It's Wednesday!

Friends in Christ,
  Have you ever been to the wilderness?

  I've wandered out in the woods.  I don't know if anyone would call it wilderness, but I've been hiking and camping deep enough in woods that the anxious thought occurred to me that if something bad happened, I'd be in deep trouble.  (Yes, that's how my mind works... I tend to think of the worst.  I'm working on it.)  It's beautiful out in the backwoods, and yet there's a loneliness evident.  In order for someone to reach you, they have to work pretty hard.  It's not going to be easy or fast, and in many ways, that's wonderful.  We are usually so connected that getting away can be good for the soul & mind.

  I was reading Neal Plantinga's Beyond Doubt this morning and was struck by the reality that Christ comes out into the deep wilderness to save us.  It wasn't easy for Christ.  Our sin had led us deep into the woods, making easy rescue impossible.  We needed drastic intervention from God in order to restore our relationship with God.

  Thinking about hurricane Isaac as it unleashes its fury upon the Louisiana coast, the helicopter rescues of many flood victims come to mind.  People are stranded on rooftops, threatened by rising water, and they have no help of salvation unless someone makes a great effort to reach them.  I read this morning the haunting story of people being trapped in their attics by the rising floodwaters--there is no place left to go, no way out, unless help arises.  May we be in prayer for those threatened by this storm, and may we pray for those who put their own lives on the line, who risk everything to save others.

  Christ came into the deep wilderness to save us from sins.  He came searching for us, no matter how far we had gone.  It doesn't matter where we are.  It doesn't matter what addiction we are fighting or what sin we are wrestling.  Christ comes to save.  It doesn't matter if we believe that we are separated too far from God. God pursues us, rushes after us, to lead us home.  God's love will not let us go.  And so God pursues us, crashing through the woods, parting the waters, so that we might know that we are loved.

  We once were lost, but now are found.  May our lives give thanks to God.

In Christ,
Keith

8/26/12 Sermon on the Resurrection and the Life

John 11:17-27

Jesus the Resurrection and the Life

 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two milesaway, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. Martha said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ Martha said to him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’ She said to him, ‘Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.’

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We're going to do a short survey this morning. You know the type, where they divide people into certain kind of groups. Some people say there are only three types of people in the world, those who can do math and those who can't do math—this is the same type of survey.

When you open your fridge and see a block of cheese with mold growing on it, how many of you immediately throw the entire block of cheese away?

How many of you slice the mold off and eat the rest?

Does anyone here just eat it anyway? If so, please see me after the service.

Moldy cheese is not good cheese. But, you can often just slice the mold off and still have an edible piece of cheese. Just because there is mold on one part doesn't mean the whole thing has to be thrown away, although I completely understand those of you who throw the entire block away. Mold is pretty nasty, and there's all sorts of concern about the mold you can't see that might be growing elsewhere on there.

But think about this—if you have a moldy block of cheese, and cut the mold off, then stick it back in the fridge, if you don't eat it soon, more mold is going to grow back. You haven't done anything but delay the inevitable.

The reason I'm talking about moldy cheese is because there is a big distinction that we need to make when we talk about Jesus raising anyone from the dead. It happens many times throughout the Bible—and Jesus isn't even always the one who does this. Elijah does it in the Old Testament and Peter does it in the New Testament. It's not exactly common, but it happens. The important thing to note is that these people will all die again. They are resusitated, brought back to life, but they will die. They are not resurrected. Resurrection, which is what happens to Jesus and what he promises to each and every one of us who believe in him, is something completely different on a whole other magnitude. Resurrection is transformation into something new, into something that cannot die. We're going to dive more into this later.

First, let's get a completely picture of the text. Mary and Martha, who are very close followers of Jesus, have a brother named Lazarus. Lazarus is even described as the one whom Jesus loved. Well, Lazarus is sick and so they send word to Jesus, knowing that Jesus can heal Lazarus. The way the timing of the story works, Lazarus actually dies on the same day the messenger is sent to Jesus. There's no way for the messenger to know this, but I believe Jesus knows, mostly because I believe Jesus knows everything. When Jesus hears the news that Lazarus is sick, Jesus says that the sickness does not lead to death, but is for God's glory. If this were a movie, this would be a major hint about what is to come.

But Jesus isn't in a big hurry. Jesus waits two more days before going to see Mary and Martha. Jesus waits.

When he finally does show up, Lazarus has been dead for four days. This is important because Jews believed that the soul lingered around the body for three days, and on the 4^th day the person was considered very dead, because the soul had departed. So Lazarus isn't just kind of dead, or mostly dead, as they would say in The Princess Bride, but he's all dead.

Martha, having heard that Jesus arrived, goes out to see Jesus. In Jewish tradition, people didn't leave their house for seven days after the death of a loved one, so Martha going out to see Jesus is out of protocol. But she's mad—she wants to know why Jesus didn't come to save Lazarus. She wants to know why her prayer wasn't answered.

Now, if we stop here for a moment, I think we can all identify with Martha. She must have prayed a thousand desperate prayers for the life of her brother. She loved God and knew that God could heal her brother. She had seen Jesus do miraculous things to other people, and yet when her brother, the one whom Jesus loved, lays there dying, there is no miracle for her. So she's angry.

