tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37876792024-03-13T22:10:42.716-05:00the Monsignor's Malaiselike a preacher... but not really.Mark Curreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11730546626574519771noreply@blogger.comBlogger122125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3787679.post-50217723847133874182012-11-26T11:41:00.000-06:002012-11-26T11:41:19.155-06:00Not Dead Yet...<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i>"You guys are still at R Street? I heard things were really weird..."</i></b></div>
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<b><i>"I heard you guys were shutting down"</i></b></div>
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It's funny, the things people will say... Sometimes others' version of your story is so convincing you begin to worry that their version is the correct one... and that you are simply delusional. I am really glad that the R Street story is not <i>my</i> story but that it is<i> our</i> story. Glad that I need not trust <i>my</i> version of the story because we are telling the story together. <br />
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And I am thankful.<br />
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Thankful that we are still here. With loss of place and loss of some who began the story with us... we are still here. When logic seemed to indicate a splintering and scattering... the wagons were circled instead. When it seemed that the last of the day's sunlight was calling us away from the playground and home to wash up for dinner; instead, we locked arms and started a new game of red rover.<br />
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I am thankful for the family i have chosen... for the family that has chosen each other. I am humbled by the fierce determination to remain a family when it would be easier, and maybe even more prudent, to scatter and join other families. I am thankful for a community who needs and loves one another because of the life we have already lived together and for the commitment to live through the story to come... together.<br />
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And so we change... Faces change. Places change. But WE remain. And we are strong; not because we are made up of strong individuals but because we are a family who knows our individual weakness and has found that we are only strong when we are connected. Everything changes... everything but the things that still define us...<br />
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<b>community... mission... inclusion... worship...</b></div>
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And contrary to what you may have heard... We are not dead yet.<br />
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<br />Mark Curreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11730546626574519771noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3787679.post-44571731442090071002012-10-17T09:35:00.000-05:002012-10-17T09:35:06.823-05:00i still like mike<span style="font-family: lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;">i first read this maybe 5 or 6 years ago. it is one of those articles i seek out and re-read every few months. Mike was the founder and owner of </span><a href="http://www.youthspecialties.com/" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cfe2f3;"><b>Youth Specialties</b></span></a><span style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;">... arguably the most used resource in youth ministry over the last 2 or 3 decades. over the last few years, virtually every conversation i have had involving youth and children s programs leads me back to this article written by the man who invented modern youth ministry.</span></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;">~currey</span></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><b><i>A Better Idea Than Youth Ministry</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">by Mike Yaconelli</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">Youth ministry is a good idea. But there’s a better idea.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">Before we go there, let’s look at what’s good about the good idea of youth ministry.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">Good Youth Ministry</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">Relevance. Relevance is good. It means students can think, talk, write, and sing about the gospel in a language they can not only understand, but incorporate into their lives now. That’s good. Very good.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">Relationship. Relationships are good. Youth groups are places where kids can learn something about relationships, about friendships. They learn the value of praying together, working together, being together, and serving together. In healthy youth groups they learn how to be less cruel toward those who are different; they are confronted with a gospel that asks us to love each other—even when the person to be loved is uncool, ugly, uncoordinated, overweight, or a geek. That is good. Very good.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">Youth ministry is about safety. Safety is good. It gives young people a glimpse of grace. At its best youth ministry is a place where students are safe: safe to be honest, to be real, and to express what is deep in their soul. Not all youth groups are safe; but where there is safety, it is good. Very good.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">Youth ministry is about fun. Fun is good, too. Very good. Young people have very few places where they are encouraged to have fun. Students should spend a lot of their childhood laughing. Youth ministry helps young people rediscover genuine laughter and fun. Fun is good.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">Youth group is good.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">But there’s a better good.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;">It’s called church.</span></div>
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Church</div>
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Not youth church, or contemporary church, or postmodern church. Just plain, boring, ordinary church. Yes, that’s right. Church. The place where people who don’t know each other get to know each other; where people who normally don’t associate with each other, associate; where people who are different learn how to be one.</div>
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Mostly, church is the place where we can grow old together. And it turns out that growing old together is still the best way to bring lasting results with students. Growing old together is where we teach (and learn from) each other what discipleship means in the everyday world.</div>
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I pastor a church that for the last sixteen years hasn’t had a youth program (in spite of the fact that I can provide free resources). Nothing. Just church on Sunday morning at ten o’clock where the students had to muddle through a very uncool morning service filled with mistakes, awkward gaps, interruptions, and imperfections. The music? In the language of students…it sucks. We’ve never had many students in our services, but we’ve always had some.</div>
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And here’s the crazy part. The few students we have had over the years? They keep coming back. Most of our students leave town for college or work; but when they are in town they are back in church, usually fighting back the tears. Why?</div>
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“It feels like home,” they say. “Everyone’s so glad to see me. After all these years, I still feel like I belong here. It’s like Jesus never left the building.”</div>
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Somehow, being with a group of diverse people week after week caused a bond to be formed—a family was created, and community happened. The mystery of community became a reality. Community isn’t complicated. It’s just a group of people who grow old together. They stick with each other through the teenage years, marriage, children, getting old, sick, and finally dying—all the while teaching each other how to follow Christ through the rugged terrain of life.</div>
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Maybe the body of Christ is the place where youth ministry was supposed to happen all along.</div>
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One of my sons lives near San Francisco. He still considers our church his home church. I asked him why. “Stuart Higgs,” he replied without hesitation. Stuart is in his sixties, slowing succumbing to the ravages of MS, divorced, and still clinging to Jesus. During the years when his life was turned upside-down by what I’ve just described, he managed to find the time to love my son, seek him out after church, pray for him, stay connected to him and, in the process, mentor and disciple him. Stuart Higgs may not fit the profile of the hip, post-modern youth worker, but he was my son’s youth worker.</div>
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The morning services at Grace Church are a long way from exciting youth programs, but it is the only youth ministry we have. I wonder what would happen if churches truly decided to take responsibility for the young people. They can still have a youth program and a youth worker, but the real youth ministry would happen when all of the adults decided to connect with all of the kids and do church together. Maybe there would be fewer students coming to church than attending youth group, but ten years from now, the ones who connected at church might still be there.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;"><i><b>Mike Yaconelli's Bio:</b></i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;"><i>The late Mike Yaconelli was in the ministry for forty-two years, both as a pastor and a minister to students. He was the lay pastor of Grace Community Church, owner and cofounder of Youth Specialties, former editor of The Door, and the author of <span style="color: #cfe2f3;"><b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Messy-Spirituality-Mike-Yaconelli/dp/0310277302/ref=la_B001H6NDMS_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1350483102&sr=1-1" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cfe2f3;">Messy Spirituality</span></a> </b></span>and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dangerous-Wonder-Discussion-Michael-Yaconelli/dp/1576834816/ref=la_B001H6NDMS_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1350483102&sr=1-2" target="_blank"><span style="color: #cfe2f3;"><b>Dangerous Wonder</b></span></a>.</i></span><br />
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</span>Mark Curreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11730546626574519771noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3787679.post-13694759365335671502012-08-30T09:44:00.000-05:002012-08-30T09:44:18.641-05:00"did god really say...?"<br />
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Reflection
is dangerous. Necessary… but dangerous. Most of us have some vision, some
picture of our place in the world; who we are, who we <i>wish</i> we were, who we are
supposed to be. Those of us who assume an active deity, a god who participates
and leads, often find themselves the recipient of this whispered question… the
same question uttered by a serpent in a garden in our creation myth.</div>
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“Did god
<i>really</i> say…?”</div>
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Usually we
hear this question and remember that, in the creation myth, it was a trick; a
manipulation meant to push the story’s heroine away from the story she was meant
to live and into a new and much messier story.
We remember that this question planted a seed of doubt that grew into
full rebellion. We remember that to entertain this question was to bring about
the fall of the human race before it had much of a chance to stand. And in this
remembering I sometimes ignore another important reality; what if this is a
fair question? What if this is the question we most need to ask?<o:p></o:p></div>
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“Did god
<i>really</i> say…?”<o:p></o:p></div>
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I have spent
a fair amount of time, over the last few weeks, reflecting on my place in the
world and the place of the community to whom I have committed my heart. I have
read and re-read <a href="http://monsignormonk.blogspot.com/2012/06/re-planting.html" target="_blank">my own words</a> and <a href="http://www.relevantmagazine.com/god/church/blog/1296-farmers-market" target="_blank">my own stated vision</a> of all that I have
believed about <a href="http://monsignormonk.blogspot.com/2011/12/into-great-wide-open.html" target="_blank">our calling and our mission</a>. And I am allowing myself to hear
the question; to consider it fully. I am living deeply in the question and
allowing it to shape me and even change me.<o:p></o:p></div>
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“Did god
<i>really</i> say…?”<o:p></o:p></div>
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And in this
moment… I cannot answer with any certainty. This is the heart of faith; to
listen to the voice you <i>hope</i> is his and to act. To <i>know</i> it is his voice
requires no faith. It is the risk in knowing that it may only be my own voice
that leads to possible adventure... and to possible failure. The tragedy in the
garden lay not in the question, but in answering too quickly. Faith, at least
for me, is saying “I’m not sure he really did say…” but acting as if he did;
knowing that the only possible proof will be in the final chapter of the story.
And even then; the answer may be hidden and we may simply move to another story
with no resolution in the previous one.<o:p></o:p></div>
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“Did god
<i>really</i> say…?”<o:p></o:p></div>
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I have no
idea.<o:p></o:p></div>
Mark Curreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11730546626574519771noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3787679.post-19025526717648871092012-07-29T12:58:00.002-05:002012-07-29T13:09:38.397-05:00rooted and groundedr street community church ~ july 29, 2012<div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Ephesians 3:14-21<br />
14For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. 16I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, 17and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. 18I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, 21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.</blockquote>
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Rooted and grounded. Solid. Secure.<br />
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We live in an area that is pretty familiar with the destructive power of weather. Most of us have been affected by the frequent tornadoes that seem to descend on this area every year; if not directly then a family member or a friend or a neighbor. And most of us have seen the damage inflicted on trees during violent storms. Sometimes, especially when there has been a lot of rain and the earth has become saturated, you might see a tree fully uprooted and fallen. But mostly, we tend to see branches broken and even tree trunks split or sheared.<br />
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When I was a kid we lived in a double wide trailer with a huge cedar tree in the back yard. One morning, after a terrible storm the night before, I opened the door to head for the bus stop and found the door blocked by this very same cedar tree. The storm had taken in down in the night – somehow without waking anyone in the house. The tree looked like it had exploded, debris everywhere; all of it destroyed except to two or three feet of jagged stump still held in place by the tree’s deep roots.<br />
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It today’s passage, Paul prays for his sisters and brothers in Ephesus. His prayer comes following some discussion of his call to bring the gospel to the gentiles and to see Jews and gentiles reconciled because of Christ.<br />
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Ephesus was in what is now Turkey. The people of Ephesus had been under Greek and now Roman rule and were heavily influenced by the pagan cultures of each empire. And in Ephesus and among the gentiles there, a Christian community was established that would become a key church in the early Christian movement. Paul lived several years in Ephesus as did the apostle John. Legend even holds that Jesus’ mother Mary spent the latter years of her life in Ephesus. Even so, the Ephesian church still carried the early shadow of being the “red-headed step child” to the Jewish church. And they lived under that stigma. The entire letter Paul writes to the church in Ephesus addresses this issue throughout, and the prayer in today’s reading is best understood in that context.<br />
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“I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name.” </blockquote>
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Every family… Every family in heaven… Every family on earth.<br />
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Paul reminds his friends of their place in the kingdom. He reminds them that they share the name of their father in heaven and that they bear his name in the same way as their Jewish sisters and brothers. They are not step children who do not wear the name and hold the honor of a step father. They are the children of God and they bear his name and all that is attached to his name. They are part of his family. And they are connected, through Him, with every family in heaven and on earth. They all take their name from him.<br />
