Together We

sermon notes from the Vineyard Church of Milan 05/06/2012

a recording of the entire celebration, including the sermon is available at http://www.sundaystreams.com/go/MilanVineyard/ondemand

Together we

follow the way of Jesus and

create breathing room

for the disfavored to find favor

for the discounted to count

& for the disconnected to connect.

Starting here.

This is our chalkboard assignment from Jesus. He’s called each of us to himself, and placed us in community with one another, and said, “Here’s what I’ve brought us together to do.

Some of us will be raising kids

and some of us will be feeding the hungry

and some of us will be making music

and some of us will be working with computers

and some of us will going to Costa Rica or Russia

and some of us will be fixing air conditioning units

and some of us will be mowing lawns and some of us will be working hard in order to be extravagantly generous

and some of us will be throwing parties

and some of us will be teaching and some will be cleaning toilets

and some of us will be healing the sick

and some of us will be interceding

and some of us will be making coffee

and some of us will be shopping

and some of us will be changing diapers

and some of us will be putting out parking signs every week

and some of us will be driving teenagers from here to kingdom come.

But all of us, together, in all of it, we are following my way – which is simultaneously the hardest and the most beautiful path in the world - and creating breathing room for the disfavored (whom I love to no end, and so will you) to find favor,

and for the discounted (whom I see as treasures beyond measure, and so will you) to count,

and for the disconnected (whom I have gone to the ends of the world rescue, and so will you) to connect.

And as we do, we are going to do something great here. I’m going to make something great out of you. I’m going to change your life, and the lives of your family members, and your friends, and even your enemies. I’m going to make something great out of this corner of the world. I’m going to change its prospects, its future, its reputation. People are going to grow up here, and recognize that this is a blessed place, a place teeming with life and hope and beauty. I’m going to be easy to find in you, and in this place, and people are going to come to here, and to you, looking for me.

You may not feel prepared, you might have a lot of apprehensions, but I’ve got everything you need and you’ve got nothing to be afraid of, so let’s start now. Let’s start here. Let’s go!”

[conversation with Fred…]

So we’re going to spend the next several weeks unpacking this assignment Jesus has given us, exploring this vision.

Today, just those first two words.

Together we. [invite people to say it together…]

Together.

We.

Together we follow.

Together we create breathing room.

Without the together we, following the way of Jesus and creating breathing room are both impossible and lifeless. Discipleship and mission are twin callings central to the Christian life, and both are meant to be done in community.

Consider this:

The way of Jesus is a way traveled in company. Even Jesus’ first adventure, his testing in the wilderness, which we often imagine as a lonely trial, wasn’t undertaken alone.

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, ²where for forty days he was tempted by the devil.

Matthew 4:1-2

Consider this:

The great commission, too, is given not to individuals, but to a community.

⁸Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you (y’all). And surely I am with you (y’all) always, to the very end of the age.”

Matthew 28:18-20

Consider this:

Jesus told his disciples that they will be known as his students because of their love for one another. And this kind of love is only possible when people are together in community and mission.

³⁴“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

John 13:34-35

Consider this:

One of the defining images of the church in the scriptures is the image of a body made up of many parts:

¹²Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. ¹³For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. ¹⁴Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

1 Corinthians 12:12-14

A body without a “together we” animated by the Holy Spirit is nothing more than a lifeless statue, and a body without many parts that pretends to contain the presence of God is nothing more than an idol.

Finally, consider this:

God himself is a “together we” God. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. 3 persons, 1 God. God himself a loving community of harmonious oneness. Father loving Son, Son loving Father, the love between them so powerfully personal as to be a person, the Holy Spirit.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

1 John 4:16

[Harmony illustration…Sweet in the mornin’…]

Our mission to create breathing room is all about making space for people to come into an awareness of the triune God’s embrace of them, his welcome of them into himself, into his loving community of harmonious oneness. Out of the fractured human race, shattered by sin and trapped in suffocating isolation, God is making a new family. A family in which people are freely themselves in the truest senses of freely and of themselves.

The way of Jesus leads us into the heart of this loving community of harmonious oneness. It is the point of forgiveness. Of perseverance. Of holiness. Of salvation and redemption. It is the point of humility and surrender and generosity. It is, not to put too fine a point on it, the point of love.

[Pentatonic Scale illustration…]

Together we.

Together.

We.

Everything we do as a church starts here. With together we. We might do everything else just right, but if we don’t do it together – which is where love is born – it is worth nothing to Jesus and the forward movement of his kingdom.

If I speak in human or angelic tongues, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ²If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body ⌈to hardship⌉ that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3

Properly understood, we could substitute “but have no together we” for “but do not have love” and the passage would retain its truth. Together we, and then all the rest can follow in its proper place.

We worship, together.

We pray, together.

We serve, together.

We announce the good news of Jesus, together.

We give generously, together.

We celebrate, together.

We grieve, together.

We endure, together.

We grow, together.

We love, together.

So, let me draw out one significant implication for us, and then close with a couple of practical tips.

For us, together we means that the image of the Prodigal Father’s embrace is our disciplined posture towards one another and towards others.

We embrace one another as brothers and sisters on the way of Jesus. And we embrace every stranger as one whom God desires to welcome into his family.

Not all of us will experience every one of the others of us as brothers and sisters in our personal lives or our homes, etc. – certainly not at first - but we must begin by embracing one another as brothers and sisters on the way of Jesus. Fellow family members taking our next steps towards Jesus.

And all that we do together with one another as a community of faith will give us opportunity to extend that embrace in more specific ways, as Jesus leads us together.

Perhaps as fellow worshippers, inviting strangers in.

Or eating companions at a meal, inviting strangers in.

Or teammates on a ministry team or outreach event, inviting strangers in.

Or surrogate family members in a small group, inviting strangers in.

Or in the richest of friendships as God opens our hearts to one another, inviting strangers in.

Together we.

Together.

We.

Practical Tips:

1. Invite 1 for 1, 1 time, once a month. Commit to inviting one person to do one thing you do in ministry or life with you one time once a month. One person with whom you don’t normally do that thing. Note: “with” you has a flexible continuum of meanings.

2. Tune in and stay tuned. We are going to give energy and effort to getting better at communicating this year, so that “together we” can increase in our life as a church. [video streaming, web, newsletter, etc.]

Life, Death, and Fruit

sermon notes from the Vineyard Church of Milan 04/29/2012
Video recording of the service available at http://www.sundaystreams.com/go/MilanVineyard/ondemand  *you’ll want to skip to 35 minutes in for the start of the service, and an hour and 6 minutes for the start of the sermon*
[Bus chase story…]
Our mission:
Together we
follow the way of Jesus
& create breathing room
For the disconnected to connect
For the disfavored to find favor
& for the discounted to count.
Starting here.
The reality of the way of Jesus is that it involves testing, difficulty, trials and tribulations. It is a way filled with celebration and leading to resurrection life, but if we don’t know how to respond to the hard parts of the journey, we won’t be able to effectively create breathing room for others as Christ intends. Last week and this, considering what James, the brother of Jesus has to say about this in the first chapter of his letter.
God’s blessing on the man who endures testing! When he has passed the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. Nobody being tested should say, “It’s God that’s testing me”, for God cannot be tested by evil, and he himself tests nobody. Rather each person is tested when they are dragged off and enticed by their own desires. Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin; and when sin reaches maturity it gives birth to death.

