Is Jesus > Religion?

Encouragements for the New Year…

The most encouraging person I know is my wife, Katherine. It would be impossible to list the ways and moments throughout our lives together that God has used her simple words to lift my soul and make me smile. They aren’t always pivotal, life-transforming words, but often those daily encouragements that nourish me enough to make it through.

There is a line in the last Indiana Jones movie (I carry no shame for loving those movies) about ‘the space between all other spaces,’ and in some way those little encouragements are exactly that. You can’t plan for them, and unless they are brought to your attention, you wouldn’t even know your need for them – but when they come, it is obvious that you did.

So with that, I hope you’ll pardon a longer-than-usual post, and say farewell to 2011 with Eight Encouragements for the New Year – It would probably be better if Katherine offered them, but this is my blog, not hers! And in some way each encouragement reflects some of what she has infused into my life through the years, so consider it a collaborative effort. If nothing else, I hope a few make you smile…

1. If you are His, you have everything – I know we can’t always ‘feel’ this, especially in the thick of tough times, but it is true. And regardless of how distant that absolute sometimes feels, it is always there. None of us will be around in 100 years, so what matters most is what will survive past the day we leave this world, and for those in Christ this is a no-brainer. In Jesus we belong to the Father who has prepared a home for us in heaven. Remind yourself of this at least 366 times in 2012 (Yes, it is Leap Year!)…

2. Your struggles are not struggles to the Father – Hey, don’t resolve to not struggle in 2012, or else prepare yourself for disappointment. The important thing is that while you are wrestling with a lot of the things you have faced your entire life, God isn’t (In fact, He might find some of your greatest struggles to be quite boring!). Remember, it never was about your ability to hold on to Him, so let this year be one in which you enjoy His grip on you – It will take the fear out of your obedience and the excuse-making out of your sin…

3. It is worth the Fight – Life, that is, and particularly, the Christian life. Sometimes living the Faith feels like a journey not worth taking because we are always confronted with our own weaknesses. And every Christ-follower has moments where they want to give up. However don’t be fooled into thinking that the hard part is living perfectly. As long as we are on this planet we will struggle with resident fallenness – God knows this. What actually makes being a Christ-follower difficult is the daily temptation to make ourselves out to be something we aren’t. That’s the fight! – Believing the Gospel to the extent that we trust in God’s grace rather than any goodness we think we possess. Fight on, friends, and remember, where it most counts, the war has already been won by Jesus…

4. Your future is no mystery to God – With the New Year comes a whole host of unknowns. I can’t begin to list them, but I know that sometimes the unknown is paralyzing. Everything from personal health, to job security, to family well being, to financial matters will seem to be one thing on New Year’s Day, and any of them can radically change by the 2nd of January! And whatever you do, don’t depend on the headlines to determine your level of hope! Finding rest in the Lord brings unspeakable peace. So don’t sweat what you can’t control (which is everything), and live in the crazy unknown of God’s Sovereignty (which on any other plain would be lunacy!). He’ll take it from there. And if you don’t feel you can rest in Him, tell Him – He’ll understand and in that simple act of trusting Him with what is true, you will have begun to rest…

5. Jesus is Enough – This may be another way of stating the first Encouragement, but I mean something different here. The truth is that each of us has shortcomings, sorrows and all kinds of regrets. Like the country song says, ‘You ain’t got to dig too deep to get a little dirt on me.’ None of us is the entire package and all of us have baggage. But Jesus is sufficient. His death was sufficient to atone, and His presence is enough to sustain you, regardless of the details of your life. He isn’t turned off by your past and He doesn’t look at failures and poor decisions the way we do. He is enough, and this means that whatever deficits you think you have, in Jesus you have Someone to offer them to – every day. I can’t promise that He will change your situation, and He may not. But what I can assure you of is this: Mysteriously and inexplicably He give you a fresh perspective and He will redeem your pain – bringing meaning to even the ugliest realities of your life. Sorrow and regret have a way of convincing we unfinished ones that we are damaged goods, which is exactly why Jesus became damaged goods for our sakes, and when we offer ourselves to God, uncut and unfiltered, we can prepare to be amazed. So trust Him with who you are and discover that He already knew and has been waiting for you to let go…

