Prayer Is Powerful

I am always interested in what my devotional reading brings to my attention. The past few days I have struggled with some internal issues and I have needed to pray but haven’t found the right words. Today, I read about Job.

Then Job answered: “I have heard many such things; miserable comforters are you all. Have windy words no limit? Or what provokes you that you keep on talking? I also could talk as you do, if you were in my place; I could join words together against you, and shake my head at you. I could encourage you with my mouth, and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain.“If I speak, my pain is not assuaged, and if I forbear, how much of it leaves me? Surely now God has worn me out; he has made desolate all my company. And he has shriveled me up, which is a witness against me; my leanness has risen up against me, and it testifies to my face. He has torn me in his wrath, and hated me; he has gnashed his teeth at me; my adversary sharpens his eyes against me. They have gaped at me with their mouths; they have struck me insolently on the cheek; they mass themselves together against me. God gives me up to the ungodly, and casts me into the hands of the wicked. I was at ease, and he broke me in two; he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces; he set me up as his target; his archers surround me. He slashes open my kidneys, and shows no mercy; he pours out my gall on the ground. He bursts upon me again and again; he rushes at me like a warrior. I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and have laid my strength in the dust. My face is red with weeping, and deep darkness is on my eyelids, though there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure. “O earth, do not cover my blood; let my outcry find no resting place. Even now, in fact, my witness is in heaven, and he that vouches for me is on high. My friends scorn me; my eye pours out tears to God, that he would maintain the right of a mortal with God, as one does for a neighbor. -Job 16:1-21 (NRSV)

Here we have Job suffering and feeling low. He has just been the object of another vicious attack from Eliphaz. How much more can he take?

Sometimes we feel like that and we tend to switch off from spiritual things. Eliphaz accused Job of having no devotion to God (v 4). But underneath it all Job was proving the power of prayer.

How can Job possibly pray in his terrible situation? The clue could be in Romans 8:26:

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.

 His outward appearance is getting worse, but God is looking at him on the inside. I have been at this point. I have needed to pray but have had no idea what to say. Then it seems it just pours out of me.

In Memorium

 

Have you ever looked, really looked, at a soldier’s face? Sometimes it’s young, barely an adult the hopes of youth still painted in its features. Sometimes it’s old older than faith, older than wisdom, older than time. And sometimes…sometimes it’s a bit of both all at once.

 

Sometimes it’s gritty and pained, remembering the face of another who has fallen. Sometimes it’s laughing, pleased to have a moment of peace. Most of the time it’s proud because it knows, oh yes it knows, the world is a different place a better place because of it.

 

Next time you look at a soldier’s face, see if you can find that glint of pride. Sometimes it’s hidden, and you have to search it out. You’ll find it in the eyes always in the eyes. For the eyes are indeed the windows to the soul, even a soldier’s soul.

 

And when you’ve carefully examined every feature of that soldier’s face, stand up straight and tall and smile your best smile. Thank that soldier, because it does what some cannot or will not. It defends what it believes to be right with it’s very life. But more important, it defends a perfect stranger you.

 

And when you see a flag covered casket, stand in memorium of all the soldier’s faces you’ve examined. For when one of them falls, they all fall. And when one of them stands, they all stand.

 

Shouldn’t we stand with them?

 

The Fields of Flanders

The Fields of Flanders by Edith Nesbit was written in response to the poem In Flander’s Fields.

Last year the fields were all glad and gay
With silver daisies and silver may;
There were kingcups gold by the river’s edge
And primrose stars under every hedge.

This year the fields are trampled and brown,
The hedges are broken and beaten down,
And where the primroses used to grow
Are little black crosses set in a row.

And the flower of hopes, and the flowers of dreams,
The noble, fruitful, beautiful schemes,
The tree of life with its fruit and bud,
Are trampled down in the mud and the blood.

The changing seasons will bring again
The magic of Spring to our wood and plain;
Though the Spring be so green as never was seen
The crosses will still be black in the green.

The God of battles shall judge the foe
Who trampled our country and laid her low. . . .
God!  hold our hands on the reckoning day,
Lest all we owe them we should repay.

A Memorial Day Reflection

We as people have a tendency to forget. We have the capability of self-deception. We have the temerity to rewrite history. And yet the Bible from cover to cover tells us to look back — not so that we may live in the past, but so that we may learn from the past in order to go forward.

Whenever I find myself in the spiritual dumps, I discover that it is because I have ceased to remember God’s past mercies on me. And whenever I forget God’s past goodness to me, I am in trouble. It never fails. Whenever you find yourself with a heavy heart, ask yourself: “Am I remembering what God has done for me in the past? Or have I developed a convenient amnesia?”

The devil loves for us to forget God’s past blessings — because as long as we’re not remembering God’s blessings, then we are going to be in trouble. And that’s exactly where Satan wants us to be.

Do you tell your children and grandchildren about how rough you had it growing up, or do you tell them about how good God has been to you? Honestly, do you tell the next generation how easy they have it in comparison to you — or do you tell them about God’s past graciousness to you?

If you forget to tell them how God has answered your prayers …
If you forget to tell them how you cried to God and God answered you …
If you forget to tell them how God has provided for you …
If you forget to tell them how God has redeemed you and has delivered you …
Then you have wronged them — and God.

When you hit a spiritual dry spell, remind yourself and your family of God’s past deliverance. Think of the miracles that God has performed in your life that you may have swept out of your memory bank. Bring those up again. Tell the next generation of how good God is. Engrave His miracles on their minds. Testify, record and celebrate how God has worked in your life.

And do that again and again and again — not just on Memorial Day, but on a regular basis.

Let this Memorial Day be a day of remembrance, not only of those who have given their lives, but also a remembrance of the God who gave God’s all, God’s only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

What’s the Reason?

Here is today’s sermon based on 1 Peter 3:13-22:

When is the last time you underwent serious persecution because of your faith?

This question usually brings raised eyebrows in this land of, “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness…” where we affirm that every person has, “…been endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights.”

We aren’t persecuted for our faith in the West – are we?

Actually, there are people who live in our country who have been persecuted. Muslims around the country will tell you that they endured insult and rejection during the period after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. Nevertheless, the policy of our nation, our laws, and our cherished position is that every person has the right to practice their faith and worship as they please without interference.

This is not the case in many places in our world. The Christian Science Monitor carried a story relating the horror many have endured because of their Christian faith – frequently at the hands of governments.

In Boston, Sudanese refugee Francis Bol Bok has perhaps the most compelling story of all. Enslaved in Northern Sudan by Muslims as a seven-year-old boy for 10 years, he was beaten almost daily for his Christian beliefs. Mr. Bol Bok finally escaped in 1996.

