What’s Your Story?

Last week we looked at how Jesus is our Contemporary. Jesus speaks to us in our lives, the ones we are living. He speaks to us by the still small voice of the Holy Spirit. He speaks to us through our culture. He speaks to us through other people. He speaks to us through the Scriptures. Jesus speaks to us. If Jesus speaks to us, he also wants to speak through us.

“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Acts 1.8

A witness speaks on behalf of someone. You can be a witness for the prosecution. You can witness a great ballgame. You can witness to Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. We are witnesses for Jesus Christ. We speak on his behalf. We recommend Him to all kinds of people.

But what should that witness look and sound like? What is the substance of our witness?
Our witness is mostly story. It is our story of what God has done in our lives through the grace and presence of Jesus Christ the Lord. We speak to what God has done on our behalf. Now, this witness will contain elements of scriptural truth, reasoning, even tradition and doctrine. But mostly our witness is our story. This is biblical witness – to tell the world what a living, personal God has done for you and others. If you read the Book of Acts you read about Paul’s conversion on three separate occasions – the first is the record of when and where it happened and the second two times are when Paul is witnessing to others. He simply told others how he met Jesus and how that forever changed him. Here is Paul writing to the Hebrews about life-changing faith:

“And what more should I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jepthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets – who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice . . .shut the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign enemies to flight. . .” Hebrews 11.32-34

And so on. What is Paul doing but telling the stories of faith recorded in the Scriptures? He is deliberately connecting those stories to his story. There is power in stories of faith. Through stories people hear how God is not just God of the past but of the present. He is living and active. God can speak to people through doctrine and argument, logic and reason, mathematics and biology. But the way God usually speaks to people is through Story.

“And Jesus told them many things in stories, saying: Listen. A farmer went out to sow his seeds. . .” Matthew 13.3


The fact that God speaks truth in stories is certainly a profound opportunity for the Gospel to connect with fresh power in our times and in this postmodern culture. Much has been made of research and trends suggesting that recent generations are not as swayed by classical Christian apologetics and doctrine as perhaps previous generations. The way to reach people today is through the witness of personal stories of salvation and new life!

There is a program on called Who Do You Think You Are? It features celebrities who through the show’s resources trace back their family history and find out things that they didn’t know or nobody knew about their story. They discover stories about their family’s slave past, or their role in the Civil War, or stories of the Holocaust or a link to royalty. It is a compelling narrative. It teaches something fundamental about who we are – we are, in part, the people whose stories have contributed to our story. I am my grandfather and father, my mother and sisters and brother, my little league coach, my camp counselor, my high school English teacher. They all wrote chapters in my book.

Everybody has a story. But not every story is a faith story. Jesus gives an example of a man who was not living a faithful story. He was prosperous but he was foolish and so he said to himself:

“Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”
Luke 12.19

But in God’s eyes the man was a fool. He was living the wrong story. He was not dealing with reality. He, in fact, did not have much time left. His story, in this world, was soon ended.

Our stories will have a profound effect on our world view and vice versa. I think how we view the world, that is, what we consider to be real, “determines the orientation of everything else we think and do,” Dallas Willard writes. So like the farmer in Jesus’ story, there are many people who have to change their story, their worldview, or both. There are many people you and I know who are not living good stories. And I don’t mean exciting or dramatic stories as our culture defines it. I mean there are a lot of people that are not living stories full of faith. They are living stories not worthy of them as children of God.

Donald Miller muses on this and asks the question, “If you watched a movie about a guy who wanted a Volvo and worked for years to get it, you wouldn’t cry at the end of the movie when the guy drove off the lot. You wouldn’t tell your friends you saw a beautiful movie. . .The truth is, you wouldn’t remember that movie a week later, except you’d feel robbed and want your money back. Nobody cries at the end of a movie about a guy who wants a Volvo. . .

“But we spend our years actually living those stories, and expect our lives to feel meaningful. The truth is, if what we choose to do with our lives won’t make a story meaningful, it won’t make a life meaningful either.”

No one would accuse Yukio Shige of not having meaning and purpose to his story. Shige, a retired detective in Japan, spends his time walking the the Tojinbo cliffs on the coast of the Sea of Japan, an area known for a great number of suicide attempts. If Shige spots someone who is considering jumping, he offers them a gentle “hello” and engages them in conversation. He says things like, “You’ve had a hard time up til now, haven’t you?” He touches them on the shoulder. He invites them for a cup of coffee back at his office. Back there he offers to make them a traditional rice dish with relish called mochi.

“When people come here and eat mochi, they remember their childhood – father, mother, siblings, hometown. They remember they’re not alone,” Shige says.

The ringtone on Shige’s cell phone is “Amazing Grace.” The man is literally saving lives by the story he is by grace now living. We may not have that dramatic an impact with our stories, but people may need to borrow our stories for awhile just to have a little faith. They need the encouraging word, the word of hope that we can give. Our stories may remind them that they’re not alone.

When I share my story I talk about my troubled relationship with my father that ended in grace. I talk about my grandfather who showed how good a man can be. I talk about Bruce, my Little League coach and Sunday school teacher who opened up the scriptures to me. Sometimes I talk about an English teacher or a pastor who saw gifts in me that I didn’t initially see. These people all helped make me who I am, at least the good stuff, and these people were all used by Lord to do his work. They are characters in a story that is not even really about me. The story might have my name attached to it, but the story is a Jesus story. It’s one he’s telling through me, in my life. It’s about him and his kingdom. My story is being caught up in the Big Story.

You’ve got a faith story to tell too. And there are people that need to hear it. They need to start living a better story and they may have to borrow a bit of yours to get started.

On our Communication Card we have these Next Steps:

Make a List of the Influential People In My Life – thank God, thank them.

Pray to Invite Jesus into my life as Savior and Lord – time to live a better story

Tell my Story to someone - write it down first if it helps, but above all, share it.