6. Don’t take yourself too seriously – Solomon says, When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other… (Ecclesiastes 7:14) Christians are famously adept at being miserable when times are bad, and conversely poor at simply enjoying the good things God brings their way. But life is too short to be so serious-minded all the time! In 2012 commit yourself to a few dumb things, a few belly laughs, and of course, a few happy moments that accommodate the ‘good times’ God brings your way…

7. Don’t take God too seriously – What??? Seriously, let Him be to you who He actually is and what you hope He is – a Father who enjoys (‘delights in’ – Psalm 149:3, Zephaniah 3:17) His children. Sure, worship Him because He is worthy. Believe in Him because He is real. Give your life to Him because He has offered no less, and find that there is no greater sense of fulfillment than to do so. But don’t stop there! God wants you to enjoy Him. And that means trusting Him with the lighter things in your life, along with the heavy stuff. As you enter this New Year, ask God to free you to trust Him with your enjoyment…

8. Don’t take your friends to dinner – Okay, that one is just to follow #’s 6 & 7, but there is some truth in it as well. You have heard it said that you can’t really give until you know how to receive, and this is true. Being on the receiving end of things is an act of vulnerability that we often don’t want to expose ourselves to. But always giving is a sign of insecurity and distrust, not one of strength, and sometimes what may seem to be the most generic of offers may be serious attempts on another’s part to enter into your life. Don’t miss those cues in 2012…

With year’s end I am filled with gratitude for you, and your willingness to endure the musings of a fellow unfinished Christ-follower. We share a journey that really is worth taking and for this I am thankful. Paul says it best in Philippians 1:3 – I thank my God every time I remember you.

Happy New Year.

peace.

Just Another Neighborhood

The other night, after eating at the iconic Hon Diner in Baltimore, we walked through Hampden, a small neighborhood in the northern part of the city. Each Christmas something special happens in Hampden. It is a cultural event and recently made national news (NBC). For years the neighbors on one particular block of 34th Street in this neighborhood decorate their row houses in what could only mildly be labeled as spectacular, bizarre, a bit tacky (in the most affectionate of ways), and enjoyable, all at the same time (the video offers a glimpse).

The decorations are all over the map: Trees made out of hubcaps, bicycle wheels, old Record LP’s and bent pipes. Huge inflated characters, such as from Charlie Brown’s Christmas, the Grinch and naturally, Santa Claus, welcome visitors from front lawns. Each entryway of steps is an invitation for folks to near the homes and see the intricacies of the decorations. One home doubles as an art gallery and is open for all to enter and peruse.

What really defines the block, however, is the lights. Windows are completely lighted, as are rooflines, doors, wreaths and house corners. Second stories are lighted as much as the ground floor on each home. There are big lights, tiny lights, colored lights, twinkling lights, cords of lights and icicle lights. There is a lighted crab (naturally), a lighted palm tree (we loved that!), lighted rails, lighted steps, lighted Santas, lighted Frostys, lighted Teddy Bears, lighted Angels, lighted Reindeer, and a lot of other lighted stuff!

And it would not be an overstatement to say that mobs of people come to 34th Street each Christmas. The streets, sidewalks and steps of the homes are crowded in humanity. People talk, sing, laugh, photograph and take video. It isn’t uncommon to hear someone say, ‘Would you like me to take a picture of all of you together?’

The crazy thing is that Hampden was barely known not too many years ago – it was just another neighborhood that few entered without a reason to do so. And this particular street was just a dark street at the end of the block.

In a few days we celebrate Jesus’ birth. Isaiah prophetically describes His entrance into our world as ‘light shining’ to people who ‘walk in darkness’ (Isaiah 9:6). We will quote the prophecy on Christmas Eve, along with John’s gospel. We will light candles to celebrate and signify that Jesus has come. He has come into our darkness. Our dark lives. Our dark pasts. Our dark fears. Our dark imaginations. Our dark shame. Our dark struggles. Our dark realities, at home, at work, in the classroom, within the secret confines of our thoughts, hearts and imaginations.

