him in the building of his Kingdom

1. Thoughts, comments, insights, questions, etc. regarding the message and the Scriptures? 2. What does it look like to you when Heaven touches down on earth? Tell a story when you have been a part of or seen heaven touching down on earth. 3. What is God already doing in our community/world? What does God want to do in our community/world? 4. How might God use Veritas and each of us in what he is already doing in the world and what he wants to do in the world? How can we help bring heaven to earth?

Whose Your Daddy? Lord's Prayer Week 1

Below is the text for my message from yesterday's gathering focusing on the first part of the Lord's Prayer. Below the message is the discussion questions that we used for after the message to flush out the application in a deeper way. Today we begin a six week series looking at what has come to be known as the Lord’s Prayer. We’ll break down the prayer into six parts with six different themes and we’ll seek to apply those themes to our lives as followers of Jesus both on an individual level but also a corporate level. We’ll be taking a look at the prayer found in Matthew 6:9-13 and using other Scriptures throughout the six weeks to further explore the themes found in the prayer.

But before we get into the first part of the prayer, we need to look at the overall context of the passage in which the Lord’s Prayer sits. Matthew 5-7 is what is known as the Sermon on the Mount, and includes some of Jesus most foundational teachings on what it looks like to live in the Kingdom of God and the values that are a part of life in the Kingdom. And so Matthew 6 starts off by talking about giving to the needy and also about prayer. But the thing that underlies both themes is that giving to the needy and prayer shouldn’t be about getting and gaining recognition for these acts of Kingdom life. Jesus is contrasting the life of the Pharisees with what life in the Kingdom of God is all about. And so what we find in the Lord’s Prayer, as far as the themes that we will be exploring, ideas that are crucial to life lived with Jesus and life in the Kingdom.

And so in this part of Matthew 6 we see Jesus again contrasting two types of prayer, one type of prayer that is prayed by Pharisee’s who want recognition and honor from people, and one type of prayer that is about God primarily and also about life in the Kingdom of God. And so with that context for the Lord’s Prayer, that it is about life in the Kingdom, let’s turn to the prayer found in Matthew 6:9-13 and we’ll read the entire passage and then focus our energy today on the first verse, verse 9.

“This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’” So we will be focusing on “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.” And before we jump into this message too much farther, I realize that this might be a difficult theme to talk about, the Fatherhood of God, due to perceptions and relationships with our earthly Father’s. I know that some of us have really difficult and strained relationships with our earthly Fathers, and that it might be a struggle to call God our Father. But my prayer today is that each of us will come to a place realizing that God is the perfect Father, and no matter what your relationship is with your earthly father, that you can call out to our Heavenly Father, and even move beyond calling him Father to calling him Abba…which means Daddy or Dad. And that you will then rest in the knowledge that not only is God your dad, or father but that you are an adopted child of God, and that there is nothing you can do to make God love you anymore and there is nothing you can do to make God love you any less. He loves you fully as his adopted son or daughter. You are a son or daughter of the King of the Universe. And so I pray that this message and our discussion today can redeem, even in a small way, the term Father (Dad) for you and that you can begin to pray, not to God, Lord, etc… but to cry out (especially in hard times, and struggles) to Dad/Abba/Father. With that in mind let’s turn to further explore the idea of God being Father and also our role as adopted sons and daughters of the Father.

