Jesus

It all begins tomorrow…

Tomorrow we begin the run up to Easter. This year, we at St. A’s are starting with a Christian Seder. It is a new venture for us and my prayer is that it will shake us out of our routine an move us towards seeing new insights and significance in the way the Passover and Communion echo each other. The way that the Old Testament and the New Testament work together. The way that the Old Covenant dovetails into the New Covenant in Christ.

In many ways the next few days will be packed full of activities and theological significance. I have already been touched at the way that God has provided some beautiful preludes to my celebration of Holy Week. In Rosemary’s Bible Study we watched a part of the film 12 Ordinary Men which was the basis for my post that evening. Tonite, in our Wednesday night program, we discussed the significance of the Resurrection. And while I hesitate to write about that before Holy Week has truly begun, I was touched by the sharing that my group did.

God is often like a composer…He knows just when to draw in this instrument or that instrument to highlight a certain theme or to underscore a certain harmony. And I guess tonite I just want to say a quiet thank you for the way he has done that in my life already this week.

Inner Circle…

Tonite was the second Weight Watchers Party with some of my colleagues who are also trying to lose weight. We get together once a month and every body brings somethings WW friendly. Then we have a meal and talk about where we are at – in our ministry, with our WW journey, with life in general.

Tonite we had some good old-fashioned (or maybe new-fashioned?) girl-talk. And it was awesome. There are some people you just know you can trust with the honest truth about all things. And these girls are some of those people for me.

I am struck by the idea of how important it is to have an inner circle. Some folks with whom you can just be 100% you. I am blessed to include a number of folks in my inner circle. Some of them interact with each other, some of them have never met and the only thing they have in common is that they know me. Either way, it is good to know there are those who I can turn to when I just need to talk.

Jesus had an inner circle, too. They were less than perfect. They sometimes completely missed the point about where his life was leading. They abandoned him at his most painful hour. And yet he trusted them. And through them, the message spread. Through them the world came to know about the resurrection and the new life available through Christ.

I was reminded today that they were just “12 ordinary men,” but the face of history was changed by them. And in that I find a great sense of hope. Jesus doesn’t need perfect people. He doesn’t need people who’ve got it all together or who get it right all the time. He needs people who care and people who want to share what they’ve found with others.

He can do the rest.

Deep breath….

It is Holy Week. For my minister friends and I this is our second-most-busy time of the year. Christmas being the first. The funny thing is that tonite I had nothing on. Not a single meeting or practice or anything to be done for the church. I am spending tonite taking a deep breath, because the rest of the week there won’t be time to breathe.

That is the way church goes – it’s kind of feast or famine. You’re either insanely busy, or things are kind of quiet and easy. At a big church like the one where I serve, it tends to be more insanely busy than quiet most of the time.

This week we will: have our regular Wednesday night (community dinner, and classes), have a Christian Seder on Thursday night (followed by choir practice, of course), have a Good Friday service (I am very much looking forward to it!) and then have 2 services on Easter Sunday morning (one of which I am preaching). Also, on the Saturday night (not without some controversy) we will have our Mystery Dinner wrap-up party.

In all of this, Jesus will be present (yes, I believe he will be there even at the Mystery Dinner party). And my deep hope is that all who gather will notice him and draw near to him. That in the services, the songs we sing, the prayers we pray and the meals we share, we will find Jesus. We will be touched again by his life and death and resurrection.

It will be a full week. And a good one, I expect. But I am blessed to begin this week by a quietly contemplative evening at home.

 

 

Food with Friends….

Today was a day full of meals with friends. First was lunch at a favorite Thai place with a friend I haven’t seen in a while. We talked about ministry and dreams.

Then I had supper with my chosen family in Oshawa. It was a fun dinner, too. We did finger foods (sweet potatoe baked fries, sandwiches with great deli meats, raw veggies and laughing cow cheese) and ate in the livingroom while we watched Disney’s Wall-e. It was a great, fun way to fit in dinner and a movie and still let me hit the road early. I’ve been fighting a sore throat this week, so I wanted an early night.

I left both meals feeling full. Full in stomach, of course, but also full in spirit. It is such a good thing to share good nourishing food with friends. Jesus totally understood this and had a pattern of having meals with people. I know I’ve said that before on this blog, but it bears repeating. It’s one of the things I love about Jesus – he understood how to nourish the body and the soul at the same time.

Hope…

Generally, I am a pretty upbeat person. I tend to see the possibility or potential in most people and situations. I like to laugh (which is probably why I have so many friends that are real jokers) and I smile. A lot.

But every once in a while I find myself overwhelmed by difficult conversations or situations. They drag on me and rob me of my general joie-de-vivre. This has been one of those weeks. It just seems like one thing has piled on top of another this week and none of the things piling up have been easy dealt with.

When this happens, I often make a mistake. My favorite Christian singer/songwriter puts it this way:

Well, I realize that falling down ain’t graceful
But I thank the Lord that falling’s full of grace
Sometimes I take my eyes off Jesus
And you know that’s all it takes
–Andrew Peterson, The Chasing Song

In hard times, I admit, I find it all too easy to take my eyes off Jesus…and you know – that is all it takes.

That is all it takes for me to stumble. That is all it takes for me to become overwhelmed. That is all it takes for me to lose sight of hope.

And it is a dangerous place to be. It is a place where Satan whispers all sorts of terrible things in my ear and I lean toward believing them. It is a place where my fear-and-anxiety monster grows because I have begun to feed him well. It is a place where I am easily defeated because I have forgotten the victory I have in Jesus.

