Discernment: Desire

sermon notes from the Vineyard Church of Milan 08/26/2012

video available at www.sundaystreams.com/go/MilanVineyard/ondemand

Third in a series on discernment. The process of figuring out what God’s will is for us and our world in any particular moment or decision or situation.

Last week we talked about how when we talk about discerning God’s will we’re not talking about his master plan or divine blueprint, but rather his pleasure or desire. Knowing that God always desires good for us, what is his desire? Remember, you don’t have to be a spiritual black belt to do this. Together, all of us can do this. God calls us into an adventure with him; he will show us his desires, and he will help us to see them.

Our text for this series:

Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is true worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve (discern) what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Romans 12:1

Through our decisions, large and small, we become who we are. And our decisions, actions, the parts of our lives that we exercise influence and control over, flow from our desires. What is our pleasure? What do we desire?

To our pride or shame, our desires are directly measurable by our decisions and actions, far moreso than our words.

Perhaps you say, I hate my job. All I want is to do something else, anything else. And perhaps you really do desire to do something else. But you aren’t. Why not? Because other desires are stronger. Perhaps the desire to feed your family, or avoid something you are afraid of, like losing everything, or the shame of failing, or the desire to live where you live, or any number of other, stronger desires.

Perhaps you say, I want to get in shape.

Or I want to serve God.

Or I want to be more generous with my money.

Or perhaps you’ve never consciously thought about your desires and aren’t even sure what your desires are. Well, look at your life. Where do you live, how do you spend your time, who do you bless with your energy and resources? It may not be obvious, but with enough thoughtful probing, your most influential desires will show themselves…

[caution against trying to evaluate others’ desires; this an exercise we can only do for ourselves, although getting help from a spiritual director, for example can be useful…note also the role of strongly formed habits, addictions]

Discernment is an academic exercise if we don’t desire what God desires.

[play u2 desire…]

In the song, money is anthropomorphized as a seductive woman. His desire for her, he says, is like a fever, getting higher. It’s a sickness that might just take his life. It takes him out of his mind, makes him delirious, makes him pursue her, certainly against his better judgment, almost against his will, it’s as if he’s helpless against her. Desire.

Compare that to the psalmist’s song:

As the deer pants for streams of water,

so my soul pants for you, my God.

My soul thirst for God, for the living God…

Psalm 42:1-2

Which brings us back to Romans 12:

Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is true worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve (discern) what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Romans 12:1

Discernment begins with the offering of ourselves to God as a sacrifice. And the part of our selves that we offer, first and foremost, is our desires.

Our desires originate in our bodies. Hunger, thirst, affection, the alleviation of discomfort, sleep. Which is why the scripture speaks of offering our bodies as living sacrifices.

Over time, we can come to view ourselves as unworthy, corrupted sacrifices because of our unholy desires – desires that have been set apart not to God, but to ourselves, conformed to the pattern of this world. Not so! says Paul as he pens this letter to the church in Rome, the capital of the empire set against the desires of God. When you offer your self to God as a living sacrifice, misdirected and misinformed and malformed desires and all, it is holy and pleasing to God. Nothing less than true worship.

And so step one in the discipline of discernment is to say, God, I offer myself to you; my desires are yours and you are my desire. And perhaps if you can’t say that yet, you can say, at least: I desire to desire what you desire; I invite you to make my desires like Jesus’ desires.

This first step in discernment, the offering of your self and your desires to God, is central to the salvation from sin and the brokenness of our world that stems from our enslavement to desires that have been conformed to the pattern of this world.

In a book called “Drive”, Daniel Pink writes about what motivates us. In it he describes what he calls three different motivational operating systems that have had, or are beginning to have influence on us and our world.

Motivation 1.0: Biological desires (from 50,000 years ago until the emergence of more complex culture and civilization)

Motivation 2.0: Seek reward, avoid punishment (necessitated by the need to restrain the biological desires, facilitates cooperation, contracts, law, commerce)

Motivation 2.1 (Frederick Winslow Taylor in the early 1900s): Carrots and Sticks (extrinsic motivators; artificial rewards and punishments to control behavior)

Motivation 3.0 intrinsic motivations: the satisfactions of creativity, mastery, and generosity. Autonomy, Mastery, Purpose. [Wikipedia vs Microsoft Encarta]

God is motivated by 3.0 desires. Survival isn’t his primary driver. Nor is seeking rewards or avoiding punishment, no carrots have a hold on him, and no sticks cause him fear. (see Jesus for proof). As the freest being in the world, he operates out of only intrinsic, internal motivations.

And God made us in his image, inviting us into his love. What is more autonomous than love? What is harder to master? What is a higher purpose?

The pattern of this world is a motivation 2.0 pattern. The renewing of our minds is a motivation 3.0 upgrade.

Consider God’s commands to the first human beings (“Go forth and multiply”) and Jesus commands to his followers (“Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”) The motivation for carrying out these commissions effectively is all Motivation 3.0, isn’t it? God restores and leverages our intrinsic motivations of autonomy, mastery, and purpose to accomplish his creative purposes.

[note: unfortunately, sometimes some churches and religious people, shaped unconsciously by Motivation 2.1, try to frame the life of following Jesus in 2.1 terms – avoiding hell and seeking the rewards of heaven, adding carrots for approved behaviors and sticks for disapproved. Is it any wonder the true power of the gospel gets lost in that kind of system?]

Ministry is all driven by motivation 3.0 – when it’s working right, that is. the satisfactions of creativity, mastery, and generosity. Work done with autonomy, mastery, purpose. Frederick Buechner writes: “The place where God calls you is the place where your deep gladness and world’s deep hunger meet.” [examples…]

This is the life of Jesus. I and the Father are one. I only do what I see my Father doing.

This is what Jesus gives to the church: a relationship with the Holy Spirit and a mission, driven by his love, fueled by his good news, empowered by his resurrection.

Peterson quote: You cease to think when your body begins to dance to the rhythms of the Spirit, and the only choreography is that of the Creator. Before you know it, the dance has taken over. There is no greater feeling in life than the moment when the dance you are dancing takes over, when the dance and the dancer become one.

Sometimes we imagine that our goal is to say, “All I want to do is what God wants me to do. I’m just waiting for my next instructions.” This is, of course, a great place to be. But perhaps God wants something even more for us. Perhaps God is waiting for us to decide what we want to do, and he will join us there? Sometimes us choosing is not an opposition to God’s will. In fact, if our wills have been shaped by his, if his desires become our desires, then God’s will can be made known in our choices. This is what it means to be co-creators with him.

The phrase “God’s will” can be itself subtly misleading, though it is deeply embedded in the Christian discernment tradition. It implies that God’s will is a thing rather than a relationship. Something “out there” that a person must discover and then do. Because of the open-ended and dynamic nature of God’s relationship with us, I prefer to speak of God’s call rather than God’s will- for I believe that “call” is more reflective of the open, relational, and non-predetermined nature of God’s relationship with us than the classical term “will” often connotes.