And while it would be natural to follow by saying that He brings light to our darkness (which He does), right now, in this post, what I am blown away by, is that He enters at all – that knowing those dark corners of my life, He would come. That He even wants to is astounding. But He does. He isn’t deterred or repulsed by my resistant heart. And He isn’t fooled by any pretense that I display. He simply enters. I am not alone in my own darkness.

If that were all that there is to the Christmas story (and by a long shot it isn’t), it would be enough – and it would be good – because there is something in every unfinished one that longs to be discovered and loved, regardless of how dark, damaged and tacky they actually are. In our thinking we tend to see ourselves as ‘just another neighborhood’ in a vast city, but Jesus’ entrance demonstrates that to the Father we are more – we are His.

Friends, this is Christmas news – This is good news.

peace.

The Lamb

One of my favorite Christmas poems was written by William Blake, a profound English poet of the 18th & 19th Centuries.

Little Lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?

Gave thee life, and bid thee feed,
By the stream and o’er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing, woolly, bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice?

Little Lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?

Little Lamb, I’ll tell thee,
Little Lamb, I’ll tell thee

He is called by thy name,
For He calls Himself a Lamb.
He is meek, and He is mild;
He became a little child.
I a child, and thou a lamb,
We are called by His name.

Little Lamb, God bless thee!
Little Lamb, God bless thee!

An Advent Song

Each Advent season I try to offer some of the more beautiful poetry that has come to us through the ages. This year brings a lovely Advent song written by a friend, Greg Thompson, Sr. Pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Charlottesville, VA. Included are Greg’s introductory remarks…

“In case you’re not familiar, Advent is a season in which Christians remember that the world–for all of its beauty–is still dark with sorrow and that we need God to come and “be our light.” It is a beautiful season, but a mournful one too–a season of darkness. In time it gives way to Christmas, the season in which Christians celebrate that God has come and will come again–a season of light.

Forgive the theology lesson. I simply tell you this because it accounts for the song. The grief in it, and also the hope.”

Come

Kindle the flint, the tinder
Liven the hearth, the stone
Shelter the dying lantern light
Gladden the shadowed home
Into this wilderness of shadows
Come, Light Original

Answer our famine yearning
Nourish our blighted fields
Raise all our fallen storehouses
Leaven the bitter yield
Into this emptiness, this hunger
Come, Bread All Bountiful

Out of the blowing starlessness
Over the frozen sea
Into our barren midnight
Up from our fruitless trees
Oh come

Loosen the cloaks of journeymen
Mend all the broken roads
Wake us from fitful forest sleep
Lighten the lonely load
Into this pilgrimage, this journey
Come, Home Perpetual

Come Light
Come Bread
Come Home
Come

wgt.2011

The Journey of our Longing

Tomorrow our daughters leave Pensacola, Florida, where they attend college, for Baltimore, Maryland, where we live. It will be a fourteen-hour drive. They will embark in the early hours of the morning in order to travel into, and remain in the light throughout the trip. Needless to say, we can’t wait for their arrival.

They will pass through up to nine states in making their way home. As someone who loves long driving trips I am excited for them. They will experience the changes in topography that come with each new state, while enjoying conversation that rarely transpires apart from such uninterrupted portions of time together. They will feel the gradual drop in temperature as they move northeast, and maybe even encounter a few flurries here and there. They will remember this trip for the rest of their lives.

It is virtually impossible to go through a Christmas Season without seeing images of Joseph along with Mary who is perched atop a donkey as they make their way from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Traveling those many miles wasn’t as easy as loading up the SUV and driving off. And I would imagine that for a teenager, pregnant in her third trimester, riding a beast was no picnic either.

As a dad I will not be short on anxiety. Our girls will be on the road – the big road – lots of big roads – without us! I’m not so worried about them, but everyone else they will encounter (and therefore them!). That’s my job and I embrace it without apology. We will call them and pray throughout the day as they make their way home.

