DRESSING UP JESUS

I have to admit right here and now that I come from a long history of Christian Church attendance and ministry.  I have been a seminary trained pastor.  One of the big questions that churches and people seem to wrestle with is, “How do we present Jesus to the world.”  A version of that question seems to have come up in the church I currently attend.  Before you think that I may be trashing my church, I am not, but sometimes I do have some objections to how we/they and others choose to do ministry. 

Our church is a very special one.  It is one that truly is striving to share and live out the message and ministry of Jesus.  Our church, however, just recently looked at their demographics and realized that our median age is getting older.  We don’t seem to be reaching the new generation of young adults.  With the concern that this information produced, a new associate pastor was hired with the job of reworking the worship services and surroundings to be more young adult friendly or attractive, or something.

This bugged me.  I have always been bugged by the Church in general’s attempts to “Dress Up Jesus” as I call it.  Again, I have to admit that our church’s efforts were fairly low key, especially when compared to those employed by other churches.  We didn’t put on a carnival.  We didn’t put on a circus type show in our “sanctuary”.  The staging, lighting, sound, and stage and wall dressings were changed or updated; and the worship teams and style were changed.  As I say, it wasn’t much but it was a change for the reason of making our church, our message, us, and possibly our Lord more presentable/acceptable to those we were trying to reach.

I have to say here that I used to be a dress up kind of guy—that is in a wardrobe sort of way.  In my teens and early adulthood, I was one who really hit the highest and most current fashions.  It was important to me.  My wife looks back at that and then looks at me now and wonders what happened.  If I’m going to be at my most comfortable, I’m going to be in a T-shirt and cargo shorts with my Birkenstock sandles.  In colder times, I wear jeans or cargo pants with denim or plaid shirts, a barn coat and fedora hat.  I feel I have, through the years, found my style.  I do still own some dress clothes and my wife really loves it when I dress up when we go out.  What I’m trying to say is dress clothes, though they look good on me and make me look good, don’t really show the real me.  I am a casual, rumpled, sometimes mess of a guy.  Dressing me up doesn’t change that.

I’m not saying that Jesus is a casual, rumpled mess.  What I’m trying to say is that Jesus, the Son of God, the Savior of the World does not need to be dressed up.  In fact, I believe that any attempts to dress up Jesus only serve to shadow the truth of who He is.  To give some support to what I am trying to say, I would like to look at some Bible verses and see what sort of packaging we see of Jesus.

The first one to look at would be at His birth.  Luke 2  tells us that Jesus was born in a barn.  Have you ever been in a barn?  They don’t smell good.  I would venture to say that none of the animals in that stable/barn were house trained.  No matter how clean you try to keep a barn, it smells like animals and their processes.  Not only was Jesus born in a barn, but he was wrapped up in basic swaddling wraps of the day.  I know many have gone so far as to say that Jesus was wrapped up in rags, but that is not true.  He was not, however, dressed in the trappings of a royal baby.  He was dressed in the clothings of a common, working class baby.  Then, of course, His first crib was a feeding trough for the animals of the barn, what we call a manger.  This and all of the other things I haven't shared about His birth is how God Almighty decided to “package” his Son as he gifted the world with Him.  Not very attractive, huh?

The packaging continued as he grew.  He was known as just plain Jesus, the son of the carpenter.  As we get to the beginning of His ministry, Jesus was led  into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit (recorded in Matthew, Mark, and Luke).  It was here that he was tempted by Satan, himself.  One of the temptations directly related to how Jesus would present Himself to the world.  He was challenged to throw Himself from the highest point of the Temple and have the Angels catch him in full view of everyone there.  What a show!  What a miraculous spectacle! It would have really impressed many people.  It would have been a real attention getter, but Jesus chose against it.   Jesus, chose not to present Himself that way.  Jesus chose against the show, the trappings, the marketing, the hype.

We can see from the Gospel accounts of his ministry that Jesus stayed committed to this choice.  He was basically a vagabond of sorts.  He never sought the place of honor.  He commented to one would be follower that He had no place to lay His head (Matt 8 & Luke 9).  Whenever He was invited into the house of a dignitary He wasn't even honored with a foot wash.  At the time of the Passover, just before his crucifixion, something special played out.  The King was entering the city, but he specifically chose to enter it in an unexpected way..  He had no trappings of royalty.  No armor nor army..  No prancing steed.  Just Him, on a young donkey with a small band of ragtag followers.  Not quite the presentation that one would expect from the King of Kings.  Of course the people sang and praised Him, but they were mistaken.  They still thought he would be the great religious and political deliverer—an earthly savior.  These same people would be screaming for His death in a matter of days.

And then…did He  ascend to a throne?  Not unless you consider a cross a throne.  This savior who came to earth in such a meager way…who chose to follow a life and ministry out of the spotlight...who entered His capital city on a small donkey would not ascend a throne, but be raised up in ridicule and shame as a common criminal on a cross of crucifixion.  So much for the packaging of a King.  So much for the Dressing Up of Jesus.

But this unpackaged, plain brown wrapper Jesus did touch lives.  People came to him.  People followed Him.  People later died for Him and His message.  How could that happen with such a non- packaged Jesus?  It happened because people had a need for this type of savior.  People as a whole and as individuals had a hole in their beings that only this type of savior could fill.  This Jesus, this generically packaged Jesus, this non-flamboyant Jesus, this non-king like Jesus brought the One True God of Love, Mercy and Grace into people’s lives.

