The Crowd Response

Reading through the Gospels is always an inspiring experience for me. I gain great strength from the disciples and their tendency to miss the point of what Jesus was teaching them. It gives me hope for my journey. I am also inspired by the response to Jesus when he enters a new area. As soon as Jesus is recognized people run throughout the streets bringing all the sick, demon possessed and in need. The flocked Jesus knowing he was the source which could help.

Now most of the time today the church enters the town and people are suspicious. They do not go running through the streets gathering people. It seems the church of today has the exact opposite response as Jesus on a community. I wonder what it would be like of the church began to function in a way that the community responded as they originally did to Jesus?

Greater Things

I was introduced to this song while in Ohio this last weekend. The words haunt me and give me some great direction. God longs to do more right in our midst. Even if God has been doing great things, greater things are yet to come. I cannot wait to see what God wants to do.

Disconnected Reality

At the conference I was at last weekend, a long held truth was greatly reinforced, the life, death and resurrection of Jesus was not primarily about salvation. Before you brand me as a heretic, let me say the work of Jesus on the cross is crucial, and without it our faith is empty and pointless. Having said that, if the importance of Jesus ends with the cross we are missing the point.

The power of Jesus is the transformation initiated in our lives. Once we respond to the radical call of Christ, our lives should begin to be lived differently. We should have a heightened care for the poor and those who are going without the basics of life. Our lives should take on the trajectory pointing us to increasingly be living the way Christ showed us.

One of the many labels around this is missional. How tragic is it that we must use a word like missional to designate the church, as that has always been the point of the church. We are designed and created as people and as the community of Christ to be people of mission. Somewhere there was a disconnect with this. The people of God lost site of what really matters. The thought was it was about church gatherings, buildings and meeting the needs of the congregations. In reality it is about being on the mission of God, and all the other stuff should feed that mission.

Standing on The Edge of Possibility

I am off at a conference in Ohio this weekend hosted by Ginghamsburg Church. It is great to be in a place where my mind and soul are nourished and refreshed. While this is good, this is a dangerous place as well. I look at the landscape of the church, and in particular the church I serve in Cortland and know that something must be done differently. The options are great, the choices are plenty, but remaining the same is not an option.

So what is it that is next in my life as a pastor and therefore, for the church in Cortland? It is time to move in to the reality which has been being painted. The time has come for me and us to make living outside of the church, simply what we do.

This will involve a radical shift in how I as a pastor spend my time. I am not sure what the shifts will be at this time, but change is in the winds. It could be easy to see the days ahead with great apprehension, and anxiety. It is just as easy to see it as a time of great opportunity. To say it another way I feel as though I am standing on the edge of possibility.

Citizenship Matters

I am continuing to read through the book of Acts and rediscovering passages which send me thinking for a while. Today was the passage where Paul and Silas are in the inner dungeon, in chains, praying and singing songs to God. For some reason that is not what sent me thinking. What got me going was later in the story when Paul and Silas are told by the guards they are free to go, and Paul replies I think not. The reason for Paul's objection to being let go quietly, his citizenship. Paul and Silas are Roman citizens. They were beaten and imprisoned without a trial, well outside of the rights of a Roman citizen.

Paul could have gone off about the work ahead of him with out further incident, but he couldn't there was a justice issue to be addressed. Paul's citizenship gave him the unique responsibility to address what was happening to many others. I wonder how often we disregard the responsibilities which come with being an earthly citizen of the United States, and eternal citizens of the Kingdom of God? Our citizenship in the USA, affords us the opportunity to speak out against injustice, oppression and any other form of devaluing a human being. Our citizenship as children of God gives us the responsibility to do so.

Our heavenly citizenship is not so we can merely celebrate being 'saved'. Rather it allows us to be connected with God to continue the work of God since creation. What is that work? To draw all men and women into close relationship with Him. To help all people know their true and deep value to God in more than words, but with actions consistent with the call of God.

Are we using our citizenship to the fullest?

Venting on Issues

This fall seems to be full of really challenging and interesting happenings. There is the presidential race. How anyone could think that one individual has the capacity to "fix" what is broken in our country is beyond me. If we are going to talk about the failings of a president we have to talk about the work of the congress. Not many are reporting that the approval rating for congress has been below 15% from Jan 1 to the end of August according to a Rasmussen Report. But we thing that a new president, whoever that would be will fix the problem.

The economy is on the minds of most. Again we expect a government to fix the problem. I might add a government which operates at a nearly trillion dollar debt annually. Once again a deeply consumerist solution is being waged, throw money at it, even if it is money we don't have. Isn't that how we got to this place. Many do not want to look at some real solutions, like changing their lifestyles, or living with in our means.

It seems that those are the two issues which dominate our airwaves. There are always things like, Iraq, Afghanistan, Russia, and other hot spots in our world. There are the issues on energy consumption and our treatment of the environment. In the midst of all these challenges there are many voices crying out with answers, who do we listen to?

Some have offered religious answers, most of those sound nice but are empty. In fact even the religious answers leave God out of the equation. Sure prayer is important and we should all be praying more than we do. Reading our Bibles is important. However, the importance of prayer and scripture reading is lost if we fail to implement the results of our time spent in our daily life. Whether it is the government, or the church, right down to each individual the answer to many of the issues we face is not the president, not the right pastor, it is not the right God. It is the willingness of humanity to look at their lives and make the changes necessary for the health and well-being of all earth's citizens not just ourselves.

Simply Follow

Reading the book of Acts always get me going and encourages me to walk more closely with God. It is important not to romanticize the happening in the book of Acts, yet it is important to notice the ways in which the early believers followed God and stayed connected. There is swift action when God speaks, and it seems there was a constant conversation between God and the followers.

The easiest explanation is to point out that our world is very different. In some ways yes, but in many ways there is a strange similarity. As the book of Acts unfolds the number of believers is a relatively small, possibly insignificant percentage of people in the world. Wherever they live, they are in the minority and the majority is trying to keep them quite at best and silence in the goal. There are world superpowers who run the world, and the average person works hard just to get by. Not as different as we would think.

Somewhere along the line, a cumulative effect possible, the followers of Christ began to let the dominant culture push them around. Keeping quite and silencing seemed to be working. There were some who spoke up along the way, still many returned to a life on the sidelines. As I look at the followers in Acts, not once do they consider the ramifications of society, they follow God. Not once do they worry about what the religious leaders say, they follow God. They do not get caught up in the rhetoric of the day, or get side tracked by personal agendas, theirs or others. they simply connect with God, and do what God instructs them to do.

I wonder. What would it be like if we stopped spending all our time try to put our agenda in God's mouth, and put God's agenda in our actions? We must understand and interpret our culture. Yet, we do not need to wonder what is it God is calling us to do, what people group does God show preference to. God prefers people, and wants us to be obedient, moment to moment. Let God figure out all the details, we must simply follow where God leads.