The Search for Awe

 Mark 1:22

The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law.

                When was the last time you experienced awe and wonder in church? When is the last time you were amazed by Jesus?

                I was talking with a pastor friend of mine the other day. He had just preached a message out of the book of Mark. He mentioned that he was struck by how often in Mark it is recorded that the people were amazed at Jesus. Wherever Jesus went, people were captivated by Him. He stood out from the crowd.

                Have we lost our sense of awe and amazement with Jesus? In our attempts to make the gospel more “relevant” have we emptied it of its power to amaze us?

                Throughout the centuries, God has used sacred places to capture the imaginations of people. God gave the people of Israel an amazing Temple to remind them of just how amazing He is. God gave Moses specific instructions on how to construct the Tabernacle, which eventually was transformed into the Temple in Jerusalem. People from all over the world came to Jerusalem to gaze at the magnificent Temple. The Temple represented the presence of God in the world and it caused awe and wonder in all who saw it.

                In the past, the church has tried to recreate that sense of awe and wonder. You cannot step into a cathedral in Europe and not be struck by the sense of awe and majesty portrayed there. Those buildings were intentionally designed to represent the majesty of God. Their steeples and high vaulted ceilings pointed people toward heaven. Their sheer size was intended to reflect the enormity of God’s love and grace. Their stained glassed windows were there to teach the basic truths of the Bible in ways that everyone could understand. At the same time, they were designed to illicit awe and wonder. Even today, when so many of those cathedrals are little more than museums, people instinctively hold their breath and stand in quiet reverence when they enter.

                We are such sensory creatures. We often need tangible things to inspire our spiritual senses. One of the unfortunate outcomes of the Protestant revolution was an abandonment of tangible symbols to inspire. In an effort to purify the church from all forms of idolatry, we also took away valuable tools that the church had used to inspire awe and wonder.

                Today, many evangelical churches have embraced this iconoclastic approach to gathered worship. We have stripped away most of the elements that make a church building unique. Instead, we have substituted the “black box” format, which allows for cool light shows and better project of images, but which often takes away any sense of reverence or awe. Instead of having our breath taken away by the awe, wonder, and mystery of God, we are entertained by sound and light shows, complete with smoke machines.

                After WWII, the church in England dramatically declined. One of the major reasons for this decline was that the leadership of the Anglican church chose to downplay the uniqueness of the church. Instead, they chose to become political activists. The result was that attendance dropped dramatically. In contrast, the Roman Catholic church maintained its historical stance and held its place in society.

                Today, many young adults are gravitating to more liturgical churches, looking for a genuine sense of awe and wonder. They are tired of being entertained. Instead, they desire a genuine experience of God’s presence. Many evangelical churches are working hard to offer that experience, but we have a long way to go. I am not suggesting that we go back to some older form of worship. What I am suggesting is that we need to seriously consider what makes the church unique in our world. If all we have to offer is a poor imitation of the entertainment of the world, what can we hope to gain?

                We need to ask ourselves some hard questions. What does it mean for us to experience the presence of God? What does it mean to stand in awe and wonder of the Unknowable One who made Himself knowable in the person of Jesus? How can we recapture the amazement that people felt when they were in the presence of Jesus?

                Many people are tired of stale religion that seems like just a set of rules to follow. What they are yearning for is a genuine encounter with God, even if they don’t realize it. What the church has to offer is not a better social system, but a life transformed by Jesus. Instead of imitating the world, let us unashamedly proclaim the good news of redemption, renewal, and rebirth that can be found only in Jesus.

Romans 12:2

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.

 

   

 

To Know or To Be Known

 

Matthew 7:21-23

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'

                 I have recently begun reading New Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton. In the first two chapters, Merton seeks to explain what contemplation is and what it is not. The thing that struck me as I read today was that there is a big difference about knowing about God and knowing God.

                 In the modern world, we tended to distill faith to an academic exercise. We moved away from the unknowability of God (the mystical aspect of our faith) to the search for concrete facts about God. I vividly remember the President of our seminary warning us first year students that the greatest danger we faced in seminary was to become theologians and lose our faith. Because I am a rather linear person, I tend to gravitate toward systematic theology, the placing of our faith into neat categories. This includes our understanding of who God is. Maybe this comes from my background in the “hard” sciences. As a biology major in college, I was taught to look for the facts. There is great value in gaining a fuller understanding of the character and nature of God. The danger is placing God in a box of our making. No matter how extensive our knowledge about God is, it is not large enough to contain Him or expansive enough to explain Him. Ultimately, although we can know some things about God, we will never fully know God.

