Engaging Scripture

Computer, Health Insurance, Serve Team papers – Monday Messy Office Report – 12/22/14

My office is tidy Friday, mysteriously messy on Monday. Here’s what I found today:

1. An old, but working computer in a cardboard box. This one is not a mystery. My cousin Eric donated the computer, and I picked it up last week. It is a 2009 Dell in very good condition. We don’t have a need for it in the church, so we’re going to pay it forward to Church World Service (CWS) Lancaster where my sister Laura works. CWS does an amazing job helping refugees from all over the world resettle in Lancaster. The government of the USA generously helps people fleeing religious persecution, ethnic cleansing, political strife and natural disaster by granting them entry to our country. People have come from places as diverse as Haiti, Iraq, Nepal and Somalia, to name just a few. CWS will gladly give this computer to a refugee family so they can get connected, do school work, apply for jobs, etc. If you want to learn more about CWS, just see all they’re doing here. They have loads of ways to get involved.

2. Health insurance paperwork. Like many of you, I’ve been working on getting new health insurance. I’m not totally sure how to write about this without sounding fussy. Here goes. I’m very, very thankful for health insurance. I’m very, very thankful for employment with benefits like health insurance. We have used our health insurance numerous times over the years, and I fully expect we’ll use our new health insurance, whenever that time comes that I get it figured out. I hope and pray that a major health situation is not around the corner, and I am very thankful that over the years God has blessed our family with good health. I suppose that even if a health event happens, it won’t change the fact that we are blessed, and we will work on being thankful even in the midst of difficulty. Which is exactly the attitude I need to have about the changeover to new insurance! Thankfulness isn’t always easy to come by. So this is a reminder to me too. It reminds me of the song “Blessed Be Your Name“. We can praise God even when the world is not all that it should be, such as when signing up for new health insurance is proving to be a lot more difficult than I expected. “Blessed by you name, Lord!” This also reminds me of a scene in Notting Hill, one of Michelle and my all-time favorite movies, where the two leads, played by Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant, have started an unlikely romance, he a no-name London bookshop owner, and she a world-famous American movie star. After some twists and turns they get into a big fight. Just then his wacky roommate, played by Rhys Ifans, pipes up and says “What he’s going to say next is — there are people starving in the Sudan”. It doesn’t go over well in the movie, and often doesn’t go over well when we try to put things in perspective. I suppose it is because we are feeling our pain and frustration now, and it still hurts, no matter how small it is in comparison to people across the globe. But if we let it, remembering that our troubles are light and momentary can really help change our attitude and be thankful.

3. Serve Team Covenants. People placed a number of these sheets in my office. Faith Church‘s governance transition continues on, and I am super thankful for all the people that are involved. New this year, we are asking volunteers to make one or two-year commitments to one of our Serve Teams, and then to begin that commitment by signing a covenant form. In the past we did it all by election. Of course we don’t know how this will turn out in the future, but I’m excited by how God is working in people’s lives as we see each of the seven Serve Teams shaping up. We’ve had such a wonderful 2014 in the life and ministry of the family of Faith Church. I think 2015 is looking like more of the same!

Now it is time to clean up this mess!

Why telling the Nativity Story could get you killed

The Nativity.

A familiar story.

Very familiar. Too familiar?

When we think about the Nativity story, about the birth of Jesus, we often play music in our heads to the tune of Silent Night, Holy Night. Where all is calm, and all is bright. Or perhaps for you the song is Away in a Manger where Jesus is not crying, but peaceful and warm and everything is well with the earth. And there are angels, shepherds and wise men, and animals, and they’re happy, smiling and well-behaved.

We used to do a Live Nativity at our church, and we had all the parts you can see in the photo above. We had the sheep that escaped, trotting across our parking lot, spraying pellets to waylay those trying to catch him, like a 007 supercar. We had the kids in angel, shepherd and wise men costumes, usually taking shifts because it was cold. It was always a lot of fun.

But was it anything like that? First of all, myth-busters, you can X out the wise men. They came later on. As we continue our study of the Gospel of Luke, arguably the most famous Nativity account (Luke 2:1-20), we find he doesn’t even record the visit of the Magi. We do read about it in Matthew 2:1-12, where Matthew describes the place the Magi met Jesus, not a stable or cave, but a house, probably a temporary place Joseph and Mary stayed for a short while right after the birth.

We think we are familiar with the Nativity Story, but as with so much in life, familiarity can actually led to distance. This Sunday at Faith Church, for the 4th Week of Advent, we’ll tell the story of the Nativity, but it might sound very different. In fact, it really is the kind of story that could put your life in danger.

