Weather is wreaking havoc on our Cultivate series.  We’ve had to cancel three of our last four services. Normally that wouldn’t be a problem, but our next series starts on Ash Wednesday. That means we have to double up on some of the fruit if we’re going to finish on time.  Therefore this week I bring you joy AND peace.

Weekend Teaching Series: Cultivate

Message Title: Joy and Peace

Sermon in a Sentence: In a world of suffering and injustice, God calls us to make peace and find joy in the grace He gives.

Text(s): Isaiah 65:17-25; Matthew 5:9, Romans 14:17, Galatians 5:22-23

Message Summary:

One of the challenges in preaching this message is the pre-conceptions people have about what joy and peace are. When we think of peace we think of the absence of conflict.  A peacemaker is someone who smooths over the hard feelings in our world and finds a way to keep everyone happy.

And joy is even more difficult because we have to deal with two sets of preconceptions.  On one hand, when we think of joy, we think of happy people.  A joyful person is that annoyingly bubbly person, always bouncing around, naively giddy, filled with the kind of saccharine sentimentality that sets our teeth on edge…

…Or maybe not.  Because you also have the sermons that explain there is a difference between joy and happiness.  Happiness, we’re told, depends on circumstances.  Happiness is affected by what happens to us.  Joy on the other hand is centered in God and manifests itself as an internal confidence that God is in control.  It’s possible, we’re told, to be in unhappy circumstances and still be joyful.

So we approach the subject of peace and joy with these preconceptions.  The question is are any of these concepts what Paul is talking about when he says the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy and peace?

The word Paul uses for joy belongs to a broad family of words in New Testament Greek.  The word for joy is chara.  It’s the noun form of the verb chairo.  Interestingly, it’s closely related to the words for grace charis and gift charisma.  And all of them are related to the word for to thank eucharisteo from which we get our theological term Eucharist, or the Lord’s Supper.

The word family helps us understand what exactly joy is.  Joy means to rejoice, to celebrate, to throw a party.  The biblical picture of joy is the feast, those God ordained events in Israel when all work ceased, when all able bodied males showed up in Jerusalem, and the nation celebrated together.  Joy is the feeling you get when you throw a party! And joy is also the result of grace.  It is inspired by gifts.  When you receive a gift, that sense of gratitude and celebration you feel is joy.

So what about peace?  The word Paul uses for peace is eirene.  Interesting isn’t it?  We’re talking about joy and peace, Kara and Irene.  It’s all about the ladies.  And, at least in the minds of the Greeks, peace is a lady.  That’s a picture of her there on the right.  Like so many abstract concepts, the Greeks personified peace in their mythology, portraying her as Eirene – one of the three Horae or Seasons.  Peace’s sisters are Eunomia (literally, good laws) and Dikē (or righteousness/justice).   And when you stop and think about it, that makes sense for those three right government, justice and peace are often found together.  But rarely do you have one without the other two.

In this image, Eirene is shown holding Ploutos.  No, not Pluto the god of the underworld.  Nor is it Pluto the dog of Mickey.  It’s not even Pluto, formerly known as a planet.  Ploutos literally means plenty, and baby Ploutos is the god of wealth and abundance.  When Eirene’s not holding baby Ploutos, she’s often depicted holding a cornucopia, from the Latin cornus or horn, and copiae or plenty.  When she’s not holding the baby of plenty, she’s shown holding a horn of plenty.  It’s the artists way of depicting the reality that where there is peace, plenty flourishes.

I find all this interesting because the Judeo-Christian idea of peace is very similar.  Granted, we don’t turn peace into an idol and bring the personification of peace offerings in the hopes she will grant us wealth.  But the Bible does recognize the connection between peace and plenty.  Peace, biblically speaking, is more than just the absence of conflict.  Peace — eirene in Greek, shalom in Hebrew — is an abundance of righteousness and justice, and it becomes the environment in which plenty flourishes.

Or here’s another artists rendition of peace; this time it’s Edward Hick’s Peaceable Kingdom.  Hicks was an American Quaker, a member of the Society of Friends during the late 1700′s to the early 1800′s.  And this isn’t the only painting he made like this.  In the background you see the event his is commemorating; in this particular version of the painting it is the treaty between William Penn and the Native Americans.  In the foreground you have a collection of images designed to communicate his belief that what was happening in the American colonies was a fulfillment of the biblical promises of peace.

His imagery comes from Isaiah 65, in particular verse 25:

The wolf and the lamb will feed together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox,
and dust will be the serpent’s food.
They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,”
says the LORD (NIV).

Lion and ox, wolf and lamb, all of them are depicted in this picture of peace from Isaiah.

But look at all peace entails in Isaiah 65:

• Harmony: Yes, obviously harmony is involved.  All these animals that were once enemies are depicted peaceably comingling in verse 25. But there’s more than that.
• Health: In verse 20, Isaiah speaks about people living long, full lives.  You might show up to a funeral for someone who died in their 100′s, Isaiah says, and everyone will wonder why they had to die so young.
• Security: In verse 21, Isaiah says something that sounds unusual to us: “They will build houses and dwell in them;” but he’s talking about a world where people build their houses only to be forced from their homes and taken into exile.  But Isaiah says that won’t happen in the peaceable kingdom.
• Plenty: In that same verse, Isaiah says “they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.”  There’s a harvest in the peaceable kingdom and it isn’t stolen.
• Fulfillment: Verse 23 says, “They will not labor in vain.”  There’s no more spending your lives working for something only to wonder if it was all wasted effort.  No laboring in vain here.

Biblically speaking, peace isn’t just the absence of conflict, it’s all of this together: harmony, healthy, security, plenty and fulfillment.  And given that picture of peace, is it any wonder that peace and joy are so often linked in Scripture?

Listen to how Paul opens every one of his letters.  Take Romans, for example.  He starts by identifying himself. “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God…”

Then he identifies to whom he is writing.  “To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people.”

Then comes his greeting: “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.”

See it there?  Joy and peace connected.  Now granted, Paul says “Grace and peace” but remember the word family?  Grace and joy are siblings.  Joy is our natural response to grace.  Chara is the sister of charis.  And Paul greets them the Romans with the words charis and eirene. And it’s not just the letter to the Romans.  Every letter Paul writes opens with charis and eirene. Except Timothy.  Apparently Timothy was special. He doesn’t just get grace and peace.  He gets grace, mercy and peace.

Now maybe you don’t realize that the standard Greek greeting was charein another member of that same joy/grace/thanks word family.  The Greeks didn’t say “Hello” they said “Charein.”   And the Hebrew greeting was (and is) shalom, or peace.  In opening his letters with grace and peace, Paul is bridging the gap between these two worlds, Greeks and Jews.  But I think it’s more than that.  Paul recognizes that grace/joy and peace are absolutely central to life in God’s kingdom.

Want proof?  Check out Romans 14:17:

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

The Kingdom of God is all about righteousness, peace and joy, and it’s all brought about by God’s Holy Spirit.

But what do you do when there isn’t peace in our world?  Because let’s face it, even when there is an absence of conflict, rarely is there the harmony, health, security, abundance and fulfillment that together is what the Bible means by peace.  So what do we do?

According to Jesus, when peace is absent, we are called to make peace.  Remember the beatitudes?  Who is blessed? Who has cause for celebration? Matthew 5:9 It’s those who make peace that bear the family resemblance of the God they serve.  But how do we make peace?

Typically, in the absence of peace, we have two ways we can go.  On the one hand, in the absence of peace, you can fight back until whoever is the oppressor stops.  Someone pushes you, you push back.  If you don’t meet force with force, the violence will never end, so declare war and hold the course until your enemy begs for peace.

