sacrifice?

All religions have at their core, a system of self-sacrifice. At first glance, sacrifice seems noble and honorable. Sacrifice is seen as the means with which we please God; that somehow He loves us more based on what we have given up for Him. Currently we are finishing up the season of Lent. The whole idea behind Lent is that we sacrifice something dear to us in order to identify with God.

Jesus speaks some interesting words about sacrifice. Twice He quotes the prophet Hosea -
"I desire mercy and not sacrifice". Both times He was accosted by the religious for failing to meet their expectations - once when He socialized with sinners and once when He allowed His disciples to pick and eat grain on the Sabbath.

Perhaps God is not as interested in our sacrifice as He is in our attitude toward other people. One of the dangers of sacrifice is that it can quickly breed judgmentalism toward other people. About a year ago I was at a cattle sale. As I observed people and their activities, I felt God speak to my heart. For some time, I had been bothered by the attitude of Christians. A web forum in which I participate had an ongoing debate about judgment. It seemed to me that some people relished the thought of the heathen "getting theirs" someday. As I watched the people at the sale, I realized that many Christians feel they have sacrificed a lot to be "good Christians". With that sacrifice comes a fear that the "world" is having a good time all the while we are in misery from our sacrifice. We console ourselves with the thought sometime in the future the bad people will be forced to pay for their misdeeds.

Like the elder brother in the story of the prodigal son, we have stayed home and been good. Our preoccupation with our sacrifice renders us unable to rejoice when the prodigal comes home. In our mind, it's not fair. It seems as if he is being rewarded for his sin while we are being ignored. Therefore we begin to be judgmental and harsh. We demand recognition from the Father for our sacrifice, thereby missing the point completely.

About right now, someone is saying "yeah but Jesus said we have to die to ourselves". That is true, However, the point of dying to ourselves is not to impress God but to move from self-destruction to abundant life. If our dying to self does not create the character of Jesus within us, then our dying is in vain. Jesus simply stated that if we are going to follow Him, we will be forced to take up our cross. He never stated that sacrifice will cause us to follow Him. If we focus on sacrifice we have missed the point.

the Great Story

Last evening our family watched the Sound of Music at East Juniata High School. The students did a great job with the musical performance. During intermission, my mind had time to wander a bit. (imagine that!) I realized how much we all enjoy a good story. Movies and plays are the medium frequently used in storytelling today. However, not only do we utilize movies, the ancient art of verbal storytelling is alive and well. Earlier today I worked at the Farmshow. I had barely clocked in until someone began to tell me a story of something that had happened to another security guard earlier in the month. Grandmothers and athletes, fisherman and shoppers all love to tell the story, and quite frankly, good storytellers are entertaining.

Unfortunately our love of the story almost never gets utilized when we interact with the greatest story of all time. It is a story of God's interaction with us, our creation, our rebellion, and most grand of all, His redemption and the acceptance of love. It is a love story, a story of love spurned and love received. In our efforts to be doctrinally sound, we have diminished the power of the glorious love story and relegated it to the status of a rule book.

As long as the story is understood as the Great Story, it consists of life-giving words, words to guide us, words to both inspire and warn us, words that ultimately lead to Jesus and abundant life. On the other hand, if we reduce the Great Story to a set of rules, confusion and conflict, strife and division occur. As a rulebook, the greatest theme in the Great Story is lost, the theme of relationship with God.

There was a time when I was afraid to embrace the Great Story. I was afraid that to call it a story would mean I was minimizing the power of it. To call the Bible a story seemed sacrilegious. However, I have come to learn that the reduction of the story occurs, not when I understand it as the Great Story, but as I interpret it as a set of rules.

the simplicity of Jesus

I grew up in a setting where Christianity was defined by a set of actions. Christians went to church on Sunday. Christians didn't drink alcohol. Christians dressed a certain way. If one did not engage in these behaviors, then obviously they weren't a Christian. Beyond that, sacrifice for God was seen as both desirable and honorable. For many years, those external behaviors encapsulated Christianity for me.

A turning point for me occured when I realized that I really did not know Jesus. Now don't get me wrong. I knew about Jesus; the Jesus who came to die so I could go to heaven someday. However, I didn't KNOW Jesus. I had preached about Him, baptized in His name, and started churches for Him. However I didn't KNOW Him. The Jesus I knew about was one that I had been given as a child by my religious tradition. I realized that I created a Jesus with which I was comfortable.

As a result of my realization, for several years I read and re-read the gospel accounts of Jesus. I attempted to read each account as if I had never heard about Jesus. Wow! Talk about a mind transformation. I discovered a Jesus that rocked my world theologically. (i.e. - Jesus never stated that He came so we might go to heaven.) In spite of my discomfort, I began to live my life more in accordance with His example.

Today, my walk with God is much more simple than it was earlier. If someone asks me if I am a Christian, I usually respond with "I am a follower of Jesus". I quit trying to build a successful minstry. As I have allowed my interaction with Jesus to re-shape me, I have become more in touch with "love God and love your neighbor". I have discovered life, abundant life as I have followed Him.

Don't make Christianity difficult. Live life according to the example and teaching of Jesus. It really is that simple.

the problem of truth

Recently I received an email from a gentleman outlining why he thought there will be food shortages in the near future. (I am on his email list and get emails from him at times.) He felt like God has been showing him about the chaos that will ensue. He cited several websites as well as a news interview. Since I work in the agricultural field, I was interested in reading what was said. Almost immediately, I spotted some inaccuracies in the "facts" that were presented. Truth did not support his claims

I responded to the gentleman pointing out that some of on what he was basing his email was not truth. Since I have dialogued with him before, I expected a healthy dialogue. To my surprise, I received a rather curt response. He responded by saying that the "facts" were not about American agriculture. I found his response odd since the interviewer clearly asked about the situation in the United States. When noted the words of the interviewer, he refused to dialogue further.

