Pastor Judy's Blog

A Life Not Wasted

Several years ago one of our students found her way to my office. She was a bright young woman, gifted in communication, passionate about justice and wondering if her prolific social life was serving her well. Having had countless conversations along these lines I was fairly confident that a comment about personal piety and the perils of drinking would probably put an end to the discussion I said simply, “I’ve always thought that God is much angrier with the hangover than the party.” She responded with great wit by saying with a smile, “I didn’t know God and I were thinking similar thoughts,” and our discussion continued.

I told her that a hangover is a waste of life. Minutes and moments and often hours of time that God would want to use to bring light into this world wasted lying on a couch wanting the light to go away. And beyond that I pushed her to consider if perhaps a hangover is even an act of injustice. When dying people around the world would give anything to live until the light of morning in order to have one more minute with their child, when martyrs are praying for one more moment to live their mission and when hostages are hoping for one more hour to fulfill their hopes and dreams isn’t a hangover like full people taking food from the hungry?

Because she was still listening I continued by saying, “As I have walked with Jesus I have become utterly convinced that God wants to use the lives of his people and I am more confident than ever that anything that wastes or squanders the gifts he has given for his mission is an act of injustice because it robs from the world what is necessary for it to be whole, well and complete.” And the young woman said to me, “Well that makes my decision pretty simple.” And she gave up wasting her life drinking and she went into ministry. This is a true story and I wish I could tell you it works that way every time.

Ephesians 5:18 says, “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.” The word debauchery literally means ‘an abandoned life’ or ‘wasteful living’ and a similar phrase is used of the prodigal son in Luke 15:13 when after the son is given an inheritance from his father he goes and scatters it to the wind, wasting his resources on temporary pleasures and wasting the mission of his life in a pen full of pigs.

God has a mission for our lives and God is not interested in his resources being wasted or abandoned or scattered to the wind. And so he says to us, “Don’t be wasted.” Don’t let your life be wasted on things that are temporary. Don’t abandon your mission while you pursue desires that will never satisfy. Don’t let the gifts that God has given you be scattered to the wind when they could be used to help make the world more whole, more well and more complete.

Next week marks the beginning of Lent, a season in the life of the church where the people of God intentionally fast from temporary pleasures in order to regain their focus on what pleases God. This year during the season of Lent we are piloting a campaign on campus called, “Don’t be wasted” and during the seven weeks that begin at Ash Wednesday (Feb 22) and end with Easter (April 8) we are inviting the campus to use their lives with intention so that none of God’s good gifts will be wasted.

University Ministries would like to invite all who would like to participate to join us in seven weeks of three commitments. 1. We are calling our campus to abstain from drinking, to not be wasted at all. 2. We are inviting the campus to be filled with the Word of God by committing to the memorization of seven scripture passages. 3. We are encouraging every North Parker to reclaim one additional area of their life for God’s mission. Perhaps you have wasted God’s mission by participating in gossip or bitterness or jealousy. Perhaps you have wasted God’s mission by racism, sexism or pessimism. Perhaps you have wasted God’s mission by wasteful spending, mindless thinking, or useless web surfing. During this season we challenge you to consider where you are most wasteful and we invite you to abstain from that behavior so that God’s mission in you would not be wasted.

The Kingdom Color

There is a large turquoise house on the main street of a town I often travel through. It's a house that turns my head every time. It turns my head not only because it's turquoise, although it is the only turquoise house among the others which seem to have experienced some sort of earth-tone revival, but primarily because it has remained only partially painted for the past several years. Each side of the house boasts some of the turquoise paint as if the painter wanted to test the shade at every angle but that is where thorough stopped for this particular painter because it appears as though they put down their brush mid paint stroke on most of the portions. Still it is possible that the partially finished paint job might not have given passersby much pause if the paint that was prior didn't provide such a powerful contrasting color.

Last weekend as I traveled past what is perhaps the most obvious partially finished project in town it dawned on me that the house provides a perfect picture of a prohibition found in Luke 14:25-30, which begins by setting the bar pretty high.

Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: "If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even life itself—such a person cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

These verses have always seemed a bit strong to me and I have often found it difficult to contend with the "if" and "cannot". Would Jesus really say to a curious crowd that unless everything else paled in comparison to following him, that following him was not for them? Did Jesus really mean to imply that someone who was unwilling to die on a cross was not fit for the cause? Certainly Jesus didn't mean to imply that all discipleship requires the embracing of "ifs" and "cannots". And then last weekend I turned my head to take in the turquoise tragedy and the verses that follow the "ifs" and "cannots" came quickly to mind.

"Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won't you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, 'This person began to build and wasn't able to finish.

It became clear to me in that moment that Jesus' prohibition against following without finishing makes perfect sense if you consider the fact that Jesus is leaving his Kingdom project in the hands of his people. Jesus is making it clear that he has no interest in the Kingdom project becoming an eyesore on Main Street, which is exactly what will happen if his disciples fail to consider the "ifs" and "cannots" of the Kingdom project up front.

Jesus was looking for people whose would let their lives be so radically changed by the good news of the Kingdom of God that those who passed by would easily see the contrast between the old and the new. And Jesus was calling people who wanted the new Kingdom color to cover every corner of their lives, people who wouldn't put down the brush until every bit of trim was painted including the parts that were imperceptible to passersby. Jesus was well aware that people were going to poke fun at the Kingdom project even when it was fully painted, for turquoise houses in an earth-tone world will always take a few hits, but Jesus was not interested in increasing the reasons for ridicule and so he speaks clearly to those who wish to follow him the words, "if" and "cannot".

This week I invite you to reflect on the fact that followers of Jesus are meant to turn heads and I invite you to consider whether or not you are willing to be the turquoise house on an earth-tone street. Before you begin it is important that you take into account that undergoing visible change in front of those who pass by always opens you up to other people's comments and a critique of your Kingdom color. And if you have already begun the painting process I invite you to ponder if there portions of your project that contain a only a few strokes of contrasting Kingdom color and to consider the call to a more thorough treatment so that God's kingdom project in you will not be ridiculed?

Commited to Correction

I've had a job of some sort since I was sixteen years old. I worked in a food court and at a record store (which definitely dates me), a hotel and a hospital, a law firm and a landscaping company. I worked in a jewelry store at a mall, in admissions at a college, and on some scaffolding during a summer job painting houses, but in 1993 I got a real job.

It was my first job out of college. I had graduated with a sociology degree, which I soon learned qualified me to do very little without an accompanying graduate degree. I applied for dozens of jobs, working and reworking my resume to try and make it appears as though there was a theme in my previous employment. However, placing "laying new sod" and "changing bed pans" under "having a vision for change" did little to inspire potential employers.

I had an inkling that I wanted to work in a place where my work made a difference and although I had no experience in the area of education or working with youth I applied to countless jobs that were posted as looking for "counselors", or "case workers" for at-risk youth. Eventually a small day treatment agency on the near south side of Chicago, which served students who had been expelled from the public school system because of their assaultive behavior, called me in to interview for the position of case worker.

I knew from the moment I applied that I was unqualified for the position and as I walked through the school door in my new blue interview suit I knew I had no business presenting myself as equipped to carry a caseload of emotionally disturbed and behaviorally disordered adolescents. After a very short interview I was offered a position, not as a caseworker but as an educator. With absolutely no experience working with youth and not a single education course under by belt, the director of this program asked me to take over a junior high classroom which had already seen three teachers come and go in the previous six months.

There wasn't enough money in the budget for books. I purchased pencils and paper with my meager paycheck and I soon realized that the reason this agency didn't care about my qualifications was that they had no real expectation that these students would ever be students at all. These young people didn't fit in the system. They were seen as too hostile to be trusted in the hallways of a junior high school, they were too behind and beleaguered to hold their own with their peers in a classroom and they had been passed around and passed by for long enough that there was no longer any pressure to pick them up and point them in the right direction because the system felt it was pointless.

