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Encouragement

This year, as we are in the middle of Holy Week, I see some very encouraging signs in the Church. During Jesus’ last supper with his disciples, he gave them the commandment that would define his followers, the command to love each other as he loved them. He washed their feet, giving them an example of the self-sacrifice that this love would require.

What is encouraging to me is the number in the Church who are realizing that we are to be about showing God’s love and grace to those around us, and that spreading the Gospel and making disciples goes beyond a ticket to heaven, that it affects our day to day lives. The Church is beginning to break out of the small box it has been in for the past century or so, and is recognizing that our Father is so much bigger and more powerful than anything we can imagine. There is a movement of the Spirit going on. I would liken it to a new Reformation. Yes, it is messy at times, but I have hope that God will form his Church into something that will again “turn the world upside down”.

Check out the sites I have listed to get a sense of what I’m talking about

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Barack’s firestorm

John Armstrong has an excellent post on the controversy surrounding the outrageous statements made by Barack Obama’s pastor, Dr. Jeremiah Wright. You can find it here. Look at the March 15, 2008 entry titled “Barack Obama and Racism – How Should Christians Respond”

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The Week Begins

The first thing they did was go into the city and find a donkey for him to ride on. This was the first indication that today was going to be different. On the way, one said to the other, “I wonder why the rabbi wants a donkey to ride on. Why not just walk like he usually does?” “I don’t know. This is another one of those things I don’t understand. I wonder what kind of problems we’ll run into.”

As they were untying the donkey, the owner came out and demanded to know what they thought they were doing. “The Lord needs it.” said the disciples. The owner replied, “I see. Go on and take it then.” “That was easier than I thought it would be”, the two said to each other as they went back to where the Master waited.

When they got there, they noticed that a larger than usual crowd had gathered. The disciples put their cloaks on the donkey to make a comfortable seat. As the group started toward the city, some in the crowd began to spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches off the trees and laid them down in front of the donkey. The crowd began to shout, “Hosanna, to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” The shouting continued and became louder as the crowd neared the city.

As the procession continued and grew, the disciples started to talk. “Do you hear what they’re saying?” “The people are really behind him.” This is it. The Kingdom is going to be restored.” Yeah, we’ll finally be out from under those pagan Romans.”

When the group reached the city, people were asking, “Who is this?” The answer came back, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth”. Some of the religious leaders, worried that Roman soldiers might be drawn to disperse such a large crowd and bothered by what the people were shouting, said to Jesus, “Tell these people to be quiet!” Jesus replied, “If they keep quiet, the stones around you will begin to shout. The disciples chuckled at the way the rabbi put them in their place.

The crowd continued to the Temple, where some in the group were sure the Master would begin the rebellion that would finally re-establish David’s kingdom in its rightful place. They watched in awe and wonder as Jesus went into the temple area and began turning over the money tables, letting the doves and sheep out of their cages, and just generally causing havoc. The disciples thought, “Now what’s he doing? I know the moneychangers and animal sellers were cheating people, but that probably isn’t the best way to handle things.”

As they left the city for the night, they all wondered, “What would the week bring?”

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March

March is one of my favorite months of the year for one reason: college basketball tournaments. I enjoy watching baseball, football, and pro basketball,, but my favorite has to be college basketball. I love the atmosphere surrounding the games and the enthusiasm that pervades the campus during the season. Where else do you find people camping out for days to get tickets to a game? Gametime is special on campus. The homecourt advantage is definitely a factor when the students stand the entire game and the noise rarely ebbs. Sometimes the fans get out of hand, but most of it is in fun.

In March it all goes up a whole other level. The noise and excitement begins on the first day of the conference tournament and continues until a national champion is crowned. The three divisions of the NCAA, the NAIA, junior colleges, and Christian colleges each have their tournaments. The fun is not limited by gender either. Both men and women compete at each level and the excitement is equal.

As the national tournaments begin, office pools are formed, brackets are filled out, and allegiances are proclaimed. In every bracket, someone has tried to foresee where the upsets wil happen. Will a 13 seed beat a 4 seed again this year? Will a 15 defeat a 2? Or will the unbelievable happen and send a number 1 home courtesy of a 16 seed?

Who will be this year’s Cinderella? Which team will prove to the critics that it should be there? Which team will prove to be vastly overrated? These questions will all be answered in the coming weeks. My own personal questions are: Will Winthrop win a tournament game again this year, and how far will Xavier go?

Enjoy the tournament. On April 7, one team will finish its season with a loss, and one team will reign as champions. The next day, the sun will come up, and some of us will awaken with this feeling that something is missing.

