The Cross

The power of the cross. What does a cross say to you when you see one? As a piece of jewelry, as a wall ornament, as tag on a storefront or business card? Do you assume the owner of the object or business is a believer in Jesus? Or do you even give it a second thought?
Have you ever applied all the powerful meaning to the symbol that it is due? Have you assumed, upon seeing a pretty cross necklace, a cross on someone’s back windshield, or a cross tattooed on their arm that they are attempting to communicate: I am a believer in the Lord Jesus! I have been healed, forgiven, and made into a new creation! I place all my faith in Jesus of Nazareth. I not only believe he is who he says he is (Son of God), but I believe he will do what he says he will do (prepare a place in God’s Kingdom for me). I believe that he loves me and I love him with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength!
Maybe we don’t apply that much meaning to the crosses we decorate our lives with because we don’t live our lives with all that meaning. What if we did? I shared in an earlier blog that we recently moved into a new house. A neighbor came over to help me hang pictures. The wall art I have for the family room is predominately crosses or religious themed art work that people have given me or I have collected from churches or mission fields we served in. After about the 3rd box of crosses, she stood up straight, wiped strands of hair from her eyes and said, “You have a lot of crosses.” I laughed. I do. I got to thinking about that fact and said after a minute, “I guess I find my identity in the cross. It’s what I preach, it’s how I live, it’s who I am. Each cross reminds me of some relationship or some experience that has sharpened my faith.”
“That’s really neat,” she responded. “I have a lot of crosses too. I remember where I got most of them I think, but I don’t think I’ve put that much thought or meaning into it.”
Now, I realize that many of the crosses that decorate our environments are just that…decoration. A million people a day see them and one in a million gives it a second glance. Does that cheapen the cross? Does it lessen its value, its power, its meaning? Some have argued that it does. “We shouldn’t wear crosses as jewelry or clothing. Tattoos of crosses are inappropriate (at best), and even the number of crosses in a sanctuary should be limited!” And I agree that we should not cheapen such a beautiful symbol in gaudy or heretical displays.
But I would also argue that the power of the cross remains constant, even if the observer is unaware of it. Each cross proclaims: healing is available; faithfulness is possible; love is what matters most.

John 5: Do you want to be healed? That’s what Jesus asked the man who, for 38 years, had sat immobile at the healing pool of Bethesda. Unable to get to the water himself and without anyone to assist him (broken and lonely), he had resigned himself to a life of begging. Do you want to be healed? So resigned in fact, that when Jesus asked this question, his first response was not ‘Yes!’. It was to argue why he wasn’t already healed…he was a victim of his circumstance. I am glad Jesus’ question wasn’t then (nor is it today), “Why haven’t you healed yourself yet?” Jesus’ death on the cross makes healing available to every person: “But He (talking about Jesus) was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. (Isaiah 53:4-5)”

2 Timothy 2:13: “Even if we are faithless, God is still faithful because he cannot be false to himself.” Jesus’ death on the cross was not just necessary for our healing. It was also necessary for our atonement. Our Creator made a covenant with us. God has remained faithful. We have consistently broken the covenant. The terms of the covenant were death to all who broke the covenant. But God loved the world so much that came into the world as a human not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. God was able, by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross to keep the terms of the covenant. And this makes a way for us to resume a faithful relationship with God…and everyone else in our lives.

1John 4:16: “… God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.” The most powerful force in the universe is the love of God. Nothing is able to stand in the face of God’s love, and yet because of God’s love we are able to stand in the presence of God. A beautiful irony! Do you believe God loves you? You, with all your fears, failures, beauty, brains, scars, struggles, ideas, dreams…you? God loves you. It’s what matters most.

