Pastoral Ponderings

John 1:10-12 tells us:  “He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God,…”

How IS Christ to be known?  Listen in with me to this encounter in a local grocery store:

Intent on getting out of the grocery store as quickly as possible (I hate shopping), I was deciding which tuna to purchase when the voice of an exasperated mother interrupted my thoughts……

“What is that on your hand? Did you write on yourself again?  What’s with that, Robbie?  How many times do I have to tell you, that ink will get into your blood, and…..”  Oh my, and in the middle of the grocery store too…how embarrassing!  The boy in question looked around.  I could feel his embarrassment, but I confess I was curious.  What had he written on his hand?  Maybe a class assignment?  A friend’s phone number?

                As I tried to peek out of the side of my  vision (while surveying cans of tuna on the store shelf), his response gained my full attention.  “Mom, I just did what Pastor Tom said; I’m helping people know Jesus.  You heard him too, right?  He said he was sad that Jesus came all the way down here and nobody really knew Him.  Pastor Tom said he hoped all of us would be like those “some people” the Bible says DID see and follow Him.  So I wrote this cross on my hand to remind me to be one of THOSE people.”

                Wow.  What’s a mom to say to THAT?  She shook her head and rolled her eyes.  Seeing that I was by now paying full attention, she smiled and said to me, “I think he’ll be a preacher someday, what do you think?”  With that, we went our separate ways.

                A while later I found myself in the neighboring checkout lane to Robbie and his mother.  The young checker noticed Robbie’s hand as he helped place items on the conveyor belt.  “Wow, buddy, where’d you get that tattoo?”  Bobbie seemed to grow an inch instantly as he stood up straight and tall.  “I did it myself!  Like it?  It reminds me that I know Jesus.”

                The young checker glanced around.  Then she rolled up her sleeve to reveal a beautiful cross (a real tattoo) on her forearm.  “Me too.  I need this reminder too.”  Rolling her sleeve back down, she looked at Robbie’s mother.  “You’ve got a real special boy there.”

                While we may not be inclined to write on ourselves with markers or get tattoos, we are marked by our faith and discipleship to Christ.  How does it show?  How do others (and we) see that we are members of the “some people (who) accepted Him and put their faith in Him” (John 1:12) and not one of those who “don’t know Him” and who “don’t welcome Him” (John 1:10-11)?  What marks do we bear?

                Galatians 3:27 tells us this:  “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”  As we turn the corner to another new year, how will we be visibly clothed with the newness of life that only Christ brings? 

Many of us live our lives as “stealth Christians”, revealing our identity as disciples of Christ only when absolutely necessary.  How often does someone wonder why you do what you do?  How often do you behave in ways that would cause an observer to want to know?

                How is your life marked by Christ?  As we enter this new year together, may your life show forth your discipleship in more and deeper ways, that your relationship with Him will grow to new levels and strength.  May your life introduce those around you to Him, so they too are drawn into the joys of discipleship to Christ!                           

                                                                        Peace & Presence,    

                                                                                        Rev Al

Already we can see Christmas displays and advertising appearing everwhere!  Soon after Christmas, a new year will begin.  Many people link Christmastime with the end of the “old” year and the start of a new one.  Usually we hope the new year is better, or as good as, the past one.  Regardless, with this post, I invite you  to contemplate newness of life as the new year – 2011 – moves ever closer.

Today we move to the end of the first chapter of the First Letter to Peter and look at a true story of a surprise single dad and his “new year life”!

You say that God is your Father, but God doesn’t have favorites!  He judges all people by what they do.  So you must honor God while you live as strangers here on the earth.  You were rescued from the useless way of life that you learned from your ancestors.  But you know that you were not rescued by such things as silver or gold that don’t last forever.  You were rescued by the precious blood of Christ, that spotless and innocent lamb.  Christ was chosen even before the world was created, but because of you, he did not come until these last days.