In the Lord’s Prayer Jesus begins where all prayer should be focused, on the true focus of prayer, God himself. I don’t know about you but a lot of the time it seems like my prayers are not about God and for his glory. Instead they are about me and my glory and happiness. “God if you will only……” Here Jesus is placing our focus during prayer squarely on God the Father. This, according to Jesus, is the right way to pray. Acknowledging that God is Father and also acknowledging that he is our Father in heaven which means he is holy and full of glory. And so as we pray we call out to our Father in heaven, which would then make us children, sons and daughter’s of God. And living as a child of God should mean an intimate, joyful relationship with God- not like the bondage and fear by the law. As a child of God we can have a relationship with God so close that we can cry out “Abba/Daddy/Father”. Let’s look at some other Scriptures throughout the New Testament that unpacks what it means to be children of the Father and a metaphor that the writers of Scriptures give as we live out our roles as children of God. The first Scripture we can look at the talks about the Fatherhood of God and our role as sons and daughters is found in Romans 8:15 which says, “The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” Here the Apostle Paul is contrasting the status of slaves versus sons. The status of a slave was actually no status at all. Slaves lived in fear, had really no socio-economic status, and definitely weren’t loved by the Father of the household. But the son of the Father, had his Father’s status (or would) and was loved by the Father. Even if that son was an adopted son. In the Roman world of the 1st century an adopted son was a son deliberately chosen by his adoptive Father to perpetuate his name and inherit his estate; he was in no way inferior in status to a son born in the ordinary course of heritage. Also under Roman adoption the life and status of the adopted child changed completely. The adopted son lost all rights in his old family and gained all new rights in this new family. The old life of the adopted son was completely wiped out, with all debts being cancelled, with nothing from his past counting against him anymore. Sound exactly what happens when we become adopted sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father. Followers of Jesus are called to perpetuate the name of the Father, inherit his estate called the Kingdom of God, our status gets radically changed, we gain all new rights, our old life is wiped away, and all our debts are cancelled with nothing from our past counting against us anymore. When we become followers of Jesus we become adopted sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father. This concept that our Heavenly Father has adopted us as full children of God is all throughout the Scriptures and the Apostle Paul talks a lot about it not only in Romans but also in Galatians 4:4-7 which says, “But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.” The Apostle Paul in verse 4 is using language of the Roman legal world when he refers to adoption to sonship which means full legal standing of an adopted male heir in Roman culture. You and I are sons of our Heavenly Father all due to Jesus, as it says in verse 4, that “God sent his Son to redeem those under the law so that we would receive adoption to sonship/daughtership. And so we have been redeem from slavery to sin, death, and Satan, and made adopted sons and daughters. And because we have moved from slave to son/daughter we are able to cry out in prayer, Abba (Daddy) Father. And because we are sons and daughters of God, we have access to the same intimacy with God the Father that God the Son, Jesus Christ had. Jesus addressed God the Father as "Daddy" when He prayed, Abba, Father as recorded in Mark 14:36. And Jesus is telling us the very same thing in the beginning of the Lord’s Prayer that we can address and have the same intimacy with our Father as he has with His Father.

There is one other Scriptures that I want to briefly touch on that, if you haven’t heard it by now, deal with the fact that we have a loving heavenly Father who has adopted us as his own and because of that adoption and love, we can call him Abba. That Scripture is 1 John 3:1, “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” We are children of His not because of anything that we are, have done, or ever could do. We are adopted sons and daughters of our Father because of what it says in this verse, because of the love that he has lavished on us. It’s because of him, his love, his sending Jesus, his Kingdom, his vision, and his redemption that we can stand before him and even pray the beginning of the Lord’s Prayer. It’s because of him that we can even cry out or utter those words, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.”

So let’s spend time unpacking what it looks like to live as adopted sons and daughters of our Abba Daddy in Heaven. Let’s honestly confront the struggles that we have in even calling him that. Let’s talk about our prayer life and how this part of the Lord’s Prayer speaks to us. And let’s look at what it might look like in regards to our mission as followers of Jesus and our life in the Kingdom.

1. What thoughts, comments, questions, insights, push back, etc... do you have regarding the message and/or Scripture? 2. Do you find it difficult to pray using Father in your prayers? If so, why is that? How can the term Father be redeemed for you? 3. What does it mean to you to know that you are an adopted child of God? How might this knowledge play out in terms of our missional engagement with the world? 4. What is God saying to you and 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?