Margaret Chu recalls the 23 years she spent in Chinese labor camps because she refused to renounce her Catholic faith. The hardest times, she said, were when she was forced to labor for 18 hours day harvesting rice. Food was sometimes limited to grass or rice husks. Still, she prayed daily, using her fingers as a rosary, and somehow survived. “Here I have real freedom to believe in God, but my heart is still left behind in China with my friends still under the pressure,” she says.

Mina Nevisa understands persecution this all too well. Her ordeal began one afternoon in 1982, when as a 17-year-old Iranian student; she felt something under a table at the Teheran University library. She reached down and pulled out a Bible, the first one she had ever seen written in her native Persian. Curious, she stayed up for the next two nights reading the book with a flashlight under a blanket, despite warnings from her father, an Islamic fundamentalist priest. The discovery soon led to Ms. Nevisa’s conversion to Christianity, denunciation by her parents and family, and – after the arrest and killing of members of her prayer group – her secret flight from Iran. In Europe, she received death threats after writing “Don’t Keep Me Silent,” a book about the persecution of converted Christians in Islamic countries. So in 1998 she moved again, to the United States.

The fact is that most of us have not endured any real persecution because of our Christian faith. Nevertheless, it takes place in several parts of our world and was simply a part of Christian living in the earliest church. Our reading from 1 Peter is written to Christians who are regularly suffering persecution for their faith. Although we are not certain of the date of the writing of 1 Peter, there are many who believe the persecution took place under the Emperor Trajan.

Whether it was Trajan however, or the earlier Emperor Domitian, there is some compelling correspondence between Pliny the Younger, a governor  of one of the Roman provinces and the Emperor Trajan as Pliny tries to figure out what he should do with his investigation of Christians. The letter is written between 111 – 113 A.D. Pliny writes: “… in the case of those who were denounced to me as Christians, I have observed the following procedure: I interrogated these as to whether they were Christians; those who confessed I interrogated a second and a third time, threatening them with punishment; those who persisted I ordered executed. For I had no doubt that, whatever the nature of their creed, stubbornness, and inflexible obstinacy surely deserve to be punished.”

1 Peter is addressed to Christian people who lived with the threat of death for their faith. Yet, rather than squelch the church or even slow down its growth, persecution actually resulted in a stronger, faster growing church. 

The book of Acts tells the story of persecution which broke out in Jerusalem under the leadership of Saul, who would later become the Apostle Paul. Paul stood by approving the death of Stephen, the very first Christian martyr. The writer of Acts reports, “…a severe persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria.” [Acts 8:1]

In addition, what happened to the Christian faith? Did it cease to exist? Did frightened Christians withdraw from the world and from the life of faith?

The story in Acts shows a persecuted church thriving and growing – even more so in the face of persecution. “Saul was ravaging the church by entering house after house; dragging off both men and women, he committed them to prison. Now those who were scattered went from place to place, proclaiming the word. [Acts 8: 3-4]

In fact, the fierce enemy of the church, Saul himself was converted shortly after the death of Stephen and he became the chief missionary force for Christ in the early years of the infant church.

However, persecution did not end with the end of biblical days, it was “on again, off again” in the first three centuries of the church’s existence — yet, the church never ceased growing. If nothing else, those early centuries are testimony to the power of God’s Holy Spirit in the lives of the followers of Christ.

One of the strong leaders of the early church was a man named Tertullian, the son of a Commander of a Roman Legion. He was born in Carthage, North Africa in 150 AD. On the way to becoming an influential lawyer with all the advantages of Roman society’s elite, he became a Christian and was one of the strongest voices for religious toleration and a powerful advocate for Christians in the young church. Tertullian first wrote that persecution only caused the faith to grow. He wrote that, the persecution of the church by the Roman authorities actually strengthened the Church of Christ: “It is bait that wins men for (our) school. The oftener we are mown down by you, the more in number we grow: the blood of Christians is seed of the church.”

What of the church in our time? In our town?

We do not live with a price tag on our heads because of our faith. That is a good thing. —  Isn’t it? None of us would be happy to see persecution like that which took place under the Emperor Nero or Trajan break out again.

At least most of us would not. I do remember a pastor from years back who said  to the congregation one Sunday morning as he lamented what he saw as a lack of commitment in the modern church, “What we need these days is another good round of persecution where we would have to put our lives on the line for our faith!”

Actually, some writers including C. S. Lewis have suggested that the devil shifted tactics in persecution. In his book The Screwtape Letters, an experienced demon writes to his nephew: “Don’t make it hard for Christians. Don’t persecute them. Make it easy to be a Christian… even respectable.” So the logic went in the malevolent mind of the Enemy.

In light of this “shift” in what it cost to be a Christian, it might seem as though the words of 1 Peter written to a suffering church would not have all that much to say to us modern Christians. But this supposition would be wrong. There are two significant teaching that come from our text that need to very much play a part in our lives as contemporary Christians.

We need to always be prepared to give a reason for our faith in Christ. The text reads, “Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you…” The world may not demand an accounting of our faith the way Pliny demanded an accounting and a renunciation of faith — but there is still a need for Christian people who can articulate the faith in terms of how it brings great hope to our lives. It is true that we do this with our words – but it is also important (maybe even more important) to do it with the actions of our lives… important that we bear a sense of hope in Christ even in the tough times.

When you remain hopeful in the face of trial, your faith speaks volumes!

And remember the words immediately following the injunction to be ready to give an accounting of our faith. “… Do it with gentleness and reverence.” In other words the kind of “in your faith evangelism” we’ve frequently seen in our time – does not attract people to Christ, but turns them off.

Clue number one for a vital faith. Remain hopeful in the face of trial and be ready to express or articulate  that hope when people want to know where your strength comes from.

No matter what may be going on in the world around us. Whether we are living under terrible persecution, with tough circumstances or in relative peace — the outcome of all things is certain. Listen once again: “Jesus Christ… has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.”

To those early Christians, the message was, “No matter who is in power on this earth and no matter how much they may do to hurt and even kill us – Jesus Christ is even now at the right hand of God and every power and every authority shall one day answer to him!”

The message remains the same for you and me today. Times have changed, worldly powers have come, and gone, circumstances are radically different. But this one thing has not changed. Jesus Christ is even now at the right hand of God and every power and every authority shall one day answer to him!”

And that is why we are faithful and hopeful – no matter what!

 Here is today’s worship bulletin.

What If?

