To all my nonbelieving, sort-of-believing, and used-to-be-believing friends: I feel like I should begin with a confession. I am sorry that so often the biggest obstacle to God has been Christians. Christians who have had so much to say with our mouths and so little to show with our lives. I am sorry that so often we have forgotten the Christ of our Christianity.
Forgive us. Forgive us for the embarrassing things we have done in the name of God.
The other night I headed into downtown Philly for a stroll with some friends from out of town. We walked down to Penn's Landing along the river, where there are street performers, artists, musicians. We passed a great magician who did some pretty sweet tricks like pour change out of his iPhone, and then there was a preacher. He wasn't quite as captivating as the magician. He stood on a box, yelling into a microphone, and beside him was a coffin with a fake dead body inside. He talked about how we are all going to die and go to hell if we don't know Jesus.
Some folks snickered. Some told him to shut the hell up. A couple of teenagers tried to steal the dead body in the coffin. All I could do was think to myself, I want to jump up on a box beside him and yell at the top of my lungs, "God is not a monster." Maybe next time I will.
The more I have read the Bible and studied the life of Jesus, the more I have become convinced that Christianity spreads best not through force but through fascination. But over the past few decades our Christianity, at least here in the United States, has become less and less fascinating. We have given the atheists less and less to disbelieve. And the sort of Christianity many of us have seen on TV and heard on the radio looks less and less like Jesus.
At one point Gandhi was asked if he was a Christian, and he said, essentially, "I sure love Jesus, but the Christians seem so unlike their Christ." A recent study showed that the top three perceptions of Christians in the U. S. among young non-Christians are that Christians are 1) antigay, 2) judgmental, and 3) hypocritical. So what we have here is a bit of an image crisis, and much of that reputation is well deserved. That's the ugly stuff. And that's why I begin by saying that I'm sorry.
Now for the good news.
I want to invite you to consider that maybe the televangelists and street preachers are wrong — and that God really is love. Maybe the fruits of the Spirit really are beautiful things like peace, patience, kindness, joy, love, goodness, and not the ugly things that have come to characterize religion, or politics, for that matter. (If there is anything I have learned from liberals and conservatives, it's that you can have great answers and still be mean... and that just as important as being right is being nice.)
The Bible that I read says that God did not send Jesus to condemn the world but to save it... it was because "God so loved the world." That is the God I know, and I long for others to know. I did not choose to devote my life to Jesus because I was scared to death of hell or because I wanted crowns in heaven... but because he is good. For those of you who are on a sincere spiritual journey, I hope that you do not reject Christ because of Christians. We have always been a messed-up bunch, and somehow God has survived the embarrassing things we do in His name. At the core of our "Gospel" is the message that Jesus came "not [for] the healthy... but the sick." And if you choose Jesus, may it not be simply because of a fear of hell or hope for mansions in heaven.
Don't get me wrong, I still believe in the afterlife, but too often all the church has done is promise the world that there is life after death and use it as a ticket to ignore the hells around us. I am convinced that the Christian Gospel has as much to do with this life as the next, and that the message of that Gospel is not just about going up when we die but about bringing God's Kingdom down. It was Jesus who taught us to pray that God's will be done "on earth as it is in heaven." On earth.
One of Jesus' most scandalous stories is the story of the Good Samaritan. As sentimental as we may have made it, the original story was about a man who gets beat up and left on the side of the road. A priest passes by. A Levite, the quintessential religious guy, also passes by on the other side (perhaps late for a meeting at church). And then comes the Samaritan... you can almost imagine a snicker in the Jewish crowd. Jews did not talk to Samaritans, or even walk through Samaria. But the Samaritan stops and takes care of the guy in the ditch and is lifted up as the hero of the story. I'm sure some of the listeners were ticked. According to the religious elite, Samaritans did not keep the right rules, and they did not have sound doctrine... but Jesus shows that true faith has to work itself out in a way that is Good News to the most bruised and broken person lying in the ditch.
It is so simple, but the pious forget this lesson constantly. God may indeed be evident in a priest, but God is just as likely to be at work through a Samaritan or a prostitute. In fact the Scripture is brimful of God using folks like a lying prostitute named Rahab, an adulterous king named David... at one point God even speaks to a guy named Balaam through his donkey. Some say God spoke to Balaam through his ass and has been speaking through asses ever since. So if God should choose to use us, then we should be grateful but not think too highly of ourselves. And if upon meeting someone we think God could never use, we should think again.
After all, Jesus says to the religious elite who looked down on everybody else: "The tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the Kingdom ahead of you." And we wonder what got him killed?
I have a friend in the UK who talks about "dirty theology" — that we have a God who is always using dirt to bring life and healing and redemption, a God who shows up in the most unlikely and scandalous ways. After all, the whole story begins with God reaching down from heaven, picking up some dirt, and breathing life into it. At one point, Jesus takes some mud, spits in it, and wipes it on a blind man's eyes to heal him. (The priests and producers of anointing oil were not happy that day.)
