The Lost Coin

Do you remember finding a penny when you were little? Maybe it was on the sidewalk or in the parking lot. It was your lucky day!

Here's a quick question: Do you still stop for pennies? If you were heading into the grocery store and saw a penny on the ground, would you pick it up? If not a penny, how about a nickel? A dime? A quarter?

What is the value of stopping and reaching to the ground to pick something up?

I ask this because yesterday I noticed a penny on the ground and I walked right by. I'm not sure why. Perhaps I was in a hurry. Or maybe it was too much of a bother. Or maybe it was dirty and would make a mess. Or maybe it seemed a little foolish to get excited over a mere penny.

I really didn't think about it until this morning when I had my devotions and read Luke 15. In this chapter Jesus tells several parables about the heart of God. He talks about the shepherd with 100 sheep who discovers one is missing. He sets out on a long search for that sheep and won't rest until he finds it. He tells the story of the woman who lost a coin and turns the house upside down looking for it. He tells the parable of the "Prodigal Son," which is really about the son who stayed home and didn't share the father's joy at the return of the prodigal.

It made me stop to wonder if I treat people like I do the penny in parking lot. Do I realize the value of the people? Do I stop to consider that the person that I am sitting next to at a basketball game is one for whom Christ died? Or that the clerk at the store is precious to Him?

Do I take the time to stop and demonstrate how important each person is?

Or am I in too much of a hurry? Or is it too much of a bother? Or do I think I might get dirty? Or do I think I would appear foolish?

There is greater joy in heaven over one who repents than ninety-nine who need no repentance.

Your Kingdom Come

This afternoon I spent some time in prayer. I usually use the Lord's Prayer to lend a structure to my prayer times. Today as I prayed "your kingdom come" I spent time submitting myself to His Lordship in my life, but then I began to think about what that meant to me. I recognized that I saw that primarily as a "limiting" thing: I would submit to the circumstances he led me into, that I would avoid sin, that I would seek to obey him, etc.

But what if it means something else? What if submitting to His Lordship also means living in anticipation of what He is going to do? What if submitting to His Lordship means that it is possible to walk on the water? What if submitting to His Lordship means stepping out in faith and seeing Him do miracles? What if submitting to His Lordship means living a "march to the sea and it divides" lifestyle?

In that case, submitting to His Lordship isn't limiting, but launching. It isn't kneeling, but jumping. It isn't silence, but singing.

I actually think that it is both limiting and launching because following Him means releasing our dreams for his and embarking on the greatest adventure of life.

Crazy January Days

I chuckled when I noticed that my last blog entry was about a "Sermonless Sunday". That was two weeks ago. Since then I've been so busy that I haven't had a chance to check my email much less sit down and blog about something. There have been a few issues that have demanded a lot of my time and countless hours on the phone sorting through decisions that needed to be made.

Looking back on things, I realize now that some of it was poor planning on my part, but mostly is was the simple difficulty of decision-making in a church. In the business world it is fairly easy to call a meeting and get everyone around a table to discuss something. If more information is needed then someone is assigned to gather it and the meeting is adjorned for a few hours and then everyone gets back together again. Decisions can be reached fairly quickly and everyone involved hears everything.

In a church setting like our where people travel for miles to get to church it is more difficult to gather people for a meeting. Sometimes that means trying to reach a decision through phone calls rather than face-to-face meetings. Trying to reach consensus about something by means of a dozen phone calls back and forth takes time and energy, particularly if you find yourself at the hub of all of the activity. What could take two or three thirty minute meetings in the business world winds up being several hours of phone calls stretched over a couple of days. It carries with it the danger of someone being out of the loop or misunderstood. Its the nature of the process can sometimes be the stressful for me rather than the actual "issues" involved.

