Are you spiritual?

Dear Faith Family,   

 

"then the LORD God formed the man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath [spirit] of life, and the man became a living creature [soul]." (Genesis 2:7)

What are we, humans? Are we mere animals with advanced minds? Or are we eternal souls encased in temporal bodies? Or is there something more to us? What constitutes the complete person?

I am sure you've spent countless hours pondering such questions. Or none at all! Regardless, if we are to grow into our family name, to be and become ones who are, by God's grace, "...saintified completely," we have to consider, as Paul says, what we are: "your whole spirit, soul, and body..." (1 Thes. 5:23). 

Our scriptures, like most ancient texts, describe the human person as something both material and immaterial. We are bodies, but not only flesh and bone. We are more than our physical makeup. We think, we feel, we desire, we devote. We recognize these internal activities not merely as chemical reactions in bodily parts, but as something (or at least coming from something) real in-of-itself. 

In much of Western thought, the immaterial part of us came to be known as the soul. A part of us that is, like the wind or breath, something real but that we are not able to grasp like other real objects. So, one might even consider such a thing a spiritual soul—a real part of us that is somehow connected to, but different from, our physical self. 

Again, our scriptures attest to the truth that we are indeed more than just our physical bodies. But the scriptures and the early church understood that there is an important reason to consider that the "other" part of us is actually two parts. The soul, yes. That part of us that thinks, desires, and devotes. But also, the spirit. A part of us related to, but not to be confused with, the soul, as Genesis 2:7, 1 Thessalonians 5:23, and other passages describe. 

Now, admittedly, you may think the distinction is merely semantics, since other passages seem to conflate the two or mention one rather than both. And while it is true that holding to a three-part person is not a demand of orthodoxy, I believe the scriptures' revelations, and the early church's descriptions of what a human is (spirit, soul, & body) help us both understand and become who we truly are.

To sum up a long and much more detailed conversation from Sunday, the spirit, as we come to describe it in the scriptures and early church, is "the thing in man that is essentially more than man, something which does not 'rise from below' but 'comes down from above.'" It is, in other words, the very life, or breath, of God that begins us, persists us, and through which we are born again, 

"Jesus answered, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God... You must be born again.... born of the Spirit.'" (John 3:5-8)

For indeed, "God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth." (John 4:24) That is why Paul would say, "The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God" (Romans 8:16). 

To say we are spirit, or spiritual, is to say that there is more to being human than what is going on inside or outside of us. That spirit is what is more than us, what forms us into the image and likeness of God. To be spiritual is to recognize that our true life comes from without, not merely from within. Or, in the words of one theologian, we "do not so much exist, as partake." 

How do we partake? How is our "whole spirit...kept blameless at coming of our Lord Jesus Christ"? Well, to answer that, you'll need to do a few things. Maybe some things you (and we) do regularly. Here is how you can find out...

(Re)Listen or Watch(!) the Sermon


Reflect & Share

First with the Lord and then with your GC or a faith-filled friend. 

Where, when, and in what circumstances
am I most aware (and experiencing) that there is more to me, than me?

Where am I living as if enslaved to lusts rather than submitted to the Spirit?

May we become who we are made to be in Christ, together. 
 
Love you, faith family. God bless. 

We Think We Know Simple!

Dear Faith Family,   

 

"Now may the God of peace himself sanctify [saintify] you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Thessalonians 5:23)

Last week, we considered the power of names. Names awaken images, tell stories, and evoke emotions. Reputation and relation give names great power, but there is more. Names not only connect to what has been, but also give us something to live into. That is certainly true of our faith family name: Saints. 

Saints: Ones set apart by God, whose person and purposes- who we are and what we are for- cannot be accurately or aptly described or known apart from God's intentions for us and His persistent attention to us. We are "anointed ones," covered in the life of God in Christ.

The name saint, scholar and theologian Michael Gorman contends, "is both a gift and a task." We are, paraphrasing the apostle Paul, ones "made into saints in Christ Jesus and called to become saints, together in Christ Jesus our Lord." That is the name. A wondrous name, yes, but simple?

"Simple Saints," that is the title of our current series. But how can one so esteemed and so commissioned be labeled simple?

Well, a bit ironically, the answer is complicated! 

Simple, when applied theologically, has a technical meaning. To say God is simple is to say that God is whole and holy what He is, without mixture, confusion, or contradiction. God is not a combination of his attributes, actions, and attitudes. God simply is. Every attribute of God—revealed in his actions and consistent with his attitudes (dispositions)—is identical (soft identity) with his essence. Which is why we can say, God is not one who loves; God is Love. God is not one who does good; God is Good. God's nature and actions are God.

Told you it was a bit complicated!

But say, and hopefully you are, still tracking with me. The title of our series is not "Simple God" but "Simple Saints." So what does the doctrine of simplicity have to do with our family name? Good question! 

Again, let's get a little technical. Our family name, saint, is derivative; we don't inherently possess it by existing, but we are gifted it through, in, and with Christ. Therefore, it is based on and modeled after another source, God Himself, who is Holy. This reality is articulated by the apostle Peter, who, referencing the God-given expectation from Leviticus, constructs our reality:
 

"...he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, 'You shall be holy, for I AM holy.'" (1 Peter 1:15-16)

We are who we are, and are becoming, because of who God is. And, as we began to unpack on Sunday, in a world that divides us, to be a simple saint is to be whole, unadorned yet exquisite (glorious) in our lives with God, together; whole and holy in harmony within ourselves and in God. The Holy, Simple One. Or, as Paul encouraged us, 

"saintified completely... your whole spirit and soul and body... kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Thess. 5:23) 

This week, I invite you to join me in considering the simplicity of the name that is both our gift and our task. Here is how. 

(Re)Listen or Watch(!) the Sermon


Reflect & Share

First with the Lord and then with your GC or a faith-filled friend. 

Where, when, and in what ways have I experienced
the "wholeness" of being set apart by God (being who I truly am)? 

Where and in what ways am I feeling divided, mixed-up, in spirit, soul, and/or body?

May we become who we are made to be in Christ, together. 
 
Love you, faith family. God bless. 

Power In Names

Dear Faith Family,    

"To the church of God ...those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ..."
(1 Corinthians 1:2)

Names have a power to them. At the mere mention of certain names, images awaken, stories are recounted, and emotions stir. The power manifests whether it is the name of a beloved relative, a person of fame or infamy, a childhood friend, someone deeply respected, or someone whose virtues are wanting. 

Reputation and relation give names tremendous power, as the proverb affirms, 

"A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold." (Proverbs 22:1)

Still, there is more to the power of names than the histories they carry. In times past, names were given as means of expectant identity. Names described the character of the person or at least the anticipated hope of the parent for the child; a name to grow into.