In fact, the entire story of Jesus is about a God who did not just want to stay "out there" but who moves into the neighborhood, a neighborhood where folks said, "Nothing good could come." It is this Jesus who was accused of being a glutton and drunkard and rabble-rouser for hanging out with all of society's rejects, and who died on the imperial cross of Rome reserved for bandits and failed messiahs. This is why the triumph over the cross was a triumph over everything ugly we do to ourselves and to others. It is the final promise that love wins.
It is this Jesus who was born in a stank manger in the middle of a genocide. That is the God that we are just as likely to find in the streets as in the sanctuary, who can redeem revolutionaries and tax collectors, the oppressed and the oppressors... a God who is saving some of us from the ghettos of poverty, and some of us from the ghettos of wealth.
In closing, to those who have closed the door on religion — I was recently asked by a non-Christian friend if I thought he was going to hell. I said, "I hope not. It will be hard to enjoy heaven without you." If those of us who believe in God do not believe God's grace is big enough to save the whole world... well, we should at least pray that it is.
Your brother,
Shane Claiborne
Read more: http://www.esquire.com/features/best-and-brightest-2009/shane-claiborne-1209#ixzz0XjSPf3P4
Monday, November 23, 2009
God and Guiness
Guinness got it
The company’s 250-year legacy of God-inspired good provides myriad lessons for today. Among them: A benevolent corporate vision is good for business, for its employees and for the world.
By Stephen Mansfield
It is the mid-1760s, and in Dublin's grand St. Patrick's Cathedral the famed revivalist John Wesley is preaching with all of his might. He is aware that the congregation of St. Patrick's is filled with the city's more successful, comfortable, perhaps self-satisfied souls. And so he thunders against their self-centeredness, rails against their disregard for the poor. "Oh who has courage to speak plain to these rich and honorable sinners?" Wesley writes afterward in his journals.
In the congregation is a young businessman who only a few years before has begun to make his mark in the city. Born in nearby Celbridge and raised on the archbishop's estate that his father managed, this young man has gained something of a reputation for his skill at brewing beer. In fact, he has purchased a defunct brewery at St. James' Gate, along the River Liffey, and, having married well and embedded himself skillfully in Dublin's merchant class, he fully intends to rise.
Now, listening to John Wesley speak of the obligations of wealth, of a God-given duty to care for the hurting of the world, this gifted young man is reminded of values he learned on that archbishop's estate and at his father's knee. They are values that resurfaced in the Reformation of Calvin and Luther and that were set aflame and made personal in the Methodism of John Wesley. This rising entrepreneur hears and allows Wesley's words to frame a vision for his fledgling company: a vision for producing wealth through brewing excellence and then for using that wealth to serve the downtrodden and the poor.
The framework: God's values
We should be glad that he did, for that young man was Arthur Guinness, the founder of the renowned brewery whose 250th anniversary we celebrate this year. His famous dark stout would become one of the most beloved beverages in the world, the Guinness brand among the most recognizable on earth. Yet interwoven throughout these 2 and a half centuries of brewing success is a legacy of benevolence that we ought to know and that is perhaps an antidote to one of the great crises of our age.
The values Arthur Guinness envisioned for his company were first honed in a life of devotion to God. He was an earthy but pious man who frequently thundered his views despite angry opposition. He was beloved throughout Ireland for his defense of Roman Catholic rights, for example, an astonishing stand for a Protestant in his day. He criticized the material excesses of the upper class and sat on the board of a hospital for the poor. He was also the founder of the first Sunday schools in Ireland. When he died in 1803, the Dublin Evening Post declared that Arthur Guinness's life was "useful and benevolent and virtuous." It was true.
Absorbing his philosophy, his heirs often used their wealth for the glory of God and the good of mankind. Missionary endeavors were funded, the poor were tended, and there are monuments in Ireland to this day that express gratitude to the Guinnesses for their generosity during the horrifying years of the Potato Famine. Even the beloved St. Patrick's Cathedral, where Arthur first heard Wesley, was rebuilt through Guinness generosity.
It starts with people
Yet it was in the treatment of their employees as much as in their use of private wealth that the Guinnesses honored their founding principles.
As a Guinness who headed the brewery in the mid-1800s said, "You cannot make money from people unless you are willing for people to make money from you."
This was an exceptionally farsighted and compassionate sentiment for the industrial age, but it was just the type of pillar upon which Guinness built a lasting legacy of good.
A century and a quarter after Arthur Guinness died, a worker at the brewery in Dublin would have enjoyed round-the-clock care from doctors, dentists, nurses and home health workers. There was even a masseuse. Retirees received pensions as a gift from the company, which also paid most funeral expenses.
There were classes on nearly every enriching topic, reading rooms, savings banks, exercise facilities and educational benefits for both workers and their families. Concerned about the detrimental effects of city life upon its employees' health, the company even paid workers to take their families — or their dates — to the country periodically.
And, nearly as important to some weary laborers, the company gave every employee two pints of the lovely dark beer every day, free of charge.
