Friday, February 25, 2011

Sermon I preached about being God's own fool!



The New Testament Scriptures from the Lectionary for the sermon this week:
Matthew 5:38-48

"You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile.

Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you. "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23
According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it. Each builder must choose with care how to build on it. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ. Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that person. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.

Do not deceive yourselves. If you think that you are wise in this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, "He catches the wise in their craftiness," and again, "The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile."

So let no one boast about human leaders. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future--all belong to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.

SERMON:
What is Paul telling us when he writes his letter to the Corinthians? He writes, Do not deceive yourselves. If you think that you are wise in this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.

Why does Paul say this? Why is our worldly wisdom foolishness to God and why does God's wisdom look foolish to the world? I think those questions are answered in the passage we read from Matthew and that Alex talked about.

Close your eyes and try to imagine yourself back during the time of Jesus. Imagine walking around the Sea of Galilee. Perhaps you were a fisherman, perhaps you were a tax collector, maybe you stayed at home and took care of the house and the children.

One day you start to hear a buzz. At first it is just your neighbor saying, “Did you hear about that guy who is healing people, performing miracles? I think he is a magician.” As the weeks go on you hear more and more people talking about that guy. He spends his time wandering around, healing the sick, raising people from the dead, and saying some of the strangest things. People have referred to him as “Emmanuel” or the “Messiah.” Average people, just like yourselves, think that he might be the savior, the one who fulfills the prophecies in the Old Testament. Other people think he is just a crazy man. Some think he is an outlaw or a con man. But there are a lot of people talking about him.

He is saying some of the craziest and most foolish things! He is turning the whole social order on its head. Everything that we have come to accept as normal when it comes to religion, purity, cleanliness and following the law, how we treat people, especially those who are different from us, it is all being called into question by this foolish man.

I call him foolish because he is really upsetting things around here. Our religious leaders, the priests, scribes and pharisees, are following him around, and writing down what he is saying just to be able to use it against him when they take him to religious court or throw him to the Roman authorities. And he is saying some pretty crazy things!

Just this past week he gave a sermon, they called it the “Sermon on the mount.” Thousands gathered from all around. He stood on a hill on the north end of the Sea of Galilee, near Capernaum. Everyone listened intently to what he was saying, some were believers and followers, some were curious, and like I said earlier, some of them were really angry about what he was saying and what it meant, they were there too.

I don't have time today to go over the whole sermon with you, but the last part was pretty profound. This man called Jesus would take a law or a saying from the Old Testament, which is the law that all of the religious people follow and the law that helps us keep order in our towns and cities. And he would repeat that law, and then completely flip it around! For example, he said, “You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' That is right from the book of Leviticus, our book of laws in our holy scriptures. That law was written and is followed to provide a sense of order and justice. And then this Jesus fellow said, “But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Whoa! This is some pretty revolutionary stuff. Rather than equal justice for wrongdoing, if someone in power over me does something wrong to me, I am supposed to look them in the eye, force them to acknowledge my humanity, and offer them my other cheek. If someone wants to take my coat, I am supposed to offer them my shirt as well? And if a Roman soldier forces me to carry his pack for 1 mile, I am supposed to carry it for 2?!?!? This throws all the power out of balance and doesn't seem to make any sense!

Then he went on to say, Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you. Well, if I do that I will go broke. Why should I do that? I have worked hard for my money, and now this guy is just telling me to give it away? This seems like utter foolishness. Apparently to follow this guy, we have to just throw caution to the wind. We have to give up ourselves, give up everything that we know and understand, give up all of our laws and social order to follow him. That is scary, only a fool would do that.

Then it starts to get really foolish! Jesus said, "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy, once again quoting from the Old Testament. Then he revises it by saying, But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.

This is just crazy talk! I don't know why he would be asking me to love my enemies and pray for people who are mean to me. Really, what does he expect here. This is just asking too much. He points out that God provides to all no matter how good or bad they are, but I am not God. Is he really calling me to try and act more like God? Ahhh.

You see, being a Christian means really rejecting the order of this world and embracing an order that advances the kingdom of God. It is utter foolishness to those who stand outside and watch our behavior, it looks crazy. But the more we begin to embrace this life, the more we realize that the ways of THIS world, the ways that break people down and don't build up the kingdom, are actually foolish.

