When Love Came to Town

And Another Thing . . . LOVE

During Christmas, Christ-followers have traditionally examined four virtues: Hope, Joy, Love and Peace. At this week’s Gathering, we were all about Love.

What is there to say about love that has not already been said? It is the thing we most treasure; our loves are the deepest part of us. When we speak or think of love generically, we can detach from or be analytical about it. Love, as a topic, can even be boring!  But when it is not a topic, but rather a description of our emotion, we are incapable of indifference. Love is passion—a passion that is frequently at war with reason. People in love are often encouraged to “keep their heads,” or to not “do something stupid.” Love puts us at risk. Love is wild. Love is alive.

God is Love. C.S. Lewis, describing Aslan (the lion who represents God in the Chronicles of Narnia) says, “He is not safe, but he is good.” The love of God is not a safe thing. It is a good thing. Rich Mullins used to say that “God has terrible taste.  He loves everybody.” His taste is bad enough to extend to each of us, as well as to all the people we do not like, all the people we are indifferent about, and all the people we do not know. Psalm 100:5 says, “For the LORD is good, and His love is eternal; His faithfulness endures through all generations.” God knows all. God loves all. And God loves first.

God is “all in” with us. He doesn’t wait to see if we “get him” or if we can bring something of interest to the table. He loves us first. He gets us and commits right away – even before we are born. He gives us joy. He lifts our head. He gives us something interesting to contribute to his world. And he saves us. He loves us so much that he gave the dearest piece of himself, as a sacrifice to rescue us from a life without him. 

Christmas is when we celebrate the start of this story.  We celebrate that God successfully entered our human condition. We celebrate that heaven and earth intersect in a baby who will grow up to be the spitting image of his father. Jesus is the perfect expression of God’s love for us.  As we examine Jesus, we begin to notice that God’s love is different from ours. His love is wild and risky and alive, but it is also filled with reason and choice and intention.  His love is a decision of his will and an expression of his heart.  He intentionally moves in love toward us and intends that his love will transform us into his image. 1 John 4:10 says, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

This is God choosing to bless the world through a baby, containing the full measure of his love in a tiny infant-sized bundle of miraculous expectancy.  No wonder angels sang.  Love stories always come with a soundtrack.  In fact, according to Revelation, they have not stopped singing. One day we will join them.  Maybe we should join them now.

And that is all I have to say about that . . . for now.

Joy, Joy, Joy!

And Another Thing . . . Joy!

“Joy to the world, the Lord is come.” Those words have become so familiar that they may have lost much of their impact—becoming just a song we sing each year in between holiday shopping trips and putting up our Christmas decorations. But those words represent much more than just something nice to sing. Joy came to earth. Jesus’ entry into the human story was an unimaginable turn of events.

As the story is told, God, in Jesus, leaves wherever it is that he was and comes to hang out with us. The painter steps into the picture to shape the image from the inside. John says, “the Word became flesh.” The artist became paint. Improbable and impossible and way beyond reasonable expectation, yet this is the story of Christmas. Jesus comes to break death’s power over us, and he begins his impossible task by participating in the miracle of incarnation. The creator becomes a created thing. The eternal God becomes clothed in finite flesh. No wonder people doubt the Bible. If you don’t doubt it at least the first few times you hear what it says, you are probably not paying attention. It sounds like a fairy tale, but as Fredrick Beuchner writes, it is “a tale that is too good not to be true.”

Jesus leaves heaven and comes to earth and brings with him the nature and character of God. The story of his life reveals what these attributes look like when they are played out in the theater of human events. Jesus expresses the character of God through his love. He “so loves” that he winds up laying down his life to give us hope. His hope leads to joy, and his “perfect love casts out fear.”(1 John 4:18) The opposite of joy is not sadness, but fear. Nehemiah 8:10 says, “the joy of the Lord is your strength.” Joy’s strength overwhelms the strongholds of fear the enemy has erected on earth. Joy laughs at fear. Joy allows us to move with confidence in the callings we are compelled to establish. Joy is present regardless of the circumstance. Jesus says in John 16:33, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

Joy to the world, the Lord is come.  Experience joy, because the Lord IS come.

Joy to the world! The Lord is come; 

Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare him room,
And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven, and heaven, and nature sing.

Joy to the world! the Saviour reigns;
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat the sounding joy.