                 On the other side of the equation, in our post-modern world, many people have made our faith into a mystical experience disconnected from facts about God. Many people have turned their backs on theology and turned toward a highly experiential faith. Whereas moderns put their focus on information about God, post-moderns have put their emphasis on feelings about God. Experience has become king. It is driven by the thrill of the mystical and the unknown. It is driven by a sense of spiritual adventure and personal discovery. These things are not, in themselves, bad. But when they become the end goal, they short circuit genuine faith in God. God becomes a reflection of our personal, spiritual experiences. He becomes defined by our feelings.

                 Both extremes of academic faith and mystical faith actually miss the mark. In both cases, the focus is on our knowledge about God. What is missing, and what Jesus pointed out, is that what is most important is to be known by God. Jesus warned that we can get caught up in our own spiritual endeavors in such a way that we leave Him out of the picture. When we try to confine God to our spiritual boxes, we box ourselves off from His genuine presence.

                 I have often heard people, both inside the church and outside the church, use the phrase “my God.” My God would given condemn anyone. My God is a God of love and acceptance. My God would never tell someone that they are wrong. My God would accept people’s lifestyle choices without judging them. All of these statements seem to echo the essence of what Jesus was saying in Matthew 7. There will be many people who stand before God at judgment day and pull out the list of their spiritual accomplishments. Lord, look at all of the things I did in your name. But Jesus will say, I never knew you.

                 I have always found these verses sobering. I do not want to be the kind of person who does spiritual things on my own in an attempt to win God’s favor. Instead, my deepest desire is to be known by Jesus. My desire is to recognize the limits of both my knowledge and experience, but to use these things to draw me closer to Jesus. My faith is a journey of discovery and adventure. There is much to learn and much to experience. But most of all, it is a journey of fellowship. It is not a solo journey, but a journey of walking with Jesus. When Jesus called His first disciples, He did not invite them to study Him, but to follow Him. The most important thing is to be personally known by Jesus.

 John 10:14

"I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me--

 

   

 

MAINTAINING YOUR IMAGE

“There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept.”

Ansel Adams

                Image is everything. This is a phrase that has been engrained into our society. We see the implications of this at almost every level. Businesses spend millions to craft just the right product image. The right image can mean huge profits. The wrong image can spell disaster. Politicians enlist teams of people to create the right image for their campaign. In many cases, image trumps substance.  Celebrities carefully guard their image, because if their image crumbles so does their career. Image is everything.

                In each of these cases, image may be good or bad, accurate or a smoke screen. Some images are a valid depiction of the substance behind them. But in many cases, the image created is merely a façade to mask the reality that lurks behind. I recently saw an internet post that depicted famous people without their make-up. To say that it was shocking is to put it mildly. Some of these famous faces are unrecognizable without the well-crafted image.

                The vast majority of us do not have a staff of people who craft and guard our image, yet we all create our own. In some cultures, it is called “face.” We work hard to be seen as dependable, caring, trustworthy, honest, forthright, likeable, or attractive. We all have a vague idea of the image that we desire to portray. We may not be obsessed with it, but we are always conscious of it. Our image shapes the way we interact with others; the way we get along in the world. An unattractive image puts us at a distinct disadvantage.

                The past Sunday, I heard a sermon about image. It was challenging and enlightening. The main point was that the image that we embrace will shape our lives. Underlying all of the images that are created by humanity is a foundational image, which has been ignored by much of society. It is the reality that as human beings we have been created in the image of God. At the very beginning of the Bible, in Genesis 1, we discover that we have been stamped with the image of God at the core of our being.

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:26-27)

                This is an image that we do not have to create ourselves. It is a given; an amazing gift from God. We alone, as human beings, have been created in the image of God. We alone have been given the privilege of being God’s representatives in the world.

