Ministry Musings

The Kingdom of God is.... (part 2)

A few loaves of bread and some fish were all that Jesus needed.

That, and the hands of his followers, made all the difference in the lives of thousands of people who needed something to eat.  The meager offerings of a young boy and the deep, deep faith of Jesus in his Father's power to act on behalf of his people provided quite a feast on that day long ago.

Everyday, in this land of affluence and abundance, people go hungry.  Children grow up on one good meal a day, usually provided at school.  Families scrape and save to make it to the end of the month with food to put on the table.  We should not be surprised.  After all, Jesus told his followers that that the poor would always be with them.

And he was right.

The Kingdom of God invites us to yield our hearts to Jesus' will.  A just society requires people formed and forged in the ways of Jesus.  So our offering, meager as it may be, is a major start in the right direction.  And what if I joined my meager offering to your meager offering to her meager offering to...

You see it?

People are fed.  Society begins to be healed as people are nourished and given the basics of life.  The Kingdom of God has established a foothold on territory that has for too long been in the hands of the Enemy.  Wholeness begins to overtake the brokenness.

Vibrant, alive faith is the result of a constant awareness of God's power.  Transformation comes when we gather up the bread of faith, hand it over to Jesus and help him serve people a holy feast.

The Kingdom of God is.....

Here's a random thought.

A just society is not attainable by a winning agenda.  For that matter, the Kingdom of God is not attainable by a winning agenda.  Rather, the kingdom of God is a allowing the living Jesus to command our hearts and connect our lives to the power of God.  A just society is formed and forged in the ways of Jesus - the death of self and the rebuking of the ways of the world.

Out of brokeness...

Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them. - Isaiah 42.9

It has been an interesting 12 months.  Lots of stuff going on physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.  Since last Holy Week I have come face to face with the frailty and uncertainty of human life.  I know the sense of feeling fragile and broken in a manner I've never experienced before.

 All through the psalms and in the writing of Isaiah and other prophetic passages, God's people come face to face with their own frailty and the uncertainty of life.  They experience that sense of feeling fragile and broken in a deep way.  The Suffering Servant says in Isaiah 49:

“I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my right is with the Lord, and my recompense with my God.”

Yet the Servant's heart is not dissuaded or distracted.  The Servant does not turn cynically away from God or question the "unfairness" of life or God or anything.  The Servant states simply a faith, a trust. in the God who calls and sends.  The Servant affirms that the work and the exertion of effort has not been in vain and without purpose. The Servant knows that at the end of the age it is God's desire for His creation that will triumph in spite of the struggles and suffering of the day.  Just as God has spoken reliably, truthfully, about all that has come to pass up to this point in the life of the Servant, God's truthful and truth-filled words are declaring "new things" in the life of the Servant, the lives of God's people, and the world.

I have no idea why I have been dealt my set of cards in life.  That is not really any of my business.  My business this day is to "suit up and show up."  Whatever the cards I have in today's hand are not for me change.  These cards I have been dealt today are able to help me participate in God's plan for the renewal and restoration of the world.

Today, rather than question the condition of my health, my finances, my relationships, my past struggles, my whatever, I will offer God thanks that He entrusts me with a message of hope and redemption.  I will offer thanks to God that He has given me much indeed that I do not deserve.  I will offer thanks to God that He has not given me what I deserve.  I will offer thanks to God and open my heart and my mind and my life to hear how I am to gather up all the good and not so good in my life that He may use it as proof of His goodness and His power in this fragile, frail, uncertain and broken world of ours.

"Almighty God, whose beloved Son willingly endured the agony and shame of the cross for our redemption:  Give us courage to take up our cross and follow him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen."  (BCP, pg. 252)

Something Happened.....

Something happened.

It was something clearly unexpected.  It was a totally new thought.

No one would have written the script this way,  No one could have even thought this possible.

What happened that day was amazing.  What happened that day changed a handful of lives.  What happened opened eyes and opened hearts.  What happened that day changed the course of history - one person at a time.

History began again.  The world began its restart. Newness was made new again.  Life with God now and eternally became possible again.  People were reborn.

