Not To Be Out Done

There is this old Monty Python skit called "The Four Yorkshiremen".  There are four well to do men sitting around with brandy and cigars.  They begin reflecting on how much harder their lives had been when they were younger,  Each in turn talks about how desperate their life had been.  And in true Python style, it quickly move to the ridiculous and then to the absurd.  I understand that everyone isn't a Monty Python fan, but if you are, it is pure gold.

Many of us can't help themselves but they turn anything into a competition.   And I mean anything.  Competition is definitely not restricted to sporting events.  Who has the nicest house, the fastest car, the biggest truck, the brightest lights, the tallest tree, the most extravagant gifts.  We can even use the bad as a source of pride.  We can brag about the worst injury, the most severe sickness or the most dire situation to work out of.  It is all about outdoing each other.  

Sometimes its not about outdoing.  It's about keeping up.  One day, while teaching junior high I noticed an eighth grade girl wearing a pair of sunglasses up on her head.  I didn't think much of it, but the next day, there were three or four of them wearing sunglasses on their head.  By the end of the week, the vast majority of the eighth grade girls had sunglasses perched on their heads.  This went on for a couple of weeks, then it was over.  And it is easy to make fun of the girls, but we can all fall into the trap.  They have it so we need it.

We can see that this is no way to live, but the Bible does say that there is one place that we should try to outdo each other.  In the book of Romans, the Apostle Paul says that we should "Outdo one another in showing honor." So Paul is saying that we should take that drive inside of us that so often degenerates down to the petty and use it for a higher purpose.  Use it for grace, use it for tolerance, use it for love, use it for peace use it to show honor to those around us so that they can see the light of God through us.

Watch this clip from Pastor Chris.

Outdo one another in showing honor.  If we are looking for a competition, that would be a good one.

Life Together

Christmas means a lot of things to a lot of people.  I once heard it said that there are two holidays on December 25th.  One is about the celebration of the Living God coming to Earth and the other is a time to be nice and kind and generous towards each other including everyone from our family to the postal carrier.  And the confusion comes because we call both of these holidays Christmas.

But while Christmas has a different significance to different people, the way that we celebrate it is very similar.  There is something about the holiday that brings people together.  Family gatherings and office Christmas parties and get togethers with friends all help us renew our connections.  Life is better when we do it together.

The first Christmas was somewhat like this.  The gathering part anyway.  People were all crammed together to comply with the census.  They were all packed into small towns to be registered.  Not quite the way that we gather today, but the overcrowding seems familiar.  I have not had to sleep in a barn or use a manger as a crib, but there has been plenty of couch surfing or eating at the card table in the corner.  And all of it is fine,  Who wouldn't want to be a little more crowded to have a few more family and friends around?

The way that we enjoy each other at Christmas should be the way that we relate all year round.  We should try to live together in peace and make each other a priority.  Most of us wouldn't think of just skipping Christmas events.  We adjust our schedules accordingly.  We plan for them and put forth the extra effort to be there and enjoy each other.

So why not make that effort the rest of the time,  I think that at Christmas there is an expectation of community.  We expect it of each other and we expect it of ourselves.  Most of the other times it seems perfectly acceptable to let other things get in the way.  The original church was about believers gathering together and we should remember that today.

Watch this video from Pastor Chris.

Community is about making those around you a priority.  As we get through Christmas, making others a priority would be a great resolution heading into the new year.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Capiche?

One of the many part time jobs that I had when I was in college was in the security department at a department store.  In addition to traditional security duties, we would get called for the unusual events that no one knew how to handle.   So one day I got called to handle a customer complaint (I know this seems like a job for customer service, but that's not how we did things.)  Anyhow, this person was quite agitated, but only speaking Spanish.

I don't speak Spanish.

So things were tense for a while, then we found one of the sales people from a different department that knew some Spanish, though limited, and it had been a while.  Let's just say that it was a long broken conversation while we worked it all out.

It makes me think about early missionaries to the new world, like Pierre Marquette.  They came to spread the gospel to the Native Americans living here, but there was this massive language barrier.  Marquette would have known very little, if any, of the language and his goal was to communicate the gospel in such a way that the people hearing it would understand and believe.  That is a challenging task when everyone is speaking the same language.

I think that the key would be that it all takes time.  He couldn't walk into a village, preach and expect results.  He would need to live among them, build credibility, be seen as a person with insight.  Then those around him would want to find out what he had to say.