Wandering

Has this ever happened to you? Traveling, singing some awesome song from high school when suddenly, static! You change the channel, hit the scan, even adjust the volume…but it’s gone. Now all that’s on is some strange station singing in a language you don’t understand, an announcer following an amateur golf tournament, and a talking head that seems to hate republicans and democrats equally. And as you drive up and down the hills, you have no choice but to listen to the noise or listen to the silence. You are at the mercy of the space between the towers. You know if you keep going you will eventually find a decent channel again, but will it be as good as your channel…with just the right blend of amusing commercials and music awesomeness? You could turn around…but how will you ever get anywhere if you have to stay within range of your local radio tower? Now, I know this is why things like xm radio and Pandora have been created…but let me just state the obvious: while we have been smart enough to create xm radio, we still are at the mercy of God in our spiritual wilderness.

The idea of a spiritual wilderness actually comes from several Biblical accounts of literal wilderness experiences, the 2 most notable being the Hebrew Nation wandering in the wilderness of Sinai for forty years and Jesus wandering in the Judean desert for forty days. Other wilderness accounts in Scripture include Noah on the ark for 40 days, David hiding in the wilderness for months while Saul chased him, Elijah hiding in the wilderness for 40 days after defeating the prophets of Baal, and Jonah laying low in the belly of whale for 3 days. Their literal wilderness experiences give us many spiritual lessons and Scriptural notes for our psychological or spiritual wilderness wanderings. And not all the Scriptural accounts are of literal wildernesses: Job would probably characterize his season of grief and loss as a wilderness wandering. The disciples might likely describe the 40 days between Jesus’ ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit a spiritual wasteland of fear, anxiety, doubt, and uncertainty.

And those are good words for a wilderness experience. The word wilderness denotes a lonliness, vastness, lack of direction. When we are wandering in a psychological or spiritual wilderness we may be surrounded by people, performing our daily tasks, even be accomplishing routine goals. But we feel alone, purposeless, vaguely…vague. Wilderness might also be sensed in a season of waiting. We have sensed that there is something on the horizon. We once were hopeful, full of vision, walking in a forward, determined motion. But the road took an unexpected bend and we lost sight of the tower…and now all we are picking up on static. The longer the static plays, the more we begin to feel forgotten, abandoned, alone.

The message of the wilderness accounts tell us two things: one, they are a part of human experience. If you haven’t ever experienced a wandering of your soul, you should pray that God strengthens you for the one yet to come. That isn’t to say all people lose faith, all people will experience devastating life events, all people will get lost in life. That’s not the only wilderness we might know. One person described spiritual wilderness as living between the trapeze bars. If you imagine the trapeze artist who flies gracefully through the air, releasing one bar only to dazzle her audience by flipping, spinning, and grasping the next, you must force the image to pause while she is suspended in mid air. To the observer on the ground, we may gasp, but that is all we have time for because it is just a moment and she is on to the next attachment. But I can imagine the moment may seem longer to her…the faith to let go of the bar safely in her grip and reach for a bar that is in her vision but not yet in her reach. A million things could go wrong; only one motion can make it right. She’s practiced a thousand times, so her confidence in her grip is strong. But she is also placing a lot of unspoken confidence in a safety net below her to catch her if the bar doesn’t swing like she expected. When was the last time you lived between the trapezes? Another person described the wilderness experience as if they were Linus and their blanket was in the dryer: they had nothing to hold onto. I have a picture in my mind of this: we used to have a Linus in our house. He has outgrown his blanket now, but when he was a little guy, that blanket went everywhere he did…and I mean everywhere. Which meant whenever I could, I had to sneak that blanket into the wash. Nap time was the best time…I could ease the blanket out and hopefully have it returned by the time he woke up. But one day the nap was shorter than the spin cycle and he came looking. I tried distraction, I tried substitutes, but to no avail. He wanted the blanket. I soberly explained it was in the dryer and it would be at least another half hour. The image forever seared onto my brain is of the little guy with his head and hand leaned against the dryer and the other hand in the mouth…same posture as when he held the blanket. Sad. That was a wilderness day for that little guy: he had nothing to hold onto! And for others, the best description is just static. The longer the static plays, the more you can believe you are all alone. Surely if someone else was here, there would be noise, a voice, a cry, something. But static says “alone.” Even silence is more companionable than static. We use white noise machines to drown out other voice and lull ourselves to sleep. Static can convince us that there is nothing to pursue, no one to talk to, nowhere to go. Might as well take a nap.

