Nudge: Duct Tape, Stethoscopes, & Binoculars

sermon notes from the Vineyard Church of Milan 10/10/2010

[audio link]

Invitation to turn to John 5.

Religious scholars talk about observant Muslims (5 pillars: bearing witness, prayer, Zakat, Ramadhan, pilgrimage to Mecca) observant Jews (abiding by the Torah, keeping kosher, the feasts and festivals, etc.), but not observant Christians. What would it mean to be an observant Christian?

The rabbis say that to be an observant Jew is to be observant not just in the sense we've spoken of, but in two other senses as well. First, "To observe is to say something, to make a comment or remark, as on a text. An observant Jew does not just "study," does not merely read the text or go through the motions of ritual. An observant Jew makes a comment, makes a mark, makes it hers." Secondly, "To observe is to take notice; to perceive, to watch attentively. See the world. Listen to your heart. Notice the joy and pain of another human being. Attend to Creation. Notice the task at hand, and show your respect for it, and for yourself (created, of course, in the image of G-d), by really Being There."

It is this last sense that points the way to the aspect of observance that is central to Christianity.

Leonard Sweet: Christianity is a religion that is less wrapped up in rituals and observances than it is in rapt attention to what God is doing in the world so that we can beat a path to where Jesus is living his resurrected presence.

Why do we serve the poor? It's what God is doing in the world, it's where Jesus is living his resurrected presence, so we run to join in. Why do we tithe? Because God is doing something in the world through the local church, and so we beat a path to join in with him as Jesus lives his resurrected presence through it. Because God is doing something in our hearts with his generosity to us, and we join in with him as our generosity reflects the resurrected presence of Jesus in the world. Why do we forgive those who wrong us? Because it's what God is doing in the world, and our forgiveness of others is how we join in, step into the middle of Jesus' resurrection life. Why do we gather to worship? Because what God is doing in the world is setting his beloved Son on the throne of a new creation, and Jesus is living his resurrected presence through his gathered body, the church, and worship is how we place ourselves in the center of it all. Why do you do youth ministry, or children's ministry, or pray for the sick, or help people fix things that have been broken, or work at a shelter for battered women, or provide places for mom's of troubled pregnancies to have their babies? Because you can see God at work in those places and activities, because you want to be near when Jesus shows up with his resurrected presence, because this is how you step into the action.

Show me someone who isn't doing any of these things that it means to be a practicing Jesus follower, and I'll show you someone who has lost sight of God at work in those ways and places. It's not getting their act together that will re-engage them. It's someone nudging them awake to the presence of God that they've lost sight of, either because they've given their attention to lesser but shinier things, or because they've fallen asleep at the wheel of their life.

That's why we're talking about Nudge evangelism. About awakening each other to the God who is already there, everywhere around us, at work all the time if we only had eyes to see him, ears to hear him, a nose to catch his scent, a tongue with a well-developed taste for his sweetness, skin sensitive to his touch and texture and temperature. About bringing the good news of Jesus in a way that lands like Jesus brought good news to us, with a series of nudges. And at the heart of nudge evangelism is paying attention, is keeping all of our senses alert to signs of the presence & activity of God around us.

JOHN 5 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. ²Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. ^3[4]Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. ⁵One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. ⁶When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

⁷“Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

⁸Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” ⁹At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, ¹⁰and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”

¹¹But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”

¹²So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”

¹³The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

¹⁴Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” ¹⁵The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.

¹⁶So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. ¹⁷In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” ¹⁸For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

¹⁹Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. ²⁰For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed."

Let's pay close attention to this text, see what we might learn about Nudge evangelism.

What's the scene? A great number of disabled people. poor, hurting. Hoping that when the water moved they could be first in and get healed. The pagans believed the pool had healing properties first, so it's probably a local superstition fueling the hope.

This is a metaphor for our world, isn't it? Hurting people, their best hope a superstition that rewards the fastest, the best connected, the closest to the water, but that probably doesn't actually work...Money? Power? Popularity?

Although it's in the city of God, it's a pagan place at heart, with a pagan hope. That doesn't stop Jesus from keeping his eyes open for the Kingdom of God, does it?

Man himself doesn't know who Jesus is. Sir, he calls him. Not Rabbi, certainly not Lord. He's spent 38 years preoccupied with the stirring of the water, and he's totally missed the buzz about Jesus, or if he's heard it, it hasn't registered. Not even when Jesus is talking directly to him. Not even when Jesus heals him. He's asleep, isn't he? Have any of us been that man?

Jewish leaders are only paying attention to one thing - the law they are so protective of, the law that keeps them in business. So when the guy shows up walking with his mat, all they see is a violation of law. They seem to not even hear the fact that he was healed. They hear only that somebody told him to break the law.

When they find out what has just happened, they completely miss the activity of God again. They are preoccupied with his perceived violations of the object of their attention. Jesus healed - that's work. He called God his Father - that's blasphemy. God is healing and walking among them on the day set aside for giving attention to the things of God, and they miss him entirely. In fact they oppose him. They're asleep, aren't they?

Now look at the verbs connected to Jesus. Saw, learned, asked, said. (the implied verb is listened.)

Jesus is looking for something before he acts, isn't he? He noticed a man lying there who has been overlooked for 38 years. He inquired after him, found out his story, that he'd been lying there a long time. Asked him a question that only someone who was really looking would ask. "Do you want to get well?" It's a custom-fit nudge. In other words, are you lying here all your life because you've given up, because it's the life you've gotten used to, have you become satisfied with your lot in life? It's a question that awakens something in the man. His desire to be well. To be strong, to re-engage with purpose, and activity, to re-enter life itself in the wide world, in the city of God. A desire that is born of the image of God in him. Jesus awakens him, just a bit, to that. With a simple nudge made possible by Jesus paying closer attention perhaps than anyone has ever paid to this man.

Jesus listens to his answer, and in his answer, hears underneath the complaint, underneath the defensiveness, hears the man's yes to his question. Yes, he wants to get well. Jesus' Kingdom=radar is blinking now. Something has registered on it and it's moving. We don't know if it's a glimmer of faith in the man's eye, desperation in the tone of the man's voice, a shiver up Jesus' back, an accompanying surge of faith in Jesus' heart, a word from the Holy Spirit running through the neurons of Jesus' brain.

We only know that now Jesus says something. Saw. Learned. Asked. Then says. Nudgers are like that. More looking and listening and asking and hearing than saying. But when love is ripe the time for the nudge does come. Get up. Pick up your mat and walk.

Get up! is the word for rise. Like rise out of bed. Like rise from the dead rise. Jesus is looking at more than just this man. He's got the eyes of his heart peeled for the Father. (I only do what I see the Father doing, he explains later.) What's the Father doing? He knows the work the Father is doing is new creation work in a dying world. He knows new creation will begin with resurrection. Something registers for him here and now that the Father is opening a window from the heavens, where the Father is storing the earth's future, and resurrection life is leaking out. So he joins in by simply naming what he sees the Father doing. Get up!

Will the man receive the nudge? Yes. And when he does, he's cured. Picks up his mat. Walks.

C'mon! This is what nudging is all about. The kingdom, the rule and reign of God that brings freedom and restoration and wholeness and re-entry into Shalom and purpose and life itself.

