Higher on the Hillside with Radical Jesus: Lent 19

And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

As Radical Jesus walks us closer and closer to the cross, we find him challenging every aspect of our lives of faith. He not-so-gently turns the spotlight of our practices of our ourselves and onto His Father, where it belongs. We’re jarred by this since it contradicts everything we have known. Everyone knows that those closest to God wail the loudest and use the most words during prayer meetings, don’t they?

Who are you when you are alone with God, Jesus asks us to consider. Do your prayers have the same vibrancy that they exhibit in public? Are the same number of words necessary when it’s just you and your Father? It is a radical challenge to move the focus of our prayer back to where it belongs rather than using prayer to gain attention. It’s there that we meet the unseen Father, the one who craves our heart to heart relationship with Him.

Will your concept of God be radically changed when Easter is celebrated? Are you willing to let your life be radically changed by Jesus today, this week, this month, or will His sacrifice go unnoticed?

 

Technorati tags: , , , ,

Does He Reign or Do I?

During this morning’s reflection on the Sermon on the Mount, I came to the passage in which Jesus instructs His followers on where the correct motivations for merciful actions come from…they come from a deeply held belief that He is Lord and we are not. The Newsboys say it well…

Be blessed.

On the Mountainside with the Radical Jesus: Lent 18

“Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

Jesus again reminds His followers that our motivations are to be radically reoriented in the Kingdom of Heaven. No longer will we strive to appear righteous in our actions and gain the approval of other men and women. Radical Jesus will examine what lies at the heart of your actions, what motivates you to initiate acts of justice such as giving to the poor. If the hand you reach out to another is waving for the attention of others, those that gaze upon Your righteousness will be giving you the reward you desire. The motivation of a transformed heart that moves heaven and earth anonymously to right the injustice of poverty will find its reward in our moment of Glory.

How many times during this Lent walk have we been righteous-exhibitionists? It is a difficult line to discern that divides sharing for accountability and sharing to gain attention. This passage with its suggestion to have one hand give without letting the other hand know what is going must cause us as the church to consider limits in all that we do from advertising who is conducting an outreach to welcoming the congregation to “So and So” church on Sunday; The Radical One drives the outreach and it’s His house we meet in on Sunday.

 

Technorati tags: , , , ,

Where Did Our Love Go?

I bet the chorus to that song started playing in your head the minute you saw the title, didn’t it.

Baby, baby, where did our love go?

And all your promises

of a love forever more?

Go ahead, hum it a little bit more….I’ll wait. I wonder if Jesus gets the same song stuck in His head when He looks at His Church. We’re good at a lot of things and we could be better at some. Loving one another and those yet to join the family is one of those things we could be a lot better at.

If we tried.

We’re good at loving Jesus. We praise Him, proclaim Him as our personal savior, and talk in glowing terms with our brothers about Him. It seems to be the people around us where we struggle. Now,there are innumerable reasons why we struggle to love others and we can provide a justification for every single one of them. People push our buttons, they’re different from us, they’re consumed with bad habits, and on and on and on. It’s no wonder we love who we love and don’t who we don’t.

Except, Jesus didn’t leave us that option.

Love your neighbor as yourself. No conditions, no out clause, no way out. He demonstrated this for us by loving and associating with those who had been segregated by the culture in which He walked. He loved through words and His companionship. He loved without words through compassionate action. He loved through angry correction that put people back on the rails. He loved through sacrifice.

Where has the love gone? Each of us might want to ask ourselves this question each morning as we greet the day. The most emergent, missional, seeker sensitive, purpose-driven thing we can do is love others in the same way that Jesus loved others. Love them as they are, Accept them as they are, Forgive them as they are.

Just don’t leave them there. Introduce them to the one who loves, accepts, and forgives you.