A very short tax collector who was hated for his oppression of his fellow countrymen didn’t need a package.  He needed someone who would see him in a tree and befriend him, going to his house for dinner (Luke 19).  A dressed up Jesus wasn’t what the woman caught in adultery needed as she was surrounded by her well dressed religious leader accusers.  She needed someone who truly loved her.  Someone who would look into her and be able to show mercy and grace.  The woman at the well, whose life had been off the rails for a very long time, needed a dusty, hungry and thirsty traveler to sit down, talk with her, and give her a drink of living water.  The publicans and sinners that Jesus sat with and ate and drank with… the woman who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears… the foreigner, Syrophoenician woman, who brashly argued with Jesus to get her daughter healed…Mary Magdalene…Peter, the fisherman…they all had a need in their lives that could only be met by Jesus as he was, not as we would package Him or dress Him up.

Jesus is enough.  His message of love, grace and mercy is enough.  It’s never the packaging that is important.  It may dazzle the eyes, but it is honestly the gift that is inside that is important.  With Jesus, the gift inside is what we need.  It is what the world needs.  You may say, that if the gift is still the same, what harm is there in packaging?  I would answer that we humans are so shallow, we’ll end up like toddlers on Christmas Day.  We’ll forget the gift and play with the packaging.

Let’s choose not to dress up Jesus.  He doesn’t need it.  We don’t need it.  They, the world, don’t need it.

And Like a Good Neighbor…

As far as neighbors go, I am usually running back in the pack if not losing the race.  You know, the neighbor race, don’t you?  That competition in which we all see which of us in the neighborhood can have the cleanest lawn, the prettiest lawn, etc, etc, etc.  I’ve never been a leader of the pack when it comes to such things.  I once had a neighbor lady who seemed to see lawn mowing as a competition.  No matter when I mowed my lawn, which wasn't often, she would mow hers the very next day whether it had been mowed two or three days before or not.  This started to get to me, so I decided to have a little fun with her.  The next time this happened, I went to the inane trouble of mowing my lawn the very day after she had mowed hers.  Sure enough, she mowed hers the next day.  I was going to keep this up for a while, but I realized I hated mowing more than I hated the fun of messing with my neighbor.

Jesus taught that we were to love our neighbors, and when pressed as to who our neighbors might be, he told the well known story of the Good Samaritan.  To recall the story, a guy gets mugged on a stretch of road and left for dead.  Religious leaders of differing types noticed but passed by avoiding the whole situation.  Finally a foreigner, a guy from the next country over who, though not a war like enemy, despised and hated just the same, came by and stopped to render aid.  He not only rendered aid, but carried the injured man to an inn and paid for his care and recovery, and kept tabs on the guy until he was fully recovered.

The point of the story is, the guy who was recognized as an enemy was the only one who was the true neighbor.  He showed love.  He crossed the established border/boundaries and met the man where his need was.

I have to admit here that it is hard for me to be a good neighbor, in the light that Jesus paints it.  I am an introvert.  I don’t go outside of my personal comfort zone to meet new and/or different people very often; even if they live right next door.  There are a lot like me in urbia/suburbia.  We try to satisfy the call to be a good neighbor by mowing our lawn on time, not making too much noise at inappropriate times, waiving when accidentally forced to make eye contact while carrying out the trash.  That’s being a good neighbor, right? 

Jesus tells us there’s more to being a good neighbor.  He tells us it involves opening our eyes, and seeing the need of those around us.  We’ve all done it.  We see someone stranded along the side of the road and we drive on.  We may even pull to the farther lane to go around them.  Oh, we may whisper a prayer for them or something.  The religious men who walked past the dying man may have also gone that far.  What good did it do him?  In this day and age, one does need to take certain precautions, but do we use those precautions as excuses too many times?  And this, of course is just a “for instance”.  But yes, there is need all around us and we need to open our eyes to see it.

Secondly, we need to cross borders and boundaries to be a good neighbor.  I’m not sure who coined the phrase “good fences make good neighbors”, but I don’t think Jesus would agree here.  I live in a wooded lot on the edge of a large metropolitan area.  The boundaries of my property are planted with spruce trees which have grown to be a strong visual barrier on three sides of me with no one across from me.  We bought the property particularly for the beauty and privacy it provided.  I have, however, of late realized that this separation may not set well with Jesus’ teachings.  One great thing about the boundary is that they can’t see my back yard which, in some ways, exposes my heritage and tendency to have “stuff’, and/or “junk” around.  Without this covering, I would not be the aforementioned “good neighbor” because my stuff could be seen as an eyesore by others.    My safe boundary also keeps me from seeing those around me.  It keeps me from entering into any type of relationship.  It keeps me from having a chance to see their need if it were to arise.

The Samaritan had a choice.  It was a bigger choice than the religious leaders in the story had.  He had a choice, not just to get involved, but to cross a very definite boundary to get so involved.  Jesus told this story to Jews and used a member of a true nemesis nation of Israel to make his point even stronger.  In the story, the Samaritan would have felt the same enmity toward the Jews as they felt toward him.  He was faced with a very definite choice not to just stop and render aid, he was faced with the choice to stop and render aid to someone who probably hated him for what he was…someone whom he may well have hated for what they were.  A very serious and definite boundary had to be crossed to bring aid to the injured and dying man.  What nationality or people group comes to mind when thinking about this in our world in this modern day?

