We always fear or concerning us with the wrong things.

When we are about to plan for a holiday, we may worry more about dying in a plane crash, then a car accident — even though the drive to the airport has a far greater risk. We worry about the weather and perhaps the travel insurance and necessary vaccinations. So it goes with diseases, depending on personality we tend to fear distant threats, like Ebola, Yellow fever, Cholera and ignore the much likelier: heart disease, diabetes.
Those with the presumed luxury of doing so have stopped being afraid of the illnesses we no longer see altogether, the diseases that remain painful, fatal, and widely feared before vaccines, antibiotics and general medical care stepped in to protect us who have access to them with almost miraculous efficiency . . . gangrene, and tetanus. And yet, even today thousands die on these because they don't have access, or are unaware of the danger of even a small nick with a rusty nail.

Indifference is such a rusty nail in the life of the church, conforming is such a rusty nail, complacency another. We become indifferent, conformed, and complacent to the pattern of this world once again when the ways we think and live fit nicely with how this fallen, broken and mislead world thinks and lives. Indifference, conforming, and being complacent is what makes the world's ways seem normal, "everybody does it", and God's ways seem strange, and unattainable.

Do we fear we miss something?

We have often reduced conforming to the world to a list of behaviours -- drinking of alcohol, smoking, dancing, going to movies, and perhaps more current getting pierced or a tattoo. But that is actually not what Scripture defines as conforming to the world. Conforming is exposed as an internal, invisible problem before it is an external and visible one, which makes it much harder to detect. The challenge of being conformed to the world once again is that its happening is ever so gradual and goes largely unnoticed. Over time, for the church, cultural assumptions and societal trends serve as the directing influence for how to think, feel, and live.  But when we don't have a clear sense of what ought to make us different, we even lose our ability to yearn to be different, and we lose our ability to make a difference altogether. We need to see God's plan for creation, His blueprint; what once was, what now is, and what one day will be. We need to regain the ability to see what one day will be, not to make us miserable in the present moment and unthankful for what is, but for us to seek, to yearn for the Kingdom yet to come.

For this reason, I believe, a daily dose of antibiotics through the reading of God's word, time spent in prayer and in being with other Christians is necessary. God's word informs our thinking, softens our hearts, and challenges our wills. It has the power to confront sin in our lives, sin which naturally makes us increasingly biased, blind, and thoughtless. God's word exposes our need for a God-centered readjustment of our thinking, feeling and living while the wisdom of this world wants us to believe all is fine all the while we struggle with one another.  If we don't have a clear understanding of what the blueprint looks like, our mission will lack focus, direction, and purpose and we will concern us with the wrong things. And you perhaps have noticed, I wrote in the plural, our, us, we, because it is all to easy to affirm ones own thoughts and behaviour and justify them to oneself.

I don't think we have the luxury to be indifferent, conforming and complacent to what is happening all around us and to pretend that that does not affect us. It is true, as follower of Jesus we have been given a new life, a new way of life, a new destiny. This is why disciples operate according to different standards, with different goals and motivations and an altogether different perspective on status, power, money, possession or lifestyle. Our thoughts, our alliances, our affections, our priorities, our passions and pursuits all are to be different since we are on a different path of life altogether.

However, I have been pastor for too long not to realize that when it comes to the way we think about marriage, parenting, sexual orientation, politics, finances, education, career and even ministry programs plenty of us, and I am not free from that danger either, less from God's word but gurus like Dr. Phil and Oprah. 

So, who dares to be countercultural, and who, like John the Baptist, will serve as a vioce crying out in the wilderness, fearing only God? 

Reading Scripture

I have often wondered about the purpose of Scripture. Why so many words, if by the internal evidence everything can be stated in one short sentence?

 "Love your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength 

and your neigbour as yourself."

I came to the conclusion that Scripture that, just like the Law given to Moses, it is not intended to make us feel good about ourselves, but to make us feel good about God, to show us how far we have fallen and how far God has reached down to us to help us. Scripture shows us both, the true nature of humankind and the true nature of God.

J.I. Packer in one of his books puts it this way; "The Holy Scripture are the lifeline God throws us in order to ensure that he and we stay connected while the rescue is in progress." I like that picture, especially when at the end of the life line we see the Holy Spirit holding on to us.

So if reading of Scripture makes you feel bad about yourselves, know that God is greater than your feelings and keep on reading. 

Being different

Looking at the life of Jesus, I can’t but help to see that he was making a difference in the world by being different. Now that “insight” may not come as a surprise but it is surprisingly different than many of our expression of discipleship. In fact, in almost every way Jesus lived and spoke about the nature of discipleship seems to be precisely the opposite of what our culture and therefore we exalt. To be successful, we are told, we must seek after power, wealth, security, recognition, status. But what we find when we look at Jesus, a man who explains success in term of giving, rather than taking; self-sacrifice rather than sacrifice; going to the back rather than pushing forward; faithfulness rather than popularity. Jesus was making the profound point that daily living means daily dying -- dying to our self-fascination and that of the world but living for something eternal, living for someone else. If you want to live, you must die. If you want to find your life, you must lose it. Jesus lived for what is timeless and so he calls his people to live what is timeless and not just current, to take up the cross and follow him, even as it means to go against social and religious norms.  