What we’ll hear is not only Luke’s courageous story, but we’ll also learn about the amazing upside-down nature of Kingdom of God. (“Are you not talking about the birth of Jesus, then?”) We sure are talking about the birth of Jesus! That cute little baby in the manger. Yup, it was a story, the telling of which could get you killed. Take a look for yourself at Luke 2:1-20 and see what you think. Don’t see anything out of the ordinary in those verses? Nothing that could get you killed? Join us Sunday at Faith Church, 9:30am…at your own risk!

Mercy and Grace – What we all need – Luke 1:57-80

Last week I asked: What do we all need?

The amazing message of Christmas is that God wants to shower us with his mercy and grace! That is our need!

Zechariah’s song proclaims the good news of salvation that is found in Christ. That salvation is found nowhere else.

We need God’s grace and mercy.

Jerry Bridges, author of two books about grace, Transforming Grace, and The Discipline of Grace says that “our worst days are never beyond the reach of God’s grace and our best days are never beyond the need of God’s grace.” We always need God’s mercy and grace.

When we think about the message that God communicated through Zechariah’s song, through the birth of John, the forerunner to the Messiah, the entire story is dripping God’s mercy and grace.

It is astounding and beautiful. That God would go to such lengths to express his love to us.

Grace could be understood as unmerited favor. When you do get what you don’t deserve.

Mercy as unmerited pardon. When you don’t get what you do deserve.

They’re quite similar and related, and they are awesome.

In God’s grace Zechariah and Elizabeth were past child-bearing age. They didn’t deserve to have a child in their old age. But God had grace on them. And so John’s name means “God is gracious”.

Think of all the ways that you have been blessed though you haven’t deserved it.

We need to receive grace and mercy.

We need to show grace and mercy.

The ideas of grace and mercy are so wide, that I can only scratch the surface of their meaning and impact in a sermon like this.

As we live in community with one another here, with our families, with our neighbors how do we practically show grace and mercy?

Pool Noodle, Plate of Cookies, Card Table – The Monday Messy Office Report – 12/15/14

My office is tidy Friday, mysteriously messy on Monday. Here’s what I found today:

1. Card Table – Truth be told, I put it there. A family in the church borrowed it, and after worship yesterday, they returned it. They gave it to me in the parking lot, and I decided to leave it for today to put away. Did you ever think about how many churches have a lot of possessions? We own land, a building, and a lot of stuff that we store inside the building. Much of what we own is for the purposes of worship on Sunday morning, education, and fellowship. That means we have a lot of tables and chairs, and we make some of them available for the family of Faith Church to use as they need. We’ve also allowed local businesses and service organizations to use our facility and property many times. I love the generous spirit which permeates our congregation. This also gets me thinking about how easy it is to confuse the property with the people. The church is not property, it is the people. The property is neutral, neither good or bad. How the people view the property and use it is another story. The church property, building, equipment, kitchen, supplies, etc. are all wonderful tools that can serve God’s mission of the church. But it is the people that are the church!

2. Pool Noodle wrapped in paper – On a normal week it would be exceedingly odd to find a pool noodle wrapped in paper in my office. Then again, granted some of the things that have mysteriously shown up here over the years, I suppose it wouldn’t be all that odd. In this case, it isn’t a normal week, and I know why the pool noodle is here. The reason is Advent! For Advent this year we have four artists who each created a piece to illustrate the Scripture passage for one of the weeks of Advent. Each creation is 70inches by 30 inches! Same as a standard door. Not the easiest size to bring to church! This coming week’s artist(s) wrapped their art around the pool noodle, thus making it easier to transport. I’ve been so thankful for the artists in the family of Faith Church, how they have used their gifts to worship the Lord. Since we started the Gospel of Luke, the four stories are the Angel Gabriel’s announcement of the birth of John the Baptist to Zechariah, Gabriel’s announcement of the birth of Jesus to Mary, the birth of John the Baptist, and finally the birth of Jesus. Join us on Sunday at Faith Church to see the reveal of the final art panel as well as who the artist was! Till then, it’s a surprise!

3. Plate of cookies – Last Thursday, our ladies had a Christmas cookie/recipe exchange and they thoughtfully left a plate aside for those of us who were here on Friday morning for sermon roundtable. The leftovers were still on my office counter this morning. I think we’ve had Christmas cookies three times for special events recently. At our church Christmas decorating party, after caroling last evening, and the cookie exchange. They were delicious! Thanks ladies.

Now it’s time to clean up this mess!

What we all need

It’s what the family that just lost a loved one needs.

It’s what the single mom needs.

It’s what the young man who just made a really bad choice needs.

It’s what we all need.

What do we need?

It’s what I need and what you need.

On your worst days you want it badly.

On your best days, you might not know it, but even then you need it.

