My Theological Center

In my class at SMU I've been asked to write about my "Theological Center for Ministry." Part of the challenge of this assignment has been limiting it to the four pages we were allowed. To those who don't like to write much, that may seem like a lot, but boiling the essence of your theological convictions down to 1200 words is not easy.

Through this process I have continually thought about the concepts of Story, Community, Love and Mission. And I couldn't help but think back to several sermons I preached during the Foundations season where these aspects informed much of what we discussed.
Since most of what I'm writing for class is inappropriate for the blogosphere for one reason or another, there hasn't been much opportunity to share what I've been working on. So I didn't want to miss this chance.

I made a few revisions to first draft I posted last night...

The Story of the Community of Missional Love

Before the beginning there was Community. This Community of what we refer to as Father, Son and Holy Spirit had a perfect relationship of mutual love and respect. This Community was not incomplete, it was the definition of completion. It needed nothing, it lacked nothing.

However, the relationship of the Community, being rooted and established in a deep indescribable love, felt compelled to create. For that is what love is and what love does, it continually creates expansive opportunity for love to be expressed. 

So the Community created. God brushed away the darkness, stepped into the midst of chaos and brought forth solid foundations. God molded and formed an unbelievably expansive and expanding universe and in an inconspicuous section of all that he began to paint with beautiful strokes a landscape that was begging to be enjoyed. 

God walked in the garden he had created. He knelt down and from the same material that formed mountains, deserts and jungles; the same material that made up the fish and birds and lions and bugs, he began to mold something new; something that would see and know and laugh and love. He began to form something that would walk with him, that he could teach and love. He formed out of himself - using his own image as a mold and model. This new thing he was making would be the pinnacle of everything he’d created. He would be able to point out the sunrise and this new thing's breath would catch; when a thunderstorm would pass through this new thing would come running to God for protection; God would hold this small creature and explain that everything would be okay.

God formed this living being. He breathed his own life into this thing. The Community of Father, Son and Holy Spirit - the relationship that was full, complete and needed nothing - invited these new small frail children to share this powerful community. And it was so very good.

God could have formed these creatures without the ability to choose their course. That was a decision that God made with the stars and planets and mountains and streams. None of these had been given the freedom to choose - planets and moons are in their orbit and have no ability to choose to do otherwise. Mountains are tall and strong and they will never think, "I want to be a valley now." Gravity does not choose whether it will influence objects or not.

This decision allowed the universe to be orderly, but it also ensured that no planet would ever decide to write a song about the Father. True, God created great beauty in the planet, a beauty which is itself a kind of song, but it isn’t a song that the planet created. In humanity, God has created something which is able to create as God creates - not on the same level; neither as equal nor rival, but as something which understands, as God does, that when love is present beautiful things result.

The children could not be like the stars or the trees, they had to be able to choose. 

Some say that God was disobeyed and so his wrath was stirred. I think its much more sad and tragic than that. The Lord had created these children to live in the trusting, loving relationship that he enjoyed as himself; God had created room for the Community of Missional Love to be experienced. In the moment of choice, the creation rejected both Community and Love. The course of the Story was altered from its intended trajectory.

This crisis was devastating and cataclysmic, but it would not have the last word. It WILL not have the last word. Even in the midst of great crisis, when the creation rejected the relationship of love and community and instead launched into selfishness and isolation...The Creator continued going to his creation. He called a man named Abraham and made a covenant with this man. The Lord God blessed Abraham and promised that through him all peoples on earth would be blessed...in fact all of creation would be blessed.

As the children of Israel continued year after year to cycle through seasons of confusion and clarity, The Lord kept going back to them seeking to restore and reconcile community with His creation. He patiently taught and corrected and reminded and invited and urged and groaned and pleaded. Community could not stand to see Creation languishing in isolation.

The sending relationship with great leaders and the inspiration of great prophets continued until the Community of Missional Love decided that ambassadors would no longer suffice. Once again, God would walk in the garden with his creation. Once again the missionary God sent himself - which is the nature of true love and true community. And Jesus the Christ walked among us.

He gathered a community and continually invited the broken, overlooked, forgotten and oppressed to rejoice because the Community of God was at hand; it was here and they were invited in.

When the time came for Jesus to return to the Father, the Spirit was sent. The Spirit wasn’t sent to wander aimlessly. It came to form and cultivate community in the Church in anticipation of experiencing Community on earth as it is in heaven. The Spirit called for the community of believers to be sent to the ends of the earth; continuing the ministry to which Jesus had dedicated himself, continuing the ministry to which God had called Abraham, continuing the ministry which God initiated in the first garden, continuing the Act that began in the beginning, continuing the character of the One who was Community before the beginning.

