...Like Kids Playing Basketball Badly

Over the course of the next several months we will be discussing the Parables of Jesus. Parables are those real life occasions in which we can "discover" the reality of the Kingdom of God in our every day experience.

Let me explain. Just a few months ago, I remember standing court side at a basketball game for 5 and 6 year olds. They were adorable...but terrible at basketball. They would pick up the ball and run with it...(there was no point at even calling a traveling penalty). They would all smother the person with the ball...(position? What position?). The more aggressive children would grab hold of the ball and rip it out of the other children's arms and run down the court to throw up a prayer shot...(at that age every shot is a prayer shot).

But that wasn't what caught my attention. There on the court were several kids from all different backgrounds. Here is how I explained it in a sermon I preached shortly after that, "Some were black, some white, some Latino, some rich, some poor, some in traditional families, some with single parents, some on food stamps, some with silver spoons, some from here, some from other places, some whose parents went to church, some whose parents went to the bar, some really good athletes, some not so much..." All that diversity gathered on one court on a Saturday afternoon. And yet they played; they laughed, they tossed the ball back and forth, and they all slapped hands at the end of the game. None of those distinctions seemed to matter. They couldn't care less about skin color or socio-economic class. On the court they were all the same, just kids playing ball.

There standing on the side of the court that day I remember thinking, "Maybe the Kingdom of God is like a bunch of 5 and 6 year old kids playing basketball badly."

This is Who YOU Are...

As we move toward our new series on the parables of Jesus, I want you to take a look at this video about the power of God's Word in our lives.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zokdG4TtYwU&feature=related

You may have to cut and paste it to your web bar.

Rock Stacking

I keep a journal. I never did growing up. I always thought that journaling and diaries was something girls did, well...and Doogie Howser (those old enough will remember that show). But when I became a Christian, I found myself constantly writing stuff down. I would write down how I felt about a particular passage in the bible, my prayer concerns, my struggles, and the ways that I felt God has used me that particular day. When I get overwhelmed, I often find myself flipping through the pages of my journals, reading over passages, drawing encouragement from the past faithfulness of God. Inside of me something says, "Hey look what God did back then...Remember, God will do it again."

There is no novelty in this of course. In fact I was inspired to really be serious about journal keeping by reading through the journal entries of others like John Wesley and Mother Theresa. I heard of a Pastor's wife that had an entire closet full of journals that she has used to trace her journey with God.

But even beyond these inspiring folks...it goes back even further, back to the people of Ancient Israel. See, they had a different way of journaling. When God would breathe forth the power of His Spirit into their lives and bring deliverance, liberation, victory, or provision, the people in the camp would stack up some rocks and build an altar to the Lord. Often it will say in the Scriptures, "And those rocks still stand there today." Granted it is a bit more industrious way of keeping a journal than the 8 1/2 x 11 sheets of paper I use, but what a testimony of the need to remember the works God has accomplished in their lives. When they would pass by those places, the elders could point to the rocks and say to the youth of the camp, "Those rocks stand there as a witness to the way God breathed into our lives and showed his faithfulness." In fact the story of the Hebrew Bible is filled with stories of rock stacking.

Rock stacking is a necessary practice in the life of a Christian. It is nothing less than the consistent practice of reflecting on the goodness of God and God's faithfulness in the stories of our lives. It is the encouragement of knowing that the God at work back then is the same God that is at work now. It is the memory that proclaims, "I know things seem big and out of control now...but remember God has always been involved in those overwhelming situations." Whether you keep a journal or not, the question is the same...

What do the pages of your story declare about the faithfulness of God's breath in your life?

We are nearing the end of our Sermon Series "God Still Breathes." As we prepare for our summer at the Well, I thought I would give you a little preview to where we are headed. Starting on the 6th of June, we are going to begin a 10-week series through the Parables of Jesus. The series is called "Tossed Aside." The word parable literally means, thrown alongside. For the sake of this sermon, our title has two meanings. Parables are stories tossed aside life to provoke a challenge, to get a person thinking, to teach and evoke an imaginative response. However, I also think that for the most part the church tosses the parables aside like yesterday's newspaper. They have lost their disturbing effect in our lives. During this series we are going to work to recover the power of parable.
June 6: Not So Fast
June 13: Into the Wrong Hands
June 20: Unlikely Guests
June 27: God of the Grass Roots
July 4: Do As I Do
July 11: Where is Jesus When We Are At Church?
July 18: Justice Retold
July 25: Just Say No
August 1: Not in these Market Conditions
August 8: With Gas Prices Like These?

Others Minded

I have a good friend that took a church in Nashville a little over a year ago. When he took the church it was running 30 on an average (a little better than average) Sunday. Today, he runs about 150 on a Sunday, in just over a year!