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And then Paul prays… prays for the church in Ephesus… prays for the outsiders who still question their right to sit at God’s table.<br />
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Close your eyes and hear this prayer. Hear this prayer and find that place inside yourself where you have felt outside, other, less… find that feeling and hear Paul’s words again:<br />
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16I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, 17and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. 18I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, 21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.</blockquote>
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Rooted and grounded.<br />
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The step child has no history… no past with a new family. Memories are built and history happens but, for any of us who have lived that story, we know that we begin with deep doubts as to whether we belong or will every really belong to this new family.<br />
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Rooted and grounded… roots speak of history. Roots speak of connection to place. Roots allow the tree to grow and roots also grow with the tree, deepening as the tree grows taller; reaching further into the soil and spreading below the earth as the branches spread above.<br />
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Rooted and grounded in LOVE.<br />
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The church in Ephesus was added to a family with a deep, deep history; generations of Jews who knew the stories of Abraham and Moses and David by heart. They were grafted into a family who shared common struggle and identity and faith. They joined this family and immediately felt those same doubts… that fear that they really did not belong… that they would never really belong. And Paul speaks a prayer and begins to change the story.<br />
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Paul prays for roots – for connection. He prays that these new children of God would be rooted and grounded in the fact that they are loved… have always been loved. They are rooted and grounded in love because they are not really new children but, instead, have always been the children of their creator. Though their stories are different, their histories different; they are rooted in the same earth – the same created earth – as Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. Their roots search for and find the same waters that Moses drew from a rock in the desert; the same waters where John baptized his cousin and began the final act in the story of the earth’s redemption. The same waters that fed a garden at the beginning of humanity’s story.<br />
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Humanity’s story, the root of our story, is not found in an orchard filled with row after row of virtually identical trees. It is not found in a farm with endless acres of cultivated produce of like kind. Instead, our story begins in a garden… A garden filled with every kind of tree, every kind of plant, every kind of animal… all of them rooted and grounded in common soil. All of them rooted and grounded in common earth. Gardens are beautiful, not because of their order or their sameness; a garden is beautiful because of its diversity, its variety, and because of the way that all its diversity remains connected. The flowers and trees need bees to carry pollen. The grass on the surface protects the soil from erosion and allows the tree’s roots to grow deep and strong. They beauty of a garden lies in its ability to produce beauty from chaos… from random pairings of color and size and fragrance. The most beautiful gardens celebrate the mystery of great, great diversity born out of common ground; ground that holds the roots of every living thing in the garden.<br />
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16I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, 17and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. </blockquote>
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The trees trunk and branches are made strong by their roots and we are strengthened in our “inner being” when we are rooted and grounded in love.<br />
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Have you ever felt “other”? Have you ever felt that you did not belong? Have you ever seen yourself as a beggar at someone else’s table? Close your eyes and listen again as I pray Paul’s words over you:<br />
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I pray that you may be strengthened in your inner being… and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. 18I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, 21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.</blockquote>
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May we find our roots to be deep and may we by them drink from the waters of grace and mercy and love. May we be rooted and grounded in love alone. And may we come to know how wide, how long, how high, and how deep is the love of our creator.<br />
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His kingdom come.<br />
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</div>Mark Curreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11730546626574519771noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3787679.post-41897749265007893182012-07-22T13:46:00.000-05:002012-07-22T13:46:23.655-05:00You Can’t Always Get What You Want<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
07.22.2012 ~ r street community church</div>
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<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+6%3A30-34%2CMark+6%3A53-56&version=NIV" target="_blank">Mark 6:30-34, 53-56</a><div>
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So… some of you may remember that we were looking at the gospel of Mark a couple of weeks ago. You might remember that we had just seen Jesus sort of “strike out” in Nazareth, his home town. Maybe you also remember that he followed this by pairing his disciples and sending them out on their own for awhile; with instructions on how to respond if and when any of them had their own <i>Nazareth</i> experience. </div>
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Interestingly, it is not clear in Mark’s gospel where Jesus was or what he was doing during this time but the news of the disciples travels reaches Herod and causes him to remember John the Baptist – and gives Mark a moment to tell the story of John’s execution as a bit of an aside.</div>
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When we return to the narrative, the disciples have returned to Jesus and immediately began to tell him the things they had seen and done. Imagine this scene. Any of you who have sent a kid to camp can probably see it clearly...<a name='more'></a></div>
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“you won’t believe what happened… seriously… there was this guy… and he was, like, crippled. and then… like, john prayed for him and he TOTALLY got up and walked."</blockquote>
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“yeah… well… we had a blind woman… BLIND… and nobody even knew how she GOT blind, and Matthew put some mud on her eye – he totally stole that from you, Jesus - and then she washed them and she could see!”</blockquote>
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Imagine these guys… blown away by what they had seen and by what they had done… barely able to contain their excitement enough to tell their stories.</div>
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And even in the midst of this; the crowds gathered. The stories about the works of the twelve and about their Rabbi, Jesus, drew crowds and needy people. So many, in fact, that the disciples could not catch their breath long enough to process what had happened to them in the previous days. So many that they could not even find time to eat. </div>
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So Jesus assesses the situation and says, “you guys come with me. Let’s find someplace where there aren’t any other people. You can rest and tell me more stories about your trips.” And they get a boat and head out for someplace secluded, someplace to unwind and de-brief, but the crowds figure out their plan and run ahead on foot. Then, as the boat approaches the shore the disciples realize that what they see on the shore are not shrubs or large rocks but, instead, the very crowds they had just attempted to escape.</div>
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Great… awesome... geez...</div>
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Jesus saw them as well and he: </div>
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<b>“had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.”</b></blockquote>
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Two things happen next and I imagine the lectionary leaves them out of today’s reading so that these stories can each have their own Sundays. It makes sense because they are both biggies.</div>
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<b>First: </b>Jesus feeds the 5000 plus people gathered – or more specifically, he tells his disciples to feed them. </div>
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<b>Second: </b>Jesus walks on water.</div>
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These are both pretty great stories and probably at least somewhat familiar to most of us. The only thing I want to say about them is this: After everybody ate; Jesus instructed the disciples to take the boat over to Bethsaida and that he would catch up with them later. Again, perhaps Jesus needed a moment to clear his head - and they all needed to escape the crowd as was their original plan. So Jesus sends them on and he sits and watches them cross the lake before walking to the boat <i>on the water</i>. I imagine this was not what they understood when he told them he’d “catch up” later.</div>
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Now the boat nears another shore and the 13 men aboard are getting ready for some rest and some time to recharge their batteries. Good plan? </div>
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<b>54 As soon as they got out of the boat, people recognized Jesus. 55 They ran throughout that whole region and carried the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. 56 And wherever he went—into villages, towns or countryside—they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed. </b></blockquote>
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In the context of this story, I am not really interested in big ideas like the Sovereignty of God or the idea of Open Theism. But, I do have a question:</div>
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<i>Does Jesus always get what he wants? </i></div>
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“Mom… I am sorry there is no wine but it is not yet my time…”<br /> <br />“Please don’t tell anyone that you were healed…”<br /> <br />“Do not tell anyone about the miracles you have seen…”<br /> <br />“Let’s go somewhere quiet and get some rest…”<br /> <br />“father… is their another way?”</blockquote>
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Maybe the better question is; does Jesus <i>ever</i> get what he wants?</div>
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Does that question make you nervous? Does it make you feel uneasy? Does it cause any reaction at all?</div>
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For me, it absolutely causes a reaction. This question gives me comfort. It gives me hope. Hope that I may really be, at least a little, like Jesus. See if you can follow this… it made sense when I typed it…</div>
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The church swings on a pendulum when it comes to grace and law, freedom and obligation. One extreme tells us that anything we do (or don’t do) is cool because it’s really all grace. Another extreme tells us that God is really ticked at us and that he can’t wait to knock the sin out of us. This extreme tells us that our wants and desires are suspect from the get-go and that because of our fallen nature, anything we want is, by definition, bad.</div>
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Religion tells us to put aside all of our wants, all of our desires, and follow a new law; to trade our wants for his. Sounds holy… sounds righteous… but is does not completely sound like Jesus.</div>
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In “Beautiful Boy”, John Lennon famously said:</div>
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<b><i> "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."</i></b></blockquote>
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Jesus had other plans when he attended a wedding in Cana. He had other plans when he went to preach in his home town. He had other plans when the crowds showed up needing healing and food and hope. And his broken heart ached for another plan as he prayed in the garden on the night he was arrested. But life happened to Jesus; just like it happens to each of us. Very few of us are living the life we planned. Very few of us have arrived at this moment and found it just as we expected. And yet, even though our plans are so often unrealized, many of us still find joy. We find meaning. We find purpose.</div>
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I planned on being a professional musician… a rock star. Instead, I am a husband and a father and a pastor. Life happened to me and life is good. Life is better than a plan. Life is more than a map. Jesus’ obedience to his father came, not because their plans were always in agreement but because Jesus’ eyes were always open… his heart was always open to whatever came his way. Jesus planned to hang back at the wedding but his mother needed his help. He planned to get some rest with his friends and found, instead, a crowd who needed what strength he had left. Jesus made plans… there were things that Jesus wanted. There were moments he wanted to hold onto. Jesus had other plans but he walked the path before him with eyes open and ready for the life his father intended for him.</div>
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Faith, for me, is not so much trying to figure out God’s plan and then making sure that my plan is the same. Instead, I get up and move forward in what wisdom and light I have and then I wait to see what happens.</div>
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<b><i>“Nothing now remains for us seven but to go back to Stable Hill, proclaim the truth, and take the adventure that Aslan sends us.” C.S. Lewis (The Last Battle)</i></b></blockquote>
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It is not wrong to plan… it is not ungodly nor does it exhibit a lack of faith. We make our plans and do our best in the knowledge that our creator may send us on an adventure we could never have anticipated... The adventure of learning to love a group of women who are fighting to reconstruct a life after being released from jail and getting a second chance; The adventure of fighting the great dragons of addiction and poverty; The adventure of raising a family, of being a friend, of entering into the messiness of community. </div>
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May we be a people of vision but may our vision always leave room for the mystery of the life that happens when we are making other plans. And may we come to know that while we “Can’t always get what we want…” that sometimes we “just might find that we get what we need.”</div>
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His Kingdom Come…</div>
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<br /></div>Mark Curreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11730546626574519771noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3787679.post-85605439455003439602012-07-08T13:28:00.002-05:002012-07-08T13:50:11.499-05:00Shaking off the Dust<h2>
or... all that you can't leave behind</h2>
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07.08.2012 ~ r street community church</h3>
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Mark 6:1-13 (NIV)</h4>
6 Jesus left there and went to his hometown, accompanied by his disciples. 2 When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed.<br />
“Where did this man get these things?” they asked. “What’s this wisdom that has been given him? What are these remarkable miracles he is performing? 3 Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.<br />
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4 Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.” 5 He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. 6 He was amazed at their lack of faith.<br />
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Then Jesus went around teaching from village to village. 7 Calling the Twelve to him, he began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over impure spirits.<br />
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8 These were his instructions: “Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. 9 Wear sandals but not an extra shirt. 10 Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. 11 And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.”<br />
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12 They went out and preached that people should repent. 13 They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.</blockquote>
These verses have always come in handy when I am feeling particularly put upon or under appreciated. There is a certain comfort in the idea that anyone who does not see how wise or how awesome or how amazing I am is unable to do so because, after all, <br />