The Community of Missional Love cannot be understood as something that exists somewhere off by itself. The nature of True Community is expansive. It is dynamic. It is always growing and bringing into itself everything around it. The Community is not located somewhere behind closed doors, it sends itself to the Other.

Speaking of theology through narrative is more than just a device for communication, the medium is part of the message. God as a Community of Missional Love is understood best by participation in the Story. Story is relational; it is communal. This language of community is essential to begin grasping the centrality and reality of Love in the character of God. 

God’s revelation to humanity as Love, as the One full of loving kindness, the gracious and compassionate, begins losing its grip on our hearts and minds unless we understand it as an orientation toward the Other. This is, I believe, why it is so important for Jesus to teach his disciples about the eternal community of mutual engagement and submission he experiences with the Father. This is Love. There is no love without it. We cannot love unless there is an Other.

As the Image Bearers, we make a lamentable mistake if we see mission as something we are called to “do.” Mission is active, but it is more than doing; it is an essential part of our being, because it is part of the revealed nature of God. The missionary God who sends himself as Love has sent us.

God’s mission is to restore relationship and expand Community. As we lift up prayers for the poor, oppressed and forgotten; for those who care for them and those who have failed to do so, we do not say something new to God. Rather we join him in his mission of reconciling relationships, restoring community and healing the broken creation. This is love.

We are the people of this Story. We are the rememberers of the Story of the Community of Missional Love. Not only this, we are the story of the Community of Missional Love in action. 

Update from the Field...er, classroom

Two days are down and I’m about 58% confident that I’m going to survive. For those who don’t know, I recently had the privilege of beginning a new course of study with SMU to work on a degree in evangelism. It has already been an amazing experience.

My first round of classes started this week. There are 5 of us taking the class: an African-American female who is a Methodist Pastor in Louisiana, a white female Methodist Pastor from south of the metroplex, an African American male Methodist Pastor working in urban ministry in South Dallas and a Church Planter from Nepal...who is the son of a Hindu High Priest and has planted 47 churches and 100 house fellowships with his team in Nepal since 2001. And then there’s me.

We have only spent a few hours with each other, but there have already been some incredible conversations from this very diverse group of people. We’ve heard stories of tragedy and trauma as well as stories of great success and victory...and then we’ve heard stories about “beating the brahman boys,” which made me laugh so hard that I almost passed out...very doctoral of me I know, but its a great story that I’d be happy to tell you some time.

Everyone who knows me well at all is aware that I am a huge nerd. My friends' responses to the news that I've begun this program tend to fall in one of two categories. An clear example can be seen in the replies to a facebook status update that said I was getting ready to start my first class. One person replied, “I’m a little envious” and another sent me an email warning me not to let those academics ruin my ability to connect with “regular” people.

For my skeptical friends let me describe (very briefly) our professors. Dr. Sylvest just retired from SMU and is teaching this course as adjunct faculty. He was a professor at Perkins (the theology school) for several decades. Today he gave us all acorns as a reminder to continue cultivating the seed of spiritual life that God placed within us. It could have been really cheesy, but this 73 year old man has shown such genuine concern for Christ and for us as ambassadors of Christ that instead it was quite moving. Make no mistake, his mind is sharp and we aren’t just sitting around singing campfire songs...in fact, I suspect that tomorrow we’re going to be put through the ringer as we begin presenting the case studies we’ve been preparing. But this is FAR from ivory tower egg-headedness!

Our other professor, Dr. Somers-Clark, has worked as a supervisor for clinical pastoral education (basically, hospital chaplaincy) for many years. She shared some personal stories yesterday regarding some of her struggles in ministry that helped me know immediately that this was a person whom I could trust to process through the ups and downs of serving people in the midst of their ups and downs! She has a disarming way of asking questions which elicit greater reflection and insight...and she also knows how to ask questions which push through the bluffing and posturing and expose what’s really going on under the surface.

So, the work we’re doing is quite rigorous, but its sole purpose is to further challenge and equip us to love and serve the people we come into contact with and to help them do the same.

Okay...back to reading...must not look like an idiot tomorrow.

Ministry Journal

Ten Days left. 

I haven't blogged at all lately because I've been scrambling to prepare for my first round of classes at SMU. Our classes meet from June 15 to July 3 - normally I'll only take one at a time, but during this first session there are two that function together for a more terrifying experience. 

Ministry/Theology degrees involve lots of reading and writing, so I'm used to having a significant load of pre-course work. What I'm not used to is only 2 months to prepare this amount. Welcome to big boy school I guess.