I like my trees.  I like my boundaries.  I am not a good neighbor.

Then, of course, if you have opened your eyes enough to see a need, and if you have dropped your boundaries, whatever they may be, enough to cross them, then you have to take the next step and that is to get involved.  One of the big drawbacks to getting involved is, it can be messy.  The Samaritan was stopping to aid a man who had been beaten severely and left for dead.  I’m sure quite a bit of blood was involved.  The Samaritan cleaned and bound his wounds.  I doubt that he was able to do this without getting any of the mess on him.  If we are going to enter into neighbor relations with others, we have to face the fact that there will be mess, and the mess cannot be avoided.  It will get on us.

There is no way we can be a neighbor without putting ourselves out.  The Samaritan didn’t just stop at the binding of wounds.  If that’s all he had done, the victim would have surely died anyway.  The Samaritan put him on his own donkey to take him to the next village.  The man gave up his ride.  That meant he would have to walk the rest of the way.  Here he was, a man with a perfectly good donkey, having to walk.  Yes, he had to put himself out to help his neighbor.

In the whole of the story, he put himself out for the wounded man in many ways.  He put himself out as far as time goes.  Whatever schedule he was on was totally blown to bits by stopping to help this man.  We, in modern day America are always in a rush; pressed for time and schedule.  We have to be here.  We’re late for that.  Out of the entire world, we are the most schedule driven of all.  We are so schedule driven, we have to schedule our own rest or leisure time.  Being a good neighbor means the schedule may have to be ignored, or rearranged, or thrown out the window entirely.

The Samaritan also put himself out as far as resources go.  He took the injured man to an Inn, and there attended to his needs until the next day.  He then paid for further lodging and care and promised to cover anything over the amount he left.  This shows us another aspect of being a good neighbor.  The Samaritan didn’t just step in, help, get him to aid and then drop him.  He went so far as to take responsibility for his new neighbor’s needs.  He actually took full responsibility by promising to return and cover any further costs.  Wow, this guy is really making me look bad, now.

Finally, though the Samaritan had to move on, he stayed involved.  He promised to return.

As I write this, I am sitting on my nice shaded deck enjoying my beautiful and comfortable hedged in yard, feeling uneasy to meet my own geographical neighbors.  They could be hurting and I wouldn’t know it.  There could be need that I could meet but I choose to be blind, or turn away, or not lift up my eyes to see.  And when I do help, I make sure it is in my time and fits my schedule and doesn’t put me out too much at all.

I’m with the first century Jews.  I don’t like Samaritans.  They make me look bad.

I’m not a good neighbor at all.

…actually, though, those Spruce trees are starting to look a bit scraggly.  Maybe I’ll see about trimming them up a bit and see what my neighbors are up to.

Two Young Guys and Some Old Ladies Walk Into a Strip Club

It almost sounds like the beginning of a joke.  Two young guys walk into a strip club and see a bunch of old ladies in there.  It’s not really a joke, though.  It happened to a young fellow I work with and he related the story with some wonder and amazement as he did.

It starts with two young Minnesota guys choosing to stop and go into what they thought was an ordinary bar, but turned out to be a “Gentleman’s Club” which are a bit prolific in neighboring Wisconsin.  Of course, being young men, upon discovering what the establishment actually was, they decided to go in anyway.  

It was a Tuesday evening and not much was going on.  There were no girls on stage dancing, they were just wearing next to nothing as they walked around playing waitress and “chatting up” the few customers.  As the guys sat at the bar, they noticed something that seemed very strange and out of place.  There were a number of “older” ladies in the establishment too.  My young acquaintance said they were dressed like “church ladies”.  These ladies were over at a table and mingling with the “girls”.  Intrigued, the boys asked about the ladies—who they were, what were they doing there, what was going on?  One of the girls said that they were ladies from a church up the road.  The guys then asked if they were there preaching at them or making them feel bad for what they did?  The girl responded, “no.”  She said that the ladies came in regularly and just talked to them.  This evening the ladies had brought cakes and cupcakes for the girls to enjoy and take home.  So there you have this strongly incongruous picture of scantily clad strippers and over dressed older church ladies standing around together, laughing and talking over home made baked goods.  Not quite the Dana Carvey character that has been based on too much truth.

My young friend was marveling at the whole situation and experience.  He couldn’t fathom church people acting so out of character.  My remark to him was that instead of preaching to them, maybe the ladies were just loving the girls.  I continued to say that I thought that Jesus would be doing the same thing then I jokingly added that He would probably be feeding them fish and bread.  

Their actions may be what we believe to be out of character for church people, but it’s not out of character for Jesus.  if we look at the life and ministry of Jesus, this is exactly how He did it.  He loved people.  He only condemned the “condemning church people” of his day, the Pharisees and religious rulers.  Jesus met people in their troubling life situations and loved them back to God.

Later, as I mulled over the story, I thanked my young friend for sharing his story.  I told him it was one of the greatest stories I had ever heard in my life.  It made me feel warm inside.  It gave me hope.