Don’t be deceived, my dear family. Every good gift, every perfect gift, comes down from above, from the father of lights. His steady light doesn’t vary. It doesn’t change and produce shadows. He became our father by the word of truth; that was his firm decision, and the result is that we are a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
James 1:12-18
Blessing – happy – beatitudes
Endures same word as patience earlier
Testing – same root word as trials, sometimes translated temptations, but only because ancient understanding was that tests and trials were occasions for temptation. Here seems to be an emphasis on the internal tests, rather than external trials and tribulations.
Identify confusion over “God tests nobody,” since we see references to God testing lots of people (Genesis 22:1 “Some time later God tested Abraham…”). Thus translators’ attempts to reduce confusion by making one tests and the other temptations.
I don’t think the tension between the two ideas (God tests vs. God doesn’t test) is a bad thing. There are times we experience God testing us for the sake of more life, surely. But James seems to be talking about the internal tests that come when difficulty stirs our sinful desires to get life from outside of the place that we are, instead of from God who is present with us in it. God isn’t interested in stirring those sinful desires. He doesn’t have them, he doesn’t do that. What is God interested in? We’ll get to that.
Ancient understanding of the stars as gods with powers to control fate. God is father of lights, giving good, perfect gifts, not fickle.
Notice the pattern in this passage. Life. Death. New creation. That will be important. Life, death, new creation. This is the Christ pattern, woven even into the words of this letter.
Notice also the two different procreation images. One of our desires giving birth to sin and eventually to death. The other of the Father giving birth to us as the first fruits of his new creation.
And right in the middle of all of it, the hinge on which it turns, the gravity around which everything orbits, the grace, the good and perfect gifts of God the Father.
Let’s begin there, with the goodness of God towards us. For James this vision of God is central to what it means to be a Jesus follower. God is a father who is showering his creation with good and perfect gifts, pouring out blessing upon blessing for the sake of blessing. Not a demented manipulator toying with his playthings for his own twisted pleasure.
This matters to us when we are enduring testing. Whatever form that testing is currently taking.
Broken circumstances.
Broken families.
Broken relationships.
Broken bodies.
Broken minds.
Broken hearts.
Broken dreams.
Broken pasts.
Because it can feel like God’s out to get us for reasons only he knows. Or punish us for our failings or sins. Or that he has left us hung out to dry in the wind because of our supposed uselessness to him.
It’s natural for us to wonder. It’s easier for us to attribute the pain we are experiencing in difficulty to an external source rather than an internal one. Ever stub your toe on a chair and then kick the chair out of anger at it? Stupid chair!
The same thing happens with even the simplest tests. Someone lets you down by doing something inconsiderate, thoughtless, rude, or even downright malicious. Along comes the testing. How will you respond? Graciously? Angrily? Bitterly? It’s hard. Demanding. Puts you in a bind. This isn’t how you’d planned to spend your energy and time.
Who’s to blame? Clearly, someone. And the simplest someone to blame is the inconsiderate, thoughtless, rude, malicious someone. Clearly, they are in some measure to blame for our suffering. But are they to blame for the testing that the suffering opens the door to?
Enough tests come, and it’s not just about the particular someones anymore. Why difficulty after difficulty? Why won’t it stop? Why me?
Who’s to blame? Must be someone powerful. Clearly, it’s God. Or at least, it seems pretty clear, as clear as anything can be in the kind of fog that tumbling into trials and tribulations wraps us in.
But James says hold on, maybe something else is going on.
Don’t be deceived, my dear family.
James says those pessimistic perspectives on trials, on difficulties, on testing are deceptions. Lies. Crafty distortions of the truth, close enough to be believable, but fundamentally false. The fearful whispers of darkness and death.
Don’t believe them, James says. Reject them! Resist them! Because…
Every good gift, every perfect gift, comes down from above, from the father of lights. His steady light doesn’t vary. It doesn’t change and produce shadows.
God is good, the giver of perfect gifts. So good that everything good comes from him. Every joy, every delight, every beauty, every wonder, every pure pleasure comes from him. Which means every thing that is not a perfect gift is decidedly not from him.
Furthermore, God’s not like the sun moving through the sky, making things look one way in one part of the day, and another later on. No, he’s like a steady noonday sun. Everything lit up, shadow-less.
God is neither causing our suffering, nor is he trying to obscure our vision so as to confuse us.
The truth is just the opposite. God is leading us by the hand into the most blessed of blessings. God is shining pure clear light on the world so that we can step forward on well lit ground.
So what, then? What are we to make of all this testing, all these trials?
Well, James says that for the person whose life is given to the master, Jesus, whose life has come under the authority of the strong and risen Christ, these difficulties that lead to testing are part of the road to resurrection life. They are harbingers of blessings, not curses.
God’s blessing on the man who endures testing! When he has passed the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.
And what is to blame for the testing?
Nobody being tested should say, “It’s God that’s testing me”, for God cannot be tested by evil, and he himself tests nobody. Rather each person is tested when they are dragged off and enticed by their own desires.
Our own desires, it seems, are the real culprits. In this case, James seems to be referring to those desires within us that have their roots in the old, sinful, broken creation that Jesus came to rescue us from. Lust, anger, envy, greed, gluttony, pride, sloth, and the like.
James pictures those desires seducing us in the midst of difficulty. Inviting us to embrace them for the life they promise us, instead of looking to God for life in the midst of our difficulty.
Back to our simple example. Someone lets us down by doing something inconsiderate, thoughtless, rude, or even downright malicious. They are to blame for their lack of consideration, or thoughtlessness, or rudeness or malice. But they are not to blame for the testing, the trial that ensues. The blame for that lies squarely on those broken desires still alive within us.
[DC, illness, etc…]
And if we surrender to their seduction, sin is conceived. And grows up in the world. And eventually spawns death, all on its own.
Contrasted with that is the way God gives birth to new creation life.
He became our father by the word of truth; that was his firm decision, and the result is that we are a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
No seduction or deception here. God declares that he is our Father with his firm decision. He desires it, and he makes it so. Our broken desires give birth to death; God’s desire makes us his children. He speaks new creation into being in us the way he made the first creation, with his word. Through Jesus, the word made flesh. The word of truth.
…and the result is that we are a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
Do you know the purpose of fruit? It is to be an attractive enough and sweet enough container of seeds that some animal will pick it up to eat it and carry it away so that the seeds are spread and new trees grow up everywhere.
And do you know what ripens the fruit to make it sweet? It is essentially a dying process stimulated by an organic hormone called ethylene. And in that dying it becomes sweeter and sweeter, less tart. More and more attractive, colorful. More fragrant. More and more likely to be carried away and buried under ground to grow up into a new, life giving tree.
(Interestingly, an ancient technique for ripening a fruit is to wound it…)
Something like that is happening with us when we undergo trials and tests. Each test brings broken old creation desires to the surface as they attempt to seduce us, to make us turn from God for our life and search life out in something else. To get revenge instead of to forgive. To lust to get instead of to love to give. To nurse bitterness instead of lavishing generous grace. To curl up in sloth instead of working tirelessly for a harvest. To be envious of others instead of grateful for God’s good gifts to us. And on and on.
If we give life to those desires by welcoming their advances, the new creation parts of us shrivel and die. But if we starve those desires, and endure the tests, holding on to the way of Jesus and his good news, those desires die in us, and through the agency of the Holy Spirit, we ripen.
God’s blessing on the man who endures testing! When he has passed the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him….
God is interested in transforming the broken world with the resurrection life of his son Jesus, and he’s invited us into that life and into that mission. So he’s present with us in the testing, knowing the trial that it is. Enduring with us as we endure. It’s a strange endurance, because we must endure until we die to any particular desire. God is dying with us as we die to those sinful desires. And when we die, we’ve passed the test, and we receive the crown of life. Just as Christ Jesus has done before us.
Holy Spirit, help us see Christ with us in our trials!
Holy Spirit, help us see Christ enduring with us as we endure!
Holy Spirit, help us endure until we have died to ourselves, as Christ already has before us.
Holy Spirit, help us hold on until nothing has a hold on us except the love of God, that we might bow low to receive the crown of life.
Holy Spirit, help us to become with our Savior the first fruits of God’s new creation, so that in our dying to ourselves, the seeds of God’s kingdom can be scattered near and far and resurrection life can sweep over the face of the earth!
Practical Tips:
1. Save some seeds in your wallet or purse. Eat a piece of fruit, clean and dry the seeds, and place them in your wallet or purse, someplace they will remind you regularly of this passage.
2. Write the word “endure” somewhere you will see it often. If you’re in the midst of testing produced by difficulty, remember that your most important job is to simply to endure. To not prematurely end the testing by letting your own desires drag you off the way of Jesus.