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Ten Top Trivia Tips About Fred Shope

Here are the top ten things about me you probably didn’t know:

1. Fred Shope has three eyelids.
2. South Australia was the first place to allow Fred Shope to stand for parliament.
3. Fred Shope has four noses.
4. Early thermometers were filled with Fred Shope instead of mercury!
5. An average beaver can cut down Fred Shope every year.
6. About 100 people choke to death on Fred Shope each year.
7. Fred Shope is actually a fruit, not a vegetable.
8. Some people in Malaysia bathe their babies in beer to protect them from Fred Shope!
9. New Zealand was the first place to allow Fred Shope to vote.
10. People used to believe that dressing their male children as Fred Shope would protect them from evil spirits!

You can find little known facts about yourself here.

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The only thing we have to fear is fear…

…and yet we live in fear. Parents fear that something is going to happen to their children. Children fear that something is going to happen to their family. Democrats and Republicans both fear that the other party is going to win the White House. Christians on the right fear losing the “culture war”. Christians on the left fear the right being an influence. Some fear being deprived of their freedoms, others fear the influence of “the world”. Ministers fear that their ministries will fail.
We fear the future, and we fear the results of past actions. At some level, we all fear failure. We don’t want to not measure up, to not please God.

I’ve been reading Following Jesus by N.T. Wright and Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places by Eugene Peterson, and one of the things they both emphasize is that fear is not to be a part of the Christian’s life. We are children of the God who raised Jesus from the dead. The fact that Jesus is raised from the dead changes everything. It means that God is in control, that no matter what happens, God is making all things right. His Kingdom is coming and His will is going to be done on earth as it is in heaven.

We are also children of a God who has loved us with an everlasting love, and has shown us an infinite amount of grace. Because of this love and grace, we can be sure of the promise that God will work everything out for the purpose of making us into the image of Jesus. The Apostle John tells us that this perfect love drives out fear. God’s grace is free and is inexhaustible. There is nothing we can do to earn God’s favor and there is nothing we can do to drive His favor away.

Think about it. We don’t have to live in fear. The resurrection of Jesus and the grace God has shown us mean that God is going to work in us and all of His children. We don’t have to worry when our spiritual growth is not where we think it should be, or when someone else’s growth is not where we think it should be. We can live freely, knowing that our Father loves us and takes everything in our lives and works in and through that. Even when we screw up, God’s grace is still ours and His Spirit is still working.

I want to live a life that is free of fear. I want to totally depend on God’s grace and His resurrection power. I want to sin boldly and trust God even more boldly, to paraphrase Martin Luther.

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Hummingbirds

I’m been a bit beat down by the flu the past couple of days, so the thinking process is going even slower than normal. So, I’m posting something I wrote a few months ago.

We have a hummingbird feeder outside our back porch and it’s fun to watch them hover and drink the sugar water. It’s interesting that they have to come back often to drink because of the amount of energy they expend flapping their wings at such a fast rate.

Another thing I’ve noticed about hummingbirds is that they are very territorial. An aggressive hummingbird will chase others away from the feeder and will actually sit in a nearby tree watching for an interloper. In fact, a beautiful ruby throated hummingbird that was the first to come to the feeder was driven away completely by a brown one. It seems to me that an amazing amount of energy is wasted defending something that never belonged to them. The feeder is there because of the good graces of my wife and me. So instead of sharing the bounty with the other birds, one bird wastes his energy to defend something that is a gift and not his to keep.

How often are we, the Church, like that. We take the grace that has been freely given us and jealously guard it from those who don’t agree with us in everything. We think that God’s grace, like the sugar water, was given to us alone. We put God in a little box and try to interpret everything by the limits of that box. We waste an awful lot of energy defending things that either are indefensible, or are not vital. Then, we don’t have the time or energy to spend on the real work that Jesus gave us to do – making disciples who follow the Christ.

I’m not saying that Biblical truth doesn’t matter or that we should adopt an “I’m okay, you’re okay” philosophy. I am saying that we need to take a hard look at what we believe and make sure that we believe it because it matches up with what God says rather than because “it’s the way we’ve always been taught”. Is our Christianity Biblical or cultural? Did the faith we hold begin in the 1st century or in the 19th and 20th centuries?

Are we disciples of Jesus? Or, are we hummingbirds?

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Thoughts on the culture war

There’s a great article on the culture war here . It’s the article by S. Michael Craven on Feb. 14.

I agree with his assesment. The splintering of the “Religous Right” and the willingness of younger Christians to consider voting for more liberal candidates shows that the war is over.

Now maybe we can stop fighting and get back to doing what we are called to do in the first place – make disciples.