A Healing Unawares

Originally written March, 2013

As many of those around me are aware, I have suffered with what is known to be an autoimmune disorder which is also called an inflammatory arthritis.  This arthritis is in the same family as the more well known Rheumatoid Arthritis, though mine is called either Ankylosing Spondylitis or Psoriatic Spondylitis.  If you are not aware of any of the autoimmune disorders, they are malfunctions in the human immune system in which the immune system sees something which is healthy as something that needs to be healed and actually attacks the healthy tissue in some detrimental way.  In the above mentioned arthritic conditions, the body is trying to heal healthy bone and connective tissue.  This results in the bulging painful joints of those suffering from Rheumatoid Arthritis.  In my case, my body has, for the past forty years, been progressively trying to fuse the bones in my spine together.  It started in my lowest spine and progressively worked toward the upper back and neck, including my rib cage as a bonus.  In the most recent of years, this disease has become quite limiting in that any physical activity I did would be rewarded with a lot of pain and one to two days of pain and a feeling of flu-like symptoms. At its worst, I only vacuumed the carpet one day and was nearly laid up for two whole days.  Let’s just say it was a lot of fun.

There is no cure for this type of disorder, only treatments.  I went through many treatments.  The results varied from nothing, to side effects that were as bad as the disease (sometimes nothing plus the bad side effects), to some tolerable results (sometimes combined with difficult side effects).  One thing most of these treatments had in common was they were extremely expensive.  Even with good health care coverage, the out of pocket expenses would range in the thousands.

The disease affected my attendance and participation in our house church ministry.  I was quite vocal about it to the leadership team in choosing meeting nights due to how the arthritis affected me on certain days.  It was after this that it was put to me if I would like to put my needs before some members of our church, Woodland Hills, who had a praying/healing ministry.  My response was honest, but maybe a little odd.

Honestly, my wife and I had both prayed for healing before with no noticeable result.  I also couldn’t see why I should be healed when there were so many others out there with greater and more desperate needs for healing.  I can live with pain, though it sucks and I complain about it, but there are others who are dying.  I would hate to be healed while others with what I see as greater need go unhealed.  It may seem odd.  It may seem martyr-like, but that was the way I looked at it.

But, people started to pray for me anyway.  It was a very mild, but loving and I guess a bit headstrong woman who was most determined to pray for my healing.  It was at a time about two to three months ago that I realized a change was happening.  I had earlier come to realize that my latest treatment, an actual chemotherapy drug used for the treatment of Leukemia, was not only ineffective, but that the side effects were intolerable.  I had then stopped using that treatment and went to see my rheumatologist to see what else could be done.  I decided to take some time away from medical treatment to decide on the next path of treatment.  During this time, and as the side effects wore off, I realized that I was doing as well without any treatment as I had done with treatment.  I attributed this to God and his blessings.  I thanked Him for this progress.

It was at this time, two months ago that I brought the progress of my arthritis to the Sojourners group as a whole at our monthly learning community.  Everyone was excited and praised the Lord and continued to pray for me.  That evening was a very special spiritual night for our group.  It was after the meeting that things got real interesting for me.

I found myself standing by myself waiting for Gayle to finish something when a minister, who was attending as a guest to our meeting came up to me and asked if I was the fellow who had the arthritis.  I answered yes, and he asked if he could pray for my healing.  Again I said yes (like I’m going to say no to that).  Yes, I have trouble asking for myself, but I will not refuse such an offering.  So this man put his hand on my spine and moving it up and down my spine, started to pray for my healing.

It is here that I have to take an aside.  I am a strongly believing Christian.  I believe in the power of our God to do anything He has a mind to.  I believe in healing, but honestly, to this point, I have not undisputedly witnessed it with my own eyes.  I have also seen God’s gifts mimicked and/or abused in so many ways that I admittedly find myself a bit jaded in respect to them.  I am also not, in any way shape or form, a “name it and claim it” man.  If this were a viable direction of Christian belief and practice, I believe the Apostle Paul would have been healed of the thorn in his flesh long before any of today’s practitioners of this fallacy would be healed from their post nasal drip, or get a new car or a new house.

But, yes, down deep in my core, I believe, though with reserve.  I hate to admit it, because he has gotten such a bad rap, but I am a bit of a Doubting Thomas.  I’m probably too scientific in my view of the world, but I want to see proof.  I believe in the possibilities, but cannot believe in the product without confirmable proof.  I believe it takes all kinds, even Doubting Thomas’s.  In my case, I won’t confess unless I know it to be absolutely true.  I will not fake it!

It is with this attitude and baggage that I bowed my head and let Dave Heinrich lay his hands on me and pray.  As he did, I prayed.  I prayed a confession of my doubts and that God would take away my unbelief.  I prayed that I could accept healing if it were proffered.

Now keep in mind my DT stuff as I continue.  As he put his hands on certain parts of my spine, those parts that were most greatly affected by the arthritis, I felt a heat concentrated directly in that spot.  It was weird to me.  We continued to pray.  As he finished that, he told me I would feel tingling and such, but that was only part of the healing taking place (stick around to hear more about that).  After this he also sensed a spiritual need which was also true and he prayed for.

I went home bewildered.  I had not been fully and immediately healed.  I did not turn any cart wheels.  I went home, however, with the knowledge that something had happened in my body at that moment.  I could not deny it.

