You're Being Pilated!

Dear Faith Family,   

If we are going to make running into Jesus a regular habit, as we encouraged one another to begin to do last week, it might be a good idea to consider what we'll do when Jesus shows up and shows off. While the "WWJD" bracelets got us thinking about what Jesus would do, the real question of faith is, what will I do with Jesus? But I guess "WWIDWJ" doesn't quite roll off the tongue in the same way! 

As Chaz led us to consider on Sunday, the first thing we must do when we encounter Jesus is make a judgment call. Playing off of C.S. Lewis's famous "Liar, Lunatic, Lord" trilemma, Chaz encouraged us to answer the question Jesus asked His apprentices, "Who do you say that I am" (Matt. 16:13). Do we judge the Jesus we meet in Scripture and throughout our day as mad man, a bad man, or God? Jesus wouldn't let His friends dismiss Him as sage, teacher, or prophet; He doesn't let us either. 

Let's say for the sake of argument that you say Jesus is Lord, is God. He's more than a voice like Jimmy Cricket trying to steer you in the right way, and He's more than a wise man providing you proverbs and principles by which to stay on the way. Jesus is, as He said, "I am" (Jn. 18:5,6,8). Okay. Now what? What do we do when "I AM" shows amid the tensions of our daily duties? Now, that is the question Pilate's story (Jn. 18:28 - 19:16) confronts us with! 

As Chaz walked us through on Sunday, the story shows Pilate literally judging Jesus, working his way through the possibilities of Jesus' lunacy and deception to the potential of His other-worldly personage. However, Pilate's story isn't told to walk us through this universal experience with the living God, but rather to confront us with the universality of the human response to Jesus we judge.

Pilate is like us. He sees resolution to issues through power and truth as convenient to the moment and a good life as a matter of practical decisions. To a person like us, it really doesn't matter who we judge Jesus to be; what our conviction compels us, "From then on Pilate sought to release him" (Jn 19:12). What matters is, will keep what we have or will we give our lives for His? 

Pilate ran into Jesus amid his daily duties, judged Jesus rightly, and chose to keep his life rather than risk what was his for the sake of Jesus. Ultimately, like us, the external pressures and internal desires outmuscle the spirit within, and we end up "washing our hands" of what Jesus is doing in this place of ours. 

Perhaps Pilate's plight was inevitable, destined to deliver Jesus over to the death that changed the world; after all, Jesus said his crucifers "knew not what they do" (Lk. 23:34). Perhaps Pilate's plot was not finished, maybe his journey of faith not concluded, after all, he is venerated as a saint in the Coptic Church. Regardless of how we view the person, Pilate, and the role he played, his most detailed (literally) run-in with Jesus compels us to consider: What will I do with Jesus? Just a warning: doing anything other than "washing our hands of this" (Matt. 27:24) will cost us more than we thought, though we'll gain more than we can imagine. 

For whoever wants to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.
(Matthew 16:25) 

Love you, faith family! God bless. 

From Surprised to Seeing

Dear Faith Family,   

Where does Jesus show up and show off? Not the "wise sage" Jesus or the "gentle shepherd" Jesus, both of whom I am grateful for! But the "Truly this was the Son of God!" Jesus. Where does the "living one...died...and alive forevermore" Jesus make His presence known? 

Well, as Dylan shared on Sunday, Jesus seems to show up right in the middle of our divided hearts and lives. Whether the divide is the tension between our given responsibilities and His unanticipated revelation, like the centurion (Matt. 27:51-54), or within the mixed emotions of mourning, fear, and joy, like the Marys (Matt. 28:1-10), or between the action of obedience and worship while doubt lingers, like the disciples (Matt. 28:16-20); Jesus consistently shows up and shows off amid our muddied anticipations, attentions, and affections. Which is good news for us! After all, if we are honest, much of our day is spent with our hearts divided between competing internal and external forces and circumstances. 

And while it is indeed good news that the "Son of God," "dead but alive" Jesus, does not require an unmixed existence for His presence, the truth of the matter is that our heavenly Father desires Jesus' presence to be less of a surprise: 

Blessed [happy, complete]
are the pure [the unmixed or divided] in heart,
for they shall see God.
(Matthew 5:8)

Purity of heart is not the prerequisite for Jesus' presence, but it does help us recognize Him rather than be merely surprised by His showing up and showing off. The Examen, an old faith practice we're practicing together this season, is for divided people seeking to be unmixed, desiring to see Jesus and not just be surprised by him. 

So, here is my challenge to you this week. Follow the Daily Examen Guide twice, in place of (or in addition to) your usual time with Jesus. Then, do the same next week, and the week after, and the week after. Set the days and times when you'll practice the Examen for the next three weeks. Then, let someone in your Gospel Community, your spouse, or a spiritual companion know, and see if your run-ins with Jesus are less of a surprise (even if no less incredible!). 

Love you, faith family! God bless. 

Continuing From The Start

Dear Faith Family,  

Where do you expect to meet God?

What do you expect to give witness to God's power, purposes, and providence? 

Those are the questions compelled by the first Jesus conversation in our All About Jesus series. As we discussed on Sunday, Jesus both "throws down" our culturally accepted expectations while simultaneously "builds another" anticipation of the place and witness of life from, through, and to Him. 

My invitation to you this week is to continue what we started on Sunday. If you missed the Gathering, take a few minutes to listen to the sermon here. Then, in a quiet place with the Spirit and with your Gospel Community or a spiritual companion, consider your experiences of life with God and ask: 

• What are the places where I expected to meet God and be a witness to God that Jesus has "thrown down"?

• What (who) has He raised in their place?

Whether the meditation and conversations lead to some new insight or not, in the Spirit and with those following Jesus with you, conclude your time offering up your expectations and experiences to Jesus as we seek to learn to live in the reality that it really is All About Jesus. 

"...all things were created through him and for him...in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church."
(Colossians 1:16-18)

Love you, faith family! God bless. 

