Yesterday and Tomorrow…what’s missing?

When I turned 13, I couldn’t wait to be 16. When 16 came, I was anxious to be 18. From the day I turned 18, I was waiting on 21. When I turned 21, I couldn’t wait to be 25, so more people would take me seriously [I don't know why I thought that was the magic age]. When I turned 28, I wished I was still 25.

I have noticed that I tend to do that with a lot of things in life. I wish the time away, or I wish that I could send time in reverse. Lately, I have started to wonder if I am ever really present in the “now.”

“In a couple years then…” is often on my brain.

What about right now? What about enjoying and celebrating and being right now?

What am I missing by being in yesterday or tomorrow? What is God up to today, trying to teach me right here and now?

I know it is a gift to dream and hope and anticipate. I want to always do those things. But, I want to do them with an appreciation for where I am now and what God is doing…now.

I guess I am being challenged to just be…now, not tomorrow.

I will still dream and hope and anticipate. But I will do so still present in the now.

Where are you? Yesterday? Tomorrow? Now?

And the winner of Battle Pumpkin is…

Yep, that’s right…this year’s winner is pumpkin #1 carved by…ME! The vote tally between facebook, twitter, and this blog what a close 11-7…but I finally prevailed.

I’d like to thank God, the academy, and all of you.

Peace.

me, you, them, and we…

Last Sunday at MCC we talked about what it means to be part of the Church. There were three specific images/metaphors we looked at, two of which were pretty familiar:

the Bride of Christ.

the Body of Christ.

and one may not be so familiar:

the one new humanity.

This idea of a “new humanity” comes from Ephesians 2, where the writer is reflecting on Jesus’ death on the cross. The assumption [which is true] that most people have is that Jesus died to make peace between God and us. And he did.

But if we stop there, we miss the full weight of the cross.

Jesus died to make peace between you and me.

^“14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, ¹⁵ by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, ¹⁶ and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.” [Ephesians 2v14-16 TNIV]

Jesus died to tear down the walls that we build up…not just between God and us…but the ones we build to separate ourselves from each other.

The Church is about the “new humanity.” It’s about a group of people who have their differences…yet they come together around the cross and resurrection of Jesus.

In Jesus Wants to Save Christians, Rob Bell says about the “new humanity”:

“People who previously had nothing in common discover that the only thing they now have in common is the one thing that matters.”

Church is a place where the political, social, economic, racial, and any other way we carve ourselves up from others, is rendered void.

Jesus has brought us together.

So, if you are part of a church, then you can’t really talk about us and them…or those people…because you are getting to know one of “them”…you are joining “those people” to advance the Kingdom and change history.

So, are you a part of the “new humanity”? What does it mean to you?

Battle Pumpkin

It’s that time again!

Every year my wife Carla and I each carve a pumpkin. It’s always been a little contest…and a lot of fun.

Last year I posted the pictures of our carved masterpieces for you all to vote on…and you overwhelmingly chose Carla’s.

Thanks.

So this year, I am looking to even the score a bit.

Below are the pictures of our pumpkin creations. To vote, just post a comment with your choice. The winner will be announced on Saturday October 31.

Bragging rights are on the line!

Thanks for helping us out!

#1

#2

Only 65 more shopping days until Christmas!

Okay, so I know it may be a bit soon to be talking about Christmas. After all Halloween is still over a week away. Then there’s Thanksgiving, but I digress.

The reason I am in such a festive mood today is because I have been working on our upcoming Christmas/Advent series: Christmas can still change the world.

It seems the older I get the more Christmas becomes a chore or a to do list. We are so busy shopping and buying and preparing for it, that we don’t have the time to let the story speak to us.  But, the Christmas story still has significance, it still has something to say to us today.

So, from November 29-December 24 at MCC we will enter in to the season of Advent with the conviction that Christmas can still change the world!

Do you have a complaint mode?

I have a problem. I often catch myself drifting off into complaint mode.

Do you have that mode?

It’s when I look past all of my blessing, and choose to make what didn’t work, what didn’t go the way I hoped, the most important thing.

In complaint mode, I fail to see all the good gifts that God has so graciously given me.

This week, so far, I have been in complaint mode.

A few things haven’t been what I had hoped they would be.

There are things that I would like to change.

And so far, that’s all I’ve been able to see.

The only way to defeat the complaint is to focus on the blessing.

