What to do with Hot Button Issues and the Bible (or why I'm going to the Ecclesia National Gathering)

From February 25-27 I will be attending the Ecclesia National Gathering at the National 4-H Center near Washington DC. Ecclesia is a relational network of churches, leaders and movements that seek to equip, partner and multiply missional churches and movements. Veritas is currently discerning whether or not to affiliate with the Ecclesia Network (which doesn't mean that we would be leaving the Church of the Brethren). This is my 3rd National Gathering and I am very excited to be a part of this year's gathering due to the theme of the conference which is "Bringing the Word to Life."

I was asked to write a blog piece about why I am attending the Ecclesia National Gathering. (If you want to learn more about the Ecclesia National Gathering go to: Ecclesia National Gathering and you can register for the National Gathering on their registration page)

So as I thought about the various reasons that I am taking time of our my schedule to go to this event, I realized that it comes down to 3 varying reasons.

1. Hot Button Issues and the Bible: We all struggle with parts of the Bible and understanding what they say and how to apply them to our postmodern, postChristian world in which we are now living. These are those Hot Button issues that sometimes I would rather either ignore or write off. Issues like understanding the God of the Old Testament and all the stories where it would seem that God justifies genocide. How do I as an Anabaptist committed to the Shalom of the world and following the Prince of Peace understand those war texts in the Old Testament? Do I say (like an ancient theologian..who was condemned as a heretic) that there are 2 Gods, the OT God and the NT God? No. So how do I understand those texts? That has been an area that I have struggled with a great deal and am super excited that William Webb will be doing a Focused Session entitled: Reading the War Texts- Redemptively.

Another Hot Button issue that seems like it never goes away is Homosexuality. What do you do with that Hot Button issue. It seems like the two most vocal positions are that Homosexuality is okay and not a sin, or Homosexuality is an abomination and the worst sin of all times. Neither I believe is helpful, in my opinion. How do you read the texts that speak about Homosexuality faithfully and redemptively? So I'm excited that William Webb (who by the way authors a great book entitled "Slaves, Women and Homosexuals:Exploring the Hermeneutics of Cultural Analysis) will be doing another Focused Session entitled: Reading the Homosexual Texts- Redemptively.

2. Kingdom of God Over the last few years my view on what the gospel is has radically changed and shifted and I am always seeking to understand the gospel more faithfully. And to understand the gospel more faithfully I believe one needs to understand what the Kingdom of God truly is. After all, the Kingdom of God is probably the most talked about and referenced topic in all of the New Testament. But we have so often gotten confused about the Kingdom of God. Either we have put the Kingdom as a future event out there for another time, or we have taken the opposite and put it for right now. I believe it is a now and not yet reality. One of the persons that has had a profound effect on my understanding of the Kingdom of God and the gospel of the Kingdom is Scot McKnight. Scot will be one of the featured speakers for the Ecclesia National Gathering and I'm excited to hear him speaking on issues like:SCRIPTURE’S GRAND NARRATIVE – KINGDOM, MISSION, & WORLD, THE (OTHER) KINGDOM OF JESUS: HOW JESUS REDEFINES KINGDOM IN SCRIPTURE and OUR CHURCHES IN GOD’S STORY: HOW THE KINGDOM “EXPANDS”. My only problem is that I know that some of Scot's Focused sessions will be at the same time as William's Focused sessions so which ones do I choose?

3. Relationship and Community This is probably one of the strongest reasons for me to be attending the National Gathering. Over the 3 years that I have been exploring Ecclesia, going to two National Gatherings, and attending the Missio Alliance Conference last year, and going to regional Ecclesia Gatherings, I have developed relationships with people who are amazing people of faith and passion. People who are committed to the Kingdom of God and the mission of God in this world. These are people who understand missional church planting (what we are seeking to do at Veritas) and have been there before. When I talk with them, ask them questions, and seek wisdom, I don't have to explain, defend, bring them up to speed (so to speak). They have been there before and can give me great advice based on their experience, not just reading. So I'm looking for some great relationship and community time with some great friends over dinner, and the after hours gatherings that always takes place.

So those are the 3 reasons that I will be attending this year's Ecclesia National Gathering from February 25-27 and hoping that it will help me Bring the Word to Life. Hope to see you there.

Colossians Remixed Week 4

Today we continue our series entitled Colossians Remixed, looking at the New Testament book of Colossians. So far we have covered the first chapter of the book, in three different weeks and now we enter the second chapter of Colossians. And we’ll walk through the rest of the book by the end of February.

Today we are looking at Colossians 2:1-15 which you’ll come to find out seeks to address or should I say readdress the two main talking points of the entire book, the supremacy and preeminence of Jesus and the true nature of what the gospel is. You see, for those who weren’t here for the beginning, you need to know the two reasons for the writing of the book of Colossians. The first one is in relation to the fact that Colossae was a city within the Roman Empire and everywhere that they looked they saw signs pointing to, what the Romans called, the true Savior, the true Lord, the true redeemer and deliverer. Signs (both literally and figuratively) and images pointing to Caesar as Lord. That is one main reason why the book of Colossians is such a profound Christ-centered and Christological text. Paul was getting the message across that Jesus is Lord and Caesar is not. And that this statement, while it doesn’t seem all that big of a deal to say right now, at the time was a threat to the establishment and was very countercultural and subversive and could get you killed.

The second reason is what theologians and bible scholars call the Colossian heresy that had cropped up in the Colossian church. The Colossian heresy is hard to pigeon hole but we can get some clues from the words within the book about what made up the Colossian heresy. Probably the main part of the heresy is what is called Gnosticism. Gnosticism is the belief that the spiritual world is wholly good and the material world is wholly evil. The heresy also added various other bits and pieces of other religions and philosophies including Judaism (see the discussion in chapter 2 about circumcision), and some mystery religions (connecting the idea of secret knowledge…which is also a gnostic trait). And so to combat this Paul not only keeps hammering away on this idea of the supremacy and preeminence of Jesus but also spends lots of blood, sweat, and ink on bringing the Colossian church back to what the true nature of the gospel really is. And we’ll definitely see these two main focuses of the supremacy of Christ and the true nature of the gospel in our passage that we are looking at today, Colossians 2:1-15.

Colossians 2:1-15 says, “I want you to know how hard I am contending for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me personally. My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments. For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit and delight to see how disciplined you are and how firm your faith in Christ is. So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form,  and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.  In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.  When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.  And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”

So this raises some questions that we can wrestle together with. One thought was how do you and can you live where it seems like there are no roots or the roots that once were there are now being ripped up from the base? Secondly, what do we root our lives in? To what can we put our hope, trust, and know that whatever may come, come hell or high-water, that we will be firmly rooted? And lastly how do we build a life that goes deeper than just the superficiality that we see everyday. In a world filled with images (eikons…to use Paul’s words) that point towards various Caesars, how do we live a life that is more than just image. Because, Cannon is actually wrong, image isn’t everything. So let’s unpack the text together and see if we can wrestle some of these questions to the ground. And see how Paul again focuses this part of the letter on the two essentials of the supremacy & preeminence of Jesus and the true nature of the Gospel.

So at the beginning Paul lays out the fact that he is contending hard for not only the believers at Colossae but also at Laodicea. He is writing letters, praying for them, and no doubt counseling and training Erastus to plant and pastor the infant community of followers of Jesus. After sharing the fact that he was working hard on their behalf he shares what his dream and goal for the new church at Colossae is. What he dreams at night for this small new struggling community of Jesus followers. He records his dream, goal and vision for the Colossian church in verses 2-4 when he says, “My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Again Paul makes reference to the word mystery (like last week and directly from the pages of the mystery religions) and flips it on its head saying that all may know Christ. It is not only Paul’s prayer and goal for the Colossian church but for each of us and for our community as well. But that isn’t his only goal in contending for the believers in Colossae and also his goal for all Christ followers. Verses 6-7 are not only a goal for Paul, they sum up the message of the entire letter. In them Paul draws together the awesome Christology of the introduction and the practical teaching that is to be based on it throughout the rest of Colossians. Verses 6-7 says this, “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”

Paul is saying that you need to be rooted in Jesus, like a tree in good soil if you want to withstand the philosophies of this world. The Colossian church needed to grow deeper and root themselves in Jesus and the gospel, so that they wouldn’t be taken captive by the hollow and deceptive philosophy that we call the Colossian heresy. But to make this journey (live your life) of faith in Jesus, rooting ourselves deeper so that we can be built up, we need to live out what Paul talks about in verses 9-10 and 13-15. These verses help us get rooted in our faith so that we won’t fall prey to deceptive theology and philosophy and they focus us on what is really important, the supremacy and preeminence of Jesus over all other lords/gods including Caesar (verses 9-10) and the true nature of the gospel of Jesus and his Kingdom (verses 13-15) Let’s wrap up the message and transition into discussion by looking at these important verses.

Verses 9-10 speak of the supremacy of Jesus over all other lords and gods when Paul writes, “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form,  and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.” These verses reiterate Chapter 1:15-20. He is saying that the image of the invisible God is Jesus. That Jesus was and is not simply a fully human being (though he is that as well. He was and is the bodily form taken by God himself. God in all his fullness. He wasn’t a demigod. He doesn’t have a human body and a divine spirit. He can only be properly understood as the human being who embodies or incarnations the fullness of divinity. And because he embodies the fullness of divinity, he is that head over every power and authority. Over Caesar. Over every empire that has ever or will ever exist. And over any lord or god that we set up in our own lives. He is above all things. He is supreme and preeminent and because of that we need to root our entire selves in him and not in anything that seeks to via for his supremacy.

And why should we give him preeminence not only in our own lives but in the world around us? Because when we fully understand the gospel, we will want to recognize his supremacy. And to combat to the philosophies of this world, it takes the gospel, truly understand and applies to our lives. And the gopsel truly understand is spelled out in verses 13-15, “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.  And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”

When the power and authority of the Roman empire came down on the head of Jesus, they thought they destroyed his kingdom. After all, when the Romans would attack a country, capture the king, and put him to death, it meant that they also symbolically destroyed that kingdom. Every crucifixion of a “rebel king” was another symbolic triumph of Rome. And so when the Romans crucified Jesus of Nazareth under the sign that said King of the Jews, they thought his Kingdom over which his is King is now destroyed. But nothing could be further from the truth. The Paradox of the Cross is this..God’s weakness overcome human strength, God’s folly, overcomes human wisdom. The cross means that your are forgiven of your sins and the offenses that might have been counted against you. In dying with Him, you have come out from under them all and from all the condemnation that might have pulled down on you. You are alive in Christ.