That is one of the temptations of the wilderness: to just set up camp. The other is to turn around and go home. Sure, they only sing Egyptian songs on that radio station, but truth be told, some of those tunes are catchy. Which is why the work of the wilderness is to learn to find the right frequency. If static is all you hear…you’re on the wrong channel.

You see the other message of the Scriptural accounts of the wilderness experience is that while it is a human experience common to all people, it is also a divine experience every time. Lesson two: we are not alone. We are not alone in the wilderness. We feel very alone. We sound alone. We are hungry, thirsty, tired, and lonely. But we’re not alone. I tried to find some record somewhere that God would sometimes leave people even for the briefest moment alone in the wilderness. It’s not there. In fact the opposite is blaringly the case. If I soar to the heights exclaimed David, you are there; if I sink to the depths you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, even there you find me. For I am convinced said Paul, that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. The mystery, the glory of the incarnation is that Jesus the man was in the wilderness, but so was Jesus the God. God is in our wilderness. He is a whispered promise in a starry sky and sandy beach when we feel too old to try. He is the tentative promise of hope grasped in the delicate beak of a dove finding shelter. He is the cloud by day and fire by night that guides. He is the manna, the quail, the water in a rock…provision so amazingly characteristic that we learn to take it for granted. He is a song in a cave that provides shelter from our enemies. He is oil in a stranger’s jar that is generous and free. He is that which swallows us whole yet deposits us wholly on the shore of our salvation. He is the Living and active Word which nourishes our soul and causes our enemy to flee. He is. That’s what he told Moses. Who should I say is going with us on this journey? I am. I am with you. To the end.

So go ahead. Reach. Scan. Lean on the dryer. We are not alone. Logically of course we can deduce that just because we can’t pick up a radio station doesn’t mean the music stopped. In a few miles, and just over a couple of hills, the music will return. It’s better to keep going. Experience tells us that a better radio station is coming. In the mean time if we must travel in the static, between the trapezes, waiting for the buzzer, we must sing the songs we learned in the city. And that’s how we remember we’re not alone.

Calling

What does the phone ringing do to you? I remember when I used to love the sound of the phone ringing, hoping my mom would call out that it was for me. That was back when the phone hung on the kitchen wall and the blue curly cord would only allow me to go so far to seek the privacy I needed to discuss junior high crushes and other important information. It was a great day when that phone was traded in for a cordless phone! It was white phone with a long retractable silver antenna. The antenna eventually broke, but we could still go to just about any room downstairs and shut the door, then nobody would hear me talking about who he liked, and what she said, and why they did that! Even in college, I waited with baited breath to find out who the phone call was for. Anyone calling my dorm room and asking for me was inviting me into their presence. Either it was a phone call from someone far away like my mother or my best friend at Tulane. Or it was someone down the hall or across campus that wanted to spend time with me. Sometimes it was a phone call from a professor asking for my help, inviting me to join a group, or otherwise acknowledging a gift I might have to offer. I hadn't learned to dread the phone.

I remember the first bad news phone call I received. My mom was on the other end and asked if I had a few moments to talk, that I should sit down, was my roommate with me? This could only be bad news. My mind started spinning. It is amazing how many disaster scenarios the mind can conjure in the brief seconds between "we need to talk" and "here is what happened." A friend of my brother's had been killed in a car accident. We had gone to church together, I had chauffeured him around before he had gotten his driver's license. I cringe to admit I was relieved. Sad, of course, but this did not meet with the dread that overcame me and physically changed the rhythm of my heartbeat. I was quiet. "Are you okay?" "Yes, but I was afraid you were calling to tell me it was my brother or best friend." How did I know it would be such terrible news? "No, I wouldn't tell you that over the phone. I would come to you in person." I have had to deliver that news in person before. As a chaplain at school, as a pastor now, I have received the phone call from the distant relative and had to be the human presence to relay the bad news. And having paid my own phone bill now for nearly 20 years, I have received my fair share of bad news phone calls.

