Risen - We went to the movies.

I don't really do movie reviews, but here it goes.

Yesterday we went to see the movie "Risen".  It is the story of a Roman soldier in Jerusalem during the crucifixion of Jesus.  When the tomb is found opened and the body is gone, he is charged with finding the corpse.  His search leads him to discover God's nature through those who follow Him.

Of course, that is a journey we all take.

I hadn't heard of the movie until we were thinking of going to the movies and saw that it was playing.  I give it a thumbs up.

The previews are embedded below.  They are also here and here.

Nineteen Days

It's leap year,  So we get an extra day in February.  The purpose of leap year is to better make the Earth's rotation and the  movement around the Sun better match up and adding an extra day every four years seems to do the trick.  Well mostly.

Twenty-six times there has been a leap-second added to the clock. This is an extra second added on to the end of a day to keep the our clocks in sync with the Earth's rotation.  There is a group called the Earth International Rotation and Reference Systems Service who monitor the rotation of the Earth and how it affects the length of a day.  This is actually someone's job.  Who knew?  And the whole topic of adding leap seconds seems to mess with computer software and is quite controversial in some circles.

So what are you going to do with your extra day.  February 29 is on a Monday, and for me it will likely be like every other Monday.  We will go to work and school and do our chores and what ever else we normally do on a Monday.  And maybe, just maybe, at some point during the day we will have to record the date and say to ourselves, "Hey, its leap day." and then move on.  

I think that it would be great to make February 29 an international holiday.  You have an extra day, make the most of it.  Rest.  Relax,  Catch Up.  Work ahead.  It's an extra day, so make the most of it.

What would be even better would be to save all those leap days up and use them all at once.  Now stay with me here.  The average life expectancy in the United States is 78 years.  That means that the average person will experience 19 leap years in their life.  Nineteen extra days.  If at the end of your life, you could take those nineteen days and do something special, what would it be?  It sure does make you think.  Maybe that trip that you always dreamed of.  Maybe ending a long standing feud or just spending that time with the people you love.

But we don't get that extra time, not really.  Monday will be a day like any other and there is no way to save it all up until the end.  So the moral of the story is to take care of business now.  So we need to mend the fences, live the way we should and spend time with those who matter.  Now.  Today.  Without waiting.

In no place is this more true than in our walk with God.  We will not get an extra nineteen days at the end nor even one.  There is nothing that we can do to mend it on our own we need help.  However, the one thing that we can do is the one thing that He asks of us.  Surrender.  We need to come to a place where we acknowledge that our will is not the best way and that God's will is better.

Watch this clip from Pastor Chris.

  We can't save up time to use at the end.  The nineteen days will be mixed in with all of the others.  We need to make the most of our every day.  And chief on the list is making things right between us and God.  He is waiting.

Have a great day.

Budgets

We all budget our money.  For some people it is a formal affair with columns and lines and debits and credit.  For others it is kept in their head.  I've got so much money and it needs to last me to payday.  I think for most people, it is someplace in the middle, but we all budget.

I have been involved with budgets at home, at the school and the church.  One thing that I've noticed is that there are really two types of line items in a budget.  There are limits and anticipations.  In limits we set boundaries for our expenses.  We will spend so much on Christmas presents, but no more.  We have control over these things.  In larger organizations it might be office supplies or advertisement.  When the money is gone, you stop spending and due without.

Anticipation line items have no limits.  They cost what they cost and we are going to pay it.  Think of the propane to heat the house.  We try to control our use.  We shop for the best price.  But in the end, we are going to heat the house and propane is out option.  We try to anticipate what it will cost and adjust the other lines accordingly.

I remember working on the church budget one year.  The economy was down and there were a lot of people reaching out to the church for help.  The line in the budget called "benevolence" was over budget.  The decision was to keep on helping people.  We started looking for other places to trim the budget and trusted in God to provide the rest.  

There are other things that we budget besides our money.  Time is one.  We can spend so much of our time on work and so much on relaxing and so much on chores, etc.  While we all have twenty four hours in the day, how we spend them is up to us.  We have to be careful which items fall into the anticipation and which into the limits.  If our priorities are off, we can spend most of our time on that which is least important to us and leave little left for our highest priorities.