Anxiety weighs down the heart, but a kind word cheers it up.  -Proverbs 12:25 (NIV)

What if? What if? Have you ever dealt with the what-ifs? Entertaining the what-ifs in your life is the first step to being overtaken with worry. Worry is taking responsibility for things you were never intended to handle. Worry is a lack of trust in the Creator of the universe. Worry says that you can handle it when many times you simply cannot. Are you worried that you worry too much? You don’t defeat worry by worrying about it. You defeat worry by redirecting your concerns to Someone who can actually do something about your situation. It does not mean that you do not take responsibility for the things you are supposed to handle; it just means that you know when you stop and God begins. Worried you don’t know enough about it? Check out what the Bible says!

For Kite Days

And in the midst of the wild and full days… the days that are like kite days, days that keep you running, the keep you holding fast, that keep you laughing at the crazy wonder of whipping wind and you just trying to catch your breath, in the midst, there are those moments… those flashes of times, that can tug you wide awake and you can really feel how glorious this place feels under your feet, how His love swoops in saturated hues of surprise, how His grace pulls you along and won’t let you go, His grace bobbing there at the end of a string…. You are tethered right now to the heart of God.

Neighbors

We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up. For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.” For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope. – Romans 15:1-4 (NIV)

So this verse showed up this morning in my devotional reading. It i s amazing that the answers we need (but may not want) do show up in scripture – even if we are not seeking that answer. I have several neighbors who drive me nuts because they do not behave the way I think they should (yes I can be judgmental). I spend more time that I should agonizing over how they care for their yards and ultimately I have no control.

I read this verse and something clicked in my mind that goes beyond my next door neighbors. I believe that our faith in Jesus gives us strength to live life as we should. If we are strong in the faith then we are strong enough to look past weaknesses of others. Now before my head swells, the scripture says not to please myself but to please God. I need to remember this when I am grumbling about my neighbors weakenesses because it builds me up and it shouldn’t be that way. I need to reach out and help them – not for my own sake but in the name of Jesus. It is not easy to be arrogant when you do something in the name of Jesus.

To the End

Given the prediction of the Rapture yesterday, I decided to depart from the Revised Common Lectionary and preach on that topic instead. Below is my sermon based on 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13:

Given all the focus on the Rapture over the past few days, I thought it would be appropriate to offer my thoughts on the Rapture. You know even CNN would cut into its regular coverage at the top of every hour to do a rapture check. It was an interesting day and here we are today – the day after and what do we do now?

Dispensationalism. Eschatology. End times. Rapture. All buzz words among certain denominations and sects who are focused on the end times. You know the other day I saw magnificent Jaguar on the interstate. A fine piece of machinery…On the bumper of that magnificent machine was a sticker proclaiming, “Warning! This car will be driverless at the rapture.” At the speed the car was moving and the way its driver wantonly cut in and out of traffic, it appeared driverless now! In fact, we all would have been safer had it been!

Paul’s warning to the Thessalonians to shun such disorderly people immediately came to mind. Paul was talking about a group in the church at Thessalonica who thought their faith exempted them from responsible living within and to the community. They thought they were free to do as they pleased, come and go as they pleased, participate as they pleased with no responsibility to contribute to it. After all, Jesus was coming soon to whisk them away from this world and its cares. Such is the kind of thinking that frequently emerges in faith communities during moments of great stress, be that persecution from the emperor or a local community. Living with the tension of code orange or code red status for long periods of time, as we do in the U.S., watching the carnage and absorbing the seeming futility that bombards us nightly as news comes in from Iraq, Afghanistan, or Pakistan, and absorbing the tragedies we witness as people starve or bear the ravages of feuding war lords or politicians in the Third World.

In the days when the Bible was being written, such circumstances gave birth to a special kind of literature scholars called apocalyptic. Apocalyptic, which means “to reveal,” uses vivid language, the portrayal of cosmic portents, natural disasters, wars, plagues, and other events to reveal what it is God is about to do to preserve the world and God’s people within it. It is intended to give the faithful hope, to assure that God is still God, still in control and has not forgotten the world or God’s people. But during times of severe stress, as people lose their nerve, such literature can be misread and distorted. Folks begin to scan Scripture searching for any fragment that might hint at signs of divine rescue, as though faith were a cosmic “hall pass” that allows God’s people to avoid hardship or suffering by being whisked away from it all. This is the bumper sticker theology that went whizzing by me on the interstate last week. It is also the theology that is frequently expressed by those who put so much stock in the so called rapture.

I said “so-called” because the notion and presumptions of this 20th-century heresy emerged from a distorted 19th-century reading of a passage in Paul’s first letter to the church at Thessalonica–the 4th chapter, verses 16 and 17–where Paul talks about being caught up in the victorious presence of the Lord at his final return. By the way, the word “rapture” does not even appear there–or elsewhere in Scripture–and is a concept the church knew nothing about for the first 1800 years of its life. It is an idea that emerges when texts that speak of the ultimate triumph of God are read through spectacles looking for some sign that the faithful will not have to go through the trials and tribulations of a world convulsed by the power of sin and death. Add that to a second heresy–dispensationalism–and you have a distorted theology which supports the modern nation of Israel as if it were the descendant of the biblical Israel and co-opts them for its own very distorted apocalyptic doomsday purpose.

Jesus has a very different view of reality. And he says so most clearly in the 21st chapter of Luke’s Gospel. Jesus is in Jerusalem teaching about the coming of the kingdom of God. He is standing in the courtyard of the temple with its lavishly adorned and bejeweled inner wall, the outer face of which was so completely covered with gold that, we are told, when the sun rose and shined upon it, it was as if one were looking directly at the sun. Someone in the crowd has just drawn Jesus’ attention to all this glory. In response, Jesus warns that the day is coming when not one stone of the temple will be left standing upon another. To those standing there, the notion of the destruction of the temple could only mean that Jesus was speaking about the end of the age. And so they asked him, “Teacher, when will this be and what will be the signs that this is about to take place?” But, notice, read the text carefully. Jesus does not answer their question. Rather, he issues three imperatives:

Do not be led astray.

Do not go after them.

Do not be terrified.

“Do not be led astray, for many will come in my name saying, ‘I am he, and the time is near.'” In our own day we have seen the Jim Joneses and the David Koreshes and now the Harold Campings of life. Heaven only knows how many other false prophets will come to lead their people to such doom. Jesus warns, “Do not go after them.” He is telling his followers not to be misled by false prophets who come claiming messianic authority proclaiming that the time is near. These are not God’s messengers. They’re religious charlatans, false prophets who prey upon the religiously naïve and gullible, serving up a faithless form of Christianity that is more interested in serving self than serving our Lord.