What has been true of our individual names is also true of the collective name of our faith. While "Christian" is the name we are most associated with today, in the first centuries our faith family went by another name: saints. 

For example, the apostle Paul uses the name saint thirty-nine times in his letter, far more than any other descriptor of the women and men bound together in Jesus. Eugene Peterson contends that Paul's choice was not accidental. Rather, 

"Paul deliberately chooses a word that identifies us by what God does in and for us, not what we do for God... a word that defines you primarily in terms of who God is for you and what God is doing in your life... a person who cannot be accurately identified apart from God's intents and persistent attention..."

As we discussed on Sunday, our family name is "both a gift and task." A name, as Paul says, which speaks of something already true of us and which we are to grow into, together as "the church...those sanctified [already made holy] in Christ Jesus, called to be saints [holy ones] together..." (1 Cor. 1:2). 

Over the Fall, we will consider how we have and continue to grow into the fullness of our name together. But today, I simply invite you to contemplate the power of your name and mine. A title not of distinguished accomplishment but of received blessing that in turn gives shape to the identity and actions of the person so blessed.

Here is how. 

(Re)Listen or Watch(!) the Sermon


Reflect & Share

First with the Lord and then with your GC or a faith-filled friend. 
Process with the Lord any emotions, thoughts, doubts, or affirmations
that arise as you reflect on our family name,
reading Paul's greeting as to you:

To the church of God that is [Christ City], to those sanctified [already made saintly] in Christ Jesus, called to be[come] saints together with all those in every place who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ… Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
(1 Corinthians 1:2-3)

May we become who we are made to be in Christ, together. 
 
Love you, faith family. God bless. 

Parting Words

Dear Faith Family,    

"...let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and cover a multitude of sins." 
(James 5:20)

Those are the final words of James' letter. A letter written to help us both understand and participate with the faith at work within us. A faith activated in the troubles of daily living, and fought against by internal attitudes and unseen assailants. A faith which brings us to full maturity as individuals and brings our lives together in Christ toward our perfection, our telos, our purposed end.

Is it any wonder then that James concludes this epistle to his beloved faith family with the joyous exhortation to use our words to help others in the same way James' words have helped us?

James, with confident compassion, charges you and me to help those, like us, who at times lack the wisdom to see who we truly are and how that affects our living, and call us back to the true and the good. Enthusiastically imploring us, as we discussed Sunday, to anoint one another in the life of Christ, amid our weaknesses, so that what is compromised might be healed, and what is lost and wandering might be found and restored. 

That is the charge that James leaves his faith family and ours. So, how will we respond? Will we indeed participate with the faith at work within us, experiencing the joy of a life complete, lacking nothing, together? Or, will we hear the words but not heed them?

My prayer for you, and for myself, is that we would not be mere "hearers of the word and not doers" (1:23), but rather, ones who "show [our faith] by [our] works" (2:18). To help us to this end, one final time, I invite you to join me in considering and responding to the Word through James' letter.
 
Here is how. 

Read James 5:13-20


(Re)Listen or Watch(!) the Sermon


Reflect & Share

First with the Lord and then with your GC or a faith-filled friend. 
Process any emotions, thoughts, doubts, or affirmations that arise
as you reflect on the following:

James contends that life's disturbances help ensure our maturation and completion. Indeed, God-orchestrated exposure to the trials of making life, good, activates and purifies our faith, ensuring we reach the end of our potential: the work of God being complete in history through our maturation. 
 

What would be different tomorrow if I responded joyously to faith at work within me?

May we be "perfect and complete, lacking nothing" (1:4) by the persevering grace of faith at work. 
 
Love you, faith family. God bless. 

The Wise Sabbath

Dear Faith Family,    

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change." 
(James 1:17)

Rest, especially for the soul, is difficult to find these days. Even when our paid labors take a break, the seemingly endless list of "To Dos" floods our thoughts; the fear of missing out on the freedom to enjoy, to experience clouds our calendar, and the ease of entertainment, always and only a click away, beckons us to the fatigue of vegging. Rest in today's world, while deeply desired, seems like a destination we'll never arrive. 

Ironically, our faith contends that rest is not something we arrive at, but rather arrives as a gift each week—a gift the wise receive. 

The wise, as James has told us, recognize what they are not – sovereign over their own lives or the lives of others. At the same time, the wise recognize that who they are and are becoming is a gift of self-giving love accompanied by merciful patience. And so, as James has told us, the wise not only put off what is false—not truly good—of themselves, of God, of others, but in doing so,
 

"receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save [their] souls." (James 1:21)

 
And so, the wise are able to live good, a good and true life, "show[ing] [their] works through the meekness of wisdom" (James 3:13)
 
To live rightly, well, for the flourishing of the earth (not just ourselves), requires that we not only submit to what is the unchanging good, but receive it. For,
 

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change."
(James 1:17)

 
"To keep the Sabbath," says Bobby Gross, "is to both obey a command and receive a gift." [1] At the "very good" of creation, God gave us a day of rest, a day set aside to receive before we give. A day and a "space to focus our attention" on who God the giver is and what He has graced us with. A day to express thanksgiving, to worship with joy, reflect with gratitude, and look ahead in certain hope. And in our receiving, be "renewed as whole persons (body, mind, heart, and will: soul)."

To sabbath is to stop doing everything (or nothing), and receive everything. Everything our souls need to live rightly, fully, well, and wise. So, what is keeping you and me from resting? 

I invite you to consider the soon-to-arrive rest of a day made for you. What will you do this coming Sabbath? Will you be filling it or receiving it? 

May we choose the latter, and find the wisdom of sabbathing, of receiving that which has been gifted us. 

Love you, faith family. God bless. 

Divine Irony

Dear Faith Family,    

"Humble yourself before the Lord, and he will exalt you." 
(James 4:10)

In the early two-thousands, I was in a Ph.D. program focused on the study of leadership. In the program, we looked at everything from the psychological makeup of successful leaders, to the technical nuances and differences between leadership and management, to various philosophies of leadership, whether personal, organizational, or academic, and more. One of those philosophies of leadership, which you might be at least somewhat familiar with, was "Servant Leadership."

Essentially, the philosophy expounded the notion that great leaders' primary focus is on the betterment of those they lead. A leader is first a servant, and that mere fact is central to their greatness. The more a leader embodies the position of a servant, the greater their leadership ascends. 