In thinking of their drive it occurred to me that Advent brings with its hopefulness, the daily perils of the journey. While we long for Jesus, we travel through the complexities of human brokenness, our own and the world’s. There is something to this. It isn’t so much that every aspiration comes with requisite danger, but that in longing for Jesus we understand the big picture – it is always about the destination, and while we encounter the daily perils and pitfalls of human existence, it is all framed within the larger narrative – that we are making our way Home.

Ironically, from the moment He was born, Jesus began to make His way home as well. And I am convinced that His words in John 14 (In my Father’s house…) are more than theological ruminations, but also the humble disclosures of a homesick Son. Amazingly and beautifully, the path to His destination would take Him to the Cross, and on a more personal level, our Redemption.

Our girls have a big journey ahead of them – but then they will be home.

So will we…

Such sweet, good news.

peace.

Silent Chaos

The other day, while writing in my Starbucks (yes, I have claimed it as mine and have donated all the proceeds to the mother corporation), I was reminded of how noisy it gets in that small space. The joint was packed and it was loud! But what set this clamor apart, because there is rarely a time when it isn’t cacophonous in this particular shop, is that Christmas music was playing. At some point Silent Night came on and I was struck by how the words and tune to the carol could somehow wind their way through the chaotic din of such a highly populated place and find residence in my hearing – but it did.

And it set me to thinking that there had to be parallels with the Christmas story, because the world didn’t stop when Jesus was born, in fact, quite the opposite. He quietly entered a dissonant humanity. It was a time of taxation. People traveled far distances, only to fight for places to stay in the towns they paid their taxes in. Jesus’ family was no exception, as we know.

I guess it would be easy to say that Jesus had to somehow find His way in, but I don’t see it that way. Jesus is undaunted and unhindered by the ‘noise’ of my messy life, and that is a good thing. He quietly satisfies the Father’s good plan. He doesn’t wait until I get my act together. The Prince of Peace simply dispenses what defines Him. His intentions are undisturbed by a disturbing world. His love and care are unshaken by our shaky lives. As with a newborn, he simply enters when it is time. And because of this, our longing isn’t one of uncertain hope. It is a confident longing – the kind that enables us to take heart in knowing that nothing we do can thwart Jesus’ immanent arrival. That’s what He did the first time. It is what He did when we became His. This hasn’t changed. Truly, His law is love and His gospel is peace…

For this I am glad.

peace.

Why We Long…

A few weeks ago I stumbled upon the pictured sticker, on the back of a vehicle that was parked in our church lot. Because of the day and time I assume it belongs to a wife who awaits the return of her husband, a soldier, who has been deployed to Afghanistan. It is one of the sweeter bumper stickers I’ve seen (by a long shot!). And in some way it tells the story of Advent.

As Christ-followers we are a longing people. For this dear woman, regardless of how good things could ever be, when her husband returns it will only be better.

It isn’t that there aren’t sweet moments and experiences in this life. It is that whatever good this life brings in snapshots, it will one day be better, and complete, in eternity. We long for a day when good moments are no longer spoiled by reminders and remnants of the fall, when our memories are no longer peppered with sadness and regret, and where our experiences never again leave us feeling any less human than we were created to be.

The Advent season is our reminder that Jesus has come, and that He will come again.

What ‘glad tidings of good news’…

peace.

PS Throughout the month of December there are two resources you may enjoy as we journey through Advent. One is our church web site, www.chapelgate.org, where various people will offer Advent reflections, beginning on Sunday, December 1. The other is this blog. My hope is that you will take the journey and capture a renewed sense of longing, for Jesus…

A Thanksgiving to Remember…

Unlike most Thanksgivings this one will be different – for our family and for me as a pastor. Along with our daughters and longtime friends, Thanksgiving Day will be spent in New York City at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade, followed by a visit to the 9/11 Memorial. The weather promises to be perfect for the occasion and needless to say, we can’t wait.

And while this is enough to make a day unique, it will be what happens on Saturday that will set it apart for me. That day we will have the Memorial Service for a young man who passed away early this past Monday morning. His name is Jon (pictured above with his wife, Anna), and he was 27 years old.

