Sacrifice

Many people like to give up things for Lent. I will get on my soap box one more time and say that, most of the time, people don’t know why they are doing it. They are supposedly suffering for some reason, but they are not sure why or what the point is. I love to ask Catholics why they give up meat on Fridays. Many times even they have no clue why they do it. Are you curious as to how this practice started? A long time ago a Pope suggested it might be a good way to reflect on what Jesus did for us. It was nothing more than a suggestion. That was it.  Yet now, it is so often taken as truth. I would rather see us take on a new habit than sacrifice a bad one. In our discipleship model we talk about reading 1 verse a day.  I suggest that you pick up that piece rather than give something up.

Yet, sacrifice is important. Recently I was talking to the young adults about my favorite CS Lewis quote, “The man who fights off temptation for 10 minutes doesn’t know what it’s like to fight off temptation for an hour.”  We, who fight against the devil on a daily basis, know that this kind of sacrifice is hard. Both of the stories we read this weekend are heartbreaking. Abraham was asked to sacrifice his son!  Even considering such a request was truly hard. I can’t imagine what it was like for him to walk up that mountain thinking about what he was about to do – kill his long-awaited only son.

The same is true of Jesus. Here was this sinless man/God who was facing temptation. This has to be a time when Jesus realizes anew the challenge living on Earth was going to be. Of course, Jesus took on the ultimate sacrifice for us as He walked the road to Calvary and gave up His life – the road we deserved and were supposed to walk ouselves.

Lent is that time to reflect on sacrifice, the blessings God gives, and our personal lives and how we can take time to grow in Him. As you take time to hear these stories one more time, I encourage you to think of the sacrifice of your Savior, but also the sacrifice we each make as we take on the devil and try and develop holy habits our Lord has taught us. The devil is sneaky and tries to attack us.  It is only by grasping the sacrifice Jesus endured for us that we can grow to fully understand Lent. Trust me, this is much more powerful than giving up Dr. Pepper or chocolate. I pray that God guides you into that deep reflection on Him this Lenten season.

Voice of God

This weekend I head home to preach about the voice of God. It is one of those unique things that we struggle with, wondering what God is like. My opening video is of Jimmy Fallon and Adam Levine singing songs in different artists voices. The uniqueness of their impersonations is how they change their voices, and their faces. They look and sound so similar to the artist they are impersonating that it makes it funny.  Their unique style breaks into this hard topic with some humor, and it brings to light a true reality. We honesty don’t know what either of these things are like with God – what He looks or sounds like. At different times I have had people comment on what they think God’s face looks like, and the answers are all over the board. The same is true of His voice. So, we are left with our own impressions to figure this out.

Often we may look to how other people hear God’s voice. Unfortunately, this is like when I question people about the face of God. People often declare to hear directly from God. Even Katy Perry shared that God told her, “You got this” as she was preparing for the Super Bowl. It can leave us puzzled about why we don’t hear from God if others do. So if our own impressions are unclear, and so are the impressions of others, than what do we do? We turn to scripture.

This is where we find the voice of God revealing himself in different ways. In the Old Testament we see God talking directly to people – Moses, Samuel, and so many others. Then in the New Testament Jesus comes, and people are looking at their God. Now they can see what He looks like and hear His voice. When the curtain in the temple was torn at Jesus’ death, we received a direct connection with God we call prayer. Yet, while prayer brings peace, we can still be unsettled with the lack of hearing His voice or seeing His image.

As we had Maddy’s funeral, I wrestled theologically wondering will I see her and know her in Heaven. I guess I could find peace in knowing that I may not recognize other loved ones I saw on this earth, but a daughter I never got to hug was a struggle. Once I even told Mindy that I feel like we won’t know each other in Heaven because in Matthew Jesus says we won’t be married. But the unrest of not knowing and hugging my daughter was unsettling. Then I talked to a pastor friend of mine and shared my struggle. He pointed me to this week’s lesson on the Mount of Transfiguration (Mark 9). He helped me to see that Peter, James, and John recognized Moses and Elijah who appeared with Jesus on that mountain. He asked me, “How could they have known, Will? Were there pictures back then?” All of the sudden this rushing sense of peace of recognizing people in Heaven made more sense. Now, whether I will make the connection that Maddy is my daughter is a whole different topic for a different time. But for the time being I received peace.