All of this was true in 1928, not a particularly enlightened time for employee care. Even so, Guinness benevolence to its workers then rivals that of Google and Microsoft today.
Wanted: morals and ethics
There are many tales that could be told: Of the Guinness heir who received millions of dollars as a wedding gift but then moved his new bride into the slums to draw attention to the plight of the poor. Or of how the Guinness company promised all of its employees who fought in World War I that their jobs would be waiting for them when they returned, and then paid their families half wages until they did.
The lesson is clear: Guinness strove to improve the lives of its employees with the same intensity as it strove to sell its beer.
Yet there is another lesson for us today. We are tempted in our disgust with Wall Street greed and corporate misdealing to reject the economic engine that has made us great, to prefer the security of the state to the vicissitudes of free market exchange.
What we learn from the Guinness story is that character is king, that markets without ethical boundaries make Madoffs but that corporations driven by a benevolent vision can do vast amounts of good.
It is morals and ethics that we need, then, not a new economic system, and this, perhaps, is the most lasting legacy of the Guinness tale for us today.
Stephen Mansfield is the best-selling author of The Faith of Barack Obama, The Faith of George W. Bushand Pope Benedict XVI: His Life and Mission. His most recent work is The Search for God and Guinness, a celebration of the Guinness legacy.
Friday, November 20, 2009
How to grow a church in this post-Christian era
These are some great thoughts on church life today. I couldn't agree more with what is said here. I'm praying that God will show me how to lead by example and be missionally involved in the lives of those who live near me.David Fitch is the author of The Great Giveaway, a pastor of Life on the Vine and the B R Lindner Chair of Evangelical Theology at Northern Seminary.
Instilling Missional Habits in a Congregation – As You Walk Among Your Community
When They Will Not Come” (WTWNC) names the social dilemma of the church in post Christendom when we can no longer assume non-Christians will come to church even when they are seeking God. This new cultural condition forces us to change the way we think about every aspect of the church. WTWNC is a series of posts that reflect on the ways the practice of being Christ’s church/church planting must change because of this new cultural dilemma.
Illustration by Ben Sternke of http://benjaminsternke.typepad.com.
How do we lead a church community to engage mission as a way of life? How do we steer a congregation out of evangelism programs into everyday missional living? How do we train a congregation out of Christendom habits and instill post Christendom virtues (character for living faithfully in post Christendom)? I think leaders walk along and among their communities. Along the way, they lead by consistently (and kindly) rejecting some old habits and directing the imagination towards other possibilities. This is the never-ending work of cultivating missional habits of imagination among a people. Here’s my list of what to reject (slowly put to death in a congregation) and what to direct (nudge people forward) a congregation’s imagination toward. I’ve learned a lot of these things from missional thinkers/practitioners but have found all these things to be surprisingly simple and possible in my own life.
1.) Kindly Reject doing Outreach Events. Instead direct imagination towards ways of connecting with people where they are. Outreach events take up much time, planning and enormous “congregational capital” (if I may put it that way). In post Christendom outreach events rarely “work.” And you simply cannot compete with the local Park District or Megachurch event planning neutral site events. Instead, with little effort or cost, direct the people’s imagination towards seeing the ways you can connect with people in their everyday situations by going to the same place at the same time every week. Stoke imagination for the way ordinary life is the stage of God’s working. Visit the same places at the same time every week (this is easy for me because I am pathetically boring and love doing the same thing everyday). This has revolutionized my missional life with not a single ounce of extra-expended energy spent on my part. I believe the same could be true for every member of our church Body. Thanks to Alan Hirsch for teaching me about this.
2.) Kindly Reject evangelism as a one time hit on a target with a preconceived outcome. Kindle imagination toward seeing mission as part of regular daily, weekly and monthly life rhythms where out or regular life God works to use your life to impact people for the gospel in unforeseen ways. There is no precision strike technique, instead we need to train our eyes to pay attention to our life rhythms and be ready to minister out of everyday life, where God is already working to bring people to Christ.
3.) Kindly reject building multiple use buildings as if by building a gymnasium on the church campus we can bring people into the orbit of the church. Instead stoke imagination for what can happen when we go inhabit the gyms already in the neighborhoods. We should build less third spaces, and inhabit more the ones already there.
4.) Kindly reject one-on-one evangelism and the techniques associated with such apologetic persuasion. Instead direct imagination for inhabiting places in two’s or three’s or more. Hospitals, PADS Centers, the school systems, the park districts and places of hurt and pain too numerous to mention are all places where there are forces at work that can take under any one isolated saint. But two or three Christians together become an undeniable force for the kingdom under the Lordship of Christ.
5.) Kindly reject the Sunday morning gathering as an evangelistic event for it cannot be that in the new post Christendom cultures. Instead fire up imagination for the formation that comes from a communal encounter with the living God in Jesus Christ. As we hover around the altar, in silence, in prayers of submission, in affirmation, in confession, in healing prayers, in the hearing of the Word, and the Table, as we sing in praise and thanksgiving at what He has done, and then as we are sent out by God in the Benedictory challenge, we are shaped for His Life in Mission. It is simple, organic, takes a lot less planning than a mega show, and alot less money. And if any non-believers do happen to come, they won’t confuse this with a Tony Robbins event.