I think that it is a similar story on the day of Pentecost.  Jesus has died, rose from the grave and ascended to Heaven.  There are about 120 followers living together in a community.  The Holy Spirit comes upon them like flaming tongues.  They go out in the city and 3000 people were saved that day.  

Watch this clip from Pastor Chris.

I think it went something like this.  The followers of Christ have been living in Jerusalem.  Others see how they live in a spirit of peace and joy and love.  They have heard the words of Christ, they see the life that the followers have, but they think it's too late.  They were the ones who hollered, "crucify!".   

So when Peter speaks, he opens the door and says, "Forgiveness is still yours if you want it." And the crowd is only too happy to accept.

I think the challenge for Christians is to take the joy, hope and love of the Christmas season and carry it through the rest of the year.  So that others, seeing this in our lives, will want it for their own. 

Understand?  

Not Much to Work With

Shortly after getting out of college I had a job working for a house painter.  One job that we were working on was painting the trim on this run down house in a bad part of Pontiac.  The house was in disrepair as were most of the houses on the street.  The yard was rough looking and there was trash in the street and we were there to paint the trim.  And we did.  We scraped and painted and cleaned up and when we were done, it was a run down house in a rough part of Pontiac, with nice looking trim.  I'm telling this story, because sometimes it's hard to do much, when you don't have much to work with.

But then I think of the TV show "Chopped".  It's on the Food network.  There are four chefs who are given a basket of ingredients from which they have to make a dish.  In one round it's an appetizer, the second round it's a main course then the final round is desert.  After each round, the chef making the worst dish is "chopped" and is out of the competition.  

One thing that makes it interesting are the ingredients that they are given.  Sometimes its exotic things like goat meat or produce that you have never heard of.  But I think it's entertaining when they are given very common foods that they need to make special.  So they are given a can of Spam, or maybe some sardines, or marshmallow peeps or ramen noodles.  Now make a gourmet meal from THAT.  

I think that the big difference between the chefs on Chopped and Painting a run down house, is what you can bring into the mix.  You see, the painter was putting a fresh coat on the old surface.  The chefs have an entire stocked kitchen to add ingredients to.  So if the peeps are melted and some fresh raspberries are added, then braised with chocolate sauce drizzled over the top???? Maybe they are good.  Or if the spam is sauteed with shallots and fresh morels with crushed plantains and an Orange Crush reduction??? Who Knows.  (Disclaimer - I have no idea what a "reduction" is.  They just use that term a lot on the show.)  

So walking with God is like working in the chopped kitchen and going it alone is like painting the trim on a falling down house.

When we try to do under our own power, we end up catching the highlights.  Maybe we improve the curb appeal a little bit.  But in the end we haven't made a major improvement we've only addressed the surface.

When we take our journey with God, there is more than an improvement, there is a total transformation.  God turns us into much more than we can ever be on our own.  God does this by adding His secret ingredient, the Holy Spirit.  When the Holy Spirit is allowed to simmer in our soul, we are transformed from the meager to the exceptional.  

Watch this clip from Pastor Chris.

God turns the ordinary into the extraordinary when His people follow the Holy Spirit.  The Bible is not a story of great people doing great things.  It is the story of flawed people being more than anyone thought possible when they walked with God.  

And the same story is available for us all.

Another One

Sometimes it feels as though the world is falling apart.  Last week the report came in from California and the mass shootings there.  But it was Paris before that and Colorado Springs before that and before that and before that.  These attacks have a familiarity to them.  Shooters against an unsuspecting crowd.  They seem as random as they are horrific.  And they leave us with this unsettled feeling that no where is safe.  These kinds of attacks are different than a war.  In a war there is a front line.  There are those in the fight and those in the rear.  This could happen any place or any time.

And if the details have become to feel familiar, the responses even more so.  We need to either expand the number of people carrying guns, or reduce the number of guns or increase services for mental health or close the borders or monitor immigrants or build a wall around the country or send in the troops or pull out all of the troops or increase foreign aid or cut the aid all together. Or Or Or Or. I don't pretend to have the answers.  Like everyone else, I have opinions, but very little expertise.  I do have a funny feeling that none of it will actually make us safer and most of it would probably end up making it worse.

We have a society that is free and open.  We are a society of immigrants and their descendants.  We live with those of different backgrounds and faiths.  What makes this country great is not the rule of the majority, but respect for the rights of the minority.  I fear that for the sake of preserving our country we would be willing to destroy everything that makes our country worth preserving.  I think that in a free country there are a lot of openings for evil to exploit.  If you are methodically planning to do evil things, there will be your opportunity.  