There is no theory to explain it.  There are no bright ideas to rewrite it.  There is no argument to disprove it.

Something happened that day which, for almost two millennia, has impacted people and made them want to be a part of what happened then and today.

Something happened.

It was resurrection.  It was Jesus in a familiar but totally new body three days after he was dead.

Bloody.  Broken.  Lifeless. Sealed up in a tomb. Dead.

What could have happened?  What could turn a simple bunch of dejected, discouraged, and disheartened disciples into world changers?

Creation was restored.  God's people were reclaimed.  Lives were renewed.

Something happened.

Redemption happened.

New life happened.

Resurrection happened.

Adversity

Yuck.

Medically I have not had a fun year. The medical professionals are able to have a nice lifestyle thanks to me. I'm just glad I could be helpful, I guess.

It seems I have now torn my left rotator cuff. Bad. Real bad. Surgery followed by six weeks of sling then stretching and 6 to 8 months of rehab. Sounds like fun.

Now I suppose I should look at the bright spots. I have insurance. I have a good doctor. I have all the support I need. It really will be okay. Painful, but okay.

What bugs me really is the way I react to adversity. My initial response is to play through the pain. Then I'm the good soldier who fights on not worrying about my own wounds. What follows then is an impatience that I'm not better in my time frame or I'm not "the way I was." then what follows is a low sense of self and then self pity.

That's what really bothers me about this year of medical adversity. I do not want to go down the path of "poor, pitiful me." Besides being kind of pathetic, it is just not a faithful response. I mean, worrying about what is wrong or painful is to just lose focus on what God might do through the dark time. When else will I, or any of us, be ready to recognize the power of God other than when we feel pretty powerless?

So, I guess I better figure out what God wants to do during this time of my powerlessness. I guess I will need to pull my focus away from my dissapointments (not being able to dove hunt for one) and fears (like how I will manage Sunday mornings) towards how God is going to use this to move his kingdom plan forward.

I heard one of the summer camp counselors say yesterday that one of is main learnings this year was to come to understand that God wanted his ministry offering but didn't need him.

Pretty profound.

God wants our ministry offering. We were created to do "good works" (Eph. 2:10) but God doesn't need you or me. We are not indispensible to God's plan. But we are a part of God's plan.

Confusing? Yep. For me too. But here's what I know tonight: God's plan of salvation involves my participation no matter what adversity I am facing in my life. I also know that God's plan of salvation includes you too no matter what adversity you are facing. In fact, we have a God who will take whatever we offer - including our offering Him our adverse situations - and will use them to bring about His salvation.

Painful as rotator cuff surgery and rehab will be, I doubt I will suffer more than God as an innocent man, His only Son, hung and died on a cross. And if God can bring a whole new, redeemed life from that, you and I should be okay in spite of whatever life tossed at us.

Idle Island Thoughts

Sand, surf and wind.

What else could be better?

I know that there are some who would say mountains, snow, rivers, lakes or any of a number of places would be better than getting too much sun, beaten by waves, having sand get into your swimsuit and dodging seaweed.  They could make a compelling argument.  However, for me the beach, especially that portion of the barrier island around Corpus Christi, is more than a place to visit.

This part of the beach with its not-so-white sand and over-abundance of sargassum seaweed brought in on the everpresent current is a spiritual home base.  I grew up here.  I spent many-a Saturday and Sunday on this sandy coastline along the Gulf of Mexico fishing, swimming and eating cold breakfast tacos and cold cut sandwiches.

Many mornings I watched the sunrise over the gulf with a rod and reel in hand and fish nibbling on the bait.  I spent much time with my thoughts about the Creator of all that I was enjoying and wondering about this God and His role in the world.  I wondered what role I had to play in this world which was, in those pre-internet days, so vast and so unknowable.

I resist the temptation to call it my church.  We did not go to church during this time in our lives.  It wasn't for unbelief.  It was for reasons known only to my parents and about which I could only offer guesses.  So I won't say why we did not go to church but I do know that had we I might have gotten some grist for my thought mill.