6.) Kindly reject coercive persuasion and argument in our witness. Instead stoke the imagination of your people for seeking “one person of peace” (Luke 10) among the lost of their neighborhoods. Look for that one who, though never having heard the gospel, is dispositionally ready (been readied by God) to receive. (Thanks to Mike Breen at the EcclesiaNet conference this past week for this idea).
7.) Kindly reject presumptuous postures of power as we live our lives among those who do not know Christ yet. Instead direct the imagination towards the way Christ always enters the human situation in humility. So don’t come to your neighbors as the one with the answer, but as the one searching for the answers that always point you towards Christ. Come to your neighbors humbly and in need. Instead of offering them a meal, find ways to participate in a meal with them. If you’re in the suburbs ask them if you can borrow their lawnmower.
8.) Kindly Reject Surveying the neighborhood – Direct the imagination toward exegeting the neighborhood. Surveying looks at the neighborhood as a place to market our church, find out what they are looking for and appeal to it so that they are attracted to the idea of coming to church. Exegeting a neighborhood requires inhabiting the neighborhood, seeing the neighborhood as a place for redemption, discovering where the hurting are and the unjust structures are. See the possibilities for ministering the gospel to those who are lost and through the gospel (over time) seeing that very culture transformed.
9.) Kindly Reject problem solving – instead direct the imagination towards “appreciative inquiry.” We often approach church through problem solving. What is wrong with our programs? What needs are we not meeting? What needs to be tweaked? What are we not doing right? This is negative, mechanical and lifeless. Instead, let’s direct our community’s imagination to noticing where God is working among us and around us, to recognize it, praise God for it and participate in it through the gifts we have been given. Thanks to Mark Lau Branson for this insight.
These are just a few of the ways we can lead our congregations to make our whole way of life a participation in God’s mission. There are many more I am sure. What others do you have?
When They Will Not Come” (WTWNC) names the social dilemma of the church in post Christendom when we can no longer assume non-Christians will come to church even when they are seeking God. This new cultural condition forces us to change the way we think about every aspect of the church. WTWNC is a series of posts that reflect on the ways the practice of being Christ’s church/church planting must change because of this new cultural dilemma.
Illustration by Ben Sternke of http://benjaminsternke.typepad.com.
How do we lead a church community to engage mission as a way of life? How do we steer a congregation out of evangelism programs into everyday missional living? How do we train a congregation out of Christendom habits and instill post Christendom virtues (character for living faithfully in post Christendom)? I think leaders walk along and among their communities. Along the way, they lead by consistently (and kindly) rejecting some old habits and directing the imagination towards other possibilities. This is the never-ending work of cultivating missional habits of imagination among a people. Here’s my list of what to reject (slowly put to death in a congregation) and what to direct (nudge people forward) a congregation’s imagination toward. I’ve learned a lot of these things from missional thinkers/practitioners but have found all these things to be surprisingly simple and possible in my own life.
1.) Kindly Reject doing Outreach Events. Instead direct imagination towards ways of connecting with people where they are. Outreach events take up much time, planning and enormous “congregational capital” (if I may put it that way). In post Christendom outreach events rarely “work.” And you simply cannot compete with the local Park District or Megachurch event planning neutral site events. Instead, with little effort or cost, direct the people’s imagination towards seeing the ways you can connect with people in their everyday situations by going to the same place at the same time every week. Stoke imagination for the way ordinary life is the stage of God’s working. Visit the same places at the same time every week (this is easy for me because I am pathetically boring and love doing the same thing everyday). This has revolutionized my missional life with not a single ounce of extra-expended energy spent on my part. I believe the same could be true for every member of our church Body. Thanks to Alan Hirsch for teaching me about this.
2.) Kindly Reject evangelism as a one time hit on a target with a preconceived outcome. Kindle imagination toward seeing mission as part of regular daily, weekly and monthly life rhythms where out or regular life God works to use your life to impact people for the gospel in unforeseen ways. There is no precision strike technique, instead we need to train our eyes to pay attention to our life rhythms and be ready to minister out of everyday life, where God is already working to bring people to Christ.
3.) Kindly reject building multiple use buildings as if by building a gymnasium on the church campus we can bring people into the orbit of the church. Instead stoke imagination for what can happen when we go inhabit the gyms already in the neighborhoods. We should build less third spaces, and inhabit more the ones already there.
4.) Kindly reject one-on-one evangelism and the techniques associated with such apologetic persuasion. Instead direct imagination for inhabiting places in two’s or three’s or more. Hospitals, PADS Centers, the school systems, the park districts and places of hurt and pain too numerous to mention are all places where there are forces at work that can take under any one isolated saint. But two or three Christians together become an undeniable force for the kingdom under the Lordship of Christ.
