Friday, June 27, 2008
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Crater Lake Picfest
Jen and I were at Crater Lake last week during our trip to Oregon. Here are some pics!
Crater Lake Pics
It is hard to tell where the reflection begins and the rim of the crater begins, isnt it?
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Looking for God--Book Review
In the previous church I attended, I would often overhear people say that the sermon they heard was decent, but then have a hard time explaining what the sermon was about. In some ways I discovered the same thing about this book.
Blogger Julie Clawsoncompares the book to Blue Like Jazz. I would say that if somewhat apt comparison, although Ortberg is female and was writing from a more affluent and evangelical background. Ortberg is easily readable, intelligent, and a little bit of a smart-aleck (which I like).
Especially poigniant stories include:
* the story of Larry, which nearly moved me to tears
* the story of Nancy's failure to follow through on something she knew she could do
* the discussion about spiritual growth as a mother of toddlers
This book is easily accesable to everyone, and I used on of her object illustrations as a children's message in worship Last Sunday. It is especially a good book for contemporary Christian women, although it speaks to people regardless of gender.
Having said all of that, I wish there would have been a more clear direction for the book ahead of time. I kept expecting for it to come together somehow. It did not.
NOW FOR FINISHING THE BOOK I WAS GIVEN TO REVIEW: SWAY--by Brafman and Brafman
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Called to Community--Sermon 6.8.08
Created for Community
Eugene Peterson, a pastor for 20 years in the same church, turned professor, turned translator of a version of the Bible called the message, tells the story of one of his students who commuted to school each morning. He drove for about 10 minutes, then he caught a bus for a half of an hour until he was in the middle of Vancouver, BC. After a while of going to school, he looked at his wife and said, “Well, I am off to immerse myself in God’s good creation.”
The first day he said this, his wife said “Good for you honey, take time and enjoy yourself.”
The next day, the husband said the same thing. After about a week his of this his wife said, “Don’t you think it is time you went to class, after all what are we paying all of this money for?”
“Oh,” he said, “I have been going to class each day. But each morning I head into town I get on that bus, and I am surrounded by all of these people that are so interesting and so diverse. I look at them, I overhear what they say and listen to their stories. Can you imagine anyplace more thick with God’s creation than the bus I ride into school each day? Full of people God created, created in the image of God, male and female?
Last week, we talked about Genesis 1. We learned that Genesis 1 is a song, and as much as we try and twist it otherwise, it is a song about God. About how he is our Creator, about how everything beautiful comes from him, about how from the beginning of the Bible and the beginning of our lives we are called to praise God and be in a relationship with him.
This week as we jump into chapter2 of Genesis, we see that we are hearing more directly about what human beings are like. How we were made, how we work, how we got here.
Genesis 1 we saw the poem about how God created the world and everything in it in a seven day cycle. It is overwhelming to think about how this world is created. But if left on its own, we might be able to conclude that God was some cosmic mechanic who got everything moving, and then moved on.
Genesis 2 helps us delve deeper into the bigger picture. In Chapter 2, we move from the big picture of how God created everything to learn a little bit more about how God created people. And like our story told us, as beautiful as sunsets and mountain vistas are, people like you and me are also beautiful creation. In fact, we are the centerpiece and the lynch pin of God’s creative work. So, if we are to know more about what God is doing in creation, we need to know more about what God is doing as he creates people.
The Bible says that when God decided to make the first human being, he got his hands dirty. He stopped down into the dirt and the muck and the mud of earth and formed this being the way he wanted it. Then he got close and blew air into his nostrils and through that breathe God formed Adam into a living, breathing human being.
God then put Adam in this place, a home. The home was called Eden. It was full of flowers and plants, food to eat and lots of water from rivers flowing in and out of it. In the garden was the tree of knowledge and the tree of life.
God made Adam a man who took care of the garden. Weeding. Picking fruit. God told Adam he could eat whatever he wanted but what was on one tree. We will talk more about that next week.
