Hope for Lukewarm Souls (Revelation 3:14-22)

A letter from “The Amen, the faithful and true witness, the origin of God’s creation.”

Laodicia was…

In Colossians Paul says that he is praying for the people of Laodicea because he wants them to live in unity with the Holy Spirit.  His mention of them in this letter speaks to us of a few possibilities about this city/church.  Laodicea was near Colossae in the area of Phyriga or Asia or modern day Turkey.  Paul did not actually plant these churches, but equipped the pastors that did.  So Paul has chosen to personally write to these churches about their character of faith in the midst of hostile climates.  The church at Laodicea could have been around since as early as 50 AD and we think the Revelation letters were written between 80 and 90 AD, making the church community about 30 or 40 years old as they read their letter.

According to Strabo, the ancient Greek geographer, Laodicea was a wealthy and proud community known for its textile industry and its manufacture of a medication for ophthalmic disorders.

Laodicea was inland and had a series of aqueducts that brought water to the community.  Some led from a hot springs source while others brought cold water from the mountains.  In either case, the distance the water traveled made it tepid regardless of the temperature of its source.  The tepid water was distasteful, as you can imagine. 

Laodicea boasted of her wealth, even refusing the financial assistance of Rome when an earthquake nearly destroyed the town in 60 AD. 

The textiles were known “world-wide”, but the most famous was its pure black wool.  Likewise, history records the healing power of the Phrygian Powder, which may very well have been manufactured in Laodicea.

So, when the Revelation says: You are neither hot nor cold. You say you are rich and need nothing. But you are wretched, poor, naked, and blind.  You need to buy gold, white robes, and medicine for your eyes”  it is speaking directly to Laodicea’s dependence on herself against her dependence on God.

Diagnosis: you are a lukewarm people, neither on fire for the Kingdom of God or completely closed to its purposes.  They just didn’t care.  They were complacent, ambivalent, unmoved.  At some point between the church being planted there and the Revelation, the church at Laodicea had pressed the easy button.  Now, maybe to the outside world, they were the “poster child” for pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps.  They were self made, reliant, entrepreneurs, smart, and industrious people.  They didn’t help; they were the helpers.  Sounds commendable.  Except they forgot about the one who provided all of their abundant resources.  They were not self-made.  No one is self-made.  We are all made by God.

Consequence: this is “distasteful” to God, and so God is going to “spit them out.”  Gross.  And in actuality, the reference is even more graphic. More than tepid, the water that flowed from the hot springs was full of minerals and in concentrated form (which it was by the time it reached Laodicea) it caused stomach upset.  What Jesus actually says to the church at Laodicea is “you make me want to throw up.”  That’s not nice at all.  And no, Jesus isn’t being nice.  He’s being honest.  And he is speaking truth and he is wielding justice and he is telling this self-made, self-righteous church that they had better get over themselves, or they were going to miss a visit from Jesus himself: I am standing at the door and knocking.  Can you hear me?  Open the door so I can come in and be in fellowship with you again.

OR….

Prescription: Repent.  Come back to the Lord for your needs.  Answer the door, that is, allow God’s Spirit to resume leadership in this place.  So many times we hear this verse preached and imagine Jesus standing at the door of our heart, making his appeal to become the Lord of our life.  This is a beautiful image of our personal relationship with Jesus to make him Lord of our life.  But Jesus is presenting a bigger picture.  He is reflecting on the stories he told while on earth about servants who are supposed to wait for the master to come home…stay awake, watch for the sign of his coming, prepare the home, set the table, stand at the gate.  Jesus is saying, I’m here.  I’m ready to come to you.  My Spirit longs to abide with you now and very soon I will physically return to you.  Are you listening?  Are you watching?  Are you ready?  Are you just bored?

Maybe the better image is “baseball ready”  So many kids get bored in the outfield.  They still wear the uniform, stand in the outfield, count as a player.  But they’ve stopped playing the game.  A coach or a parent will yell “Pay attention!  Baseball ready!”  Pay attention because a ball may come your way.  Pay attention because this may be your shot.  Pay attention because the crack of the ball leaving the bat will not give you time to duck if it’s a line drive between your eyes!  So church, pay attention, because we wouldn’t want to be found sitting in our pew, going through the motions, bored out of our skulls and no longer “playing the game” or participating in the life of faith.  The crack of the sky when Jesus parts it at his return will not be enough warning.

Outcome:  God will re-enter and dine with us.  That’s a far cry from spitting us out.

So he says, I’m here.  I’m knocking.  Let my spirit share space with you now, so that on that day you will find yourself dining at my table.

Here’s the other key.  We may want to believe that this image is of our inviting Jesus into our home.  Again, a beautiful and necessary metaphor, just not accurate for this verse.  Rather, Jesus is knocking at the door of his own home.  It’s God’s house, this is God’s church.  Laodicea may think she is strong and rich and wise and gifted, but without God she is nothing.  Let me come in, says the Lord.  Let me dress you, strengthen you, heal you, fill you.  You don’t have to be a church that does it all on your own.  As a matter of fact, God wants you to be a church that does nothing without God.  

The Revelation: Hope for the Beginning and the End

Revelation 1

Justo Gonzelez, contributor to Disciple Bible Study* suggests that it is important to know what kind

of book we are reading when we read the Revelation.  He said some people read it like a good mystery novel, wanting to outpace the author, collect the clues, and figure it out before the culprit is revealed: Professor Plum, in the library, with the candlestick!  But the problem with reading the Revelation like a mystery novel is that we view it like a riddle, and it’s not a riddle, it’s a revelation.  It’s meant to bring understanding to our faith, not mysteries.  He said some people read it like TV Guide.  Now that made me laugh.  First off, does TV guide even still exist?  I vaguely remember that TV Guide had articles about new programs or about TV stars, but I can’t remember actually using TV Guide as a source of inspiration.  Appropriately named, it was just a guide for our TV viewing.  I knew how to turn to exactly the page I needed and read the codes on the page for discovering when my favorite shows were airing or to offer suggestions when I didn’t know what to watch.  It’s crazy to think of equating the Revelation with a TV Guide, until we realize that’s exactly how we are tempted to view it: a map for what comes next.  I can turn to chapter 13 and learn what is going to happen when the 5^th portent is opened.  Rather, Gonzalez recommends (as do I) that we read Revelation for what it is: a poetic re-presentation of the presence of God in world, as He was, as He is, and as He is to come.  The Revelation employs imagery that reveals the glory of God and the depth of humanity and how that relationship is meant to exist for eternity.