Tumbling Into Joy

sermon notes from the Vineyard Church of Milan 04/22/2012

As someone who loves to play sports, and perhaps especially as someone who loves to play well enough to win, I have learned to not always trust my natural instincts. At least not at first, not until my instincts have been properly trained. Because so often what feels natural may not get you to the level of skill you want. [junior high basketball, learning the jump shot, tennis learning to serve…] Over time, what I’ve learned is that if someone whose proficiency you admire tells you to do it a different way, and when you first begin to try it feels totally wrong and unnatural, that that feeling of wrong and unnatural is probably a sign that you are on the right track. And to trust it, embrace it until it becomes second nature.

Which brings us to our text today.

My dear family, when you find yourselves tumbling into various trials and tribulations, learn to look at it with complete joy, because you know that, when your faith is put to the test, what comes out is patience. What's more, you must let patience have its complete effect, so that you may be complete and whole, not falling short in anything.

James 1:2-4

James probably younger blood brother of Jesus. (lit. Jacob, translated in English as James, maybe because King James who commissioned one of the earliest English translations wanted to see his name there) Seemed to see him as brother earlier on in Jesus’ ministry, not Lord until later. (Can you imagine going through the internal shift to call your sibling Lord?) At the time of this writing, main spokesperson of the church in Jerusalem.

James is a tell-it-like-it-is kind of guy. He doesn’t beat around the bush, he doesn’t pull any punches. We see it in this letter, and it seems to be part of the reason he is eventually executed by the high priest in Jerusalem.

However, whenever he tells it like it is, he always gives his reasoning. He’s not like the authority figure that demands unquestioning compliance – do it because I said so! – he’s like a dad that wants his kids to understand the why behind the what so that when they grow up they have internalized and owned for themselves what he wants them to know and do.

James does that here.

My dear family, when you find yourselves tumbling into various trials and tribulations, learn to look at it with complete joy, because…

He gets right to the point, doesn’t he? “learn to look at it with complete joy.” Even though his point sounds pretty crazy and unrealistic.

Let’s be honest, who does that naturally?

Usually, if we saw someone doing that, we’d wonder if they had it all together, wouldn’t we? We’d wonder if they were living in some kind of denial.

But James just comes right out with it.

Complete joy, he says.

Not, learn to recognize the silver lining.

Not, learn to see that it’s not as bad as it seems.

Not even, learn to have a positive attitude.

But learn to look at it with complete joy.

It’s a head turner kind of thing to say. If it were anyone else, we might wonder what they’d been smoking. But this is James. Brother of Jesus. Leader of the first church in Jerusalem. A guy who knew what he was talking about when it came to trials and tribulations of all kinds.

He’d seen his brother wrongfully arrested, tortured, and killed for political expediency. That counts as T&T. That wouldn’t feel like complete joy, would it? But James also saw the rest of that story. Saw his brother alive in a resurrection body. Saw his brother slip out of our 3 dimensional volume into the invisible dimensions where the God who is as near as our next breath dwells in fullness. Experienced the Spirit of his brother unleashed into the world on Pentecost, alive in his own soul, whispering to him, empowering him, enlivening him. And something about that experience, and others like it, revealed something profound and true to him about the nature of trials and tribulations this side of the resurrection.

So we listen. And thankfully, he gives us a high quality, grade A USDA because.

…because you know that, when your faith is put to the test, what comes out is patience. What's more, you must let patience have its complete effect, so that you may be complete and whole, not falling short in anything.

Now, let’s be honest. Our first response probably isn’t, yes – I’m going to have patience because of this! Hot golly gosh darn, that’s all I’ve ever wanted in life – look out joy, here I come!

Maybe if the because were: because you know that these trials are the only thing between you and a convertible Mustang GT, or some other desire of your heart, and everything is going to work out just the way you want.

But no, the because is about patience and about what patience does to transform us. Sometimes we want Twinkies, but James seems to be giving us tofu. So let’s spend some time giving his words a chance to work on us, see what kind of life they might give to us if we attend to them.

Back to the top.

My dear family.

James has tenderness in his voice, not harshness. He says what he says here because he loves us. Because he is rooting for us. Because he’s got a treasure he wants to pass on to us. This isn’t a corrective you’ve blown it, now take your medicine talk, this is gather around the table, I want to tell you something wonderful.

…when you find yourselves tumbling into various trials and tribulations…

The Greek words themselves have a tumbling quality to them, alliterative p’s rolling off the tongue

Peripesete poikilois peirasmois / per-ee-pes-ete poy-kee-lois pi-ras-mois

Which is how it can feel when we are in a season of trials and tribulations. It’s like we’re are out of control, tumbling. It’s disorienting, you can’t tell which way is up at any particular time, all you can tell is you’re going down. And it’s like they just keep coming, just when one seems to be ending a new one seems to be starting.

Work,

health,

cars,

family,

friends,

pets,

your favorite team,

a power outage,

a speeding ticket,

you name it - everything seems to be unfair game.

The net effect, of course, is the opposite of joy. When we’re tumbling into various trials and tribulations, what we feel is despair. That it’s never going to end. That it’s going to destroy us. We can’t see clearly, everything is darkness and shadow and storm. [free throws at basketball game…]

But James says that feeling of despair is a lie built on a false foundation of unreality. A façade around the true truth of the reality pressing forward from God’s kingdom future to meet us. An illusion shrouding us from seeing Christ’s blessed presence in God’s kingdom now in which we abide. James says instead,

learn to look at it with complete joy…

note: he’s not saying simply “be joyful” – that would be impossible for most of us, and false at best. He’s saying learn to look at these things with complete joy…

[As a parent, learning to see an angry, tearful response as a sign of progress, instead of with discouragement. As a pastor, learning to see the unsettling falling apart of shakable faith as forward progress, not backsliding. Learning to see sore muscles as a sign you’re getting stronger, fitter, not dying.]