So, too, for those who look at the signs of the times and predict the rapture and the end of the world. Don’t be led astray. Do not follow them. Jesus says the signs of the time are nothing more than that, signs of the confusion of our day, of our own doing, not portents of God’s designated day for a new heaven and a new earth. The chaos of nation against nation, earthquakes, various famines, plagues, dreadful portents and great signs of heaven, the dreadful AIDS pandemic in Africa, the extraordinary hardships of the people of the third world-when you hear of these, do not be terrified, for these things must first take place, but….” Now let us listen to Jesus’ words very carefully: “The end will not follow immediately.” Jesus is not forecasting the end. He is describing what faithfulness requires of us, what it looks like until the end, as Jesus lays before his listeners a description of what is to come to his disciples.

More than one commentator has noted that what follows is a precise description of what in fact actually did happen to Jesus’ disciples after his resurrection: arrests, trials, exclusions from synagogues, betrayal by family members, persecution and imprisonment, and, for some, even death–all reported in Luke’s companion volume to his gospel, the Book of Acts. But notice what Jesus says about these hardships. His disciples are not to be whisked away from them because of their faith. Rather, they are to be led through them in order to give witness to their faith! The hardships, the tribulations, the moments of suffering are but opportunities to testify to the power and ultimate triumph of God. Those who patiently endure, who faithfully engage the powers and principalities of their day with Jesus’ words and power, will find that in doing so, they have gained their life.

By the time this gospel is being read for the first time, Jesus’ predictions had already taken place. And those reading Jesus’ words not only knew him to be a true prophet, they also knew that much of what he was saying could be in store for them as well. They heard Jesus telling them that the new they were looking for-the new heaven and a new earth, the new Jerusalem of Isaiah’s prophecy-was not to come without turmoil and testing, without their bearing witness to God’s power to transform life at precisely those moments when it seems most improbable. That is the way God works. The message here is: remain faithful to God as God’s people and God will remain faithful to you.

That word has not changed. Jesus’ word to us is the same as it was to those first disciples who heard him. The new heaven and the new earth will not come without turmoil, without testing, and our bearing witness to it at precisely those moments when it seems most improbable. How you and I deal with this world, its ups and downs, its triumphs and defeats, its dictators and false prophets, is the surest attestation of our faith–a faith that leads to God’s vision of life or a faith that is only self-serving. The person who patiently endures, who faithfully engages the powers and principalities of our day, finds that in doing so she is not only bearing witness, she is also soul crafting, shaping a life fit for the life of the world to come. This is what Christians in Zimbabwe know when they ask for our prayers. They are not asking that they be whisked away from their nation’s turmoils and suffering, but rather that they be given the grace and the endurance to live through it faithfully until the day God does bring deliverance. They are asking us to pray for them in their ordeal of soul crafting.

For soul crafting is not withdrawing from the world in spiritual idleness, as some in the church of Thessalonica were doing. Soul crafting engages the turmoil in God’s name and endures, trusting that God does not abandon God’s beloved. It is not withdrawal into the so-called spiritual endeavors, dutifully reading and studying our Bible, praying as we await the coming of the Lord so that God will lift us out of this turmoil. Soul crafting engages the weightier spiritual matters of life–the political and the economic issues that bring the chaos, injustice, sufferings and other upheavals we live alongside of in this world. Soul crafting digs into the day-to-day challenges of our lives, recognizing that God is at work in them and through us in these places in ways that no one of us can accomplish on our own. Soul crafting “plunges us into the reality of everyday life even as it also insists that this life is not the whole story,” so writes Beverly Gaventa. There is no room here for a theology in which we are divinely whisked away from the scene leaving our cars driverless. That is the theology of false prophets, “spiritual busybodies” out of step with the faith. Jesus says we are to ignore such false prophets and their best-selling novels, and instead engage this world in faith, bearing witness to God’s sovereignty and Christ’s lordship, trusting in them in and out of season.

Persevere. Patiently endure, and you will begin to craft your life, your soul in such a way that even in death not a hair of your head will be lost.

Here is today’s worship bulletin.

It’s May 21, Now what?

Okay, I will admit it. I am one of those who has been poking fun at Harold Camping and his followers for the past few days. I have even made a couple of humorous tweets about the whole thing. I mean Jesus does say something about not knowing the day or time.

But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. -Matthew 24:36

…for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.  -1 Thessalonians 5:2-3

However, before I get carried away, I do think Harold Camping and his followers are doing something important. They are out sharing their message of Jesus with the entire world. Before he ascended to heaven in the days following his resurrection, Jesus began to teach his followers what they should do next. One of those things was to go and make disciples of all people – what we know as the Great Commission.

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, -Matthew 28:19

I don’t think we necessarily do a good job of sharing the gospel. Oh, I know we do it but it seems to me that we do it very quietly with a select few people until someone like Camping comes around and then we spend our time battling against the message. Camping believes, sincerely believes, that the world will end today with the Rapture. He has spent millions of dollars and countless hours sharing this message with people to encourage them to find Jesus and seek salvation.

In the meantime, most Christians quietly live their lives, go to Church and maybe do a few activities during the week…until someone like Camping comes along and all of their energy is spent defending their beliefs against someone who makes them look a little crazy.

You know the more I think about it, the more I realize that Christianity is just a little bit crazy. Read the Bible and you will see that many things that we believe and hold dear and true appear to be just a bit crazy to the rest of the world yet we accept them as truth and gospel. As I write this, I am thinking about the possibilities of what might happen if we followed the Great Commission and began to share our crazy beliefs with friends and others around us. Why should we wait until someone spends millions of dollars to share a message? Share Jesus with friends, with acquaintances, with family. Live your faith out loud and talk about it when necessary.

Three Minutes with God

So I have been doing some reading in my newly found free time (ha!). During my time in seminary, I kept telling people one of the areas that I was weakest was my prayer/devotional time. I spent so much time reading and writing for classes that I did not have time to just sit down and reflect in God’s presence. As a result, I have developed an interest in prayer life and ways to foster prayer life. Here is yet another way of offering prayer to God.

Opening to God
We open ourselves up to the presence of God in our prayer place.

Listening In
We read and listen to the words that people have written in response to God.

Filling Up
We see God’s movement in our lives and reflect on living lives full of God.

Praying For
We respond to God’s call with a prayer to be present to God always.

Sending Out
We go out to the world to serve nourished by our time in God’s presence.

In the Beginning

On the night before Christmas in the year 1968 Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and William Anders, the crew of Apollo 8, were further away from the earth than any human beings had been. It was the first time a spacecraft had broken earth’s orbit and ventured out across a quarter million miles to orbit the moon. The distant earth was a small blue disk in the blackness of space, and on that blue disk is where the whole drama of human history had unfolded: the creation, the fall, wars, explorations, feast and famine, marriages and divorces, births and deaths. On a historic broadcast on that Christmas Eve the astronauts beamed back to earth a video picture of the earth, and spoke of the “vast loneliness” of space. And then their voices crackled over the radio: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was formless and void; and darkness was over the face of the deep.”