But let’s unpack this together. What does the supremacy and preeminence of Jesus looked like flushed out in the world? What are the religious and philosophical attractions in the world that are most likely to draw Christians away from the fulfillment that they already have in the King? And how does the gospel touch down in your life and in the lives of the people that God is calling you to be a blessing to? These are some of the questions that we will unpack together.

1. As you look at this text, what questions, comments, insights, observations, etc.. do you have?

2. What are the “hollow and deceptive philosophies” that can take us captive in our world today?

3. How does the supremacy and preeminence of Jesus speak to those “hollow and deceptive philosophies”? And what does it look like flushed out in our everyday life in regards to the supremacy and preeminence of Jesus?

4. How does Verses 13-15 speak to you? What doss it mean for you and I in our everyday lives? What does it mean for the people that God has called you to bless?

Colossians Remixed Week 3

Today we wrap up the first chapter in the book of Colossians so that means we are about a third of the way through our Colossians Remixed series that started two weeks ago and will run until the end of February.

Two weeks ago when we stated Colossians Remixed we looked at Colossians 1:1-14. In this text we looked at the recipients of the letter, the purpose of the letter, the heresy that has been called the Colossian heresy and we talked about two main parts of the text: Paul’s prayers for the Colossian believers and what the true nature of the gospel really is.

Last week we looked at Colossians 1:15-23 and walked through probably one of the most Christologic sections in all of Scripture. We talked about Paul basically saying in the poem that Caesar isn’t Lord, that Jesus is. That all the images that the Colossians saw each day that were pointing to Caesar being the true Lord, true Savior, true deliverer, and true redeemer, were pointing in the wrong direction. That Christ is the true Lord, true Savior, true deliverer, and true redeemer. That Christ is supreme and preeminent. And we also looked at the last part of the text and what the true nature of the gospel really is, that it is about reconciliation. You will notice a continuing theme all throughout the book of Colossians in regards to what the true nature of the gospel truly is, as Paul is combating the heresy that was cropping up in the Colossian church. And what better way of combating the false beliefs than by: 1. Lifting up and putting Christ as preeminent. and 2. unpacking the true nature of the gospel.

So let’s turn to our text this morning and see what it might say to us about Jesus, the gospel, and our role in living the gospel out in our day and in our age (which as we talked about two weeks ago, isn’t honestly that different than what the early believers at Colossae were dealing with).

This morning we are looking at Colossians 1:24-29 which says, “Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church.  I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness— the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people.  To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ.  To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.”

These verses that Paul lays out at the end of Colossians 1 are all about identification. Paul is asking the believers at Colossae who they identify with. What King doe they identify with? Do they identify with King Caesar or with King Jesus? Paul is laying in out at the beginning of this section of the first chapter that he is identifying with King Jesus. How is he identifying with King Jesus? Just look at verse 24. “Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, the church.” Paul is saying that just as Jesus is recognized by his suffering, his people are to be recognized by the suffering that they endure. Paul, as I mentioned, in our first week, was writing this from prison, most likely in Ephesus. In a way he is drawing the enemy fire, and suffering so that the young church can grow and develop. So Paul is suffering in some way not merely on behalf of the young church but actually instead of it. And so Paul is seeing his suffering as part of what he calls “Christ’s afflictions”. This is not to be seen as an addition to Christ’s own suffering, rather, it is to be seen as coming from his suffering. In other words, an extension of Christ’s suffering. Paul makes the crazy, amazing, upside down, radical and unbelievable statement that he was rejoicing or having a party or a celebration in his sufferings. Can you imagine someone who is in prison writing a letter and saying that he or she were rejoicing because of their imprisonment? Can you imagine writing a letter to a church, caring more about people that you have never met, more than you care about what is happening to you as you spend each and every day in prison? This is what Paul is doing. He is rejoicing in the suffering that he is enduring, all the while being a shepherd and encourager to a church that he didn’t plant, didn’t pastor, but deeply cares about. And so Paul understands that identification with his Messiah, who was a suffering Messiah, means that in some way he will suffer. And so we need to realize that when we identify with this suffering Messiah that we will also suffer in some way (internally or externally). That is what it means when Jesus himself says in Luke 9:23, “Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”

Paul then transitions from identifying with Jesus through suffering to probably the very reason that he identifies with Jesus in the first place. Because of the call that was placed upon his life by Jesus. We read these words which spell out this calling upon Paul’s life, “I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness” And so we see that Paul is a servant both to God, first and foremost, but then to the church as well. In fact, I truly believe that you can’t be one or the other. If you are a servant of God, then you need to be a servant to his body here on earth, better known as the church. If you are a follower of Jesus this morning that you can also say the exact words that Paul said. That you are a servant by the commission God gave to you to present to others the word of God in it’s fullness. Commissions, callings, vocation isn’t just big words and only reserved for those who a “full time pastors and missionaries.” In fact, all of us, have been commissioned and called as full time pastors and missionaries. You might be a full time pastor or missionary in the form of a college student, a teacher, a social worker, a stay at home mom, or fill in the blank. Whatever you do, you are called and commissioned to be a servant of God and a servant of his body. And so it is because God is at work that Paul is at work. He is at work proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so it is with us. That every Christian is to proclaim Jesus is Lord and Caesar is not. That is our central calling in life, no matter what we might do as a job or vocation. What does it look like then to proclaim Jesus is Lord in the context of being a student? Being a teacher? Being a pastor/missionary? Being a graphic artist?

We need to look at that question but we also need to look at exactly what it means to proclaim the gospel and we also need to look at what the gospel message that Paul is proclaiming and that we are also called (commissioned) to proclaim as well. And now here in these next verses is where Paul shows his missiological skills, his understanding of what is taking place in the church at Colossae. Paul continues, “the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people.  To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” The word mystery that Paul uses here twice is a word that was a popular pagan religious term used in the mystery religions. In fact the Colossian heresy featured this idea of secret knowledge and the gnostics boasted about this. The word mystery, in the pagan religions of the day, refers to secret information available only to an exclusive group of people. Paul flips this on its head and changes the meaning radically by saying that we are making it known to all people, not just an exclusive group of people. That Christianity is not just for the Jewish race, or a select group of people. Christianity should be an inclusive, for all people. Because God has chosen to make Christ known to all people. And he used Paul, and now he is using you and me to proclaim Christ, the hope of glory to a world that needs hope. He is using the church, the body of Christ to proclaim Jesus as Lord and Savior and to proclaim that by definition then, that Caesar is not.

But what is the hope that Paul has for the believers at Colossae when it comes to his proclamation that Jesus is Lord and Caesar is not? And also looking two thousand years into the future, what is his hope for all followers of Jesus, including you and I as we sit here today? Let’s look at the rest of the text to answer that. “He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ.  To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.” Paul states it pretty clear that our proclamation is about Jesus and his Lordship over all, including Caesar. And the hope of the proclamation of Jesus as Lord is so that followers of Jesus may become fully mature in Christ. And that is why Paul worked so hard. That is why he was suffering in Jail. That is why he prayed, fasted, and contended for the young believers at Colossae. So they would grow up into mature followers of Jesus. That they wouldn’t stay as infants in the faith, and be susceptible to the heresy that was cropping up in the Colossian church. But then a question comes to my mind. What does a mature follower of Jesus look like? What does it take to grow up into maturity when it comes to following Jesus? And how do you help others grow up into maturity in the faith?

These questions that I just asked along with the question about proclamation of the gospel of Jesus are what we are going to unpack and remix together now. So let’s talk about these things and see how we might apply Colossians 1:24-29 in our day and in our age.

1. What questions, thoughts, ideas, connections, etc.. does the Scripture and the message raise in your mind?

2. What does a mature follower of Jesus look like? What does it take to grow up into maturity when it comes to following Jesus? And how do you help others grow up into maturity in the faith?

3. What does it mean, what does it look like to proclaim Jesus is Lord and Caesar is not today? What does it mean to proclaim Jesus is Lord and Caesar is not in your context (teacher, student, graphic artist, social worker, etc…)? And who might God be calling you to proclaim that Jesus is Lord to?

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

Colossians Remixed Week 2

Today we continue our series remixing the New Testament book of Colossians with our series Colossians Remixed. You’ll see the postcards on the table describing where we are going the next several weeks and what part of Colossians (feel free to take a postcard and give it to a friend or someone you feel might connect with what is happening here at Veritas).

Last week we started our series by looking at Colossians 1:1-14 and we looked at the recipients of the letter, the purpose that Paul had in writing the letter, and the gospel that was preached by Epaphras to the church at Colossae.

Today we are going to take a look and unpack probably one of the most amazing, poetic, radical, and truly subversive text in all of Scripture, as well as probably one of the most foundational in connection to who Jesus truly was and is. As we unpack this together we’ll see a few things: 1. How much Paul understood the culture and used words and images that connected with the context that he was writing to. 2. How much the words and the images that he was using was directly refuting the Colossian Heresy that we talked about last week. 3. How his words (especially in Verses 15-20) are all about shaping the imagination of the followers of Jesus in Colossae who were surrounded by images that pointed to other “gods” (not to different then our own culture). and 4. How much this text is about the centrality and supremacy of Jesus and his true gospel (true gospel best described in verses 21-23) over all other lords, gods, and other gospels.

So let’s took together at our text this morning and remix it together. Colossians 1:15-23 says, “The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.”

The first thing that we notice in this text is the fact that Colossians 1:15-20 is one of the earliest Christian poems ever written. Either Paul wrote this poem or at least quoted it to show the Colossian church that the center of Christianity is Jesus. That when you boil Christianity to its root, it is Jesus. Most scholars think that this came from a poem or a hymn in the early church that described what Christians believed about Jesus. And so Paul takes a page from the ancient prophets and counters the imperial imagination of the Roman Empire (we’ll see exactly what this means when we look at verse 15) with this radical and evocative poetry. In fact someone once said that Paul’s letter to the Colossians is fundamentally about shaping the imagination of the Christian community in the midst of images and imaginations which are pointing to other gods, lords and saviors.

