Bourne Again

This afternoon I went and say "The Bourne Supremacy." It was a pretty fun movie. For those who haven't seen it yet the main character Jason Bourne is still searching for his identity. I think it's one of the more fun parts of the plot. There is something enjoyable about learning about a character as a movie progresses. It becomes even more fun in the "Bourne" movies because we are learning along side the character, we learn as he learns.

I think it's true in life as well. I really enjoy getting to know people. I enjoy getting to know the different layers and intricacees of a person. It can even be fun to work to discover who people are. Yet despite my joy of discovery I find it my lack of willingness to reveal much about myself. I hide and cover as well as anybody really. Why can't I share that joy more with others? I know it drives me bonkers when someone refuses to share, there is little excuse for me to do the same. Perhaps some day I will learn.

Getting Better

This morning as I went out for my run I felt slow and sluggish. Somehow, as the miles meandered on I started to feel better and run smoother. As I recognized this I also noticed that the same thing happened on my run Thursday. In fact, it's something that really isn't all that uncommon.

Often times I've found that running situations are analogous to life, to faith. Why else would Paul bring it up more than once in his writings? So I wonder if we can experience the same thing in other areas of life. For example it can be hard to forgive somebody, but does it get easier to forgive them as you get into the process of forgiving? To confess your sins, does it start slow but then perhaps grow more fluid? To love somebody might be difficult at times, but if you stick with them do find yourself loving them more because you've gone through the struggle and now it more naturally flows from you? I would like to think it's true in these other areas as well. Perhaps we should all give it a try.

Eat, Drink, & Be Merry

Here is pretty much what my sermon will look like tomorrow...

Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.

"Eat, Drink, and Be Merry!" It is a message clearly proclaimed by the world around us. In fact, that is largely why we work so hard. We also work hard so that we can save, store away buying realstate or investing in 401K's, so that one day we may retire. Then in retirement we may finally eat, drink, and be merry.

Jesus tells us a parable in our lesson today in which a man has very productive harvest. As he was busy picking beans he noticed that his barns were not near big enough for how much was produced. In thinking about it the man decides to tear down the old barns so that he can build bigger ones to store up the excess produce. He figures if he sets it aside now, he won’t have to worry about it later in life. He’ll have himself a relaxing little retirement. He won’t have to worry; he can just eat, drink, and be merry. By the logic of the world he is a wise man. Yet God says to him, “You fool!”

This story is reminiscent of the Exodus story when God used Moses to free the Israelites from slavery and they were wandering in the wilderness and the people begin to complain, “Why don’t we just go back? It was better back there, at least we knew that we would have a decent meal every night.” So God tells them that He will provide manna for them each day, but they are only to collect what they need to eat for that day. The first day that the manna falls some of the people begin collecting as much as they can saying things like: “Who knows when we’ll see this much again, I better grab a little extra just to be safe” and “Our kid is about to go off to college I better save enough so that I can send some with her.” What happens? They wake up the next morning to find that their saved up manna had become acrid, filled with maggots and rotting away.

What’s the deal, does God not want us to ever save? Isn’t that the prudent thing to do? Let’s back up a little further to the book of Genesis and the story of Joseph. As you may recall Joseph was freed from prison when he interpreted a dream for Pharaoh by saying, “This dream of yours has some good news and some bad news. The good news is the next 7 years are going to kick tooshie; we’ll have more food than we can shake a stick at. The bad news is the 7 years after that are going to royally stink. It’s going to be famine and suffering like we’ve never seen before. So this is what I suggest; these seven good years don’t splurge. You need to be saving whatever grain and food you can afford so that you’ll make it through the bad 7. I’m thinkin’ if we do that, we’ll be sittin’ pretty good.”

In one story God tells us that saving is good. It two others God appears to be telling us that saving is bad. So what gives? For that we need to look at the common denominator, God. In today’s parable and in the Exodus the focus was not on God. God was the one that provided the food. God never said there wouldn’t be more. In the case of Joseph, he was able to interpret the dream because he was faithful to God. Because of that God was able to warn Joseph of what was to come, that there would be lean times. So it seems that our lesson for today is to remain focused on God, our number one priority. God is not looking for us to follow a set of rules, but to follow Jesus with reckless abandon.

I suspect that if we took a quick pole of the congregation today we find that most of us would claim God to be at the top of our priority list. We want to make God, and our faith life, our top priority. However, if we want to truly find out what everybody’s priorities are there are two ways to find out. One is to take a look at the checkbook, are the majority of the entries to ministries, service organizations, or helping out the family? Or do you find a lot of entries like mine to Culver’s, credit cards, and loans? The other place to check on priorities is the date book. Is your daily planner what runs your life? Is it filled with business meetings, nail appointments, and “stuff” to do? Or is your planning filled with empty spaces so you’re open to what God may need you to do, or to spend with family or friends that might need your time? God wants you make Him your number one priority.

