Pastor Judy's Blog

Kindness

Two weeks ago my husband and I were driving home from Chicago’s O’Hare airport when I made an off the cuff statement that started a rather in depth conversation. I had causally begun the conversation with the statement, “You don’t think about morality much do you?” Jeff’s quick response was “Hey, that’s not fair. I’m not immoral.” To which I clarified, “I don’t think you’re immoral, I just said that you don’t think about morality very much. It’s almost like you don’t ask the question is this right or wrong but instead you constantly put everything through the filter of ‘Is this kind or unkind?’” We continued the discussion all the way to our apartment and came to the conclusion that making a decision based on kindness almost always cultivates a character that looks quite similar to Jesus.

Kindness is often underrated among those who follow Christ. Right and wrong, moral or immoral is where so many of us live so much of the time. Discussions about morality help us define who’s in and who’s out and what we should and shouldn’t be doing and in some cases it is a necessary conversation. However, I fear that we often use morality to run right over kindness. And I fear that to a watching world morality without kindness is not compelling at all.

Kindness is listed as one of the fruits of the Spirit, along with love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control and according to Galatians 5:22-23, “Against such things there is no law.” Apparently an act of kindness can never be immoral. Jesus seemed to understand this principle when he broke the law and healed a man on the Sabbath and when he stopped a legal stoning of a woman caught in adultery. Apparently kindness sometimes needs to supersede the conversation of whether or not an action is right or wrong.

Kindness is listed as a fruit and fruit grows only when it is attached to the vine or the branch. In John 15 Jesus says,

“I am the true vine, and my Father the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful…. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a person remains in me and I in them, they will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing…. This is to my Father’s glory that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

Throughout this month in chapel we have talked about growing in Christ-like character. We began the month by talking about the discipline and stamina that is required to produce such character. I encouraged you to let go of bad habits and behave in the way you want to become and last week we took an honest look at temptation and how easily we are drawn away from our diligent pursuit of Christ’ character. I believe that these things are all necessary if we hope to become more like Christ. However, as we end this month together I want to make it perfectly clear that connection and not just discipline produces fruit. A disciplined branch bears no fruit unless it is connected to the vine. If we want to bear the fruit of Christ-like character there is no shortcut for connection. We must spend time with the One whom we wish to not only emulate but to embody, in this way we will show ourselves to be Jesus’ disciples to a world that is watching for clues.

This morning we invite you to join us as we continue to seek this connection. Efrem Smith, pastor of Sanctuary Covenant Church will be bringing the message this morning. Pastor Efrem Smith is the author of two books, Raising up Young Heroes and The Hip Hop Church, an itinerant speaker for Kingdom Building Ministries and is on the board of North Park University. www.efremsmith.com Come and join us as we seek a deeper connection with God through our worship together.

May we bear much fruit so that a watching world will see Christ’s character manifested in and through us.

Alarm Bells

Have you ever noticed how many people at the pinnacle of some journey, whether it’s related to their career or to some other facet of life, find themselves plummeting down the slippery slope of moral disaster. It appears that the road we often call “success” is bordered by the steep terrain of temptation and the seemingly bottomless canyon of immoral and unethical decisions. Bernie Maddoff with his ponzie scheme, Michael Vick with his penchant for dog fighting, Ted Haggard and his sex scandal and King David who at the pinnacle of his career, slept with another man’s wife and then had the man murdered to cover his own wrong. All of them were so close to the top and all of them were so willing to risk winding up on the bottom.

Don’t you want to ask them, “Didn’t you hear the alarm bells going off?” “Wasn’t your conscience screaming at you?” I want to ask the question but I already know the answer. The alarms did go off they just decided to disconnect the wires so that they could pursue the passing rather than the permanent. This I believe is a risk for all of us for you don’t have to be famous to face temptation. Every day there are hundreds of temptations that seek to derail our character, there is the short cut we can take, the half-truth we can tell, the gaze that we can let linger, or the blind eye we can turn. Temptations confront all of us and none of us are immune to a misstep on the steep slope we are climbing.

