Think Different. Really Really Different

What to make of Steve Job’s death, and the many reactions to it? The outpouring of emotion about Steve Jobs was completely genuine. I saw tears and sentimental Facebook posts from the most stoic of Mac users. And then, there was of course, the analysis. Steve Jobs was the model of innovation. Steve Jobs was a true genius, a true rebel, a true pioneer. Steve Jobs and his little silver boxes changed the world.

And then, because there were still more columns to be written, there was the cynical questioning. Steve Jobs could be quite nasty apparently. Steve Jobs just edited and repackaged what others invented. Steve Jobs abandoned the rebellious counter culture to create the most closed, secretive, centrally controlled technology company ever.

Well, Steve Jobs probably isn’t overly concerned with this praise or critique now. He probably wouldn’t care about these opinions even if he was still alive. He was a man with remarkably focused vision which didn’t include the caring about the criticisms of others.

But what got me thinking was this whole idea of changing the world. We live in a culture that feels compelled to ‘change the world’. We are constantly talking about changing our world to address the issues of climate change, poverty, disease, economic inequalities or human behavior. (Andy Crouch has a fabulous book called Culture Makers in which he describes the uptick in books about ‘Changing the World. See him talk about it here.)

But can we really change the world?

For Apple it was the commitment to ‘Think Different’. But how different was the thinking at the end of the day? Apple grew because of a fierce vision, intense corporate culture (often driven by fear of failure), secrecy and the same business practices that put the onus on the backs of the poor. Some of this thinking was good and most would say, necessary. But I would not call it ‘different’.

As Mike Daisey wrote in his op-ed;

“We can admire the design perfection and business acumen while acknowledging the truth: with Apple’s immense resources at his command he could have revolutionized the industry to make devices more humanely and more openly, and chose not to. If we view him unsparingly, without nostalgia, we would see a great man whose genius in design, showmanship and stewardship of the tech world will not be seen again in our lifetime. We would also see a man who in the end failed to “think different,” in the deepest way, about the human needs of both his users and his workers.”

Our experience with President Obama has confirmed this. After 3½ years in power, it’s almost embarrassing to go back and see the commercials for ‘CHANGE’ when we reflect on the way politics has steadfastly remained politics, no matter how inspiring the rhetoric.

We can change the packaging of the world for some. We can change the experiences some of us have in the world. But the underlying dynamics of power are just the same. The fundamental brokenness of our world seems unchanged. The labels on the building may be different, but the world, it seems to me, remains actually, quite unchanged.*

What’s most concerning to me is that the American church has bought into this rhetoric. We can ‘change the world’ through better presentation, better packaging, better organization and better branding. Our passion, our commitment, our drive and focus will change the world.

I doubt it.

We are not the ones who will change the world. The whole point of the gospel is message is not that there is a new brand in town, this one called Jesus; not that we are bigger and better than all the others.

The church is weak. The church worships a crucified, buried and risen lord. The church is for losers. The church admits people based on their failure, not their success. The church succeeds and will only ever succeed if what she fundamentally believes is true… that the heart of the universe is the God revealed in the baby in the manger, the carpenter on the road and the man upon the cross; unless the world itself is already changed by Him.

Most people who want to change the world argue that they must work with the world ‘the way it is’. That’s why even the most radically idealistic corporate identities abuse workers, cut costs on labor and lobby for corporate welfare. But Jesus shows us that the way the world is, is different to what we see. The cross is foolishness to the world, but to those who believe, it is the power of God.

* Maybe Steven Pinker’s new book ‘Our Better Angels’ will prove this wrong?

Like and Love

Just read an article from David Brooks in the NYT about empathy. Empathy is an attractive idea... it's the capacity to be affected by and share the emotional state of the other. It's our ability to identify others as 'like us'. Empathy makes us 'feel' closer to others.

But Brooks, who these days specializes in broadening our understanding of the human social being, says that the problem with empathy is "when we try to turn feeling into action." He cites a number of studies in which empathy is shown to be a weak motivator, especially when it comes to personal sacrifice. "Empathy orients you toward moral action, but it doesn’t seem to help much when that action comes at a personal cost... [Some] scholars have called empathy a “fragile flower,” easily crushed by self-concern."

He comes to a conclusion by talking about 'duty'.

"Nobody is against empathy. Nonetheless, it’s insufficient. These days empathy has become a shortcut. It has become a way to experience delicious moral emotions without confronting the weaknesses in our nature that prevent us from actually acting upon them... People who actually perform pro-social action don’t only feel for those who are suffering, they feel compelled to act by a sense of duty. Their lives are structured by sacred codes...

"The code isn’t just a set of rules. It’s a source of identity. It’s pursued with joy. It arouses the strongest emotions and attachments. Empathy is a sideshow. If you want to make the world a better place, help people debate, understand, reform, revere and enact their codes."

A sacred code. A source of identity.

I call this the 16 hour bus ride effect. I once took a group of 18 university students on a trip to Uganda. We then joined 20 Ugandan students to do a mission trip in Northern Uganda. The students were primed for empathy. They really wanted to understand and befriend the Ugandan students -- and visa versa.

Then we took a 16 hour bus ride to get there.

But at some point in a 16 hour bus ride, the power of empathy to suppress our anger and selfishness completely collapses. The thought process went like this: "I don't want to understand you. I don't even like you. I want you to stop singing the same song 20 times."

But here's the thing - as we stopped 'liking' each other, we began to 'love' each other. We began to draw on something deeper than our empathy. We began to ask ourselves - what is right to do?

Empathy doesn't last. Feeling connected doesn't help me sacrifice for others in the long run. We need more than that. We need a command and a sense of duty. We need an identity that is grounded in love, not 'like'.

As a church planter, I had a vision of a church made up of people who don't belong together. I really believe that we come to understand people who are different from us through the lens of Jesus' grace. Initially, this is an exciting idea. We love different flavors! We love the bright new shiny thing! We love being thought of as... I don't know... 'cosmopolitan'.

But these feelings of connection or empathic sentiments will not move us far enough. This is why the command of Jesus is so important. I must love my neighbor because my Lord commands it. I love my enemy, not because I get him, but because it is right and good to do so. I love my brother in Christ not because I feel brotherly. But because he actually, in Christ, my brother.

We need more than empathy. We need commitment to one another. We need a family identity that is actual.

This is SO different from how the church works today. Most churches today are bonded by 'like'. I am invested only in so far as I am drawn.

Like = Excitement/ Energy/ Attraction.

But the church should be a place of commitment and duty and loyalty as well.

Love = Commitment/Sacrifice/ Work.

Now, don't get me wrong. We need and should pursue both 'like' and 'love'. But perhaps I can put it this way. Some seasons are seasons of 'like' - when we are drawn in and everything feels smooth. Some seasons are seasons of 'love' - when we roll up our sleeves and commit because the community we have is real and we have a responsibility to it.