What James has come to see is that for the disciple of Jesus, everything is working together for new creation purposes. Everything is working together towards resurrection. For those learning to follow the way of Jesus together, bound in fellowship to Christ through the holy spirit of the good shepherd, God’s goodness is infiltrating everything. Even the trials and tribulations that are conceived in the pit of hell for our destruction. And if we could but see it, if we could learn to look at it through clear eyes, the joy already present in us through Jesus would be unshaken, unrattled, unchipped, uncowed, unbowed,

complete.

Hegeomai: "learn to look at it" from the root of lead, rule, command. This is an act of discipleship, a leading of our selves in the way of Jesus. It is process. It takes intention. Some parts of us will take more leading and discipline than others. It’s a learned perspective; it’s not how we will naturally look at such things.

And it’s generally simple, but also just plain hard work. We remember the words of our teachers. We call them to mind regularly. We immerse ourselves in the good news vision of reality that Jesus gives us, declaring to the obstinate parts of us that it’s true. And we ask for help when we need it.

…because you know that, when your faith is put to the test, what comes out is patience.

When we are tumbling into trials and tribulations, our faith is put to the test. Do we believe the good news anymore? Do we trust Jesus and the path he has put us on? Or do we despair? Do we choose a different, easier road? One of our own choosing that seems less prone to problems and pitfalls and persecution from the evil one? This is our faith being put to the test.

And what comes out in us if we stand against despair like a willow tree in a wind storm, if we hang on to the good news like a mountain climber whose finger strength seems to be giving out, if we remain on the way of Jesus like a driver in a rainstorm who can see nothing in front, but only the shoulder of the road on either side when they roll down their window? What comes out, says James, is patience.

Hupomone / hoop-om-on-ay: “patience, endurance”

Because faith will never find its full satisfaction until the kingdom comes in its fullness at the end of the age. And so out of every act of faith comes patience. Endurance. We trust the good news Jesus announces. We keep our feet on the way of Jesus, or we climb back on when we’ve found ourselves off the path. And we draw nearer to the day with every act of faith. We come closer to the source of life itself. The old creation withers within us and the new creation sends out shoots above the ground. Our faith is strengthened, but it is not done being exercised. And what comes out is patience. Endurance.

[Pararescue Jumper Training film…]

Comment on “so others might live” and the endurance that will yet be demanded so that joy might be multiplied…

What's more, you must let patience have its complete effect, so that you may be complete and whole, not falling short in anything.

This to me, is where what James is saying gets really interesting. Patience, holding on to Jesus in faith, trusting his good news in the midst of tumbling into various trials and tribulations, has an effect. And that effect is that it makes us complete and whole, not falling short in anything. Perfect and complete, lacking nothing, some translations say.

In other words, new creation itself is born out of the faith we exercise in hard times. Resurrection enters the world only after betrayal and arrests and trials and torture and thorns and tombs.

New creation is the most joyous of joys. Resurrection is joy beyond telling. But it is always wrapped in burial cloths before the light of Easter morning enters the cave.

And hear this as well, not only is new creation itself, and resurrection itself, joy in its purest form, but the new creation is doused in joy unending, and the resurrected know joy in their bones. And so the infinite joy is doubled.

And so James is saying, learn to look at these things that we are tumbling into, that are sometimes tumbling us, and see them for what they really are. They are the signal fires of stampeding joy. The grass and trees may catch fire around us, we may be burned, the ground may shake beneath our feet and we may not be able to keep our feet under us, but joy is on the move. And more than that, let the tumbling have its complete effect. Even if all it has produced so far is patience, that patience is itself the thing that announces the promised joy will surely arrive.

Practical Tips:

1. Memorize these verses, substituting “my dear family” for your first name. Whether you are tumbling now or have smooth sailing. Despair is easier to resist when you can catch a glimpse of what’s really happening. And these verses remind us of what’s really happening. Say them to yourself.

2. Ask God for a “stop” image, or maybe it’s a “start” image.

[show images of fire/new growth forest..]

3. Ask a joyful person for an outside perspective.

4. Watch Surviving the Cut.

Easter 2012: Empty Tombs and Bobsleds

sermon notes from the Vineyard Church of Milan 04/08/2012

video recording of the service at http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/21684804

Easter 2012: Empty Tombs and Bobsleds

Vineyard Church of Milan

04/07/2012

It’s Resurrection Sunday. The first day of a brand new week.

Today is the day that a story sweeps in and engulfs every event, every word, every action in human history. Because of the resurrection, our lives are caught up in a story. Lent is over. Good Friday now lives only in memory. Today, and every day from here on out, is Sunday and Sunday’s children, the days that Resurrection Sunday gives birth to, the days that share Resurrection Sunday’s DNA.

Today is the day the story sheds it tragic skin and emerges as a true comedy.

Today is the day our story becomes a good story.

Today is the day the story becomes epic.

24 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. ²They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, ³but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. ⁴While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. ⁵In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? ⁶He is not here; he has risen!

Luke 24:1-6

Let’s be clear about a few things.

One. We’re not stupid. We know how things work. Dead people stay dead. A dead looking plant might perk up if you water it. Dead looking sick people might recover with enough care and willpower and medical attention. Mostly dead people might be revived by CPR or heroic intervention. Some have even reported out of body experiences in the midst of surgery or trauma, only to be “sent back” and suck in air again for years of new life afterwards. But truly dead people stay dead. Especially people who are killed dead by powerful empires and rulers vested interests in keeping dead people dead so they can’t start revolutions.

This story, the resurrection story, on the other hand, is crazy. It says a dead person, dead for more than a day, stopped being dead and started being alive. Fully alive. Alive and kicking alive, no worse for the wear alive.

And not metaphorically alive, like alive in our hearts or memories or even some disembodied existence, like a ghost or something. But pinch-me-I’m-not-dreaming alive.

Resurrection raises provocative questions, doesn’t it? Resurrection says we might not be stupid, but we maybe shouldn’t be as sure of things as we thought we were. Because if that can happen, what else is possible?

But this story is even crazier than just that:

¹³Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. ¹⁴They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. ¹⁵As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; ¹⁶but they were kept from recognizing him…

³⁰When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. ³¹Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight.

Luke 24:13-16,30-31

Which brings us to the second thing we need to be clear about. This story says this dead person, Jesus of Nazareth, after being dead, was so alive, filled with so much life, in such a new state of animated embodiedness, that people couldn’t quite recognize him at first. Like when someone you’ve only ever seen in blue jeans and a t-shirt shows up dressed to the 9s, hair all done up, pedicured and manicured, maybe even a little makeup. And you do a double take. But more than that – so much more alive, body and soul, that you could spend the day with them and think they were a stranger until something clicked, they said that thing in that particular way, they moved their hand and cocked their head in only the way they do that, and you realized – whoah! That was Jesus.

And then poof, he disappears.