Jesus Wardrobe and Advent

Last Sunday for our gathering I had asked a few artists, musicians and writers to be involved in our worship gathering to give the gathering a more creative flair. And the art, music and words that were created were awe-inspiring. I love that our community is full of creatives who write, draw, paint, play music, and live out God's creative gifts that has been given to them. One of the people who had a hand in the gathering is a writer and I asked her to write two pieces; one reflecting on Love All (which was the theme for the day) and one reflecting on Advent (and ending our gathering and our Advent Conspiracy series) After she was finished with the pieces, I asked if I could share them on the blog and she has graciously allowed me to repost them here. So I share them with you and may them bless you as they have been a blessing not only to me but our entire Veritas community.

Jesus Wardrobe i want to wear love. i find that so insanely beautiful, that i want it that bad. i want balance of course but if i could pick one thing out to wear each day it would be love. that kind of love that christ wore, that drove out all of that fear in us. i want that, i don't know if i can own it but i want to borrow it, i want to try it on as much as i can. until it becomes natural. so natural that it just kinda fits on me, i dont even need to try anymore. because when you are able to wear that love, things start to come easily, almost like you can just throw on a scarf to top your outfit off, or a subtle bracelet. touch it off with some compassion or even some of that kindness. i believe that as we grow and start to fit into the wardrobe God has made us, we can start to understand Him. It is like that favorite shirt that you own and can't get enough of it, it makes you look great. Just imagine putting Jesus's love on every morning. Imagine what kind of glow you would have, what kind of overflowing passion to serve the person beside you. And the best part of it is that we just need to ask. I think i get so used to complaining, and never seem to look down and see what He had dressed me in today. i want that love. i want to dress in it, sleep in it, walk in it and talk in it.

you know i feel in the all of everything, the center of it is love.

Advent advent season seems to come and go, and as it goes we anxiously wait for the true gift of it all. for some of us we want to be able to put that gift into a box, in a nice snowman bag or even on a plastic card. how easily it is to twist a bow around it, stick a to and from tag on and place it under the tree. and by christmas day, we find ourselves asking, where did advent go?

our eyes turn to the tree and we see the presents spilling over the floor, knowing that as we unwrap them one by one. none of them will hold the joy of advent. Because we are so busy wrapping up advent, I want us to unwrap. I want us to see it unraveling before our own eyes. Get on your hands and kness, and take that red bow off of that christmas box,

how as we wait, we find ourselves kneeling, and as the days of advent go on, the christmas box seems lighter and lighter even if it was just that red bow that was removed.

As you wait for the next week to remove the wrapping paper, it seems to come off smoothly, you find it pointless to buy new wrapping paper when this kind fits perfectly fine on any christmas box. as you carry your naked christmas box around all you want to do is to show people, telling them you can’t wait to see what is inside. how you want them to hold the same thing you have in your very hands. how eager you are to tell them what is to come!

as the last week passes, you wonder what this could be. what could this simple white Christmas box hold? and when that day arrives, you rip open that christmas box and thin air appears from the inside of it. your still, and there is just that pure silence. and somehow you find yourself on your knees again, your hands empty and the only thing that you feel is that presence filling your heart.

so, when it comes to unwrapping your gift, what is in the inside of yours?

Love All: Week 4 of Advent Conspiracy

This art above was created by an artist during our worship gathering yesterday. The art ties together all 4 tenants for the Advent Conspiracy (Worship Fully, Spend Less, Give More, Love All).

Below is the message from yesterday and also the discussion questions that we spent time discussing following the message.

Today we have come to the end of our Advent series and we officially wrap up Advent tomorrow night. Over the last 4 weeks we have been exploring this conspiracy called advent. Hopefully our discussions have inspired, challenged, convicted, and push you towards relooking at the subversive nature of this season and how we have completely missed the point about Christmas in our world.