But I don't just assume that the phone is going to bring bad news. Truth be told, I assume the phone ringing is reminding me that I am needed somewhere. Someone is looking for me, I have forgotten something, I need to make space for somebody, can I help? Phones with curly cords have given way to smartphones that display the picture of the person that is calling me. Usually with pretty good accuracy, I can guess the nature of the call by the face that appears. And I've learned to screen. Yes, I will screen your call. I screen my mother, my husband, my best friend. So I will screen you. Don't take it personally, I've just learned that the phone is an invitation, not an obligation. And if it is really important you will leave a message or text me.

I wonder how this affects my attitude when God calls. He has never called my phone, just for the record. Or texted. I have received emails claiming to be from God...but do you really think God forwards? But he has called me. Theologians say He was calling me before I could hear him. "Prevenient grace," says Wesley. My mother says I was talking to God as a very little girl. I consciously remember the first call when I was eight. God called to me, said I needed Him, assured me I could call on him any time. I needed to be forgiven, I needed a best friend, a Father, a Savior. The call resonated somewhere in my eight year old heart and I accepted the call. He invited me to respond, and I willingly joined him. The next time I heard God call was when I was fourteen. He told me that there was a plan for my life that I had not imagined, a place to go that I would be shown if I had the faith to take the first step. Accepting God's call before had brought life, so I assumed this would too. God invited me to join Him where He was working and I accepted. Many other calls have come since. Some major: this is the man I want you to marry; this is the church I want you to serve; this is the school I want you to attend. Some personal: this is the way I want you to parent, this is the way I want you to forgive; this is the way I want you to serve. All were invitational. I could have screened everyone of them. Probably have screened more than I should.

The good news about God calling is that the line travels both ways. When other bad news phone calls arrived, I knew Who to call to lift me up, console me, comfort me, lead me through the valley. When good news phone calls arrived, I have known Who would celebrate with me without a shadow of jealousy or intimidation. And with every call, I have tried to rest on the promise that God is completely aware. Though I may be taken by surprise, knocked to the ground, speechless, God is not. His heart does not race like mine, wondering what the next word will bring. Rather He has waited patiently for me to end my phone call, and turn to Him. Sometimes the moment is simultaneous. Sometimes it takes days, or even weeks. What I am learning is that behind many of those phone calls, God is lurking. A new plan, a new friend, a new trial, a new grief, a new celebration. When I am able to ask with each phone call, "God, is that you," I find I am more able to accept the invitation to join the party.

