August Lent Thoughts

I found myself thinking about lent this morning.

I say this today, because if I wait until Lent Eve* to share this I'll have long forgotten these thoughts.

My mind jumped into thoughts about lent because of some reading I was involved in, that also happened this morning. I'll share more on the reading in a moment. First...

I've heard of a lot of nontraditional fasts for lent.  However, these "nontraditional" fasts are becoming so commonplace they are on the verge of becoming the new traditional. Who doesn't know someone who gave up "television" for lent? My sister gave up sugar one year. That would be a doozy. I don't know if I could do it.

I think there is a lot of merit in giving things up for a period of time so that one can become more focused on God. And for many people, food isn't the thing they most need to step away from.

I remember a conversation with a guy, years back, who gave up bacon.

Really?

Bacon?

What makes it better is that there was a massive bacon binge on either side of those 40 days. And I mean multiple pigs were involved in the making of this binge.

I'm sure that's exactly what the first "Lenters" had in mind when they began the tradition.

They were giving up all food, so that one day a guy would give up bacon, after eating a three month supply in the 24 hours prior to the "fast," and another three months supply in the hour following.

Way to show us how it's done.

While there are lots of absurd fasts. There are some nontraditional fasts that need consideration.

I read today** about fasting from pride. Or more specifically, fasting from ways we defend our pride. The author uses the example of going without defending yourself whenever you are criticized.

I don't know what would be harder, 40 days without sugar, or 40 days without thinking of a comeback, defense or excuse?

The book also speaks of doing secret acts of service as a way of deflating pride because one receives no credit for them. That still seems easy by comparison because there is a more tangible, and immediate, reward: what many call a warm and fuzzy feeling. I feel good when I do something nice in secret so it's not a hardship.

But standing there and taking criticism?

I don't know.

And that might very well be the thing I need to go 40 days without.



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* I know that "Lent Eve" isn't an official term. However, I propose that it is perhaps a better, more encompassing, term for the day of preparations for lent than "Fat Tuesday."

** I've been reading Brian McLaren's "Finding Our Way Again: the return of the ancient practices" Nashville: Tomas Nelson, 2008

Praying for the Ill

I think I pray for the sick wrong.

It sounds wrong to say, because there shouldn't be a wrong way to pray for someone else. (Well, unless you don't pray at all.) I mean, aren't five word prayers of "God, help ______ get better." better than no prayers at all?

Well, yes.

But today Iv'e been challenged that a better way to pray exists.

I read this morning about some spiritual disciplines, and among those listed was "praying for the sick."

If praying for the sick is a spiritual practice I have to admit that I don't feel very spiritual doing it.

When praying for the sick I am almost always no where near them. I don't mean sick people are across the room, I mean they are across the town, or country, or world.

I don't have a lot of contact with sick people unless they come to church. Then I'm usually sitting there thinking, "Why on earth did they come to church this morning? They're going to get everyone else sick. If I get what they've got, I'm going to be some mad."

So I began to ask, what if praying for the sick really is a spiritual practice? And what if praying for the sick wasn't meant to look anything like the way I pray for the sick? What if prayer was supposed to look like something else?

I remember the very first hospital visit I went on. I was fresh out of college, but was totally clueless about what it meant to be a pastor.* I was working with a church and one day the pastor told me we were going to visit a man in the hospital. He was loosely connected to the church. He wasn't a regular attender. I don't even know if he tithed. But the pastor knew him and that was enough.

I don't remember his name. But oddly I remember that he had very bad pneumonia.** (Is there good pneumonia?)

And I remember one other thing. I was beyond awkward. He had weird wires connected to his chest. And tubes coming out of places I don't ever want to have tubes coming out of. I thought, "surely this guy wants to be left alone."

We didn't stay long, but we sat, chatted, and prayed.

All while he had an ECG done.

Before we left the pastor prayed for him.

I think this is the spiritual discipline of praying for the sick.

Praying for the sick will involve, on some level, knowing the person in their sickness: coming close, or in contact with the sick them, and walking with them through the sickness.

And, I hope this doesn't sound biased, you don't have to be a pastor to do this. I think this type of prayer is for every believe to practice. Ever believer has it in them to visit the sick, begin to know them in their illness and pray through it with them.

That doesn't mean I won't pray when I get those emails from people I barely know to pray for some person I've never heard of who has a disease I've never heard of. I'll pray then, but that prayer is a different prayer than one offered while holding the hand to the ill.




* I'm still very much clueless only I can confidently say that in these 11 years I've learned approximately 3 things about being a pastor.

**that's right spell checker had to help me with this one. To my delight I was only one letter off from spelling it correctly on the first try.

