Get Set

I could pretend that I added this photo as an illustration of how mind
training is stressed in the training of Jedi in the Star Wars movies.
Honestly.  I just wanted to take a picture of my Luke Skywalker
action figure.  

Luke 4:21-30

Did you know that there is going to be a football game on TV this evening? Be honest.  How many of you have no idea who is playing?

Yeah, I don’t really care either.  I’m gonna watch the game though.  I’ll probably root for Baltimore just because I’m partial to the East Coast. Other than that my head is not really in the game.  I have never been a fan of either team.  I am sure the people of Baltimore and San Francisco are thinking a lot more about football than I am.

It’s interesting how your world is shaped by what you give your attention to.  We give our attention to things that demand it.  When we have pain in our bodies we want it gone so we do something about it.  When someone we love is suffering we try to give them relief.  An ambulance approaches with its lights on from behind us so we pull over. Your husband or wife yells so you yell back. The baby cries so you feed her. The phone rings so you answer it. The television is on so we watch it.

It seems there is hardly a moment when our attention is not being grabbed or demanded by someone or something.  So if we are shaped by what we give our attention to, we are letting others shape who we are if we are not selective about it.

Television news just loves a big tragedy.  You can know just about everything there is to know about a big tragedy if you watch CNN long enough.  If they have run out of details to share they will just repeat the ones they already know so that you can memorize what has happened. You can live the tragedy over and over again.  You can begin to believe that what has happened is the only thing happening in the world.  I remember 11 years ago having to make myself turn of the television because I didn't want to hear any more about the attacks of September 11^th.  I purposely avoided the evening news the day of the tragedy in Newtown Connecticut.  I grieved those things.  I was angered by those things.  But I don’t want to give the evil of this world undue attention. 

Imagine if we were given titles based on what we give our attention.  Think about it what do you spent most of your attention on?  What would be on your name tag just below your name? Would it be Health worries? CNN/Fox News?  Family issues?  Sports? Hunting? Perhaps your mind is occupied by other things.  Would you want whatever it is printed on your name-tag for everyone to see?

What we are striving for is for that name tag to read “disciple of Jesus Christ.” 

What would it take to make that happen for you?

Our Gospel reading today is a continuation from last week when Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach.  Remember?  He was given the scroll of the prophet Isaiah and he read the scripture, rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, sat down and said, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” 

Remember how we talked about the scripture was defined by Jesus not the other way around? I used the analogy of a race at a track meet.  The starting point is your mark. Our starting point is the Scriptures.  The next command by a track official is “set.” That means “get set” and don’t move a muscle until you get the starting gun.  This is a moment when you are poised for action, singularly focused on the task at hand.  

Jesus read from the scroll and said what he said and they were amazed at the gracious words coming from his mouth.  Then someone said, “Hold on!” Well, scripture doesn't record those words but the feeling is there.  Someone said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?”

Jesus just had made a bold proclamation about who he was.  He was telling them that he was the messiah.  He is the one they have been waiting for but the one in the synagogue couldn't see past the fact that this was Joseph’s son.  You know Joseph, the one that didn't make it into rabbi school.  He was a year ahead of me in school back in Nazareth.  You've had these conversations.  How could someone who was the son of that guy, a nobody, be the messiah?

Their expectation was that the messiah would be someone important and powerful.   If he is the son of Joseph then it can’t be him. You’ll notice in verse 22 that it wasn't just one person that felt this way it says “they said. Is this not Josephs son?”  It was the mood of the room that Jesus was not really who he was claiming to be. 

So Jesus fires right back and says, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’”  And he brought to their memory stories about the history of the Hebrew people when foreigners were blessed when they were not.  This upset them a bit. They drove him to a brow of a hill with the intent to do him harm. 

There is a passage in a book in the Bible called Deuteronomy where is says, “But any prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, or who presumes to speak in my name a word that I have not commanded the prophet to speak, that prophet shall die.”  This may be their justification for trying to chuck Jesus off a cliff.  They think that he is saying things that God has not commanded him to say.  They get him all the way to the hill top and scripture says, “But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.”

Whoever wrote this story down clearly thought that this was vindication for Jesus.  The inability of the crowd to kill Jesus that day was proof that what he was saying was true. 

