Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Choices

Our kids are at an age where we talk a lot about choices.  Sometimes a day sounds like this...

"Seth, when you choose to jump off the furniture into the table you will get hurt."

"Anna, when you choose to live like a tornado has hit your room, then it takes a long time to clean it." 

"Seth, when you choose to put your dishes in the sink we thank you."

"Anna, when you choose to do your homework first, then you have more time to play later." 

Choices...our days, our years, our lives, our eternities are all determined by choices.  By themselves our choices are as small as jumping off furniture or cleaning our room, put string them all together and our little choices are patterns that set our priorities.  

My grandma use to say to me, "Chad, people do what they want to do."  She was right. If I want to be real, I will be no matter what fear tells me may or may not happen if I confess my sins to other believers as James 5:16 says.  If I want to be connected so I can experience transformation then I will not just come to worship and be involved in a small group, but I will participate while I am there.  If I want be poured out then I will give of my time and money in response to the needs of others.  Its all about choices.  Let's face it, I and you, do what we want to do.

So, what does what you do say about what you want...what you value...what you need?  As we talked on Sunday, even what we choose to put in our mouth can reveal if we are putting our trust in Christ or in some pleasure we consume. 

As I said last week, this journey called Lent is not an easy one to travel.  It reveals our true motives.  It blows our excuses out of the water.  It points out what we really want by making us be honest about the choices we are making.  But even in these forty days of on the uphill climb to the mountain top called Easter, Jesus is there.  He has already gone this way before us.  He chose to blaze this trail for us. (See Hebrews 12).

In preparation for Sunday, I invite you to chew on John 13.  Ask the Spirit to make you want to be free of the next toxin, envy. 


Thursday, February 21, 2013

No Bus for Us



My friend and Ministerial colleague, Paul Dazet, introduced me to this quote that directly applies to this time of year, "There are two ways to get up to the mountaintop called “Easter” - one is a journey up the mountain experiencing the wilderness, the temptation, the palms, the cross, and the empty tomb. The other is an air conditioned tour bus that drops you off up top." 

Difficult is rarely fun, but it regularly hugely beneficial.  In years past, I have had people ask me why we take Lent so seriously at Living Hope. I hear what they are saying.  Lent truly is a time that I too would rather skip.  It is a time where we are are asked to slow down long enough to allow God to clearly identify sin and its impact on us personally and systemically.  Lent is a time in which we are directly asked if we trust Jesus enough to engage in the discomfort of repentance, fasting, submission and sacrifice.  I do not know about you but those are not words I would put on balloons and bring in for a party.  No, I too, would rather take the air conditioned bus to the party called Easter.  

The problem is one cannot truly appreciate or receive the gift of Easter, without walking the difficult trail up the mountain that led to it.  For centuries the Church has said Christ's sacrifice is more than worthy to ask us to devote 40 days (not counting Sundays) to face the dark side our salvation. Will you?  Will I?  Will we?

If we will give up our place on the bus and choose the difficult trail up the mountain, we will surely sweat and perhaps even bleed, but when Easter comes we will not just speak of a resurrection, we will experience one.  
I invite you to reflect on Matthew 4:1-11 in preparation for Sunday.  Read it as many times as you can before Sunday.  Soak in it. Chew on it.  Ask the Holy Spirit to show you what it tells you about God, yourself, our world and what it means to live for Christ? 

I hope you will choose the difficult by joining us this Sunday. 

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

"Ashes, Ashes We All Fall Down"

"Ring 0' Round the Roses," has been a child hood tune and game that some date back to the 1790's.  Many suggest it is simply a meaningless rhyming game for children.  Others argue its origins have a darker side.  They claim that rosy cheeks were a symptom of the plague, posies were carried to ward off the smell of the disease and ashes represent cremations and that everyone who caught the disease would "fall down" to death.  Well, while I do not see myself explaining this interpretation to my kids any time soon, it does bring up a question:  If this is true, then how can something with such specific meaning become all but meaningless? 

For instance, today is Ash Wednesday.  Every year at least one person asks me a great question: "Chad, why do we have an Ash Wednesday service.  That is a Catholic thing."  My answer is always, "It is not a Catholic thing, it is a Christian thing."  But the point remains, over time even the most meaningful of practices can become meaningless.  To be honest, I have been surprised by Catholic friends who attend Ash Wednesday services year after year and who cannot explain to me the meaning of the imposition of ashes. 