In seasons of 'like', the worship music, the fellowship, the food all tastes great. In seasons of 'love', our only nourishment

In seasons of 'like' we are conscious of what we are receiving. In seasons of 'love'

The seasons of 'like' are a wonderful harvest. The seasons of 'love' are when the roots go deep. Both seasons are needed.

In the first century church, it took a long time to become a member. In some cases, it was up to 7 years of catechism. In a world of persecution, they wanted to see if people were only up for the 'like' season, or if they were up for the 'love' season as well.

Which season are you in right now?

A Football Prayer

OH LORD, AS WE HUDDLE HERE

HELP US ALL TO SEE IT CLEAR

PLAYING RIGHT PLAYING FAIR

IS WHAT WE ASK EVERYWHERE

AS WE GO FORTH TO PLAY THIS GAME

SPORTS AND LIFE ITS ALL THE SAME

WE HOPE TO WIN LIKE ALL THE REST

BUT HELP US LORD TO DO OUR BEST

AMEN

- Larry

Reflection on Our "Goodness"

On Sunday we talked about the challenge of our goodness. One of the key ideas that Jesus addresses in his conversation with the rich young ruler is our casual usage of the term ‘goodness’. Especially when we are healthy, employed and relatively wealthy, it is easy to imagine ourselves ‘pretty good’.

The danger of our casual imagination is that we start to bring God’s goodness down to our level, and expect God to treat us as relative equals. We don’t see how far we fall short of God’s holiness and so our entire approach to God becomes, to say the least, inappropriate.

We need to become attentive to our self-righteousness, because it always rises up and is deadly damaging to our spiritual growth. Especially for those of us who seem ‘ok’ on the surface (what an illusion!) we need to notice when we are patting ourselves on the back.

I had a personal experience of this just before I delivered the sermon. I was walking down to the Walgreens to get grape juice for communion (yes, our grape juice comes from communion. Our wine comes from Safeway and our bread comes from Mariposa bakery.)

I was walking into Walgreens and held the door for an older woman who was moving rather slowly. And the simple act of holding this door, filled me with a sense of ‘being good’. I patted myself on the back. I basked in the warm glow of doing good. Part of that is the simple pleasure of acting on behalf of others – but it went deeper than that.

At the same time – at the same time, I saw from the corner of my eye a man that knew. We have had several conversations over the last few years, all of which involved him asking for money for his family. I had helped him in the past and knew that his story would be the same. We had shared a significant amount of time together and I would have considered us friendly. However, this day I didn’t have time for his issues. He hadn’t seen me, so I steadily ignored him until he had walked by. I was barely conscious of this, let alone allowed the implications of my hardheartedness to sink in.

Now, which one did Jesus specifically command… hold open the doors for old ladies? Or do not ignore your neighbor in need? Somehow I feel like the parable of the good Samaritan was more about the latter…

It wasn’t until I was walking home that I realized just what had happened. I am so practiced at observing good in myself and so poor at allowing my sin to truly confront me. Just wanted to share that with you, so that you guys can know that I am just as much a rich young ruler as anyone. - Josh

Leadership in the American Church

This coming Sunday, Larry is preaching on Mark 10:35-45 – the passage about who is great, and who is to lead. The American church is obsessed with leadership. The charismatic pastor is featured on the website, the powerful preacher draws a crowd when he (usually a he) preaches, the charismatic worship leader, the authoritative bishop is celebrated on the billboard.

In the American church, Leadership has taken on the image of a dynamic, up front personality who waves a vision in front of the people.

This is simply cultural assimilation. The church is obsessed with leadership because our culture is (or was) obsessed with leadership. This obsession with leadership has created two equal and opposite reactions in the church;

1. People who pursue leadership in the church as a position of power and influence.

2. People who are uncomfortable with the idea of leadership and either resent it or defer to it, grateful that it is not up to them.

Churches are filled with people who have abdicated their roles and leaders who are taking up too many roles. The structure of the church is more like the structure of an Empire, with a single dominant leader and many passive supporters. We have a crisis of leadership – some monopolizing it, others abandoning it.

What Does the Bible Say About Leadership?

(Not as much as some church management books would have you believe!)

1. Jesus is Lord

In this regard, the issue is simple. Jesus Christ is Lord of the church and Lord of the world. This is not an issue under debate. All leadership within the church is to submit to the gracious and firm call of Christ. If Christ commands it, no matter how inadequate we feel we must obey. If Christ commands it, no matter how clever or competent we think we are, we are only soldiers under orders.

2. Solo Leaders are Not the Ideal

The Bible is not obsessed with leadership, because the Bible is not impressed with people. The Bible highlights human incompetence, inadequacy and weakness. The great fathers of the faith are almost comical in their obvious faults. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are more notable for their weaknesses and their life stories are more marked by the grace of God than their ability to lead morally or otherwise.

Kingship, the Biblical model of leadership, is always treated with ambivalence. A good king is a good thing. But a good king is never fully good. That’s why the king is always put into a contentious relationship with a prophet. But even the prophets themselves are shown to be fearful and anxious, and sometimes make mistakes. The hero of the Bible stories is always God, not human actors.

King David, the paradigmatic king, has highs and definite lows. And more to the point whenever he begins to see himself as the ‘savior’ or true leader of his people God is quick to put him in his place (2 Sam 7, 12, 24). He needs his prophet, Nathan, to pull him back from his worst excesses.

But such is our obsession with leadership that modern Christian authors look for it when it doesn’t exist. We paint Peter as a great leader – when the gospel writers go out of their way to show him as a deeply fearful, brash and misguided man. Paul is constantly defending himself from the charges that he is not charismatic enough to be a true apostle.

Who is the leader of the New Testament church? Paul is the most prolific writer and church planter, but his authority is often questioned and is required to defend his legitimacy at every stage. Moreover, he is too busy planting new churches to remain in a position of authority. Peter is the erstwhile ‘founder’ but he is challenged by Paul, and finds himself on a steep learning curve. James is labeled one of the leaders of the church in Jerusalem, but only one of. Even in the relative hierarchy laid out in the book of Titus, a plurality of elders is expected (Titus 1:5). Any command to submit to leadership in the church is plural (Hebrews 13:17). The New Testament is a conversation between leaders – sometimes a difficult conversation – rather than a top down set of orders.

This is not to say that there is no need for good organizational leadership, good administration and competence. But these things play less of a role in the movements of God than we might like. The three best human models of leadership in Scripture; Joseph, Nehemiah and Daniel, are so defined by their oppression, difficult circumstances, and the leaders over them, that we are hardly tempted to model our own lives on theirs!

3. We Are Responsible

If leadership is not something that we should be obsessed about, this does not absolve us of responsibility. Grace means that God does choose, anoint, appoint and charge people to lead his church – sinful and broken though we are. Abraham, David, Jacob, Peter and Paul were all chosen, not because of their competence but in spite of their incompetence. Leadership in the Bible is essentially charismatic – it is a gift from God. The church is led by people gifted by God, through the gracious call of God. As Paul says, God loves to use what is weak in the world to shame the strong. (1 Cor 1:26-30).