Belonging

The liturgical calendar quickly turns our attention from Jesus's natal moments to Jesus's ministry moments. Before many of us have stored our Christmas decorations, the church is celebrating Jesus's baptism. They grow up so fast!
Having grown up Southern Baptist and become a United Methodist as a young adult, baptism is one of those topics I had to wrestle with. I was baptized into the church as a child, but it was a personal decision to do so. I had to express to my parents and my pastor a knowledge of my sin and God's ability to forgive; a desire to repent and be transformed; and an understanding of my need for Jesus to be my Savior. I was dunked in the baptistery on Sunday morning the day before my 9th birthday. My children were all baptized well before their 1st birthday. Some would say the experiences were altogether different. And while I see the differences, I would venture to say they were more alike than they appear.
I believe when my children were baptized, God did a work in their life because of the faith that my husband and I demonstrated on that day. That is absolutely not to say that my children shouldn't or won't need to demonstrate their own faith one day. But just like the little child that Jesus healed from afar based only on the testimony of the grieving parent, I believe that God enacted a transaction that day because I asked him to in faith. What do I believe he did?
First, I believe God cleansed my children of their original sin. They will still be guilty of plenty of their own sins, but God removed some spiritual gunk out of the way!
Second, I believe God allowed them to enter the covenant. In the same way that babies are initiated into Jewish families by the ancient sign of the covenant of circumcision, so my children are initiated into our Christian family through this new sign of the covenant. They are God's children. They will one day need to affirm that name, but that decision will be made from a position of accepting the name they have been given, not finding a totally new identity.
Third, my children became a part of the Church universal. One day they will have to make a personal commitment to a local church and pledge membership based upon their desire to be a member of the Body of Christ. But today they are "awaiting" their membership vows from a position of belonging. They aren't outside waiting to be let it. They are inside being nurtured until they can fully join the embrace the of the whole church.
Fourth, they are being made heirs of the Kingdom. Initiation into the covenant and nurture from the Body is just the beginning! Their attention is being set on things above, not things below.
Finally, the process of regeneration is beginning within them. Every year, much like a birthday, we light their baptismal candle and tell them they are baptised. We retell the story of how much they cried or smiled or slept through their baptism. We retell who was there, what they said, what they wore. We retell the story until they can tell the story to each other. You know, my kids don't remember their births either. But nobody has to convince them they are alive. They know this by virtue of their senses. We validate their existence by celebrating their gifts, their personhood, and once a year the very day they were born! Same for baptism. Nobody has to convince my kids anymore that they are baptised, that they carry the name Christian. They each individually will work out with Jesus how they will carry that name forth. The church validates their baptism by celebrating their gifts, their personality, and one day their salvation! But as far as it depends on me, my kids will be raised to believe they belong to God just as surely as they belong to me.

N: Naming God~King

Matthew 2 is certainly a passage I have read before. I've probably at some point in 30 something years of Christmas pageants recited Matthew 2. But as God's word often will, I was stopped this year in my reading at a phrase I hadn't really examined before. It was verse 3: "When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him;...". I knew that King Herod reacted in evil ways following the announcement of Jesus' birth. Somehow, I had missed Matthew's commentary about his motivation. He was afraid. And he passed his anxiety along to the people who served him. What about Jesus' birth announcement provoked such fear in Herod? Surely it was the title that the Magi gave the new baby: King of the Jews. After all, that title currently belonged to Herod. And Herod wasn't the kind of guy who was going to share his title, or his throne. Herod wasn't in the temple regularly fasting and praying alongside Simeon and Anna, "awaiting the consolation of Israel." He was consoling Israel just fine, thank you, without God's interference. But surely Herod was aware of the prophecy? I don't know...I supposed skeptics and unbelievers abound in every generation. Somehow, I think in that moment Herod became a true believer. There was a King in Israel, and it just occured to him that Herod wasn't his name.

Jesus is King. What does that mean? Is it still true? If it is true, so what? How many "kings" on earth right now have real power? Author and priest N.T. Wright says that if Jesus is King, it means that Herod is not. And that's what frightened Herod. Thing is, it didn't have to. It could have been a relief. If Herod had seen his role as shepherding Israel until the day that God restored the throne of David for all eternity, then joy would have been his reaction, not fear. God's kingship only threatens those who have power to maintain. But for those who would bend to the name of Jesus, they find all the power they need in His kingdom.

Herod quickly figured out what all humanity eventually discovers: "God also highly exalted [Jesus] and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Philippians 2:9-11)