The very way that Jesus came and the message that he was preaching was perceived as total foolishness at the time, and it can even seem foolish today. Let's think about this. If a king was coming today, would that king come as a poor wandering carpenter's son or as a mighty military ruler? It is utter foolishness to say that a king would be humble, kings have to be proud by their very nature. But Jesus showed us a new way, a new kind of leadership. We call that servant leadership.

Servant leadership sounds foolish. Don't those words contradict each other? How can you lead and serve at the same time, doesn't a leader need people to follow him, servants? But Jesus showed us it was not only possible, but it is the most effective form of leadership our world has ever known. Jesus took an authentic and keen interest in the lives of the people who were following him. He worked to make sure their needs were met, even before his own. In a cut-throat world of competition, this seems counter-intuitive, even foolish! But it worked and it even works today.

I went to a small college for my undergraduate education, Pacific Lutheran University. We had a football team that won the national championship during my senior year. The whole team was built around the idea of servant leadership. The coaches and the captains were the leaders and they were very well respected, but as part of their leadership, they cared about the people who were following them. And it wasn't a surface level care, they cared very deeply. They even cared about their opponents and after every play they would stop and help up the people they had just knocked down. Many of the people watching this thought it was just crazy, it was foolish to waste that extra effort to help out the opposing team, it was foolish to pray for them when they were hurt, it was foolish for the coaches, captains and seniors on the team to carry the bags of the first year guys on the team. Reporters from newspapers, TV stations, even Sports Illustrated, came to watch this team and how it functioned under this model of “servant leadership.” They call came away scratching their heads. This didn't make sense to them, it was foolish. But that foolishness of servant leadership led to a national championship. The coach of the team, Frosty Westering, is the 9th winningest football coach in the United States, and he won four national titles and has been inducted into the college football hall of fame with his model of “servant leadership.” Coach Westering understood the message of Paul and understood the teachings of Jesus. The world's wisdom tells us to be aggressive, cut-throat, and vicious. And they would say a model of servant-leadership is foolishness. But Coach Westering knew that the real foolishness is in aggressive leadership. God's wisdom, taught to us through the example of Jesus Christ, is to be a servant leader. It may seem foolish to the rest of the world, but it is truly wise.

So we learn what true leadership is, a carpenter's son humbly going around and taking care of people. And Jesus didn't stop there. Many leaders are ruthless tyrants, killing people to advance and to hold on to their power. Jesus flipped the whole thing on its head and humbled himself to the point of death, a humiliating death on a cross. This was true servant leadership, but it was the exact opposite of what the world thinks of as good leadership. Jesus pointed out that worldly leadership is foolish and his form of leadership was really wise, but the world would try to tell us differently.

There is a song written about this called “God's own fool.” I am not going to sing it for you today, that would be foolish and none of you want to hear that. But I would like to read you the lyrics as a poem, a prayer, something for us all to meditate on:

Seems I've imagined Him all of my life, As the wisest of all of mankind
But if God's Holy wisdom is foolish to man, He must have seemed out of His mind
Even His family said He was mad, And the priest said a demon's to blame
But, God in the form of this angry young man, Could not have seemed perfectly sane

Chorus
We in our foolishness thought we were wise
He played the fool and He opened our eyes
We in our weakness believed we were strong
He became helpless to show we were wrong
So we follow God's own Fool
For only the foolish can tell
Believe the unbelievable, come be a fool as well

So come lose your life for a carpenter's son, For a madman who died for a dream
And You'll have the faith His first followers had, And you'll feel the weight of the beam
So surrender the hunger to say you must know, Find the courage to say I believe
For the power of paradox opens your eyes, And blinds those who say they can see

So I put this challenge to each of you. The next time you have to make a decision, whether it is a big one or a small one, and you are trying to figure out how to make the best decision possible, think about using God's wisdom to make that decision, not the wisdom of the world. Become God's own fool just like Jesus and make your decision based upon the example that was set before us. Amen.

