Love, Loaves, and Fishes

"Anyone can be great because anyone can serve." Dr. Martin Luther King

There has never been a group of people that I have loved serving God with more than the people of New Hope Baptist Valparaiso. I'll pass my 14th anniversary soon so you should have figured out that I love this place. We have never been a big church. We did approach average church size a few years ago - well almost - actually our sanctuary won't hold the 150 souls that statistics say is an average church size. But we're not there now.

And yet on any given Wednesday, the people of New Hope will cook, plate and deliver more meals to more people than we have meeting together in worship on Sunday. Are we sitting on a load of other resources that would make it easier? You know, so we could just go to Danny's Fried Chicken and order 105 meals to go? No. There are weeks where the financial statement might show we have less than $20 in the bank. Now understand we have some very faithful people and so we're able to squeak by, barely. But churches that are in that state usually cut ministry. We didn't. We deliver more meals now than we did.

All I can do is praise God.

We have so many needs, but He has counted us worthy of playing a role in his love for "the least of these."

That's exciting. Each week we ask for help in getting what we need to cook the meal, package it, and deliver it. Many times the total cost of supplies is donated completely. Other times the church treasury takes the hit. But for over two years now, every single Wednesday night we have delivered to shut ins and the poor of Valparaiso. There have been times when we were in the "red" overall, but we pressed on, believing that God wanted us to have faith and act on that faith. He has never let us down. It has literally been "loaves and fishes" week after week after week.

I know lots of other churches have more staff, more stuff, and more programs for every slice of life. But what  if God is calling you to come and see how some of His people do more ministry with less, having to trust God for every week's needs? What if you came to a place where you weren't just noticed, but welcomed as part of a family? What if you were to come and join the group of believers at New Hope as we try to love our way through life together? 

Maybe there's a talent you have that's exactly what we need, but you don't get to use it. Maybe there's a ministry God is calling you into, but you need people around you who have real faith in God's calling and equipping.

Come. Walk with us.

We Know Enough

"If there is any meaning in the life of Jesus of Nazareth, it is this: that there is a God who created us, and who loves us so much that He would stop at nothing to bring us to Him. And I really suspect that of all the things we think we want to know, the only thing we really want to know is that we are loved. And if Jesus means anything, He means that you are loved. I hope you know that. And I hope you stop worrying about all the stuff you don't know, because I don't think it amounts to a hill of beans." -Rich Mullins

What About Now?

I've read the text for tomorrow again and again and again. I've tried to imagine the scene John describes. Tried to put myself there. As one of the disciples, one of the Pharisees, one of the Greeks, one of the crowd.

Only one man there understood what was really happening that day.

The Pharisees thought they had lost. "Look, the whole world is going to him."

The disciples, as usual, were clueless.

The Greeks, confused.

The crowd, flush with the emotion of the entry, but beginning to realize that their "Hosanna" cries didn't produce the king they wanted, waited.

Jesus knew it was His time - NOW.

Lord, I pray tomorrow morning is one of those "thin places" my Celtic brothers experienced,when heaven and earth draw nearest. I pray that the same focused attention you paid to God's timing is spread to our church family. I pray that the same heart for "whatever it takes" that you showed that day would flood our hearts.

And that we leave, not following your teachings as interested students would, but following you, as committed disciples. Wherever that might lead.

Metaphors and similies

"The kingdom of God is like..."

Last Sunday, I took up the topic of hell and what happens to those who willfully and stubbornly resist God's call to come and follow. The images that God used in the Scriptures to describe their punishment are horrible. "Lake of fire", "where the worm never dies", "where the fire is never quenched", "Wailing and gnashing of teeth", "outer darkness" - are all mentioned and provide the backdrop to what happens when we refuse God's call on us to live our lives loving God and loving our neighbors.

I made the point then that God commissioned the writers of the NT to use phrases that even if symbolic, point to a greater reality. That should give anyone pause to consider what God thinks of the way we've spent our lives.

Now I've been immersed in the language of heaven all week and I see the same pattern play itself out. Sure there are some specifics we can pull out of the Scriptures about what heaven is like, but there's still more of the use of similes and metaphors than our modern "I need to know exactly" minds can find comfort in.

William Willimon, former Dean of the Chapel at Duke University, and now Bishop of the United Methodist Church in North Alabama, wrote recently about how hard it is for us to appreciate mystery and metaphor.