Of course, the man still doesn't know who Jesus is. That doesn't happen until a little later, when Jesus finds him again and speaks to him again. But once he does, like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, he turns around and goes back to bear witness. To become a nudger himself.

Because the man's not the only one nudged in this story, is he? When the critique about working on the Sabbath comes to Jesus from the religious leaders, Jesus calls to their attention the fact that the root of the Sabbath is joining with the Father in the 7th day rest of the Father from the work of the first creation. A new creation is happening, Jesus is saying, and the Father is at work right now. Do you want to be truly faithful to what God is up to? (He knows that's the thing at work deepest in their hearts - he's been listening!) To be faithful is to work alongside of the God who is right now working, because a new creation has begun. It's not day 7, it's just about to be day 1 - the light of the new world is dawning.

Of course, his nudge isn't received. They try to kill him all them more. Be encouraged. Even Jesus' nudges were rejected from time. But that doesn't discourage him. He nudges again.

The son can only do what the Father is doing, Jesus says. We hear this as Jesus referring to himself, and surely he is. But the son of God to the religious leaders is Israel (God to Pharaoh - Israel is my son, my first born son). Because they are the religious leaders of Israel, the son is also them, as representatives of Israel. Israel can do nothing by himself; he can only do what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does, Israel also does. (Do you hear the invitation, the nudge? Join me, join the Father, stop resisting him - it's in vain.) For the Father loves Israel (do you hear that, he loves you!) and shows him all he does (do you hear that, you too can see him at work, you don't have to keep your eyes closed by fixating on the object of your current attention. Wake up!). Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed.

Marvel, wonder will be the result of Jesus paying attention to the Father and cooperating with him. With the kingdom coming, there is also coming a shift from critique to marvel, wonder. Jesus is waking them up. The healing obviously wasn't enough of a nudge to awaken them to God's presence. But more is coming, and it will awaken them. Because Jesus knows if Israel begins to pay attention to the Father at work among them again, and they cooperate, it will awaken the whole world to the Kingdom coming: the gentiles, the Romans, everyone will be able to pick up their mats and walk! [wonder is the definitive sign of someone who is awake, isn't it...? servant evangelism, encounters with God...]

Consider non-nudging evangelism in light of this story...

My experience learning evangelism as a teenager... Role-playing with 4 spiritual laws... 1. God loves you and offers a wonderful plan for your life. 2. Man is sinful and separated from God. Therefore he cannot know and experience God's love and plan for his life. 3. Jesus is God's only provision for man's sin. Through him you can know and experience God's love and plan for your life. 4. We must individually receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord; then we can know and experience God's love and plan for our lives. Bridge diagram. Circles around thrones.

Practicing. Memorizing. Praying for chances to use live ammunition. Looking for opportunities to work the conversation to the laws. Looking for opportunities to close. Rest of relationship a function of response.

Old-School Evangelism Tool-kit: Calculator (need a sharp mind). Concordance (needed superior biblical knowledge). Stop Watch (needed a 3 minute and 10 minute testimony). Microphone (needed good verbal skills). blue prints (needed evangelism formulas and diagrams, like the 4 spiritual laws, bridge diagram, Roman road.) Otoscope (needed to identify problems, sin, infection). Oil (needed "evangelism anointing"). Megaphone (needed boldness).

Success measured in first time commitments. Sure, sometimes seeds were planted, but everyone knew that was just a consolation.

That kind of evangelism comes from love - (sometimes you needed to work up, if you weren't feeling it)...but ends up so far away from love you can't remember where you started, and it's scent isn't on you anymore.

Compare to nudging evangelism...

Paying attention to what the Father is doing always flows from your love of God (you pay attention to what you love, don't you?), leads you to love others (because that's what the Father is always doing), and is experienced by others as love (because that's what it can't help being when your actions are an attempt to join God in what he is doing - it is by definition a self-giving act, and therefore has its roots in the God who is love).

Success in nudging is measured in love noticed and love joined and love growing. It has no agenda other than love. Because it is to love that we are awakening people and being awakened ourselves when we practice the art of nudge evangelism. Seeds are planted, and that's no consolation - that's what our Father is doing, that's how the kingdom comes - yes, some will fall on stony ground, some will grow up and get scorched, some will be eaten by birds or choked out by weeds, but some will take root, and rise up, and produce a crop 30,60, 100 times what was planted. And the world will be overrun with love.

Practical Tips:

Put together a nudging tool kit...

Duct tape. Practice talking less. [neighbor...]

"You never resemble Jesus more than when you have your mouth shut."

- St. Ignatius of Antioch.

Stethoscope. Practice listening closely. Listen for the heart underneath the words. Say what more often. Tell me more about that. Listen not for flaws but for faith.

If you have ten minutes to share the gospel with someone, spend the first nine asking questions and listening. when we speak more than we listen, it is like flying a kite in the dark. Our words go out but we have no idea if they ever get off the ground.

- David Henderson

Binoculars. Remember that what God is doing is bringing near the things that seem far off. Look closely when you catch hints of that. Look for dreams buried far in the past, and hopes hidden far in the future. God may be present in both, and ready to realize them.

Noise canceling headphones. Being silent before people is important. But even more-so is spending time with God in silence, listening for him to speak to you, learning to recognize his voice. And to do that, sometimes you need to eliminate the noise.

Silence is God's first language.

-St. John of the Cross

Molasses. We've got to slow down if we're going to pay attention.

Praise without end for the go ahead zeal

of whoever it was invented the wheel;

But never a word for the poor soul's sake

that thought ahead, and invented the brake.

- Howard Nemerov

Stocking. Nudge evangelism is born out of a sense of wonder. God's up to something, all around us, all the time. My Father is always at his work to this very day. What gifts will he put in the stocking of my life today, in the stockings of my friends, my co-workers, my neighbors, my enemies. How can I wake up with wonder?

The sense of wonder

That is the sixth sense

And it is the natural religious sense.

-D.H. Lawrence.

Not to mention, from the other toolkit, Oil; but not for the "evangelism anointing (we're all anointed to be good news bringers), but for blessing others...

Seeds & Soil: Disruption

sermon notes from the Vineyard Church of Milan 10/03/2010

[audio link not available]

[show hoe..]

Dearly beloved... The very thing that feels to you like the absence of the Kingdom of God, the very thing that feels to you like you’re going backwards when it comes to spiritual growth, the very thing that is most troubling in your life right now, that just might be the very thing that God wants to use to prepare your soil to receive the seed of his word that brings an explosion of life into your life, and through you into the world.

Maybe it - whatever it is - is painful, hurtful, terrifying, empty, hard, a struggle, confusion, unsettling. It may also be, by the grace of God, the disruption that opens your heart to receive something from God that transforms the whole landscape.

I don’t say that lightly. The most significant seed that led to the most powerful and transformative spiritual growth I’ve seen in my life found its entrance into the soil of my heart when my life and sense of myself had been so disrupted that I was as close as I’ve ever come to giving up on life. If we have time at the end today, I’ll tell you the story. In the meantime...

[Ragamuffin Gospel story, pg 127-130...]

I'm neither wise enough nor experienced enough to comment on the pros and cons of tough love, but I will say that without disruption, it's very difficult for the seeds of God's kingdom to take root in us. So when disruption comes - whether it comes harshly or graciously - if it makes room for a seed to be planted, then thank God for the disruption.