Servant Leadership - The PLU Football team and Frosty Westering

I mentioned the PLU football team and Frosty Westering in a sermon I preached last week. I wanted to share these video clips about Frosty and the team that demonstrate what true Servant Leadership looks like. The first video is a 3 minute teaser for an upcoming movie. The second video is is about 5 minutes long and gets more in-depth with Frosty's legacy and his philosophy of servant leadership with some interviews of other coaches. Enjoy!


More Than Champions - Teaser from One_Space Films on Vimeo.


Frosty - Legacy from One_Space Films on Vimeo.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

10 Years of Wedded Bliss!!!!!


Jessica and I are celebrating our 10 year anniversary on February 24! A few years ago I came up with this acrostic, the ABCs of a happy marriage. I was inspired to update it for our 10 year anniversary. Below you can read my advice as a married man of 10 years. . . enjoy!

Some wisdom/advice after 10 amazing years of marriage:

-APPRECIATE your partner; appreciate everything that s/he does for you and for the relationship from the daily mundane of unloading the dishwasher or picking up the dirty clothes to the big stuff like supporting you when you get laid off or your family is falling apart. ALWAYS express that appreciation.

-BE there to support your partner. Sometimes that means just listening at the end of the day. Jessica doesn't always want me to solve her problems, sometimes she just wants to get them off her chest.

-CUDDLE. Physical contact has amazing powers of healing and connection.

-DELIGHT in each other. Really take joy in your partner and look forward to the time you get to spend together.

-EAT meals together. You really have to be intentional about this. Sit at the table and turn off the TV, the cell phones, the facebook. Look into each other's eyes, hold each other's hands and connect over the breaking of bread together. There is something sacramental about sharing a meal together.

-FIGHT FAIR. Sounds strange, but be comfortable with having disagreements and arguing about it. That is healthy. But don't bring up past events and don't keep something bottled up inside until you blow up. Bring it up when it makes you mad, fight about it, but fight fair.

-GO on dates. Again, be intentional about this, but make the time and space to reconnect. It doesn't have to cost a lot, but it has to be an intentional time for the two of you to do nothing but focus on the two of you.

-HOLD HANDS. Back to that amazing power of physical contact.

-INVEST in the relationship. A good relationship is truly an investment of time and energy, but it is so worth it. Small, intentional investments in the relationship can pay long-term dividends.

-JOVIALITY Staying cheerful to each other in spite of what life may throw at you

-KINETIC. We are always in motion, but working at moving together. Synchronize your actions.

-LINE-ITEM VETO. Ok, this may take a little explanation, blame the political scientist in me. When your spouse is critiquing or criticizing part of an idea you have, don't immediately get defensive and take it as a criticism of you or of your whole idea. Give your partner the benefit of the doubt and allow them a "line-item veto" while not undermining or feeling criticized about your idea as a whole or you as a person.

-MIND YOUR Ps AND Qs. Just because you are comfortable with your spouse, that doesn't give you the right to stop being polite, saying please and thank you, and being respectful

-NOSTALGIC. Don't forget the good times. When the going gets tough, it becomes easy to focus on the negative, but be nostalgic for all the positive parts of your relationship and work to recreate those

-OPEN-MINDED to the possibilities God may have for you and your partner.

-PRAY together, and pray specifically for your relationship, even when it is going well, don't forget to thank God for that.

-QUEEN, treat her like one, not the band, the royalty

-ROAM together. Traveling together strengthens a relationship

-SIMPLICITY. The most important relationship in the world is the two of you. It is that simple.

-TAKE TIME for each other and your relationship. This is a recurring theme, but be intentional about building, supporting and protecting your relationship by making and taking time for it.

-UNDERSTANDING is so key. Really work to understand your partner and what s/he needs from you to be the best s/he can be. Then provide that.

-VENTURE to new places and try new things together. Keep it fresh by sharing new experiences together and build your life around what you learn about yourself and each other from those experiences

-WAIT for each other. Sometimes you and your partner will not arrive at the same place together, so be patient and wait for each other. (both metaphorically and physically) Also, WAIT ON each other, serve your partner with no expectation of anything except for the joy you should get from serving your partner.

-XOXOXOXO Lots of hugs and kisses, need I say more?

-YEARN for each other. Yearn for the success of your partner, the happiness of your partner and the love of your partner. Yearn together.

