Gah

Too much too soon...

My sermon this morning.

It is true that every story has a theme. It has too, or else it wouldn't be a story. You can find themes in history if you look for them, in fiction, in fairy tales and exaggerated memories.

Often times themes are debated. Even who gets to determine the theme of a story is often debated. Some people think that a reader gets to decide the theme of a story. Other people think that the author decides. This might seem like an insignificant point at first but it becomes incredibly important when we take the issue to heart.

Christians believe that we have a direct communication from God in the Bible. We believe that He spoke, through the Holy Spirit and inspired men throughout history to write down a story; this story. His story.

The Bible. There are so many pieces of it; 66 in all. Each book tells its own story, has its own part to play in the overriding meta-story of the entire book. But if all of the direct and specific communication from God to people is written down in a book, a story, spanning thousands of years of history and untold lifetimes, what is this stories theme? Can there be one?

At school I heard it said that the Bible is the story of how God has acted through history to reconcile sinful man to Himself for His glory. And I think that this is a good summary. But what is the theme? What is the message?

Love. It's that simple and that complex. That small and yet that powerful; love. Let me explain. Actually, better yet, let Jesus explain.

Luke Chapter 10:25-28.

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

"What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?"

He answered: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"

"You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live." …

You see the love that is the theme of the Bible is two ways. It is a love relationship between an all powerful and all loving God and His people. To really get a grasp on this idea though, to fully grasp the idea, we have to look at them separately. First; God's people loving Him and each other, and then God loving His people.

First, let's ask this question. How can we love our neighbor like ourselves? Fortunately, Jesus answers this question for us.

Luke 10:29-37

…But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"

In reply Jesus said: "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.'

"Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?"

The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him."
      Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."

Loving our neighbors isn't a glamorous thing. A Jewish priest and a temple assistant misunderstood love. They thought that it was glamorous and clean. They wouldn't cross the street to help a man who is a bloodied mess; they wanted to stand in an immaculate temple and show love to paying customers. I'm sorry, but that isn't love.

I once heard it said that loving others is like parenting. Sometimes it means discipline. Like when a child breaks a rule that is for their own good. Sometimes it can break our hearts to give them consequences, or to let consequences happen, but we do it anyway when it is for their own good. Sometimes love is a wonderful and enjoyable feeling, because it is reciprocated on an even level between a group of people. And it is easy to love because you reap rewards for it. But sometimes love is changing the dirty diapers. There is nothing glamorous or wonderful about changing a diaper or caring for a child when they're sick. But that's what being a parent is about. And the same is true for love.

Love is inconvenient. Opportunities to help hit us at times when we have other things we would rather be doing. When we're tired, or looking forward to something, a person needs help or needs time and attention. And if we are going to claim to love our neighbors, as Jesus clearly commands us to do, we stop and we love.

Because when you love someone, your life, in a very real way, belongs to them.

While I was at school, I met a missionary who was visiting for a year to raise funds before he returned to his mission field. He was living in a very impoverished area, and it was difficult on his family to go form living in the world of cable television and McDonalds to living in a place where the nearest clean water was miles away and there weren't even roads for cars.

After one year, the family decided that it was just too hard. They wanted to come home. They made all the arrangements to return home and when the plane landed at the airport, the husband and wife looked at each other and agreed without having to speak. They decided to stay. This was ten years ago.

When we asked him what changed his mind, he said that his only wish was to live inside of the will of God for five more minutes.

He knew that his life belonged to God, and he found happiness in being where God wanted him.

This is a beautiful example of how loving means giving our lives over to someone else; both to other people (the people in Mozambique) and to God.

So how does a person love God? We're commanded to love him in four ways; with our heart, with our soul, our strength and our mind.

Loving God with your heart. The idea here is loving Him with your inner life. There was a book written that I've never read but the title has always intrigued me. Are you a Christian when nobody is looking? In other words, it is easy to smile at Church and tell other people in our community that we are Christians, but is it true? Do we mean it? Do we love God with our hearts? Our inner lives?

Loving God with our soul. Where do we put our allegiance? At the end of the day, to whom have we entrusted ourselves? Our spirit? We speak often of idol worship as if it were a thing of the past. As if in order to worship idols we have to have a miniature picture of a god that we bow in front of and pray to. But this idea of idolatry, it's a question of priority. To whom do our lives belong? Do they belong to us? Doing what we think is best to accomplish the ends that we desire? Do they belong to our family? Or do they belong to God? Trusting them to God, making him our priority can be such a difficult thing but those around us always benefit. If we truly want to improve ourselves, that comes best with trusting God first. If we truly want to care for our families, that comes best with trusting God first. Loving God with all our souls is difficult, but that's what love is.

Loving God with our Strength. In other words, with our actions.

I've been told, though I've never read or seen the occasion, that Mother Theresa was invited once to speak in an abortion debate by President Bill Clinton. She came and spoke just before Bill Clinton himself went to he stage, whether to offer his own opinions or to wrap up I don't know. Mother Theresa gave her arguments, spoke about why she was pro-life and apparently did a fine job. She wasn't an incredibly charismatic speaker, but I'm told that everyone was absolutely silent while she spoke. When she sat down Bill Clinton stepped onto the stage and said; 'It's hard to argue with a life so well lived'.

Living well is loving God with our strength. They say that actions speak louder than words and that faith without deeds is dead. It is our actions, what we do with our lives and with our love for God that determines whether we are loving Him with all our strength. Day to day, week to week, month to month, what are we doing with our love?

And loving God with all our mind. You cannot love someone that you know nothing about. Not in the way that we are commanded to love God. In order to have a relationship with Him we must spend time to get to know Him, and spend time with Him on a regular basis. How? How can we get to know Him? Or spend time with Him? By spending time in His story. In the Bible. And by learning from those who also are in relationship to Him. Are there things about God you don't understand? Ask! Read! Learn! If you can't think of anything that you don't understand, then you aren't thinking hard enough.