Invite a friend to worship with me – a first step maybe in a new chapter of someone’s life


Jesus wants to speak through us to people He loves and died for which he died.

Jesus Our Contemporary

On American Idol one of the comments the judges make to the contestants has to do with whether their performance was judged to be “contemporary.” A contestant can see a good song and have a great voice, but sometimes the performance, even when done by a 17 year old, will come across as old fashioned and dated. Simon will say “it wasn’t contemporary,” and therefore didn’t connect with the audience. A performer who is not contemporary won’t win, won’t get on the radio, won’t be “relevant.”

This same critique is often applied to religion in general and Christianity in particular. It’s old-fashioned. It’s not relevant to life today. It doesn’t connect with people. . . I’m not even going to try to dispute that. What I will say, what I’m fairly confident of, is that in contrast, Jesus is very relevant today. Jesus is our contemporary. Through the Holy Spirit Jesus is speaking to us, in our lives, today. He is speaking and acting with us on how live really is and is experienced.

“It is in this contemporary world where we must meet him and know him if we are to meet and know him at all,” Dallas Willard writes.

As I mentioned last week, Jesus is already here. He already belongs to humanity. In spite of our stumbling, bumbling, mangled presentations of him, Jesus is powerfully present in our culture. Remember, they like Jesus, they just don’t like the church. Now, I like the church and I believe that Jesus loves the Church. But that’s really beside the point for our purposes today. As we consider how to be witnesses for Jesus, we must look to Jesus our Contemporary. We need to help people get over their mistaken notion that being a Christian believer is mostly about knowing facts about this person, mostly facts of long ago.

Peter Berger notes that if you asked the question, “Can a truly contemporary person be a Christian? Many Europeans would answer, “Of course not!” They answer this way because they believe that Christianity has only to do with a dusty and brutal past – togas and robes and religious wars. Many Americans, even those who consider themselves sort of believers have trouble in locating Jesus anywhere other than in a distant past and existence. But that is not the message and Kingdom that Jesus proclaimed. Nor did Jesus talk about a Kingdom that was some gigantic event in some special place. That is human thinking. Jesus said think (repent) again.

“The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, “Look! Here it is! Or “There it is!” For, in fact, the kingdom of God is right where you are.” Luke 17.20-21


Jesus teaching in the Gospel is actually an extension of an Old Testament teaching:

“The Lord will again take delight in prospering you, just as he delighted in prospering your ancestors, when. . . .you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Surely, this commandment I am commanding you today is not too hard for you, nor is it too far away.

“It is not in heaven, that you should say, “Who will go up to heaven for us and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?” Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who will cross to the other side of the sea for us and get it for us so we may hear it and observe it?” No, the word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe.” Deuteronomy 30.9-14


The word is very near to you. Jesus is telling us that eternal life is close and all who want it may have it but we must seek first His kingdom to have access to life as it is truly meant to be. This is how we know Him as Savior and Lord. This is how in the fullest sense Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14.6). St. Paul puts it this way to the Romans:

“If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10.9

Again Willard, “But this is not a thing you say to get you into heaven after death. It is what you do to live in Christ’s kingdom now. What is saved is our life, and of course we along with it.”

Many seekers and skeptics today, I think, need more than a kingdom that is a distant event, no matter how gigantic. They need to know what, if anything, Jesus can say or do about their rocky marriage or their son’s addiction. They want to know if Jesus “lives in the real world.” One thing that never ceases to interest me is the reaction I get from people when they find out that I am a pastor. They may express some surprise or even disinterest but what usually happens then is I am put in the same category as their picture of the historical Jesus, the bearded one in the robe and sandals. I am a guy somehow disconnected from how life really is but concerned with proper language and good morals. I don’t think some of these people would be shocked if I grew a beard and dressed in white robe and sandals! But you know, as a citizen of the kingdom my life is about much more than good morals (yes, that must be there) But hey, my dog has good morals. My dog never swears or lies or cheats. My cats on the other hand. . .are creatures of low morals I’m convinced.

Contemporary people have the So What question on their minds. So what if religion has some interesting or truthful claims, so what difference does that make to my life here and now? Jesus has an answer for them. Jesus is passionately interested in living with them, their lives, the lives they are actually living here and now. How is Jesus with me on the jobsite? How is he in that office with me among my coworkers? How does he go on the road with me? The answer to these questions can be known and experienced. Any who would follow him don’t have to travel back in time culturally to know him and live in him. Jesus meets us in the time and place and life in which we now live.

Malcolm Gladwell is a very successful author today who writes stories about culture and social dynamics. You might say he has a finger on the pulse of contemporary society. And he says that one of the things that holds true about people from the time we are infants and all through adulthood is our curiosity about other people’s lives. In infants, psychologists call this the Other Minds Problem. Infants don’t understand that what they are thinking about, like, hate is not necessarily what others are thinking about, like, or hate. As adults we continue to be curious about what goes on in other people’s minds. We don’t just want to know of a doctor, “What do you for a living?” We want to know what it feels like to be a doctor and see patients.

“Curiosity about the interior life of other people’s day-to-day work is one of the most fundamental of human impulses,” Gladwell writes.

Can I suggest that Jesus, Son of Man, is at least as curious as we are about the lives people are living? He not only meets people at church, but out fishing, on the road, at the tax collector’s office, at a dinner party, in the hospital. Jesus likes to be with people.

Jesus is our contemporary. And he is interested above all in people and seeing them change in heart, mind, and life to become God’s people. Jesus will speak through contemporary methods and mediums to get a hearing with all kinds of people. This is the whole point and the only point of changing our methods and styles of worship and evangelism, music and youth ministry – to let Jesus speak in a language that contemporary can understand and to which they can respond. But don’t confuse the style and methods with the message and certainly not the person of Jesus.