So far I've written about 13K words for this class (around 30 single spaced pages) and I have probably another 8-10K to go BEFORE class begins. Then the real stuff begins!

I don't say this to drum up sympathy - I'm loving it! It has been a bit overwhelming trying to readjust to school, but I'm slowing finding a groove. But the material itself has been great. Of all the books we have for these two courses I only knew of 1 before hand and very few of them were written in the last 20 years...but so far they've all been great.

One of the more time consuming projects has been a daily "reflective journal" on my ministry activities. This is where the bulk of my writing has come from. My entry last night struck me as something worth putting here on the blog. It may be a little different from my normal style (which might be a good thing), but it chronicles a very exciting aspect of our ministry...

Thursday, June 4

I didn’t meet with Robey and Chappotin for our formation group today. We knew that the  arrival of summer would mean sporadic meetings - particularly since Robey is a youth minister. 

So Chappotin and I played racquetball early and then I had all day to read, study and prepare for our house church gathering tonight. 

Tonight we discussed the final episode of the Foundations series - Culmination - unfortunately it was just the Hunters, Tooles and I. I wasn’t overly surprised, nor was I that bothered by it. With this being the last week of school most families have been running around like crazy and I suspected that most were not likely to join us. 

I took the opportunity to do some leadership development, only I didn’t tell anyone that’s what I was doing. The five of us sat around the kitchen table and began telling stories from our childhood - it was mostly impromptu, but I knew that if I told a story, this group would run with it. Sure enough we were soon discussing different trials and the ways we wished things had turned out differently.

I let this go on for quite some time and then I asked why these stories are so compelling. The reality is that we tell these stories because we know that 1) they represent a way of life that is all too common and 2) we know that they are not the way things were intended. We tell these stories so that we can hope they’ll eventually be set right. We tell these stories because we long for the day when they will no longer be reality.

I talked to our group about the power of storytelling and the need for confession/testimony. Stories resonate. Narratives draw us in to truth. People need to know that what they experience connects with others and can be set within a larger story. Our individual stories often seem to be nonsensical and it is fruitless to even attempt to make them appear logical. And yet, when set in the context of the larger Story, things begin falling in place.

Often this is what a great leader does - listens to the stories of others and comes alongside them as they seek to discern how their story fits into The Story.

The episode of Culmination is about our anticipation of God setting things right. The intended harmony in creation that was seemingly destroyed in the crisis has been lingering for entirely too long. We know that all creation - everything - is groaning in anticipation of that day when that which is broken (which is pretty much everything) gets mended.

Until the day that things ARE set right people will likely dispute just how they anticipate it coming about. This realization set the stage for the next issue for discussion with our two leading couples. 

Sorting through to a final draft of the “end times” is not the point and there is room for people to hold differing opinions. The issue for the leader, we discussed tonight, is not necessarily to get everyone to espouse a certain picture of how the Culmination will play out, save for one major detail. If our eschatology is not one of hope in the reconciling work of God then the rest of our theology begins to fall flat. 

When helping people think about our future we need to remember that we are putting all our eggs in one basket - that God really does care about his creation and is willing to see this whole ordeal through to the end.

We spent some time discussing what needs to happen during June in order to help solidify commitments from our other friends in Shenendoah. We talked a little about the Tangible Kingdom material and what Robin and Ronnie will need to be ready to lead this  house church. 

Its a formality really. I’m leading the discussions right now, but the Hunters have already emerged as leaders of God’s people in the midst of their community. 

Robin has been involved in starting a homework club in her living room and a Neighborhood Watch to address the growing problem with vandalism and other crimes. Showing a true love for people over mere protection of assets, she has also talked about getting together some kind of "safe house" program for teens to have constructive and positive place to hang out - boredom inspires as many crimes as malevolence. 

Robin and our friend, Jeanie have gotten community cookouts scheduled for June 27 and July 25. These get-togethers (based loosely on the Wednesday front yard barbecues at Chris and Heidi's) are a way to get those who live on Remington Circle involved and invested in each other's lives. The Christ Journey worship band has been invited to provide live music - I hope that my weekend schedule during class in June will allow me enough time to attend and play. 

Robin also told me that she and a couple other folks involved in the neighborhood watch have decided to start a crisis ministry - encouragement and assistance for single moms in difficult situations, people in the middle of divorces or loss of loved ones, etc. When she was talking about this my mind started racing and I didn’t have time to properly dwell on it, but now at midnight, I can’t stop thinking about it. 