Genesis 1:1 begins with the Hebrew words b’reshith bara Elohim. In beginning, God created. If we just stop there, we gain a decisive view of life. There was a beginning, so there is meaning and purpose to life. Prior to this “beginning” was the God who began it. God is the prior reality, the higher being, the starter, the beginner, the initiator. There is only one being who can explain the world and life, only one who knows it intimately. He “created.” The Hebrew word bara emphasizes originality. An artist may create a painting by spreading paint on a canvas, but that is just pushing molecules around. Even the vision of the artist is not truly original because it is drawn from a lifetime of mental pictures. When God created it was an act of bringing into existence. A truly original act. Behind the act was vision, and will, and love.

So the question is: as we try to figure out life on the blue disk, what are the main questions we should be asking the Creator?

The Rapture IS Coming THIS Saturday: May 21, 2011 | the Pangea Blog

An interesting take from Kurt Willems on a controversial idea that is taken out of context in the Bible.

I grew up in church. Not a typical middle class, white picket fence, awkwardly perfect church goin’ family situation, but in church nonetheless. Most of what I recall from those early childhood and teenage years bring memories of good things. People genuinely taught me that loving Jesus matters more than anything else in the world. The world, after all, is corrupt and the place we truly long for is far, far away – heaven. So we are to love Jesus and hate the world.

Now, this is not hatred toward the people on earth. I did not grow up going to a church that taught that we ought to tell outsiders how much they suck, but that this “world is not my home, I’m just a passin’ through.” World and physicality = bad. Jesus and spiritual bliss in a distant heaven = goal of the game.

This distinction came with a subset of beliefs about the destiny of God’s world.  Eventually this planet would be destroyed and we Christians would “fly away” to heaven at the rapture of the church.  Certain Christians understood the timing of the rapture as it corresponds to the book of Revelation differently than others, but no one ever denied the imminent return of Jesus to evacuate the church out of earth.   Today, there is a group that believes that they have calculated the exact date of this escape from earth: Saturday, May 21, 2011. This sect does not represent most of those who believe in rapture, but what they have in common is that a day is coming when this world will be “Left Behind.”

What I’ve come to realize is that the church of my youth probably had the rapture all wrong.  You see, the Bible flows from Creation (Gen 1-2) to Renewed Creation (Rev 21-22).  This is the narrative of Scripture.  Nothing in the text (if read in its proper context) alludes to the actual complete destruction of the planet.  This world matters to the Creator and because of this, the world as a whole ought to matter to us.  Physical / earthly realities such as social injustice, violence, hunger, preventable sickness, are destruction of nature are invitations to the church of Jesus to get our hands dirty and proclaim that this world matters (even in its broken state)! Christ will complete creation upon his return, uniting heaven and earth for the life of the age to come!

The famous “rapture” passage is found in 1 Thessalonians 4.15-17 and reads:

According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.  For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.  After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

This passage, when placed in the larger context of the chapter, is answering questions that Christians in Thessalonica had concerning death.  What has happened to our loved ones who have died before the return of Christ to earth? What is theirs and our ultimate destiny? Paul’s answer: bodily resurrection at the return of Christ to earth!  Not an escape into the sky*…

In this passage, Paul borrows two specific images from the Old Testament that would have been familiar to Jewish converts and Gentiles who were familiarizing themselves with the Hebrew tradition.  The first of these that Paul employs in the text has to do with Moses who comes down from Mount Sinai with the Law with the great blast of the trumpet.  The second image is taken from Daniel chapter 7 where the “one like the son of man” and the community he represents is vindicated over the enemies of the people of God.  Clouds here symbolize the power and authoritative judgement of God about the rescue of his people. This idea now seems to be applied to Christians who are facing various forms of persecution.

Finally, there is a third image in the text that comes from outside of the canonical context.  This is the image of an emperor who visits a city.  The people of that region would have gone out to meet him to usher him into their home in a royal procession out in the open air.  This, Paul seems to apply to the church who will usher in their King into the new creation.**

Rapture, as it is popularly understood, is nowhere to be found in this “rapture” passage.  Christ will return, to resurrect, to purge, to heal, and to ultimately establish the eternal kingdom of God on this earth.  That’s it.

So, will the Rapture happen on this coming Saturday May 21^st, 2011?  Well, not the kind of rapture that folks at Family Radio are talking about.  Christ certainly can return whenever he wants, but I am not counting on it this coming week.  I wonder how the Family Radio followers will feel on Sunday?  I pray that rather than lose their faith in Christ, that they will leave behind radical fundamentalism and discover a hope-filled faith of New Creation!

via The Rapture IS Coming THIS Saturday: May 21, 2011 | the Pangea Blog.

Ordination Bulletin

Today is my ordination. Actually, if you are reading this then the service is either happening right now or it is already over. I will have some thoughts later about the experience and what is next. But in the mean time, you can check out the worship bulletin.

A Kick in the Pants

Here is today’s sermon based on John 10:1-10:

There are significant days in our lives and sometimes we realize them and sometimes we don’t. Yesterday was a significant day in my life. Lisa and I talked on the way home and I had a chance to do some reflection and I realized something – the faculty and staff of MTS are in many ways shepherds. I think back that I arrived at seminary green and naïve. The faculty took my by the hands and lead me down new paths and opened my eyes. Then there were days when they kicked me in the ahhhh well pants. They gave me that prodding that I so needed to keep going on this journey.

In a similar way, there is not-so-gentle kick out of the sheepfold in today’s Gospel reading, although I doubt you noticed any mention of being kicked through the gate in Jesus’ words. We’ll get back to this shove in a moment. First, notice that in John chapter 10, Jesus employs the imagery of first-century shepherding practice in an attempt to reveal his own identity and his relationship to us. Now, the most experience I’ve ever had with sheep was the kid’s summer program I worked at during college. We would take the children on field trips during the summer and one day we went to a farm. I learned you have to dodge sheep poo. If you’re anything like me, you have no clue about shepherding practice of any sort, ancient or modern. Therefore, in order to access what John calls a “figure of speech,” we first acknowledge our lack of personal contact with Jesus’ choice of image, and second we embrace the opportunity to use our imaginations.

So imagine with me a rolling plain, dotted with humps and hills. Dusk descends, and the shepherd leads his flock into the sheepfold. One of the hills has been hollowed out, and the sheep huddle inside next to the sheep of several other shepherds who share this particular fold. A pair of piled rock walls extends out a few feet from the sides of the hill. The shepherd lies down in the space between the low walls, effectively sealing the enclosure. Thieves and bandits and wolves will have a difficult time getting in with the shepherds on guard. The sheep are safe in the sheepfold.