These students were at this "school" and I was their "teacher" because nobody expected them to learn anything at all. Although I was elated to have a real job I knew from the beginning it was an act of injustice to hire me. These kids deserved someone qualified and these kids needed someone certified but instead they got me, someone who could make quick work of changing a bed pan and who could write a great blue book essay on why the underclass has become a permanent part of our economy. These kids needed more and deserved more than my moment of altruism and my commitment to optimism ...they needed a sustained commitment to justice.

Last week I urged you to cultivate the heart of God within you; to practice being present with other people's pain and to let their pain move you so deeply in your gut that you cannot help but move that compassionate feeling into action. I urged you to become like the Samaritan who was called good, who was willing to cross the road to help a stranger who had been brutalized and left in the ditch. (Luke 10:25-37).

This week I want to push you further and call you to look deeper into the issues that may have lead up to this man lying in the ditch. What made this man vulnerable to attack? Why did someone bully and brutalize him? What stereotypes existed that made it so easy for the first two people to walk past this man's pain? What excuses for inaction were underlying, what systems of protection were missing, what avenues for advocacy were lacking? And would you consider moving past compassion and beyond a one-time action, past altruism and optimism and into a life committed to correcting the systems that are failing.

Splagchnizomai Into Action

A few weeks ago there was a news story in which a man came to the rescue of another man who was being attacked by two pit bulls. The man who came to his rescue had no previous connection with the man under assault but he intervened and saved the man's life. Another story recounted a man who jumped into a river to save someone else's drowning child. And over the holidays a young Muslim man came to the defense of a young Jewish couple who was being mugged by a bunch of thugs on the train. It's called the story of the "Good Samaritan" and even those who don't go to church, read the Bible, or who haven't grown up around a Christian metanarrative are usually aware of the gist of the story. Someone sees someone else in trouble and steps in to help them even when by law they don't have to reach out.

The parable of the Good Samaritan is found in Luke 10:25-37 and it begins with a man of the law asking Jesus how to inherit eternal life. An exchange between Jesus and the man boils down the necessary requirements to, "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"

The man of the law then asks one more question of clarification, "And who is my neighbor?"

Jesus then launches into a story about a traveler who is accosted by bandits and left for dead. The battered and dying traveler is bypassed by a Jewish priest and a Levite who take a detour to the other side of the road to avoid involvement in the mess. Only a lowly Samaritan, who was according to the Jewish law, a lesser race, class and culture came to the aid of the man in the ditch, bandaging his wounds, transporting him to a safe place and taking caring of him. Leaving the innkeeper money to pay for the man's continued recovery he promises to return and follow up and pay for any additional expenses. This is definitely more investment than money dropped in the can of a homeless man.

What moved this Samaritan who is called good to do such a thing? What moved this man to reach out to someone who had been brutalized? What caused him to ignore race, class and culture, inconvenience, messiness and money, in order to be a neighbor?

The scriptures say it was splagchnizomai. It's the Greek word that is translated as "pity" in this passage, but which literally means to be moved in one's bowels. To have something deep within you moved when you see another person's pain or struggle. It is the word that is often used about Jesus when he sees the plight of people who are like "sheep without a shepherd" or who happen to be blind or hungry or held captive.

Perhaps the Samaritan is moved in his gut because he himself knows what it feels like to have people move to the other side of the road when they see you. Perhaps the Samaritan is moved in his gut because he has not been so hardened by the letter of law that he has forgotten the heart of it. Perhaps it's simpler than that, perhaps he just sees the man's blood and knows that his blood looks the same.

Being able to identify with someone else's wounds, being moved in your gut by someone else's pain, being able to see what is similar in your struggle and seeing past a person's particularities to their pain. This is at the core of what it means to be a neighbor. To have splagchnizomai take over your life and move you into action. Being a neighbor is not about what you should do. Nobody wants a neighbor who helps simply because they have to. A bunch of neighbors who simply do what they have to do will never contain enough heart to become a neighborhood. Being a neighbor is about being moved in your heart to help.

And you will know if splagchnizomai is happening to you when you are moved beyond a coin in the can and compelled to reach out and touch the wounds of the one you find in trouble. You will know that splagchnizomai is taking over your life when your response moves from a moment of compassion to investing in someone else's recovery. You will know that you are becoming a neighbor when you find yourself wanting to return and establish a relationship with the one whose race, class and culture are different from your own.