Sometimes during periods like this I can lose perspective. I was reminded of this during my devotional time yesterday. I was reading Luke 8:22-25. Jesus told his disciples that they were going to go to the other side of the lake. He then climbed in the boat and promptly fell asleep. As they were crossing, a squall came down the lake. Water was pouring in the boat and the disciples, some whom were professional fishermen, were terrified that they were going to capsize. They woke Jesus up. Jesus stood up, told the wind to die down, and then asked them where their faith was.

It suddenly dawned on me that the disciples were placing their confidence in their apparent circumstances rather than in God. Think about it. The creator of the universe had just told them that they were going to the other side of the lake. He was with them in the boat. What was going to keep that from happening? A squall? I don't think so!

It's a good thing to remember when things get crazy hard. If you are following God you can be certain that you will reach your destination, even if an occassional squall comes up. In fact, it is seeing the power of God in the midst of the squall that fills us with awe and wonder about this Jesus that we are following.

An Uncomfortable Day in the Hometown

I was reading Luke 4:14-30 and as I pictured the scene playing out in my imagination, there came to be some real challenges for me personally. I'd like to share them with you.

Jesus was a young man of about thirty when he returned to his hometown of Nazareth. His reputation as a preacher preceded him and the synagogue was filled with family, friends and the influential people of Nazareth that day. A hush fell over the crowd as his finger ran down the ancient, hand-copied scroll, finally resting in Isaiah 61. In a calm, clear and firm voice Jesus read the words of the prophet written many years before:

The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

Here is where I encountered my first uncomfortable moment. As a product of upper-middle class suburbia the poor, the prisoners, the blind and the oppressed were things I read about in the textbooks and drove past if I had to go through the city to get to the suburbs on the other side. They were people to be avoided. People created the suburbs to insulate themselves from the problems of poverty and oppression. Yet here is my Lord saying that these were the very people that He had come for. I thought of the U.S. Representative I saw last night on CSpan as he talked about the community he represented in Chicago. It was a poor community totally unlike the one I grew up in. It was a community that struggled with poverty, but it was a community that he loved and was working to help. I had to admit that Jesus would have been at home there. Would I?

As I thought about this I realized that part of my fear, if you can call it that, is that I will be overwhelmed with the problems of other people. How do you help the single mom that barely graduated from high school that is struggling to raise a family? What about the unemployed worker with a bad back that has been self-medicating with alcohol? As I prayed the Lord showed me that I am not the answer. He is. I can build relationships, point people to Him and work for justice in our region. He will do the rest. Isn't that what the Holy Spirit said through Micah?

Every eye was focused on Jesus. Jesus was silent for a moment, allowing the suspense to build. Then he said simply, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." The crowd was "amazed at his gracious words" and "all spoke well of him." The hometown boy could speak well. They were proud of him. There was another undercurrent, though. There were those that actually listen to the implications of what Jesus was saying. This was a passage that talked of the Messiah, the Anointed One, the one who would lead all of Israel! "Isn't this Joseph's son? Where does he get off claiming that?" they asked themselves.

Jesus changed his tone. He told them that a prophet was only without honor in his hometown. He told them that there would be no show for them. He told them that the prophets of old didn't do tricks for the folks back home.

They were furious! In fact, they tried to kill him by throwing him off the cliff, but he got away and went on to Capernaum.

Note to self: Remember to keep the back door locked in the new building. It is way too close to the cliff for me to survive a "bad sermon".

Seriously, I wondered why the home-folks reacted this way. Why didn't they accept Jesus? Was it familiarity? I mean, could it be that they couldn't handle the fact that Jesus wasn't who they thought he was...he was really the Messiah? If so, is it possible for me to think that I know Jesus so well that I dismiss what he really wants to do? In fact, if Jesus wanted to do something new could I find it upsetting?

I knew the answer to that question was yes. It took me some time to work through the implications again of saying, "Jesus, you are the Messiah. You are God. You are the one who I want to lead my life and this church. Help me to keep remember who you truly are and never think I can do things on my own without you. Be my Guide and my Rock." When I finally worked things through, the sense of freedom was incredible. Jesus is the Messiah who has come and is setting the captives free.