We haven’t had more than 9 people at any one time in our Thursday night gatherings; outside of the Hunters, Tooles, Jeanie and I, no one has made it to consecutive meetings. And yet, this gathering of God’s people is already turning the Shenendoah community upside down. They are concerned about teenagers having a safe place to hang out; students have been helped with their homework, mothers are going to have help with their lives, mourners will have friends around them, neighbors will share meals, one family will watch out for the well-being of another...in short, the Kingdom of God is being experienced. 

This is beyond me. I am brought low in humility by the greatness of a God who works through the weakness of his people. And I have been blessed to watch true church planters at work.

I love my life.

Arkansas Day 4

From Big Creek to...Somewhere Else

It has been a while since I last wrote about our trip...sorry. You may want to back up and check out the previous posts:

Day 1- From Here to There

Day 2 - From Buffalo Point to Rush Landing

Day 3 pt 1 - From Rush Landing...

Day 3 pt 2 - From the Rapids to Big Creek

We awoke on Wednesday to fog (and thus the wet laundry on the line). 

(yep, all those clothes...wet.)

We had spent most of Tuesday soaking wet - thanks to rapids and rain storms - and it had been really nice to change into dry clothes (those of us who had dry clothes that is). 

It took a while, but we got a fire going; wet, rotten driftwood can be hard to light... and it is SMOKEY!

If you have ever been on TREK you know that there is something magical that happens after a few days in the wilderness - pan fried spam becomes a delicacy. Any other time I'd save myself the trouble and just chew on the can, but when I started frying that spam...

The day was getting off to a pretty good start. The fog was clearing and the skies were not filled with death storms. After a good breakfast we loaded up and noticed that in fact the river had risen a good bit in the night, but everything was good. 

We even caught a couple fish before getting going. 

Everyone had paid the money to get an Arkansas fishing license for this trip and so far the results were pretty abysmal. We knew that the flow of the river was a bit fast, which had to be the problem. What we didn't realize was just how fast that river was getting.

Before leaving Texas we'd checked and the water was moving at around 300 cfm (cubic feet/minute) - nice leisurely float and slow enough to hopefully coax some fish into a frying pan.

What we didn't know was that by the time we got in the river on Monday afternoon the flow was at nearly 1000 cfm's...and by Wednesday it was at nearly 10,000 cfm!!!!

Somehow, the trip down to Middle Creek didn't take us very long...

The water level rising had transformed the calm river into the mess that had nearly drown us the day before and now its rising had actually made it so that the rapids we encountered were just rushing water through narrow areas - mostly passable and just fun.

We were all getting pretty good at navigating these still dangerous areas and took turns going through first. Though we were getting more comfortable we were still not taking any more chances and so at each one of these white water excursions we beached our kayaks and scouted out what we anticipated would be the safest route to take. After the first person entered the rapids then the rest could get a better idea of where to go and what to expect. 

It was just after one of sections that we found ourselves at Middle Creek - way sooner than we'd originally thought (I guess 10,000 cfm of water helps the paddling process...). 

Chris had gone through the rapids first and I could see that he was scouting out a cut back in the river. I followed him in and then I heard a sound that was almost as unwelcome as banjo's...

The unmistakable Arkansas accent calling out, "Oooohh, look! Kayakers! Woooooooo!!!!!"

"This is it," I thought, "I am NOT going out like this..."

I looked up on the hillside and there was a line of folks on horseback. 

Well, we may have to sacrifice Robey...I'm sure he'd want us all to continue on with happy lives. We'll tell your story friend...

After a couple minutes we decided that the hillbillies were mostly harmless, though I still wonder the 12 year-old was their spokesperson. We asked them if this was Middle Creek - they didn't know - and we asked them if they'd heard a weather report for the next couple days - nope, but they were quick to give us some guesses. Big help. Thanks.

We decided this was Middle Creek. We were lucky because where the creek entered the river there was a nice calm pool which was out of the flow of the river. We were unlucky because this bank of the river was incredibly steep. 

That meant were going to have to make camp on the other side of the river and hope we could make it across the current before being carried too far downstream - there was no coming back up stream in that stuff!

Middle Creek was the destination that most of were looking forward to most because it was where we'd found (via maps) several 80 foot tall waterfalls. The plan was to spend a whole day scouting out these falls. I was really excited. 

We made it across the river with no real problems and actually found a great campsite up on a ledge. Obviously this place had been used by folks on several occasions - there was even a homemade table! 

While we were getting water (which was an exhausting process that we got to repeat when we accidentally dropped the container and got river water in it...), we saw more people. These were other floaters - a guy in a small sit-in kayak and a skinny dude single-handedly navigating a large aluminum canoe like a champ...I was impressed. They were quickly out of sight and we went back to getting water and setting up camp.