The Way of Discernment

So let’s get practical.

A first practical suggestion, if you are currently facing a significant decision, is to simply do this:

Give God permission to renew your desires. Pray, “Jesus, as I try to figure out what step I should take, and what your desire is for me in this decision, I want to want what you want. So I give you permission to renew my desires to be like yours as I discern your will about this.”

Secondly, recommend you try an exercise designed to help you identify your heart’s deepest desire, so you can offer it to God.

1. Find a quiet, uninterrupted place to dedicate some time to God. Ask for the light of the Holy Spirit to notice your deepest desires, to name them accurately, and to respond appropriately to what you find.

2. Notice your body, tensions, fatigue, pains, energy, etc. Also your mind, thoughts, plans, wandering, judgments, chatter, etc.

3. Invite your body to relax attentively, and give your mind permission to take a break from everything else for a few minutes. You can do this silently or out loud, if it helps.

4. Ask yourself, in God’s presence, “What do I want, right this minute?”

5. When you recognize what it is that you want, give it a name and write it down. Relax attentively again, and ask “What do I want, right this minute?”

6. Notice, name it, jot it. Repeat until no more desires surface.

7. Look at all of them, and notice which seem to be the most central, most important, most attractive, the most full of energy. Select the most central one, and bring it directly into your attention.

8. Without judging it as good or bad, or yourself for having it, ask “And what is underneath this desire? What desire is even more basic than this one?”

9. Gently repeat this question for each subsequent desire that surfaces. Ask each one, “Is there an even more basic desire underneath this one?”

10. When you come to the deepest desire, honor it as central to who you are.

11. Finally, offer it back to God, just as it is, as an expression of who you are at this moment.

(adapted from “The Way of Discernment” by Elizabeth Liebert)

Finally, and this is especially for people for whom the whole idea of figuring out God’s desires is new: read the gospel of John, beginning to end, keeping this question in front of your mind: “If our decisions and actions reveal our desires, what do Jesus’ decisions and action reveal about God’s desires?”

Discernment: Underneath It All

sermon notes from the Vineyard Church of Milan 08/19/2012

video is available at www.sundaystreams.com/go/milanvineyard/ondemand

Second week in series on discernment. When we’ve got decisions to make, how do we make them? How do we know what we were made for? How do we know what to do in a difficult situation? How can we tell if the voice in our head is our own, or God’s, or someone else’s? How do we know which path is the best one, which step is the most beautiful one? Do we wait, go, take that risk, hold back? Am I being afraid or just wise? Am I being courageous or just foolish? Is this God’s will for my life?

Clarification: sometimes in Christian circles, discernment gets applied to judging that which is “out there” – ideas, artistic expressions, and especially the actions of others. Discernment is a gift that is given to us for a higher purpose than that. Discernment is for shaping our lives, in here, decision by decision, in a way that gives life to us, and to our world. The only “out there” it is concerned with is the will of the God who is other than we are, but who desires to be “in here” in such a way that we are made one with him and his good, pleasing, and perfect will.

Today, exploring just two key ideas about discernment:

1, God always desires good for us. Always. Even, and maybe especially, when it doesn’t look like it.

And 2, Together, we can do this. We, You and I. Together. We can do this. We can discern God’s will and join him in the adventure of a lifetime.

Discernment is an ancient Christian practice.

Live as children of the light…and find out what pleases the Lord.

Galatians 5:8,10

Chalkboard assignment: together we follow the way of Jesus…

Our assignment is to embark on an adventure, not to fill out a ditto sheet.

Remember dittos from elementary school? Or Mimeographs? Churning out copy after copy? All you had to do was find the answers and fill in the blanks. And if you didn’t know the answers, or couldn’t figure them out, you could just copy someone else’s. Sometimes we are presented a picture of faith like that. But that’s not the kind of faith we’ve been called to by Jesus.

Jesus invites us into an adventure. One where the ending has been anticipated by the resurrection, but one in which there are untold chapters to discover along the way, one in which we get to write the details of the story hand in hand with God.

Adventures require discernment.

An adventure without discernment is like the story of Rip Van Winkle….someone who takes the path of least resistance in life, drinks some strange liquor, and falls asleep for 20 years, waking up unrecognizable and alone, unsure of what’s even happening in the world.

A true adventure with discernment at its heart, however, is like an epic love story.

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ – to the glory and praise of God.

Philippians 1:9-11

Our primary text for this series is found in Romans:

Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is true worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve (discern) what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Romans 12:1

[pray…]

God always desires good for us.

Understanding this is foundational for discernment. God always desires good for us. God always desires good for us. We talked about this at the end of last week’s message, but let’s unpack it a little here.

Some of us may remember that the word translated will (God’s will, good pleasing perfect will) is the Greek word thelema. Sometimes we think about God’s will like an immutable, master plan, a divine blueprint perhaps. There is a word that gets at that sense of the meaning of will, but it’s boule, not thelema. Thelema is the word for will that means pleasure or desire. In any particular moment or circumstance or situation, what is God’s desire? What would give him pleasure? That is his thelema will.

And the witness of Jesus, and the whole of the scripture, is that God desires good for us. That he loves us. That he is, in fact, love. And love always desires the best for the other.

In fact, if we were able to apprehend in any particular situation or circumstance or decision what the very best thing for ourselves would be – the thing that would give us the most life, be the most life-giving and joyful thing in the world – then we would know God’s thelema will for us. And because this universe is created by God out of his love for his good pleasure, it would also be the thing that would give the most life to the whole of creation, the planet included and all of its creatures, our brothers and sisters, even our enemies. As Romans 8 says, in all things, God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Trusting that truth about God’s heart for us, having faith that his will is always good for us, is at the heart of discernment.

[Hunger games illustration: Katniss dehydrated, her frustration at not receiving a silver parachute when she was thirsty, realizing Haymitch must have a good reason, hunting for water…]

God gave us free will as human beings. We are free to do as we please. We have our own desires. They aren’t always good, pleasing, and perfect, though, are they? No, because we aren’t ruled by love, not through and through, the way God is. Love that is patient, kind, not envying, not boasting, not proud, not dishonoring others, not self seeking, not easily angered, keeping no record of wrongs, not delighting in evil, rejoicing with the truth, always protecting, trusting, hoping, persevering, never failing.

Because God is love, his thelema will is good, pleasing, and perfect. Not too shabby, eh?

Good. Through and through good.

Pleasing. Bringing a wide smile to the soul, happiness in the heart, joy and health to the body, delight to the mind.

Perfect. Whole and complete, not missing a good thing, no loose ends, nothing forgotten, no collateral damage.

If the voice underneath the choice isn’t love, it isn’t God’s thelema will. No matter how wise it seems. No matter how it seems like it might not work out in our best interest. God is love, and God’s thelema will is always good for us. Love always leads to the best. The best for you. The best for me. The best for this broken world. The best. This truth doesn’t conform to the pattern of this world. This truth is where the renewing of our minds starts. This truth is where discernment starts.