Jesus follows up the story with a question, "Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?" The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him. "Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."

Mercy is an emotion of compassion which doesn't stop with emotion but moves into action. "Go and do likewise." Let your gut reaction move into action and become a neighbor not because you have to but because your heart is so moved you can't help but reach out and care for those who are hurting.

I pray that you know the God who was moved with splagchnizomai for you and may he dwell in you so thoroughly that you are moved with splagchnizomai for others.

Filled With The Spirit

Over break I had the privilege of traveling to the church of my childhood, Faith Covenant Church, to speak at the opening service of their "50 Years of Faith" Celebration. I always love going home and seeing the many people who prayed me past my mischief and rejoicing with them that the one who was once desperately prayed over now loves preaching the word of God over and over again.

After the service I had the opportunity to pray for people and have them pray for me. As usual for me I was nearly the last one to leave the building because I love mining the depths out of what God is doing and I never want to leave an ounce behind.

On my way down the main hallway I ran into a group of three young women who looked to be in high school or early college. I approached them because as I said, I don't want to miss out on any story God is telling and I spoke briefly with them. Mostly they thanked me for being a woman preacher and I joked around with them that the church could use a bit more lipstick in the pulpit.

As I walked out the front door toward my mother's car I felt a strong nudge that there had been too much joking and not enough calling. I asked my mother to wait for a moment so that I could run back into the church. "Did you forget something?" she asked. "Yes, something I'll feel awful about if I leave without it."

I tried the front door of the church but it was already locked. Now I had to make a public display by knocking on the window in order to get the attention of these young women who were seated halfway down the hallway. One of them jumped up and opened the door and asked exactly the same question as my mother, "Did you forget something?" "Yes," I replied. "I forgot to be serious about the calling God might have on one of your lives. I just wanted to tell you that if he called you to preach the word of God you would be one of the luckiest people alive. Don't hesitate to say 'yes' to him if he calls you. That's all I forgot to say." And I left again.

Scripture says that God's people need to "Be careful how you live not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil. So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Do not get drunk with wine, for that is a waste; but be filled with the Spirit, as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks to God the Father at all time and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ. (Ephesians 5:12-21)

There are a lot of great prescriptions in this passage but there are only two imperatives, "Don't get drunk and be filled with the Spirit". As we enter into this next season of exploring Christ's community with one another, I pray that you would hear the call to be aware of what God is doing around you and not be consumed by anything that it would distract you from the Spirit that wants to fill your every moment.

Several weeks later I received an email from one of those young women who told me that she had been thinking about ministry but had been hesitant until that morning when halfway down that hallway on that Sunday after church God confirmed in her a call to ministry simply because I came back. To God be the glory that one time out of ten I actually follow the prompting. Think about what could happen if you and I were filled.

The Kinks of Our Crookedness

The first coming of Jesus came as a gift from God to his people. God made all the preparations for his Son Jesus to come into the world. At the fullness of time, when everything had reached full term God gave the world a gift by the name of Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace. (Isa 9:6) With arms outstretched from heaven to earth God said, “Here is my Son. Receive Him. Love Him. Nurture his life with you.”

It is not difficult for me to connect with the first coming of Jesus and the gift of being given a child. For many years my husband Jeff and I considered adoption and although that is not the route we took there were months during which we imagined a birth mother saying to us, “Here is my child. I did all the work. I delivered him but am giving him has a gift to you.” We knew then and still know today what a miraculous moment it is for those who are waiting for a child especially if the child is long awaited and particularly if someone else has done all the work on your behalf and simply presented you with the present you have dreamed about for so long.

The good news of a long awaited child is one of the reasons for the celebration of Advent. We have been given in the flesh the gift of a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and we didn’t even have to prepare for him we just had to have open arms to receive him when he came. Many of you have received Jesus into your life and you know what I mean when I say God did all the preparatory work; orchestrating events, connecting you with the message, revealing to you the Word of God, and opening up your heart. And at the fullness of time, when everything was ready, Jesus came to you as your Savior and you received him as a gift from God. That will always be reason to celebrate.

