A Tigger or an Eeyore?

Galatians 5:22 By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, JOY, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control.

Randy Pausch began his famous Last Lecture telling of his diagnosis,
   If you look at my CAT scans, there are approximately 10 tumors in my liver, and the doctors told me 3-6 months of good health left. That was a month ago, so you can do the math… So that is what it is. We can’t change it, and we just have to decide how we’re going to respond to that. We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.
   Pausch goes on to say later in the lecture,
   …you just have to decide if you’re a Tigger or an Eeyore  . I think I’m clear on where I stand on the Tigger/Eyore debate. Never lose the childlike wonder. It’s just too important. Continue reading “A Tigger or an Eeyore?”

Why Jesus Died

To this day, I am haunted by a sermon that I heard. The church is Ebenezer Baptist in Atlanta where Martin Luther King, Jr. and Sr. both preached. I was there with a seminary group on the Sunday before Easter.
The preacher asked, “Why did Jesus have to die?” We thought about it while he went on to describe all the details of Jesus trial, beating, crucifixion and death?
He asked again, “Why did Jesus have to die?” Then described the scene of Jesus death again.
Then he said, “There is one thing I want to know? Why was Jesus alone? Where were the disciples?” We all knew they were off hiding. Continue reading “Why Jesus Died”

Throughout These Forty Days

Forty is a number that shows up again and again in the Bible. In the flood story, it rained forty days and forty nights. After they were liberated from slavery in Egypt, the Israelites wandered in the desert for forty years. Jesus, after his baptism, was sent out into the desert where he fasted, prayed, and wrestled with the devil for forty days and nights.

We mark Jesus’ forty days in the season of Lent from Ash Wednesday to Easter. For our congregation, I’ve sent out a daily poem and prayer to facilitate time with God on this forty day journey. For the unconventional who may not want an email a day or who may want to pray another forty days after Easter or in some other part of the year, here are the days poems and prayers for reflection in one document.

40 Days PDF

40 Days WORD DOCPreview

 

One Solitary Life

When you’re not sure whether or not what you might do today or who you might contact has meaning, remember Jesus as reflected in James Allen Francis.

One Solitary Life
by James Allen Francis (1926)

He was born in an obscure village 
The child of a peasant woman 
He grew up in another obscure village 
Where he worked in a carpenter shop 
Until he was thirty when public opinion turned against him
He never wrote a book 
He never held an office 
He never went to college 
He never visited a big city 
He never travelled more than two hundred miles 
From the place where he was born 
He did none of the things 
Usually associated with greatness 
He had no credentials but himself
He was only thirty three
His friends ran away 
One of them denied him 
He was turned over to his enemies 
And went through the mockery of a trial 
He was nailed to a cross between two thieves 
While dying, his executioners gambled for his clothing 
The only property he had on earth
When he was dead 
He was laid in a borrowed grave 
Through the pity of a friend
Nineteen centuries have come and gone 
And today Jesus is the central figure of the human race 
And the leader of mankind’s progress 
All the armies that have ever marched 
All the navies that have ever sailed 
All the parliaments that have ever sat 
All the kings that ever reigned put together 
Have not affected the life of mankind on earth 
As powerfully as that one solitary life

From poet to psychologist, Scott Peck observed, The whole course of human history may depend on a change of heart in one solitary and even humble individual…. For it is in the solitary mind and soul of the individual that the battle between good and evil is waged and ultimately won or lost. Who knows, maybe you’re the one solitary individual who will change the course of history – maybe it’s today!

 

The Parable of The Song

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John each gave their perspective on the gospel, or good news, of Jesus. Each version is a little different from the other. A common comparison is one song shared by different people. Here are three versions of a song by Travis Meadows, “What We Ain’t Got.” The first version is Jake Owen’s interpretation, then an acapella group, Home Free, shares their perspective, and finally, the original from the song writer, Travis Meadows. One song, three different takes on it. See what differences and similarities you notice.  (Travis will be live at Macland Presbyterian in Powder Springs, GA, on Saturday, January 21st at 7:00. $10 cover charge.)

Practices for New Life in The New Year

Moment Practices

Whether it is the best of times
 or the worst of times,
it is the only time we have.
Art Buchwald

Confessing my own limitations, I am very unzen-like, uncalm, unquiet, in internally nonpeaceful. My moments go by worried too much about the future, trying to prelive all possible events, or regretting my past and attempting to avoid reliving any painful past experience. “Now,” “being present,” and “in the moment” are foreign to me.