The other option is the opposite. Instead of fighting back, you seek to appease.  Smooth things over.  Don’t disrupt what little tranquility there may be. Sweep the injustice under the rug, pretend like it’s all OK, because it’s more important that we get along, than that we do what’s right.

We have a choice between two ways: push back, or pretend it’s OK.  Retaliate or rationalize.  Fight. Or flight.  The bad news is that neither of these two ways works well.  The good news is that Jesus offers what Walter Wink has called a third way…

A Christ-following peacemaker doesn’t fight.  She doesn’t respond to injustice by reflecting the injustice back on the perpetrator.  And the peacemaker doesn’t flee.  She doesn’t pretend that nothing is wrong.  She takes the third way.  She brings attention to injustice without participating in it.

Wink points out that our cultural distance from first century Palestine has led to serious misunderstandings about the third way.  Turning the other cheek isn’t about taking abuse and pretending it didn’t happen.  It’s bringing attention to the injustice of the backhanded slap without participating in the violence.  Giving the plaintiff your tunic as well as your cloak is not just an admonition to non-litigation, it is being (literally) nakedly honest about the injustice of the matter and ensuring everyone sees the wrong that has been done.  Walking two miles when forced to walk one isn’t just about going above and beyond, it’s requiring the oppressor to treat the oppressed as a human and not like a slave.

If you’re not familiar with what Wink has to say about the third way, here’s a link to a short sermon he gave on the subject.

Long story short, the peacemaker does not participate in injustice or pretend that it isn’t happening.  Instead the way of Jesus is creative non-violence that brings attention to injustice and provides the perpetrator that opportunity to recognize the wrong and to repent.

So where’s the joy in this kind of life?  Because quite honesty, this way of living doesn’t sound like a celebration.  It sounds hard.  It sounds lonely.  It sounds like it will often be unpleasant.

The joy doesn’t come from dishonestly pretending nothing is wrong.  Nor does it come from an naively pretending that everything has to eventually get better.  It’s not about closing your eyes to the present reality, or focusing on the future until the present fades from view.  Instead the joy comes from remembering the connection between chara and charis.  As you are making peace, there is always room to remember grace, to recognize the good and perfect gifts that God has given.  Joy comes from honestly admitting what is wrong, and really recognizing what is right and good.  Because in every situation, even those that require us to make peace, there is grace we can celebrate.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment:

There were two fun features of our service tonight.  The first was our second installment of the Vegetables of the Spirit videos.  In this episode we meet two veggies who depict the two ways I talk about in the peacemaking part of the sermon.  On one hand there is Bob, for whom everything goes wrong.  Yet he’s so full of joy he doesn’t even notice.  And on the other hand there’s Pete, who has so much to be thankful for, but is too busy being upset about the little things to be grateful for the big things.

We also broke away from the ordinary by giving students a gift as they came into the service.  It was a cross between a Valentine’s day treat and a post-Super Bowl celebration.  We gave everyone a theater sized candy as they came into the service. And the joy of the surprise gift became an illustration of the connection between chara and charis later in the sermon.

Worship Set: Trading My Sorrows, Happy Day, Forever, Mighty to Save

Favorite Moment:

It’s probably one of those you-had-to-be-there moments, but our worship leader had history’s most epic kick in Water’s Edge indoor kickball.  Our indoor kickball rules include the rule that there is no such thing as a foul, so players can send the ball in any direction they choose.  Bryant managed to get the ball to roll through an open doorway into a dark class room, scoring the first earned home run ever in indoor kickball.

Other rules that make Water’s Edge kickball unique:

• The ball is live until it hits the floor (so fly balls can be caught off the ceiling and walls, though they rarely are)
• Any kick that goes onto the stage area is an automatic out
• Perhaps the most fun of all, runners don’t have to stop at home.  As long as they aren’t on third when the ball is pitched, they can run from home to first (as long as first base is open) for a second lap around the bases.  Of course, they don’t tally runs until they stop at home.  If they get out or the side is retired before they make it back home, they lose the run they’ve already completed.

Listen to the Sermon:


Subscribe to the Water’s Edge podcast on iTunes or via RSS.

Sunday was the annual Luray Harvest Festival, sponsored and organized in part by our Blue River Valley campus.  It was again an incredible day for a great little community in rural Indiana.  For the first time I didn’t have any real responsibilities for this event.  I just got to go with my family and enjoy the day.  And we certainly did.  After the jump,  you can see my ten favorite pictures from the day.  You can see higher the whole photo set on my Flickr account.

10. Seriously, Smile!

This photo is the reason I’ll never invite my Senior Pastor to go camping with me.  Just look at him! Doesn’t he look like the great outdoorsman? But seriously, he is having fun.  IMI hosted a huge campfire for hot dog roasting at the Harvest Festival, and there was always someone seated around it.  Definitely a highlight of this year’s festival.

9. These Apples Are Delicious

They were.  And this photo is beautiful.

8. Fun for all Ages

The plastic barrel wagon train was a major attraction, and looked like a lot of fun.  And if these teens of mine are any indication, it was.

7 . An Answer to Prayer

The music is always one of the attractions of the Harvest Festival, and this year they added a second stage to feature even more music.  But I chose this photo because of the people involved.  This group included the new worship leaders for the Blue River Valley Nazarene Worship Center, and we appreciate the incredible contribution they are making to the ministry there.

6. That Smile Says it All

The look on this child’s face is what the Luray Harvest Festival is all about.  What a privilege to be a part of an event that brings that kind of joy to families!

5. And if those smiles weren’t enough…

…here are some more.

4. This is Why I Love My Church

This isn’t just a random child at the Harvest Festival, this is my daughter.  I recently listened to Doug Fields speak at National Youth Workers Convention about how one of his goals was to raise his kids in such a way that they counted it a privilege, not a burden, to be a pastor’s kid.  I’m thankful to be a part of a church who brings this kind of smile to my kids’ faces.

3. How Many Hoosiers Does It Take…

Every year our church sends our kids’ train ride to the Harvest Festival as part of the event.  And Pastor Jill loves to let them use it because it always comes back in better repair than when we lent it out.  Weldon and Wayne are the reason why.  (And Paul is always a good source of moral support…)

2. One of My Heroes

Seriously, I have tremendous respect for this man.  That’s Pastor Ben Sturgeon, the new pastor of our Blue River Valley campus.  Pastor Greg recently moved to South Carolina leaving us wondering what would happen in BRV.  But God led Pastor Ben back to his home church to take the helm of this great church, and together with his wife Kacia, they’re leading the Luray church toward “even greater things than these.”  Thanks Ben!

1. Coming or Going?

This was by far my favorite photo of the Festival, but not because it was some sort of metaphor.  The Blue River Valley Campus is definitely going forward, not backward.  I just liked it because it was a pretty cool picture.

I really don’t intend for this to become a series, but there’s lots of cool stuff happening in Middletown, and I just can’t help but celebrate some of the great people involved in these huge successes.

Yesterday, my family attended the Luray  Harvest Festival, affectionately known as “Luray Day.”  But to fully appreciate what that means, we need to give you some back story.

First, there’s the town.  Luray is officially a “unincorporated community” in north central Henry County, in Indiana.  In other words, it’s a road, along which you can find about ten houses and one small church.  And just outside town there’s a 600 acre gravel pit.  That’s about it.  You can take a virtual tour of the town using Google’s Streetview.  (That’s right, streetview has even been to Luray.)

Back in it’s heyday it was a little bit more.  I hear on good authority that there used to be a blacksmith shop, a general store, a hotel, and a public livestock pen so people driving their herds down highway three could stop, corral their livestock, and rest comfortably in the hotel.  But that was a long time ago.  Luray hasn’t seen that much business since . . . well, since you went to town to look for a blacksmith’s shop.