Jesus will not be boxed up by any faction, any age, any culture. He is the misfit. And so he is available to any and all who would seek him. To take one example, how is it that the hippie generation of the late 1960’s and early ‘70’s that turn to Christ and became known as the Jesus People worship the same Lord as the stereotypical straight-laced church types of the previous generation? Is it because these two very different generations happened to arrive independently in choosing the same religion? Or, perhaps is it because Jesus, the Son of Man, is able to speak in time at any time He so chooses?


In what ways do see Jesus speaking in contemporary culture today?

How might the church use the language/methods of our culture to give witness to the Lord?

How can you show the people in your life how the life of Jesus is real in you?

Re-imagining Evangelism

We’re starting a new teaching series this week called “Re-imagining Evangelism”. This title comes from a book of the same name by Rick Richardson. Richardson notes that the word evangelism has become a bad word in our culture. It is “something you wouldn’t do to your dog, much less a person you like.”

The word evangelism has an image problem and the image is one of a slick salesmen.

Show pictures of televangelists.


In this image the evangelist is a salesman trying to close the deal on a person. What do I have to do to get you in this nice car? Substitute the words church, flock, heaven for the car and that’s basically what an evangelist is, in this image. In this paradigm some Christians feel like if they haven’t dumped the content of their belief on someone then they haven’t witnessed for Jesus Christ. I suspect many others of us feel even further left out if we are not extroverted or highly knowledgeable about the Bible or very persuasive in our sales pitch. Perhaps we don’t share our faith because we assume it has to look like this image. If so, it’s understandable that we would not be very enthusiastic about doing it that way.

Another problem with the sales pitch image is that we give people information about Jesus but we don’t actually invite people know Jesus. Facts or information about God is not the same thing as knowing God. Certainly, we need more knowledge of God and many times the Church hasn’t done a very good job at this very basic, fundamental level of spiritual life. There are more than a few dying congregations that wistfully look back to the heydays of the 1940’s and ‘50’s when their Sunday schools and services were packed. But what they may not remember is that people began leaving the church in droves in the sixties because these churches weren’t teaching fundamental knowledge of Jesus Christ. Many young people began looking to Eastern mysticism as a way to view “how life really is.” The Church must become the teacher of the knowledge of God and how life really is according to the Creator of life.

But this knowledge of God must not be knowledge at a distance. We must “press on to know the Lord.” Dallas Willard calls this knowledge by acquaintance. This is kind of knowledge only comes through an active relationship. To paraphrase the words of Job who spoke out of his own experience of God:

“ I had heard about you. . .but now my eyes see you. So take back all I said, and I repent by throwing dust and ashes upon myself.” Job 42.5-6

Thomas was of the first disciples and friends of Jesus. He heard about Jesus being alive after his crucifixion, but Thomas needed more than just heresay. He wanted to touch the wounds. He wanted to see for himself. Thomas is often scorned and nicknamed “Doubting Thomas.” Leon Morris calls the disciple a “robust doubter.” He needed touch, he needed sight, he needed to know for himself. He needed personal acquaintance with the truth. This kind of robust doubt is a good thing. It can lead us into personal knowledge of the truth and personal knowledge of Christ himself. Would that more were like Thomas the Doubter.

“The way of Jesus Christ is a way of firsthand interaction –knowing by acquaintance-direct awareness of him and his kingdom,” Willard writes.

Jesus wants to be known this way. The resurrected Christ came and “stood in the middle of them.” Though he was in a glorified body he came close and invited his friends to see and speak and touch. This is the only way Christ will be known by anyone. Jesus shows up where he is wanted. He breathes his life into our lives when he is invited.

John, the same disciple who recorded this post-resurrection scene, writes in chapter ten of Jesus words in temple in Jerusalem,

“You do not believe because you are not one of my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.” John 10.26-27

So if we are considering how we can witness to our faith in Jesus, we start by casting aside the old image of the sales pitch. We are not marketing the Church or Religion. Even if we wanted to our culture is remarkably uninterested in that product. I’ve often been reminded of that in my life. Last year I coached Seth’s Little League team and though our season started with promise, it quickly began to go south. Like any good coach. . .I blamed the players. They didn’t play very well. But regardless of who was to blame I knew that I wouldn’t be winning any Coach-of-the-Year Award. I did, however, hold out hope that I would win a new award the league was giving to a coach and that was the Sportsmanship Award. I figured, hey, I’m a nice guy. Who doesn’t like me? And what’s more, I am a religious guy. I was pretty certain I knew more about religion than the other coaches. But the day they announced the award, they began “to the coach who best exemplified the qualities of sportsmanship, the award goes to. . .” and I have to admit I was halfway out of my seat when they said, “Rich. . .Hollingshead!”

See apparently, they didn’t care that I knew more about religion than the other coaches. They were interested in actually, you know, seeing character and sportsmanship. They don’t give out awards for religion in our culture today or no doubt lots of churches would be recognized. What is recognized are churches that are effectively reaching people in their community for the sake of the Kingdom. That kind of witness still gets attention. It’s been said of people today, “They like Jesus. They don’t like the Church.” You can still buy t-shirts that were very popular a few years ago that have a picture of Jesus on the front and read “Jesus is my homeboy.” You’ll be hard pressed to find a t-shirt that says “Hey, let’s go to Church!”

Jesus is not a religious product we are peddling. Jesus already belongs to humanity. In spite of how badly we have garbled and mangled his message, he comes through in spite of everything. Richardson suggests a new image to replace the old one – witnesses as travel guides. Instead of trying to push a sale, we can invite people to join us for a walk. We can point out things that known, things that can be obviously seen, things that can be seen if you know where to look. That’s what we are going to explore a little further with this series, how to invite people to see the clues of God. How to discover what God is up to in their lives.