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“A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.”</blockquote>
Certainly a better conclusion than to consider the possibility that I am not so wise, awesome, or amazing. <br />
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<a name='more'></a>I like the way these two stories come in succession. They each have something to say individually but taken together I see a larger concept that has been particularly meaningful to me of late. I think this story, seen in the right way, will give us a poignant look at where we might find ourselves as individuals and as a community. <br />
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On Friday, Kim and I attended a very casual reunion of her high school class – 1982 – 30 years. Kim has attended all of her reunions and I have accompanied her to all but one. 5 years, 10, 20, and now 30. I, on the other hand, have attended none of mine. Missed them all. Do not really plan to go to the next one either. Steve Earle once wrote, in the song “Home Town Blues” <br />
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"I wish I'd never come back home<br />
It don't feel right since I've been grown<br />
I can't find any of my old friends hangin' 'round<br />
Won't nothin' bring you down like your hometown" ~steve earle</blockquote>
I get that. Some of you get it too. And it seems that in today’s story, Jesus gets it as well. He’s been away and he has been talked about. Everybody is talking about this new preacher from Nazareth. The stories are passed from town to town and, by the time Jesus shows up in Nazareth, the buzz is nearly deafening. But… below the buzz is a great deal of eye-rolling and sighing and folks who knew Jesus “in the day”; old friends and neighbors who are pretty cynical about his new fame. <br />
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“isn’t this Mary’s kid?”<br />
“isn’t this James’ brother?”<br />
“wasn’t his dad a… carpenter?”</blockquote>
You might assume that Jesus halo might have been at least somewhat visible as he grew up in Nazareth but if it was, it was not for most. Maybe familiarity truly does breed contempt. For them, he was only the carpenter’s son. <br />
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So; whether it was a matter of his power being blocked by their doubt, or, by his own doubt… the kind that many of us experience when we go back to a place where we are less impressive than we had hoped… whatever the reason; Jesus seems less successful in Nazareth. He was unable to do things he had done elsewhere with seeming ease. And so… he leaves Nazareth and continues to teach and heal and minister in other villages where his has less history. <br />
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And then, after a time, Jesus’ calls the 12 together and tells them, “you guys have been watching me do this… why don’t you give it a try?” He sends them out in twos (another indication that anything we are called to do, we are called to do; not alone, but in community). And he gives them some pretty specific instructions. <br />
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1. take nothing – no food , no money, no back-pack<br />
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2. dress light – the sandals on your feet and the clothes on your back<br />
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3. find somebody who will let you sleep on their couch and stay there<br />
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4. if you are not welcome – shake the dust off your feet and leave</blockquote>
It’s this last one that interests me most in context of the first half of the story. We have just read that Jesus went to the place where he grew up and they did not really seem all that glad to have him back. Once he arrived the response was pretty disappointing and Jesus eventually left. And now he sends his team out with the memory of their Nazareth trip still fresh. Maybe this was their first bust. Maybe Nazareth was the first place they visited where they were not wildly successful. We don’t really know but we do know this; Jesus sent his disciples out with knowledge that their Nazareth experience might not be isolated. Maybe he knew that Peter or Thomas might end up back in their hometowns. Maybe he worried that Matthew might encounter a city he had previously extorted for tax payments. Whatever he knew he suspected that not every community would embrace them or their mission and he told them so before he sent them out. And… he told them what to do. <br />
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“shake the dust off your feel”<br />
“don’t leave with any part of that community to weigh you down”</blockquote>
What seems, at first, like an act of defiance, sort of akin to a one-figure gesture with which we might be acquainted; turns out to be an act of self healing. It is an act of necessity as they move on to the next community. In order to boldly declare the good news, these men had to let their failures fall to the ground and be quickly forgotten. Carrying the dust of these towns on their feet would eventually impede their journey. It would eventually slow their pace and cause them to lose heart. And so, Jesus tells them to “shake it off” and move on. Even if the dust they need to discard comes from places once called home. <br />
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We sold our old building and moved out when the structure began to drive our mission more than our calling. We shook off the dust of that space and moved on. We also found that the mission that we believed Jesus was speaking to us was not embraced by all of us. Some in our community began to ask <br />
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“isn’t this the same old church?”<br />
“weren’t they the guys that used to…?”</blockquote>
Sometimes moving toward something means moving away from something, or someone else. <br />
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“love is not the easy thing...<br />
The only baggage you can bring<br />
Is all that you can't leave behind” ~U2</blockquote>
I can’t speak for anyone but myself but I can tell you… confess to you… that sometimes I tend to see more what I have lost than what remains. This is my tendency in most areas and has certainly been true in my role here at r street. But; I am learning that it is a waste of time and vision and energy to spend too much effort looking back and mourning what was lost; mourning the dust that has fallen from my feet. Instead, I am choosing to look at what remains; to look at those things and those people that I could not leave behind. I am seeing that what remains is always of greater value than what was left behind. <br />
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And so, I look at you who came together out of the dust of our old story. And… I look at you who have shaken off dust from other stories and joined us in ours. And we remember all that we have left behind in order to come to this moment and we smile in the remembering. But when we look upon one another, on all that we can’t leave behind, our smiles become joy and anticipation and determination in our mission to be the community Jesus is teaching us to become.<br />
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“love is not the easy thing...<br />
The only baggage you can bring<br />
Is all that you can't leave behind” ~U2</blockquote>
May we cease to mourn over what is lost and begin to rejoice over what is found. May the faces we see on our journey be as precious to us as the faces we no longer see… and may they become more precious to us as our story continues. <br />
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His kingdom come.Mark Curreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11730546626574519771noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3787679.post-31384909196472351552012-06-24T12:32:00.003-05:002012-06-26T10:04:22.172-05:00Shut Up and Listen...I have said on more than one occasion that this is, without a doubt, the most terrifying passage ever spoken in scripture. <br />
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<i><b>“Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job?” ~Job 1:8</b></i></blockquote>
Thanks, God… appreciate the ‘atta-boy’… thanks so much for noticing…<br />
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God is having what almost looks like morning coffee with Satan and somewhere between “pass the sugar” and “did you see last night’s game” he sort of dares Satan to mess with Job. God touts Job’s goodness and his great character and Satan reminds God that it is pretty easy to be one of the good guys when you are healthy, wealthy, and have never suffered for even a day. God strokes his beard and considers Satan’s point and finally says, “Ok. Do what you want… bring it on. You got full access to screw up Job’s life… just don’t do anything to Job, personally”. Satan chugs the last of his coffee and says, “You’re on!” and likely mumbles to himself as he walks away, “this should be fun…”<br />
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And so it begins. Job’s oxen are stolen and his field hands murdered. Then his sheep and shepherds are burned alive. Next his camels are stolen and the camel handlers killed. And once Job has lost all of his considerable cattle and livestock, a storm blows down a house where all of his children have gathered for a party, killing them all. And still, Job does not speak against god. <br />
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So, on the next morning, Satan returns to coffee shop and after a few pleasantries and small talk about the freshness of the bagels god says, again… <br />
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<b><i>“Have you considered my servant Job?”</i></b></blockquote>
Seriously? Really? <br />
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Satan points out that it was not really a fair bet because you can’t really get at a guy unless you get at the guy himself. God again strokes his beard and says, “OK. Do what you want, just don’t kill him.” <br />
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“I can make him sick?” <br />
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“Sure” <br />
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“How about boils or sores are something really nasty like that?” <br />
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“Sure… Fine… just don’t kill him” <br />
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So Satan finishes his bagel, leaves a tip (only %5, by the way) and leaves with a wicked grin barely hidden on his lips. <br />
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You can guess what happens next. Sores. Disgusting sores. Painful, itchy sores; maddening to the point that Job tries to scrape them off with broken pottery shards and bad enough that his wife suggests he ask God to kill him. All of this in the first two chapters. <br />
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Then, of course, his church buddies show up (YAY!) to comfort him and we spend the next 35 chapters of this book in deep theological discussion regarding the reasons for Job’s suffering. Job’s church buddies are pretty sure that this kind of stuff does not happen to righteous men (and, by the way, it would certainly never happen to any of them…) and so they are left to assume that Job has sinned and sinned badly in order to rain down such misery on himself. <br />
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The first three guys remind of the opening of a joke… “a Baptist, Calvinists and an Evangelical walk into a bar…” Job continues to hold to his story of blamelessness and his 3 fundamentalist friends accuse Job of everything from envy and pride to voting democrat. The fourth friend, young Elihu the Emergent, finally hearing all he can stand from the old conservative crowd, speaks up and offers a more progressive, more enlightened view. 6 chapters worth, in fact (possibly with the idea that the point is “dialog and conversation” rather than any concrete solutions). And then we reach today’s passage. After 35 chapters of theological debate; after 35 chapters of doctrinal positions and dogmatic explanations worthy of a DMin doctoral thesis; God puts down his coffee cup, stands, and speaks… <br />
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<b><i> Job 38:1-11<br /> 38 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said:<br />2 “Who is this who darkens counsel<br /> By words without knowledge?<br /> 3 Now prepare yourself like a man;<br /> I will question you, and you shall answer Me.<br /> 4 “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?<br /> Tell Me, if you have understanding.<br /> 5 Who determined its measurements?<br /> Surely you know!<br /> Or who stretched the line upon it?<br /> 6 To what were its foundations fastened?<br /> Or who laid its cornerstone,<br /> 7 When the morning stars sang together,<br /> And all the sons of God shouted for joy?<br /> 8 “Or who shut in the sea with doors,<br /> When it burst forth and issued from the womb;<br /> 9 When I made the clouds its garment,<br /> And thick darkness its swaddling band;<br /> 10 When I fixed My limit for it,<br /> And set bars and doors;<br /> 11 When I said,<br /> ‘This far you may come, but no farther,<br /> And here your proud waves must stop!’</i></b></blockquote>
And the Almighty is just getting started. For four chapters Job (and his church buddies) listen as God again and again points out that he is God and that they are not. And he doesn’t so much take them to the woodshed for “getting it wrong”. It seems that their real offense is presuming to “get it” at all. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b><i> “Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?</i></b></blockquote>
I wonder how much of our religion is little more than “words without knowledge”? How much of our debate is born out of an arrogant belief that we can ever hope to create a systematic theology that will contain a God who “binds the cluster of the Pleiades, and looses the belt of Orion (38:1)”? <br />
<br />
In the end, there is really no answer that satisfies. Any attempt to reach a theological answer to the “why bad things happen to good people” question requires mental gymnastics that are beyond the reach of mortal men and women. And maybe this is the only point to be drawn. God does not really answer the why so much as he pulls rank and changes the subject entirely. And, to limit our understanding further, we are not allowed into the coffee shop conversation following the end of this story, although I assume that the Almighty had a full breakfast and that Satan had to pick up the check. <br />
<br />
And as for Job? New kids. New livestock. New house. New, more, and better everything. All things considered, a reasonably happy ending, but… I suspect he carries some scars as well; in his flesh and in his soul. <br />
<br />
And so… I am left with little in the way of an easy 3-point lesson is this story; at least not one that brings much comfort. <br />
<br />
1. Stuff Happens <br />
2. Life is not fair <br />
3. God is not bound by my theology or my expectations <br />
<br />
And, at the end of the day, that it is still better to be Job than Job’s Kids… or his servants… or his camels. His Kingdom Come…</div>Mark Curreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11730546626574519771noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3787679.post-83124680913639078742012-06-19T13:33:00.000-05:002012-06-19T13:33:02.539-05:00Re-Planting<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">It is a pretty common practice to re-pot a plant because the
current pot is too small and the plant is in danger of becoming root bound.
But… what if the pot is too big… or simply the wrong kind of pot?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">6 months ago, we sold our old church building and moved out.
Many churches outgrow their facilities and need to move to a larger, more
accommodating space. This was not our story. Instead, we found ourselves in a
facility far too large with tons of wasted space and a mortgage that had begun
to define us more than our stated mission.
In short, our space had begun to require virtually all of our resources
and left little or nothing for the mission we claimed to value.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Most folks know, even those with nothing resembling a green
thumb, that you sometimes need to move a plant to a larger pot in order for the
plant to remain healthy. Roots without room to spread become bound and tangled;
choking growth. Fewer are aware that too much space can be equally unhealthy.
Planting in a pot too large often allows too much soil to hold too much water.
The result is root rot and disease. The
roots decay and become diseased and the plant may even die.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Our pot was too large. We were losing the strength of our
roots and watching them weaken and wither. And so… we decided to re-plant. We
sold the old building and moved into a smaller, borrowed space. Our community
did not so much grow larger but the roots strengthened and we have begun to
show signs of health and life. We have
turned our resources from the maintenance of a pot that was not right for us
and have, instead, poured them into things that matter to us. Things we hope
matter to Jesus. We have replaced the transmission in a local van that carries
supplies to the homeless. We have built a covered patio on a transitional home
for formerly incarcerated women. We have
built gardens and sorted clothes. We have sent support to missions in Africa
and India. We have handed out fresh packs of cigarettes to our homeless friends.