I talk a lot about peace.  I write it in my emails.  If you catch it, I often say in the benediction, “…and give us His peace!” The peace of God is something that doesn’t make any sense, but it is something we feel. It is kind of like hearing a familiar voice or recognizing a loved one’s face. For Peter, James, and John that peace was so evident that they wanted to build tents and live on that mountain forever. It was unmistakable that God gave peace and that they were in it, experiencing it, surrounded by it. I connect God’s peace with the very nature of God, as He describes Himself as a servant, selfless, and loving. If our peace is resting in those very thoughts (that God is a servant, selfless and loving), and leaning on our prayer and trust in Jesus, then we know this is the very voice of God in our lives.

Serve Boldly

I really wanted to be an NBA star when I was little. Well, “little” is relative. As a young boy I was playing basketball in my driveway. I can tell you a million memories of the shots taken and how my life was surrounded by basketball. Yet, it was my final year of high school as I sat on the bench with my team down 50 points, that I realized this was not my future. Instead, I was known as the guy that you could go to when you needed someone to listen and give counsel. I had friends in high school who would seek my advice about all kinds of things. It wasn’t like my life was the most put together either.  I was constantly seeking others out about my relationship issues as I waited to find the woman I would marry.

As I continued into college, I made friends with many people, sometimes too many to manage. Then there were those that chose to mentor me. I had great pre-seminary friends who were older that cared for me.  As time grew and my career path became clear, it was evident that relationships were something I valued.  It came up in personality tests that I took at the seminary, and in the first two churches where I served.  In fact, as I considered the call to Mt. Calvary, it was helpful for me to realize that I was a relationship guy, not just the “youth guy” as I had been in those other churches.  I wanted to connect all types of people (through relationships) to the power of the Word of God.

Even though I value relationships, are there times in my life when I serve others? I look around and see this person passionate about helping those with cancer. I see another person passionate about the jobless or homeless. As I thought about each of those, I realized that I get paid for serving others.  So now the question becomes, am I truly serving with passion? The only way to “Serve Boldly” or be to an extraordinary servant is to ask these important questions – questions whose answers are found beyond our desires in the deep parts of our heart.

After that 50-point loss in high school, I went to my coach and asked him why he didn’t play me. My question was less about me being good enough to play and more about our relationship (me & the coach) and how hard I had worked to be faithful to the team. Even back then, basketball was more about relationships for me and less about a desire to be an NBA player. If the desire truly had been about the NBA, I think I would have worked even harder and tried to get more muscle. I just loved the game, and enjoyed the relationships. Some of my favorite days were going over to Zach’s house before games and chilling with all our buddies.

It took years for me to realize that my “Extraordinary Servanthood,” or my

“Serve Boldly-ness” was going to come in those moments of my relationships where I could show I care and how I love the uniqueness of that particular person. I loved going to Belize and serving, but mostly because of the relationships I formed while I was there. I loved helping youth because I had some challenging experiences as a youth myself and wanted to help them in their relationships. Every time Mindy and I face something, it creates another opportunity to help others. Opportunities to “Serve Boldly” can be found in the everyday things, like being a parent, but also in the challenges and tragedies of life.

Most of our stories are covered up with dreams- like mine were. We are distracted by the outside initial desire without looking much deeper.  However, when we look deeper, we are able to see how God made us uniquely. When Jesus shared with the disciples about being a servant for all and laying down His life as a ransom, He wasn’t putting a specific job out there. Sure, the apostles were chosen for certain reasons and they were gifted in that very way of carrying on the message. Yet, there are so many people uniquely positioned to help – in their own unique way. Jesus’ wide-open description of servanthood allows us to use our gifts in ways where we can truly “Serve Boldly.”