When the shepherd arises the next morning, Jesus explains, “He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.” The sheep can’t spend their whole lives in the sheepfold, no matter how safe the enclosure may be. There’s no food in the fold, after all. The sheep may be comfortable and safe, but the sheep must follow the shepherd out of the fold in order to find sustenance, in order to live.

Jesus’ choice of words here is telling, but our translation into English hides the special word that Jesus uses. “When he has brought out all of his own, he goes ahead of them,” says Jesus in the version we use in church. In this verse, there’s a fairly weak rendering of a Greek word that appears over and over again in the Gospel. We hear this word every time Jesus casts out a demon. We hear this word when Jesus makes a whip and throws the moneychangers out of the temple. We hear this word when Jesus speaks of driving out the “ruler of this world.” In every instance of this word in the Gospel, Jesus is doing some sort of battle: he is pushing, pulling, throwing, yanking, driving, exorcising, casting out. But in this instance about the shepherd and the sheep, the translators decided a nice, safe, neutral translation was better. The shepherd simply “brings” his sheep out of the fold.

Now, perhaps those dimwitted, wooly animals trod placidly from the fold every morning at the beckoning of the shepherd. But Jesus is, of course, not talking about real sheep. He’s talking about us, about you and me. He’s talking about calling out to us, about speaking the word that will bring us forth from our own sheepfolds, from those places of comfort and safety that we have built up around us. The seductive force that pulls us into these personal sheepfolds tells us that everything will be okay as long as we keep quiet and stay put. Play another hour. Have another drink. Watch another show. I don’t know about you, but I need to be pushed, pulled, thrown, yanked, kicked, and driven out of that place of stagnation and dormancy every time I start settling into my comfortable enclosure.

Too often, we simply exist or breathe. We do not live. We exist. We have simply settled ourselves in our sheepfold. The sheepfold is the comfortable “life” that we exist in. The sheepfold is our unchallenged beliefs and assumptions. Our minds have numbed. Our hearts have hibernated. Our spirits have deflated. But we don’t notice because we are safe and we are comfortable

This existing is the complete opposite of the message of the Resurrection and of Easter: life cannot be conquered– not by death, not by sin, not by the powers of darkness. Life happens–fully, intensely, and eternally. Indeed, Jesus tells us this morning: “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” The Resurrection of Jesus Christ ripples out to touch every life, all of creation, everywhere, for all time. The wonder of Easter morning shows us the utter lengths that God goes to offer us abundant life and the wonder of Easter cannot be contained to one day or one Sunday.

And yet, while life cannot be conquered, life can be delayed, put on hold, made dormant. When we retreat to the safety and comfort of our own personal sheepfolds–whatever they may be–we refuse to participate in the fullness of a life lived in God. Of course, existing in the sheepfold is easier, less demanding. But existence is not life. Ease does not bring joy. And less demanding often means less fulfilling.

In the movie The Matrix, one of the characters, Neo, is offered a choice between a blue pill and red pill. The blue pill will return him to the life he knows – comfort, safety, familiarity, and existence in the sheepfold. The red pill – ahh the red pill will open his eyes to the world around him. It will challenge him and give him a new life a life beyond simply existence. Jesus is doing the same thing. He is calling us out of the sheepfold to a new life beyond simply existence. Listen for the voice of the shepherd calling you by name, calling you out of complacency. And give Christ the chance to cast you out of your sheepfold so that you may find the fullness of a life lived in the abundance of God. Amen.

Here is today’s worship bulletin.

On Graduation

I have not posted much recently because I have been busily working on final projects and an ordination exam in preparation for the end of this journey in my life.

It’s funny. As I sit here reflecting on today, I find myself numb and well numb. Seminary has been an all consuming  journey for the past three and a half years. I spent more time reading and writing and studying than I care to remember. There were days when my head hurt. There were days when I wanted to scream. There were days when I was angry with God and yet I made it to this point. After spending so much time on the journey, I thought I would be ecstatic and excited (and I am) but mostly I am numb and feeling a bit lost. It is that after Christmas feeling. I have long looked forward to this day and now that it has come and passed, I am not sure what to think. I know the journey does not end and I know where this journey is going (for the most part) but still I am numb. I am sure in the days and weeks to come as I reflect back over the past three and a half years, I will have more to share but for now, I am a seminary graduate and not a seminarian. I need to embrace this new identity and figure out what exactly it means.

Thoughts on Holiness, Hospitality, and Justice

 Over the course of the semester, I have had the opportunity to reflect on holiness, hospitality, and justice. We looked at different people who worked tirelessly to bring holiness and justice to the world. Many of the people we read about lost their careers, friends, freedom, and some ultimately their lives. They struggled against the American dream and American ideals (for some) or their equivalent in their own country and they paid for it. I cannot help but think of proverbs:

Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity, and the rod of anger will fail. Those who are generous are blessed, for they share their bread with the poor. Do not rob the poor because they are poor, or crush the afflicted at the gate; for the LORD pleads their cause and despoils of life those who despoil them. –Proverbs 22:8-9, 22-23

            As I write this paper, I am watching people around the country celebrate the death of Osama bin Laden. They are celebrating the death of a truly evil person yet we cannot fully blame bin Laden and Al Qaeda for terrorism. In many cases, we have sowed injustice and brought it upon ourselves. We have oppressed many people of the world and have failed to practice holiness and hospitality but instead practiced injustice. As the proverb says, we reap what we sow.

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? Therefore, faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. –James 2:14-17

Given the destruction caused by earthquakes and tornadoes over the past few months, I am reminded of Hurricane Katrina, which destroyed much of the city of New Orleans in 2005. My memories of Katrina revolve around friends of mine from that city, as well as some of the people who fled to Nashville, Tennessee, where we were living. In fact, I will never forget one woman’s sobbing plea in our church during a time of prayers. Here was a woman who lost people she loved—and everything she had.

Some Christians at the time suggested that this horribly destructive storm and the suffering it brought were signs of divine judgment on a Godless America. In one interview, Pat Robertson blamed Katrina on abortion, claiming that God was causing “the land to vomit us out,” because our society permits the “slaughter of the unborn.” In another, John Hagee argued that God struck New Orleans because it was “planning a sinful…homosexual rally.”

Now, even if I agreed with these two men about Christian ethics—, which I DON’T — I would still, have trouble believing in their kind of God. I speak as someone who believes in the wrath of God. Wrath is what God’s love looks like to us when we are drowning in sin. We feel our separation from God, and it is terrifying. However, do we really believe in a God who would punish a whole city, including the innocent, for the sake of the imagined sins of a few? In addition, do we really believe in a God who manipulates the weather and keeps lists of enemies? That’s not the God I know and love.