Verse 15 probably one of the most profound Christology t all of the New Testament. “The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.” What Paul is saying here is that Jesus is the mirror image of the God who is there but who we normally can’t see. Now Paul here is using some very specific language that is directly confronting the imperial worship cult. The greek word for image in verse 15 is eikon. Eikon expresses two ideas. 1. Likeness- like the image on a coin or the reflection in a mirror. 2. Manifestation. with a sense that God is fully revealed in Jesus. This word eikon was used to describe a stamp which was specifically used in displaying the image of Caesar on documents and other articles. People in the Roman Empire knew that when they saw the stamp that is was from Caesar personally from the “image stamp” Jesus is the stamp of God. The exact representation, the exact likeness of God. Again Paul is making a cultural reference that the Colossian believers would understand and he was also attacking the imperial cult of worship that said that Caesar was the image of God. Paul was making it crystal clear in this text that Caesar was an imitation and wasn’t the true Lord, God, savior, and redeemer of the world, Jesus was.

As I stated last week I took the name of this series from a book entitled Colossians Remixed (good read..recommend reading it) and quoted from it last week. Let me quote from it again as it speaks to the idea that this poem attacks the imperial cult of the Roman Empire with the truth of the gospel of Jesus. The authors say, “In a world populated by images of Caesar (think eikon), who is taken to be the son of God, a world in which the emperor’s preeminence over all things is bolstered by political structures and institutions, and empire that views Rome as the head of the body politics in which an imperial peace is imposed- mostly through punishment (ie crucifixion) the poem is nothing less than treasonous. In the space of a short, well crafted three stanza-poem, Paul subverts every major claim of the empire, turning the on their heads and proclaiming Christ to be the Creator, Redeemer, and Lord of all creation, including the empire.”

And to show the fact that Jesus was and is the true Lord, Savior, King, and redeemer, Paul continues with this subversive poem and gives reason why Jesus is the true Son of God and why Caesar is not. Paul says this about Jesus, “the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.” Paul is saying that Jesus is supreme in rank. The word first born is the greek word prototokos and means first or preeminent. Jesus is first and preeminent. Jesus, says the poem boldly and subversively, is the one through who and for whom the whole creation was made in the first place. Think of it like this. When the lavish and generous beauty of the world stops you in your tracks, and makes your catch your breath, and you stand amazed at the creation (maybe a beautiful sunset, maybe an amazing sunrise, maybe a beautiful mountain covered in fluffy white powder- my favorite, the beauty of the ocean, etc..) remember it is like that because of Jesus. He is the one who created all things, it was created for him, and he holds all of it together. And he, not the Roman Empire, not Caesar is the true head of the body, his body, his church planted here on earth to be physical representations of him. And he is first and preeminent. Why? Because he is and was the beginning and the firstborn of the dead. The first to beat the enemy of death, sin, and the grave. The one through whom the the world was made and created is the same one through whom the world has now been remade, recreated, and redeemed. Jesus the first born of all creation and the first born from the dead. And because of all of this, everything that Paul lays out in verses 15-20 in this radical, subversive poem, this means that Jesus has supremacy. Jesus is above all things. Above the rulers, powers, and principalities both in this world and the next. Above Caesar who tried to be the image of the invisible God. Above the devil and his angels. Above anyone who would set themselves up to be god. Jesus is the first and the last, the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end. Jesus is supreme and preeminent. Jesus is and was who he said he was.

So once Paul lays out the fact that Jesus is the true son of God, the true Savior, the true Lord, the true redeemer, the preeminent one. When he is done subverting the Roman Empire and Caesar he begins to take a look at what the true gospel is and what the followers of Jesus in Colossae should believe about the gospel.

In verses 20-23 we find an amazing description related to exactly what the gospel of Jesus is truly all about. Paul brings his discussion about the preeminence of Jesus home when he writes these words about what the gospel is all about. “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation—  if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.” God has acted to heal the world, to reconcile the world of the wickedness and corruption whig have so radically infested it. He had done so through the same one through whom it was made in the first place. The gospel of Jesus Christ, according to Paul in these verses, is all about reconciliation. Not just between God and men/women, but also between humankind, and between humankind and the creation itself. The reconciliation that was truly evident in Genesis 1 and 2 is now again available through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. In Jesus we are no longer alienated from God, from each other, and from all of creation. Reconciliation was initiated by his work on the cross. This reconciliation that started and carried out through Jesus, is available for all people. And if you are a follower of Jesus today you can participate and share in this reconciliation and the work of reconciliation. You aren’t the one who started it, put it into place, or made (or makes) it happen but you can participate in it, live into it, and live it out in the world. If you aren’t following Jesus today, reconciliation is available for you as well to participate in it live into it, and then live it out in the world.

But let’s talk together about what it means in the everyday, ordinary life that we live when we say Jesus is central, supreme and preeminent. Let’s also talk about reconciliation and the gospel and just what that means to us and for our world. Let’s unpack these things together over the next several minutes.

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

2. What are the implications of the centrality and supremacy of Jesus for you and for us as a community? How does the centrality and supremacy of Jesus play out at home, at work, etc…?

3. If the gospel is all about reconciliation, how might you live out the gospel of reconciliation this week? What reconciliation work do you need to do this week? (With God, with others, with creation).

4. What is God saying to you and what are you going to do about it?

Colossians Remixed Week 1

Today we begin an 8 week series entitled Colossians Remixed, looking at and walking through the entire New Testament book of Colossians. Today we’ll be looking at the entire book overall, the recipients, the purpose of the letter, and what was happening in Colossae at the time of the letter that dictated the Apostle Paul writing this letter. And we’ll also spend some time looking at the first 14 verses of the first chapter of Colossians.


My hope and prayer over these next 8 weeks is that we will grow in the knowledge of his will, that we’ll walk worthy of the Lord, and that we’ll also increase in knowledge of God and in fruitfulness. My prayer also is that we’ll see that this letter (called an epistle which is just a fancy way of saying letter) to the church of Colossae will speak to our current reality. That we’ll see that this radical, subversive text written in the midst of the Roman Empire, has a lot to say to us about living a radical, subversive, Kingdom of God, missional life in the midst of our own empire.

But before we unpack the setting, recipients, purpose and what the first 14 verses might be saying to us today, let’s read Colossians 1:1-14. “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To God’s holy people in Colossae, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ: Grace and peace to you from God our Father. We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people—  the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace. You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf,  and who also told us of your love in the Spirit. For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves,  in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

So the first thing that we need to look at to understand this text is to understand to whom this letter is being written. The city of Colossae was 100 miles inland on the banks of the Lycus river in the southeast of what is now Turkey. Historically Colossae was a prosperous city and famous for it’s fabric dyes. But by the time of this letter the city was on the decline. In fact, Colossae was probably the smallest and least important city that Paul ever wrote to. And it is quite likely that Paul never visited the city himself. And more than likely Paul was writing this letter to the church at Colossae from prison, most likely in Ephesus.

The letter was written to the church at Colossae which was a very young church discovering what it was like to believe in Jesus and to follow him. To believe in Jesus and to follow him in the midst of the Roman Empire, in which everything (money, society, life, etc..) is telling them that the real Lord and Savior, the real prince of Peace, the real son of God is the Roman emperor and not Jesus. So why are we taking 8 weeks to study a 2,000 year old letter to a new church in a seemingly insignificant small town in the corner of the Roman Empire? I believe there are 2 reasons. One..the first century religious environment was much like our own. It was a time of religious mixing and borrowing from a little bit of this religion and a little bit of this other religion. The big difference is that then the mixing was done by groups and you found a group that mixed religions and beliefs that you liked and joined it. Today the individual is the one doing the mixing. Secondly, the book Colossians Remixed (which I highly recommend) says this, “The epistle to the Colossians, we are arguing, was an explosive and subversive tract in the context of the Roman Empire and it can and ought to function in an analogous way in the imperial realities of our time. This letter proclaimed an alternative vision of reality, animating a way of life that was subversive to the ethos of the Roman Empire. We believe that Paul’s letter to the Colossians will only be read with integrity in our time when the radical vision of Christian faith encountered in this text engenders a similarly alternative way of life in our midst.”

So let’s jump into this text a little bit and see what we might learn about following Christ in our own pluralistic and empirical world and culture.

The first thing we see in Colossians 1 is the introduction to the epistle. Unlike in our time when the writer ends the letter by signing it, ancient writers of letters would basically sign it at the beginning of the letter. And this is what Paul is doing in verse 1. Signing his letter to the church at Colossae. And then after signing the letter, he addresses the letter by saying, “To God’s holy people in Colossae, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ.”

This addressing the letter brings up a few things. Obviously he is addressing the letter to the church at Colossae. But what he says right after that is very interesting. He addresses the letter to the faithful brothers and sisters. One of the things that you need to know, as far as the reason for the letter, is that scholars have long held that Colossians was written to combat a particular danger within the young church. This danger, what some call, the Colossian Heresy, is difficult to precisely describe. But from what scholars have found and from reading the letter we can derive that probably it was a corruption of Christianity with elements of mystical and legalistic Judaism combined with early Gnosticism. And so when Paul addresses his letter to the church at Colossae, to the faithful brothers and sisters he is possibly referring to those who haven’t embraced the false teaching that concerned Paul so much in this letter.

After signing the letter and then addressing it, he begins the introduction of the letter. His introduction starts off with these words, “Grace and peace to you from God our Father. We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people” Now we see the Apostle Paul’s pastoral heart for the young church. He always prayed for them and he thanked God for the faith in Jesus Christ as well as their love for all of God’s people that he has heard about. And we remember that Paul most likely never stepped foot in the city, so everything that he was writing about was based on what he had heard and the reports that came back to him from the city.

So which brings me to a question or more likely two questions. If Paul didn’t plant the church in Colossae, who did? And who was sharing reports about the infant church with the Apostle Paul? Both of these questions are addressed in the next section of the letter. The Apostle Paul says this, “the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace. You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf,  and who also told us of your love in the Spirit. For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you.” Here we see Paul again referring to the idea that the true gospel was preached to the Colossian church and that is what they had heard and believed. The gospel that had come to them, and they learned it from Epaphras, who was the one who planted the church in Colossae when people heard the gospel and understood God’s grace. And what was the true gospel that was preached and heard by the Colossian Church and shared by Epaphras? Verse 13-14 spells that out, “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” The Gospel, that Paul preached and that Epaphras passed on to the Colossians is about liberation, light, redemption, rescue, forgiveness from sin, peace, and life in the Kingdom of God and not in the empire.

So we see in the introduction to the Christians at Colossae that Paul was fervent in his prayers, and that the gospel was faithfully preached to them by Epaphras. But what was the content of his prayers? What did he desire for the followers of Jesus in the Colossian church? That can be found in verses 9-12. “We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.” To summarize his prayers of the Colossian church there are 4 distinct things he prayed for. 1. That they would have the Knowledge of God’s will. 2. That they would walk worthy of the Lord. 3. That they would bear fruit in every good work and grow in the knowledge of God. and 4. that God would strengthen them with his power so that they could endure and be patient.

