Missional Living

These are some recent pics I shot at a nearby cemetary. (Obviously, the date on my camera is wrong…) They are a good reminder to me of how we all see Christ differently. We seem to focus on the image of Christ that currently ministers to our individual needs. The lowly, pure infant in the manger. The peaceful, serene Holy One of God. The crucifixion and sin-payment that should have shed my blood instead of His.
Before I throw all of my thoughts out here, I’m wondering how YOU would describe Jesus. What kind of Jesus do you worship? What is He like in terms of personality? Temperment? What’s your mental picture of Him?

For those of you who haven’t seen it yet, you need to check out The Kristo.

Most people think of Jesus as the guy who started the Christian religion. Turns out he wasn’t just a guy, and he wasn’t interested in religion. But he did have an affinity for outcasts…like Lepers.

He (the leper, that is) was no different than I. He longed for what I long for. To be complete. To live up to the potential that I was created for. I’ve had health problems all my life, so on one level, I can relate. My limitation is in my lungs. His was leprosy.

Jesus was coming down from the mountain. Behind Him followed huge crowds of people. The crowds didn’t get Jesus’ attention. But one man did.

We don’t even know his name. He had no friends that we know of. He merely made one statement: “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” No deep theology. No homiletical, hermeneutical gobbledy-gook. Just a simple statement of faith.
According to the scripture, Jesus reaches out his hand, touches him, and heals him. On the spot.

No strings attached.

Nothing to sign.

No commitments.

No big deal.

Unless you’re the leper.

If you’re him, it is a HUGE deal. See, the leper knew all along that Jesus could do it. He had the power to do it. It wasn’t a matter of “if he could”, but a matter of “if He was willing”. And the answer was a resounding “Yes!” In fact, Jesus merely stated, “I am willing. . . Be healed!” and . . . tah-dah! . . . it’s a done deal! And the leper will never be the same again. . .
The leper wanted to be clean. He knew that Jesus could do the job. More than anything, he had to have enough faith to take a chance.

The cool thing is that Jesus actually wanted to cleanse him. More than He wanted the recognition of the crowds, Jesus wanted to touch this man and change him forever. More than anything, Jesus wanted him cured.

I’m wondering where we need the touch of Jesus?

Health?

Attitude?

Business?

Relationships?

Family?

Jesus is still in the business of touching. Physically. Emotionally, Spiritually. More than anything else, He wants to.

He can.

He will.

Call out to Him, “Lord, make me clean!”

He’s not concerned about the crowds.
He’s concerned about you.

Thoughts?

In response to Part 2, tg2 posted the following:

If you hold something as being central to your faith (coming from a fundamentalist evangelical) that is something that will not move — no matter how much you grow in understanding. Do you define that as a brick or as a frame? Does it matter? At the end of the day, what really matters is what you have understood about your faith. Without the pieces, there is no puzzle, without the puzzle there is no picture, without the picture there is no understanding …

Good thought. What really matters?

I don’t know if Pandora is ready to get out of the box or not, but maybe we should start at the beginning. In our postmodern, post-Christian world, what is REAL?

How do you know what it is? How do you recognize it? How do you distinguish the counterfeit?

Any takers?

Jesus, the ultimate revolutionary, didn’t come to help those of you who think you’ve got it all together.

Jesus didn’t come for those of you who are ‘not that bad’.

Jesus didn’t come for those of you who, on your way to church Sunday mornings, drive by your neighbor working in the yard and think, “Look at them. They need to be going to church. God must be really proud of me.”

In fact, Jesus didn’t come for those who are always first in line, always concerned about themselves, always strutting and prancing, trying to move up in the pecking order.

To be brutally honest, to quote the Messiah Himself, he said, “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.” [Mt. 16:25]

Jesus came for losers. Those who knew they had nothing to give, nothing to offer, nowhere else to go. Those that were always picked last. Leftovers, rejects, outcasts.

Scum.

