Looking At Palm Sunday

As I did the last few weeks, as I come across items that speak to me about the text, I'll post snippets and links here.

We could all wish this were easier. The fact is that this is desperately hard. Individually and collectively we always fall short of being the kind of people and community God desires. It's not easy to follow Jesus, not on Palm Sunday and not on Fig Tree Monday.

Come to think of it, following Jesus in the week ahead will finally wind us up at a place called Skull Hill where a cross will be sunk into the flesh of the earth like a dagger through God's heart; like a dagger through all our hearts. That will be Jesus' ultimate solution to helping bring you, me, and as many people as possible to God.

So we follow this week. We follow. We watch. We weep. We repent. And when it's all over and the worst has happened, we sit quietly for a couple days fearing that maybe death is the end only to find out come Easter that Jesus is not finished yet. He'll arise. He'll keep going. And he'll call us to keep following, dragging the world behind us and praying we'll find room for them to pray, too.

From Here

This one would have fit right in with last week's text as well. Powerful insight. I've highlighted what struck me the most.

Here was a man who could raise the dead! This is what completely frees us from the addiction to wealth and power. The reason we strive for these things is we think that with them we can prevent the loss of our dreams, health, relationships, jobs, and all the things that make up a life. But the message of Jesus Christ is that the way you get over your fear of losing your life is not by collecting more money and power, but by going ahead and dying to this life. Die to having the life you expected. Only then will you be able to receive life as a grace.I know, I have mentioned this thing about grace once or twice before. Some have wondered if I do not need to speak more about sin as well as grace. But the thing that prevents us from receiving grace is not our sins, but our insistence on achieving life on our own. The Pharisees were great at avoiding sin...but they had already determined to kill Jesus and Lazarus, again, because Jesus viewed their self-righteousness as one thing to collect like power and wealth. Thinking that we have cleaned up our lives and are now avoiding sin is just one more way to delude ourselves that we have secured the future.

Cheap grace, according to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, is grace that does not bid you to die. Costly grace asks for everything: your money, power, dreams, family. Everything, and especially your ability to be moral and religious. Give it all up. Give it to Jesus so that you can discover a whole new life, that is finally free to use everything you are holding for stewardship. Otherwise you are going to waste life worrying if you will lose things that you certainly will lose. Trust me on this: one hundred percent of all people eventually lose their jobs. One hundred percent lose their marriages. One hundred percent lose their loved ones, their health, and their lives. One hundred percent of our bodies will eventually return to dust. You are not going to beat those odds, no matter how much wealth, power, or righteousness you collect. Whatever it is that you are afraid of losing, you will lose. So why do you want to waste your fleeting days worrying about when it will happen? Get it over with! Choose today to die with Christ, that you may spend the rest of life receiving his sacred mystery day after day.

From Here

This week's text - Palm Sunday

Mark's account of Jesus' entry to Jerusalem has Him coming in with fanfare, but leaving the city pretty quickly.

Interesting that the NLT 2.0 chooses to use "garments" here.

Oh if we could only learn "When Love Comes To Town" in time to do it Sunday. :)

1 As Jesus and his disciples approached Jerusalem, they came to the towns of Bethphage and Bethany on the Mount of Olives. Jesus sent two of them on ahead.2 “Go into that village over there,” he told them. “As soon as you enter it, you will see a young donkey tied there that no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here.3 If anyone asks, ‘What are you doing?’ just say, ‘The Lord needs it and will return it soon.’”
4 The two disciples left and found the colt standing in the street, tied outside the front door.5 As they were untying it, some bystanders demanded, “What are you doing, untying that colt?”6 They said what Jesus had told them to say, and they were permitted to take it.7 Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their garments over it, and he sat on it.
8 Many in the crowd spread their garments on the road ahead of him, and others spread leafy branches they had cut in the fields.9 Jesus was in the center of the procession, and the people all around him were shouting,

“Praise God!

Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
10 Blessings on the coming Kingdom of our ancestor David!

Praise God in highest heaven!”

11 So Jesus came to Jerusalem and went into the Temple. After looking around carefully at everything, he left because it was late in the afternoon. Then he returned to Bethany with the twelve disciples. Mark 11:1-11 (NLT)

Liveblogging from the movie

Enjoying hanging out with a few old friends and some new ones watching the movie in the fellowship hall. Free popcorn, snocones, a movie screen bigger than the biggest flat panel and FUN occurs.

