Depp, Bieber and Jesus...

I've witnessed my daughter adoring Johnny Depp from afar, and even Justin Bieber for a season (though she probably wouldn't admit that now).  When she was much younger she would just gaze at Johnny in Pirates of the Caribbean, lovestruck.  Her Bieber phase was brief, but I'm pretty certain she still adores Depp.  

A couple of years ago, when we were taking her on trips to colleges and preparing for her next phase of life, one of the schools we looked at was in Evansville, Indiana - just across the river from Johnny Depp's boyhood home in Owensboro, Kentucky.  Rachelle's mother and she made a point of finding the address online, driving by and taking a picture of the home little Johnny Depp lived in 35 years ago, or so.  She adores him, I tell you.

On Sunday we launched our new series on Apprentice[ship] in which we will explore passages on several words (all ending with the suffix, ship - because it's cooler that way) that describe some of what it means for us to apprentice ourselves to Jesus and BECOME all that he hopes we can become.  Our passage on Sunday was Mark 3.13-19, Jesus' calling of the first disciples.  One of the points we considered was the importance of being with Jesus - a phrase Mark actually uses in the passage describing Jesus' purposes in appointing the disciples.  We talked about being with Jesus as nothing new in terms of how it's done, however.  It is spending time in Scripture, in prayer, in disciplines that make for spiritual growth and even in community with others.

In Luke 10.38-42 Jesus is in the home of Mary and Martha.  Martha is busy getting things ready for dinner and her guests, while Mary sits at the feet of Jesus, adoring him as if he were Johnny Depp.  Martha complains that Mary is not helping with all of the work and Jesus says to her,  “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

We might want to chime in that what Martha was doing was important too.  I mean, someone’s got to get dinner ready for crying out loud.  And that would be true, but that’s not why this story is in the Bible.  This story is in our Bibles because God wants us to know that what is most important is not our service for Jesus, but our devotion to him.  What is most important is not that we do things for Jesus, but that we learn to be with him first of all - and know that he wants to be with us.  When we practice being with Jesus everything else begins to fall in place.  

I think it’s fascinating that Jesus says, “few things are needed – or indeed only one…”  What happened there?  Did Jesus mess up?  Did he forget what he wanted to say and correct himself?  Or did he simply speak in such a way in order to emphasize the reality we need to hear: being with Jesus is the single most important calling on our lives.  “Only a few things are truly necessary, Martha – in fact only one.  Learn to be with me as Mary has."  That’s where true apprenticeship begins.

What about you?  Are you spending time at Jesus' feet these days?  Watching him as he interacts with people in the gospels?  Listening to his teaching, going over it several times in one sitting, mulling over its truth?  Jesus is not, thankfully, Depp or Bieber.  He's far more interesting than that.  Be with him. 

Lessons from a Marine and James

If you missed church last Sunday, you missed a great lesson learned by a friend of mine as a new Marine Recruit. The Six-Foot Circle Rule as he called it went like this:  You are responsible not only for yourself, but for anyone within six feet of you.  I think this summarizes well what James was conveying in his last two verses.  We too are called to care about what happens in our own six-foot circle because there is truth, death to avoided and a duty to respond armed with love to keep others from it.

 

But what happens when you humbly, prayerfully and intentionally do your best to bring a wanderer back and they reject or slander you as a result? There is that risk given the level of self-deceit we are all prone to.  What then?  Release them back to God the same way you approached them … humbly, prayerfully, and intentionally.  

For as we say in Stephen Ministry God is the Curegiver and we the Caregiver!  Or as Covenant Pastor, Judy Peterson says, we’re just tubes, tubes for His transforming love! Therefore whatever the immediate response may seem to be, we can leave the final outcome safely in God’s hands and timing.

And trust me, that’s a good thing!  Just learning how to be a good tube … free from our own clogs or sludge so the Spirit might move through … is challenging enough! May God bless our efforts to become this well, so we might also Become One together.

-Pastor Dawn-

Strength to Face the Marauding Tribe

In his book, The Art of Confession, Paul Wilkes tells the following story:

"When the Ku Waru warriors of Papua New Guinea were about to launch any risky activity that required close cooperation—like going into battle—they first took time to set themselves right. Not only overt actions, but even hidden feelings had to be revealed. 

"The Ku Waru men would go to a secluded spot in the jungle, kill and roast pigs, and as they shared the meal, confess to each other the items they had stolen and the animals they had mistreated. But there was still more on the agenda. The Ku Waru believed that feelings such as anger or jealousy would sap their strength and cause them to be wounded or even killed. Only through confession could these pent-up negative emotions be neutralized." (pp.24-25)

Wilkes continues by stating that the Ka Waru understand an important truth: "Only by facing our faults, misdeeds, and hateful or jealous thoughts can we be made whole again. Only then can they, and we, be at full strength and ready to face a marauding tribe … or the kids at home."

On Sunday I challenged the folks at ECC to take seriously James words to "confess your sins to each other and pray for one another that you may be healed" (James 5.16).  One of the pursue items on our Mission Briefing was to find one person and confess one sin.  

Confession: I don't always do the Mission Briefing items, myself, but I do some of them.  This week I met with a friend and confessed a sin to him (I have more than one sin, of course, but the assignment was for one sin, remember?).  He shared one with me, too.  In the end, we realized that we did not think we should stop there and we've decided to make the confession of sin a part of our weekly time together.  Doing so, as you might imagine, might make us more alert when tempted the rest of the week.  If I know I have to come clean and share my sin with another person every week, I might find the strength to resist temptation in the future.  

Confession of our sins to God brings us forgiveness, of course (1 John 1.9).  But confession to one another is helpful, too.  It can bring us greater accountability and increase our resources for the battle so that we may stand united and faithful.  What secret sins, actions, words and attitudes of the heart threaten to sap your strength as you journey through your days at work, in the community and at home as a Christ-follower?  To whom might you go and confess your sins so that you are better prepared for the battle ahead?