Then God said something that I want to focus on with you today…
“It is not good that man should be alone.” It is not good that we should be alone.
Have you ever noticed that superheroes always have sidekicks. Batman has Robin. Superman has Lois Lane. The Fantastic Four have each of the other three. It seems that only Wonder woman can do everything on her own.
Here is the key truth of this passage: We are not made to be alone. We are not made to be alone.
Now Adam was not without company. Adam had God’s company. We all need God’s company. And the Scripture shows God drawing closer and closer to Adam. In Genesis 2, the word “create” is used less and the word “formed” is used more. God touches Adam to create him. He breathes into him. He gives him a home, a place to live. He gives him a job. And when God creates Eve, he uses Adam’s parts to do so. God is growing closer and closer in relationships. Yet Adam was feeling alone.
God let Adam see if any of the animals were suitable for him. He met them. He named them. But they were not like him. He still felt alone. It was at this point that Eve came in the picture.
So in the beginning God also created a community. In the beginning it was a community of two, but it was a community nonetheless.
The Bible also says that Adam needed a “helper suitable for him”.
Now we hear the word “helper” and we think about “hiring help”. We think of someone that has an assisting and background role to play. Or worse yet, we think of someone who is a slave or submissive to another. Someone to come alongside Adam..but maybe we think..someone a little bit less important than…Adam
But this is not what this helper word means. Seventy-five percent of the time this particular word for helper is used it refers to God. God offering rescuing help. The Psalmist saying that God is “our helper and shield.” Helper means an indispensable partner. If Eve was created first, Adam would have been a called a helper.
In the beginning God created a community. What kind of community did God seek to create? Let us take a few minutes to explore this:
First, God created a community where we can find Helping hands. If you are like me or my wife, it is often hard to admit we need anyone else. But God created us to need one another and to depend on one another. Notice I said “one another”. We all have things to offer when we come to a church family, and we all have things where we need the help of others. Tim plays the organ. Not all of us can play the organ, but Tim does nearly every Sunday. We depend on Tim. It is good for us to have someone who is so gifted in music and adds so much to our worship. It is good for Tim to have a place where he can use his gifts and skills for God’s glory. Gracie is outgoing. She keeps track of people far and wide on the phone. She probably could not do the heavy lifting on a renovation project in the church or parsonage, but she can call people and help meet some of their needs to be heard, loved, and connected to one another. We depend on Gracie for some of that. I could go on and on about what so many of you bring to our church family, but the truth is you have ways of helping that only you can offer, and places where you need help and support that people in this congregation can give to you. As a community we are called to depend on one another this way.
God created us to be OPEN and authentic in Christian community. This is part of what God’s word is getting at when is says that Adam and Eve were “naked and not ashamed”. It is talking about a marital relationship in a sense of physical intimacy, but it is also talking about how God created community. Church should not be a place where we can only come when we have it all together. A church is a hospital for sinners, not a mosoleum for the saints. It should be a place where we can come and share our struggles and heartaches, and where we can find hope and healing. None of you are perfect. Neither am I. God created church as a place where we can be OPEN about who we are.
Christian community also functions best when it is MISSIONAL. When we have a purpose or direction. When a church family spends most of their time trying to survive and get along, it ends up getting nowhere. When we have clear mission, goal, and direction that gets us beyond ourselves, we get along better, we enjoy our church family, and we grow as a church family. Adam and Eve had work to do, caring for the garden. When they got away from the mission God had for them, as we will see next week, they got themselves in trouble.
Finally, a Christian community, we can see in Genesis 2, is meant to be EQUAL. Adam cries out “flesh of my flesh, bone of my bone”. It is the first quote from Adam, this excitement to see Eve. As we have seen earlier, God made Adam and Eve as equal partners, each with a role to play. Some of us may have the gift of leadership, some have the gift of helps, some have the gift of giving, but we shouldn’t bring the politics of the world into the church. One person is not more valuable than another in a church family. We all are indispensible members of the family of God.