And so as we seek to climb the steep slope toward a life of significance and service let us be vigilant in even the small steps that we take so that together we can avoid the pitfalls and together we can reach the pinnacle. This morning let me pass on a bit of advice for our very steep climb.

Don’t let your success diminish your accountability. The longer we climb the more risks we are willing to take. Places we used to go only when tethered to a friend we now feel confident we can handle all by ourselves. This is an incredibly dangerous habit for those of us in leadership. It is incredibly helpful, and practically essential, to have someone in your life who can and will ask you the tough questions.

Avoid a lifestyle filled with hyperactivity. When we are too busy and find ourselves juggling too many things it is impossible for us to simultaneously focus on our footing. Set a few things down, step back and look at where you are standing and take some time to get things in order spiritually, physically and emotionally.

Don’t disconnect the alarm. God loves us enough to wire us with an alarm system, listen to the alarm. Most people who find themselves in a precarious position had premonitions long before that the path they were on was less than perfect. Listen carefully for the alarms. Don’t push past a feeling of discomfort. Ask yourself if the path you’re on is the one you really want to walk.

God is taking us on a radical journey full of fantastic view, let’s not let a misstep ruin the tip. This morning in chapel we will join together in worship reminding ourselves that this is not a journey that we need to go alone. We have friends who will climb with us and a God who will provide for us a firm footing.

Shalom aleichem, May well-being be upon you.

Growing...

I have noticed an interesting shift in myself this month as we have turned our focus in chapel from Knowing our Christian Identity to now Growing in Christ-like Character. I don’t think I like the growing as much as the knowing. Perhaps it’s because the primary task in knowing our Christian identity is to uncover, claim and believe what God has said about who we already are but growing our Christ-like character requires the disciplined work of getting our behavior to line up with who we want to become. God it seems gives us our identity but we have to form our character and that requires a lot of intentional work.

When I was child I sucked my thumb. According to my mother my thumb entered my mouth just seconds after I came into the world. It was my first comfort, my earliest coping mechanism, and my go-to when times got tough. I cringe a bit at sharing this for I am sure some of the psychology professors here at the University will have a heyday with this information, but I sucked my thumb off and on until the sixth grade. Not in public of course and not even in just any old place in my house, but still after a long hard day in grade school I would come home, retreat to my room and suck my thumb. My mother tried endlessly to get me to stop but it was a very difficult habit for me to break and it was exacerbated by the fact that I couldn’t distance myself from my coping mechanism because it was attached to the end of my arm.

When I arrived in junior high school I knew it had to stop. Sleepovers and summer camp were coming and I was horrified by the thought that even if I could get to sleep without it that I would wake up with my thumb in my mouth and everyone gathered around me pointing at my bad habit. And so I began the disciplined work of weaning myself off of my thumb. I tried all sorts of tactics including hot sauce on the tip of my thumb, wearing a sock over my hand when I went to sleep and most of all never allowing myself even a moment of catharsis even at the end of the worst of my junior high days. In place of the thumb sucking I took up reading. In the beginning it wasn’t nearly as satisfying but it helped me wind down after a day at school and generally helped me get to sleep at night. As a side note I don’t know that it was beneficial to my studies to connect reading with sleeping, but it did help the weaning process. I don’t know exactly when the breakthrough came, but after a lot of self-denial and a whole lot of redirection I finally broke the habit.

Growing in Christ-like character or more simply said, behaving like Jesus requires a similar commitment to getting rid of our childish ways. The bad habits we have developed and the coping mechanisms that are within arms reach will have to be intentionally dealt with and the character traits we desire will have to be purposefully embraced if we hope to grow into who we want to become. For is Scripture it says:

No prolonged infancies among us, please. We'll not tolerate babes in the woods, small children who are aneasy mark for impostors. God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love—like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do. He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love.

And so I insist—and God backs me up on this—that there be no going along with the crowd, the empty-headed, mindless crowd. They've refused for so long to deal with God that they've lost touch not only with God but with reality itself. They can't think straight anymore. Feeling no pain, they let themselves go in sexual obsession, addicted to every sort of perversion.