Together, we can do this.

Discernment is a gift.

1 Corinthians 12 talks about how God gives his Holy Spirit with different manifestations to each of us for the common good, and one of those manifestations is the “diakrisies pneumaton” or the discernment of spirits. In other words, we recognize the voice of God because God places his spirit within us to empower us to recognize what is from him and what isn’t. God himself, within us, teaching us how to discern his thelema will, assisting us.

In the adventure of faith God invites us into, the Holy Ghost is a ghost writer for our lives. Helping us write the story we’d want to write if we were better writers, the voice behind our voice. It’s our story, with our name on the cover, but we aren’t writing it alone. It’s an adventure fueled by the grace of God, poured out through his holy spirit, meeting us in our weakness and blindness and holding our hand, helping us step by step.

Discernment is a habit we can develop.

Dallas Willard writes about how grace is not opposed to effort, only to earning. We can, through thoughtful, intentional, grace driven effort, develop a habits of discernment that allow our wills to cooperate with God’s good pleasing and perfect will much more gracefully over time. So it may seem like a ton of work right now, but it will take less will power over time; it always takes work to break a habit – (conforming to the pattern of this world) and form new ones (be transformed by the renewing of your mind).

Brain researchers have shown that when we develop a habit, at first, our brains are firing on all cylinders, especially the outer parts where we do complex thinking. But over time, a primitive part of the brain called the basil ganglia takes over and the rest of the brain becomes completely freed up. The term for this is “chunking.”

[consider backing your car out of your driveway…]

Most of our decision making habits are formed by the pattern of this world. Feels good? Do it. Protects you from pain? Do it. Gets you more money? Do it. Gets you the stuff others have? Do it. Makes others approve of you? Do it. Serves your ego, the image of yourself that you want to project? Do it. Everyone else is doing it and looking happy enough? Do it.

As followers of Jesus, we need a new habit, a renewing of our minds. Does this step cooperate gracefully with God’s good, pleasing and perfect will? Do it. Does this step trust in God’s goodness above all else? Do it. Is this step true to the deepest desires God has placed in my heart? Do it.

Discernment is a process

In addition to the process of developing habits of discernment, discernment itself is a process.

We even hear that in the language of Romans 12: be transformed, renewing. Discernment happens bit by bit, step by step. Prayer, prayerful thinking, conversation, evaluation, tentative decisions, more prayer, confirmation, courageous, prayerful action.

We will sometimes get discernment wrong, and that’s OK.

Discernment is part of faith, it’s never certain, and failure is part of how we learn and grow. God remains with us in all of our decisions, even when we get discernment wrong. He’s there to show us where we went wrong, help us move in the direction where deeper life lies. Sometimes we’ll get confirmation that our discernment was right, and sometimes we’ll be left just living in faith, trusting that God’s first desire is always that we do what we are doing in trusting relationship with him, even moreso than that we do this or that particular thing.

That we discern is always more pleasing to God than how effective our discernment is. Because it means we are desiring what he desires, even when we don’t know specifically what he desires, and his desire above all else is that we would desire him. Because he is the source of all life, and his good pleasing and perfect will is that we would have life, and have it to the full.

Discernment is a team sport.

Although it’s concrete, particular, and personal, we are never meant to be alone in it; then y’all will be able to test…

The witness of the community to the thelema will of God in all our lives, the traditions of the community of faith shaped by our corporate discernment of God’s will, the scriptures written by the inspired voices of our predecessors in faith, the ways in which we help each other in prayer and conversation discern God’s will, all of these shine light on God’s thelema will for us as we seek to discern it for our lives. If we try to go on our own, without this, we can find ourselves drowning in a sea of confusion, like someone underwater who can’t figure out which way is up.

It doesn’t matter where you start.

Discernment is like breathing for a Christian. It starts at birth, and may feel just as unfamiliar at first, but you never outgrow it. You just learn how to do it better and better. And sometimes you may need some help, or breathing room, or to do it consciously again because fear has made you hold your breath without you noticing.

But wherever you are, there is no step to take without it. So start wherever you are. God’s holy spirit is available to you to help you take a deep breath and catch the scent of his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Practical Tips:

1. Ask for the gift of discernment. Nothing complicated about this. God, please give me the gift of your holy spirit so I can discern your will, your good, pleasing and perfect will. Maybe have someone pray with you for the impartation of this gift.

2. Continue a daily Awareness Examination. Ask God to look at your day with you. What does God show you about your day? What was important to God from your day? Talk to God about your day.

3. Add a cue and a reward to help it become a habit. Maybe when you set your alarm clock for the morning. Or when you brush your teeth. Some cue that will almost always be present towards the end of your day and will have space on the other side of it before you sleep. As for a reward, you can go for the intrinsic reward, which will be a sense of peace and God’s presence as you fall asleep, or add an artificial reward, like some ice cream (just don’t forget to brush your teeth again) or a TV show you enjoy, for example.

Discernment: Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

sermon notes from the Vineyard Church of Milan 08/12/2012

a video stream is available at http://www.sundaystreams.com/go/MilanVineyard/ondemand

Some of us are facing momentous, life shaping decisions. Do we move? Do we marry? Do we change jobs? Careers? Have kids? Adopt? Homeschool? Go to college? Retire? What do we do in our retirement? Stay in this or that relationship or not? Start this business or not? Some of us are facing other kinds of decisions. Do we join that ministry? Accept that invitation to lead? Go on that mission trip? Spend that money or save that money or give that money to the church? Do we try to reconcile with this person or not? Do we buy that car? Do we go to this church or that church? And day by day we have the simple decisions. Which calls to return. Which offers of help to offer. Or to accept. What to do with our free time. What’s the best way to do this thing or that thing. What to read, what to watch, what habits to develop or break. And on and on.

Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is true worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve (discern) what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Romans 12:1

Beginning a series on discernment.

Discernment (n): The quality to grasp and comprehend what is obscure

What’s wrong with my car?

Why does my kid have this rash?

Who’s in the right and who is in the wrong in that argument?

[play 5-6 song clip…. Play it again…]

Sometimes it takes discernment to even know what to discern…What do I want to do tonight? What does she really want me to say?

In this series, we’ll be talking about discernment primarily as this practice or process of testing and approving, of figuring out, of determining what God’s desire is.

In the midst of the countless forces, options, and decisions that characterize our lives, how do we know which step to take when? What is God’s call for each of us? Over the course of lives. This year. Day by day. Moment by moment. Decision by decision.

The pushes and pulls we face in modern life are unprecedented. Compare a young person growing up in the time of Jesus with a young person making their way forward in today’s world. The ancient girl’s daily activities are determined by her mother’s daily activities. So much is prescribed for her. She will be bat-mitzvahed at 13. Her husband will be chosen for her. Her life, from adolescence on, will be filled mainly with bearing and raising children. Unless she is wealthy, she won’t have to make many decisions about her clothing or her children’s clothing. Barring war or some other tragedy, she will live in one place her whole life. She will worship in one synagogue.