Then there’s the church.  I’m not sure when the Luray Church of the Nazarene was first founded.  I do know it had struggled for several years.  Back in it’s heyday it was a little bit more.  At one point they even broke the 100 barrier.  But that was a long time ago.  About three years ago it got to the place where the district was ready to shut the doors.  Our church in Middletown was given the opportunity to partner with Luray, and the Blue River Valley Nazarene Worship Center was born.  We still meet in the Luray building, but pastoral leadership is provided by the Middletown Church.  Their campus pastor, Rev. Greg Alexander, who leads the BRV church, preaches every week, and shepherds the Luray congregation is a volunteer from our congregation and works as part of our staff.

Since then Pastor Greg and the great people of our BRV campus have been doing great things to serve their community, regardless of how small it is.  They’re not a huge church.  They probably never will be.  (Even if they reach 100% of their community’s population, they won’t break 100 in attendance.)  But they are having a huge impact on their community and the way their community sees the church.

One of the big events they’ve pulled off is Luray Day.  Years ago, under the leadership of a man named Oliver Nannie (I hope I spelled that right), the little community had an event they called Luray Day.  But when Mr. Nannie passed away, Luray Day did too.  Someone mentioned the old event to Pastor Greg and he said “Why not?”  Last year the BRV church began partnering with their neighbors and together they relaunched Luray Day as an annual Fall Festival to celebrate the community.  With some help from the IMI gravel pit down the road and some other generous sponsors they put on a street festival that’s a lot of fun for the whole family.  A hog roast, ham and beans cooked over the fire, hay rides, hot dog eating contest, cotton candy, snow cones all of it free because of the generous donations of the community.

I love my church because of what she is doing in Luray.  Here are my five favorite photos that demonstrate what I love about my church.  You can see the full set of Luray Day photos on my Flickr page.

5. I love the way it makes my kids smile.

Seriously, look at that smile.  Who wouldn’t want to be a part of a church that could make their kids smile like that?

That’s my daughter and youngest child, Mackenzie, playing on a rope swing during the Luray Day festivities.  She and my middle son, Bryce, probably spent 15 minutes playing on the rope swing.  Which was nice.  That meant Michelle and I could eat our free food in peace at the tables nearby.

Granted, it’s not the Maverick at Cedar Point. But a simple rope in a tree, and some nice people who will let the whole community swing on it can bring that kind of smile to a lot of people’s faces.

In fact, none of the games or attractions at Luray Day were very elaborate.  But the fall festival demostrated that the simple things in life can bring great joy.

Trust me.

I saw that smile on lots of people’s faces Sunday.

4. I love the way it brings excitement to a small community.

That’s a picture of part of the parking area at Luray Day on Sunday.  Who knew a festival in a town of ten houses could generate so much excitement?

I asked someone when the last time they saw that many cars in Luray.

Their answer?

Last year, at Luray Day.

3. I love the way that the church is at the very heart of the community.

Whether we’re talking about our Middletown campus or the Blue River Valley campus, my church understands that it exists as much for the people outside the walls of it’s building as the people who gather each week within it’s walls.  Being the church means finding ways to serve the community.

Sometimes that means seeking to offer extracurricular drama programs when art and music classes fall prey to budget cuts.  Sometimes that means jumping through the hoops and going through the training to become a Red Cross disaster shelter.  And sometimes that means hearing the community say “Remember when…” and asking the question “Why not again?”

Every time I drive by Luray on Highway 3 after dark, I see their red neon cross shining at the very center of their small community. And I can’t help but think to myself, “That’s exactly the way it should be.”

2. I love the people who are the church.

These two men are two of my heroes.  When we began working with the Luray church, there weren’t many involved any more.  But these two men (and just few other people) were.  Pastors came and went.  But these guys remained.  They kept the furnace running.  They fixed the leaks in the plumbing. They gave the offerings that paid the bills.

So when Weldon (the driver) stopped me yesterday to say “Thank you.  I can’t help but think if it wasn’t for your church, our church wouldn’t be here” I had to correct him.

“Actually, if it weren’t for you, our church wouldn’t be here.”

1. I love the dedication that Pastor Greg Alexander shows to the church in Luray.

That’s Pastor Greg there, talking to the sheriff’s deputy who came out to represent the Sheriff’s Department at Luray Day. By day he works as a contractor providing corrosion control services to utility companies in our region.  Or something like that.  It’s way beyond my ability to understand.

But by night and on the weekends he faithfully shepherds the part of our congregation that meet every week in Luray.  And I have utmost respect for that kind of dedication.  I get paid to do what I love and have been called to do.  Pastor Greg lives out what Paul meant when he wrote “What then is my reward? Just this: that in preaching the gospel I may offer it free of charge, and so not make use of my rights in preaching it (1 Corinthians 9:18, NIV).”

I feel honored to be considered Pastor Greg’s coworker, and I love being a part of a church that raises up and empowers servants like him.

Ever wonder why I love my church?

Probably not, but I’m going to show you anyway.  Here’s the video:

This last Sunday our church had what we call “Imagine Ministries Sunday” when we hand off our Sunday services to our Children’s ministries. Our children’s pastor, Rev. Jill Waltz, plans the sermon and presents the message. Our Imagine Praise Team who minister each week in children’s church take a turn leading us in worship. The kids fill the choir loft and take part in other aspects of the service.

The video is a compilation of the pictures I took during worship Sunday morning. It shows, at least in part, why I love my church so much.

It has nothing to do with my youth ministry – though I have some of the best teens on the planet.

It has nothing to do with how well the church takes care of me and supports my ministry – though they do an outstanding job.

It has everything to do with how my church ministers to my family. I know my children are growing up under the care of a great pastor and team.

After the jump I’ve picked out my five favorite pictures from yesterday which show exactly what I love about our church’s children’s ministry. You can see all the pictures I took on my flickr account here.

5. Christ is the focal point.

Pastor Jill does a great job both leading and teaching our children.  But the focus isn’t on her, it’s on the Christ she serves.

4. My kids are surrounded by great friends.

That’s my son, Brett, and one of his best friends Alex.  I love the fact that my children are growing up around other kids who love God.

3. Students worship.

That’s another one of my sons, Bryce, singing along with his cousin Connor.  I still get choked up every time I sit back and watch my children worship.  I love the fact that my kids are growing up learning how to actively worship God.  And more importantly, they’re learning that worship isn’t just the songs you sing on Sunday, but the way you live every day.

2. Graduates stay connected.

Okay, so those two aren’t my boys, at least not biologically.  They are, however, both graduates of our youth ministry.  They’ve graduated from high school now and both have headed off for college.  Yet here they both are, still serving our church week in and week out.  That gives me hope for my kids too.  It’s good seeing how many graduates of the children’s ministry hang around and as teens continue to help in the children’s ministry.  And it’s great seeing how many graduates of the youth ministry stay connected to the church even after high school – not merely attending but serving.  I want my kids to learn to serve.

1. Children lead.

There’s Bryce again.  This time he’s battling nerves (and the fact that Dad’s in the front row with a camera) getting ready to lead the congregation in our prayers for our country’s service men and women.  I love the fact that my children are attending a church where they not only get ministered to, they also get opportunities to lead.

So Jill, if you’re reading this, thanks for everything you do – not only for my kids, but for all the children of our church.  I couldn’t imagine a better church in which to serve, and the way you minister to my children is a big part of that!

Mythbusters: Water's Edge

Weekend Teaching Series: Mythbusters: Water’s Edge

Message Title: Myth #5: If you give up on hope, then you’ll be happy.