When we started Advent Conspiracy at the beginning of Advent we looked at the first of the 4 tenant of the Advent Conspiracy movement, that of worship fully. All too often, as I mentioned last week, our worship doesn’t start with Jesus, but with stuff. Our worship isn’t a holistic part of our life, consumerism becomes the defacto behavior, and the mall becomes our church. But Advent begins and ends with the Christ Child born 2,000 years ago.

The second tenant we spend time unpacking together was the tenant of Spending Less. I don’t know about you but I was blown away by the statistic that every year American’s spend 450 billion on Christmas. I also heard that the average American family spends 750-1000 dollars on Christmas. So we talked about what would happen if we just spent less, maybe 1 gift less than this past year, and also taking some of the money that we would spend on ourselves and giving it to others to bless them. We also talked about 2 types of yokes- the yoke of Christmas (or we could say the yoke consumerism) versus the yoke of Christ.

Last week we covered the 3rd tenant of Advent Conspiracy, which at first look seems to go contrary to the 2nd tenant. We covered the tenant of Giving More. Giving more not in terms of Presents, but of presence. We talked about 4 parts of the Incarnation, FOR, WITH, ONE OF, and IN and how we are called to the same thing. That we, as followers of Jesus, are to incarnate him in the world by being FOR people, WITH people, ONE OF people, and finally the DNA that is within us from Jesus, will be IN people.

So this week we are covering the 4th and final tenant of the Advent Conspiracy, that of Love All. And my hope and prayer is that we will see the familiar story of the birth of Jesus in a brand new way. And that as we unpack it together it will regain its subversive, radical, message and will push us out into the world to LOVE ALL, and get back to what we as followers of Jesus should be all about. ‘

To do this we will look at the second account of the birth of Jesus in the New Testament. So let’s look at Luke 2:1-7 and see what we can learn about this racial call and tenant to LOVE ALL. Luke 2:1-7 says this, “In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.” This story of the sleeping baby told all of this land and the world has become all often the symbol of the status quo- a safe, sanitized, twenty-first century savior. But it is time to take a closer look at the stories of Jesus birth, reading them with Israel’s history wrapped around the newborn baby rather than with our sugar-coated sentimentality. Only then will we truly understand that the Christmas story is a radical message that sets the scene for all that is to come from the most challenging and controversial figure of all time.

I was doing some research this week about the cultural setting and the historical setting in which this story took place, and I was totally blown away by a description of the world into which Jesus was born. I want to read it to you, as it, to me, didn’t sound too different than the world that you and I live in. “The lusty peninsula was worn out with twenty years of civil war. Its farms had been neglected, its towns had been sacked or besieged, and much of its wealth had been stolen or destroyed. Administration and protection had broken down; robbers made every street unsafe at night; highwaymen roamed the roads, kidnapped travelers, and sold them into slavery. Trade diminished, investment stood still, interest rates soared, and property values fell. Morals, which had been loosened by riches and luxury, had not been improved by destitution and chaos, for few conditions are more demoralizing than poverty that comes after wealth. Rome was full of men who had lost their economic footing and then their moral stability: soldiers who had tasted adventure and had learned to kill; citizens who had seen their savings consumed in the taxes and inflation of war and waited vacuously for some returning tide to life them back to affluence; women dizzy with freedom, multiplying divorces, abortions, and adulteries." (Durant) Society was ripe for deliverance, peace, and hope and many were looking at someone who was called the Son of God, and this person was not Jesus but Caesar Augustus. People were looking with hope at the power, might, and strength of Rome to deliver peace. It is into this world that the true Prince of Peace would be born. God came to the poor- or in other words, all of us. Jesus gave up the glory of heaven to be born into a sin-scarred world that glorious night in Bethlehem, every day of his life and in the deadly pain of the cross. Jesus became poor for our sake. Jesus entered our poverty so we would no longer be poor. The priceless gift of a restored relationship with God and others is now offered to those who could never afford it. The outrageous wealth of his righteousness is credited to those who don’t deserve it, to those who are poor, that is good news.