She couches her anger though with a measure of great faith, which is an important lesson for us. She isn't angry and just casts off Jesus as being powerless or unloving. She says that even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him. Even though Lazarus has been dead for 4 days, even though she saw Lazarus dies and tradition says he is completely dead, she still has faith.

There is a lesson here for us. Even in the face of unanswered prayers, she still has faith. Jesus, too, is teaching us. Notice that he doesn't say that he didn't hear her prayer, that he doesn't know what her heart desperately wants. Jesus doesn't tell Martha that he missed a phone call and didn't know that Lazarus was sick. He waited two more days where he was before coming to see Martha, because he had a greater purpose in mind. He didn't answer her prayer because he had other methods, bigger plans than the ones Martha had.

The same is true for us—if our prayers go unanswered, it's not because God didn't hear them or he forgot to check his messages after a busy day. God hears every one of our prayers and he loves us deeply. The reason our prayers sometimes go unanswered is because God often has bigger plans than we can understand in the moment. I'm not going to pretend to know what those plans are for each of you, but I will say that I trust God with all my heart to bring us through the storms of life.

So Jesus and Martha have this dialogue about life, resurrection and death. Martha believes all of it, confessing that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the Son of God. It's an amazing confession—even in her heartbreak she still knows that Jesus is Lord, and she trusts that Lazarus is in God's hands and will rise again in the resurrection to come.

Jesus takes that faith in the resurrection to another level. He says that he IS the resurrection and the life, and that anyone who believes in him will never die. It's not just that there is a resurrection—Christ is that resurrection.

From here, he goes on to raise Lazarus from the dead. He does this, as he hinted at earlier, for God's glory, to prove that he is the Son of God and has power over death. But this isn't a resurrection for Lazarus—it is a demonstration of God's power over death, but it is merely a resusitation—Lazarus will die again. Lazarus isn't still hanging around somewhere, waiting for Christ to return. He hasn't been transformed like Jesus was when he was raised from the dead. Resurrection is something different, something bigger—we note that in many of the resurrection appearances, the disciples and those closest to Jesus didn't recognize him at first—something had changed. There was a resurrection, a transformation, a change. This is the resurrection that is extended to us.

This goes back to the reading in Romans 6, talking about baptism. It says that in our baptism, we are joined with Christ's life, death and resurrection. What's that mean?

It means that death has no power over us. It cannot break us. It cannot claim us as its own. We belong to Christ, and in him we have life, because of resurrection. Once you have been resurrected, you cannot die. Death is just a defeated shadow, an enemy that can still fight, but cannot win. We have no reason to fear death.

Let me put it like this:

It's been a very stressful week. Mostly, this is due to the concerted efforts of a few scam artists who are intent on getting money out of the church. From what I have read on the internets, this is an old scam in which they allege, by manipulating voice recordings, that you have agreed to pay the company $600 for online advertising. The Federal Trade Commission comes along and shuts them down, and then they spring up once again. They spend most of their time calling and harassing the church, claiming that they are sending their legal team after us and that we'll end up in court and that they will ruin my credit as well as the church's credit. It's what I would call frustrating. Every website and forum, as well as the FTC, says the best thing to do is ignore them and hope they'll go away, which is far easier said than done. I tend to brood over things, and I'll admit this is a topic that is more than frustrating and has consumed much of my energy this week. Even though I have been assured that they don't have any legal power, their constant harassment and threats of legal action leave you thinking, 'well, maybe they can do something' or 'maybe we should just pay them', which is exactly what their intimidation is supposed to do—threaten you into giving them money. They count on those of us without legal knowledge eventually breaking down and paying them out of fear. It's tempting, believe me.

On Thursday morning, it occurred to me that their tactics remind me exactly of death's tactics. The Online Yellow Pages have no legal power or ability to follow through on their threats, yet they trumpet themselves as able to wreck your entire life and bring everything crashing down around you, all because they can manipulate a recorded phone call and make it sound like you've agreed to something you haven't.

Death is no different—Scripture tells us that death has no power. In 1 Corinthians Paul is taunting death—Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? Death has no ability to take our lives thanks to the resurrection of Jesus Christ—it has been defeated, and in him we have life, and life everlasting, that cannot be taken from us. Yet death is constantly harassing us, constantly bombarding us with messages that cause us to fear, and eventually it intimidates us enough that we start to wonder—maybe death does have some power, maybe I do need to be afraid of it. We find ourselves stressing out about death, thinking about it in the middle of the night, wondering if we're really going to be ok, if God will hold up his promises. Death doesn't have any power, but it barges into our thoughts and sets up camp, convincing us that we really do need to be afraid.

But death is a scam. If you are in Christ, it can't hurt you. Christ has absorbed death for you. He has suffered and died once and for all, and in Christ, we are new creations.

Does this mean we won't ever worry about death? Does this mean we won't fear death? No. Not at all. And it doesn't mean that we're sinners for being afraid of death. It just means that death's tricks are still working.

Let's just make sure our trust in Christ is bigger than our fear of death. Let's trust in him, keeping our eyes fixed upon him, and live as a resurrected people now.

