Bridging the Great Divide

30 Day Church Challenge:  Day 29
Read pgs. 144-147

"I am the way, and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me."  

"I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.  He will come in and go out, and find pasture."  

"I am the resurrection and the life.  He who believes in me will live, even though he dies."   -- Jesus 

Confession time:  sometimes I cringe when I hear Christian, church folks say phrases like, "plan of salvation."  Today's reading in in our guidebook describes a "plan of salvation" kind of moment between two friends in a coffee shop.   I hate that I sometimes find that cringe-worthy, though I think there's good reason why I do.

Too many times I've found myself in churches, or surrounded by Christians who focus exclusively on that moment of "crossing the line,"  or "praying the sinner's prayer."  They rejoice, just like in the earlier post from this week, because a new name has just been added to the heavenly roll.  

And then things just kind of stop.  There's no plan for becoming a discipleship.  It's like starting a race, celebrating the huge first step, and then leaving the runner on her own.

I've just always felt like, "we can do so much better.'' Not to mention that we can leave a new believer feeling used and confused.

But, let me be the first to say, I and other groups of Christians are definitely too often guilty of throwing out baby and bathwater, and that's just not excusable.

You see, I think it's true that we need a life-long plan of growing in our faith.

But, we do need to start.  And most of all, we need a way to bridge the divide.

Sin is a very real problem.  I think the ancient, Greek New Testament way of thinking about it is extremely helpful.  Sin is to "miss the mark."  It is the separation between where we are, and the place that God wants to give us as a new and better way.

Christians have lots of not too flattering words for people who are moving through life with that deep sense of unresolved separation, and I'll be the first to say that I don't like most of them.

But I do kind of like one.  Even though some people might find it offensive to hear it if somebody's applying it to them, I think the best and most charitable description of life apart from God might well be, "lost."

Lost.

I've been lost before.  Spiritually, and physically.  And sometimes when you're lost, it's not even really your fault.  To be lost means you can't find your way.  If I'm really lost, I don't even know which direction might take me toward something that can take me toward something else that might take me in the right direction.

Lost.  Scared.  Something's wrong.  Wanting to be found.

The Old Testament was obsessed with how to make that situation right.  There was an elaborate system of sacrifices and rituals that could make a person put down their guilt and know themselves to have somehow closed the gap of separation that sin creates between us, God and other people.

Christianity says that gap can be closed forever, finally, once and for all.

It is an offer of grace.  The perfect sacrifice chose to give himself.

There is a bridge across the divide.  When someone who "once was lost but now is found," sees the truth of walking across that bridge.  There is well and truly reason for celebration.

And a whole new life is just beginning.

Grace, Peace, and Forgiveness that Closes the Gap,
Adam

Today's Small Step:  Learn "the bridge" illustration as presented in today's Guidebook reading.

Today's Big Idea:  Pray that God will show you the right person, in the right time, in the right relationship, and in the right way to have a spiritual conversation in the near future.

Good News of Great Joy

30 Day Church Challenge:  Day 28
Read pgs 140-143

"The Kingdom of Heaven is like treasure hidden in a field."  Jesus, Matthew 13:44

I have the privilege, though it gets heavy, of serving on the "Board of Ordained Ministry" for our conference of the UMC.

Specifically, I serve on one of the "Theology and Doctrine" teams.  That means that I serve as one of the examiners of candidates for ordained ministry who are presenting themselves to be questioned about matters of scripture, theological understanding and United Methodist doctrine.

Good times, huh?

The truth is, I take the work very seriously, and it is a privilege.  But like I said, it's also heavy.  Hours and hours of asking questions, and listening to halting answers from nervous, earnest candidates.   After years of study, this test puts it all on the line for them.  They're trying to "pass the bar," so to speak, and families and congregations are waiting to hear the results.

One of the questions from our Book of Discipline is, "what is your understanding of the Kingdom of God?"

Well, how would you answer that?

How did Jesus answer it?

Sometimes he used the term, "Kingdom of Heaven," but almost always he used some kind of metaphorical description.  The Kingdom is like..."a pearl of great price...a mustard seed...a treasure hidden in a field...yeast that leavens a whole loaf."

What?

Exactly.  It's not easy.  And yet, it is.

Today's reading from our devotional book reminds us of how many people went with enthusiasm in search of gold in the 1840's.  The Kingdom is like..."flecks of gold in a mountain stream."  Seems right.

It's something to be sought after.  It's not obvious.  It's powerful, and a great treasure.  Finding it brings joy.

I think that I glimpse the joy of the Kingdom in bits and pieces in this life.  There are moments when I know that I feel the pure rule and reign of Jesus.  That's the Kingdom.  It is here, and it is to come.