Compare that with the decisions that will likely present themselves to my 7 year old daughter. She wakes to a dresser full of clothing of various styles and colors to choose from. A cupboard of various cereals and bowls, spoons and cups. An iPad with hundreds of apps, a screen full of various entertainment options, a room full of plastic crates with different plastic toys, the possibility on any particular day of visiting friends from miles around if she can convince mom or dad to drive her there. She may one day choose from a pool of potentially millions of men to marry. Or not. She may go to school any place in the country, or not. She may study anything in the world she desires, choose from all kinds of places to live, surround herself with whatever friends she likes, give her energies to any of an almost limitless number of causes or projects or occupations. She will determine largely on her own the way in which she practices and expresses the faith that she also determines largely on her own. And on and on and on.

A market research film last year estimates that a person living in a city 30 years ago saw up to 2,000 ad messages a day, compared to 5,000 today. 2,000 is crazy enough. But 5,000? That’s 5,000 invitations asking for a decision.

This summer we visited NYC, arriving at 6 a.m. in the city that never sleeps. As we walked and got hungry, it became clear that we had dozens and dozens of options for eating within easy walking distance. What direction to go? Which bagel place to try? What kind to get? Toasted or not? What kind of cream cheese? Eat inside or outside? Advertisements beckoned everywhere, for everything. We stopped and asked an older man who looked like a city veteran for a recommendation. He deliberated, made a suggestion, and pointed uncertainly in a direction, mentioned some street names, and then was gone. We plugged the name of the bagel place in our phone’s gps, only to discover that there were 6 or 7 of that same place within walking distance. We’d gotten help, and our options were narrowed, but still decisions stood in front of us. We set out for one of them, only to find it didn’t open for 30 more minutes. What now?

What now, indeed. What now in our lives? We find ourselves here, wherever here is, and decisions face us. Options open up before us, or narrow down, but still we must decide or decide not to decide and have it decided for us. What now? That is the question discernment tries to help us answer.

Harvard psychology professor Daniel Gilbert writes in a book called Stumbling on Happiness about how human beings tend to make decisions about their futures. What they decide to do now in light of how they imagine they will experience the future they imagine their decisions will produce. However, although we are uniquely gifted in the animal kingdom at imagining the future, we do a terrible job a lot of the time.

Sometimes our brains add stuff to our future imaginings that aren’t actually there. Even worse, sometimes they leave things out. And add to that, we do a really bad job estimating how we will experience these poorly imagined futures. The reasons are many and complex, but let me give you just one simple for instance.

Have you ever made a commitment to do something a ways off in the future, only to feel like you might regret that decision as the day gets closer and closer? Maybe a commitment to help someone out with something, like taking care of their kids, or to help them move? 3 months ago when they asked you, you thought, wow, I’d love to do that. That would really make me feel good. But if they were to ask you today to help with that tomorrow, you might think, oh man, I’m going to be really busy and their kids are kind of rambunctious and I’m pretty tired. Or, wow, they really haven’t packed very well and it’s going to be hot, and I was really looking forward to golfing, not hauling couches through narrow doorways.

It has to do with the different ways our brains imagine the near future and the far future. If you see a zebra up close, you see the fur and the stripes and the definition of its muscles and so forth. If you see one far away on the horizon, it looks a little vague and smoothed out, not much detail present. But your brain doesn’t think, wow, I bet that’s a really vague, smoothed out looking animal over there. It knows that it’s a zebra and will look like other zebras when it gets close. Our brains don’t do that with the far away future. They tend to keep the far away future smoothed out and vague.

So we think about helping with the kids or the moving, we tend to imagine a vague future in terms of smooth whys, not the messy details of hows. If I do it, they will be helped, and I will feel good. And they need help, and I can help, and I’ve got plenty of time to figure out the details. But as we get close, all the messy details come into view. The getting up early instead of sleeping in on Saturday. The way our body and mind feels after a week of work. The snotty noses and unpacked kitchen. All the other more attractive, fun things that become possibilities on that day that we have to decline to do this thing we promised to do. And on and on. Somehow, our brain forgets that zebras are zebras are zebras, no matter how far away they are.

The reality is, our only hope of true happiness is trusting God for the good future he is preparing for us (Repent, and believe the good news! Jesus proclaims, over and over). And so, our only hope of truly good life requires that we learn to discern what God’s will is – his good, pleasing, and perfect will. And that we let our discernment of God’s will – his good, pleasing and perfect will – shape our every decision, large and small. Thoughtfully considered decisions, and habitually made decisions, alike.

The stakes for learning discernment are high. Through our decisions, large and small, we become who we are. Very little that matters about who I am is true of me apart from my decisions. Sure, some of my physical features and internal make-up are a function of genetics. But who I love and who I am loved by, and where I live and what I do and much of the condition of my body and mind and emotions and my even my deepest desires are a direct function of my decisions.

Jesus says in John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” Those discerned decisions I’ve made as part of my worship, in co-creative cooperation with God’s will, are the decisions that have filled me and the world I have influence on with life, life to the full. And those undiscerning decisions I’ve made conforming to the pattern of this world are the ones that have stolen life from me, and deadened me, and brought destruction to me and the world I have influence on.

For those who are committed followers of Jesus already among us, I hope this series will give us some practical tools and encouragement to press gracefully into the way Jesus has marked out for us. I hope it will encourage us to fix our eyes afresh on the next step of discipleship Jesus has for us that draws us nearer to himself, and nearer to becoming who we truly are, and nearer to his kingdom coming in its fullness within us and around us. I hope that in the end, you will embark more vigorously on a way of following Jesus that brings about a renewing of your mind so that you can gracefully discern what God’s will is, and join your life to it freely and joyfully.

For those who are newer to faith, or considering faith in Jesus, I hope to paint a clearer picture for you in this series of what following Jesus really means. Of the kind of adventure with God that being a disciple of Jesus is. Of the kind of surprising, loving God that is revealed in Jesus of Nazareth, and the kind of surprising, new humanity that he reveals as well. I hope in the end, you will discern that the way to the best, the most pleasing, and the most perfect life possible is the life of co-creative, cooperative faith in Jesus.

I want to close with one simple thought, and then a couple of practical tips.

The simple thought is this. Although trusting God’s will for your life by offering your body as a living sacrifice in worship to him can seem like a risky thing compared to trusting your own instinct for the best way to have life (what if he wills me to do this hard thing, or that hard thing, or whatever!?), it is in truth the only safe and life-giving way forward in a world subject to brokenness , despair, and death. According to Romans 12, learning to discern and follow God’s will in every part of our lives is part of how we love God. And according to Romans 8:28, we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. So when Romans 12 says that God’s will is good, pleasing, and perfect, it doesn’t just mean it’s good, pleasing and perfect to him, but it may be pretty sub-par for you. It means it’s good, pleasing and perfect all around, you especially included. Even if you can’t imagine how, right now. So choose to pursue a course of learning to discern God’s will for your life, and commit to being the kind of worshipper whose worship isn’t just on Sunday mornings, but whose worship is expressed in every decision you make.