Sermon in a Sentence: Biblical hope does not disappoint because it is grounded in a God who does not fail.

Text(s): Ecclesiastes 9:3-5, Isaiah 38:18, Romans 5:1-5

Weekend Scale of Difficulty:8 of 10; This week’s lesson incorporated several videos which all had to be cued at the right time, plus shooting the best (and most complicated) of our Mythbusters videos.

Message Summary:

This week we wrap up our Mythbusters series with a sermon on hope. Originally we were going to complete the trilogy of faith, hope and love, but a couple of snow days and the fact that our next series is set to coincide with Lent means we have to cut it short and wrap up this week.

We began by showing a video from eleven72 called Change IS Possible.  It features a guy singing about hope.  Only he realizes as he sings that some people never change, and hoping they will really is meaningless.  The song ends with the line: “There is no hope.  Give up on hope.  If you give up on hope then you’ll be happy. Or whatever.” The video closes with text on the screen encouraging viewers not to give up on hope, but we made sure to stop the video before that.  Our fifth myth was the closing line of the song – “If you give up on hope, then you’ll be happy.”

Of course our students laughed at the video.  But we pointed out that while that line sounds laughably cynical, the fact is people buy into that myth every day.  How do we get to such a place in life?

People give up on hope when they are tired of being disappointed.

To illustrate that fact we looked at one of the most optimistic speeches in recent political history.  Barack Obama ran on the theme of hope.  One of the iconic images of the 2008 election is the red and blue “Hope” poster by Shepard Fairey.  You know the one.  The message of hope carried Obama to the presidency.

And perhaps the most pivotal moment in the campaign came on January 8, 2008.  Obama had surprised many pundits with a win in the Iowa caucuses. Attention was focused on what would happen in New Hampshire.  Despite Obama’s hard fought campaign for that state’s primary, Hillary Clinton won, and many wondered if Iowa was just a fluke.

The night of the primary, as it became clear Hillary Clinton had won, Obama delivered one of the best speeches in modern politics.  It was so inspiring, some artists have taken the words of that speech and made it into a song.  Here it is:

What I found most interesting, however, was watching how people responded to that message.

Some people were profoundly inspired and deeply moved by his words.  Note all the celebrities in the video who were moved by the optimism of “Yes We Can” to lend their support to the Obama campaign.  Or look at the legions of people, especially young people, around the nation who signed up to volunteer for the Obama campaign.

Yet others were skeptical, even cynical about Obama’s words.  They called him naive and inexperienced, ignorantly optimistic.  A little over a month later, Hillary Clinton responded to the optimism of the Obama campaign with vitriol that very well may have cost her the primary.  Listen to her reaction to Obama’s message of hope as she speaks in Rhode Island:

I was especially struck by her comment “Maybe I’ve just lived a little long, but I have no illusions . . .”

In other words, she’s explaining to the world that if Barack Obama was a little bit older, and a little more experienced, he would have given up on hope by now.  Sounds kinda like the song.  There is no hope.  Give up on hope.  If you give up on hope then you’ll be happy.

Of course, Hillary Clinton isn’t the first to sound this cynical note.

Winston Churchill is said to have said “Any man who is under 30 and is not a liberal has no heart. Any man over 30 who is not a conservative has no brains.”  Now, we’re not sure if he ever really said this.  If he did, he wasn’t the first.  It’s a common political idea – that when you’re young and idealistic, you ought to be optimistic.  But once you get older and learn a little better, you’ll realize the best course is to give up on hope.

And Churchill wasn’t the first either.  Take a look at Ecclesiastes 9:3-5

This is the evil in everything that happens under the sun: The same destiny overtakes all. The hearts of men, moreover, are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts while they live, and afterward they join the dead. Anyone who is among the living has hope —even a live dog is better off than a dead lion! For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no further reward, and even the memory of them is forgotten. (NIV)

While people are alive, they can afford to have hope.  Of course, they are also filled with madness and delusions.  Eventually everyone dies, and hope dies with them.

Or look at Isaiah 38:18: “For the grave cannot praise you, death cannot sing your praise; those who go down to the pit cannot hope for your faithfulness. “  Those who go down to death (the pit) cannot hope.

Everyone seems to realize that eventually hope dies.  And if you’ll just live long enough, you’ll figure that out too.

And is it any wonder?  After all look at the things in which people put their hope.

• Some hope for pleasure, for happiness.  Yeah, the daily grind is a bit hopeless, but we can live for the weekend.  Only pleasure is a matter of diminishing returns.  The last time is never as pleasurable as the first.
• Others hope for position.  They want to accomplish something, make something of themselves, get somewhere in life.  Only in today’s economy, we realize that positions can easily be lost.  Or worse yet, we could get trapped in an unfulfilling dead end job.
• Sometimes we put our hope in possessions.  If only I had enough, then I’d be happy.  It’s the same misplaced hope of the prodigal son from a few weeks back.  “If only I had property, I’ll be happy.”  And when that failed, he said “If only I had some spending cash.”  And then “If only I had my own place.”  The problem with stuff though is you can never have enough.
• Sometimes we put our hope in people.  Of course, you don’t need me to point out that even the most well-meaning people will, from time to time, let you down.  You’ve experienced that yourself.
• And sometimes we put our hope in ourselves.  Maybe I can’t trust anyone else, but at least I can count on me.  Although truth be told I disappoint myself all the time.

Put your hope in enough of these things and eventually you’ll grow weary of being disappointed.  Eventually it gets to the place where hope sounds about as naive as a little girl singing about tomorrow.

The only problem with tomorrow is, there’s no guarantee it will be better than today.  All of us have gone to bed telling ourselves to be happy that at least today is over and tomorrow will be a new day, only to wake up and discover the new day is even worse.  And what’s more, we also know that eventually we will run out of tomorrows.

Life teaches the cruel truth: If you put your hope in something as uncertain as tomorrow, it will let you down.

And eventually we learn the lesson the secret to avoiding disappointment is to “not get our hopes up.”  Just think about the movies.  All your friends are talking about how awesome this new movie is, how it’s the best thing ever, how you just have to go see it.  So you do, and because your expectations were high, you walk away  disappointed.  But if all your friends tell you this movie is stupid, a waste of time and money, and don’t bother with it, it’s easy to walk away impressed.  “Granted, it’s no Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, but it was ok.”  Because our expectations were low, we are satisfied.

“Don’t get your hopes up” is just another way of saying “If you give up on hope, then you’ll be happy.”

The problem is, I’m convinced that God desires something better than this for his children.  God desires us to live a life that’s full of hope, not one that assumes the only way to happiness is hopelessnes.  “Give up on hope” is the basic tenet of Buddhism, not Christianity.

Instead we believe in the radical optimism of grace.  This optimism is one of the distinctives of our theological heritage as Nazarenes.  And it’s at the very heart of the way we see our world.  The radical optimism of grace believes that:

• God really can forgive me of my past and give me a fresh clean start. That belief isn’t necessarily a distinctive of Wesleyanism, but it is radical in a world that rarely forgives and never forgets.
• God can set me free from sin so I don’t have to live a life of constant failure. Here we get into the real distinctives of Wesleyanism.  We believe that God set us free the necessity of sin.  We don’t have to continually make mistakes and make a mess of our lives.  We might – but it’s not inevitable.  God really does provide a way out of every temptation.
• God doesn’t have to just pretend that I am holy in order to have a relationship with me, He really can change me and make me more like Him. This too is a distinctive of Wesleyanism.  Other streams of Christian thought teach that the only way God can convince himself that I am holy is to impute Christ’s righteousness to my account, so that when he see’s me, he tricks himself into thinking he’s seeing his Son.  But that’s not what we believe scripture teaches.  God really is, little by little, transforming me into his likeness and that is a real change.
• God really can work through me to change my world until His will really is done on earth as it is in heaven. This is one aspect of the radial optimism of grace even Wesleyans can sometimes forget.  We’ve become so convinced by millenial theories that God’s going to come back at the very last moment before humanity destroys themselves, we somehow expect there’s no hope for this world.  It’s just going to continue to get worse until Jesus has to come back before it gets to late.  Only that’s not how I read scripture, and that’s not what Jesus tells us to pray for.  Instead he calls us to pray for and work toward the transformation of our world.