For some reason there were bees all over this campsite, but we survived. Everyone's tent got up, a small pile of firewood was already started, clothes were drying on trees down by the river...awesome!

We grabbed some stuff for a quick scouting trip across the river and headed back down the kayaks. We'd only been at this site for about an hour but when we went down to the water we realized that there was about 2 or 3 feet less of beach...

The river was still rising.

Nobody wanted to be the one to say that we should move on, but nobody wanted to get stranded on this stinking river either.

After a while we made the difficult decision to abandon Middle Creek and head for Cow Creek. It would only be a short trip into Buffalo City from there and hopefully we'd be able to get out even if the river continued rising.

So, back up the hill to the campsite, break everything down, a sad farewell to the table we'd barely gotten to know and the campsite at Middle Creek was history...tiring useless history.

It wasn't too long before we came upon the two paddlers we'd seen earlier. Their canoe had apparently been loaded down with the REI base camp starter kit.

These guys had a great big tent, a cooler with who knows what and a bunch of random supplies - our kayaking / canoe trip on the Brazos last week with some guys from Granbury was actually pretty similar.

We stopped and talked to these hardcore guys from Minnesota (of all places) and learned that not only would the rain continue but they were actually predicting snow and possibly blizzard conditions in the next couple days.

Perfect.

I looked at the guys and asked, "so am I the only one who didn't pack for snow?"

I wasn't.

One of the reasons that the decision to leave Middle Creek was difficult was that it was getting close to dark. As much as we didn't want to get stuck in the middle of the wilderness if the river rose too much we also didn't want to get stuck on the water when the sun went down. Around here if you need to get out of the water you just head for the bank and get out. In the Arkansas wilderness the 200 ft cliffs, steep hillsides and thick underbrush make exit points rare.

So we paddled pretty steadily and kept moving toward Cow Creek - which was identifiable by the Elephant Head Rock...which was much more elephanty than the pictures had seemed. Weather permitting the plan had been to spend a day at Cow Creek also - there was a loop hiking trail here with some historic landmarks and interesting scenery. 

There were also people camped there...PEOPLE! We were getting very tired of seeing people on this day when we were in the middle of the wilderness getting away from people. 

We decided to press on and found a great campsite not long before sundown...there was a large stretch of beach and then a steep bank up to a ledge about 20 feet above the water. Surely this would be safe even if the river rose all night!

The rain started about the time we got the tents set up and dinner started. We scrambled to set up the rain fly (a chore we had perfected on Tuesday!) and I finished cooking dinner while the guys secured the kayaks a little higher up the bank, just in case...

All in all the evening turned out pretty good though. The rains stopped after a little while, dinner was good and we felt pretty good that the kayaks would still be there in the morning.

Good night Arkansas.

We Are Not Alone

Happy Mother’s Day!

Today is a special day for so many of us - there are those, such as myself, who have been blessed with loving mothers and who are married to women who are loving mothers. My mother sacrificed so much for us, especially when we were very young and she worked 3 jobs just to keep the plates spinning...Every time someone comments on my wife’s blog or facebook that she is truly a great mom, my own heart swells with pride...My mother-in-law is incredibly thoughtful and was responsible for teaching and training this generation’s most talented mother...My little sister who is now happily blogging about diapers and spit-up...My grandmothers who are now spoiling my children just like they spoiled us when we were little (and when we were over there last time...) - to all of you wonderful women - Happy Mother’s Day!!!

At the same time that this day is a happy one for so many of us, for too many others it is a painful reminder of even more painful memories, disappointments and tragedies.

To all those who weep today because you’ve never been able to conceive a child; to those who have lost children or lost mothers; to those who’ve never had a good relationship with their mother and to mothers who long for reconciliation with their children; to all for whom this day causes mourning instead of rejoicing: we hurt together and in one voice we cry out to God for the day when he will set all these things right. We call for justice because the world is not as it was meant to be.

My prayer is that you will find peace and comfort in the midst of your pain. I pray also that you are blessed with a community of friends and family to surround you. I urge you to reach out to those around you - you may feel that no one can understand your pain, and that may be true; you may feel that people won’t know what to do with you if you are honest, and sadly that could possibly be the case as well.

But that’s what makes the comfort of a friend so effective. It is truly powerful and worth the risk it takes to invite it in precisely because it isn’t available from just anyone. If you are alone, we invite you into community with us. If you don’t live near us, we want to help you find community with someone near you - but we can’t help you if you remain silent.

I love that I am a part of a small but vibrant and growing community of people dedicated to this kind of shared life. It is hard and so often we look around and secretly long for the days of anonymous, consumer Christianity - just like the newly freed Israelites longed for the familiarity of life as a slave in Egypt.