One facet of our lives that we can't budget through is our character.  Even if we could add up the rights and the wrongs, having a positive balance might be good enough for us, but not for God.  It doesn't matter if we treat our own good works as limited expenditures, we will do this and this and this.  Or if we treat them as anticipated expenditures, doing all that we can where ever we can; it doesn't matter.  We can never. ever. ever.  do enough to shift the balance back to the positive.  Our account with God is always in the red.  And that is the amazing thing.

Watch this clip from Pastor Chris.  It's a pretty short clip today.  So watch it.

We can never do enough good deeds to get our character budget out of the red.  No matter what we do it is never enough.  Following the Christian path involves surrendering to the will of God.  And then in our imperfect ways, try to do the best we can all the time trusting in God to make up the difference.

God takes our account from the red to the black when we surrender ourselves to His will.  And that is a pretty good deal.

When I Was Thirsty

Water is in the news quite a bit lately.  The problems related to the public water system in Flint aren't going away any time soon.  Furthermore it makes us all start thinking about our own systems.  How do we know that our own water is clean?

I find the water crisis upsetting on many levels.  Obviously, it is upsetting to think about drinking lead tainted water.  Or worse yet, giving it to your children.  The thought of the long term health consequences are hard to imagine, but some people are living it.  And not to minimize that problem, but I have been thinking a lot lately about the public trust.

We assume certain things about our public institutions.  We trust that electricity will flow from the outlets.  We trust that the roads will be plowed and repaired.  We trust that police, fire and ambulance will come if called.  And we trust that when we turn on the faucet, the water that flows will be worth drinking.  We assume these things, but it's not always true.

The purpose of this post isn't to dig into how this trust was broken or who was to blame.  I suspect the list is vast and crosses several levels of government.  But beyond that, I think that we all have a role in the public trust.  I think that we all have a role in looking of being our neighbor's watchdog.  The public trust extends beyond government and extends to each one of us in how we relate to our neighbors.

A few years ago I had lit the gas grill and it was heating up.  There must have been a lot of grease on it because it started to smoke and smoke and smoke.  I was letting it burn off when one of the neighbors can driving up in a hurry.  From his house there was so much smoke that he thought our house was on fire.  He came in a hurry to investigate.  This is the attitude that we all need to cultivate in our daily lives.  We need to look out for those around us and be prepared to offer a hand up when our neighbors stumble.

Watch this clip from Pastor Chris.

When we offer water to the thirsty, whether it be to the rich or poor, it is like we are handing the drink to Christ Himself.  As we think about rebuilding the water systems in Flint and across the state, we need to think about what type of water system we would put in place if it was running through Bethlehem and Nazareth and to the home of Jesus.  Because in His eyes, we are.

Hey Hey I'm the Tax Man

It is Mid February so that means it is about time to sit down and figure out our income tax return.  I know that the deadline isn't until April 15, but we usually are getting money back so I like to get at it. By the time mid April rolls around, our return is not only back but long gone.

So as I work through the forms (yes, I figure them out myself and without the tax-prep software) I am always struck with how oddly our tax deduction/credit system works.  I see it like this.  There is so much that the government needs to take in to pay the bills.  If one person gets to pay less, then another person has to pay more.  So if we give a credit to people who have children, then childless couples pay more.  If we give a deduction for home mortgage interest, then people who have paid off there house pay more.  If we give a credit for child care, then people who don't send their children to day care would pay more.  And so on.  I think it would feel different if we called them penalties instead of credits.  It is the no child penalty or the house paid off penalty or not giving to charity penalty.

As you can tell, I'm not a big fan of the current tax system.  But I am a fan of paying your fair share.  There are a lot of things that we collectively do together better than we do individually.  I really like out National Parks and I want them protected.  I like to have good roads and I think that they should be maintained.  I suspect that we spend too much on the military, but I think our soldiers should be well compensated and cared for if injured.  And of course, I think that if we want high quality schools, we need to pay for them too.  

My point to all of this is that no one likes taxes.  Me included.  But I also don't expect to get something for nothing.

There is one part of our spending that I don't really mind spending money on, and I am surprised that so many people do.  That is the part where we use tax money to help people in need.  I am happy that the money is spent that way whether it is here or abroad.