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.

He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders, wonders, of His love.

                                             Isaac Watts, 1719

And that’s all I have to say about that . . . for now!

The Basket, The Princess, The Hope

And Another Thing . . . Hope

Moses’ mother’s name was Jochebed. (On Sunday night I said it was Miriam, but that was his sister’s name.) We don’t know much about her other than the outside-of-the-box plan she came up with to save her son—a plan that wound up working so well it changed the course of human history. The Pharaoh at the time of Moses’ birth was concerned about the number and increasing power of the Jewish immigrants in his land. Since he was the head of a strong central government, he chose to solve his problem of immigrant proliferation by having all the Jewish baby boys killed at birth. This is not the sort of solution that would have worked well in a democracy, but it was definitely in the wheelhouse of ancient dictatorships. 

Jochebed decided to comply with the letter of the law, if not the spirit, and “cast” her son “into the Nile” – only her cast included a floatation device, a basket transformed into a tiny boat. She put her son into the part of the Nile where the Pharaoh’s daughter liked to bathe, hoping that Pharaoh’s daughter would see the boy, like him, and keep him as her own. She positioned Miriam to watch the whole drama transpire. This turned out fine, but could have been traumatizing had the boat somehow capsized. Jochebed hoped nothing bad would happen—a hope that was realized when the princess saw Moses and took him in.  Miriam then ran up and asked if the princess needed a wet nurse for the boy, then went and got Moses’ mother to be his caregiver. It all worked out wonderfully.

We don’t know whether Jochebed was moved by faith, or desperation, or inspiration, or some combination of the above. We do know that God’s hand was on Moses and that he was being protected and lifted up. God is the source of our hope. He sometimes moves in our lives in such a way as to make desperate measures seem like reasonable alternatives. One of the largest ironies of the story is that Moses became the son of the Pharaoh who had ordered him killed. Joseph, the man who started the whole Jews-in-Egypt adventure, when he finally confronted his brothers who had sold him there in the first place, says in Gen 50:20, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.” This is the dualistic dance that God has with evil in the world.  Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Satan often cooks up a nasty circumstance, then God moves in the lives of his people to make it a “good.” 

This is why our hope is in the Lord. He embraces us in our times of trouble and invites us to join him in overcoming the world (John 16:33). He is the one who catches us in the midst of our dark circumstance, our slavery, and winds up turning us into Palace dwellers; into King’s kids. Romans 15:4 says, “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide, we might have hope.”

Moses was rescued and wound up talking to God in a burning bush, delivering the Children of Israel from Egypt’s oppression. He called down plagues, walked on dry land across the Red Sea, received the Ten Commandments, and saw God in the “cleft of the rock”. When it was all over, God buried him.

All Bible stories are there to teach us that: 1) God is there. 2) He is active. 3) He will rescue us. Look at the stories of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Elijah, Elisha, David, and many others. All faced desperate circumstances.  All were rescued, lifted, helped, saved, elevated and improbably secured. God saves us. He gives us hope. The significant and difficult piece to the puzzle, though, is that our hope is in Him, and not in ourselves. We are called to wait and trust, while He works things together for good.

Psalm 43:5 says, “Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” 

And that is all I have to say about that . . . for now!

And Another Thing . . . Fellowship, Hanging Out!

“Hang out” is a phrase I hear my kids say when they are making plans with their friends.  I like the term a lot.  When I was younger we would call our friends and ask, “Do you want to go do something?”  Hanging out places the emphasis on being together more than on what is going to be done. It seems to say, “I don’t care what we do, I just want to spend time with you.”  Now, saying it that way would make my kids use another word: “creepy.”  Nevertheless, “hanging out” implies the important thing is being together.

People are made to be with one another; in fact, the Bible uses that phrase a lot. The traditional Christian word is “fellowship.” It basically means spending time together. Spending time together, hanging out, fellowship, can feel like a waste of time because we are so wired for doing, but there is no way to get to know one another without being with each other. One of the most iconic activities for becoming known is sharing a meal. When I was a kid, the basement of our church was known as The Fellowship Hall. It was the place where we would have church pitch-ins. Sitting around tables and eating food that various families had contributed was, in fact, the main purpose of this room. Eat a meal together.  Get to know each other. Become friends.