                The problem is that when sin entered the world, the image of God within humanity was distorted; it was corrupted. From that point on, humanity has struggled to create its own images. Our image is our identity. It is what gives us purpose and meaning in life. Yet all of our self-created images fall far short of delivering what we are looking for. All of our images, if they are not based on the image of God, are a façade hiding the truth.

                When Jesus came into the world, He came to restore the image of God in humanity. First, He demonstrated what that image looks like in reality. Then He invited us to have our image restored through putting our faith in him. When we place our faith in Christ, our life takes an entirely new direction. Paul summarizes this as putting aside an old, corrupt life and putting on a new, enriched life. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. (Colossians 3:9-10)

                When we place our faith in Christ, we become the recipients of a restored image. It becomes who we really are. It identifies us. But this is new image is not static, it is dynamic. Although inwardly we bear the image of God within our souls, outwardly we need to constantly conform our life to that image. It is our job, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to make our inner reality and our outer reality match. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. (Galatians 5:25) This is a daily, moment by moment process. When we lose sight of the image of God within us, we drift. That image gets fuzzy and hard for others to see. When we keep the image of God clear in our hearts, our outer reality reflects it. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:18, And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

                Therefore, as followers of Christ, we need to work hard at maintaining our image. Not the image that world applauds and strives after, but the image of God that transforms all of life. We have been created in the image of God. We have intrinsic value and worth. We also have the responsibility to living up to our image. Image is everything.

Ephesians 4:1

    As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.

  

Am I Listening?

 

Ephesians 4:2

Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.

                 As a part of my devotions, I have been reading Off-Road Disciplines by Earl Creps. The goal of the book is to help Church leaders to understand the shift from a modern to a post-modern society. It is a shift that most of us Baby Boomers are finding particularly difficult to maneuver.

                Today I read a chapter on Reverse Mentoring. To be honest it was both enlightening and humbling at the same time. In a nutshell, the idea is that we who are older have to learn to listen to and learn from those who are younger. In our fast-paced world of constant change, the younger generation has a better handle on what is going on than those of us who have been around the block a few times. Unconsciously we have all experienced this when we have asked our children or grandchildren to help us set up our cell phone or access the internet.

                 The old model has been for centuries that the elders of the community passed down their wisdom and information to the younger members. The younger members were expected to accept this without question, even as they were expected to build upon it. In our post-modern world, the game has changed. As Creps points out, once you pass the ripe old age of 40, you are no longer in touch with the new realities of our world.

                Those of us who have crested the hill usually take one of several approaches to this new world in which we live. Some of us ignore it as a fad that will soon pass away. We figure that once this younger generation “grows up” they will come to realize that our way is the best way. Some of us give a superficial nod toward the new realities. We buy cell-phones. We learn to text, use the internet, and log in to Facebook or Myspace. But we are doing this as tourists, not natives. We are not totally comfortable in these new realities. We want to look like we know what we are doing, but we really don’t. The other way that some of us respond is to acknowledge the new reality and to try to honestly learn to live within it. This includes admitting that we are out of sync much of the time. This is where reverse mentoring comes in. We need to be humble enough to ask for help and then listen to what the younger generation has to say, without passing judgment upon it.

                 Underlying this new reality is another reality that has been true since the dawn of time. That reality is generational arrogance. Each generation thinks that they have life figured out and that the others have missed the boat. We see the generations that have come before us as old fashioned and uninformed. We see the generations coming after us as naïve and immature. We feel that it is our right to set everyone straight. This is where humility comes in. Without genuine humility across the board, there can be no effective communication or cooperation. Instead, we are stuck in a competition to prove that our view is right; the only right one.

                 I have had the privilege of getting a taste of reverse mentoring; of learning from those coming after me. During our tenure in Mankato, we had the awesome privilege of working with many young adults. Over the years, God has allowed me to develop friendships with a number of young men. Although I have often seen these relationships as a Paul-Timothy relationship, I always gained from them far more than I was able to give. It is the aspect of ministry that I miss the most right now. I didn’t know that I was experiencing reverse mentoring, but I was, and it was great.