Practical Tips:

1. Take a happiness inventory. Write down 3 sources of true happiness in your life right now. And think about how they came to be in your life. Reflect on how they reveal a God who might have imagined better for your life than you imagined yourself. Did you imagine them and go get them? Or did God arrange things in such a way that when you cooperated with him, they became present to you?

2. Start a daily Awareness Examination. This is a simple discernment tool / discipline we will talk more about in coming weeks, but you can get started on it now. Ask God to look at your day with you. What does God show you about your day? What was important to God from your day? Talk to God about your day.

Chalkboard Assignment: Starting Here

sermon notes from the Vineyard Church of Milan 07/08/2012

available for watching online at www.sundaystreams.com/go/MilanVineyard/ondemand

This is our chalkboard assignment from Jesus…

Today, starting here.

Starting here, like right here.

Starting here, like who you are now where you are now on your journey.

Starting here, like it’s a new day, a new beginning.

When you allow your life to be taken up in God’s hands, something new starts. Someone new starts. Everything starts. And it starts here. The Together we starts here. The following starts here. The Way of Jesus starts here. The creating breathing room starts here. The Favor, the Counting, the Connecting, it all starts here.

Here might not seem like much of a place to start. Here might seem pretty humble. Pretty inadequate. Pretty impossible.

But here is where God finds you. And here is where God is, in the fullness of his presence and his grace. And here is where the starting begins.

Let’s consider the story of Zechariah and Zerubbabel.

539 B.C. A small minority of Jews return under the leadership of Zerubbabel the governor and Joshua the high priest from exile to rebuild the temple of Jerusalem. They lay the foundation in the first couple of years, but then work halts due to external oppression and internal depression.

16 years the ruins remain and the project is stalled.

520 B.C. The prophets Haggai and Zechariah are sent to encourage the Israelites to continue the work of rebuilding. The “me” in this passage is Zechariah.

4 Then the angel who talked with me returned and wakened me, as one is wakened from sleep. ²He asked me, “What do you see?”

I answered, “I see a solid gold lampstand with a bowl at the top and seven lamps on it, with seven channels to the lamps. ³Also there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left.”

⁴I asked the angel who talked with me, “What are these, my lord?”

⁵He answered, “Do you not know what these are?”

“No, my lord,” I replied.

⁶So he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.

⁷“What are you, mighty mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become level ground. Then he will bring out the capstone to shouts of ‘God bless it! God bless it!’ ” (Grace, Grace to it!)

⁸Then the word of the Lord came to me: ⁹“The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this temple; his hands will also complete it. Then you will know that the Lord Almighty has sent me to you.

¹⁰“Who dares despise the day of small things, since the seven eyes of the Lord that range throughout the earth will rejoice when they see the chosen capstone in the hand of Zerubbabel?”

Zechariah 4:1-10

Might takes time to develop. Power takes time to accumulate. But God’s spirit is poured out as God desires. And he desires to pour it out here and now, and in great measure. There is nothing to wait for to get started. Nothing but the Spirit of God.

Don’t wait to count yourself as part of the together we. God’s spirit has made you a child of the living God, a co-heir with Christ to the riches of the kingdom, a fully fledged member in the Trinity’s family.

Don’t wait to commit yourself to following. God’s spirit has appointed this time as the anointed time to respond to Jesus’ invitation.

Don’t wait to take your next step on the way of Jesus. There is no step you will ever be called to take that requires more of you than you have in the moment you are called to take it. God’s spirit will empower you to surrender, to forgive, to serve, to heal, to announce good news, to endure, to forbear, to let go, to hold tight, to risk in faith, to love.

Don’t wait to extend grace and embrace that creates breathing room. God’s spirit flows from the heart of grace, and will inhabit the grace you give.

Who dares despise the day of small things?

The kingdom of God so often begins with the small, the humble, the unimpressive. Seeds planted in the ground. Yeast working its way through dough. God made flesh in Jesus, a baby born in a feeding trough. 12 ragamuffin disciples. Perhaps 120 gathered in a room praying on Pentecost. 1 crucified man raised from the dead to a resurrection body.

Start. Here. Don’t be concerned with doing the large or impressive thing. Be concerned with starting. Here.

And don’t dare despise the importance of starting. Or the significance of here. Because starting here ends with the temple being completed. It ends with a dwelling place for God among us. It ends with a capstone in our hands, the last stone to set in place.

You may have done nothing for 16 years. Or more. Perhaps because you have been under some kind of oppression. Perhaps because you have struggled with some kind of internal depression or apathy. The Lord’s word to us today is the word Zechariah gave to Zerubbabel. What are you, mighty mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become level ground. Start. Here.

5 years later, 515 B.C., the temple was completed.

Consider Israel’s second king, David. Anointed king as a boy. Kept tending sheep. Then asked to play the lyre. Came, entered the service. Played for Saul. Took food to his brothers. Then, defeated Goliath. Each and every step simply the next step. No grand steps along the way, not really. His first steps in fact looked like nothing in light of the anointing. He just kept tending, but doing it with the faith of one who would become king. He kept playing his instrument, but played with the faith of one who would lead a nation, and in fact the world, in worship.

David started here. The promise of something big. But each step one small step made large by the Spirit of God.

“All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”

1 Samuel 17:47

The church started here too.

He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”

Luke 24:46-47

The world awaited, but Jerusalem is where they were. Jerusalem is where they started. Not by might, nor by power, but by God’s spirit poured out on Pentecost. And they looked like drunks when they started out, didn’t they?

We all look like fools for Christ when we are starting here. But the day is coming when the capstone is in our hands and the shouts are Grace! Grace to it!

You are raising your children, trying to teach them how to love. But starting here means teaching them not to scream and bang their fists because they didn’t get their way. Don’t despise the day of small beginnings. Grace, grace to you!

You are leading a small group, trying to make space for disciples to grow in love and worship. But starting here means all kinds of small frustrations and obstacles, most of which are hand delivered by the people you trying to serve. Don’t despise the day of small beginnings. Grace, grace to you!

You are trying to bear witness to the love of Jesus to your neighbor or your classmate or your family member or your co-worker, but starting here means mainly saying “I don’t know” to the questions they are asking you. Don’t despise the day of small beginnings. Grace, grace to you!

You have joined a ministry in the church but starting here means you aren’t really sure what you are doing half the time, and you always feel like you are asking too many questions, not getting it right, sure somebody else could be doing a better job. Don’t despise the day of small beginnings. Grace, grace to you!

You’ve begun to read the scriptures for the first time in your life. You’ve got a reading plan and a bible that you’ve written your name in. But starting here means half the time you’re not really sure you know what what you just read means. Starting here means sometimes you get behind and you’re not keeping up and you just want to quit because it doesn’t seem as awesome to read the bible as everyone else seems to think it is. Don’t despise the day of small beginnings. Grace, grace to you!

