I began a new series of talks this past week entitled "Say What?" The idea of the series is to wrestle with some of the peculiar statements Jesus made that leave us scratching our heads. Sunday we examined some exchanges that Jesus had with three would-be disciples in Luke 9:57-62. Two of the men came to Jesus offering to follow him and a third was approached by Jesus about possibly joining the burgeoning band of disciples.
Each of the men had a particular hang-up with the concept of total abandonment because they all had something they were hanging on to. The first one was hoping to sign up because he believed Jesus would soon be establishing a political kingdom that would mean peace and prosperity for Jerusalem. This becomes evident when we realize that Jesus answered him with the veiled language of the oppressed Jews, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." Jesus was not talking about his homelessness, he was talking about the fact that he had no place to set up shop to live and govern. The fox was Herod (Luke 13:32), the "birds of the air" was an intertestamental apocalyptic reference to Gentile nations. What Jesus was saying is that, while they had established places to govern and call home, the Son of Man (read Servant of Man), did not come to establish a kingdom. He came to embrace political rejection so that he could set up a spiritual kingdom of the heart.
The second man was clinging to the tradition of his day that obligated a son to stay within the confines of the family business until the father was laid to rest. When Jesus approached him and he replied that he needed to go and bury his father, it did not mean that his father was dead but that he wanted to fulfill his expectation and stay with the family until he was. Jesus' response to him was curt: "Let the dead bury their own dead...." In other words, God is calling you to life and don't miss this opportunity to find true spiritual meaning because of the expectations of the dead.
Finally, Jesus was approached by a man who volunteered to follow him on the condition that he could "go back and say good-by to my family." This guy may have heard the exchanges with the first two and thought surely Jesus would take him because he just wanted to go say good-by. At first glance this looks to be the toughest proposal for Jesus to shoot holes in. It seems all this man wants to do is tell his family where he is going, get one last hug and be on his way. But Jesus shuts him down saying, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God." Now that just seems wrong! On further inspection we discovered that the Greek word translated "good-by" is translated the four other times it is used in the New Testament as "take leave of." The custom of the day was that those who were leaving needed to seek permission to take leave from those who were staying. In essence what he was saying was, "Let me get the approval of my family and then I will go wherever you go."
If we are honest, when we read about these men, we feel for them. Their contingencies seem reasonable. As a matter of fact, the last two actually seem to be trying to do the biblical thing and honor their families. Yet Jesus says no. What is the real problem?
The real problem is that each of these men made something else their Lord. For the first his Lord was his political expectations. Jesus knew when he found out his expectations would be disappointed, he would bail out. The second made his family traditions his Lord. The third made the approval of his family his Lord.
What Jesus was trying to point out was that "no one can serve two masters." Like the rich young ruler who walked away because Jesus demanded that he give away his god, money, each of these men were asked to make a similar sacrifice. These demands are hard to stomach because of the incredibly heavy price extracted.
We struggle with the message because all of us have someone or some things in our lives that could easily become master: career, children, savings, image, family, friends, etc. These are all things we work to attain that would be virtually impossible to walk away from if required. But the point is not what you have to walk out of, it's what you should walk into.
When we prioritize God and make him Lord of our lives, everything else falls into place. When God is the center of our lives, we have more peace and joy with the other blessings he bestows upon us. With Jesus as Lord we have the capacity to live in gratitude for the good things he has done for us. This is why Jesus said, "Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you." God is not some killjoy who is looking to steal our lives and our loves. He is the lover of our souls who wants us to trust him with our lives. The invitation to follow him is an invitation to trust him completely. And word teaches us that he will meet that trust with a life more abundant than we could ever dream up for ourselves.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Coincidence or Spiritual Warfare?
Let me start by saying that one of my goals is not to be seen as some sort of kook when it comes to my spirituality. I know that's shallow, but I can't help myself. I just don't want to be lumped in with that group of "preachers" who appear on TV with poofed-up hair, sensationalizing their experiences so people desperate for meaning will send them their hard-earned money. While I'm not here to talk about them, I am just insecure enough about what I do to feel the need to distance myself from being associated with a group that finds a demon under every rock they trip over. Some are quicker than Flip Wilson to say that the devil made them do it, but that's not me. Right or wrong, I align myself with the personal responsibility camp, a group of committed egotists that gravitate toward accepting blame for the bad and credit for the good.