 

Technorati tags: , , , , ,

Fourth Sunday in Lent Readings

The readings for this glorious, almost-spring morning are Joshua 5:9-12 and Psalm 34. Deliverance through faith in God is a an at once and in the future event. He works progressively in our lives to bring us from stage to stage and He encourages us to put up markers of stone in order that we might look back and see how far he has brought us. When others see our cairns, they too are intrigued and question their meaning. What an opportunity to share the goodness of the Lord with them…

On the Mountainside with the Radical Jesus: Lent 17

You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.

The kingdom of heaven is life lived upside down from our day to day expectations. We have no trouble loving those we love and despising those we hate but the Radical Jesus says His disciples will do differently. As Glen Stassen states it well,

“Loving only those who love you is the in-group selfishness of cliquishness, cronyism, nepotism, racism, and nationalism. We recognize it immediately because we see it so often. If we love only those who love us, we see only an in-group perspective, and become closed-minded to how other see things. As a result, we cannot understand our enemies’ perspectives enough to deal with them effectively.”

The followers of Jesus consider things differently. His command of our hearts shapes them to see our enemies in the same way that God sees us. We are compassionate and loving when our human reaction is to lash out and segregate from those who do us wrong.

Lent can be about much more than quiet meditation on that item which we have given up for the period. Ask yourself though, are you any closer to Jesus than you were four weeks ago? Take an additional step and integrate an act of love into your lent observance. Call someone from whom you are estranged. Restrain your frustration with another. Develop a new relationship with someone outside of your circle of friends. The list is endless and the effects profound. 

 

Technorati tags: , , , ,

Calvinism, Arminianism and Interior Decorating

If my good friend Donald Trump invited me to his home, I’m certain that I would have the same visceral reaction in person that I have to seeing his pictures of his palaces in the media. I am very much the opposite of the man in our tastes; I tend toward classic lines and a touch of austerity while he tends toward gaudy flash and ostentatiousness. But, since he’s my friend, I would not blurt out, “That is the ugliest gold plated faucet on a marble sink supported by two carved cherubs I have ever seen!” as he shows me the downstairs powder room. Evaluating the long term effects of him enjoying his home and my retaining his friendship, I would probably nod and say that it was very nice, maybe adding that it was not my style if prompted to install a similar room in my house.

This week, perhaps goaded on by the increasing shrillness of modern politics, I was moved to write responses to two posts with Calvinist tags. I felt that each one had either been snarky or inappropriate in their presentation but moreover, they showed an uncharitable attitude toward anyone who didn’t agree with the Calvinist theological system. In other words, the connotation of the words was “We’re right, you’re wrong, so quit being a fool and accept it.” The danger in the increasing obstinacy that is creeping into the Calvinism versus Arminianism debate is that it has much larger implications that affect those outside of details of the debate.

Reading the titles and snippets of posts that appear in Calvinist forums, blog aggregators, or even print media often gives the impression that there is a hubris toward anyone who doesn’t agree. Rather than making a case for the efficacy of the system, the posts taunt and challenge those foolish enough to believe otherwise. But I ask, is this how the Master Teacher taught?

1 Peter 3:15 is taken to heart by many Christians. The problem is that many have only partially memorized and internalized the scripture. “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” An excellent verse and one that I’m willing to wager that nearly everyone who reads this post will agree with. Except that is not the complete verse. In its complete form it reads:

But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,“

and the last line continues into verse 16:

“keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.”

So I ask my Calvinist brothers and sisters, are we speaking and writing with gentleness and respect? Is our conscience clear in that we have fairly and accurately considered both sides of the debate and with full knowledge of both positions, decided in which camp we will plant our tents? Are we charitable in our words, so much so that those who disagree with us are ashamed by their slander?

In an Oprah dominated world where some gnosticism like ‘The Secret’ can dominate the popular imagination do we really want to present ideas that have eternal implications in the form of the the Dave Hunt & James White book ‘Debating Calvinism’ where it looks like nothing more than a name-calling schoolyard rumble. I don’t think so. If we are willing to be kind to others in insignificant matters like their taste clothes or paint color, why are we not willing to also temper our debate when the eternal destinations of others are at stake?

Technorati tags: , , ,