Today, as I sat on the beach, got beat up by the waves and had my youngest son poured sand down my swimsuit, I knew much more about this wonderful God, Creator of Heaven and Earth and Provider of all that I have and will ever have.  I am pretty clear about what role I am to play in the lives of my wife and children and the people I serve.  And I have a church.  A community of Jesus-believing, Christ-following brothers and sisters who walk beside me and I them as we "seek first the kingdom of God."

God has been generous.

God has given abundantly.

God is good!

Whew!

Eventful.

That is a good word to describe the last couple of weeks.  And these events have not been unchallenging.  In fact, these last couple of weeks have tested me in some deeply significant ways.

The bad news is that I had to go through some of the stuff at all.

The good news is I got through it.  And the better news - I was able to lead others as well.

Life is always full of challenges.  There will never be a day when you and I won't have a challenge to overcome.  Of course, most of the time the challenges will be easily overcome.  But, some days......

When we have those days, or string of days, then the best we can do is offer it to God.  I know this sounds like giving your wife a vacuum cleaner for her birthday but it is all we can do.  Offering to God our worst times helps us to remember who is in charge of life.  More precisely, it helps us to remember who is NOT in charge of life or anything else for that matter.

So, hoping for an uneventful day?  I hope it comes to you and to me.

But if it doesn't, then remember to offer the challenges over to God and let Him handle things.

If you want to beat the rush, go ahead and offer Him your day right now.  God will accept your life, both the good and the bad, and love you through it all!!!

Discipline

Discipline.

Sounds painful, doesn't it?

Discipline.

You hear experts and successful people talk about discipline and how they have it and you should get it.  You hear them talk about discipline making all the difference in their lives.  You hear them say discipline in your life will change it.

Of course, you never hear them give you specific directions about acheiving discipline or show you what it looks like.  And, the ones that do are so overly disciplined that it scares normal people (like me!) to death.

Discipline.

When I look at that word I see 99% of the word "disciple" in it.  I understand "disciple."  It means "student" or "follower."  To be a disciple is to follow or study something and someone who teaches.

If I want discipline in my life, I need to be a disciple.  Now, I am not smart enough to be my own teacher.  I can certainly participate in my own education and formation, but I am not smart enough to come up with the kind of structure and information I need.  I need help.

Maybe you do too.

God has provided many people in my life to help me grow.  I have spiritual mentors, professional educators, child experts, a physical trainer, detail people, a technological whiz, artists, musicians, mental health professionals, theologians, 12-Step giants, business and finance experts, skeptics (yes, they are especially helpful to dreamers like me) and a whole host of folks who can teach me what I need to know on any given day.  These folks have their own disciplines that I can learn from, lean on and incorporate into my daily life and work.

The key for me is to admit when I need help from these gifts of God and to use their discipline to shape mine.  I do not have to come up with my own rules for living, I can utilize what has already worked for others.  I can seek wisdom and use that wisdom to learn how to live a life worth living.

Discernment is key.  To know to whom I should turn to and when is a key decision.  To make that decision I need to take my time and say plenty of prayers.  I also need to read and listen to the Sacred Text - God's source of much useful discipline.

The real truth for me is that God is always providing the means for my own discipline - the Bible, the Book of Common Prayer, people and a myriad of other resources.  God is disciplining me by helping me more and more see that I am not an expert at anything.  I am just another disciple trying "day by day" to "follow more nearly" His path for my life.

Thankfully, that path is full of teachers, guides, mentors - fellow disciples - who are traveling the same path towards God.

I pray that even as I lean on their discipline, they might lean on whatever discipline I have to share and together we would arrive at our Happy Destination where we can give honor and glory to the One whom we've been following all along.

Confusion and Peace

"For God is not a God of confusion but of peace." (1 Corinthians 14:33, ESV)  So writes the apostle Paul to the church in Corinth.

Here is a Christian community (and I use that word loosely!) which should make any modern day church feel okay about its life together.  This church was in a state of disorder.  It was a church in conflict.  It was a church with multiple divisions.  It was a church where the "have's" were separated from the "have not's."  It was a church with multiple tables and table assignments.  It was a church where everyone had the spiritual answer to all the wrong spiritual questions in their individual and corporate life.

