The Time Has Come

21 Jesus declared, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” John 4:21-24 (NIV)

Jesus said to the woman at the well that a “time is coming” when worship will no longer be a matter of location. Not only is it coming, he said “it has come.” Most often in this passage we rightfully focus on what it means to worship “in spirit and in truth,” but reflect for a moment on what follows: “they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.” We typically  equate our worship with seeking after the presence of God. Jesus said that God is seeking after us. God is not waiting on us to find him; he is seeking after us. He is not, in Jesus own words, seeking worship but worshipers. Whatever else it may mean, a personal relationship with God at is at the center of “spirit and truth.”

Jesus in the Margins

While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?” On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not he healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” — Matthew 9:10-13

This coming Sunday, 11.20.11, we’ll begin a new 4 part lesson series entitled “Jesus in the Margins.” Jesus was castigated for spending time with tax collectors and sinners, prostitutes and lepers, the people who had been marginalized by the religious establishment and polite society. Yet, for his part, Jesus said this should be no surprise to anyone. That’s like fussing at a doctor for spending all his time in the clinic!

Not that Jesus minds being fussed at . . . what really matters, what is fundamental in relationship with God and with one another are those profound words of truth: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” Disciples of Jesus are called to extend mercy and grace to everyone. Our worship of God, our sacrifice, never entitles us to look down on anyone else, to kick anyone to the margins, to be exclusionary.  Go and learn what this means: God in heaven and God Jesus in the flesh loves everyone; cares about everyone; desires relationship with everyone.

 

The Encouragement App: 10.30.11

He who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.
Proverbs 11:25

Here’s a great quote from John Maxwell, “Man does not live by bread alone: sometimes he needs a little buttering up.” The need for encouragement, for positive affirmation in our lives and our relationships cannot be overstated.  Social scientists study something called the positivity/negativity ratio (P/N). Studies consistently demonstrate that for teams of people who work together there is a direct relationship between the P/N ratio and team performance. More positive reinforcement equals higher performance. More negativity equals poorer performance. Others have found that marriages with a ratio of 5:1 (5 positive statements for every every one negative statement) flourish while whose with ratios less than 1 (more negative than positive) most often end in divorce.

It takes willful and directed effort to keep the ratio where it needs to be in our relationships. There is something in all of us that tends to default to negativity and criticism if we aren’t mindful about it. And, let’s be honest, we also can heap negativity on ourselves just as easily as we pour it on others. In the New Testament Barnabas was known as the “son of encouragement.” It will serve us all well to be a Barnabas in our marriages, in raising our children,  in our workplace, in our church family and in our community. Join us this coming Sunday as we learn about “The Encouragement App.”

PS – This coming Sunday, 10/30/11, is the day when our Sunday worship times are changing to 9 & 11 A.M.

The Trust App: 10.23.11

Shakespeare’s play “All’s Well that Ends Well” opens with young Bertram assuming the title of Count of Rossillion following the death of his father. Bertram asks his mother for advice and she shares the following with him:

Be thou blest, Bertram, and succeed thy father
In manners, as in shape! thy blood and virtue
Contend for empire in thee, and thy goodness
Share with thy birthright!
Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none . . .

This Sunday, 10/23, we’ll be considering the importance of trust.; trust is an essential element of strong and healthy relationships. Trust is critical in our marriages, our families, even in our business and work relationships. Faith and trust are the basis of our relationship with God. So, did the countess have it right? Are we best off only trusting a select few or is there another way? Come and join us as we seek God’s wisdom on the matter of trust.

The Rest App: 10.16.11

According to the National Sleep Foundation (yes, there really is one), Americans are not getting enough sleep. In fact, 2/3′s of our adult population gets less than the minimum recommended amount of 7 hours on any given week night. And sleeping in on Saturday doesn’t catch you up. Most of us are living with a growing sleep deficit that affects our moods, our performance, our relationships and leaves us feeling fatigued much of the time. So, why are we staying up so late at night? It seems that technology is the main enemy of sleep and rest for many of us . . . TV, cell phones and texting, computers and video games. Many people report that several nights a week they engage in these brain stimulating activities in the hour before they go to bed several nights a week. We can switch off the computer or the TV but we can’t switch off our brain. All of the artificial light and stimulation from these devices fire up the brain with the effect of rendering us awake and alert and unable to fall asleep when our heads hit the pillow.