Which is where it gets even crazier. Because it means his body is a whole different kind of alive then the kind of alive we know. It has a fully alive physicality in a dimension that surrounds this one, and is fully alive in this one as well. Some of us have had out of body experiences, and some of us have had out of this world experiences, but Jesus has out of this world experiences in his resurrected, flesh and blood body.

³⁶While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”

³⁷They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. ³⁸He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? ³⁹Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”

⁴⁰When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. ⁴¹And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” ⁴²They gave him a piece of broiled fish, ⁴³and he took it and ate it in their presence.

Luke 24:36-43

So again, just so we’re clear. We aren’t stupid. But our sense of what is possible just got blown out of the water. Something crazy incredible is happening on resurrection Sunday, and it’s happening right here on planet earth. With atoms and molecules and flesh and blood and bone and breath. It’s just that those atoms and molecules and flesh and blood and bone and breath are behaving as they’ve never behaved before.

Resurrection isn’t about somewhere else. It’s not about escape to angels and harps and clouds. Resurrection happens here. And that means everything about right here, right now has changed.

Resurrection is embodied, engaged, active life here.

It is the affirmation of here. The affirmation of work and embrace and laughter and forgiveness and sunshine and birds and working through conflict and horses and soccer and encouragement and struggle and trees and art and music and faithful persistence and dance and poetry and on and on…

It is the affirmation of breakfast.

Resurrection is about something new starting here, in the world we call home.

Resurrection is an announcement of new creation.

The story isn’t that someday we abandon this place.

The story is that God hasn’t abandoned this place, and he never will.

(you know how you leave something at someone’s house, in an attempt to ensure continued relationship…? this is place is now permanently connected to God, since he’s now embodied in a new creation version of it…)

God is starting a new creation, here, out of the tomb of the old. As the scriptures describe it, Jesus is the firstborn from the among the dead. Which means there will be all kinds of second and third and next-borns.

Thus our task as followers of the resurrected Christ. To see and name and give ourselves to the good that resurrection will one day make really real, incorruptible and permanent, perfect and untainted.

Our task is to practice resurrection. To give ourselves to all that resurrection will resurrect, and push it in that direction like a bobsledder pushes the bobsled until gravity takes over. People... Justice... Business... Beauty... Creation itself… Celebration and gratitude… Worship of every sort... True love in every form...

Will the things you have given your life to go on when God’s good new world takes over the old, when Resurrection comes? When death is gone from it? When only the beautiful and true and redeemed remains?

As we practice resurrection, Resurrection has a few other things to announce along the way.

For example, Resurrection is the cancelling of every debt. Once and for all, buried, never to come out.

¹³When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, ¹⁴having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. ¹⁵And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

Colossians 2:13-15

Everything that stood against us – our sins, the things we’ve given ourselves to that will not go on in God’s new world when resurrection comes – those debts we’ve incurred are cancelled. Nailed to the cross. There is nothing then to hold us back from practicing resurrection. From giving ourselves afresh.

Resurrection also says someone else is in charge. Someone good. Someone really, really, really good. Life is in charge, not death. Mercy has triumphed over judgment. The resurrected Jesus has disarmed those powers and authorities that previously ruled our world, he’s made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. Affirmation is in charge, not accusation. Love rules over all.

Resurrection says nothing has to be the way it’s always been forever. No story has to end the way it looks like it’s going to end. No tomorrow has to have its feet stuck in today. Because Resurrection changes every story.

What we do, as followers of Jesus, is to learn to see the new creation that resurrection announces bursting forth right here among us. And then we move towards it, to embrace it with open arms, no matter how unlikely it seems.

In a community that is hurting from job losses and broken families and interrupted starts, as followers of Jesus, we learn to see the new creation that resurrection announces getting ready to burst forth, and we water it. We create breathing room for it. We welcome it. With faith rooted in the resurrection that’s already happened. We practice the kind of life that will one day take over this place as God’s good new world infuses this present reality.

In the life of a child who is hurting from brokenness beyond their control, we learn to see the new creation that resurrection announces getting ready to burst forth, and we name it and give ourselves to that good work God desires to bring to completion. We make space for them to practice resurrection along with us.

In the lives of everyone we meet, we keep our eyes peeled for resurrection – which seems to most often happen right where the dead are buried – and we look for ways to embrace it. To bless it. To roll away the stones. Until every tomb is empty.

And even in our own lives, full of death though they may be, we learn to look for resurrection. To look for Jesus, present even though we didn’t recognize him at first. And when he asks for breakfast, we offer him everything in our cupboards, and sit down with him to eat.

That’s what these who are getting baptized our doing. Choosing to give their lives to learning to see the new creation resurrection announces. Choosing to trust that the risen one has indeed triumphed over every other power and authority. Choosing to practice resurrection in relationships, in work, in play, in worship day after day after day until God’s good new world takes over the old.

Do you see this tomb they buried Jesus in? He isn’t here. He is risen!

Behold Thy Mother

mini-sermonette notes from the Community-Wide Good Friday Service at Marble Memorial United Methodist Church on Good Friday

But standing by the cross of Jesus were His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.

26 When Jesus then saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold, your son!”

27 Then He said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” From that hour the disciple took her into his own household.

John 19:25-27

Behold. See. Perceive.

At the foot of the cross, on Good Friday, we see one another differently. By the authority of the king of the Jews, soon to be crowned king of all creation, our relationships to one another are re-defined by his love.

Behold. See. Perceive.

Look at John, Mary. He is your son. See him in the light of my love, under the shadow of my cross.

Look at Mary, John. She is your mother. See her in the light of my love, under the shadow of my cross.

Mary, an older woman now. Perhaps 5-10 years beyond the normal life expectancy of 40 in that time. Free with the other women to come and go, no threat to the Romans or the antagonistic leaders in Israel persecuting the Jesus-movement rebels. There with the other women at the cross.

John, perhaps 15 or 16 years old. Was he more courageous than all the other disciples who had fled? Perhaps. But, more likely, still baby faced, not shaving yet. And therefore, like the women, under the radar, free to come and go, no threat to gather a band of rebels after the death of their messianic leader.

A widow woman. A baby faced boy. Made family by their relationship with Jesus.

This is the work of the cross. The love of God redefining, reestablishing relationships, making family where hundreds of generations of human history had broken family apart.

This good Friday, may we hear Jesus’ words on the cross.

Behold. See. Perceive. This is your brother. This is your sister. This is your mother. This is your father. This is your son. This is your daughter.

Behold. See. Perceive. Look beyond the skin and the circumstances and the life history and the class and the culture and bank account balance and the religious background and the education and the clothing and the weathered facades we wear.

Behold. See. Perceive. This human being is your kin because of my love. Love them now, as you would love your own.

This is the work of the cross. This is our commission on Good Friday.

Palm Sunday 2012

sermon notes from the Vineyard Church of Milan 04/01/2012

if you’d like to watch a recording of this message on ustream, use the following link:

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/21519902/highlight/253493

21 As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, ²saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. ³If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.”

⁴This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:

⁵“Say to Daughter Zion,

‘See, your king comes to you,

gentle and riding on a donkey,

and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’ ”

⁶The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. ⁷They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. ⁸A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. ⁹The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,

“Hosanna to the Son of David!”

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

¹⁰When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?”