Why wait until we have passed through death? Christ intends for us to live NOW as a transformed people, as a resurrected people. This is reality for all of us—in Christ, we are joined into his resurrection. As a baptized people, we can live this out now! New life has begun! We are freed from the shackles of death, and we can join Paul in taunting death! In Christ, we have life, and have it abundantly!

Let us pray

8/23 E-News

Announcements

Family Camp!—There will be no worship service held in the sanctuary on September 2. Our worship service will take place at Camp John Knox. Please let us know if you would like to join us for the day.

Cursillo—If you're interested in attending a lay-lead spiritual retreat in Scottsboro, AL on Oct. 11-14, I'd highly recommend the Cursillo experience. Here's the application form. Here's a link to a video describing the effect Cursillo has had on some people.

East Brainerd Elementary—are you interested in helping out at East Brainerd? They need someone to volunteer as a kindergarten assistant—doing tasks like cutting things out, laminating, etc.

Sunday School—On September 9 the kids' Sunday School is re-launching! Please plan to be there!

New Hope News

Road Construction—They've started work on Shallowford Road this week. The planned date for completion is November 10.

Sunday School—We'll explore Lamentations this Sunday @ 9:45.

Sunday Evening Prayer Service—We're having a service of prayer this week! 6:00

Pray for:

Lynn Meyer

Those in the path of the hurricane.

The workers on Shallowford Road, that they may be safe

Pray for peace—in this city, in this troubled world, in our hearts, in the church

Links

Can you care about the unreached and stay in the country?

Is choosing between a life and a career a stupid rule?

Love this article proposing screenless Saturdays

Written for pastors, but some good thoughts on work/life imbalance

Responding to gun violence

Book Recommendation

Looking for something to sink your teeth into? Shirley Guthrie's Christian Doctrine is a great introduction to Presbyterian theology. Well-written and very accessible.

Random Thoughts

Two nights ago, I had the pleasure of being part of an extended conversation on work and vocation and calling and career and all those things that make up the way we spend our lives in this world. We talked about what it means to do work that is not meaningful, as well as the joy that comes with finding a calling that provides a sense of purpose and mission in life. There were many people who expressed a desire for God to speak in a loud voice and announce exactly what our purpose on this planet is, and we also discussed the reality of multiple careers and stressful job searches and how those affect and define us.

It's so difficult to know how best to invest our time and our energy. We are called to be good stewards of the gift of life, of our gifts and knowledge, and yet we struggle to know how best to do so. How do we follow our dreams and work out how to live faithfully? How do we balance our work and our play, our relationships and the demands of the world, such as bills and the people who encourage us to pay them?

I left the evening thinking about how our jobs enable us to pursue our vocations. In some cases, maybe that means that our jobs are our vocations—maybe we are passionate about the job we are in and we are grateful that it provides for us a sense of calling and purpose. We love to go to work and thank God for the chance to do this work, be it as a stay-at-home mom or a lawyer.

In other cases, perhaps work enables us to pursue a hobby that we feel like is a vocation. Maybe you feel like your vocation in the world is to be a voice for the oppressed, but you cannot find work that pays well enough, so you work as something else to fund your life while you invest your free time in what you feel is your true vocation.

Maybe others straddle a fence, feeling called to multiple areas of life, allowing ourselves to get caught up in the moments of wonder and grandeur of responsibilities as a spouse, a parent, an employee and a hobbyist.

I don't think we need to build fences and have definite limits on what is vocation and what is not. I just think we need to find what we love and what is faithful and pursue that. It doesn't mean we have to pursue it in full-time employment, but Christ has given us all gifts to use to serve others. Let's use those gifts to spread Christ's love, and perhaps when we look back on this wild ride of life we'll see how different seasons of life saw us called to different things, and we'll give glory to God for the way he works, often beyond what we can understand in the moment.

Text for Sunday, August 26

John 11:17-27

John 11:17-27

Jesus the Resurrection and the Life

 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. Martha said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ Martha said to him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’ She said to him, ‘Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.’

NewHopeChattanooga.org

New Hope on Facebook & Twitter

New Hope on iTunes

Keith's Blog & Devotionals for your Kindle

Laughter

  I don't know what the largest number is that they have a name for, other than infinity, but whatever it is, I think the definition is: the number of times a father will do something over and over again to make his child laugh.

Sermon for August 19

John 10:11-18

 ‘I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.’

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How many of you have ever seen a sheep taking anti-depressants? How about antacids, because they're so stressed out they need to medicate their constantly roiling stomachs? No? Me neither.

Now, I've tried both. I've taken almost every antacid on the market, and none of them relieve the turbulence in my stressed-out stomach. I've tried anti-depressants, too, and if they didn't make me so light headed I'd probably still be on them—I have spent the last 7 years trying to deal with my anxieties, and while I'm glad to say they're far better than they used to be, they're still not fun.

So what makes me different than the sheep? Why am I, and so many others, heavily medicated for reasons that are solely mental while sheep, who are a lot more physically threatened than I, seem so content?   

Simple—they trust the shepherd.