Servant Leadership is a worthy model, and many have argued it is a rather biblical one. After all, isn't this Jesus' model, as one who came to serve, not be served (Matt. 20:28)? Perhaps that's why you are familiar with this philosophy. Since it was coined in 1970 by Robert Greenleaf, Servant Leadership has been adopted and encouraged as the philosophy and model for many Christian organizations and institutions. But there is an ironic twist to this seemingly Christian ideal: Greenleaf was neither a Christian nor did he model his philosophy after Jesus. 

Robert Greenleaf was, in fact, a universalist who found inspiration for his philosophy from Hermen Hesse's novel Journey To The East and its primary character, a servant revealed as a mystical leader, named Leo. At the heart of the story and Greenleaf's philosophy is that attentive serving leads to effective leadership. Service, if you will, is the fuel of leadership. 

Built within and upon Greenleaf's understanding, Servant Leadership models (often subversively and perhaps unintentionally) espoused service as a means of gaining and sustaining greater influence or power over others. One served because one wanted to lead, to get people where the leader believed they needed to be (personally, professionally, organizationally, etc.); thus rising as a leader. 

Now, before I lose you (and I hope I haven't already!), my point is not to disparage Servant Leadership theory, for much good has come from it. Nor is my point about servant leadership at all. Rather, the point is that we do to James' exhortation above what Greenleaf did to the leader who is a servant: we make the right action (serving = humbling ourselves) a means to an end (leading = being exalted), rather than recognizing that the right action is the true nature of the one who has received their end. 

Let me say it another way. A servant leads because they have been given leadership (whether in gifting or position); ironically, just as Leo, it came to be found out, was already a master sage, and just as Jesus was already the Son of God. Service is not a means; it is an expression of their nature as true and good leaders. So too is humility.

Humility is not a means to our exaltation as if we could manhandle our souls into the correct state of humiliation that qualifies us for glorification. Rather, humility is an expression of the true and good nature of one who has been the recipient of a "good gift and... perfect gift...the implanted word, which is able to save our souls" (James 1:17-21).

We are exalted, raised up by "the Father of lights" who, "Of his own will...brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures" (James 1:17-18); therefore, our right action is to be humbled before the Lord. The nature of the exalted ones, raised to, not earning our position but gifted it, is to be humble. 

So, if humbling ourselves is not a means to an end, but a means of participating in our true nature with faith, then how do we go about it without falling into the "servant leadership" trap? Well, as we discussed on Sunday, we learn to mourn: 

"Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom" (James 4:9)

Mourning allows us to remember what was and what has been received, and so, live with joyful courage and wise compassion. So, will you join me in humbling ourselves through mourning this week, not as a means to get something but as a natural response to what we have received? Here is how. 

Read James 4:9-17


(Re)Listen or Watch(!) the Sermon


Reflect & Share

First with the Lord and then with your GC or a faith-filled friend: 

Where have I condemned others because I failed to grieve my sins?

How can my grieving Sin lead to my submitting to and discerning of God's will?

What would be different tomorrow if I humbled myself through faith at work within me?

May our participation in the faith at work within us lead us to experience the wondrous reality that indeed: 

"Blessed [already happy] are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." (Matthew 5:4) 

 
Love you, faith family. God bless. 

A Jealous God?

Dear Faith Family,   

 

"Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, 'He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us'?" (James 4:5)

Is it weird to think of God, the Creator and Sustainer of all that is, "yearning" for something? Perhaps more odd is to think of God, to whom all things belong, as being "jealous" for something. Still, topping off the strangness is to think that God, the One who forms and knows us, is longingly desirous not for something in general, but for you, for me, for us particularly. 

Stop for a moment and consider James' exhortation. Do you not suppose that there is some reason that our scriptures speak of God in such a way? What could that reason be? Why would God yearn jealously for the life He has given you, for you specifically? 

I hope, like David in Psalm 139, your contemplation leads to a God-glorifying, joyous knowledge of yourself and God deep in your soul. But, in case you didn't get there, whether in the hurry of finishing this email or because of the intimidation of considering a jealous God, let's take a quick look at the context of James' question. 

Immediately preceding his question, James, rather dramatically, declares: 

"You adultresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend with the world makes himself an enemy of (in opposition with) God." (James 4:4)

Okay, admittedly, James' statement does not exactly relieve anxiety around a jealous deity. Still, as we discussed on Sunday, it does clear up the image of our relationship to God. Think about it.

In one sense, verse four is a rebuke. We are accused of uniting ourselves spiritually and practically with someone, something that is not the one we are married to. As we learned on Sunday, "friendship" in the ancient world implied a soul-giving kind of relationship. And while true friendship is indeed a virtue, don't miss what James is contrasting lesser good and giving with: covenantal marriage. 

Yes, by calling us adulterers, James is saying that we are being unfaithful, but not unfaithful to just any idea we have of God, but to a particular vision of God as our faithful, covenanted husband. God as our lover, beholder, giver of Himself. A vision of God as the One who longs for us, and, as One in love with us, expecting and anticipating the reciprocation of the covenantal commitment from us. In other words, while verse four gets to the issue of our hearts, it does so by revealing the heart of God toward us. God is generously, selflessly, lovingly committed to the fundamental goodness of our relationship with Him. 

So, says James, "Submit yourselves therefore to God..." (James 4:7). Be committed, devoted to the One who committed and devoted to you. After all, that is the end of faith, to see God truly. A sight we behold when we are singularly committed, not "double-minded" (James 1:8, 4:8). Or, in the words of Jesus, 

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." (Matthew 5:8) 

So, will you join me and participate in the faith at work within us, clearing up the vision of ourselves and of our God? Here is how: 

Read James 4:1-10


(Re)Listen or Watch(!) the Sermon


Reflect & Share

First with the Lord and then with your GC or a faith-filled friend: 

Who am I devoted to? Myself? The enemy? God?

In what ways does my faith lead to my humility, and therefore, to grace?

What would be different tomorrow if I responded devotedly to faith at work within me?

May our faith lead to our faithfulness. 
 
Love you, faith family. God bless. 

A Shot To The Gut

Dear Faith Family,   

 

"Who is wise and understanding among you?" 
(James 3:13)

Right about the halfway mark of his letter, James asks his first demanding question. Oh sure, he's asked a handful of thought-provoking questions before this one. Questions rhetorical in nature. Questions whose answers are contextually obvious and so meant to loosen our defenses and weaken our resistance to James' argument. By now, we are caught up in the flow of James' exhorting observations. And with our guard down, James lands a gut-checking blow: Who is wise and understanding among you?

Unlike the questions before, the question at the center of James demands not merely thoughtfulness or right information, but examination and evidence. James does not ask "What is wisdom?" or "How do we understand?" but rather, "Who?" Who is wise? Who is understanding? You? Me? Another?

