An Ordinary Guy

Lately it seems that the more truth I seek, the more mystery I find. The more I read and study the Bible the more the denominational and doctrinal “truths” I had learned and adhered to get blurred, and in some instances erased, and it tends to be frustrating to part of me… But then another part of me embraces the idea of mystery!

I think that is what a lot of people are experiencing, I think that is why the emergent church has grown, I think that is why home churches are becoming the norm in today’s Christianity, I think that we as humans were made to embrace mystery.

Kind of like in the Matrix (I don’t remember which one), the machines made life for the humans into a utopia, but our human minds couldn’t handle everything being so perfect. So the machines started putting a little bit of conflict into the “program”.

Western Christianity, with its black and white, objectified, McDonaldized efficient, this is this and that is that, type of religion has gotten some people, ( I think it is those who are still curious about God) upset, they sit in the pews and get fed “truth” and they don’t want to be fed, they want to out there searching and seeking and learning and discovering and chasing the mystery!

Belief vs. Faith

Maybe that is why we see belief and faith as the same thing. We have pushed mystery (the mystery of God) away in favor of nice, clean, sanitary, easy to adhere to sets of belief, rules (read laws) and demand (for our salvation) that we adhere to these sets of rules, doctrines and creeds, (this is this and that is that) and so we believe, based on the rules and doctrine. All the dots are connected, the T’s are crossed and the I’s are dotted, packed, labeled and sold like a product.

Faith however is not belief, when you have faith, there are dots that do not connect, yet you still follow, there are T’s left uncrossed and I’s left un-dotted and you still have faith, there is evidence of things unseen and things hoped for, but we still see the glass darkly, we know in part yet we still have faith that God is who He says he is…We have faith…and that is part of the mystery.

So embrace the mystery! After all Paul does call us “stewards of the mysteries of God” (1 Cor 4:1)

I have never been very good relating non-religious holidays into a sermon. I guess I really don’t have much imagination.

So I get to do a sermon on the 4^th of July. Our Independence Day.

It’s like okay how do I do this…

Independence from sin… independence from the evil of the world and the devil? I was getting a little worried, cause we like our independence as Americans, we like our 4^th of July our barbeque our fireworks

The flags flying… the races, the watermelon it is in our blood, and when I stand in front of a bunch of people who are serving in the military as soldiers or serving the military as civilian employees of whatever sort… it makes what I am about to say even worse.

We as Americans can celebrate our Independence from England… with the key being we.

But we as Christians…. Can never celebrate independence!

I think an independent Christian is an oxymoron.

Our whole being is wrapped up in being dependent on God and interdependent on one another!

I mean we at some point in our life swore our allegiance not to a flag or a country, but to our Creator and our King. So we are free but our freedom is tied to the one who set us free… Jesus. So then we are dependent up on Him

Nehemiah is one of my favorite Leaders in the Bible. His story is often overlooked for some of the more flashy and miracle ridden stories. He wasn’t a prophet, he didn’t proclaim death, destruction and doom. He simply loved God, relied on Him to lead, guide, supply and protect.

Nehemiah’s Leadership Qualities

1. He saw a problem and took responsibility
2. He knew what his priorities were and stuck to them
3. He waited on God’s timing not his
4. He prayed and then acted
5. He saw the problem at hand, then prayed and planned
6. He tackled the problem in attainable steps and refused to let the problem overwhelm him
7. He kept God at the center of the project
8. He was able to motivate
9. He watched out for his people
10. He didn’t get discouraged when there was opposition and ridicule

The past couple of months we have been studying 1 Corinthians. It has been really good to see it from a fresh point of view and so re-learn some things and see some of issues Paul was facing…
Looking at the letter I see Paul fighting to maintain unity and trying to change the things that the church was doing to cause the dis-unity!
In the military chapel environment, teamwork and unity are second nature, however, getting the followers of Christ to be integrated into the body fully is difficult due to the transient nature of the military family and the work schedules of some units and specific jobs that may work shifts.
Folks see them selves as part of the Church, just not as part of the local church sometimes, meaning that out of love or duty, the attend week after week but don’t tend to socialize with others in church or be part of the local community other than attendance to the services. It is typical and natural I assume but I wonder the things that could be accomplished if everyone was part body like In 1 Corinthians 12. What if we really lived “suffering when others suffered and being glad when other parts are honored”?