So, while portions of the Revelation are puzzling and mysterious, and while portions of the book do reveal what to expect, that is not the primary purpose for the book.  Jesus and John have a conversation here in the first chapter that explain the book’s purpose and how we are supposed to receive it.  Jesus appears to John and tells John to write these things down with the understanding that the churches will read aloud these letters and so hear the Word of God, that is the Living Eternal Word made Flesh, Word of God revealed to the people of God.

And the singular message is this: Jesus is coming back as the King of Glory to get the Church, his Bride.  So be ready.  That’s it.  That’s the message.  Now, we can take a little more time looking more closely at that message, and just as important, what that message does for us.  Because the next question we ask when we get this message is very, very important to our faith. 

Often we are tempted to ask, “When?”  It’s a natural question.  And it almost seems like John wants to address the “when” throughout the book.  But that’s not the purpose of the Revelation.  The better question for us to ask is, “So now what?”  And that’s the question that is going to direct our conversation this summer.  Jesus is coming back as the King of Glory to gather his Bride to himself and to reconstitute the cosmos (heaven and earth).  So, now, what?

So is this important?  So are we supposed to talk about this?  So who is the bride…and for that matter who are all the other people in the book; that is, so who is who?  So now?  So this is important now?  So we are supposed to be doing something now?  So is this happening now? So now that we know, what do we do now?  So what?  So what is so important?  So which parts are important and which parts are just weird?  So what, if anything, can we do about any of it?  So what does this mean for me and my family, or families in any place?  So, now, what?

Sometimes we can get so overwhelmed by the questions and the mystery and the “not yet” feel of this book, that we do just feel like shrugging our shoulders and saying, “So now what?”  And left without an answer, we continue to just go about our every day existence, not paying any mind to the message of this Revelation.  Or we worry that we will misunderstand or miss some sign in the Revelation and we stew and fuss and poke our family and friends to be worried too.  The point of the Revelation, ironically, was to avoid both of these responses. 

We are to avoid complacency.  We are to avoid fear and paranoia.  We are instead to have a sense of urgency, but a sense of excitement too.  Kind of like the couple the week before their wedding day.  I have been invited to officiate 7 weddings this year.  Seven!  That’s a lot for me.  Each one has been unique to the couple: big church wedding, small church wedding, family elopement, off site party.  But the one common denominator so far has been the glazed look in the eyes of the couple when I meet with them the week before.

I meet with couples 3 times before their wedding.  Once a month or 2 before just to get to know them better and for them to get to know me.  Once to really dig in and talk about their relationship.  And once to go over the order of worship.  It’s at this final meeting that every one of them, bride and groom, say, “We’re just ready to get this done!”  Amen and hallelujah!  That’s where I want them to be the week before the wedding.  You see that tells me two things:  One it tells me that they are finally bored with all this party planning and we can actually talk about being married (which the tough news I have to break to every couple during pre-marital counseling is that the marriage lasts a lot longer than the wedding, hopefully!).  Two, it tells me they are not afraid to get married, but rather, quite ready to get on with it.

That is the urgency that John tries to convey to the churches as we writes the Revelation that Jesus gives him*:  First, we can’t live life like we always did before Jesus was raised from the dead.  Everything has changed.  Life without Christ should at the very least bore us.  We have this new relationship and it’s time to live into that!  Second, we don’t need to be afraid of what happens next.  If I have confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord, then I don’t have to worry about the unfolding of the future because I trust that my future is in God’s hands.  But the other thing the urgency does, in addition to squelching same ole same ole and eradicating fear, is that urgency compels me to tell others the message.  Now, if we use the metaphor of the bride and groom, we can see this as a guest list.  It happens so often that a wedding that started as a “small family affair” nine months ago has grown into a party for hundreds by the day of the wedding.  Why?  Because they are excited and they want to tell everyone and share with everyone and they want all the place settings of their china!  In the case of the Revelation, it’s not just that Jesus wants everyone to know that we are invited to the party, Jesus wants everyone to realize we are invited to be the Bride.  It’s not an invitation to attend a party for someone else.  It’s an honor to be at the side of the One for whom the party exists. 

That’s the drama of the message.  The characters are Jesus and the angels who bring the message from Heaven, John who reports the message to the Church, the Church or the saints or believers who believe the message, the rest of humanity who doesn't believe the message, and the Enemies of Jesus who oppose the message.  We will meet each of them in turn, and yes we will run into ourselves.  Hopefully we learn more about ourselves as we witness ourselves in this drama.