To Be a Gate or a Gate Crasher?

Lately I've been reading a book aimed at helping the church, meaning the people who make up the church, be better at fulfilling its purpose. This book has been an encouragement, especially in all the areas I see our church aligned with his ideas, and a challenge when I see we have a ways to go in being more effective.

One thing stood out to me in my reading today.  Brad Powell writes this: "As we've seen, Jesus promised that He will build His church and that the gates of hell will not prevail against Him (Matthew 16:18) In other words, He wants his church to be on the offensive. Gates don't attack; gates are attacked."

Matthew 16:18 says this in the NIV, "And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it."

This idea of the church standing up against the gates of hell is nothing new to me. I'm familiar with this verse. However, what struck me for the first time today, was that gates don't move.

Gates don't attack.

Gates stay where they are built.

Gates wait for an attacker to come.

Too often I see churches that think they're the gates.  We use language that speaks of being able to stand up against the gates, but we speak as if they're going to come and attack us. We get dug in and defensive waiting to be attacked.

We speak as if we're gates secured in a rock.

But maybe Jesus is saying we're a rock that needs to roll through some gates. Maybe we need to, as a church, rush the gates, rattle them good, and watch them crash.

I wonder what our world would look like if hell began to fall apart.

I wonder what our world would look like if the church was on the move.

In The Word But Not Of The Word

In the word but not of the word.

Does that look right to you? Or is something missing?

If you've been around Christianity for a while, you've probably heard the expression: "In the world but not of the world." The expression is often used as a Christian cliche to give license to doing the things that our non Christian neighbours do, so long as they don't become a bad influence on us. Thus one would be in the world, doing the "safe" things of the world, without being of the world, being influenced negatively by the actions of ones self or others.

But now I'm wondering how often Christians are just as guilty of being in the word but not of the word. Meaning, that one would read the Bible but not be transformed by the message of it.

How often do we read the words without considering their weight?

How often Christians read words that could potentially be life changing but remain unmoved?

That's being in the word but not of the word.

I think simply being in it, without allowing God to speak to you through it, is pointless. It's the religion that Jesus spoke against and leaves so many people distrusting and dissatisfied with the Church. Yes we need to be in the word, but we just as much need to be people of the word.

Grace and Peas

I sat down to read through 2 Peter yesterday. I didn’t get far. I stopped after the second verse.

It wasn’t because of a lack of time, or add, or the commencement of an emergency.

There is a word in verse two that needed some time of pondering and application.

As you read through second Peter verse one is all typical of the opening of an Epistle. In the first verse you learn who is writing the letter and whom they are writing to. And so we learn that Peter is writing a letter to people of faith.

Now the second verse of an Epistle is typically reserved for a greeting of some form. Peter stays true to the script, however he unloads a doozey of a greeting. Some authors go for the ever spiritual: “greetings” Some writers ramp up the holy talk with a phrase like: “Grace and peace.” Peter, never one to be outdone, takes it to the next level in his first letter: “Grace and peace be yours in abundance.” Then in his second letter he outdoes himself:

“Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.”

That’s where I stopped.

I know God. I think.

I mean, I’ve read all about him. We’ve had some wonderful one-sided conversations. I even work for him.

I think it’s safe to say that I know him.

It’s also safe to say that I know Jesus. I know that Jesus and God are one, so as such if I know one I should know the other. I know that Jesus died for my sins, so I try and make sure that he didn’t have to die for too many. I know that Jesus is preparing a place for me in heaven. I know he loves me.

Is there more to know?

I like to think that I have grace and peace in my life. I certainly have peace because I know that death is not the end for me. Knowing God helps me remember that heaven awaits me when I die. I experience grace in that I’m not getting what my sins deserve. Despite being guilty of breaking the law I’m not going to jail. Thus I have grace and peace through the knowledge of God and of Jesus.

Normally, as I’ve read this letter many times, I skip right over this verse. I kinda check it off as having accomplished it.

Yesterday, however, that word abundantly jumped out at me.

The aforementioned level of grace and peace is so minimal—it is far from an abundant kind of grace and peace.

What would an abundance of grace and peace look like?

Have you seen something burdened by abundance?

I’ve seen ships burdened by an abundance of logs. They seem to be near sinking. There are too many logs to carry. Those ships are bursting with an abundance of logs.

I’ve seen a sponge loaded with an abundance of water. You can’t come into contact with it without getting wet.

I’ve had balloons burst in my face with an abundance of air. The balloon could not contain it all. Air got all over everything.

It’s seems abundance is barely containable if it’s even containable at all.