Competing Forces

Dear Faith Family,  

I don't know about you, but I am feeling that malicious strain of "busyness." Maybe it is the shifting of the seasons, from the semi-relaxed time of Summer to the overcrowding of Fall. Or, it could be taking on new responsibilities without relinquishing any old ones. Whatever its source, the feeling of a full plate affects not only my calendar but also my ambitions. 

I don't know about you, but our time in the Book of Acts and conversations and prayers through The Great DeChurching, stirred in me a desire to "Proclaim Christ in the Everyday Until He Cannot Be Ignored," as our faith family is fond of saying. Our origin stories cast a compelling vision for life with Jesus, especially considering the stories from our time and place where such a vision is so desperately needed. Stories that rise in me a longing to join Jesus in what He is doing for the life of the world. 

But, if I am honest, accompanying my renewed aspirations is the weight of "busyness." How can I do more for Jesus and others when I don't feel like there is capacity in my calendar or body for more? What Jesus said to His first disciples seems to be true for this disciple, "The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Matt. 26:41). 

I don't know about you, but that is where I find myself: stirred up by the Spirit through Scripture and stories, and weighed down by the duties of the day and anxieties of tomorrow. So, what am I (maybe we?) to do? 

Well, as we shared on Sunday, maybe in being caught up in the Spirit and Jesus' Story, we are not asked to offer more, but rather to present what we have:

For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.
To Him be the glory forever...
I urge you therefore, brothers and sisters,
by the mercies of God,
to present your bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and pleasing to God,
which is your true and proper worship,
not conforming to this world
but being transformed
by the renewal of your mind."
(Romans 11:36 - 12:2)

As we did together on Sunday, I encourage us to do together today and tomorrow and in the days to come.

• Take a moment on your knees or with your head bowed and hands held up toward heaven, praying: This Life and This Day are Yours...

• Pause to let all your aspirations, weights, ambitions, and anxieties be offered to Jesus. Say them or see them rise to Him...

• Then pray again, This Life and This Day are Yours, adding May Both Be So. 

May you and I discover that our living sacrifice leads us to what we desire: the ability to "discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect" (Rom. 12:2). 

Love you, faith family! God bless. 

Picking Up The Path

Dear Faith Family,  

Well, we've done it. We've reached the end of the Book of Acts and, at least in the author's time, the end of the earth: Rome. Rome, the place where all roads flowed from and through and to...

And when we came into Rome, Paul was allowed to stay by himself, with the soldier who guarded him...He lived there two whole years at his own expense, and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance. (Acts 28:16, 31) 

The witness of Jesus alive and Lord, having begun in Jerusalem, has reached all the way where Jesus said it would: 

'But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.' (Acts 1:8)

We've discovered quite a bit along the way from Jerusalem to the end, though perhaps not what we anticipated. We found no blueprints for worship, no step-by-step instructions for constructing an institution, much less a building, nor did we find a how-to for "doing" church. 

However, we were given a vision of being the church through the stories of those whose lives and lives together were becoming the church all those millennia ago. In the Book of Acts, we see who we are to become as those gathered to Jesus together, marked by our loyalty and love for Him, and immersed, baptized, in His Life as we make our everyday lives with Him. 

The Book of Acts ends not with a grand image of completion but rather a company of spiritual companions bound by circumstances, choices, and the providential Spirit, being who they were re-created and called to be "with all boldness and without hindrance." As we said on Sunday, the Book of Acts ends with the image of one bound and free. 

Free in person and place. Free because he is bound…in God's Story and God's life, a baptized witness, gathered and gathering others to Jesus. That's where Acts ends...and the path we are taking up. Free in our persons and place. Free because we are bound in God's Story and God's life as baptized witnesses gathered and gathering others to Jesus.

So, before we get too far away from this image and these stories, I invite you to consider where the Book of Acts encourages us to pick up the path of those who have journeyed before us. Consider and share: 

• Looking back on your life, how have you recognized the ever-present, intimate, loving providence you are bound by?

• How does being bound by the Spirit, free you? And what does it free you from?

As we ask these questions together, I pray that we may find ourselves bound and free as we live into all we desire and are made to be in Jesus. 

Love you, faith family! God bless. 

Practicing Our Posture

Dear Faith Family,  

As I have read the Book of Acts and listened to Chaz and Dylan over the last several weeks, I've been struck by just how modern our gathered origin story is. Sure, the setting is ancient, so the features of how life functioned then differ drastically from our present particulars. Still, the human experience of the first faith families jumps out as undeniably familiar.

Like us, the forebears of our faith family struggled to orient their lives to Jesus, being pulled from the center by misguided religious traditions on one side and divergent cultural norms on the other. Like us, they felt the pressure of the economics of mind and body, both being bartered over and pandered to by "those" desiring to shape our way of life for "their" purposed good. Like us, the earliest faith families had to be attentive to external pressures and internal inconsistencies of thought, practice, and character. And, like us--though perhaps for different reasons--the moniker "Christian" was an unflattering label. 

While we have come a long way in appearance and reality, by God's grace, since the last half of the first century, there is a reason we continue to go back to the founding stories of our faith family. The stories, at first reading, can feel distant and dramatic, yet what we've observed throughout Luke's chronicle is a witness to God's intimate providence in and through the witness of those who've found/submitted their lives within His Life and leading. In these stories, the Book of Acts has given us the end of church as we know it, our purpose as the gathered to Jesus today, to be witnesses to and of His intimate providence in our lives together lived with Him. 

As we conclude our time in these paradoxically modern ancient stories, I want to encourage you one more time to consider "the call" of the Book of Acts, 

"The Book of Acts…[is]…a call to Christians to be open to the action of the Spirit,
not only leading them to confront values and practices in society that may need to be subverted,
but perhaps even leading them to subvert or question practices and values within the Church itself."
(Justo Gonzalez)

Being "open to the action of the Spirit" requires more than consideration; it requires a posture: an openhandedness to God. This week, take the posture literally. In your reading of the final stories of Acts and in your praying, turn your hands palms up. Keep your hands open as you read, meditate, and converse with the One whose love you've witnessed.