His response to me illustrated a condition of far too many Christians. We frequently create a belief system about a person or a situation which may or may not align with truth. If our belief system does not mesh with the truth, we simply ignore truth so we can cling to our desired beliefs. As such we place ourselves in bondage, creating a fantasy reality in which we live. To maintain our fantasy reality, we have to continue to ignore what really is.

Since the truth sets us free, it would seem to me that people would desire truth. Unfortunately we often choose to ignore the truth about situations and/or people because it would shatter our self-designed deceptions. One of the classic responses of people who refuse to see/embrace truth is their refusal to dialogue. Dialogue will reveal their deception. Since the deception is more desirable than truth (at least to them), the deception must be protected at all costs.

I understand the difficulty of having my belief system challenged by truth. However, I have also discovered the great freedom that comes from walking in the light of what is truth. Embrace the truth...it will set you free.

we make it too hard

I've been wondering lately if we don't make this walk with God too hard. When I read the Gospels and the accounts of Jesus life, I am continually impressed with the simplicity of His ministry. He had one basic focus - I do what I see the Father doing. He had two basic commandments - Love God and love people.

Jesus never seemed to spend time building a great ministry structure. (Although we know He had a treasurer). Jesus never talks about fundraising in any of the recorded accounts. (Even though we know people supported Him out of their personal means). He never gave Himself a lofty title. In fact He referred to Himself as the son of man. He certainly could have legitimately pulled rank and demanded that people acknowledge Him as the Son of God. Yet that was and is not the Jesus way. He never needed certain perks for validation.

What did Jesus do? He healed the sick, gave hope to the hopeless, and mingled with needy sinners. He washed dirty feet, fed the hungry, and blessed the kids. Ultimately He gave His life for the benefit of people. And while this sacrifice culminated at the cross, it was not just at Calvary that He demonstrated this attitude. His entire "ministry" consisted of pouring Himself into broken people. He did not minister to people because He had a grand ministry structure. He ministered to people because He cared.

What would happen today if His followers began to simply pour their life into the life of other people. What would happen if we quit trying to build great ministries with great conferences and events and began to love people in a practical way? What would happen if we quit trying to get people to come to us and we went to them and washed their feet? What would happen if we began to discern the work of God in the world and then began to participate in that work? What would happen if our only code of conduct was - Love God and love people?

on immaturity and being offended

As I reflect on my observations of the church world over the past several years, it seems to me that Christians are some of the most offended people in the world. We seem to be hurt at every turn. We are hurt because someone didn't acknowledge us. We are hurt because someone disagreed with us. We are hurt because someone dared mention the truth about us or our circumstances. We are hurt when someone dares to follow Christ regardless of the cost. Church splits happen because of hurt, people refuse to communicate with others in a civil manner because of hurt. And the one that amuses me most - people angrily deny that they are hurt!

Quite frankly, our propensity toward being hurt is a sign of our immaturity. When one enters the kingdom of God, we give up the right to be hurt and offended. That does not mean that people won't inflict pain upon us. That does not mean that we won't feel hurt by the actions of others. However, we give up the right to allow the hurt to dictate our actions. When our hurt dictates our actions toward others, it reveals that we have not really entered the kingdom of God. Instead the self-god is alive and well, demanding retribution and attention.

I am convinced that God will send people to offend us so that we might learn to die to self. I experienced a time in my life when it seemed as if everyone opposed me. There were a lot of untruthful accusations leveled against me. For a person whose default self-nature is defensiveness, those accusations crushed me. Everything within me demanded exoneration. To make matters worse, I sensed the voice of God in my spirit telling me that I could not defend myself; He would be my defender. That season of pain became a portal for a deeper understanding of the kingdom of God. And yes - God did vindicate me in his time!

If we are going to arrive at a place of maturity, we must first come to the place of relinquishing the right to be hurt

are we irrelevant?

I just completed an eight day stretch of working in the security department for the PA Farmshow complex. While I don’t spend much time working there anymore, for the week of the Farm Show, they needed help and I agreed to help out. For eight days, I was deeply immersed in a largely godless culture. Like usual, I had ample time to observe people.

I fear that the church has become almost completely irrelevant to the world in which we live. Rather than influencing and transforming society, the church has relegated herself to isolation from the real world in which most people find themselves.

The things which are important to most of the church world are not important to our society in which we live. We have made ourselves irrelevant by our power struggles, by our efforts to build our own kingdoms. We say we value people; however it seems to me that we only value people who can benefit us, if they will come to our meetings and fill our buildings. We grasp for position and power, displaying ungodly behaviors if our positions are threatened.

All the while, people want to know how to do life. They have questions about God, about what He wants from them. They wonder if they have significance. They hurt from the self-destructive behaviors in which they engage all the while hoping that somehow they can escape the treadmill of hopelessness.

And what do we offer? Come to our meetings…Help us build our church or help me fulfill my vision…Instead of leading them to interact with the transforming Jesus, we enroll them in a program or a class. We use guilt and manipulation so we can be assured that they will faithfully become part of our program. We invite them to a church fractured by our territorialism. (Quite frankly, the church frequently is more vicious than the world in which they live. Some of the most ungodly behaviors I have observed have been those of church leaders and members)

We have made ourselves irrelevant because we have forgotten about Jesus. We have departed from His mission. Our priorities differ from His. We care not about people unless they can benefit us somehow. We no longer heal the sick, feed the hungry, and clothe the naked. We no longer reconcile people to God and to the image of God in which they were formed. I wonder if our situation in the church has not degenerated to the point that our irrelevancy to God’s work equals that of the religious leaders of Jesus day.