It’s what the elderly couple we met in the first week of Advent needed. Remember Elizabeth & Zechariah? Two lovers of God. But into old age he had not given them children, and they had to deal with cultural shame about that. They had a need.

Last week we met another person who needed it. Mary a peasant teenage girl, also loved the Lord. She had a bright spot in her life, with her coming marriage to Joseph the carpenter. But in reality life in Nazareth, as in most of Israel at the time, was dark. Most people hoped they could kept food on the table, and literally that was about it. If they could keep the commandments and steer clear of the Roman soldiers whose armies occupied their land, maybe God would intervene. But for common peasants like them, then needed it.

What do we need?

Maybe you feel a need. Life can feel hopeless. You love the Lord but the pressures of this life can drag you down. Know what I mean?

I felt like that this week. We got a used wood stove earlier this year from my cousin. Got it installed over the summer, and first started using it in October. It produces a wonderful heat. Then last week it stopped working. Smoke started backing up in the house. Over and over we tried to get a good fire going, only to set our smoke alarms off, kids running out to the porch. People were coming over Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Who wants guests over in a smoky house? Who wants to smell smoke on your clothes, on your hair? I was frustrated. I felt pressure.

We all have feelings like that. Does God care? What kind of God do we serve?

As we look at the next section of Luke (1:57-80) on this Third Sunday of Advent, we see an amazing thing happen. We see God respond to the need. Read the passage, see if you can find the need and God’s response. Join us on Sunday at Faith Church for worship to learn more.

What was the Annunciation really like? – Luke 1:26-45

This past Sunday, Phil introduced us to the writings of Walter Wangerin.

As we continued our study through Luke, Phil chose stories that retold the events of Luke 1:26-45, often called The Annunciation. The angel Gabriel announces to Mary that she will be the mother of the Christ child. Wangerin encourages us through his writings to inhabit the story in a new way.

We had a good sermon discussion afterwards, as we wrestled with what the birth of Jesus means for humanity. God became flesh. It is an astounding thought. Why would God do this? As you hear Wangerin’s perspective, you’ll be challenged to think about the Christmas story very differently. But I hope you’ll see that as a good thing! We need to have our perspective challenged from time to time.

Box of books, Background Checks, Planbooks – Monday Messy Office Report – 12/8/14

My office is tidy Friday, mysteriously messy on Monday. Here’s what I found today!

1. Box of Discipleship books. Thanks to Al Giles who helped us get a nice discount on copies of Building a Discipling Culture. We’re going to have a discipleship roundtable discussion with Al on January 17th. If you’re in the Lancaster area, and you are interested in answering the question “What does it look like to be a disciple-making church?” perhaps you’ll want to join us. Let me know! Because the printing company had a bad run with this batch, the publisher, 3DM, threw in three copies of another book that I am looking forward to reading, Oikonomics. The title sounds like a pig trying to say “economics”.

2. Background check documents. Last year we had our children and youth ministry volunteers do background checks, something we do every five years. Just this past month I found out through a colleague on the Conestoga Valley Ministerium that new PA law voids all those checks, and we’re going to have to do it again. Except that this time, the checks are more extensive…and expensive. Further, they’ll need to be completed every three years. My initial reaction to this was disappointment and frustration. But as I’ve given it some thought, I’ve come to see the new laws as good. It’s hard to know where to draw the line when it comes to protecting our kids. I suppose the state could have required us to do five backgrounds every year. So this week I plan on getting fingerprinted!

3. Planbooks. Those of you in the Evangelical Congregational Church know what I am talking about. Planbooks are the annual calendars that our denomination publishes. They’re filled with event dates, the seasons of the Christian year, and contact info for denominational leaders. Planbooks remind me, like the ministerium, that Faith Church is connected to the wider church. I value that connection greatly! Take the EC Church, for example. We are 150 churches in the USA, with another 400+ around the globe. On Thursday, a pastor from the EC Church of Liberia will be with us to talk about the amazing work our Liberian EC brothers and sisters are doing to reach out to fellow Liberians struggling with Ebola. If you’re nearby, feel free to join us at Faith Church at 1pm.

Now it’s time to clean up this mess!

Why we need to listen to an unmarried pregnant teenager

After giving surprising news to Zechariah and Elizabeth that they, a barren elderly couple, going to have a son who will be a great prophet, the Angel Gabriel a few months later visits Mary. Mary is teenager living in Nazareth, a backwater town that barely makes it onto the map. Mary is betrothed, but her wedding to Joseph is months away. The Angel of God has another shocker: Mary is miraculously going to give birth to the long-awaited Messiah. What’s more, Joseph isn’t going to be the father! You probably know the rest of the story, but even if so, I’m going to pause right there and ask you to consider some thoughts about Mary:

Have we evangelicals taken Mary for granted out of our concern that others have elevated Mary? When is the last time that you thought about Mary? Is possible that we can and should learn much from her?