In doing so, you might just discover that your bodily posture becomes the posture of your heart, which better allows you to be a witness to and of life with God. 

Love you, faith family! God bless. 

Thank God for the Simple!

Dear Faith Family,  

The "church" can be and do a variety of things. Many of the edifices, services, and traditions are rich and wonderful, blessing those who come in contact with them. Unfortunately, some "church things" are also dusty and demeaning, degrading rather than cultivating flourishing. Still, when we strip away the could, can, and have been of the centuries since its origins in the Book of Acts, we find the "church" at its simplest as those gathered to Jesus...sharing His table and life. 

"Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it
and gave it to the disciples, and said, 'Take, eat: this is my body.'

And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, 'Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for the many for the forgiveness of sins."

(Matthew 26:26-28)

Jesus' invitation to receive what is His gathers us from all of our different places, backgrounds, and affiliations to make us "the Church."
And sharing His life through the witness of our living in, by, and for Him around the table with others is the end of church as we know it. 

"the shared table is a shared life."
(Walter Kasper) 

As the last several Sunday stories in Acts have shown us, sharing Jesus' life (and life with Jesus) around the table with others is the simplest -- "fundamental, free from complication in form, nature, or design; without much decoration or ornamentation" -- way of being and doing "church."

While there is more we can and will be and do together as the church, let us consider today how blessed we are to be loved by a God who makes life with Him simple. May our meditations lead us to praise, and dinner invitations! 

Love you, faith family! God bless. 

What About That "But"?

Dear Faith Family, 

Therefore, my judgment is that we should not trouble
those of the Gentiles who turn to God
but should write to them to
abstain from the things polluted by idols,
and from sexual immorality,
and from what has been strangled,
and from blood. (Acts 15:19-20) 

"But" is a mood changer. This common conjunction has the power to turn our attention in a bad situation to see something more: "My car wouldn't start this morning, but Sarah got me to and from work." But, the power goes the other way, too: "I got that promotion I wanted, but I'll have to travel more than expected." Whether to lift up or drag down, "but" wields a power that supersedes its tiny stature. 

Perhaps the "but" in James' judgment has dampened the mood for many who've worked their way through the stories Acts. After all, we've witnessed the movement from Jesus' ascension in Jeuresualm towards the earth's end. This expansion was utterly inclusive, distinguished in allegiance and affection to Jesus and nothing else. James even affirms the movement, saying, "...we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God," with all those traditions and regulations that make him Jewish. That's good news for us gentiles! We don't have to become physically and ritually Jewish to be caught up in God's Kingdom, but, James adds a "but"! 

For several millennia, James' but has been used as permission to build all sorts of boundaries around life in Christ. It is Christ's work and affection for and allegiance to Him that makes true and forever life our reality, we contend, but...don't ________, abstain from ________. The blanks have been filled in differently throughout each generation on both the "traditional" and "progressive" sides. It wouldn't take too much thinking to come up with a few you've heard, and perhaps even ascribe.

While living captured by Jesus, being ever drawn into true life with Him will undoubtedly require us to forgo particular things, to hear James' exhortation as 
a stereotypical list of regulations added to the free in Jesus would be to miss the context and heart of Acts 15. Dylan did a great job on Sunday helping us see that Acts 15 is not the "mature" or "traditional" requiring the "new" and "different" to add something to live in the faith, but rather, make room for the entire family of faith! 

"What is the goal of James's words?
They seem to be aimed at removing impediments for communion."
(Wille James Jennings) 

As Dylan pointed out, the "don'ts" that follow James' but, is a singular encouragement to be fully aligned with Christ in a way that makes room, opens the table, to communion with all the sisters and brothers of Jesus. James judges that "communion and joining" in Jesus with others, a life given over in allegiance, awe, and affection to Him with others, really is the end of faith as we know it. That is why when the Gentile church heard James' judgment and but, "rejoiced because of its encouragement" (Acts 15:31). 

Life together in Jesus, orbiting around Jesus together as we're drawn into full and forever life in following Jesus together is what it means to be "the church," the gathered to Jesus. 

And we know that for those who love God
all things work together for the good,
for those who are called according to His purpose.
For those whom He foreknew He also predestined
to be conformed to the image of His Son,
in order that He might be the first born
among many brothers {and sisters}.
(Romans 8:28-29) 

Love you, faith family! God bless. 

A Conviction To Live By

Dear Faith Family, 

And in Antioch, the disciples were first called Christians.
(Acts 11:26)

It's difficult to imagine a "pre-Christian" world, a time and place where the term and title did not carry some sort of significant meaning. Of course, there are still some places where the term is as novel today as it was in Antioch some two thousand years ago; that's why many in our faith family over the years have given themselves to going to the ends of the earth and especially taking the "Christian" message to new tongues and tribes. Still, for most of us, the word Christian is a common identifier, a label that paints a particular image of the person named. 

Let's think about this not-so-novel term for a moment. What does it mean to be called "Christian" today? I guess it depends on who is doing the "calling," though most use the term to describe someone belonging to a certain ideology--whether moral, religious, or even political. "Christians are...." people who act a certain way, believe a certain thing, and align themselves with certain purposes. Admittedly, the specifics of "certain" are found along a spectrum these days, even if the stereotypical portrayals are rather narrow. Still, depending on the context, the reference to such a person could carry either an air of respect or disdain. Ironically, this modern moniker's association with even a relatively narrow spectrum of ideas and ideals has moved us quite away from its simple origin. 

As Chaz detailed for us on Sunday, our collective delineation originated because of men, women, and families who did not fit within any common continuum of ideas and ideologies. Certainly, the faith family of Antioch was made up of people from diverse but identifiable groups ethnically, geographically, religiously, politically, and the like (Acts 11:19-24). Yet there was something distinct about this kaleidoscope of persons that resisted the typical associations and stereotypes. There was One very particular peculiarity that unified their disuniformity: they spoke of Jesus, a lot! 