In this opening scene, John is exiled to the island of Patmos (Rev. 1.9) because of his unrelenting testimony as a follower of Jesus.  The Jews couldn't shut him up, so they put somewhere that they didn't have to listen to him.  Ironically it is from this place that he delivers the loudest message of all!  John is writing from the place of a disciple of Jesus and witness to the Living Word.  So as we hear phrases and see images in this drama, we need to be mindful that John is speaking both out of a Jewish heritage and a personal encounter with Jesus.  The Gospel of John begins “In the beginning was the Word…” (John 1.1) which takes us back to Genesis.  The Revelation of John begins, “behold a lamb slain…” (Rev. 5.6) which takes us back to Exodus.  And we are to think, I've heard this story before…*

Jesus reveals himself to John not as the lowly carpenter of Nazareth but as the King of Glory.  He tries to use human language to describe what human eyes have never seen.  Or maybe they have…for the prophets have tried to use the same words: Son of Man (Daniel 7.13), long white robes (Daniel 10.5), hair like wool (Daniel 7.9), skin like bronze (Ezekiel 1.7), voice like waters (Ezekiel 1.24), face like the sun (Matthew 17.2), words like a sword (Hebrews 4:12).  We know the feeling.  Trying to explain a funny moment or a delicious meal or a beautiful scene to someone who wasn't there.  “You had to be there,” is our default.  But John doesn't get a default button because Jesus says, tell the church what you've seen.  Jesus doesn't tell John what to write, he tells John to write down what John has seen.  There is a difference.  And it requires our imagination.  Not to imagine something fantasy.  But to imagine something more real than we've ever known.  Like imagining cells before there were microscopes or black holes before there were telescopes.  But it’s the task.  Tell the churches…the seven churches, that is the complete Body of Christ, my bride.

Tell them what?: “Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last, and the living one.  I was dead, and see, I am alive forever and ever; and I have the keys of Death and Hell.”  It's as if Jesus is saying, with hands outstretched, if this is the beginning of your life (waving his right hand) and this is the end of your life (waving his left hand)

then I'm here 

(waving both hands across the imaginary timeline).  And whatever comes against you here, here, and here (demarking spots with his right hand across the line), I have the keys to that.  Because I've got you, right here in the palm of my nail-pierced hand.  So, don't be afraid.

* With reference to Disciple: Under the Tree of Life video series.

*With reference to Wright, NT, Revelation for Everyone. Westminster John Knox Press, Lousville, KY. 2011

Pick up your mat!

John 5:1-18

8 Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 Immediately the man was well, and he picked up his mat and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath.10 The Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It’s the Sabbath; you aren’t allowed to carry your mat.”

11 He answered, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”

12 They inquired, “Who is this man who said to you, ‘Pick it up and walk’?”13 The man who had been cured didn’t know who it was, because Jesus had slipped away from the crowd gathered there.
14 Later Jesus found him in the temple and said, “See! You have been made well. Don’t sin anymore in case something worse happens to you.” 15 The man went and proclaimed to the Jewish leaders that Jesus was the man who had made him well.16 As a result, the Jewish leaders were harassing Jesus, since he had done these things on the Sabbath. 17 Jesus replied, “My Father is still working, and I am working too.”

Interestingly, John goes into a lot of explanation about the location of this miracle.  The number of colonnades, the size of the crowd, even the myths surrounding the location. It was a pagan temple and some translations of the Bible include this explanation in the 4th verse: “They waited for the moving of the waters. From time to time an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters. The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease he had.” 

Most translations omit this fourth verse because not enough of the ancient biblical manuscripts include it.  So while it may not be truth, it was true that the myth existed.  And that was enough to convince the guy in this story that he was an outsider.  Born lame, the guy had never been given a fair shake in life.  When the story opens, he is 38 years old.  We don’t know how long he’s been laying on a mat at the pool, or how he got there.  We don’t know if he has a home to go to at night or if someone brings him food.  We only know the desperation of his situation—he hangs out among the blind, the lame, and the paralyzed and among this crowd, he is singled out by Jesus as “one who had been in this condition a long time.”

See the contrast that John is making here.  The pool is beautiful, so beautiful in fact that it has inspired myths of supernatural healings, so beautiful that even the ugliest people can’t stay away.  And that is who they are.  Regardless of the compassion you and I may want to extend to them, in their day in their condition, they are the ugly.  And if you’ve been told every day for 38 years that you are ugly, you believe it.  So here in this most beautiful of places are the most degraded of society.  “The place spoke of the possibility of miraculous healing, of the remote chance of divine healing; but it was at best spasmodic, and at worst an idle dream.” (Tom Wright, John for Everyone)

But if we are really going to picture this scene with the eyes of our hearts, we must visit our pools. Your pool.  Your last ditch effort.  One more opinion.  One more counseling session.  One more pill.  One more lottery ticket.  One more drink.  One more attempt to fix you with your effort.  Hope stirs. Hope lifts.  Hope disappoints.

Hope. Lost.

Then the hope of the world walks onto the scene. The pool still reflects your distorted visage, but another kinder, gentler face appears just over your shoulder.  “In a flash, he does what the pool stood for but what it hadn't been doing very successfully.  And just like the official’s son, and the storm, a word is all it takes.  A command.”  The command to get up is the same word that means resurrection.  One by one, Jesus is resurrecting the cosmos. (Tom Wright, John for Everyone)

Today, the lame get up and walk.  Don’t miss the sign.

And don’t miss the signs all around us.  Beautiful sanctuaries, distorted souls. We are the blind, lame, and paralyzed.  Jesus, his Holy Spirit, is asking each of us a very important question today:

Do you want to be made well? 

Bill Myers supposes the following about miracle working: “But on more than one occasion he discovered people really didn’t want to be healed. Oh sure, they said they wanted help, but those were merely words. In reality, their crippledness had become their identity, the trademark of who they were. And for those afraid of losing their identity, who in their heart of hearts really didn’t want to be changed, the infirmity won’t leave.”  Even if the physical is healed, the physical breaks again because the soul is still sick. (Fire of Heaven)

Now we may each have a physical infirmity that we want God to heal.  And He may yet, for he is able.  But my concern as I type this is the condition of our souls, for Jesus warned, do not fear those who can kill the body, but fear that one who can kill both body and soul.  Our flesh will fail.  But if we have placed our life in Christ, we will live, body and soul.  So, it is important, says the sign of the miracle at Bethesda, that we allow Jesus to heal the inner brokenness, or as he said, “something worse may happen to you.” Maybe what Jesus is asking is, “Will you walk away from your bitterness, your resentment, your hurt?”