When something of meaning has lost its meaning, we can either continue practicing it with no meaning--like kids playing games about people dying or we can throw the baby out with the bath water and give up on teh practice all together or we can ask our faith ancestors why it has found such meaning for the Church for centuries, listen to their answer and rediscover its meaning for ourselves. 

I invite you to join us tonight to rediscover the meaning and to embark on the journey called Lent, which if followed, albeit challenging, will lead us to an understanding and experience of Easter like no other!

So, join us as we join four other churches to rediscover what "ashes, ashes we all fall down" means from a biblical interpretation.  Our Ash Wednesday service is tonight form 7-8 PM.  All ages welcome!

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

The Lord's Prayer Rodeo Style

Saturday night we went to a Rodeo that is held every Saturday in Waynesville.  The kids were invited to a birthday party there and the parents were invited to buy a ticket and stay for the rodeo.  It was really fun.

The main event of the night was bull riding.  I immediately thought of Living Hope Member, Michael Lofton, who use to be a professional bull rider.  As I watched these huge animals toss strong, grown men around like rag dolls, I grew all the more in my respect and admiration for men like Michael who cast caution to the wind and climb on a raging bull.  Of course, I have to laugh to hear Michael's wife, Linda, talk about her husband's past career choice.  She always says, "Can you believe people to do that?  You have to be a few cards short of a full deck to ride a bull."  I hear what she is saying...it is crazy...but it is always enthralling.

The rodeo barn was packed.  It was standing room only. There were less than 100 bull riders but there were about 500 spectators.  All of us watching, loved seeing someone else take the risk.  We flinched when they were tossed off a bull.  Some even screamed as the clown jumped over the railing to escape the horns of the bull.  We all cheered when one of the cowboys rode the bull for 8 seconds.  But at the end of the night, my experience was at best vicarious.  The majority of us sat and watched while only a few experienced the ride of a lifetime.

May be it is because this year I will be, God willing, completing my last year of the 30's, but more and more I grow discontent with being a spectator, especially when it comes to following Christ.  May be it is because this June I begin my 14th year of ministry at Living Hope that I have a growing sense of urgency to call the spectators in our church family to either get on the bull or get out of the way.  I do so not because I am angry, but because more and more I realize how short this time is that God gives us  here and now to live for him. 

God sent his Son not only to die, but to show us how to live.  Jesus was a "bull rider."  He confronted hypocrisy head on.  He told hell to shut up and get out of people's lives.  He told sickness to stand aside for health. He told storms to be still.  He told hunger to be filled.  He told the rejected to come home.  He lived all the way to the cross.  And perhaps it was because knew he was going to die on the cross that he lived more alive than we do.  Don;t we try to convince ourselves we've got plenty more time?  Don't we by and large live in denial of our own mortality?  Is that what robs us of urgency to live? 

Jesus was no nice, timid, spectator. He was the crazy one on the bull.  His disciples saw him live and they asked him, "Lord, how do we pray like you?"  He answered, "Our Father, (Spiritual bull riders know that God is up close and personal--he is more like a daddy than a tyrant--and so they have courage to take risks for God that others don't) who art in heaven (he is as  close as a daddy, but he is different from even the best dad we can imagine--he is god not man.  Spiritual bull riders find their courage in one that is greater than themselves), hallowed be they name (Spiritual bull riders don't need the attention, but they are willing to do anything short of sin to get the attention back on God where it belongs), they kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven (Spiritual bull riders ride in reckless abandonment  because they are convinced how whether or not they ride is directly tied to how much God is able to answer Jesus prayer to make his kingdom show up here and now), give us this daily bread (when you know your most basic needs are in God's hands and not in your control, you are more likely to climb on the bull) forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us (spiritual bull riders are no better than any one else they just understand grace and forgiveness in a real and personal way that moves them to action) lead us not into temptation (spiritual bull riders know that if they are not following God away from temptation then they will lead themselves straight to it) but deliver us from evil (spiritual bull riders know that the only chance they have in life and death is not in their power to hold on, but God's loving power to hold on to them). 

Living Hope Church, I praise God that you are church of crazy, bull riders!  Never settle for being spectators; it may be safer and require less energy, but is also the opposite of what it means to be alive in Christ.  Keep being determined to follow God's adventure into new territory because that is what makes these 8 seconds we've been given count for eternity!