much with little

We spent time on Sunday morning talking about how small you are and how big God is. Just so we don’t forget what the point of the mustard seed parable is, it’s good to know that in God’s kingdom, our small, coupled with God’s big, goes a long way. God’s immensity is the invisible factor that makes our small look awesome – that is, if we let God have his way with it.

There was a point in time when 5,000 men (plus women and children) were in the middle of nowhere because they wanted to follow Jesus and learn from him. Let me rephrase that: There were over 5,000 people who were at the most happening place on the planet while everyone else stayed wherever it was they were, which seemed like the middle of nowhere by comparison. Still the problem is that this crowd and Jesus were somewhere there was not enough edible sustenance to satisfy everybody’s needs. The disciples logically concluded: “That’s a wrap. Time to send the people home. It’s been great, but it’s over now, because our tummies are growling.” They were still getting to know Jesus, who we now know thinks that the Godfest never stops, even when we life’s needs arise. “You go get them something to eat.”

So they work the crowd and try to see what kind of food was already there that maybe could be shared. They spent time doing that and all they came up with was that there was one boy who was willing to share his five rolls and two fish with everybody. Aww. How sweet. If that’s all we got, we’re back to square 1. The boy might as well keep it. This is obviously not going to work. Either because the boy insisted or because the disciples at least had to say something, they actually presented to Jesus the boy’s gift to the community. Jesus’ response: “Okay, great! Have everybody sit down and pass these around.” What? But they do it anyway, and everyone eats, and there are basketfuls left over. (I would think these baskets would have gone back to the boy, but I guess that’s the Lord’s call.) No small gift – nobody fed. One small gift – everybody fed. Give God your little and it becomes huge. (This is a paraphrase of the first part of John 6, by the way.)

Consider how the woman who put in the two pennies attracts Jesus’ praise more than any of the other givers, because Jesus knew her heart and sacrifice in the gift (Luke 21:1-4). Even though the gift was so relatively small to others, her heart was huge, and her legacy has gone round the world. Everything you have comes from God, so in a way, you cannot control the nature or possible amount of what you have to give back to God. But you can control your heart size. Look what happens when you turn up the love volume.

Consider Jesus’ parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30). A master entrusts his servants with money while he’s away. They are to do business with them and see what kind of return they get. Two of them invested, and one saved so as not to lose anything. They investors quickly doubled the money. The one fearful of losing gained nothing except the disappointment of his master. It wasn’t his call to make, whether or not to invest. His master said to. If his investment lost money, oh well, maybe there would be some things to learn for the future. But he was disobedient, and he did not give away what his master told him to give away. He acted as though the money were his. If he just knew that he was holding on to such a powerful thing to invest (his fellows doubled their money) he would have realized what an awesome and important job he was given to do!

You might not have much, but you do have something. You don’t even realize what an awesome and important job you have been given: Invest as much of yourself as possible into God’s kingdom purposes that transform the world, with a heart as big as you can make it, and just like the mustard seed, explosive growth is inevitable (but God controls what that looks like and the timing). Embrace your smallness, and then kiss it good-bye. In God’s kingdom, there are only big things in store once you give away your small gift with great love.

- Pastor Bo

being with Jesus

On Sunday we talked about the parable of the sower in Mark 4.1-20 and our calling to scatter the seed of God's Good News in Christ Jesus wherever we go.  We cannot know the condition of the soil into which we scatter the seed, but we remain faithful to scatter and sow whenever we have the opportunity.

Just one chapter back from that parable, however, is a reminder of what it means to be a disciple in the first place.  If we are to be faithful in scattering the seed and spreading the news, in word and deed, we must first take care that we, too, are receiving the word well.  Our hearts must be made of good soil, too.  In Mark 3.13-19 we have the calling of those first disciples, the Twelve.  There we are told that Jesus appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons (vv.14-15).  Before we have the authority and power to go out and "preach," we must be with him.  