There are lots of things that we could unpack together in relation to Colossians 1:1-14 as we talk about how this text connects with our everyday lives. But I have chosen two different parts of my message to dialogue around. First, we’ll talk about the purpose of the letter that I talked about and the issue that the Colossian church was facing and how we see that today, and how we engage with those philosophies today. And secondly we’ll spend some time unpacking what it looks like to faithfully live out the prayers that Paul prayed for the Colossian church. So let’s unpack these things together.

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

2. Where have you experienced the same philosophy that was at work in Colossae? (what I call Mix and Match Religion)? Share a story when you dialogued with a person who lived this type of philosophy. What might the Scripture that we looked at today seek to address those people who live a mix and match philosophy of life?

3. What part of Paul’s prayer for the Christ followers at Colossae do you need prayer for? How might you begin to work towards putting that into practice in your life? How can other Christ followers in Veritas help you with that?

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

Veritas Newsletter- December 2013

Advent(ure) Week 4: Adventure of Jesus

So today we wrap up our series entitled advent(ure) looking at the principal characters within the traditional Christmas stories within Matthew and Luke. Looking at the adventure(s) that God took each principal character on all those years ago, and what those adventures might say to us 2,000 years later on our own adventures in following the Christ child born in Bethlehem.

We’ve covered the adventures of the Shepherds, the Wise Men, and Mary & Joseph. Today we cover the main character not only in the Christmas narratives found in Matthew and Luke, but the main character in all of Scripture and also in all of history. Jesus Christ, the baby born in the manger that all of history hinges on.

Today we are going to move beyond the Hallmark portraits and the sentimentality that has crept into this story. Because unfortunately this radical, upside-down, empire confronting, Kingdom of God crashing into earth moment, when the God of the universe takes on flesh and blood, and moves into our neighborhood has become a symbol of status quo. A safe, sanitized, 21st century savior and a great bedtime story complete with a sanitized birth with no blood and yelling, a baby that doesn’t cry (ala Away in the Manger…one of the worst Christmas carols in my opinion which attacks the idea of incarnation), and no smell or animal dung. Today we are going to look at just how subversive and radical this story truly is and how this story sets the stage for the entire narrative of Jesus, and ultimately his death on the cross. We will see that right from the start, in this birth narrative, that the Kingdom of God is in direct contrast to the Kingdom of the world. That the Kingdom of Jesu s subverts and overthrows the Kingdom of Rome.

To look at this radical, subversive birth narrative, let’s turn to Luke 2:1-7, a narrative that will sound so familiar to us. But a narrative that when seen through different lens, will open up a whole new understanding not only of Jesus, but his mission in the world, why he was executed at the end of his life, and how much the Kingdom of God is in direct opposition to the Kingdom of the world.

Luke 2:1-7 says, “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.”

So the first thing we see in Luke 2 is a detail that I believe we far to often overlook as just a historical detail that isn’t really important or just a way for Luke to time stamp the event, if you will. But Luke is not only giving us a historical detail or time stamping the event, when he mentions Caesar Augustus he is introducing us to the inevitable clash between Kingdoms. To truly understand this let’s take a look at just who Caesar Augustus was.

Caesar Augustus was the adopted son of Julius Caesar. Augustus turned the Roman republic into an empire. He proclaimed that he brought justice, peace, freedom, and salvation to the whole world. He also declared that his adoptive father Julius Caesar was actually divine which therefore meant that he was the “son of god.” He also was in power, and put into place the Pax Romana, the peace of Rome. A time of what was considered a long time of relative peace in the Roman empire (but peace derived from a threat of violence and pain if you got out of line.) And so Augustus, people said was the ‘savior” of the world, that he was King, and Lord. And increasingly, in the eastern part of the empire, people worshipped him. He also had a gospel, the good news of his empire. This gospel went something like this, “Divine Augustus, Caesar, son of god, imperator of land and sea, the benefactor and Savior of the whole world has brought you peace.”

And so with this background we begin to see just how political, subversive, and upside down this story that is being told in Luke. In fact, Luke’s birth narrative is perhaps the text that is most blatantly related to the Roman empire.

And so Augustus, the “son of god” calls for a census to be taken. The purpose of this census was so that the empire could tax people with greater accuracy. And it seems like Israel was one of the most taxed places in the empire, which caused widespread poverty, into which Jesus is born. And so the emperor of the Roman empire, decides to take a census of his whole domain and this census brings Jesus to be born in the town which was linked to King David, and fulfills the prophecy that the messiah would be born in Bethlehem. But you see this census was more than just an irritation. It was an assault on ancestral right, the holy land, and in keeping the poor poor and the rich in power and in the money. The fact that Jesus birth was linked to the census perhaps is what also contributed to the view that he might be the expected Messiah, that in Israel’s darkest hour, in the midst of a “savior” that wasn’t saving them, that God would send the true “savior” and deliverer.

And so in the midst of this census where Mary and Joseph went back to their ancestral hometown, the time came for Jesus to be born. And so he was born and laid in a manger because their was no room for them in a guest room. It is at this point that we need to look back at a statement made in Luke 1:35 to give us context of what I am about to say next. Luke 1:35 says this, “The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.” What Augustus says of himself, or what others call him (son of God) is turned upside down by a baby born into a system of oppression created by Rome. What was supposed to be true of Caesar, it turns out is actually true of Jesus. Caesar claims that he was the one to bring freedom, peace, justice and salvation, but Jesus is the one that brings true freedom, true peace, true justice, and true salvation. And these 4 themes show up in the birth narrative that we are dialoguing around today. It is a total status reversal, which is a central aspect of the Kingdom of God.

Augustus brought the Pax Romana (peace of Rome) through force, violence, oppression and shedding the blood of others. Jesus would bring the Pax Christi by love, grace, mercy, forgiveness, and then through the shedding of, not his enemies blood, but by the shedding of his own blood. In Jesus, the good news of the Kingdom of God, which is set over against the Kingdom of the world, and in this case the Kingdom/Empire of Rome, is finally here. The shalom (peace) of God has finally come into the world. The peace, freedom, justice and salvation comes into the world in the form of a helpless baby boy born to poor parents, in an out of the way village, in a manger, and in an oppressed land. In this, the incarnation of Jesus, we have God entering human life, and it shows us who God is and how God works.

There are 2 points that I would like us to think about and talk about in our unpacking together. First of all the life and mission of the Messiah was not what anyone in Israel had expected. Rather than coming in power, riches, honor and glory, Jesus arrived in obscurity, poverty and humility. And secondly, the Kingdom of the Messiah (The Kingdom of God) is and will be exactly opposite of the Kingdom of this world and all it’s various empires (including Rome, the United States, etc..)

This baby born 2,000 years ago in the midst of the Roman Empire and an emperor who called himself Lord, Savior, King, and son of God, was and is the true Lord, Savior, King of the World and Son of God.

So let’s unpack together the Scripture, the message, and some of the points that I made and let’s flesh out what this upside down, subversive, radical Christmas story might say to us living in the midst of our own empire and our own Kingdoms that we establish with ourselves on the throne.

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

2. Share a story or a time when Jesus showed up in your life in a way that was totally unexpected. Share a story or a time when Jesus showed up and you missed it because it was different that you expectations. What might this say about our discipleship?

3. How does knowing all this information about Augustus, and the birth of Jesus impact the way we live out lives out in our world everyday? How should the incarnation of Jesus affect the way we incarnate the good news of Jesus in the world today?

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

Advent(ure) Week 3: Adventure of Mary and Joseph

Today we are on the third Sunday of Advent. At Veritas we have been looking at this series entitled Advent(ure) looking at the principal characters within the traditional Christmas stories found in the Gospels of Mathew and Luke.

Two weeks ago we covered the advent(ure) of the shepherds. We talked about the idea that we have nothing to fear, because God is with us, that Jesus is for all people, and we talked about the idea that Jesus came to bring shalom, or wholeness to the entire world.

Last week we talked about the advent(ure) of the wise men. We talked about the idea that they were following a star that didn’t mislead them, that we are all following a star, and we also asked the question which King is on your throne.

And next week we cover the principal character in the Christmas story. The principal character in all the bible. The principal character in Christianity. And I believe the principal character in the entire story of the world and it’s history. Obviously I am talking about the adventure of Jesus, from being with his Father to taking on flesh and incarnating into the world, as a baby born in a manger.

But today we are talking about two other character within the story of that first Christmas, none other than Mary and Joseph. To do that we’ll be looking at Matthew 1:18-25. But you also must know that we’ll primarily be looking at Joseph and his advent(ure). You see Luke tells the Christmas narrative from the perspective of Mary while our Scripture today tells the story from Joseph’s perspective.

So let’s see what we might learn about this advent(ure) of following Jesus through the earthly, adopted Father of Jesus, Joseph. Let’s see what his advent(ure) that first Christmas might say to us following Jesus some 2,000 years later. What might we learn about being a family of missional disciples from Joseph.

As I mentioned we’ll be looking at and unpacking Matthew 1:18-25 to look at Joseph’s advent(ure). 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 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.”

So there is so much in this story that we could look at and ink has been spilt for years on this story but we, as I said before, will be focusing on Joseph and his advent(ure)

So the first thing we need to look at is something that we see before our text that we are focusing on this morning. In the previous verses we see the lineage of Jesus through the line of Joseph. Now in verse 16 we find a switch on the lineage taking place. Verse 16 reads like this, “and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah.” We see the switch from Joseph to Mary. Normally the lineage would have read, Joseph the father of Jesus called Messiah. But the switch happened because Jesus isn’t the father of Jesus, his is the earthly adopted Father, which we’ll see later more about this idea of adoption coming into play.

So with that background we begin the story of Joseph and his experience, his advent(ure) if you will. So Mary is pledged to be married to Joseph. Now Joseph is probably a lot older than Mary. Joseph probably late 20’s and Mary being 13-14. And so they are engaged to be married, or betrothed. This was binding in the Jewish culture and could only be broken through divorce. This betrothal would have lasted a year and at the end of the year their would be a “coming together” ceremony. And this is what they were working towards and moving towards when the word got out that Mary was pregnant. It seems like Mary had not told Joseph that she was pregnant by the Holy Spirit. So Joseph probably learned about it along with the rest of their families, and the townspeople. And so they Joseph had to decide what to do.