The reality is that I don't know if I'm right or wrong. I can't really discern if my reluctance to recognize or acknowledge the spiritual interpretation of events is the by-product of cultural materialism, image management, immaturity in my faith or even maturity in my walk with God. So I see what I see and say what I say in hopes that God will do what he says -- demonstrate his strength through my weakness.
The reason it is so difficult to be right in our interpretation of events is because there are always four causal possibilities. First, the laws of sowing and reaping demonstrate that some of the fruit we reap, whether rotten or ripe, comes from the trees that we planted. Second, life happens. Jesus said that good people and bad people will experience rain and sunshine. Third, the Bible teaches us that we experience testing and discipline from God that may not be pleasant at the time but is designed to make us more like Jesus. Fourth, Paul writes in Ephesians that the schemes of the devil are real. "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places."
We can't know for sure why stuff happens and therefore I don't think it's critical to nail down an explanation in every case. However, the events of this past Sunday compelled me to try and figure it out.
For those of you who were not at Skycrest on Sunday, let me explain. Each year we have a celebration of the GLOCAL mission outreach of our church. We hear about local and global ministries we support and, at the conclusion of the week of festivities, we invite people to join the work by pledging money for the upcoming year. The end result is that on this particular Sunday we typically raise about $30,000, or just under a third of our total mission investment for the year.
To wrap up our celebration this past Sunday, I had the privilege of interviewing a couple who have been called to the mission field to serve an unreached people group that number in excess of 13 million. Their story remarkably presents the transformative power of the gospel because they are serving people who are religiously aligned with a group of zealots that took the life of this man's brother. As you might imagine, God was moving powerfully as they shared their story.
At the conclusion of the experience, it was my responsibility to remind the followers in the room that Jesus reached us so we could reach others. We examined the passage of scripture in Romans 10 where Paul writes,"Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent?"
The logic is clear and the truth powerful: All people can be saved by Jesus if they call to him in faith. However, they can't call to him if they don't know about him. They can't know about him if they aren't told. They can't be told if believers don't go to them. Believers can't go to them if they aren't sent.
We were moving toward the glorious truth that God invites us to significance and global impact by allowing us to pool our resources and fill the role of senders. But we never got there. Just as I was about to lead people to consider God's call for them as senders, just before we were going to take up the offering for the missions that we support around the world ... the fire alarm went off. No kidding! The fire alarm went off and the entire campus had to be evacuated.
We didn't get to finish sharing the gospel. We didn't get to finish explaining the opportunity that we have to join God in the work. We didn't get to give people the privilege of investing their resources in God's kingdom.
Was that coincidence or spiritual warfare? Did the fire alarm just happen to malfunction two minutes before we sacrificially committed to God's agenda? Or did we experience some physical manifestation of the spiritual reality the scripture reveals?
Obviously we can't know for sure (remember the four causal possibilities?). What we do know is that our alarm system identifies the location of any disturbance that triggers an alarm and there was nothing out of the ordinary to set it off. The sensor that tripped was in a locked janitorial closet void of strange odors or machinery that could have mechanically malfunctioned.
Did we experience spiritual warfare? Image management aside, I honestly think we did. But in the end it really doesn't matter. What matters is how we respond. What matters is that we recognize the critical nature of what God has called us to do and the commitment of our foe to generate distraction. We have to understand and prepare for the fact that when we are working to glorify God and advance His kingdom we will attract the attention of our enemy whose M.O. is to "steal, kill, and destroy."
And most importantly we have to remember that we are a part of the winning team. We will overcome because we are more than conquerors through God who gives us strength.
The reality is that I don't know if I'm right or wrong. I can't really discern if my reluctance to recognize or acknowledge the spiritual interpretation of events is the by-product of cultural materialism, image management, immaturity in my faith or even maturity in my walk with God. So I see what I see and say what I say in hopes that God will do what he says -- demonstrate his strength through my weakness.
The reason it is so difficult to be right in our interpretation of events is because there are always four causal possibilities. First, the laws of sowing and reaping demonstrate that some of the fruit we reap, whether rotten or ripe, comes from the trees that we planted. Second, life happens. Jesus said that good people and bad people will experience rain and sunshine. Third, the Bible teaches us that we experience testing and discipline from God that may not be pleasant at the time but is designed to make us more like Jesus. Fourth, Paul writes in Ephesians that the schemes of the devil are real. "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places."
We can't know for sure why stuff happens and therefore I don't think it's critical to nail down an explanation in every case. However, the events of this past Sunday compelled me to try and figure it out.