The world can be a dark place and the situation can feel hopeless.  But in the darkness is where light shines the brightest.  It is in dark times that we can stand up and confront evil with the only force that has a chance, love.  We can not out fear or out hate those who would do us harm.  Personally, I don't have it in me.  Jesus taught us to love our neighbors as ourselves.  It is not an easy calling, but it might be the only one that works.

As Christians, this should be our finest hour.  Not where we hide and cower, but where we stand.  Jesus came to bring light to a dark world.  He came for me and he came for you and he came for Syed Rizwan Farook and he came for Tasheen Malik.  He came for those who are plotting to do harm and those who are just living their lives.  He came because no matter how much evil was in the world, God wouldn't stop loving us.

Watch this video from Pastor Chris.

Bearing witness to the light.  As Christians we know Hope where the world sees hopelessness.  We know Love where the world sees hate.  We know Faith where the world sees fear.  It is our call to bear witness to this so that others may know it too.

It is difficult to love those who would do us harm.  Really difficult.  But we are called to get to that place where we can say to them it doesn't matter if you hate me.  It doesn't matter what you plot against me.  It doesn't matter how much you hurt me.  But what you can't do is stop me from loving you.  That's up to me and you have no power over that.  And after all, THAT is what God said to us when he sent Christ to Earth.

Merry Christmas.

Looking Down the Road

Backpacking can take you places that you wouldn't ordinarily get.  Along Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula is Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.  If you hike the length of it, you can start in the town of Grand Marais and hike all of the way to Munising.  And as you make the hike, you will pass along the twelve mile beach.  Twelve Mile Beach, other than being twelve miles long, has the feature of a far off view of the rocky bluffs.  As you walk along there is this ongoing site of where you are going and that it is ever getting closer.

Now let me compare that to hiking through Grand Canyon National Park.  A hike through the Grand Canyon is very different.  Of course there is the temperature.  The cool waters of Lake Superior are vastly different than the 120 degree desert of the Colorado Plateau.  But one big difference is seeing where you are going. 

The Grand Canyon is known for its epic beauty and the views from the rim are unparalleled.  I would say that it is impossible to over anticipate how awesome the view from the rim is.  But inside of the canyon is a different story.  Inside the canyon is beautiful in a different way.  Most of the time the views are somewhat limited.  You never know what will be around the next bend.  

We would look at the map and say that our camp is on the other side of the second butte.  But each of those buttes is actually made of several smaller buttes.  So there was a lot of twists and turns and large rock out croppings to work our way around.  

Life is often more like the canyon and less like the beach.  Many times life is full of twists and turns.  We don't always see the final destination but the main thing is to stay the course and keep on.  One step after another after another after another until we have arrived.  We can't always see our destination, but God has a purpose for all of us.  We will find that purpose, maybe around the next butte.

The history of the Jewish people is full of twists and turns and ups and downs.  They didn't always see where they were going.  In fact, many did not recognize that they had arrived.  But they were called to stay the course.

Watch this video from Pastor Chris.

The Roman Empire was building the roads that were going to be used to spread the Gospel.  The road builders had no way of knowing their part in the story.  Many times we don't either.  We can't always see around the next bend, but we need to trust that God will use our efforts for part of the story as well.

Letting Them In

Sometimes things don't happen quite the way that we picture it.  We make plans and preparations.  We set up and anticipate, and then reality hits.  And it never really works out that way.  As a teacher I have plenty of those moments.  At the beginning of a school year, the room is ready, the lessons are ready, I'm well rested and there are high hopes for the school year to come.  And then we let them in.

Once the school year begins, the room is never quite so nice.  The students aren't as excited about this as you were thinking they would be.  Some students struggle and some students have issues that really have nothing to do with this class, and for basically all of them, on the list of things that are important in their lives, theis class is no where near the top.

Don't get me wrong.  I really like working with teenagers.  And as a teacher I have the opportunity to get to know some amazing people who are on their way to doing some amazing things.  I am just saying that most things look a lot better in the planning stage than they do in the execution stage.

I'm sure the same is true in other professions.  Everything seemed perfect, until well, it wasn't.  Sales clerks must feel this way before the store opens.  Or a golf course manager must feel that way before the first players arrive.