He didn’t come to build a country club, but an emergency room. Filled with those who know they are bankrupt and not to proud to accept the handout of amazing grace. But more than prostitutes, whores, thieves, tax collectors, and fishermen.

He comes for the weary single parent, struggling to get help from her ex.

He comes for the girl who’s given herself away in hopes for someone to look her in the eye…not at her body.

He comes for the lonely one at school who feels the worst in a crowd, so he sits at home at his computer looking for something to satisfy.

If you’ve pretty much got it all together, I don’t have anything for you.

But…if you’re at the end, if you’ve exhausted your possibilities, if you’ve run out of your own steam and strength….if you’re at the end of yourself….there’s good news.

Stay tuned for the New Revolution. ..

[be sure and read Part One before reading the following...]

Bell quotes a man giving a lecture on creation. At one point, the man says, “If you don’t believe that God created the world in six literal twenty-four hour days, then you are denying that Jesus ever died on the cross.” It’s a bizarre leap of logic….but he was serious.

For this man, his faith isn’t a trampoline; it’s a wall of bricks. Each of the beliefs for him is like an individual brick, stacked on top of another. If you pull one out, the whole thing starts to crumble. It appears to be strong and rigid, but if you begin to rethink even one brick, the whole thing may start to crumble.

The problem of living in Brickworld, is that a brick is a fixed size. It can’t flex or change because if it does, it can’t fit into the wall anymore. What happens is that the wall becomes the sum total of the beliefs, and God becomes as big as the wall. But God is bigger than any wall. Or religion. Or worldview. God is bigger than your and my understanding of the Christian faith.

For those of us living in Brickworld, our posture becomes pretty defensive. We spend a lot of time defending the wall and proving our bricks are the right ones. (You rarely defend a trampoline…you invite people to jump on it with you.)

Ever seen someone pull a picture of his wife/girlfriend/kids out of his wallet and begin to argue the supremacy of this particular loved one? Of course not. They simply show you and invite you to see what they already see.

[On a side note, Brickworld has a tendency to keep everyone out unless they have the right bricks. Maybe you've been outside the wall before, like I have, and you know what I'm talking about.]

Jesus? He invites everyone to jump. The least. The unlovely. The lepers and prostitutes. The struggling single Mom [or Dad]. The family who seems to have it all together, but really is just playing ‘church’.

Leave Brickworld. Shake the dust from your sandals.

And come jump with me.

James and I are reading Rob Bell’s Velvet Elvis. In the introduction, Bell raises some interesting metaphors. Take, for instance, the trampoline.

To Bell, the Christian faith is akin to a trampoline, held together by its many springs. With a trampoline, you really don’t see the need for springs until you begin to jump. Although Gindrup could probably give us all the practical details of Newtonian physics as to exactly how inert energy is stored and released, thus making the trampoline actually ‘work’, ….initially, I just want to jump. And laugh.

In Bell’s metaphor, the springs aren’t God. They aren’t Jesus. The springs are the statements and beliefs about our faith that help put words to our experience we call ‘doctrine’. They aren’t the point. They help us understand the point, but are not a means to an end. We take them seriously, while keeping them in perspective.

For example, take the doctrine–the spring–called the Trinity. It’s central to orthodox Christian faith. While there is only one God, this God has a three-in-oneness as Father, as Jesus, and as the Holy Spirit. People began calling this concept ‘The Trinity’. Keep in mind that Jesus never used the word trinity, that it’s not found in the Bible, etc. But over time, this belief has become central to how Jesus Followers have understood who God is. It is a spring, and people jumped for thousands of years without it. We can take it out, examine it, probe it, discuss it. It flexes and stretches.

In fact, its ’stretchability’ is what makes it so effective. It is firmly attached to the frame and the mat, yet it has room to move. And God continually brings in a fuller, richer, deeper understanding to who He is.