The great good news is that we're invited to join the search, and one day, maybe even today, we will find.

Grace, Peace, and Happy Treasure Hunting --
Adam

Today's Small Step:  Write your story about finding new life in Christ.  Read it to at least one person.

Today's Big Idea:  The treasure is no further away than a prayer --- ask Jesus to make himself real in your heart and life.

When Heaven Throws a Party

30 Day Church Challenge:  Day 27
Read pgs 136-139

"...when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.'  In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."  Jesus, Luke 15

Today's reading from our guidebook says that "humans are 'party animals.'"  True, no doubt.

Weddings, birthdays, holidays, no reason at all...we love to eat and drink and dance and party.  This is true across cultures, times and places.

I remember the 2 person living room party that broke out where I was in October of 1995.  After years of faithful struggle and last place finishes, my Dad and I watched a soft fly ball to center land gently in the glove of Marquis Grissom.  Our Braves had beaten the Indians 1-0 and had won Game 6 of the World Series.  They had done it.  They were the champs.

I'm pretty sure we wept tears as we watched players who had become to us like old friends, dance and party on the field.  We hugged, we danced.  It was a party.

Over a baseball game.  Over a team composed of guys that we would never know, and "our" shared success.

Weird, huh?  Yes, it really is.

How could we get that excited over something that inconsequential, and yet fail to be passionate about some of life's most important things?

It's what we human beings tend to do.

Jesus tells us that the greatest heavenly celebrations begin to break forth whenever "one sinner repents."  The image he gives us is of angels having a party.  So, what holds us back?

It takes faith to believe.  It takes a radical shift in priorities.  It takes really believing that faith in Jesus makes  a difference now and forever.

Jesus knew that passion was everything.  He knew that humans who really believed in the joy of the mission would fulfill it in greater ways than we could ever begin to imagine.  And so he draws a clear picture of what matters, and what a real source of our joy should be.

And so, I pray for myself and for you, that we'll be that passionate about seeing others experience a release from sin, guilt and shame.  I pray that we have experienced it ourselves, and that we will share that passionate focus with others.

Of course, should the Braves somehow win it all this October, you can believe that I'll be just as excited as I was in '95.  But Lord, let me carry that hope and passion into my life with others today.

Grace, Peace, and Party --
Adam

Today's Small Step:  Who are the "top five" folks from yesterday's list who seem skeptical, hurt, or seeking when it comes to their faith?  List one small thing that you can do to deepen your relationship with each of them, like:  "invite them for dinner,"  "take them to lunch,"  "invite them to a church event."

Today's Big Idea:  Describe the party in heaven that will happen when one you love so much finds repentance, peace and new life in their relationship with God.  Use your imagination!

Lost and Found

30 Day Church Challenge:  Day 26
Read pgs 132-135

"The Son of Man came to serve, not to be served -- and to give away his life." 

"I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance." 

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened."  

"Love each other as I have loved you."  -- Jesus of Nazareth

"What's in this for me?"  -- Adam Roberts (and the rest of us, sometimes)

Today's devotional reading poses yet another interesting question, with a pretty obvious answer that's still worth some pondering:  why do people with a sense of humor, or a positive outlook, or a big expense account, tend to have more friends?

Because it's more enjoyable for other people to spend time with them.   In essence, people see "there's something in this for me...I enjoy this," and they spend their time there.

We humans know this intrinsically.  We just can't help making silent calculations about costs vs. benefits.

But Jesus tells us that we're going to love people the way he did.  That means sometimes (many times, most of the time) the cost may well outweigh the benefits.  That's not an easy thing for us mere mortals.  It's contrary to our instincts of self-interest.

Jesus is a seeker of people.  He goes to them, often at great risk to himself.

He also says that he calls his disciples to the narrow path, and narrow it truly is.

Why would anyone choose it?  As best I can figure, it's got everything to do with believing that we have been dramatically and sacrificially saved from an abyss by someone who came seeking us, when we had very little to offer in return.

Gratitude.  Grace.  Gift.  If we understand life to be dramatic examples of these three things, then maybe we can go looking for someone to share with too.

Grace, Peace, and Joyous Seeking --
Adam

Today's Small Step:  List the people that you are likely to see everyday -- those you go to school with, or work with, or who live in your neighborhood.  What would it mean to start here, and find ways to live for them that shares the life that God has given you?

Today's Big Idea:  How would our relationships with people be different if we focused on what we could give, and not what we could get?

To Seek and To Save

30 Day Church Challenge, Day 25
Read pgs 128-131

"He has committed to us the message of reconciliation.  We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us."  2 Corinthians 5:18-20

Until reading today's devotional from our 30 day guidebook, I'm not sure I'd ever heard the story of Maximilian Kolbe.