And… we have removed ourselves from an oversized pot and we have seen our
community begin to bloom and bear fruit. We are becoming the plant that the
seed packaged promised.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">We are learning to be church re-planters.<o:p></o:p></span></div>Mark Curreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11730546626574519771noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3787679.post-41466255901822447602012-06-10T13:07:00.000-05:002012-06-26T10:04:51.675-05:00so... we do not lose heart (r street ~ 06.10.2012)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
2 Corinthians 4:13-18<br />
<br />
The Voice<br />
<br />
13 We share the same spirit of faith as the one who wrote the psalm, “I believed; therefore I spoke.” We also believe, and that belief leads us to acknowledge 14 that the same God who resurrected the Lord Jesus will raise us with Jesus and will usher us all together into His presence. 15All of this is happening for your good. As grace is spread to the multitudes, there is a growing sound of thanks being uttered by those relishing in the glory of God. 16So we have no reason to despair<i> (we do not lose heart)</i>. Despite the fact that our outer humanity is falling apart and decaying, our inner humanity is breathing in new life every day. 17You see, the short-lived pains of this life are creating for us an eternal glory that does not compare to anything we know here. 18So we do not set our sights on things we can see with our eyes. All of that is fleeting; it will eventually fade away. Instead, we focus on the things we cannot see, which live on.</blockquote>
<i>So… we do not lose heart. </i><br />
<br />
Here we are… half a year, 6 months into this new r street experiment. In so many ways we have already exceeded our hopes and dreams for this community. We have become more than we believed. And yet… there is maybe some disappointment; some regret for the faces we hoped we’d see along the way; over those we had hoped would walk with us out of the old reality and into the new. Maybe we even see faces we thought might join us; new faces – new voices to join us in this new journey. Wherever we find ourselves, almost half way through 2012; perspective is always helpful and we cannot hope to evaluate where we are without remembering where we started.<br />
<a name='more'></a> <br />
<br />
<i>“I believed; therefore I spoke.” (v. 13) </i><br />
<br />
This is where I started in September of 2011: <br />
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“i am ready to get out from under the mortgage but probably will not wait until then to say "this is who i am and this is where i am going" if 5 folks or 50 follow... it's all the same to me. i will probably say it this sunday. i have also already started conversations with folks who are not yet here that god told me, last night, were supposed to be invited into the work. i'll be happy to tell you who they are once i have spoken to them all. don't say they are all supposed to come along... just that i am supposed to invite them.<br />
<br />
this is my one and only shot at this so i have no intention of soft-selling my vision. jerusalem asked me, awhile back, what vision i had for r street, i told her that if i had to "bullet point - on the spot - this is what it would look like:<br />
<ul>
<li>community - loving and caring for each other within the r street family</li>
<li>mission - actively engaging in the work of the kingdom through existing ministries (the van, MBH, bed project)</li>
<li>inclusion - openly communicating and pro-actively moving toward a fully inclusive and diverse community.</li>
<li>worship - passionate and transparent worship that communicates the values and mission of r street</li>
</ul>
this is the path i intend to follow…<br />
<br />
Whether we are 10 or 100 or 1000... i want a radical group of "happy heretics" who believe that 12 mostly uneducated and "on the margins" people changed the freakin world and that we are charged with the very same mission. I am ready to say that and to say that I do not have time or energy to lead anything less.”</blockquote>
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<br />
<i>“I believed; therefore I spoke.” (v. 13) </i><br />
<br />
And I still believe. In the deepest parts of my soul I continue to believe that this is who he has called us to become, that this is what we are supposed to be. I believed; therefore I spoke – and for better or worse I continue to speak. <br />
<br />
When we look around this room, we all miss someone who was once a part of this family. We could all lift the names of faces, of families, of children we wish were in the room this morning. Some have gone because the strongest family connections were to other shepherds or even other families who are no longer here. Some simply found the layover between the sale of the old building and our first meetings here at Eikon to be a good opportunity to change planes. And, honestly, some have even stated that the missional nature of our new journey required more that they were able to give at this moment. We bless them all. We love them all. Families change. People marry and join other families. People move on. They are, perhaps, no longer here but they remain connected; they remain family. <br />
<br />
But you are here. And I am here. We are here and we are called to a journey that is well begun but far from complete. And others are called, although they may not yet know it. <br />
<br />
When we made the decision to sell our building, Linda told us frankly that God was not leading us out… he was “kicking us out!” I thought about that again a few weeks ago when we remembered Jesus ascension and the great commission and then again, on Pentecost Sunday. It seems that Jesus did not so much lead the apostles out of the upper room (and eventually out of Jerusalem) so much as he “kicked them out”. And so, like them, we left. And we have tried to live in the reality of these 4 values; Community, Mission, Inclusion, Worship. <br />
<br />
We have continued to learn to love one another. We have looked into open windows and opened our own windows to the rest of our tribe. We have prayed for and with one another. We have tried to carry one another’s burdens. We have shared meals, laughter and tears. We are not yet the family we may become, but we are becoming. <br />
<br />
And we have embraced the mission of the other, of and to those outside our community. We have planted gardens and sorted clothes. We have built porches and shelves and we have raked leaves. We have gone into the margins and loved as we have been loved. We have served the least of these and discovered that we, too, are the least; and that the least, or the last, will someday be first. <br />
<br />
We have begun to wrestle with what it means to be inclusive; to open our arms and our hearts to all and to trust God with the outcome. We have seen the value of those who may have believed that had none and we are challenged to find that value in surprising places. <br />
<br />
And we have worshipped… we have sung to our creator and we have joined our voices with his creation… in this room or on familiar pews in an unfamiliar sanctuary. We have shared the bread and the cup of Eucharist. We have prayed and praised and laid forth our lament before our God. We have expressed who we are and who we are becoming through our songs and through our prayers. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
15All of this is happening for your good. As grace is spread to the multitudes, there is a growing sound of thanks being uttered by those relishing in the glory of God. 16So we have no reason to despair.</blockquote>
So… we do not lose heart. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Despite the fact that our outer humanity is falling apart and decaying, our inner humanity is breathing in new life every day. 17You see, the short-lived pains of this life are creating for us an eternal glory that does not compare to anything we know here. 18So we do not set our sights on things we can see with our eyes. All of that is fleeting; it will eventually fade away. Instead, we focus on the things we cannot see, which live on.</blockquote>
Sometimes we focus on what can be seen; on missing faces, on empty chairs, on relationships broken, and we are tempted to lose heart… at least that is my struggle. But; it is those things that are not seen that give us hope. The small inner voice that tells a young girl named Sasha “I matter…” The unknown hungry that will be fed with tomatoes and okra from a garden fighting to break free of the weeds; The community and safety of a meal, a cold drink, or even a cigarette shared under a porch built to block the rain and the sun’s oppression; the young mom looking for a community to help her love her children; The young couple who find strength in a faith community committed to a family and not merely to two individuals. These invisible moments define us; and they grow, sometimes just out of sight, into the reality of the words we first believed and the words we continue to speak to anyone who will listen. <br />
<br />
Our journey is sometimes difficult; usually unconventional; often counter-intuitive, and never flashy or sexy. Our journey has not made us famous (or even infamous) and it has not gained us the respect, or even the notice of the wider Christian community. But we do not focus on what is seen, on our external selves who seem, at times, to be “falling apart and decaying”. We look, instead, at our inward humanity and the promise of a journey well begun but far from over. We have many, many miles to go but we still believe the words spoken to us: community, mission, inclusion, worship. And so… we do not lose heart. <br />
<br />
His kingdom come.Mark Curreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11730546626574519771noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3787679.post-63770432949489182282012-06-05T09:56:00.002-05:002012-06-27T15:20:02.518-05:00i am not Tenzing Norgay... yet.<br />
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Wrigley: </div>
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Who are you looking for? </div>
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Miles Massey: </div>
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Tenzing Norgay. </div>
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Wrigley: </div>
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Tenzing Norgay? That's someone she slept with? </div>
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Miles Massey: </div>
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I doubt it. Tenzing Norgay was the Sherpa that helped Edmund Hillary climb Mt. Everest. </div>
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Wrigley: </div>
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And Marilyn knows him? </div>
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Miles Massey: </div>
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No, you idiot. Not the Tenzing Norgay. Her Tenzing Norgay. </div>
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Wrigley: </div>
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I'm not sure that I actually follow that. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Miles Massey: </div>
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Few great accomplishments are achieved single-handedly, Wrigley. Most have their Norgays. Marilyn Rexroth is even now climbing her Everest. I wanna find her Norgay. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Wrigley: </div>
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But how do you determine which of the people on here are... </div>
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<br /></div>
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Miles Massey: </div>
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How do you spot a Norgay? </div>
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Wrigley: </div>
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Yeah. </div>
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Miles Massey: </div>
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You start with the people with the funny names. </div>
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~Intolerable Cruelty </div>
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<br />
Last January, as folks talked of resolutions, weight to lose, bookshelves to organize; books to read; I thought of two words: Confidence and Humility. Six months in; I am still working toward that goal. I am still climbing toward that peak. I have determined that, at least for me, these are the two most needed attributes of healthy, effective leadership. And oddly… they are the two attributes that have seemed most elusive for most of my life.<br />
<br />
It might seem strange that a human could so completely lack confidence and yet walk with so little humility. But, in fact, it is really not that unusual. You need little more than to have watched a single “Dr. Phil” show to know that most arrogance and braggadocio tends to mask deep insecurity and low self-esteem. And it is equally predictable that the folks who suffer this self-worth bi-polarity seem to often end up in positions that feed one or both of these extremes. Artists, musicians, writers, pastors, etc. seem to feed on the adulation of others and are equally starved when the adulation is withheld.<br />
<br />
But not the Sherpa. The Sherpa, I am finding, is perhaps the most complete embodiment of Confidence and Humility. Most have heard of Sir Edmund Hillary but only the most rabid Everest enthusiasts are familiar with Tenzing Norgay. The Sherpa is typically the most skilled and the most competent climber on any Everest expedition and few, if any, climbers reach the summit without the leadership of a good Sherpa. And yet… they are invisible. Sherpa do not become famous. Sherpa do not sit down for television interviews or appear on late-night talk shows. Sherpa lead others to the summit and then let those they lead bask in the glory of the summit.<br />
<br />
Confidence and Humility. I don’t expect to get there in the single turn of a calendar year but it is still the summit on which I have set my sights. Maybe a funny name would help…</div>Mark Curreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11730546626574519771noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3787679.post-30423094508092625572012-06-03T14:27:00.001-05:002012-06-04T07:59:00.600-05:00Pushing Back – and Coming Out<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I pastor a
small community in the heart of the Bible-Belt. The following email
conversation occurred a few weeks ago between a friend and me.
Given the conversation and the much deserved push-back from my friend, I decided to read the following to the community I pastor a few Sundays ago…</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Friend:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Mark,<br />
I got this e-mail from a friend that I work with today. I know the friend that
she is talking about. Read this and let me know what you think. I'd like to
give her your e-mail address if you say it is okay. Peace!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i>“…do any of you guys know of a
gay-friendly church in the central Arkansas area? A friend of mine wants to be
baptized and she stepped out on faith, to ask my extremely Pentecostal
father-in-law if he would do it, but he’s not comfortable with that. So, I’m
trying to find somewhere she might feel valued and included. Would you let me
know if you know of someplace that might be a good fit?”<br />
<br />
<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Me:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">sure...
have her contact me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">our
"church position" is somewhat nuanced - will explain when i have a
little more time but, bottom line, everyone is welcome.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">friend:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I've
thought about this. I can't do "church position" is somewhat nuanced."
I have done that. Love ya'll. Always will. Can't do hidden agendas anymore. Why
doesn't God love us all with no "nuance"? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Me:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">what i mean
is that all of our community are not in lockstep on this issue (or any other)
one of our values is that we do not have to agree on theologies or doctrines in
order to love one another. so, by nuanced, i simply mean that i can't promise
that everyone in our community has the same opinion or view on homosexuality -
we are too small and organic to have an official "church position" on
anything.<br />
<br />
that said... MY position is that we are affirming of anyone seeking god; gay,
straight, black, white, liberal, conservative, democrat, republican. Also, i
have emphatically stated that inclusion is one of our core values and have
explained that position like this:<br />
<br />
when you hear the word inclusion, when I say "everyone", if you are
asking yourself "do you think he means ______..." whatever you put in
the blank - the answer is yes! That is exactly who i mean. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
so... as a tiny little community with very little official structure, we have
no written policy on the issue of homosexuality but the PASTOR's position is
that he will baptize, serve communion to, and happily follow jesus with anyone
who shows up at r street.<br />
<br />
so, again... i would love to meet her and talk with her... and would love to
have her be a part of our community if it felt (to her) like a fit. regardless
of theology, i can promise you that she will be loved and treasured by all in
our community because that is how we roll... family is family and we do not
exclude or segregate anyone from our family.<br />
<br />
so... my initial response was inadequate but the best i could do with limited
time. i hope this clarifies a bit. thanks for pushing back and making me think
through my response. it helps me and i hope it helps you as well. families are
messy and we have embraced the mess. "church positions" are tidy and
we don't do tidy very well. what we DO do well is love god, love each other,
and love our neighbor. everything else is secondary. peace...<br />
<br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> “there are some who see it as their job to
stalwartly guard the boundaries of the tent to keep it from crashing, and some
who think it our job to be bravely inclusive and stretch the tent.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Either way,
it’s misguided because …it’s not our tent. It’s God’s tent. The
wideness of the tent be it the church or society, should only concern me
insofar as it points to the great mercy and love of a God who welcomes us all
as friends. And of Jesus who welcomes all to his table.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">You think I
like that? You think I want to sit at the heavenly banquet next