However, as I mentioned last week the season of Advent is not just celebratory it’s also preparatory. It is a celebration of the first coming when God did all the preparing so that his Son could come as a gift to us, but Advent is also the anticipation of the second coming for which we do the preparing so that we can be a gift back to God when he arrives. And so we begin the preparations by listening to the call of John the Baptist who was preparing the way of the Lord by calling God’s people to repent, make straight paths and produce fruit in keeping with repentance (Matt 3:1-12).

The scriptures testify that the way this crookedness would start its way toward straight was through the act of confession. The text says that people came from all over to get the kinks out of their crookedness; to obtain an out from their past, a fresh start after their stupidity and a new beginning after their bumbling about. And I ask you, “Who doesn’t want that?” But John the Baptist was calling people to something greater than admitting what was out of alignment. This was not the regular confession of an apologetic people, but rather a once-for-all repentance and a turning from an old way of life to the advent of a new kind of living.

This was the advent of God doing something new and it would require that God’s people committed to something new as well. John was calling God’s people to convert and not just to confess. Repentance was not to be an over the shoulder apology while people continued in the ways they were walking. This was a moment to change the direction one’s life was moving. This was not just confessing one’s sins this was converting one’s life.

John the Baptist then turns to the religious people standing there, people who believed they were ready for the Lord’s coming because of their status as Abraham’s offspring. They believed their birth guaranteed the goodness of God on their behalf and that their upbringing established their status as secure, they were confident that their rituals gave them the right to expect inclusion in ruling party of God’s kingdom. John says to these religious people gathered before him, “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.”

These are words of preparation for the church of God today for like the religious gathered in front of John much of the Christian church has presumed its privileged status. I know that we know that salvation is not genetic and that we cannot inherit a relationship with God but we have lived as though once a person has self-identified as a Christian, through a prayer or rite of initiation, that they…that we… are in and untouchable no matter what.

I hope this is true because there are so many people who are presuming upon it, people banking their status in the Kingdom of God on a prayer they prayed or a rite they passed through. I hope when Jesus returns or when people return to Jesus that they find themselves welcomed because of the expansive reach of God’s grace. But I will tell you this; there is no passage of scripture that testifies to this being the way to go. There is not a scrap of evidence that the plan of God was to get people to pray a prayer and then live lives as they pleased. There is not one proclamation within the Bible’s pages that the plan of Jesus was to have people accept him into their hearts and then continue to have a heyday heaping up sins, hurting the plans of God and harming the reputation of Jesus.

God’s plan from the beginning was that people would repent and turn from the wrong ways they were walking and produce of fruit in keeping with repentance. John the Baptist says that the way we prepare for the Lord’s coming is to turn our life around and get it pointing in the same direction as our profession is proclaiming. Repentance should produce fruit and our confession should be converted into transformation. This is the way to prepare for the coming King.

And so as we prepare together, may we confess the kinks in our crookedness and may we find ourselves crafting lives that become a gift back to God because we have not only received the gift of His Son but loved and nurtured the life he entrusted to us.

May you find the advent of new things in your life this season.

Preparing for His Coming

I have vivid childhood memories of the weeks leading up to Christmas. Memories of how my mom would wrap presents a few at a time and place them under the tree. I recall that as soon as I saw a neatly wrapped new item under the Christmas tree I wouldn’t be able to resist picking it up, shaking it, measuring it out in my mind and try to predict what might be in a box of that particular size and shape.

I wasn’t much of a package peeker but I did fancy myself as quite good gift guesser and present predictor. My mother, knowing my desire to decipher the clues would from time to time place a small present in a large box or a soft present in a hard box or a few marbles in with a quiet present so that it would rattle a bit when I gave it my predictive shake. I’m thankful she protected me from being able to figure everything out and that she reserved my right to be surprised every once in a while.