I think that the frustration comes with the idea that there is someone out there who could be working but instead lives off the system.  And I get frustrated by those people too.  And I am frustrated that we give aid to countries and it doesn't get to the people in need, it only props up a brutal dictator.  But I think those concerns are not so much a sign that we need to stop helping people, but rather we need to get better at it.

As Christians we are called to what we can where we can for our neighbors in need.  Jesus tells us that it is better to give than to receive.  I f we give help and that help is taken for granted, that is between that person and God.  We need to be good stewards of the tax money collected, but we can't be so afraid that it paralyzes us from doing as Jesus commanded, loving our neighbor as ourselves.

Watch this video from Pastor Chris.

Jesus told us to love.  First God and then each other.  In our world today, everyone in every corner of the world is our neighbor.  I think as Christians we need to constantly be examining our hearts in this area.  We need to show love and compassion rather than condemnation.   I'm not sure if sending food to other countries will help them see the love of Christ shine through us, but it has to work better than dropping bombs,

When I'm in Charge

Sometimes when I am teaching one of my classes I make a little joke that starts out, "When I am finally in charge of the world, the first thing that I will do......" It is usually over something trivial, but that fits into a larger point.  So it may be "When I am finally in charge of the world, the first thing that I am going to do is change the name from Planet Earth to Planet Aqua."  (It makes sense if you think about it)

This usually gets one of a couple responses from the teenagers in class; either a question about how I will be in charge of the world (Answer - I have a plan but I don't like to talk about it)  or some question like, "Really?  THAT is your TOP priority?" but most of the time, all I get is eye rolls.  And that's ok, they get the point.

I wonder if You or I were actually put in charge of the world, what we would actually do with all of that power,  They say that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts, absolutely.  Or in the words of Spiderman, "With great power comes great responsibility." In the US our government has a system of checks and balances.  We have a general belief that any one person really can't handle it all themselves.  So they spend more time checking and balancing each other than governing, but maybe that is for the best.  They say that the American system of government is the worst system out there, except for all of the others.

So there is a scene that plays out in small town restaurants across the country.  A group of people sit around a table in the corner drinking coffee, having the occasional piece of pie and solving the problems.  It's all there; taxes, foreign policy, welfare reform, immigration, health care.... all of it.  And these guys have the solutions,  Maybe our problems could be solved if we created a new political party.  We can call it the "Old Guys Drinking Coffee Party" and we will put these guys in charge.

Of course at that point, there might be a different group sitting around complaining about them.

 

Of course there was a time when one person was given authority over all of the Earth.  When Jesus arose from the grave he proclaimed that all authority had been given to Him.  But he didn't use the authority to change the name or to fix the welfare system or to stop illegal immigrants from crossing borders.  He gave us two instructions: 1. Love God and 2. Love each other.  

Watch this video from Pastor Chris.

Jesus had been given all authority, he could have done anything with it, and he chose to command us to love.  God first, then each other.  I suppose that if we started there, most of the other problems would fall in line.  We can get around to renaming the planet later.

Hold the Pickles, Hold the Lettuce

In 1974 Burger King started a new add campaign.  Their main competition, McDonalds, had a reputation of being rigid in their choices.  A Big Mac was made a certain way.  If you don't like it that way, then don't order a Big Mac.  So Burger King went the other direction and encouraged people to get their burger just the way that they want it.  Their "Have It Your Way" campaign was a huge success.

These days made to order is pretty standard.  It's hard to imagine a restaurant not honoring special requests.

And it isn't just in the fast food industry.  Across the board we have gotten used to the idea that we can get anything just the way that we like it.  This includes everything from Nike Shoes to your own monopoly game to custom m&ms.  If you want to make your own customized action figure or bobble head or even postage stamps, there is a service that let's you do it.

So in our world on any way you want it, it sometimes seems odd to encounter God, who says that salvation is available through one way alone.  One way.  That's it.  Surrender your self to Jesus Christ and live for Him.  That's it.  THE way.  THE ONLY way.  And that is hard for us to wrap our heads around.

Blogger Peter Greene was writing once about our desire for choices.  He wrote (and I paraphrase) is that what we want more than choice, is excellence.  We would rather have an excellent meal, than a chance to choose between many mediocre meals.  We would rather have one loving spouse, than several acquaintances.  

This is how it is concerning our relationship with God.  There is only one way to salvation, but it is a great way.  A relationship with Jesus Christ goes beyond salvation and includes purpose for all of our days.