For those of you who were not at Skycrest on Sunday, let me explain. Each year we have a celebration of the GLOCAL mission outreach of our church. We hear about local and global ministries we support and, at the conclusion of the week of festivities, we invite people to join the work by pledging money for the upcoming year. The end result is that on this particular Sunday we typically raise about $30,000, or just under a third of our total mission investment for the year.
To wrap up our celebration this past Sunday, I had the privilege of interviewing a couple who have been called to the mission field to serve an unreached people group that number in excess of 13 million. Their story remarkably presents the transformative power of the gospel because they are serving people who are religiously aligned with a group of zealots that took the life of this man's brother. As you might imagine, God was moving powerfully as they shared their story.
At the conclusion of the experience, it was my responsibility to remind the followers in the room that Jesus reached us so we could reach others. We examined the passage of scripture in Romans 10 where Paul writes,"Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent?"
The logic is clear and the truth powerful: All people can be saved by Jesus if they call to him in faith. However, they can't call to him if they don't know about him. They can't know about him if they aren't told. They can't be told if believers don't go to them. Believers can't go to them if they aren't sent.
We were moving toward the glorious truth that God invites us to significance and global impact by allowing us to pool our resources and fill the role of senders. But we never got there. Just as I was about to lead people to consider God's call for them as senders, just before we were going to take up the offering for the missions that we support around the world ... the fire alarm went off. No kidding! The fire alarm went off and the entire campus had to be evacuated.
We didn't get to finish sharing the gospel. We didn't get to finish explaining the opportunity that we have to join God in the work. We didn't get to give people the privilege of investing their resources in God's kingdom.
Was that coincidence or spiritual warfare? Did the fire alarm just happen to malfunction two minutes before we sacrificially committed to God's agenda? Or did we experience some physical manifestation of the spiritual reality the scripture reveals?
Obviously we can't know for sure (remember the four causal possibilities?). What we do know is that our alarm system identifies the location of any disturbance that triggers an alarm and there was nothing out of the ordinary to set it off. The sensor that tripped was in a locked janitorial closet void of strange odors or machinery that could have mechanically malfunctioned.
Did we experience spiritual warfare? Image management aside, I honestly think we did. But in the end it really doesn't matter. What matters is how we respond. What matters is that we recognize the critical nature of what God has called us to do and the commitment of our foe to generate distraction. We have to understand and prepare for the fact that when we are working to glorify God and advance His kingdom we will attract the attention of our enemy whose M.O. is to "steal, kill, and destroy."
And most importantly we have to remember that we are a part of the winning team. We will overcome because we are more than conquerors through God who gives us strength.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Relative Faith
My favorite book begins with one of my favorite quotes. The book is If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat. The quote is by Theodore Roosevelt from a speech that was given in Paris in 1910. I'm sure you have encountered it somewhere along the way...
"It's not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena ... who, at best, knows in the end the triumph of great achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly. So that his place will never be with those cold timid souls who know neither victory or defeat."
I love the book generally and the quote specifically because they awaken that part of me that desires to seize the day, the part that is afraid of being average and ordinary, the part that needs to be awakened periodically because sometimes the challenges associated with carpe diem are so overwhelming and scary that I want to cop out.
The story behind the book is obviously the biblical story of Peter getting out of the boat the disciples were in and walking on water toward Jesus. When I read the story I fantasize about being Peter and having the faith and courage to walk on water. But I realize I'm probably more like the majority who stayed in the safe confines of the boat and watched -- the "boat potatoes" as Ortberg calls them.
I reread the account in Matthew 14 this morning and, as I did, I felt an unfamiliar frustration with Jesus' treatment of Peter. See, it surprises me that it would even occur to Peter that, for him, walking on water was a possibility. I'm impressed that Peter invited himself to join Jesus on the stroll and it amazes me that he actually got out of the boat. Yet what really boggles my mind is that Jesus called Peter out for his "little faith."
You know the story. As Peter was making his way to Jesus, the wind picked up so much that he could literally see the effects. He got concerned about what he had gotten himself into, he lost his focus, began to sink and cried out to Jesus to save him. Matthew 14:31 says, "Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. 'You of little faith,' he said, 'why did you doubt?'"
I understand that Jesus made an accurate assessment of Peter's faith as he sank. What I don't understand is why he called him out like that in front of the boys. Why wasn't Peter praised for his risk taking? Why didn't Jesus understand what Roosevelt said, "The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena." Why weren't the others chided for their "boat potato" faith which as it relates to water walking is no faith at all? Relative to the rest of the group, Peter is the only one who was flexing faith, yet he received the rebuke!