He could have done any numerous things. In that day and age he could have divorced her which would set her up for never being married and never having anyone to take care of her, leaving her destitute. He could have followed the mosaic law which commanded people to stone women who have children out of wedlock. Or he could have divorced her quietly, keeping her dignity and future intact.

So he wrestled with this decision about what to do. And that is when a description in the text comes into play. He is called a just man, or faithful to the law. So he decided to divorce her quietly. You see he considered it impossible to go through with marriage to someone who had been unfaithful to him. He made the “logical” decision to seek a quiet divorce. And with that huge weight off this shoulders, he went to bed and hoped to put the whole sorry mess behind him. In the middle of the night an Angel came to him and spoke these words, “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.”

Now a couple things need to be mentioned about the angel and what he shares with Joseph. The first thing we need to notice is the way that the angel addresses Joseph. He says, Joseph son of David.” Now if we look at verse 16, like before, we see that Joseph’s father was Jacob not David. This title of Son of David is filled with Messianic implications. Jesus is referred 17 times in the New Testament as the son of David. The implication then is that the child growing inside Mary will be the long awaited Messiah.

The second thing we notice is that the angel tells Joseph to not be afraid to take Mary home as his wife. Joseph would need courage to take Mary home as his wife. His family, her family, the town in which they lived, I’m sure the rumor mill would be flying. The tongues would be wagging. In fact one of the rumors that circulated was that Jesus father was actually an unknown Roman soldier. Joseph would need a steel spine to take her as his wife, defend her from the barbs that would come their way, and to also try to explain what had really happen. “No seriously Mary is pregnant by the Holy Spirit. No really I saw an angel.” I can almost hear the “Yeah right. Pregnant. Holy Spirit. Angel.” He would have to not be afraid and to have courage to stand up to all the people, his friends, etc.. who would be telling him to divorce her, get rid of her, and move on with his life.

During Joseph’s dream the angel gives him two things to do. Two decisions that he was supposed to make and follow. He was supposed to take Mary home as his wife. And he was supposed to give the baby boy in Mary’s womb the name Jesus. And there was a third thing that he did that he had not been requested to do. He didn’t consummate the wedding. Presumably it was to remove any doubt of the supernatural birth of Jesus.

We see a few things here that we can apply to our advent(ure) in following Jesus. First of all the simple (but not easy) obedience that Joseph had. He woke up and did as the angel commanded him. Both Joseph and Mary showed obedience in the midst of great difficulty. They didn’t think of themselves, what others thought of them, or what the rumor mill was going to do in their town. They both knew that this advent(ure) was from God and they were willing to follow and obey God’s call on their lives even in the midst of a difficult “assignment”

Secondly there is something amazing about a little detail in Joseph’s obedience. What we don’t understand is that by Joseph obeying the angel and naming the baby boy born to Mary, he was legally adopting Jesus. You see naming a child was the responsibility of the legal father and it ensured the official status of the son and heir. And so through this act of Joseph, that of naming and adopting, Jesus also becomes “son of David.”

It isn’t too different with us in our advent(ure) like we talked about a few weeks ago. We have been named and officially adopted by God the Father and given our place and role in the family of God. In the lineage of Jesus.

But what does this all mean for you and I today? What might we apply to life in Lancaster, PA 2,000 years later? Let’s unpack together some questions about obedience, tough decisions, and doing the will of God in the midst of hard situations.

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

2. Share a time where you knew that obeying God was going to be difficult for you. What was the end result? Did you obey God or not? And if you did obey God what did you learn, etc..?

3. Is there something that God might be calling you to right now that might be difficult, hard to obey, and challenging? If so (and you feel like sharing it) what is it and how can the Veritas community help you obey God?

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

NuDunkers planting NuChurches (in the Church of the Brethren)

The other day I was invited to be a part of a live Google Hang out with others in the NuDunkers "movement". I was glad to be a part of it. Learning about what others are doing. Hopefully sharing some wisdom that I have gained in the 4 plus years of planting this missional community called Veritas. And getting to know, on a small scale, some new people. So if you are interested in watching the whole Google Hang out, I've put the video at the bottom of this blog. Enjoy it and I hope you learn some things about Church Planting.

Advent(ure) Week 2: Advent(ure) of the Wise Men

Today is what the Christian calendar calls the second Sunday of Advent. Throughout this Advent season we have been and will be looking at the advent(ure)s of people in the Scriptures that first and second “Advent”.

Last week we looked at the advent(ure) of the Shepherds. The idea that God uses those who are on the margins to further his kingdom, that God calls us to not be afraid in this advent(ure) and that this advent(ure) of following Jesus is open for all.

Next week we’ll be looking at the advent(ure) of Mary and Joseph and then the following week, the last Sunday in Advent we’ll be looking at the principal character within the Advent story (and I believe the entire story of God) that of the advent(ure) of Jesus when he came to this world, took on flesh and blood and moved into our neighborhood, so to speak.

But this week we’ll be looking at the advent(ure) of the Wise Men. We’ll be talking about what their journey following the star to Bethlehem and their worship of Jesus can teach us 2,000 years ago in our advent(ure) of following Jesus.

So let’s begin to look at this text together and see what it an say to us. The story of the Magi is found in Matthew 2:1-12. Matthew 2:1-12 says, “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.”

So before we totally dive into the text for the morning we need to look at three misconceptions that have cropped up concerning the Magi. The first misconception that you need to know about is the fact that the Magi weren’t there that first Christmas night when Jesus was born. It isn’t like the pictures of the manger with the Shepherds and the Magi coming to the manger. In fact it could have been anywhere up to 2 years later that the Magi showed up. And if you look at verse 11 you see that they showed up at the house of Jesus.

The second misconception surrounding the Magi is the idea that they were Kings. Maybe this misconception is based on the song We Three Kings. The Magi weren’t Kings but wise men which means that they were astronomers. Jewish legend says that that Daniel was the founder of the order of the Magi. And that these Magi, who were ancient scientists from Persia, were alerted to the prophetic significance of their time by the prophecies of Daniel and other Old Testament prophets.

And finally the third misconception is that there were only three wise men. This is no doubt connected to the fact that there were three gifts. Tradition even gives these Wise Men names (Melchior, Caspar, and Balthazar) and supposedly their bones are housed in the cathedral in Cologne, Germany. But there were probably more than three Magi.

And so let’s dive a little bit more into the advent(ure) of the Wise Men and see what we might be able to apply to our advent(ure) 2000 years later

And so when the curtain comes up on this story in Matthew 2 we see the wise men coming to Jerusalem, during the time of Herod, and asking about the ones that was born the King of the Jews. And that what led them to seek out the newborn King of the Jews is what they call “his star”. Now there has been considerable speculation surrounding the star and what it was exactly. Some say it was a curious coming together of planets, others a comet, and some say that it is possible that God provided a completely unique phenomenon for them to see and to follow. But whatever this was, planets, comets, something unique (never seen before, never seen after), we see that it continually led them as they sought the Christ Child. We see in verse 2 that it came up when Jesus was born. We see in verses 9-10 that the saw guided them, that they were overjoyed when they saw it, and that it eventually led them, and that it stopped right over the place where Jesus was. On their advent(ure) Jesus used a medium that would connect with the Magi in order to get the Kingdom message about the Christ Child out into the world. God meets the Magi in their own medium so to speak. God guides astronomers by a star. I believe that is so brilliant of God. He speaks their language. He after all is a missionary God and understands the cultures of the world, and what would be considered good news and how best to share the good news (in this occurrence the good news of the birth of the Christ Child) with that culture.

In this advent(ure) of following Jesus we need to follow our missionary God out into the world, and seek to know and to use those things that will connect with the people and the culture(s) that we are trying to reach. It is no different than what the Apostle Paul said in 1st Corinthians 9:19-23, “Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.  I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.” Also in this advent(ure) God has used things that have spoken to us. Things that He knew would connect with us. Maybe it’s been a relationship with just the right person. Maybe it’s been a word spoken at just the right moment. Maybe it’s been a trip or mission experience. Or maybe it’s been a song, a poem, a piece of art, or something related to the arts. But whatever it was or is for us, know that God, this missionary God, if he is able to speak to Astronomers by the use of a star, than he is more than able to speak to us through his word, each other, the world around us, etc….

Also in the advent(ure) of the Wise Men something stood out to me. In a world devoid of GPS, map quest, and google maps, here you see the Magi being led by the star. The are getting their navigation and direction from the star. They were trusting that star would lead them to the place where the King of the Jews was born. They didn’t have to listen for the women’s voice to say, “Turn right in 1/2 mile.” The only time they stopped and asked for directions was in Jerusalem. But as soon as they left Herod and Jerusalem the star came out again and led them right to the place where Jesus was.

So that got me thinking and wondering about what “star” are we following on this advent(ure) of life? Are we following the North Star (Jesus) or one that we put up in the sky? Is Jesus setting the trajectory of our life or do we want to? Are we following Him or do we want him to follow us? To make our own decisions and ask God to bless them instead of asking him first? In this advent(ure) of life and also in the advent(ure) of following Jesus, we must put him as the North Star of our life, and then leave the directions up to him. The magi didn’t have to decide which way to go, they just needed to follow the star. We don’t need to decide which way to go, we just need to trust and follow the great North Star Jesus and he will lead us to the right place.

And lastly, I want to look at the reaction of Herod to the news that a King of Jews was born. Look at verse 3, “When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.” Why was Herod and Jerusalem disturbed? Herod was disturbed because he was concerned about his own position as ruler of Israel. He saw wise men who traveled thousands of miles that were guided by a star looking for one called “the new born King” as a hugely provocative “political” event. He had to know that if this baby, was truly the King of the Jews, then his days were numbered. He was disturbed and if he was disturbed, he was the kind of person who would act out on that fact, and Jerusalem would suffer. That is why Jerusalem was disturbed with him.

And so we all know that you can’t have two royal houses, whether in Israel, in Rome, or even today and so Herod would do all that he could to resist the charm of the christ Child. And we see later on in the Scriptures the effort to rid Israel of the Christ child by killing all male babies that were 2 and under in Bethlehem so that he could again have the title King of the Jews.

In this advent(ure) of life that we live we are in much the same place. We have to decide which King we are going to have on our throne of our lives. There can’t be two Kings ruling in my life. It either has to be the King of Me or the true King of Kings Jesus.