Sometimes it feels like we are alone in this struggle. It can seem as though no one understands what we’re experiencing...

And so to everyone who experiences this type of fear - hurting mothers, lonely children and the communities that seek to journey with the hurting and lonely - I say this, you are NOT alone...WE ARE NOT ALONE!

I read an article this morning about a church that reminded me a lot of Christ Journey and it struck me that there are communities like us springing up all over. Its happening because we need it to happen, its happening because God has been calling us to let him make it happen! And as it happens, the hurting find hope amid incarnational communities and those communities can share hope with one another.

So do not allow the excuses to pile up. If you are afraid or alone, know that these are characteristics of the kingdom that is passing away and Jesus’ words of good news are offered to you, “The Kingdom of God is at hand!”

We invite you to cultivate the With-God life and experience the Community of God here and now...

Seeing It In Practice

Sometimes I get worked up about stuff... 

I take something which has personal significance, put effort into preparing it, risk being misunderstood or taken advantage of and put it out for other people to see. Then I sit and wonder if anyone cares.

My previous post, When Weariness is Sacred, was one of those experiences and this time we received a very powerful response to our story of weariness.

Yesterday on Christ Journey Life I posted most of a letter I received from a friend. It came in the mail Thursday morning and Rachel called me in tears in the middle of my formation group to read it to me. She doesn't usually do that...

If you haven't read the letter/post, check out That God Would Refresh Your Tiredness - a title taken from a line in the letter.

The interesting thing is how timely this letter really was given what we're processing through at Christ Journey. This week Chris and I have been preparing to help our community think through the cycles of confusion and clarity that the Church has experienced since the beginning - cycles which heighten our anticipation of God reconciling all things and sorting through the chaos.

But last week - and my friend was likely unaware of this when she wrote her letter - we talked about our core value of Mission. Like the Weariness post, this sermon was one in which I have a lot of personal investment. To some people that may seem like an odd thing for a minister to say. Certainly I invest myself in each message I bring to the community; of course I value speaking the truth in the midst of the Gathered People. But sometimes the content is something particularly special for me. This was one of those sermons. 

You can listen to the podcast of the sermon on Christ Journey's iTunes account or using the sermon player feed. If you weren't gathered with us at the Nashville room on Sunday I encourage you to check out the podcast...mostly because my brilliant 5 year old read a prayer like a pro (there are several prayers which lead into the message...Conner is the one that sounds like a kid's voice!)

But I'm also posting a modified transcript here because without even knowing it, my friend was living out the content of this message...

(Reader 1) Almighty God, who created us in your image: Grant us grace to contend fearlessly against evil and to make no peace with oppression; and, that we may reverently use our freedom,
help us to employ it in maintaining justice in our communities and among the nations, to the glory of your holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. 

(Reader 2) Heavenly Father, whose blessed Son came not to be served but to serve: Bless all who, following in his steps, give themselves to the service of others; that with wisdom, patience, and courage, they may minister in his Name to the suffering, the friendless, and the needy; for the love of him who laid down his life for us, your Son our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

(Reader 3) Dear God, our Father in heaven, you have blessed us with the joy and care of children: Give us calm strength and patient wisdom as we bring them up, that we may teach them to love whatever is just and true and good, following the example of our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

(Reader 4) Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom: Enlighten by your Holy Spirit those who teach and those who learn, that, rejoicing in the knowledge of your truth, they may worship
you and serve you from generation to generation; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

(Reader 5) Almighty God our heavenly Father, you declare your glory and show forth your handiwork in the heavens and in the earth: Deliver us in our various occupations from the service
of self alone, that we may do the work you give us to do in truth and beauty and for the common good; for the sake of him who came among us as one who serves, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. 

(Bret) O God, you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth, and sent your blessed Son to preach peace to those who are far off and to those who are near: Grant that people everywhere may seek after you and find you, bring the nations into your fold, pour out your Spirit upon all flesh, and hasten the coming of your kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

.......

Before the beginning there was a community. God has always existed as a community of one. Don’t try to figure out the math - I suspect it just might be beyond us! What we should focus on, what we can grasp is that we are to understand God as relationship of love and sacrifice. It is not just an important value of God’s, but is actually a part of Who God Is!

And so we’ve talked a lot about community for the last several months. If something is seen to be a basic expression of the nature of God, it should definitely find its place as a core value for His Church, right? Even last week, as Chris used the image of an elaborate song to illustrate what the Church is, we saw community. We saw that the different instruments, melodies and chords were all meant to exist in harmony. None were complete on their own - each was a part of much larger story being told. That is the Church - an expression of the community of God in this place.