Invitation to turn to Mark 4, which is where we will land, but not quite where we will start. We’re going to back up a little bit - well, ok, a lot bit - so that we can get a running start.

The truth of the universe is that God’s love is always bringing new things into existence, new things which are always a disruption to the no things. So wherever you find the creative, life-giving activity of the dynamic-generative-joyous-overflowing God, you also find disruption. [Lights off]

[shhh...] Perhaps you remember...

Unformed, unmoving, barren emptiness, darkness over the surface of yet deeper darkness.

And the Spirit (breath, wind) of God, hovering. Hovering over the welter and the waste. Hovering, waiting, just above, not quite yet landed, but oh so close, biding time, potential energy on the cusp of bursting into kinetic generosity.

Then, the immaterial Spirit imperceptibly but definitely interacts with the not-yet-but-almost material; the Wind is harnessed to fill a sail that won’t exist until the Wind blows; and the Breath is gathered into a Word that disrupts the deafening silence and formless chaos. Which is, after all, what words do, isn’t it? New vibrations disrupting the old vibrations and, in this case, the non-vibrations.

And this particular word? “Light.” Insistent, but gentle. An invitation really. Let there be. Light is allowed now. Matter and energy, particle and wave, the one thing that is everything and everywhere all at once and forever.

And there was light. [Lights on]

It’s as if God’s word is a seed implanted in the void, and the void receives it and gives birth to light. Like God is waking up the universe. Nudging it. Rousing it from a beginning-less slumber. Then more and more words, multiplying now. Let there be, let there be, let there be. Sky. Water. Land. Grass. Each word a seed bringing disruption to that which was before the word so suddenly arrived. And each seed taking root, and growing into something good, and blessed, and holy. Until finally, the soil itself is disrupted, invaded by the breath (word) of God, bringing humanity into being.

The whole of our universe and this earth and ourselves, the fruit of creative, disruptive words. This is how life for carbon-based life-forms starts.

Now fast forward to the shores of the Sea of Galilee, circa the beginning of the first century of the common era. For the people gathered in that natural amphitheater, hanging on Jesus’ every word, things aren’t right in the world. They are longing for things to change. They are under Roman oppression, their freedom restricted, suffering crushing poverty and taxation, ruled by corrupt officials and sometimes equally corrupt religious leaders. And they are beginning to hope that Jesus just might be the one to set everything right.

Mark 4v1-20:

Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water’s edge. He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.”

Then Jesus said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”

When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. He told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that,

“ ‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving,

and ever hearing but never understanding;

otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!’”

Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? The farmer sows the word. Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.”

We know what it's like to feel that things aren’t right, right? Somebody is placing demands on you that are a real burden. Maybe it’s even a burden you’re glad to bear, but man oh man, it’s a real burden. Or your job situation is just really pressured - time, stress, the work itself is difficult and you’re not getting the help you know you should to get it done. Or key relationships are in trouble - maybe with your spouse, or your parents, your kids. It’s a constant drain. Or you’ve got a health issue, an addiction, something that just doesn’t seem to be going away.

What do we want? We want things to change. Usually for this person or that person to get their act together, or cut it out, or for their needs to not be an issue anymore. Or for this situation or that situation to resolve, to shift, to end, to give way. Or for our health problem to be healed, fixed, or our addiction to be lifted, for us to wake up and find out that it’s gone and not oppressing us anymore.

Sure, sometimes the Kingdom of God reveals itself to us in just the way we desire. Sometimes you’re out in the woods doing some business with God about your cocaine addiction and something like a jolt of electricity runs through our body and we are set free. A taste of the rule and reign of God, resurrection life, the future coming kingdom leaking into the here and now. Sometimes your small group prays for you and when you get your MRI results back, the tumor is gone. A sign of the Kingdom, a glimpse of the King’s power and favor. Sometimes your sister who has been off the radar for years calls up and says, why don’t you let mom come stay with me for a few months - you could use the break, and I could use the time to reconnect with her. Hallelujah! Sometimes you come home from the unemployment office and there’s a message from your old employer telling you they want to bring you back, and with a raise. There is a God!

But even though this is how the Kingdom sometimes reveals itself - and more regularly than we might imagine - it is not the primary way the Kingdom of God brings transformation to the face of the earth.

Consider what this parable is saying. Notice some of the key elements. A farmer sowing seeds. A soil into which the seeds are planted. Seeds that are God’s word. Soil that once it receives God’s word, multiplies.

If you are a Hebrew person familiar with the scriptures when Jesus tells this story, your mind goes to another story, the story we started with. The farmer brings to mind the story about the first farmer, who is God himself, who creates a land that brings forth vegetation that brings forth more vegetation. The soil brings to mind a story about a man named “soil”. That is, Adam, whose name is taken from adama, the Hebrew word for soil. Human from humus. The multiplication of the crop brings to mind the first command given to the first humans: “Be fruitful. Multiply.”

And then there is this talk of the resistance to the farmer’s work, and we remember what has gotten us to this place in the first place. The first creation has come under the influence of the kingdom of darkness because we - the image bearers in the creation - welcomed the word of one who was not God, and consequently the creation itself has come under curse, corruption of beauty, disruption of Shalom.

And as these connections weave together, it dawns on us.

When Jesus is talking about the Kingdom of God coming, he’s talking about creation happening again. Creation itself being restored, renewed, redeemed, starting with the image-bearers.

And just as the old creation was a process - night, day, night, day, God making the earth a temple in which he can dwell - the new creation is the same kind of process. God doesn’t replace the old. He invades the old and incorporates it into the new. Because, of course, the old was blessed, good, and the curse has not undone that blessing - it has only choked the life out of it. So he doesn’t do away with the old creation - he restores, renews, transforms it. Like a farmer sowing seeds.

Spiritual growth is a process involving the undoing of the choke hold of the kingdom of darkness as it gives way to embrace and sweet-breath kiss of the kingdom of God. Which is why it starts with disruption. Like a farmer sowing seeds.

It starts with God himself invading humanity in the incarnation. Words that land with disruption: “Greetings, you who are highly favored...!” Mary, of course, was troubled. God’s word is disruptive. But she receives the word, welcomes it in. “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me according to your word.”

There is a cooperation between the soil and the seed that leads to the growth of the kingdom. There is mystery in it, sure, but the one thing we know is that the seed must be received by the soil.

A seed planted inside a woman, and the new creation is born. The word made flesh, Jesus, the firstborn of a new creation. Like a farmer sowing seeds.

Of course, we aren't actually just dirt. We're carbon based life-forms. And as a result, disruption doesn't always feel good on the front end. (It didn't for Mary, no doubt...)

Ever said to yourself:

yes, I want to get healthy.

yes, I want to get in shape.

yes, I want to learn.

yes, I want to become great at this or that.

You've just signed up for pain, haven’t you...?

This is how growth happens for carbon based life forms.

Disruption when the muscle breaks down allows for new strength to be formed.

Disruption when a baby forms in the body, exits the womb, enters the family...

It’s the same with spiritual growth. Disruption when the seed enters the soil. Disruption when the seed takes root. Disruption when the shoot pokes out. You can't have growth without disruption. So the question for us is: Will we welcome disruption for the sake of new creation?