Choosing friends is an important life choice.  Proverbs 12:6 says, “The godly give good advice to their friends; the wicked lead them astray.” The intention of our Fellowship Hall was to let “godly” people spend time with each other so that another verse in Proverbs (27:17) would kick in, “As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.” We need each other, as long as we are moving together with our hearts turned toward God. Proverbs 18:24 says “There are friends who destroy each other, but a real friend sticks closer than a brother.” Fellowship is really about friendship. Jesus says in John 15:13, “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Jesus goes on to say in that same passage (v 15), “I have called you friends.” Of course, he is the ultimate example of laying down his life. He then adds (v 17), “This is my command: Love each other.” The purpose of having Christ-followers intentionally hang out with each other is so that their love for each other will grow.  Fellowship grows to friendship and is born out of our desire to love as he commands.

The mission statement for The Gathering is “to change life as we know it through the love, loyalty and friendship of Jesus.” He has called us friends. He wants to hang out with us. He wants us to hang out with each other in his name. He has promised in Matthew 18:20 that, “. . . where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” When we all hang out together, Jesus starts to change the world through us, and of course, we get changed in the process as well. So we eat meals together at the end of our gatherings. We sit around tables and laugh and tell our stories and share our faith. This holy alchemy of food and fellowship and Jesus begins to build a community that will reach a community and transform the whole concoction into the Kingdom of God. 

So come “hang out” with us next Sunday evening. Who knows where it will lead.

And that is all I have to say about that . . . for now.

Stories of Old that Make a Man Walk Tall

It is one of those “crazy” Old Testament stories that seem to create more questions than answers. Our story of God this week was the one in which God directs Israel to go to battle with the Amalekites, then has Moses go up on a hill and raise his hands. As long as his hands are up, they will win; if his arms drop, they will lose (Exodus 17). That seems... like a lot of pressure on Moses—and an incredibly high price on the army. God’s blessing and the people’s fate is tied to the arm strength of one old man, or so it would appear. Why would God require Moses’ hands be raised in order to give a blessing to the people he loves, especially as they fight against an evil enemy ingrained in practices that were abhorrent to all God was establishing in Israel? Why put that much pressure on the leader? These are difficult questions—questions that some may think paints God in a bad light.

But there are other difficult questions to be asked about this story: Why did Moses wear himself out lifting his hands in prayer? Why did Aaron and Hur seem to hold off on giving Moses help until he was so weak he could not continue on his own? It is not my intent to judge or cast aspersions on anyone in this text. Moses was one of the giants of our faith. He consistently said yes to God and led Israel faithfully out of bondage; he received the Ten Commandments, and even spoke with God. He is a great man in God’s story of bringing faith to people, but he was not a perfect man. He led God’s people well—no easy assignment—for forty years, but was not allowed to enter into the Promised Land. So, I wonder if Moses struggled, as assuredly many leaders do, to let others come alongside and bear some of the burden of his leadership duties. His heart was pure. He was lifting his hands up so Joshua, and the men in the battle could see him on the hill and know he was interceding to God on their behalf. He was giving it his all. He was wearing himself out for the kingdom. He was not withholding any piece of himself. He was giving his whole heart to God. What could be better than that?

Could letting others share the burden be better? Perhaps Moses was giving more than God required. The Lord required prayer, as demonstrated by arms lifted up, but God was fine with letting others lift those arms. Could Moses have let the community carry the burden sooner than he did? The three men together were easily able to accomplish what Moses was unable to do by himself. What if, from the beginning, the three men had employed their strategic position in prayer? Would there have ever been a moment when Amalekites prevailed? We will never know, but we do know that when the men began to work together, they were able to satisfy God’s requirements.

So we are back to the seemingly arbitrary demand: Why did God require Moses to keep his hands in the air? The short answer is “I don’t know.” There are a lot of things in the Bible that get that response from me. When I was an atheist, this kind of thing drove me crazy. I wanted to figure it all out. When I found my way to belief, I actually began to take great comfort in the things I did not understand. If my faith always made sense to me, I would be very tempted to believe I invented it. The parts of the Bible I don’t get are strangely reassuring because they confirm to me that it is something other. It is not my invention, but God’s revelation. God’s “ways are not my ways” and when he requires something that seems “off the wall,” it makes me think that he knows something I don’t know. That’s a good thing. I want God to know lots of things that I don’t know. I want to see God respond in mysterious ways to truths I cannot see or comprehend. I love the mystery parts of him. I know he is good. I know he can be trusted. If he needed Moses to raise his hands so that a victory could be accomplished, then I am certain that the divine economy was well served by that action.