You have begun to recognize that everything you have comes from God, and so you are starting to give generously to the church for the first time in your life. But starting here means you feel worried every time you write that check. Starting here means you aren’t giving as much as you’d like to give. Starting here means sometimes you tithe in faith as soon as you get your paycheck, but other times you wait to see what you have left and you discover you have hardly anything left. Don’t despise the day of small beginnings. Grace, grace to you!

Not by might. Not by power. But by my Spirit says the Lord Almighty.

This is a word for us as a church. We are starting here. Right where we are. Not wishing we were somewhere else. Or someone else. Because God is meeting us here. And here is where he wants us to start from.

Together we follow the way of Jesus and create breathing room for the disfavored to find favor, the discounted to count, and the disconnected to connect. Starting here.

Practical Tips:

1. Start here in your following of Jesus. Commit your life to him as his disciple. Today. Now. This morning. And then again each day this week. Regardless of where here is for you. Repent of apathy, of not continuing the mission God made you for in your life. Today is the day of a new beginning. God’s spirit is here for you with grace.

2. Start here in reading the scriptures. Open to the book of Matthew, and begin to read. 1 chapter a day this week. That will take you through the sermon on the mount. There will be more steps to take after that, but start here. God’s spirit is here for you with Grace.

3. Start here with generous, cheerful giving of your money to God. Give to the church. Or, if that sounds self-serving to you, give to Agape. Or Keystone Community Church. Write that in the memo line of your checks, and we’ll pass it on for you. But start, here. God’s spirit is here for you with grace.

4. Start here with prayer. Pray the Lord’s prayer. Each morning this week. One phrase at a time, thinking about what it might mean.

Our Father in the heavens,

hallowed be your name

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven

Give us this day our daily bread

And forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.

And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

For yours is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever, amen.

Each day pick one phrase to make personal and expand on. God’s spirit is here for you with Grace.

Chalkboard Assignment: Connect

sermon notes from the Vineyard Church of Milan 06/24/2012

video from the service is available at http://www.sundaystreams.com/go/MilanVineyard/ondemand

This is our chalkboard assignment from Jesus…

Today, creating breathing room for the disconnected to connect.

⁵“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

John 15:5

And later…

²⁰“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, ²¹that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²²I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— ²³I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

John 17:20-23

Universe fundamentally relational.

Quantum entanglement.

Emergent properties of systems as more and more simple parts come into connected relationship with each other: neurons - consciousness, subatomic particles - fixedness

God himself is relational: Father, Son, Holy Spirit.

Body of Christ (the church) an emergent phenomenon. No one part on its own is the body, all the parts together are. “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am with them.” (which interestingly is followed by Jesus’ teaching about forgiving someone 77 times…)

It is things in particular relationship to each other that makes things as they are, that gives rise to all life and beauty and joy.

The work of creation is bringing things into new and life-giving connected relationship with one another. Music. Cooking. Art. Families. Teams. Businesses.

The work of the enemy is the undoing of connections. Destruction. Tearing. Making friend into enemy, family into stranger. Disconnecting the connected.

The enemy’s whisper in the garden: Don’t trust him. You can be like him – you don’t need him. You can be fine on your own.

Exile. Isolation. Death as the cessation of all relationships...

Is there greater pain in the world than the pain of broken relationships? And the more connected the relationship is meant to be from a life-giving perspective, the deeper the pain of the break. This should come as no surprise. Because a tear in a relationship is a tear in the very fabric of the Trinity’s universe, a universe birthed out of love.

The work of new creation is taking what the enemy has uncreated and recreating it in indestructible, incorruptible form. Using redemptive tools like mercy and forgiveness and self-giving love for the other. Making enemy into friend, stranger into family. Love Re-Connecting the disconnected.

It all begins with a restored connection to God through Jesus. He is the source of all life. Without connection to him, there is no real life.

⁵“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

John 15:5

The restored connection happens through two movements, the movement of God towards us and the movement of us towards God.

We see the movement of God towards us in Jesus himself – God taking on human flesh, coming to us and among us – even the most sinful of us – with favor and forgiveness and healing and mercy and unconditional love. Naked and vulnerable from the cradle to the grave – risking the most violent of rejections from us.

We see the movement of God towards us in the parable Jesus tells of the prodigal son and the Father. The Father who waits eyes peeled on the horizon for his son to return, running towards him with open arms, cutting off his plea with a kiss, with robes, a ring, sandals and a feast.

Have you ever tried to emulate that movement towards someone who has broken relationship with you? It is perhaps the most difficult movement in the universe, the one which will encounter the most entrenched resistance.

This is the movement we call Grace.

Thankfully, that is the movement God makes, though it costs him his very life.

Our movement towards God, critical as it is, is simpler. It takes only the breathing room created by Jesus and the empowering of his holy spirit to do. And that is receiving God’s movement towards us by trusting him. By trusting him with our lives – a 180 degree turn from the untrusting actions we took when we took our lives into our own hands in the garden.

I trust you. I trust your forgiveness for my sins. I trust your embrace. I trust your invitation to follow you out of this mess I’ve made. I trust your leadership and goodness. I can be like you – but only as I depend on you for life, because you are my greatest need. On my own, I can do nothing.

And out of that restored connection to God, Jesus leads us into restored connection in every other relationship.

²⁰“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, ²¹that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²²I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— ²³I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

John 17:20-23

Our connection to our selves – heart, mind, body, soul.

Our connection to others – friends, family, strangers, enemies.

Our connection to the rest of creation – the earth and its inhabitants, systems and structures.

Our job as a church, then, is to join Jesus in creating breathing room for the disconnected to connect.

Which means, first and foremost, announcing, demonstrating, and embodying the good news of God’s grace.

This is the era of Grace. Grace that brings freedom in community is on the move, and the judgment that enslaves in isolation is on the run.

Grace flies in the face of judgment. The fear of judgment is what makes us hide in the garden. It’s what makes us blame one another. It’s what gives us permission to dismiss and disown and destroy one another. There is no room for judging if we are to create breathing room for the disconnected to connect. Judgment belongs to the Lord, and the Lord alone, and he has chosen to extend Grace. So must we.

Grace in our words…

Grace in our symbolic actions…

Grace in our community – our words and actions lived out towards one another, room in our worship services and small groups and ministry teams…

Announcement of Grace and invitation to receive Grace…

Practical Tips:

1. Tell someone that God is moving towards them with grace

2. Show someone that God is moving towards them with grace

3. Move towards someone with God’s grace

Chalkboard Assignment: Count

sermon notes from the Vineyard Church of Milan 06/17/2012

video of this sermon is available at http://www.sundaystreams.com/go/MilanVineyard/ondemand

This is our chalkboard assignment from Jesus…

Today, creating breathing room for the discounted to count.

[miracle on ice video…]

3 One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon. 2Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. 3When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. 4Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” 5So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them.

6Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” 7Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. 8He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. 9When all the people saw him walking and praising God, 10they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

Acts 3:1-10

Peter and the lame man, both once discounted and now counting.