Sometimes the seed comes in the form of a revelation about who we are or who God is or what the world is like. How do I let myself be disrupted by making room for that truth in my understanding of myself, of the world, of God for that truth?

Everything was just fine until...and now what I am going to do about that?

Sometimes the seed comes in the form of a person or situation that inconveniences you. How do I let myself be disrupted by making room for this person or situation in my life?

Is God revealing himself and his kingdom to me through so & so - then how do I open myself up to them? [esp. spouse, children]

Always the seeds come in the form of an invitation. Will I let my status quo be disrupted in order to make room for the seed?

By the way, we recognize invitations by the newly felt need to decide one way or the other. Which is always disruptive, isn’t it? God’s invitations are seeds, looking for a home. Not just in you, but in the old creation through you. The fate of the universe is riding on humanity's response. Which is how it's been from the beginning, after all. The good news is that Jesus already responded on our behalf, now all of our responses are a participation in an already certain outcome.

In this parable, the word for the crop coming up out of the ground is the same as the word for rising from the dead, for resurrection. Remember when Jesus said that he was like a kernel of wheat that had to fall into the ground and die before multiplication could come? Well, he has. And now his new creation life is ready to burst forth in resurrection in the soil of all our lives as we hear his words and trust them.

[Personal experience with disruption, God's grace meeting me in midst of struggle with headache...]

Practical Tips:

1. RSVP with a Yes.

Say yes to an inconvenient invitation from God. Especially one that might disrupt your life.

Maybe it’s to serve in a ministry. Or take a risk. Or change a habit. Or practice a spiritual discipline. Or give. Or bless someone. Or forgive someone.

The seed God wants to plant won’t take root and grow until you welcome it, make room for it, let it disrupt your life.

2. Invite God to a Tilling Party.

Invite God to till your soil if you’ve gotten suspiciously comfortable. There’s no growth without disruption, after all. And without growth, there is no new creation, for you or for the rest of the world.

3. Let Your Bed Stay Lumpy.

With a friend, examine a disrupted part of your life for a seed, and receive it.

Where do you have pain, frustration, confusion, hurt, overwhelmed feelings, struggles, fears? Especially where it’s most pronounced right now. There may well be a seed of God’s word trying to work its way into your soil through that pain or struggle. And God’s word is very likely the opposite of the word that is the loudest in that part of your life. Just like in the darkness the word was light. Just like for Mary trembling in fear and unworthiness before the angel, the word was “you are highly favored.” Just like for me in the “I can do this, I can beat this thing or die trying,” the word was “When you reach your end, give it to me - I’ve already let it kill me so you can live.”

Anyway, once you’ve identified the disrupted part of your life where you think a seed might be present, share the disruption with a brother or sister in Christ so that they can speak to you the word God wants to speak to you. Then, in prayer, say yes to the thing God is saying to you.

sermon notes

I’ve had some requests for easy access to notes from the sermons on Sunday mornings, and thought this might be a simple way to make them accessible.

They are really just the notes I use for preaching, unedited except for a couple of hyperlinks here and there.  So I expect there will be a fair number of typos and other missing edits.  Also, some ideas that end up being fleshed out with stories or practical illustrations (swords being swung around, or seeds being tossed for example) may just not come across very well as written.  Sometimes those places are noted with bracketed italics, sometimes they are absent altogether.  Finally, there are many ideas and even quotes taken from books or sermons I’ve heard that I might give credit to when speaking, but which I haven’t put in my notes.  If you aren’t attributed, and you notice I’ve plagiarized something from you, please let me know and I’ll be happy to edit the notes with some props!

Nudge: Even The Empty Tomb Isn't Empty

sermon notes from the Vineyard Church of Milan 09/26/2010

[audio link]

Invitation to turn to Luke 24…

The good news lands with a nudge. And central to the practice of nudging is the understanding that nowhere is off-limits to the presence of God.

I have a friend who was born to missionary parents, but became an atheist as a teenager.

For the normal sorts of reasons.

The story he'd been given of God didn't match up with his experiences. His parents divorced when he was young, in part because of the stresses that mission work put on their marriage. It was hard to see God's presence in that.

In fact, everywhere he looked for God, God seemed conspicuously absent. So much so that my friend took to carrying around the atheist debater's handbook. So that he could show others how what they thought was God's presence in this world was nothing more than an illusion.

Then my friend was awakened to God's presence. Not in a church, or at a crusade. But in the very place it seemed God was most likely to be absent. In his mother's losing battle with cancer.

His mother's friends from her church came day after day to visit her. To provide her meals. To pray for her. To spend time with her. To love her, and to love her family who was losing her.

Each visit was a nudge to my friend. A nudge whispering, "wake up."

Wake up to the presence of the God who is present even in death. Even in cancer, the instrument of death. Even in the grief of the loss of his beloved mother.

Death was not God. The cancer was not God. The grief and loss were not God. But God was present, nonetheless. Present in the midst of death, in the same room with cancer, planting seeds in the soil of grief and loss. And the love of these women awakened my friend to presence of the God who had been there all along. Got under his skin. Disrupted his worldview. Added new light to the story of reality as he understood it.

Nudged him to look again for God in places he'd previously decided God was absent from.

And do you know, he found that after those first nudges his eyes were opened to see the God that was in those places, after all. And God met him afresh, anew, and new life was breathed into him out of his mother's death. Life that changed his life forever.

Those women from his mother's church didn't bring Jesus into my friend's life, or into the home where his mother was dying. Jesus was already there. They didn't come armed with arguments for the existence of God - he wouldn't have bought what they were selling if they had. They didn't try to take advantage of his grief and "close the deal" with him - that might have closed him off even further.

What they did was nudge him. They nudged him by embodying and demonstrating the good news that Jesus wasn't afraid of death, that love was more powerful than death, that God wasn't abandoning him or even his mother in her battle with cancer. And their embodiment and demonstration of the good news of God's kingdom was a gentle nudge that awakened my friend to the God who had been there all along.

The best nudging happens like that. Naturally supernatural. Almost unconsciously. Almost invisible to the naked eye - unless you have eyes to see.

We've been looking at Luke 24 to understand how we can participate with Jesus in bringing the good news of the triumph of God's kingdom over the kingdom of darkness and death to one another. And what we've discovered in the story of Jesus' resurrection from the tomb, and the gentle, patient, gracious, unhurried way he reveals himself to the first people to understand the good news in Luke 24 is that the good news lands with a nudge.

The work of the evangelist is not the work of a manipulative salesperson or a even a well-intentioned shover. The task of a good-news-bringer is to nudge.

Jesus calls us to join with him in being a nudger. People who are awakening each other to the presence of the God who is already here. A nudge here. A nudge there. Our only agenda to bless, to serve, to cooperate with God in announcing and demonstrating and embodying the good news of the God of grace and peace.

And nudging counts on God being at work everywhere. This is our focus today. God is present everywhere around us. All the time. It's a question for us of noticing. Of recognizing. Of having eyes to see him, no matter where he's present.

Nudge evangelism requires us, in a sense, to have a simple shift in focus.

The kind of evangelism that has become a dirty word to some requires that we look for the absence of God. Oooh, I think that person is lost. Look how they talk, how they act. They are probably a good candidate for a good dose of Jesus. Let me check my supply and see what I can offer them. Or, Oooh, I see a chink in their armor. Life isn't going good for them, their sin is finally catching up with them. Let's see how strong their arguments are against God now! If I can just be there at the right moment, when their defenses are down, I bet I can I can topple their resistance to God. This focus turns people into projects.