What about you?

In short, he traded his life for another prisoner's, inside of Auschwitz concentration camp.

The saved man, "Gajowniczek," later said, "...I was stunned and could hardly grasp what was going on.  The immensity of it:  I, the condemned, am to live because someone else willingly and voluntarily offered his life for me -- a stranger."

Our theme this week is, "outreach," or as we've talked about it at Shepherd of the Hills, "serving."

The pattern of our faith is the ultimate example of serving that we find in Jesus of Nazareth.

John 13 tells us that "Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his control," and then he gets up, takes a towel and basin, and washes the feet of his disciples.

This is the template for our faith, along with the very cross of crucifixion.

When I was a seminary student, I had the privilege of taking a class with the great Archbishop Desmond Tutu.  He told us that the world could change if the followers of Jesus really believed that all people were made in the image of God.  He said, "we would stop on the street and bow to each other, to the image of God that lies within."

Tutu understands evil.  He is no soft-headed person who thinks that life is a fairy tale.  He has seen evil and cruelty on a scale and in a way that almost none of us from the United States ever have.  And yet he still believes that serving, sacrifice and outreach to others is worthy...because every person is a child of God.

What do we believe?

Grace, Peace, and Service,
Adam

Today's Small Step:  In one or two sentences, write down why you believe God wants you to reach out to reach out to your neighbors.

Today's Big Idea:   How would my life be different without the sacrificial outreach of Jesus?

The God of the Open Hand

30 Day Church Challenge:  Day 23
Read pgs 116-119, 30DCC Guidebook

"You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing."  Psalm 145:16

"Earth is drenched in God's affectionate satisfaction."  Psalm 33:5 

So, check out this number:  70,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

That's seventy "sextillion."  That's the estimated number of stars in our universe.  Today's reading tells us that illustrates the unlimited creative nature of God.

Number of different species of native flowers on earth?  270,000.

The list could go on, and on, and on.  

And so, we humans are left with some choices.  We could become worshipers of our own intellect, and believe that we are smart enough that we have now completely understood the observable universe around us.  We could say that it's all a marvelous, unlikely, amazing cosmic accident, and that intense biodiversity is simply the best evolutionary model.

Or, we could embrace all that science can teach us, while making that knowledge complete with a deeply held faith in the "something more" that there must surely be.  That something is God, our creator.  And that creator is the God of the Open Hand.

What would change in our lives if we truly could begin to see the world around us as part and parcel of God's extravagant generosity?  Everything on the news, and most of what you see on facebook and hear in coffee shop conversations is all about the opposite.  It's about lack, and need, and fear.

But scripture tells us a different story.   What we have learned through science confirms it.  The diversity and expanse of the universe is beyond our ability to truly conceive of it.    God is expansive, and we can be too.

Grace, Peace, and Courageous Generosity,
Adam

Today's Small Step:  Give something anonymously today.  For example, pay for the person behind you in line at the coffee shop -- that kind of thing.  Get creative!

Today's Big Idea:    Which is harder?  Giving generously, or giving cheerfully?  Why?

Wealth that Wins a Welcome

30 Day Church Challenge:  Day 22
Read pgs 112-115 in the 30DCC guidebook

"I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings."  Jesus, Luke 16:9

Today's reading in our guidebook poses one of life's great questions:  what would we do if we knew when our life would come to an end?

What if we somehow had supernatural knowledge that tonight was our last one on earth?

What would we do?  Cry?  Assume the fetal position?  Possibly --- but let's play with the hypothetical.

Would we figure out how to go clean out our bank account?  Would we spend the evening buying stuff online?

Of course not.  In an instant, things would grow crystal clear.  We would be with the ones we love most.  We would make every moment count.

The hypothetical gets more interesting when we play with the timeframe.  What if we had a week left?  A month?  One year?  Five?

Probably, in all of those cases, we would still have great focus and urgency in our living of life.  More time might just let us be more strategic.

In any case, money would cease to matter much, except as a means to the end of sharing time with those we love, and perhaps somehow impacting lives and leaving the world a better place than we found it.

So, why don't we do that now?

Jesus tells one of his most confusing parables about the "dishonest manager."  He's in trouble, and "cooks the books" to gain friends who can help him after his impending job loss.  Jesus' point isn't that dishonesty is good.  It's that we should all be so shrewd in understanding the money of this world in just such a way.

We should "use worldly wealth to gain friends for ourselves," remembering that the end goal is eternal life.

What a way to live.  It's a way of real freedom.

It's not every day that we encounter a concept that truly has the power to change the way we order our lives.  But when Jesus teaches, that is exactly what we find.