I wanted to start by saying something about community because we’re going to focus on another one of our core values today. And this core value loses its value if it is understood as something separate and apart from the others... 

Before the beginning there was a community. This Community of what we refer to as Father, Son and Holy Spirit had a perfect relationship of mutual love and respect. This community was not incomplete, it was the definition of completion. It needed nothing, it lacked nothing.

However, the relationship of the community, being rooted and established in a deep indescribable love, felt compelled to Create. Isn’t that what love does? It creates more opportunity for love.

And so we have the episode of the Story we refer to as Creation. And God, the initiator of community went into this place. He walked in the Garden. He continued creating and he continued relating to his Creation.

Even through the episode of Crisis, when the creation rejected the relationship of love and community and instead launched into selfishness and isolation...still this God continued going to his Creation. He called a man named Abraham and made a Covenant with this man. God, the Relational One, blessed Abraham and promised that through Abraham all peoples on earth would be blessed...in fact all of creation would be blessed.

As the children of God continued year after year to cycle through seasons of Confusion and Clarity, this God, who exists in Community, kept going back to them over and over. He patiently taught and corrected and reminded and invited and urged and groaned and pleaded. 

The Community could not stand to see Creation languishing in isolation.

And so the relationship with great leaders and the inspiration of great prophets continued until the God of Community decided that ambassadors would no longer suffice. 

Once again, God would walk in the Garden. 

And so once again the relational God of community sent himself - that is the nature of true community. And Jesus the Christ walked among us.

He gathered a community around him and continually invited the broken, overlooked, forgotten and oppressed to rejoice because the Community of God was at hand - it was here and they were invited in.

And when the time came for Jesus to return to the Father, the Spirit was sent. And the Spirit wasn’t sent to wander aimlessly - it came to form and cultivate community in the Church...which was to become the Body of Christ. And that Spirit called for the community of believers to be sent to the ends of the earth, 

continuing the ministry that Jesus had dedicated himself to, 

    continuing the ministry that God had called Abraham to, 

        continuing the ministry that God initiated in the first Garden, 

            continuing the act that began in the beginning, 

                continuing the character of the one who was a Community before the Beginning.

The Community cannot be understood as something that exists somewhere off by itself. The nature of True Community is expansive. It is dynamic. That means that it is always growing and bringing into itself everything around it. The Community is not located somewhere behind closed doors.

The Community is not community if it is only focused on itself. That is something less than Community. There is no Community apart from Mission. 

And there it is.

One of our stated core values is Mission. We make an unbelievably huge mistake if we see mission as something that some of us are called to “do.” While mission is certainly active, it is more than doing...it is an essential part of our “being.” 

A house church that is invested in the lives of its participants - but has no vision for its neighbors is not yet community. It may be a great thing for those who participate, but it is something less than Community.

As a follower of Christ and a member of the Church we are called to Community - with one another and with God. And its pretty simple - to be in community with God means to be caught up in his Mission, because God is a missionary God...

God’s Mission is to restore relationship and expand Community. All the prayers we prayed a few minutes ago are prayers for God’s Mission - prayers for those who serve the poor, who battle injustice, who love and raise children, who invest in the lives of others, who teach, people who have a job...all these are contexts for Mission when they are approached intentionally.

They are not an excuse to say, “oh my work is mission so I’m doing what I’m supposed to.”

Okay, that’s great...how are you participating in Mission through your work? Are you intentionally living as though the Community of God were a reality in that place? Do you treat people with dignity and respect...even the ones you don’t like? 

Front yard bbq’s, trips to Chick-Fil-A (or intended trips), an intentional visit to the park with your kids, serving as a counselor at Royal Family Kids Camp, giving up a Saturday so that Harvest House can be open for those who can’t come by during the week, sharing a meal with the poor - showing them dignity and friendship...these are all examples of participating in Mission and are an important part of experiencing Community.

The question is, what’s next for our Community? What new opportunities are there for loving this place and these people? It might be something big - like traveling to another city to wait in line for meal coupons to give to the hungry. It might be something small - putting an extra package of hotdogs in the shopping cart that you can share with a neighbor the next time you fire up the grill, or taking your kids to the park with an eye for the Mom who hasn’t had an adult conversation in days...

This isn’t merely about “doing” - its about being who we were created to be and experiencing life as God is restoring it to be.

When Weariness is Sacred

I want to come right out and say something that typically I just hope for silently. This post isn’t about me looking for someone to pick me up. My desire to reveal personal struggles and frustrations comes in part from a desire to push myself to be open and vulnerable, but it is also in hopes that my struggles will connect with yours, the reader.