Counting matters.

[studies about the elderly with plants, visits from students… why selecting groceries is such a big deal]

We like to have an impact, to control, to have value, to make a difference. We like it so much we’ll act like we can do it, even when we can’t.

[betting more money if opponent is incompetent…dice throwing (self-tossed, not yet thrown, picking winning number)… live sports…]

This desire to count is at the heart of creativity.

Some talk about creativity as a specialized thing that artists and other “creatives” do. Sure, making something where there was nothing before is creative. And sure, making something that has never been made before is creative. But the reality is that at the heart of creativity is the very simple act of making a positive difference.

Teaching your son or daughter to throw a ball or why the days are longer in the summer or how to clear the dishes is creative. It makes a positive difference. It counts. We want our work to make a positive difference, to count. Our relationships. Our lives.

Our desire to count, to control, to make an impact, like the list making we talked about last week, is part of the image of God in us. We think about the future. And then we cooperate with God in shaping the future. God is a creative God, and he has made us creative image-bearers.

We are meant to make a difference. To have an impact. To count. There is life in that for us, life for the world in that. God made us image-bearers to bear his image. To join with him in trusting and faithfully imagining the good he has promised, and then faithfully and creatively cooperating with him in bringing that good about.

Which is why when we are discounted, it is so devastating.

[end of the study with student visits…]

Many of you know what it’s like to not have an opportunity to play. Or for your best efforts to fail. Or for your creative energies to be frustrated, time and time again. This is the work of the enemy in the world. To cause us to judge and discount one another. Or to cause us to discount ourselves.

God will have none of that, and he calls his church to have none of that either. It is the voices of judgment and shame and fear that have counted for way too much in this world, and Jesus is rebuking them as he invites us to follow him, as he invites us to count for something bigger than all the judgment and shame and fear in the world. Because God is love, and his love is on the move, and he’s like a conductor yelling, “All Aboard!”

The scriptures are laced with accounts of the discounted being counted by God. The poor count. Aliens count. Moral failures count. People from lowly families count. Widows and orphans count.

Joseph starts as a slave and prisoner in Egypt and rises to the right hand of the pharaoh.

Moses, the murderer with a speech impediment helps deliver Israel from 400 years of slavery.

David, the youngest son goes from tending sheep to leading the nation.

Rahab, the prostitute, helps Joshua and company infiltrate Jericho, and becomes one of the great great great grandmothers of Jesus.

Jesus gathers a band of drop outs and counted outs and turns them loose as midwives to resurrection life spreading across the face of the earth.

He doesn’t go after those who already count and try to leverage their impact. He goes after the discounted, counts them in, and teaches them how to make their lives count.

Young people, for example, count in the kingdom of God.

The elderly count in the kingdom of God.

The poor count in the kingdom of God.

The moral failures count in the kingdom of God.

Because there are two qualities that make all the difference in the kingdom of God. One is a willingness to let yourself count for God, a willingness to stand up and be counted by him, regardless of where he sends you, what he asks you to do.

⁵ “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”

⁶ Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. ⁷ With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for. ”

⁸ Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? ”

And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

Isaiah 6:5-8

And the other is humility.

⁶An argument started among the disciples as to which of them would be the greatest. ⁴⁷Jesus, knowing their thoughts, took a little child and had him stand beside him. ⁴⁸Then he said to them, “Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For whoever is least among you all is the greatest.”

Luke 9:46-48

Those who have an experience of being discounted, have both of these qualities in great abundance. The already counted are sometimes so busy counting for themselves or lesser things that the invitation of God goes unnoticed or unattended to. Not so with the discounted! (that’s perhaps part of why the disciples were so eager to follow Jesus…) The already counted are sometimes competing and striving for personal glory that the humility required to trust God to direct and empower one’s efforts is noticeably unexercised. Not so with the discounted!

What a beautiful job Jesus has given us as his church. To create breathing room for the discounted by first recognizing everyone’s value and capacity to cooperate with God, and then in faith making space for them and equipping them.

[compassion ministry… prayer ministry… baptism… workplace relationships…]

Creating breathing room for the discounted to count is ultimately very simple. It’s saying: “you can do what I do (and probably even better!); here, give it a try and I’ll help however I can.”

Very truly I tell you, all who have faith in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. ¹³And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

John 14:12-14

Practical Tips:

1. Count a kid. Have a kid help you with something this week.

2. Count yourself in. Pray the “Here I am Lord, send me” prayer

3. Count your blessings. Write a thank you note to your Dad for the ways he let you count. Or anyone else in your life who did.

Chalkboard Assignment: Favor

sermon notes from the Vineyard Church of Milan 06/12/2012

a video recording of this message is available at http://www.sundaystreams.com/go/MilanVineyard/ondemand

This is our chalkboard assignment from Jesus, and we’ve talked about the importance of together we, and what following the way of Jesus is all about, and what it means to create breathing room. This week, and through the rest of June, we will unpack how to Favor, Count, and Connect people.

Favor is where we begin today. Jesus calls us to create breathing room for the disfavored to find favor. Unfortunately, churches have a reputation not for showing the favor of God to people, but rather for communicating judgment and displeasure.

Unchristian research results:

87% of outsiders said that the word “judgmental” described present day Christianity.

When asked whether Christian Churches accept and love people unconditionally, regardless of how people look or what they do, 76% of pastors and 47% of born-again Christians said that they do. Only 20% of outsiders agreed. Which means 80% disagreed.

[Dana Carvey’s Church lady…3:20-5:45]

So I want to look at this task of creating breathing room for the disfavored to find favor from a fresh angle, in hopes that it will inspire us, the Vineyard Church of Milan, at least, to do better. And we are going to begin by talk about how important the way we look at the future is to human beings. Because when it comes down to it, creating breathing room to experience the favor of God is all about surprising people with a new vision of the future, and in light of that, a new vision of the past and the present as well. A vision that arrests our anxiety and frees us to new kinds of faith-filled actions.

Harvard psychology professor Daniel Gilbert writes in Stumbling on Happiness about 2 different ways we think about the future.

The first is what he calls “Nexting.” Past + Present = immediate future.

Stomp stomp clap, stomp stomp clap, stomp stomp ________

[Toss something to people…]

It was a dark and stormy ______

Surprise is what we feel when our nexting is wrong, even when we weren’t conscious of the fact that we were asparagus.

Which is how we know monkeys do it. Babies do it. Slugs even do it.

Nexting is important, but it’s not what makes human beings especially special.

Later is where it’s really at. Human beings, unique it seems among all the rest of the animals, think about later. We think about the future. We imagine what might happen at some point in the future, we imagine how life might be like, what we might be like, and it changes how we feel now, it changes what we decide to do now.