And so these are probably the most poignant questions that we need to wrestle with today. Which King are you living for? What star are you following? Are you following the North Star Jesus? Are you living for the King of Kings? Or are you following your own star and living for your own Kingdom? Let’s unpack the Scripture that we just looked out together and also talked about the questions that I just raised in our discussion time.

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

2. What “Kings” do people put on the thrones of their lives? What “stars” do people follow? What about you? What “King” do you put on your throne and what “star” do you follow?

3. God “spoke” in the language of the Magi (the Star). How might you and I be called to speak the “language” of people we meet each day? In what ways can we follow the model of our Missionary God and the Apostle Paul to “speak” the language of our culture(s)?

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

If you aren't falling, you aren't skiing

This post is part of a larger NuDunker conversation, “NuDunekrs, nu churches: Planting the Church of the Brethren” including a series of blog posts and a live Google+ hangout Friday, 12/6 at 10 AM eastern. You can find other blogs and comments on the event page above. We would love for you to add your voice to the discussion!

For those who know me they know that one of my favorite activities and hobbies, if you will, is snowboarding. I have been snowboarding for 18 seasons and I fall more in love with boarding each and every season. There is nothing like flying down the mountain on your board, wind wiping by your face, hitting jumps (and preferably landing them), and carving into great turns.

Now my family is a skiing family. My wife, son, and daughter are all skiers. My brother, his wife, their kids, my sister and her oldest daughter are also a skiers. My father is a skier. My sister-in-law and her oldest two daughters are also skiers. The only other two boarders in the family are my 2 brother-in-laws. Going to the mountain is definitely a family affair in our family. Some of my best memories occurred on the mountain, as well as the many ski trips, and ski vacations that we have taken over the years. I have boarded in Vermont, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia and Colorado. And this coming April I will cross off one of my "bucket list" when we go and ski/board the Alps (French and most likely Swiss).

So right now you might be saying what in the world does skiing and snowboarding have to do with church planting and specifically church planting in the Church of the Brethren. I believe there are many things that I have learned over the 18 seasons of snowboarding that directly applies to the last 4 years of planting Veritas, a missional church plant in Lancaster. But probably the biggest connection between the two is a statement that I have heard my brother say as well as other people. The statement that stuck in my head in relation to boarding and skiing is "if you aren't falling, you aren't skiing (or boarding)" What this statement gets at is the fact that if you want to improve on your ability (in this instance..skiing and boarding) you need to push yourself, not always play it safe, and take risks. When you fall, you learn. You learn what to do better next time. You learn what not to do next time. You learn the context of the mountain (the pitch of the slope, the bumps on the slope, where the good snow is, etc..)

And so I would rephrase this statement in terms of its connection with church planting, and especially in missional church planting. I would say it this way, "If you aren't falling, you aren't planting a church." If you aren't willing to fail, then don't get into church planting in the first place. I remember one of the biggest things that I had to wrestle to the ground when we decided to plant this missional church (and need to continue to wrestle to the ground) is the fear of failure. What if? What if we fail? What if we run out of money? What if God doesn't come through? What if? What if's can keep you stuck and stop you from strapping on the board and sailing down the mountain. I remember what finally pushed me over the edge and down onto the trail of missional church planting is this thought that I would rather try and fail, then get to be 75 years old and played it safe my entire life. To me that would be true failure.

I think one of the struggles many in denominations (the Church of the Brethren as well as others) have is this mentality that we've planted churches before, we've spent lots of time and especially money, and what do we have to show for it? I remember hearing someone say that a church was planted, they spent 200,000 dollars over the course of a few years, and the church is no more. And so why do that again?

And I would say don't do the same thing again (the huge outlay of money, etc..) but see how you might learn from the past "failure" (not sure that was a failure in the long run) for a new venture. I remember two years ago I went boarding with a group of teenagers at Jack Frost in the Poconos. Around 3 PM I was going down the slope with my son, and decided to hit a small jump. Well I went head first into the ground and came up and got a concussion. I can't remember about 30 minutes of what happened after that. A month later our family was taking our normal winter/ski vacation and it happened to be in the Poconos and we ended up back at Jack Frost. Now I could have played it safe, avoided that slope, avoided that jump and refused to every hit another jump ever or I could take a risk, hit the same jump, and slay the demon (if you will). What did I do? I went down the same slope and hit the same jump and landed it.

So the thing that I have leaned while snowboarding and planting a missional church is to take the risk. If you strap on the board you will more than likely fall especially at the beginning. If you plant a church you will fall. But if you don't strap on the board (or skis..my wife would want me to add that) you will never experience the rush of adrenaline when you fly through powder, when you make that amazing carve turn, when you hit that jump and land it, and when you race your family down the slope. If you never take the risk of church planting, you might never experience the rush of seeing God provide for you in amazing ways (I know that I have seen it more times during the last 4 years than probably all my years previously), seeing God use your gifts and passions to further his kingdom, hearing the amazing stories of people, and seeing a community of Christ followers spring out of the soil of the local community.

So if you aren't falling what are you waiting for? Strap on the board, push off the ground, and fly down the mountain. Carve that turn. Look for powder. And hit that jump that scares you. And then do it again. Take the risk.

Advent(ure) of the Shepherds

Today we begin, what is known in the Christian world and in the Christian calendar and year, as Advent. For those not familiar with the concept of Advent, Advent is celebrated during the four weeks prior to the birth of Jesus. It the Christian church it is a time of waiting and longing for the coming of the Christ child. It is also a time of preparing for the coming of Jesus. The traditional 4 weeks in Advent are normally about Hope Peace, Joy and Love. And so many churches throughout the world during the next 4 weeks will be preparing themselves spiritually for Christmas.

And so our next 4 weeks will also be centered around Advent but in a different kind of way. Our theme during Advent is entitled Advent(ure). And our hope is that we can restore the adventure back into advent. This theme will cover 4 weeks looking at the adventure of the main characters in what we call the Christmas story. We’ll look today at the adventure of the Shepherds. Next week we’ll look at the adventure of the Wise Men. In two weeks we’ll be looking at the adventure of Mary and Joseph. And our fourth and final week we’ll look at the adventure of the Christ child himself.

Back in 1924 the author D.H. Lawrence penned these words, “the adventure has gone out of the Christian venture.” But it didn’t originally start out that way. So I am hoping that by the end of Advent we’ll see and be able to restore and recover the sense of adventure in our lives as individuals, as a community, and as part of the church universal I also hope and pray that through our 4 weeks together looking at Advent(ure) that we’ll see the sense of risk, adventure, and journey wrapped up in the four stories that we’ll be looking at together over the next 4 weeks.

So, as I mentioned, today for the 1st Sunday in Advent we’ll be looking at the adventure of the Shepherds found in Luke 2:8-20. Luke 2:8-20 that famous passage, that many of us know either straight from the Bible, or through the reciting of the words by Linus during a Charlie Brown’s Christmas. Luke tells the story of that first advent and the adventure of the Shepherds this way, “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 what might this text say to us 2,000 years later about the adventure of following the baby born in the manger? What can we apply to our own lives and what can we learn about being on this adventure of being a community of missional disciples? Let’s look at a few things before we seek to unpack the application of it for our everyday lives.

The first thing we see in this text is that the angel appears to Shepherds watching their flocks out in the fields. Now something that you need to know about Shepherds in those days. Shepherds were a marginalized people. In fact if you had to go to court and your only witnesses were shepherds, you were in a lot of trouble. Shepherds were seen as unclean, unreliable, and weren’t able to testify in court. God chose to share the amazing news of the Savior of the world’s birth with people whose word wasn’t seen as reliable. Who weren't the power brokers, politicians, Kings of their day. No, in this adventure of living out the Kingdom of God, God chooses the weak, the not yet, the marginalized, those on the outside, to further his kingdom. 1 Corinthians 1:27-28 puts it this way, “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 next thing we notice is what the angel says to the Shepherds. The angels appear and the Shepherds were terrified. I imagine if an angel appeared to me or to you our first reaction would be the same as the Shepherds. And so wherever an angel of the Lord appears in Scripture, the typical reaction was fear and the response of the angel was “Don’t be afraid.” It happened earlier with Zechariah and Mary. And also many places in the Old Testament (including Judges 12:22) In fact the command of “Don’t be afraid” or “Do not fear” appears over 100 times in the Scriptures. I truly believe that this is one of things we need to be aware of in this adventure called the Christian life. That all too often we live our life out of fear. We need to take the angels’ words to heart. Too often we live with a fear of the unknown, a fear of the what if, a fear of what people might think, a fear that God isn’t who he says he is and that he will leave us and forsake us. But if we truly want to follow Jesus and live out an adventurous life as a follower of Jesus, we must wrestle our fear to the ground and trust that God is who he says he is and that he will watch over us and that he in fact wants the best for us.

So we find out that the Angel is not there to strike them dead or to pronounce judgment. Instead they are there to bring good tidings of great joy. In fact, they are there to preach the gospel to the Shepherds. The word gospel literally means good news. But what is the good news that God sent the angels to pronounce to the Shepherds? We find what the good news that the angels are sent to proclaim to the Shepherds in verses 10-12 and verse 14.

Right after the angels calm the shepherds down by their words to not be afraid, they speak these words, “I bring you good news (gospel) that will cause great joy for all the people.” This statement that the gospel is for all people underscores the universalism of the gospel. The fact is that this adventure, the adventure of following Jesus is not for a select few. It is for all and open to all. This is also underscored by probably the most famous Scripture of all time, one that many of us, if we grew up in the Church, memorized in our childhood, John 3:16. “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.” His love is for the world, and the adventure of this life, following Jesus is for the world as well. And this announcement would fly in the face of the Jewish belief system that the Savior would come and only “save” the Jews. Right from the start, as we’ll also see next week, Jesus was to be the Savior, Redeemer, and Lord not only of the Jewish people but of all people who have ever walked the face of this plant, and for all people who have undertaken this adventure called life.

After making this announcement the one angel is joined by a group of other angels and they begin to make another proclamation about this advent(ure) of following Jesus and another proclamation about what the gospel is all about. They speak these words, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” When it all comes down to this adventure. When it all gets wrapped up. The gospel of Jesus is all about peace. The elusive peace promised by the Roman Empire was now being offered through Jesus to all people on earth. This peace has it’s root in the Jewish idea of Shalom, which means wholeness. To be whole means that one has right relations with God, other people, one self and all of creation.