Though a pastor, I find the teachings of Jesus more difficult than the creeds about virgin birth, resurrection, or ascension. I struggle more with passages like this one from The Sermon on the Mount,

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?

In order to learn what I do not comprehend, we started a community in Nashville focused on singers and songwriters that we called The Moment. The blog posts that follow are some of our practices that have helped us to become more present beginning with this one,

Continue reading “Practices for New Life in The New Year”

Beyond Christmas to Christ – Good News for the New Year

Do you ever hear voices from your childhood? I do. I can still hear the promises. Like my parents, as they assured me, if I worked hard, then my hard work would pay off as I could create a life for myself and my future family.
I can still hear my teachers, encouraging me to study hard for every challenge, promising me if I would apply myself, get good grades, then I could go to any college I wanted and have whatever career I chose. I was eight. I did not know if I wanted to go to college. I didn’t know if you needed to go to college to be an astronaut. They assured me that I did.
From my coaches, I still can hear their voices, calling me by my last name, “Jones! Hustle! Get in the game! Get in the game!” The promise was there, if I worked hard, I might get to become a ‘starter’. I never made it. I was too slow. There wasn’t a sport that by the time I got off the bench and into the game, half the season wasn’t over. Still, I can hear them pushing me onward so that one day, I could drink from the cup of glory, whatever that was.
Among those voices, promising rewards for my effort, there was one other. A mysterious, legendary giant of a man. He promised me rewards for being good, tangible gifts of my own choosing to celebrate just how good I had been. He watched over me, paying close attention to who and how I was at home and at school, keeping track of everything I did, assuring me that if I was just good enough, I could make “The List”. He got me so excited about what I might get that I could barely sleep trusting that I had been a good boy and would make the cut. I still remember what we said about him, what we sang about him.

He’s making a list. He’s checking it twice,
gonna find out who’s naughty or nice…
He sees you when you’re sleeping,
he knows when you’re awake.
He knows when you’ve been bad or good,
so be good for goodness sake!

Besides being the mascot for Macy’s, Santa gives the basic message of society, the one we were all raised to believe, and the one we’ll likely pass on to our children, our cultural crowd’s norm: Do good, be good, and guaranteed, you’ll be rewarded. Do poorly, be bad, and sooner or later, guaranteed, you’ll be punished.
That’s what the shepherds must have been thinking when the angel appeared in the sky, “Uh-oh! Here it comes!” Punishment was surely on the way. The King James version states, “They were sore afraid,” which, to my young ears, always meant so scared it hurt.
The angel told them, “Fear not…” those beautiful words spoken on the first Christmas and the first Easter by messengers from God, “Fear not…” Perhaps the shepherds relaxed a little, realized they were in the midst of something wonderful, the work of God, not the typical reward and punishment, but good news… of grace.
“Fear not for behold I bring you tidings of great joy, for unto is born this day, in the city of David, a savior, who is Christ the Lord!”
“Fear not… for unto you…” Grace. The best Christmas gift ever.
Read more about life beyond Reward and Punishment inPsychology of Jesus FRONT Cover 2014141l8ZM0+5xL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_ (2)Out of the Crowd front cover 21

What’s Your Christmas I.Q.?

Perhaps no other time of year proves the saying of Lao Tzu, “Those who think they know, don’t.” Try this Christmas quiz and see if you know as much as you think you do…

1. Joseph was originally from… (Luke 2:3)
A. Bethlehem
B. Nazareth
C. Hebron
D. Jerusalem
E. None of the above

2. What does the Bible say that the Innkeeper said to Mary and Joseph? (Luke 2:7)
A. “There is no room in the inn.”
B. “I have a stable you can use.”
C. “Come back later and I should have some vacancies.”
D. Both A and B
E. None of the above

3. A manger is a…
A. Stable for domestic animals
B. Wooden hay storage bin
C. Feeding trough
D. Barn

ANSWERS:
1. A. He worked and currently lived in Nazareth, but he was returning to Bethlehem – “his own city” (See Luke 2:3).
2. E. In the Bible, the innkeeper didn’t “say” anything (See Luke 2:7)
3. C. Feeding trough

How many did you answer correctly? Want to learn more? Here is the whole test: Christmas Quiz

Give the World a Gift this Christmas

In this season of giving and receiving gifts to those we love, or those whose name we drew in an office party Secret Santa, reflect on this question, “What can I give the world?” If this is the season for celebrating when God so loved the world, God gave… What can you give the world?