From the very beginning, in the Genesis creation story, God gave priority to the importance of rest . . . on the seventh day God rested from his labor. Come and join us this week we seek God’s wisdom about the importance of rest. And then go home and have a good Sunday afternoon nap!

The Confession App: 10.09.11

Judging from the proliferation of on-line sites, a lot of us are feeling the need for confession. Check out this CNN article about on-line confession . . . http://goo.gl/wQOZm Here’s a quote from one site: The online confessional is a place for you to unburden your soul of the sins and crimes you’ve committed. It’s a place for you to confess what you’ve done without fear of censure or ridicule. It is a place where it is safe for you to release your inner demons without being identified. The words you post here are forever detached from any identity you wish to create. What is here remains here, and your words in this place will never return to you. How convenient. If you’re Catholic, however, the Vatican says “no” to online confession . . . http://goo.gl/GJg54 Here’s a quote from another on-line confessional: Many people find that the act of confession is useful in moving past mistakes of the past. It is also a useful way to begin a commitment to a better life in the future. It helps eliminate the toxic residue of guilt from your life. As you unburden yourself of past sins, remember to also forgive those who have wronged you. This will help greatly with the process and bring additional peace. Write about your sins here. If you don’t want to write about your sins, you may enter an “X” to signify that you have thought about your sins and wish to turn from them and seek forgiveness.

If you browse some of these sites and read the online confessions that have been posted (don’t recommend this as many of the seem to be R rated and beyond) it is clear that folks are wanting to confess but not many seem very interested in changing their behavior. They want absolution without the repentance that leads to a changed life. Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s The Cost of Discipleship is a timeless warning about the dangers of this:

Cheap grace means grace sold on the market like a cheapjack’s wares.  The sacraments, the forgiveness of sin, and the consolations of religion are thrown away at cut-rate prices.  Grace is represented as the Church’s inexhaustible treasury, from which she showers blessings with generous hands, without asking questions or fixing limits.  Grace without price; grace without cost!  And the essence of grace, we suppose, is that the account has been paid in advance; and, because it has been paid, everything can be had for nothing.  Since the cost was infinite, the possibilities of using and spending it are infinite.  What would grace be, if it were not cheap?   . . .  In such a Church the world finds a cheap covering for its sins; no contrition is required, still less any real desire to be delivered from sin . . .  Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner.  Grace alone does everything, they say, and so everything can remain as it was before.         Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, (it is) baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession.  Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate. 

This coming Sunday we’ll continue our study of Life Applications, focusing on the importance of the Confession App. We’ll see that the goal of confession is not a clear conscience, but a changed life. Genuine confession leads to genuine change.

The Forgiveness App: 10.02.11

The Forgiveness App: Forgiven People Forgive

Don Henley wrote a great lyric:
I’ve been tryin’ to get down to the heart of the matter,
But my will gets weak, and my thoughts seem to scatter,
But I think it’s about forgiveness, forgiveness,
Even if, even if you don’t love me anymore.

Life and relationships are at times messy, complicated, painful, disappointing, hurtful, aggrieving and all the rest. Michael Stipes said it this way, “everybody hurts sometime.” It’s a part of the human experience. We’ve all been hurt, wronged, let down and treated unfairly. And, let’s be honest, we’ve all done it to someone else. But the real heart of the matter is what we do with the hurt and disappointment.

We can nurse it into a grudge, resentment and ultimately a desire for revenge. Sometimes we secretly hold it inside; sometimes we go public. Either way, it doesn’t get any better but instead tightens its hold, robbing us of life and joy and never allowing us to move on. We become stuck in time, consumed by the moment of our injury.

Paul wrote this to the believers in Rome (Romans 12:17-21):
17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. 20 On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (NIV)

There is an app for those who’ve been hurt and it’s called forgiveness. The forgiveness and grace that we have found in Christ call us to extend grace and forgiveness to others. We only dig the hole deeper when we repay evil for evil. Forgiveness is always the way forward.