One of my favorite things is when I get to introduce an old friend to a new friend. This doesn’t happen every day but when it does it is such a good feeling and experience for me. I love connecting good people. It gives me pleasure to get people that I care about in the same room together. I had a birthday party years ago and I said to Jennifer that the present I wanted from her was permission to invite anyone I wanted to invite. And I invited different friends from different places. I invited friends I had known for many years and I invited the neighbors across the street with whom we had just formed a friendship. I invited friends in their twenties and friends much older. I purposefully mixed it up to see if anything interesting would happen. And it did! I loved it.

To witness for Jesus is really just figuring out a way to get Jesus and your friends in the same room together, to mix it up, to have party, and to see if anything interesting happens. It will. It will. It’s not a science. It’s not a perfect system or process. But it is
amazing what happens when we intentionally enter into this acquaintance with Him. For the next several weeks, let’s see what happens as we learn to say, “I’d like to introduce you to a friend of mine.”

Wait, There’s More!

“Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again. Then they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest.. .but these words seemed to them an idle tale and they did not believe them.”
Luke 24.6-11

You know what an idle tale is don’t you? We hear idle tales all the time. I get a lot email forwards come my way, stories that have been circulating around the Internet. Ryan Stumph sent me a good story a couple months ago about a man who went on safari in the African bush. He encountered an aggressive bull elephant who seemed ready to charge him. But then the man noticed that the elephant had a wood splinter sticking in his foot and somehow the man managed to remove the splinter and the elephant moved away in obvious relief. Fast forward years later and this same man is at the Central Park Zoo and comes upon the elephant enclosure. One of the elephants looks familiar. This elephant keeps staring at the man in an overly curious way. Slowly, it dawns on the man that this elephant may be the same one that he helped in the African bush years ago. The elephant stares at the man and stamps his foot as if beckoning the man closer. So the man throws caution to the wind and climbs over the barriers to the enclosure and walks up the elephant to pet it. The elephant charges the man and stomps him to death. Apparently, it wasn’t the same elephant. The story ends with, “Quit sending me these crappy heart-warming stories!”

I laughed when I read that the first time. The story teaches a truth through it’s fiction: there is real truth and then there is Internet truth.

Is this what the resurrection story is like, internet truth, a nice story but loose with the facts? Some thought that at the time when they first heard about it. They thought it a tall tale, invented by his disciples.

It seems to me that people have similar reactions to the Easter story today. One response to the Easter story is to fail to appreciate the implications of the event. My son captured this response one time as we were discussing the importance of resurrection, “Yeah, but he just died on Saturday.” He was only dead a day. No big deal. Maybe that is your feeling. Maybe you’ve heard the story so many years that it fails to make an impact anymore.

Another response to the story can be a sort of belief as a matter of religious faith, but not belief as real knowledge. And if it isn’t real knowledge, real truth, then it doesn’t have much of an impact on your life. We relegate the truth of Easter to mere symbols. But symbols don’t raise dead men from the grave. And symbols alone don’t change lives.

As Flannery O’Connor once wrote, “If the Lord’s Supper is just a symbol, then to hell with it.”

If the resurrection is just a symbolic idea, then today is a big phony nothing.

And yet another view of the Resurrection Story is that the Church is trying to sell us something. Like that guy on those infomercials, we have the greatest thing in vegetable slicers, it cuts and cooks your food for you, it slices, it dices, it tells time. It shamwows you. But wait, there’s more! And if the story is not true then surely the Church has accomplished the greatest sales fraud in the history of the world.

But I want you to consider another way of looking at this story. I want you to consider if it might be, you know, true. Not internet true, or symbolic true, but really, truly, true. Because that’s what the Bible claims it to be. That’s what Jesus always said was going to happen. He said it. He said it again. He did it. And after he did it he showed up and explained to them what just happened.

I want you to consider that God did the impossible. I want you to consider that Jesus demonstrated before thousands of witnesses that he had the power to do the impossible. He routinely seemed to bend the rules of nature. They didn’t seem to apply to him. He made the blind see. He healed people of leprosy. The paralyzed got up and walked at his command. Because Jesus seemed so real and so comfortable in his skin, it always startled and amazed people when he would suddenly so something obviously supernatural. He walked on water! Like Alice in Wonderland, Jesus seemed to think of six impossible things before breakfast, and then he would spend his day doing them.

Now, as I said earlier, you can believe all the supernatural stuff up to and including the resurrection as a matter of religious faith but still not be radically changed by this truth. It can be a good religious story and not much more, except for one more thing.

Some of you know that one of my favorite stories is The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. As a kid I read those books over and over again. To my great excitement, in the late 1970’s they came out with a film version of the books. It was an animated version. For animation back then, it looked pretty cool. I managed to convince my sister and her boyfriend to take me to go see it. They weren’t fans, but to their credit they took me anyway. They had never read the books. But they gamely tried to buy into my enthusiasm for seeing the film. How was it? It was horrid. It skipped over huge sections of the story to the point that I, who had memorized the story, couldn’t make heads or tails of what we were actually watching. And then, suddenly, it ended. In the middle of everything, long before the ring had ever come close to Mt. Doom, the movie was over. Roll credits. I couldn’t believe it! I stood up in the theatre and shouted, “What? That’s it? What a ripoff!” What made it worse was the whole way home I had to endure dirty looks from my sister’s boyfriend.


Have you ever been in the midst of a good story and it suddenly and prematurely, ended? You know how disappointing that feels. Well, isn’t your life like that? Isn’t your life a pretty important story, that at some point, from your point of view, will prematurely end? Why should it end? Yeah, my body will wear down. Things are already falling apart. But my spirit won’t. Spiritually, I feel young. It doesn’t seem right that at some arbitrary number years, everything should end. Death is a bad ending to this movie.

It’s not an accident that you or I should feel this way. The Bible says we feel this way because God has implanted this desire in our hearts. It is right and God-given to want to live forever. In fact, it’s a clue that we will live forever. When we were kids we always had someone watching out for us. We still do. We have this friend who, no matter what is happening to us in life, is watching out for us. He’s on our side. And he doesn’t stop watching out for us. He’s in it for the long haul.