Here is a song by Mipso, a trio formed in the fall of 2010 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina when Jacob, Joseph, and Wood were students at UNC – Chapel Hill. They graduated in May 2013, and took the show on the road.

The hope for the world is to “leave this wicked winter just a couple of acres greener when I go.”

How will the world be better because you’ve been here?

Too Much Stuff

Delbert McClinton, Lyle Lovett, and John Prine recorded a wonderful song I listen to this time of year that reminds me that whatever it is that I think I need this Christmas, it’s not more stuff. (Join many of us in Atlanta Variety Playhouse for the release of Delbert’s new CD on January 28 – I know, more stuff…)

If that doesn’t set my head straight, I turn to George Carlin philosophizing about stuff,

A couple of other helpful resources on stuff:

George Dawson learned to read when he was in his nineties. Mr. Dawson was asked if he saw life as

a cup half full or half empty. He replied, “Neither. It is enough,” which inspired me to write many a sermon and even a little book to remind myself when Enough is plenty.

 

Which Way is Jesus’ Way?

 

A friend asked me if this week if I believe that “Jesus is the way…” from John 14. I replied as I usually do, “Sure.” It’s an easy question. As a pastor, a professional Christian, I placed my bet a long time ago.
Even for amateur Christians, it’s still an easy question. All it asks of us is, “What do you think about Jesus?” or perhaps this year, “Who are you voting for Messiah?” In this simple do or don’t decision, the implication is that you pick Jesus in opposition to anyone else who might be, “The Way.” Jesus vs. Muhammad would be the latest prize fight with Jesus followers doing all the fighting. Imagine Jesus vs. Ali? He wouldn’t stand a chance, turning the other cheek… He’d get hammered. Good thing the faithful step in defending Jesus in a life or death fashion. That seems to be our way.
“Is Jesus The Way or is it Buddha? Muhammad? Confucius?” Through the years, as a pastor, I’ve seen some terrible behaviors from the true believers who could have voted any of the above. “Is Jesus the way?” no longer seems to challenge or transform us. It only seems to divide us, requiring us to vote for Jesus but then, apparently, giving us the liberty to do as we please, especially if we do so in Jesus’ name.
What does challenge me is when I turn the question around and then read the gospels. Then I don’t just ask about Jesus being “The Way,” but wonder, “What was Jesus way?” And if I dare apply it, I ask, “What would my life look like if I lived Jesus’ way?” That’s a much more problematic question. It requires me to do more than think, I have to consider, and ultimately, I have to choose. It takes me from, “What would Jesus do?” to “What would Jesus have me do?” or “What would I do if I was a follower of Jesus’ way into the world?” After all, if Jesus is the way, shouldn’t his way be my way?
Jesus’ way is different than the other ways, and I don’t mean in the traditional religious sense. We just don’t seem to notice. When a pharmaceutical company raises the prices on Epipens to an astronomical level, there should be no surprise. That’s what corporations do. It is their way. That’s how a corporation maximizes profit. Supply and demand determine the price. When politicians support their candidate justifying his or her actions, it is what politicians do. It is their way. Win at all costs. No matter what it takes. Integrity is sacrificed in the name of the greater good. The ends (all the good we will do) will justify the means (whatever it took to win). The writer of the book of Judges in the Bible twice critiques the people of that era, “everyone did that which was right in his or her own eyes.” (Judges 17:6, 21:25). Apparently they were even worse than Machiavelli who supposedly is the first to say, “The ends justify the means.” For them, they didn’t even care about the end result, each just did as he or she pleased.
For Jesus, the ends never justified the means, no matter how good the goal. For Jesus, the means were the end. That was and is his way. You love because you love, it’s your way, even if it gets you crucified. You don’t judge, condemn, or treat others with contempt, apparently even in the midst of a crucifixion, because that’s not your way. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. pointed out that for followers of Jesus, his way is our way, and that means, the ends never justify the means but the means are our ends, our goal, our way in the world. He preached,