For our part of this relationship; we must love God and love others. Love God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind. And love our neighbors as ourselves.

But that is only one side of the story. How does God love us? The answer is also in this same story of the good Samaritan.

Who is telling the story?

You see, from the very beginning God has been showing His love for us. He created us because He desired a relationship with us. He wasn't lonely, God is three in one; already a community but He wanted us. He gave us a perfect place to live, the garden of eden, because a father wants the best for his children.

And when we sinned He cast us out of the garden so that we wouldn't live forever in our sin. If we had to die a physical death this left room for a spiritual redemption. Even being cast out was an example of how He loved us.

God rescued His people from slavery when they cried out to Him. We lose a bit of the significance of this so far removed, but imagine! God came in power to bring His people from the clutches of Egypt, the most powerful nation in the world.

He dwelt among them as they moved in the Tabernacle; A tent that went with His people wherever they were. His presence would float above the tent like a cloud, a sign to them and to others that He was with them, always with them.

Then, after being silent for a while, He came down in a living version of the Tabernacle. He came down as a man to live and dwell with us. To befriend us in a way that had never been possible before, to show us the best way to live. To give us stories and teachings like this one, the story of the good Samaritan. And he died to pay our debt, so that He could have us forever.

Every step of the way, God has shown his love for us. James 1 says that every good and perfect gift is from above. Still, in our lives, He blesses us and walks with us, and teaches us. This is love.

What is the theme of the Bible? Love. Two ways. From top to bottom and from bottom to top. Love.

It hurts me any time I hear someone giving an opinion about my religion, or the Bible that talks about oppression or mindlessness. What is oppressive or mindless about love? (I think that sometimes people blame the fault of individuals on an entire philosophy to avoid having to think about it too hard. People call Christians judgmental, but I think we are among the most judged in the world.)

This is my reminder to you during this holiday season. Love. Love your neighbor as yourself. Love God, with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind. Love.

Good friends

I absolutely love my friend Tracy to death.

I met Tracy in 7th grade at Glenwood Jr. High. We were good friends through high school, dated for a while in college, and remain very close friends to this day. Tracy is your stereotypical red-head in a lot of ways. She's perpetually thin because of her increidbly fast metabolism, and has the energy level appropriate to that kind of metabolism. She gets mad easy, she gets animated when shes excited, and she is very very stubborn.

The other little quirk that makes Tracy so wonderful is that she has two traits that many people have but most of the time not together. She is brutally honest; and she always says what she thinks. You can bet that if she thinks you look like you've gained weight, she'll tell you. If she thinks you're being an idiot, she'll tell you.

More than once I have called Tracy looking for friends advice and support and gotten an honest opinion instead. This is very very annoying. Those calls go like this;

'Can you believe that? I'm so angry that such and such would do such and such to such and such. I feel like that was a personal attack on me!' ~Me

'You're an idiot and a drama queen' ~Tracy

Yeah, that hurts.

She also drops in casual conversation, 'All the guys I've dated spent a lot of time trying to make me feel stupid'.

'What about me?'

'Oh, I forgot I dated you. Yeah, you too.'

But those conversations mean that it is so much more valuable when Tracy pays you a compliment. I got together with her on Thanksgiving night to sort of catch up and whatnot and told her about my future plans. She beamed at me and told me that she thought I was doing the right thing for me. That felt good.

I think Tracy could sense that I've been down lately, so she has taken the time on the phone and in person to be very encouraging. I can't really go into detail on what kinds of things she's encouraged me about until some changes are made and some transitions come to pass. But I thank my God for good friends. There are times that there is no greater blessing. Thanks Tracy =)

Addendum; Tracy encouraged me to quit my job, go back to school, and assured me I had a chance with the girl I was interested in. She also assured me that I am not a bad person, that I am lovable, and that she thinks I'm amazing. Tracy made my day, month, and probably year that night.

I love to preach. I really really do.

Here is what preaching is like for me.

I sit down at the computer 2 hours before I have to preach. I haven't written anything down yet; my sermon is nothing but a jumble of ideas in my head that I've been turning over for most of the week. I think to myself how absolutely ridiculous it is that I have waited, yet again, until two hours before I have to preach to start writing down my sermon. And then I pray.

I prefer to be by myself before (and after) I preach. I feel like it helps me to be open. And I pray the same prayer every week; I tell God that I know I'm not worthy to be used by Him. I beg Him to use me anyway, and that His word would be spoken through or in spite of me. And then I start writing.

I usually write between 4 to 5 pages. I look over the paper when I realize I'm done and I'm astonished at what I've written in 15-20 minutes. Pastor Dave calls this an altered state, like hypnosis, where your brain acts of its own accord. I call this a merciful blessing from God. There is no nervousness for me; I know that God will work whether I bomb or not. But I anticipate.

During worship songs I always struggle with being distracted. Part of me can't wait to get on stage, part of me dreads getting on stage, and part of me wonders who I think I am to even consider preaching the word of God to other people. And then I go up front.

I have a hard time believing it when I hear a recording of myself preaching. I'm told that I rarely look at my notes, and when I hear myself I say a good deal that I don't remember saying. An altered state. All I know is that when I'm done I am always wound up, but always in need of being alone. It hurts to be open, to be transparent. If I must be around people then I prefer children, who are the most talented healers and consolers to ever live. They help me get through feeling open and vulnerable. And then I'm able to appreciate how God has used me.

And I can't wait for next week. Thats preaching for me. I never feel closer to God than when I am anticipating being used by Him.