to Ann Coulter? Not so much.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">But that’s what I’m stuck with because I’m in the
Jesus business. And in the Jesus business there is not male or female,
jew or greek, slave or free, gay or straight, there is only one category of
people: children of God. Which means nobody gets to be special and
everybody gets to be loved.” ~nadia
bolz-weber<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Most in our community received this well… some did not… but we are all continuing to love one another
and trust one another to let love lead and overcome our doctrine. It is a
journey well begun.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18px;">his kingdom come...</span></div>Mark Curreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11730546626574519771noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3787679.post-90241077812546115302012-05-13T14:05:00.001-05:002012-06-27T10:08:12.102-05:00no, seriously... love one another<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
John 15:9-17<br />
New International Version (NIV)<br />
9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit —fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.</blockquote>
So… like… seriously – LOVE one another.<br />
<br />
I mean it… love one another.<br />
<br />
Thomas… pay attention… love one another.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
When you read what is commonly known as the upper room discourse, those last hours before Jesus was arrested, the theme is pretty hard to miss. After Jesus washes the disciples’ feet… Once the bread and wine are shared… once Judas skulks off to sell his friends life for a pocket full of silver… once the formalities and the dramatic plot points are out of the way, Jesus speaks and he has something really important to say. So important that he says it over and over again. So important that he comes at it from several directions. So important that he rolls it back and forth until they get it… or at least if they don’t get it - then it is not because they were not adequately told. <br />
<br />
Love one another.<br />
<br />
Seriously, guys… Love one another.<br />
<br />
In many ways this story is the most heartbreaking and beautiful story found in the gospels. It is also to most extended period of intimacy we see. Previous moments where Jesus speaks to his disciples, without an audience, are just that; moments. While it is safe to assume that there were many extended conversations that included only the men in the upper room that night… THIS story is the one that is recorded and it is no accident that it comes as a lead up to the most shocking and horrific part of the gospel narrative. Some twenty four hours later, the story will find a beaten and bruised Jesus, bloody and dying, looking out on a hateful mob and finding only one of the faces to whom he spoke on this final night. Only John, the disciple who records Jesus’ words from that final evening, will remain. The others will scatter. Peter will deny him. Thomas will doubt him. Judas will be dead. Only John remained and only John records this story in this detail and depth. 5 chapters (13-17) of John’s gospel are given to this story and it is John who will retell this story later, in the epistle that carries his name. John heard the words of his master and he, maybe more than any other, was changed and formed by Jesus’ words that night.<br />
<br />
Love one another.<br />
<br />
These were Jesus’ words on that Maundy Thursday… and these were the words ringing in John’s ears on Saturday.<br />
<br />
As best we can tell, John was the only disciple who remained with Jesus throughout his trial and execution. It was John alone who witnessed this horrible event, not in whispers and rumors but in bloody reality as he watched it unfold. The others abandoned Jesus and, in some sense, they abandoned John as well.<br />
Most of us have attended a funeral or a visitation for someone we may not have known well - maybe the loved one of a friend. And; most of us know the importance of signing the guest book. It is true that grieving families are somewhat isolated during a funeral and the guestbook can be a great source of comfort later. Later, when we look and remember the faces of those who cared enough to come and share our grief. Weddings are the same. We remember those who came to mourn (or celebrate) with us and, maybe less nobly, we remember those who were not there.<br />
<br />
After Jesus died, after his broken and bloodied body was taken down from the cross, after his body was placed in a borrowed tomb and covered with a heavy stone, John was alone… alone to remember. To remember the faces of Jesus’ mother and of Mary Magdalene; and to remember the absence of other faces; Peter, Matthew, Thomas, Judas, and even John’s own brother, James. Scripture does not tell us with certainty that they were not there but it seems fair to conclude that only John remained. And so, on the following day… as the world seemed to have gone dark, did John dwell on those faces? Was he hurt by their absence? Disappointed? Disillusioned? Angry? All this and more?<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“John… love them”<br />
“John… love them all”<br />
“John… This is my command: Love each other”</blockquote>
<br />
John is traditionally portrayed as the youngest most sensitive of the disciples. He is thought to be more tenderhearted than the others and so it might be safe to conclude that the varying degrees of betrayal he experience on that lonely Saturday were more hurtful and painful than any of the others might have felt, had they been the lone faithful member of their tribe. And yet it was John who recorded Jesus’ final command. It was John who remembered those words in such clarity and detail when he told the story in later years. It was John who found Jesus’ words to be the heart of his message as an apostle. And maybe it was John because it needed to be John. Maybe Jesus knew that it would be John alone who would have the capacity to forgive the friends who abandoned him at the foot of the cross and to love them as Jesus had commanded. Maybe Jesus knew that, in order for the disciples to love one another, they had to be shown that love by one who had earned the right to withhold it.<br />
<br />
Maybe it was John’s love that began the process of casting out their fear and guilt and shame. Maybe Peter, years later, was thinking of his friend John when he said, “Love covers a multitude of sins”… even betrayal and denial and abandonment. And maybe Peter learned this early Easter morning.<br />
<br />
The story tells us that:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
John 20:1-10<br />
New International Version (NIV)<br />
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”<br />
3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripturethat Jesus had to rise from the dead.) 10 Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.</blockquote>
Peter and John were together when they heard the news of the empty tomb. At some point on Saturday, they reconnected. Imagine the conversation. Imagine the emotion. Peter’s shame. His guilt. Imagine John, looking at Peter and hearing Jesus’ words… “John… This is my command: Love each other”<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“so that your joy may be complete”<br />
“so that you might go and bear fruit —fruit that will last”</blockquote>
We do not know the contents of John’s conversation with Peter. We don’t know if John received Peter immediately with love or if he came to it after some difficult conversation. What we do know is that When Mary Magdalene found the empty tomb she then found these men together and we know that Peter was restored as were the others. We know that each of these men are woven into the story of the foundations of the Christian faith and that Peter would become the leader of the early church.<br />
<br />
And, although we cannot know, we may wonder what direction the story might have taken had John not so fully internalized Jesus command to “love one another.” We may contemplate how Peter’s story might have taken a dark turn had John received with accusation and blame rather than love and forgiveness.<br />
What if Peter had been rejected by John? What if he had not been with John when news of the empty tomb arrived? What if his grief and guilt over his denial of Jesus had led him, without John’s forgiveness, to follow a darker path, Judas’ path.<br />
<br />
Of course we cannot know these things, we cannot answer these questions, but we may certainly weigh them and find within them the true substance and weight of Jesus’ words. And… we can consider how one young disciple, by receiving Jesus’ words and remembering when remembering was most difficult… and most needful… might have begun to live out the call we all share. To love one another.<br />
<br />
May we remain in his love…<br />
<br />
May we know his friendship…<br />
<br />
May we keep his commands…<br />
<br />
and love one another as He has loved us.<br />
<br />
His Kingdom Come.<br />
<br />Mark Curreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11730546626574519771noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3787679.post-62654418341197723122012-04-30T08:27:00.000-05:002012-04-30T09:15:23.780-05:00When All We Need is Not Enough<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
1 John 3:16-24<br />
New International Version (NIV)<br />
16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? 18 Dear children,let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.<br />
19 This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence:20 If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24 The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.</blockquote>
<br />
I grew up in a church tradition where phrases like “born again”, “saved”, and “sinner’s prayer” were as common as the rain. These words and phrases carried deep meaning for me… still do, I guess (although I probably understand them differently than I did as a kid.) Another phrase that takes my back… way back to 1st Baptist Church in Monticello… is this one:<br />
<br />
“Personal Relationship with Jesus Christ”<br />
<br />
Me and Jesus…<br />
<br />
Jesus is my Co-Pilot…<br />
<br />
When I walk through the valley of the shadow of death; who is by my side?<br />
<br />
Jesus… Just Jesus… Christ alone… All I need.<br />
<br />
Jesus plus nothing… A personal relationship.<br />
<br />
And I wanted that. I wanted the personal, intimate, “me & Jesus” kind of experience. I pursued it. I prayed the prayer. I received Him in my heart. I believed that he was with me and that he walked with me and that I didn’t need anything or anyone else.<br />
<br />
Me & Jesus…<br />
<br />
He was all I needed; until I lost him.<br />
<br />
My world began to come apart my last two years in high school. My parents divorced when I was 5 and my mom remarried when I was 7. I rarely saw my dad after my mom remarried but reconnected with him when I was about 16. So did my mom.<br />
<br />
When I was 17, my mom told me that she was leaving my stepfather to return to my dad (who was also married at the time). Leaving my home and my school and my friends to return to the man she had left some 12 years earlier. Things got very real very quickly… my mother realized the foolishness of her actions and my dad realized that he did not really want a “family”. My step-dad took her back and all was forgiven; the crisis was averted… except he didn’t… and it wasn’t.<br />
<br />
Over the next year, my step father’s bitterness grew and in the spring of 1982, he left my mother for another woman. My family fell apart and my mother came undone.<br />
<br />
And I realized that my personal relationship with Jesus was not enough. I lost my faith… I lost my trust… and I was completely alone.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Genesis 2:18<br />
New International Version (NIV)<br />
18 The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone.</blockquote>
<br />
Throughout the creation story, at the end of each day, God uttered this simple and beautiful phrase: “it is good”. Everything he had made was good, perfect, right. Until he looked at the one he had made in his own image… Until he looked into the eyes of the man he had created with this beautiful idea of a personal relationship with his own creator. And for the first time God said: “it is NOT good”<br />
<br />
This man; this image of God, was alone. He walked with God. He had a personal relationship with God. He knew God intimately; and yet he was alone.<br />
<br />
When I left home for college, I felt more alone than I had ever felt in my life. My family was wrecked beyond repair – and would never really recover. And I had lost, not my <i>belief </i>in God, but my trust and my relationship. I was alone.<br />
<br />
I fell in love, married my college sweetheart, and tried to find something to fill the empty space where Jesus used to live. I loved my wife. She loved me. But I was still alone. Lonely. Empty.<br />
<br />
I could spend hours telling you what happened over the next few years, about how my wife met Jesus, about how I at first recoiled from her faith and then; found my own faith again. Those are beautiful stories but they are simply the seeds of what God had planted in me… only the beginning of a beautiful story that would soon begin to unfold.<br />
<br />
As I re-found my lost faith, I discovered something new… something surprising… something strange. It was no longer “me & Jesus”. Jesus alone was no longer enough. I needed others. I needed family. I needed community. I needed to experience the love of God as it was poured out on me by others. I needed to pour out his love <i>on</i> others.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.<br />
23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24 The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.</blockquote>
The phrase “one another” appears over 50 times in the new testament.<br />
<br />
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<i>“be at peace with each other”</i></div>
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<i> “As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”</i></div>
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<i>“serve one another in love”</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>“be patient, bearing with one another in love”</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
and over and over again…</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>“love one another”</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>“love one another”</i></div>
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<i>“love one another”</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>“love one another”</i></div>
<br />
We are each image bearers of the God who made us. Each of us carry that spark. It is when those image bearers, those tiny sparks, come near to one another that Christ’s glow becomes the light of dawn. It is when those sparks come closer still that He shines like the light of noonday. It is when we love one another best that he is most visible to us and to the world.<br />
<br />
“This is how we know…”<br />
<br />
My journey back to my faith did not truly begin to transform me until I brought my faith into community. He did not become fully visible until I saw him in the faces of others - In my wife, in my kids, and in my faith community. I saw him in the joy of birth. I saw him in the grief of death and loss. I saw him in acts of great faith. I saw him in acts of desperation and doubt. He became greater as I became less; and I became less when I became part of a community. Less… and yet more. Not just me and Jesus… not just a personal relationship… Not Christ alone… He became greatest when I began to not only to see him, but to experience him in others. I began to know him as I began to know others. I began to love him as I began to love others.<br />
<br />
And… I began to believe that He loved me when I began to be loved… by others.<br />
<br />
“This is how we know what love is…”<br />
<br />
Over the years, other disappointments have come. Death and loss, dreams unfulfilled. I have faced other circumstances where my faith was in crisis… even in question. I have even experienced the loss of my personal conection to Christ… just as surely as I did when I lost Him in the wreckage of my broken family… but with this difference… even when He is far away, I am not alone. When Jesus seems to have abandoned me… he is still beside me as he is seen in the faces of my community. When I doubt him, my community loves me. When I despair… my family carries me; and by their hands, Jesus carries me. 30 years ago, to lose faith meant to walk alone. Today, when I lose heart, my family sits with me… hopes with me… and waits with me… waits for me to find my way back to Him.<br />
<br />
And so… if I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, who is by my side..?<br />
<br />
Jesus; yes. But not <i>just</i> Jesus…<br />
<br />
<i>You</i> are by my side… and <i>you</i>… and <i>you</i>…<br />
<br />
And when you reach your valley; I will be by your side.<br />
<br />
Many of you have heard me say this…<br />
<br />
<i>It’s not about me… it’s about us... </i><i>It’s not about you… it’s about us.</i><br />
<br />
One of my favorite verses:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Psalm 68:6<br />
6 God sets the lonely in families…</blockquote>
<br />
Humanity has two issues… brokenness and loneliness… Christ heals our brokenness and we heal one another’s loneliness. He heals our loneliness when He “sets the lonely in families”.<br />
<br />
He sets the lonely in families and then - he brings families together. Small families join with other small families… and his light shines more brightly… more beautifully… more intensely.<br />
<br />
We attach ourselves to one another to bring our small and tiny sparks together. We are warmed by the light we see in one another. And one community journeys 80 plus miles to share their sparks with the spark of another community; a beautiful family holding their own fire close to their own hearts. And we bring our fires together… we feel the warmth of the sun… of the SON. and we see Him… we know Him… we experience Him… and He is beautiful.<br />
<br />
His kingdom come.<br />
<br />
*sunday ~ april 29 - new mt pleasant missionary baptist church ~ cotton plant, ar<br />
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<br /></div>Mark Curreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11730546626574519771noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3787679.post-29535851876962037422012-02-13T08:58:00.000-06:002012-02-13T08:58:16.324-06:00Out of Touch<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Mark 1: 35-45 (NIV)<br />35 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. 36 Simon and his companions went to look for him, 37 and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!”<br /> 38 Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” 39 So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.<br /> 40 A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”<br /> 41 Jesus was indignant. He reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” 42 Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed.<br /> 43 Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: 44 “See that you don’t tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.” 45 Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.</blockquote>