Me? I'm busy trying to secure my own life with my own two hands and my overactive brain. I'm busy trying to take care of everything because I have a hard time trusting God to hold up his end of the bargain. I could learn something from the sheep—I could learn to trust the shepherd.

Now, admittedly, the sheep don't have much of a choice. I've never seen a sheep attend a career fair, asking for resumes and trying to decide which shepherd to trust with their lives. Sheep are merely born into a herd and spend their lives there, providing wool for clothing or becoming a delicious meal. Perhaps some sheep should look into their options...

We, on the other hand, have all sorts of options as to which shepherd to follow. The devil has ensured that there are plenty of options, and our sinful habits drive us to try as many of them as possible. Jesus talks about how his sheep know his voice and follow him, but if we, the sheep to which he refers, are open and honest, we have to admit that we spend a good deal of time chasing after other voices, confusing them with Christ's voice. Thankfully, we know that Christ searches out the lost sheep, because while we often like to label other people as the lost sheep, the reality is that we spend a good portion of our lives just as lost as anyone else. Christ seeks us out and brings us home.

The story of the shepherd seeking out the lost sheep is but one example of the reason that Jesus is called the Good Shepherd. Not the bad shepherd, not the mediocre shepherd, not the shepherd who brings home most of the sheep—he is the good shepherd, and I want to spend some time today talking about the reasons that he is good.

The first reason is that he is trustworthy. We can trust the shepherd with our lives. If you owned a flock of sheep and were hiring a shepherd, you wouldn't hire the shepherd with a 75% retention rate for bringing home the sheep. You wouldn't even want the guy with the 99% retention rate—you want a shepherd who will bring home every single sheep. You want to hire a shepherd who will face down danger and do whatever possible to protect the sheep.

Now, as the sheep, we have to realize that we don't understand all of the ways of the shepherd. Think about how many things a shepherd might do that the sheep might not understand. If you remember the story of David slaying Goliath, he did so with his sling and a smooth stone he had picked up from a river. The reason he was lethal with his sling is that he had spent time in the meadow guarding the sheep from wolves and other predators, and he used his sling to ward them off. He had practiced so that when he needed it, he could use the sling to protect the sheep.

Picture yourself as a sheep. You're watching the shepherd use a leather sling to hurl rocks at a fencepost or nearby tree. Seems like a pretty dumb waste of time, right? Perhaps an enjoyable hobby, but nothing more. Now, when you see a wolf come near and you feel threatened for your life, all of a sudden you see the shepherd pull out that sling and kill the wolf—only then do you understand what all that practice was for.

In the same way, we have to trust completely Jesus Christ as our shepherd, and we also have to accept that we don't understand all of the ways of the shepherd. We want answers—we want to know everything, to understand the ways of the world, to know why evil happens and why Christ doesn't intervene in Syria or Somali or the sorrows of our own lives. We want to know why it seems like the Devil is winning and why people we love keep getting cancer. We want to know God's plan for our lives and we want to know it yesterday so that we can get on with life. We want to know.

And there's nothing wrong with the desire for knowledge. There's nothing wrong with asking God. But Jesus is the Good Shepherd—he's worthy of our trust. Just because we don't have the answers to our questions doesn't mean that Jesus doesn't love us or that he's not paying attention to us—it just means that we don't have the full picture yet. We don't understand everything. It's ok—he is worthy of our trust. He is the Good Shepherd.

So Jesus the Good Shepherd is trustworthy. He's also devoted. He notes this in the very beginning of the passage—the Good Shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. He contrasts this with the hired hand, the one who turns and runs to save himself at the first sign of danger, the one who does not care enough for the sheep to risk a hair on his head. Jesus, on the other hand, cares enough to lay down his life for the sheep.

This is the ultimate sacrifice of a shepherd. The shepherd is willing to place himself between the source of danger and the sheep. The shepherd doesn't stand behind the sheep, hoping that the predator will eat his fill before he gets to the shepherd. The shepherd doesn't urge the sheep to turn and run, hoping that some of them might save themselves. You've heard the saying that when a bear attacks, you don't have to be the fastest one, you just can't be the slowest one—this isn't what Jesus is teaching to the sheep. He is going out and standing between danger and the sheep, so that the sheep not only are protected but also can take heart, take courage, in his example. They know they are safe because they have a shepherd willing to take the punishment that belongs to them. Without the shepherd, the sheep would be in danger of death, powerless to do anything about it. But with the Good Shepherd in front of them, they need not fear for their own lives, but can take confidence that the Good Shepherd will pay the price for them.

Our Good Shepherd dies for us. Humanity has gone to a place of sin that should mean death for us, but Christ stands between us and death and takes our punishment. He lays down his life so that we don't have to—not because he deserves it, but because he chooses to do so. His life is laid down for us, to protect us, to give us hope and courage in the face of death. We have nothing to fear because our shepherd stands between us and death, taking the punishment and suffering death so that we do not have to.

Our Good Shepherd is devoted.

Our Good Shepherd is trustworthy.

And finally, our Good Shepherd is powerful.

Notice this at the end of the passage—this is so important. I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again.

