What makes a gourmet meal? I know almost nothing about cooking, but I suppose it is something prepared by an expert chef, with ingredients carefully chosen and combined to complement each other. It is probably a meal with dishes I don’t know and flavors I can’t even imagine could be so delicious.
When I was a child, my idea of a “great meal” likely would have included all my favorite foods: pizza, peanut butter and jelly, donuts, Oreos, apple sauce, bologna, macaroni and cheese. Separately these foods may be tasty in their own right; but combined they are hardly what anyone would call “fine dining.”
The source matters. Where does the menu come from? Has it been assembled haphazardly among things we like? Or do we leave the cooking to someone who knows what they are doing to prepare dishes we can’t imagine? It’s a little like the way humans understand God. Is God something we make up, an assortment of “ingredients” we like? Or is God more than humans can invent; someone complex, dynamic, mysterious?
When it comes to knowing God, the source matters. The source of all our knowledge and awareness of God is the Divine One himself. Revelation is God making himself known. God is known to us because God chooses to make the Divine self known, particularly through the testimony of the Bible.
Why does God’s self revelation matter? For one, God is more than we can imagine. God is not constrained to the limits of human reason but is and is capable of more than we can conceive on our own.
For another, neither is our life limited to the “ordinary” and the mundane. The God who creates us calls us to glorious lives, participating actively in his work of saving the world. God forms us for lives more wonderful than we can imagine.
No one should settle for simplistic explanations for things that have no basis in God’s revelation, like “Hurricane Katrina must mean God is punishing someone,” or “God must not be real because faith hasn’t solved my problems and blessed me with wealth.” God is better than that. We must allow God to speak for himself, let God be God, and we are a whole lot better off.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Reconciliation
People are annoying. Doesn’t sound like a very Christian thing to say. It’s also true that human beings are wondrous, diverse, unique, gifted children of God, but let’s be honest: people will get on each other’s nerves. Sometimes they do or say things that hit us wrong. People insult us, do things we don’t understand, believe things we don’t like, or may even cause us harm. Other persons may seem too opinionated or too indifferent, too loud or too quiet, too proud or too timid, too bad or even too good for our tastes. Invariably, at some times in our lives, other people (even those we love) will bother us.
It is important to acknowledge the reality of interpersonal friction, because life with others is not always ideal, but still we need to deal with that friction constructively.
I think we often give up too easily on others when they rub us the wrong way. It is hard, sometimes extremely hard, to maintain our forbearance when we are at odds with one another. And usually it is far easier to disengage and avoid: stop talking, stop meeting, stop caring, stop trusting, stop trying to maintain any means of relationship. There is an undeniable force (sin) that seems always to want to push us away from others, even against the loving powers that draw us together. Ever notice how long it takes to build something strong and beautiful, and how quickly it can be destroyed? Love and friendship require a lifetime to develop, yet can be toppled by one careless act.
The message of Jesus was that God refused to allow sin to separate us from God’s love. If Crucifixion is ultimately the embodiment of humans rejecting God, Resurrection is the superior act of reconciliation – God refusing to be rejected.
Reconciliation is now the task of the reconciled. Christians may not give in to those sinful forces that push us away from others. When something happens to separate us from another, to dampen or destroy friendship, we cannot allow that relationship to be closed off without making efforts to reconcile.
This may be the finest, most convincing testimony we can make of the new life we have in Christ Jesus – that no matter what happens, we Christians don’t give up on being reconciled with others.
It is important to acknowledge the reality of interpersonal friction, because life with others is not always ideal, but still we need to deal with that friction constructively.
I think we often give up too easily on others when they rub us the wrong way. It is hard, sometimes extremely hard, to maintain our forbearance when we are at odds with one another. And usually it is far easier to disengage and avoid: stop talking, stop meeting, stop caring, stop trusting, stop trying to maintain any means of relationship. There is an undeniable force (sin) that seems always to want to push us away from others, even against the loving powers that draw us together. Ever notice how long it takes to build something strong and beautiful, and how quickly it can be destroyed? Love and friendship require a lifetime to develop, yet can be toppled by one careless act.
The message of Jesus was that God refused to allow sin to separate us from God’s love. If Crucifixion is ultimately the embodiment of humans rejecting God, Resurrection is the superior act of reconciliation – God refusing to be rejected.
Reconciliation is now the task of the reconciled. Christians may not give in to those sinful forces that push us away from others. When something happens to separate us from another, to dampen or destroy friendship, we cannot allow that relationship to be closed off without making efforts to reconcile.
This may be the finest, most convincing testimony we can make of the new life we have in Christ Jesus – that no matter what happens, we Christians don’t give up on being reconciled with others.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Now, it's our turn
Forty days after Jesus was raised (“The Resurrection”) from his death on a cross, Jesus was lifted up to heaven. This is known as “The Ascension.”
Forty is a common number in some of the most important biblical events – the 40-day Flood, the 40-year exodus journey from Egypt to the Promised Land, the 40-day fasts of the prophet Elijah and Jesus himself. Jesus spent 40 days appearing to his disciples, presenting himself “alive to them by many convincing proofs and speaking about the kingdom of God.” (Acts 1.3)
On the fortieth day, Jesus leaves the world he entered as God-in-the-flesh and returns to heaven. You have to ask yourself, Why? Why would Jesus, having done all he did to begin collecting followers, to “open our eyes” to the Law and the prophets, to defeat the power of Sin and death and open the way of eternal life for all to follow; why would he leave us behind? The answer is, Jesus leaves us here on earth to live as changed, redeemed, reconciling people.