The next morning, I woke up with some weird stuff going on.  To back up, the damage of the disease had caused my spine to progressively hunch into a curve.  I woke up the next morning and my back was the straightest it had been for years.  In fact, if I stooped or hunched, it would hurt.  It was weird.  The following two weeks was also very weird.  The man who prayed had said I would feel some tinglings.  Tinglings my foot!  I had some of the worst intermittent pain in my spine that I had ever had, but I knew it was different.  I could recognize it as the damage to my spine reversing and the pain was only symptoms of the recovery.  Once again, it was not tinglings, it was pain, sometimes ice picks in my back and spine for hours, but it was in some ways very cool because I could realize what was happening.

This is not what I expected from a healing, but this is what I got.  The reversion of the disease is continuing.  It has not been immediate or quick, and at this point is not fully complete, but I honestly and truly believe I have been and am being healed of this malady.  Sort of like, I have been and am being saved.

So what does one do with such a work of God in their lives?  One thing they do is to live as though they have been healed.  It’s amazing that I have been able to step up my physical activity with no residual pain or flu like symptoms as before.  It’s weird, because I am still a bit wary about going all out because of the years of history.  I have to actually push myself.  Hey, I actually shoveled snow with a real shovel a few weeks ago and lived to tell about it.  I tried that with a very light snowfall last year and barely survived the ordeal.  I find a parallel here between living as if I have been healed and our call as Believers to live as if we are redeemed.

The other thing one does with such a work in their lives is to tell about it.  That is what I am doing here.  I am sharing it with those who have prayed for me and been concerned about me.  I thank you for your prayers and love.

One last thing, why was I healed?  In some ways I would say I have no clue, but I do.  I believe that God does His miracles in our lives first and foremost out of love, no strings attached, just, simply out of love.  Secondly, I believe we can see in every work of our Lord Jesus during His ministry, that not only love and compassion is involved, but every act of His is a teaching opportunity.  So, I as well as others who see this must look to what we can be taught through this.  Beyond this, I believe there may be more for me to learn from this, but to attribute any ulterior motives to God’s work truly cheapens and denies His Love and Grace.

Oh, by the way, though the arthritis is being healed, what I am finding down below it is a body that is still 60 years old, that played too many years of sports and hasn’t been treated too well.  Yes, my knees hurt and my shoulders hurt and I get sore muscles because I’m out of shape, but I don’t have the arthritis to deal with. 

Praise God! 

Update, as of September 2013.

I shared this update verbally with some believers recently, and was reminded that I had not shared “The Rest of the Story” with everyone.  The rest of the story is a continuation of what I shared earlier.

The disease started in my lower back at the age of 17 to 18 years old, and slowly, through the next 40 years progressed up into my upper back, neck and rib cage.  The healing went progressively in the reverse.  Luckily it did not take 40 years to reverse.  It did take about four months however.  As I stated earlier, the healing, as it progressed in reverse through my back was not an easy thing.  As it would enter into the next section to be healed, the pain would be incredible.  Once again, however, as I mentioned above, the pain was different and I could continue to realize that it was a pain of healing, and not one of damage. 

Hmmm, “pain of healing”.  There may be a sermon title there.  I guess you can take the man out of the pulpit, but not completely take the pulpit out of the man.  Ha!

So during the last few months, the healing, even with its accompanying pain has progressed back through all of the damaged places until last, but not least, it entered into the area it started, my lower back.  Once again, knowing that this is where it started, I knew the healing was progressing.  Once again, however, it was not fun.  The pain and stiffness of the lower back went on for weeks.  Every morning I would get out of bed and barely be able to move due to the pain in my lower back.  It slowly faded, nonetheless, until without really realizing it, it was gone too.  As I understand it, there’s nowhere else for the healing to go, except to continue its work in my heart—the spiritual one, not the physical one.

Like I said earlier, I considered myself healed or in the process of being healed.  I now/still considered myself healed.  I consider myself healed by God’s power through the faithful efforts of those who prayed for me—even Gwyn and others, who were stubborn enough to pray for me over and above my silly objections.  I don’t believe this would have happened without their faithful caring prayers too.

Also, like I said earlier, I don’t have the body of a ten year old boy.  I have the body of a 60 year old man who played rough and hard his whole life.  Shoulders and knees don’t work as well as they did and once in a while the back hurts, not because of the old arthritis, but because I did something to it I shouldn’t have.  I’m not going to join any volleyball or football leagues soon, but, I can now work and be somewhat active and not be laid up for days.

Oh, and one last thing.  This being an inflammatory arthritis, one of the tests to prove one has this type of arthritis as well as test how the treatment is doing, is a blood test for signs of inflammation in the system which always showed positive for me.  Recently, I had such a blood test done for another reason and the results showed no signs of inflammation in my body.  How cool is that?!  Maybe I or someone else needed that little something extra.

Once again, Praise God!

The Missional Aspect of the Power and Gifts of the Spirit

I recently asked a group of people what the focus of the Gifts and Power of the Holy Spirit was.  The near instantaneous answer I received was the one I had expected, “The edification of the Church Body.”  We give this answer based on Paul’s discussion in I Corinthians.  We proudly give this answer because we have learned from Paul’s discussion in those passages that the Gifts of the Spirit are not for our own personal edification. 