Did you get that? No one takes Christ's life from him. The next time you think of the battle between good and evil as a war between two equal powers, read that sentence again. Christ knows full well that he'll be nailed to a cross and the devil will throw every worldly power against him to kill him, but Christ knows the devil cannot take his life. The world cannot take his life. Every weapon we have ever created, from the first rough-cut arrowhead to the entire nuclear arsenal of the world today, cannot take his life. Only he can lay it down, and he chooses to do so for us.

Jesus is so often portrayed as a sorrowful figure, going to a painful death orchestrated by the Pharisees. And his death was an awful one, but let us not forget that Christ chose this path for you and I. Christ chose to lay down his life so that humans might live in freedom from the shackles of sin and death. Christ chose to go this way, and only he could give up his life—the world could only receive what he had chosen to give. He is more powerful than anything the devil can conjure up, and this will be noted with finality when Christ returns and shatters death and sin forever in his victorious right hand. Christ will reign forever, and we can be assured of this because God is more powerful than evil, Christ is stronger than the world—and yet God chooses to use this power for love, for good, for us.

So here we are, sheep of the Good Shepherd. Our shepherd is trustworthy. Our shepherd is devoted. Our shepherd is powerful.

When he calls your voice, will you hear and obey? Will you follow him to the green pastures to which he wants to lead you? Will you let him take you into abundant life? Will you stop listening to the voices of the world's shepherds, who promise everything and deliver nothing? Will you deafen your ears to every other voice but his and his alone, and follow him wherever he may lead, for his glory?

Let us pray

8/16 E-News

Announcements

Family Camp!—There will be no worship service held in the sanctuary on September 2. Our worship service will take place at Camp John Knox. Please let us know if you would like to join us for the day.

Lookouts Game—We'll head down to catch a Lookouts game on Saturday, August 18^th. Let Keith know if you're interested in joining us.

Sunday School—On September 9 the kids' Sunday School is re-launching! Please plan to be there!

New Hope News

Sermon Series—We began a new sermon series last week. We'll be exploring the 'I Am' statements in John. It is my hope that we can learn about our own identity by focusing on what Christ says about his identity.

Sunday School—We'll explore Jeremiah this Sunday @ 9:45.

Sunday Evening Prayer Service—We're having a service of gratitude this week! 6:00

Pray for:

Lynn Meyer

Give thanks for the blessing of today

Links

Some thoughts on loving the sinner and hating the sin

Empowering women in a missional church

Tilling among the Tulips: Sowing Hope in West Michigan

This is one of the best sermons I've heard in a long time (About 35 minutes long)

I find these presidential candidate quizzes fascinating

Local cancer prevention study

Pop-up movie theater downtown

I appreciate irony

I try to leave politics out of here, but this deeply disappoints me

Book Recommendation

I'm not big on recommending books that I haven't read, but I found an aritcle about The Jewish Annotated New Testament and thought it looked pretty interesting. What Amy-Jill Levine has done is heavily annotate the New Testament to help the 21^st century modern reader better understand many of the references that often pass us by as we read the New Testament. We miss the references not because we don't care, but because we don't understand the culture in which they were rooted. Levine has set out to enable us to understand the statements and stories as they would have been understood back then, giving us a fuller picture of the New Testament.

Random Thoughts

Today, I'm having my annual physical exam. I can't say that I'm looking forward to it, but it's nice to hear a doctor say that it doesn't look like any limbs are going to fall off or that the end is near. It's an important part of keeping our physical health in good shape.

I wonder what an annual exam would look like for our spiritual health. Maybe it would be a good idea if the church prescribed some time and some tests to examine if we are on a healthy track. Just as the doctor needs to sit down and have a serious conversation with someone who has practices in their life that are destroying their physical body, shouldn't we be able to check our spiritual practices and see if they are harming our spiritual life? What might that look like?

I'd imagine that it might involve taking a day, or perhaps half a day, each year to be still before God. It would involve solitude and some honesty, neither of which are easy for most people. We'd have to spend some time looking back on where we've been, on the highlights and the lowlights, and then take some time to look forward, to anticipate what God might be doing in the coming year and think about how we can join in with God's work.

I don't think this would be easy, but I imagine it would pay dividends throughout the years. It might help us be more spiritually healthy, more aware as to what the Holy Spirit is doing in the world, in our lives, and perhaps we would stop running about so aimlessly, so filled with stress, and enable us to slow down and enjoy the grace of God that showers down around us.

Text for Sunday, August 19

John 11:11-18

 ‘I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.’

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Caleb Updates

  It's amazing to watch Caleb grow--one minute he's trying to figure out how to roll over, arm stuck beneath him and consternation written on every inch of his face, and the next he's trying to crawl, leg stuck beneath him, the same look upon his face.  (Well, at least until his face plants into the carpet and he starts rolling.  I'm not sure he's ever going to crawl--rolling is so much more effective for him.  The cats appreciate this, because a rolling baby is still easy to avoid, but it's only delaying the inevitable for them, and I don't have the heart to tell them this.  Also, I don't know how to talk to my cats.)

  If you look closely at the picture, you'll notice a U-shaped spot on the top of Caleb's shirt.  It's drool.  This kid drools like a St. Bernard.  It's amazing.  He's got three teeth in already, and more on the way--and if the drool increases with the number of teeth, I'm going to have to start dressing him in a Sham-Wow.