The point here is that, despite our inadequacy, God uses us to carry out the work of the gospel. A preacher must preach with all his or her might, but God does the work. People will not hear the gospel unless they are told by someone, but it is God who calls. People will only know the love of God when they see it in us, but it is God’s love, not ours which will save them. We acknowledge God as Lord, but take the responsibility that he gives us.

3. Authority in the Household (Smaller Settings)

Interestingly, the most direct discussion of leadership occurs in the household commands of Ephesians and Colossians. Leadership should exist in the home. We need the authority of father and mother, and the father should take responsibility as head of household. The household in Scripture is not simply the nuclear family, but a small household of extended family and various servants. In these settings, there is clear discussion about authority and leadership. 2 points can be made here about smaller leadership environments.

1. In these smaller settings, the goal is not permanent leadership structures, but places of developing and flourishing so that everyone can become leaders in other smaller settings. A governor of a state does not lead people to become governors themselves. But a mother and a father do raise children to become mothers and fathers themselves someday.

2. In these smaller settings the pattern of leadership is personal, and by example. It is not primarily organizational but organic. Leadership is most effective and resistant to corruption in smaller settings.

So, the biblical model is a diversity of gifts and a diversity of roles usually operating in a relatively small environment. The church is built around a group of people, each inadequate in themselves, but together, a united body working together to lead and grow God’s people. Sole leadership is not the biblical ideal. However, leaders are called to guide the people in community, and give shape to the church. In most cases, that leadership takes place in smaller contexts.

The One Church with Many Leaders

We need to resist the world’s dependence on solo leaders who lead from strength alone. Only then we will we discover the true power of the church in Christ. The great vision of God is a body fully dependent on Him, fully united in love. In this way the church is both weak and strong. It is weak because it is filled with weak people. All of who depend on God and on each other. But it is strong because people are faithfully and humbly taking responsibility. Or, as Jesus says in our passage this Sunday, “…whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.”

- Josh

20:21 Group Primer

What are 20:21 Group?

20:21 Groups are the practice of discipling and discipleship within OCC. It is where everyone who so desires can get into a small, intimate circle of friends and do the gracious work of helping each other to know ourselves and the gospel more fully. The principles of 20:21 Group are 1. that we are called to make disciples, and Christ will build his church and 2. By the power of the Holy Spirit, each one of us is equipped to disciple others. In other words, discipleship is not the purview of the professionals.

Why 20:21?

The name of the groups comes from John 20:21 – “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” Just as we receive Christ’s word and power, we are called to turn and give that to others. Matthew 10:8 says much the same thing about the Holy Spirit – ‘Freely you have received. Freely give.’

20:21 groups are small enough so that no matter how young or inexperienced we are in the word of God, we can begin this process of both giving and receiving. It is a process of breathing in the oxygen of God’s life giving spirit and breathing it out onto others that is the dynamic of a growing Christian community.

20:21 Group meet once a week or every two weeks, for an unbounded period of time. 20:21 Group should primarily be spiritual friendships not a program you commit to. If worship is where we ‘share a moment’ and neighborhood groups are where we ‘share a mission’ then 20:21 Group are where we truly share our lives. Our vision is that OCC be filled with people who graciously and powerfully disciple others.

How do 20:21 Group Form?

As organically as possible. Often 20:21 Groups can arise out of a Neighborhood Group, but they can be called together by anyone who desires to grow in Christ. If you would like to join a 20:21 Group, and don’t know where to start, reach out and connect with Josh.

Sometimes a leader will call people together, but it is not necessary for a leader to start a group. Within a 20:21 Group, a leader will probably emerge, but each person in the group has permission to speak to the other.

A suggestion is to connect with someone you already have an existing relationship with, and then seek together to invite someone to join you. Coinciding schedules is probably the most important determinant for whether a group will be sustainable or not.

The best 20:21 Groups are three people – with three people we can allow different perspectives to speak into our lives. More than three it makes it more difficult to schedule and you probably won’t get enough time to share. If you invite a new person into the group, that’s great – but it probably means that the group should either split to two new groups of two, and seek a new person to join, or one person can spin off to start a new group.

What Happens in 20:21 Group?

Friendship, real conversation, prayer for each other and others, and Scripture exposure. It is not a Bible study, but a way to proclaim the gospel to one another for the purpose of change.

Friendship: Get to know one another. Know each other’s families and backgrounds. Take some time to hear each other’s stories. It is appropriate to spend the first 3 weeks allowing each person to share their story.

Real Conversation: Shoot the breeze, but make sure to go deep. Don’t allow the time to get away from you. The time doesn’t have to be over coffee or food, but make sure you sit down and talk directly to each other.

Prayer: Pray for each other, and for other people.

Scripture Exposure: Open the word and read a passage each week. We are learning more and more how to support you in this aspect of the group. We want to provide you with notes and training on the road.

The Weight of Marriage

Once again, a hard word from Jesus this last week in the gospel of Mark. In regards to divorce, Jesus takes a more rigorous stand than even the strictest teachers of his day. It seems that Jesus refuses to abandon the dream of God; that in spite of human brokenness and evil, the renewal of all things is still possible. Some of us evade or diminish this vision by ignoring the perfect law of God and saying it doesn't apply. Some of us evade or diminish this vision by 'gaming' the perfect law, and trying to tweak it to fit our own inadequacy. (This is what the Pharisees seem to do regularly in the gospels.)

But, and here is the important point, Jesus never diminishes the implicit hope in God's word. He wants us to stand in the beautiful and blinding light of the law of God. It might kill us (morally speaking) but it is the only light in which we can begin to understand God's grace.

If we don't hold God's law as high as Jesus does, Jesus' saving death is made irrelevant. Anything that 'gets us out of it' - that diminishes and weakens the clear vision of God presented in the law undermines our need for God's grace.

In the issue of divorce, Jesus holds that marriage is representative of God's vision of human flourishing and impossible to undo. When we attempt to find a way to make divorce 'okay' we are preferring our patchwork redemption over God's perfect promise of redemption.

We should simply admit that we are unable and trust that God is able. Here is where the humble, confident Christian is born.

What an incredibly difficult word - but it offers hope instead of false promises. I am very curious to hear if any of you had a take on how Larry and I tackled this passage.

Some other resources:

A very helpful book on this issue is called 'Divorce and Remarriage in the Bible'. It addresses a number of the practical, pastoral issues not covered in the sermon on Sunday. The author also has a website that addresses further issues.

Andy Stanley also has a helpful sermon on this issue. You can find it here.

Examining Our Hearts

One of the the things I mentioned in the sermon yesterday is how hard it is to examine the depths of our own hearts. We are afraid of what we will find there; that if we are honest about our real brokenness and sin, we will despair.