Paul’s discussion concerning the Gifts of the Spirit in I Corinthians 11-14 is the strongest  focused discussion about the Power and Gifts of the Spirit in the Epistles.  In this very powerful discussion, the work of the Spirit into the body (internally) is discussed.  It is very directly and strongly dealt with in an instructional as well as a correctional way.  It is somewhat disturbing to me to observe that many modern day believers take most or even all of their doctrine concerning the Power and Gifts of the Holy Spirit from these four chapters alone.  Some will expand their basis to include all of the Epistles.  In doing so, however, we limit our knowledge of the truth of the fullness of the Holy Spirit’s work. 

I have heard way too many people say out loud that they want to see today’s church honestly be what the Church in Acts was.  They say that, but in practice and honesty, what they really want is for the modern church to be more like what they read about in the Epistles, which tends to deal with the workings of the Holy Spirit into the Body. If we really look at the Book of Acts and the workings of the Holy Spirit in the Church there, we see a different picture.  What we see foremost, is the Church being empowered to be and do exactly what Jesus said it would be and do—be His witnesses doing His work out into the world.  What we are seeing is the missional side of the Power and Gifts of the Holy Spirit.  To truly get a good look at the missional work of the Holy Spirit we can’t start with the Book of Acts or even Pentecost, however, we have to look first at the life and ministry of Jesus.

In Jesus Christ we see the full and complete revelation of God in human form.  In him we also see the utter and complete fullness of the Holy Spirit at work, empowering a life lived out on earth.  In the Gospels we see that he is guided by the Holy Spirit.  He is empowered by the Holy Spirit.  The Power of the Holy Spirit manifests itself in and through him in many different and wondrous ways.  I believe it’s pretty easy to conclude that all of the gifts of the Spirit were present in and manifested through Jesus during his ministry.  We can actually see most of those listed in the Epistles being manifested through Jesus in the Gospel accounts.  He healed multitudes of people.  He spoke prophesies—one in particular was to Peter predicting his denial.  Jesus spoke words of knowledge—the Samaritan woman at the well was the recipient of this.  Jesus had prophetic visions—he saw Nathaniel under a tree and got insight into his character.  And Jesus taught with power—he taught his disciples and he taught the people.  These and many other examples were all works of the Power and Gifts of the Spirit through Jesus and they were directly into the world—they were missional.

In the Gospels we also see the work of the Holy Spirit being manifested through Jesus’ followers.  In Luke 9, Jesus passed this Power and the Gifts on to the chosen 12.  “He gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and He sent them out to preach the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick.” (NIV)  In Luke 10 Jesus sends out the seventy-two with the same charge and the same results.  Again, the Power and Gifts of the Spirit are used for ministry into the world.

Then there comes a time when the torch is passed permanently to Jesus’ followers.  When his ministry was coming to a close, Jesus gave a commission to his followers who would establish the Church; the ongoing bodily presence of Christ in the world.   The most notable recording of Jesus’ commission to his disciples is in Matthew 28, but in the beginning of Acts, we find another recording of Jesus’ promise and commission to his followers.  Act 1:4 quotes Jesus as saying, “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.  For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”  He continues in verse 8. “…you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Receiving power and being witnesses from here to the ends of the earth.  It’s hard to find a statement that is any more missional than this one.  We shall be his witnesses.  And how are we to be those witnesses?  We are to be those witnesses because we have received power to be such.  We, who believe, have received a gift which is the Holy Spirit.  We who believe, have received power, and that power is to be used to minister into the world.

And that’s exactly what we see in the book of Acts.  It started on the day of Pentecost.  The first recorded manifestation of the Spirit in the Church was an interesting gift that we categorically call “tongues”.  That manifestation was, however, an unbelievable missional gift that allowed all people present that day from many different regions and countries to hear the Good News of Jesus in their own native tongue.  Now that is missional, and I honestly believe that it is a viable ministry gift even for today. 

The disciples would go on to heal, raise people from the dead, prophesy and teach, and continue the missional work of their master.  They would continue his work in the same power that he employed to carry out his ministry.  Jesus had predicted that they would do greater things than they had seen him do.  It’s a wondrous story and a marvelous history that we have to look back on, seeing the Power and Gifts of the Spirit doing such great things through God’s people into the world in the name of Christ.  That is the Church of Acts.  That is what I want to get back to, how about you?

Yes, there are many groups who have denied or shunned the Gifts of the Spirit.  Some say it was for then but not for now.  I don’t agree with these viewpoints.  But, I also fear there are those who, though open to the Power and Gifts of the Spirit would rather focus on the work of the Spirit into the Church rather than out from the Church into the world.

When I look at the unbelievably powerful ministry of Jesus and through the scripture realize that he passed that on to me, I am blown away.  When I look at the powerful work of the Spirit through the Apostles, Disciples and the early Church out into the world I get excited.  I also get convicted, because I have shied away from realizing the missional work and Power that the Holy Spirit wants to work through me into the world.  Powerful work.  Miraculous work.  Supernatural work that touches peoples lives and points them to Jesus, my Lord.

(I always invite comment and dialogue on whatever I post)

How Will They Know?