How did he do it? Well it wasn't expertise. This is the first church he's pastored. It wasn't by education. He has just started the process of learning theology. It wasn't through numerous programs he grabbed from all the mega-churches. I'm not sure he could name 10 mega-churches. How did he do it?

2 Things...and these are revolutionary!
1.) The Holy Spirit
2.) Loving Others...

I know profound isn't it. When we went to that church, he went committed to the message of Jesus' redeeming, heart-transforming love. Consequently, he was committed to letting the Holy Spirit have the Spirit's way with his life and church. And what he found was that the Holy Spirit was pushing he and his church outward toward others. The Spirit gave him the vision of being a missional "others minded" community. They just committed to love on people, to be there for them, and to meet them in their needs. They go out! That's how their whole church thinks. They have two Sunday School Classes that don't meet in the church but instead go out into the community and do service, clean up trash and cigarrette butts and they don't even advertise by wearing T-shirts...saying "Hey look at us!" They just trust God that the love they show through the Spirit will bear fruit.

Who would have thought that by letting the Spirit loose and loving on people like Jesus would, by making others first, that such fruit could grow. When the Spirit moves...the church becomes "others minded." I am thankful for Hendersonville Church of the Nazarene for that reminder.

God still breathes...

Everyone Needs a George Whitfield

Recently I have been reading a Biography of John Wesley. His story is pretty amazing (though like us, he definitely had his issues). It was in 1738 that John Wesley had a pretty powerful "God moment." Something happened in him that set him free to experience a transformative faith, a faith that in Jesus Christ we are justified before the Father as an act of God's grace, through faith. That moment has come to be called the "Aldersgate Experience." Throughout his journals, he would refer back to that moment often.

But like all of us, once a "God moment" is had, the question is then asked, "What do I do with this?" Couple that with his general unpopularity with the established Church of England, and Wesley really didn't know how he was going to get the "good news" of justification by grace through faith out to the public. He was banned from preaching in many Church of England pulpits. Well, what do you do? Throw up your hands and say..."Well God, it would have been a good thing." Or...do you get "carried away?"

Enter stage right...George Whitfield. Ten years Wesley's junior, Whitfield had already established a reputation for being a fiery preacher whose methods were a bit non-traditional. In fact, Whitfield told Wesley that if they won't let you preach in the church, then preach in the fields. "Field Preaching?" At first Wesley thought that this might be a bit out-of-bounds, even a bit "carried away." But through Whitfield's tenacity and the Spirit's movement in Wesley's life, Wesley decided that he needed to let go and be carried away by God's Spirit. So he did! He began to preach! In fact, Wesley preached an amazingly powerful sermon standing on top of his father's tombstone because the church wouldn't let him inside.

All of us need a George Whitfield in our lives. We need the kind of person to remind us that the "Good News" of the gospel is too good to just bury in the ground. We need someone to remind us that sometimes the "organized church" isn't willing to get carried away. Sometimes we need to be moved by God's Spirit in non-traditional manners to be effective in reaching those that God cares about.

By the way...if you don't know the rest of the story, John Wesley, his brother Charles, and George Whitfield sparked a revival in England that changed the fabric of the English culture during their time. Thousands were saved, the poor were looked after, prisons and schools were reformed. Praise be to God for getting "carried away."

This Time its OK...

Did you ever hear the words from your parents, "Now don't get carried away..." What that meant for most of us was, "Go ahead and have your fun, but be sure you know when enough is enough." There were always consequences for getting "carried away," right? As we grow up, that little bit of wisdom sticks with us.

"Have your fun, but don't get carried away."
"Spend some money, but don't get carried away."
"Get religion, but don't get carried away."

Moderation, reserve, holding back...that's what adults do, right? From leisure, to finances...even our faith. "Don't get carried away." But I'm not so sure that works with the last of these. I kinda think that maybe Jesus would have us go ahead and get "carried away." In fact, I think that our Christian journeys are strengthened and we make a difference the more carried away we get. As God breathes the Spirit into our lives, we are to fully and completely submit to the Spirit's movement. We aren't to hold back and only go so far. We are to let go and get swept up in the redemptive movement of God. We are to allow God to carry us into the places wrecked with suffering, brokenness, darkness, and hopelessness. We are to get carried away into situations that desperately need the healing grace of Jesus Christ. For the faithful Christian...there is no holding back, no reserve. Getting carried away is what we do best. The Disciples of Jesus got carried away after Pentecost and lives were changed, the broken were healed, and the good news was proclaimed. If that's getting carried away...I'm in. How bout you?

This weekend we are going to discuss where God leads us when we are "carried away" by God's Spirit.