5.) Kindly reject the Sunday morning gathering as an evangelistic event for it cannot be that in the new post Christendom cultures. Instead fire up imagination for the formation that comes from a communal encounter with the living God in Jesus Christ. As we hover around the altar, in silence, in prayers of submission, in affirmation, in confession, in healing prayers, in the hearing of the Word, and the Table, as we sing in praise and thanksgiving at what He has done, and then as we are sent out by God in the Benedictory challenge, we are shaped for His Life in Mission. It is simple, organic, takes a lot less planning than a mega show, and alot less money. And if any non-believers do happen to come, they won’t confuse this with a Tony Robbins event.
6.) Kindly reject coercive persuasion and argument in our witness. Instead stoke the imagination of your people for seeking “one person of peace” (Luke 10) among the lost of their neighborhoods. Look for that one who, though never having heard the gospel, is dispositionally ready (been readied by God) to receive. (Thanks to Mike Breen at the EcclesiaNet conference this past week for this idea).
7.) Kindly reject presumptuous postures of power as we live our lives among those who do not know Christ yet. Instead direct the imagination towards the way Christ always enters the human situation in humility. So don’t come to your neighbors as the one with the answer, but as the one searching for the answers that always point you towards Christ. Come to your neighbors humbly and in need. Instead of offering them a meal, find ways to participate in a meal with them. If you’re in the suburbs ask them if you can borrow their lawnmower.
8.) Kindly Reject Surveying the neighborhood – Direct the imagination toward exegeting the neighborhood. Surveying looks at the neighborhood as a place to market our church, find out what they are looking for and appeal to it so that they are attracted to the idea of coming to church. Exegeting a neighborhood requires inhabiting the neighborhood, seeing the neighborhood as a place for redemption, discovering where the hurting are and the unjust structures are. See the possibilities for ministering the gospel to those who are lost and through the gospel (over time) seeing that very culture transformed.
9.) Kindly Reject problem solving – instead direct the imagination towards “appreciative inquiry.” We often approach church through problem solving. What is wrong with our programs? What needs are we not meeting? What needs to be tweaked? What are we not doing right? This is negative, mechanical and lifeless. Instead, let’s direct our community’s imagination to noticing where God is working among us and around us, to recognize it, praise God for it and participate in it through the gifts we have been given. Thanks to Mark Lau Branson for this insight.
These are just a few of the ways we can lead our congregations to make our whole way of life a participation in God’s mission. There are many more I am sure. What others do you have?
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
The Thanksgiving month
Psalm 145
Intro...In sports when athletes celebrate by either pointing up or kneeling down, or thanking God in the interview or acceptance speech
• Some people may wonder why everyone is thanking God…today we’ll review the reasons why we continually and publically thank God.
• This month, 30 days of Thanksgiving… Bizzarro not rushing in Santa
Text: Psalm 145: 1-4, 8-9, 18, 21
Thesis: God is to be praised for his greatness, his tender mercies, his power, his providence and his answers to our prayers. Our job is to continue to speak of God’s majesty to each generation.
• Psalm 145 is an incomparable Psalm of praise written by David.
God is praised for his unsearchable greatness, majesty and awesome acts, v. 1-3
• There really is no way to describe God and his greatness. His greatness is beyond discovery…
• Literally, “To his mightinesses there is no investigation.” All in God is unlimited and eternal.
• When you’ve seen God do miraculous things, you find yourself without words.
• Sunsets, lightning storms, births etc. others?
• What should we do when we find ourselves at a loss for word because of God’s greatness? Extol: lift up, praise highly his name.
• “Seeing that God still continues his benefits toward us, we ought never to be weary in praising him for the same.”
God is praised for his mighty acts to each generation, v. 4-7
• My kids love it when I tell them stories…it’s my job to also make sure I pass on the stories of our faith with the same excitement and passion. Kelley and I both do that…
• “God’s creating and redeeming acts are recorded in His word; but His wondrous providential dealings with mankind must be handed down by tradition, from generation to generation; for they are in continual occurrence, and consequently innumerable.”
• In telling these stories we cause others to praise God and we find that our own accomplishments become dwarfed in comparison with the mighty acts of God.
God is praised for his goodness and tender mercies to all, v. 8-9
• V.8 The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.
• Our praise should express admiration, appreciation and thanks.
• Considering all that God does for us what could be more natural than outbursts of heartfelt praise?
• As we read through the Psalms, we notice all the praise given to God for his creation, his blessings, his forgiveness, but also for who he is: loving, kind, just, faithful and patient.
• In what ways have you recently praised God? Let’s take a moment and do that right now. Today, this week, what can you praise God for?
God is praised for his power and kingdom, v. 10-13
• I hope you have experienced God’s power recently. Pray and ask God to become very real and powerful in your life. Learn to trust him for everything.
• God rules over an everlasting kingdom. Any kingdom we can come up with in any book or movie…God rules them all.
God is praised for his kindness to the distressed, v. 14
• There is something we can all relate to, we’ve all been distressed, worried, concerned.
• The emphasis is on God’s common grace to all of humanity.
• This grace is available to all, even those who think there is no God.
God is praised for his provision, v. 15-17
• He is the source of all our daily needs.