Oh and I want a dog like that.

We need to do this one Sunday night every month.

New Hope@Worship 29 Mar 2009

Yes,it's Tuesday and I'm finally getting around to Sunday's recap. :)

The fifth Sunday of the 40 day preparation for Easter (AKA Lent) continued this week. An incredibly challenging passage of Scripture combined with a strong sense of urgency on my part and came together to bring us to the presence of God. I used a video before and after the message (Christ Daughtry - "What About Now?" and Steven Curtis Chapman "What Now?"), so there shouldn't have been any question where I felt the Holy Spirit was guiding us.

It really helped me to immerse myself in that passage each and every day. Added a lot of time, but was so worth it.

The musical part of our worship was:

Your Grace Is Enough
How Great Is Our God
Amazed (Lord I'm Amazed) (with a very sweet and special solo by Celeste)

Come Just As You Are



Some of the comments I received and the chatter I heard after were very encouraging. If a group of people seriously pursued God's heart-work... wow.

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.

How Do You Explain Christianity's Impact?

Ray Steadman on the passage for tomorrow:

"If he had not died we probably would not know any more about him than we know of any other great religious leader, like Buddha, Mohammed, or Confucius. We may not have heard of him at all, so meager were the results of his teaching.

Only a relative handful stood with him to the end. Because of the cross he was able to do something he could never have done otherwise: He was able to share his life with millions of people.

How do we explain men like Luther, Calvin, Knox, Zwingli and others who changed the entire Western world during their lifetime? How do we explain the impact of men like the Wesley brothers? In our own day, how do we explain the change in the hatchet-man of the Nixon administration, Charles Colson, who is now changing the prison system of this country in the name of Jesus? How do we explain Solzenityn, Mother Teresa, and millions who daily evidence an altered life, a changed outlook?

All has come about because of the cross of Christ.

God is saying to us in this account that the only way to true glory is to die."

Planting the Seed

We all have a life that we’re rather attached to, with people, places, things, and activities that we are comfortable with. My life may not be perfect, but it is familiar. And it’s mine. The Lord invites me not just to give up dessert for a few weeks, but to give up myself. He asks me to die to my own plans, my own will, and put my destiny entirely in his hands. Incidentally, that is what baptism is supposed to mean–that it is no longer I that live, but Christ that lives in me (Gal 2:19b-20). That I’m no longer in the driver’s seat, but I’ve put Jesus there. That all that is dearest to me, I’ve put on the altar, and will only take it back if the Lord gives it back.

Why would we do such a radical thing? Only if we truly believe that planting the seed of our lives and dreams in the fertile soil of the Lord’s vineyard will produce much fruit. That we, like the apostles, will grow to be more than we’d ever hoped we’d be. That he would do through us, as through them, more than we’d ever dreamt possible. From Here

Unless...

From Dr. A. W. Tozer, the great preacher of a few decades ago:

The cross is the symbol of death.

It stands for the abrupt, violent end of the human being.

The man in Roman times who took up his cross and started down the road had already said goodbye to his friends. He was not coming back. He was not going out to have his life redirected. He was going out to have it ended.

The cross made no compromise, modified nothing, spared nothing. It slew all of the man completely and for good. It did not try to keep on good terms with its victim. It struck swift and hard and when it had finished its work the man was no more.

That evangelism which draws friendly parallels between the ways of God and the ways of man is false to the Bible and cruel to the soul of the hearers.

The faith of Christ does not parallel the world. It intersects it.

In coming to Christ we do not bring our life up on to a higher plane.

We leave it at a cross.

The grain of wheat must fall into the ground and die. That is the beginning of the gospel.

Thinking Toward Sunday's Message

In any given week, I'll read hundreds of pages concerning the text or topic. I'll begin with the text itself - looking at the original languages and word study, ferreting out any culture specific phrases, reading different versions and the Message. Making some notes on things that need further work, and sketching out what might be the thrust of the passage, I'll go on to reading about the passage. What has the Body of Christ - my fellow brothers and sisters in faith, heard from the Holy Spirit through it down through the centuries.