Watch this video from Pastor Chris.

There is One Way to the father.  It is the saving Grace of Jesus Christ.  One Way.  One.  That's it.  But it is an excellent way.

Not Just a Motown Group

So what tempts you.  We all have buttons that can be pushed with the right stimulus.  Everyone has that thing that they know that they shouldn't but they REALLY, REALLY want to.

Temptations are more than just Motown singers.  We all face them.  Some are just clearly wrong, but there are gray areas where we can find ourselves meeting Temptations enabling cousin, Justification. And why is that?  Why can't we look at something and say, "This is clearly bad for me, so I will avoid it and do this in stead."?

I don't say that I have the answer to why we are tempted.  Temptations are a little like gravity.  Always here.  Always tugging on us.  Not sure exactly why.  

Even Jesus was tempted.  When the Devil came to tempt Jesus he used the same ploys that we fall for today,

Jesus was tempted to eat during a fast.  This is the "What could it Hurt?" temptation.  The one where we think:  It's not a big deal.  It isn't that bad.  Many people do worse,  And while we may not be tempted to eat during a fast, we are confronted every day by little temptations.  So we get under charged at the store.  We are given credit for something that we didn't earn.  It was our fault, and nobody knows.  We know what the right thing is, and we are tempted to do the wrong.  The problem is that every time we choose wrong, we inch ourselves a little further from God.

The second temptation was that Jesus was tempted to show off.  This is the "Look at Me" temptation.  It feels good when we are recognized for our accomplishments.  But there is a difference between receiving recognition and showing off.  When we show off, the recognition is the purpose.  Jesus was tempted to jump off a great height just to sow that God would send the angels to save him.  Similarly, if we are using our gifts from God for nothing but our own glory, then we too are throwing ourselves off the roof.

In the third temptation, Jesus was tempted to take power over all the Earth.  Now, I can't say that that particular opportunity has come up, but we could call this "Do it my way." We are tempted to leave God behind and strike out on our own.  After all, God had a plan for Jesus.  Jesus was tempted to do it another way.  And THAT is a temptation that we all face.  Quite often.

Watch this clip from Pastor Chris.

We all face temptations.  They are the things of this world that will draw us away from God.  If we let them.  It is during the times of the temptation that we need to draw closer to God in stead of drifting away,

Punch-Keys

We we are a store recently and there were a box of jelly filled pastries labeled packzi (which is pronounced Puunch-ki) and yes it is that time of year again.  Actually, Fat Tuesday isn't for another week but like Christmas and Halloween they like to get the season started early.

I'm not sure that I have ever had a real packzi.  I have had jelly filled doughnuts (too many if I am honest about it) but never an authentic Polish made paczi.  I understand that they are very good.  The problem is that I find the entire concept of Fat Tuesday to be a little confusing.

So in Poland they eat packzis.  In New Orleans it is Mardi Gras.  In Rio it's Carnival.  It is a time of gluttony and raucous behavior because tomorrow starts the season of no fun. Now I know that Fat Tuesday traditions have a life of their own.  Many or even most of the people who celebrate at Mardi Gras are not participating in the fasting of Lent.  Any more than all those who eat packzi are.  But shouldn't Lent itself be a celebration.  Even without the warm up gluttony.

The idea behind Lent is that through fasting we draw closer to God.  Do we miss the things of this world?  Sure, but at those times we are reminded to draw closer and to pray.  So when we give up sweets for a time.  Or coffee, or internet or what ever it is, we allow the absence to remind us to draw closer to God.  And that is a cause for celebration on its own.

Note- Usually I include a video clip from Pastor Chris.  By the time I got to the end, the message was different than what I was thinking when I started and now the video just doesn't seem to fit.  So no video today.  I will take another run at it tomorrow.

You Should Have Been There

Woodstock.  I was about 18 months old when the music festival rocked the New York farm field, so I can't say that it occurred to me to go.  But among those who are a bit older than I there is often a certain sense of nostalgia.  Although the concert had 400,000 attendees, I can't really remember ever running across someone who was actually there.  But I have met several who seem to have a profound sense of regret that they missed the defining event of the 1960s.

Sometimes we miss the moment.  We hear about the good time that everyone else had.  We were busy and didn't go and it was awesome.  We can hear the stories, but it just isn't the same.  