Yet there’s truly a sense in which we reap what we sow. We can’t be sure in this case (or in any particular case), but I don’t think it’s farfetched to blame Katrina on the changes we are causing to our climate. Surely, this kind of extreme event is becoming both more common and more severe. Moreover, we can be certain that the disproportionate effects of the storm on the poor and on people of color are a direct result of choices we’ve made. We failed to heed the warnings. The people of the Ninth Ward in particular suffered from poor housing to begin with and a pathetic government response once the storm hit land. While Katrina was not divine retribution perhaps, it was a symbol of what we sowed – inhospitality and injustice. We did not practice holiness and we saw what happened when a massive storm hit the United States.

In a recent interview, Bishop Charles Jenkins of Louisiana called New Orleans “the place where the façade of American progress has been washed away.” He went on to observe, “Many would be happy if we could again apply the ‘make-up’ to the wound that affects us all, but such will not be the case. This wound is evident around our nation, but in New Orleans it has been exposed as the flood washed away the veneer.” In the same interview, Bishop Jenkins cited remarks Martin Luther King made about the Parable of the Good Samaritan in a famous sermon at Riverside Church in 1967:

On the one hand, we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life’s roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life’s highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice that produces beggars needs restructuring.

In that very sermon, preached exactly one year before his martyrdom, King also called for a “revolution of values” in light of the Gospel and the common good. When injustice and oppression become known, we often react and work to prevent it or correct. In the months after Katrina, and in the months after the earthquake in Haiti, and likely in the months after the recent tornadoes, we will fight for the poor work to make their homes a better place and feel good about it. Then something else will happen and the attention will shift away. Oppression and injustice will reign again and they will be forgotten.

Now, with the present economic crisis, we see it more clearly. Bankruptcies, foreclosures, and lost jobs. Failed businesses and a banking system that nearly collapsed have made it clear that much of our economy was a house of cards. Yet will we see any real restructuring? Will we move beyond well-intentioned efforts to relieve the symptoms to the real medicine it will take to cure the disease? Will we transform the Jericho Road, so that men, women, and children will not be beaten and robbed there and thrown into ditches? Only time will tell. In the meanwhile, in the book of Proverbs, we are warned:

Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity, and the rod of anger will fail. Those who are generous are blessed, for they share their bread with the poor. Do not rob the poor because they are poor, or crush the afflicted at the gate; for the LORD pleads their cause and despoils of life those who despoil them.

In ancient Israel, the city gate was where people went for justice. In a democracy, the responsibility to create justice rests with each and all of us. As a society, we cannot afford to build prisons instead of schools. We cannot afford to pay people less than it takes to provide for their families—and to force immigrant workers into the shadows. We cannot afford to keep buying cheap, disposable junk on easy credit. No, we can’t afford to deny healthcare to millions—and watch others are squeezed for every last penny. Nor can we keep relying on fossil fuels as the fragile lynchpin of our entire way of life.

As a nation, we used to want more. The reality often fell short, but we used to aspire, at least, to be a beacon of liberty—a bustling, creative democracy with broadly shared prosperity and a wide-open welcome to strangers:

Give me your tired, your poor

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

Now, it seems, that door is shut. Our gated suburban communities, with their private security firms, reflect the image of Fortress America and the mercenaries who help fight our wars. How is it possible for a nation that lives like this to seek justice and the common good?

To be honest, our churches are complicit in the problems. Too often, we preach what Dietrich Bonheoffer named “cheap grace”—grace that soothes our consciences without calling us to repent and follow Christ. We may not all have bought into the false Gospel of the prosperity preachers and peddlers of hate. However, which of us can say our faith is as alive and vibrant as it ought to be?

We are at the beginning of a new day in the church. The church has the ability to step out and call out a lifestyle that encourages this behavior. The church can step up and fight for justice and hospitality. The church can work to bring about the kingdom of God in a new and tangible way. People are struggling and are lost but the church seems lost as well. The church is searching for an identity rather than being the church. The church is reinventing itself rather than being the church.

It is easy to become cynical and downcast in a time when things seem to be at their worst. However, we read about shining examples of people who are willing to sacrifice everything, even their lives, for the cause of the greater good. Not all is hopeless; not all is lost. We need to look at the examples of these people and find our own way to follow their example and continue the work they have started. Perhaps we will sacrifice more than we expect but in the end, the greater good, the kingdom of God, will be advanced. Isn’t that what it is all about?

My Initial Reflection on Bin Laden’s Death

I am ambivalent tonight. The world rejoices the death of a person – evil maybe but a person. I am proud to be part of the Army and I am proud of the work they do to keep us safe but let’s not celebrate the death. Let’s pray for peace. Let’s pray for hope. Let’s hope perhaps we can come to the table of God, the one in which we share a meal together, and live in peace. May this death be the beginning of our coming together. I can hope. I can pray that something good will happen.

I cannot bring myself to celebrate this death. This is a time to reflect on the conditions of the world that brought this man and this organization to power. What can we learn from this? What can we do to prevent this in the future? Let’s be grateful for the work of our military but let’s also take this time and reflect on the conditions of the world, the systems of the world, and our own behaviors that bring evil into the world. We can learn from this but let’s not rejoice.

The King Lives, Baby, He Lives

Here is today’s sermon based on John 20:19-31:

Over the past three years, I have made many trips to the holy land … Memphis, Tennessee. Now, Memphis is holy land for a number of reasons, not the least of which is their BBQ. Now, for those of us who are not Southerners, it is difficult to understand that BBQ is a holy thing. In fact, it is part of what southerners call the southern trinity:  BBQ, blues, and the Bible. Memphis is known for their BBQ, especially their ribs. As one of my seminary professors says, “Good ribs would make an angel weep.”

Now BBQ is not the only reason Memphis is considered to be holy land. The primary reason, of course, is that it is the home of Elvis.

A few summers ago, I had the chance to visit Graceland – or Mecca to Elvis fans – with Lisa, my parents, and my grandparents. I believe we were pilgrims in a holy land of sorts. I was not overly impressed by Graceland but what I found more interesting was the people. There were literally people weeping at Elvis’ grave and he has been dead most of my life! I was in amazement at the reactions of people and that made the visit worthwhile. These people have literally elevated Elvis to a holy status thus making Graceland holy ground.