“Christians make a difference in this world by being different, they don’t make a difference by being the same.”

Tullian Tchividjian

I don’t want to go to much back in time, but my first encounter with  a Christian, I may have been 8 years old, introduced me not only to a radically different man, but through him and the group of people that surrounded him, I encountered a radically different God than I thought there was. . . , I encountered unconditional and unlimited love. And I am speaking of unlimited in the sense of not being time scheduled . . . this love was expressed outside of the time slots of youth group events or alike. Curt Havemann, he passed away many years ago, was that man with a great heart. Although he and his wife had no children on their own, they loved the children of the youth group like their own. They stayed with us in touch as long as possible, well after Curt's retirement and moving away. He and his wife very intentionally had planned their lives around other peoples need, had planned their lives around the gospel. Their home was always open and I remember that they offered us when we came to their home roosted bread with jam as a treat. They never made much money, never had a car on their own, but always time to listen and at the end of a visit a short word of God and prayer.

I am thankful to God for this man and his wife in my life, though I was not their son, I don’t think they would have treated their flesh and blood any different. They showed me what unconditionally and unlimited means. 

Yes, I am different but I am not going to be a copy to fit in.

Although totally different circumstances; Jesus also lived with others peoples need in mind first. Not only did he die for the need of the world, but he also lived for the need of the world. The perhaps most striking example for me is His encounter with the woman at the well. I think we all know the story. He and his disciples were traveling through Samaria and took a break at one of their villages. After all, it must have been hot as it was the hottest time of the day. Jesus stays behind and twelve men go grocery shopping. And while he is on his own a woman, again, in the middle of the day is going to the well to fetch water. And Jesus is there, starting a conversation that leads to salvation. Every time, I look at the story, I am puzzled. Jesus, very intentionally travels through Samaritan, something a good Jew would simply not do. Jesus, very intentionally travels through the heat of the day, something someone normally would not do either. Jesus, very intentionally tells his disciples to go into the village to stay behind alone. I have not heard anywhere but here that it takes a dozen or so men to go grocery shopping. And then Jesus, very intentionally speaks to a woman, a Samaritan woman of ill repute to be precise, something we avoid because we fear the backlashes of people. Jesus, very intentionally was different on many levels, and because he was different he made a difference in the life of this woman and to me as I am reading the story again. In fact, he did get out of the "conventional way of life," to meet the covets, the swindlers, and idolaters. As a teacher of the law, he was seeking those who the religious people and society at large avoided.

What I am left with at the end of my morning readings, reflections, and prayer is the simple question; "Am I intentionally enough in how I live to make a difference in someone else's life unconditionally?  After all, have we Christians not been entrusted with an eternal truth, eternal values and an eternal love intended to be light in a weary culture and to shine light toward a world beyond their own? To talk of a simple ma, a simple Jew, one of thousands who died on the cross but who made a difference because he was different.

And that is where our difference starts.

People in Need of Change Helping People in Need of Change

In order to grow, to become, we have to be part of a change process. In order to grow, we sometimes need to get rid of old memories, old habits and at times even well loved traditions. Having made space, being freed from past burdens, can we take part of a fresh presence. After all, following the thinking of Albert Einstein; "We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking that created them."

What is the best news you can imagine? What is your . . . "If only . . . " hope and dream? Is it becoming rich and powerful? Perhaps it would be the job you always wanted? Maybe your spouse would suddenly change and become the person you thought he would be? Perhaps it is you child who has gone astray? What would be your best news? But remember, solving our problems with the same thinking that created them is an impossibility. We need new thinking, a hope that is not born out of the only life we know.

Perhaps, we need to ask the question in another way. What was your reason for getting up this morning, or going to work? What moves and motivates you through the days and weeks and month and years of life? What is so worthwhile that you are willing to give it your time, talents ad energy? What is so significant that you turn your whole life upside down to achieve it? What is so significant that makes everything worthwhile? 

These and similar questions have nothing to do with fantasies, dreams, or unrealistic expectations. These questions are based on historical facts and present realities around one person . . . Jesus Christ. I believe, his life penetrates the harshest human reality with life-altering hope because he is from above.