Mike Foster at People of the Second Chance wrote a challenging article about grace and our biases and prejudices of how we give grace to those we want to and feel deserve it and to those we don’t.  You can read the full story here, but this snippet says it all.

Too often our mercy is conditional and inconsistent. We are picky and choosy of who we help.

Dope smoker….Forgiven.

Crack whore….Judgment.

Porn watcher….Forgiven.

Porn maker…Judgment.

Straight sex….Forgiven.

Gay sex….Judgment.

People who have the same struggles as us…Forgiven.

People who have different struggles then us…Judgment.

You get my point.

Grace doesn’t discriminate and a second chance should seek equality. (Btw, for those thinking I’m just throwing out the reality of consequences to our actions, I’m not. Don’t miss my point here.)

My hope is all of us can be a little more consistent when handing out a second chance.

Here are some interesting Lent ideas:

1.  40 Days of Water
2. A cool Lenten Experience Calendar by Mars Hill found here

For the first time in my life I am going to try and participate in Lent.  I guess the worse part of it all is that I don’t really know what I am going to give up.

I found this article from Don Miller.  I really enjoyed Don’s books and really like the way he handled what he had to say about Pat Robertson’s comment… I think he did it with Grace and Humility as well as being unafraid to speak the truth… in love

We had a guest speaker at our Wednesday Service. He was refreshing! He started out by talking about the Korean-American man who walked in to North Korea from China and was arrested. Come to find out this guy was a friend of a friend of the speaker…. and of course he asked the question a lot of us had in the back of our mind… and that was is this guy crazy or what?

Well it seems the guy is just passionate about trying to help the North Koreans, who from reports of people on the ground, are once again digging up graves of the dead in order to eat!

Anyway what was remarkable about what the speaker said, was that when Korea was mad at the importing of American beef, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets, to stop the government from importing US Beef. I have been in the vicinity of a few of these demonstrations, and they are a thing to behold… and not very safe to be around… a lot of passion and anger!

So the speaker said, if they have a beef with beef (pun intended), so much so that they are demonstrating/rioting and fighting with police, risking bodily harm and inflicting bodily harm on the police…. imagine what would happen if the people of the south… or maybe just the Christians, after all the two largest churches in the world are here with nearly 200K combined…got mad enough over the starving and death and sorrow taking place in North Korea, that they did something about it? What if they took to the streets and rioted/demonstrated until the border was open, or until the governments did something about it?

Just hoping….

We enjoyed a great Sunday morning service at the chapel. I was then invited to preach at an orphanage that we have been visiting and supporting. The orphanage is for mentally handicapped folks. There are young kids, grown ups and a few physically and mentally handicapped orphans. We were blessed to be invited and were blessed even more due to the generosity of the food-court manager and his folks who donated and made 50 double cheeseburgers for the orphans!

The orphanage makes some money from serving as a day care for the mentally handicapped. They allow “drop-offs” of handicapped family members who can’t stay home alone and allow the family to work or go to school.

The pastor of the orphanage has been there with no government support for 16 years! He is a wonderful and patient man.

Our guitar player/worship leader came with us and led in song for a few minutes. All I know is that those kids love God, they sang with their whole hearts, some family members were present at the service and apparently the joy and enthusiasm we were witnessing was not the usual. Through the joy and the excitement, i heard sniffles and looked to see the family members crying… not the sad tears… the happy tears, they were crying because they too were witnessing their loved ones engaging in a celebration of our Creator!

The short sermon that I was honored to deliver was from 1 John 3:1-2, from which I stated we are God’s children no matter what we talk like or look like, and that I was blessed and honored to be their brother and to call them my family! Which was answered by some amens and some more tears from the family members!

For some Koreans, having a handicapped family member is a cause of embarrassment so for them to be there and remain when outsiders were present was a positive step. What I think caused them to cry was the joy that they had not only through their loved ones joy, but that they didn’t have to be ashamed of the joy, cause we were singing and clapping and laughing and dancing along with everyone else.

We went to serve, but we were ministered to by the love of those orphans.