One of the great philosophical debates of history has been over the whole question of means and ends. And there have always been those who argued that the end justifies the means, that the means really aren’t important. The important thing is to get to the end, you see.
So, if you’re seeking to develop a just society, they say, the important thing is to get there, and the means are really unimportant; any means will do so long as they get you there? they may be violent, they may be untruthful means; they may even be unjust means to a just end. There have been those who have argued this throughout history. But we will never have peace in the world until men everywhere recognize that ends are not cut off from means, because the means represent the ideal in the making, and the end in process, and ultimately you can’t reach good ends through evil means, because the means represent the seed and the end represents the tree.
It’s one of the strangest things that all the great military geniuses of the world have talked about peace. The conquerors of old who came killing in pursuit of peace, Alexander, Julius Caesar, Charlemagne, and Napoleon, were akin in seeking a peaceful world order. If you will read Mein Kampf closely enough, you will discover that Hitler contended that everything he did in Germany was for peace. And the leaders of the world today talk eloquently about peace. Every time we drop our bombs in North Vietnam, President Johnson talks eloquently about peace. What is the problem? They are talking about peace as a distant goal, as an end we seek, but one day we must come to see that peace is not merely a distant goal we seek, but that it is a means by which we arrive at that goal. We must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means. All of this is saying that, in the final analysis, means and ends must cohere because the end is preexistent in the means, and ultimately destructive means cannot bring about constructive ends.
Now let me say that the next thing we must be concerned about if we are to have peace on earth and good will toward men is the nonviolent affirmation of the sacredness of all human life. Every man is somebody because he is a child of God. And so when we say “Thou shalt not kill,” we’re really saying that human life is too sacred to be taken on the battlefields of the world. Man is more than a tiny vagary of whirling electrons or a wisp of smoke from a limitless smoldering. Man is a child of God, made in His image, and therefore must be respected as such.

Dr. King knew of what he spoke. Jesus’ way should be our way, and as Dr. King pointed out, the path to love begins with respect.
Will government or corporations or television guide you in any way other than what’s right in their own eyes? No. But we shouldn’t expect them to. When we do, we just look silly as Kurt Vonnegut observed,

For some reason, the most vocal Christians among us never mention the Beatitudes (Matthew 5). But, often with tears in their eyes, the demand that the Ten Commandments be posted in public buildings. And of course, that’s Moses, not Jesus. I haven’t heard one of them demand that the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, be posted anywhere. “Blessed are the merciful” in a courtroom? “Blessed are the peacemakers” in the Pentagon? Give me a break!”

Jesus never seemed to expect Caesars or Institutions to be role models or follow his way at all. That was the job of each individual disciple, or as those who lived in the communities of the early church were known, “The Followers of The Way.”

Clinton and Trump, Presidential Candidates or Married Couple?- A Pastor’s Guide to Listening to the Debates and Learning About Life, Love, and Relationships

1-rkyhyb6tzxn02lcpbqucnwAs I watched and listened to the Presidential Debates, I heard the arguments through my years as a pastor. To me, Clinton and Trump sounded, looked, and acted less like Presidential Candidates and more like a married couple in the midst of a contemptuous divorce. Regardless of your politics, this election season offers an opportunity like no other to learn about how we relate to one another whether spouse to spouse, parent to child, or one political leader to another.

At the next debate, instead of trying to decide, “Whose winning?”, I encourage you to use the following list from Dr. John Gottman, scientist and therapist, as a scorecard.  Gottman offers a practical guide to listening to language and observing nonverbal communication that he calls, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Gottman chose this striking image of The Four Horsemen because, like in the book of Revelation, one follows right after the other. If you learn to see these behaviors in not just presidential candidates but in yourself and others, then we all can win. Here they are:

Horseman 1: Criticism. A complaint focuses on a particular action while a criticism is broader and passes judgement on the other person’s character or personality using the action as evidence for the conclusion drawn. For example, “I’m really angry that you didn’t sweep the kitchen floor last night. We agreed that we’d take turns doing it,” is a complaint and addresses a specific behavior. “Why are you so forgetful? I hate having to always sweep the kitchen floor when it’s your turn. You just don’t care,” is a criticism. Criticism throws in blame and engages in character assassination. To turn a complaint into a criticism simply shift from what you want to what’s wrong with the person. Here is another example:
Complaint: “There’s no gas in the car. You said you would fill it up. Will you take care of it?”
Criticism: “Why can’t you ever remember anything? I told you a thousand times to fill up the tank, and you didn’t. You are so irresponsible.”
Criticism often gets historical, not hysterical, though that can happen, but the past enters the present as an endless list of examples of the persons flawed nature.
Criticism, focusing on the character of the person, the past as well as the present, and not addressing specific wants and needs, is a common bad habit in relationships. Jesus warned against it in The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7: Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. 2 For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. For Jesus, by passing judgment on others, we pass judgment on ourselves showing our own character more than making evident the deficiencies in others. Passing judgment on a person’s actions is different than judging a persons character or soul. For Gottman, this criticism of other persons or people is common. The danger is when it becomes an accepted pattern because it paves the way for the other, far deadlier behaviors, or as he labeled them, horsemen.

Horseman 2: Contempt. Sarcasm and cynicism are types of contempt. So are name-calling, eye-rolling, sneering, mockery, and hostile humor. In whatever form, contempt — the worst of the four horsemen — is poisonous to a relationship because it conveys disgust. It’s virtually impossible to resolve a problem when your partner is getting the message you’re disgusted with him or her. Inevitably, contempt leads to more conflict rather than to reconciliation.
The presence of contempt and perceived contempt in a relationship can manifest itself in physical symptoms. Couples who are contemptuous of each other are more likely to suffer from infectious illnesses (colds, flu, and so on) than other people. Contempt is fueled by long-simmering negative thoughts about the other. You’re more likely to have such thoughts if your differences are not resolved. As disagreeing persists, complaints turn into global criticisms, which produces more and more disgusted feelings and thoughts, and finally you are fed up with your spouse, a change that will affect what you say when you argue.

Horseman 3: Defensiveness. When conversations become so negative, critical, and attacking, it should come as no surprise that you will defend yourself. Although this is understandable, research shows that this approach rarely has the desired effect. The attacking spouse does not back down or apologize. This is because defensiveness is really a way of blaming your partner. You’re saying, in effect, “The problem isn’t me, it’s you.” Defensiveness denies personal responsibility, as if a persons choices all originate from the other. “I only did that because you…” Defensiveness never defuses a conflict. Defensiveness escalates, which is why it’s so deadly.
Criticism, Contempt, and Defensiveness don’t always gallop in strict order. They function more like a relay match — handing the baton off to each other over and over again. The more defensive one becomes, the more the other attacks in response. Nothing gets resolved, thanks to the prevalence of criticism, contempt, and defensiveness. Much of these exchanges are communicated subtly (and not so subtly) through body language and sounds.

Horseman 4: Stonewalling. In relationships where criticism and contempt lead to defensiveness, which leads to more contempt and more defensiveness, eventually one partner tunes out. So enters the fourth horseman. Think of the husband who comes home from work, gets met with a barrage of criticism from his wife, and hides behind the newspaper. The less responsive he is, the more she yells. Eventually he gets up and leaves the room. Rather than confronting his wife, he disengages. By turning away from her, he is avoiding a fight, but he is also avoiding his marriage. He has become a stonewaller. During a typical conversation between two people, the listener gives all kinds of cues to the speaker that he’s paying attention. He may use eye contact, nod his head, say something like “Yeah” or “Uh-huh.” A stonewaller doesn’t give you this sort of casual feedback. He tends to look away or down without uttering a sound. He sits like an impassive stone wall. The stonewaller acts as though he couldn’t care less about what you’re saying, if he or she hears it. Stonewalling usually arrives later in the course of relationships than the other three horsemen. It takes time for the negativity created by the first three horsemen to become overwhelming enough that stonewalling becomes an understandable “out.”

Gottman’s work is very helpful. He also shows how starting with criticism of a person’s nature  , who he or she is instead of focusing on a person’s action, what Jesus called “Judging,” can lead to contempt, defensiveness, stonewalling and then to divorce, or in the case of a nation, Congress.