As Douglas Sloane, in his book on higher education puts it, in American universities, at least since the early 1900’s quantifiable thinking (statistics, matter, money) has reigned supreme while qualifiable thinking (thoughts of beauty, right and wrong, good and bad) has had a rough go of it.

Augustine, as a bright young man with a superior classical education, confessed to Bishop Ambrose that he had tried to read the Bible but frankly, he was unimpressed. To him the Bible seemed like woefully inferior literature, crudely written, poorly edited.

“You young fool,” replied Ambrose. “You can’t get it because when you read in the Bible about ‘fish,’ you think ‘fish.’ When you read ‘bread,’ you think ‘bread.’”

Ambrose explained to him the spiritual depth of scripture, showed young Augustine levels of meaning beyond the surface appearance of things.

Thus, years later, after entering this strange new world of the Bible, Augustine is sitting under a tree in a garden. He hears a child singing, “Take up and read, take up and read.” Is it the voice of a child or an angel? By this time his imagination is so excited, his consciousness so heightened that he can’t tell the difference. He does what the voice says, takes up the Bible, flops it open to an obscure passage from Romans, and his life is changed forever. After that, we call him “St. Augustine.”

HT A Peculiar Prophet - William Willimon


I realized early on this week that I was approaching the topic of heaven more like the young Augustine than the Saint he became once he let God leave mystery and wonder out front of us.

Wouldn't following Jesus mean that we don't have to know everything about where we are headed, just that He will guide us?

This Sunday's Text

“Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. 2 For you will be treated as you treat others.* The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.*
3 “And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye* when you have a log in your own? 4 How can you think of saying to your friend,* ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? 5 Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.
6 “Don’t waste what is holy on people who are unholy.* Don’t throw your pearls to pigs! They will trample the pearls, then turn and attack you.

New Living Translation. 2nd ed. Mt 7:1-6

"Don’t preach just to keep from being preached to. For the same sermon you preach will be applied to you, and the stuff you dish out to others will be dished up to you. Why examine the splinter in your brother’s eye, and take no notice of the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Bud, hold still while I pick that splinter out of your eye,’ when there is a plank in yours? Listen, you phony, first pull the plank from your eye and then you’ll be able to see better to get the splinter out of your brother’s eye.

"‘Don’t throw your valuables to the dogs,
And don’t spread your pearls before the hogs;
Or they will trample them under their feet
And even turn and bite you.’
- Clarence Jordan, Matthew, The Cotton Patch Gospels

1-5 "Don't pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults— unless, of course, you want the same treatment. That critical spirit has a way of boomeranging. It's easy to see a smudge on your neighbor's face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own. Do you have the nerve to say, 'Let me wash your face for you,' when your own face is distorted by contempt? It's this whole traveling road-show mentality all over again, playing a holier-than-thou part instead of just living your part. Wipe that ugly sneer off your own face, and you might be fit to offer a washcloth to your neighbor.

6"Don't be flip with the sacred. Banter and silliness give no honor to God. Don't reduce holy mysteries to slogans. In trying to be relevant, you're only being cute and inviting sacrilege. The Message - Eugene Peterson

I read passages like this and it causes me to love Jesus more. There's such a disconnect between many of those who are called Christians and Jesus.

How Long Oh Lord?

It was one of those days when there was so much I wanted to say. But clouds were forming on the horizon. Announcements and welcome lasted 15 minutes. The children's sermon went for 6 more. And note to self - video clips count as time out of your portion. They are not an added bonus that everyone goes away feeling glad they got.

With the two videos, yours truly grabbed an amazing 50 minutes. Uh huh.

So yeah, an hour and a half was what we took from start to finish today.

It wasn't as bad as the three hours "There Will Be Blood" took from Bunny, Sean and me yesterday.

But it was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long. Content in context, delivered with passion - yeah. Clips were both great and supported the theme extremely well.

BUT... I was too long. Way too long. And what I think could have really been impactful was made less so.

I'm posting this to remind me if I ever get that idea again. Although Bunny and Sean will probably handle that. :)

Yes I Do

Sunday I hope to see God working in the lives of people as they open their hearts and minds to the possibility that God wants to use us - yes, us. The whole "Blessed are..." leads into "You are salt... You are light..." where Jesus is explaining to those who have followed Him that we are NOT who society says were are, and we are NOT what our frailties and failures would mark us as. The Kingdom of Heaven has come and is coming, and the new reality is that we are who Jesus says we are.

This clip is from the movie "Kingdom of Heaven". The skeptic in the scene is ironically, a priest.