What does all of this mean for us? What steps do you need to take in our church family to be more committed to God’s family? Let me three ways people need to connect to their church family to grow as believers.
1. We need a place where we can worship TOGETHER. Worship is not an option for spiritual growth in Christian community. It is a necessary habit as we seek to know God better. God gives us all we own. We owe him thanks enough that we can show up to offer ourselves to God in worship and praise.
2. We need a place where we can learn TOGETHER. Sunday School class. A Bible study. I am hoping that we can start another small group or adult Sunday school class sometime soon.
3. We need a place where we can serve TOGETHER. We become lopsided in our spiritual development when we are being ministered to, but are not ministering to others as well. Figure out where you are gifted. Offer those skills to serve the Lord and his church. If you are wondering where you fit, come talk with your pastor. I am full of ideas and dreams of things we might be able to do together.
Where I grew up, a lot of people felt they could do just fine worshipping God on their own. They felt at best God’s community, the church, was useless, and at best it was a racket. A well known preacher tells a story about how his dad felt, and how he changed.
(Read Craddock story)
Eugene Peterson, a pastor for 20 years in the same church, turned professor, turned translator of a version of the Bible called the message, tells the story of one of his students who commuted to school each morning. He drove for about 10 minutes, then he caught a bus for a half of an hour until he was in the middle of Vancouver, BC. After a while of going to school, he looked at his wife and said, “Well, I am off to immerse myself in God’s good creation.”
The first day he said this, his wife said “Good for you honey, take time and enjoy yourself.”
The next day, the husband said the same thing. After about a week his of this his wife said, “Don’t you think it is time you went to class, after all what are we paying all of this money for?”
“Oh,” he said, “I have been going to class each day. But each morning I head into town I get on that bus, and I am surrounded by all of these people that are so interesting and so diverse. I look at them, I overhear what they say and listen to their stories. Can you imagine anyplace more thick with God’s creation than the bus I ride into school each day? Full of people God created, created in the image of God, male and female?
Last week, we talked about Genesis 1. We learned that Genesis 1 is a song, and as much as we try and twist it otherwise, it is a song about God. About how he is our Creator, about how everything beautiful comes from him, about how from the beginning of the Bible and the beginning of our lives we are called to praise God and be in a relationship with him.
This week as we jump into chapter2 of Genesis, we see that we are hearing more directly about what human beings are like. How we were made, how we work, how we got here.
Genesis 1 we saw the poem about how God created the world and everything in it in a seven day cycle. It is overwhelming to think about how this world is created. But if left on its own, we might be able to conclude that God was some cosmic mechanic who got everything moving, and then moved on.
Genesis 2 helps us delve deeper into the bigger picture. In Chapter 2, we move from the big picture of how God created everything to learn a little bit more about how God created people. And like our story told us, as beautiful as sunsets and mountain vistas are, people like you and me are also beautiful creation. In fact, we are the centerpiece and the lynch pin of God’s creative work. So, if we are to know more about what God is doing in creation, we need to know more about what God is doing as he creates people.
The Bible says that when God decided to make the first human being, he got his hands dirty. He stopped down into the dirt and the muck and the mud of earth and formed this being the way he wanted it. Then he got close and blew air into his nostrils and through that breathe God formed Adam into a living, breathing human being.
God then put Adam in this place, a home. The home was called Eden. It was full of flowers and plants, food to eat and lots of water from rivers flowing in and out of it. In the garden was the tree of knowledge and the tree of life.
God made Adam a man who took care of the garden. Weeding. Picking fruit. God told Adam he could eat whatever he wanted but what was on one tree. We will talk more about that next week.
Then God said something that I want to focus on with you today…
“It is not good that man should be alone.” It is not good that we should be alone.
Have you ever noticed that superheroes always have sidekicks. Batman has Robin. Superman has Lois Lane. The Fantastic Four have each of the other three. It seems that only Wonder woman can do everything on her own.