W: A Wise Journey

Matthew 2 tells the story of the wise men, magi who travel from a far off place to find the "one born king of the Jews." Their guide is a new star in the sky. Their encouragement is from a neuroitc King. The object of their worship is Jesus. The story is very familiar, particularly in western culture. They have been sung about, their story re-inacted in plays, and they have more than once been the object of someone's sermon. And why not...they occupy the imagination of Matthew the Gospel writer and consume one of his chapters. Of course, what Matthew offers about these sojourners doesn't nearly satisfy our imagination, so much more has been imagined by them. Did you know the following elements of the story are from folklore and not the Bible: there were 3 wise men, from the Orient, they arrived at the manger on the night of Jesus birth, they rode camels, and their names were Melchior, Caspar, and Balthesar. In spite of the details we have added to their story, there is still much we can glean from the truth of what Scripture offers. We've all seen the billboards and Christmas cards that express the sentiment "wise men still seek him." How true it is! We are wise to seek the Savior in each and every circumstance of life. Of course, we are more likely to recognize God's presence when our attitude of seeking is one of worship. When we seek God with a sense of awe and gratitude, we quickly find ourselves in a posture of worship. From that position, we resonate with the haunting hymn, "what can I give him, poor as I am...I'll give him my heart." When we seek God with a sense of expectancy, then we are more likely to recognize his activity. After all, the name he declares of himself this season is Emmanuel, God with us. The sense of adventure with which these magi seek the Savior is what really captures my imagination, though. Just think! These travelers are...seasoned. I mean, you don't achieve the status they have achieved in the first half of life. And with the titles and means they obviously possess, what good is it to go seek more adventure. But what if they hadn't? What if they had decided life was good enough, full enough? They might have died satisfied...but their likenesses would certainly not decorate all of our mantles this season. Their greatest adventure was this adventure. What about you? What is your greatest adventure? Until we cross with Jesus into the Promised Land, I suspect we all have a great adventure ahead of us. Our best days are in front of us, not behind us! So let's go together, seeking, praising, expecting God. Somehow, I won't be surprised when God surprises us all.

A Series of Events

So this is my first gig preaching EVERY Sunday. Somehow in 15 years of ministry I have gotten out of that responsibility. Oh, believe me! I had responsibilities every week, but preaching to the congregation wasn't necessarily one of them. Now it is. Secretly, I am very excited.
I want to preach in a series format. That is, I really want to build one sermon upon the other. I know they each have to stand alone, because it is a rare saint that can come to church every week ...not to mention the sinners! But I want to go somewhere, create forward momentum, and give people something to look forward to next week.
Like I mentioned last week, I have inherited a service called Compass. I have been praying for this worship service for months now. And I have been asking God to give me a vision for this congregation. I kept imagining the face of the compass...the arrow, the letters N E S W, the other designs. What is the message?
I tried to think of verses that spoke of the directions on the compass, like Isaiah 43:5-7 (Do not fear, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you; I will say to the north, "Give them up," and to the south, "Do not withhold; bring my sons from far away and my daughters from the end of the earth--everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.") or like Psalm 103:11-12 (For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far he fremoves our transgressions from us."). I imagined the inner workings of the compass that always directs the arrow to true north as being a metaphor for God's word in our lives. The letters, N E S W, could they represent more than just the directions on the compass? Rearranged, they are the word NEWS, which is the subject of my preaching...good news, gospel. So could I preach the "good NEWS" in a series that pointed the congregation in a forward direction? Now I had traction!
And...if I begin at W and work my way around clockwise...
W: Where are we going? Set the scene, name the characters, ask the what, when, where questions that locate the story in time and history. God really did this! God really is whom He claims to be!
N: Naming God. Every scripture somehow points us back to God. It is our true North. Even the scriptures that are about the sinfullness of man point back to the holiness of God. So, could I spend one of every 4 weeks simply identifying who God is in the passage?
E: Examining Ourselves. And if every scripture points to the holiness of God, then we become accutely aware of our brokeness. Which human trait is being identified in this passage, and more importantly, do I identify with the brokeness seen here?
S: Staying the Course. How do we begin to align who we are with who God is? How do we get closer to God, grow to be more like Jesus, become transformed?
So, my map is to get from point A to point B by following the W, N, E, S direction. One passage seen 4 ways: what happened, who is God, who are we, how do we become who God is directing us to be? We'll see where it takes us!