As listeners, we are compelled to consider, Am I wise and understanding? What about my spouse, my parent, my friend, my teacher, my boss, my neighbor, my pastor, etc.? Are they wise and understanding? How do I know? How can I discern and defend my answer?

Graciously, James provides us with the parameters for discernment rather promptly:

Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. (James 3:13)

James will go on to describe the particulars of this "good conduct" by which we evidence wise living in verses 17-18. Before doing so, as is common in ancient wisdom literature, he describes the root of its opposite in verses 14-16. By providing us with what evidence to look for, James frees our minds to examine the why. Why is this person wise and understanding, and that person not? Why am I wise and understanding, or why am I not? 

As we discussed on Sunday, the difference between being wise and understanding, and not, according to James, is not a matter of intelligence nor even primarily a matter of knowing what is right, but is a disposition of the heart: "let him show his work in the meekness of wisdom." Why is one wise and another not? It is, as much as anything, a heart issue. A quality of heart that is shared with the One who is "meek and lowly in heart," with whom we find rest (salvation) for our souls (Matthew 11:29, James 1:21). 

James says that faith at work within leads to living wisely, "a harvest of righteousness" as "authors of peace" (3:18) no less. But only if we drop our guard a bit and are willing to get the breath knocked out of us a bit, so that the Breath of Life might fill our lungs. So, will you join me in letting down our guard so that James' question might land a proper blow? Here is how: 

Read James 3:13-18


(Re)Listen or Watch(!) the Sermon


Reflect & Share

First with the Lord and then with your GC or a faith-filled friend: 

Where do envy and self-interest exist within my heart?

Am I authoring peace in my roles, responsibilities, and relationships?
How or why not?

What would tomorrow look like if I responded wisely to faith at work within me?

May our works -- all that we do in word and deed to make life, good -- show our hearts in the meekness of wisdom. 
 
Love you, faith family. God bless. 

Letting Faith Live

Dear Faith Family,    

"The very moment you separate body and spirit, you end up with a corpse. Separate faith and works and you get the same thing: a corpse." (James 2:26)

What is faith? Is it an affirmation of the essence of God, an acknowledgment of what God is and what he does? Certainly, for faith to endure, to bring us to full maturity and our purposed end, faith must be built on a sure foundation. And there is no more certain foundation than the unchanging nature and purposes of God. Yet, as James' letter has revealed, there is more to faith than a knowledge of what is true. 

Faith, as James describes it and as Dylan helped us see on Sunday, is a force of life. Faith, it seems, moves us through the daily stimuli of existing towards the telos, or perfection of life (1:4): to be "called a friend of God" (2:23). 

Faith, as Dylan pointed out, is not a matter of perfection, but it is a means, a continually transforming journey through life towards Goodness. That is, unless our faith "is dead" (2:17) or spiritless. True faith, faith that "counts with God," it seems, is living, active, a "seemless unity of believing and doing." 

James says that faith at work within us is more (not less) than right thinking or belief. Faith is right living. To try and separate the two is like trying to live without breathing. So, will you join me in taking the pulse on the work of faith in us this week? Here is how: 

Read James 2:14-26


(Re)Listen or Watch(!) the Sermon


Reflect & Share

First with the Lord and then with your GC or a faith-filled friend: 

In what ways is my faith "dead"? 

Where is faith spiriting my work? 

What would a living faith at work in and through me look like tomorrow?

May there be a seamless unity of our believing and doing, a living faith at work within us. 
 
Love you, faith family. God bless. 

Playing Favorites

Dear Faith Family,   

 
"My brothers and sisters, not with receiving the face hold the faith the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory." (James 2:1)

What is your favorite ice cream? How about sports team? Where is your favorite vacation destination? Which one of your kids (or someone else's!) is your favorite? 

We all have favorites: things, places, even people we prefer over others. Most of our "faves" are harmless proclivities shaped by our taste buds, positive experiences, and even traditions: like always choosing to grab the tub of Texas Two Step out of the grocer's freezer, celebrating three Super Bowl victories in four years, or the sure, joyous, and yearly relief from the summer heat via a cool Rocky Mountain evening.

There is no harm in such unique, particular inclinations. I doubt the tub of Strawberry feels left out when passed over, nor the Rangers or Mavs slighted in their rankings, and I know the beach doesn't miss this pale skin. However, when our preferences shift from objects to persons, our predilection for people carries weightier implications. 

Did the last question in the sequence above make you a little uncomfortable? Even if you do not have children, you know better than to ask someone who their favorite child is. Why is that?

There seems to be an almost instinctual knowledge that having favorites within the family never leads to the good: whether of the favored, the one favoring, or the family as a whole. Perhaps because we know that it is difficult (if not impossible) not to treat the preferred differently from the others. That, especially with people, favorites lead — even unwittingly — to favoritism. 

Favoritism, or partiality, as Chaz helped us see on Sunday, is a failure to see beyond "the face" of the persons we encounter. It is to "receive the face" only, to see persons only through our preferences, and so misjudge and miss out on who they truly are. With such blurry vision, we cannot help but miss the mark. No wonder James says that "if you show partiality you are committing sin" (2:9). 

So, if we are going to "be perfect and complete, lacking nothing" (1:4), as James encourages, we have to see the world and people differently. Mature individuals are parts and participants in a complete collective. Each part seen and honored for its intrinsic good, and recognizing and honoring the same in the other parts. In other words, we have to see "the glory" of the other. 

Seeing the "glory," that God-present-and-approved-goodness, of the other is a work of faith. This is why James, after exhorting us to respond to "the word of truth... implanted" in us, to participate in faith at work within us, says in 2:1, "show no partiality" or "Don't play favorites..."

But how? How do we get past our personal preferences and conditioned biases and see the glory of the other? Well, says James, we remember how "the Lord of glory" judges, or rightly sees, us: 

"So speak and act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment." (2:12-13) 

James says that faith at work changes the way we see and treat the other, maybe most explicitly the not-so-favored; whoever that might be for you and me. So, will you join me in participating in the work of faith this week? Here is how: 

Read James 2:1-13


(Re)Listen or Watch(!) the Sermon


Reflect & Share

First with the Lord and then with your GC or a faith-filled friend: 

Do I see only the face, or the divine Glory in the other?

Has the mercy I've received become visible in my judgment?

Does the other see it?

May we see as we are seen, and judge as we are judged. 
 
Love you, faith family. God bless. 