Here is the key truth of this passage: We are not made to be alone. We are not made to be alone.
Now Adam was not without company. Adam had God’s company. We all need God’s company. And the Scripture shows God drawing closer and closer to Adam. In Genesis 2, the word “create” is used less and the word “formed” is used more. God touches Adam to create him. He breathes into him. He gives him a home, a place to live. He gives him a job. And when God creates Eve, he uses Adam’s parts to do so. God is growing closer and closer in relationships. Yet Adam was feeling alone.
God let Adam see if any of the animals were suitable for him. He met them. He named them. But they were not like him. He still felt alone. It was at this point that Eve came in the picture.
So in the beginning God also created a community. In the beginning it was a community of two, but it was a community nonetheless.
The Bible also says that Adam needed a “helper suitable for him”.
Now we hear the word “helper” and we think about “hiring help”. We think of someone that has an assisting and background role to play. Or worse yet, we think of someone who is a slave or submissive to another. Someone to come alongside Adam..but maybe we think..someone a little bit less important than…Adam
But this is not what this helper word means. Seventy-five percent of the time this particular word for helper is used it refers to God. God offering rescuing help. The Psalmist saying that God is “our helper and shield.” Helper means an indispensable partner. If Eve was created first, Adam would have been a called a helper.
In the beginning God created a community. What kind of community did God seek to create? Let us take a few minutes to explore this:
First, God created a community where we can find Helping hands. If you are like me or my wife, it is often hard to admit we need anyone else. But God created us to need one another and to depend on one another. Notice I said “one another”. We all have things to offer when we come to a church family, and we all have things where we need the help of others. Tim plays the organ. Not all of us can play the organ, but Tim does nearly every Sunday. We depend on Tim. It is good for us to have someone who is so gifted in music and adds so much to our worship. It is good for Tim to have a place where he can use his gifts and skills for God’s glory. Gracie is outgoing. She keeps track of people far and wide on the phone. She probably could not do the heavy lifting on a renovation project in the church or parsonage, but she can call people and help meet some of their needs to be heard, loved, and connected to one another. We depend on Gracie for some of that. I could go on and on about what so many of you bring to our church family, but the truth is you have ways of helping that only you can offer, and places where you need help and support that people in this congregation can give to you. As a community we are called to depend on one another this way.
God created us to be OPEN and authentic in Christian community. This is part of what God’s word is getting at when is says that Adam and Eve were “naked and not ashamed”. It is talking about a marital relationship in a sense of physical intimacy, but it is also talking about how God created community. Church should not be a place where we can only come when we have it all together. A church is a hospital for sinners, not a mosoleum for the saints. It should be a place where we can come and share our struggles and heartaches, and where we can find hope and healing. None of you are perfect. Neither am I. God created church as a place where we can be OPEN about who we are.
Christian community also functions best when it is MISSIONAL. When we have a purpose or direction. When a church family spends most of their time trying to survive and get along, it ends up getting nowhere. When we have clear mission, goal, and direction that gets us beyond ourselves, we get along better, we enjoy our church family, and we grow as a church family. Adam and Eve had work to do, caring for the garden. When they got away from the mission God had for them, as we will see next week, they got themselves in trouble.
Finally, a Christian community, we can see in Genesis 2, is meant to be EQUAL. Adam cries out “flesh of my flesh, bone of my bone”. It is the first quote from Adam, this excitement to see Eve. As we have seen earlier, God made Adam and Eve as equal partners, each with a role to play. Some of us may have the gift of leadership, some have the gift of helps, some have the gift of giving, but we shouldn’t bring the politics of the world into the church. One person is not more valuable than another in a church family. We all are indispensible members of the family of God.
What does all of this mean for us? What steps do you need to take in our church family to be more committed to God’s family? Let me three ways people need to connect to their church family to grow as believers.