All of that sounds pretty hopeful.  It even sounds rather naive.  I suppose someone could say “yeah, just live a little longer and you’ll give up on that too.”  After all, it’s one thing to say God wants to set me free and transform me.  I still often fall short of that ideal.

So how do you hold on to hope, when you fall short of what you hope for? I think Romans 5:1-5 has the answer to that question.

It begins by talking about some of the very things included in the radical optimism of grace.  Romans 5:1 talks about justification – the fact that God can forgive us and give us a fresh clean start.  Verse 2 talks about our hope for transformation.  We hope in the glory of God – the ability of God to transform us until we become like him.

Verse three however addresses the question “What happens when life falls short of expectations?”  It’s one thing to rejoice in our hope.  But what about when our hope lets us down.  When life is less than we hope it could be.  When we suffer?

Paul says we rejoice then too! Because sufferings give us the chance to persevere.  If everything went right and we always recieved what we hoped for, we’d never have the opportunity to persevere.  Perseverance requires struggle.  But we  don’t rejoice just because we persevere.

Instead Paul writes that our perseverance proves our character.  When we refuse to give up even when hope seems lost, we begin to get a picture of the character God is shaping in us.  It is times of struggle like this that we really see how God is shaping our lives.

And that proven character leads us back to hope.  When hope is lost.  We hold on anyway.  And as we hold on, we prove our character.  And as we prove our character, we have cause to hope again.  Because transformation isn’t just something we hope for some day.  We see how that transformation has already become.

And the best part is verse five: “And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.“  Unlike all our other hopes, this one does not disappoint because it’s not grounded in something as changable and unstable as pleasure, position, possssions, people or even ourselves.  It is grounded in an unshakable God who as at work right now in my life.  Not just some day, but right now.

The secret to happiness, then, is not to give up on hope.  Nor is it hope for hope’s sake.  The secret to happiness is putting your hope in something that’s worthy of bearing it.

Or should I say someone?

Element of Fun/Positive Environment:

We wrapped up our Mythbusters series with the best video of all.  In it we turned a student invisible and launched a chicken from a canon at our church bus.

I said we wrapped up with this, but we actually will have one final Mythbusters episode next week featuring outtakes from the series.   The best part?  Shooting is finished and I finally got to get rid of the goatee.

Worship Set: O Praise Him, Blessed be Your Name, The Solid Rock, God of this City

Favorite Moment: Tough one here.  I really, really enjoy teaching about the radical optimism of grace.  It really is a huge part of who am I am, and what I believe.  I just hope students can grab hold of it before the world (and sadly a good part of the church world) tells them “Don’t get your hopes up.”

Then again, it was a blast shooting video, especially this week when I turned my teens loose with the camera and had them direct a number of the shots.  They did awesome!

Mythbusters: Water's Edge

Weekend Teaching Series: Mythbusters: Water’s Edge

Message Title: Myth #4: All You Gotta Do is Believe

Sermon in a Sentence: Biblical faith moves from mental assent, to trust, to obedience, and ultimately to an experience of God’s grace.

Text(s): Genesis 15:6; John 3:36, 6:29; Acts 8;Romans 5:1; 2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 2:8-9

Weekend Scale of Difficulty: 6 of 10 Yeah, we did another custom video (see below) but that’s nothing new.  The only “new” thing was having to convert a Quicktime video clip from wingclips.com so it would play in EasyWorship.  (We use Super for video conversions. I thoroughly recommend it.  I do not, however, necessarily recommend EasyWorship.  It has some real plusses, but also some significant drawbacks.)

Message Summary:

The message this week focused on what exactly the Bible means by “Faith.”

We started off talking about the “power of positive thinking.”  Showed a quick video clip from the movie Paul Blart: Mall Cop from wingclips.com.  If you haven’t checked them out yet, I’d strongly recommend it.  They have a detailed and current index of movie clips.  What is more, you can get the clips directly from them, including clips from movies that are in theaters right now, like Mall Cop.  Seeing a clip from an “In Theaters” movie instantly got students attention.  Next time it might not, but for the first time we’ve used Wingclips, it was an instant attention getter.

The clip we showed featured Paul Blart (Kevin James) explaining that “the mind is the only weapon that doesn’t need a holster.”

With that introduction, we went into the power of positive thinking – noting there is some truth (like when athletes practice through visualization) and a lot of hooey (like the ideas promoted by the book and movie The Secret).  We specifically raised the issue of The Secret because there have been questions about it floating around our youth group.

Next we noted, when the Bible talks about the power of the mind, it calls it faith.  The Hebrew word for faith is ‘aman and the Koine word: pisteuo.  These words run throughout the Bible from Abraham in the Old Testament (Genesis 15:6) to Jesus in the New (John 6:29).  One of the core doctrines of Scripture is that it is faith which determines our relationship with God (e.g., Romans 5:1 and Ephesians 2:8-9).

However, it’s easy to go from the Biblical truth that we are justified by faith, to Myth #4: All you gotta do is believe.

To guide our discussion of this myth, we turned to the story of Simon the Sorcerer, a guy  so bad they named a sin after him.  His story is found in Acts 8.  It begins with the persecution of the church in Jerusalem and the stoning of Stephen.  Following those events, Christians began to flee, hoping to avoid the same fate.  The good news: while Christians fled, they also carried with them the message of the Gospel.

One of the refugees was Philip.  He went to Samaria, which seemed like a logical choice – what self-respecting Jew would follow him there?  When he arrived he began to preach.  People began to believe.  Miracles began to happen.  And the people of Samaria paid close attention to him.

While that was good news for Philip, that wasn’t such good news for Simon.  Simon fancied himself a Sorcerer – someone who had control of supernatural powers.  We don’t know what powers he claimed, but he could at least do some cool magic tricks, because the people of Samaria called him “the Great Divine Power.”  We’ve not heard of him, but he had such a great following that the Church had to deal with his teachings for the next 300 some years.  What’s more the people of Samaria were in the habit of paying close attention to Simon.

Imagine how you would react if you were in Simon’s shoes.  One day, you are the “Great Divine Power.” Everyone listens to you.  The next day a new guy shows up telling the story of Jesus, and everyone is paying close attention to him.  (Luke uses the same word to describe the people’s reaction to Simon and to Philip.)  What do you think Simon did?

The Bible tells us: Simon believed (pisteuo) and was baptized.  Didn’t see that coming did you?  But that’s what Acts 8 tells us.  Simon was so moved by the message of Philip that he believed and was baptized.

As the story continues, the church in Jerusalem sends Peter and John to follow up on Philip’s ministry.  They come and see the Samaritans believing in Jesus, and they begin praying for them.  As they lay hands on the people, God sends His Holy Spirit, probably much like He did on Pentecost.

Meanwhile, Simon is on the sidelines watching.  He notices: as Peter and John pray for people, God acts.  And he wonders, “What would it be like if I could have that kind of power?”