God tends to call his people to do seemingly crazy things in his name. But when we figure out how to do those crazy things together, spiritual communities form and truth and power are released. So let’s find ways to come alongside each other and do the things he is calling us to. As we do, blessings will most certainly follow.

And that’s all I have to say about that . . . for now.

Learning About Hospitality...to Grammie's House We Go

Expert tips on loving your neighbor.

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=2538296344203

And Another Thing . . .Hospitality

All during The Gathering’s worship time last night, I was aware of the kids in our midst. Worship in a gathering of Christ-followers is both personal and corporate. We sing songs, blending the sound of our own voice in with the voices of others, creating a spiritual synergy—a transcendent sense of God’s presence among us. We can encounter God in worship. There is an old church saying that “the Lord inhabits the praises of his people,” and I think that is true. But to reach that place in worship requires attention and focus. We must be trying to reach and see God. For the most part, the kids—whether in church or any other place—aren’t trying to reach anything except their own place of fun. They can’t sit still (for long), they can’t focus (for long), they usually don’t sing (for long). But they do all of the above for a bit. (Please don’t stop reading here).

Last night’s Gathering was focused on hospitality. 1 Peter 4:8–9 says, "Above all, hold unfailing your love for one another, since love covers a multitude of sins. Practice hospitality ungrudgingly to one another." Hospitality is something that requires practice; it is the practical side of saying that you “love your neighbor.” Hospitality is the move from theory to application. Since Peter encourages us to “practice hospitality” and to do it “ungrudgingly,” because “love covers a multitude of sins,” you get the idea that it probably doesn’t come naturally. It is like learning how to date. First dates are frequently awkward. We are learning how to be with someone we like, may one day love, but don’t yet know very well. It is awkward and scary and frequently uncomfortable, but still worth doing. Peter and Paul both encourage us to “practice hospitality.” Practice moves a thing from strange and awkward to familiar and enjoyable. The more we do it, the easier it becomes for the joy and beauty to begin to emerge.

The kids in our fellowship are a reminder of where we all are in our journey with God. They quietly fidget and move and make muffled noises and chase their own muse. Occasionally, they notice their parents worshiping and listening. Occasionally, they listen as well. Rich Mullins used to say that as a child, he loved church because it was the only place he could hear men sing. Kids are observing, even as they play.

I am never distracted by the kids. I love it that they are there and feel like they are a treasure in our midst. I am thrilled that watching their parents and others worship God will be in the mix of their earliest memories. They are barely interested now, but as they grow, they will learn and transform into people who believe and worship. I am so excited for the small evidences that demonstrate they are developing an interest in spiritual things. I love all of their “off the wall” answers in the Kid’s Moment.

In scripture, we are referred to as “Children of God.” I believe that the Lord looks at each of us the way I do at the children at our gatherings. I believe that he is more excited about our potential than he is about our squawks and distractions. We are defined in his eyes by what he is calling us to, our potential, more than by our present behavior and situation. He loves us and is thrilled by the parts of his kingdom that we embrace. Loving each other is one of the things that God is thrilled for us to get right—and hospitality is the practical expression of our love for each other. We are encouraged to “practice” loving each other by inviting one another into our homes. We are told to start eating together, talking to each other, telling one another our stories. We are called to love each other the way God loves us, and so we start by “practicing hospitality.

And that is all I have to say about that . . . for now

A Toast to Freedom

“Hi, I’m Paul, and I’m an alcoholic.” All of us at last Sunday night’s Gathering responded, “Hi Paul” – not because we are fellow alcoholics (although some may be the anonymous kind), but because that was how we have observed that this is done.

Paul told us about the changes that are happening in his life, thanks to Jesus and through the tool of AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) 12 Steps. We were grateful that he let us in on his journey, and as he talked, we were quietly reminded of our own shortcomings and secret failings. He told us about making a “fearless and searching moral inventory” and then sharing all of that with “one other person.” He spoke of making amends to people he had hurt. It all sounded very much like the way Christians ought to live. And in response, we all supported him and thanked him for having the courage to share his experience.