I hope this list helps provide a learning opportunity from this political election cycle and can liberate us all from the destructive relationship cycles we find ourselves. For more about Gottman’s “Four Horsemen” go to: https://www.gottman.com/blog/the-four-horsemen-recognizing-criticism-contempt-defensiveness-and-stonewalling/

Get Ready, Get Set, DEBATE! (Augh…)

good-guys-vs-bad-buys

As we get set for the first presidential debate and the election that will follow, Luke 15 gives me hope. Along with the parables of the lost sheep and lost coin, we find the story we call, “The Parable of the Prodigal Son.” We label the son who went away and squandered the family money as reckless, irresponsible, and of course, just plain bad. While the other son, the older who stayed home and worked the farm, as loyal, trustworthy, and of course, the good one. How we read the parable tells us something about ourselves, we tend to label people in polar opposite ones. One is good, and one is bad. To have ‘good’ you need ‘bad’. In the case of tonight’s debate, the tendency seems toward, ‘bad’ and ‘less bad’. In the parable, Jesus says, “There was a father with two sons.” In this parable, both sons are people you’d likely avoid unless thrust together at a family reunion. While the younger is quite prodigal (wasteful), the older is quite rude to his father and casts as much disrespect to his father as his younger brother, even though he didn’t have to travel as far away to do it. The good news is, it is The Parable of the Loving Father, also known as, God. Regardless of the outcome of the election, how harshly we judge one another, or what terrible things we do to one another, the consistent one in this story, our stories, and the world is God, the loving parent that keeps reaching out to us hoping we’ll come home, and of course, love one another as God loves us. The good news of the gospel and the hope for the world, in election years and every year.

The sermon is available on http://macland.podbean.com/

To read more about how God’s love doesn’t devalue but values us, get a free copy of The Psychology of Jesus at Macland Presbyterian or through this link on Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/Psychology-Jesus-Practical-Living-Relationship/dp/1494399253/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

Subscribe to these reflections at www.davidjonespub.com.

See in New Ways

In John 3, Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night because Jesus, as a teacher or Rabbi, doesn’t fit any of Nicodemus’ categories and labels for just how a teacher should act, while at the same time, he was doing far more works of God than those with tenure in the religious world.

Jesus bothers Nicodemus even more when he tells him to be “Born again.”

Nicodemus imagines what a shock that would be to his mother.

Throughout the gospels, Jesus challenges stuck people to think in new ways.

dotsCreativity guru, Michael Michalko, takes a normal creative challenge and then adds twist after twist. What used to be one creative solution to a problem, Michalko adds solution after solution. To begin to grasp Jesus’ teachings in the moments of our lives, we must be open to new ways of seeing. Perhaps Michalko’s exercise will help.

Continue reading “See in New Ways”

September 11th, December 25th, and April 14th

Christmas will be on a Sunday this year. We will gather in a smaller than usual Sunday worship service and celebrate that the greatest Christmas gift was in a manger and not under a tree. All will seem right with the world.

Yesterday, we gathered in worship and the past entered our present on the fifteenth anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks. Having just moved from Orlando, where we worshipped a mile and a half from The Pulse night club where 50 of God’s children were shot and killed, I was suffering from some pastoral ptsd yesterday as I stood in front of our congregation, thinking of New York, Orlando, and Babylon as I shared how Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego didn’t bow to Nebuchadnezzar’s terrorizing fiery furnace or whatever fear they held within their own hearts. They stood. Across the country, yesterday, people stood. Across the world, people continue to stand and not bow to terrorists. Some from those outside their countries, some from within, some from outside their houses, some even in their own homes facing abuse by those who are supposed to love them most.

During Christmas, we’ll read from Luke’s version of Christmas with shepherds and angels. We’ll ignore Matthew’s story with the Nebuchadnezzar type of ruler in Herod and his terrorizing soldiers that tried to kill Jesus by slaughtering babes in Bethlehem two years old and younger. At Christmas, we’ll dream of a fairy filled world of babes, angels, and flying reindeer until some other holy day reminds us that the world we live in is not the world God dreams about, which is why Jesus came, which is why those who claim his name, or at least his title, are sent outward into the world that can be often dark and full of terrors.