It doesn’t stop there. In fact, there have been studies on the parallels between Jesus and Elvis, most notably by the renowned theologian Adam Sandler. He explains:

•  Jesus said: “Love thy neighbor. (Matthew 22:39); Elvis said: “Don’t be cruel.” (RCA, 1956)
•  Jesus is part of the Trinity; Elvis’ first band was a trio.
•  Jesus is the Lord’s shepherd; Elvis dated Cybil Sheppard.

Given that kind of reverence, I believe that we as Jesus fans have a lot to learn from Elvis fans. Especially in terms of faith….

As I said before, a few summers ago, we took time on our Memphis trip to visit the shrine of Graceland. There was the great welcome sign–a twenty-five foot high Elvis on a billboard saying “Welcome to the Kingdom!” And after the requisite photographs, we got in line for tickets. As we were waiting, I turned to one of the tour guides and asked, “So, how long did Elvis actually live here?” There was an audible gasp from the surrounding crowd. The guide looked at me with shock and whispered, “We don’t use the past tense here.” She then pointed at her t-shirt, which read:  “Graceland, where Elvis LIVES.”

It didn’t matter that she had never actually seen Elvis or that technically Elvis stopped walking the earth over thirty-two years ago. It didn’t matter. She didn’t care. Elvis fans don’t care. Without any proof, they believe he lives! Elvis lives, baby. The King lives.

It’s a shame we don’t all live our lives with that kind of faith. I’m afraid that most of us tend more towards the disciple Thomas than the tour guide at Graceland. Our scripture today is the familiar story of doubting Thomas. There we find the disciples locked up behind closed doors after Jesus’ crucifixion. And Jesus came and stood among them. When they saw him, the disciples rejoiced. But Thomas was not there at the time. When the other disciples later told Thomas about it, he said, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger … in his side, I will not believe.” A week later, when Thomas was with the disciples, Jesus appears again and invites Thomas to touch his wounds. When he put his hand in Jesus’ side–he knew.

“My Lord and my God,” said Thomas.

Jesus then said to him, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

We’ve all heard this story before. More importantly, we’ve all lived it. We’ve all had times in our lives where we’ve doubted, where we have said to God, “Show me a sign! Give me some proof!” Maybe it was because we were in a place of unbearable pain, or a time we faced hardship with no answers, a time when God seemed silent. We have all been at that point where, like Thomas, we yearned for a sign from God.

And why not? We live in a world where “proof” trumps faith. We send robots with cameras to the farthest ends of the universe so we can know for sure what’s out there. We won’t believe an assertion until a complicated mathematical equation says it’s true. We won’t believe until we have actually seen the birth certificate. And anytime -and I do mean anytime- there is a wall bearing a sign “wet paint,” we will touch it just to be sure that it really is wet.

If only we could have the faith of Elvis fans, a faith driven not by empirical proof, but by the voice in our hearts. Finding that kind of faith can change our lives. For when you believe something in your heart, you begin to act it in your life.

Look at Elvis fans. They not only believe he lives, they act like he lives. For example, they are constantly looking for Elvis. The Bible says seek and you find. Well, Elvis fans follow that to a tee. They are constantly looking for the King. And, sometimes, they find him. There have been Elvis sightings all over the world–from a spa in Tokyo to a Burger King in Michigan. There was even a woman who claimed that she found the image of Elvis in a taco at Taco Bell.

If only we’d put even 1% of that kind of energy towards looking for Jesus, we might actually find him too. Maybe we’d find him in the eyes of a little child or the downcast gaze of a homeless stranger. Maybe we’d find him in the face of an enemy or the tears of a loved one with whom we are fighting. If you believe he lives, you’ll act like he lives. You’ll look for him and you’ll find him.

Another thing–Elvis fans believe he lives, so they look for others who believe as well, like through Elvis fan clubs. I heard a story on the Graceland tour about a woman who was in a fan club called “Taking Care of Business.” She had to have major surgery and afterwards received hundreds of cards and letters from “Elvis friends” all over the world. We Christians can learn something from this. Community is what gives us strength, support, and focus in times we most need it. Finding families of faith is what helps us keep our faith. If you believe he lives, you’ll look for others who believe as well.

Here’s a third example, and probably the most important. Because they believe he lives, Elvis fans go out into in the world and share his message. They play Elvis’ music; they dress up as Elvis impersonators; they decorate their homes with Elvis memorabilia. One of my favorite things at the Graceland gift shop was an Elvis sprinkler. It was a foot-high plastic Elvis in a sequin jumpsuit, and as he watered your yard, he would swivel his hips. Whether through word or music, impersonators or sprinklers, Elvis fans proudly proclaim the message of the King.

This provides an interesting contrast to the disciples. Before Jesus appeared in their midst, the book of John tells us that the disciples were in hiding behind locked doors. They weren’t looking for Jesus. They weren’t going around looking for other believers. They weren’t out in the world preaching the word. They weren’t proclaiming the message of the King. They were hidden in fear, locked away in shame because they didn’t believe he lived.

I’m afraid that many of us live a similar existence; a life with little or no faith in the risen Christ, our hearts locked up and closed away.

I read a story in the Commercial Appeal of Memphis about a young woman on the tour told a story about how she grew up listening to Elvis. Sadly, she lived through an abusive childhood, but she talked about how she used daydreams of Elvis as an escape. “He was my safe space,” she said, “my little corner of heaven.” Because she believed he lived, she honored him in her heart and that enabled her to find peace in the hardest of places.

If only we would open our hearts to Jesus in the same way. When we honor the risen Christ in our hearts, we have our own safe space, our own little corner of heaven in which to rest and to heal. I am reminded of Tusculum’s Passion Play in which we disciples celebrated Jesus’ resurrection at the end of the play. You see every time Jesus did a miracle, we would put our hands in the air and do our touchdown Jesus moment. It is easy to have faith in a setting like the play or the church but what if we had our touchdown Jesus moment in public among strangers?

If you believe he lives–you’ll act like he lives. And Jesus’ message is certainly a message of action. Elvis apparently felt the same way. For Elvis said early in his career, “Music and religion are similar–because both should make you wanna move.”

The gospel is a living, vibrant force that should make us want to get out and move, move around in the world, move towards each other in love and compassion, move towards bringing in the kingdom or whatever.

I want a religion that makes me wanna move.

I want a savior that makes me wanna put on a sequin jump suit and sing.

I want to believe in a Jesus that lives.

Don’t let the doubts and fears of life shake your belief. Don’t let your faith be driven by anything but the voice of your heart. Remember: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” For if we believe he lives, our lives will change. We will search for and find him; we will proclaim his message; we will honor his spirit with ours.

Sometime this week, find a quiet moment, ask yourself, “Do you believe?” From the deepest parts of your heart, the answer will surely come:  He lives. He lives, baby. The King lives.

Here is today’s worship bulletin.