Think about the various springs in our faith. What are they? Virgin birth? Literal resurrection of Christ? Beliefs about creation? Salvation by grace? The work of the Church? How you are supposed to ‘worship’? How you are supposed to ‘love your neighbor as yourself’?

What if your springs were seriously questioned? Could you keep jumping? Could a person still love God? Could you still be a Christian?

Ready for Part Two? Let’s talk about bricks…

My goal was simple: ten things to NOT do… reflecting back, here’s a postmortem of the week.

1. I didn’t see Jess and the gang in the new Dukes movie. However, I DID get suckered into seeing March of the Penguins…ugh. Seriously, I have Discovery Channel at home, why am I here? Because Valiant sold out and my boys wanted to see a movie at the ‘big FE-a-TUR’. Save your 8 bucks and let me fill you in: penguins migrate to the same spot each year to mate. It takes a long time. Evidently a really long time. Long enough to drink a bladder-buster size Mr. Pibb and eat 7 lbs. of popcorn and still have time to slip out for some video games before the little penguin chicks have to waddle off into the arctic sunset. It’s long. And slow. [I guess penguins aren't really that fast, anyway...] I should email Morgan Freeman and demand my money back…he must really, really, really like penguins. I am Jack’s complete lack of surprise.

2. I didn’t run out and buy Oprah’s DVD.

3. I didn’t check my daily cosmic calendar at astrology.com. Nope, not even once. And I slept pretty dang well at night, too.

4. I didn’t save a ton of money by switching to Geico. But I did save a little. I guess that makes up for the Penguin fiasco.

5. I didn’t worry that I still don’t have an iPOD. Music has become pretty disposable these days, anyway. With deals like ‘buy 100 CDR’s for $14.95 and get a rebate for $14.95, I guess I’m good for a while.

6. Unfortunately, I DID mow. Our landlord has put up our house for sale, so I needed to get out and get the yard in shape. Such is life.

7. I didn’t catch a 45-lb. catfish. Ugly doesn’t describe ‘em. But Darien and I did do some fishing and catch a few bass and perch. For those of you who aren’t fisherman, let me just say that we were pretty thrilled to catch ANYTHING in the +100 degree heat…

8. I didn’t worry about gas prices. Whatcha’ gonna do?

9. I didn’t listen to any PCD. For the record, I could do this one for the rest of my life…

10. I didn’t shave. Don’t worry, I did bathe though. After all, soap is the yardstick of civilization.

A week of sabbath rest. Wow. A week without wearing a watch or being on a schedule. Taking walks. Watching people. No phones or internet–and still surviving! Fasting from all things hectic.

I highly recommend it…

It feels good to be back. Recharged for the days ahead [and regular blogging and dialogue].

School starts August 16, and I’m going to hibernate. Find a cave somewhere where I can regain my voice. After a summer tour of Laguna Beach, hurricanes, shark attacks, middle school camp, Mexico, and a truckload of other stuff….I’m headed for 7 fun-filled days and nights of…nothing. We’re definitely going to spend a couple of days in San Antonio eating and seeing just how fat I can get. I’m also excited about taking the boys fishing and going on a few dates with my wife. But, here’s a few things I’m NOT going to do…

1. Watch the new Dukes of Hazzard movie. Seriously, Jessica, please stop talking. Just sing. And remember when Chuck let you sing at YEC at Reunion Arena? Yeah, back then when you were fully dressed? Good times. Say ‘hi’ to Joe for me…

2. Run out and buy The Best of Oprah DVD. Do I really need to explain this one?

3. Check my daily cosmic calendar at astrology.com. “Opportunities are knocking throughout the morning hours – particularly in the fields of education, publishing, literature, religious and philosophical studies. However, all may not go according to Hoyle due to some celestial nastiness in the form of a Venus-Pluto square (1:54AM PDT) and Venus moving 135 degrees to Mars (2:03PM PDT). The net result is that Venus – the traditional planet of love and romance – is compromised while in the sign of Virgo. Striving for perfection in any form brings disappointment. It’s fine to work hard toward your goals and be persistent in spite of setbacks, but happiness may be fleeting right now.”