And it isn't all about a big concert or a fun party.  A shared experience is a shared experience whether it be good or bad.  It's not uncommon for friends to reminisce about that time that they barely made it.  Soldiers who were at Pearl Harbor or Midway or the invasion at D-day or the Battle of Khe Sahn or the fall of Baghdad all connect in a way that is impossible for those who weren't there.

So with this in mind, imagine those who were actually there at the Baptism of Jesus...

   Dude, you should have been there.  Jesus went down to the river where John the Baptist was.  And John wasn't going to do it, but Jesus talked him into it.  And then Jesus got baptized.  And the sky opened and the dove came down from the sky and we heard THE VOICE OF GOD.  I can't believe that you missed it.

It would have been the ultimate, "You should have been there" moment.

Watch this clip from Pastor Chris.

It is the event that happened in the past, but we don't need to miss it.  We can share in the event, the immersion of Father, Son and Spirit as we make the decision to follow God.  It's a moment we don't want to miss.

Activation Energy

In chemistry there is a concept called "activation energy".  When chemicals are mixed together they may not start reacting on their own.  They need a little push.  Their chemical bonds are stable and without some energy to break the bonds initially, nothing is going to happen.  So a candle won't light itself; it takes the heat from a match.  And the match won't light itself, it takes friction  against the striker.  A little energy is needed to get the whole thing started.

This makes me think of going to social events.  It seems like whenever any event comes up, I really need to talk myself into going.  I'm not sure why it is.  It may be a consequence of being too busy that makes me want to avoid anything that comes up.  Or maybe I'm a hermit at heart and I really want to be alone in a shack on a mountain.  What ever the underlying cause, I often find myself wishing that I didn't have to go to some event that is going on.  The odd thing is that once there, I am usually happy to be there and afterwards I'm glad that I went.  Maybe I'm just a bit too comfortable at home and getting out the door takes a little push.  I need a little activation energy.

We all need a little activation energy in our lives.  We need a little emphasis to do the things that are good for us.  We need that extra umff to keep us on the straight and narrow.  And that kick start can come from our relationship with God.  Now going to church and a relationship with God are by no means one and the same.  It is possible to go to church and never actually develop a relationship with God.  It is also possible to develop a deep, thoughtful relationship without. 

But it usually doesn't work that way.

Teddy Roosevelt wrote this,

Yes, I know all the excuses. I know that one can worship the Creator and dedicate oneself to good living in a grove of trees, or by a running brook, or in one's own house, just as well as in church. But I also know as a matter of cold fact the average man does not thus worship or thus dedicate himself. If he strays away from church, he does not spend his time in good works or lofty meditation. He looks over the colored supplement of the newspaper.

If we want the kick start.  If we want the activation energy.  We need to seek out God and be in His presence,

Watch this clip from Pastor Chris.

If we seek God's presence, we will find it.  And throughout the week, His presence can give us the activation energy that we need to get going on the right path.

Thank You for the One Day

There is an organization called the Make a Wish Foundation that tries to do nice things for sick children.  You have probably heard of them.  They raise money and use it to do something that a child with a life threatening illness really wants to do.  So maybe they go with their family to Disney World or the Super Bowl.

And it would be easy to be cynical about this effort. It is true that for all of the money raised, the children are still very sick.  It is possible that the money would be better spent on medical research.  But for the children and their families they get something special.  A Good Day.  When someone is sick the burden and the worry can be a crushing load to bear.  One Good Day can be worth its weight in gold.

It is easy to get caught up in the hectic pace of our lives.  We can get so busy that we can forget to appreciate a day as a blessing.  No matter what it is, if we lost it tomorrow, could we be thankful for having it today?

Each day is a blessing from God, and not just the one good day where we get to travel or meet someone famous.  Each. And. Every. Day.

This is the story of Derek and Heather Carr.  Derek Carr is a quarterback for the Oakland Raiders in the NFL.  He and his wife Heather tell the story about faith and the birth of their son.  It is worth a watch on the video below.

To be grateful for the one day.  It is hard to imagine.  The birth of a child is full of excitement, anticipation and worry.  It is a time where we have great hope, but also know that sometimes things go badly.  Very badly.  

It is an amazing testimony of faith to be able to say in a circumstance like that, If I lose it all tomorrow, I will be thankful for your blessing today.  