Last year I had the privilege of performing their wedding ceremony, and only a few months ago they discovered that Anna is pregnant with their first child, a daughter. As you can imagine, it has been a sad and somewhat painful journey for these two young people.

In his amazing paper entitled, The Weight of Glory, C.S. Lewis writes, There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. For me, crossing paths with this extraordinary young man and his young wife has felt like being admitted into a sacred trust. Sitting with them in his last days, hearing their hearts, sharing their sorrows and observing their faith, have left me the better.

The picture above was taken of Jon and Anna, just a few weeks ago. Jon extremely is ill, but he is smiling because in his few days on earth, God had already given him everything one could aspire to if he lived 100 years. He got it all, starting with, and then continuing on, with Jesus.

In a few hours our daughters will be home. Their presence will bring such joy to our hearts. Because of our trip, we will dig into Katherine’s amazing cooking on Friday. We will wish out loud that our son and his wife could be with us, though glad they could be with our daughter-in-law’s family in Florida. Together we will wholeheartedly rehearse our gratitude: for Jesus – for one another – for family – for life – so much to thank our God, the Provider, for.

But this Thanksgiving my gratitude is multiplied because of this extraordinary young man who has made it Home, to the Feast, and who awaits those of us who love the Redeemer he now beholds, Jesus.

Happy Thanksgiving.

peace.

God’s Garbage Pile

It is not uncommon for the message of God’s grace to be accompanied by warnings against lifestyles that warp its intent into an excuse to live without regard for righteousness. It’s not an unwarranted concern. The apostle Paul asks if we would ‘sin that grace may abound,’ and then emphatically answers his own question, ‘By no means!’ (Romans 6:1-2)

The problem, however, is when people take this teaching and craft a joyless and impossible faith around it. I recently read an article in which a pastor criticized other pastors for not using fear and the threat of not inheriting God’s Kingdom as motivations for people to obey God.

Just think about that for a moment. What if the person you most loved told you that if you didn’t completely obey them, they would not love you any more, and further, that they would make sure that no one else would? What would this expose? Wouldn’t it reveal that they never really loved you in the first place? And wouldn’t it unearth a troubling view of love within them? How could you ever feel secure in such ‘love’?

But what about conviction and shame, and other very real internal reactions of conscience that accompany sin? They have a value, they really do. But their worth isn’t found in holding us in perpetual terror. Rather, it is in driving us to the One who loves us more than we would ever believe or assume anyone could.

Here is what Martin Luther wrote in a paper entitled, Concerning the Letter and the Spirit:

These then are the two works of God, praised many times in Scripture: he kills and gives life, he wounds and heals, he destroys and helps, he condemns and saves, he humbles and elevates, he disgraces and honors… He does these works through these two offices, the first through the letter, the second through the Spirit. The letter does not allow anyone to stand before his wrath. The Spirit does not allow anyone to perish before his grace.

Recently, in my routine sermon-writing Starbucks visit, I saw what is pictured above – a piece of cardboard covering a hole that was apparently mistaken as a trash receptacle one time too many. It grabbed my attention, because at the heart of the Gospel is this very message! It finds one of its most beautiful expressions in Zechariah’s prophecy, where in a vision, the prophet sees Joshua, the high priest, garbed in filthy clothes, standing before God while simultaneously being accused by Satan. However the angel of the Lord rebukes Satan, and then commands those around Joshua to remove his clothing, saying, See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put rich garments on you.

Every fresh encounter with our sin is a crisis of cosmic proportions leading to such sorrow that it drove David to question his own salvation. But to imply or say that we should be motivated, in our Christian journey by terror, is born of an idolatry that molds God into our own imperfect images with all the distorted and warped views that accompany us.

Here is the thing: If you dig deeply enough, or not so deeply, you will find a lot of ugly stuff in me, and in every other unfinished one that walks the planet.

I don’t think it is incidental that Jesus was crucified on top of a trash dump! So with that I gladly admit membership in God’s garbage pile. His grace enables me to see myself for what I really am, while He constantly testifies to my spirit that I am His, and ‘not a trash receptacle!’

There is no other Gospel, friends. Such good news…

peace.