The problem is we want security. We want Christianity to be about turning people into nice people. What Jesus calls us to is a life of uncertainty. When we store up our money and “stuff” we become complacent and the story of Jesus is no longer amazing and life changing, but another nice story. When Jesus called His disciples it was now! It was leaving the job behind, leave the family behind, it was put everything behind. They didn’t know where they were going, but they knew they were in for a heck of an adventure. Jesus told them that “Foxes have holes, but the Son of Man has now where to lay His head.”

Do you remember when the disciples were out in the boat with Jesus and a storm came up that started to rock the dilapidated, rickety old boat? The waves started lapping over the edge of their old boat and they were in danger of sinking. The disciples were terrified, and finally woke Jesus up, screaming in desperation, “We’re going to drown!” They must have been thinking, Hey, You are the Son of God, You made storms! Do something! Jesus did do something. He said, “Be Still!” And the storm stopped. The water was immediately as calm as glass. It was eerily still. I have to believe the disciples were petrified. I’ll bet they didn’t move for thirty minutes until, finally, one of them leaned over to the others and said, “Don’t make Him mad.” I suspect the disciples were more afraid after the storm was calmed than during it. The disciples experienced firsthand the dangerous wonder of being with Jesus.

Jesus was constantly going against the norms. He hung out with the wrong people (sinners, tax collectors, and prostitutes), he touched lepers, he forgave people, and he worked on the Sabbath. The Pharisees followed behind saying, “Those are not the kind of things that a Messiah is supposed to do!” To which Jesus responded, “That is exactly what this Messiah does.” Jesus was a rule breaker; He is the one who taught us which rules to break and which to follow. Sound dangerous? It is. Faith is about recklessly following Jesus wherever He goes. That means He is the one leading. It doesn’t mean haphazardly breaking rules, for it was the rule monitors that He allowed to kill Him using their rules.

In the night that He was betrayed Jesus broke bread and shared the wine saying, "This is my body and blood given for you for the forgiveness of sin. Do this in rememberance of me." We should note that remember is to say that we member again, we become a part of the body of Christ, we and Jesus become one as we share in this meal that we are about to receive. Jesus becomes our focus, our priority in life. So unlike the world choses to we have a new way to "Eat, Drink, and be Merry!"

So what is it that you and I are afraid to abandon to follow Jesus wholeheartedly? Our comfort? Our schedules? Our careers? Our money? Our possessions? Our need for security? Our rules? Our theology? It is by faith that we are saved. God does not save us only to leave us to hang out to dry. It may be dangerous, and scary at times. It may be uncertain as to what is going to happen next and where He will take us. But you can trust God. You can take courage to make God your number one priority. Like the man in the parable God is not calling you to a life of complacency, a life in which you relax, eat, drink, and be merry. God still has some adventures planned for you. God still has some things for you to do. What a privilege that is. Amen.

Bliss

When you log on to AOL you are greeted with scrolling headlines, usually three.  One is usually news related, one is usually financially related, and the third is usually entertainment or lifestyle related.  Today one of the headlines was, "Experts Say Intimacy, Not Money, Increases Bliss: Surprising Stats."  Surprising?  Is it really that surprising that intimacy is more closely related to bliss than money?  Haven't we known that for a while?  Okay, so I'm sure they're talking pretty much strictly about sex, but I think we've known the intimacy part for a while.  Paul seems to have been constantly prodding us about relationships, community, intimacy if you will.  The lectionary this week leads us to Ecclesiastes where Solomon, the man with more money and woman than Wilt Chamberlain, says, "Vanity, Vanity all is vanity."  Even Solomon discovered that intimacy is the key to bliss and not money, women, or anything else.  For Solomon it what was most important was that intimate relationship with God.  That is a relationship, while perhaps frustrating at times, ultimately leads to bliss.  Sometimes, God shares with us a glimpse of that bliss through relationships with others, with dear, beloved friends.  Now that is a beautiful sight!

Structure & Training

As I was walking home from working at the diner last night I realized something.  For the most part I really dislike structure, it tends to drive me nuts.  Yet it struck me that I really kind of need it.  For as much as it drives me nuts that I have a job that requires me to be at a certain place at a certain time with no negotiation, I also recognize that it's good because it forces me to interact with people on a regular basis.

I find it similarly challenging when it comes to my running.  I'm training to run a marathon in a couple of weeks.  I think the greatest challenge of it is the mental aspect.  To be successful I need to follow a training program, I need to run certain distances on certain days.  Some days I just don't feel like running and without a training partner I often don't run on those days.  Unfortunately you can't totally make up for those lost days, what you really need is a consistent, daily training.

I have found that translating into my faith life as well.  The biggest challenge in my independent study this summer has been reading "The Purpose Driven Life."  A lot of my seminary friends would understand that it's because of the theology presented.  I can get past that to find a nugget in nearly every entry.  The challenge has been that the book is designed to be read every day.  There are some days I just don't feel like it, so I haven't.  The problem is you can't really make up for those lost days.  Devotions are not only about what you gain from them but they're about a relationship, your relationship with God.  It takes a daily commitment to strengthen that relationship, perhaps that's why Paul made several training analogies in his writings.  That kind of discipline, that kind of structure, absolutely drives me nuts but I realize I need it.