Wisdom Requires It

Dear Faith Family,   

 
"Know this, my beloved brothers and sisters: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God." (James 1:19-20)

Proverbial wisdom, by definition, is practical, everyday knowledge passed down from one generation to the next to help the sprouting fruitfully navigate the conditions of maturing. It's a kind of "folk knowledge" of how things work, an earthy wisdom, if you will. 

James' letter reads like earthy wisdom from an old farmer. Pointing out to the up-and-comers the nature of things as he walks the field: what to notice in the process of producing, what labor to avoid, when to do this step, and what to do when this happens, etc. It is hard to picture him as anything less, especially as you hear the old farmer saying with enduring expectation, "wait for the precious fruits of the earth" which will be brought forth when what you cannot provide, "the early and the late rains" (5:7), are provided for you. 

It is the folky or ordinary practicality of James that has attracted many to this letter over the centuries. But here is the thing, especially for us city-folk (speaking for myself here, anyway!) and products of post-enlightenment scientific processes (that's all of us!), it is easy to hear the short, memorable sayings like the one emboldened above, as basic information, a step-by-step instruction on how to do something. Yet, such proverbs are "wisdom," not mere information. They offer us insight into the inner qualities and relationships of things and processes, so that we might properly respond or relate to what is happening within and around us as we seek to make life good. 

If James is offering us wisdom—insight into the inner qualities and relationships of faith at work, into how faith works, as we saw last week—then we need to read James more contemplatively. Or, to put it another way, we should read James asking questions of the old farmer, and considering them long enough to discern the wisdom being passed down, much like we tried to do on Sunday. 

So, here is what I invite you to do with me this week: 

Read James 1:19-27

(Re)Listen or Watch(!) the Sermon

Reflect & Share

First with the Lord and then with your GC or a faith-filled friend: 

How am I responding to faith? Am I quick to listen (to what?), slow to speak (a brideled tongue), slow to anger (meek)?

Do I live true to myself in Christ, participating with Christ in the labors of my day, free to be self-giving and free from all that binds?

What would look different tomorrow if I responded to faith and lived true?

May our hearts be fixed, like wise enduring farmers, for indeed, "the coming of the Lord is at hand" (5:8). 
 
Love you, faith family. God bless. 

How Does Faith Work?

Dear Faith Family,   

 

"Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures." (James 1:18)

The verse above is probably not the one that first pops into mind when someone mentions the Letter of James. More than likely, verses like these are more familiar: "Do not be hears of the word, but doers also" (1:22), "faith without works is dead" (2:26), "no human can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil" (3:8), "Resist the devil and he will flee from you" (4:7), or "The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective" (5:16).

Nevertheless, it is the concluding line of James' opening thoughts (at least, most Bibles place a break after verse 18) that helps us understand what one commentator refers to as "both the most celebrated and most criticized of all New Testament books."

As we discussed on Sunday, James desires the family of faith to see faith at work. James wants us to understand and actively participate in the work of faith, which brings us to full maturity as individuals and brings our lives together in Christ toward our perfection, our telos, our purposed end.

Look again at verse 18. From these words, we could say that what God starts in history and in us, he finishes in history through us. Indeed, we are caught up in the end, or at least the unfolding end, of God's good desire for the world, and James wants to make sure we don't miss out what faith in such a reality is at work producing in and through us. 

That, too, is my hope as we walk through James together this summer. My prayer for our faith family is that we might not miss out on the life that faith is developing within us and for those around us. 

Still, there are reasons why James is not just beloved, but also debated. After all, the great reformer Luther only reluctantly considered it part of the canon and never wrote a commentary on it*. So, it might be helpful for us to hear James's words with a bit of context and elaboration. Here is what I invite you to do this week:

Read James 1:1-18

(Re)Listen to the Sermon

Reflect & Share

First with the Lord and then with your GC or a faith-filled friend. Process any emotions, thoughts, doubts, or affirmations that arise as you reflect on the following:
 
James contends that life's disturbances help ensure our maturation and completion. Indeed, God-orchestrated exposure to the trials of making life, good, activates and purifies our faith, ensuring we reach the end of our potential: the work of God being complete in history through our maturation. 

May we be "perfect and complete, lacking nothing" by the grace of faith at work. 
 
Love you, faith family. God bless. 

* I mispoke on Sunday. I said that Calvin failed to write a commentary on James. It was Luther who did not write a commentary. Calvin included commentary on James in his writings on what are called the "Catholic Epistles," or "universal letters" (James, 1-2 Peter, 1-3 John, & Jude). 

How We Keep Get(ting) Out of Work

Dear Faith Family,   

 

"Scheduled habits defend from chaos and whim.

They are a net for catching days." 
(Annie Dillard)

If "work," truly is everything that we do in word or deed to make a life, good; and not just the labor through which we make money. If "work" is "a way of life in which the nature of humanity should find its proper exercise and delight and so fulfill itself to the glory of God," then how do we do so? How can we be getting out of work the whole and holiness for which we (and it) are made? 

Well, the too-simple-yet-not-reductionist answer is: habits. More specifically, the scheduled habits of entering the roles and responsibilities we are given, recollecting ourselves within them, and exiting our daily labors into the rest of what is finished. 

There is an old wisdom that knows we cannot get out of work its essential goodness without intentionality, without structured, scheduled habits that, as Annie Dillard's quote above reminds us, keep us from being tossed about in the chaos and by the whims of whatever and whomever we find ourselves throughout the day. Schedule habits ensure that we catch the day, rather than letting it slip away. Likewise, continues Dillard, scheduled habits, "are scaffolds on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time." They free us to do our work from a steady, secure footing, allowing us to "serve the work" with full attention and effort. 

Scheduled habits are "a peace and a haven set into the wreck of time… a lifeboat on which you find yourself, decades later, still living." And since our goal is not merely to do good work today, but to live a good life through the work we have been crafted to join Jesus in doing, perhaps we should consider the scheduled habits that will help us reach our end. 

While there is no shortage of habits, rules, and liturgies handed down through the centuries by our faithful foreparents to give structure to our days, I'd like to suggest three scheduled habits to help us get out of work, the life we have been gifted in Christ. 

The Lord's Prayer For Work
A Centering Prayer At Work 
The Examen For Work's End 

I provide brief instructions for each of these scheduled habits below. But, before you jump to them, I would suggest you take a few minutes to (Re)Listen to Sunday's Sermon. Doing so will both help you see how the scheduled habits fit within a day, as well as the context that allows them to be something more than routines. 


May we find the joy in our serving that which we have been empowered and gifted to do. 

Love you, faith family. God bless. 

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

THE LORD'S PRAYER FOR WORK

When: Each morning before you start doing anything else. 