-ZANINESS. Described as foolishness or passion, be comfortable being a passionate fool for your partner.

In the "better half" equation, there is no doubt that Jessica is my "better half." She moderates me in a good way and loves me more than I could ever hope for. Thanks for 10 great years, and here is to 100 more!

Friday, February 18, 2011

Being a fool for God

I have the privilege of preaching this week at El Buen Pastor Presbyterian Church here in Austin along with my seminary classmate Alex Cornell. El Buen Pastor is a bilingual church and so there is typically a 15 minute sermon in Spanish and a 15 minute sermon in English. During Advent, Alex and I preached together, I did the Spanish and Alex did the English. This time we are switching roles.

The lectionary texts for this week are rich and full of potential sermon topics. I am going to be preaching on 1 Corinthians 3:18-23:
3:18 Do not deceive yourselves. If you think that you are wise in this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise.
3:19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, "He catches the wise in their craftiness,"
3:20 and again, "The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile."
3:21 So let no one boast about human leaders. For all things are yours,
3:22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future--all belong to you,
3:23 and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.
 
I will post my sermon text next week, but as I prepared for this sermon, I remembered one of my favorite Michael Card songs, "God's Own Fool." Below are the lyrics and I would encourage you to meditate on them like a prayer. You can listen to the song with the embedded video below too. Enjoy!
 

Gods Own Fool lyrics

Seems I've imagined Him all of my life, As the wisest of all of mankind
But if God's Holy wisdom is foolish to man, He must have seemed out of His mind
Even His family said He was mad, And the priest said a demon's to blame
But, God in the form of this angry young man, Could not have seemed perfectly sane

Chorus
We in our foolishness thought we were wise
He played the fool and He opened our eyes
We in our weakness believed we were strong
He became helpless to show we were wrong
So we follow God's own Fool
For only the foolish can tell
Believe the unbelievable, come be a fool as well

So come lose your life for a carpenter's son, For a madman who died for a dream
And You'll have the faith His first followers had, And you'll feel the weight of the beam
So surrender the hunger to say you must know, Find the courage to say I believe
For the power of paradox opens your eyes, And blinds those who say they can see

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Coincidence, Luck or God's Divine Providence

 The work team on the short-term HWI/ADU Mission Trip to Guatemala

In August of 2010, I led a short-term mission trip for Healing Waters International to Guatemala. Leading these trips was one of the most favorite parts of my job when I worked for Healing Waters.

During one of the days on the trip I was having a great conversation with one of the participants. She talked about something that happened on the trip, or something that brought her to Guatemala that was a great coincidence. Immediately the words, "God doesn't do coincidence" slipped out of my mouth. I don't know why I said it and it wasn't a concious thought, I just kind of blurted it out.
Chatting with the work team about "coincidence vs. providence"

During the rest of the trip and in the months since then, I have reflected on this phrase a lot. "God doesn't do coincidence." This really speaks to the idea of God's providence, which is a fancy word for guardianship, power, control and care that is exercised by God. The Princeton Dictionary online defines it as, "a manifestation (demonstration) of God's foresightful care for his creatures"

By acknowledging an event as God's Providence instead of as a coincidence or luck, we are able to shift the focus from us to Him. We are acknowledging a God who cares for us deeply and personally enough to show us that care in our every day lives.

At a high level I am reminded of this through my "career path." To an outsider, it looks a lot less like a path and a lot more like a zig-zagging, switchback trail that is all over the place. But putting it into the God's providence perspective, it becomes a straight road, almost a super-highway. I spent 3 years working in private industry and developed some valuable business skill-sets. I spent 4 years working as an academic advisor and professor at at University which taught me project management, counseling and life-coaching as well as teaching and public speaking. I spent 3 years with Healing Waters, doing development projects in Latin America where I used my business skill sets and my project management skill sets. In my job at Healing Waters I also grew in my faith to prepare to come to seminary where I am using all of my skills and experiences in preparing to become a pastor. I was reminded of this throughout my application process and decision to come to seminary as well. Over and over again there were signs and affirmations pointing me and my family to come here.God's divine providence has been at work in my life.

