Changing All

Sometimes when I work with the Jewish roots of the Christian faith I get the sense that some believe that to be truly Christian one has to become culturally Jewish to a rather great extent. In light of that I found the following words from missiologist Andrew Walls in his article "Africa and Christian Identity" to be particularly helpful, "Christ took flesh and was made man in a particular time and place, family, nationality, tradition and customs and sanctified them, while still being for all men in every time and place. Wherever he is taken by the people of any day, time, and place, he sanctifies that culture--he is living in it. And no other group of Christians has any right to impose in his name a set of assumptions about life determined by another time and place. But to acknowledge this is not to forget that there is another and equally important force at work among us, Not only does God in his mercy take people where they are: He takes them to transform them into what he wants them to be."

This little piggy...

There is a rather familiar story in the gospel of Luke about Jesus healing the man with many demons (Legion). As I read the story again I noticed something funny/profound. Here's the part of the story that caught my attention, Luke 8:30" Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Legion,” for many demons had entered him. 31 And they begged him not to command them to depart into ithe abyss. 32 Now a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. 33 Then the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into jthe lake and were drowned." So here's the funny/profound: The demons beg Jesus not to send them into the abyss. The abyss is the place where demons are sent and they can't escape and cause more trouble. In Jewish thinking bodies of water, especially large bodies of water like the Sea of Galilee=the abyss. So the demons beg Jesus not to send them into the abyss, Jesus agrees and sends them into the pigs, the demons respond by sending themselves into the abyss (the Sea of Galilee). Two things: 1. those reading this in Luke's day must have gotten a huge laugh 2. This shows us that evil while truly destructive is also truly dumb--it eventually brings about its own destruction.

The River

The Hebrew word for life is "hiyah" it's a picture of a fresh flowing river. This Sunday we're going to talk about James 3.1-11 and how our tongues can either give us or rob us of a life that is a fresh flowing river (see also Ps. 34.12-14).

The service starts with the joy of dance. In a video byte from "Riverdance" we see people who find joy in taking part in the dance. Watch the faces of the people, watch for those moments of sheer joy as they join the dance. For those who long for joy in the dance of life, in the dance of God there's a path to follow to get there--it has to do with our words.

We move from the opening to songs. Come thou fount is a call to worship God but also to ask God to attach us to him like a fetter (i.e. chain me to you God, make me your servant). This song flows into a song that celebrates the reign of God and from there to the song "freedom reigns". The freedom that reigns comes through Jesus Christ as he gives us that river of life.

We will continue our worship with a celebration of giving.

The message begins with some fun with words that people wish they could take back. For those words we can't take back we get some wisdom from the 8th and 9th steps of AA.

We conclude our worship with a prayer and a new song that celebrates the glory of God.

May your Saturday get you ready to worship God who wants to give us a river of life.

Follow Through "Acts of Righteousness"

In Matthew 6 Jesus says, “Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven." "Acts of righteousness" is a technical term of Jesus' day that means the things that show you are a righteous person or faithful to God. Jesus tells the people that when they do their acts of righteousness that they need to do them not for the eyes of people, but for God's eyes. What's cool about this passage is that after Jesus tells the people this he gives a commentary on each act of righteousness (Giving, fasting, prayer) in the opposite order that he first talks about them. Beginning with prayer he instructs us how to pray (The Lord's Prayer), then he talks about fasting and finally he talks about giving. The last section on giving is also the most in depth and longest (perhaps because giving alms was seen as the most righteous thing a person could do i.e. it was more important than prayer or fasting). What you notice in Jesus' teaching is not only a call to give (store up treasures in heaven, have a good eye--which means to be generous) but also Jesus' understanding that a lot of people are afraid of giving because they are afraid they won't have enough left for themselves. To remedy this concern Jesus teaches on worry and calls on people not to worry because God will care for them. Jesus' words on worry are not just about worry in general, but particularly about the worry we have when we give. So the question for us is, "Are we so worried about not having enough that we don't give."