It reminded me of a passage from Bob Munger, in his classic sermon 'My Heart, Christ's Home'. In it he writes:

There is just one more matter that I might share with you. One day I found Him waiting for me at the door. An arresting look was in His eye. As I entered, He said to me, "There is a peculiar odor in the house. There is something dead around here. It's upstairs. I think it is in the hall closet." As soon as He said this, I knew what He was talking about. Yes, there was a small closet up there on the landing, just a few feet square, and in that closet, behind lock and key, I had one or two little personal things that I did not want anyone to know about and certainly I did not want Christ to see them. I knew they were dead and rotting things left over from the old life. And yet I loved them, and I wanted them so for myself that I was afraid to admit they were there. Reluctantly, I went up with Him, and as we mounted the stairs the odor became stronger and stronger. He pointed at the door. "It's in there! Some dead thing!"
I was angry. That's the only way I can put it. I had given Him access to the library, the dining room, the living room, the workroom, the playroom, and now He was asking me about a little two-by-four closet. I said to myself, "This is too much. I am not going to give Him the key."
"Well," He said, reading my thoughts, "if you think I'm going to stay up here on the second floor with this odor, you are mistaken. I will take my bed out on the back porch. I'm certainly not going to put up with that." Then I saw Him start down the stairs.

When you have come to know and love Christ, the worst thing that can happen is to sense His fellowship retreating from you. I had to surrender. "I'll give You the key," I said sadly, "but You'll have to open the closet and clean it out. I haven't the strength to do it."

"I know," He said. "I know you haven't. Just give me the key. Just authorize me to take care of that closet and I will." So with trembling fingers I passed the key to Him. He took it from my hand, walked over to the door, opened it, entered it, took out all the putrefying stuff that was rotting there, and threw it away. Then He cleaned the closet and painted it, fixed it up, doing it all in a moment's time. Oh, what victory and release to have that dead thing out of my life!

We also talked about hell last night. I know this is a topic about which there is much confusion. It's been in the news recently because of some recent books and controversy. Here is the best article I have read on the issue: Tim Keller on the Importance of Hell.

The Difficult Path

After hearing Larry's sermon on Sunday, and reflecting on Mark 8:34 all last week, the question that keeps bouncing in my head is this: Is following Jesus difficult or easy?

Throughout the history the church has swung between a 'difficult' vision of discipleship and an 'easy' one. In the early church, martyrdom meant that following Christ was clearly a difficult life choice. But as Christianity became accepted and eventually enshrined as the state religion after Emperor Constantine, many found following Christ to be convenient. In reaction to this, the ascetic movement arose and the Desert Fathers and Mothers voluntarily gave up everything to find Christ in the difficult desert - as a rebuke to comfortable religion in the mainstream. Ever since then, the church has swung between crushing obligation, and what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called 'cheap grace'.

Jesus teaches the true difficulty of following him. It is not a difficulty of trying harder, working harder or being better. It is the difficulty of following him and trusting in his words. Peter followed Jesus every step, until the moment of the cross. And then he abandoned Jesus. We may like much of what Jesus has to say, but the real test comes when what Jesus calls us to feels offensive to us. That's the moment of denying ourselves and taking up our cross.

That's going to mean different things for different people. For some of us it will mean turning the other cheek when we would rather fight. For some of us it will mean entering into a difficult conversation when we would rather run away. For some of us it will mean praying rather than working, For some of us, it will mean working for others when we would rather be indulging ourselves.

The crucial issue is trust. Do we trust Jesus more than we trust ourselves? It means dying to complete understanding and taking up the burden of not know everything - living by trust. It means dying to my judgment of others and taking up the burden of forgiveness. It means dying to my identity and taking up the burden of the church community. It means dying to my comfort and taking up the needs of the city/world. It means dying to my freedom and taking up obedience It means dying to my intellectual pride and taking up the shaming burden of Jesus' name. It means dying to my moral pride and taking up the shaming burden of Jesus' grace.

That's what I am wrestling with today.

Instead of Worry: Rest

Sabbath as Natural Order of All Creatures: We Are Dependent!
Leviticus 25:1-17 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you, the land shall keep a Sabbath to the Lord. 3 For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its fruits, but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the Lord. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. You shall not reap what grows of itself in your harvest, or gather the grapes of your undressed vine. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land. The Sabbath of the land shall provide food for you, for yourself and for your male and female slaves and for your hired servant and the sojourner who lives with you, and for your cattle and for the wild animals that are in your land: all its yield shall be for food.

We are compelled to rest because we are creatures.

We live in permanent impermanence.

“When we breathe, we do stop inhaling because have taken in all the oxygen we will ever need, but because we have all the oxygen we need for this breath.” Wayne Mueller

(There is judgment against those who ‘add field to field’ (Isa 5:8)

Instead of Worry: Rest

Interesting lecture on taking time off… incidentally, taking a Sabbath year!

http://www.ted.com/talks/stefan_sagmeister_the_power_of_time_off.html

Common Ground: MADE

Week 1: Common Ground: MADE (Sermon on May 1)

Psalm 8
O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.
2 Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?
5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, 7 all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, 8 the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
9 O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Notes on the text
Verse 5 is often translated ‘you have made him a little lower than heavenly beings’. A better translation would be ‘you have made him a little lower than God’.
See Genesis 1:25-31 as a source for this psalm. It speaks of our identity under God, but over all creation.
See Hebrews 2:5-9 – Jesus is seen as the perfect fulfillment of the human under God and over creation.

A helpful image or opening question:

• What divides people in Oakland? What unites us?
• In your experienced, are churches/religion helpful or harmful to that unity?
• Read C.S. Lewis quote below – do agree with the final statement in that quote?

Questions:

• What does this text say about God?
• What does this text say about people?
• If we deeply believed these things, what would change about us, about our city?
• Who can we share this text with?
• How can our neighborhood group live out what we learn from this discussion?

There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously—no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner—no mere tolerance or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.

C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

Common Ground

At Oakland City Church we regularly repeat our mission statement – ‘people who don’t belong together gathered around Jesus for the sake of people who don’t belong.’ We’re passionate about a few things – Jesus, and building a community of people who don’t belong together. These things are deeply connected – it’s only when we gather around Jesus that we can build a new community. In essence, the core idea of our church is that trust in Jesus and his grace forms the foundation of a new community. More than that, the grace of Jesus is the only true foundation for community that lasts.

We hold on to this vision of community for two reasons. Firstly – it’s what the God commands. The message of the New Testament is clear on this (although often ignored). The book of Acts, the history of the early church, the driving controversy is not whether Jesus is Lord, or whether he was fully man, fully God, or anything theological. The central question was ‘who gets to belong?’ In Romans, Galatians and Ephesians, the underlying crisis is the separation of Jews and Gentiles.

Secondly, this vision for community is what Oakland needs. In a city like Oakland, the divisions of humanity seem all too clear. Oakland is one of the most diverse cities in the United States. However, as many have noted, diversity is not the same as integration. The diversity we each experience in our everyday lives is lacking in most church worship services. Instead of embracing our city’s identity as an expression of God’s desire to bring all things together, our churches have too often settled for separation. While there is some call and occasion for ethnic-specific church missions, our desire should ultimately be to see ethnic barriers overcome. Instead of calling people out of diverse neighborhoods, friendships and workplaces into homogeneous places of worship, we should be planting churches that reflect these diverse realities. Our faith community should help us to be better at cross-cultural relationships in the places where we live.