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<br />Last time we met, Jesus was speaking in the synagogue and then cast an unclean spirit out of a man in the crowd. In the following verses, Jesus’ fame continues to grow as he heals Simon’s mother of a fever and as others brought their sick loved ones to Jesus for healing. We read today that Jesus went away from the village to be alone; to pray in solitude. Even there, he found only a short break as Simon and the others went out and found him, interrupted him to tell him that “everyone is looking for you”. And then Jesus replied “Let’s go somewhere else”.<br /><br />Not TO the ones looking for him, but to go somewhere else. Make a note there… we’ll come back.<br /><br />They left the area and went to other areas of Galilee. Preaching – in the synagogues – casting out demons – but notice… no mention of healing.<br /><br />And then, while in Galilee, a man with leprosy falls on his knees before Jesus and says: <br /><br />“If you are willing, you can make me clean.”<br /><br />And Jesus was “indignant”. Indignant?<br /><br />It is interesting that the NIV uses this word. Most other translations say something much softer; “filled with compassion” or “deeply moved”. But the NIV says “indignant”<br /><br />So far in our story, Jesus has called his disciples and begun to teach in the synagogues (no mountaintops or wilderness sermons… yet.) Jesus was walking the path of a Rabbi; a teacher. And yet his teaching, his rabbinic ministry, is constantly interrupted by the sick or the possessed or the needy. Even in moments of needed solitude, in private moments with the Father, the press of need would not leave him alone. Look again at verse 38.<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">
“Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.”</blockquote>
Is it possible that Jesus’ understanding of his call was being challenged? Is it possible that this is why he was frustrated… indignant… because his plan was being interrupted… by his Father’s plan? With those questions in mind, read the rest of the story:<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">
40 A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”<br /> 41 Jesus was indignant. He reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” 42 Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed.<br /> 43 Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: 44 “See that you don’t tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.” 45 Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.</blockquote>
My oldest daughter just turned 22. That is a long time to be a parent. In those 22 years (and 3 additional children) I cannot tell you how many times I have been engrossed in some task I deemed important; reading a book, watching a movie, writing a sermon… only to have a child enter the room and say “hey Dad!?” or, maybe from another room, “daaaaaaaaa-dy…”<br /><br />I, of course, always put my work aside and look approvingly into my son or daughters’ eyes and say something awesome like, “yeah, honey. whatcha need?”<br /><br />Right… always… that’s what I do… except when I don’t.<br /><br />I am a bit ashamed to say that my response is, too often, to forcefully set my work aside, peer over my glasses, sigh, and say… “WHAT…?”</div>
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<br /><br />Maybe not exactly indignant, but you get the idea<br /><br />Jesus had a plan. He had some revelation of his mission but maybe he had not yet seen the whole thing… did not yet know all that he was called to do or be. Maybe he did not see himself as a healer or a miracle worker. And yet what he saw, even if limited, could not limit who he was. And who was he? I don’t necessarily mean his power or his ability to heal. I mean who he really was, as a human. Compassionate, loving, merciful, empathetic.<br /><br />The world is filled with powerful people; people with the power to make a difference, to change the circumstances of those around them. Power to end hunger or sickness. Power to be a friend to the lonely. Power to see and acknowledge those others do not see. Humanity has power. All the power we need. In fact, Jesus said that our power would allow us to do more and greater things than even he had done. But our power is not who we are. Our power does not define us. Who we are is what is inside. Our acceptance or our intolerance; our mercy or our judgement; our kindness or our cruelty. Power is a tool but the end of power depends on who we are and how we chose to use our power. Are we heroes or villains?<br /><br />Perhaps Jesus was frustrated; perhaps even angry. But… we was also a man of deep compassion; compassion that would not allow him to turn away anyone in need, no matter how much they might interrupt his plans. The man asked Jesus “if you are willing?” and Jesus replied, “I am”<br /><br />And Jesus touched this man, a man that was actually illegal to touch, and the man was healed, made clean. A man who had spent maybe years with little or no human contact. A man who had been forced to draw away from society, away from the villages and away from community. Jesus touched him, healed him, and made him clean. Jesus restored this man to the community and gave him back his connection to the human race. And then Jesus makes an odd request.<br /><br />“Don’t tell anyone.” Why?<br /><br />Now… remember verse 38? <br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">
“Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.”</blockquote>
Maybe this is a clue?<br /><br />See, the story ends with the man telling EVERYONE and Jesus’ desire to move through the villages, to preach and walk among the people… that wish is off the table. In the end we are told that:<br /><br />“Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.”</div>
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<br />Jesus healed this man and then… they traded places. The man was restored to his community and Jesus was forced to “stay outside in lonely places.” Jesus moved from one vision of his calling to a larger vision based not on his great power but on his great love for his people… a love that would ultimately drive him further from his people and a love that would ultimately drive them to crucify him. They would crucify him because they too had a vision of his ministry that was interrupted and frustrated. They too became indignant at this man whose heart led him to use his power in ways that would continually frustrate their expectations.<br /><br />May we be open to the power he has given us and may we find the mercy and love and compassion to use those powers to see his kingdom come.</div>Mark Curreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11730546626574519771noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3787679.post-10010053056975605022012-02-03T09:27:00.000-06:002012-02-03T09:29:45.652-06:00sarcastic swearingNadia Bolz-Weber is one of my "must read" blog heroes. (she had me at "sarcastic")<br /><br /><a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/nadiabolzweber/2012/02/i-love-jesus-but-i-swear-a-little-an-open-invitation-to-unfriend-me-on-facebook-stop-following-me-on-twitter-and-discontinue-reading-my-blog-if-you-need-to/" target="_blank">Great post today</a> that includes this quote:<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">
"I’m not a role model. I’m not really that nice (but I hope that I am kind). I’m just trying to figure out what it looks like to confess the truth about being deeply faithful and deeply flawed at the same time – and how to have humility in all of it without being self-apologetic." </blockquote>
<br />Pretty good place to stand for all of us who are trying to lead (whatever that means) and a really encouraging word for me in light of my 2012 mantra/prayer: "confidence with humility"<br /><br />his kingdom comeMark Curreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11730546626574519771noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3787679.post-12922986652338296092012-01-29T15:37:00.000-06:002012-01-29T17:37:20.076-06:00Prove It<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Mark 1:21-28<br />New International Version (NIV)<br />21 They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. 22 The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. 23 Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out, 24 “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”<br />25 “Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!” 26 The impure spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.<br />27 The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to impure spirits and they obey him.” 28 News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.</blockquote>
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<br />Integrity. It’s one of those words that Ward Cleaver might have used in a heartfelt lecture to Wally and the Beaver. Or maybe a word you might see featured in an investment ad during a televised golf event. Most of us seem to think we have some sense of its meaning but we are ultimately hard-pressed to point to many examples. Integrity has become one of those high-minded ideals that most of us don’t really believe is still possible. <br /><br />Americans are overwhelmingly dissatisfied and even disgusted by those who govern. The president, the congress… across the board the disapproval ratings seem to stay at - or near - historic highs. And the disappointment does not seem to be closely tied to party or ideology or even to positions on the “hot button” issues. I think our disapproval has grown out of a realization that there seems to be so little integrity among those who govern. We watch them debate or make speeches and we slowly begin to suspect that they don’t really believe most of what they are saying. We watch again and again, cycle after cycle as presidential candidates lean hard right or hard left to gain their party’s nomination and then move quickly to the center during the general election. We see this, we recognize it, and perhaps most tragically, we have more or less made peace with it… until recently. <br /><br />So; if we do not find the standard of integrity met within government, then what about the church? The scandals make the headlines and certainly tell a damning story to those want to find fault with the church. But those are mostly easy targets and are really not fairly used as evidence of an integrity problem in the church. But… what about the rest of the church? And if we are going to really examine the church – and ourselves – we need to look hard at the questions we are asking and how we apply the standard of integrity. <br /><br />In today’s passage, Jesus showed up at church on the Sabbath and he spoke, he taught them. And because of his words, only his words, the people were amazed “because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law.” <br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">
“NOT as the teachers of the law”</blockquote>
It could not have been his seminary degree or his education. The teachers of the law had this and more. It could not have been his title, the teachers of the law had titles (and it was Jesus’ title that would eventually get him executed). It wasn’t his money or the impressive men that made up his entourage. So what was it? <br /><br />They say that the best salesperson is a man (or woman) who uses the product they promote. I think this is true whether the potential customer knows it or not. We are able to sense it… to feel the passion and authenticity. This is the reason that although virtually everyone in Hollywood is an exclusive Mac user, Apple has never had a more effective spokesman than Steve Jobs. Jobs was not an actor, not a trained public communicator, not a gifted orator. What Jobs was, and maybe what Apple misses most with his death, was a true believer. No one believed more in Apple products and innovations than the man who ran the company. Jobs was not necessarily the smartest or most technologically gifted individual at Apple… he simply believed harder and more completely – and it showed. Job’s authority and integrity came, not because he was right about Apple’s marketplace superiority, but because he completely and fully believed he was right and then acted boldly on that belief. True belief leads to vision and vision… to action. <br /><br />Jesus spoke, not in dry religious recitation, not in slavery to his culture or traditions. Jesus spoke - He read the scripture, as the man among all humanity who most truly and deeply believed every word. He spoke not as an academic master of exegesis but as the author who understood the deep and mysterious meaning of the words. Not as a high-school American Lit teacher trying to explain the structure of “The Sound and the Fury” (and pretending to understand it) but as Faulkner himself explaining not only what the story means but why he wrote it in the first place what he was saying beneath the story. Jesus spoke, not as an educated observer of creation, but as creator! <br /><br />And the people heard it… they saw it… they knew that he was different. They knew he had authority. And then… <br /><br />A man with a demon walks into the room and challenges this authority… authority already established simply by Jesus’ teaching. Jesus speaks firmly to the demon and orders it to leave its host. The man shakes violently and the demon leaves prompting a second astonished response from the gathered crowd: <br /><br />“What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to impure spirits and they obey him.” <br /><br />Even with the demonstration of power… the focus remains on the authority of his teaching. Jesus’ actions point back to his words… to his teaching. <br /><br />There is little point in debating the fact that much of our society has lost faith in the words of the church… they no longer believe our message. I wonder if they doubt us because they are no longer convinced that WE believe our message. I suggested earlier that we need to look hard at the questions we are asking and how we apply the standard of integrity. Are we asking the right questions? Are we setting the standard where it needs to be set? <br /><br />To an outsider looking in, it may rightly appear that the church no longer even HAS a message to those beyond our walls. It might appear that we have stopped trying to share the message of Christ with those who have not experienced his love and mercy. Instead, our energy, our money, our passions are spent shouting at one another… shouting messages and words, not for others, but for those within our larger family who we deem HERETICS. We shout over heaven and hell, over competing atonement theories, over whether or not women should be allowed in ministry or even have paying jobs! We have stopped trying to convince the guy with the Dell PC that Mac makes a better computer… we are, instead, expending our energies by arguing over whether or not the black iPhone is cooler than the white one. And in the process, we miss the simple genius that caused Steve Jobs to offer the iPhone in two colors. <br /><br />We have a message… a message that we must believe and live if we are to speak it with authority. A simple and yet profound message: <br /><br />“Jesus loves you” <br /><br />“GOD loves you” <br /><br />True belief leads to vision and vision… to action. The first step to integrity, to the authority that Jesus carried, is to believe these words – to believe them fully and deeply and to allow the words to reveal our path forward. And then… we must act. If we believe, we must act. And if we believe, the opportunity to act will follow. <br /><br />When we speak of God’s love, we should expect to be interrupted by demonic voices daring us to “prove it!” The demons of poverty and hunger… The demon of lonliness… The demons of prejudice and bigotry. Homelessness. Addiction. Abuse. All of these demons will step into our line of sight when we speak of His love and they will say “prove it”. And then… we act. Or; we step around the unclean spirit and move forward, with Jesus’ words still warm in our mouths. Words slowly turning from hope into a type of toxin. And the demons mock us. The demons mock us because we have proven that we do not believe in the love of God; because we have shown that they are only words – spoken with no authority. <br /><br />“Jesus loves you…” <br /><br />If we believe this – if we truly and deeply embrace the magic and the mystery of these words… then THIS community can become all that He has called us to be. If we live, and breath, and move, and have our being within this truth, then we will become who we say we are. People of Deep Community – of Generous Mission – of unlimited Inclusion – and of worship born in spirit and in truth. <br /><br />May we believe deeply and fully in the love of Christ. <br /><br />May we speak of his love with integrity and authority. <br /><br />May we prove our words by the work of our hands. <br /><br />And may we cast out every evil voice that would distract us from our mission to share his love with one another… and with the world. <br /><br />His kingdom come.Mark Curreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11730546626574519771noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3787679.post-73267648849496105012011-12-19T09:54:00.000-06:002013-04-10T13:36:59.440-05:00into the great wide open<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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“Into the great wide open<br />
Under them skies of blue<br />
Out in the great wide open<br />
A rebel without a clue” ~Tom Petty<o:p></o:p></div>
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Most folks assume that reckless, foolish behavior is something we grow out of – something that subsides with maturity. In many ways it is probably true. I am finding, however, a new kind of recklessness as I near the half century mark. The recklessness of youth assumes success; that our endeavors cannot fail. When we are young we are invincible. So, really, it is not reckless at all.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Real recklessness – true foolishness – fully accepts the possibility, hell, <i>probability</i> of failure… and acts anyway. The reckless spirit I am discovering peers over the edge, knows it is too high for survival, and jumps!<o:p></o:p></div>
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Butch Cassidy: Alright. I'll jump first. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Sundance Kid: No. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Butch Cassidy: Then you jump first. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Sundance Kid: No, I said. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Butch Cassidy: What's the matter with you? <o:p></o:p></div>