                 The important point to be made is not that us Baby Boomers need to step aside and let the next generations take the lead. The important point is that we all need to learn to listen to one another. Each of us has something of value to bring to the table. Relationships were never meant to be one sided; with the older person in control and the younger person submitting to them. Instead, independent of chronological age, we need to learn to humbly listen to and accept what each other has to offer. Youth brings with it enthusiasm, energy, an innate understanding of current culture and trends, and innovation. They are comfortable with living at warp speed and dealing with dissonance. The older generation, on the other hand, brings stability, tested experience, wisdom and often structure. They are more comfortable living at the speed limit. They are less comfortable with dissonance. If we can combine the good qualities of each generation, downplaying the less than good qualities, we can actually advance together.

                 I remember being a part of a team building exercise once that required that all of the team members completed the required tasks before the team was done. What happened at first was that some team members ran ahead, while others lagged behind. At some point it dawned on the team that the only way to “win” was for us to actually work together. We needed to pool are strengths in order to compensate for our weaknesses. Instead of being frustrated with one another, we needed to encourage one another.

                 The divide in our culture is getting wider. The modern world view is like an anchor trying to hold the world back from its headlong rush into the future. The post-modern world view is like a strong gravitational force that is pulling everything forward at increasing speeds. It is time that we join hands and learn to make this journey together.

                 There are many things about our new post-modern world that I don’t understand. There are some things that I feel very strongly about. There are many things that I think are just plain wrong. But my post-modern counterparts see the world very differently. Although I may not agree with everything they have to say, I need to actually listen and learn.

                 There is one thing that has not changed, no matter what happens in our culture. That is the truth of the Gospel. The fact that God loves us so much that He sent Jesus into the world to die on a cross, to be raised to new life, and to offer us forgiveness for sin and life eternal. Our God is not a God of the past, but a God of the present. He is not surprised or shocked by the trends in our world. He is the Great I AM who is always relevant and present. Our core message is solid and it will never change. Our methods of communicating that core message are fluid and must change.

                 If we expect to be effective in sharing the good news of Jesus with our world, we cannot expect them to come back to the methods that were effective in the past. Instead, we need to listen to what they have to say and construct methods that resonate with them.

 Philippians 2:4

Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

 

   

 

BUILDING WISELY

Psalm 127:1

A song of ascents. Of Solomon.

Unless the Lord builds the house,

its builders labor in vain.

Unless the Lord watches over the city,

the watchmen stand guard in vain.

             We have been working on adding a garage and office to our new house. We began by engaging an architect to draw up detailed plans. With that accomplished we have embarked on the task of finding a builder. Finding the right builder is essential. We want someone who will do the job right at a fair price. We are also looking for someone who can do this job this summer. So far, we have not yet been able to secure such a builder.

                 This week in my devotions I have been reading Psalm 127. It is a timely reminder that just like it is important to have the right builder for our addition, it is essential to have the right builder for my life. In essence, Solomon is saying that unless God is the architect of my life, I build in vain. I can put in all of the hard work, but if the design is flawed the result will be flawed as well.

                 Jesus taught the same thing when he shared the parable of the wise and foolish builders.

     "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash." (Matthew 7:24-27)

                 Jesus is the architect and the master builder of our lives. He knows what is best for us down to the most intimate detail. If we will follow His plans as we build our lives, we will be able to withstand all of the storms of life. If we choose to ignore His plans and do it our own way, when the storms of life come our house will collapse.

                 As I look at what is happening in our world today, I can see this being graphically acted out. As a society, we have turned our backs on God’s architectural plans for us. We have decided that we can build our lives according to our own plans. The outcome is that our house is beginning to crumble. The very fabric of our society is frayed and tearing. Instead of genuine peace, we have turmoil. Instead of community, we have disunity. Instead of trust, we have mistrust. Instead of love, we have hatred. “Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain.”

                 When the Church was birthed at Pentecost, they were a small group with no real power or influence, at least from a worldly point of view. But within a very short period of time, they turned their world upside down. The only thing that can turn our current world upside down is if each individual believer in Christ lives his life according to Christ’s design. As each of us builds on the foundation of God’s Word, we can construct a house that will withstand the storms of life.

                 The question we each have to ask ourselves is, who is the architect of our lives? Is it Christ or is it our own desires? Christ has laid a solid foundation. It is up to each of us to build on that foundation. What we build will be tested. Will our house stand or fall?

 1 Corinthians 3:10-13

By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work.