Scholar and minister David Peterson comments on the first occurrence of our now common title, arguing that "The name suggests 'belonging to Christ' or the people who 'habitually named the name of Christ..."  They literally could not shut up about Jesus! The first "Christians" were always talking about Jesus, who he was, what he'd done, and what he was doing. In praise, proclamation, and pedestrian chit-chat, their awe, affection, and allegiance to Christ Jesus was discernably evident. 

Certainly, the words and way of Jesus would shape this community's ideas and ideals of life together in their city, as they have for millennia since. Yet, what first set them apart, what first drew the attention of their fellow citizens, was the name habitually upon their lips, the name of the One who'd captured their hearts: 

....for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
(Luke 6:45)

I wonder, if we stripped the millennia of baggage (both good and ill) from the word "Christian," would its first descriptor still apply to your life, to my life, to our life together? Would our neighbors, co-workers, friends, and family recognize that what sets our life apart (and draws us together) is who we talk about a lot, because he has our hearts? 

The origin story of our collective calling compels us to consider this question, not in a spirit of condemnation but in hopes of the Spirit of conviction, as Chaz mentioned. If we let the Spirit examine and lead us, this question will allow us to live with conviction—the conviction that, indeed, it is a heart captured by Jesus, overflowing with awe, affection, and allegiance to Christ Jesus, that truly makes us "Christian." And maybe, just maybe, such simple conviction is what we need to stay true to our name in our time and place.  


Love you, faith family! God bless. 

From Application to Awe

Dear Faith Family, 

As we delve into scripture, listen to sermons, or read reflections like this, we almost instinctively ask, 'How does this apply to me?'

"What's in there for me?" is not a bad question or a wrong question. In fact, the question is valid and crucial, especially in our journey with God's word, as the apostles Paul and Peter affirm, 

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness... (2 Timothy 3:16)

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us...For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
(2 Peter 1:3, 21) 

Still, our conditioned pursuit of practical relevance sometimes leads us to skip over the most fundamental wonder of our faith stories: they are history. The events, whether directly depicted or functioning as the foundation for the exhortations and admonishments written, are more than chronological recordings of applicable narratives. They were actual happenings in time and space that shaped the time and space that followed, including ours. 

Of course, the event that fosters wonder and worship most is the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. A real happening that we remember every time we gather in the broken bread and the poured juice. An event in time and space that shapes our lives every day, in no small part because it led to another historical moment. The story of Acts 10, as we shared on Sunday, is especially important for you and me. It is, as one commentator notes, where, 
 

"we see into the world of the Bible,
then in an instant we really see our world,
there and here, our world in all its intensity…
[shinning] through because we see that
our world is actually God’s world."
(Willie James Jennings) 

In Acts 10-11, we see the history of God’s blessed to be a blessing people (Gen. 12:1-3) colliding with the history of Jesus and, for the first time in the freed life of Abraham’s descendants, the explicit crossing of ordained boundaries not as an act of mercy but as an expansion, the ordained expansion, of God’s desire. Once the boundary of Jew and Gentile was crossed, and since it has been crossed, there is no going back. Praise the Lord for that, for you, and I would not be here today otherwise.

But, since we are here, as Paul would later say, we

"formerly...Gentiles by birth...excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise... now in Christ Jesus...are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people...built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone...being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” (Eph. 2:11-22).

 
While there are treasured applications to draw from the stories of The Book of Acts, especially in Acts 10-11, before we rush too quickly to what we can get from the story, might we marvel at the millenniums merging at that moment in history that has given shape to the millenniums connecting us to that moment and one another through Jesus.
 

Praise the LORD, all nations!
Extol him, all peoples!
For great is his steadfast love toward us,
and the faithfulness of the LORD
endures forever.
Praise the LORD!
(Psalm 117)

Love you, faith family! God bless. 

Don't Get Hung Up on Your Hang-Ups

Dear Faith Family, 

Nothing is more debilitating in life than getting hung up on your hang-ups. Knowing that we are not doing what we desire to do and feel we are supposed to be able to do, especially when we think we know why, is one of the most frustrating experiences as a human. It's like a professional athlete "getting in his own head" or a novice guitarist whose fingers can't seem to sync up with the cord in her mind, neither being able to accomplish what they want and know how to do, both fixated and frustrated by what's keeping them from what they desire. Both are stuck, one digressing from peak performance and the other in danger of never getting there. The frustration of getting hung up on our hang-up not only keeps us from flourishing but keeps us from maturing. 

What is true in physical ambitions is also true in our emotional, relational, and spiritual aspirations. Let's take our faith goals. How frequently have you felt the frustration of knowing what you are supposed to, and supposedly able to do, in your faith but are not doing? How often have you listed out what's keeping you from doing what you want to do and why, only to wind up back in the same spot not too far down the road?

The truth is, when we get hung up on why we are unable to do what we want and feel like we are supposed to do it, our normal human response is to try harder or try a different technique. Yet doing so rarely leads to anything other than giving up—maybe not forever, but at least for a while until we have the energy or impetus to try again. The cycle of fits and starts can be exhausting, especially in something as important to us as life with God. 

The stories in the Book of Acts often hit us with hang-ups, revealing what we want to do but are not doing and why. This is especially true of the stories in Acts 8 that Chaz began walking us through on Sunday. While maturing requires us to recognize what's holding us back, the stories of our faith don't encourage us to try harder or even try a different technique. Instead, over and over again, the foundational stories of our life with God inspire us to yield to the Spirit's leading, to get out of our own head and way, getting in by giving in. That's what Philip did, and what we are encouraged to do. 

So this week, I would like to invite you to do a few things:

• First, listen to Chaz's sermon & read his sermon notes for the "real" end of the sermon! 

