A Blessing in the Advent Season

A shoot will come out of the stump of Jesse,
and a branch will grow from its roots.
The Spirit of the Lord shall rest on him,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord

He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
or decide by what his ears hear;
but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the earth. (Isaiah 11.1-4a)

My friends, it is Advent, and the Kingdom of God is at hand.
Let us pray that we will bear the fruit of repentance in our lives.
Let us pray that we will be people of righteousness, justice and faithfulness.
Let us pray that we will not judge by what the eye sees or decide by what the ears hears.
Indeed, let us pray that we will have eyes to see and ears to hear the good news.
Let us pray that we will have eyes that will see beyond our stereotypes,
…ears that will listen closely to the stories of our neighbours,
…eyes to see each others gifts,
…ears to hear each others joys and sorrows.
Let us pray that we will have the eyes to see a shoot that shall come out of the charred stump of Jesse, out of the charred stump of our own lives.
Let us pray, Amen, come soon Lord Jesus.

Some quality thoughts by Brian Walsh on Empire Remixed.
Here's the complete post...focused on judgmentalism.

Surprised by Sgt. Teddy Bear

In teaching our teens the importance of ecclesiology (community life), we seek to involve them in various ways in our youth services (and hopefully in the Sunday services). Sometimes this involves risk, like when you ask someone to lead the opening prayer time.

Tonight was one of those nights where we took the risk.

There are kids you ask and you know what they're going to pray/say is going to be right on the theological money, while there are other teens who you're sure they'll pray with sincerity and passion but not necessarily with informed theology, and there are other teens who pray without passion or informed God understanding. I think all of them need to be invited to pray.

The teen that was chosen tonight has courage and an incredibly deep understanding of God. But he can be goofy too. So when he stepped up to the microphone and declared that he was going to pray as "Sgt. Teddy Bear" my heart almost stopped.

Then the prayer that Sgt. Teddy Bear prayed was so selfish, so condemning, so painful. It was something like this, "Dear God, these people need help. You know how I can't stand these people. I don't know how you put up with them..." As this prayer is sent floating through the air my spirit is sinking with the dread of wondering how to follow this, pleading with God for divine intervention.

As my mind is scrambling, Sarge stops. Adam interupts. He tells Sarge that's not how we pray. Then Adam proceded to pray one of the most insightful, thoughtful, kind, loving, spirit-filled prayers I've ever heard from a teenager. I don't remember all the lines, but I do remember something like these: "God, fill us with the warmth of your holiness. You have brought us hear for a reason and we need to receive from you tonight. Your love is more than enough for us."

My spirit soared. God reminded me of a passage in Luke about a tax collector and Pharisee.

Community takes risks.

Corruption

He told them still another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough." Matthew 13:33

Whenever yeast was used in story lines during Jesus' time, it almost always carried the weight of evil, the sense of being opposite of what God would want. Jesus himself said, "Beward of the yeast of the Pharisees". The view was that yeast was like corruption. It starts small, but invisibly works itself through the dough in no time.

So when Jesus said the above statement, his audience would be shocked. The kingdom of God is corruption? How can this be?

Then when you think about it...the way of God is corruption to the way of hate, racism, genocide, evil and sin.

Many commentators think Jesus was making a seriously political statement here.

So, my friends, how can we get corrupted?

Darfur Crisis on Google Earth

Many of you know about the genocide and extreme crisis happening in Darfur. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has partnered with Google Earth to highlight the tragedies and bring global attention to these atrocities. Click on the picture and find out what they're doing. Use it as a way to pray and seek God's justice for this place.

Get Messy

When you read the gospels about Jesus, you find him constantly touching people and allowing himself to be touched. I wonder what this has to say to us about how we related to others. Jesus seemed to have a way about him that was open to anybody who came near him. He'd pick up kids and put them on his lap, he'd speak to prostitutes, he'd touch lepers, he'd let prostitutes clean his feet (which had a whole different meaning then than it does now).

And he never promised that changing the world would be a clean cut thing. It seems that whenever you get into a relationship with someone you really discover that it is a messy process. Our challenge to our youth group this year is to get messy, to dive into others lives and seek to love people right where they are.

One of Jesus' most famous parables was the mustard seed parable, where he said that the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed that grows and becomes a tree that birds can perch in. (It's great how Jesus uses stories and makes you actually process what he is saying, rather than just dumping info into you.) We had a friend, Brad Grinnen, come and explore those thoughts with our senior high youth this past weekend and it was quite the weekend. I am excited to see how our kids own what God is doing in their lives and seek to plant seeds of love, grace and mercy in the lives around them.

At the Margins

my friend scott emailed me an interesting article. It's an African bishop's critique of the American Church and it's concept of power and change.

Here's a section of text about the Great Commission:
We need to begin to read the Bible differently. Americans have been preoccupied with the end of the Gospel of Matthew, the Great Commission: "Go and make." I call them go-and-make missionaries. These are the go-and-fix-it people. The go-and-make people are those who act like it's all in our power, and all we have to do is "finish the task." They love that passage! But when read from the center of power, that passage simply reinforces the illusion that it's about us, that we are in charge.

I would like to suggest a new favorite passage, the Great Invitation. It's what we find if we read from the beginning of the Gospels rather than the end. Jesus says, "Come, follow me. I will make you fishers of men." Not "Go and make," but "I will make you." It's all about Jesus. And do you know the last words of Jesus to Peter, in John 21? "Follow me." The last words of Simon Peter's encounter are the same as the first words.

I hope you enjoy and are challenged.