And that may hurt our feelings.  It may seem like Jesus is testing us.  Or it may seem like Jesus doesn't want to heal our physical problems.  Maybe this doesn't fit our notion of what God ought to be doing for us.  This action from God typically upsets religious folks like us.  The religious leaders in the book of John are mad because Jesus healed on the Sabbath (a questionable violation..is commanding healing work?) and then the man walked with his mat (a clear violation of the Sabbath code).  To which Jesus simply explains, “My Father is always at work.”  Jesus wasn't acting the way they thought a proper Jew (never mind Messiah) ought to be acting. 

That doesn’t seem to bother Jesus.  Jesus explains that he can’t be worried about their incredulities and insistence upon the letters of the law.  He has work to do. 

Could it be that the reason God created space for us to rest, that is Sabbath, was so that he could come to us and heal us and put us on the path to whole living.  Are there times, even as we sit in our sanctuary and hear the Holy Spirit speak to us, that we leave choosing to do nothing about it because…(it would be a lot of work). 

So here's my own little thought.  Jesus tells the guy to pick up his mat.  And it gets him a lot of trouble.  After all, mat-picking-up-and-walking offends sensitive religious sensibilities.   So, it must have been important for the guy to pick up the mat.  Maybe the importance of removing the mat was to solidify for the guy (and anyone else paying attention) that he wasn't coming back to the pool.

But what about us?  How many mats have left lying at our pools of desperation?  We plead, we beg, we cry, we vow.  We may even get up.  But we return to the mat because it possesses our identity.

Laura heard Jesus calling her to pick up her mat this week.  This is what she wrote to me:

I wanted you to know that I am doing better, that I am trying to stop negative thoughts / fears / anxiety from nesting.  I am trying to put everything at His feet, even though I really have no clue on how to do this... I have done the other way for so long... Try to explain why I am still at the pool, why I cannot get healed - like it was something I had tried but failed at.  I understand, between your sermon and Hunter's last week, that all I must do is ask for healing and forgiveness.  I cannot do anything to make me "deserve" it; it is a gift.  I believe that God has healed/forgiven me - maybe a long time ago when I first asked, or maybe that day in your office, when I really felt that some of my burden was lifted.  But regardless, I have been healed/forgiven.  I should get up and walk.  I should pick up my mat and head to the cross.  But I don't know how.  I am scared.  I wonder if the lame man was scared, or if he hesitated.  He didn't know how to walk, so do you think that Jesus gave him faith at the same time?  

I am ready to be healed, and I am ready to participate in a total renovation :)
I am picking up my mat, because I don't ever want to come back to this place...

Yes, Laura.  That's what healing is.  Being able to walk is temporary.  Faith to pick up your mat is eternal.  And that's what Jesus is up to.  That's the motivation behind the smile you see on his face in the reflection at your pool of desperation.  Jesus loves you and he has made your healing possible.  By grace, he is giving you faith.  

In the name of Jesus, get up.  Pick up your mat.  Don't come back to the pool.

(Thank you Laura for allowing me to use our correspondence.  I see the powerful transforming work that Jesus is doing in you.  You are radiant.)

$100,000

What would you do with $100,000?

I have a Kindergarten project hanging on my bulletin board at work that my daughter completed a couple of years ago.  It is a fake $100 bill stapled to a primary ledger page with the sentence prompt, “If I had $100…”  She was to complete the sentence and draw a picture.  She wrote,

  “I would buy my mom a car.” 

How sweet!  She wouldn’t spend it on gum or lip gloss or Beanie Boos (the latest craze in stuffed animals) or a rainbow loom (the latest crazy craze).  She would spend it on her mom. 

Or would she? 

Don’t get me wrong here…I am not questioning her desire to be kind. She’s a sweet girl and she shares…sometimes. But I also don’t underestimate her desire to be selfish.  I think her perspective is limited, and so her response was limited.  You see, when she was asked what she would do with $100, that was the most money she could imagine.  They were celebrating 100 Days of School and they were discussing what a big number that was and when you’re five and you’ve just figured out how to count to 100, it does seem like the biggest thing ever.  And so a pipe dream like actually having $100 deserves a crazy vision…like a buying a car.  Obviously she has no concept of what a car costs or how little help $100 would be in that purchase.  She has a limited perspective.  I think if she had been asked what she would do with $10, she would say, “I would buy gum and a beanaboo.”  Actually, I am 110% confident that’s what she would do, because it’s what she did with her $10 last weekend.  She can imagine how to spend $10.  She can’t imagine how to spend $100.

What’s my point? 

Let me ask you a question.  What can you imagine?

Have you ever listened to the “world peace” speeches given by the contestants in the Miss America pageants?  I don’t mean to poke fun, but I kind of lump these answers in the category of my daughter’s answer.  “What will you do with all of your power, Miss America?” 

  “I’ll save the world!”  

She can’t really imagine what she would do with “all that power” because she doesn’t, in reality, have all that much power.    I’m not hating on Miss America (I’m not hating on my sweet little girl either).  Because my point is that we have a limited perspective as well.

So, I’ll ask again, what can you imagine? 

"Glory to God, who is able to do far beyond all that we could ask or imagine by his power at work within us;"

In college I was a part of a Bible study by Henry Blackaby called Experiencing God. It was a study I would return to several times early in ministry because of the profound questions it asked of me. One of the best was, "Are you attempting something so great for God that if He doesn't show up, you will fall flat on your face?" At the time I was attending a small Southern Baptist liberal arts college whose motto was "Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God." I was inspired. What could I attempt for God?

Not to be unwise. Not to get ahead of God and leave His path. Not to test his mercy or grace or goodness or faithfulness. Not to make a name for myself. But to challenge my own tiny world. How big is my God?  Only as big as the box I put Him in…

One hundred thousand dollars isn’t really a lot of money.  Most of the people I rub elbows with deal with this kind of figure on a regular basis.  On the other hand, I don’t have to drive very far at all to find a friend who would consider this a small fortune. 