• Then, re-read Acts 8 and make a note of your hang-ups revealed, especially regarding the "E-Word." Write them down on a scrap piece of paper. 

• Then, read your hang-ups to Jesus, handing them over to him before you tear up the paper and throw it away. 

• Finally, yield to the Spirit, committing to give in to His love and leading, praying (with the rest of your faith family): 

Everlasting Father,
you desire that all should come to you
through your Son Jesus Christ:
Inspire our witness to him, 
that all may know the power of his forgiveness
and the hope of his resurrection; 
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, 
one God, now and for ever. 
Amen.  

Love you, faith family! God bless. 

God of Trash

Dear Faith Family, 

"Wow, God must really care." That's how a back-alley conversation with a neighbor ended earlier this week. Our "alley neighbor" is Matt. Christine is his mom, who often helps her son with his continuous home projects. Most of my run-ins with Christine happen in the alley as we take out the trash, just as we did a few days ago.

We've had brief "faith" and "life" conversations over the years, little encouragements and comments about Jesus and the true, the good, and the beautiful. But nothing super "deep." So, when I walked out with two handfuls of trash and saw Christine closing her trash lid, I wasn't surprised to see her, but I was a bit surprised by her direct question: "Do you ever find yourself at the end, feeling lost? What do you do when it feels like too much?" 

Christine knew enough about me to know she could ask me such a question, though it certainly took courage to verbalize it. She also knew enough to think I might have something to offer her in response. She could not have known, however, that she asked her question on a day when I, too, was feeling at my end, lost, and overwhelmed.  

In the milliseconds between hearing Christine's question and offering some response, I could sense a tension arising. Out of habit, I wanted to offer her our faith's good and true practices: praying, remembering, and feeding on God's faithfulness. At the same time, I sensed a tug to not just say the good and true, but to reciprocate my neighbor's vulnerability and courage. 

Praise the Lord, I gave into the nudge to be open. Sharing a bit about my day (and heart) allowed me to share some of the practical practices from the day. Christine appreciated the practical—at least, she said she did. But my "counsel" wasn't what compelled Christine's concluding pronouncement. Christine recognized something in our interaction, not so much something specific from the conversation but simply in its happening.

"Look at what God's done," she said as we began to depart the alleyway, "he sent us both out here to the trash at the same moment on days like today to meet us. Wow, God must really care." 

Until that moment, I presumed I was the one giving in the conversation, giving witness and wisdom as a tool in the Spirit's work. Suddenly, I realized I was actually the recipient of the same grace that was meeting my neighbor. "Wow, God must really care," indeed.  

Christine's revelation shared with me would be a great subtitle for the Book of Acts. The stories we've read and will read reveal that God must really care, not just about a few here or there but all and everywhere. Care revealed not only in specifics of the conversations and interactions throughout, but in their happening: 

"The church...started out as something that happened,
and that experience of happening, of divine occurrence,
is the one thing that’s most evident in the book of Acts..."
(Eugene Peterson) 

I am praying that we will know more and more "that experience of happening, of divine occurrence" in the stories of our faith family's beginnings in Acts and in the stories of our daily lives. Whether next to trash cans or over the water cooler, at the dinner table or in the coffee shop, while in the middle of a mundane task or in an intentional conversation, may you share with others in the revelation: "Wow, God must really care." 

Love you, faith family! God bless. 

What's in "the placement of" a name?

Dear Faith Family, 

Lord, you were favorable to your land;
you restored the fortunes of Jacob.
You forgave the iniquity of your people;
you covered all their sin.
You withdrew all your wrath;
you turned from your hot anger... 

Show us your steadfast love,
O Lord, and grant us your salvation.
Let me hear what God the Lord will speak,
for he will speak peace to his people, to his saints;
but let them not turn back to folly.

Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him,
that glory may dwell in our land.
(Psalm 85:1-3, 7-9) 

We read the words of Psalm 85 on Sunday morning to help us enter into one of the most disconcerting passages in our origin story: the death of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11). It is a troubling narrative where, ironically enough, for the first time in history, those bound together in communion and purpose by the Spirit of Jesus are called "church":

And great fear came upon the whole church... (Acts 5:11)

Why would the collective name we share to this day be evoked from this story? Why is a story of "fear," of reverence and awe, the place of our name rather than in the miraculous and courageous stories following Pentecost (Acts 3:1-4:22)? Why aren't we given the name at the pinnacle of passionate and powerful prayer (4:23-31) or sacrificial service (4:34-37)? How does this story confront and clarify the heart of what it means to live as "the church"? 

Those are the questions we attempted to answer together on Sunday. If you missed the Gathering, I'd recommend that you listen to the message here before jumping into conversations in Gospel Community this week. And in our discussions together, whether we all end up where I did, my prayer is that, with Psalm 85 echoing in our minds, this differentiating story might do what it did for the first gathered by Jesus: guard the true heart (the character) of church. 

May we, friends and freed in Jesus, be ones "filled with the Spirit" who not only worship together, but "submitting one to another in the fear of Christ" (Ephesians 5:18-21) so that "glory may dwell in our land" (Psalm 85:9). 

Love you, faith family! God bless. 

Beyond Desire

Dear Faith Family, 

"Wait and Pray." Spend much time around "church" or reading spiritual writings, and you're likely to hear (rather often) these three words: Wait and Pray. I am sure you've had them spoken to you...or maybe even spoken them to others?  

Whether given as counsel to the conflicted and confused or offered as an admonishment to the impetuous, this ubiquitous instruction has, as we learned on Sunday, its origin in our beginning, at "the birth of the church." 

And while eating with them,
Jesus ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem,
but to wait for the promise of the Father...
All these with one accord were
devoting themselves to prayer, together...
(Acts 1:4, 14) 

Unfortunately for some, like myself, we receive this foundational exhortation as if it is a recipe: Mix a little waiting with a dash of prayer, preferably in isolation from others. Let it bake for a bit, and then, voila, your desire dish is before you! 