I grew up as a gift guesser and a present predictor which is indicative of a deeper character trait of mine, I happen to like knowing what’s coming down the pike. It’s not that I don’t like surprises, but the truth is I always feel a bit better when I know what to expect. I like to think it’s because I want to be prepared but I must admit that it is often because I like to be in control which as far as I can tell is more of an issue than a character trait

I think this is why I have always had a thing for Advent, the season of the church year that leads up to Christmas. As a kid, it seemed to me the rest of the church year was always a bit unpredictable. I never could figure out why particular sermons were preached at a particular time or in a particular order, but Advent made sense. For the four weeks leading up to Christmas we would prepare ourselves for the coming of the baby Jesus.

It was so nice and predictable, the move toward the manger and toward the little sweet baby Jesus. I would imagine the smell of hay in the stable, the sheep looking down on the manger and the cattle lowing, a sound I don’t think I’ve ever actually heard. Life was predictable around the manger. The inn keeper, the stable, the arrival of the baby, the coming of the shepherds and the wise man bringing up the rear with their armfuls of gifts.

Imagine my surprise when as I began to unwrap the true meaning of Advent, I found that what I had thought was in the package was entirely different from what I had grown up guessing. In a rush to get to the manger and to the sweet baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes I had somehow missed or perhaps my church hadn’t made clear that Advent was not just about the predictable coming of the baby Jesus but also about the unpredictable return of that baby Jesus all grown up.

The season of Advent was not just about the yearly celebration of the arrival a little baby but also about the once and for all return of a triumphant and powerful King. The season doesn’t begin with scripture passages about cattle lowing and babies cooing but instead inside the package of Advent we find passages about people who are swept away by a flood, people who go missing and a thief that comes in the night (Matthew 24:36-44). Imagine my surprise when I found that this this soft little package I had been given actually contained something quite hard.

Advent was never meant to be fluffy and sentimental or nice and predictable. Advent was never meant to be reduced to just a countdown to a savior in a manger but was meant to be a much more rich time of anticipation and preparation for the coming of a Lord and King who will, in the words of the creeds, “come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.” Advent is about living our lives in anticipation of the return of a King who has something to say about how we’ve lived them. But that escaped me as a kid. Perhaps it was all the candy in the Advent calendars that deceived me like marbles in a quite package. To this day I have still yet to see a little piece of advent chocolate shaped like a thief in the night.

Advent celebrates the coming of the eternal Christ for the first time, when God put on the flesh of an infant and was born of a virgin named Mary and placed in a manger. But the season of Advent is not just celebratory, it’s preparatory. It is a time when those who believe in the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ prepare and make ready for the second coming, the day when Jesus will show up again on this earth not as a wriggling, controllable infant but as an uncontrollable, all powerful King.

Simple Jars of Clay

Black Friday falls on the day after Thanksgiving and has earned the reputation of being the busiest shopping day of the year. The name was adopted from an accounting term - red ink denotes a negative profit margin, whereas "in the black" denotes a positive profit margin. Many retailers make or break their sales goals between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and so they named the season’s kick-off "Black Friday", in the hopes that it is prophetic.

With the need to sell you something, so that their season remains in the black, businesses will do all sorts of things to get you to buy. Because they are sometimes sneaky in their tactics here are just a few bits of advice to keep you from getting sold a bill of goods.

Some stores will advertise that they have a limited time offer. Be aware that if they can make you feel it’s urgent and if they can convince you that you might lose out, you will be more likely to make a purchase.

Retailers will advertise a really popular item at a really cheap price, but may only have a few in stock. This is because they figure once they get you into their store that you won’t want to have wasted the trip and won’t want to leave empty handed. Try leaving a few stores empty handed.

Companies have learned that if they list an item at $5.99 instead of $ 6.00 you’re more likely to buy it. This is called the left-digit effect. Because your brain reads left to right and reads 5 instead of 6 you will be more likely to purchase something at $5.99 even if you thought $6.00 was too expensive. Also, if they leave off the dollar sign you are less likely to think about the purchase in monetary terms and you are more likely to purchase the product.

To overcome the “I can’t afford it” objection, a salesman may break down a figure into daily amounts to minimize the appearance of the overall cost of larger items. They may say something like, “you can afford an extra $100 a month…it comes to only $3 a day, same as a Starbucks coffee. Remember it’s still $1100 a year.