¹¹The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”

Some years ago, I received a call from the wife of a Presbyterian pastor, the pastor of a large church near Detroit. He was dying of cancer, and all treatment options had been exhausted. She had heard that our church believed in God’s power to heal, and that we prayed for the sick, and she asked if we would come pray for her husband.

A couple of ministry leaders and I took a road trip to the hospital he was at, and met her there in her husband’s hospital room. He was gaunt and weak and unconscious, while she was strong and vibrant, full of faith, and grieving at the same time.

We began to pray, inviting the Holy Spirit to come and show us what the Father was doing. Almost immediately, something like a holy electricity filled the room. His face began to flush, and his muscles seemed to visibly relax. We understood that to be a sign of God’s presence, and whenever God is present, his power is also present, because the two are one and the same.

And so we prayed with quickening faith. Announcing the authority of Jesus over the cancer that was wracking this man’s body, proclaiming the nearness and the hereness of the kingdom of God, joining with Jesus in his healing work on the earth. The air felt thick, and our hearts were moved with compassion. All of us began to weep as we prayed, sensing Jesus’ strong, powerful love for this man.

Something extraordinary was happening. His face became radiant. His wife’s eyes were filled with renewed hope and deep, deep love. We prayed. And we prayed. And the life of God was dancing among us. Until it became clear that we had prayed all that we were to pray in that day, in that moment.

We continued to intercede over the next couple of days, hoping, maybe even expecting to hear news of healing, of a miracle, of recovery. But instead, the news we got was that he had passed away.

It was a bitter disappointment. We knew God had been there. We knew he’d heard our prayers. We knew he loved this man, and his wife. We knew we had cooperated to the best of our abilities with his new creation purposes for this family. I knew God could heal him. I’ve seen God do extraordinary things in other circumstances, right before my eyes. Things that only a God who still does miraculous things could do. And yet. And yet.

When I read Matthew’s account of the triumphal entry, I think about that experience. And others like it. I think about other times in my life that I know God was at work – sometimes in ways that go beyond my comprehension – times when I know he was up to something good, but all the evidence I have to hold on to is failure. Results that taste bitter in my mouth, that make him at first glance seem cruel for getting my hopes up.

As a pastor following Jesus with and among you, I know some of your stories, the same kinds of encounters with God that have this unsavory mixture of extraordinary hope, anticipation and unfathomable let down.

Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Resurrection Sunday, so named because of the palms that were waved and spread out before Jesus as he entered Jerusalem before his eventual arrest and torture and crucifixion, Palm Sunday is a day to find ourselves in communion with the crowd that welcomed Jesus with such acclaim that day. A day to come before him with our deepest desires, and trust him to be the Savior he desires to be for us, even if along the way, he becomes less of who we hope he is, and more of who we truly need him to be.

Let’s dive in to this scene, and invite God’s Spirit to speak to us through it…

Matthew is reporting on two realities at once. The reality of what he knows now, in hindsight, and the reality of the at-the-moment expectations and hopes of the crowd, and probably the disciples, too. Fascinating interplay between those two realities in this story.

Let's start with the on the ground experience.

Cloaks on the donkey and on the ground. Most people would only have one cloak, so this is a way of celebrating and valuing a person as highly as you can. A way of saying, if you needed it, I'd give you anything else as well.

Sidenote: Jesus only asks of us what we have to give, and only wants from us what we give to him gladly, from the heart. A cloak, like our time, our money, our words, our energies; something we may have had other plans for when the day started, but in the presence of Jesus we give for another purpose. And in so doing, it becomes a pathway for God to enter our city.

Like our mission as a church to create breathing room. Our task is a simple one, but matters no less for its simplicity, because God comes in the space we create and fills it with life.

The cloaks are probably also reference to 2 Kings 9:13 (Jehu anointed by Elisha)...

A statement about their expectations as to what is really going on. A New king being proclaimed in defiance of the existing king. This crowd, these disciples, are giddy with excitement, long-pent up anticipation and dissatisfaction. The emperor may have us under his thumb, Herod may be his lackey, but here before us is the King we acknowledge.

Sidenote: We know that feeling. Something bigger than us has us at its mercy. Sickness, the threat of death, death, economic realities, a dysfunctional family system, a broken past, a new and unwelcome normal not likely to change, etc. But then we see Jesus approach, and we know none of it stands a chance before him. And so we see him coming and we feel emboldened to rage against the machine, to thumb our noses at the things that have us down, and put our hopes in him.

The palm branches have a similar significance. When Maccabees had arrived in Jerusalem 200 years earlier, after conquering the pagan armies oppressing Israel, the people had done the same thing. It was the start of a 100 year royal dynasty.

Combine that with the royal chants "son of David" and "hosanna" (which means save us) the picture comes into focus. This crowd, and surely the disciples, too, expect that Jesus is the kind of king, of Messiah, that they had been hoping and praying for. A king like David has come again to save them from oppression! He will raise up an army, defeat Rome as David defeated the Philistines, restore glory to Israel, rule with justice, establish peace.

But Matthew knows that this isn't exactly what is going on. Matthew knows what awaits Jesus in Jerusalem (and so does Jesus!), and it isn’t a glorious enthronement. Not yet. Thus the reference to Zechariah 9:9, lowly and gentle. This isn't a military victory march. This is the God of the universe subverting power with humility, undoing evil's self-serving power with self-giving love. The path Jesus must walk, to accomplish what really needs to be accomplished, leads over the cloaks and palm branches of the crowd, yes, but it also leads to him being stripped naked and hung on a branchless tree.

"The people wanted a prophet, but this prophet would tell them that their city was under God's infinite judgment. They wanted the Messiah, but this king was going to be enthroned on a cross. They wanted to be rescued from evil and oppression, but Jesus was going to rescue them from evil in its full depths, not just the surface evil of Roman occupation and the exploitation by the rich." N.T. Wright, For Everyone

Nonetheless, fully aware of the gap between the heartfelt desires of these hurting people and the path that he must take – and the pain and disillusionment they would experience as he did - Jesus receives their hopes and expectations, he embraces their embrace. He doesn’t correct them, chastise them, redirect them, dismiss them. (after all, he set the stage for all of this with his instructions to the disciples) He says, in essence, you are right to come to me, and you are right to come to me just as you are, with everything on your hearts, and all your hope placed in me. You are right to come with celebration of God and defiance of evil on your lips. I know that your enthusiasm may fade just days from now, and you may think I or evil itself made you look a fool. But I hear you more deeply than you know, and more deeply even than you hear yourselves, and my answer, the answer that has been on my lips from before creation itself ever drew its first breath, is Yes. Always Yes. Forever, Yes. And so I give my yes to you, even though you cannot understand it now.

He relates to us the same way. Jesus doesn't always correct our requests as we bring them to him; instead he listens to our hearts and is gentle with our hopes, because he knows they are well placed. He will answer every prayer.

But he will always answer in his own way, because he is Lord. And because he is good, through and through, and only his way is faithful to his goodness.

And here is contained some of the mystery of God. Some of his Yeses are to us, on Good Friday and Holy Saturday, cruel and bitter disappointments. The cruelest and the bitterest. Some of his Yeses make us think we were wrong about him all along. Some of his Yeses cast a dark shadow over the future and the present and the past.