While patient and persistent faith pays off (as Psalm 37:5-7 and Luke 18:1-8 testify), the repeated pattern of the Church is not so much about getting what we desire—even if we desire good—but being prepared to participate in something beyond what we could desire or even imagine. 

That's what we see happening as the end of waiting and praying, "When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place...And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance." (Acts 2:1,4). But what we notice in the rest of this story, as Willie James Jennings points out, and the repeated pattern throughout Acts, is that what is produced from waiting and praying is not necessarily what is desired; it's beyond it:  

"The Miracle of Pentecost is less in the hearing and much more in the speaking. Disciples speak in the mother tongues of others, not by their design but by the Spirit's desire...This is a joining, unprecedented, unanticipated, unwanted [as the following stories show], yet complete joining. Those gathered in prayer asked for power [what they imagined God could do]. They may have asked for the Holy Spirit to come [what they desired God to give], but they did not ask for this. [For God to take hold of their tongues, their voices, their minds, hearts, and bodies; to draw them into His desire and actions for others.] This is grace, untamed grace. It is the grace that replaces our fantasies of power over people [or circumstances] with God's fantasy for, desire for people." 

The stories of the Book of Acts reveal that active waiting and persistent praying with others is a pattern that prepares us to be drawn into God's desires and participate in God's actions for others: those we know and love, for those we barely see, and for those we'd rather not. Preparation, as we'll see, which invites us into more than we can ask or imagine if we are open to His love. God's love, says Jennings, "is love that cannot be tamed, or controlled, or planned, and [now] unleashed...[drives]...disciples forward into the world and [drives] a question into their lives: Where is the Holy Spirit taking us and into whose lives?"

So, I encourage you this week to start reading the acts of Jesus and the Holy Spirit with us, allowing the stories and patterns to open us to “untamed grace.” You can find the reading plan here. 

May we, as Dylan pointed out on Sunday, discover and experience in our active waiting and devoted prayer with one another, our life together looking more and more like Jesus' life. Which, after all, is the end of the church as we know it. 

Love you, faith family! God bless. 

Simple, Not Easy...So We Pray

Dear Faith Family,  

Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, 
that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. 

Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,
and for as many years as we have seen evil. 

Let your works be shown to your servants, 
and your glorious power to their children. 

Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, 
and establish the work of our hands upon us; 
yes, establish the work of our hands! 
(Psalm 90:14-17) 

The rather simple and basic to freedom rhythm of "Six days you shall labor...the seventh day is a Sabbath...you shall do no work" (Ex. 20:9-10) is not as easy as it reads.

Within this seven-day cycle, we experience, like the psalmist above, the affliction of daily labors subjected to the wear, tear, and frailty of existence not yet fully freed from the bondage to decay (Rom. 8:20-21). Those roles, responsibilities, and relationships through which we make a life can be, as we all know, a drain as much as (if not sometimes more than) a delight. Add to the affliction the often-reported misery and distress (i.e., "evil") experienced in our neighborhoods and across the globe, and no wonder this whole and holy rhythm is more naturally resisted than remembered. 

Perhaps the inevitable difficulties of this rescued rhythm are why the psalmist's honest plea for something equally prevalent-- "as many days...as many years"--is couched within what we've come to know and (Lord willing) believe as the reality to which we awake each morning: "Your glorious power" which is "Your steadfast love..." 

How do we keep in sync with the good of a resurrected life? As we've said over the last several weeks, we do so by resting and working through faith and hope within love. We won't escape the inevitable afflictions and evils, but we can know "the beauty of the Lord our God," experiencing the favor of God in our making life, good with Him. 

And so this morning, I pray for you, my friends, that what we've seen through faith and what empowers our endurance through hope, "the love of God...made manifest among us" (1 Jn. 4:9), would satisfy you in your daily labors, establishing the work of your hands, whatever you do today to make life, good. May you recognize and rest in "the beauty (favor) of the Lord our God upon" you this and every day. 

Love you, faith family! God bless. 

Giving In

Dear Faith Family,  

I'm a chips and salsa guy, no matter the chip type or flavor, and I only have slight limitations on the salsa (Pico is not salsa!). Set before me whatever bag and bowl combo you want, and I'll be in until the end! Apparently, the draw is hereditary, passed down from father to son and now to daughter. Admittedly, Lily has yet to find an affection for salsa, but that girl can dominate a bag of chips! 

My love for this particular savory goodness is probably not rare nor harmful, and it can be responsibly satisfied around tables at Mariano's or our house on taco night. The problem I've discovered, especially as I've gotten older and my metabolism has slowed(!), is giving in to that anticipated satisfaction after everyone's gone to bed and doing so night after night until the bag and bottle are emptied. You wouldn't want anything to go to waste, right! 

"giving in to" inclinations, even surely satisfiable hankerings, as my waistline can attest, usually is not a good thing! We can all attest that whether we are "giving in to" cravings or fears, the pressure of internal or external expectations, the circumstances, attempts at control, despair, daydreams, urges, appetites, and the like, usually giving in does not lead to our flourishing. Usually. 

There is one disposition our scripture encourages us to give in to: HOPE. 

...in hope that the creation itself will be set
free from its bondage to corruption [what decays]
and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God
...For in this hope we were saved.
(Romans 8:21,24) 

This post-Easter life, which we've been meditating on these last six weeks, is a life lived in "this" revolutionizing and transforming "hope," for Easter morning brought salvation. Sin and death were judged, overcome, and defeated because Jesus died. Life forever, life with God, whole and holy, bright and beautiful, is breaking forth into every crevice and corner of despair and darkness because Jesus lives. 

As we said Sunday, working through hope, making a life through hope, means going about our daily relations, interactions, and responsibilities, giving in to the freedom and contentment of being bound only by God's love for us. We can give of ourselves wholeheartedly, "working from our souls," because we've been freed from the entanglements of fear, control, lust, and freed to give in to hope.