No wonder Paul wrote what he did.

This verse is preceded by a litany of instructions for orderly worship. It follows Paul's great teaching on spiritual gifts, the greatest of which is love, and really digs in over the two spiritual gifts that seem to be a source of contentiousness - prophecy and tongues.  Paul's instructions are centered around a core idea that no gift is useful if other people, especially unbelievers or new believers, don't understand or get the point.  Imagine, he encourages, what it would look like to an unbeliever or new believer to see the body all speaking in tongues with no interpretation.  "[W]ill they not say that you are out of your minds?" (vs. 23)

Paul reminds us that people are watching.  Unbelievers and new believers are watching those of us who claim a long journey in following Jesus.  They are watching to see how we live our personal lives.  They are looking at how we make decisions.  They are paying attention to how much time we spend with our families.  They are taking note of that on which we spend our money and moments.  They consider carefully all of those things and more when they look on the whole body of Christ followers.  How we treat one another and take care of one another is important.  How we handle disagreements with one another and make decisions with one another are not lost in their eyes. How we spend our time in program offerings and spend our budget dollars is indicative of the state of our interior lives.

All of which is to ask, do we serve a god of confusion or a God of peace?

"Peace," speaks Jesus to his disciples on the third day after his crucifixion, "be with you."  And then he breathed on them. (John 20:19ff.)

He speaks words of peace and then offers those fear-filled disciples that peace which only he can give.  Jesus offers a peace that only comes from God.  "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.  Not as the world gives do I give to you.  Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid."  (John 14:27) It is a peace which the world cannot understand.  It is a peace which the world cannot give.

It is a peace that people still seek earnestly in our day. It is a peace that can only come from the one who is Peace and who offers peace to those "who were far off and...to those who were near."  (Ephesians 2:17)  It is a peace that people are looking for in you and in me as we live out our faith and work out our "own salvation with fear and trembling" (Philippians 2:12) everyday of our lives.

Pray for peace.  Pray for peace in your life.  Pray for the peace that others still seek which passes understanding and can change the world.

 

Love and Pain

Each day brings us closer.

In a less than two weeks we will once again walk the way of the Cross with Jesus.  We will walk the way of suffering.

Via Dolorosa.  The way of pain.

On Palm Sunday and Good Friday we will once again be confronted with the story of Jesus' unjust trial and subsequent death sentence.  We will once again be subjected to his savage beating at the hands of soldiers.  We will once again have to endure the betrayal of his friends and the crowd in general.  We will once again hear the awful thud of hammers piercing flesh and blood with nails.  We will hear the awful words of Jesus:  "Why have you forsaken me?"  We will witness the darkness that comes over his world - and our souls - as he let's go of his spirit and dies.

One of the important questions that will be asked by those who are unaccustomed to this story is, "why does Jesus have to suffer?"  To put it another way, "Just what exactly is God doing in the midst of this painful, painful story?"

A friend of mine said that great love leads to great pain.  My friend was not speaking of the crucifixion of Jesus but may as well have been.  For this is the answer to what God is doing in this story.  This is why Jesus embraced all that he embraced that day on that hill so far away.

God's great love for his creation, his people brings pain - to Him.  God desires "not the death of sinners" but rather that they turn around and return to Him.  Out of his great love for his children he sends his Son, Jesus Christ, to embrace the pain of separation and sin, the pain of broken hearts and dreams, the pain of loss and death, that we might accept God's loving embrace in our own lives.

The great pain that Jesus endures is because he loves humanity greatly.  With love comes pain but that pain also leads to great joy.  Joy in the new life that begins to bloom in and through God's people.  Joy in the reconciliation that comes when those who have been separated are reunited.  Joy in the healing of our hearts and dreams.  Joy in knowing that this "life is not ended, but rather it is changed" by the reality of the empty tomb Jesus leaves behind.

Each day brings us closer.  Walk the way.  Feel the love.  Let it bring joy.