But Nudge evangelism is all about noticing the presence of God in someone's life, and helping awaken them to it. Oh, look what Holy Spirit is doing to bring God's blessing to them in the midst of their needs. Oh, wow, look at the image of God shining in them in their compassion for the hurting, in their love of creation, in their concern for their kids, in their gifts and talents. Hey, look at that, they've got a real hunger for justice and an instinct for what's good - God's already given them some characteristics I've been praying that he would shape in me. Nudgers honor people as image bearers of the one who died for us.

Let's try an exercise.

[The Monkey Business Illusion...]

We're followers of Jesus. The one thing in the world we should be best at - as followers - is keeping our eyes peeled for him. But we've somehow gotten the idea of evangelism twisted and as a result, we've become blinded to his presence anywhere but in Christians or Churches or Christian-y places and activities.

For some of us, some of the time, in some situations and relationships and places, our problem is that we're not expecting God to be present... And because we aren't looking for him, or even because we're pretty sure he wouldn't be there, we miss what his Holy Spirit wants to make obvious to us: The 800 lb gorilla roaming the earth.

[Recap beginning of Luke 24...]

v11: The words of the women were nonsense (appeared to their minds as nonsense) to the men, because they couldn't imagine Jesus was anywhere but in the tomb. Dead people stay dead in tombs.

How often do we miss opportunities to awaken each other to the presence of God because we think the living God can't be present there, so we're not looking for him?

God's not present in my family, let me tell you. I know them, and I know they are as far from God as you can get.

God's not present in my work place. That place is worse than dead - people scoff at God there.

God's not present in that painful situation. In that lifestyle. In that activity. In that "godless" passion or interest.

God's not present in my school. Or on my team. Or at my gym. Or at that bar. Or that party this weekend.

Thank God I can come to church and get away from all those deathly tombs, all those hostile environments.

Because dead people stay dead in tombs.

Right?

That's not what the resurrection says.

But the women's nudge doesn't move most of the men. Most of the men, they know dead people stay dead in tombs.

Peter though, his balance is thrown off by the nudge.

v12: Peter hears the news, and it disrupts his assumptions just enough to get him to check it out for himself. Something about Peter's soil lets seeds in. Something about Peter makes him say, "Maybe." He scopes out the empty tomb, and begins to wonder to himself what has come into the world. And sometime after the wonder begins, Jesus shows himself to Peter.

Or maybe Jesus has been there all along, but it's not until the wonder starts that Peter can see him.

And then, look at what's next in the story...

v13: And behold! (When something starts with "And behold!", it's a clue that beholding isn't always as easy as it seems at first glance. Like without a nudge, we just might miss it.)

The disciples on the road to Emmaus don't imagine that the companion who joins them could be Jesus, and so even though he is right next to them, talking to them, they can't see him.

So he nudges their minds. Tells them stories they already know, but re-interprets them in a way that prepares their minds to see him. (more on that in coming weeks...for now the important part is still coming...)

And then he nudges their hearts with a meaningful action. (again, more on that in coming weeks...for now the important part is nearly here...)

v31: And their eyes are drawn asunder.

Their eyes have been closed to seeing him, recognizing him, because they haven't been able to imagine that he could possibly be walking around. Anywhere.

What is Luke trying to tell those of us who want to be witnesses to the resurrected Jesus, who want to help awaken our friends and parents and co-workers and children and classmates and neighbors and brothers and sisters to the presence of the God who is already here?

He's telling us our eyes may need to be drawn asunder. He's telling us behold!

Jesus is everywhere now. He's liable to show up anywhere, anytime, no boundaries holding him back. Behold!

Luke's telling us:

The Veil of the temple is torn.

Tomb stones roll away.

Eyes are drawn asunder.

Gatherings are infiltrated.

Minds are blown open.

The first nudge says that the world isn't as we've always thought it was. Did we think God can be stuck in a box? Did we think God was only present in "godly" places and among "godly" people? Did we think we could only find him by looking for him where we last put him?

God has shaken off the chains of death and now he's roaming the earth, his Spirit blowing like the wind. Nowhere is off limits to the resurrected Jesus.

Isn't that the good news? The Kingdom of God is here? The Kingdom of God is near? The Kingdom of God is within you? The Kingdom of God isn't restricted to the religious leaders, to the blessed, to the well-off? That the kingdom is among the mourners, and the poor in spirit, and the meek?

What hope do we have of nudging others if we don't believe the good news ourselves? The truth is, the resurrection makes sense of everything the scriptures have always been saying - we just didn't have eyes to see it without the light of the good news.

In the beginning, God blessed everything. The earth - it's good, God says. The oceans, the land, the animals, the sky, the rivers, the plants. It's good. It's blessed. It's his, he can go where he wants, and he wants it all because it's good.

And then, in making us, the soil itself has been infused with Spirit, the breath of God.

Sure, Shalom has been disrupted by sin. But God has never left the building. Or maybe better said, God has left the building - and now he's everywhere, arriving with Shalom.

v36: Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, "Peace [Shalom] be with you."

Nothing made in the image of God or blessed by God is godless. The word "godless" in the scriptures never means "devoid of God. It always means lacking reverence for God, or polluted, corrupted, profaned. But never, ever "empty of God."

Even the empty tomb wasn't empty. Signs of his living presence lingered. And then he showed up everywhere.

Consider Ezekiel. A priest who is the son of a priest. A good priest whose whole life and experience of God is wrapped up in the temple, the place where God dwells. And the temple is destroyed. And the children of God are exiled to the land where Ishtar is god. And his wife is dead. And Ezekiel is dragged through the gates of Ishtar into Babylon. And one day, by a river in Babylon, he has a fantastical, wild vision, with multi-faced creatures and spinning wheels with eyes, and he realizes, God is here. In Babylon. And he falls face down in worship. Right there in the land presumably belonging to Ishtar. Only it doesn't. Nothing belongs to Ishtar. Because the earth is the Lord's and everything in it.

Consider the disciples in a boat out on the water, sans Jesus. And they see a figure out on the water. The water that is filled with terrors. They know, they absolutely know, that when someone shows up out on the water, not in a boat, it's a ghost. Something evil and undead. Only this isn't a ghost. It's Jesus. Courage. No fear. I am. God loves to be outside of our safe boats. Walking on the water all around us. Saying, Courage. No fear. It's me. Awaken each other to me.

The resurrected Jesus is everywhere, if we will let him draw our eyes asunder so we can recognize him. And then awaken one another to his presence.

Nudging is awakening each other to the presence of the God who is already there. God is already there. Wherever there is.

Our problem is that we aren't looking for him because we didn't imagine he could be there. It's hard to awaken somebody else to the God who is already there if we aren't awake to him ourselves, isn't it?

May we apprehend that the good news of the kingdom is that the kingdom of God is here. Wherever here is. May the Sower of Seeds plant that word in us like a seed, and may it take root and grow.

And then may we have eyes to see it already at work right under the noses of our friends and relatives and children and neighbors and co-workers and classmates and teachers and teammates. God already present in their lives. In their hearts. All around them. If only they had someone to nudge them. To help awaken them to resurrection reality.