So he asks if he can buy this ability to impart God’s Spirit by laying on hands. And Peter condemns him in some of the strongest language of scripture:

“”May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps he will forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin.”  (Acts 8:20-23, NIV)

Essentially, he says is “Simon, you and your money deserve to go to hell.”  Not in the flippant, disrespectful way people say that today.  Peter means it.  Simon’s on his way to damnation.

But wait.  I thought Romans 5:1 said we were justified by faith (pisteuo).  Ephesians 2:8-9 say it is through faith (pisteuo) we are saved.  And Acts 8:13 says that Simon believed (pisteuo) and was baptized.  How can he have faith and still be on his way to hell?  I thought all he had to do was believe?

What exactly is Biblical faith?  In many ways, faith is like a journey, not like a possession.

The journey begins with belief, or mental assent.  We hear the story of Jesus and say “Yes, I believe that to be true.”  Simon did this.  He took this first step.

However, the journey of faith moves from faith to trust. According to the Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, the core meaning of the Hebrew word for faith, ‘aman, is “certainty” or “confidence.”  Faith isn’t just believing.  It  begins there, but it must move to the place where we put our confidence in what we believe.

Simon didn’t do that.  He wasn’t willing to put his trust in Jesus.  Instead he was still prone to put his trust in what he could purchase for himself.

But the journey doesn’t end there.  Trust must move to obedience. This is confirmed by both the Old and New Testaments.  The Old Testament speaks not only of having faith (‘aman) but also of keeping faith (‘aman).  Check out Isa 26:2.  Faith isn’t just a possession, it is action.

Here I asked what the opposite of belief is.  Obviously their suggestion was “disbelief.”  We talked about prefixes that suggest “the opposite of.”  The opposite of agree is disagree.  The opposite of appear is disappear.  The opposite of belief, is disbelief.

Only in the New Testament it isn’t, at least not always.

In Greek the prefix meaning “the opposite of” is not dis- but a-.  The opposite of law (nomia) is lawlessness (anomia).  The opposite if visible (horatos) is invisible (aoratos).  And the opposite of belief (pisteuo) to be disbelief (apisteuo).

Only when Jesus is talking about belief and disbelief in John 3:36, he doesn’t use apisteuo.  He says if anyone believes in the Son, he or she has eternal life.  And the opposite?  If anyone disobeys (apatheo) the Son, the wrath of God abides in him or her.  The opposite of belief in this verse is not disbelief, but disobedience.  Biblical faith means not only mental assent, but trusting God enough to obey him.

Finally in this journey, faith moves from obedience to experience. The classic Biblical definition of faith is Hebrews 11:1: being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we don’t see.  But that’s not just being deluded.  Faith isn’t convincing yourself that something is certain despite all evidence to the contrary.  It means being sure, really assured, of what you hope for.

I know that sounds like an oxymoron.  If you’re hoping for something, you’re not sure it will happen.  But as we obey, God proves that His promises are true.  In 2 Corinthians 1:22, Paul notes that God gives us his Holy Spirit “as a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance.”  In other words, as we move along this journey of faith – from belief, to trust, to obedience – we begin to experience the way God is working in our life.  And when that happens, we don’t have to “just believe” any more.  We know, because we’ve experienced it!

We closed by asking students where they were in this journey.  This isn’t about condemnation because you’ve not made it to the final destination.  The question is “Are you on the journey?”  God doesn’t wait until we get to experience to make us right, or even until we start to obey.  However, that doesn’t mean we can take the first step of the journey and consider it completed.  God wants to get us to the place where we experience (and recognize) his work in our life.  That only happens as we move from belief to trust, and from trust to obedience.  So we asked them where they were on this journey, and if they were ready to take the next step.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: Played a quick game of Taboo at the start – always fun.  And once  again, we showed an episode of Mythbusters: Water’s Edge.

Without a doubt, the least funny of the Mythbusters videos, in my opinion.  But it got the most laughs of any we’ve done, probably because of all the inside jokes.  I apologize.

Worship Set: Marvelous Light, Father Spirit Jesus, Here is Our King, God of This City

Favorite Moment: Philip flying his broom in the video.  Second favorite, Brittany experiening a mental breakdown in the video.  Great acting!

Mythbusters: Water's Edge

Weekend Teaching Series: Mythbusters: Water’s Edge

Message Title: Myth #3: It’s to late for me to go home now

Sermon in a Sentence: You are God’s child, and there will always be a place at home for you.

Text(s): Matthew 12:31-32; Luke 15:11-24

Weekend Scale of Difficulty: 6 of 10; Again, about the only difficult thing was producing another episode of our Mythbusters spoof videos.

Message Summary:

This week I decided to offer something even better than a summary.  If you’re interested, I’ve posted the full audio of the sermon in our Senior High Service.

Of course, if you’d rather read a summary, here it is.

We started off telling jokes.  Seriously.  Had three volunteers come up and share the best joke they had ever heard.  Then I pointed out you can only hear a great joke once.  The power of a joke comes from its surprise, and once you’ve heard it, it can’t surprise you any more.

In some ways, parables are like jokes.  The power of a parable comes from the surprise.  The problem is, a lot of times modern readers don’t find them as surprising as the original audience.  Take the parable of the Good Samaritan.  In our day and age, the idiom “Good Samaritan” refers to someone who goes out of their way to help a stranger in need.  So when the good Samaritan stops to help the victim of robbery in the parable, we’re not surprised at all – that’s what good Samaritans do.  Not so with the original audience.

What’s more, the more often we hear parables the less surprising they become.  And if we simply tune out the parable the same way we tune out a joke we’ve heard before (after all we already know the punchline right?) we miss out on the truth Jesus is trying to tell.

With that preparation, we launched into an examination of the parable of the prodigal son – at least the first half of the story.  We noticed the profound insult implied by the son’s request.  (Essentially, he says: Dad, I wish you were dead.)

We also noticed how he keeps trying to find happiness and fails.  He asks for his inheritance, which would have amounted to taking official ownership of his share of his father’s property, while the proceeds from the property itself would continue to accrue to his father until his father’s death.  Getting his inheritance wasn’t the same thing as getting a lot of money.

“Not long after” Jesus says, he converted his capital into cash.  It’s as if he always said “If only I own my own property, I’ll be happy” but when he gets his wish, he realizes he’s not.  So he says “If only I had some cash I’d be happy.”  But he’s not.

“If only I could get away from here and start life on my own, I’ll be happy.”

But he’s not.  He runs through his cash living recklessly.  And then comes the next blow – famine strikes and he discovers he can’t make enough money to survive on his own.

At this point I imagine it at least crossed his mind to go back home.  But he doesn’t.  He seems to assume he doesn’t have a home to go back to.  After all, he burned his bridges pretty thoroughly when he left.  So he falls for Myth #3 It’s too late for me to go back home now.

Instead he takes a job as a day laborer tending pigs.  A life of insecurity (day labor) and humiliation (a Jew tending pigs.)  It doesn’t get much worse than that.

Only it does.

He finds he can’t survive on his day laborer’s wage.  Maybe if it wasn’t for the famine he could.  But as things are, he’s desperate.

Finally he comes to his senses.  Literally, he comes to himself.  In a moment of clarity he sees his situation and decides to do something about it.  He heads back to the land he left.

Only he doesn’t head home.  Yes, he’s headed back to his father.  But he’s not headed home.  He’s not going back as a son.  He’s looking for a new job.  “I’m not worthy to be your son, would you make me one of your hired hands.”

(Ever notice how many people in the church have returned to the land they left, but haven’t come home?  Yes, they’ve come back to the church, but they’re still trying to earn their own way into God’s favor.)