Jesus' Words

I read the book of Matthew in two sittings--I find this a great thing to do because it makes possible seeing and remembering lots of connections that I lose if I read in a bunch of sittings. One of the things that I caught in this reading was an interesting contrast between the words of Jesus and the words of the Law (Torah). In Matthew 5 Jesus says, Matt. 5:17    “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished." When all is accomplished the Law (torah) will in some way disappear. But notice what Jesus says about his own words, Matt. 24:32    “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. 33 Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. 34 I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away." The words of Jesus will not pass away. What this seems to say is that the words of Jesus have more permanence than the words of the Torah. What I think this means is that Jesus' words and insights into the Old Testament become the way in which we view and understand the Torah i.e. we can no longer really get the Old Testament without seeing it through the eyes of Jesus.
More importantly, if the words of Jesus will never pass away, we need to know and understand those words for our lives today--they are still relevant and essential to living a faithful life.

More on James

Tearing a hole in the fabric of the universe. That's a picture of what our sins/shortcomings do. When we looked at James at EverGreen this past week we looked at how we move from tearing holes to stitching the universe back together again. (You can find the message in the download's sections at www.egm.org) A huge part of doing this says James (James 1.21) is humbly accepting the word that is planted in us i.e. we need to see that God's word is the guide we need to do life well or as Guido DeBres said, "those who are truly a part of the church bend their necks under the yoke of Jesus Christ."
What we didn't get to Sunday was figuring out if we are making progress in humbly accepting the word planted in us. James gives us a guide to check our progress when he says, 1:26 "If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. 27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world." To check our progress we check our mouth--am I getting my tongue under control more and more or am I pretty much destroying people as I have in the past, in whatever way. Our words have the power to destroy by telling lies about God, by abusing people with our words, by failing to listen etc. The next thing James points out is that if we are overcoming our shortcomings we are caring more about the most helpless in our society (orphans and widows were the most helpless in his day). So we ask if we our hearts and eyes are growing for those in need, particularly for the ones who have no one to speak up on their behalf. Finally, James tells us that we need to keep from being stained by the world. The world here has a very specific meaning, it is not space rather it is a following after the ways of evil. We read in 1 John 2:15   "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever." John's point is that when we get focused on this world while ignoring or striving to attain the life that God has for us, we get all caught up in the wrong way of life. To remain unstained by the world means that we are focused completely on doing God's will, all the choices we make, the paths we go down are influenced not by the world, but are influenced by following the heart of God. Interestingly, this may lead us in all kinds of different directions based on the gifts God has given us, our sense of how he is calling us to use those gifts to shape and mold his culture (or in the language of Sunday's message "stitch the world back together:"). So the other question we need to ask is, "What is influencing my choices, decisions etc? Is it my heart for God or my heart for the world?

Sunday Prep

First, check in next week, I'll be doing some more blogging on things I'm discovering in Matthew and some more insights into the James passage that we'll be looking at on Sunday.

For this Sunday our Scripture passage is James 1.19-27. When you are reading through it you will notice that it is bookended with a call to live a certain style of life (no anger, control your tongue, care for the helpless, don't be stained by the world). Between the bookends is James' insight in how we can live this kind of life.

Our worship starts with some insight into ballet (we continue with our series "Dancing with the Stars). The importance of finding your center, of doing the exercises, and respecting others will all come out. All themes which connect with James 1.

At the end of the dance our focus will be on each other for a moment as we greet one another. Be sure to greet people you don't know and welcome them.

We move into a time of praise through song.

After sining, we will have announcements and offering. In her first appearance, Gayle Doornbos, will be joining me for a little father/daughter announcement time.

Our corners offering continues to be for a group that is working in Bethlehem to heal the wounds of that community that have come from years of war, strife, and hatred.

The message this week looks at shortcomings and whether they are really the big deal that steps 6&7 of AA make them out to be.

After the message we will celebrate the Lord's Supper.

Hope you have a great Saturday and take time to prepare for worship.