Next time on Nudge, we'll talk about how to spot the bushes that are burning.

Practical Tips:

1. Turn and Burn.

Repent of any false assumptions you've held along the lines of "dead people stay dead in tombs."

Do it this way: write down the name of a person or place or situation that you've written off as "godless" or as an unlikely candidates for God's presence and activity. Especially a place you go often or a person you would love to be part of them experiencing the fullness of God's blessing.

Get a candle that you like the smell of, and put that paper under the candle. Every time you light the candle or smell it's scent, allow it to remind you that the light of the world is shining there, or on that person, that the wind of the Spirit is blowing there, or on that person. Pray: Jesus, Nudge me awake to your presence, so I can be a nudger.

2. Change your Identity.

Resolve to stop thinking of yourself as someone who "brings" Jesus to a place or a person. For one, that's a lot of pressure... And 2, Jesus already beat you wherever you think you're bringing him, so you're wasting your time.

Instead, receive a new identity as a member of the New Creation Road Show. Like the Antiques Road Show, only you're helping people identify the hidden signs of new creation already present in their lives. Put NCRS on a wristband if you like, or stick it on your review mirror. If someone asks what it stands for, suggest: "No one Can Really Say." If they laugh and ask again, take it as a sign of new creation at work, and tell them what it really stands for. If they look at you like you're weird and move on to another subject, maybe the time for a nudge is still a little down the road.

resource link: Nudge, Leonard Sweet

Seeds & Soil: The Sword vs. The Seeds

sermon notes from the Vineyard Church of Milan 09/17/2010

[audio link]

After my request for a sword to borrow for today, a friend texted me, "Are the kids going to be safe at church this Sunday?" I replied, "I hope none of us are ever safe at church on Sunday...but the kids should have nothing to fear from the sword. It's the seeds that we need to watch out for..."

He was intrigued. I pray you are as well.

Mark 4v1-20:

Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water’s edge. He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.”

Then Jesus said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”

When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. He told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that,

“ ‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving,

and ever hearing but never understanding;

otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!’”

Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? The farmer sows the word. Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.”

This parable forms the basis for our series called Seeds & Soil: Spiritual Growth for Carbon Based Life Forms (inspired by & adapted from sermon series my dad did at the Ann Arbor Vineyard Church). We're doing that series in concert with the series on evangelism that we started last week called Nudge. Each series will take 4 weeks, so a total of 8 in all. We're doing them together for a reason. The process by which the good news finds a home in our hearts is the same process by which the good news produces spiritual growth in our lives. And so what we learn about nudge evangelism - bringing good news - will teach us a lot about spiritual growth. And what we learn about spiritual growth will teach us a lot about nudging. Each message should stand on its own - no other message is a pre-requisite for the other, but I do hope that all of them taken together would provide a set of meaningful nudges that help us both to awaken each other to the God who is already there and to welcome and cooperate with the work of his kingdom in our lives as we come awake to God's presence.

Over the four weeks of this series, we're going to concentrate on 4 ideas from this parable. One, the kingdom is a growing thing. That's today. Two, growth starts when seeds disrupt the soil. Three, spiritual growth and mixed results go hand in hand, even when Jesus is the farmer. And finally, growth is contested at every turn.

So let's talk about this parable, and about spiritual growth.

Almost all parables are designed to nudge us out of one way of thinking and into another. They are gentle in that we get drawn into the story, the word pictures, the scene, but then we discover that they tell us something different about the world than we thought was the case. Parables get into our hearts like seeds get into the soil, and then they start to come alive in there and mess everything up around them as they take root and push out shoots.

This parable was like that for the first people who heard it. They were people who were getting excited about Jesus because they thought maybe God's kingdom was about to bust into the world, and God was going to take over. That the Romans were going to be defeated in a military battle, that Israel was going to get its land back to itself, that a messiah like Jesus was going to be the new king in Jerusalem, and that prosperity and peace were on their way in short order.

But Jesus' parable of the seeds and the soil tells a different story about God's kingdom. It is in fact here, and it's coming, and everything is changing. But it doesn't happen like a big battle, like a lightning bolt out of the blue. It happens like a famer sowing seeds. Seeds that get scattered everywhere. And some of them take, and some of them don't. And some of the ones that take don't last very long. It's not instant, or even pretty fast. It's like growth that you can hardly perceive even if you're watching intently. It's a process, a process that takes time. Much of it is hidden, mysterious, and frustrating before it's glorious.

This isn't what people wanted to hear.

It's not necessarily what we want to hear, either, is it?

It sounds at first like bad news about the good news, doesn't it?

Don't we sometimes want God's kingdom to come in our lives like a big event that changes everything from one day to another, where we just aren't the same anymore? Don't we sometimes think there's just one big battle we've got to win, and once we win it, we will have arrived? Don't we sometimes think that's how it's supposed to happen, and when it doesn't happen for us, we feel left out in the cold, like God doesn't love us or have a plan for us, like he's given up on us or just wants us to suffer, or like we just don't cut it, don't have what it takes for this life with God?

We're expecting swords, but God comes with seeds.

How do kingdoms rise in our world? By the sword.

How does the Kingdom of God rise? By the seeds planted in soil.

There are no swords in the kingdom of God. In the kingdom of God, Swords are beaten into ploughshares and spears into pruning hooks. Ploughshares are used to aid in the sowing of seeds, aren't they?

But what about the sword of the spirit you say? Ephesians 6:17: "...and the sword of the spirit, which is the

[...wait for it...]

the

word.

the word of God."

and what is the word in this parable? It's the seed.

The primary "weapon" that Jesus the sower wields is a seed, not a sword.

So why exactly is this good news? Wouldn't it be better if we could have it all, and have it now? Surely God could do that if he wanted to, could he not?

Sure he could. And maybe he would, if we were robots and not carbon based life forms. If we were robots, he could shut us down, and replace the broken parts and flash our firmware and install new software and reboot everything once and for all.

But we are not robots.

In the world God has made - the world he made out of his creative, generous, self-giving love, a world that is awash with life and breath -

Swords destroy and bring death.

(they puncture lungs and leak hate into hands that hold them)

Seeds disrupt and bring life.

(they fill the air with oxygen and love leaks out of the hands that hold them)

Swords stain the soil with blood, making it fit only for factories and junkyards.

Seeds transform soil into a home for flora and fauna.

What do I mean?

If the kingdom of God came in the manner we want sometimes, we might not survive it's arrival.

Because we are carbon based life forms.

In order to keep living, all of our life giving systems are essential for our ongoing survival and growth. Any individual part within us can only withstand so much change in a short period of time, without the whole system being thrown out of whack. Even those parts that aren't healthy have to be nudged towards health, so that they keep functioning even in a limited capacity while they grow healthy.

[Israel and sacrifices, women as property, kingship...]

If God came with a sword and eliminated from our lives everything that wasn't in keeping with his rule and reign, the only way we'd survive would be on life-support equipment.

God's goal isn't for us to be on life-support, brain dead, blood and oxygen pumping through our veins by machine. His goal for us is to be partners with him in the business of love and life and imaging him to one another and his creation.