How are we to do that?  We spend time with Christ in prayer and in Scripture reading, of course. But we also spend time in the community of God's people as well.  When we are with brothers and sisters in the Body of Christ, we are with Christ.  We get to know Christ better in these settings and are better prepared to go and preach and to drive out demons.  It reminds me of the stewards and stewardesses on airplanes who go through the whole safety routine before take-off.  When talking about the oxygen masks, he/she says, "Remember to put your own mask on before helping someone else with their mask."  In other words, you're not much good to someone else if you're not taking care of yourself.  How true.  Before we can successfully scatter the seed of God's Good News, we must receive it and nourish it in our own lives, first.  

How are you doing in "being with" Jesus this week?  Are you making time for the necessary disciplines of prayer, Scripture reading, community and corporate worship?  Make sure your own oxygen mask is secure before you help someone else with theirs.

red, yellow, green

In the past I have been a runner.  I'm trying to get back into the game, of late.  I have an app on my iPhone that helps me do so.  Some of you have this app or a similar one as well.  One of the cool features of this app is that it marks out my running path.  The faster I ran, the greener the path.  The places where I slowed down a bit are yellow and when I took a break and walked, it's flat out red.  You can see from my run on the left, I walked a fair amount!

What if we had an app that followed us all day long and color coded our goings, not according to speed but according to our meaningful interactions and kingdom-giving conversations with others?  What might that app look like in your life and mine.  The green marks might show where we were prayerful and conscious of what God is doing in our lives and relationships, perhaps even able to reach out to someone in a practical way.  That wouldn't mean that we had to necessarily share our own testimony (though it might) or that we had to invite someone to church (but we could have).  A strong green line would simply show that in whatever we were doing, we were aware that God was present and we were open to be used by him - whether that be in acts of kindness or mercy, or in words of faith spoken to others.

Yellow lines would be those places where we were just sort of moving along, going through the routine, neither being inappropriate or appropriate.  Just on cruise, perhaps; not living as intentionally and missionally as God hopes we will learn to live.

Red lines would be those places where we missed opportunities for God to work in and through us with others.  Maybe we were rude to someone or cut them off.  Perhaps we opted to look out for ourselves above the needs of another.  Or maybe we acted or spoke to someone in a way that ran contrary to the teaching of Scripture and our calling to be "salt and light" in the world.  We would all likely have those red lines at times, but my prayer is that they become fewer and fewer, shading more toward yellow and then a bright green as we grow in our relationships with God and in pursuit of his mission to love him with all that we are, love our neighbors as ourselves and make disciples of all nations.

Sometime today, pause and consider your pathway so far.  What lines would be on your app?  What color has your pathway been today as you have been going into the world?  Are you striving to live intentionally and missionally?  If not, it's not too late.  Spend some time in prayer, and step out again.  Go into all the world and make disciples of all peoples, and know that Christ is with you always, to the very end of the age (or your day)!  May all our paths burn greener and greener!  Amen.

the Jesus Creed

On Sunday we talked about Jesus' answer to the question, "What is the most important commandment?" in Mark 12.28-34.  Jesus' answer, you will remember, was to combine a passage from Deuteronomy 6 and Leviticus 19, saying,  “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O       Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12.29-31)

Several years ago, after I had begun to wrestle with this most important commandment in my own understanding of what it means to follow Jesus, I discovered that Scot McKnight had written the book, The Jesus Creed, exploring the same question.  As a follow up to Sunday's message, I would like to encourage you to read The Jesus Creed, if you have not already done so.  It's a powerful treatment of Jesus' own version of the Shema and a book that has much to teach us about what it might look like if we, too, began to allow it to transform our lives today.

McKnight believes that Jesus' earliest followers, who were Jewish, may have actually used his version of the Shema as a part of their daily prayers, each morning and evening.  In this way, he argues, Jesus shaped his newly formed band of disciples and he continues to want to form us today, as well.

How might it shape you to make loving God and loving others the foundation of your interaction with the world in which you live?