Really? I’m sure it doesn’t matter that I pulled this from the Virgo chart, even though I’m an Aries. Since my Daddy made those stars, I’ll just get my 411 from Him. But thanks for playing along…

4. Save a ton of money on my car insurance by switching to Geico. Why? Because Tony Little creeps me out. And it’s not just the ponytail…

5. Worry that I’m the only one in my office who doesn’t own an iPod yet. I’m sure some day I’ll give in. Some day I’ll be cool. But just not today. (even though I do have my own PODshow, Tom’s Untitled PODshow, and you can win a free iPod by coming up with a cool name!)

6. Mow.

7. Catch one of these. Too scary.

8. Worry about gas prices. Just go here, put in your zipcode and get the best price in your area. Besides, there are bigger problems to worry about.

9. Listen to any Phillips, Craig, and Dean. In honor of Cameron Roucloux…[love ya, bro!]

10. Shave. I hate shaving. Seriously, can one of you brainiac guys out there hurry up and patent a pill that I can take so I’ll never have to shave again. Maybe a little genetic engineering would come in handy here….

I’m not sure exactly what I will be doing, so be sure to look for my mug on America’s Most Wanted!

(P.S. Check back in a couple of days for an audioblog!)

This has been ‘one of those weeks’.
Early in the week the AC in our house went out.
Over the weekend, someone busted the window out of one of our cars (tried to steal the radio, I guess).
Yesterday, the AC in the other car went out.
And then there’s the busyness of playing catch-up at church from being gone so much this summer, preparing for changes in our ministry, explaining it all…

And it’s only Thursday morning.

But yesterday I had lunch with some friends. We met at Burger Tex for a good ‘ol greasy 1/2 pound mushroom and pepperjack burger. I walked in wearing a t-shirt that says ‘My God can beat up your god”. They guy behind the counter, Andrew, gave me the once-over.

I didn’t know this guy, Andrew. He’s tall, lanky, strawberry blond goatee and shaggy hair…actually, he looks alot like this guy, but with lots of prison tattoos. Down each forearm he has the words “Third” and “Coast”, and across the knuckles on each hand is “hillbilly”. A couple more tats peek out from under his t-shirt sleeves and the side of his neck.

He takes my order, then dryly says, “cool shirt, bro”.

“Thanks.” I get my greasy burger and DP and take off. But all the while I’m sitting, eating, and talking, I’m thinking about this guy and his story. So, I leave my table of friends and track down Andrew in the back of the burger joint. I tell him that I picked up my shirt downtown in a vintage shop and would pick up one for him next time I was there if he wanted.

He looked at me like a deer in headlights.

“Yeah, cool. 2XL if they’ve got it. …” So we talked. Turns out Andrew was raised in Houston (5th ward) and just moved here. He tells me about giving his life to Christ at VBS when he was in 3rd grade, and about his involvement in gangs, drugs, prostitution….then he lifts his shirt to show me his favorite tattoo on his stomach: a picture of Christ with tears in his eyes and ‘Jesus wept’ written below it.

“Through all of it, I never lost my faith,” he says. “Sounds strange, but I always knew I had to get back to God whatever it took. Some people don’t understand that. But it was like He was in the back of my head through all of it saying, ‘Andrew, you ain’t gonna make it in life without Me. You know that.’ And He was right. And when my mom and dad got killed…. I knew He was the only one I had left.”

All of a sudden, the car problems don’t matter anymore. The hustle and bustle of living, the frantic pace of ministry….are just pebbles in my shoe. Life is full of those moments. It’s like Ferris Bueller said,“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t look around, you might miss it.”

We talked while my burger got cold. I introduced him to my wife and kids. Darien gave him a high five. We exchanged smiles.

“Martha, Martha. [or "Tom, Tom"] You are worried about many things. But only one thing is necessary…”

(plus, I made a new friend.)