Someone once said that when you die, you die alone. That’s not true. Jesus is the friend who stands by us at death. The Good News of Jesus Christ, the Gospel, is that Jesus didn’t die on the cross and rise from the dead just for the whole world; he did it for you and for me. It’s personal. The Lord doesn’t want to see our story end. And he has made sure that it won’t. You and I, we’re going to live forever!

That personal and strong a love demands a strong response from us. Whatever used to be important to us in this life is not important compared to knowing the One who has made eternity for us. St. Paul is getting at this in his letter to the Philippians:

“Whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. . . I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.” Philippians 3.7-8, 10-11

I want to know Christ, Paul says. I want to know the One who has power over death. I need to get to know Him. He would be a good One to know. It would be good to have Him on my side. Because this story is like the one about the woman who called her pastor in to make funeral arrangements. This woman explained to her pastor that she had been told by her doctor that she her illness was terminal. She wanted to talk about her funeral service with the pastor. They went over hymns and scriptures and then she said,

“one more thing, pastor. When they lay me in the casket I want you to make sure that a fork is placed in the casket with me.”

The pastor thought that was an odd request and said so. The woman explained, “I always loved the dinners at our church. The food is always good. But as good as the meal is, my favorite part is when the ladies come around to clear off the dirty dishes and they say to me, “now, save your fork.” I know that when they tell me to save my fork, dessert is coming. And I know that it’s not just jello or a cookie, but it’s something good like cake or pie.”

“I want a fork in my hand as I lay in the casket so people know that I know something better is coming.”

The Knowing/Doing Problem

There’s a show called Undercover Boss. The premise of the show is the head of the company “goes undercover” posing as a new employee at the bottom rung of the company. These undercover bosses find out a couple things: bosses often make bad employees; some of their rules are stupid and unworkable in the real work environment; and, some of the core values of the company are being woefully neglected. That last one is the one I’m concerned with – just because people know what to do doesn’t mean they’ll do it.

Or how about this: the Gold Coast off of Australia has some of the most beautiful beaches and best surfing anywhere in the world. It also has some of the most treacherous waters in the world. You could mention the danger of sharks, saltwater crocodiles, and deadly box jellyfish, all of which are real. But in addition to these dangers are the fearsome rip tides that claim more tourists in drownings than any animal predators. The beaches are posted with signs warning of the rip tide dangers but people who shouldn’t be swimming in those waters routinely ignore the danger signs. Fortunately, the beaches of the Gold Coast can boast of probably the finest lifeguards in the world, who routinely rescue up to six thousand distressed swimmers a year. Dave Bryson writes about one lifeguard he interviewed who himself had rescued one hundred people in one week, including one tourist whom he had saved twice. He saved the man. The man went back into the water and the lifeguard had to save him again.

In the words of that great thinker, Forrest Gump, “Stupid is as stupid does.”

I’m glad none of us ever have a problem putting our knowledge into action! In his Great Talk, Jesus says that not only must we learn from him as the Master Teacher in the School of Life, but we must put his words into action.

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them is like the intelligent person who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them is like the foolish person who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, and it fell. And great was its ruin.” Matthew 7.24-27

Remember that Jesus concern is with the Kingdom of God and his contention that this is not only the way life is meant to be but it is in fact the way life really is. Of course, Jesus sees what you and I see, how life in this world is far less than what God wants and in many ways how the ways of this world are set against God’s rule. Jesus sees all the problems in this world and how this life can be cruel and random. Jesus sees and knows this. But Jesus sees and knows things we don’t.

Jesus sees what is possible for ordinary human beings when God’s rule is honored and God’s resources are used. For example, we often talk about how going to church services is not the fulfillment of the Christian life. Full transformation of persons into God’s image is our goal. Getting to that full maturity won’t happen without the help of church. And so, a first step for a lot of people is learning the spiritual practice of weekly worship. For some folks, this is a difficult first step indeed. It’s difficult because maybe they never developed the practice as kids, and no one helped them develop it. So now here they are as fully-formed adults. And you know we adults are change-resistant. It’s difficult to learn new things period and why should this be any different for the ways of the spiritual life? But the Holy Spirit is working in persons, and so perhaps mom wants to get to church. She sees the kids getting bigger every day and she has a tug on her heart that they should know about God. But Dad isn’t as motivated at the moment. He likes to do other things with his time. He doesn’t disagree with his wife about maybe the benefits going to church would bring, he’s just not prepared to, you know, actually go. So weeks go by,, then months, and then years. And now the kids wouldn’t be caught dead in church. And the thing is, now maybe dad really wants to go and its mom and the kids who drag their feet.

This family has both a knowing and doing problem. They don’t know what they don’t know. And what they suspect would be good about church isn’t enough to move them to do anything about it. They need help. What does Jesus tells us to do when we need help?

“Ask, and it will be given you; search,, and you will find; knock and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks the door will be opened.” Matthew 7.7-8

See, God wants to help. God is rooting for this family to do something with the vague stirrings of their conscience and heart. But the Lord won’t force himself upon this family. They have to ask. Dallas Willard says that the way of the request is the way that leads us into praying.

“Asking is indeed the great law of the spiritual world through which things are accomplished in cooperation with God and yet in harmony with the freedom and worth of every individual,” Willard writes.

Take our example of the family trying to get to church. If the wife makes demands of her family and tries to control their behavior, at best, she may be able to drag them to a few services, but they won’t be on board with it. They will resent her and resent the experience of church. But if she asks her family and she asks of God, better results can happen. I’m not saying there is a guarantee but there is a better likelihood. Because her request of her family has respected their humanity and “created space” for them to consider the goodness of going to church together.