I also think that this gives us another layer of understanding as to why the crucifixion was so devastating.  On a Friday sometime later, the crowd was able to kill Jesus.  If the one claiming to be messiah was able to be killed then he must have been a false messiah.  But as we know, the crucifixion was not the end of the story.  The resurrection, two days later, was the triumphant defeat of death. Again, attention was paid to the wrong thing.  Jesus sacrificed himself but his followers only paid attention to the apparent defeat. 

We are shaped by that which we pay our attention. 

How would your name-tag identify you?

If come to have faith in Jesus Christ and continue to live the way we have always lived then we are not “set”.  We've joined the team. We wear the uniform.  We know the schedule. We know the rules. We know where the starting line is. But are you getting into the race?

If you are not actively working on growing as a disciple of Jesus Christ then you are actively growing as a disciple of whatever you are paying your attention to.  

Take Your Marks

Luke 4:14-21

Spring is nearly here. It’s less than two months away.   The snow will be gone.  The roads will be clear, But not yet.  It’s still January.

How are you all with anxiety?  You know when you have some big thing coming up, or some issue that persists and there is that nervous energy that starts off in the background of your being then for some of us, it becomes ever more consuming.  How do you deal with that energy?  It was this time of year; two years ago now that I found out that I was coming here to St. Paul.  My family and I moved into the parsonage in June of that year.  That’s 4 and a half months of living between worlds, knowing that I would be leaving but not gone yet.   I had some idea of what was ahead but I didn't know for sure.  The day that the moving truck arrived was a very happy day.  Not because I was happy to be leaving but I was happy the wait was over. 

I never want surgery but if I have to have it I would rather get it over sooner than later.  I always volunteered to go first for a class presentation because I hated public speaking and leaving it chance when I would get called for my turn was just too much.  If I have to deliver bad news I just do it.  The truth is what it is and the sooner we can get to it the sooner healing can begin. 

That energy isn't all bad though.  Sometimes we need that energy to get a necessary job done.  When I played football, that pre-game energy helped me perform at my peak during the game.  I had a Junior Varsity coach in the 10^th grade that didn't understand that.  When we had away games he would make us go silent 10 minutes before we arrived at the field where we were supposed to play.  He calls it “quiet intensity.”  Well what it actually did was relax us; it took away that heightened energy. We lost every game that year.  Sometimes we need that boost of energy to propel us into action.  We may need a little discomfort to live into the lives that God truly intends for us.

I love this scripture.  Jesus is bold.  He is unafraid. He is who he is. Judge him; love him; the choice is yours! That won’t change him! Scripture is how we know about Jesus.  Through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit we are guided into greater and deeper knowledge of God that goes beyond the printed word. 

To truly know Jesus we have to experience the presence of Jesus. The promise of our faith is that when we gather together in the name of Jesus Christ, his presence is among us. We are the body of Christ on earth when we gather in his name.  We are human.   We are flawed.  But in the midst of all that Christ is present and we can come to know him in these gatherings. 

Yes I am saying you need to come to church!  Jesus did it.  He set the example.  He went to the synagogue ‘as was his custom’.  Why was he going?  He is the incarnate one, The Anointed One.  He is the son of God.  We already know that he talks to the heavenly father not in crowded places but in lonely places like mountaintops and wildernesses.  But it was Jesus custom. That means he did it regularly.  Even though he already knew everything he went. (So what’s your excuse)?  In this particular scripture Jesus went to the synagogue.  The attendant gave Jesus the scroll, it was the prophet Isaiah.  He opened it to the portion I read earlier, read it, sat down and gave his teaching.  “Today this has been fulfilled in your presence.”  Jesus is the word made flesh. The Old Testament and New Testament are shadows of Jesus’ being.  The scriptures are recording of god’s action in the lives of particular people.  Jesus is God.  We read scriptures to know about God. To get closer to god through understanding how God operates.  Jesus went to the synagogue that day and read the scriptures.  He wasn't defining his ministry by the scriptures, he was merely pointing out that the scriptures are defined by him!

He is the only one that can say that (although we are guilty of trying to say that).  We like to take the scriptures and define them in the light of our own experience.  But we are not God.  We are not the Messiah.  His starting point is himself because he is God. He is the messiah.  Our starting point has to be the scripture.  When we take ourselves as the starting point then twist and shape the word of god to justify our sin.  But God isn’t interested in justifying our sin he is interested in justifying the sinner. God is interested in making us to be in accord with Him.