What will we do with tonight...tomorrow?

Grace, Peace, and Urgency,
Adam

Today's Small Step:  How can you use your specific time, talent, and income to open a door or build a friendship?

Today's Big Idea:  How are we like or unlike the "shrewd steward" in Jesus parable?  How do we use our resources to influence the world around us?

Everyone Tithes

30 Day Church Challenge:  Day 21
Read pgs 108-111 30DCC guidebook

"Return to me, and I will return to you," says the Lord Almighty.  "But you ask, 'How are we to return?"  "Will a mere mortal rob God?  yet you rob me."  But you ask, "How are we robbing you?"  "In tithes and offerings...bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house.  Test me in this."  Malachi 3

"No one can serve two masters.  Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other.  you cannot serve both God and money."  Jesus, Luke 16:13

So, what's a "tithe?"  The word is so old and churchy, that to folks who don't know the lingo, that word must seem downright creepy.

Who gets my tithe? 

It is a very old word.  It is a very "Bible" word, coming out of the ancient Jewish faith.  A "tithe" is a portion. It is a part of what an individual or family has, that is set aside for the work of God.  Specifically, in the Old Testament, the tithe is the practice of setting aside the first ten percent of one's income to be given away.

Today's devotional from our guidebook says, "everybody tithes."

What?

If you are like 99.9999% of folks out there, giving away 10% of your hard earned income is probably not something you do.

So, it's more like "nobody tithes," right?

Well, maybe not.  After all, as today's reading asserts, everybody does put the first ten percent of their income somewhere.  It's really just a matter of "where" we choose to tithe.

So, where does that first ten percent go?

Necessities?  OK, maybe we should ask where the last ten percent goes.  I know I tithe to Starbucks a whole lot more than I should.  Maybe we tithe to the credit card company, or the bank more than we should have to because we bought more house than we really needed.  Maybe I tithe on a boat payment or at the golf course or the latest smart phone.

Sound too extreme?

The Old Testament prophet Malachi goes so far as to say that spending "God's money" in a tithe to anything other than the work of God is "robbery."  That's pretty extreme.

He goes further, saying that God invites us to "test him."  God invites us to prioritize our income from the top down, setting aside some portion first.

Jesus goes even further, I think.  "You can't serve two masters...God and money."

So we have to choose.  Who is our master?  Everybody has one.  Where does our tithe go?  Everybody tithes.

Grace, Peace, and Stewardship --
Adam

Today's Small Step:  Take the 90 Day Tithe Test.  Commit to giving 10 percent of your income to the work of your faith community over the next 90 days, then evaluate the experience, and see if you have found God faithful to continue to meet your needs.  Could you be called to give even above a tithe?

Today's Big Idea:  "You can't serve two masters," Jesus said.  How does our spending and giving reflect that statement in our lives?

Treasures Are a Test

30 Day Church Challenge:  Day 20 (The Home Stretch!)
Read pgs 104-107 30DCC guidebook

"Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."  Jesus, Luke 12:34 

I remember years ago when I first heard a preacher point out the exact order of those words.  I'll have to admit, I think I always had it in my head kind of backward.

It makes sense to me that we would assume our hearts go first, and our treasure follows.  But this isn't what Jesus said.  What he said is the opposite.

Our hearts follow our treasure.

Where we put our money, that reveals our hearts.  Or maybe, we can even train our hearts to follow our money.

Why are parents so passionate about their child's travel baseball teams?  I have seen people who will lose all control of their emotions at the ball field.  Who will paint their faces and wear specially made shirts that show off their allegiance to their child and team.

Is it because they love their babies that much?  Yes, probably.

But the thousands of dollars they've spent on uniforms, equipment, training, team fees, tournaments, travel and meals probably doesn't hurt either.

$ = skin in the game.  $ spent = passion.  $ spent = investment, like few other things can.

That's just how we're wired.  That's how it is.  $ spent = possibilities and choices and doors that have opened and closed.  This is true because for all but the rarest few, $ are not infinite.

Today's devotional reading goes so far as to say, "money is not a trap, but it is a test."

Money can prepare us, and it also reveals us.  What does today's test show us about where we're heading in the future?

The list of questions on pg 105 in the guidebook is an excellent resource for answering that question.

Grace, Peace, Gratitude, and May We Pass the Test!
Adam

Today's Small Step:  Today, some choices:  Draft a realistic spending plan that reflects your spiritual and financial priorities.  Or, giving away something you own.  Or, go to www.daveramsey.com and decide when and where you (and your spouse if applicable) will enroll in Financial Peace.

Today's Big Idea:  Which of the questions on pg 105 hit closest to home for you?  Why?