The good news you know – his dad’s watching.  His dad sheds his dignity and runs to embrace his boy.  The son tries to blurt out his confession, but Dad’s to busy giving orders to prepare the celebration for his son’s return.  Because his dad knows the thing the son has forgotten – you’ll always be my son and there will always be a place at home for you.

However, that doesn’t mean that myth #3 is busted.  While it is true that we will always be God’s children, and if we will return to him, there will always be a place at home for us, it does not mean that it can never be too late to go back home.

Here we looked at Matthew 12:31-32.  Jesus’ warning about the unpardonable sin.  We considered what blasphemy is – to speak against, to treat with contempt, to ignore as that one doesn’t exist.   Here it seems to me that Jesus warns it is possible to live so long in a distant land we forget that it isn’t home. I argue that the unpardonable sin is unpardonable, not because it is so awful God won’t forgive it, it’s because we’ve lived in it so long we forget to return.  And when that happens, it can become too late for us to go back home.

So how do we avoid letting it get too late.  My advice:

• Stay close to home. When life is messy it’s easy to run away from the church.  Don’t.
• Keep coming back. It’s easy to assume that we can’t come back until we’ve beaten what we’re struggling with.  Don’t.  Even if it’s possible that we might fail again tomorrow, come back today.
• Don’t delay. It’s easy to assume when we fail, especially repeatedly, that we might as well just give up.  Don’t.  Don’t waste time before returning.
• Don’t assume you won’t be welcome. Again, we’re quick to assume that God gets frustrated with our repeated failure and will eventually tire of us.  Don’t.  Here him say “You will always be my child and there will always be a place for you.”
• Remember it was the return, not the repentance that made restoration possible. In the story, the son didn’t even manage to get his confession out of his mouth before he was embraced by his father.  The turning point in the story wasn’t his confession, it was him coming back down the road one more time.  He did repent.  But it was the return that made the repentance possible.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: Once again we aired an episode of our original video series, Mythbusters: Water’s Edge.  This week we took on Mom’s advice “Wait 30 minutes after eating to swim” and the “myth” that Red Bull gives you wings.

Worship Set: Opener: Father, Spirit, Jesus; After sermon: Untitled Hymn, Hungry, Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone) and The Stand

Favorite Moment: Don’t know if it counts our not, becuase it wasn’t really on Tuesday night, it was getting ready for the service.  But my favorite moment was turning our baptistry into a jacuzzi for the making of the video.  (Our baptistry doesn’t really have jacuzzi jets, in case you were wondering.)

Last week was a crazy week.  Didn’t get much done by the way of blogging unfortunately.  But I didn’t forget you all . . .

Here it is, the Week in Review for our second night in the Mythbuster’s series.

Mythbusters: Water's Edge

Weekend Teaching Series: Mythbusters

Message Title: Myth Two: God Doesn’t Speak to People Any More

Sermon in a Sentence: If we want to hear God’s voice, we need to stop reading the Bible and start eating it.

Text(s): Deuteronomy 11:18; Joshua 1:8;1 Samuel 3; Psalm 1:2; 2 Timothy 2:15; James 1:22; Revelation 10:9

Weekend Scale of Difficulty: 7 of 10, now that our set is set, this service was fairly easy.  The only real challenge was making yet another episode of Mythbusters: Water’s Edge

Message Summary: We started with the story of the calling of Samuel, a young man dedicated to God by his mother Hannah, who grew up in the Tabernacle serving God and the High Priest Eli.  Late one night the Bible tells us that Samuel heard a voice calling his name.  He got up, went to the side of the aging Eli the priest, as he probably did fairly often, and asked “What is it you want?”  Eli tells Samuel that he did not call him, and sends him back to bed.

The Bible tells us this happens three times before the High Priest realizes what’s going on.  Finally it dawns on the old priest that God is calling the boy.

Now we can understand why young Samuel might be confused.  What doesn’t make sense is Eli’s response.  How can the High Priest of Israel fail to recognize the voice of God?

I suspect it’s because Eli fell for our second myth: God doesn’t speak to people any more.

Surely Eli knew all the stories about God talking to people in the past.  People like Adam, Cain, Noah, Terah, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Deborah, and Gideon.  Even in Eli’s day there were many stories of God speaking to people.

The problem was, it hadn’t happened for a long time.  1 Samuel 3:1b tells us “In those days the word of the LORD was rare; there were not many visions.”

It wasn’t that Eli didn’t realize God spoke to people.  It’s that he assumed it didn’t happen any more.

Sound like anyone you know?

We make the same mistake. We read the Bible and hear God speaking to all these people and wonder why it can’t happen for us.  Why doesn’t he speak today like he did back then?  Why doesn’t God speak any more.

Only he does.

Note the advice that Eli gives Samuel when he finally figures out what’s happening.  “Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.’”

If we want to hear God’s voice, we have to learn how to listen.  And we can’t learn to listen to God if we are ignoring His Word.

We don’t live in times like Samuel and Eli.  We don’t have to wait for a prophet to come before we have the opportunity to hear God’s Word.  God has given us His Word.  We call it the Bible.

Unfortunately, We spend too much time reading our Bible.

Now before you start throwing rocks at me, let me explain.

You might not realize this, but at least as far as I can tell the Bible contains no commands that God’s people read God’s Word.

There are a couple of commands that come close.  Deuteronomy 17:19 comes close. But it’s not directed at just anyone.  It specifically applies to the King of Israel.  And to my knowledge, none of my teens nor any of my blog’s subscribers are the King of Israel.  And 1 Timothy 4:13 comes close.  But it’s not a command to Timothy to engage in devotional reading.  It’s a command that the pastor Timothy devote himself to reading scripture publicly in corporate worship.

Beyond those two, the Bible never commands us to read it.  Possibly that’s because few people in Bible times enjoyed the privileges we do today.  Few owned written copies of the Scriptures (and the copies that did exist were to valuable to make accessible to the general public.)  And very few would have been able to read them if they could get their hands on a copy.  The Word was heard, not read by the common man and woman.

But that doesn’t mean that the Bible commands us to ignore Scripture.  Just the opposite.  The Bible commands that we:

• Study God’s Word
• Memorize God’s Word
• Meditate on God’s Word
• Obey God’s Word
• Delight in God’s Word

But perhaps most interesting of all to me, God commands us to eat his Word.

Take for example the story of John on the Island of Patmos.  He sees a vision of a mighty angel, straddling land and see, holding a scroll which contains God’s Word to God’s people.  The angel is speaking from the open scroll, and John wants to record what he says, but a voice from heaven (wonder who that could be?) commands him to stop writing.  Instead, says the Voice, “Go, take the scroll that lies open in the hand of the angel.”

When John obeys, the angel commands him “Take it and eat it. It will turn your stomach sour, but in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey.”

And when you stop and look into it, John’s not the only one to eat God’s Word.  Ezekiel and Jeremiah both found themselves dining on the Word.

Eat this Book by Eugene Peterson

But what could this mean for us? How are we supposed to eat the Word?

• You chew on your food. At least hopefully you do.  It’s less than healthy to wolf down your food without taking the time to chew on it for a while.  Besides, you miss out on the best parts if you rush through your meal like that.  In the same way, God calls us not just to rush through reading our Bible in order to get on to what comes next.  He wants us to take time to chew on it.  For more on this idea, take a look at Eugene Petersen’s book Eat this Book.  In it he notes that the Hebrew word for “meditate” is actually a word picture depicting a dog, “worrying a bone,” chewing at it to get out every morsel of goodness.  A powerful image that shows how much more God expects from us than just reading the Bible.
• You allow it to become a part of you. Our bodies take nutrients from the food we eat and use it to fuel the process of growth, until, quite literally, what we digest becomes a part of who we are.  In the same way, God calls us to digest his Word, integrating it into our lives until it becomes a part of who we are.
• You live and move with the energy it gives. It is our food that drives our physical activity.  In the same way God calls us to digest his Word until we are driven by it’s energy and movement, until we move with it’s rhythm and flow.
• Sometimes it upsets your stomach. Kinda like eating too much Pop Rocks and Coca Cola, sometimes what you eat doesn’t settle so well.  John found out God’s word is like this too.  John obeys the angel and then reports “It tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour. (Rev. 10:10)  Truth be told, God’s Word shouldn’t sit well with us.  It should be troubling, and it should stir within our bellies a holy discontent until we are moved to change.  When God’s Word is troubling, don’t worry.  Like Denorex, the tingle tells you it’s working.