When we make the scripture as our common starting point we, open the scriptures together as a community, God’s truth is revealed. It’s not just me as your pastor; it isn't Bob, Den, Bob, Ray, or Forest that had the truth. It is every one of us in this sanctuary.  We approach the scriptures together.  We interpret as a community what God is saying to us today.  You may not agree with me.  I may not agree with you and there’s gonna be a bunch of people who don’t fully agree with either one of us but together, when we are in conversation when we engage the scriptures honestly and openly  the Holy Spirit will work through each one of us, then the truth of God will emerge. Where two or more are gathered in his name he is there among them.  It’s the community where truth is found. As individuals only see dimly as in a dark glass.

It may not seem like it now but spring is nearly here.  Track season will start.  The runners will get the command to take their mark.  The race, the thing that they have been preparing for will begin.  Friends we will be going through a process of discernment as a church in the coming months.  Seeds that were planted month ago will start to sprout.  And whether or not they eventually bear fruit will have a lot to do with the nurture that we provide.  Tomorrow the conceptual building committee will meet with the architect to see what the dream of an improved facility looks like on paper.  The Vital Church Initiative Team continues to be trained and inspired about the possibilities of the future of this congregation.  This spring some significant changes will be suggested by an outside consultant to improve what we are already doing.  All this change can cause anxiety because we may have an idea about what the future holds but we are just not sure.  These things are our race.  This is our big game.  We need to be in prayer.  We need to search the scriptures.  We need to be in communion with God and each other so that his will is revealed.   Changes if they are coming will happen in their own season.  Our task is to prepare for whatever God may have for us. 

On Kinney Down

Alex and I visited Michigan State University on Saturday.  Yes, it's a little early for college selection.  He is only a sophomore.  But our trips are more than just choosing a college they are about anxiety reduction...mine.  Alex is our firs-born.  He has been in my life for 16+ years, and the thought of him leaving home breaks my heart.  I fell in love with him the moment I saw him the day he was born.  The day will come, probably sometime in August of 2015 when he will leave for whatever college he chooses.  I pray that both he and I can celebrate that day of transition with gladness in our hearts.  We will soon be making trips to Ann Arbor, Kalamazoo, perhaps even Houghten MI.  I am confident that what ever Alex chooses to do with the first chapter of his adult life it will do it well. 

Just Ordinary

John 2:1-11

A story about a wedding, I can’t tell you how many weddings I have officiated.  I can’t. I haven’t kept track.  I probably should have in retrospect but when I try to remember the list changes every time.  Then I try to remember all the weddings I have attended and the list even more muddled. When I was a kid, it seems like all the weddings I went to had a reception at the KC Hall #3651.  I remember that number because that was the number of my Cub Scout troop that also met there.  Every my memory of those receptions have all blended into one memory because the band was always in the same place.  The food was all basically the same.  The same relatives were dancing the way they do. The loud music, the cool night air, the exhausted bride…it was always the same.  The next day, as far as I was concerned, life returned to normal. Everything was ordinary again. It’s interesting how the ordinary life can, at times, become extraordinary.

                For example in a couple of weeks, on February third, a two professional football teams will be in New Orleans.  They will spend several minutes trying to carry, throw and kick an oblong ball to opposite ends of a great big green rectangle.  Whichever team does it the most will win and will be the champion of pushing an oblong ball to the end of a big green rectangle.  That’s football.  And there will be a lot of little green rectangles traded for beverages, chips, wings and hot dogs.  And there will be lots of little green rectangles paid for advertising on television while you watch the game to convince you to buy things a bit more expensive than beverages, chips, wings and hot dogs.  This is part of our culture.  Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, then a month later, Super bowl.  And I like it. 

                I like it like it like I like weddings, and graduation open houses.  I like it like an impromptu summer dinner around a grill in the summer or a night out with my wife, just because.  I like it because it is a celebration of the ordinary life.  Last night there was a party out in the Activity Center.  We played some silly games, heard some less-than-stellar jokes and ate some good food.  The theme was football, but we would have had a great time even if the big game was cancelled.  We laughed and enjoyed each other’s company because we love each other.   We gathered in the name of Jesus as a community of disciples.  We didn’t have a bible study but we felt the love of God.