And so that fateful night on that hillside, the angels proclaim the gospel of the adventure of following Jesus to the Shepherds. They proclaimed that this adventure is an adventure for all people, that the adventure is about the Shalom of God that only Jesus can bring, and that when we follow Jesus into this adventure we need to trust him and not to be afraid because he will be with us

There is so much more we can say about that night long ago, about what the Shepherds experienced, and then how these Shepherds whose words weren’t trusted in a court, were the first evangelists using their words to spread the gospel of the Shalom of God to everyone they met.

But let’s take some time now to unpack the Scripture and the message together. Let’s talk about the advent(ure) of following Jesus, our fear, his peace, and his desire for all people to begin the advent(ure). Let’s talk about what God might be saying to each one of us and our community as a whole.

1. What are your thoughts, comments, insights, questions, etc.. regarding the Scripture and the message?

2. What fears are you currently facing in relation to this advent(ure) of life and in following Jesus? How might the angels words of “Do Not be afraid” speak into your life and in your situation?

3. How might we work with and for the Shalom of God in our relationships, our work environment, our neighborhoods, in our community and in our world? Is there someone that you can proclaim the gospel of the Shalom of God to, and share with them the words of the angel “Do not be afraid”? If so, who is it and what steps might you take to do that?

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?

#instalife week 4: You are a Priest

Today we come to the end of our 4 week series #instalife, looking at the concept of identity and where we derive our self worth and identity from. I don’t know about you but it has really challenged me to look inside and figure out where I have been deriving my identity from.

We started this series by hosting the art series by the same name by the artist Tobias Treppemann on First Friday. Then the first week of our series we looked at the idea that we are friends of God. That we are no longer slaves or servants, but that we are actually friends of God. That God is actually for us and not against us.

Two weeks we we talked about the idea that we are all children of God, no matter where we are with Jesus (Acts 17:28-29) But at the same time those who follow Jesus are adopted sons and daughters of the Father. We are the ones who have taken on the family name, so to speak. Not that he loves us more or loves those who haven’t taken on the family name yet less. We have been adopted, not by what we have done, or by our own strength, power, and might. But only through the amazing, redeeming, love of God the Father.

Last week we talked about the idea that we are masterpieces created and crafted by the master artist. We talked about the idea that when we look in the mirror do we see that masterpiece, or do we see the mud (the brokenness, the sin, etc..). We also talked about the idea that when we look at others do we see the mud (the sin, the brokenness) that people are mired in, or do we see the masterpiece that God has created. I also had several conversations that many of us struggle not with seeing the masterpiece in others, but we struggle more seeing the masterpiece within our own lives. (myself included).

Today we wrap up our #instalife conversation looking at an idea that is not only about just ourselves, but about our community as a whole. And that questions of identity not on extend to the individual but also extends to community. And the question that I want us to wrestle with is what is our corporate identity. Where do we get our corporate identity from and what is God’s calling for us as a people of God in this time and in this place. Not that there isn’t an individual calling and identity that God wants us to wrestle with in this text, and we’ll also address this as well. But this text, that we are looking at today, definitely speaks to us as a community and what our identity should be as a community of people who are seeking to follow Jesus together.

So we are going to look at 1 Peter 2:9 together and talk about the idea that you are a priest. So let’s turn to 1 Peter 2:9 and see what it might say to us as individuals but almost more importantly what it has to say to us as a community of the people of God.

1 Peter 2:9 says this, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

So the first thing that we see is that there is this one word that is repeated 3 times in this one verse. The word you is repeated. Now you might know this already but whenever you read the word you in the Bible, most if not all of the time this word is plural and not singular. So it means you all. That it is not you as an individual. In fact the idea of the individual is mostly a modern idea and invention. In fact everything that Peter says that we are, we have to be together. You can’t be a people, a priesthood, a holy nation alone. All of these things are, by definition, for a group of people. And so 1 Peter 2:9 is written to a community of followers of Jesus. We see who it was written to in 1 Peter 1:1 when Peter says, “To God’s elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia,” So Peter is speaking to the church.

Also what we see in 1 Peter 2:9 are words that could have been said of Israel in the NT. The words chosen people, priesthood, and nation all point directly to the Old Testament and this connection that the things that once exclusively belonged to Israel- their election, their priesthood, and their calling, are now no longer the property of Israel. These are now the property of every follower of Jesus. These are now the property of every community of followers of Jesus.

So let’s go phrase by phrase and see what each phrase might say to us about our identity as the people of God.

So Peter first calls us a chosen people. What does he mean by chosen? We see that he is repeating this idea from 1:1 where he says to God’s elect. But what does this all mean? I believe this idea of being chosen or elect if you will, is not what so many people believe it to be. I believe that being chosen is always on a corporate level. Notice the next word, a chosen people. Not a chosen person. Secondly I believe we are chosen not to the exclusion of others but for others. Look at the first calling of the chosen people, the Israelites, found in Genesis 12:1-3. They are blessed, not to the exclusion of others but for others. So that they can be a blessing. I think too often when we see the word chosen we believe it implies the rejection of those not chosen. But I don’t believe that to be. I believe that our being chosen is for the benefit and the blessing of others in the world around us. We are chosen in Christ for the purpose or the mission of declaring the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light. And when we live out this mission, we hope and pray that the whole world will be saved, restored (remember our conversation from last week about the word saved means being restored to the original condition that God created us to be and for) and to find justice in him.

And this calling to be a blessing and to work to see the world world restored, redeemed, and renewed by Jesus, takes us to the next calling that God, through Peter calls his church to be, that of a royal priesthood. The offices of royalty and priesthood in the Old Testament were jealously separated but Jesus, who is our King and our priest brought them together for his people, his church. So what does it mean then to say that this body of followers of Jesus are to be a royal priesthood? Well what was and is the royal of a Priest? According to 1 Peter 2:5 one of our roles as Kingdom Priests (we are God’s New Testament Kingdom of Priests much like the nation of Israel was in the OT) is to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. So therefore, as fellow priests with our great High Priest Jesus, we offer up to God our sacrifices of praise, our Kingdom work of being a blessing in the world, and all of our lives, as well as reflecting God in our lives, interceding for others before God, and to represent and serve him and his Kingdom in our world.

We are to be a holy nation. This again drives us right back to the OT, and more specifically, right back to Genesis 12 verse 2 which says, “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great and you will be a blessing.” And so God, through Abram, calls those who follow in his footsteps, to be a holy nation. A nation whose calling in life is to be blessed in order to be a blessing. But this nation is not derived by states and borders. We aren’t talking about nations like the nation of the United States, as this nation transcends all divisions of the nations, that we set up. Instead this holy nation is made off of people from every tribe, nation, place and people. A nation of followers of Jesus called to live out the Abrahamic call to be a nation of blessing to everyone they meet.

And lastly he calls us his special possession. When we come to know Jesus, and place him first in our lives, we give up possession of ourselves and give it to him. We give up our calling, our dreams, our identities, and our mission and begin to take on his calling, his dreams, his identity, and his mission. And we become his special possession.

And that calling, that identity, that mission that he calls us to is spelled out in the ending of verse 9, “that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” That we may proclaim the love, mercy, forgiveness, grace and compassion of Jesus to all people. That we could proclaim the freedom that life in the Kingdom is about. And that, like Peter says only 1 chapter later, “But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,”

So let’s talk about what it might look like in our everyday reality to live this identity of being chosen people, royal priesthood, holy nation and God’s special possession. Let’s talk about how these things can give us true identity. And let’s talk about how these things play out in the world, in our missional Kingdom life and who we might be called to be a priest to (a people, a place, etc..)

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

2. What does this Scripture say to you about who you are in Christ and in your sense of identity? How does knowing these things (in your head) make a difference in your heart? What impact can this make tomorrow when you get out of bed?

3. To where or to whom might God be calling/sending you to be a priest to? How might/could you “declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” to the people or place God is calling/sending you?

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?

#instalife Week 3: You are a Masterpiece

I want you to imagine with me that following our gatherings this morning and afternoon, that you take a walk through Lancaster city. As you go out of our door you take a left onto King Street and then another left onto Water Street. You walk down Water Street and as you do, something catches your eye in an alleyway just off the street. The thing that catches your eye is the corner of a frame that is sitting in a pool of mud, dirt water and filth. You walk on over and as you pull on the frame you begin to make out the entire piece of art that lies beneath the mud, dirt and filth. And you gasp, because you realize that beneath all of the junk, you are holding in your hands an original painting by Rembrandt himself. It’s hardly recognizable as it is also torn, stained, and fully covered. But you know it is an original Rembrandt. What do you do with it? Do you treat it as worthless and throw it back into the pool of mud and filth? Or do you treat it for what it truly is, a masterpiece? I don’t know about you but I would treat it as a masterpiece, and quickly take it to someone, a master, who can renew, restore, and redeem the masterpiece that lies beneath the mud and mess.

So let me ask you these questions. What do you see when you look in the mirror? Do you see the mud and the mess or do you see what God sees, a Masterpiece? Also what do you see when you look at others? Do you see the mud and the mess or do you see what God sees, a Masterpiece?

Today we are continuing our series entitled #instalife looking at the issue of identity and where we draw our sense of identity, self worth, and value from. Today we are talking about the fact that you are a Masterpiece. And to look at the concept that God, the Master artist has designed us in such a way, we’ll be looking at Ephesians 2:10.

Now for those who have spent any time in the church and in the Bible, I would imagine that the verses directly preceding our verse for the morning might be familiar. These verses (verses 8-9) say this, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” So the Apostle Paul is saying that, as a Masterpiece, we aren’t the ones who created ourselves. We aren’t the master artist, we are just his handiwork, or his masterpiece. This idea of saved that the Apostle Paul mentioned, I believe is one that isn’t truly understood in our modern evangelical Christian world. Too often we talk about being saved from and not saved to. We talk about being saved from sin and hell and death (and yes that is true). But if you were to talk with a 1st century Jewish person, they would define the word save as meaning to make whole, to restore to it’s original condition. And so right from the start of this text, we see that we can’t restore (or save) the Masterpieces that are muddy, beat up, torn, ripped, and soiled. But we know someone who can take the mud, grim and mess off of the Masterpieces and restore the Masterpiece to it’s original condition.