And for that to happen, seeds are required, not swords. Seeds that come into our soil, become part of us, grow roots down deep and eventually break above the surface, soaking up water and nutrients and sunlight, bearing fruit and grain, releasing pure oxygen and bursting forth with beauty.

[headache experience. Andy Stanley experience.]

Spiritual growth is less about being concerned with taking more ground, and more about being concerned with what God's planting in the ground we already have.

Powerful, transformative experiences with God are real, but they do not override the nature of the kingdom as a growing concern. In fact, they primarily serve to aid the growth process - to make room for some seed we've been resisting, or get some water to a seed that's been dormant, or to prune a plant that had some dead branches keeping it from growing.

So what are some of the implications of this for us?

Because growth is a process, it's less important where you're at than where you're headed. So we can stop focusing our energies on whether where we are at is a good place or not, and start putting our energies into where Jesus is leading us. [centered set discipleship vs. bounded set discipleship...]

Because the kingdom of God is a growing thing, if the growing has stopped, maybe the kingdom has left the soil. The soil might be different as a result of the seeds that grew in it before, but the life is gone from it if the growing has stopped.

Because the kingdom of God is a growing thing, it is advancing towards its fulfillment, not guarding the fulfillment of yesteryear. Jesus to his disciples: "There is truth you're not ready for. But you are ready for the Spirit whom I will send and he will guide you into all truth." [John 16] Jesus, the living Lord, gave the church a living faith - that's why it wasn't handed down on stone tablets.

[we're not to be a new testament church, we're to be a future coming kingdom church...!]

Finally, because the kingdom of God is a growing thing, a thing that grows like carbon based life-forms, it requires a slower time frame than the one we are used to. [note the pace at which babies and plants grow...] We live in a time frame focused on seconds, minutes, and hours, which is all the fault of trains [railroads required accurate timekeeping...]. You don't need a clock to farm. You need a calendar.

Practical Tips:

1. Invite God to terra-form your carefully manicured lawn.

Have you been satisfied with where you're at spiritually? To the point where you'd be happy to coast from here on out? Invite God to disrupt your soil and put some seeds of his kingdom in there that might change the landscape of your life. If for no other reason than you don't want to start dying already. [any carbon based life form that stops growing has started dying...]

2. Stop looking for the sword and start looking for seeds.

Are you frustrated that no big changes are happening in your life, in your walk with God? Repent and let go of that frustration in prayer: "God, I'm sorry I want it all right now - I trust that you're a good farmer, and I'm willing to be patient with you since you're obviously willing to be patient with men." And then ask the Holy Spirit to show you any seeds the sower might be trying to plant in you.

"You can trust me." "I'm bigger than what you face." "You don't need that in your life - I have something better for you." "Come spend some time with me." "You don't have to settle for that. I have more for you."

When you notice a seed trying to work its way into your soil, tend to it. Accept it. Pay attention to it. Keep the birds away from it. Give it the best energy you have available, unconcerned with how long it might take to sprout.

3. Grow a seed to maturity if you've never done it before.

Everytime you see it or do something to care for it, say this simple prayer: "Lord, may your kingdom grow in me."

Communion: Signs of your kingdom before us—your presence with us—conveyed through grapes grown on a vine, planted, tended, brought to maturity, and wheat sown and grown in a field.

Nudge: The Good News Lands with a Nudge

Sermon notes from the Vineyard Church of Milan 09/12/2010

[audio link]

[Sign on all the pews: Hey there! This pew is recommended for people who sat on the other side of the church during the last celebration they attended, or for first time guests. Thanks. Signed, Jesse Wilson.]

This week and next we'll be kicking off two new sermon series for the fall. One is called "Nudge" and it's about evangelism. It will center on Luke 24, where the first evangelist awakens human beings to their first awareness of the living presence of the God who they thought was dead. We'll start that one today. The other is called "Seeds and Soil: Spiritual Growth for Carbon Based Life Forms." It will center on Mark 4, where the first farmer tells a story about seeds and soil and how real life takes root in us and thrives, and how it doesn't. We'll start that one next week. The two series will work hand in hand together - I hope - like graceful dance partners to bring the music of the good news of the kingdom to life in us and through us.

So let's start with Nudge, the series about evangelism.

For some of us, evangelism is a dirty word. And I'd agree, it is a dirty word. Not in the sense that it's made out of unholy stuff, but in the sense that it's gotten dirt on it, to the point where many can hardly stand to be around it.

Some of us hear "evangelism" and we think about the pressure tactics that can be exerted on people to get them to agree to a new way of thinking, a new way of living, whether they want to or not. We think about converting people, or proselytizing people.

And the pressure and manipulative tactics in that kind of evangelism make us go, "ick."

Or we think about how some people think they are better, or more right than some other people, and how those people invest their energies in relationships with those people in order to "win them over" or "get them on their team" or "close the deal", abandoning them if they don't get with the program fast enough or on the right terms.

And that false way of relating - pretending to love, but really just using people to accomplish some ulterior agenda - makes us go, "ick."

Some of us hear "evangelism" and we think about the skills and giftings of people who are so much better than us at that kind of stuff - whatever that kind of stuff is, maybe bold and persuasive talking, maybe super-spiritual evangelism gifts, maybe being good at memorizing and regurgitating things like the 4 spiritual laws or the Roman road.

And that gap between us and them makes us feel inadequate and inferior, and we go "ick."

Or we think about how much we long for others to experience the wonder and beauty of the good news, and how unsuccessful we feel about our attempts to invite them in, or about how scared we feel to say anything at all that might make us come across wrong or dumb or hypocritical.

And that tension between what we long for and what we feel like we should be doing makes us feel guilt and shame and we go "ick."

But evangelism doesn't have to be dirty. It doesn't have to make us go "ick." Whether we are on the outside of the inside of faith in Jesus, or whether are singing with the choir.

Not if we understood what it really is, and how we are meant to participate in it together. Not if we could see it before it had been dragged through the mud.

The word "evangelism" comes from a greek word (euangelos) used in the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Eu = good, angelos = messenger. So evangelism just means "bringing good news."

That doesn't sound so dirty, does it?

Casualty Notification Officers in the military have one of heaviest jobs in the world. When a soldier falls in the military, Casualty Notification Officers have to knock on the door of his wife or her husband or mother or father and deliver the news. They bear painful witness to devastating news. They have front row seats to the breaking of hearts. They are filled with grief themselves at the news they bear, and they are unwelcome guests at every home they visit.

Evangelists are not casualty notification officers.

We bear witness to good news, news that fills us with joy as we carry it. We have news that people who were long thought dead are now alive. We have news that the war is over. We have news that what was lost has been found. We have news of hope against all hopelessness. We have news of mercy triumphing over judgment. We have front row seats to broken hearts being mended.

No, our problem is not with the news we bear - not usually. Not if we really understand the good news.

Our problem is far more often with how we've understood what it means to deliver it.

We've gotten the notion that somehow we've got to convince people that they are dying so that they will want our prescription for living. That somehow we've got to convince people that they are wrong about everything we've figured out the right answers to. That somehow we've got to persuade people what they call good is actually bad, and what they think of as bad is actually good. That what they call smart is actually stupid, and what they call ignorant is actually insightful.

That's not our job. That's not the work of an evangelist.

Leonard Sweet recently wrote a book called "Nudge." The subtitle is "Awakening Each Other to the God Who's Already There."