I saw a report on the milk mustache add campaign.  You remember the adds with different celebrities sporting a milk mustache.  I'm sure that the people who designed it thought that they had a scored a home run.  But when asked if milk sales had improved as a result, they answered, "well, there si more than one way to define success."  

Nothing works perfect when we are dealing with imperfect people.  God had a design, but then He let us in.  And in dealing with humanity he used the imperfect  to do his bidding.  It would have been easier to just force us all into compliance, but that isn't what he was going for.

The Bible tells us over and over again that the imperfect can be amazing when walking in the will of God.  And the amazing can be laid low when trying to do it on their own.  

Watch this clip from Pastor Chris.

Time and again, God uses the flawed to do His work when they walk with Him.  And things are no different.  He can do the amazing through us if we are willing to listen.

Lotto Horror Stories

There are a lot of people who play the lottery.  The big lottery in Michigan is the Powerball.  You select 5 numbers from a bank of 69 then the powerball which is a number between 1 and 26.  The odds of winning is about 292 million to one.  This is roughly the odds of dying from a lightning strike while being attacked by a shark.  "So you're saying there's a chance."  But people play and the payouts are huge.  I did a quick check and the current prize is $100 million.  Which I suppose you could get by on.  I mean if you budget.

We hear a lot of stories about people who win the lottery and describe it as the worst thing that ever happened to them.  At first it is all celebration.  They quit their job.  They take some trips.  They buy a house and a new car.  They give to charity,  They buy friends and family lavish gifts.  But then what?  Eventually they either burn through the money and need to put their life back together, or they need to figure out how to live with their pile of money.

The horror stories involve strained relationships, broken marriages, substance abuse, trust issues.  You name it.  There  is this sense that everybody wants something from you.  It seems that everyone wants your money.  It becomes harder to relate to your friends and you question the motivations behind all of your relationships.  I think that this sudden change in your economic status makes it hard to understand the question of who we are, what we do and why we have value.

Humans have an internal sense that we should be doing something.  We need to be productive.  We need to have a sense that what we do each day is important at some level.  We go to work to provide for ourselves and our families.  And whether the work is something that is personally fulfilling or just a paycheck, it still serves the greater purpose of provision.  The lottery takes that away.  And without some reason that what we do each day matters, we get into trouble.

While some days going to work can feel like a curse, in many ways it can be a blessing.

Watch this clip from Pastor Chris.

God gives us a purpose.  And even if the work that we do is not necessary for our provision, there is still a purpose for us in His plans.  Any of us, at any economic level, can work for the greater glory of God or just for our self.  The real question is if we will accept His purpose for us as our own.

Bad News Montage

Sometimes on the local television news they go through a string of stories where there is one awful event after another,  We hear about a bus crash in Tulsa and a house fire in Baton Rouge.  This is followed by an assault in Boise and a house burglary in Burlington.  I find this odd because none of these stories are national stories.  I'm sure that the burglary is bad for the people involved, but a thousand miles away it really doesn't affect us.  So why are we hearing about it on the local news?

I think what happens is that the local news has some time to fill.  Their reporters haven't come up with anything good in the local area and they have some time left over.  The parent network must collect these stories and they grab a half a dozen to fill in the gap.  What we get is the montage of bad news from around the country. 

I wish that they would just label it accordingly.  When they go to the filler, they could say, "We are out of real news,  So now we will fill the next three minutes with bad things that aren't significant in a global sense, but you will find sad and discouraging all the same.  Please stand by for an overwhelming sense that the world is falling apart."  They probably wouldn't keep too many viewers after that, but at least it would be honest.

The point is this.  Listening to the news can leave us with this feeling that the world is falling apart.  And even a person of faith can be left thinking that all is hopeless.  We wonder why these bad things happen.  Some things are simple cause and effect.  This person got drunk and climbed behind the wheel of a car.  Bad things happen. 

But there are others that seem to have no direct cause.  No one made a bad choice.  There is no one to blame.  We are left with this big question mark in the air.  We wonder why God would let the child get cancer; or why God would let the people get stuck in a storm; or why hard working people come to financial ruin.  We wonder why and the answers are not easy.

Watch this clip from Pastor Chris.

This was not the original plan.  But God is knocking on the door.  He wants us back.  Living in the will of God will not prevent the disasters from coming our way.  We live in a world where there is plenty of suffering to go around.  But God can give us the strength to weather the storms and see our way clear through to the other side,