What: Pray the words adapted from Jesus' instructions. 

Our Father in heaven, let your name be treated with reverence.          
Your kingdom come, Your will be done, through me, in my place as it is in heaven.
 
I give my whole self to you through the work you have given me this day.
 
Give us this day our bread for tomorrow,
and forgive us our debts =, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever,
           
which you share with me through Christ.
 Amen.

A CENTERING PRAYER AT WORK

When: Schedule three times during the day when you know you will be prone to being distracted, disoriented, bored, or in need of being attentive to God's presence. 

What: Pray this simple prayer while...

Breathing In: "I am..." (hold your breath for 3 seconds, then) 
Breathing Out: "...still with you." (then get back to work!) 

THE EXAMEN FOR WORK'S END

When: The last thing you do before you go to sleep. 

What: Ask the Holy Spirit to examine your day and show you when you were: 

Working out-of-step with Jesus (repent, resting in His mercies new every morning) 

and then ask to see when you were…

Working in rhythm with Jesus (affirm the effectiveness of God's good design)

Then let the Spirit lead your body and soul into the rest at work's end.

Finding Rest...In Your Work

Dear Faith Family,   

 

"Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest." 
(Matthew 11:28)

Relief from the pains of our daily labors is an old desire. And I mean real, old. The first cry for rescue from the weight of work goes all the way back to Noah's father, Lamech, who (desperately?) hoped through his son for a way of life different: 

"Out of the ground the LORD has cursed this one shall bring us relief from our work and the painful toil of our hands." (Genesis 5:29)

While Noah's living did not bring the full relief that his father longed for, God's just mercy through Noah, and Noah's subsequent gratitude, did restore something: 

"Then Noah built an altar to the LORD... And when the LORD smelled the restful aroma, the LORD said in his heart, 'I will never again curse the ground because of man... Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you..." (Genesis 8:20-21, 9:9) 

While work would not cease, and neither would pain in the toil, what would also not cease (8:22) would be the invitation for humanity to partner with God in their labors of making life, good. A covenant partnership that began with Adam (and Eve), was reframed with Noah (and his family), became the guiding vision of Abraham (and his descendants), was pedigolically reconstituted with Moses (and the people of Israel), which persisted through the heart of David (and his lineage), which found its fullness in the person and work of Jesus, and now is extended to all those who hear and respond to his invitation to rest through shared labor: 

"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." (Matthew 11:28-29)

We, like Noah's father, long for relief from work and its weight, and we, like Noah, find that what Jesus provides for us is not, no work, but a shared load. More precisely, sharing Jesus' work, work, as the apostle Paul exhorts, which,  

"He creates each of us in Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing." (Ephesians 2:10)

Your work, whatever it is that you do to make life, good--is where you will find rest for your soul. That is Jesus' invitation, isn't it? Not simply to rest from labor, but to find in our labors the rest, satisfaction. What keeps us from this rest? Well, as we discussed on Sunday, that is not a work issue, but a heart issue.

Work is a good design of God that does not wear life down but brings it (and all that we are in it) into rest: spiritual, mental, and bodily satisfaction. But, only if we learn to work with a heart like Jesus: "learn from me, for I am meek and lowly in heart" (Matt. 11:29).

What did not change in Noah's day, "the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth" (Gen. 8:21), can change, must change, in Jesus' day (and all the days after): "But this is the new covenant... I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts..." (Jer. 31:33). 

So, how do we begin to learn from Jesus, to share not only his work made for us, but also his heart? Here is how I encourage you to join me in getting to work this week. 

1. (Re)Listen to Sunday's Sermon. 

2. Consider: What labor & loads have I taken on that are not mine in Christ? What labors & loads are mine that I am trying to offload to others?

3. Attend: In what labors & loads has my soul experienced rest?

May we begin to find rest in our work this week. 

Love you, faith family. God bless. 

Serve The Work...Yeah, You Heard Right

Dear Faith Family,   

 

"brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God… present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship [rational service]." (Romans 12:1)

Work, contends Dorothy Sayers, is not simply the labor we get paid to do, and so something we do to live. Rather, work is "a way of life in which the nature of humanity should find its proper exercise and delight and so fulfill itself to the glory of God." 

What if one reason we struggle with "work," desiring to get out of it (or using it only to get out of it some thing we desire), is that our understanding of what "work" is, is, well, off? What if a part of our contentious relationship with work is that we are not thinking of work correctly, Biblically? What if, as we have suggested, work is not primarily what you get paid for, but everything you do in word or deed to make a life, good? Work, indeed, is what we are made for in Christ. 

"…we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us in Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing." (Ephesians 2:9-10, MSG)

But is renewal of the mind enough? Is thinking about work rightly, going to change what we get out of work? It is certainly a start, but as our experiences in life and our scriptures testify, for work to be a "delight," and not drudgery, we have to give something more than just our minds to it. 

As we discussed on Sunday, to get out of work, the joy of its essential goodness, we have to "serve the work," as "the medium in which one offers oneself to God." We, in the words of Paul, are to submit our wills through our work, "offering our bodies as a living sacrifice" through our work. 

What we see in our scriptures, and in the life of Jesus especially, is that we do NOT offer our work to God. We submit our wills to God through our work. Work is a medium of offering, not the offering itself. Read that last sentence again, slowly. 

What we are saying is that I don't offer my work to the Lord today, but I offer myself, my whole self, through the work gifted and crafted specifically for me. I give myself to the work, for this specific life I live in Christ is God's will, God's good, prepared for me in Christ to get in on so that my "joy may be full" (Jn. 15:11). 

Perhaps one reason we try to get out of work is that we are not willing to "serve the work." Rather than delight, work is drudgery or just a means to something that won't last. So, how do we begin to change what we are getting out of work? Here is how I encourage you to join me in getting to work this week. 

1. (Re)Listen to Sunday's Sermon. 
2. Consider: What would be different if I "served the work" tomorrow?
3. Attend: Where have I experienced the goodness of someone "serving the work"?

May we find the joy in our serving that which has been crafted and gifted for us to do. 

Love you, faith family. God bless. 

Getting To Work

Dear Faith Family,   

 

"He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing."
(Ephesians 2:10)

What if we believed that all the adversaries of our souls have been destroyed by the finished work of Jesus on the cross? What if we believed that we are not left alone, not meant to figure life out, not left to wander through our days, but shown, taught, and guided into God's profound design and destiny with Jesus, alive again and forever? What would such a life look like?  

In many ways, "such a life" is what we are encouraged to envision after Easter. A life that is as much a return to something (a resurrection of something) as it is experienced as new in our now. A life whole and holy in the rhythmic movement of Sabbathing into Work and Working into Sabbath. At least that has been our contention for the last half-decade as a faith family. 