But to "get" the need for a new thinking we need to understand the whole story from the beginning . . . God created the heavens and the earth. The environment was lush and rich, there were no unfed stomachs or diseases to be feared, no unhealthy competition or power struggle, no discrimination or fear, no sexual exploitation or lust and self-worship. There was love, and trust. There was no struggle with addiction, anxiety, mixed motives, there was no painful history to be feared. Even God, in the cool of the day walk among the people, his creation and they knew him and he knew them. Life was as it was intended to be, better than we can ever imagine or dream of from our sin-scarred presence. Yet, this all changed in an instant. Sin had entered, and fear, guilt, shame and deflection of responsibility became standard human expressions in life. Creation, once in perfect harmony now groans under the weight of the curse. All the amazing beauty is now deeply scarred, but not permanently. Although sin altered every thought, desire, word and even hope, and although sin lead to a world of double-mindedness and self-worship there is a hope out of this world. Though we live in a world where people lie, cheat, hide and deny, where people suffer from the hands of others, from unspeakable acts of violence to momentary thoughtlessness, from intentional indifference to unintentional ignorance there is hope.

God was unwilling to stay it that way in the garden, and though he pronounced judgement he also pronounced hope. And while it looks as if nothing has changed since the prayer on the cross; "Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing," Those of us who lived without the hope of the gospel for a time, know that to be false. I changed . . . for the better; I am changing for the better and I am in need of ongoing change. But change does not come without outside influence . . . we need one another, we are being given to one another for that reason because we are people in need of change while helping people in need of change. People of hope helping people without hope not because they have it altogether but because they have something worth getting up for in the morning.

Mark records this hope in the first chapter as found in Jesus' words; "The time has come, The kingdom of God is near. Repent [change] and believe [new thinking] the Good News." These few words are the beginning of our hope . . . and it calls for change.

In our self-absorbed culture in which we have grown up, and which morals and values have informed us in the past, we need each other to see the grandeur of these words; "The time has come, . . ." echoed once again on the cross; "It is fulfilled." We need to be careful that we do not fall into the same temptation as Adam and Eve and shrink God's promise to our needs and desires and thinking. Jesus did not come and die and rose to make our agenda possible, to make our dreams come true, but to draw us into something more amazing, something not of this world.

So, don't be afraid of change. You may loose something good, but you will gain something better.

Nobody said it would be easy

“I asked participants who claimed to be "strong followers of Jesus" whether Jesus spent time with the poor. Nearly 80 percent said yes. Later in the survey, I sneaked in another question, I asked this same group of strong followers whether they spent time wit the poor, and less than 2 percent said they did. I learned a powerful lesson: We can admire and worship Jesus without doing what he did. We can applaud what he preached and stood for without caring about the same things. We can adore his cross without taking up ours. I had come to see that the great tragedy of the church is not that rich Christians do not care about the poor but that rich Christians do not know the poor.”

― Shane Claiborne, The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical 

Another quote from him is also somewhat harsh on the church, but I think he is right again when he writes;
“We do need to be born again, since Jesus said that to a guy named Nicodemus. But if you tell me I have to be born again to enter the Kingdom of God, I can tell you that you have to sell everything you have and give it to the poor, because Jesus said that to one guy, too. But I guess that's why God invented highlighers, so we can highlight the parts we like and ignore the rest.”  

As I read this, I was reminded of a similar incident I had encountered some time ago. I spoke of the necessity to dine with people we have little if anything in common with, besides perhaps both being made in the image of God. That certainly would include as I pointed out in my sermon, prostitutes, people at the very outskirt of our society today whoever that might be. What was shocking to me then and even today was that a former pastor approached me and with an irritated voice asked; Do you actually mean that we should eat with prostitutes?  If the church has no modern examples to follow, we will end up more bewildered, disoriented, and perplexed about the life of Jesus than the Pharisees were. We, the church, will not only be unclear about the message and its consequences here and now  but the people who are listening and watching will end up unsure and confused because our lives do not line up, neither with the words nor with the life of Jesus.
The longer I read God's word, the more I am convinced that none of it is written to make us feel good about ourselves, but rather to force us to look into the mirror and by God's grace to find the reflection of Jesus. God's word is not intended to be used as a pacifier for our souls but should lead us to face the cross, to take up our cross and make us feel good about God.
And so, let us not judge the world but perhaps let us be a bit tougher on ourselves; How does my/our lives reflect the cross we bear?

Each day we find ourselves at points of choices. And each day people fly by the seat of their pants, hoping that things will turn out OK. Some days they do indeed, in the short run. At the end they don’t, realizing that we have ended up running around without lasting priorities and everlasting focus, we wish someone would have been frank rather than polite with us. 

Time to grow up

Church is not a place nor a building, but a diverse group of people from a variety of backgrounds, nations, races and ages. Therefore the local church cannot possible be a rigidly structured organization but rather is a living family that constantly experiences changes and with it challenges. Those changes and challenges come through new members, who experience and express freedom and creativity in the belonging Jesus gave his life for. New family members, no matter what will always challenge the status quo. After all they want to learn, want to know, and want to understand all the while the older once, those who are being challenges to be teachers have to learn to be weaned from milk. Challenging indeed and yet since it is Christ who builds his Church, I have great hope for us who like milk all too much.