  Not only is he slowly discovering that his legs are meant for more than just decoration, he's also finding his voice.  As my mother would say, this is the part called payback.  As a kid, I was rather talkative.  Mom bribed me with M&M's in the hopes of a quiet car ride home.  As for the strangers I sat next to on a plane ride from Cincinnati to Los Angeles and talked the entire way there... they're probably still regretting not taking a later flight.

  Caleb is joining in the Jones family tradition of talking a lot.  Monday night, he talked from 4:30 until his bedtime at 8:30.  Some of it sounded happy, some of it not as happy, but he was overjoyed to have the chance to share what he thought.  I was pretty impressed by the kid, although I will admit to hoping for a moment of peace at some point during those four hours!

  He's a joy to be around.  Even in the rough moments, I am struck by what a blessing he is.  I thank God for the gift of Caleb, and I pray for the wisdom to be a great father for him.

Wednesday Letter for 8/15

Friends in Christ,
  I was listening to a sermon this morning and it mentioned our unwavering hope in Jesus Christ.  I like that.  I can't say that I have unwavering hope, but I like the idea of striving for it.  It got me thinking about what causes my hope to waver--and I realized that my hope wavers when I stop focusing on Christ and invest my time and energies in trying to do everything myself.

  I want the best for this church, and believe that the best for this church means that each and every one of us keeps our eyes focused solely on Christ.  When we do this, and live a life that testifies to the Lordship of Jesus Christ over every part of our lives, I think we are living as God wants us to live, as a community.  When we spend all our time worrying about the future, stressing out about what seems like a never-ending list of things worthy of stressing out about, we take our eyes off Christ and look at ourselves.  We get distracted when we notice how imperfect we are, how blemished we are, how sinful we are.  When we look at Christ, we see ourselves in a different light--we see ourselves as clothed with his grace and mercy, covered in his love, immersed in his light.  Then we are encouraged to go out, to share this with others, because we're not worried about ourselves.  It's not about us!  When we keep our eyes on Christ alone, our hope doesn't waver!  It remains steady and strong, because we trust that he holds all things together and will bring us through every trial--not remove us from every trial, but bring us through--by the power of his love.

  So I hope that I can keep my eyes fixed on him.  I hope that my hope will not waver.  And I will pray for you, too, to have unwavering hope.

  I'd invite you to come and walk the labyrinth if you have time.  If you don't have time, it might be worthwhile to make time for it.  Spend your time in the labyrinth focused on his love--let all your thoughts about yourself slip away and just bask in the radiance of his eternal glow, of the mercy he pours out upon you.  Just like I want to lavish love on Caleb, God wants to pour out his love on his precious children.  That means you--not everyone else other than you, not all those other people more worthy of God's love--God wants to pour love upon you, to bring you joy and blessings, even in the midst of the trials of life.

  So let God love you.  I promise it will change your life.

In Christ,
Keith

Water, water everywhere

  Just the other day I was thinking about how blessed I was to live in a house.  It was teeming outside, rain blowing sideways, and I was suddenly consumed by gratitude that I wasn't huddling for shelter under a bridge or hoping that a piece of cardboard might keep me dry.  It's easy to forget what a blessing a house is, and this particular rainstorm was a pretty strong reminder of what a blessing it is.

  Several days later, in God's wonderful way of working, I was standing in my kitchen when I noticed water coming from a place from which it wasn't supposed to emerge.  Curious, I started poking around to discover that my faucet (and it's fancy technology that is supposed to last so much longer than those regular faucets) was dripping water into the cabinet below.  It wasn't a ton of water, and there wasn't substantial damage, but it was a frustrating morning as I tried to discover the problem and the remedy.  In the midst of my frustration, I remembered that moment when I was awash in the awareness of what a blessing a house can be.  I will admit I laughed out loud as I compared my recent gratitude to my present frustration.  How easily we forget God's gifts and kindness.  How readily we get caught up in the moment and forget the immense blessings God has poured out upon us and we complain about our current situation, even when the current problem is often quite small and easily fixable.

  Now, I don't mean to say that we can't ever lament.  I don't mean to imply that we should feel guilty every time we get upset or frustrated at things in life.  There are many problems much bigger than a leaky faucet, and we should lift them all up to God in prayer.  I believe that God cares deeply about every facet of our lives.

  I just think we also need to remember the grace of God that has been so generously poured into our lives.  Let's not forget that each and every day is a blessing, a free gift.  Let's take the long view, too, and never forget that we have nothing to fear, for God's perfect love casts out fear--even death has been defeated, and the gift of eternity with God is available because of the free gift of Christ's grace.  Let's be grateful for all the gifts God gives, for the life and hope we have in Christ, and put our lament in perspective.  May our frustrations be tempered by the remembrance that death and sin will be crushed and destroyed by the awesome love of God, and that God is with us every moment of the day, ensuring that nothing will ever separate us from him!

Monday morning

Here's something to make the world a better place on this Monday morning!

