I’ve been expressing throughout this series that Lent is an appropriate time to do some soul-searching. We ought to connect with our pain and the pain of others, seek forgiveness and reconciliation and examine the things that perhaps God has been trying to show us.

Among the questions that I have scribbled in my notebook is “What do I need to change my mind about?”
Like most of these questions, these are a bit scary in some way.

Changing our minds implies that we’ve been living either inappropriately or erroneously. There is this mode of thinking that says “I’m in too deep to change my mind on this.” or “If I change my mind, or show weakness in my position, “So and So” will say, ‘I told you so’ or ‘This is what I’ve been telling your for years!’”

Those are terrible reasons not to reconsider positions, opinions, beliefs and postures that are either hurting others (not to mention ourselves) or not helping others (not to mention ourselves). As one who appreciates nuance and complexity, I’ll be the first to say that it’s not a switch you flip.

I wish every time I changed my mind it was because it was based on “new information that changed everything” and so I “realized” and I felt “released” to believe in something even greater and this was something the we all celebrated. But many times, changing our mind has more to do with looking at the same arguments not only with different eyes, but with a different heart and this requires a good deal of humility.

Changing our mind requires that we not only reexamine the data but confront our motivations and maybe our pride.

For instance, I found encouragement in Franklin Graham’s apology to President Obama last week.
Is it possible that he will make the same mistake again?
Is it possible that all of this was a ploy for attention (making the mistake so he could apologize so he could gain favor with those that differ and with those in the middle)
Is it possible that Franklin and his team chalked this up as a learning experience in dealing with the President and not much has changed at all?
Or is it possible that this learning experience has caused them to hear from God and this has changed many things?

On a different note, I find it so ironic that the great Billy Graham was a trusted advisor to several Presidents from Truman to Obama and until last week, it may have been likely that Franklin was not welcomed in the White House. Conservatives should perhaps changing their minds in how they choose to fight the culture war but that’s another story for another day.

What is that we as Christ-followers need to change our mind on? There are many reasons to stay the course, there are many rational consolations to remain set on our ways, but there may be a God-given reason to change.

The Apostle Paul talks about the “renewing of our minds” in Romans 12 and Colossians 3 talks about the ongoing transformation from the “old self” to the “new self”. It’s unlikely that any of us have already arrived. So this Lent, let’s ask the Lord what we need to change our minds about?

I’ve fallen very behind on blogging through our sermon series. It’s not that they have become boring to me, it’s that they have become even more important and I am hesitating on puling the trigger on some of these posts.

Back in January I got to preach at our Sunday night service and my portion to cover was the Israeli exile. I entitled it, “You Give Exile a Good Name.” Like most people, when I think of the exile of Israel, I think of Bon Jovi. I opened the message with the first 90 seconds of this infamous video from my childhood. You can listen to the rest of my message here.

How do you explain the idea of exile to a present day Westerners? In short, the closest I could come was that the exile from the Israelite perspective, it could have felt like the ultimate break-up by God. He promised to be there for them, to love them, to take care of them, but here they were, under siege, overcome and the best of their population was marched into the Babylonian captivity. Hard to convince yourself that you are among God’s chosen when you are hands and feet are bound by iron shackles.

Now for the sake of responsibility, God wasn’t the one who actually dishonored the covenant. Israel did …. repeatedly. Collectively, they chose to worship other gods, pursue their interests and forfeit the promise God had invited them to. God sent them prophets, rescued them from numerous previous invasions and reemphasized His hope for them. They left him standing at the altar, at some point, the groom needs to leave the chapel.

Only God doesn’t do that. In this case, He takes the chapel with Him and meets them in captivity. And we see God’s presence throughout the story of Daniel.

There are so many sad parts in the story of Daniel that we tend to gloss over. The first chapter of Daniel describes him as a talented, intelligent, handsome young man. I tried to contextualize Daniel to those gathered that night that if we were making a movie about him, we tried to cast a young Jake Gyllenhaal, we’d show young Daniel with his happy family, answering tough questions in class, and leading his lacrosse team to the All of Judah Finals. He’d go to his synagogue and he’d hold eye contact with his love interest who was his perfect counterpart, and afterwards they’d sneak off to share their dreams of the future and then they would … pray.