The language of faith is not a promise of impenetrable safety but a daring leap into an unknown but certain risk. I often think of Moses who stared down Pharaoh not one time but ten telling him of God’s relentless dream of his children’s freedom. Moses didn’t back down. He went repeatedly into his encounters with Pharaoh that could well have resulted in his own demise. I think of the three who stood in the fields of Babylon while not only king but neighbors demanded they cower before the power. Their future’s were uncertain. God being the I AM was not one for testing or serving as someone’s body guard. “We don’t know whether our God can or will save us,” Shadrach, Meshach, or Abednego confessed to the accusing Nebuchadnezzar. “Regardless,” they continued, “we won’t bow.” They didn’t. Nebuchadnezzar carried out his promise and then, to the surprise of all, God showed up in the fire. While the three survived, I’m sure they were impacted, cringing any time a match was struck, standing back a bit farther from the smallest camp fires. No matter the result, those nightmares stay with us. That’s what we do, carry our past terrors into our futures no matter how hard we try not to think about them.

We all want to be safe, but the world won’t let us be. Sometimes a lone gunman or mad king, sometimes it’s simply gravity and the frail formed bodies that carry around our souls. Safety would be great but anyone that promises it to you is selling you something and likely not lived much or read much of the Bible. It is our big temptation. Martin Luther said that security can be our greatest idol. Acts of horror challenge our fantasies about safety. We try and proclaim faith as our get out of pain free card, but the storytellers, the prophets, and the poets tell us that all our great virtues, from love to hope, come with a required risk and sometimes a world of hurt.

During the Christmas season of 1940, one of the greatest terrorists in recorded history was urging the most powerful military across Europe and into Asia fostering genocide along the way. In that time of great anxiety, poet W.H. Auden encouraged faith, not an immature faith fostered by Macy’s, but a mature faith that fostered living into God’s dreams for the world by facing all the nightmares the world could generate. Auden observes that the courage to live out the virtues can take us beyond our fears, beyond the tragedies of yesteryear or fears for what might be into something greater, something of God’s design. All we have to do is leap.

Leap Before You Look by W.H. Auden

The sense of danger must not disappear:
The way is certainly both short and steep,
However gradual it looks from here;
Look if you like, but you will have to leap.

Tough-minded men get mushy in their sleep
And break the by-laws any fool can keep;
It is not the convention but the fear
That has a tendency to disappear.

The worried efforts of the busy heap,
The dirt, the imprecision, and the beer
Produce a few smart wisecracks every year;
Laugh if you can, but you will have to leap.

The clothes that are considered right to wear
Will not be either sensible or cheap,
So long as we consent to live like sheep
And never mention those who disappear.

Much can be said for social savoir-faire,
But to rejoice when no one else is there
Is even harder than it is to weep;
No one is watching, but you have to leap.

A solitude ten thousand fathoms deep
Sustains the bed on which we lie, my dear:
Although I love you, you will have to leap;
Our dream of safety has to disappear.

Last night at our youth group, Garrett Campbell, our youth leader, asked whether the world full of more evil or good. The general consensus was that the answer was undetermined and left up to how we decided to respond, and ultimately, how God responds. After all, following Christmas, Jesus heads to that terrible day when Rome showed the world what it did to any perceived threats by nailing Jesus to a cross. What should be called, “Horrible Friday,” we call “Good Friday,” April 14th in the new year to come. “Good Friday.” Apparently God, and God’s people, can take the greatest acts of terror and bring good from them. That’s quite a leap of faith, but worth the risk.

download

Thumbs Up for Bob Britt

Bob Britt's ThumbAs my friend, Bob Britt, has his final radiation treatment in this long fight against cancer, I want to celebrate my friend today. I shared some of this in my church newsletter this month and at our fundraiser last Spring as we started this journey, but I think it’s a message to put in print and to share with others. You don’t have to be a guitar player to understand this way of life, faith, and love that I see in this man.

I was reminded about how I experience Bob as he posted this cover photo on Facebook.

At first look, it may not seem so impressive, but if you know the man, you get the picture.

To understand the man, this message, and your own way in the world, consider your own thumb and fingers and how your hand works.

Fingers can touch many things, even grasp quite well. What the fingers of your hand lack the ability to do is to touch one another. The tip of your index finger cannot touch the tip of your pinky directly, at least not the ones on your same hand. Thumbs, however, are unique among the digits of your hand in that the thumb is capable of touching each finger directly.

In this life, you will encounter people who are like fingers, they can be touched, they can grasp and grab, but are unable and unskilled at touching others directly. They are close to others but unable to make direct contact no matter how they reach and stretch. In life, you also encounter people who are like thumbs, they touch others with ease. They can grasp and grab like others, though it doesn’t come as natural to them. What does come natural is intimate contact and support. They are designed for and have developed skill in touching others and enabling each to reach his or her designed purpose and potential.