Yet, is in those very dark hours that he is at work like a kernel of wheat that has fallen to the ground, dying our death with us and for us, so that death itself might tremble at his Yes, and never be able to speak again.

And so our task is to continue to lay down our cloaks. Over and over. And our palm branches. And let our lips continue to be filled with praise and cry’s of hosanna. Until Easter dawns. And the resurrection Yes of our gentle king riding on the donkey shakes the earth, rolling away every obstacle, emptying the tombs.

Practical Tips:

Write your deepest hope down, desire, longing down and bring it forward during communion to place in this prayer box (share story of box…). After we celebrate communion, we’ll offer these expressions of our hearts to Jesus, and acknowledge him as king together.

After communion, pray psalm 118 together…

Jesus vs. the Anxious Urgency of Eternal Destiny (and all other varieties as well)

sermon notes from the Vineyard Church of Milan 02/05/2012

Matthew 7…

7 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. ²For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

³“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in someone else’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? ⁴How can you say, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? ⁵You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from the other person’s eye.

Matthew 7:1-5

We have on the one hand the commands of Jesus to fix our eyes on our responsibilities for ourselves, first and foremost - the planks in our eyes - and after we've done that to be available to help one another with the sawdust in their eyes. 

And on the other hand, we have this sense of anxious urgency produced by the following logic:

our sin separates us from God.

we are often blind to our sin.

if, in our blindness, we never turn from our sin, we will stay eternally separated from God.

we who are not blind to others' sin, then, have a responsibility to tell other people about their sin.

Especially the sins that separate them from God.

So that they can see their sin and repent.

So that they can be saved.

So we end up facing this dilemma when we see someone with some sawdust in their eyes – especially if it seems to us to be the kind of sawdust that we think might really be a problem:

I'm not sure I should say anything, but…

But: if I don't, and they keep doing that, what if they end up in hell, separated from God forever?

But: if I were them, and I were going to hell unless they said something, I'd want them to say something.

But: if I don't say anything, and they end up in hell, I might be responsible for their eternal fate, and then I'd be in trouble too.

But: if I do say something, and they ignore me, or even if they hate me, I'll at least be in the clear, and it's on them now.

This sense of urgency, of a high stakes game in progress, makes it challenging to listen to the voice of the Spirit leading us, doesn't it?

He'd better tell me what to do quick, before it's too late. Because if I don't hear anything soon, I'm going for it! 

[anxiety like static in communication; all communication is emotional, if you're not moving towards, it's hard to hear…the anxiety itself can 1) make it hard to hear, and 2) get us turned in the wrong direction, making us miss what the Spirit is trying to say…]

So what can we do about that anxiety?

we could examine the logic, trying to figure out if any of our assumptions are flawed, or any of our conclusions in error, or

we could listen to Jesus.

[indiana jones clip, whipping out gun against swordsman…]

Jesus does to the anxious urgent edifice constructed by this logic what Indiana Jones does to the swordsman. He looks at it, shrugs, and does away with it.

Jesus says in essence: “hey, I don’t know where you got this anxious urgency from, but you didn’t get it from me.” And as his followers, if it doesn’t look like Jesus, and it doesn’t walk like Jesus, and it doesn’t talk like Jesus, it’s probably a good sign it’s not Jesus. And anxious urgency surely ain’t Jesus.

After all, is a life of faith an exercise in mastering a logic system, or an exercise in trusting God?

Here's the fundamental problem with the anxious urgency approach.  It's simply not how Jesus related to sinful people.  And it's not what Jesus uses as the basis for our mission. So regardless of the merits of our logic, something is off. [which, if we were brutally honest, we’d admit we suspected, if only because of the bad fruit we’ve seen come from it…]

Consider how Jesus went about his saving activity.  Do we ever see that kind of anxious urgency in his interactions with people?  No, we don't.  In fact, we see all kinds of indications of just the opposite.  

[Judas, Peter, as we mentioned last week…]

Jesus withdraws from time to time, time after time, to reconnect with the Father, to rest, to pray.  Despite the clamoring of the crowds.   This is not what anxious urgency would compel him to do, is it? Shouldn’t he just go, go, go, trusting God to give him energy – I mean, he’s only got to keep on keeping on for 3 years, right? What’s the point of conserving energy?

I don’t mean to suggest that Jesus’ mission isn’t urgent, that it isn’t important. I don’t mean to suggest that he thinks it doesn’t matter, so he’ll take his sweet time, thank you very much. No, his mission is so urgent, and so important, that nothing could keep him from it. I only mean that anxious urgency isn’t what moves him. He is intent on cooperating with the Spirit of God – on doing what he sees the Father doing – and the Father values kairos time over kronos time, everytime. [explain…] In fact, Jesus seems to resist anxious urgency whenever he encounters it (mother, lazarus).

When Jesus speaks of how God's kingdom works, he uses language loaded with waiting, with patience. Yeast working through dough, slow and invisible.  Seeds being planted, sprouting in the ground, in season growing up into a harvest. Anxious urgency nowhere to be found.

²⁴ Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. ²⁵ But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. ²⁶ When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.

²⁷ “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’

²⁸ “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.

   “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’

²⁹ “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. ³⁰ Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”

³¹ He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. ³² Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.”

³³ He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.”

³⁴ Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable. ³⁵ So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet:

   “I will open my mouth in parables,
   I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world.”

Matthew 13

Farming, gardening, cooking. All about kairos time. Anxious urgency will ruin all equally well…

Watching Jesus, one might even be tempted to think that forging a peaceful, healthy way of being human before God was as important and urgent as getting on with the mission. One might even be tempted to think that it was somehow an integral part of the mission… One might be tempted to think, even, that anxious urgency could be as destructive a sin as any sin that the people anxious urgency compels us to enlighten are dealing with… I’ll leave that for you to consider, if it interests you.

For now,

Consider the context and pace of God's salvation work culminating in Jesus.  

Calling Abraham.  

Wrestling with Jacob and renaming him Israel.  

Allowing Israel's descendants to suffer in slavery 400 years.

10 plagues.

The 12 tribes wandering in the wilderness 40 years.  

Hundreds and hundreds of years more, much of it filled with silence, before Jesus arrives.  

Jesus starting as an embryo, a fetus, a baby, a boy, a teenager, a young man, then finally, around 30, beginning to preach good news and teach and heal and drive out demons.  

Walking from place to place to place, speaking in small towns scattered throughout Judea and the surrounding countryside.  

Anxious urgency nowhere to be found.

Then, when Jesus commissions his disciples to follow in his salvation mission, listen to what he tells them:

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Matthew 28

Notice what the "therefore" follows, and what it doesn't.  "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Therefore…And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."    Therefore doesn't follow what our logic tells us it should follow: "The time is short, and every second you delay, people are dying and going to hell in their ignorance, therefore…And if you fail, you just may join them."

No, “therefore” follows Jesus' proclamation that he has all the authority in heaven and on earth.  In other words, go about your mission out of obedience to me…and have peace, because I'm with you always, to the very end of the age.  

Obedience and peace, those are qualities connected to faith, to trusting God, aren't they?  When we trust, we obey.  When we trust, we act out of a place of peace.  When God is with us, it empowers our obedience.  When God is with us, peace that passes understanding is present.