I’ve seen people bursting with an abundance of joy. You can’t get close to them without them dumping joy all over you. They cannot contain all their joy. You look at a person with an abundance of joy and you know right away that they have joy. It’s obvious to everyone around. As annoying as the joy abundant can be, you never look at them and go: “I bet something’s bothering them.”

Yet people’s first impression of is probably not that I have an abundance of grace and peace. Some days they may wonder if I have any at all.

I do not have an abundance of Grace and Peace.

Yet Peter wants us to have an abundance of both. He wants us to be so bursting with grace that we leak grace all over everyone we meet. We should have such an abundance of peace that when we enter a room peace is everywhere.

Are we exploding at the seams with grace and peace?

Do those who come into contact with us leave dripping with grace and peace?

Is my, or our, grace and peace contained, or is it all over the place?

What would it look like for a church to ooze grace and peace?

What would it look like for the church doors to open after the service on Sunday and have a tsunami of grace and peace hit the neighbourhood changing it forever?

It seems that knowledge of God and of Jesus should produce the abundance of grace and peace I lack. So I’m kinda left concluding that somewhere I’ve missed really knowing God.

Or maybe I’ve only been getting to know God in a past tense. God did this… God did that… What about what God is doing today? What about what God will do tomorrow? What about who God is today and tomorrow?

I'm hoping that as I go through Peter's second letter a little slower than usual, I'll learn something more about God that will help me know him better, and then maybe I'll be bursting with an abundance of grace and peace.

1st Anniversary

A year ago today I woke up for the first time as the youth pastor at Lakeview Heights Baptist church. It’s been a wonderful year.

Waking up that morning I had no idea what the year would hold. It wasn’t that many days previous that I woke up with nothing more on my agenda than catching some waves while my wife went to work.

That morning I knew only two things: church started at 10 and that afternoon there was a church picnic where we would be formally welcomed.

Getting ready that morning was odd. I didn’t bring my full wardrobe with me. Much of our clothes and things were packed away. We though we’d bring them up once we found a more permanent residence. We had a place to stay for a couple months and hoped we would have a house by the time those months were over.

I combed though the few shirts in the closet wondering what I should wear for my first day “on the job.” Now I don’t even remember. I’m sure no one else does other, but at the time it seemed a life changing decision. I thought fortunately Sheena is here to help with the decision, “Sheena which one?” That’s not her preferred way to be woken up. It’s a common alarm sound though.

“I don’t care. They all look fine.”

One of those statements is a lie. Do you care to guess which one?

Maybe they both are. Truthfully, she only cares if I pick the wrong one, and each shirt does look fine on the hanger. However, once a “fine” shirt is paired with a bottom it’s “fine level” can plummet. It may remain fine, or it may become a bad choice. On rare occasions the “fine level” of a shirt rises to the level of “excellent choice.” Usually if it does manage to rise it peaks out at “good.” (For a comprehensive understanding of a shirt’s “Fine Level” see the appendix above and to the right.)

Once ready we were off to the church. We walked through the church doors and were lovingly greeted by a sweet older lady: “Who do you belong to?”

“Jesus?”

How do you answer that?

Hands down the weirdest greeting of my life. Weirder than “What did you hit your head on?”

While I was in my head exploring the theological (Jesus paid the price for me), grammatical (shouldn’t it be “To whom do you belong”?), and social justice (sadly there are still slaves today) implications of her greeting Sheena was explaining that I was the new youth pastor reporting for duty.

Okay, she didn’t use the words “reporting for duty,” but how cool would it have been if she did?

As soon as Sheena explained that our reason for being at the church went beyond praising God with fellow believers, we were quickly introduced by our new friend to all her friends who gave her a look that said: “we know who these people are. It was only a month ago that we voted to hire him.”

A lot happened in that month. We quit our jobs, packed up our house changed our cell phone number, and said many “see-you-laters.” And we tried to pack in as much “Island Living” as possible while still doing the previously mentioned duties.

It’s been an unbelievable year. I thought I should take the time to run through some of the non-ministry highlights of the year. Perhaps later I’ll run through the ministry highlights.

- We moved to a new town

- I began working at a new church

- We lived in four different homes in our first four months

- Sheena began working at a new hospital in a new health authority

- We found out we were expecting

- We bought a house

- I turned 30

- One nephew and two nieces were born

- Our car was totalled

- We became parents

- We bought a new car

- We’ve had many guests help turn our house into a home

- I got a class four learners license

It may seem like a short list but each one carries major weight. Perhaps that’s why I woke up sore this morning. My wife says it’s because of point number seven. I say it’s been a busy year.

I suppose that it’s uber fitting that tonight I spend our one-year anniversary with the youth group. It’s been a joy getting to know them, a pleasure to open my life to them, and an honour to minister with them.