...all who did receive him, who believed in his name,
he gave the right to become children of God...
(John 1:12) 

Now imagine if we gave in to hope as easily as I give in to my inherited craving! Imagine what kind of life we could make, no matter the labors requiring our enduring energies. Imagine and consider with one another: 

• In what ways are you working in "bondage to corruption"…giving in to fear, despair, fantasy, control, success, affirmation, or anxiousness?

• What would look different at/in your work if you give in to the hope for which you were saved in your interactions and efforts?

• How can we encourage you to give in to hope—the draw of freedom in Jesus—this week?

May the God of hope [the source of the energy that revolutionizes and transforms today as it draws you into tomorrow] fill you up with joy, fill you up with peace, so that your believing lives [your life of faith], filled with the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit, will brim over with hope! (Romans 15:13)            

Love you, faith family! God bless. 

Abound In Hope

Dear Faith Family,  

But as for me,
I watch in hope for the LORD;
I wait for God my Savior;
my God will hear me.
(Micah 7:7)

Making life within the love of God, inevitably means much of life is made in waiting. That's the lesson Peter learned from the Law and Prophets, and most profoundly in the life and words of Jesus, of which he reminds the loved:

But do not overlook this one fact, beloved,
that with the Lord one day is a thousand years,
and a thousand years as one day.
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise
as some count slowness,
but is patient toward you, on your account,
not wishing that any should perish,
but that all should reach repentance...
Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting...
be diligent to be found by him
without spot or blemish, and at peace.
(2 Peter 3:8-9, 14) 

We find ourselves today, and every day, in the loving patience of God, waiting, as Peter said, for the fullness of the promise of free and complete union with God (i.e., Rev. 19:6-8!). And yet, waiting is not an idle task, a passive posture. As Peter implies, waiting compels us to be diligent to "live at your best, in purity and peace," as one translation paraphrases.  And we call that compelling force amid our waiting "hope."

As Dylan explained to us on Sunday,

"Hope is powerful. 
Hope is not merely a wish, not a daydream, not simply a desire,
but a powerful force...at least important enough
for Paul to mention it alongside faith and love (1 Cor. 13:13).
Which is why Jurgen Moltmann...says 
“from first to last…Christianity is …hope,
forward-looking and forward-moving,
and therefore also
revolutionizing and transforming the present."

If hope is a magnetic force drawing us towards our future in the fullness of life with God by making life, good today, then similar to faith, hope begins and matures in our Sabbathing: 

"...resting in God’s completed work, living in God’s good rhythm is the sure path for us to find the fullness of hope. The path for us to see the past clearer, the present transformed, and Eden restored as our future. 

If we want the full power of hope, a hope grounded by God’s redemptive history, transforming the present through deeper union with Christ, moving us toward the future fulfillment of all creation, I can’t imagine a better place for us to flourish than in Sabbathing through hope."
(Dylan Fitzgerald)

I invite you to join me in following Dylan's recommendation and experience hope in your Sabbath this week. Here is a guide to help you!

May the God of hope
fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that
by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
(Romans 15:13)

Love you, faith family! God bless. 

Entering Awarenss...To Live Out What We Know And Believe

Dear Faith Family,  

'Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
and his Bride has made herself ready;
it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen,
bright and pure'
for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.
(Revelation 19:6-8)

What a wonderful vision at the end! Our lives united together to Christ in the eternal bond of covenanted love. A forever union in which our daily living is a preparation, a "making ourselves ready," in the free life "granted" us through the making right of Jesus' life, death, and life again. A life in which whatever we do to make a life can be "righteous." Whatever we do can be done in right/proper/congruent relation to God’s person and purposes and produce fruit/results of the same kind in our daily relations. What we see at the end is what Jesus told his apprenticing pilgrims on the night before his binding act of love,

Whoever abides [makes a life] in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit...by this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples...I appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide...
(John 15:5, 8,16) 

Stop for a moment and consider what Jesus affirms at his end and what the vision of Jesus at the end reaffirms. The explicit and imaged expectation of our Creator, Savior, and King is that making life good (i.e., righteous) with him is not only possible for us but is what our free-from-sin-and-death daily existing obliges us. 

As we discussed Sunday, and Abraham Heschel summarizes below, the stories of scripture and the words of Jesus teach us: 

"...not to feel accursed, to bear a sense of boundless guilt.
[Rather,] We are asked to feel elated,
bred to meet the tasks that never end...
every person is obliged to feel that the world was created for their sake.
Humanity is not the measure of all things
but the means by which to accomplish all tasks...
[So] You can’t let yourself go;
get into harness, carry the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven...
bear loads of responsibility….abhor self-complacency…
enjoy freedom of choice…
[You’ve] been given life and death, good and evil,
and [you’re] urged to choose, to discriminate...
to act...to will, to love."

So why do we have difficulty relating to God, others, circumstances, and ourselves in "righteous" ways? Why does knowing and believing what is right not always translate into relating rightly? How can we live more consistently "righteous"? 

We'll ask and answer those questions together this Sunday afternoon through Entering Awareness. 

Entering Awareness is a conversational tool designed to help us uncover the anxious (disquieted) beliefs and behaviors that undermine our day-to-day relationships and responsibilities and begin to learn how to live through peace. Over the next month, we'll learn what it is and how to use it together over the next month. 

So, if, like me, you could use some help living like you desire to live by faith, then join Entering Awareness this Sunday @ noon and all of May. For details on how—whether you're local or not—email me this week. 

May we know, believe, and continue to cloth ourselves in "righteous deeds for,

Jesus has now reconciled you in his body of flesh by his death, to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel...
(Colossians 1:22-23)

Love you, faith family! God bless. 