That's what evangelism is really all about. Nudging each other into an awareness of a God who is already at work in our lives.

There's no manipulation or pressure in a nudge, is there?

Our job is to nudge.

Nudge. Wake up. Look.

Nudge. Hey, did you see that?

Nudge. Look at you! Well done.

Nudge. I'm here, how's it going?

Nudge. Shhh...something's happening.

Nudge. Wow, can you believe that?

Nudge. Woah, careful there.

Nudge. Woah, did you feel that?

Nudge. Oops, did I press to hard? my bad. Please forgive me.

Nudge. Do you need a hand?

Nudge. Here he is. The one you've been waiting for, right there.

Nudge. Your number just got called. It's your turn.

Nudge. Go for it. I'm cheering you on.

The best news finds its home in people through a series of nudges.

Nudging affects both the nudger and the nudge-ee.

Nudging is an act of friendship, of love.

Nudging is up close and personal.

Nudging is invited, welcomed.

Or sometimes it's not - but even when that happens, or especially when that happens - it can open the door for more honest relationship.

Nudging happens at the right time, in the right place, and it can happen anywhere, at any time.

Nudging isn't rushed or forced, yet nudgers never hesitate or sweat bullets either, because nudges happen naturally, instinctively.

Nudges produce smiles and embraces, not narrowed eyes and clenched fists.

The good news of the Kingdom of God arrives first with all kinds of nudges, and gets people nudging each other in wonder.

Luke 24 tells the story of the best news in the world being delivered through a series of nudges - all initiated and commissioned by the first evangelist. It takes place a couple of days after Jesus has been executed on Roman cross, and everyone who loved him is despairing and despondent.

Notice all of the nudges...

mysterious signs - Nudge.

a question: why do you seek the living among the dead? - Nudge.

a reminder: remember what he said to you? - Nudge.

a report of experiences that lands at first as nonsense. -Nudge.

nonsense that leads to investigation - Nudge.

investigation that leads to wondering and conversation - Nudge.

Jesus pays attention to them. Asks them a question. -Nudge.

Notices their expressions. Asks another question. -Nudge.

Listens to their answer. Surprises them with a very different perspective, an unexpected viewpoint - one that speaks to what they already know, but tells a different story about it. - Nudge.

stays with them. doesn't make himself a nuisance, acts as if he's going on. - Nudge

accepts their invitation. blesses their meal. serves them. - Nudge.

their eyes are opened, and they see him. and they see themselves. they see that God has been at work in them through him all along.

And they turn around.

And they tell their story.

This is the fruit of many nudges.

And he shows up with a simple word of peace. - Nudge.

And he offers himself for examination. - Nudge.

And he eats some fish. - Nudge.

And he disrupts their minds. - Nudge. [thus the pew switch...]

And he shows them the truth - shows them what they've seen all along but couldn't see. - Nudge.

And now they are witnesses.

Now they have eyes to see.

Now they can join in the nudging.

This is the fruit of many nudges.

This is how good news is delivered in the kingdom of God. A nudge here, a nudge there. There is no wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am. No techniques. No systems.

Just people paying attention to the resurrection-infused world around them.

The appearance of signs that nudge them to consider that everything isn't as they expected. That something is going on beyond their awareness.

Jesus accompanying them along the way. Paying attention to them. Paying attention to signs that God is at work.

Suggesting this or that when the time seems right. Helping them connect what they know to what he knows so that they can see it, or at least be open to it when the time for seeing comes.

Never pushing, always responding to their hunger and invitation. Patient. Never frustrated or angered at the slowness of the process.

Joining them in the normal, unexceptional things of life, looking for the right time to reveal the holy and divine present in the midst of the mundane.

Willing to open himself up for inspection, scars and all.

Never defensive about their doubts of him.

Never cursing them. Always blessing them.

Until all the nudges make a landing pad for the good news to happen, until all the nudges open the curtains enough for the light to flood in.

Everything you need to know about evangelism can be found in Luke 24. Things are not what they seem. Jesus is alive and present everywhere without boundaries, often unrecognized. We are often reading the signs wrongly, but the signs are there to be read. Every nudge is a part of long process. There is a bigger story to be told, if we can see it with God's help. The very things that disturb and frustrate and sadden us are sometimes the very things that bear witness to the good news, if we have but eyes to see it.

Next time we talk about nudging, we'll talk about the God who is already there. Everywhere. I think we'll call it "Even the empty tomb isn't empty."

Practical Tips:

1. Get nudged.

Put a target on your shoulder. Invite people close to you who love you and know how to pay attention to the God who is already there to nudge you. To point out something they see God doing in your life that maybe you didn't notice. Or to point out something they see God inviting you to join him in that you maybe haven't yet said yes to. Or to point out something they see God doing through you that you didn't notice was him so that you can cooperate with it more fully. Or to tell you a different story - a kingdom of God story - about the facts of your life than the story you've been telling yourself.

If you do this, you've just invited people to evangelize you. And isn't it true that none of us has all the good news we can use?

2. Repent of Sales Tactics and Shoves

You notice how nice people who work at good stores are to you when you come in? It feels good, but deep down, you know they might be being nice just because they want you to buy something. Not because they actually love you. Is that why you're being nice to an unbelieving "friend." Because you want them to buy something? Ick. That's not how God relates to us. He calls us to love people because he loves people. Because it's a family he's inviting us into, not a pyramid marketing scheme.

And shoves miss the point as well. We shove someone when we think we know better than they do where they should be at a particular moment in time. God surely knows better than we do where we should be at any particular moment in time, and how often does he shove us? Most of the time God seems more content to let us fall flat on our face, or even let us get hit by a train, than he is to shove us off the course we choose for ourselves, doesn't he? Because he's inviting us into a life of following him, not a life on a leash.

So do some business with God and make a settled decision in your heart to get out of the business of selling and shoving.

3. Do a little homework.

Read Luke 24 this week and ask the Holy Spirit to teach you about nudging like Jesus nudges. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you how Jesus has nudged you in your life so far.

resource link: Nudge, by Leonard Sweet

Good News by 2s

our church (the Vineyard Church of Milan) is trying to practice some of what we've been studying in the book of Acts about listening to the Holy Spirit (specifically from Acts 13, the sending of Saul & Barnabas). to that end, some are endeavoring to try out this "good news by 2s" idea. hopefully, those who join in the practice can leave a comment describing their experiences along the way.

by way of reminder, or heads up for those new to it, here's the details of the project:

1. Partner up with someone. Someone in your small group, your ministry team, your neighborhood, another family, whomever you wish.

2. Together, ask the Holy Spirit to send you somewhere, to someone in need of good news. Listen, as best you know how, for the Spirit to speak. Maybe take a day to fast while you're listening. Compare notes and take a best guess about where you're being sent. Pray some more after you think you know. Take a week to do all this. Unless, you know, the Spirit tells you different.

3. Together, creatively and faithfully decide on how to announce, demonstrate, or embody good news where you've been directed. Brainstorm, pray about it. Let it flow from who you are: you're an image-bearer of God, after all. Doesn't have to be complicated. No strings attached is probably best – it's supposed to be good news, after all.

4. Aim for giving something a whirl, together, by June 14th, if possible. Leave a comment here about how it all goes, so we can learn from each other.