When I was home in Denver last month, I was reminded again. This is going to sound like a silly example of God's providence, but hear me out. We were visiting with our tenants in our house that we are renting out. While we were there visiting our house, I heard the heater in the house mis-firing. I knew the sound well from the time we had lived in the house, and I knew how to fix it. The timing of the problem, and the fact that we were physically there in Denver, IN THE HOUSE, when the problem occured goes way beyond coincidence. I was able to fix the problem, the tenants in our house were able to stay warm during a very cold week, and we saved having to call a heater repair company and the $150 service call. My neighbors remarked about how fortuitous it was that we were there at that moment. But I really believe it was not luck or coincidence, it was God's providence. It is evidence of a God who demonstrates foresightful care for his creatures.

To close out this blog post, I tried to do a search for "Providence Prayers" on google. Most everything that came up was Catholic prayers. I will save a discussion of denominational differences for another day, but I do think we can learn something from our Catholic brothers and sisters when it comes to recognizing and acknowledging God's Providence in our lives. Below is a prayer I adapted from an older text written by Saint Jane Frances De Chantal. You can see the original text HERE or read my adaptation below. Pray this prayer and learn to SEE and SEEK God's power and presence in your life:

I pray to the powerful and unending goodness of you, oh God. I abandon myself forever to your arms. Whether your direction is easy or hard, lead me where you will. I will rely on your guidance, oh God. My soul is at peace only when I acknowledge that I am wrapped in your warm and protecting embrace.


I commit myself, with your help, oh God, to follow your desire and will for me and my life, seeking to follow you more truly and authentically, working to tune into your will and letting that drive my decisions and my life. More of you and less of me oh God.

I commit to giving you my all, oh God, my everything. I ask that you help direct my desires and my heart to long for you. . . your will, your wishes for my life. I offer you my desires and my heart, oh God, and ask that you bless them.


I choose to live my life with you, relying on your goodness and your mercy and I place my entire trust and confidence in you, oh God, acknowledging my own weakness and shortcomings.


Amen!

Thursday, February 10, 2011

The end of the hiatus. . .

My last blog post was on July 26, 2010. By my calculation, that was exactly 199 days ago. I'm back!

So much has happened in the last 199 days and I look forward to sharing it with you. I am recommiting to my blog as a form of journaling, sharing, discernment and witness. I was convicted to do this because of one of my classes last semester, but I am getting ahead of myself.

My last blog post was about visiting Central Presbyterian Church when they had their service celebrating their Mission Trip with Healing Waters to Guatemala. 20 days after that blog post, Jessica, Esther and I packed up our house in Denver and moved to Austin, Texas. I am no longer working for Healing Waters International and am now a full-time student at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary studying to become a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church PC(USA). What an incredible ride it has been!

I need to start by acknowledging and thanking Jessica and Esther for being such amazing partners in this journey and allowing me to follow my calling of becoming a pastor. This has involved a lot of sacrifice for both of them and will continue to involve a lot of sacrifice from both of them, and Jessica has been incredibly supportive. I am so blessed to have such an amazing wife, coming up on 10 years! I love you Jessica, thank you for being you and thank you for loving me.
 Photo taken in June 2001 during our first year of marriage when we were living in South America
Photo taken in December of 2010 around Christmas 



I started my studies in September. My first four classes were:
-Intro. to Old Testament
-Systematic Theology 1
-History of Christianity from the early church to the Reformation
-Colloquy on Ministry and Vocation


I have a lot to share about each of these classes and will do so over the next few months. But it was my Colloquy on Ministry and Vocation class that has actually prompted me to get back into blogging. During that class we read the book The Way of Discernment: Spiritual Practices for Decision Making. I highly recommend this book to anyone and will probably be handing out copies for the rest of my life. This book helps you to guide your decision making processes through a variety of very practical exercises.


One of those exercises that occured over and over again was the process of journaling. I realize that by writing down my own journey, I can help see it more clearly and learn to see God working in it. By writing it as a blog in a public forum, I know that my community can help me with my discernment process to. So I have recommitted to the blog.

I plan on writing a lot more later, but for the time being, I encourage you to check out this book. Whether is is big life-changing decsions you are making, or you are just sort a few things out, this book will provide you a great guide and some very practical tools to help with your discernment process.