   And when he did come, it was to lead you to have faith in God, who raised him from death and honored him in a glorious way.  That’s why you have put your faith and hope in God.  You obeyed the truth, and your souls were made pure.  Now you sincerely love each other.

   But you must keep on loving with all your heart.  Do this because God has given you new birth by his message that lives on forever.  The Scriptures say, “Humans wither like grass, and their glory fades like wild flowers.  Grass dries up, and flowers fall to the ground.  But what the Lord has said will stand forever.”  Our good news to you is what the Lord has said.   - 1 Peter 1: 17-25 (Contemporary English Version)

“Well Joe, I’m sure glad the new year is over.  Man, what a mess!”  Ned’s forehead glistened with sweat as he kept mopping the big social hall.  Joe looked up as he hauled yet another load of trash through to the back doors.  “Over?  Nah, it’s just beginning.  We’ve got three hundred sixty-three more days to go!”

 Ned stopped to pull a bandana from his back pocket to catch the sweat which was now dripping down his nose.  “Oh no we don’t!  I’m not having another three hundred sixty-three of these!  Want to know what my wife said yesterday?  She said it’s time we started living like it really was a new year.  You know I dropped out of school, but I was just a kid then.  It’s time to really ring in a new year.  No, wait, I’ve got it – I’m ringing in a new LIFE!  Tomorrow I’m starting classes that will get me ready to take the GED.  And I’m going to pass that thing too, because after that comes architecture college.  I figure I’ve sure cleaned enough of these – now it’s my turn to design a few!”

 Joe couldn’t believe that change that came over Ned as he talked.  The old Ned seemed to disappear right in front of him.  The ‘resigned to my fate’ look transformed into a ‘look out, new things are coming’ face, all within the minutes they’d been talking!  “Ring in a new life, huh?  Well, maybe at your age, but I’m pushing fifty, and….”  He ran a hand over the top of his head, smoothing the few hairs he had left up there.  His barber had told him just last week to give up on the comb-over thing and just enjoy his ‘perfect head’.  Yeah, right, uh huh.  Joe was so lost in his own thoughts that he only looked up when Ned cleared his throat.

 “Fifty? Man, you’d better be checking in at the old folks home, right?  I mean buddy, you’re one foot in the grave.  Is that what I’m hearing?  Because if it is, you need to get a reality check.  Man!  You’ve got decades ahead of you – decades!  Who says you can’t do just what my Trudy told me to do – ring in a new life!  Why not?”

 “Well Ned, if we’re talking about dreams, well, you know I raised five boys by myself, don’t you?  Well, my dream’s to start a program kind of like Big Brothers – only for single dads.  Maybe a ‘Dad’s Big Brother’ sort of thing, you know, to mentor those dads.  God knows I could have used a ‘big brother’ to stand by me all those years!”

 “Now you’re talking!  That’s exactly what you’ve been for me these last couple of years.  When my girlfriend Mandy left baby Joshua on my doorstep, I didn’t know the first thing about kids, let alone babies!  Remember that?”  Joe chuckled.  Boy did he remember!  Ned looked him straight in the eye.  “I don’t think we would have made it without you – really, Joe.”

 ”Hey, and we’ve got men’s group at church tonight too.  You ever think about asking Pastor Rick about your idea?  He was just preaching about letting Jesus have a new year every year of our lives.  Maybe he’s ready to put that preachin’ to work!”

 That was how the Man 2 Man single dads network began.  After six years, the program had grown so much that the church began looking for new space to house its many ministries.  Guess what Ned’s first architectural design project was?  You got it – they called it the “Man Up Club” – men giving other men a hand up and a shoulder to lean on.  Both Ned and Joe truly rang in a new life that year – and every year after that!

 How about us?  When New Year’s Day rolls around each year, is it ‘over’ on January 2nd? 

Do you live each day, each year, as if God has truly “…given you new birth by his message that lives on forever…”?  Don’t just “ring in the new year”, ring in a new life each and every day!