I was in an international airport recently.  It was interesting observing the different people—like I’m not different in my own ways—but you see quite a big mix of people in an airport, especially an international one.  What really started me on this was seeing a father who appeared to be Arabic washing his young sons’ hands.  I was impressed that he was probably of the Muslim faith since he was so intense about not touching anything after their hands were clean.  My mother was very big on cleanliness and not touching things which I had no idea of where they had been, but the intensity of this father went well beyond that of even my mother as he barked his instructions to his young sons.  It definitely implied a concern well beyond one about germs, hinting at the religious.

After that I noticed other people whose dress, demeanor, or practices seemed to give me insight into who they were or how they wanted to be perceived.  I saw many people wearing articles—hats, shirts, jackets—which proclaimed their allegiance to one sports team or another.  There were people in international dress which I could not identify, but which identified their place of origin.  A student of this could probably not only discern what country they were from, but what province or region.  I could not.  I just knew they weren’t from around here. 

Then there are accents and linguistic colloquialisms which also help identify a person.  I should know about this.  Having been born in Oklahoma, but having lived in many parts of the United States and ending up in Minnesota.  I have actually had Minnesota people tell me they don’t talk with an accent, to which I simply reply, “Oh, yah, sure, you betcha.”  Being quite a few years and miles removed from my roots, I don’t realize that my speech still belies my place of origin, but more often than I want to admit, people in my current place of residence ask me where I’m from.  In fact, where I’m from and most Southern states have a common phase that expresses it best, “you ain’t from around here, are you.?”

One last input on this note is that while in that airport, I was ultimately going to end up visiting a friend in Texas.  I’ve lived in Texas twice and to be honest, the dress and accents between natural born Oklahomans and Texans give a clue to their geographical proximity, though I would be strung up by representatives from either side of the Red River for saying it out loud.  But as I said, I was born in Oklahoma and have lived in Texas twice, so I like cowboy boots and know how to wear them.  I have a nice pair of Tony Lama cowboy boots which I cherish more than a man should, but I brought them with me, along with a pair of Lee boot cut jeans on this trip so I can wear them in Texas and look the part.

So, hopefully, without stepping over the political correctness line, my point is, it’s not hard to look at a person or listen to a person and get a hint of who they are and where they are from. 

This brings me to a question that came to mind as I observed all the different people in this airport.  How do they know we are followers of Christ?  I had also seen in this airport a young woman wearing a T-shirt with a Christian message on it.  I’ve seen many cars drive by me with fish symbols, or bumper stickers with Christian messages on them.  As a young Christian, I wore a shirt with a big Cross stitched on the back in an attempt to identify me with my faith and my Lord.   What’s disappointing about all of this is seeing someone sporting such identification, and then seeing them acting in an un-Christian way.

I have been a “Christian” for many years.  I accepted Jesus as my savior at a young age in a church group that was very big on outward show.  A Christian went to church regularly—meaning every time the doors were open.  A Christian didn’t drink, didn’t smoke, didn’t go to dances and was only allowed to go to movies that were deemed acceptable.  A Christian dressed and made their self up very conservative—my penchant toward long hair was always an issue here.  Christians had their own language which included a lot of “Holy” phrases which helped identify who they were.  And when someone was “saved” they had to take on this mantel and walk, talk, and dress the same way.  That way people would know who and what they were.  Groups of faith have historically pushed an outward show of their beliefs through faith in an attempt to identify them with their beliefs and set them apart from the rest of the world.  Some of the most radical that come to mind are the Amish, here in America, which have eschewed as much as possible any connection with the “sinful” world—very plain dress, plain colors, no buttons, head coverings, beards but no mustaches, etc.

Whether a nationality, a sports fan, a regional resident of the United States, or a religious group, we seem to have a need to visually state to the world who we are.  But the question comes once again, how will the world know that we are followers of Christ?  Should we get “God Team” merchandise to wear?  It seems many people do that, but does that really tell the world who we are?  You can put a pair of cowboy boots on a city boy from the East, but that doesn’t really mean he’s a Texan. 

What about the way we talk?  Christians don’t really have a regional accent, per se.  They do, however, have “Holy Talk”—phrases and words like “Praise the Lord”, “hallelujah”, “I feel so blessed”, etc.  These and any number of utterances like them have been developed and grasped on to, in a seeming attempt to make certain Christians feel holier and to  identify them and their faith.  Does this “Holy Speak” really show the world we are followers of the Risen Lord?  Having lived in Minnesota long enough, I can actually put on a fairly good Minnesota accent that will fool many people, but does that make me a born and bred Minnesotan?  I can put a hood ornament and leather seats on my wife’s car, but that won’t make it a Jaguar or a Mercedes (she can keep wishing, though).  It would just be a Chevy Impala with a fancy hood ornament and leather seats.

There is only one way that our Lord says the world will know we are truly His followers.  That is love.  That should not be surprising.   He stood out in His world because of His love.  He did not preach condemnation.  He did not preach judgment, except on the misguided religious rule of the day (which was full of dress, talk and outward showiness).  Jesus loved.  He loved the down and out.  He loved the disenfranchised.  He loved those who were considered unlovely by the current world and religious view—tax collectors, prostitutes, adulterers, the poor, the lame, people of non or mixed Jewish decent, even Romans.  Jesus loved and taught us that God is love.  He even taught us that any man, even an evil man will love his friends and brothers, but to truly reflect the person of the Father one must love his enemies to the point of honestly praying for them. 