Jesus coming into the world they way he did, proves the fact that he LOVED ALL. He didn’t come just for the rich, privileged few. He came to LOVE ALL. In fact, a great case can be made that he came more for the poor, needy, and oppressed than any others. You see Jesus himself was poor. He chose to be born into the poverty of a family struggling beneath the heel of Imperial Rome. Writer Scott Bessenecher suggests that “the very first statement that Jesus ever voiced about his concern for the poor, oppressed and marginalized people was when he cried out as one of them- eyes tight, mouth open wide, wailing, kicking. It was one of the most profound acts of solidarity with the poor he could make. When God voted with his birth, he voted for the poor. He voted to LOVE ALL.

We see in the stories of Jesus’ birth, particularly in Luke, the first glimpses of what will become a central aspect of the Kingdom of God, status reversal. With the birth of Jesus, the sun had risen on a new Kingdom of which the poor would become first-class citizens. The King of this Kingdom would love all. We see this fact that Jesus came for all, to LOVE ALL in two other narratives tied to his early life. Right after the text we just read, comes the story of the Shepherds encounters with the Angels. We talked about the fact that Shepherds were probably one of the least respected people in all of Israel. They were considered unclean by the religious elite, because of their duty and their inability to go to the temple and get cleansed. Their testimony wasn’t valid in a court of law. And yet God chose these unclean, and unreliable to spread the news of the birth of the Christ child, the true Savior and Prince or Peace. It reminds me of the text in 1 Corinthians 1:26-28, “Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are,”

The other narrative related to the Infancy stories of Jesus is told in Matthew 2 about the Magi who came to visit the Christ Child. The star appeared to them, and they traveled to worship the new born King. These wise men were gentiles, and so were probably not looked on kindly by the religious Jews. But Epiphany Sunday is where we celebrate the revelation of God the Son in Jesus Christ and his breaking down the dividing wall between Jesus and Gentile, right at his birth.

His birth to poor parents, in an out of the way corner of the empire, not born to privilege and wealth, God’s choosing a bunch of Shepherds to reveal the birth of his Son, and having Gentle wise man appear to worship, and give him gifts, all point to fact that Jesus truly was about the tenant of LOVE ALL. God’s coming Kingdom is about inclusion. But what does this all have to do with today? If we follow Jesus, and seek to be like him, how do we follow him to LOVE ALL. And why in our world are Christians known more for what they are against than what they are for (It seems like we miss this tenant to LOVE ALL, and only love those who agree with us)? Let’s dialogue around these questions and come up with some concrete ideas of LOVING ALL, not only in this Advent Season, but all year long.

1. What are your thoughts, comments, insights, questions about LOVE ALL? 2. If you were to grade the church on this tenant of the Advent Conspiracy how would the church fare? If the coming Kingdom of God is about inclusion and LOVING ALL, how can we improve our grade? 3. Consider the dirty manger, the seemingly indifferent community of Bethlehem, the not-too-impressive first visitors after Jesus’ birth, and the temple sacrifice of two doves or pigeons, all these are subtle clues that Jesus was born into poverty. Imagine reading this passage (Luke 2:1-24) through the eyes of someone lacking the same resources as you. How might reading it this way change the way we worship this Christmas? 4. If our community were to “LOVE ALL” this Advent Season (and all year round), what would that look like? 5. What is God saying to you through this message and series and what are you going to do about it? What do you think God is saying to us through this message and series and what should we do about it?

Merry Christmas from Veritas

Light in the Midst of Darkness

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Water from an ancient well: Celtic Spirituality for Modern Life

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

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

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

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

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

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

Give More: Advent Conspiracy Week #3

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Spend Less: Advent Conspiracy Week 2

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Worship Fully: Advent Conspiracy Week #1

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Schooled: Week 3

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Schooled: Week 2

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Discussion Questions:

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