  It’s really all about your perspective.

Sometimes I fantasize about what I would do with major money. I’m talking like 10 million or some huge number, a life changing number.  I don’t think I’m alone.  We currently live vicariously through many “reality tv” shows that pose the same the life altering situation.  I personally have imagined who I would give money to, how much I spend on myself, how much I would save. I imagine how much fun it would be to write a check to my alma maters (all three of them!) for thousands of dollars.  I imagine flying to Africa to deliver the money necessary to plant churches and clinics.  I imagine giving my brother the money he needs to finish school.  I imagine how great it would feel to see the smiles on those people’s faces.  It’s something like the stick figure my daughter drew on her page of me smiling beside my new red car.  Really, I’m clueless.  And so I go back to counting out quarters from the bottom of my purse.

It’s easy to fantasize about something that will never happen.  That’s why we call it a fantasy.  But what would you really do with $100,000?  That’s not a stretch.  It’s an inheritance.  It’s a good business year.  It’s a house sale.  I think the answer to that question comes with what is revealed about us when we describe what we would do with $100.  Would I share?  Would I give it away?  Would I save it?  Would I spend it on shoes?

I think sometimes we are afraid to share it, to give it away, to spend it on someone else because we lose control of it.  They may use it wrong, not appreciate the gift, waste it, or lose it.  “Never give money to beggars” is rule #1 when visiting another city.  Why not?  Why is it my responsibility to make sure that the recipient of the gift appropriately uses the gift I’ve given?  And if that is my responsibility, is it appropriately named a gift?  Wouldn’t that be a loan or a grant?  And who taught us that this was our responsibility?  Over and over Jesus told stories about people who wasted money by socking it away, people who criticized the owner for wasting money by giving it to someone else (because money is always wasted if it’s not mine), about people who misused, abused, and ultimately crucified the gifts that Father gave us.  Was God irresponsible in his giving of Christ to us?  I don’t think God ever intended to express “trust” in our abilities to make good choices when he gave us His Son.  On the contrary, he gave us what we didn’t deserve but so desperately needed because we had so screwed up all the other gifts he had given.  God is not irresponsible.  But his generosity is irrepressible. 

How much does it cost to be a follower of this lavish God?  Such a wise, pragmatic question!  We would applaud a young person who “weighed the cost” of an important life decision.  Jesus’ response was simple: everything.  (and what an irresponsible decision that would be!!)  We would also likely applaud the young person who, upon hearing such a startling and reckless response, decided to complete his current plans, see to his current responsibilities, and tie up loose ends.  Jesus didn’t applaud.

Because it’s one thing to weigh the cost of a new automobile.  It’s quite another to weigh the cost of life in Christ.  The one demonstrates maturity.  The other, faith…or a lack thereof.  I’ve heard all my life that we are to “consider the cost” and well we should. But when God calls and our response is, “that costs too much” we are….........................................................lost.

And if we are to be found, we need a new perspective.

What if we jumped?  Jumped off the high dive and into the deep end.  Off the bow and into the ocean!  Off of our safe platforms of rules and regs and traditions and temptations and into the secure but unsafe arms of Jesus!!  Oh where or where might he take us!!!  Some people leap.  I don’t know exactly how they are wired, but there is something in them that gives them the courage to jump.  I think the rest of us have to practice.

I was friends with a girl in college who decided she wanted to learn to sky dive.  She talked about the lessons in the gymnasium where she jumped off of a tiny platform onto a padded mat only a couple of feet below her so she could “learn to fall.” But on the day of the dive, there was only one shot to trust her parachute, and if that parachute didn’t work, her “falling” lessons were going to seem a little silly.  For me, I think God has had to give me lots of “learning to fall” lessons so I can begin to trust the parachute. 

So today’s “falling” lesson: what would you do with $100,000?  What if we prayed, “God I don’t know what to do with this money.  But You know.  You know exactly who needs it.  And I don’t know why you’ve given it to me.  But I’m thankful for the opportunity to be a conduit of your grace!  Show me who needs it.  Give me perspective and vision.  And when it’s time to jump, give me courage. Because I don’t just trust the parachute…I trust the Maker.”

What I've Learned at Buddy Walk

This weekend we will walk in our 6^th Buddy Walk, an awareness event for Down Syndrome.  Buddy Walks are held across the country this time of year to raise public awareness about Trisomy 21 and the community it affects.  But for me, Buddy Walk has become a classroom.  Here are some things I have learned at our annual Buddy Walks.

1. 1. Everyone can walk.  Our first year walking, we were invited to walk with another team.  The family we joined had been walking for five or six years, they had successfully pulled together teams of walkers, and had been instrumental in coordinating this huge community event.  I was so thankful that they adopted us in and let us experience Buddy Walk as members of the community and not as spectators.  I think that defines what I really want for my child.  I want him to live life, to contribute all of his beautiful gifts to his community.  I don’t want him to be a spectator in life, I want him to be a team player. At the time of his first walk, my little guy should have been taking his first steps.  It would be another year before that actually happened.  Fortunately, we had a great team of therapists who were undeterred: Joel would walk.  Unfortunately, we’ve already encountered  other situations where the immediate assumption is that he will ever only be a spectator.  People immediately want to define what he can’t do.  In reality, a “you can’t” attitude isn’t just applied to kids sporting extra chromosomes.  All of us have been told at some point, “you can’t.”  Which is why we all need cheerleaders, encouragers who say, “oh yes you can.”  Everyone walks at Buddy Walk.  Or rides or runs.  Little ones are in strollers, wagons, and on daddies’ shoulders.  Kids and pets run laps around walkers.  But eventually there is a single movement forward, and everyone is included.
   
