popular

In Mark 3:20 Jesus’ notoriety reaches such a fever pitch that he and his disciples cannot go into a house and have a meal because they draw such a crowd. In our day that’s considered a sign of success. Imagine: without even sending out a tweet Jesus is able to draw a huge crowd just by his presence. Jesus has gone viral!

The result is that Jesus’ family thinks he’s crazy and the religious leaders think he is demon-possessed. Today Jesus would be considered a publicist’s dream come true. Who cares about the actual content of Jesus’ teaching? What’s important is that he is a celebrity. And that means a lot of money could be made if Jesus’ teaching (whatever it is) could be packaged and marketed properly.

So who has the better grasp on the importance of popularity?

for, with, or in

I am not doing things for God. I am doing things with God. He works alongside me like a patient father showing me how things are done. But even more, I am doing things in God. He is actually doing the work and he values my cooperation.

longing

Do I long for time with God? Mostly I do my devotions out of a sense of obligation. I know that I need to be connected to the source of my life, but I value that connection mostly for what it enables me to do, not for the connection itself. I haven’t gotten to the place that A B Simpson writes of, “Once the gift I wanted, now the Giver own.” Part of the reason that I spend time with God is so that I will better know him and his love for me. If I really knew, then I would long for time with him.

epiphanies, pt 2

At the end of the account of the magi and Jesus in Matthew 2:1-12 we find that the magi were filled with joy at finding the Christ child. I suppose they were happy that they could quit searching for the newborn king who had been the object of their quest. It had been a tough journey. But why were they happy about finding a small child? Matthew doesn’t say that Jesus extended his scepter to the magi and granted three wishes or gave them high offices in his kingdom. In fact, the magi were the ones who responded by giving expensive gifts to the helpless and unaware child. And then they left and we don’t hear from them again. So what was that all about?

It was all about hope. It was about recognizing that the king had really been born. They would not see the fully realized kingdom with their own eyes, but they could rest knowing that God had really visited earth and would bring about his purposes. With Simeon, who saw Jesus being presented to God in the Temple, they could say, “Now dismiss your servant[s] in peace. For [our] eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations.” (Luke 2:30-31)

My worship is also based on hope. In fact, I have more evidence for that hope than the magi did. There are two millennia of testimonies to the life-transforming power of the Prince of Peace that give me confidence that he will truly establish his kingdom of shalom and that he is calling me to be a part of his kingdom purposes. What gifts am I bringing to him? What generosity is catalyzed in my heart as a result of this knowledge?

epiphanies

Last Thursday (Jan 6) was the celebration of the Epiphany, the revelation of the Son of God to the magi (“wise men”, see Matthew 2:1-12). Some people (who like big words) use the term “epiphany” in the sense of sudden flash of insight. Regardless of our vocabulary, we all want insight, whether it’s about the solution to a pressing problem or about our purpose for living. Some epiphanies result in fortunes being made (Steve Jobs seems to have regular epiphanies about what consumers want from their tech gadgets). Other epiphanies have more personal applications. Either way, epiphanies are desirable.

I was reading Matthew 2:1-12 and was struck by the admonition of King Herod to the magi to “go and search diligently” for the child Christ. As if they needed any encouragement! They’d just come 900 miles on camels and then walked into the court of a ruthless tyrant. I think they were pretty serious about finding Jesus.

So the question is: Am I searching diligently? If I want more epiphanies in my life, I need to seek more diligently after Jesus.

fulfilling all righteousness

This past Sunday many churches celebrated Jesus’ baptism (Matthew 3:13-17). Jesus told John that he should be baptized “to fulfill all righteousness”. As I read this passage, I wondered: didn’t Jesus need to die and rise again before everything would be fulfilled? How could a single act like his baptism fulfill ALL righteousness?

But Jesus was human and bound by time/space. He wasn’t saying that this single act was the sum total of all righteousness. He was just doing what he needed to do at the time. And that was enough.

I need to learn to live in the moment and do what God is asking me to do now without worrying about what God will want me to do later or trying to come up with a grand unified plan of everything that I or Grace Community needs to do. There are times when my brain becomes exhausted with trying to come up with a more comprehensive strategic plan. Sometimes I’m paralyzed simply by knowing that there is so much for me to do. I sit, dazed, and try to get my brain around the whole map. But there are times when simply taking the next step is “fulfilling all righteousness”.

soul massage

What are you supposed to think about when you’re getting a massage? I like massages: I have plenty of aches, probably from internalizing too much stress. And at my age, someone said that if you don’t ache somewhere you’re probably dead. I like how a good massage therapist can tell if I’m tense, and then works on that part of the body, relaxing the muscles so that I’m able to use that part of my body the way it was supposed to be used. It may be a little painful at times (“deep tissue” massage is a euphemism for “painful”). And when s/he’s done the massage therapist always tells me to “drink lots of water” because of all the harmful stuff that’s been released from my body and is now floating around in my blood stream and needs to find a way out.

Not everyone likes massages. Some people are uncomfortable with the idea, even though it might be good for them to loosen up a little. Or they may not want someone else to know their body that well, where they’re tense or where they have a blemish that they themselves can hardly even see except with a tri-fold mirror in a dressing room.

I had a massage recently and here’s what I was thinking about: contemplative prayer is like a full body massage for your soul. It starts with my cooperation: I need to release myself to God’s loving hands. At first it may be merely relaxing. But then He finds the places where I’m tense and don’t want anyone to see and He works out the toxins. He tells me to drink of the living water so that the bad stuff gets purged from my soul. Often it’s painful, but I’m more able to live up to the potential that He’s built into me.

So when was the last time you had a full-soul massage?