August 12 Sermon

John 10:1-10

Jesus the Good Shepherd

‘Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.’ Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

 So again Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

********************************

Have you ever been to a carnival out in the middle of a field?  I recently read Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus and it described a magical circus that would appear in the middle of a field, seemingly out of nowhere, and people would stream to it from near and far.  They’d see the lights illuminating the nearby countryside and curiosity would attract them—some would rush to the circus while others were pleased to be drawn slowly toward the pulsating center of attention.  All would wait outside, some patiently, each full of wonder at what might be contained inside.  The circus was full of curiosities and enticements, each one a spectacle to itself, none known until they were experienced by the individual.  It was a wonder.

Imagine a world like that, full of attractions for every sense, wonders for the eyes, ears and mouths to behold, and having no way in.  You stood outside the fence, certain that what was inside was too magnificent to miss, but you had no access, no place of entry—you were stuck on the outside, desperately searching for some gap in the fence or some knothole through which you might gaze upon the wonders you were certain that were contained inside.  Imagine your disappointment upon finding that the fence was secure, that there was no way in, no point of access, and all you were left with was the light and the noise streaming over the fence that provided you hints as to what was contained inside. 

It’s not a giant leap from this scenario to how we might think about God without Jesus Christ.  For the glory of God is indeed a wondrous thing that draws people in—virtually every race of humanity since the beginning of time has had gods of some type or another—we are built to worship, built with a hunger and with an awareness that we are creatures with a creator.  We pair this with the general revelation we find in creation—Psalm 19 tells us that the heavens tell of the glory of God while the earth proclaims his handiwork.  Psalm 148 is an order to the mountains and hills and all of creation to praise him.  Creation itself points to God—the knowledge of God can be discovered in the beauty of the earth and the wonder of its creatures.  This general revelation that teaches us something about God can be likened to the noises and smells that might stream over the fence of a carnival—we learn something by them, and we experience something of the carnival, but it is not a full immersion in the wonders contained within.

Just as this experience leaves us wanting, so, too, does a knowledge of God without a personal relationship.  Just as running around the fence and trying to discover what is within is a lousy way to experience what it’s like to see a magician or taste a funnel cake, standing the midst of the most beautiful valley on earth and being caught up in the wonder of it all is an imperfect way to experience the fullness of God.  It may be a great experience, but it’s incomplete.  Smelling a funnel cake is surely a great experience, but tasting it is even better.  Having some sense of God’s wonder and love is good, but experiencing that on a personal level is far, far better.

This is what it means for Jesus Christ to be the gate.  He is the way into the carnival, the door that allows us to pass from a general knowledge about God into a specific relationship with God.  Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ alone, is the gate that gives us permission to enter into the fullness of God.  In our baptisms, we are joined with him—we are joined with him in his life, in his death, and in his resurrection.  In this sense we can no longer die—death is a defeated enemy for those who are in Christ, who have passed through the gate, and after this life we can then enter into the fullness of God, because we have been justified by his death, purified by his blood, saved by his life.

Now, we may wonder why God bothered to put up a wall at all.  Why doesn’t God just let the wall come down and let everyone enter in?  If God is love, then wouldn’t the most loving thing to do be to allow everyone to come in? 

The problem with this is sin, plain and simple.  See, God is perfect, and we are not—and one of those things have to change if we are to dwell in eternity with God.  I’ll give you a hint—it’s not going to be God.  God cannot sin—it is impossible.  God is love and God is good, and it would contradict a central part of who God is if God were to sin.  Since God cannot contradict himself, he cannot sin. 

So we have to be cleansed of our sins before we can enter into God’s glory.  Think of sin as building a wall between us and God—in Genesis, we have a beautiful image of God walking in the Garden with Adam & Eve.  Because of their sin, however, they were cast out of the garden.  In order for us to enter the garden that is described in Revelation, we need to be cleansed of that sin.  We need a way through the wall that we have built that separates God from our sin. 

Jesus Christ is the way through the wall.  He is the gate. 

Now, God didn’t have to make a way through the wall.  He could have just left the wall and refused to admit humanity back into his glory.  We would have gone through our lives with a general knowledge that there was a creator, but we would have no specific knowledge of God’s love for us or his desire to be in relationship with us.  Instead, God has formulated a plan to deal with the problem of sin.  God wants us to enter into the feast, into the carnival, and so he enters into creation and makes a way where there was no way, a gate where there was previously only a wall, and in Jesus Christ makes it possible for us to enter into his glory.  Where there was once only general knowledge of God, in Christ we have a very specific knowledge of the loving and merciful God who has created us and longs to give us abundant life.

But we have to pass through the only gate, Jesus Christ.  It’s exclusive—because Jesus Christ is both God and man, only he can make us clean.  Only he can take our sins upon himself and make it possible for us to enter into God’s glory.  Only he can give us abundant life.  As Jesus says, anyone else who promises to do so is a thief and a bandit. 

Jesus is our way into the feast, the gate through the fence, and through him we enter into a world of riches unimagined.  There is grace and mercy and love and wonder and power and might—all of it belonging to God, and God wants to lavishly pour it out upon us.  God is the one who can fulfill our every true desire, the ones we spend so much time and energy finding other things to satisfy them.  It’s a feast beyond my ability to describe it, but this is what awaits us when we enter into the fullness of God.  This is the abundant life that God promises to give to us if we give everything over to Christ, to let ourselves enter into him fully, so that we might empty ourselves and let him fill us.

