walking on water

In Matthew 14:22-33 Jesus walks on water and stills a storm. We tend to focus on Jesus' spectacular feats and Peter's lack of faith. But God called my attention to a couple of other things today.

Jesus spent the night in prayer, listening to his Father. He walked on the water at the direction of his Father. And there were many other times when Jesus prayed and didn't walk on water. My friend Russ Ikeda says that the Christian journey is more about training than trying. Instead of trying to walk on water, I need to be learning to listen to my Father through a daily practice of prayer.

Jesus' words to the disciples in the boat show us that he was aware of their fear and that he spoke first to their fear before calming the storm. Listening to his Father cultivated compassion in Jesus. The miracle was in response to the disciples' fear. Am I becoming more compassionate toward those around me? What is more important to me, compassion or performance?

independence?

We just celebrated Independence Day. I saw an editorial cartoon that made fun of Americans' desire for independence while they were still dependent on the electric power grid for their televisions and other electronic gadgets. What is independence and why is it so valued in American society?

The Declaration of Independence is about independence from Great Britain, not personal independence. In fact, the founding fathers felt that the best citizens for their new country would be people who lived their lives in dependence on God and in interdependence with each other. Such people would have a strong moral compass and sense of civic duty.

So what's the place of personal independence? Does God want us to learn independence from him? Yes and no. The Psalmist speaks of becoming "like a weaned child" in Psalm 131:

1 My heart is not proud, Lord,
my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters
or things too wonderful for me.
2 But I have calmed and quieted myself,
I am like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child I am content.

We find contentment with God when we are able to understand that he isn't there to satisfy our every whim and demand but that he still has our best interests, our growth and flourishing, at heart. And when we have this sort of relationship with God, we can relate in true interdependence with each other, living into the sort of community (oikos) that best expresses the redemptive purposes that he has for this world that he loves and for which he gave his Son.

weapons

Paul tells us in 2 Cor 10 that the weapons God's work are not of this world. As part of the armor of God, Paul mentions prayer 4 times in just three verses in Eph 6:18-20. How can prayer be a spiritual weapon? And what other weapons do we have?

When we think of weapons we tend to think of destruction and violence in the name of righteousness. Some call this a belief in "redemptive violence". But taking down spiritual strongholds (2 Cor 10:4) cannot be done with violence. In fact, Paul is contrasting the ways of God with the ways of the world in both 2 Cor 10 and in Eph 6. In Eph 4 Paul tells us to get rid of anger and take on kindness and forgiveness. This is how we are to pray for people, no matter how corrupted the image of God in them has become.

It's hard to shake our belief in violence as a tool of redemption. We want to be on the winning side, and we assume that means that someone has to lose, that someone has to be subjugated. This is the message the world repeats to us through every medium possible, especially movies.

"The Lord of the Rings" has been described as the story of an anti-quest. Instead of fighting to acquire something the heroes are struggling to get rid of something. The counter-cultural nature of this story comes through in Tolkien's contrasting of Boromir and his father Denethor's belief in redemptive violence with the younger brother Faramir's belief in grace as the superior weapon of spiritual warfare. This comes through more clearly in the book than the movie.

(Denethor) "Ever your desire is to appear lordly and generous as a king of old, gracious, gentle. That may well befit one of a high race, if he sits in power and peace. But in desperate hours gentleness may be repaid with death."
"So be it," said Faramir.

The more desperate the situation, the more looming the defeat, the more tempted we are to turn to violence. Jesus showed us that death may be the ultimate weapon rather than the ultimate defeat. Sacrifice and service and prayer are the "weapons" of love, weapons that can bring down the strongholds that imprison the people that God loves and for which he sent his Son to die.

reading

I was supposed to be working on a sermon. I picked up a book that I hadn't read for a while because I was thinking there might be something useful in it for my sermon. And then I just sat there reading. And then it was dinner time.

Why do I read? You could say that I enjoy the world of ideas. Or that I find it important to view the world from different angles. Or that I'm trying to get in touch with reality from the perspective of people who are a lot smarter than I am. These are all true to some extent.

But the book I was reading that day was Anne Lamott's "Plan B: further thoughts on faith." And the reason that I let myself get immersed in her writing that day was that I found her thoughts on faith comforting. Sometimes I read smart people because they are able to put the world together much better than I can, and that's comforting. Sometimes I read people who are amazing wordsmiths and it's comforting to know that someone out there can do amazing things like that.