(different than squirrels who bury nuts, for example. Pure instinct. When the amount of sunlight that enters their eyes decreases by a critical amount, burying behavior is triggered…)

As Daniel Gilbert writes,

“Until a chimp weeps at the thought of growing old alone, or smiles as it contemplates its summer vacation, or turns down a fudgsicle because it already looks too fat in shorts, I will stand by my version of The Sentence. We think about the future in a way no other animal can, does, or ever has, and this simple, ubiquitous, ordinary act is a defining feature of our humanity.”

This capacity to think about the future is surely part of what it means to be made in the image of God. God’s first act in scriptures is to speak something new into being that was not there before – “let there be light!” To create and to order and organize, to tend the garden and exercise creative and faithful dominion of and care over it requires the capacity to think about the future.

Have you ever made a to do list? You are an image-bearer of God.

Later happens in the frontal lobe of our brains, which is one of the distinguishing anatomical characteristics of human beings. The frontal lobe is the part of our brain we use for worrying and for planning. Which is why lobotomies were both so effective and so damaging. Anxiety is gone because you can’t think about the future. But you also can’t think about the future – which means you can’t plan.

So what does all of this have to do with our mission to create breathing room for the disfavored to find favor?

Everything.

When Jesus arrives to create breathing room for humanity, the first thing he does is announce good news about the kingdom of God. (Mark 1:14 After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news.”) Saying that it’s near. That it’s here. That it’s on its way. Good news that shapes our understanding of a present and a future drenched in the favor of God. Good news. News that’s meant to speak directly to our anxieties, to our misperception that we are out of God’s favor. News of grace and favor. That blessing is available even to those who are poor in spirit, who mourn, who hunger and thirst for righteousness, who are meek, and on and on. Good news. News that speaks directly to the actions we take now in light of it. News that invites us to trust and follow Jesus in living in light of the invisible world he sees in spreading out in front of us, or maybe advancing towards us like a wave, one in which love wins over fear, in in which grace and forgiveness defeat sin and death, in which humility and mercy triumph over pride and judgment.

It’s why the most common command in the bible is do not be afraid.

It’s why Jesus’ first miracle is changing water into wine. God is taking humanity’s party to the next level – just when we think the party is winding down, God is bringing out the best.

It’s why the first thing Jesus says when he creates breathing room for his fearful disciples after his resurrection is “Peace be with you.” It’s why the second thing he says to them is, “as the father has sent me, now I am sending you.”

The favor of God is what restores us to the wholeness of image-bearing human beings.

It’s why the first words of the Father to Jesus are, “This is my son whom I love, with whom I am well pleased.”

Jesus is the new humanity, and we who receive his favor and follow him into the favor of the Father are those whom he invites to carry out the image-bearing work of humanity in the new creation wrought by his resurrection.

We are a church called to carry on the work of Christ in the world. And it begins by creating breathing room for the disfavored to find favor. It begins with us announcing the favor of God – in all sorts of ways – to people who have experienced the opposite of that in their lives.

The poor, the less thans, the down and outs, the sick, the hurting, the haven’t made its, the trapped in sin, the wanderers, the lost and the losing, the judged and condemned. Truth is, it doesn’t matter how great someone’s life can look from the outside, anyone can have the experience of being disfavored. A miscarriage, a failed relationship, an unapplauded talent or passion, a broken dream, a debilitating illness, a dysfunctional family, getting stuck in the line behind the person paying their highway toll with quarters. Until you know the favor of the unconditional love of the God of the good news kingdom, the weight of the uncertain future and the discouragement of the confusing present can be crippling to any human being.

Why? Because when a person thinks they are disfavored by God (or any other person or system, for that matter) they don’t come to him (or them or it) seeking life, because they expect more condemnation. So they look elsewhere or they stop looking and start going through the motions. This always leads to death, because the only true source of life in the universe is God, and the life he has for us is one of anticipating and creatively cooperating with his good future.

So how do we create breathing room for the disfavored to find favor?

It begins with finding ways to communicate surprising favor.

This is what Jesus did all the time.

Healing the centurion’s son.

Touching the leper.

Eating with the tax collector.

Talking to the Samaritan woman.

Refusing to condemn the adulteress.

Receiving the worship of the prostitute.

It’s what the beatitudes are all about.

Blessed are the poor in spirit? Say what?

Blessed are those who mourn? Say what?

It’s what forgiveness says, everytime. It says relationship with you is more important than anything you might have done to me. Which is always a surprise when we’ve done something to someone. You are willing to cancel that debt? For the sake of restored relationship with me? Say what?

It’s why Jesus says what he says on the cross: “Father, forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing.”

Uh, yes we did know what we were doing, we maybe want to say.

No, no you really didn’t, says Jesus. Because you don’t see the present clearly enough, nor what the past means, nor what the future holds. And if you did – if you knew the good news of the kingdom of God, his favor for you, the plans he has for rescue and redemption – you’re anxieties would fall away, and you would change everything about your current course of action.

We interrupt people’s nexting with surprise, and it creates breathing room to see a now and later drenched with favor and good news.

Quarters on newspaper stands and car wash coin slots. Surprise. Popcorn on redbox kiosks. Surprise. Fresh baked bread on the doorstep. Surprise. A drive through order paid for. Surprise. Garbage cans delivered to the top of the driveway. Surprise. A toilet cleaned for free. Surprise. A windshield washed in a gas station. A foot massaged after a long walk. Surprise. A cold drink on a hot day. Surprise. Food that you get to choose yourself at compassion ministry. Surprise. No requirement to show evidence of your income, we just take you at your word that you have need of what we have to offer. Surprise. An adult spending time with a teenager whom they are not getting a tax write off to be with. Surprise.

Not what anyone was expecting next. Surprise! Which opens our eyes to see what we couldn’t see before, wakes us up, gives us breathing room. Breathing room to receive the favor of a God who has been longing for us to know his favor, like a father longs for his kids to know that he loves them, that he would lay down his life for them.

The ways we communicate the unconditional favor of God to people are, by and large, so small. So simple. So ordinary. They can seem unglamorous, insignificant, a waste of time. But if we see them in the light of the gospel, that God is restoring and redeeming and recreating humanity in his image, starting with our very basic capacity to think about the future, we can see that in those simple actions we are participating with the Risen Lord of the Universe in the very work of salvation.

Let’s be a church where everyone who walks in the door experiences the favor of God. A parking space available. A friendly greeting. A seat offered. An embrace. A child cared for with love and enthusiasm. A kind word of encouragement. An offer of help. Or prayer. And let’s be a church that expresses that same favor in our small groups, and through our ministries, and in our outreaches, and in our daily lives at workplaces and schools and neighborhoods and grocery stores.

Practical Tips:

1. Participate in a servant evangelism / kindness outreach activity once a week this summer. Like toilet cleaning next week. Or invent your own. Take the money out of your tithe this summer to pay for it if you don’t have enough faith or money to spend any extra money on surprising favor J

2. Imagine a future where you thought you were out of God’s favor. What might surprise you enough to get you to reconsider? Ask God to help you be a part of his surprise to someone who needed that kind of breathing room.

3. Commit to participating in the Compassion Ministry twice a year.