Living Life Upside Down

I keep reading the beatitudes and marveling at how radical they were/are. If we had someone at New Hope that could pull it off, I'd get them to sing this old Truth song tomorrow right after I read the text out loud.

We lose perspective. We just lose the ability to see ourselves and our lives as God sees them. Yeah, prone to wander. All we like sheep - yeah, that too.

“LIVING LIFE UPSIDE DOWN” lyrics by Russ Lee

John has a new way of looking at life
He’s tired of his job, his kids and his wife
He says the secret to his success
Was in leaving and finding himself
Now he’s someone to somebody else.
And you say we’ve risen to a new age of truth
You’re calling it a spiritual Godly pursuit
But I say, I say,

(chorus)
What if we’ve fallen to the bottom of a well
Thinking we’ve risen to the top of a mountain
What if we’re knocking at the gates of hell
Thinking we’re heaven bound
What if we spend our lives thinking of ourselves
When we should have been thinking of each other
What if we reach up and touch the ground
To find we’re living life upside down.

We’ve got a program for saving the earth
While unborn children are denied their right to birth
One baby’s blessed, another cursed
Have we made this world better or worse
Now that the life of a tree comes first
And you say we’ve risen to a new age of light
You’re telling me what used to be wrong is now right
But I say, I say,
(repeat chorus)

What if we’re living, what if we’re living,
What if we’re living life upside down.

"Then Jesus sat down and began to teach them."

Lord speak tomorrow. Help us see what you see so we can live as you lived.

Love or something like it

Today has been one dreary mess here. Great weather to sit inside and work on tomorrow's sermon. All week long I have been reading and rereading the passage in Matthew commonly known as the "beatitudes".

You remember - the "Blessed are you..." part.

The biggest challenge tomorrow will be trying to get the hearers to grasp just how revolutionary Jesus' words were.
We have such a tendency to take all the "heat" out of Scripture that would have scalded anyone who originally heard it.

One writer said that what Jesus said would have the same impact as the "new math" did in his days in school. He could remember sitting in class having just learned how to do "long division" and the teacher telling him that though he may have gotten the right answer, he was doing it all wrong. Maybe that guy has a real math phobia. Personally I think that's too weak.

Another said that Just using the word translated "blessed" would have had people scratching their heads. They believed gods were blessed, the rich were blessed, and the dead were blessed. But the poor, hungry, meek, merciful and the like? The world doesn't work that way. Didn't then, doesn't now.

True.

Unless Jesus shows up. Then the world as we know it yields to the One who created it.

So many people today are trusting in everything except the grace of God.

Love Him. Love Jesus. Trust Him. Trust Jesus. Don't focus on what's happening anywhere else except between you and Jesus. There's no safer place in the world than the center of the will of God.

Be blessed!

Worship @ New Hope 20 Jan 2008

We continued in the "Red Letters" series with a sermon entitled "What You Need To Know" from Matthew 4. More about that later. Main focus from the text was "repent for the Kingdom of God is near" and "Follow me."

Opening song:

Amazing Grace,(My Chains Are Gone) - great treatment of THE classic hymn

Forever

The Potters Hand

Ancient Words

Give Me Jesus (solo by Emily)

Just As I Am

I was trying to craft a set that reflected our need for God's grace and our call to follow Jesus as he said in His Word.

The message: I have been really working hard on examining my work as a preacher in recent weeks, and have read the Andy Stanley book "Communicating for A Change" twice. In it, Stanley strongly suggests that you go with one point and only put into the sermon other materials that directly support that point.

So I decreased the amount of text I put up, and went with visual images to support the message. Then I went a step further and sat on a stool to deliver it. My thoughts were that if I was stationary then I would not be able to rely on gestures and body language and would have to concentrate on the thoughts and concepts I had at hand.

Then I tried to hang that within the frame provided by Stanley.

Me - We - God - You - We

It seemed to help me focus, stay on point, and shorten the amount of words but deliver clearly what God had led me to say. I'll keep working on it.

I'm reading the red letters again today

Jesus was always saying the unexpected. Just when his followers thought they had him figured out, he’d open his mouth and amaze them once more…People were flabbergasted when he said they should love their enemies. They were aghast when he said to turn the other cheek when someone crossed them. They were intrigued by his parables and mesmerized by his description of God’s kingdom. His listeners were awed by his wisdom, inspired by his morality, and melted by his love.

-Lee Strobel(What Would Jesus Say, p.12)