My real hope and intention is to highlight our common experience. I’m often weighed down with the (false) belief that I’m the only one dealing with something - my prayer is that through these confessions you will be freed from that same fear.

End of disclaimer...

In Galatians 6 the apostle Paul tells us to not grow weary (or lose heart, or give up) in doing good. But that is sometimes much easier said than done, isn’t it?

There are certainly times when doing good is energizing and there are plenty of times when doing good is exhausting and depressing. When everything you do seems to amount to nothing, its hard not to grow weary. When everything you TRY to do seems to fall apart it is hard not to give up.

I’m feeling that way a little today. Over the past couple weeks we’ve had several things planned that I was excited about participating in; things that were meant to be a benefit to others or to connect to community. First the Chick-Fil-A trip last week was postponed since they decided not to open until this week. Several people had taken off work in order to participate - which meant that not only was their plan to use a day off to serve others thwarted, it also meant they probably wouldn’t be able to turn around and get a day off again the next week.

Then our concert at Relay for Life was rained out. After a 4 hour practice session and high hopes for connecting with folks through this great event...nothing.

Then this week, as many of you know, 5 of us loaded up and left Burleson at 6:30 to drive down to the Austin area for the actual Chick-Fil-A event. We arrived at 9 am hoping to be one of the first 100 people in line and discovered that there were already 150 people in line. We cleared our schedules (which was not easy to do) and then drove to Austin so that we could donate half the tickets to Harvest House...only to turn around and drive home empty handed.

These are just the failed attempts to do good which are appropriate to share in public. Trying to do good is making me weary.

I was talking to a friend recently who is dealing with weariness and actually felt worse after reading the Galatians 6 passage.

The comment was made to the effect that perhaps the weariness felt was an indicator of guilt and God’s judgement; perhaps the inability to receive comfort from God means that God is angry or absent or something.

...we are directed to 2 Peter 1:3-4. ‘His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness…’ And then to 2 Cor 9:8: God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” That’s supposed to make me feel better, too. But it doesn’t. What if God isn’t really in me? He is able to make grace abound…apparently he hasn’t done so in me. Because I’m tired. And I certainly don’t feel like I’ve abounded in every good work.

While reflecting on these comments it struck me - this weariness and these wounds are sacred. They are sacred and they are Holy because they have come as a result of seeking to live under the reign of God right under Caesar’s nose.

If you aren’t familiar with that reference, the phrase “Jesus is Lord” was a rebellious statement for Christians living under the Roman empire which had a well known and often used slogan of “Caesar is Lord.” So in effect the Christians were saying, “Jesus is Lord and Caesar is not.” This was dangerous for them...and my point is that its dangerous for us too.

Its dangerous for us to reject the accepted cultures of entitlement. It is dangerous to live in the Way of Jesus who said it is better to lay down your life than to seek ways to keep the cycle of violence and retribution going. It is better to pour oneself out in order to serve the poor and oppressed than it is to pour oneself out to get ahead. It is better to turn the other cheek; to also give your shirt to the person stealing your coat; to love your enemies. It is better to consider others better than yourself. It is better to risk it all in order to do what you know God is calling you to do than to choose the safe path.

But so long as we live in a world that is still groaning in anticipation of God’s restoration and reconciliation; so long as Caesar is still able oppose the Lord; so long as God’s Kingdom is already here but not yet fully here then practicing life in the Kingdom will be risky and painful and exhausting. And the weariness we feel, the wounds we nurse, the scars we bear are holy and sacred because they share in the weariness, wounds and scars experienced by Jesus, God Incarnate.

That may not make bearing these burdens easier in the moment. But, when Jesus was praying in the garden on the night he was arrested it says “An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground” (Luke 22:43-44). Even after the angel appeared to strengthen him Jesus was in anguish.

I realize that some will say, “our situation is not nearly as serious as that of Jesus.” Maybe, but our connection to the source of hope isn’t as clear as his was either. The process of restoring broken relationships is difficult. The cost is high.

So back to Paul’s words:

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers (Galatians 6:9-10).

Not becoming weary here is not meant as an accusation against those who are tired - it is an encouragement not to give up, to hang in there, to resist the temptation to throw in the towel. It is hard, but what we say and do does matter...even if the results are not what we’d initially hoped.

Don’t give up on the call to be God’s people - that call is radical and risky and should never be sold out for something safe and watered down. And know that even if you return from Austin empty-handed that you have invested something in the new heavens and new earth. We are joining with God in reforming and reconciling his good creation.

So hang in there! Don’t give up!

Grace and Peace to you.