Watch this clip from Pastor Chris.

Each day is a gift.  We never know what tomorrow will bring.  We never know if what we have today might be gone tomorrow, so we need to take a moment to appreciate our blessings and if today is all we have, let's make it a good day.  One Good Day.,

Resolutions

So how are those New Year's Resolutions going?  It has been like two weeks into the new year.  How many of them are still a thing?  Just before New Years I was watching the news and they were doing a man on the street interview asking about people's resolutions.  One person said that they wanted there to be more snow.  I thought that they really didn't understand how resolutions work.  But that being said, right now I look outside and see a lot of snow.  That one seems to have worked out better than most.

Real change is much much harder.  It can feel like the resolution for snow.  Something that you would like, but completely out of my power to do something about.  We have reasons for the way that we live our lives.  We can quickly fall into old patterns.  And a pattern is something that you follow.  So one thing leads to another and there we are back in the old habits.

 

I think that the key to making a real change is coming to the understanding that it is probably not within our own power to do.  We need to surrender our will and our problems to God.  If we make our single resolution to listen and accept His guidance, then we can have a better chance at success.  

Watch this clip from Pastor Chris.

A fresh start.  With the guidance of God we can have real change.  And the best part is that we don't need to wait eleven and a half months to get started.  God is available 24-7 when we are ready to make a resolution for a real change.

In the Whisper

I was recently reading an article called "5 Travel Letdowns".  It listed five places that people go to see and they don't live up to expectations.   Number one on their list was the Mona Lisa.  They say it is smaller than you would expect, crowded and it doesn't WOW you.  And that is the way of things.  Somethings are just better in anticipation.  There may be a book that you really look forward to the movie, or the party that is only so so.  Or the amusement park that was more about standing in lines than riding rides.  Some things are just disappointing.

But have you ever had the situation that the event went off perfectly well, you just aren't happy?  Emotions are funny things.  Sometimes it's hard to rise to the occasion and allow ourselves happiness.  We can tell ourselves that it is silly, but that doesn't change the feelings that we are having.  

Now depression is a real disease that causes real problems for many people.  But that's not what I'm talking about here.  I am barely qualified to write this blog, let alone weigh in on a serious medical issue.  What I'm just talking about is the blues.  We feel sad, disconnected and alone, but we really don't need to.  We need to reset our attitude and get a fresh perspective.  So how do we do that.

The stories of Elijah in the Bible are pretty amazing.  He is part of one of the great smackdowns in history.  He challenges hundreds of the priests of Baal to a contest.  They are going to get their god to light a fire.  The priests pray and sacrifice, but no fire.  Then Elijah has water poured over the fire pit and with a quick prayer fire comes from the sky and engulf the alter in flame.  

Did you catch that, FIRE FROM THE SKY ENGULFED THE ALTER.  Now I don't know about you, but that would be a big deal in my book.  But Elijah is down and out.  He retreats to the woods and sleeps by a stream.  Then he is woken by an angel who feeds him.  

Did you catch that one? HE WAS WOKEN BY AN ANGEL WHO FEEDS HIM.  Now this would also rank right up there on the amazing affirmations from God list.  But Elijah, he is still down and out.  He is sent to a mountain where he is reflecting in a cave.  God sends the wind and an earthquake, but the finally speaks to Elijah in a whisper.  

Yes, in a whisper.

Watch this video from Pastor Chris.

Sometimes we just need to reset.  We need the affirmation from God that everything is good and right and heading on a proper course.  In those cases we should look for God, not in the amazing or the incredible but in the small quiet whispers.

Supporting Cast

Mahatma Gandhi had a reputation to keep up.  He was a simple man who spun his own cloth.  But the problem is that he was also a world leader and a public figure.  So the challenge was to keep up his impoverished life style while still being able to do his work.  One of his assistants once commented that it cost them a fortune to keep Gandhi in poverty.  For every famous person or notable event, there is the supporting cast.  These are the unsung heroes that make it all possible, but rarely get attention.

When Apollo 11 went to the Moon there was a crew of three astronauts.  Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin got to walk on the Moon, and they are household names, But what about the other guy?  Michael Collins was the pilot for the command module.  It stayed in orbit while the others landed on the Moon.  It would not have been possible, but few remember his contribution.  And that doesn't count the dozens back at mission control or the hundreds that had a role in building the rockets and space ships.  For every famous person or notable event, there is a supporting cast.