Thumbs also play a crucial role for guitar players. For most of us who pluck at a guitar, our thumbs never press a string. Thumbs do not press strings directly, so at first, the essential role a thumb plays may go unnoticed. If you pay attention, even look closely at the picture of Bob’s thumb and guitar, you see how, without the supportive effort of the thumb, the fingers would never have the strength alone to press the strings and make music possible.

My friend Bob is a thumb. As a guitar player, he is able to step into any group of musicians and see what not only the band needs as a group and as individual artists, he can even see what the song needs and offer it. He makes music as well as life better for others. Bob has touched lives directly and personally made so many people, musicians, artists, and just regular Joes and Janes like Carrie and me experience life in a way much fuller than we would have without him. That’s what thumbs do.

So, Bob’s thumb is a great image for him as well as an example for us. Be a thumb. Touch another life. Make music possible.

JOY!

David

p.s.. Here is a video of Bob playing with many different people that gives some great images to what thumbs do. Notice how many folks Bob makes better. That’s what skilled musicians do. It’s also what friends do for one another.

 

Go Lift Somebody Up

I just got off the phone with my good friend, Jeffrey Perkins. We were celebrating that our friend, Bob Britt, is about to finish his last radiation treatment in this long journey of kicking cancer. Here are the two of us at the fundraiser for the Britts at 3rd and Lindsley. That picture was the day after my interview when I interviewed with Macland. I shaved my head because, simply put, I didn’t know what else to do for my friend.

The contrast in hair style’s is significant. I was going for Yul Brenner and Jeffrey is a constant Johnny Bravo. The Jones family thinks so much of Jeffrey and Angie, Nate  went as Jeffrey for Halloween a few years ago. (I tried to dress up like Angie but couldn’t pull it off.)

Jeffrey Perkins221

 

 

 

 

 

 
Sunday’s sermon this week in on John 6, the famous feeding of the 5,000. In John’s version, it is the little boy who gives up his lunch. In the other gospels, the donor is anonymous. I like John’s version because the kid leaves me with a personal question, “How have I helped out somebody today?”
A great song to go with this text for those preparing for worship with me on Sunday or for those who just need a good spiritual uplift is Paul Thorn’s, “What Have You Done to Lift Somebody Up?” That’s Jeffrey on the drums. He’s a little like Jesus in this video. You can’t see him, but just believe me when I tell you that he’s there.

Go lift somebody up…

 

 

Your Potential in a Trashcan

Matthew 18: At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2 He called a child, whom he put among them, 3 and said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.

When I forget the distinct personality, the particular possibility and potential each person has, my children remind me, like when my son, Nathan, showed me the possibilities of a trashcan when seen through his eyes.
If I were with you right now, I’d show you a plastic trashcan. Since I’m not with you, find a trashcan or imagine one. It has a function. It was built for that function in a factory. Some factory produces thousands of identical trash cans intelligently designed for one purpose. I usually saw the one in my office as a trashcan and only a trashcan, until Nathan taught me otherwise. For Nathan, the trashcan wasn’t a receptacle and only a receptacle, a container for the unwanted refuse, for with his imagination, there were a thousand possibilities.  It became a stool, a storage container, a hurdle, a hat, a drum, and of course, a paper wad basketball goal. The factory in it’s void of intelligence saw it for one productive purpose and no more. Because Nathan is alive, he can envision, name, and make more than trash cans, he can make possibilities. He is possibility and possibility in a unique and distinctive way that is his and his alone.
To be a product is to be uniform, to be alive is to be unique. Look at any child, they are not a factory model. No child was made like a watch, car, or airplane. Life produces life.
And people who don’t think they are machines, celebrate the differences instead of trying to fix others.
Learning that we are distinct persons is the requirement for living in relationship. You can’t celebrate another person until you celebrate your own personhood. Personhood is required for relationship, as Rabbi Heshcel counseled,

You can only sense a person if you are a person. Being a person depends upon being alive to the wonder and mystery that surround us, upon the realization that there is no ordinary person.

When you question your human potential, be encouraged by every trashcan you see. Each can be a waste receptacle, a storage container, a hurdle, a hat, a drum, and of course, a paper wad basketball goal. If each trashcan has so much potential, how much more is there in store for you, Beloved Child of God?