 God didn’t send Jesus for only one day, or even just one year.  He sent Jesus for each and every one of us – for each and every day of our lives!  How are you ‘ringing in the new life’ God has given you in Christ through grace today?

 It’s not too late to start – how about it?

Why do people get to the point where they think “it’s too late”?

What would it look like for you to “ring in a new life”?

What does New Year’s Day mean to you?  Perhaps it means a lot.  Do you gather with friends and/or family to share a special time?  Maybe you hardly notice it.  Is it just another day for you?  Why do you think this is?  If it’s not anything different, are there other days which are “new year” times for you?

What would you say to Joe?

With this post, we continue our journey through the First Letter to Peter, this time experiencing the center section of the first chapter of the letter and the connection to a true story from everyday life.  Welcome! 

You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him, you trust him; and even now you are happy with a glorious, inexpressible joy. Your reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls.

   This salvation was something the prophets wanted to know more about. They prophesied about this gracious salvation prepared for you, even though they had many questions as to what it all could mean. They wondered what the Spirit of Christ within them was talking about when he told them in advance about Christ’s suffering and his great glory afterward. They wondered when and to whom all this would happen.  They were told that these things would not happen during their lifetime, but many years later, during yours. And now this Good News has been announced by those who preached to you in the power of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. It is all so wonderful that even the angels are eagerly watching these things happen.

   So think clearly and exercise self-control. Look forward to the special blessings that will come to you at the return of Jesus Christ.  Obey God because you are his children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of doing evil; you didn’t know any better then.  But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God– who chose you to be his children– is holy.  For he himself has said, “You must be holy because I am holy.”                                                                                                                – 1 Peter 1: 8-16 (New Living Translation)

“Oh boy!  Tug of War!  I LOVE Tug of War!”

“Me too!  Let’s do boys against girls!” 

“Nah, too easy.  Let’s just draw for sides!”

 Jim, the games leader, didn’t even get a chance to talk!  The kids saw the rope stretched out on the ground and the cones set up in the middle on the grass and took off.  They were so excited!

“Whoa!  Hey kids, hold up!”  Jim jogged over to catch up with the young energy-loaded group.  “So kids, what’s this game all about?”  He wanted to be sure they all started with the same rules for the Tug of War game.

 Young Nick, quickly shaping up to be one of the leaders of the group, spoke right up.  “Well, we get two teams – one on this side and one on that side.  You say ‘Go!’ and we start pulling.  The first team to pull the other one past those cones wins the war!”

 Jim smiled.  “OK then.  Let’s try that, but then I have some other surprises in this box for us to try after that.”  A couple of the kids tried to peek in the box Jim was holding, but he laughed and just held it tighter.  “No deal!  Let’s play this first!”  Sally, another budding leader in the group, gave Jim ‘the look’ along with a big sigh and roll of her eyes.  “Man!  Can’t we just see real quick?  Just a hint?”  Jim lifted the box higher.  “Nope.  Time to play!”

 So they drew numbers out of Jim’s cap to form the teams.  The rope was stretched out, teams took their places, and Jim yelled “Go!”.  Within seconds a winner was declared.  After two more team-pickings and contests, Sally walked back over to Jim.  “OK, what’s in the box?  Let’s play a different game – this is BORING!”

 “Everybody ready for a new game?” (lots of head nods)

“All right then.  Sit on the grass and I’ll show you this game I have in the box.”

They all sat down, making sure they could see as Jim opened the box and began taking things out.

First came a big blob of blue…stuff.  Next came an air pump.  As he attached the pump to the blue blob and turned it on……..Oh, a big blue blow-up mat!  Maybe it was a jumping game!

 Wow!  Was that mat ever BIG!  A foot thick, it had to be a full five by ten feet!  What was this game?

Jim moved the Tug of War cones out of the way, replacing them with the big mat.  He placed a big towel over the middle of the mat.  Nick thought he saw something written on that blue mat, but Jim covered it too fast for him to read it – rats!

