Archive for June, 2005
Monday, June 27th, 2005
You people are like children sitting in the market and shouting to each other, “We played the flute, but you would not dance! We sang a funeral song, but you would not mourn!” John the Baptist did not go around eating and drinking, and you said, “That man has a demon in him!” But the Son of Man goes around eating and drinking, and you say, “That man eats and drinks too much! He is even a friend of tax collectors and sinners.” Yet Wisdom is shown to be right by what it does.
Matthew 11:16-19 Contemporary English Version
I was speaking at a suburban church yesterday morning. And someone walked out five minutes into the message. I’m not sure if he was offended by the use of the Cat Herders ad in church. Or the use of Hirsch and Frost diagram showing that most churches are competing for the same ten percent of white middle class family-values church goers. Or the encouragement of young adults as the people who will be taking the church into the next era, either in their present denomination or in some new configuration of the church. He may have had to pee. Or forgotten to turn the stove off at home.
Anyway, having people agitated goes with provocative communication. You can’t please all the people all the time, even if you wanted to.
Jesus would have had a hard time in most Evangelical churches. He ate and drank too much alcohol for the comfort of the religious leaders of his time. Makes me wonder where people get the inspiration for the book, What Would Jesus Eat?” Mind you he probably did enough walking to keep himself in shape.
We’re seeing a more relaxed approach to alcohol and Christianity here in Queensland. At one of our recent Uniting Church synods we allowed local churches to decide for themselves whether they would allow alcohol on their premises or during the programs. Some people left the Uniting Church over that decision but others were just relieved to be able to walk out of a bottle store without wearing a disguise. I know one guy who was a minister in a Uniting church known for a conservative Evangelical framework for doctrine and lifestyle. He was from a Dutch background and didn’t buy into the total abstinence approach of the Methodists. When challenged about the wine and beer he had in the manse fridge, he explained that the alcohol was on the Presbyterian side of the fridge!
Jesus clearly did not base his life on trying to meet the expectations of others. He had a number of walkouts, the most significant being the mass exodus after his provocative message following the feeding of the five thousand.
The phrase “Yet Wisdom is shown to be right by what it does” is fascinating. Eugene Petersen in his paraphrase, The Message, gives us the words, “Opinions don’t count for much, do they? The proof of the pudding is in the eating.”
It’s easy to pull someone down for not living their lives the way we would, or communicating the way we would. A better test of integrity is to discover the agenda of the other person, and discern with them how they put it into practice. Jesus what is your priority here? And how are you putting it into practice? Jesus’ priority here, it seems, is to connect with people at an earthy level, relaxing and enjoying the party atmosphere with them.
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Saturday, June 25th, 2005
If you love your father or mother or even your sons and daughters more than me, you are not fit to be my disciples. And unless you are willing to take up your cross and come with me, you are not fit to be my disciples. If you try to save your life, you will lose it. But if you give it up for me, you will surely find it.
Matthew 10:37-39 (Contemporary English Version)
As a teenager I was part of a gospel music group. We’d tour the local churches, singing contemporary folk music, providing the occasional drama and sharing a message. This was the context in which I first learned that I could preach. As a 16 year old I and my peers tried our hand at studying the Bible and finding encouragement and challenge for our listeners.
Every now and then, my mother would tell me I was way out of my depth. “I didn’t know enough to be preaching”. Looking back from where I stand, I didn’t know what I know now. I didn’t see as I see now, with the benefit of experience. But I had enough to start with. I looked at my mother who had spent years reading and studying and yet was reluctant to take on responsibilities beyond her home. I didn’t want to be that person in my fifties.
I imagine that the followers of Jesus had similar experiences. “What do you mean, you’re heading off to heal the sick in strange towns, without a budget?” If people had taken their cues from their families, Jesus may never have had a team to send out.
I still find people who are paralysed by anxiety about the opinions of their families. I find people in their forties who steer away from youth ministry because their grown teenage kids have rejected their values and told them they know nothing. I find teenagers who have limited their horizons because they’re concerned about what their parents or their friends will say.
“What would XX think?” is the resounding mantra - the parent tapes playing in the background. Or “What might I be risking here?”
Jesus here is taking a group of average men and women and taking them to the next level of extraordinary leadership. He’s taking them from concern about ‘reputation and safety’ to entrepreneurial ‘can-do’ vision. And the most crucial step in that move is working out whose opinion really counts at the end of the day, or the end of one’s life.
I think of Shawshank Redemption - Red learning to dream and act beyond his imprisonment. I think of J M Barrie working to make theatre an intergenerational experience. I think of the crazy ones of the Apple Think Different TV ads.
I’m thinking of the sermon I’m preaching tomorrow morning at Stafford Uniting. And whether it really matters what people think of me, or if they are given permission and space to expand their dreams of what God can do through them.
I’m thinking of Crowded House’s song,
“Don’t Dream It’s Over…
Now I’m walking again to the beat of a drum
and I’m counting the steps to the door of your heart
Only shadows ahead
They’ll be clear in the roof
Get to know the feeling of liberation and release
Hey now Hey now don’t dream it’s over
Hey now Hey now when the world comes in
They come, they come to build a wall between us
You know that they won’t win
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Friday, June 24th, 2005
Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me. And anyone who welcomes me also welcomes the one who sent me. Anyone who welcomes a prophet, just because that person is a prophet, will be given the same reward as a prophet. Anyone who welcomes a good person, just because that person is good, will be given the same reward as a good person. And anyone who gives one of my most humble followers a cup of cool water, just because that person is my follower, will surely be rewarded.
Matthew 10:40-42
I remember listening to a prominent New Zealand church leader telling an audience that Christians are called to serve Christians only. Not people outside the church. It was disturbing stuff. My congregation was in the middle of a heated discussion on the expansion of our shoppers’ creche, an expansion that would need investment in a safety fence and toilet facilities for children and disabled. I could see a number of my fellow leaders grasping at a reason not to serve the community we lived in.
The preacher explained to us that Jesus only meant his followers to look after each other. “By this will all men know that you are my disciples, that you have love for one another.” Those on the outside, he said, will look at your care for each other and long to join you.
For many reasons I didn’t buy into this approach. For one, I don’t believe Christians looking after themselves only is an attractive sight to those on the outside. It only brings a reputation for being inward looking and stingy. For another, I don’t think Jesus was talking here about who his followers should be looking after.
The context here is a commission to go into places that may appear inhospitable. His disciples must have been afraid of rejection, misunderstanding, a feeling of inadequacy and finding nowhere to eat, drink and sleep. Jesus has told them they must not take money with them. They have to rely on the generosity of the locals.
So, he says, whoever welcomes you as a prophet will receive the reward of a prophet. Whoever welcomes you as a good person will receive the reward of a good person. And whoever gives you a cup of cold water because you are my follower will also be rewarded.
But what is the reward of a prophet? Usually rejection, misunderstanding, a feeling of inadequacy and finding nowhere to eat, drink and sleep! Maybe Jesus is reminding his followers that those who will give them hospitality may end up paying the same costs of mission. “Don’t take their welcome for granted.”
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