Paying attention to your life takes courage and discipline and help. Moving away from destructive choices and toward healthy ones is challenging. The heart of AA’s first three steps is turning one’s mess over to God and letting him manage it. God is the one who changes lives. His call is mostly a “from and to” kind of call. He calls us from some negative, destructive, hurtful things, and to those things that make each of us look more like him. God is not nearly as concerned about what we are leaving as he is about what we are moving toward. He calls us into a church, or gathering of Christ-followers, both so we may receive help and that we can be a help for the journey.

The church supports the life-change process, but it is not simply a recovery group.

The Bible calls us saints, not sinners. In fact, to some degree, we are both. We fail, but we are not defined by our failures. When we turn away from a wrong choice, Jesus forgives us and pulls us forward. We are defined by who Jesus says we are—by our calling to love, to bring hope, to help the hurting, and to share the gift of life we have found in God. Stopping destructive behavior is helpful and even life giving, but it is still only a necessary means to enable a larger calling. Stopping is not an end in itself.

The church is not anonymous. In fact, the amazing thing about the church is that the love it gives is not blind. We are known and loved by God and we are to be known and loved by one another. The point is not to confess our failings to a stranger, but to share them with one another. It is not a stranger who sees and forgives, but it is our friends and family members who see us and allow us to live in forgiveness of our failings and walk in the hope of who we are called to be.

As we listened with admiration while Paul demonstrated his candor, courage and a commitment to help get The Gathering launched, all of us learned a valuable lesson: We are more than the sum of our past mistakes. We are more because of Jesus.

And that is all I have to say about that … for now.

Gary Rowe's Funeral Service

Date: Thursday, October 27, 2011
Calling Time: 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm
Service Time: starting at 6:30 pm
Location:
6049 East 91st Street
Indianapolis, IN 46250-1398
(317) 849-1261

Thanks for all of your prayers.

Saying Goodbye to a Friend Starting the Ultimate Journey

And Another Thing . . . (Sam’s Blog regarding Gary Rowe)

Everybody each and all,
We’re gonna die eventually,
It’s no more or less our fault,
... Than it is our destiny. –Rich Mullins, Be With You

I read those words, the whole song actually, to close Rich Mullins’ funeral service. Gary Rowe was standing next to me as I read them from a page that was getting blurry from the moisture in my eyes. We did the funeral service together, as we had done many things together, both before Rich’s funeral and since. He was my friend. We met in college and traveled with Rich Mullins in a ministry called Zion. Gary and I were the on Retreat team. Rich listened to me sing and then promptly invited me to teach.

We traveled together in an old (read OLD) copper colored Ford van that had wobbly steering and was fueled more by foolishness and prayer than it was by gasoline. We should not have driven it across town, let alone across the country. The people in that van, have remained a constant in my life ever since. Sunday night, Zion and company was gathered around the bed of one our stalwarts, Gary Rowe. We sang. Told stories on each other. Laughed. Prayed. Read scripture. Sang hymns. Sang songs Rich wrote. Cried. Hugged. Prayed some more. We gathered with his family and dear friends from church and watched our friend move on.

It was hard.

It was also glorious.

This is the part where I tell you how important faith is.

It is really important.

Gary’s faith sustained him all the way home. Watching a friend who loves God die can be an amazing argument for faith. I could see Gary’s faith become sight. I could tell that the things “not seen” were becoming visible (1 Cor 13:12). That, as the old hymn puts it, “the things of earth will grow strangely dim, In the light of His glory and grace.” I believe that Jesus is real and that Gary is with him. I believe he saw him, and is seeing him, and will be with him forever. I believe that it is important for each of us to know that we are living in the shadowlands (as C.S. Lewis puts it), and that one day we will see beyond the shadows to a reality that is the source of all we long for. I believe that Jesus loves each of us so much that he went to extraordinary measures to make sure that when we face that day, we will be ready. That was certainly the case for Gary.

At one point towards the end, I heard him say “Rich!” I knew that all of us from the copper van days were together again for a moment, and that there would be a day when we would all be together forever. Jesus makes this so. Just as he makes everything so.

So Psalm 71:18 is very important. “Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your might to all who are to come.”

And that is all I have to say about that . . . for now