So, I thought that I would share something I am thankful for, just to help me leave behind my complaint mode.

I am thankful for…

my wife and our family.

good friends.

my job.

more than enough food to eat.

my needs are met.

hope that tomorrow will be better than today.

grace to meet my failures.

the promise that Christ never leaves me.

…I am so blessed.

Ok, it’s your turn now.

What are you thankful for?

What does the world really see?

Lesslie Newbigin said, “The church lives in the midst of history as a sign, instrument, and foretaste of the reign of God.”

Every time I read those words I am inspired and challenged.

Inspired because I remember why we do what we do.

Why do we love our enemies?

Why do we serve the poor and oppressed?

Why do we gather and sing and teach and learn?

It’s because we have been radically changed by God in Christ.

It’s because we know the power and love and forgiveness and peace and hope that can only be given by the risen Christ.

I am inspired because I remember that we are blessed to be a blessing. We are the instrument God works through to share his gifts and goodness with the world.

I am challenged because I remember all the ways that I have, personally, fallen short of this calling to be a “sign, instrument, and foretaste of the reign of God.”

I remember all the ways my pride and selfishness prevent me from being who God made me to be.

I remember all the times that I, and other Christians like me, have given God a bad reputation in the world.  When we gossip, when we make our agenda more important than loving others, when we fail to honor the image of God in ourselves and those around us…what does the world really see?

If we are a “sign, instrument, and foretaste of the reign of God,” what does a watching world…[let's narrow that a bit]…

my neighbor, teacher, student, co-worker, parent, child, friend, insert the person/relationship that you are thinking of here…

what do they think “God’s reign” is like?

Does our example move them closer to, or farther away from trusting God?

Learning the lost art of the lament…

Yesterday at MCC we spent time re-discovering the art of the lament.

To read from the book of Lamentations click here.

In Lamentations chapter 3, after expressing all the grief and pain and loss that has been suffered, the author says:

²¹ Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:

²² Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.

²³ They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.

Even in exile, in the midst of despair, we can have hope.

Because our hope is not grounded in our circumstances. Circumstances change like the weather. They are unpredictable.

Our hope is not in things going a particular way.

Our hope is grounded in the character of God.

The God whose love for us is greater than we can imagine.

The God whose compassions we can not exhaust. They are new every morning.

Maybe there are some things we need to grieve. Maybe we need to lament our suffering and loss.

If you need to lament, do it.  But don’t forget that suffering and pain do not mean that there is no hope. Our hope is not in something. It is in someone.

His compassions never fail.

They are new each morning.

Great is his faithfulness!

Is there hope by the rivers of Babylon?

Last Sunday at MCC we left the story in exile.

Dreams crushed. Hope lost. The future uncertain.

The Psalmist even asks, “How can we sing the songs of the LORD while in a foreign land?” [Psalm 137v4]

But, if we remember the story, the Exodus, the God who hears the cry, then we should not be surprised to discover that there is hope.

Even by the rivers of Babylon.

This Sunday we will explore how it is even possible for hope to exist in, what may appear to be, a hopeless situation.

Roll on…

Yesterday at MCC we continued the series “The Whole Story” by looking at the idea of the exile.

Exile is defined as “the state or period of forced absence from one’s home or country.”

Exile, for the Hebrews in 586 BC, was about being taken from their land, from Jerusalem…where the Temple had been turned into a charred rubble-heap…to Babylon.

But, exile is much more.

Exile is as much about our souls and identity as it is about geography.

Exile happens when our religion is more about the outward appearance…the show…than it is about the heart. We become estranged from God and his purposes for the world.

In Amos 5, the prophet speaks on God’s behalf:

²¹ “I hate, I despise your religious festivals; I cannot stand your assemblies. ²² Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. ²³ Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. ²⁴ But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream! [TNIV]

God is not anti-good deeds. He actually challenges us to let justice “roll like a river.” God is for our efforts to obey him, to share our blessing with the world. What God is not happy about is religious gatherings, where people may say the right churchy phrases…and have the whole religious “stuff” down…but it does nothing to change the way they actually live.

I have to be honest. Far too many times, I have simply nodded my head and paid lip service to the churchy talk…but I have failed to surrender my heart. I failed to be transformed. I failed to say, “Maybe I need to change.”

My prayer for all of us…starting with me…is that we will be so inspired by who God is and what he has done for us…that “justice will roll like a river.”