And sometimes I read because the world seems really messed up and someone like Anne Lamott understands how messed up the world is and also finds humor in it, and she also finds God in it. She doesn't find God by unlocking the arcane complexities of the universe, utilizing several PhDs and a brilliant mind. She just notices that God is there and points him out to me. Sometimes her sense of God doesn't make a lot of theological sense. But God is real to her and walks with her wherever she is. God shows her what he is doing and also show her things to do. That kind of real-life God is the God that I want to know. The fact that she can tell me about that kind of God is comforting.

unfinished business

I just read a preview of Richard Stearns' new book, Unfinished. Here are some things that resonated with me.

First, when Jesus said that preaching the gospel to the whole world would presage the end of the current world, that's a good thing, not a bad thing. It naturally follows from Jesus' good news that he kingdom of God is at hand. So God's people should be joyful messengers (and not in a schadenfreude sort of way, either), instead of dour prophets of doom.

Second, the Church in the US has lost sight of the mission God gave us to carry this message. The result is that we have lost our sense of purpose. We have tried to substitute many things for the sense of identity and fulfillment that comes with pursuing the purpose for which God created the Church. Here are some subtitute pursuits that come to mind:
- Intellectual fulfillment in studying the Bible or knowing a lot about any other topic such as church leadership, Reformed or Dispensational theology, small group dynamics, marriage and parenting, etc.
- Emotional fulfillment in worship or community.
- Volitional fulfillment in committing oneself to any godly cause: fighting human trafficking, translating the Bible into new languages, etc.

The above are not bad pursuits in themselves, but they cannot replace the purpose/mission that God gave the Church to declare the good news and make disciples of Jesus. All of the other pursuits must be done under this overarching purpose or they become gods to us.

Third, Jesus calls us to be disciples, not deciders. He has not asked us to make a decision but to begin following him. Following Jesus means taking on his mission and doing it the way that he did it. He worked for three years with 12 men just to get them to the point that Richard Peace calls "conversion" (and one of them didn't make it). I can't think that becoming like Jesus will be accomplished by simply making a decision. And no amount of effort can hide the fact that I'm not there yet: I'm "unfinished". My consolation is this: "...he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." (Philippians 1:6)

raising Grace

My friend Brian Woodson tells me, "I need other men to help me raise my boys." I've found that to be true with both my daughters and my son. And it's also true with a church.

I don't have all the resources within myself to develop Grace Community. That's OK: God has given us a wonderful denomination that has a "congregational vitality" department. The Veritas workshop (a church vitality assessment offered by our denomination) showed me that outside people are able to speak truth into our church community better than I can. The question is: am I going to be threatened by that or am I going to receive the help that they offer?

I need other leaders to help me raise Grace Community to become the church that God wants us to be. I don't want to become like the frazzled parents who try to be "super parents" and find that consulting experts is less effective and way more expensive than getting a little help from their community. We have a community of churches and church leaders that we belong to. I'm ready to get their help.

judging

Jesus didn't judge the Samaritan woman. But he did expose her brokenness and sinful past. How is that different from how many Christians respond to exposed sin? Let me rephrase that: how is that different from how I respond to exposed sin?

Contrast Jesus to the religious leaders in John 8. The leaders demanded that something be done, that a punishment be meted out. Jesus did not, either with the woman caught in adultery or with the Samaritan woman (in John 4 Jesus wasn't being pressured to exact a punishment). And the leaders' punishment involved hurting (killing, actually) the guilty person. Jesus responded to those seeking the punishment by forcing them to take responsibility for that hurt, not letting them hide behind righteous indignation.

The result in John 4 (and in John 8) was that the woman was drawn to Jesus, not repelled. The Samaritan woman then brought her whole village to Jesus. Notice her "testimony" didn't include a story of transformation. To be honest, its not much of a testimony in our current way of thinking. She's not even sure who Jesus is. But her testimony, such as it is, is honest and she is enthusiastic about talking about Jesus. Why the enthusiasm? She has found acceptance and a promise of living water, something no one else has offered to her.

Am I as enthusiastic about Jesus? Maybe I need to quit hiding behind my facade of transformation, embrace Jesus' forgiveness and drink more deeply of the living water. I need to quit trying to attract people to Steve, admit my brokenness, and tell people about Jesus because he has the living water.