Still, the question remains, what if we believed, really believed, lived like we believed that what the apostle Paul said was actually true, actually the reality that we wake into every new day? What if we lived as if we were indeed created and reborn in Christ Jesus, to join him in the work he has begun for us to do, the good work we had better be doing? 

Perhaps if we believed the exhortation of our faith, we'd think about "work" differently. We'd not only think of work as everything we do to make life, good; we might even consider that:

"…work is not, primarily, a thing one does to live, but the thing one lives to do. It is, or it should be, the full expression of the worker's faculties, the thing in which one finds spiritual, mental, and bodily satisfaction, and the medium in which one offers themself to God." (Dorothy Sayers) 

Let that sink in for a moment. Sayers is not saying that we do not need resources to survive. Nor is she arguing that such resources may not be a product of our labor. What she is saying is that if we see work as a means to living, rather than as living itself, something we do for something else rather than something we do because of who we are, we will be in constant struggle, a constant bartering for the good rather than a servant of it. 

Perhaps one reason we try to get out of work is that we are trying to get the wrong thing out of work. So, how do we begin to change what we are getting out of work? Here is how I encourage you to join me in getting to work this week. 

1. (Re)Listen to Sunday's Sermon. 
2. Consider: Do I believe that work is what I live to do? Why not?
3. Attend: Where have I seen the God-glorifying goodness of someone working as a "full expression" of who and whose they are?  

May we find ourselves not working to get something, but doing the work gifted to us. 

Love you, faith family. God bless. 

Working For The Weekend

Dear Faith Family,    

"Work six days, doing everything you have to do, but the seventh day is a Sabbath, a Rest Day—no work..."
(Deuteronomy 5:13-14)

Everybody's working for the weekend. I bet you cannot read that sentence again without singing it, even if you are not a child of the '80's or know any of the other words to the song! Leave it to Canadian rock to provide the anthem for multiple generations of adulting: "Everybody's working for the weekend." 

Stuck in the drudgery of the never-ceasing treadmill of work as a means to an end, an end that has, sadly, become increasingly less clear and distant, the weekend at least provides some thing, some place to arrive, even if we cannot stay long. The irony, of course, is that we are actually made to work into the week's end, into "rest" with God in what is finished. Thankfully for us, the end of our week is also its beginning, a day of receiving the peace and wholeness of life with God as we go into making life good with God.

This rhythm of going somewhere because of where we always are, is different from the treadmill we've become all too familiar with. And the difference is the week's end to which we work. A day, as we were reminded on Sunday, gifted to us at the beginning (Gen. 2:2-3), commanded as fundamental to being fully human (Ex. 20:8-11), and proclaimed as an act of defiant freedom in our life of promise (Deut. 5:12-15). 

Like work, we Sabbath not to get something, but because we have been given something. Remember what Jesus said,

"The Sabbath was made for humanity, not humanity for the Sabbath."

(Mark 2:27)

To Sabbath is to be free, is indeed the free choice of grace. So, keep working for the weekend! Here is how I encourage you to join me in doing so this week. 

1. (Re)Listen to Sunday's Sermon. 
2. Consider: Why do I resist God's rest, rather than resting as resistance?
3. Attend: Check out the Sabbath resources made for us by clicking here. 

May we find our end this weekend, and in the days that get us there. 

Love you, faith family. God bless. 

How We Begin Getting Out of Work

Dear Faith Family,   

 

Whatever you do, work from the soul, as for the Lord and not for humanity…"
(Colossians 3:23)

What would it take to follow the apostle Paul's exhortation to "work from the soul"? To work from the core of who you are, what makes you uniquely you in the image of your Maker? Well, as we discussed on Sunday, it takes several things. 

First, we'd have to recognize the truth of our relationship to work. While we are often guilty of trying to get out of work, or using work to get something else we want, the truth in our story's beginnings is that work is not a curse to avoid nor an obstacle to overcome, but the good in which we are made. Work has its pains, but it is not because work is cursed, but rather the "intentions of the thoughts of the hearts" of the workers, like us, are twisted. Still, according to the story, our off-the-mark nature is bound within the grace of God's persistent-as-the-sunrise-and-seasons promise, his covenant to preserve life good in partnership with us. 

What was true at the beginning is being renewed in Jesus, and once we recognize that reality, we can embrace a fuller understanding of work. Work, according to the story, is everything we do in partnership with God to bless others for the flourishing of the world, everything we do to make life good. That's why Dorothy Sayers can describe, 

"work… should be looked upon—not as a necessary drudgery to be undergone for the purpose of making money, but as a way of life in which the nature of man should find its proper exercise and delight and so fulfill itself to the glory of God... For a man's work is the measure of man's life, and a man's satisfaction is found in the fulfillment of his own nature…."

Once we recognize the extraordinary grace that enables us to make life good, and understand that everything we do, in word or deed, to make good life for others is the good work for which we experience our good, then the question becomes: how? How do we live into this (re)new(ed) life in Christ? Well, the apostle Paul helps us there, too: 

"If then you have been raised with Christ... renewed in knowledge after the image of [our] creator... put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. (Colossians 3:1,10, 14)

The original language suggests not that we put on love in some general sense, but rather, that we put on the love which brings all of life into "perfect harmony" with the (re)created order and intent of its Creator. Only when we dress ourselves in the Love from which we exist and persist as preparation to enter the labors of another day, can we love the specifics of the work for which we are uniquely fashioned and providentially placed—loving work, not for what we accomplish through it, but for its essential goodness and ours. \

This is how we begin to work from the soul: recognizing the grace of our story's beginning and its renewal in Christ so that we might more fully understand what our good, the good is, which is our participation in blessing that leads to flourishing bound by Love. Such recognition is a beginning, but not all there is to the story. Still, it is where we must begin if we are going to stop trying to get out of work and (re)discover what we are meant to be Get(ting) Out of Work. So, let's begin by... 

1. (Re)Listen to Sunday's Sermon. 

2. Consider: What am I missing in our love(lessness) of work? 

3. Attend: Where have I witnessed love at work, been the recipient of someone working from their soul? 

May the loveliness of the LORD rest upon us, confirming the work that we do. 

Love you, faith family. God bless. 