   
   
   
   2. No one has to walk alone. For two years our family joined this other precious family.  Not just at the Buddy Walk.  In the walk of life.  The scariest moment in any of our lives is to think we have to face our struggles alone.  But nothing could be more false.  We were created for relationship.  And there is a family that has been created for each of us.  Some people are not born into great families, and they have to find a forever family.  Some people are blessed to find family everywhere they go.  Most of us experience a little of both.  The worst thing we can do to ourselves is hide in our fear and isolate ourselves.  Find a buddy.  The most amazing thing happens when you choose to walk beside someone: you look beside you and find someone walking with you.
   
   
   
   
   3. Long walks are better with friends.  Our third year we decided to venture to the Buddy Walk on our own.  Joel was in preschool and we invited his whole class to participate.  They made a banner for him and put their little hand prints on it.  Then we found out that a little friend in his class wanted to walk with us.  This little boy was a typical child, and was developing at an amazing rate.  He had a huge vocabulary and great athleticism, even at age 2.  Joel was walking pretty well at this point, but not talking yet.  He signed most of what he needed to communicate.  His speech therapist was trying to locate things in his world that he wanted to talk about.  Asking him to indentify random pictures just wasn’t working.  At this point he needed objects that produced “hard guttural stops” to talk about, words that start with K, hard G, or hard C.  And so we started talking about our new buddy Cole.  Every skill Joel develops is a hard won effort.  We’ve learned that these long roads of mastery are best mastered one small step at a time.  What a joy it is to find friends along the way that make the time pass, that give us joyful things to talk about, that celebrate not just the end, but every step along the way.
   
   
   
   
   4. Learn to walk your walk.  Two years ago the location of our Walk changed.  We went from making several laps around a track to one lap around a field.  I had no idea that the change would be noticed little baby Joel.  But while thousands of walkers stopped their stride to find easy rest under shade trees and tents, Joel kept walking.  He made another complete lap completely by himself, then content that his walk was now over, rested with his team.  While we need and celebrate all of the support around us, each of us has to find the personal courage to walk our own walk.  I can only be me.  Joel can only be Joel.  We’ll be miserable if we are trying to be someone we are not.  But if we learn to embrace who we are, to embrace our own stride, our own footprint, even our own meandering paths, we will discover the great strength our Creator has given us to be just who we are.
   
   
   
   
   5. Learn to appreciate another person’s walk.  Last year I again made the attempt to invite lots of people from our community to join our little team.   I was so honored that several families joined “Joel’s Heroes”, but I was most blessed to walk beside Carla.  Carla had already been to a walk that morning, a walk to “Make Strides Against Breast Cancer.”  It was pretty amazing that she would participate in two walks in one day.  It was absolutely inspiring to realize that the first walk was for her.  Carla had been fighting cancer in one form or another for most of her life.  She lost her leg during her childhood and walked with a prosthesis.  She lost her hair during the most recent battle with cancer and sported a gorgeous blonde wig.  Carla’s body had been ravaged by the disease and its treatment.  Her gait was wobbly and slow as she moved along with the Buddy crowd.  But, whose wasn’t?  Everyone on Joel’s team was so inspired by her walk with us.  I would learn over the next few months just how inspiring of a woman she was.  Carla’s physical body lost its battle to cancer this past spring.  Carla’s spirit was triumphant against cancer as people came from near and far to celebrate her life and marvel at this little woman and her strength and poise until the end.  I suspect we will have many more years of Buddy walks and I will appreciate every member of the team.  But I will never forget the year that we walked beside Carla.
   
   
   We are almost ready for our Buddy Walk this year.  We’ve had family come join us from across the country.  I’m not sure if Joel knows that all of this is for him or not.  But I believe he knows that we are for him.  And he has a team.  And each of us walks a stronger walk for being a member of team Joel.

Sermon series on RESPECT

Life is precious

I have a confession to make.   A few weeks ago I had to go to Walmart. HAD to go.  It was one of those lists that only made sense at Walmart   And I said as much to the kids.  They were incredulous at my attitude…”Mom! It’s Walmart   Don’t you love Walmart  You can get anything there!”  Never mind Disney World, just take my kids to Walmart.  “No,” I confessed to them, “I don’t love Walmart   Those aren't my people.” And there it was, the confession of my heart. When it comes to Walmart  I’m a snob.  Not that it keeps me away that much, a lot of my life happens at Walmart.

I was actually heading to Walmart six years ago when the nurse called from the Obstetricians office.  I was heading down highway 90 in Ocean Springs as she explained that my blood levels had come back abnormal and I would need to undergo further testing to determine if the baby I was carrying had a genetic abnormality.  “These things are usually false positives, but we will get the test done soon enough so you can terminate the pregnancy if needed.”  It’s amazing the details you can remember about the moment your life changes completely.  I sat in the Walmart parking lot for quite a while.  When I finally went inside, there was a family having a family moment right at the door.  Ahh, Walmart  the place you go to feel better about your problems.  The mother was facing me, and she was furious, that much was evident.  The daughter had her back to me, but she was obviously not doing what her mother wanted.  She had some school supplies clutched in her crossed arms and she was shaking her head vehemently.  My hand instinctively went to my growing waist, evidence of a half-completed pregnancy, as the unbidden thought entered my mind: “whatever problems this baby has, we won’t have that problem.”  It was that moment that the girl turned and her face revealed the delicate features of Trisomy 21, Down Syndrome.  All at once the weight of the nurse’s words and the fear inside my heart came crashing down.  I won’t take the time to tell the rest of our story, but if you’re interested, you can read more about it here.

Today, I want to talk about life.  Fragile, crazy, beautiful, scary, hard, precious life.  In our series on respect, I want to begin with the preeminent value of life.  Without life, all of our other arguments are null and void.  Now, before you gather all of your arguments about life and choice and equality and all the other political buzz words we’ve attached to the word, I’ll just go ahead and give you my bottom line.  I’m not interested in changing your opinions today.  I don’t believe myself to be that persuasive.  However, I would like to encourage you to consider your opinions, whatever they may be, from this perspective: God is the author of life, and God believes that all life is precious.  That’s the bottom line. 