However, many would argue that religion, specifically Christianity, seems to divide us further. Segregation. Christian vs. non-Christian, religious vs. irreligious, protestant vs. catholic, liberal vs. conservative. We don’t want to be naïve. Unity and community must be founded on truth. C.S. Lewis in ‘The Great Divorce’ his meditation on heaven and hell, writes this:

"We are not living in a world where all roads are radii of a circle and where all, if followed long enough, will therefore draw gradually nearer and finally meet at the centre: rather in a world where every road, after a few miles, forks into two, and each of those into two again, and at each fork you must make a decision. Even on the biological level life is not like a river but like a tree. It does not move towards unity but away from it and the creatures grow further apart as they increase in perfection. Good, as it ripens, becomes continually more different not only from evil but from other good. I do not think that all who choose wrong roads perish; but their rescue consists in being put back on the right road. A sum can be put right: but only by going back till you find the error and working it afresh from that point, never by simply going on.”

We can’t simply form common ground by ignoring our differences, ignoring truth or building upon our good intentions. Human efforts to force community are either oppressive (See the tower of Babel in Genesis 11) or shallow.

The pressing question for our world and our city is whether there is a possibility of true, deep and lasting common ground. This sermon series will answer that question thoroughly through the lens of the gospel. Our only possible common ground is the grace found in Jesus. Only in the good news do we find sufficient humility and confidence to build a future together. This sermon series will show us that the great doctrines of the faith are practical building blocks for a common life together. Far from being points of contention, if we embrace the great truths of Scripture, we will find the power, reason and joy of life together.

Understanding the gospel

• keeps us from falling into self-righteous, exclusive legalism (an ‘us vs. them’ attitude)
• calls us to obedience and sacrificial love, rather than mere tolerance
• helps us to hold on to what matters to God and let go of traditions that only matter to us. The gospel makes us more adaptive to others
• gives us the only identity strong enough to challenge the worldly culture of materialism, despair and anxiety.

The gospel is not simply a propositional statement about Jesus dying for our sins. It can be summarized as Christ crucified, but in that summary we find that the gospel is the full story of God and His sacrificial love for His world.

What does the gospel say about us as humans?

1. All are made in the image of God

No matter whether we are great or small in the eyes of the world, we are all made in the imago dei, the divine image. We can never look down on others as less than us. This vision of human life is incredibly important. Is the basis for which we can find dignity and humility in all situations. Moreover, the image of God is the image of the Trinity – the divine fellowship of God from before the ages. We are made in and for life together.

2. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

There is no basis for pride in the fallen human condition. All of us are sinners – which is bad news, obviously, but like any accurate diagnosis, the only basis for hearing good news. Sin is not simply ‘out there’ in the community, or ‘over there’ in other communities. Sin is always most definitively ‘in here’ in our hearts. So, we are not surprised at sin in others, and we do not despair at it in ourselves. We are tempted to make much of sins that are not ours, and make little of the sins that we struggle with. So conservatives highlight sexual sins, laziness and family brokenness. Liberals highlight sins of injustice, lack of compassion to the stranger and environmental irresponsibility. Culturally we can see that some sins are more tolerated in some groups than others. The good news of the doctrine of sin is that we do not need to be divided by who has the worst sins. We are all sinners in need of grace.

3. We are all loved by God – whether we receive that love or not

On the cross Jesus is lifted up to show the world the glory, judgment and love of God. God has continually communicated his love to us, if only we would hear it. The whole purpose of Jesus’ first coming was to come for salvation and hope, rather than judgment. Even if people do not receive the love of God, we must be clear on the fact that God is pursuing his creation with great love.

4. We are all continually dependent on God – whether we know it or not.

God did not simply create the world, but sustains it in every moment. We are never imagine ourselves far from God or not relying on him. For religious people, this means that we should always be acknowledging that we depend on God, not He on our efforts. For irreligious people, this means that we should be The most helpful and true prayer that we can pray at any moment is ‘thank you’. Gratitude should be a great unifying feature of our church.

5. We are all looking to the same future – submission to the gracious rule of Christ.

There is a some debate right now about whether all people will eventually be reconciled to God’s love. Scripture is clear that it will be possible to resist the rule of Christ. However, we can always say with confidence that all things will be reconciled to Christ, either in grateful submission or in grudging acknowledgement. Our hope is in the truth that whether we trust him or not, all things will be unified back to God in Christ.

Joy, Death, Grace

Straight after church on Sunday, we heard about the death of Osama bin Laden. We say around someone's iphone like old-timers around the wireless listening to the president's speech.

As Christians, how should we respond to an act like this? Should we celebrate death? Should we chide those who celebrate it? What does it mean to love our enemies, but pursue justice in this world. I take the SEALs at their word when they say that bin Laden resisted and was killed. So, how do we respond to the death of enemy?

Personally speaking, I feel uncomfortable with overt expressions of triumphalism. But I am prepared to admit that this is part of my personality. I need to check myself and not be judgmental of others when the initial response to the death of an enemy is joy. The instinct comes from the true human condition - designed by God - to love life and despise evil. It’s a little robotic to turn on a dime with those emotions. The psalms are filled with expressions of gleeful vengeful feelings, followed by confession, contrition and more questioning. So it seems that God’s Word is comfortable with momentary expressions of exultant triumph over enemies. The God of the OT is not a dispassionate Greek monad, but an exultant warrior who loves to see good triumph. Emphasis here on the word ‘loves’… He is passionate about it. God does not seem to be an emotional policeman in Scripture – so I tend to think that we should all cut each other slack in our initial emotional responses.

It’s okay to hate evil. And sadly, most evil resides in people. So, I think sometimes our hearts get mixed up. We need to make allowance for that – otherwise hate for evil might dissipate. It’s too easy to be rational and noble in the face of problems that don’t really affect us.

Also, I think there is a humility in communal suffering and communal joy as well. In an affluent country like ours, we don’t really know what it means to have shared misfortune or enemies. 9/11 was one of the few communal moments of shared suffering in this country. Usually suffering happens to others in a red state or a blue state, or at least ‘over there’ so I don’t viscerally feel the pain. But 9/11 seems to have been shared deeply by every American. In our increasingly divided, independent nation, such moments of shared emotion shouldn't be dismissed. Part of the joy in ‘We Got Him’ is getting to say ‘we’ with conviction. Sure, that might lead to tribalism, but let’s not trade love for my neighbor who I do see, with a vague love for ‘humankind’.