Christ gives us to know the truth about our lives, that we are God’s children and that God wants us to live in proper relationship to Godself, to other people, and to all of creation. But Jesus does not do all the work for us. Like a wise teacher, Jesus leaves us by ourselves to explore the lessons he taught us and use them to make a better world – to reconcile our differences, to lift up the downtrodden, to dismantle the practices that degrade and impoverish others, to show the world that the best way to live is loving God and loving one another. (Actually, Jesus does not leave us entirely alone – God remains present with us in the Holy Spirit. So, it is not our efforts so much as God working through us that makes the world better.) Jesus has shown us the way God wants us to live, and in the Ascension he has effectively said, “Stay here. Now, it’s your turn to live as I have taught you.”
We can’t sit around, as if there were nothing to do, waiting to be called to our eternal reward in heaven. Perhaps the greatest of all Jesus’ gifts to us is this opportunity to discover for ourselves the glory of living in this world as God meant it to be.
Forty is a common number in some of the most important biblical events – the 40-day Flood, the 40-year exodus journey from Egypt to the Promised Land, the 40-day fasts of the prophet Elijah and Jesus himself. Jesus spent 40 days appearing to his disciples, presenting himself “alive to them by many convincing proofs and speaking about the kingdom of God.” (Acts 1.3)
On the fortieth day, Jesus leaves the world he entered as God-in-the-flesh and returns to heaven. You have to ask yourself, Why? Why would Jesus, having done all he did to begin collecting followers, to “open our eyes” to the Law and the prophets, to defeat the power of Sin and death and open the way of eternal life for all to follow; why would he leave us behind? The answer is, Jesus leaves us here on earth to live as changed, redeemed, reconciling people.
Christ gives us to know the truth about our lives, that we are God’s children and that God wants us to live in proper relationship to Godself, to other people, and to all of creation. But Jesus does not do all the work for us. Like a wise teacher, Jesus leaves us by ourselves to explore the lessons he taught us and use them to make a better world – to reconcile our differences, to lift up the downtrodden, to dismantle the practices that degrade and impoverish others, to show the world that the best way to live is loving God and loving one another. (Actually, Jesus does not leave us entirely alone – God remains present with us in the Holy Spirit. So, it is not our efforts so much as God working through us that makes the world better.) Jesus has shown us the way God wants us to live, and in the Ascension he has effectively said, “Stay here. Now, it’s your turn to live as I have taught you.”
We can’t sit around, as if there were nothing to do, waiting to be called to our eternal reward in heaven. Perhaps the greatest of all Jesus’ gifts to us is this opportunity to discover for ourselves the glory of living in this world as God meant it to be.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Can We Talk?
Did you know that fewer than 20% of North Carolinians attend church on an average weekend? That number is both shocking and disturbing. The Church is failing in the job Jesus has given us, which is to make disciples.
New, fast-growing, non-denominational, “community churches” are incredibly effective at reaching and drawing in huge numbers of people. Give them credit – they offer what a lot of people are looking for and bring a Christian message to those disconnected from the traditional Church. That is not to say all churches should be like them – they are not perfect, by any means.
On the other hand, very many established, conventional, main-stream congregations struggle mightily to attract new members and may not do enough to nurture the spiritual development of the ones they have. Meanwhile, 80% of North Carolina is somewhere else on Sunday mornings – the people are out there, but we are not reaching them.
I would like to begin a conversation here in this blog about who we are (at Oak Grove UMC or at your own church) and how we want to do the work Jesus asks of us. What would it take to reach some of that 80% right here in our neighborhood? How do we “engage” with the community around us? What does our community need from us (how can we find out), and what can we offer them? How can we empower our members who feel called to try new ministries? Talk to me, and talk to each other: don’t be afraid to say what you think about our church’s ministry and what we can try to make it better.
The United Methodist Church’s new RETHINK CHURCH campaign helps us think through a lot of these questions and offers guidance on how to reach people for Jesus in today’s world. Check it out at www.rethinkchurch.org.
We don’t need to be a “mega-church,” but we do need to make disciples. The task is not easy for us these days, but we have a lot of wise, faithful resources available to help us, not to mention the commission of Jesus and the power of God’s Holy Spirit.
New, fast-growing, non-denominational, “community churches” are incredibly effective at reaching and drawing in huge numbers of people. Give them credit – they offer what a lot of people are looking for and bring a Christian message to those disconnected from the traditional Church. That is not to say all churches should be like them – they are not perfect, by any means.
On the other hand, very many established, conventional, main-stream congregations struggle mightily to attract new members and may not do enough to nurture the spiritual development of the ones they have. Meanwhile, 80% of North Carolina is somewhere else on Sunday mornings – the people are out there, but we are not reaching them.
I would like to begin a conversation here in this blog about who we are (at Oak Grove UMC or at your own church) and how we want to do the work Jesus asks of us. What would it take to reach some of that 80% right here in our neighborhood? How do we “engage” with the community around us? What does our community need from us (how can we find out), and what can we offer them? How can we empower our members who feel called to try new ministries? Talk to me, and talk to each other: don’t be afraid to say what you think about our church’s ministry and what we can try to make it better.
The United Methodist Church’s new RETHINK CHURCH campaign helps us think through a lot of these questions and offers guidance on how to reach people for Jesus in today’s world. Check it out at www.rethinkchurch.org.
We don’t need to be a “mega-church,” but we do need to make disciples. The task is not easy for us these days, but we have a lot of wise, faithful resources available to help us, not to mention the commission of Jesus and the power of God’s Holy Spirit.
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