It’s way better than the greatest funnel cake—it’s everlasting life, and it’s available to each and every one of us through the gift of Jesus Christ.

Let us pray 

What a gift!

  I'm just so grateful for his wondrous love, for the grace that pours down from the cross, from the blood that drips down and transforms me so that I am white as snow. Not because of anything I've done, not because I deserve it... but because he is gracious, kind and patient. What a gift—I deserve damnation to the deepest pit of hell, and yet my sin is destroyed, crushed by love upon the cross, and instead of damnation I receive the opportunity to exalt the Lord my God in the highest realms of heaven. If it were only for the briefest of moments, that would be enough, more than this sinner deserves or could dream of, and yet God, in his eternal grace and mercy, extends that favor for eternity because of his love and grace. It's all a gift, a wondrous and incredible gift, and if words could describe the song my soul sings I would place them here, but the praise songs for God my King go beyond words, beyond what the mind can express, for my very heart cries out in joy to my Lord. I do not get what I deserve, but by his kindness and love I receive grace and mercy.

8/10 E-News

Announcements

Family Camp!—If you haven't yet signed up for family camp, please let the office know! We need to send a final head count pretty soon. Sept. 1-3 is the date. You are welcome to come for any or all of it!

Lookouts Game—We'll head down to catch a Lookouts game on Saturday, August 18^th. Let Keith know if you're interested in joining us.

Family in Need--From Family Promise (Formerly Interfaith Hospitality) --The Scruggs family will be moving into their three bedroom apartment in the next week or two.  They are in need of beds, sofa, chairs for living room, end tables and lamps and coffee tables.  A dining table and chairs and four twin beds, one queen bed and a crib.  Dressers are a need as well.  Sheets, towels, dishes, silverware, drinking cups are needed too. The Furniture Bank is backed up with approximately 50 people in front of the Scruggs family for requests. If anyone has any of the above items, please contact Linda Smith our case manager at linda.fpg@epbfi.com or call her at 756-3891.

New Hope News

Sermon Series—We began a new sermon series last week. We'll be exploring the 'I Am' statements in John. It is my hope that we can learn about our own identity by focusing on what Christ says about his identity.

Sunday School—We'll explore Isaiah this Sunday @ 9:45.

Sunday Evening Prayer Service—We're back with a service of healing & wholeness this week! 6:00

Pray for:

Lynn Meyer

Give thanks for the blessing of today

Links

Do you live in a bubble?

Senseless

Why we build

I think stories like these are more interesting than many others in the Olympics

More thoughts on the Olympics: Why discipleship is not like the Olympics

Book Recommendation

Lately, I've been reading a lot of books focused on the spiritual life. I have a growing hunger within to know Christ and experience Christ's love more deeply than I could even imagine. I want my every single thought to be about him. I know it's not something I'll ever achieve, but I don't want to be satisfied by anything less. To that end, Thomas Ashbrook's Mansions of the Heart was recommended to me. It's an image of what spiritual progression looks like using Teresa of Avila's seven-story mansion to focus our development as disciples. It's a well-written, accessible book. I wouldn't necessarily start with it if you haven't read a lot of works on spiritual growth, but if you're looking for something that might help you view life from a different angle, it's a great book.

Random Thoughts

I was watching the Olympics the other night and Usain Bolt ran really, really fast. He's amazing to watch—I don't remember being captivated by a sprinter since watching Michael Johnson run the 200 & 400. (Back then, wearing brightly colored shoes seemed to be the exception rather than the rule. But that's another article.) I will admit that I was somewhat taken aback by something I heard about his run—someone had said that he had sprinted 'into immortality.'

Really?

I always struggle with statements like this. We hear them a lot around sports. There is always talk about how a certain game or team will be remembered forever, or how this particular moment will live on forever, or that a player going into the hall of fame has achieved immortality.

I don't try to be Debbie Downer, but I don't believe that Jesus Christ is going to have a wall in heaven dedicated to Usain Bolt because he can run really fast. I don't think that Christ is going to reach down into Cooperstown and pluck up all the statues in the baseball hall of fame to be sure they're still around when the earth is redeemed and we are ushered into the new creation. I'm fairly certain that God isn't adding a wing onto heaven for all the instant replays that have been declared to last forever.

We tend to blow certain things in life out of propotion, particularly sports, but many other things, too. Quick—who won the World Series in 2003? Who won the gold in Olympic sprinting in 2000? What was your bank account total in 2005?

Maybe you remember these answers, but I don't. What really matters is whether or not we're growing closer to Christ—because that is the relationship that will last forever. God is eternal, and he invites us into an eternal relationship with him.

So let's celebrate the wonderful things that happen here on earth, from sprinting to baseball to fireworks to puppies & flowers. They're good and wonderful things. But let's keep them in perspective and always remember that God comes first, and our growing relationship with him is what we need to keep our eyes and our hearts focused on as we go through life.

Text for Sunday, August 12

John 10:1-10

‘Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.’ Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

 So again Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

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