But then he turned 17 and Nebuchadnezzar’s forces sacked Jerusalem and took the noble in captivity. In addition they took a significant number of the younger population into captivity. The idea was not to kill all the Israelites, but to create a bigger Babylonian empire and these people were currency for them – more people + less rivals = bigger empire.

I wondered how Daniel processed all of this. Though he had “success” in the test that eventually allowed him and his friends to eat the food of his choice, it was a small consolation to what he had lost. He had lost not just his home and his nobility but he had also lost his future. Literally. Not only does he lose the position he would have enjoyed in Israel but most likely he had become a eunuch. Safe to say he lost his future in a profound sense.

But to add to it, not only does he lose his future in this sense but he loses so much of his past. His Hebrew story was being replaced by the Babylonian narrative. I mentioned that a little more in my message but for Daniel, his entire identity was being threatened. That’s the story of Daniel in the exile – keeping his identity and God’s presence being there for Him, even in the exile.

This is why he prays as consistently as he does. It’s his access to God that informs who he is and allows him not only to retain his identity but to continue to grow in it. It’s very beautiful and it tells us many things, that even in exile and abandonment, God’s presence can still be found. Hence the title, “You Give Exile a Good Name.”

I find myself thinking about this for a couple of reasons. One is that I’m preaching again this week and I try to look at what I’ve said to avoid repetition but to retain certain themes (it’s a balancing act … we’ll see what happens with that). Second, I appreciate what Peter Rollins says about the crucifixion of Jesus. To paraphrase – he experiences God’s abandonment. Now this is nothing new in some sense but Pete has a dramatic way of saying these things and it’s stuck with me like gum on the bottom of my soul. Pete’s not for everyone but I encourage you to read him if you could (and I go to see him lecture this past weekend – great stuff – stay tuned).

Lastly, Lent is the time to consider such things. What are the dreams that have been taken from us, what have we given up on, what should we seek to reclaim and what should we hope to pursue. It’s in this soul-searching in the presence of God that we may (re)discover the beauty and meaning that we may be in need of.

Yesterday, I posted that some of us may need to rethink our ideas regarding persecution. Which brings us to the realization of if we are feeling persecuted, we have “enemies” in some sense. And when we have enemies, eventually we’ll realize that we need some type of plan dealing with their attacks and with them personally and collectively but for now, let’s focus on the idea that we really do have enemies.

The story of the crucifixion of Jesus includes that initially, it seemed that he was defeated by his enemies.  And this happened in spectacular fashion. Betrayed, abandoned, unjustly found guilty in poor excuses of “trials” by men more interested in power than justice, tortured, mocked, then crucified is just about the worst death one could have and add to it that the same crowd who cheered for him a week before, were among those that cried “Kill him!” Among the things are happening is that all of his (and our) enemies are uniting and converging against him at this terrible and tragic moment.

I am fortunate enough that I can not really relate. I suppose in some sense we have all experienced elements of these (betrayal, abandonment, etc.) Sadly, some of us have experienced this from our families, even our churches and people we regarded in our inner circle and some have been attacked by people who don’t even know us.

I want to make the point that whether we realize it or not, we all have enemies. For a good while, I thought I didn’t really have any real enemies. There are reasons for that ranging from a desire of being quick to reconcile with others to living in the suburbs. But I am wrong, For many reasons I have not realized and will continue to realize, I have many.  You do too.

Though the Christian ethic is one rooted in love we have to see that Jesus had and fought with his enemies. Any serious reading of Scripture forces us to ask ourselves, “Why was he so hard on those Pharisees?” Couldn’t Jesus have sat down with them, took the wine and made them mocha frappuccinos and spelled it all out for them? And what about the time in the wilderness with the devil? Why doesn’t Jesus say to him, “Hey, I think we got off on the wrong foot a few thousand years ago, let’s see if we reconcile?” I mean, imagine if the devil repented.