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Sundance Kid: I can't swim. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Butch Cassidy: Are you crazy? The fall will probably kill you. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Sundance Kid: Oh, shit...<o:p></o:p></div>
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This week the tribe I lead peered over the edge and jumped. We shook off the last bit of safety and stepped into the great wide open. And we jumped together. None of us are certain where we will land or even if we will survive. We only know that to stay, to stand still, is worse than the risk of the rocks below. We jump because, for all our doubt – all our questions, we believe in a “dangerous love” that calls us into a wild adventure; a call that leads us over the edge and into a new story. And we carry the old story with us… <o:p></o:p></div>
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Who we are and where we are going is the cliffhanger of our old story. It ended with a bunch of scared and tired outlaws trying to decide between the river gorge ahead and the posse at our backs. The new story finds us in mid-air, terrified and exhilarated, as we speed toward the rushing currents below. And at least one of us has never felt more alive… <o:p></o:p></div>
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Mark Curreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11730546626574519771noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3787679.post-3247719636028095532011-12-04T13:09:00.000-06:002011-12-04T13:09:08.168-06:00the love you make...<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: center;">“for God so loved the world the he gave his one and only son” ~john 3:16 </blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ya3CdQneZAQ/TtvFOEF51_I/AAAAAAAAAD4/zquWRtyGYtY/s1600/text_graffiti_all_you_need_is_love.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="208" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ya3CdQneZAQ/TtvFOEF51_I/AAAAAAAAAD4/zquWRtyGYtY/s320/text_graffiti_all_you_need_is_love.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div>Advent is a season of waiting and so it is natural that we would look back and try to place ourselves in the middle of the world that awaited Jesus’ birth. <br />
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As we said last week, the old testament ends some 400 years prior to the birth of Christ. We do, however have Apocryphal writings that fill in those missing years; at least historically. We know that Israel, after exile and eventual return, was conquered and ruled by a variety of powerful nations and that the enemy was no longer across their border but among them. <br />
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We know that Greek Emperor Antiochus Epiphanes came to control Israel and that he was violently intolerant of religious diversity. He is said to have killed and sacrificed a pig on the altar of the temple in Jerusalem. He was known to have executed Jews for practicing circumcision. 2 Maccabees 7 relates the story of a woman and her 7 children who were tortured to death by the emperor for refusing to eat pork. <br />
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It was out of this climate that figures such as Judas Maccabeus arose. He was the last great hero of Israel and led his small army to a number of victories over the Greek occupational forces. While the writer of the texts mourn that Israel no longer has a prophet to speak for God, heroes such as Judas Maccabeus become the standard template for the type of deliverer awaited by Israel. <br />
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Eventually the Greek empire is conquered and replaced by Rome and the occasional violent still uprising occurs as the people wait for the messiah who would sit on David’s throne and restore Israel. <br />
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I wonder if that Israel would take comfort in these words: <br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">“For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great<br />
God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe, who<br />
executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the<br />
strangers, providing them food and clothing. You shall also love the<br />
stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.<br />
~ Deuteronomy 10:17-19 </blockquote><br />
Israel was overrun by strangers. Not widows and orphans but certainly strangers. In the midst of this they clung with white knuckles to their law, their tradition, their identity. And they awaited action; not from a God who “loved the world” but from a God who hated their enemies. <br />
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Love is a tricky thing to define because we mostly do not understand it. Our popular culture – songs, movies, literature – paint a picture of love as a feeling. Something we feel or experience. I don’t mean to say that love is NOT a feeling but rather that it is more. It is deeper. It is both practical and mystery. It is emotion and action. Love is feeling but it is also doing. <br />
<br />
But most of us use love in a distorted way or have experienced love in a distorted way. Love is a tool used to manipulate; a reward for good behavior that can be withheld for bad behavior. We mess it up; we fail to understand it; but we cling tightly to the idea. We live in a culture that values love even if our understanding of love is often way off the mark. <br />
<br />
But imagine… Imagine a people who had forgotten love. Who no longer believed in love; a people who had exchanged love for despair, or even hatred; a people who feared that God had forgotten them and so could not imagine that God loved them. And imagine that, in that world, you were told that God was about to act because he loved, not just you, but your oppressor, your enemy. Imagine if the Hero came, not with a sword, but with love… love for you but also for those you hate; those who had hurt you. <br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">“The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.” ~john 1: 9-11 </blockquote><br />
In advent we wait… and today we specifically talk of waiting for Love. But do we… really? In the time leading up to Jesus’ birth, over those years of waiting… were these people of God waiting for Love or simply relief? <br />
<br />
One of the reasons faith is so difficult for us is because the things we need so desperately often require from us the things we are most reluctant to give. <br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq"> “Blessed are the poor in spirit,<br />
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.<br />
Blessed are those who mourn,<br />
for they will be comforted.<br />
Blessed are the meek,<br />
for they will inherit the earth.<br />
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,<br />
for they will be filled.<br />
Blessed are the merciful,<br />
for they will be shown mercy.<br />
Blessed are the pure in heart,<br />
for they will see God.<br />
Blessed are the peacemakers,<br />
for they will be called children of God.<br />
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,<br />
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. ”<br />
~matthew 5: 3-12 </blockquote><div> <br />
To be comforted we must mourn. To gain victory we must be meek. To receive mercy we must give mercy. <br />
<br />
If we want to be loved… we must love. <br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">“and in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make” ~lennon & mccartney </blockquote><br />
Our prayer, if we pray for love at all, has been “God! love me and hate my enemy!” <br />
<br />
His answer should send us back to our knees. <br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” ~matthew 5: 43-44 </blockquote><br />
And so… maybe Christmas is either rejected by the Grinches among us… or, ironically, given over completely to the generic “merry” Christmas of twinkling lights and shiny paper. Maybe in an effort to avoid what true love requires, we create a false and shallow version of love that speaks to our feelings but seldom if ever requires action or pain or loss. Christmas came, not to make us merry… not to make us happy. Christmas came as a single flicker of flame on a tiny candle, lit in a darkened room. <br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” </blockquote><br />
If any of you have witnessed the birth of a child you know that there is probably no more amazing thing that happens on earth. It is a process so filled with every emotion, every type of extreme. After the silence of hope and waiting, comes the pain and the struggle of labor. Sweat and blood and agony and exhaustion… (it’s hard on the moms too!) Sometimes hours of excruciating work. Sometimes it is dangerous. Sometimes it is fatal. But then… a child comes. This ugly,screaming, misshapen creature… who is, to at least one in the room, the most beautiful thing she has ever seen. If you are not certain you know what love is… this is the only place I know I have seen it… the only place I am sure I have seen it. In the aftermath of struggle and pain and exhaustion and labor… comes complete and pure love; a love for the new and fragile life in her arms but also a love for the world; for life; for the simple act of being. When, if for only a moment, we experience true love for one, we begin to touch the kind of love that could love all. <br />
<br />
This is the promise of Advent. That love has come and that through the love of one, all will receive love. <br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">“and in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make” </blockquote><br />
His kingdom come…</div>Mark Curreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11730546626574519771noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3787679.post-87273073557072222432011-11-27T13:59:00.000-06:002011-11-27T13:59:34.355-06:00song of hope - 1st sunday of advent<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1vxiQz8KMm8/TtKWjpRCUGI/AAAAAAAAADw/g0zJ5ck8pwI/s1600/hope-carved-into-stone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="159" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1vxiQz8KMm8/TtKWjpRCUGI/AAAAAAAAADw/g0zJ5ck8pwI/s320/hope-carved-into-stone.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div>These are the final words of the Hebrew scripture: <br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">Malachi 4:5-6<br />
<br />
5 “See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes. 6He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.” </blockquote><br />
Israel had survived exile, returned to Jerusalem, rebuilt the temple, and reestablished worship in the holy city. But, by the time of Malachi, they had grown, not wicked or rebellious, but apathetic and hopeless. In this short book (only 4 chapters) we read God’s final words to his people. We read his final prophetic utterance of the old covenant. God speaks and is then silent for 400 years. Like most of the Old Testament books of prophecy, there are warnings and correction. There is a call to change. But, Malachi ends with hope. Malachi ends with a promise. God makes a promise… and then God is silent. <br />
<br />
400 years later, Israel is occupied, as is much of the known world, by Rome. There was an old Jewish priest named Zechariah who was descended directly from Aaron, the brother of Moses. Zechariah and his wife, Elizabeth, were devout and devoted to God and the Gospel of Luke tells us that they were “upright in the sight of God”. Luke also tells us that this old couple had no children as Elizabeth had never been able to conceive a child. <br />
<br />
In those days, temple duties rotated by family and Zechariah was charged with burning incense inside the temple as the gathered worshippers prayed outside. While performing his tasks, the Angel Gabriel appeared to Zechariah (which scared Zechariah Spitless!) and said: <br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">“Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. 14 He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth…<br />
<br />
… He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. 17 And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” </blockquote><br />
If you know this story you know that Zechariah expressed what would have seemed a healthy dose of skepticism and asked, simply, “How can I know this is true?” He also reminded Gabriel that both he and Elizabeth were not getting any younger and that the whole story seemed a bit tough to swallow. <br />
<br />
Gabriel’s answer to Zechariah’s “how can I know?” is exactly what I would have said… you know… if I were an Arc Angel… Gabriel essentially says “Duh… I am Gabriel… I stand in the presence of God…” <br />
<br />
Oh… right… ok… sorry… <br />
<br />
Then Gabriel tells Zechariah that he will be unable to speak, not a word, until the child is born. <br />
<br />
Zechariah completes his temple rotation (in silence) and Goes home to Elizabeth who, soon after, discovers that she is pregnant. Over the coming months, Elizabeth remained in seclusion and is later visited by her cousin Mary who, as it happens, is also pregnant. <br />
<br />
Finally the time comes for Elizabeth to give birth. The baby boy is born and their friends and neighbors shared their good wishes with the family. On the eighth day it was time to circumcise the boy and publically name him. Most everyone assumed that he would be named after his father, Zechariah but Elizabeth protests. To settle the issue, Zechariah is given a writing tablet upon which he writes: HIS NAME IS JOHN. <br />
<br />
And then Zechariah’s voice returned… and he sang! <br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">68 “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,<br />
because he has come to his people and redeemed them.<br />
69 He has raised up a horn[<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+1&version=NIV#fen-NIV-24963c">c</a>] of salvation for us<br />
in the house of his servant David<br />
70 (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),<br />
71 salvation from our enemies<br />
and from the hand of all who hate us—<br />
72 to show mercy to our ancestors<br />
and to remember his holy covenant,<br />
73 the oath he swore to our father Abraham:<br />
74 to rescue us from the hand of our enemies,<br />
and to enable us to serve him without fear<br />
75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.<br />
<br />
76 And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;<br />
for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,<br />
77 to give his people the knowledge of salvation<br />
through the forgiveness of their sins,<br />
78 because of the tender mercy of our God,<br />
by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven<br />
79 to shine on those living in darkness<br />
and in the shadow of death,<br />
to guide our feet into the path of peace.”</blockquote>At the end of Malachi, God speaks a promise and is then silent for 400 years. And then, 400 years later, he speaks the promise again, the same promise, to a humble and devout priest… and the priest is silent. <br />
<br />
Hope is not found in our speaking, in our singing, in our words. Hope is found in silence; in listening for a voice that does not speak and then trusting in the silence. God spoke and then he ceased speaking but He was not absent; he was not idle. In his silence he began the work of preparation, of gestation, of preparing creation for the birth of hope. <br />
<br />
Conception begins in passion, it is drama and life and excitement and fireworks. But then, the mystery takes over. The silence begins. The miracle of life that is set in action with such passion becomes a silent time of waiting; a time of anticipation; of hope. And life grows and becomes and is made ready… in silence. <br />
<br />
Hoping is not wishing. We confuse the two fairly often but they are very different. A wish has a specific object. We create “wish lists” for Christmas. We make a wish when we blow out the candles on a birthday cake. When we make a wish, we wish for something. It can be noble or incredibly selfish but it is always specific. Hope is so much more; so much deeper. Hope is a thing that, when we most truly experience it, often has no tangible object; no thing we can name. While wishes often do not come true it is only lost hope that leads us to despair. A wish needs to be articulated or written down. Hope is often hidden… it is more fragile and more precious. And it is silent in the waiting. <br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">“Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out” ~Vaclav Havel</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">‘The certainty of Christian hope lies beyond passion and beyond knowledge. Therefore we must sometimes expect our hope to come in conflict with darkness, desperation and ignorance. Therefore, too, we must remember that Christian optimism is not a perpetual sense of euphoria, an indefectible comfort in whose presence neither anguish nor tragedy can possibly exist. We must not strive to maintain a climate of optimism by the mere suppression of tragic realities. Christian optimism lies in a hope of victory that transcends all tragedy: a victory in which we pass beyond tragedy to glory with Christ crucified and risen’ ~thomas merton</blockquote>God spoke and then God was silent. And creation hoped. Creation groaned. Creation waited. <br />
<br />
In the early stages of pregnancy, there is not a lot of visible activity. Many of us wait months to even tell our friends or families that we are expecting. But, as the due date approaches, the signs become more clear, the change more dramatic. And hope grows stronger… more real… more visible. After 400 years of silent and un-noticed growth, the hope of God’s promise began to “show”. The signs of eminent birth became visible. And creation, who had carried this hope, began to feel the first subtle and then more pronounced kicking of hope, ready to be born. <br />
<br />
Zechariah watched as his son grew inside his wife’s body. He watched in silence. He waited. And when the son came and he looked into his eyes, his silence turned to song and his waiting was over. So, within a matter of weeks, would God’s silence end as he looked into the eyes of his own son and sent his own song, in the voices of angels, to proclaim that hope had finally come.Mark Curreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11730546626574519771noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3787679.post-4633671062991204052011-11-13T13:09:00.000-06:002011-11-13T13:09:13.636-06:00smile! god hates you.<blockquote class="tr_bq">“There is the dreadful pit of the glowing flames of the wrath of God; there is hell's wide gaping mouth open; and you have nothing to stand upon, nor any thing to take hold of; there is nothing between you and hell but the air; it is only the power and mere pleasure of God that holds you up.” ~Jonathan Edwards</blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DedC6WLSqrw/TsAVH5Eu9HI/AAAAAAAAADo/2TQiBrD4ZiU/s1600/love_and_hate.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="222" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DedC6WLSqrw/TsAVH5Eu9HI/AAAAAAAAADo/2TQiBrD4ZiU/s320/love_and_hate.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div><br />