I thought I'd share some of these with you this week so you can see the richness of the Spirit's voice and how His instruction can come so differently and yet so truly to each of us.

Every believer, every minister and congregation, is tempted to realize the kingdom of God apart from the cross of Christ. Although the gospel is the "power of God unto salvation" we are constantly tempted to win the world by evangelistic methodologies, group dynamics, management systems, institutional agendas and the like, as if there is a better way, a more effective way than the cross. The message of the cross, by itself, seems ineffective, weak and foolish, and so needs our marketing initiatives. Yet, it is not the dynamic welcoming congregation that draws people into the kingdom, but rather the Son of Man lifted up. From Here

This Gospel is so gentle, we might miss its absoluteness.

This quiet, simple appreciation of seed stirs memories in me of my Uncle Oscar, filtering the heavy, satin kernels with his strong weathered hands. I'll never forget the spring South Dakota suffered one of its worst droughts. As dust blew across the farmyard I heard my cousin ask, "Dad, are you even going to put the crop in?" Oscar didn't hesitate and with an inflection all his own replied, "ABSOLUTELY! It won't grow in the granary." My uncle loved the wheat and so gave it up every year to the miracle of its fruitfulness: the Gospel's picture of dying and rising.
From Here

It is often through family and friendships that we learn the gift of
sacrificial giving, of generously offering ourselves to others. We witness parents making forfeiting some of their own pleasures or desires so that their children might reach their full potential. Some have given the gift of an organ so that others might live. Others have shared their homes with the homeless. Some have spent their vacations on mission trips expressing the love of Christ.

It is in this kind of service that we experience the rising of something new within ourselves. We cannot force growth or produce it by the strength of our own will. We can only expose ourselves to opportunities which become the impetus for our transformation. Those opportunities are usually found in giving up our own comfort and extending ourselves in the service of others.From here

Barbara Brown Taylor writes, “When Jesus died, this power was made manifest. By absorbing into himself the worst that the world could do to a child of God and by refusing to do any of it back, he made sure it was put to death with him. By suffering every kind of hurt and shame without ever once letting them deflect him from his purpose, he broke their hold on humankind. In him, sin met its match. He showed us what is possible. These are just some of the fruits of Christ’s death, things that could never have happened if he had not been willing to fall to the ground.”

This is just amazing writing from the pages of a Quebec literary journal. Click on the link to read the whole thing. It's worth your time.:

"How do seeds work?"

Dad thought for a moment. Then, struggling to conceal a grin he replied, "Magic."

"No, really. How do they work?"

"Magic. Just like a said." Dad laughed and then proceeded in a more serious tone, "And don't let anyone tell you otherwise."

I thought for a moment about whether or not to take Dad seriously. He loved to pull a person's leg, but the last comment had been stated so seriously that I couldn't decide what to make of it. He gave me a moment to dwell on this and then, sensing my confusion, offered a further explanation.

"Everyone knows what a seed needs to grow: soil, water, air and sunlight. But no one I know can explain why a seed grows. It's dead when you put it in the ground, but add the right ingredients and it shoots right up. Your science teacher wouldn't be happy with that answer, but I'm not a scientist and I'm also not afraid of a little mystery now and again. I guess I just choose to view at least a portion of it as a miracle—or magic if you like."

I smiled and laughed. I liked this explanation from my father. It was so unlike him and yet now as I look back, it explains so much. Silence ensued once more, but just as our planting was about to converge in the middle of a row a thought occurred to me.

"Is Howie like a seed? Is that why we put him in the ground?"

Dad sat back on his haunches and contemplated the dark soil at his knees. His right hand shook up and down methodically as he rattled a group of seeds within his closed calloused hand. Then, with invisible tears welling behind squinting eyes, he looked at me and stated firmly and with great resolve, "Yes, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise."

I remember the look of our hands that day. They were filthy and yet at that moment and in that place it was the most natural thing on the planet. -Mark Bowers From Here

The Invisible Church

We're not here.

Oh,I know that physically we occupy a corner off the highway, across from the elementary school and Little League field, just down the road from city hall.

But ask most of the town's population where New Hope Baptist Church is, and they won't have a clue.