You don’t know how painful that last line was to write. I hope it was painful to read. We can discuss the reasons, the context, the scenes endlessly, but it’s important we take seriously the evil, the resistance and the selfishness of the heart. In any case, it seemed Jesus was content to have a few enemies.

Well, that’s great, we’re off the hook then. Because frankly, I’m not even sure I have any “enemies” in that sense. How about that – Jesus has more enemies than me.

But we’re not off the hook. Jesus doesn’t have these enemies because He is socially inept or has a lack of manners, He has these enemies because He’s fighting dangerous battles. He’s fighting all types of injustice, he’s fighting greed and pride and selfishness, even disease. Ultimately, he’s fighting pain, evil and death.

He has enemies because the world is flawed and a righteous man cannot stay neutral in a fallen world.

We have enemies. They are similar to whom Jesus fought. The self-righteous, the deceitful, the corrupt. From the sexual predators to the traffickers, to the greedy businessmen, to the manipulative pastor – these are our enemies too.

This Lent, I encourage you to identify those that are our enemies. I caution you from making a list of the pet-peeves we have, like “self-indulgent celebrities”, “people who drive slow in the fast lane”, people of a particular denomination, tribe, stripe, etc.  Let’s ask ourselves, who/what are the enemies of the Kingdom of God?

We may not only find that we are fighting the wrong battles but we may also find that sometimes we’re fighting on the wrong side.

One of my favorite parts of my new position here at Grace Chapel is leading our Oasis class. It’s a class designed for small group leaders to help them prepare the studies they’ll be leading this week. Based on the Sunday morning message, it’s our hope to not only reinforce the sermon but to explore its context, interpretation and application collectively.

This week’s sermon was on discipleship (preached by Pastor of Community Care, Jim Ennis) and it chronicled Peter from when Jesus called him, to when he was rebuked to when he boldly preached the gospel in Acts. When we talk about faithful discipleship, hopefully, at some point, we end up talking about sacrifice. And when we talk about sacrifice, eventually we talk about persecution.

One of the questions of my study asked, “…what risks do present day Christians face in being identified as Christ-followers?” This question generated some discussion.

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Ever click through old pictures and experience both, horror and a sense of joy? The thoughts range from, “Oh that’s right, I used to think that was cool” to “I remember that day, one of my favorites” to “I wish I could go back and …”

I write that not after watching a nostalgic movie (like Top Gun) nor after listening to something like Guns & Rose’s “November Rain” (has there ever been a Lenten reflection to mention G&R?) but after being at our Ash Wednesday service. A boy, probably about 12 said he was taking communion for the first time as that day, he decided to become a Christian.  I was genuinely excited for him and escorted him to the front and shared this with the elder serving communion who graciously instructed him how to partake before saying, “This is the Body of Christ, broken for you …”

I remember the first time I took communion. My mom slapped my hand as I grabbed a handful of crackers from the plate (I was 6 [Read more...]

During the announcements this past Sunday, I invited everyone to take part in our Ash Wednesday Service. I briefly shared that if you have ever had the experience that I had of sitting in a church sanctuary Easter Sunday with the realization that you were not ready to celebrate the glory of the Resurrection, I encourage you to participate this Lent with us. It prepares our hearts, enriches our lives and amplifies our worship to our Lord.

So off and on for the past few weeks, I’ve been thinking about what I’m going to do and not do for Lent. In some sense, each year gets tougher, but each year offers clarity as well so there’s a good bit of joy in thinking about this.

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I’ve been thinking about the tragic and untimely death of Whitney Houston and how it connects to these posts on celebritism. The first thought that comes to me is that in today’s media-driven, celebrity-preoccupied culture, celebrity deaths receive extraordinary attention.

In some ways, it may seem like an odd thing to be saddened of a death of someone that doesn’t know of your existence. In some ways, it’s still very normal. People have always mourned the death of people they don’t know. The loss of life is sad on any level and it’s a good thing because the opposite, apathy, seems like an inhumane response.

I remember hearing the story of one of my grandmothers crying when she heard the news that John F Kennedy Jr. was [Read more...]