The answers lie in the fact that faith is not relative to the group but the call. While we get caught up in comparing and contrasting our journey with others, God doesn't. He assesses followers on a call by call basis.
Peter was called to walk on water. In the middle of the journey his faith shrunk and he got that sinking feeling of failure. In that moment, it wasn't about the boys watching from the comfy confines of the boat. It was about maximizing the potential of the one with the courage to get out of the boat. So in the process of saving him, Jesus reminded Peter that the faith that got him out of the boat would be needed to sustain him in the storm.
My frustration with Jesus' response to Peter is ill conceived. Peter's willingness to enter the arena isn't the point. A risk taking adrenaline junkie would have jumped out of the boat without a moment's hesitation. For those who follow Christ, the point of entering the arena is to expand the kingdom by bringing glory and honor to God. We don't take risks for risk's sake, we take them for God's sake. It has to be about God and stay about God.
Herein lies the problem with Peter: He lost his focus on Jesus which caused his faith to wither and doubt to bloom. In that condition it became about Peter's ability to survive, not Peter's call to Jesus. Still in grace Jesus reached out and saved him, reminding Peter that his life was in His capable, trustworthy hands. The message for Peter, and for us is that by faith we should follow the call wherever it leads. In faith we should keep our eyes on the God of the call.
"It's not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena ... who, at best, knows in the end the triumph of great achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly. So that his place will never be with those cold timid souls who know neither victory or defeat."
I love the book generally and the quote specifically because they awaken that part of me that desires to seize the day, the part that is afraid of being average and ordinary, the part that needs to be awakened periodically because sometimes the challenges associated with carpe diem are so overwhelming and scary that I want to cop out.
The story behind the book is obviously the biblical story of Peter getting out of the boat the disciples were in and walking on water toward Jesus. When I read the story I fantasize about being Peter and having the faith and courage to walk on water. But I realize I'm probably more like the majority who stayed in the safe confines of the boat and watched -- the "boat potatoes" as Ortberg calls them.
I reread the account in Matthew 14 this morning and, as I did, I felt an unfamiliar frustration with Jesus' treatment of Peter. See, it surprises me that it would even occur to Peter that, for him, walking on water was a possibility. I'm impressed that Peter invited himself to join Jesus on the stroll and it amazes me that he actually got out of the boat. Yet what really boggles my mind is that Jesus called Peter out for his "little faith."
You know the story. As Peter was making his way to Jesus, the wind picked up so much that he could literally see the effects. He got concerned about what he had gotten himself into, he lost his focus, began to sink and cried out to Jesus to save him. Matthew 14:31 says, "Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. 'You of little faith,' he said, 'why did you doubt?'"
I understand that Jesus made an accurate assessment of Peter's faith as he sank. What I don't understand is why he called him out like that in front of the boys. Why wasn't Peter praised for his risk taking? Why didn't Jesus understand what Roosevelt said, "The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena." Why weren't the others chided for their "boat potato" faith which as it relates to water walking is no faith at all? Relative to the rest of the group, Peter is the only one who was flexing faith, yet he received the rebuke!
The answers lie in the fact that faith is not relative to the group but the call. While we get caught up in comparing and contrasting our journey with others, God doesn't. He assesses followers on a call by call basis.
Peter was called to walk on water. In the middle of the journey his faith shrunk and he got that sinking feeling of failure. In that moment, it wasn't about the boys watching from the comfy confines of the boat. It was about maximizing the potential of the one with the courage to get out of the boat. So in the process of saving him, Jesus reminded Peter that the faith that got him out of the boat would be needed to sustain him in the storm.
My frustration with Jesus' response to Peter is ill conceived. Peter's willingness to enter the arena isn't the point. A risk taking adrenaline junkie would have jumped out of the boat without a moment's hesitation. For those who follow Christ, the point of entering the arena is to expand the kingdom by bringing glory and honor to God. We don't take risks for risk's sake, we take them for God's sake. It has to be about God and stay about God.
Herein lies the problem with Peter: He lost his focus on Jesus which caused his faith to wither and doubt to bloom. In that condition it became about Peter's ability to survive, not Peter's call to Jesus. Still in grace Jesus reached out and saved him, reminding Peter that his life was in His capable, trustworthy hands. The message for Peter, and for us is that by faith we should follow the call wherever it leads. In faith we should keep our eyes on the God of the call.
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