Be careful when making side-by-side comparisons; one of the items might be a decoy. Often retailers will place a high-priced decoy on the shelf next to popular items. This item will be ticketed at a much higher price and it will help make you feel good about picking the second highest priced product even if previously you would have been perfectly happy with less expensive model.

The biggest shopping day of the year is in two days and everyone is trying to sell us something. They lower the price, up the shine and put the pretty stuff all out front. And it works. Most of us are suckers for a 40% off sign, we love a “buy one get one” and product placement gets me every time. I don’t even really like gum but I almost always grab a pack at the checkout line because it just looks so fruity and accessible.

We’re all more likely to buy if there’s a good pitch and to be honest during my lifetime I’ve watched the church become increasingly savvy in its own efforts to persuade people to come into the building and purchase what we’re selling. Often we have lowered the price and told people it’s a limited time offer and we have put all the shiny stuff out front.

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” 2 Cor. 4:17

The apostle Paul says that actually we’re not meant to market the gospel. We have this treasure in jars of clay so that no one will think we sold them a bill of goods. In fact as followers of Jesus it’s dangerous for us walk around in shiny vessels with slick tactics because it makes people purchase us rather than commit to God. Paul says that polish in this life can actually hinder the gospel, not because polish is bad in and of itself, but because pride follows around polish like a pesky little brother. And once our polished lives experience a little bit of success it becomes easy to believe that the kingdom is advancing because we’re smart, funny, rich, influential and witty. As a result of such a prideful assessment we buff up our jars of clay all the more and begin to believe that God needs the polish to market the gospel.

It is no surprise that the power of the gospel begins to decrease as our efforts increase. What’s even more tragic than the power decrease is that when the church begins to fear failure, rather than repenting of its shiny tactics and pursing God’s power so often we seek after other tools for success. And soon it becomes about who can spin the good news the best, who can make a service more seamless, who can woo in the crowds with the best deal, and who can draw dozens in the door with the most culturally relevant message, the most charismatic pastor, and the next big thing in Christianity.

Perhaps it’s time we remember that we’re actually not supposed to use wise and persuasive words, or a slick and savvy sales pitch. In fact, the apostle Paul says repeatedly that we are not to trick people, please people, flatter people or seek praise from them in return. Rather we set forth the truth plainly in simple clay pots, confident that the good news is so good that we don’t need decoys, limited time offers or persuasive pricing tactics.

Good News for All

This weekend I had the opportunity to spend some time in Minnesota with my mother. In the weeks preceding my visit she had been cleaning out a bedroom closet and had come across a box full of my siblings and my old school projects and report cards and so some of our time together was spent reminiscing. While I didn’t have time to go through the entire pile in detail I did leaf through a few of the documents and we had a good laugh as I read the footnotes on my report cards which consistently said, “Judy has trouble talking too much in class.”

It was also interesting to take note of our grade school world view. In response to the question, “What makes you worried?” My sister responded that she was concerned about inflation because it was increasing the cost of peanut butter and in my report about an important individual in the life of the United States I detailed the courageous journey of Christopher Columbus. The hand drawn pictures included in my report bear witness to my limited understanding of the implications of the “discovery” of the Americas. You can see my naiveté in one of my pictures where Native Americans and Pilgrims are smiling and sharing a feast with one another, both comfortable in their own clothes and both groups seemingly eager to get to know one another’s culture.

As I sat at the edge of my childhood bed and as I leafed through that construction paper project I found myself deeply saddened by the fact that my public school education taught me that Columbus’ arrival in the Americans was good news to everyone involved. There is absolutely nothing written in my newly learned cursive handwriting about the decimation of way of life, the exploitation of a culture or the dehumanization of an entire people. Instead my cursive contains words like conquer, colonize, and correct.

The Confirmation certificate from my church was also a part of that pile of papers and I wish I could tell you that in those classes I learned something entirely different from conquer and colonize, but to the great sadness of God, the church has rarely offered an alternative option when encountering people who are different from us. Instead, the church has often played a significant role in spreading the idea that the good news can be offered through conquering, colonizing and correcting. Perhaps too often we have forgotten that Jesus Christ was not afraid to clothe himself in the garments of those he loved and that he never clothed us in garments of legalism, shame, and oppression.