 Next he took two stacks of multi-colored cones out of the box, along with a stack of big labels.  Hmmmm….

Jim re-stretched the rope out so its center passed right over the blue mat.  Then he got to work with the new cones and labels.

“Hey, can you all help?  How about if I give each of you a cone and a label.  Can you stick the labels on the cones for me?”  The kids were really eager now, anxious to see what this weird-looking game would be!

 First he gave a blue cone and a label to Sally.  “Worries”, it said.  Hmmmm.

Then Jim handed a yellow cone and a label that said, “Fear” to Aaron.

Soon labels and cones were everywhere!  Labels like, “Mean people”, “Sadness”, “Hard jobs”, “Sickness”….  What a lot of bad news!  What WAS this game about, anyway?

 Now the kids were confused – and REALLY curious!

 “Bet you’re wondering what this game’s all about, aren’t you?  Well, it works sort of like Tug of War, but I call it…..ready?    Tug of….GRACE!”  With that, Jim yanked the towel off the center of the big blue mat so they could all read the big white letters on the mat:  “GRACE”.

 “All right.  Let’s pick teams like we did before and I’ll show you how to play.  So once again they picked numbers out of Jim’s cap and separated into two teams.

 “Well kids, the goal of this game is a bit different,” Jim told them as he scattered the labeled cones around the rope, half on each side of the ends of the stretched-out rope.  “Instead of pulling the other team over the middle line to win, the idea is to pull them past all this stuff on the cones and onto the big soft mat of grace in the middle.”

 Sally was catching on, but her competitive streak was coming out too.  “Wait a minute.  So we’re trying to pull the other team to the middle so THEY can win?  I mean, really, when you get to grace, you win, right?”

 Not to be outdone, Nick joined in.  “So winning is losing, and losing is winning, right?  This is confusing!  If we pull them into the ‘Grace Pit’ – cool name, huh? – they’re looking good, but us, well we’re stuck out in the middle of all this!  How is that good?”

 Jim smiled.  These kids were GOOD!  “Well, let’s see if we can work that out.  Maybe there’s a way we can all get to the ‘Grace Pit’ – great name, Nick – together….”

 So they lined up, half on each end of the rope, labeled cones scattered around, and the “Grace Pit” in the middle.  The game didn’t start nearly as fast this time.  The rules had changed!

 But soon one team was pulling away and the other ended up in the big soft “Grace Pit”.  The team in the middle almost dropped the rope out of habit, but then all of a sudden one of them yelled, “Quick, pull them in too!” and the Grace Pit was energized.  Within minutes the Grace Pit was a mass of giggling, bouncing kids having a great time.

 Then Nick and one of his new buddies noticed Jim standing outside the Grace Pit.  “Get Him!” he yelled.  Four kids jumped out of the Grace Pit, chased Jim down, and dragged him back to the Grace Pit!  “Can’t leave anyone out of grace, right Jim?”  Nick said, a twinkle in his eye.

 So it was that “Grace Pit” became the all-time favorite game at summer camp!

 “When you get to grace, you win, right?”  How true that is!

 “As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God’s life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness.” (from the Message Version)

 Those kids had it right.  Life is a big “tugging” game in many ways, isn’t it?  “Winning” in the worldly sense isn’t always real winning, is it?

 When they saw Jim outside the “Grace Pit”, they sent a team to go out and bring him in. 

What an example that is for the rest of us!  How can we spend more of our lives in God’s grace, allowing Him to pull and shape us with the Spirit’s energy and blazing holiness?  Couldn’t we help others find and experience God’s amazing “tug of grace” too? 

Thinking about life in general, what do you think the difference is between “tug of war” and “tug of grace”?

When Nick says, “So winning is losing and losing is winning.”, what do you think he means?

How can we be open to letting ourselves “be pulled into a way of life shaped by God’s life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness”?