Just as we can “Serve Boldly” as individuals, we can also “Serve Boldly” as a church. At Mt. Calvary, we are uniquely gifted. Over the next several weeks we will highlight some of those characteristics, which an outsider to Mt. Calvary helped us see. As we recognize these gifts, it will help us hold onto our mission to be extraordinary servants. In a culture that is increasingly more focused on charities and serving others, what a great mission to have! As a body, we (Mt. Calvary) can help define some of those areas to serve in/for the community. We already know we care about schools and our preschool. We know that kids are a part of our heart’s mission. That is evident to our community too, since many of them tell us that loving children is something we do well.  But what are the other ways we can be extraordinary servants and “Serve Boldly?” The Lutheran Foundation is using their Serve Boldly campaign to help churches start this type of conversation. If you could look at a church and say, “They ‘Serve Boldly’ by ________ (fill in the blank), which is making an impact in the community.” They would know what each church does and how they use their gifts to Serve Boldly. Our mission pairs perfectly with this campaign. The survey each of us will fill out will help us gather your thoughts how God can use the gifts of Mt. Calvary to serve this world. It will help our young adults and young families to grasp the energy that many of our long time members have. 

It is great to have fresh eyes on something we are so familiar with. Being an extraordinary servant is every day language here at Mt. Calvary.  Through this series, I hope that every member can say at least 3 specific ways we as a church are doing just that (being extraordinary servants). This week we kick off the Serve Boldly series and then we will spend every Wednesday Lenten service discussing a new piece of it. You can fill out your Serve Boldly surveys here at church, or you can take it online. You will see Serve Boldly coffee cups and napkins and a ramped up fellowship hour. It will be a fun weekend to remember the mission we hold dear, have discussions about it, and then come back to the very life of Jesus – who taught us how to be extraordinary servants.

Astonished

It’s time to confess: I went to school for a long time, and sometimes I was bored. Now days, when Jacob asks me how long he will have to go to school, I smile to myself. While it might be a quick answer to say, “Until you are an adult”, God has taught me in my years of living to not minimalize any of it.  Jacob doesn’t want to grasp how long school can truly last, what Kindergartener does. The reality is that every season of our life is met with some things that are hard, some things that are great, and other things that are somewhere in between.

This week our reading is about the moments in our life when we are caught off guard. Life is moving along (like we talked about last week) when all of the sudden we hear something, see something, or feel something we never expected. When we are caught off guard like this, we often stop and wonder if that really just happened and then think about how it changes things.  This brings to mind a saying I love, “This is going to change your life!” As much as I want to help people be ready for and grasp these life changes, most of the time these moments are not pre-empted by someone telling us “This is going to change your life!”

Back to my confession, I had a lot of speakers share their passion with me, or lack of it. I had teachers, preachers, and my least favorite – adjunct professors. Adjuncts are people who do whatever grading scale they want and then just drop a grade on you. Most of this story is inspired by my philosophy of religion teacher in college. Honestly, I can’t even tell you his name because I slept through his class most days. I have no clue what I learned in that class, except perhaps that he was one of the worst teachers/speakers I have ever heard.  This was confirmed when my buddy, who was an A student, was upset at him too.   This guy had no clue.

People in Biblical times went to the Synagogue to learn.  Who knows what madness they usually heard taught there. The arrogant Pharisees (I like to call them adjuncts) talked a great game, but failed to communicate the message that God wanted them to tell the people. These are the stories that sicken me the most, preachers that truly capture their audience, but somehow the devil slips into their heart to cause great pain to their listeners through their words.

However, think about how you feel when you hear a great speaker – inspired, motivated, excited, energized and the list can go on.  Depending on the situation, you might even think, “That’s the Holy Spirit speaking through him/her!”  Every time I hear an amazing speaker who is gifted to speak by the Holy Spirit, I am astonished. Last year that was Donald Miller and Jon Acuff, and so many others at the conference I attended. Their words impacted my life with new thoughts and renewal of energy to grow in my preaching. This happens for me when I read a great article too.