As I said earlier, in a couple of days, I will be visiting a long time friend of mine in Houston.  We have a long history and I can honestly say I love him.  I would do anything within my power for him, but what about the noisy—the term “white trash” comes to mind—bunch of young women who were disturbing me while I tried to write this yesterday?  Though I try not to, I do have some old prejudices from my past that pop up at some interesting times, and my Lord is saying to me, “Yes, even them too.  Yes, they stand right beside you at the foot of my cross.”

I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I can fit that all on a T-shirt, and if I could it wouldn’t mean much, if anything.  At present, I am wearing a T-shirt that identifies me as one who attended a big classic car show.  I have many T-shirts that say a lot about me.  I have Harley T-shirts.  I have a Harley.  I have tourist type T-shirts that say I have been to many places, including Marguritaville in Key West.  I have a T-shirt from the 2012 Sturgis Bike Week Rally, though I wasn’t even there, but I wear it like I was.  I even have a T-shirt that I received from my daughter and son-in-law that says, “These are my church clothes.”  Love is not a garment I can put on, however.  Love is not a cross we stitch to the back of a shirt.  Love is a cross that we willingly allow ourselves to be nailed to in the name of our Lord.  And as Jesus gave up his last breath in loving sacrifice, the guard at the foot of the cross was heard to say, “this truly was the son of God.”  Love, even to the cross identified Jesus for who He truly was.  That same love is the only thing that will truly identify followers of Him for who we truly are.

Putting on a T-shirt, hat or jacket is easy.  Slapping a bumper sticker on the back of my car is easy.  Speech is relatively easy to learn.  Taking up a cross of love and allowing ourselves to be nailed to it for any and every person around us is, to use a southern term, “a might bit harder.”  But that, is the only way the world will know we are truly followers of Christ.

Lessons From a Mixed Up Humming Bird

My wife had recently told me about this humming bird in our yard acting strangely, but as she described it, I couldn’t really picture it in my mind until I saw it.  So the next day, I was sitting on our deck and something caught my eye.  It was a humming bird buzzing around our very large elm tree.  It may not sound too weird until I explain it.  This humming bird was buzzing around the gnarly bark of the elm tree like it was a flower and there was some nectar to be found.  He didn’t seem to find anything there, which I doubted that he would, but he just kept on buzzing around the tree.  He’d buzz and buzz, then rest in one of the low branches for a short while, only to continue this strange attempt at finding some humming bird nourishment from an old tree trunk.  To my mind this was very strange behavior.  This little bird was messed up!

The fact was that less than 20 feet from him was a number of hanging baskets on our deck loaded with nectar bearing blossoms that he could feed from.  Another 20 feet further was a humming bird feeder nearly full of nectar we had provided free for any of our little buzzing bird friends.  Instead of coming to the source of nourishment that was freely provided by God and us, custom made for their high energy needs, this mixed up bird kept buzzing around a tree trunk that offered nothing to him at all, except pure frustration.  It was then that a truth hit me pretty hard, right up side my head.

I had recently been struggling with the disappointment of a big letdown.  I had hoped for a certain position that had come up and I wasn’t chosen for it.  In this situation, I felt very qualified and couldn’t really get a grasp on why someone else was chosen and not me.  The emotions that hit me, hit me very hard and were based on feelings of rejection.  This incident and the resultant feelings seemed to bring back all of the times in my past that I hadn’t been chosen for something going all the way back to grade school.  I was really slammed by this and I couldn’t explain it. 

It was while struggling with these feelings, that I saw this mixed up humming bird hopelessly trying to find nourishment from the trunk of an elm tree.  I wanted to scream at the bird that he was wasting his time, there was nothing there for him, and that if he’d only open his eyes and look around, he would find nourishment custom made for him only feet away.  That’s when it hit me.  I too had been buzzing around an old elm tree trunk trying to get what I thought I needed from it.

What is my old elm trunk?  It is the approval and acceptance of humans.  My disappointment and all of the emotions that came with it were based on my need to be recognized by humans.  A lot of us have this same problem.  I grew up a performer.  I realized early on that this was the way I got positive attention.  I got good grades.  I was the “good boy”.  I performed musically because I had the talent and it gave me positive feedback.  I have even tried performing religiously to get positive feedback from men and from God (God doesn’t care about performance, but old habits die hard).  When someone lives for approval by man, then that which can be perceived as disapproval, like not being recognized or chosen for something, brings with it the flip side of the emotional coin—the extreme opposite of the elation one feels when they are recognized and “chosen”.  This perceived disapproval can be a crushing blow.

This is what I was feeling, and it took God speaking through a mixed up tiny humming bird to show me how totally insane it was for me to try to get  my worth and spiritual nourishment from the approval of men.  In that very moment I realized that in the realm of spiritual things I looked just as stupid and messed up as the humming bird, and I heard God telling me to open my eyes and look around and find the true spiritual nourishment that is custom made just for me which I can only get from him.

Jesus taught about getting acknowledgement from men in Matthew 6.  His bottom line is, if you do things to be recognized by men, that recognition is the only reward you get.  That reward, given by men is nothing but a gnarly old tree trunk compared to the sweet nectar God has for us.

I wonder if the Pharisees realized that to God they looked as stupid as a humming bird buzzing around the trunk of an old elm tree.  I know it finally hit me.