But that's no life for you. You learned Christ! My assumption is that you have paid careful attention to him, been well instructed in the truth precisely as we have it in Jesus. Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that old way of life has to go. It's rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you.

This month in chapel as we talk about growing in Christ-like character I hope you will join us so that we might support one another in the difficult work of getting our behavior to line up with who we want to become. This morning we invite you to join us as we hear the word of God proclaimed by Rev. Jeremy Del Rio, activist, teacher, lawyer and a man of God who has entered into the discipline of growing in Christ-like character.

Let’s grow together.

P.S. When I was 30 years old I woke up one morning with my thumb in my mouth. I don’t know what that was about but I want to remind you that old habits die hard.

Keep On Walking

“I don't want to walk today. I'm tired and I don't want to walk." I said the words out loud, but nobody was listening because once again I was sitting on the side of the road all by myself. I was about 1500 miles into my 4000-mile journey and I felt confident that day that I was crazy to have begun such a long walk. Perhaps this morning you are in the middle of a very long journey.

I could see a town just up ahead and I made it my goal to get there and find a place to quit for the day. I walked into town and found its only motel, which was less then inviting. Its red carpet was threadbare and it smelled of rancid smoke, but I didn't care because I didn't want to walk that day. I laid the money for the room on the counter and then hesitated for a moment and withdrew the fifty dollars. The desk clerk who had a cigarette burning in a nearby ashtray looked me up and down, "You want a room or not?" Perhaps you are considering quitting for the day.

"Hey Miss, you want a room?" I shook my head and turned to leave. Something in me, something very small but very persistent nudged me back out the door. The desk clerk mumbled a "humph" under her breath and I opened the door and walked back out into the light. Perhaps you would consider listening to that small nudge.

The whole earth outside that door was brown. I'm told South Dakota is always blanketed in an earth tone but it seemed especially dull that day. It didn’t help that the terrain was flat as far as the eye could see and it’s always difficult to get motivated when everything looks the same. As I squinted in the sunlight I did see a small rise in the road and I decided to make that my first goal. Perhaps if you look closely you will find a small rise in the road…your first goal.

I'd like to tell you that walking for Jesus is a piece of cake, or even that everyday I experience something spectacular, but the reality is there is a whole lot of earth tone in my walk with Jesus. In fact a good share of the days that I get up and walk out my faith are more about a decision than a desire, more about my will than my “want-to”.

I can tell you however that there are moments within these disciplined days that God gives me a peek at the brilliant and the breathtaking. I won't make this a rule or anything, but I would say that most of glimpses have happened after I've made the decision to walk in the earth tone world. Perhaps today you will override your “want-to” and continue the discipline of walking.

On that particular day somewhere near Presho, South Dakota God broke into my brown world and gave me enough of a glimpse to keep going. You know that small rise in the road, my first goal for the day? Well it took me about an hour to travel to that small rise and I worked for every step. I recall singing a few songs but mostly I just remember that I watched my feet…step….step…step.

As I came over that little ridge I gasped and then began to cry. Not a sad cry, but rather a hysterical, laughing sort of cry. There in front of me bloomed a billion sunflowers in the middle of the earth tone world. As far as I could see, their smiling faces were lifted to the sun. I ran into the field and sat down amongst them and as I swayed back and forth I felt like one of them. I must have been quite a sight from the interstate sitting but I didn't care because I was embraced by pure joy for on that day, the day I didn't want to walk, God broke in with something brilliant. Perhaps today there will be glimpses of something breathtaking and brilliant…you will never know unless you keep on walking.

This month in chapel we will be talking about Growing in Christ-like Character which grown best when we decide to keep on walking a disciplined walk with Jesus. I hope you will decide to walk with us this month and I pray also that together we will catch glimpses of the brilliant things that God is doing.

This morning in chapel we will celebrate together Hispanic Heritage Month. In honor of the celebration our own Lorenzo Florian will be leading us in worship along with Father Joseph Tito, pastor of Our Lady of Mercy who will be bringing the message to us today. We invite you to join us this morning as we worship together in song and in prayer and in joining together in communion around the Lord’s Table.

Come and catch a glimpse of something brilliant.