In Mark 1:21-28, the people at the Synagogue that day heard something/someone different than the adjunct Pharisees.  They heard Jesus and they were astonished at His preaching! He taught with one who had authority! The people listening were caught off guard.  They were hearing something they never expected. Jesus taught a message that would change their lives.  A definite Holy Spirit moment! 

I can’t imagine what it would have been like to hear Jesus that day – or any day. The people had to be hanging on His every word. Unfortunately for us, we will never fully understand that experience this side of Heaven, but just thinking about it can give us a glimpse into how astonishing this moment was for those that were there.

LIfe Keeps Moving On

A few weeks ago when Mindy and I were in the hospital, I kept starring outside. As it went from evening to morning to afternoon the cars kept coming. We had a perfect view of 64-40 from our room. People were leaving work, going to work, or just going somewhere to have fun. I was processing that life just keeps moving on. No matter what is going on in each of our lives, the lives of others keep moving on. No matter if we are having good things or bad things happen to us, others are just trying to live out their lives at the same time.

This week’s reading (Mark 1:14-20) reminded me of that. Here, as Jesus is calling the disciples, John the Baptist is getting arrested. Now that John is “off the job” so to speak, Jesus is bringing together all the new workers of the church. It is as if Jesus was saying, “So long John, now we need to prepare more people.” While the reading doesn’t really say no one cared, the passage does bring out this reality – John had done his job and now it was time for the One who is truly going to save us. Life keeps moving on. God keeps working in each of our lives, bringing us to know redemption and salvation, then taking us home to heaven to be with Him, at the same time as He is working in the lives of others.

Tomorrow I will say goodbye to Ed Wrice. Ed and I have a story – one that his wife, Wanda, prayed for. His story is one of an ill man who took awhile to grow in appreciation of His Lord. But once Ed did, he was going to let everyone know. Ed and I talked for the last time last week. I really didn’t think it would be the last time, but Ed was ready to go home. He was ready to see Wanda, and to be with his Savior. Ed was ready for life to go on on earth without him. John seems like the same kind of guy. John wanted to do his job, and then let others carry on the next steps. This weekend we take time to reflect on how life goes on, and how God uses each of us to carry out the next steps of the journey.

Come and See

One of my favorite memories as a kid was my cousin Josh. The dude was super cool and had everything I didn’t. He was super smart, great at sports, good at video games, and a cool dude. My mom was cool enough to let me go spend a week with Josh. There was something about his world that I loved. Hanging out near the city of Chicago was super awesome. We saw all kinds of cool stuff that was unique. Those experiences and memories have always dominated my thoughts. I told Mindy I have more photo albums in my head than my family had to look at growing up. Do you remember the books with the sticky pages that made sure the photos never moved? Well, if you dove into my brain you would find a million of those albums holding dearly to all the memories that have shaped me.

I went to tennis camp with Josh one year. Some of the kids from camp asked me where I lived. When I told them Blue Springs they started making fun of me. They asked me if we had cows there. They had all kinds of farm jokes. I remember being frozen in that moment wanting to show them that Blue Springs is cool. I didn’t know what to say. I wish I would have had Phillip’s words to say, “Come and See!” (John 1:46)  Ok, so I probably would have said, “Hey, jokers come and see!” Regardless, Phillip wasn’t putting up with Nathanael’s trash. He was telling Nathanael to come and see what comes from Nazareth. History shows us that Nathanael really didn’t have anything to prove that Nazareth was a bad city. The reality was that most people didn’t even know about it.

One of the best things Josh’s parents (my aunt and uncle) ever did for me was to take me see Michael Jordan play. My aunt told me these tickets were impossible to get. I never understood until I was older the blessing of that experience filed away in my memory. I got to see them in the season that Michael helped the Bulls to win 72 games. All the Jordan cards I had at home became a reality on the court that day.  Seeing Michael Jordan play was one of those amazing experiences that most people only dream about.