1. We need a place where we can worship TOGETHER. Worship is not an option for spiritual growth in Christian community. It is a necessary habit as we seek to know God better. God gives us all we own. We owe him thanks enough that we can show up to offer ourselves to God in worship and praise.
2. We need a place where we can learn TOGETHER. Sunday School class. A Bible study. I am hoping that we can start another small group or adult Sunday school class sometime soon.
3. We need a place where we can serve TOGETHER. We become lopsided in our spiritual development when we are being ministered to, but are not ministering to others as well. Figure out where you are gifted. Offer those skills to serve the Lord and his church. If you are wondering where you fit, come talk with your pastor. I am full of ideas and dreams of things we might be able to do together.
Where I grew up, a lot of people felt they could do just fine worshipping God on their own. They felt at best God’s community, the church, was useless, and at best it was a racket. A well known preacher tells a story about how his dad felt, and how he changed.
(Read Craddock story)
Monday, June 02, 2008
Created for Communion--Genesis 1--6.1.08--Fowler, CO
Created for Communion
Have you ever had one of those moments? Maybe you were on a mountain, or in a canyon, or in the rolling hills full of golden fields of prairie grass that seemed to go on forever. You could have even been in the middle of a desert. All of the sudden, in the middle of all that beauty, and in the middle of all that nature you realized that this was all bigger than you. There you were…maybe all alone, maybe with a few friends with you…but probably in your own little world inside your mind…moved by the beauty of the ocean or by the colors in a sunset.
And, while you were in that moment, surrounded by nature, you came to the realization that God was present in that place at that time. He had been at work in that place long before you came into it, and he would be in that place long after you left it. Then, somehow, you came to the realization that God was not just at work there, but everywhere, but somehow you just noticed it now.
One such moment for me was when I was taking a road trip to visit family through Four Corners and down to Pheonix in the middle of the summer. Now, I had been raised with rivers in my backyard and mountains visible out my front window. Yet, at this moment, I was driving through arid flatland. At the time, my life and my ministry felt like an arid flat land too. I was tired and frustrated. I was wondering if maybe I should quit ministry. And for some strange reason, I kept noticing these strange flowers in the middle of the desert. Many of them growing on the top of cactus. All of the sudden I started noticing all sorts of flowers and life in the middle of the desert. In a place that seemed devoid of life, there was life nonetheless. And I drove. And I listened to my music. And I knew that even in the desert God was at work. And I knew that God was bigger than my present circumstances and my current situation. And somehow, deep down in the pit of my gut, that all would be well. Even if I didn’t see how.
Many of you have had God meet you the same way.
It does not come as a big surprise then, as we open our Bibles to its first words that we find that Genesis 1 is a poem and a song. That is right. A poem and a song.
The Bible does not begin with an argument, a sales pitch, a theological treatise, or a preface. It begins with worship. It begins with praise.
This worship song is also informative. It tells us what happened as the earth began. As we dig in we can learn a lot about what this song is trying to communicate to us, what it is trying to teach our souls.
If we were one of the original hearers of this story, we would notice that the Biblical understanding of creation is unique. First of all, we would notice that God created the world with clear intent. This is not true with the Pantheon of Gods in the Middle East. In many of the Near Eastern accounts, like in Babylon, people were created due to some sort of accident of the gods.
Or, to be more specific, Ancient Near Eastern thought held that this world was the result of conflict between the gods. That somehow we came to be here because we were simply the byproduct of two gods having a huge argument, and as they struggled, the parts of them flung off and part of the blood and the guts and the sweat that flew everywhere from the fight became us. Or at least our universe or something.
When God reveals himself, he tells us something different. Right from the start, God tells us that this this world was created with a purpose. With a passion for beauty. With hope and with joy from a loving, joyful and creative being who just could not keep that love, that beauty, that joy to Himself.Even more, God starts out by saying that you are not an accident. This world is not accident. You have a point. You have a place.
So God created. Or better said. God began creation. He began it with spoken words.