^{Psalm 139 (CEV)}

¹³ You are the one
who put me together
    inside my mother’s body,
¹⁴ and I praise you
    because of
the wonderful way
    you created me.

Everything you do is marvelous!
    Of this I have no doubt.

¹⁵ Nothing about me
    is hidden from you!
I was secretly woven together
    deep in the earth below,
¹⁶ but with your own eyes
    you saw
    my body being formed.
Even before I was born,
you had written in your book
    everything I would do.

And while applying that lens to your perspective on life, would you prayerfully consider doing this as well: would you be willing widen the margins on your definition of life to make room for the mystery of God?  So many debates get bogged down in the quagmire of when life begins and ends, and how we are to treat others at various stages of life.  The reality is, we don’t know what we don’t know.  We think we know what we know about life, but even what we know about life changes all the time, but for sure, we don’t know what we don’t know.  So it would seem to foolish to assert that we know something about what we know we don’t know.  Did you follow that?  Here’s what I’m trying to say: widen the margins.  Make room for the mystery of God.  However you define life, would you be willing to say, in regards to those margins, “and maybe a little more, because I don’t know everything.” 

What is the value of a life?  Our judicial system has a formula for applying value, based on the ability to earn income and other mitigating factors.  At premium, life is worth $7 million.  That is preceded by the statement, life is invaluable.  We may be confused.

According to science, life is worth $90.  Let me explain. 

One day, a science professor had set out several vats of different-colored liquids, gases and pyrex boxes containing elemental solids. Nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, mercury... a few other elements that the human body is composed of, all in proportion to how much of each element could be found in the average adult human body. Each container had a sticker on it, the price tag, as dictated by the supplier from whence these elements were bought. At the far end of the table upon which all of this stuff sat was a folded card, like a tiny tent of paper, and on that piece of folded paper, standing up like a marquee, was the sum total of each price. It read:

"The cost of human life, in raw materials: $83.72"

 The professor picked up the card, showed it to the class and said:

"This is what the human body is worth, if you were to go out to the store and purchase the materials necessary to build one. But there's more to it than that, isn't there? You can't just take these things, mix them up in a bowl, slap them in the oven and, nine months later, wind up with a human being. It takes much more than that. These items must be arranged in a certain way, at the molecular and cellular level, and manipulated to a degree that it would boggle the mind.Genetics, cellular mitosis, osmosis, molecular replication... these are some of the processes by which a human body develops." He waved to the elements behind him. "All these things are inert, by themselves, but something is added to make them dynamic and singular. Kids, I'm going to tell you this once and once only: the human body is cheap, dirt cheap in the grand scheme of things, but the quality that gives a human body life is something neither science nor money can ever measure. You're here to learn how science works and how it can be applied to learning how things work, but it can only work up to a certain point. At that point, we must stop and wait for science to catch up. The saying that life is precious is true only in that the human experience which validates that life is invaluable. We cannot put a price on experience. You can pay for some experiences, but that is only a fiction of economics. Life is more than just your body and mind. And science cannot even begin to comprehend where life begins and where it ends. That task is best left for the philosophers and dreamers. If you came here looking for answers to life, then you're paying a significantly steep price for answers that will get you nowhere. Or, at least, your parents are."

(borrowed from the internet, unable to verify the source...however I am currently working to verify the facts and I should be able to update the cost this week...fascinating!)

So how will we define life? Value life?

Before we can begin to wrap our hearts and minds around the value of another person’s life, we have to deal with the reality of our personal value.  I’m not talking about the superficial, selfish choices we all make to bring pleasure to our physical life.  I’m talking about who we are, who we really are, our purpose for existence   Because people who understand their value, their purpose, they live differently.  Remember our lens from which we peer today: God is the author of life, and to God, life is precious.  Your life is precious.  The promise is for Abundant life and then eternal life, not miserable life and then you die.  We mistakenly believe that with Jesus we will always have either happy life where nothing bad happens, physical blessings abound like Christmas, and the sun always shines; or conversely we believe that with Jesus we will live a sad, depressed, gray, never fun uber-fundamental doldrum existence and then die and sleep in the clouds.  But we’d be wrong on both accounts.  Jesus came to show us that while in this life we will know trouble, but we can be bold, courageous, joyful, and peaceful because Jesus has overcome the world.  Jesus didn’t just come to earth to provide train tickets to heaven.  We don’t get our card punched and then wait for that glory bound train, all the while wasting away here in the shadow-lands without joy or peace in the midst of suffering.  On the contrary, Jesus lived a human life, a tough one to be sure, full of friends, joy, parties, tears, relationships, memories, experiences, humanity.  And Jesus’ life proves that your life is precious, and worth saving. 

Why would God step out of heaven, and wrap himself in flesh if not to demonstrate the value of human life?  Why would Jesus suffer the indignities of acne, gas, and in-grown toenails?  Why would God put himself through the misery of human inter-relationships?  Why would God choose to become human?  Could he not have saved us any other way?  Could he not have spoken through the mountains, the storms, the birds, the beasts?  But he became a baby, a teenager, a man.  His very painful death happened to a real human body.  Why?  Because, to God, who created life, life is precious.  It’s worth rescuing from the pits of hell, but it’s also worth rescuing from the doldrums of human existence.  What are you doing with the life God has given you?  Do you live on purpose?  Do you live understanding the price God paid to redeem your life?  Do you care?

Once we get our heads and hearts on straight about the value of our lives, we also have the capacity to appreciate the value of all life.  This is hard work.  It is one thing to value the lives of those we love, who are kind or good to us, or who society has deemed “valuable.”  It is quite another thing to extend the merits of value to every individual.  We measure, we weigh, we find others wanting.  And we forget that when we devalue the life of one human, we devalue the life of all humanity. Your life is precious.  Their life is too.  We must widen the margins and believe God has purpose for every being he creates.