Recently I read an article on Jordan that asked the question, “Do we really want to be like Mike?”  The article showed that Jordan is now one who looks for any moment of competition he can find, and is saddened to not have that same level of competition he once had. Competition is the drive of his heart, and now that it is over, what is left? Maybe you don’t know, but he is trying to create a team to be and do what he did. The problem is, the team is missing the competitor that he was. Thus, Jordan is left in sadness and wondering what is next. Hardly a man we want to be like.

The greatest part of this weekend’s lesson is that the disappointment that Jordan feels is not what Nathanael found when he “came to see” Jesus. Instead, he saw someone who, in an instant, changed his opinion of a city that he had put down. He saw not just something good that came from Nazareth, but something awesome! Nathanael saw who Jesus really was and it changed him.

These days Josh and I aren’t much different.  He has moved from doing technical work in a large world bank to a smaller company. He feels like he can accomplish more without all the red tape of a big company. He has four kids and a great wife.  All those things that we worried about as kids are long gone. Now we are both trying to lead our families with the gifts God has given us, having been blessed to know Jesus for years. And it’s all because a long time ago our parents asked us to “come and see Jesus.” This weekend we’ll talk about how our doubt can so quickly be changed as we see the hand of Jesus in our lives.

Sometimes you just need Christmas, wait all the time!

In the next few days I will preach on an amazing silent night and God’s Word being in the flesh. Some years are better than others. Some years we get excited for Christmas, and some years we just need Christmas. Ok, we always need Christmas, but some years we feel the pain of sin in our world so badly that we keep wondering when and how will Jesus fix our mess.

Let me start by saying we are not alone. Sometimes we think this year is worse than the past. The honest truth is, ever since the Garden of Eden sin has been rampant and God has been dealing with it. Yet, we live in the present, and in the present, these challenges are real.  We need Christmas!

St. Louis needs Christmas this year. We need to go back to the things we are good at, like celebrating Cardinal victories and being the “Gateway to the West,” not the apocalypse of pain. We don’t want to be known as the city that started this massacre and then watched it run wild. Every news story reminds me of the night I sat there and watched it unfold on TV.

I need Christmas this year. I watch as my son gets older and he develops my characteristics, some good but also some bad. I spend nights praying that God would help me to see the ways I am impacting his life. As a parent, you want to take all of your sin and throw it out the window and not allow it to affect your kids.

I read an article recently regarding some of the areas that Christians mess up. The author stated that one such area is believing that faith is most important. He was making some ridiculous argument that Christians focus too much on faith and not enough on actions. It brought in James being the brother of Jesus and how James believed in works. I wish I could help people understand there are no works without faith! When you try saying that we should follow Jesus’ example, you are missing the point.  That is why Jesus came, because we couldn’t do it – we couldn’t follow His example. Trust me, I am not letting anyone off the hook, but sin is constantly wrecking the lives of people, and we need Jesus to forgive us, redeem us, and sanctify us.

That is just it – we need His sanctification. On the years when I need Christmas, I spend hours in my head praying for Jesus to teach me how to live. When someone comes to me broken, I spend hours praying for Jesus to help me see what they need. The cool thing is, hang out with Jesus long enough and it will happen. You will look back at your life and say, “Remember when I acted like that? Thank you, Jesus, that you brought Christmas again, because I needed you.”

I was not a fan of history in high school, but I love relational history. When people come to me challenged by the world and all that is in it, I like to take them back to where they started. We live and breathe the story of scripture – sinning, hearing restoration, then sinning again, and needing restoration again. History reminds us of where we have come and what God is doing in our lives to restore us. I love when the prophet Isaiah says, “out of the shoot of Jesse....” The people of Isaiah’s time couldn’t remember the good times with King David because they were so broken.  Isaiah had to remind them that God brought restoration through a peasant’s son. Years like this we can look at the world and get a little frustrated.  It’s then that we need to remember that God brings His Son to restore us. We need Jesus this year. Wait, I think we need Him every year.