We're invisible in the same way a liquor store is invisible to a teetotaler. Or a dry cleaner is to a bricklayer.

You have absolutely no need or interaction with a business or concern, so your eye just sends it to the background.

Doesn't help that our buildings have been here for decades without change. When I was in the grocery business, we knew that end of aisle displays had to be rotated, otherwise shoppers stopped noticing them. They became part of the fixtures in as little as two weeks.

They became invisible.

We become visible only when the people who make up New Hope touch other people's lives. While we are engaged in that, we come into view. As soon as we stop, we fade away.

For years we thought that a lit steeple, or outdoor signs would do the trick.

Nope.

We are the steeple.We are the signs.

How can we become more visible?

I'll talk about that tomorrow.

Wow... This Coming Sunday'sText

Fifth Sunday in Lent: March 29, 2009
Text: John 12:20-33
20 Some Greeks who had come to Jerusalem for the Passover celebration21 paid a visit to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee. They said, “Sir, we want to meet Jesus.”22 Philip told Andrew about it, and they went together to ask Jesus.
23 Jesus replied, “Now the time has come for the Son of Man to enter into his glory.24 I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels—a plentiful harvest of new lives.25 Those who love their life in this world will lose it. Those who care nothing for their life in this world will keep it for eternity.26 Anyone who wants to be my disciple must follow me, because my servants must be where I am. And the Father will honor anyone who serves me.
27 “Now my soul is deeply troubled. Should I pray, ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But this is the very reason I came!28 Father, bring glory to your name.”

Then a voice spoke from heaven, saying, “I have already brought glory to my name, and I will do so again.”29 When the crowd heard the voice, some thought it was thunder, while others declared an angel had spoken to him.
30 Then Jesus told them, “The voice was for your benefit, not mine.31 The time for judging this world has come, when Satan, the ruler of this world, will be cast out.32 And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.”33 He said this to indicate how he was going to die.
John 12:20-33 (NLT)

Pray with me,that we are working as He is.

Sunday Reflections

It was awesome just to be back at New Hope after a week of grief and sickness. Driving up into the parking lot, seeing cars of people we love so much - then getting the welcoming hugs, was great.

Then smiling as the newer office computer actually made producing a worship guide easy? Sell my clothes I'm gone to heaven!

The text came from John 3 and Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus.

Turned out the music fit well, but frankly I chose it because we could do it well, and because everyone seems to love the songs.

O Praise Him
How Can I Keep From Singing
Our God Saves

Amazing Grace

In "Our God Saves",there's a line where mourning turns to praise, and that's what yesterday was for me.

I used a Bluefish clip lead in about a man caught in a pit and the various ways each religion's founder would have dealt with him to begin the message. Liked it.

My hope was to use the "signs" thread through John's gospel to lead people to a point where they realized that Jesus was God's sign to them that it was time to turn to the Light. Ended quite unexpectedly sharing my conversion story.

We were blessed with one person coming forward who wanted the assurance of Jesus' love in her heart always. Praise God.

Tomorrow's Text

14 And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,15 so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.
16 “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.
18 “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son.19 And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.20 All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed.21 But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants. ”
John 3:14-21 (NLT)

Been sick all week long, also helping Bunny through the loss of her precious Mama, trying to help her get well, and frankly actually tried to get someone else to come in and lead the music and preach tomorrow. I just haven't had the energy, the emotional strength,or the time to even look at Sunday's music or message. All the hours I normally put into study, and the "walking around with it" time that really matters to me, aren't available now.

I'll be fine.

When I pulled up the text, my heart raced and I thanked God, again, for His love for those like me. Sinners. Skeptics. Self-made gods.

If I can't preach that text, then I need to become a Buddhist.

There's More To The Story

We're trying to move on down here. It's been an exceptionally trying week, and it isn't over. And we're not the only one's hurting. Our neighbors saw their son's birthday come and go without him for the first time since his tragic death. He'd have been sixteen. Everybody hurts.

We've been blessed by an enormous outpouring of love and support from both our loved ones here in Valparaiso and our friends and loved ones in Macon. The church my mother and father in law belonged to was awesome in their warmth.