It’s a silly comparison, but I think the irrational glee at the royal wedding is a good point of comparison. If you REALLY think through all the implications, a monarchy is a bad idea. But something within us stirs when a prince and princess get married. Let’s not check our brains at the door, but let’s not check our deep emotions either – at least not straight away. (By the way, this statement does not apply to our government or the military…. They should definitely check their emotions at the door when making policy…)

BUT… we can’t stay there. As I read the Scriptures, I think the problem begins to arise when we start to apply definitive meaning to these emotions – meaning about the world or meaning about ourselves. When it comes to our gleaning a meaning for the state of our nation, Joshua 5:13-15 helps me here and Lincoln’s 2^nd inaugural helps me here as well.

When it comes to personal reflection, gloating over an enemy or scolding those who celebrate is hardly the long term strategy. If we don't turn to ourselves, then whatever good might come of this is lost. The best example I can think of in Scripture is when Jesus responds to the question about the Tower collapsing and killing people or the victims of Pontius Pilate… ‘ do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” All of this should be an invitation to self-reflection.

So, emotional response shouldn’t be shot down immediately. In fact, there is great truth in it. Building worldview or self-view on that emotional response… not so great. The power of the emotional response can help propel us to more profound thinking about the true horror of evil and the deep need we all have for grace in light of judgment. This is my understanding of loving our enemies – treating them as human beings – both sinners under judgment, and sinners in need of grace. Just like me.

The best story I can think of is what my co-pastor Larry Austin said a while back. We were talking about the killing of an African American youth by a transit cop. The cop claimed it was an accident and got off pretty lightly. There was a great outcry. I asked Larry, who is black, what he thought of the outcome of the trial? Didn’t the cop get off too lightly, I asked. I think I asked the question because I wanted to show that I ‘got’ the injustice of the situation – to show my bona fides as a white man who gets injustice.

His response floored me. He said- ‘Well, he got off lightly. But by the grace of God, I got off lightly too. I didn’t get what I deserved.’ That’s a response born of grace. He took the pain of that situation and used it to deepen his understanding of God’s grace to him.

"Call to Worship"

by Laura Ferris

God did a good job when he made you.

He looked upon you and said, "good, I'm glad you could make it. I missed you." You went away, you see, because you were ashamed.

You were ashamed of the way you twitch your nose when you sneeze, but God missed that.

You were ashamed of the way you love the things you don't understand, even though you claim to, and God missed that too.

You were ashamed of the everyday you, and God missed that most of all.

God missed you so much he came to find you again. He came to your house, where you live, and you thought him strange, even scary. Who is this crazy man outside my house? you wanted to know.

That's a good question. As far as I know, that man was the Living God, and something completely unexpected and impossible happened two thousand years ago. He died and rose from the dead, the story goes. He died and rose from the dead, and that saves you. He died and rose from the dead, and that frees you.

Because when God looks at you, he doesn't see what you see. He doesn't see failure or something broken. He sees the living, breathing you he had in mind. He sees the Living God, who stands in your stead, who takes your place, and who was there all along.

God did a good job when he made you.

Come and meet him where he is, with you, Emanuel.

Amen.

Big Waves

On Sunday, as we celebrated the grace of God and praised God for His goodness, people in North-Eastern Japan were recovering from a natural disaster of truly awful proportions. How do we reconcile a God of grace with natural disasters that beggar the imagination with their loss of life and human grief?

It’s a paradox that causes all of us to wonder at the God we claim to worship. In a recent slate article, Heather MacDonald finds the paradox intolerable.

"God knows that he can sit passively by while human life is wantonly mowed down, and the next day, churches, synagogues, and mosques will be filled with believers thanking him for allowing the survivors to survive. The faithful will ask him to heal the wounded, while ignoring his failure to prevent the disaster in the first place.”

I have to admit, my first thought in response to this was, well, what were any of us doing the next day? Is obsessively watching CNN any less of a paradox? Is ignoring it any less of a paradox? But I take her point; more than that, I feel it. If God is the one whom we praise and worship for his goodness, what are we to make of this disaster?

It was put more thoughtfully by a friend of mine in a text: “Paradox: How do I begin to reconcile the beauty of the waves on Ocean Beach and the immensity of the tragedy in Japan? Is that a question G-d finds impertinent?”

It’s no use simply to say that this is senseless. Everyone will and is trying to make sense out of what seems senseless. Humans will try to make sense of these circumstances. For the people in Japan, they must make some sense of it, or fall into despair. The question is, how will we make sense of it.

In Japan, I have heard two responses repeated. The first is the humanist response which makes sense of the situation through human effort. One young man said that the Japanese people would rise to the occasion and rebuild, because ‘that’s what humans do.’ This is a noble and brave sentiment which I personally respect. However, it doesn’t give meaning to anyone who has nothing to rebuild. It places the individual hope below the hope of ‘humanity-in-general’. Don’t get me wrong, I love humanity in general. But I would be lying if I didn’t say I have hope for myself, and so did the many who died this last week. But this is the secular gospel – make a way for yourself and don’t worry if you fall. There are others who will make a way for themselves. This secular gospel may give meaning and hope to the human race, but not to the individuals who are lost. Andy Crouch has written a very good article on this secular good news on his website.

The second is a more spiritual response (and by spiritual, I don’t mean better.) The most striking and controversial comment in Japan was from the governor of Tokyo, Shintaro Ishihara. He is a Shintoist and in a surprising admission for a public official, declared the tsunami ‘divine judgment’. In a recent statement he said; “The identity of the Japanese people is selfishness. The Japanese people must take advantage of this tsunami as means of washing away their selfish greed. I really do think this is divine punishment.” (And we thought America had a monopoly on insensitive spiritual leaders!)

Spiritually assigning blame is easy to do if you have the breathtaking boldness to speak for God. People are bad (or not as good as they should be) – and judgment comes. The gruesome curiosity in all this is figuring out exactly why these people got it so bad. Selfishness, homosexuality, devil-worship have all been recent reasons given… many think this is view of the Bible.

The Bible has NO patience for apportioning judgment on victims of disasters, illness or other crises. In fact, when people try to interpret disasters as a specific judgment on a person or people, they are usually proven horribly wrong. The best example in the New Testament is in Luke 13:4, where Jesus assesses a recent building collapse that killed 18 people. People ask him whether this was God’s judgment. Jesus says that the people who died – but all of us should be aware of the closeness of death to all of us. We all walk on a razor edge.

Both the secular and the simplistic religious responses are, in my mind, deeply inadequate and ultimately offensive. So, how does the Bible make sense of these disasters. I have a couple of thoughts, and then a response.

1. It is good and right to question God in these circumstances. Through Scripture we see men and women of God asking hard questions of God. We cannot easily accept or easily reject the experiences of this life. We must bring them to God with urgency. Rather than being impertinent, these questions lead us into a more intense relationship with God. Let us not pretend that the scenes of devastation in Japan fill us merely with theological offense. We grieve. We are angry. We are hurt. God accepts and s that. This may not be acceptable to some, but what is the alternative? To be offended? At what? If God is not good, if there is no good and only matter, on what basis are we offended? Yes, the paradox of faith is that our very capacity to hold God to justice means that we must have gotten the idea of justice from somewhere. God may or may not respond to us. He is God and we are not. But there is the invitation to beat upon His breast. It is better to be angry at God, than to dismiss Him.
   