When Jesus birth is announced by the angels to a people group living out in the fields, it is announced in this way, “We bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.” And so today I invite you to consider whether or not what you craft out of construction paper and what you write on the pages of history is good news for all the people. Perhaps if we are all attentive to the history that our lives are writing in the present, our children’s construction paper projects will be a bit different than our own.

Crossing Circles

During my second year of seminary I wrote a proposal for my internship. It was only one page and it only had three points because the details would have to wait as much of how the internship would pan out was still unknown. But three things I was clear about. “I feel called to walk with God, not just people who know him, but God himself. I feel called to walk with whomever he places in my path without choosing whom I have a preference for and I feel called to walk to churches so that I can encourage them to walk with God and walk with whomever he places in their path.”

Three things I was clear about. I didn’t know where these principles would take me but I knew that I was called to walk with God, to walk with people and to walk to churches. Although 13 years have passed since I wrote that one page I remain clear about these three things. I haven’t always known where I’m called to walk but I have remained clear about how I’m called to walk, with God, with people and with the church.

These convictions have prompted me to walk into places I otherwise would never have set foot and they have led me to walk with people that I probably would have rushed past if I had been walking according to my preference. I remember one such occasion when I was walking through Worthington, Minnesota. I remember it was raining on this particular day and I had just sat under an overpass to get out of the rain and to patch up the blisters on my feet.

I had at this point been walking with God, walking with people and walking to churches for about 1500 miles and I was tired and grumpy and it was cold and wet and when I stepped back out into the rain I remember distinctly that I wasn’t loving walking with God. I wanted to be sitting with God in a nice warm chair, in a nice warm house, with a nice warm cup of coffee. I found that walking with God is amazing, but it isn’t always nice, at least not how we define it.

It was then that a car pulled over and asked if I needed a ride. “No”, I said and continued with very little enthusiasm, “I’m walking with Jesus.” The woman responded, “Aren’t you afraid?” “No,” I said, “Jesus can see where I am and he’s keeping an eye out for me.” The woman paused for only a moment and then asked, “Can I talk to you?” The call on my life went through my head…whoever God puts in my path without preference.

She pulled off into the parking lot of a John Deere tractor store and invited me to sit in her car to get out of the rain. As soon as we were both seated in the car this young woman began to weep and through the sobs she said, “My boyfriend abuses me. He doesn’t let me out of the house and yesterday I decided that I’d had enough and I had to get out. This morning I took our child and I put him in the car seat and I took the keys to the car, but when I got to the back door my boyfriend was standing there and he told me I could take the kid or the car but not both. She continued, "I didn’t know what to do so I left my kid and jumped in the car and now I can’t go back but I have to get my kid. Can you help me?"

Whomever he places in my path without choosing whom I have a preference for.

I didn’t know what to do, but knew I had no choice but to figure it out if I was going to be faithful to the call. Through a series of crazy events the police came to our assistance, the child was given to its mother and that evening all three of us were taken in by a family who was also called to walk with God and walk with people. After dinner together with this family the young woman asked me, “Is it always like this for you?” I smiled and said, “Well not exactly like this, but on the best occasions this is what it’s like to be a part of the family of God. We sit around tables together sharing what we have with one another.”

The young woman was thoughtful and then said, “I’ve been trying to learn about God. I went to a church because they were giving away free winter coats and I got a coat but they didn’t tell me anything about God. And I have a children’s book about God that I read to Ethan, but I don’t really get it.” She continued with words that have stuck with me for the past 13 years, “It’s like there are two circles, you guys are all in one and you know stuff and we’re all in another and we don’t know stuff. Fact is, we don’t even know we need to know stuff and the two circles don’t cross. How come you don’t share stuff with us?”

This morning in chapel we begin a new series. In September we talked about the good vision of God’s community. In October we affirmed that it’s so good that we would even put aside our differences to keep it intact. Now in November we want to challenge you if you are convinced that this really is good news. Why not place yourself in some strategic places where you can share some of this stuff with people who are in other circles.