The musicians and soloist at the funeral were outstanding, even though they played a song my mother loved that was played at her funeral too that I've almost banned here because of how heart wrenching it is. There's never enough time though for the pastors to say everything they could. So let me tell you some of the rest of the story.

The life that Dot Clinard lived spanned over eight decades. She saw America change in ways that would have been unbelievable to her mother. Growing up in Albany GA, she came of age as America won the second World War. Pictures from that time show a beautiful young woman with a winning smile. She married a young man named Curtis Clinard, and was a faithful wife, loving companion, and supporter for the next 62 years. That's 62 years,or about 12.2 marriages in today's average. So it's clear that Dot understood love, marriage, and commitment - and lived it as her husband progressed in his sales career.

I've been a salesman. It's critical that you have confidence in yourself to succeed. There will be days when you don't close the sale when you know you needed to in order to provide better for your family. When you go home and your wife treats you like a winner regardless, you'll receive what you need to go back out and do it again. You'll do it better - for her. You want to make her proud. Trust me, it's a powerful motivator.

In Curtis' case, he wasn't just a salesman, he was a traveling salesman. Being on the road is a hard life anyway you slice it. Hard for the salesperson and hard for the ones you leave behind. It is extremely difficult.

It is impossible without an exceptional partner.

Dot was all that.

She gave birth to four children. Three boys, and despite her doctors objections that she shouldn't have any more children, a girl. They lived a life with Mom five days a week and a life with dad on the weekend. Always sounded overwhelming to me. I've been a boy, and helped raise two, and even being home - it was a challenge. One that she mastered. All four have grown up to raise families of their own, and were equipped to face the challenges life can throw at you. Each of them has known times when they were tested, and each has responded as they were taught.

It was news to me when I heard that Dot was baptized as an adult. Her faith was so much a part of who she was. Look, as a pastor I know that there are people who come because they are supposed to and people who come because they can't imagine anywhere else they'd rather be. And it is especially telling if people show up with their family when there's ever reason not to - like having four kids to get ready. And Dot had the kids there every time the doors were open and was a servant while she was there.

You heard people say "she makes everyone feel so comfortable, so welcome" or "she was so friendly" and granted, those are traits anyone can have. Occasionally. But you can't keep it up for decades unless there's more behind it than good intentions. It takes a heart tuned to the compassion of Jesus. That's that servant thing again.

That same heart that was turned to compassion had to be turned against sin and toward obedience. I don't mean forced obedience. I mean obedience by decision after decision as you lay your life down for Christ, for your husband, and for your family.

Dot was a beautiful woman. She had options. She chose Christ. She chose a life of sacrifice, a beautiful offering for her Savior lived through countless decisions to deny herself. It was costly, and she would have told you on any day - it was worth it all.

Yeah we miss her. Who wouldn't?

We'll see her again.

And the best way to live until we do is following Jesus in the everyday.

We've been pointed in the right direction.

Pause

Just don't have anything to say. Maybe tomorrow.

The Art of Deck Chair Management

This is a modern version of the Titanic's deck chairs. Looks very functional, doesn't it. I'll bet on a sunny afternoon up on the lido deck a person might find real contentment on one of these. The trick in weather like that would be to find which side of the ship was facing toward the sun.

As long as the weather held up, and the ship was in good shape, the chair would really provide a benefit. Just keep them placed where they need to be, and maybe rub a little oil in every so often.

Those skills you'd have used to keep the deck chairs managed were awesome until they weren't.

When Titanic struck an iceberg, any time spent looking after the deck chairs was wasted. Deck chairs are a luxury item.

What brought my mind to the Titanic and deckchairs?

Our local Southern Baptist Association - oh scratch that - "fellowship of churches" has reorganized for the second time since I have been here and changed its name.

Because that's what was making it ineffective.

Right?

What's Left

There in one picture are two of the most beautiful women I have ever known. One I had the incredible blessing of marrying (yes, a little later after this was taken), and the other, the absolute greatest mother in love anyone could ever have.