   
2. A disaster like this should wake us up to the fragility of human life, to the true nature of our existence. It should make us humble. It may seem harsh to say, but whether it be in a bed or in a storm, all humans will die. If our life doesn’t make sense in light of death, then it never makes sense. A disaster like this, especially in a society that is as technologically advanced and organized as our own, should expose our weakness. We do not ultimately control our destinies. When we try to control things like the atom, then we find that nuclear power is not as in control as we had hoped.
   
   
3. Disasters like this are chaotic and cannot be applied as particular judgment. However, any instance of death and global brokenness is a clue – that things are not as they should be. We think this situation is horrific, but on what basis? Surely this is nature. But if nature is all there is, why then are we sad? Why then do we question the meaning of life? The groaning of the world is a clue to the deeper yearning we have for meaning. Surely humans are made for more than this random destruction? Surely I can expect more from existence than meaningless death. The Bible tells us that the world is a battleground of good and evil, chaos and order. God is steadfastly against the great enemy of death. Evil and destruction must be opposed, and are opposed by God.
   
   
4. We live in a serious universe. Pain is real. Men and women are destroyed in an instant. Children die. Cities are washed away in the dark. Our view of life, then, must be serious as well. We must not treat evil as an illusion, God as a simpleton puppet-master or people as rungs on the ladder of some mythical human progress. As humans, we must face up to the seriousness of our existence.

In such a serious universe, I see only one hope. That God will save us, in a way that I don’t fully understand. And that this God teaches us to be kind, compassionate and helpful in the face of the battle which is our lives.

This is what the cross teaches me. That God will save us, even at death. And it teaches me that I can also make sacrifices for the sake of others, and that will mean something. The cross of Jesus may seem small in the face of the tsunami. For me, it is my only hope. I don’t know why God has allowed such great waves in our world. But His response is not to make the waves smaller. He promises to be a big God so that no wave, not even death will ultimately overwhelm us. The cross is how I make sense of it.

So, it comes down to faith. In a chaotic world in which humans are very small, very fragile and overwhelmed (in spite of our real bravery, cleverness and resilience), we must ask the hard questions about who or what we trust. Will we trust ourselves? Will we trust our technology? Will we trust nature? Or will we trust a God who has revealed himself in suffering, in death – and ultimately in resurrection.

I will admit, that there is no simple choice here. But when Jesus looks at a man whose daughter has just died and says ‘Do not fear, only believe’ I trust him. The cross and the resurrection of good Jesus honors the real suffering that this world lives amongst. The cross and the resurrection is the only trustworthy hope in a world that resists my control or understanding.

Finally, I highly recommend an author called David B. Hart. He wrote extensively in the wake of the 2004 tsunami, including a book called The Doors of the Sea. In a recent article he wrote the following, which I find to be exquisitely powerful in its beauty and truth:

"I do not believe we Christians are obliged -- or even allowed -- to look upon the devastation visited upon the coasts of the Indian Ocean [in the 2004 tsunami] and to console ourselves with vacuous cant about the mysterious course taken by God’s goodness in this world, or to assure others that some ultimate meaning or purpose resides in so much misery. Ours is, after all, a religion of salvation; our faith is in a God who has come to rescue His creation from the absurdity of sin and the emptiness of death, and so we are permitted to hate these things with a perfect hatred. For while Christ takes the suffering of his creatures up into his own, it is not because he or they had need of suffering, but because he would not abandon his creatures to the grave. And while we know that the victory over evil and death has been won, we know also that it is a victory yet to come, and that creation therefore, as Paul says, groans in expectation of the glory that will one day be revealed. Until then, the world remains a place of struggle between light and darkness, truth and falsehood, life and death; and, in such a world, our portion is charity.

“As for comfort, when we seek it, I can imagine none greater than the happy knowledge that when I see the death of a child I do not see the face of God, but the face of His enemy…. [We are set] free from optimism, and taught hope instead. We can rejoice that we are saved not through the immanent mechanisms of history and nature, but by grace; that God will not unite all of history’s many strands in one great synthesis, but will judge much of history false and damnable; that He will not simply reveal the sublime logic of fallen nature, but will strike off the fetters in which creation languishes; and that, rather than showing us how the tears of a small girl suffering in the dark were necessary for the building of the Kingdom, He will instead raise her up and wipe away all tears from her eyes -- and there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor any more pain, for the former things will have passed away, and He that sits upon the throne will say, “Behold, I make all things new.”

Listen...

So, I am not very good at being a church planter. I have never done it before and there are so many hurdles to jump, potential mistakes and worst of all, the missed opportunities. I am ADD at the best of times, and simply the myriad challenges that I think about as a church planter keep my mind whirring a lot -- too much.

The really difficult thing when you don't know what you are doing is that you are always asking for advice and opinions. And the amount of books by experts is staggering. I find myself jumping from book to book, opinion to opinion, expert to expert - each one contradicting each other. It just sends my ADD into overdrive.

So, when I sat down today to begin preparation for the sermon this week, I felt I was preparing to add one more thing to the to do list. But then I hit Mark 4:3 - Listen! Jesus says listen. His teaching is simpler and more challenging than anything else I hear out there. Jesus rarely answers my questions - which says more about my questions than the ability of Jesus to answer them. How often to I burn energy thinking, doing, planning, acting, rather than listening. So, I am going to try that for a change this week. Pray for me!

Salvation is Not By our Works...But By the Work That God Has Done In Christ!!!

This is what salvation looks like. We try but can't do it!!! Jonah said from the belly of fish that swallowed him because of his disobedience, "Salvation is of the Lord". If we are to be saved, God must do it!!! We try to save our selves by our own works, but we only frustrate ourselves because we ALWAYS fall short. Galatians tells us that if getting right with God could be obtained by our efforts, then Christ died in vain. But thanks be to God the Father, who saw our helpless condition and sent us a Savior. And like this boy in the video who had to come to the realization that he couldn't do what needed to be done to fix his condition, he stopped working and let the father do for him, that which he couldn't do for himself...And Look At The Amazement & Joy He Experienced When He Got Out of the Way!!! This is Salvation!!!

(Isaiah 45:22) Look to me and be saved. All ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else...



Enjoy this brief article by Pastor Don Fortner:

"Salvation Is Of The Lord!" - JONAH 2:9

"Salvation" is a big word. It includes much more than a believer's initial experience of grace in regeneration and conversion. It includes everything required to bring fallen men from the pit of the damned into the eternal presence of God's glory in heaven. And, from first to last, it is the work of God's free grace alone. Man does nothing. Man contributes nothing. Nothing is determined by or dependent upon the will of man or the works of man. "Salvation is of the Lord!"