In his Great Talk Jesus devotes a lot of attention to our judging and condemning of each other. Our need to control others with our good intentions (our pearls) has the effect of pushing people away from Kingdom blessing. God has so made us that we can’t find our true meaning and purpose in life without asking for His help. Prayer shows us some of what we do not know (what Jesus knows) in promptings of the heart and mind. Prayer opens up the power of Kingdom resources to accomplish the good things of God in our lives and in the lives of those around us. This is what is often called “the power of prayer.” And the heart of prayer is the request.

“In many ways it is the life of prayer that discovers a space in which all can live,” Willard writes.

But what if never occurs to anyone in this family to pray? This goes back to our double-sided problem of knowing and doing. Many people don’t know to pray. They don’t know to do this. This makes the prayers and actions of the church on behalf of the spiritually lost so vital. It also points to lives hanging in the balance of the spiritual realm. So many people live at the mercy of their desires and their idols. Take gambling, for example. No rational and responsible person gambles their money away. They won’t do it. That’s why Las Vegas bills itself not as gambling, but as entertainment. You’re losing your money, lots of it, but look how much fun you’re having! Las Vegas wants to disguise what it really is – desire and idolatry with nice accommodations.

“When desire conflicts with reality, sooner or later reality wins.”

Jesus is interested in calling us back to reality.

“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Matthew 7.13-14

The narrow gate is not having the right belief. Nor is the narrow gate merely finding forgiveness. (Though it is that.) The narrow gate is the choice to fully follow the Master of Life and allow Him to transform you completely. The Lord what to see all people become the kind of people who are genuinely at home in His world. Remember, Jesus is describing a Kingdom of Life, how Life actually is. And the life I’m living, and the life you are living are the ones we’re going to be living for eternity. People who don’t know better assume that the Jesus Way is boring and depressing and not worth it. If you think that, you have another think coming.

When the crowds lined up along the road into Jerusalem and called out a thousand praises to Jesus the King, they spoke rightly. They were in touch with reality. More than they knew, obviously. Their praise wasn’t the problem. The problem was they did not understand the nature of the choice before the them, the life before them. They didn’t understand the Anointed One who came among them. What could bridge the chasm between knowing and doing? What could make this clear? Someone had to die. And now that choice and this Life is no longer unclear. We can know who Jesus is and the life to which he calls us. Will you follow Him to Calvary? Will you pray with Him in Gethsemane? Will you believe in Resurrection? Will you live the New Life He offers now to you?

Race and Grace

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. . .”

Again in his Great Talk Jesus deals with specific situations in Kingdom living with the “You have it heard it/but I say” form. Jesus is showing how different the Kingdom looks like in our behaviors compared to the Old Law which is often now the Generally Regarded Practice Remember, Jesus isn’t giving us a list of rules. He is describing how a citizen of the Kingdom will live in particular situations. So, when you have an enemy, what do you do?

The Situation Old Righteousness/GRP Kingdom Response

Have an Enemy Hate Your Enemy Love Your Enemy;
Pray for Them;
Welcome the Stranger



The Old Righteousness says the situation is simple. Hate your enemy. They hate you. It’s only right to reciprocate in kind. Likewise, reserve your love only for your family and your kind and perhaps others who treat you right. This is the morality of the Mafia. This is the moral system of terrorists. And on a less extreme scale, more subtly, this is how most people live. Like the people who like you.

There is the story of Jonah which is a insightful tale into the prejudices of this prophet of God. It’s not just a story about a whale. It’s the story of a man confronted with his prejudices. Jonah is a prophet in Israel during Jeroboam’s reign. Jeroboam spent his reign trying to expand Israel’s borders, which he did. The prophets Amos and Hosea, who were contemporaries with Jonah, denounced corruption in Jeroboam’s administration. But Jonah seemed willing to overlook all that and encouraged Jeroboam’s expansion agenda.

“The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying, ‘Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me.” Jonah 1.1-2

Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, the most powerful empire in the world at that time. Assyria stood firmly in the way of any further plans of expansion for Israel. And here God is telling Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach against it. Now that sounds like it fits in with Jonah’s pro-Israel stance, but Jonah saw something else. He knew that if God told him to go call Nineveh to repent, there was a chance that Nineveh actually would repent. So when God told him go, Jonah went – only in the opposite direction. He booked a boat for Tarshish. If he had said, Timbuktu, he couldn’t have made it any plainer that he didn’t want to do what God told him to do.
Why was Jonah resistant? A couple reasons: he was afraid of failure for one. The people of Nineveh were notoriously wicked and irreligious. They would certainly mock him and maybe do violence to him, he thought. Jonah had the very common idols of success and need for influence. He wanted preach in the Bible Belt and God was sending him to Las Vegas. But perhaps the more compelling reason that Jonah resisted God’s command was that he was afraid of success. What if he preached to Nineveh and they did repent? Well, in Jonah’s world that was a bad thing – because God would show mercy on a people and tribe that Jonah didn’t like and didn’t have any respect for. They were the enemy. God’s mercy would interfere with his hating. In addition to the idols of power and success, Jonah was worshipping the idols of moral self-righteousness and national and racial bigotry. Jonah thought he was too good for them.

Clip from To Kill a Mockingbird.

I grew up in a not very large town, but one large enough to possess some racial and religious diversity. I am thankful for that. I am also thankful that I was never taught to hate anyone just because they were different than me. But despite these advantages I know that I subtly accumulated certain prejudices that I have had to wrestle with from time to time. I looked at people of different races and faiths, to some extent, as the Other. It was rarely obvious to me or others, but it was there, in the back of my mind and recesses of my heart.

Timothy Keller says that if you want to know if there are rats in your basement, down walk down the steps slowly making a lot of noise. Then you will look around and see nothing. If you want to know what is really down there, you have to surprise it in a rush. Then you will see tails scurrying away.

“And so,” Keller says, “it is under stress, in real life experience, that the true nature of our hearts is revealed.”