Now let’s look at the very next verse, verse 10. Verse 10 says this, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Now what we see in this text is that we are created by God and in Christ. Some texts use the word handiwork (like the NIV), some like the NLT use the word Masterpiece, and some like the KJV use the word workmanship. The word translated “masterpiece” or “workmanship” is the Greek word poiema—from which we get the word “poem.” So in a very real way, the first thing we see in this text is that we are all created by the hand of the Master Artist. That we are all living poems, so to speak, that point not to the art but to the artist. So God, the Master Artist, pictures you as someone more awesome and wonderful than your imagination has ever dreamed. He sees the artwork, the masterpiece that will be developed from your blank canvas, or the broken, messed up, torn, ripped, and muddy canvas of our lives. Just like Jesus, when he renamed Simon as Peter (which means Rock), calling Peter to live into his name. Or like the story of Sculptor Gutzon Borglum. Gutzon Borglum (1867-1941) gazed at the cliffs of South Dakota's Black Hills. He envisioned what no one else could—the sculpted faces of US presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt.

Borglum and his crew were suspended on ropes 500 feet above the valley floor. They used everything from chisels to dynamite to create the 5-story-high visages. It took 14 years to complete the project.

Borglum's housekeeper occasionally went to visit the site. She once asked a worker, "How did Mr. Borglum know that Mr. Lincoln was in that rock?"

How indeed? Borglum knew what was in the rock because he saw with his artist's eye what he could create out of the raw material with which he had to work.

So God is calling us, through Jesus to live into the realization that we are a Masterpiece of the master artist. Even if we can’t see it, God through Jesus Christ can. That we need to submit our lives, our canvas, our granite, our musical staff lines, our clay, to his hands, his chisel, his paint brush, his musical instrument so that what comes out of our lives is a beautiful painting, sculpture, song, or poem. And that these things point to the master artist who has redeemed, renewed, released and restored us through Jesus. In fact, just as the poem, the song, the painting, the dance points not to itself but to its artist, we are also called to not point to ourselves but to the Master artist.

But what is the purpose of our lives. What is the reason for our masterpiece to exist? It is true that God in fact saves us, as is mentioned in Ephesians 2:8-9, but why are we saved? I believe God saves us to make something beautiful out of us, and then through us. I believe we are saved, as the Apostle Paul says, to do good works. The Apostle Paul is not saying that we are saved through our good works, but that we are saved to do good works. That salvation means that as Masterpieces created by God, we are called to get off the wall, off the page, out of the CD or mp3 so to speak, and go out into the world to point other masterpieces, who don’t believe that they are, that there is a master artists who loves them, cares for them, and wants them to be restored to the original condition that they were created to be. But as I said before, we can’t do the restoring, but we can take these masterpieces to the master artist who can do the restoring. As followers of Jesus we are called to live out what I believe was one of the driving reasons Jesus came. In fact when asked that same pointed question of why he came, he pointed to an Old Testament passage from Isaiah and said these words, “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.” Part of being “saved” (restored to our original condition as a masterpiece) is to be about the good works that Jesus has in mind for us to be about. That being restored to right relationship with Him, means not being about ourselves. In fact, I can truly say this, if you are a follower of Jesus, your life should no longer revolve around you and your wants. That being restored, as a masterpiece, means living for the ultimate and master artist, and helping other masterpieces live into that reality. By taking the masterpieces to the master so that he can restore them, wipe away the mud, mess, grim, and dirt, and set them right, the way they were originally meant to be. And that our good works, as followers of Jesus, are the means of pointing to, and helping bring others to the Master artist.

But what does this all mean? What do you see when you look in the mirror? The mud or the masterpiece? What do you see when you look at others? The mud or the masterpiece beneath the mud? And how does the fact that we are all masterpieces make a difference in our lives and in the way we engage with the world around us? Those are the questions that we are going to unpack together.

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

2. Do you tend to focus more on the mud or the Masterpiece when you see yourself? Why? How can this verse that we just looked at speak into your life and help with your identity?

3. Do you tend to focus on the mud or the Masterpiece when you see others muddied by sin and brokenness? In what ways can our good works help others see the Masterpiece within themselves? What good works has God restored you for?

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

#instalife Week 2: You are a Child of God

Today we continue our series entitled #instalife using the art show that happened on 1st Friday as inspiration to look at issues of identity. We will spend a total of 4 weeks looking at identity through the lens of social media as well as rooting our identity in the truths of Scripture, and what God has to say about who we are in him.

All too often our sense of identity comes from places other than from what God has to say about us. Our identity can be wrapped up in what others think about us, the number of our Facebook friends, the number of comments on our status update, the number of likes on an instagram photo, and instead of thinking about what God has to say we worry about what others say. Our identity can also come from our family of origin, our socio-economic status in the world (what kind of car we drive, our occupation), our looks, our abilities and talent and a host of other things.

And so last week we started our #instalife series out by looking at the idea that part of our identity as followers of Jesus is that we are friends of Jesus. That Jesus no longer calls us servants but he calls us friends. So believe it or not you, if you are a follower of Jesus, are a friend of Jesus. And if you aren’t there yet, Jesus wants a friendship with you, wants the best for you, and is for you (not against you).

Today we are talking about something I believe that is more significant in terms of our identity than being a friend of Jesus. I believe one of the most significant foundations for our identity is in the fact that we are called children of God. That if we are followers of Jesus, we have been adopted into the family of God and are children of the Heavenly Father.

Now before I jump into our text this morning I need to say this. The question might be raised, “aren’t all people children of God, no matter where they are with Jesus?” I would say yes that is true. Look at Acts 17:28-29 which says that we are all his offspring. We are all children of God in a way. But at the same time and according to the text we will be looking at in a minute, there are those who are also heirs and adopted children of God. There are those who have taken on the role of adopted sons and daughter’s, who claim their Father’s name (taken on his last name so to speak) and are, in a different way, children of God. But I also have to say that the door to being adopted children of God, to claiming and taking on the name of the Father, and becoming part of the family is always open and is open to everyone who has, is, and will ever walk the face of this planet.

So let’s look at our text this morning and talk about this idea of being adopted into God’s family, and being a son or daughter of God. The text that we’ll be looking at together is found in Galatians 4:1-7. “What I am saying is that as long as an heir is underage, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. The heir is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. So also, when we were underage, we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces of the world. 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.”

So the first thing we notice in this text is that the Apostle Paul is comparing two identities if you will or two roles. The identity and role of a slave versus the role and identity of an heir or a child. So Paul is comparing the identity of slave and a child and then he also makes a transition halfway through the text from the physical reality to the deeper spiritual (yet physical reality) of the our slavery to sin, and our subsequent adoption into sonship and daughtership.

Now in the first part of the text a child, as mentioned, is a minor or underage and during that time is really no different than a servant, even though the heir truly owns the estate. The question would then become when does a child truly become an heir or an adult. In Greek and Jewish culture there was a definite “coming of age” ceremony where a boy stopped being a child, and started being a man with the legal rights as an heir. In Roman culture however there was no specific age when the son became a man. It was when the father thought that the son was ready. And when the father thought the son was ready to become an adult there was a sacred family festival known as the Liberalia, which was held annually on March 17. At this time the child was formally “adopted” by the father as his acknowledged son and heir.

We see that when the Apostle Paul uses the phrase, ‘until the time appointed by the Father” that is shows us that he has the Roman ‘coming of age” in mind more than the Jewish or Greek custom/culture. We also know that in Roman custom in relation to adoption, that the adopted sons were given absolutely equal privileges in the family and equal status as heir.

It is there that the Apostle Paul makes the transition from talking about physical adoption and becoming an heir to the deeper spirituality reality (though nonetheless real and physical) of being adopted into the family of God and an heir to the spiritual blessings bought by Jesus Christ.

So the first thing we see in this transition is the phrase, “But when the set time had fully come.” Have you ever wondered why Jesus came to earth when and where he did? Why did he come to earth in the 1st century? Why did he come to earth in a Jewish context? Jesus came at just the right time in God’s redemptive plan, when the world was perfectly prepared for Gods’ work. But there was more to it than that. It was a time when the pax Romana extended over most of the civilized earth and when travel and commerce were therefore possible in a way that had formerly been impossible. Great roads linked the empire of the Caesars, and its diverse regions were linked far more significantly by the all-pervasive language of the Greeks. Add the fact that the world was sunk in a moral abyss so low that even the pagan cried out against it and that spiritual hunger was everywhere evident, and one has a perfect time for the coming of Christ and for the early expansion of the Christian gospel.

Paul makes it crystal clear when he says, “to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship” that our adopted to sonship and daughtership is only possible through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Only through that, do we have the privilege, ability, and the right to cry out to God using the same intimate term that Jesus used, that of Abba, which is best translated as daddy. Just like it is not possible to be adopted into a family by your own strength, merit, or will, you can’t be adopted into the family of God through your own strength, merit, or will. But what a privilege, what an amazing gift that we are adopted into sonship and daughtership, into the family of God, through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

And so the Apostle Paul then ending this thought about sonship/daughtership and adoption into God’s family wraps the entire process that he has talked about into 3 parts. First, Paul states that we are no longer slaves. That we have been set free by Jesus from what he calls the, “elemental spiritual forces of the world.” It is then, once we have been freed from slavery, that we are then declared sons and daughters and adopted in God’s family. And finally, reminiscent of the Roman adoption that I mentioned before, once we have been adopted into God’s family we become heirs. But what is an heir? Heirs inherit something, and what do we inherit? Paul makes it clear: an heir of God through Christ. We inherit God Himself. For some, this might seem like a paltry inheritance. But for those who are really in Christ, who really love God, to be an heir of God is the richest inheritance of all. And one of the best inheritances that we can’t truly even being to fathom is the fact that, as I mentioned before, and as the Apostle Paul mentions in verse 6, that we can call God father, just not father in a “formal” sense, but also “Abba. Daddy.” That our inheritance, at least part of it, is that we have access to the same intimacy with God the Father that God the Son, that Jesus had. That we get to call God the Father who is the Creator of the Universe, Sustainer of the cosmos, Redeemer of the world, King, Lord of all. We get to call him Dad and that we are adopted children. Adopted sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father.

But what does this mean for you and I and for our identity? How does this giving meaning to our lives? What does this look like played out each and every day, in our on the ground reality? And what might being adopted sons and daughters say to us and to our world as we go about a missional Kingdom life? How might this be good news to people that we meet each and every day? These are some of the questions that we are going to unpack together in our time of discussion.

1. What thoughts, comments, insights, questions, etc.. do you have regarding the Scripture text and the message? 2. How does this idea of being adopted sons and daughters of God give meaning to our lives? What does this or how can this look like played out each and every day, in our on the ground reality? 3. How could this idea of being adopted sons and daughters be good news in our missional contexts? How might this impact the way we share the good news about Jesus in the world? 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?