So, don’t fall for the myth that God doesn’t speak to people any more.  He’s given you His Word, start eating?

Volunteer/Student Involvement: Students continue to be involved in every level of our programming.  What is more, the number of cast and crew in our videos is growing.  On the adult side, we had a few extra adults helping fill in tonight too, so things are looking up.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: We started playing a “mythbuster” game.  Students were called up front, read three statements (two true, one false) and were asked to identify the myth.  Player who correctly identified the most myths won.  We also gave everyone a package of Pop Rocks and a can of Coca Cola to enjoy during the game.  Finally, we showed the second episode of Mythbuster’s: Water’s Edge.

Worship Set: Hungry;   Father, Spirit, Jesus;   Jesus Messiah; And one other I can’t remember just now.

Favorite Moment: Seeing Sierra bring a couple of friends.  It’s always awesome to see teens bringing their friends with them.  After all, that’s why we do what we do!  (And she wasn’t the only one.)

The coming of Epiphany also marks the beginning of second semester for our school students.  And it marks the end of Christmas break and the return of our weekly youth services.  So, here it is, our first Week in Review of 2009.

Mythbusters: Water's Edge

Weekly Teaching Series: Mythbusters: Water’s Edge

Message Title: Myth #1: It’s the motions that matter

Sermon in a Sentence: It’s time to stop going through the motions of Christianity and begin seeking God as our first priority and greatest desire.

Text(s): Deuteronomy 4:29, 1 Samuel 13, 2 Chronicles 15, Matthew 5:6, 7:7-8

Weekend Scale of Difficulty: 10 of 10; This was a lot of fun, but a lot of work.  Christmas Break was blessing and curse.  Gave us some extra time to get our Christmas set down and the Mythbusters set up, but vacation also ate up some of that extra time.  Also, a we launched a series of in-house Mythbusters episodes which added a lot to the complexity.

Mythbusters Set, for more info and higher res, click on picture.

Message Summary: This message in a nutshell was the tale of two kings, Saul (of Israel) and Asa (of Judah).  Saul became king of Israel during a time of war and unrest.  He was anointed by the prophet Samuel who gave him some pretty clear instructions: “Go to Gilgal and wait.  In seven days I will come and we will offer sacrifices.  But don’t do anything until I come and tell you what to do.”  Saul obeyed – gathering the armies of Israel to do battle with the Philistines.

When they arrived they were shocked and awed by the enemy facing them – 3,000 chariots, 6,000 charioteers and more soldiers than they could count.  The soldiers of Israel are scared, but Saul tells them “Just wait, Samuel’s coming.”

The only problem was Samuel never came.  Seven days pass and still no Samuel.  Saul’s desperate.  All the soldiers Saul convinced to “just wait seven days” are now beginning to desert.  Soon he won’t have any army left.

So a desperate Saul takes action.  He takes it upon himself to offer the sacrifices – a major no-no because he is not a priest and he is disobeying Samuel’s instructions.  And just as he is finishing up, Samuel arrives.  (If only he’d waited just a little longer . . .)

Samuel wants to know what’s happening and Saul makes some pretty good excuses.   “I knew I couldn’t do this on my own.  I knew I needed to seek God’s help and direction.  I couldn’t afford to go into battle without God’s help . . .”

But Samuel doesn’t buy it.  And he calls Saul on it.  “If only you’d waited, God would have established your kingdom forever.  But because you sinned, God has already chosen your replacement.”

Saul fell for our first myth – it’s the motions that matter.

He had the motions down.  The problem wasn’t with the sacrifices themselves.  It was the same thing Samuel would have done if he had been there.  The problem was with the disobedience in which he went through the motions.  He apparently believe that it was going through the motions that mattered in God’s eyes.

Of course we’d never make that mistake.  In fact, we have the phrase “going through the motions” because we understand how inadequate and unacceptable such behavior is.

Except we do fall for that myth.

• We sing songs without ever considering the words.
• We’re quick to defend the Bible, but slow to read it.
• We claim concern but we never act.
• We dress in our Sunday best, and then live our weekday worst.

And worst of all, we seem to thing that God is happy with our hypocrisy.

We might claim that we know going through the motions isn’t enough, but our actions betray a different truth.

We fall for the same myth that Saul saw busted in a big way.

Which brings us to our second king, who really was the third King of the Southern Kingdom.  Asa.

In many ways, Asa was much like Saul.

• He became king in a time of military conflict.
• He knew he couldn’t do it on his own.
• He got instructions from a prophet
• He sought God, banishing idols, rebuilding the altar, offering sacrifices.

But despite the fact that like Saul he sought God by offering sacrifices, unlike with Saul, God responded by giving him peace and stability throughout his reign.  God told Saul, “You will never know peace.”  God tells Asa “There will be no more war.”

What’s the difference.  It’s found in 2 Chronicles 15:15.  “All Judah rejoiced about the oath because they had sworn it wholeheartedly. They sought God eagerly, and he was found by them.”  Note the two key words there.  Wholeheartedly.  Eagerly.  Literally “with all their heart and with all their desire.”

Unlike Saul, who just went through the motions, Asa and the people of Judah made seeking God their first priority and their greatest desire.

And God honors that kind of pursuit.  See what God promises in Deuteronomy 4:29.  Read what Jesus says about hungering and thirsting, about seeking and finding in the Sermon on the Mount.  God promises that he will honor those who seek him with all their heart and all their desire.

We ended with a challenge to stop going through the motions and make seeking for God our first priority and greatest desire.

Volunteer/Student Involvement: Had students involved heavily this week, and we’re beginning to see some added adult help as well.  Though we really need to build on this beginning.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: We decided for the Mythbusters series we’d make our own series of Mythbusters episodes, of course with a tongue and cheek twist.  They don’t necessarily have anything to do with the messages – although next weeks might get worked in – they’re just there to set the scene and have some laughs.  Here’s this week’s episode.

Worship Set: Son of God, Holy is the Lord, Famous One, You Never Let Go

Favorite Moment: I had a blast this week before services.  I did manage to keep my resolution (#7 in particular) though with all the start up work associate with our first service in this series, I wasn’t as free before services as I want to be.  However, I did have time to hang out with teens before both services and really enjoyed the interaction.

This last Sunday our youth choir, under the excellent direction of our Children’s Minister Pastor Jill presented Geron Davis’ Christmas musical The Cradle that Rocked the World (from Brentwood Benson publishers).  It was an incredible service and I had the privilege of  preaching the message as part of the presentation.  (That’s why it’s so short — I hardly ever am this timely.)

In keeping with the musical, the theme was “This baby changes everything.”   And it is basically a retelling of the story of Simeon in Luke 2 .  (I had originally hoped to include the story of Anna, but time did not permit.)

Below’s my first attempt with Vimeo video.  Obviously I did not have the right deinterlace setting on in Handbrake when I converted it from our service DVD.  Oh well, live and learn, right?

The Story of Simeon from Bradley Buhro on Vimeo.