I remember being at a Promise Keepers Rally years ago and hearing a message on the need for racial reconciliation and true grace in the church. I knew I wasn’t a racist and so I was perplexed by not only how passionate the speaker was about the topic but how central he said it was to the Gospel. And then not long after that I was in a church in back home and I wondered aloud why the church wasn’t more reflective of the diversity of the community – the church was all white. And someone told me about a time when their son brought their African-American friend with them to worship and one of the so-called pillars of the church told these friends that their church didn’t want their kind there.

We all have our own tribes of which we can be duly proud. But when that pride is taken to the degree of condescension and fear of the Other tribes, then our own racial and national identity becomes a powerful idol in our lives. Racial pride and narrowness cannot coexist with the Gospel of grace. They are mutually exclusive. Jonah knew this.
He knew if Nineveh responded to his preaching with repentance then his idol of racial and national pride would be affronted. And that’s exactly what happened. Jonah’s preaching was a success. And boy, did this make him angry!

“He prayed to the Lord and said, “Didn’t I tell you? That’s why I ran. I knew that you are gracious and merciful. I knew that you would probably change your mind and end up loving those people.” Jonah 4.2

Jonah knew that God couldn’t be trusted to leave his idols alone. God was too gracious. God looked on the city and saw people “who didn’t know their right hand from their left.” And He felt compassion for them. Jonah saw a city of strange people. And he wanted them all dead.

There will be people and tribes that we simply at first, don’t get. But here’s the thing – we are called to “get them.” We’re sent out to live and to love and invite. If we’ve been saved by grace then by God we ought to offer grace. The Great Commission in Matthew 28 is a command to go and make disciples of all ethne, peoples, every kind of people. This is what it means to be the Church. We are the Here Comes Everybody organization. And we ought to look like it and act like it.

“If you love only those who love you, what reward do you have? Don’t even the worst sinners do that much? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, your family, what more are you doing than anyone else in the world?

“Be perfect, just like our Father in heaven is perfect.” Matthew 5.46-48

Promises, Promises

Words are powerful. Words have the power to influence people and change reality. Look at the great movements and empires in history - it’s not guns that start them; they are started by words. A well-spoken word is a beautiful thing. A misspoken word can be, at the very least, misleading, and at the worst, very damaging. Words are blessings and words are bombs. Words are fire.

“How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! And the tongue is a fire. . . no one can tame the tongue – a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God.” James 3.5-9


James has a negative view of things here obviously, but he does note an important truth – words can be used to bless or curse. And a lot depends on that choice – so choose your words carefully. In this age of the twenty-four hour media cycle and this wealth of technology we have the ability and seem to have the desire to express ourselves all the time to everyone about everything –

A real message on Twitter or Facebook looks like this – “I’m going to the bathroom now.”

Brilliant. Great. Thanks for sharing. That’s what’s known as Too Much Information. In the age of Too Much Information we would be wise to conserve our words. There is so much meaningless chatter in our lives today that I think a lot of times we experience our world like Charlie Brown used to hear his teachers at school – Waa, waa, waa. . .

There is a danger that we will lose the ability to listen to what really matters and the ability to discern what is true and what is nonsense. I mean, sometimes, nonsense gets repeated so often that we start to believe it.

Here’s an example: this week’s edition of Newsweek features stories on the state of our public school system in this country. They noted that our school system has been in decline for the last thirty years or so. Our schools used to be the envy of the world. Now we finish behind Lithuania in student test scores. But how we fix the problem? What is the problem? Whatever it is, it’s not a new problem. We were talking about this in the eighties when I was getting an education degree. And I remember quite clearly that the problem was defined at the time as a societal problem – poor students are produced by poor parents and under-funded and overcrowded schools really can’t make up that difference. Do hear the problems? The home is a problem. Lack of funding for schools is a problem. And too many students for too few teachers is a problem.



Let me emphasize that these factors were discussed so much and so often that everyone believed it. It became something that everyone knew. Only it wasn’t exactly true. Oh, it’s true that some parents do an abysmal job at helping their kids learn anything. And it’s true that some schools need more funding and it’s true that some schools are overcrowded. But mostly, that’s not the problem. We spend more per student than almost every country in the world. Our class sizes aren’t bad. We have Head Start and other programs to help kids from disadvantaged situations excel in learning. But we found out that the real problem was probably the most obvious – we need better teachers. Good teachers produce good students. Bad teachers can have all the funding and bells and whistles and all the students from solid homes and small class sizes and still not do a good job. But take a good teacher in plunk them down in a pit of a school with worn out textbooks and a few rocks and chisels and the good teacher will have their students learning. Sometimes what everyone knows is wrong. Sometimes it’s better not to say anything if we are not sure where the truth lies. Conserve your words. Say what you mean and mean what you say.

Jesus uses the “you have it heard said/but I say” form again when he looks at the meaning and power of an oath. It was customary from ancient times to call upon “holy things” and “heaven itself” as witness to a promise that you were making. This was considered acceptable and right as long as you didn’t swear “in vain”, that is with no intent to keep your promise. But Jesus says, “Don’t swear at all.”

Don’t call heaven as witness. Don’t even call something as holy as your own head. Just say Yes. . .or No. Jesus is saying we don’t have to call God or heaven as a witness because they are already witnessing what we say and do in this life. Our words and actions matter more than we realize. We don’t have to up the ante with some oath.

That’s our problem today. We have too many people who make a living saying yes that doesn’t really mean yes and no that doesn’t really mean no. For example: Why don’t you kids listen when I tell you no? Because they know that your no doesn’t really mean no. Or, why don’t you believe me when I promise you that I’m going to be there? Because you have broken too many promises in the past for me to trust you now. Promises from the lips of the untrustworthy are just so much spin, a song and dance routine.