All that is here on this earth, from day to night, to you and me is here because God spoke it into existence. Because he called the sun and earth, the skies and the waters, the birds and the fish, the animals and the plants into being. You are here because God spoke humanity into existence. Male and female in the image of God.
The Scripture is clear on this point, all that is here is here because God spoke it into existence. That includes you. You are made on purpose by God. You are not something off the cosmic refuse dump. You are a beautiful creation. You were made by a God who loves you. This is how God begins telling us about life and the world around us. The Bible is God’s love letter to us. It begins with his loving words. Those words are the foundation for all that comes later. All that was and is and is to come exists by his will. I don’t quite understand how all of that works. But I believe it because I read it here. In the beginning….God created.
How amazing. No wonder Scripture starts with a song.
I must admit, I often find these words of good news hard to believe in my personal life. I am a perfectionist. I see failure before I see the good in myself. I go through my day and I wonder just how God can use someone like me. Ornery. Overweight. Spacy. Selfish. Stubborn. I wonder how God has some kind of purpose for something like me. Yet, over and over again, God shows me I have value and I am not an accident, often by using my weaknesses and the things I feel most insecure about for his glory.
Furthermore, it says what God has created is good. It is good. Despite all that we have done to ruin things creation is still good. God’s work in creation is still good.
What else does it say about us and how God created us? God’s word tells us that we were created in his image. What does that mean?
Well theologians have thought about this, argued about this, wrestled with this, and discussed this for centuries. Some come up with neat little ideas. Some come up with weird ideas. Some even write books about their ideas.
Some say it is our free will that makes us in the image of God. Some say it is our ability to be self-conscious. Others say it is our ability to reason that makes us like God.
Here is what I think the Scripture tells us—although I will admit it is a little simplistic:
1. I think Scripture tells us that we have a unique role to play. God made us with specific calls on our lives and specific things that we are do in this world on his behalf. It has to do with a lot of things, but most of all it has to do with being his hands and feet, his representative to others on earth. In the New Testament we call those who choose to claim their role as image-bearers disciples. Paul said, “Be imitators of God, as dearly loved children”
2. I think much of what is said about us being made in the image of God is also about simply being in right relationship with God. About being a friend with God. From the beginning of creation, he created people like you and me to be in relationship with him. To love him. To obey him. To be his friend. This is why he blesses us. This is why he brings us in on what he is doing in creation. Caring for what he made.
3. At the same time being told we are made in the image of God confers us with great honor and favor and great importance, being made in the image of God reminds us that all of this, this world, this creation, this work we do, is not about us. When we are truly living our lives as were created to live, we are simply reflecting God’s glory.
I don’t know about you, but I am tempted to think it is all about me. I am tempted to twist my faith to be about making myself happy, making myself fulfilled, alieviating my fears, building my SELF IMAGE.I don’t know about you, but I am tempted to come to God with a sense of entitlement. I want to tell God the way that he should do things. And when it does not work out quite the way I want it to, I am tempted to get frustrated and angry.
And I read this first chapter of Genesis 1 I hear a song. But it is not a song that is being sung to me. It is a song of praise that I should sing. Praise to a God whose love surrounds me. Who created the air I breathe and the food I eat, and the sun that lights my days and land my feet walk on. And who in the midst of that, wants me to be his friend. Who gives me purpose and meaning, hope and acceptance.
This word communion is strange. It comes from the same word as community, but it talks about intimate relationship. It talks about a connection. It is appropriate for how God made us to be. We are made to be in relationship with him. It is an appropriate word as we come to the Lord’s Table as well.
As we come to the cross, we remember too, that this table is not about us. It is about Jesus.
We come not to force our agenda, but to surrender to God’s. We come not to justify ourselves, but to accept that we are only justified through trusting in Christ’s saving work on the cross.
It is about Christ’s love. It is about Jesus being wanting to be in relationship with us. Let us sing on.
Sunday, June 01, 2008
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