This is the essence of all true doctrine. Today, sinners are called upon to walk an aisle, say a prayer, or otherwise do something to obtain salvation. The prophet of God declares, "Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord" (Ex. 14:13). "Salvation is of the Lord" in its planning (Eph. 1:3-6; II Tim. 1:9; Rom. 8:28-30), in its purchase (Rom. 3:24-26; Gal. 3:l3; Heb. 9:12; I Pet. 1:18-20), in its execution (John 3:8; Eph. 2:1-9) in its preservation (John 10:27-30; Jer. 32:38-40), and in its completion (Phil. 1:6; Eph. 5:25-27; Jude 24-25).

In old eternity, the Lord Jesus Christ assumed the responsibility of saving all God's elect as the Surety of the everlasting covenant. When Christ agreed to save us, he became responsible to save us (John 10:16-18). In his life of obedience unto God as a man, our Savior worked out a perfect righteousness for us, which is imputed to all who believe, making us worthy of God's acceptance (Rom. 5:l9; Col. 1:12). When he died upon the cross, the Son of God fully satisfied the claims of Divine justice against us; and he made that satisfaction for a particular people (I John 4:9-10; Isa. 53:8; John 10:15, 26). Christ purchased for his redeemed people all the rights and privileges of salvation and eternal life. Then, having purchased eternal salvation for his elect, the Lord Jesus Christ was exalted to the throne of universal dominion, to sovereignly govern the universe for the purpose of giving eternal life to his elect, redeemed people (John 17:2). And, in the last day, the good Shepherd will present all the sheep entrusted to his care, the covenant Surety will present all the elect people given into his hand before the world began holy, unblameable, unreprovable and glorious before the throne of the triune God (Heb. 2:13; Col. 1:21-22). Not one of God's elect shall ever perish, because "Salvation is of the Lord!"

AMEN...

GO...

I'm up...2:39am...couldn't sleep!!! I've officially been ruined. My ideals crushed and religious boundaries smashed to tiny fragments. By what you ask? Well, God of course being the source, but a cat named Alan Hirsch, the means and instrument in God's hands. What ideals have been crushed? What boundaries have been smashed, you ask? Well my view of the church and our call in this world and specifically in the city of Oakland. Let me tell you what happened:

So yesterday, at our Oakland City Church (OCC) staff meeting we were dreaming out loud about our neighborhood groups and their connection to the church. And as we're dreaming I'm working from my basic paradigm of how we get people to come to church. The goal is to get them to come to us, from wherever they are, we need to bring them to us. So the neighborhood groups were a means to an ultimate end. Get them to us!!! But as we're wrestling with the goals and purposes of our neighborhood groups, Josh (Pastor @ OCC) puts on a YouTube clip by Alan Hirsch (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNUR2csmR5M&feature=related) and i hear this world & life changing statement: Don't Plant A Church, Plant A Movement!!!

He uses this image of the starfish and its reproductive power. That if you a cut a single starfish into 10 pieces you would have 10 new starfish. Do the math and be amazed. But the math is not the key, the reproductive power is!!! Each starfish, no each cut off piece of the starfish has the ability to produce a whole new starfish!!! And he points this reality to the church and the lost being won and discipleship happening in relational ways. That each believer has within himself (by God's Grace in, through and because of Christ) the ability to reach out and reproduce himself (i.e win new people to Christ, namely his/her network). Yes, each follower of Christ can produce more followers of Christ. We contain unlimited reproductive power within us. And that clarified for me our purpose for neighborhood groups, for the church itself and my role as a pastor, to help others reach their unlimited reproductive potential. Ephesians 4:12 says, that God has given the minitsry gifts to the church for the purpose of equipping the saints for the work of the ministry to build up the body of Christ. So it's helping people see more of Christ, so that they can help other people see more of Christ, who will help more people, who will help more people...That's a movement yall!!! Getting people to go, to be mission minded and to reach others for Christ!!! Each of us, in our families, our neighborhoods, our jobs, and our networks.

So he said don't plant a church (where people just come) but plant a movement where people go. Yes they come back to continue being equipped and strengthened, but they come back with others, who go and bring back others, who get strengthened and go and bring back others. So our journey becomes this constant going and coming. Jesus says, come unto me all that are heavily burdened and I will give you rest. Then he says, Go ye therefore unto the world and make disciples. Then he says, come unto me - worship, pray, confess, sing, preach, praise & study. Then he says, Go - love, serve, encourage, and disciple others! Then he says, COME...Then He says, GO!!!

Let's Go Family!!! Oakland is waiting on us!!!

Some additional notes from sermon yesterday

The teaching from this week is up.

Faith is the first command and most common command of Jesus. It may seem impossible to command faith - as impossible as it is to command love (Mk 12:30-31) - but Jesus says that this is the most crucial step.

Faith is the only way we can know we are hearing Good News - good news, as opposed to good advice, can only be received by trusting. Faith here is something a lot like humility.

Faith is the only we can enter the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom is the great inversion. God uses the weak of the world to redeem the world (1 Cor 1:26-31). The king Himself leads by serving. But we are impressed by power and impatient for results. Our instincts are off when it comes to the way the kingdom works - so we need to proceed by faith. We need to trust God's ways more than we trust our own.

Quote from Reinhold Niebuhr is helpful here. "Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. "

Faith is the way through the wilderness. There are lots of voices out there that speak louder than God's voices - each of them telling us who we are and what we should want. Faith is focusing not so much on our own sinful desires or actions (of which there are plenty) but on what God says.

This is why we do Bible study, church etc... not to make an experience happen or to gain credit. We do it to hear God's voice more clearly, to ground our faith.

Two Articles

An article I read this week helped me to wrestle with this idea. Bridges concludes that the gospel of grace by faith is for everyone, including Christians.

As I see it, the Christian community is largely a performance-based culture today. And the more deeply committed we are to following Jesus, the more deeply ingrained the performance mindset is. We think we earn God's blessing or forfeit it by how well we live the Christian life. Most Christians have a baseline of acceptable performance by which they gauge their acceptance by God. For many, this baseline is no more than regular church attendance and the avoidance of major sins. Such Christians are often characterized by some degree of self-righteousness. After all, they don't indulge in the major sins we see happening around us. Such Christians would not think they need the gospel anymore. They would say the gospel is only for sinners.

For committed Christians, the baseline is much higher. It includes regular practice of spiritual disciplines, obedience to God's Word, and involvement in some form of ministry. Here again, if we focus on outward behavior, many score fairly well. But these Christians are even more vulnerable to self-righteousness, for they can look down their

spiritual noses not only at the sinful society around them but even at other believers who are not as committed as they are. These Christians don't need the gospel either. For them, Christian growth means more discipline and more commitment.

Bridges concludes: "So I learned that Christians need to hear the gospel all of their lives because it is the gospel that continues to remind us that our day-to-day acceptance with the Father is not based on what we do for God but upon what Christ did for us. I began to see that we stand before God today as righteous as we ever will be, even in heaven, because he has clothed us with the righteousness of his Son. Therefore, I don't have to perform to be accepted by God. Now I am free to obey him and serve him because I am already accepted in Christ (see Rom. 8:1). My driving motivation now is not guilt but gratitude."

Also liked this article.