Let’s face it: we live in a time when making a pledge in a church or placing our right hand on the Bible doesn’t really bind people to the truth anymore. Unless. . .

Unless there is a desire to live in the presence of a God “who desires truth in our inner persons,” as Paul phrased it. Remember the importance of the order of Jesus talk – we first have to deal with anger and contempt in our lives. Then our words can come from a good place and our words can carry blessing instead of curse. So what can we do then?

1. Conserve your words
2. Tell the truth. Lies, even small ones, do damage.
3. Fulfill commitments. Make your word valuable by your actions.
4. Let God’s word always come before your word.

Angry

There’s an old Saturday Night Live skit where they simulate a Folgers instant coffee commercial. You may remember those commercials where they served restaurant patrons instant coffee and fooled them into believing it was real coffee. In the SNL skit though, the patron is played by Chris Farley. And when they tell Farley’s character that the coffee he is drinking is not real but instant, he gets this look of instant mean, “WHY YOU!. .” and he goes on a rampage in the restaurant, overturning tables and vowing revenge on those who lied to him. At the end, they show a bloodied and bandaged Farley and ask him how he’s feeling:

“Angry,” he slowly replies.

It was always a funny skit to me because of Farley’s over-the-top reaction to this little trick. His anger is funny. But we know in real life, anger is rarely funny. Anger is anything but funny.

In his great talk Jesus speaks to specific issues of how the new life in the kingdom changes us. He begins by addressing anger and condemnation.

“You have heard it said in ancient times, ‘You shall not murder and whoever murders shall be judged. But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment. . .” Matthew 5.21-22

This is the first of several “You have heard/but I say” statements that Jesus makes. What he is doing is pointing out what Dallas Willard refers to as the GRP, the Generally Recognized Practice. The GRP is the moral standard of the day. Jesus then puts the standard of the Kingdom side by side with the current standard and shows how much more fundamental and demanding a standard there is in the Kingdom. This is where our righteousness must go significantly beyond that of the Pharisees. The GRP is based on the Old Testament Law (in ancient times).

So a chart of situations and behaviors might look like this:

Situation Old Standard or GRP Kingdom Standard

1.Irritation with one’s No murder No anger or contempt,
Associates but desire to help

2. Sexual attraction No intercourse No cultivation of lust

3. Having an enemy Hate your enemy Love and bless your
Enemies, pray for
Them, as God does

The Old standard is pretty basic. Your irritated with someone? Just don’t kill them. Everything else – go ahead. When you see blood flowing, get concerned. That’s the GRP of the day. But Jesus says if you get angry with someone, you have probably already sinned. Why?

Well let’s think about what anger is. It is an emotion and as such is legitimate to feel. In fact, in one place, the Scriptures say “Be angry. . .but sin not.” Ephesians 4.26. And “do not let the sun go down on your anger.” You can hear the caution in these words. Anger is dangerous. It’s explosive. It’s only safe in the hands of God. In one sense, the feeling of anger, apart from any acting out, is already an injury to another person. Anger crosses someone else’s will and often provokes a response of anger in return When anger is acted out it becomes very destructive. Nobody “suddenly snaps”. It may appear that way on the outside, but the anger has been brewing inside for a long time.

The gun man who goes and shoots up a building has been in the making for a while. It is always premeditated in some sense. Actions do not emerge in a vacuum. Our actions proceed from what our minds and hearts have been meditating upon. What kind of thought life precedes murder and adultery? I think we all know. This is true with anger, lust, and fear; as well as joy, peace, and kindness.

Anger is a feeling and so we want to say we can’t control it. But we choose to receive it and indulge it. We decide to be an angry person or to not be an angry person.

Most people carry a supply of anger around with them.

Why is this? Because anger is related to fear and a wounded ego. We indulge anger because of vanity and pride. Everybody gets angry sometimes but the feeling can be waved off instead of indulged. The habitually angry person is a wounded ego that chooses to indulge those feelings as a way to defend their selfishness.

Likewise with condemnation. To condemn someone is to hold them in contempt. To hold someone in contempt is to write them off, to devalue them. It is a studied degradation of another person. Jesus refers to the word raca and says whoever says this to his brother shall stand condemned. In Jesus day this was the word to express ultimate contempt for someone. It was serious. Jesus says don’t use it. We don’t say raca today. We have our own words. And these are words that we should not use on other human beings. These are the word that often precede violent actions. But the words are damaging enough in themselves.

How do we change? From the inside out. We must change the heart. We must get to the root. Take care of the tree and the fruit will follow. Look to the order of the Great Talk. It begins with the Beatitudes that tell us we are all blessed by God. If we don’t own that much that nothing that follows, like don’t be angry, will make much sense. But if we truly believe that we are blessed by God, then we can begin to love God. We can become thankful people. The heart and mind begin to find new patterns and new meditations. When our meditations are on good things then good behaviors will follow.

The Lord aims to make us into the kind of creatures from whom good things naturally flow. That’s why the standard is so high. If our hearts are changed then amazingly good actions will follow.

We are reminded that the way of the world is against us, but we must not conform to it:

“We must not be like Cain who murdered his brother because his brother was good and he wasn’t. Don’t be surprised that the world hates you. We know that we are alive because we love each other. Whoever does not love is dead.

“ All who hate a brother or sister are murderers, and you know that murderers do not have eternal life in them. We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us – and we ought to lay down our live for each other.” 1 John 3.11-16

That is an amazing passage. This is the plan. The world hates us but we’re going to just love them back. That’s the plan. No matter how bad it gets, we’re going to do what Jesus does. We are not going to indulge our anger or throw judgment around. We’ll leave that to God. We know that God has given us the mission of love and mercy.

So where is the irritability in your life? Where is the anger coming from? Who do you need to forgive? From whom do you need to seek forgiveness? How can extend grace to one another today? I know Jesus does. He’s ready to do it right now. In fact, he invites us to the His Table.