• This relates back to my opening point, giving God the credit in everything.
• He is righteous and kind in his dealings with us (thankfully).
God is praised because He hears and answers prayer, v. 18-20
• These verses should be an encouragement to all of us to keep praying.
• He remains close to those who call on him, hears our cries and rescues us.
• The wicked await an eternity of living forever away from the presence of God in the lake of fire. Rev. 20:11-15
Conclusion:
(Bottom line, at the end of the day…)
All should praise him, v. 21
In review, God is praised, or thanked because:
• his unsearchable greatness, majesty and awesome acts
• his mighty acts to each generation
• his goodness and tender mercies to all
• his power and kingdom
• his kindness to the distressed
• his providence
• He hears and answers prayer
In encourage you to use a Psalm like this as a daily reminder throughout this month of thanksgiving.
"In 1636, amid the darkness of the Thirty Years' War, a German pastor, Martin Rinkart, is said to have buried five thousand of his parishioners in one year, and average of fifteen a day.
His parish was ravaged by war, death, and economic disaster. In the heart of that darkness, with the cries of fear outside his window, he sat down and wrote this table grace for his children:
'Now thank we all our God / With heart and hands and voices;/ Who wondrous things had done,/ In whom His world rejoices. /Who, from our mother's arms,/Hath led us on our way/ With countless gifts of love/ And still is ours today.'
Here was a man who knew thanksgiving comes from love of God, not from outward circumstances.
Intro...In sports when athletes celebrate by either pointing up or kneeling down, or thanking God in the interview or acceptance speech
• Some people may wonder why everyone is thanking God…today we’ll review the reasons why we continually and publically thank God.
• This month, 30 days of Thanksgiving… Bizzarro not rushing in Santa
Text: Psalm 145: 1-4, 8-9, 18, 21
Thesis: God is to be praised for his greatness, his tender mercies, his power, his providence and his answers to our prayers. Our job is to continue to speak of God’s majesty to each generation.
• Psalm 145 is an incomparable Psalm of praise written by David.
God is praised for his unsearchable greatness, majesty and awesome acts, v. 1-3
• There really is no way to describe God and his greatness. His greatness is beyond discovery…
• Literally, “To his mightinesses there is no investigation.” All in God is unlimited and eternal.
• When you’ve seen God do miraculous things, you find yourself without words.
• Sunsets, lightning storms, births etc. others?
• What should we do when we find ourselves at a loss for word because of God’s greatness? Extol: lift up, praise highly his name.
• “Seeing that God still continues his benefits toward us, we ought never to be weary in praising him for the same.”
God is praised for his mighty acts to each generation, v. 4-7
• My kids love it when I tell them stories…it’s my job to also make sure I pass on the stories of our faith with the same excitement and passion. Kelley and I both do that…
• “God’s creating and redeeming acts are recorded in His word; but His wondrous providential dealings with mankind must be handed down by tradition, from generation to generation; for they are in continual occurrence, and consequently innumerable.”
• In telling these stories we cause others to praise God and we find that our own accomplishments become dwarfed in comparison with the mighty acts of God.
God is praised for his goodness and tender mercies to all, v. 8-9
• V.8 The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.
• Our praise should express admiration, appreciation and thanks.
• Considering all that God does for us what could be more natural than outbursts of heartfelt praise?
• As we read through the Psalms, we notice all the praise given to God for his creation, his blessings, his forgiveness, but also for who he is: loving, kind, just, faithful and patient.
• In what ways have you recently praised God? Let’s take a moment and do that right now. Today, this week, what can you praise God for?
God is praised for his power and kingdom, v. 10-13
• I hope you have experienced God’s power recently. Pray and ask God to become very real and powerful in your life. Learn to trust him for everything.
• God rules over an everlasting kingdom. Any kingdom we can come up with in any book or movie…God rules them all.
God is praised for his kindness to the distressed, v. 14
• There is something we can all relate to, we’ve all been distressed, worried, concerned.
• The emphasis is on God’s common grace to all of humanity.
• This grace is available to all, even those who think there is no God.
God is praised for his provision, v. 15-17
• He is the source of all our daily needs.
• This relates back to my opening point, giving God the credit in everything.
• He is righteous and kind in his dealings with us (thankfully).
God is praised because He hears and answers prayer, v. 18-20
• These verses should be an encouragement to all of us to keep praying.
• He remains close to those who call on him, hears our cries and rescues us.
• The wicked await an eternity of living forever away from the presence of God in the lake of fire. Rev. 20:11-15
Conclusion:
(Bottom line, at the end of the day…)
All should praise him, v. 21
In review, God is praised, or thanked because:
• his unsearchable greatness, majesty and awesome acts
• his mighty acts to each generation
• his goodness and tender mercies to all
• his power and kingdom
• his kindness to the distressed
• his providence
• He hears and answers prayer
In encourage you to use a Psalm like this as a daily reminder throughout this month of thanksgiving.