                When Jesus is at the center the ordinary becomes extraordinary.

                In the Gospel Lesson today Jesus is at a wedding.  The writer of the Gospel didn’t say who was getting married, this may be because he didn’t want to distract from his main point by identifying the bride and the bridegroom or it may be like me, by the time he wrote it down he didn’t remember which wedding it was that he was at.  He just remembered that Jesus was there.  He remembered that Jesus’ mother was there. He remembered that Jesus disciples where there.  He remembered that something very special, something extraordinary happened at that wedding. He saw Mary and Jesus discussing something. He saw his lord give instructions to some servants.  He saw one of those servants draw some liquid out of a stone jar that was usually used for ritual cleansing and bring it to the head waiter. He saw the delight on the head waiters face as he tasted the contents.  And the celebration continued. The next day life went back to being ordinary.

                Now the same event from the perspective of the newlywed couple was that the celebration was underway.  The head waiter came and complemented the bridegroom for the good wine and the celebration went on and the next day life went back to being ordinary.

                The same event from the perspective of the average attendee of the celebration was that they went, every proceeded as these things usually do and the next day life went back to being ordinary. 

                For the disciple, the bridegroom and the average attendee the ordinary life meant different things.  For the disciple who witnessed these things and followed Jesus life was never like it was before.  Life had purpose and meaning.  The wedding at Cana was a turning point. I have had the thought before and I have others say it as well, that ‘I wish I could feel the way I felt when I first believed.’  You know that feeling of complete peace mixed with exhilaration and joy.  The knowledge of the eternal balanced with an appreciation for the earthly. “Thank you Jesus! Thank you God for breaking down the walls of my ego and pride!” I would be nice to stay in that state, but the kids need to be dropped off at school, the taxes need to be filed and, you know, my bad knee is acting up today.

                 For the newlyweds the ordinary life was also different because he now has a wife, she has a husband.  The party was over and life begins. They had a wonderful party.  There was a situation where at that party that could have embarrassed the family. But Jesus came through for them.  Good thing he was invited. But now regular life begins. The ordinary life begins. The day in and day out of life can sap you of your spirit. How can you go every day to a job and do the same thing over and over again and find fulfillment.  How can you clean your house every single day only to have it thrown into disarray moments after your family walks through the door and receive little to no appreciation for the work you have done? What is the cure for this ordinary life?

For the average attendee of the wedding the next day may have been just like most days.  The party came and went. For them it was just an ordinary party.  But if they knew where the wine that they were drinking came from, they would have a different perspective.  Who gonna tell ‘em?  

                But there is a fourth person I haven’t mentioned.  The servant who filled those jars with ordinary water then drew out wine and brought it to the head waiter. He saw everything that happened yet had no understanding.  I’ll bet he didn’t sleep well that night.  I’ll bet that he spent many hours contemplating what had happened. My Hope is that he sought out the one who instructed him that night to fill those jars and ask who he is and how that extraordinary thing happened.  I don’t think there is any measure of normal for this fellow until he gets some answers to explain the things he experienced?  Who’s gonna guide him?

                We spend a lot of time and energy on things that are impermanent.  If we hinge our joy on a sports team then our happiness is diminished when our team fails.  Those of you who are Lions fans have had to grow spiritually and lean more and more on your faith over the years while you Packers fans have had an easier go of it!

God want us to have joy! At the wedding feast the wine ran out.  Mary came to Jesus. Jesus took care of it.  It wasn’t his time to reveal himself as the Messiah so he did it discretely. The party went on the celebration continued. That’s what we have to do. We have to celebrate.  We have to celebrate the things of this life. The wedding is a celebration of the love two people have for each other. The party yesterday was a way to celebrate our life together, a way to find joy.  In a book in the Bible called Hebrews it says “ And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds,  not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” When we are gathered together in the name of Jesus he is among us and he makes the ordinary extraordinary.

Brothers and sisters we need to keep Christ at the center of everything we do. It’s there we will find joy.  If we are in the practice of prayer and worship, if we study the bible and meditate and it does not lead to joy then we are doing it wrong.  If we don’t find joy in the Christian life then Christ is not the center of it. 

So, how is it with you today?  Does your walk as a disciple of Christ lead you to joy?  I pray that it does.