Their life is precious.  God loves her, and him, and all them at Walmart  He probably wishes they would pick up some new undergarments while at Walmart, but He loves them.

My invitation to you this week is to serve life where you find it to be most precious and vulnerable.  We

confuse politics and faith quite often in these discussions.  We convince ourselves that we can convince others to believe our beliefs by yelling louder or raising more money for our politician.  But if we examine the actions and attitudes of Jesus, we will find that he didn’t press for political reform.  He pressed for heart reformation.  How do we change a human heart?  Love.  It all comes back to love.

Are you bothered by issues regarding the beginning of life?  Then the love the most vulnerable people on that front.  Serve them, pray for them, hug them, provide shelter.  Are your issues with end of life debates?  Then do the same.  Serve, pray, touch, provide.  Are you most concerned with fragile humanity caught in the undertow of bureaucracy and politics?  Don’t scream and shout…you will be never be heard.  Serve and love…and you will break down walls.

And if in the midst of serving and loving and touching and being touched, you find the margins on your definition of life expanding, all the better.  You know, before life was a game, a magazine, a cereal…before life was messy and hard or grand and a bowl of cherries…life was in God.  God loves life, God is life.  When you love, serve, touch life, you touch, serve, love God.

Birthdays in Heaven

Do you think we celebrate birthdays in heaven?  Do we celebrate the day of our physical birth, spiritual birth, or conception?  Do we celebrate the day God imagined our days?  If birthdays are a way of marking our passage through time, how does that work out in eternity?

And do such mind games matter when what you really want is to celebrate the birthday on this earth, in this reality, at this time?  And isn't that, after all, why we celebrate birthdays...because we survived another year.  Because we are still together another year.  Because I still have you this year.

I am working on a sermon this week called A Day Submitted.  It is from the fourth chapter of James.  James is really giving the church a tongue lashing at this point regarding their treatment (or mis-treatment) of others.  He challenges their "control issues" by making the point, "You should know better than to say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into the city. We will do business there for a year and make a lot of money!" What do you know about tomorrow? How can you be so sure about your life? It is nothing more than mist that appears for only a little while before it disappears. You should say, "If the Lord lets us live, we will do these things.
          
I am trying to let this word challenge my schedule.  It has helped that I keep forgetting my calendar at home this week.

This prayer by Ken Gire has also helped: Forgive me, Lord, for being so concerned about my other commitments that I am unconcerned about my commitment to others. Help me to realize that so much of true ministry isn't what I schedule but what comes as an intrusion to my schedule. Keep my schedule flexible enough, Lord, so that when my path comes across someone in need, I would be quick to change my plans in preference to yours.

It has also helped that I am preparing for a wedding for a bride who won't have her mother there because her mother wasn't given another year on this earth.

It has also helped that I went to lunch to celebrate a friend's birthday...only she wasn't there because this year she celebrates at the Lord's table, at the wedding feast of the Lamb.

Which begs the question, do we celebrate birthdays in heaven? Maybe we celebrate the day we arrive home.

What do you know about tomorrow?
I know we make a lot of assumptions when we plan for it.  I don't think that's sinful.  But I don't think it's fruitful when we forget Who causes the sun to rise on our world, Who puts the breath in our lungs or the beat in our hearts.

Teach me to count the days...teach me to make the days count.

What would you do with one day left to live?  Not a very original question...it has been fodder for books, movies, blogs, songs.  What is moving is watching someone with one day left to live.

She brought them in, one at a time, and she told them how much she loved them.  She told them how much they meant to her, all she had learned from them, gained from them, grown from them.  She summoned strength from heaven knows where to wrap tired, thin limbs around each neck, to place dry, cracked lips on each cheek.  She spoke words that each of them needed to hear.  She knew her children needed her to say, "It will be okay.  I'll be with you.  I have everything worked out for you."  She knew her mother needed her to say, "Thank you.  I need you so much.  You taught me to be strong."  She knew her friends needed her to say, "I have loved being your friend.  Thank you for being mine."  She knew her pastor needed her to say, "I have learned so much from you.  Thank you for the faith you've taught me.  You have comforted me and my family so much."  She knew her husband needed her to say, "I love you.  You are my soul, my heart.  You have faithfully loved me, fought for me, done everything you could do.  I know I am loved by you."  How did she know to say all those things?  Because she lived all the days beforehand loving, listening, serving.

A few days before she died, she and I retold the story of Jesus's words to his friends the day before his death.  How he pulled them all around one table.  How he told them that he was praying for them, how proud he was of them...of all that they had done, of all that they would do.  He told them he wouldn't leave them, not really.  He told them he loved them.  He told them that if they ever struggled to remember, to celebrate this way:

Share a loaf of bread. 

 Remember the way he gave himself.  Remember the way he fed their hungry mouths, their hungry souls.  Remember the way he so easily brought up the nets, lifted their heads.  Share a loaf of bread...with each other. And then with someone hungrier.  And He would be right there.

Share a cup of wine. 

 Remember the way he poured himself out. Remember the way he gave water. Remember the way he redeemed water.  Remember the way he controlled the water, walked on water...trampled on fear.  Share a cup of juice...with each other.  And then with someone thirstier.  And He would be right there.
How did he know what they needed to hear?  Because he had been there, the day before and the day before that.
He was there when they decided to follow.  He was there when they turned away. He was there when childish imagination gave yield to adult anxiety. He was there when the first breath of oxygen was inhaled.  He was there when the first kick against warm womb was given. He was there when the first beat of the heart screamed LIFE! He was there then, loving, listening, serving.

Which leads me to think, He celebrates when we get home.  Who knows, maybe we celebrate lots of birthdays in heaven.  Maybe there are all kinds of "births" that God has noted in our book of days, proud of the passages we have braved, trusting the shepherd that has guided us through the valley of the shadow.  Jesus does make heaven sound like one huge celebration.

I guess I'll have to wait to find out.  And that's ok.  I have a lot to celebrate here in the mean time.