Working Through Faith

Dear Faith Family,  

And every way in which you
make, manufacture, and construct your life,
—in words and actions—
do it all in loyalty and submission to the Lord Jesus
…with a singular focus of heart,
in awe and wonder at the presence of the Lord.
Whatever you do,
work from the soul as for the Lord…
(Colossians 3:17, 22-23)

The above might not be the translation of Colossians 3 you memorized in Bible Drill. Still, as we unpacked last year, this chapter in Paul's letter to the "raised with Christ" (3:1) has much to say about our daily labors post-resurrection Sunday.

Work, says the apostle, is whatever we do in our efforts to make a life within intimate, responsible, and economic relationships (3:18-4:1). The work that each of us has been specially fashioned for (see Eph. 2:10 & Ps. 139:13-16) includes more than the labors that make us a living. Encompassed in Paul's exhortation are all our daily exchanges and interactions, obligations, commitments, and to-do lists. "And whatever you do, in or deed" (3:17), not just some things at particular times, but "Whatever you do," and whenever you do it, "work heartily as the Lord" (3:23). 

But how? How do we work from the soul and not merely to survive, pass the time, or meet some standard of duty or success? 

Well, as we discussed together this Sunday, we have to work through faith. 

When thinking about "work," and especially "good work," it's almost natural for our minds to focus on our particular words and actions on any given day, wondering, "Did I say the right things in the right way?" and "Did I do the right things, in the right way?" 

While Paul certainly encourages us to consider our "whatever we dos," he knows--and has spent the first two chapters of the letter making the case-- the wonder and holiness of life on this side of Easter is that whatever we do is done with "Christ in you" (1:27).

Good work is the product of being at work with God. Or, as Paul put it, “fearing the Lord” (3:22) being in awe and wonder in the presence of the Lord, responsive to Christ in you, Christ with you. And this is where faith comes in. "Faith," says Frederick Buechner, "is to respond to what we see..." And what do we see on this side of Easter Sunday? In Jesus, you are re-created and made competent to join God in the very good of making life. 

He is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn of all creation.
For by him all things were created,
in heaven and on earth...
and in him all things hold together...
And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind,
doing evil deeds [not good work!],
he has now reconciled
in his body of flesh by his death,
in order to present you holy
and blameless
and above reproach before him,
if indeed you continue in the faith,
stable and steadfast,
not shifting from the hope of the gospel
...which has been proclaimed
in all creation under heaven...
(Colossians 1:15-17, 21-23)

Re-read those words. Can you see who you are with in your work today, and that is why/how you can do good work...whatever you "do"? 

Paraphrasing Buechner as a prayer for you and me: May we...

“work through faith...
responding to what we see
...by trying to live up to it and toward it
through all the wonderful and terrible things
…by looking to see it again and see it better." 

Love you, faith family. God bless!

Making Room For Sabbath To Enter

Dear Faith Family,  

Life after Easter is a return—a resurrection into the original, whole, and holy cadence of Sabbath into Work into Sabbath into Work into Sabbath…and so on and so forth. The Church historically calls this season “Ordinary Time.” And as we know, it’s precisely in the ordinary rhythms and relationships that we see and participate in the Kingdom come and our Father’s will done on earth as it is in heaven.

As we were reminded on Sunday, this return to ordinary begins not in our work, but in God’s finished work and our resting with Him through faith.

The events of Easter weekend, the suffering, betrayal, trial, crucifixion, burial, and resurrection gave witness to the essential reality of our existence as humans: we live only and truly in God’s love for us. Paraphrasing John’s words to us from the conclusion of last week’s note,

In this the love of God was made manifest (real)…
that the Son of God died for us…
so that through Him we might live...
making our home in love…
as God makes His home in us.

So how do we make ourselves at home in this love, at home with God? Well, first and foremost, through faith-filled rest.

Remember, to Sabbath is simply to cease our efforts to be with God and others as we delight in His finished efforts. While we have for millennia added to, subtracted from, built up, and torn down the particulars of “sabbathing,” the simple nature of the day made for us (Mark 2:27-28) remains, and requires our faith to enter in.

Faith, as we said, is more than an affirmation of belief in a true statement. More, but not less. As we discussed on Sunday:

“Faith is an attitude,
the joy of living a life in which God has a stake…”
(Abraham Heschel)

As an attitude, it is faith that shapes the manner in which we Sabbath; how and why we do and do not do certain things on this “special day.” In this way, faith is action. More specifically: seeing and responding to what we see. Echoing Hebrews 11:1-2, Frederick Buechner writes,

“Faith is a way of looking
at what there is to be seen in the world
and in ourselves
and hoping, trusting, believing
against all evidence to the contrary
that beneath the surface…
there is vastly more…
To have faith is to respond to what we see…”

Sabbathing through faith is responding by rest to the love we see in Jesus’ life given for us.

If we can learn to rest through faith, to “respond to what we see,” in the love of God for us in Jesus, “breathing it in like air and growing strong on it,” we can be ones who don’t try and “get Sabbath right” (or don’t Sabbath because we are afraid we won’t get it right?) or use Sabbath as a means to our own ends (as just another attempt at control). Instead, we can delight in the reality of the truth we have come to know and believe through Jesus: that we exist now, this day, and forever within the love of God for us.

So…

CONSIDER THIS:

It’s hard to cease striving if we cannot see where we are. Can you see God's love for you today in your story, in ordinary places, and clearly in Jesus?

If you can’t, no need to go any further. Instead, go back to where we restart, to the finished work of Jesus, to God’s love for you in Jesus’ life, given up and raised again. Read and reflect on John 17-20 until you can see the truth of your existence.

If you can see where you are, how are you responding to what you see? How are you resting through faith within God’s love? What’s keeping you from seeing it again and seeing it better? What might you do or not do on a day of rest with God and others to “live up to…and toward” what you see?

If you need some ideas, check out the resources by clicking the image above. And don’t be afraid to talk it out with one another. After all, the Sabbath in scripture is always done with a community!

May our Father’s ever-restful grace, allow us to enter His Sabbath rest as His Sabbath rest enters into us.

Love you, faith family. God bless!