"In 1636, amid the darkness of the Thirty Years' War, a German pastor, Martin Rinkart, is said to have buried five thousand of his parishioners in one year, and average of fifteen a day.
His parish was ravaged by war, death, and economic disaster. In the heart of that darkness, with the cries of fear outside his window, he sat down and wrote this table grace for his children:
'Now thank we all our God / With heart and hands and voices;/ Who wondrous things had done,/ In whom His world rejoices. /Who, from our mother's arms,/Hath led us on our way/ With countless gifts of love/ And still is ours today.'
Here was a man who knew thanksgiving comes from love of God, not from outward circumstances.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
It's all relative
One of the things my four year old loves, especially on his birthday, is Cheese Puffs. As I watched him eat them I thought, "Is this really a food item? What exactly is a Cheese Puff? Is there any nutritional value at all in those things?"
And then for some reason, I made the grand connection to those large white worm/larvae things that kids eat in other parts of the world. That's when I came to the humble realization those those kids eating the raw worms are getting a more nutritious meal.
If we were to switch my son and a kid who eats large white larvae, they would be equally grossed out at the prospect of eating what the other kid deems so delicious.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
God moments
A great article and something I've said for years, looking for those signs of God in everyday life.
'Holy' moments surround us
You don’t have to be religious to know that there’s something bigger
out there, often in plain sight.
By Dean Nelson
In the movie The Shawshank Redemption, Tim Robbins' character serves a
life sentence for a crime he did not commit, but he eventually escapes
through the prison's sewer system, makes it through the outfall pipe
and collapses in a river. He staggers to his feet, and in a deafening
downpour, lightning flashing around him, he stumbles through the water
from the earth and the sky, takes off his prison clothing and heads
toward freedom. When I first saw that scene, all I could think of was
one word — baptism. He had just crawled through some of the worst muck
imaginable. He had just lived through the worst life imaginable. And
now he's in the water, shedding his old self.
I know that not everyone thinks "baptism" when they see that scene.
Baptism (stating our spiritual identity) is one of seven ancient
sacraments that organized Christianity has recognized for thousands of
years. Along with Holy Orders (or what I see as vocation or our
purpose in the world — not the same as occupation), Confession
(revealing our inner lives), Confirmation (commitment to spiritual
depth), Marriage (experiencing the shared life), Extreme Unction
(recognition of moving from this stage to the next) and the Eucharist
(food that represents life, death and resurrection), the sacraments
have been celebrated as means by which we experience the presence and
grace of God. They're usually conducted during formal occasions,
dispensed by religious officials to the rest of us non-professionals.
I've been thinking about them differently, these days. Maybe it's
because my young-adult son just moved to a country experiencing
significant political unrest, and I'm looking at the world more
closely for evidence of that presence and grace. Or maybe it's because
we're in that season between official holy seasons — Yom Kippur last
month and Christmas on the way. I have decided that thinking about
these holy days and moments only in organized religious settings is a
missed opportunity.
Throughout civilization, people have looked for ways to experience the
sacred and holy. Christians go to church no matter how boring it is,
Hindus plunge into the Ganges River no matter how foul it is, Muslims
make pilgrimages to Mecca no matter how far and crowded it is. "So it
is that monks kneel and chant, that Jews eat a Passover meal, that
Polynesians dance, and Quakers sit still," writes Joseph Martos in
Doors to the Sacred. "In themselves they are just locations,
activities, things. ... In this case they are all sacraments, symbols
of something else which is mysterious and hidden, sacred and holy."
'A deeper dimension'
Haven't we all been part of conversations where they somehow take on a
deeper dimension, even though it's just two people talking? It's as if
the two (or more) people tapped into something much bigger than
themselves. It happened toward the end of the movie Away We Go, where
the couple (played by John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph) expecting a
baby makes promises to each other. But because of the camera angle
from above, it is clear that they are making those promises to the
universe as well. It's both private and cosmic. Watching it, I thought
of the sacrament of confession. And haven't we all had meals with
friends or family where there was another level to that experience,
and we didn't want to leave the table because of that additional
Presence? I've had Eucharistic moments at picnic tables, restaurants,
kitchens and the beach.
As we become aware of that additional dimension, those moments take on
the quality of the holy. They're thin spaces where the distance
between this world and a bigger unseen world seems to briefly
disappear. You don't have to be a person of a particular faith to
sense that there is more going on in this world than just the
activities we experience with our senses. Call it God. Call it
spirituality. Call it whatever you like, but it's unmistakable.
With my faith, seeing the day's events through the prism of
confession, holy orders, baptism and other sacraments gives me lenses
to see those events for what else they are.
That bigger world
And it's not just for characters in movies. When I taught my kids how
to ride a bicycle, running alongside them holding on to the seat, then
holding on less tightly, still running, then letting go altogether, I
remember raising my fists in triumph as my son, then my daughter, rode
away without me. I cheered at their achievement but had tears running
down my cheeks. In a sense, I was grieving the fact that they were
leaving the life that we knew (where my wife and I were responsible
for their transportation), and heading into the unknown. That's the
sacrament of Last Rites, too — experiencing something Transcendent,
leaving one world for a bigger one.