And, to top it all off, after he commissions his disciples to carry out his mission, he tells them first, they must wait indefinitely in Jerusalem.  

But Jesus!?  People are perishing, and you want us to wait!??

Yes, wait for my holy spirit, which I will send you. 

Because our mission is a mission of faith, requiring us to listen to the voice of his Spirit, to be led and directed as we trust the leading of his Spirit.  If we run off on our own teaching people to be disciples, we'll be teaching people that what it means to be a disciple is to run off on our own, trusting our own logic, rather than obeying him.  If we wait for the leading of his spirit, and out of obedience carry out our mission, then we will be teaching people that what it means to be a disciple is to trust and obey.  The medium is the message. What kind of disciples do you think Jesus wants?

It's so much like the “buts” we have when it comes to judgment.  Jesus tells us not to judge, and we say, but…!

But, somebody's got to let them know what they are doing is wrong!

But, they are wrong and I am right!

But, I have enough information in this case, it's not a matter of being to hasty and getting it wrong!

Sure, that all makes sense.  It follows a certain logic.  But Jesus says don't do it.

Because when we judge, it doesn't matter if we are right in our judgment or not.  What matters is that our judgment puts us in the wrong posture towards other human beings (above them), and makes it impossible for us to be obedient to Jesus' command to us to love (which requires that we be in a posture of service to one another, below them).  Judgment is for him, and him alone.

It’s similar with the way we come alongside of our fellow image bearers and help them to see and follow Jesus.  Jesus tells us to wait and obey him every step of the way, to focus on our responsibilities for ourselves first, and then help one another with the sawdust after that. And we say but…!

But, the time is short! 

But, they can't see how much it's hurting them!

But, they could be paying an eternal price for some short term pleasure, and they might never know!

Sure, that all makes sense.  It follows a certain logic.  But Jesus says don't do it.

Because when we focus on others' sawdust, it places us in the wrong posture towards other human beings (responsible for them), and we fail in our responsibilities for ourselves and towards them.  And when we act out of anxious urgency, instead of trusting obedience, we become disobedient and unfaithful.

story of Saul.

¹ Saul was thirty^[a] years old when he became king, and he reigned over Israel forty-^[b] two years.

² Saul chose three thousand men from Israel; two thousand were with him at Mikmash and in the hill country of Bethel, and a thousand were with Jonathan at Gibeah in Benjamin. The rest he sent back to their homes.

³ Jonathan attacked the Philistine outpost at Geba, and the Philistines heard about it. Then Saul had the trumpet blown throughout the land and said, “Let the Hebrews hear!” ⁴ So all Israel heard the news: “Saul has attacked the Philistine outpost, and now Israel has become obnoxious to the Philistines.” And the people were summoned to join Saul at Gilgal.

⁵ The Philistines assembled to fight Israel, with three thousand^[c] chariots, six thousand charioteers, and soldiers as numerous as the sand on the seashore. They went up and camped at Mikmash, east of Beth Aven. ⁶ When the Israelites saw that their situation was critical and that their army was hard pressed, they hid in caves and thickets, among the rocks, and in pits and cisterns. ⁷ Some Hebrews even crossed the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead.

   Saul remained at Gilgal, and all the troops with him were quaking with fear. ⁸ He waited seven days, the time set by Samuel; but Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and Saul’s men began to scatter. ⁹ So he said, “Bring me the burnt offering and the fellowship offerings.” And Saul offered up the burnt offering. ¹⁰ Just as he finished making the offering, Samuel arrived, and Saul went out to greet him.

¹¹ “What have you done?” asked Samuel.

   Saul replied, “When I saw that the men were scattering, and that you did not come at the set time, and that the Philistines were assembling at Mikmash, ¹² I thought, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the LORD’s favor.’ So I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering.”

¹³ “You have done a foolish thing,” Samuel said. “You have not kept the command the LORD your God gave you; if you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time. ¹⁴ But now your kingdom will not endure; the LORD has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him ruler of his people, because you have not kept the LORD’s command.”

1 Samuel 13

God’s priority for us in every situation is for us to be responsible for ourselves, and as part of that responsibility to be responsible to love and serve those to whom God has called us.

Saul was king of Israel.  King of the people who were called apart as God's own, in a land God had given them.  He was responsible before God to, first and foremost, trust God.  

Then his men started to desert.  His prophet didn't show up.  

The invitation of God in the midst of every anxious urgency is "trust me."  Saul didn't.  He abdicated his responsibilities as king to take on the prophet's responsibilities, out of fear. I felt compelled, he said. That wasn't God's Spirit leading him, was it?  No.  And the kingdom was taken from him because in his anxious urgency he stepped out line and did what was reserved for another to do.

We face so many anxious urgencies, don't we?  Anxious urgency is always a tool of the enemy to draw us away from our responsibilities for our ourselves and to others, to twist those up in a such a knot that we can't hear the voice of God's Spirit leading us, in such a knot that we can't see clearly the way forward, in a such a knot that we stop trusting and obeying.  

We face it about our money...  

We face it about our important relationships...  

We face it about our kids...  

We face it about our bodies...  

We face it about our ministries, even...

[pastoral questions about the eternal fate of loved ones…do you trust Jesus?  Is he good?  That's where peace comes.  That's the place from which we can live faithful, obedient lives.  It's the same with questions like "do you think such and such a behavior that so and so is engaged in leads to hell…?"  what does it matter with respect to your trusting obedience of Jesus?  The real question is, in what way is the Spirit leading you to love and serve that person?  Oh, you have trouble listening to the leading of the Spirit?  Perhaps that's the plank that needs attention first…]

Jesus is saving, restoring, healing this broken world. Jesus. He is redeeming, renewing, rescuing. He is making all things new. And he’s including us. Starting with us, and commissioning us to join in cooperation with him through the empowering of his Holy Spirit.

We, in our old creation bodies, with our old creation minds, are subject to the anxious urgency of Kronos time, which always seems to go too slow when brokenness abounds, and go way too fast when heaven rains down. But Jesus, the firstborn from among the dead, in his resurrection body, equally at home in the river of time and in the eternity of the heavens, has eyes to see Kairos time.

Will we wait when he says wait? Will we go when he says go? Will we learn to resist the voice of anxious urgency, recognizing that it is not the voice of the good shepherd? Will we come to understand that no matter what it says, no matter what sense it makes, it is not the voice of the one who loves us? Will we learn to listen to Jesus’ voice? His voice is the voice of peace. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him. He will be with us always, even to the end of the age.

Practical Tips:

1. Get on the right hook. Do you feel this gets you “off the hook” for confronting other people about their sin? It might, I suppose, depending on the context. But it’s really about getting “on the hook” for being obedient to Jesus. For you taking the next step of discipleship with him. Does that mean asking him what you need to repent for? Does that mean asking him who you need to serve and love and how? Yes, yes, and yes. Are you doing that – intentionally, actively in your life right now? Keep it up. Are you not? It’s time to start. Kairos time.

2. Get off the Anxious Urgency train. Is there something you are doing in your life because of an anxious urgency? Talk with a wise brother or sister about it. Pray that Jesus would give you grace to resist the anxious urgency and trust his leading instead. Pause and pray the Lord’s prayer before you act next out of anxious urgency next time.