Actually met the future mother in love many years before I met my wife. She was working at Greene's propane in Macon during the period when my daddy would take his boys into town to get the tanks refilled. We were living in a submarine - okay a trailer - 10 ft wide by 55 feet long - as my father chased a dream of having his own bit of land. For a sharecropper's son, that was a big dream. But it put a financial strain on us, so I can't imagine Dot's initial impression of what would become part of the family was favorable. I do know she was kind. In fact that's all I remember about those trips to Greene's- the mystery of propane tank filling, and that lady in the office who my father thought was real pretty and who I just knew as kind to little boys.

Roll forward a few years to a night that would begin a life change for me as I meet her again in her home. Was invited there to play some board games. She welcomed me warmly and pointed me in the right direction. That wouldn't be the last time she did either of those.

I enjoyed 35 years of her company on the journey of love called marriage I have been blessed to have with her daughter. She loved her family and lived a life of faith. Being the wife of a traveling salesman meant that she did more than her share most of the time. She did it well, as a wonderful mom raising three boys and a girl and being an awesome grandmother and great grandmother.

All along the way she touched people's lives with her kindness, compassion, femininity, and grace. Beautiful inside and out. I've never heard anyone talk about Dot with anything other than love and admiration. Think about that for a minute, will you? Live 83 years and see if you can be remembered as she will be.

And now she is gone from this life and alive in the next. To say she is missed is obviously an understatement. It hurts that she is gone from us, even though we know she lives - whole and full of joy in heaven.

So what's left?

An incredible legacy.

A life invested in her family.

A life example of faith lived out through the everyday.

A reason to thank God for the privilege of knowing her, of loving and being loved by her.

Sunday night debrief

It felt a little like the sign this morning. Bunny was sick most of the week and then we got the call we'd been dreading this morning - Bunny's Mom had passed away. A thunderstorm of grief blew into our home. Bunny stayed in bed until the late afternoon. She sent me to church.

Sean and I got to church and went over the music. Lots of people were out sick - very thin praise team. When word got out about Bunny's Mom, the mood seemed more subdued. This is a group of people who love fiercely. They hurt when you hurt. I was hoping not to tell until after the service, but naturally the first person I saw this morning asked "how's Bunny's Mom?"

So I prayed that God would be glorified no matter what was happening.

We did -
Your Grace Is Enough
Here I Am To Worship
Nothing But the Blood
and Jesus Paid It All

The text this week centered on Jesus' clearing of the temple. Great text, lots of insight into just what Jesus came to do and who He proclaimed that He was.

I never felt comfortable the whole message. It was as if I was reciting a lot of facts to an audience that never connected. I was emotionally flat. It was mercifully short at least. Maybe I shouldn't have tried. But smaller church means I and my family wear many hats. So I went and gave everything I had to give. Mea Culpa

The Times, They Are A Changing

Written about the demise of newspapers, but in light of this week's ARIS report on churches and the faith of the average American, seems to cross apply. Just replace "newspapers" with "church as we know it today."

When someone demands to know how we are going to replace newspapers, they are really demanding to be told that we are not living through a revolution. They are demanding to be told that old systems won’t break before new systems are in place. They are demanding to be told that ancient social bargains aren’t in peril, that core institutions will be spared, that new methods of spreading information will improve previous practice rather than upending it. They are demanding to be lied to.

There are fewer and fewer people who can convincingly tell such a lie.

The times, they are a changing. Incredible opportunity for a community living out their faith in love of God and love of and service to their neighbors. Personally, I think the average sized church is nimble enough to take advantage of the shifts in culture to do a lot of good.

Most won't.

Subtle as a sledge hammer - more insight into tomorrow's text

Subtle as a Sledge Hammer: Jesus "Cleanses" the Temple: Lent 3B - Essay posted 13 March 2006 - The Journey with Jesus

I read the cleansing of the temple as a stark warning against any and every false sense of security. Misplaced allegiances, religious presumption, pathetic excuses, smug self-satisfaction, spiritual complacency, nationalist zeal, political idolatry, and economic greed in the name of God are only some of the tables that Jesus would overturn in his own day and in ours. Church is more than a place to enjoy a night of bingo or to reinforce my many prejudices and illusions. Thank God, then, for the Psalm for this week which concludes with a prayer that is wonderfully appropriate this Lenten season: "Who can discern his errors? Forgive my hidden faults. Keep your servant from willful sins; may they not rule over me...May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer" (Psalm 19:12–14).