And yet the grace of God is this: in that dark place, as I begin to lose hope, Jesus shows up and extends his hand to me. This week that happened when I received a lovely card from my folks. They wished me me a Happy Easter and included a Starbucks card (they know my addictions well). And it was just like a breeze blew through my spirit, carrying away the dark clouds away.

The week didn’t get instantly easier, I have still had some tough moments to face…but I faced them with hope and I was not overwhelmed. And I kept my eyes on Jesus because I had been reminded of all that he has done and continues to do for me.

Sabbath came early…

A friend asked me tonite if she had missed my blog entry from last night. I said, “No, the Sabbath just came REALLY early this week!”

It has been a busy week of meetings and the meetings have been tough ones, and I am tired. So last night I got home from a meeting, looked at the computer and thought “not possible.” I just couldn’t bring myself to sit down and write. I just needed a break.

Sometimes Jesus needed a break, too. He would go off on his own to pray and to think. Then he would come back to his ministry with renewed energy. He knew how important rest is when you are weary, and he didn’t apologize for taking rest when he needed it. I like that about Jesus. And not just because I’m an introvert at heart, and my time alone is precious to me. I like it because I think it is spiritually healthy – to balance times of work and times of rest, times of togetherness and times of solitude.

As I work on my physical health this year, I don’t want to leave my spiritual and emotional health in the dust. I want to seek balance in all areas of my life. Because I believe in One who came to give life and give it abundantly. And it is not possible to have an abundant life if you’re all out of balance.

Peace…

This is something I am meditating on tonite. I am not sure that I can articulate my thoughts on it yet…so I will leave it mostly without comment and just say this: I believe this is true, but that doesn’t mean I always understand HOW it is true.

Still, I pray that I can be at peace in the midst of trying circumstances by practicing the presence of Christ. I pray that for you, too!

From humble beginnings…

I have been thinking about Jesus’ parable of the mustard seed recently. Here’s what Jesus said:

“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed planted in a field.
It is the smallest of all seeds, but it becomes the largest of garden plants;
it grows into a tree, and birds come and make nests in its branches.”
Matthew 13:31-32 NLT

The Kingdom of Heaven – the place where Jesus reigns, the place where we find ourselves in relationship with him – starts small. It starts humble. The smallest of all seeds. But it grows. It grows into great things which have an impact on the world around them. The tree big enough for birds to find shelter in its branches.

I walk every day along a path with some of the greatest trees. They are huge. And as I was walking the other day I was stopped dead in my tracks by the thought that there was a time that these trees were nothing more than a tiny seed falling into good soil.

This tree, in particular, is right at the beginning of my walking route. It is a beautiful tree, and there is no arguing that it is a majestic specimen. But even this was once only a tiny seed. It took good conditions, and a whole lot of time. And now the birds can find shelter in its branches.

I think we sometimes find ourselves frustrated with time it takes for the growth to happen. I think sometimes we miss the mustard seed all together – not noticing that it has been planted, not sensing the growth process as it begins beneath the surface.

I think I have been in that kind of season recently. But tonight I have hope. Tonight, I think I have begun to glimpse the first hints of green shoots poking through the dark soil.

If you could spare a prayer for me, for the community of faith where I serve as Associate Minister, for the future of the Kingdom and for humble beginnings that grow into great trees, I would appreciate it.

Discipleship…

Tonite at our Wednesday night group, we discussed what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. For someone like me who has always been in church, it’s sometimes hard to define that word. A disciples is a disciple….?

So it was good that we were supposed to come up with a list finishing this sentence:

A disciple of Jesus…

We came up with:

A disciple of Jesus…
-displays the fruits of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, kindness, self-control, faithfulness, goodness)
-is in communication with Jesus (ie, prays!)
-reads AND APPLIES the Bible
-keeps the two great commandments: love God and love others

All of which are great things for a disciple to do. But then we talked about the fact that a disciple is also more than these things. Because a disciple is in relationship with Jesus. And the relationship thing is kind of ethereal. I can tell you about the things I do with my friend, for example, but our friendship is more than the things we do together. It’s the same with Jesus. It is about believing and doing, but it’s also about more than that.

Maybe the ‘more than that’ is what we mean when we talk about faith.

Party Theology

For the last three night I have been entertaining at my house. And tomorrow evening I am having friends over again. Some people have heard me talking about this and wondered if I am doing too much: giving too much of my time and resources to those I have entertained. That comes from a place of kindness – with the colds I had at Christmas and the recent stomach-flu-from-hell, those who love me are concerned for my health.

But personally, I don’t think there is any such thing as too much (responsible) partying with friends. If you were to read through the Gospel According to Luke, you would find that Jesus barely takes three steps before sitting down to another meal with some friends, dignitaries, or prostitutes and tax collectors.

I think Jesus knew there is something beautiful about sharing a meal with others. There is something wonderful that happens when people sit at table together.

I don’t think it is any mistake that one of the sacraments that we hold dear in all branches of the Christian church has to do with Jesus’ final meal – the last party that he had with his friends. (I love that Derek Webb describes communion this way: “and we’ll have us a party, where all the drinks are on me [Jesus], and surely as the rising sun, you shall be set free”)

I think Jesus had a party theology. I think he loved gathering people together around a meal and sharing laughter and stories and connections that make us truly human.

I love it when churches adopt a party theology, too. One where their deepest desire is to serve others well and to make sure that they know they are loved and cared for, that they are welcome.

Party theology means having a generous heart – wanting to invite in those who might otherwise be left out, wanting to share what we have with others. To me, it sounds a little Heavenly!