Think about it this way: why in the world would God pick a humble peasant from a no-name village to be the mother of the Messiah? What was it about this young lady? What can we learn about God through this?

The story of the Virgin Mary is compelling and astounding. Take a look at Luke 1:26-45 to prepare for this sermon about this amazing lady.

John the Baptist was not supposed to Baptize – Luke 1:1-24

This week we started a series studying the Gospel of Luke, and we learned that John the Baptist was not supposed to Baptize! What was he supposed to do? What was his mission?

What is the difference between John’s birth prophecy and mission and Jesus’ birth prophecy and mission?

For many people, it can be hard to relate to Jesus. His divinity, perfection, savior of the world status are kinda out of reach. Unless you have a rockstar messiah complex, we common people can relate a lot more to John, a regular salt-of-the-earth guy who ate locusts and honey and wore rags for clothing. Okay, so maybe you can’t relate to John’s prophetic status, but the point is that you probably can find something in common with him.

John’s birth prophecy tells us that his mission was to prepare people to meet Jesus.

Hear that: his mission was to prepare people to meet Jesus. Sound familiar? That is our mission too.

We absolutely need to model our lives after Jesus. Our entire study of the book of Luke is based on that. We want to know Jesus better, this guy who was amazing. But sometimes that can be frustrating…Jesus was perfect and I cannot be perfect. But in John we have a man, a human, who we can model. Remember in 1^st Corinthians when Paul told the church in Corinth “Imitate me as I imitate Christ”? Paul was giving them a model to follow. For us, John is a lot like that.

Also, John’s birth prophecy tells us that he had the Spirit from birth, and so do we have the Spirit when we become true disciples of Jesus. God blessed him that way because God had a purpose for him. With John he said “You’re getting blessed. No questions asked. You’re getting the Spirit from birth, and you’ve got a mission.”

What mission? “to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

Because of this, John’s first title was the Forerunner. Baptist is another title he received. We’ll get there in the new year as we continue studying through the Gospel Luke. For now, we hear from the Angel Gabriel’s prophecy that John will be the Forerunner. What is that all about?

Well, the nation of Israel wasn’t ready for the entrance of the Messiah. They were longing for a military leader, a king, to wipe out the Romans. Another Maccabees. But what God promised was a different kind of Messiah. If they would have read the OT closely they would have seen the Messiah come to life in the prophecies of Isaiah and Ezekiel and others. The Messiah was to be a spiritual savior.

People weren’t ready for that. They weren’t spiritually ready. They wanted to raise up an army of soldiers. God wanted to raise up an army of missionaries. So John’s job was to get the people ready, to muster up revival. And that is what he did.

What we will see, when we get to the story of his adult ministry, is that John is an inspiring biblical character. Selfless, devoted to his cause. He says “Someone is coming. I’m not even worthy to untie his sandals.” He understood his role, to prepare people to meet the Messiah, and gave himself to it. John’s ministry likely only lasted 2-3 months. Then Jesus came on scene, and John faded. When Jesus showed up to be baptized, John says “He must increase and I must decrease.” And just like that his ministry was effectively over.

Advent is a time during which we prepare for the coming of birth of the Lord.

What could it look like for us to make ready a people prepared for the Lord?

What did John do? He used an appropriate method to that culture and time. He dressed up like the prophet Elijah, and spoke about the coming of the Messiah, that they needed to repent, be baptized.

What would be appropriate in our culture?

We have many people that are scientifically minded and more and more becoming “Nones”, meaning that they have no religion. It’s very hard for them to believe that a guy in the sky loves them.

So how do we make people ready for the Lord?

We need to be Jesus for them.

We show them Jesus first and foremost by how we live our lives.

Reflections on a month of free coffee from Starbucks

Starbucks is doing it again…the January refill mug is back! My wife got the refill mug for us two years ago, and I had a blast trying to fill that thing with coffee every day. I wrote a post reflecting on it. Take a look!

Engaging Scripture

I admit, I started with doubt. My wife came home with what Starbucks calls the January refill travel mug. For $30, it was a relatively inexpensive Christmas gift to each other. The concept of the January mug is pretty simple: you buy the mug, and during the month of January, Starbucks will fill it an unlimited amount of times. Once January 31st says hello to February 1st, you own a travel mug, and you can continue to get 10cents off the price of a cup of coffee anytime in the future.

Whenever I hear the words “unlimited refills” it perks me up.

And yet I doubted. $30 is steep. We really don’t need another travel mug. But most of all I questioned, is this actually a good deal?

I definitely reveled in a fantasy sometimes when I handed my mug over to the various baristas, “I’ll have blonde…

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