Get(ting) Out of Work

Dear Faith Family,   

 

"And whatever you do
[everything done to make or construct your life: i.e., work],
in word or deed,
do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus
[in loyalty and in the way of Jesus],
giving thanks to God the Father through him
[acknowledging God's grace works well through Jesus]."
(Colossians 3:17)

Where do we go after Easter? After the long pilgrimage of the Lenten season has led us through the depths of our own brokenness and Christ's on our behalf. After we have remembered the weight which Jesus carried for us and witnessed the wonder of His shedding of it for us, too. Where do we go when the new day has dawned, and the celebration is over? Well, like true pilgrims, we return home, to the ordinary rhythms of living, to the relationships of work and play, prayer and rest. 

Over the years, our faith family has used this time after Easter to help one another re-enter that whole and holy rhythm of Sabbathing into work and working into Sabbath, which life resurrected makes both possible and compelling. As the image above reminds us, we have developed a range of practices and resources to support our re-tuning. 

At the heart of the matter, we believe that we are made, re-made even, to participate in the fullness of our days on earth by resting with God in His finished work, and joining with God in His continued work. Sabbath and Work, rest and responsibility in relationship, are what make life. 

Still, as straight as the path at home may be, we have had to acknowledge our struggles in keeping step. Restless hearts are, after all, notoriously elusive, evading capture and quieting. And so, Sabbath remains foreign or feigned. Yet rest is subjective, and a holy day antiquated, so no need to lose sleep over figuring out the opening chord of creation's melody. But work, work is a different story. 

Work does bring sleepless nights, along with the anxiety from its burden. Work, at least in our modern perspective, is an obstacle (even if a necessary one) keeping us from a good life. Either it is something we get through to get to what we want, or something we avoid to do what we want. However you look at it, we are caught trying to get out of work. Why is that? 

If we are made to work and believe that working is fundamentally good, then why do we want to get out of work? Better yet, if we are made to work, if work is fundamentally good, what should we be getting out of work? 

Those are the questions we'll be attempting to answer as we return to the ordinary rhythms of life after our journey of Bright Sadness. And, as we discovered on Sunday, it seems our generation is not the first to desire relief from our labors, nor the first to recognize that life in rhythm begins and ends with thankfulness... acknowledging that the grace of God works well.

So, as our pilgrimage makes the (re)turn home, I invite you to join me in considering and attending to where we go after Easter. Here is how: 

1. (Re)Listen to Sunday's Sermon. 
2. Consider: In what ways do I try to get out of work? 
3. Attend: Where have I recognized God's grace working well in my work? 

Love you, faith family. God bless. 

From This Day Into The Days

Dear Faith Family,    

"Save us, we pray, O LORD!
O LORD, we pray, give us success!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD!"  
(Psalm 118:25-26)

Today is the midpoint of Holy Week, that final stretch of the pilgrimage of Bright Sadness that we started six weeks ago today. Along the journey, we have told the story of sin as our story, a story of moving away from God, not by feet or across great distances, but spirited by disorder lust, springing from a twisted will. And while we can not escape this story, we also cannot tell our story truthfully without telling the intertwining story of redemption. 

To be human is to be created from love with purpose and potential, only to fall away from both by our own willful entanglement with the deceiver, and, simultaneously, to be persistently and providentially pursued, drawn back to the "good" and "very good" of our beginnings, to life with God, by none other than God himself. And so, we have learned to say, 

"But since you are not ruthless in searching out our faults, we trustingly hope for a place in your house... If only humans would acknowledge being human, and anyone minded to boast would boast in the Lord!" (St. Augustine)

Boasting in the Lord, is where the final week of the Lenten season began. O Sunday, like those in Jerusalem nearly two thousand years ago, we joined in singing Psalm 118 as we see Jesus approaching the means by which he unites our story with His.

"The next day, the large crowd that had come to the [Passover] feast heard Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, 'Hosanna! [Save, we pray!] Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!'

And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it was written [in Zechariah 9:9] 'Fear not, daughter of Zion: behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt!' Jesus' disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him.

The crowd that had been with Jesus when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign."
(John 12:12-18)

Perhaps anticipating another sign, a glimpse of God's power to restore the good and very good within humanity and the world, the crowd goes out to meet the one who has come to save, follows him through the streets of the city of God, and, as the other three gospels testify, to the temple itself, the place where we meet and are made right with God. Here, as Mark tells us, Jesus entered.
 

"And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve." (Mark 11:11)

 
 
So much for another sign, whether the end of the oppression by the Roman overlords, or the restoration of God's glory upon the temple, or the easing of labor, or the abundance of land and life, or the end of evil. Whatever was expected or anticipated did not arrive with Jesus in Jerusalem that day. Yet, what was needed and necessary—what would ultimately, fully, and forever change the course of history and the human story—did arrive with the humble King upon a long-promised donkey, to do not what was expected but what was promised and what was effective for our salvation. 
 
Unlike the people and disciples on this day nearly two thousand years ago, we do not need to shout "Save, we pray," "Hosanna!" in ignorance or veiled hope. We have seen Jesus glorified on the cross and risen from the tomb. Therefore, we "add [our] own 'hosannas' to the festive shouts and implicit prayers" of those who have looked to Jesus' arrival to save us not from what we think, want, or will, but from what truly binds us, and doing so for all time.
 
 So, today, in the middle of the final days of our yearly pilgrimage, let us join our voices in prayer, proclaiming what we see in Jesus because of what he walked through in the days we are about to remember. 

TODAY

• Prayerfully and slowly, and with eyes wide open to all that Jesus is and has done, pray these words: 

This is the day that you have made, O Lord; we will rejoice and be glad in it. We will give thanks to you, for you are good; your steadfast love endures forever!

Hosanna! Save me, O Lord! I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. You are my God and I give you thanks; you are my God and I sing your praise.
 
Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord—the righteous King of kings, the ruler of all the earth. Hosanna... Save We Pray… in the highest!
 
Hosana! Save We Pray! Blessed are you, our leader! Our high priest! Our holy sacrifice! Our Savior!
Hosanna… Save We Pray… in the highest!

MAUNDY THURSDAY

• Join us for dinner @ 6 pm as we remember Jesus' final meal with his disciples and friends. Then, stay afterwards and spend some time with our friends ministering in Southeast Asia, the Fairs! Full details here. 

GOOD FRIDAY

• Join the Church as we reflect on the cross of Jesus. We encourage you to do so either...

@ noon with St. Barts 
or 
@ 7 pm with LHBC 

HOLY SATURDAY

• Spend ten minutes asking and letting God do what Psalm 139:23-24 encourages: 

"Search me, O God, and know my heart! 
Examine me, and know my disquieted thoughts! 
See if there be any grievous way in my living,
And lead me in the way ancient and everlasting!"

EASTER SUNDAY

• Join us as we celebrate Christ Jesus risen @ 10 am! 

Love you, faith family. God bless.