Sometimes, the supporting cast is more subtle.  In our town there are many Amish.  The Amish try to honor God by living a simple life.  But how complicated is this simplicity.  The stores sell goods made in factories, designed by engineers and transported by trucks.  Without this significant supporting cast, their simple life would be a lot different.

Which brings us to the Biblical shepherds in the hills near Bethlehem.  Their responsibilities with the sheep kept them from many of the religious practices of their day.  But without their efforts the others would not have had lambs for the sacrifice.  They are part of the supporting cast.  

But the birth of Christ was the time for the supporting cast to get a main role.  

Watch this clip from Pastor Chris.

The supporting cast, the shepherds came to proclaim, announce and reassure.  And although their role was to be in the background.  Through God they were good enough to be significant.  That can be true for any of us.  We are good enough to do the work of God if we follow His lead.

Upwardly Mobile

Henry Ford grew up on a farm in Greenwood Twp, Michigan.  His father was an Irish immigrant and his mother was orphaned and adopted as a child.  So he started from very humble beginnings.  At 15 he started taking apart watches and putting them back together again.  Through this he became a self-taught watch repairman.  Over time he became a machinist, then worked on steam engines before starting Ford Motor Company.

 

The rags to riches story is part of the American fabric.  Stories like Henry Ford are both astounding and familiar.  We can cite many similar examples.  Steve Jobs, Walt Disney, Oprah Winfrey to name a few.  Barack Obama is such a story.  No matter what you think of his politics, the story of a boy born to a single mother with an absent father growing up to be president, is this same story in a nutshell.  

However, upward mobility is a very modern concept.  For most of human history it was just not possible to rise above your social status.  We see shows like PBS's Downton Abbey (Set in the early 1900s) and their images of the lives of upstairs verses downstairs.  The scandal of one of the Earl's daughters falling in love with the chauffeur, or one of the maids aspiring to one day be a secretary.  It is hard to wrap our heads around it all.

 

The changes through the twentieth century broke down social classes and made it possible for people to rise beyond their station of birth to become more, 

Similarly, when Christ came to Earth, He turned the world upside down.  Not only were there systems of class and status, but also regiments of prayers and sacrifices.  Jesus came to say that the meek would inherit the Earth, that we should love our enemies and embrace the unclean.  That we should should not stone others for their sins, but reflect upon our own.  And his birth was not proclaimed by a royal herald, but by shepherds straight from the field.

Watch this clip from Pastor Chris.

The barriers of social class would take centuries to break down.  And to be honest with ourselves, they aren't completely gone.  But the message brought by Christ; the idea that we need to we need to worry about the content of our own heart and that we need to show compassion over condemnation was a truly revolutionary idea.  It changes the world forever and allowed us all to rise above the status to which we were born.

How Much More

There was a story about ten years ago about a person who went about the task of trading a paper clip for a house.  Now that seems like an impossible task, but he traded the paper clip for a fish shaped pen, then the pen for an ornamental doorknob and so on and so on.  Then, one year and 14 trades later, he traded a role in a movie for a house in Saskatchewan.  You can read about it here.  It is a classic case of building something out of nothing.

We love the rags to riches story.  The movie, "The Pursuit of Happiness" is the true story of Chris Gardner, a man struggling to make his life better.  He has been evicted from his apartment and is trying to make it through an internship as a stock broker while he cares for his son.  It is an inspirational, rising from the ashes story.  These types of stories leave us with an uncomfortable question, if he can rise from being homeless, or if he can trade a paperclip for a house, then what is my excuse?

If they can do all that with so little, why can I do so little starting with so much?  If they can do that, how much more should I be able to accomplish.

So goes the story of the early days of the Christian Church.  The original church was built on those who deserted, betrayed, denied and crucified Jesus Christ.  This group was then persecuted, tortured and stoned for their efforts.  If God can build a church using them, how much more should he be able to do through us, if we are willing.

Watch this clip from Pastor Chris.

How much more?  We live in a society where each of us have a great many advantages.  Living in this country with these freedoms and protections, imagine what God can do thorough us, if we are willing.

Now there is a New Year's resolution.  Resolve to do the great things that God calls you to do.

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.