Our conversations, meals, jobs, transitions point us to something
bigger than ourselves. Or at least they can. Seeing them as sacraments
helps move us from the known to the unknown world.
Whether we see the sacred and holy in everyday life is not a matter of
whether it exists. Wearing the lens of the sacraments can show us that
it has been there all along, hiding in plain sight.
Dean Nelson is the founder and director of the journalism program at
Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego. His recent book is God
Hides in Plain Sight: How to See the Sacred in a Chaotic World. His
website is www.deannelson.net.
'Holy' moments surround us
You don’t have to be religious to know that there’s something bigger
out there, often in plain sight.
By Dean Nelson
In the movie The Shawshank Redemption, Tim Robbins' character serves a
life sentence for a crime he did not commit, but he eventually escapes
through the prison's sewer system, makes it through the outfall pipe
and collapses in a river. He staggers to his feet, and in a deafening
downpour, lightning flashing around him, he stumbles through the water
from the earth and the sky, takes off his prison clothing and heads
toward freedom. When I first saw that scene, all I could think of was
one word — baptism. He had just crawled through some of the worst muck
imaginable. He had just lived through the worst life imaginable. And
now he's in the water, shedding his old self.
I know that not everyone thinks "baptism" when they see that scene.
Baptism (stating our spiritual identity) is one of seven ancient
sacraments that organized Christianity has recognized for thousands of
years. Along with Holy Orders (or what I see as vocation or our
purpose in the world — not the same as occupation), Confession
(revealing our inner lives), Confirmation (commitment to spiritual
depth), Marriage (experiencing the shared life), Extreme Unction
(recognition of moving from this stage to the next) and the Eucharist
(food that represents life, death and resurrection), the sacraments
have been celebrated as means by which we experience the presence and
grace of God. They're usually conducted during formal occasions,
dispensed by religious officials to the rest of us non-professionals.
I've been thinking about them differently, these days. Maybe it's
because my young-adult son just moved to a country experiencing
significant political unrest, and I'm looking at the world more
closely for evidence of that presence and grace. Or maybe it's because
we're in that season between official holy seasons — Yom Kippur last
month and Christmas on the way. I have decided that thinking about
these holy days and moments only in organized religious settings is a
missed opportunity.
Throughout civilization, people have looked for ways to experience the
sacred and holy. Christians go to church no matter how boring it is,
Hindus plunge into the Ganges River no matter how foul it is, Muslims
make pilgrimages to Mecca no matter how far and crowded it is. "So it
is that monks kneel and chant, that Jews eat a Passover meal, that
Polynesians dance, and Quakers sit still," writes Joseph Martos in
Doors to the Sacred. "In themselves they are just locations,
activities, things. ... In this case they are all sacraments, symbols
of something else which is mysterious and hidden, sacred and holy."
'A deeper dimension'
Haven't we all been part of conversations where they somehow take on a
deeper dimension, even though it's just two people talking? It's as if
the two (or more) people tapped into something much bigger than
themselves. It happened toward the end of the movie Away We Go, where
the couple (played by John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph) expecting a
baby makes promises to each other. But because of the camera angle
from above, it is clear that they are making those promises to the
universe as well. It's both private and cosmic. Watching it, I thought
of the sacrament of confession. And haven't we all had meals with
friends or family where there was another level to that experience,
and we didn't want to leave the table because of that additional
Presence? I've had Eucharistic moments at picnic tables, restaurants,
kitchens and the beach.
As we become aware of that additional dimension, those moments take on
the quality of the holy. They're thin spaces where the distance
between this world and a bigger unseen world seems to briefly
disappear. You don't have to be a person of a particular faith to
sense that there is more going on in this world than just the
activities we experience with our senses. Call it God. Call it
spirituality. Call it whatever you like, but it's unmistakable.
With my faith, seeing the day's events through the prism of
confession, holy orders, baptism and other sacraments gives me lenses
to see those events for what else they are.
That bigger world
And it's not just for characters in movies. When I taught my kids how
to ride a bicycle, running alongside them holding on to the seat, then
holding on less tightly, still running, then letting go altogether, I
remember raising my fists in triumph as my son, then my daughter, rode
away without me. I cheered at their achievement but had tears running
down my cheeks. In a sense, I was grieving the fact that they were
leaving the life that we knew (where my wife and I were responsible
for their transportation), and heading into the unknown. That's the
sacrament of Last Rites, too — experiencing something Transcendent,
leaving one world for a bigger one.
Our conversations, meals, jobs, transitions point us to something
bigger than ourselves. Or at least they can. Seeing them as sacraments
helps move us from the known to the unknown world.
Whether we see the sacred and holy in everyday life is not a matter of
whether it exists. Wearing the lens of the sacraments can show us that
it has been there all along, hiding in plain sight.
Dean Nelson is the founder and director of the journalism program at
Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego. His recent book is God
Hides in Plain Sight: How to See the Sacred in a Chaotic World. His
website is www.deannelson.net.
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