</div>Today’s scripture passages were, to say the least, challenging. In Malachi; God rebukes and curses the priests and vows to smear dung on their faces. I was understandably less than enthusiastic regarding this pronouncement. And so; I flip over to the new testament passage in Revelation to find horse; bridle deep in blood from the proverbial “Grapes of Wrath”. <br />
<br />
OK. So God is angry. God is mad. <br />
<br />
I guess I should not be surprised. Every natural disaster - every hurricane, tsunami, earthquake – is explained by various prophets and preachers as the natural and expected outpouring of God’s wrath. I am not surprised but I am confused. <br />
<br />
God destroys most of Haiti because of a generations old “Pact with the Devil”. God allowed or possibly even caused New Orleans to be ravaged by hurricane Katrina in order to prepare or for another terror attack or possibly to prompt the confirmation of a particular Supreme Court nominee. And yet; No natural disaster has stopped genocide in Rwanda. No earthquake has swallowed the evil in Darfur. And the state of Pennsylvania, or at least Penn State University, remains safe and untouched. <br />
<br />
So we struggle with the idea of an angry God. We struggle because, if he is angry, it seems that he is, at very least, somewhat arbitrary in the way he rations out his wrath. <br />
<br />
Many of us learned very early that god was angry and that his anger was more than justified. I opened with an excerpt from Jonathan Edwards’ sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”. The sermon was given on July 8, 1741. Let me read the quote again: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">“There is the dreadful pit of the glowing flames of the wrath of God; there is hell's wide gaping mouth open; and you have nothing to stand upon, nor any thing to take hold of; there is nothing between you and hell but the air; it is only the power and mere pleasure of God that holds you up.” ~Jonathan Edwards</blockquote>Most of us look back at these words, spoken 270 years ago, and smile that we have risen above this view of God. That we have gained considerable ground in those almost 300 years and that, while historically important, Edwards’ sermon has not footing in 21st century mainstream Christendom. <br />
<br />
I want to read another quote. A quote made more recently; within the last few months rather than the last few centuries. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">“Some of you, God hates you. Some of you, God is sick of you. God is frustrated with you. God is wearied by you. God has suffered long enough with you. He doesn’t think you’re cute. He doesn’t think it’s funny. He doesn’t think your excuse is “meritous” (not an actual word). He doesn’t care if you compare yourself to someone worse than you, He hates them too. God hates, right now, personally, objectively hates some of you.”</blockquote>You might assume that this quote was taken from a fringe, outside-the-mainstream, preacher. Maybe the pastor in Florida who wanted to burn the Koran or the pastor in Oklahoma who protests at the funerals of veterans. The quote comes, in fact, from a very mainstream and very popular pastor; the pastor of a very young, hip church in a very hip city; a church of 10,000 plus members and several church plants; a bestselling Christian author and highly in demand speaker; the poster boy for young, hip, cool evangelicals. <br />
<br />
The idea of an angry God is central to many, if not most of our teachings on salivation or atonement. Most of us were taught that there was this gulf between us and god – a gulf that burned with his anger toward his creation. Anger toward each and every one of us. And that we are saved, not so much because we were forgiven but because God decided to pour ALL of that anger out on his own son… on Jesus. (well… all except what he saved for Haiti and New Orleans). <br />
<br />
My favorite theologian, N.T. Wright has written recently about the atonement and how our theology is a bit off point. Let me read from his response to a recent question on the topic of atonement and God’s anger. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">“If you say Christ died in our place and took our penalty and our punishment, that’s fine. But if the narrative that you have in mind is of a malevolent, capricious, angry God who is determined to punish somebody for all this sin that’s going on, and, ah! here’s somebody who happens to be his own Son, right, he’ll do, we’ll punish him and then the rest of you can go free—that story radically distorts the beautiful biblical meaning of substitionary atonement.<br />
<br />
Now I deliberately caricature to make the point. But substutionary atonement which is so central to justification means what it means within the biblical story, which is not that rather arbitrary angry God, determined to take it out on somebody, and it just happens to be an innocent victim. I’m not surprised that when people hear the story told like that, they often react against it” ~N.T. Wright</blockquote>You guys remember the old Saturday Night Live bit, “Deep Thoughts, by: Jack Handy”? One of my favorites was this pearl: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">If a kid asks where rain comes from, I think a cute thing to tell him is "God is crying." And if he asks why God is crying, another cute thing to tell him is "Probably because of something you did."</blockquote>It’s funny because we know two things about the statement. First; that it is so - very - wrong. And second; that it is pretty close to what most of us have and, maybe on some level, still believe. <br />
<br />
Again, Tom Wright: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">“This is what happens when people present over-simple stories… …with an angry God and a loving Jesus, with a God who demands blood and doesn’t much mind whose it is as long as it’s innocent. You’d have thought people would notice that this flies in the face of John’s and Paul’s deep-rooted theology of the love of the triune God: not ‘God was so angry with the world that he gave us his son’ but ‘God so loved the world that he gave us his son’.” ~N.T. Wright </blockquote><br />
I don’t pretend that scripture does not fully express God’s anger or His wrath. I would not suggest that these elements of his nature are false or that he has changed. I simply say this: that He is most fully and completely revealed in Jesus. In Christ we see Him fully for the first time. This is why Jesus said “if you have seen me, you have seen the father”. And so, all of God’s story, all of his character, all of what can be known of Him must be filtered through the gospels and through the person Jesus. <br />
<br />
When we embrace and embolden ourselves with the angry God, we give ourselves license to be angry. When we embrace a God who hates, we are then able to justify our own hatred. We use this Anne Lamott quote a lot around here: <br />
<br />
“You can safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.” <br />
<br />
A God who hates releases us to hate. To hate anything other – anything we do not understand, anyone who looks or behaves, or believes differently - Anyone not like us. <br />
<br />
Kris Kristofferson wrote a song in the early 70s entitled “Jesus Was a Capricorn” <div><br />
</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/ofzCZiQ9vjA?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><blockquote class="tr_bq">Jesus was a Capricorn, he ate organic foods.<br />
He believed in love and peace and never wore no shoes.<br />
Long hair, beard and sandals and a funky bunch of friends.<br />
Reckon they'd just nail him up if He come down again. </blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"> 'Cos everybody's got to have somebody to look down on.<br />
Who they can feel better than at anytime they please.<br />
Someone doin' somethin' dirty, decent folks can frown on.<br />
If you can't find nobody else, then help yourself to me. </blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"> Egg Head's cussin Red Neck's cussin' hippies for their hair.<br />
Others laugh at straights who laugh at freaks who laugh at squares.<br />
Some folks hate the whites who hate the blacks who hate the clan.<br />
Most of us hate anything that we don't understand. </blockquote><br />
May we be a people who throw away hatred and embrace love. May we be a community where hate and anger find no ground fertile enough to grow. May we remember that Jesus came, not because God hated the world, but because he loved it… and because we are loved may we love the world, both inside and outside our own tribe. His Kingdom Come…</div>Mark Curreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11730546626574519771noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3787679.post-7559635531953997532011-10-30T13:04:00.002-05:002011-10-31T10:18:17.705-05:00is this the right room for an argument?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LdMATWusngI/Tq2S3SHLWXI/AAAAAAAAADg/XYCyWwf24-s/s1600/calvin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LdMATWusngI/Tq2S3SHLWXI/AAAAAAAAADg/XYCyWwf24-s/s1600/calvin.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Titus 3<br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> 1 Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, 2 to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and always to be gentle toward everyone.<br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> 3 At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. 4 But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit,6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. 8 This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.<br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> 9 But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless. 10 Warn a divisive person once, and then warn them a second time. After that, have nothing to do with them. 11 You may be sure that such people are warped and sinful; they are self-condemned.</span></blockquote><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><br />
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</span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
Americans, at least some of us, love a good debate. We love to watch. Some of us love to participate. We love to wrestle with ideas; to look at an issue, take a position, and then plant our feet and defend it. <br />
<br />
For some… ok, for me… presidential election seasons are watched with the same enthusiasm that some have for baseball or football. I love politics for the sport. I love the offensive and defensive strategy; the virtual violence of the debate. And election night? It’s like the Super Bowl without the funny ads. <br />
<br />
Debate is important. It is the way we hammer out ideas and reach solutions to problems. It is the way we come to know our own mind or the minds of those we follow. It is even, sometimes, the way our minds are changed. Debate is really good and really healthy; except when it is not. <br />
<br />
The history of the church is punctuated with debate; with sometimes violent and bloody debate over how the scriptures are to be read; or even if they <i>are</i> to be read (by anyone other than qualified professionals). While our tendency toward violence based on religious conviction seems to have waned (within Christendom) our angry rhetoric and our propensity for drawing lines in the sand seem to be alive and well. <br />
<br />
Most of us (that grew up in church) grew up in a world of denominational division. As a Baptist teenager I worried about my friends that went to the Methodist church. I had no idea what the Methodist believed or how they differed from Baptist; I simply knew they were different and therefore suspect. I would laugh out loud, years later, when I read Norman Maclean’s “A River Runs Through It”. The patriarch of the Maclean family was a Presbyterian minister and, when asked to explain the difference, said simply that “a Methodist is nothing more than a Baptist who can read”. <br />
<br />
I would guess that many of us grew up with similar prejudices toward those outside our particular brand of Christianity. While it is probably human nature to align ourselves with certain tribes – to feel more at home in one community than in another – there is a dark side to this sort of tribalism that has for centuries led to deep anger, hatred, and even bloody conflict. <br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">9 …avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless. </span></blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> <br />
Again, it has been years since the church has burned a heretic or engaged in a religious war, and yet we continue to fight these battles from pulpits or blogs or twitter or facebook posts. <br />
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A popular young pastor publishes a book asking questions about heaven and hell – and he is issued a smug “farewell” and his seat is removed from the table. A national pundit and commentator instructs Christians to flee churches who utter the phrase “Social Justice”. A fundi preacher in Hipster Clothing makes old-school pronouncements on gender roles; or women in the pulpit, and is descended upon by the emergent crowd like ants on a discarded ice cream cone (ok… that was me… I think I might have been one of those ants…) <br />
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We love to fight – probably because we love to be right. We need to be right. And if we are going to be right; somebody has to be wrong. <br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">9 …avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless. </span></blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> <br />
There is an ancient Jewish parable in which two rabbis are arguing over a verse in the Torah. The argument has gone on for over twenty years. Finally, God gets so annoyed by the endless discussion that he comes down and he tells them that he will reveal what the verse really means. The Rabbis turn to God and respond by saying, "What right do you have to tell us what it means? You gave us the words, now leave us in peace to wrestle with them." <br />
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Maybe, if we are honest, winning the argument – being right - is more important than truth. Or maybe we simply enjoy the argument for its own sake. And maybe God is annoyed at our “endless discussion”. <br />
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One of the greatest frustrations with our government is that it is crippled by these very kinds of arguments. While there are those who live at the far left or the far right, most are simply folks who want the people we elect to do their jobs and to keep the ball rolling forward. Wisdom should tell us that solutions are superior to ideology and that hard work accomplishes more than debate. And it seems that the church now follows the same path as our government. We have entered into “endless discussions” over this doctrine or that stream of theology and we have decided that we should stop all forward movement until the issue is settled. Trouble is the issue is never settled – and many of the issues likely never will be settled. And instead of advancing the Kingdom – instead of working together to build it on earth – we beat up on each other – we argue and debate – until we are nothing but noise and confusion to those on the outside looking in. <br />
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We have a calling. We are called to change the world; to build and to create; to strip away the things that blind us and the rest of the human race from the reality of His kingdom come. While our beliefs, our convictions, our doctrines may help us toward that end; they are NOT an end in themselves. <br />
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Outside of Christ, we have only one picture of human bliss – of humanity in perfect harmony with its creator. We see this picture in the creation story. We see this harmony in the Garden. And we see that this harmony, this beauty, this pre-fall bliss was not the result of right doctrine or good theology. In fact, it was the knowledge of good and evil that destroyed humanity’s perfect harmony with the creator. Adam and Eve had always been naked – it only became a problem when the idea of right and wrong entered the conversation. God’s “who told you that you were naked” is perhaps worth a great deal of contemplation. <br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">John 13 </span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> 34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” </span></blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> <br />
Not because we are right… not because we agree… not because we have one, single, pure doctrine… but because we love one another. <br />
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The name of Jesus is not exalted by the eloquence of our words or the strength of our arguments. But His name is shouted in our love for one another and for those around us. We will never “win the world” by winning the debates within the church or even the debates between the church and those outside. We win the fight when we <i>stop</i> fighting. We lose when we confuse the affirmation of our ideas with real and genuine love – which is what our hearts really need. But I win when I realize that I don’t much care whether you agree with me so long as I know you love me. <br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">9 …avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless. </span></blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> <br />
I am 47. I can see 50 in pretty clear focus. In a handful of years I will have outlived both of my parents. And I find myself looking back more often. It is not that I have stopped looking forward; it’s just that I am finding the path ahead is greatly defined by the path behind. <br />
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I see change. The world has changed. The ways we communicate have changed. But, mostly, I am thinking about how I have changed. <br />
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As I came to the close of my 20s – as I faced 30 – I was certain about a great many things. I knew what was right and what was wrong. I knew what God loved… and what he hated. I argued and debated for right belief. I smashed my secular records, gave up R-rated movies, salty language, and beer. And I wondered, if not out loud, if HIV was not a natural consequence of sin. I voted republican and was a 5 point Calvanist. <br />
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When I look back at 20-something me, I am not ashamed or filled with regret. I know that that version of myself was a necessary part of becoming who I am in this moment. And I am encouraged because I am beginning to understand that growth cannot happen if we remain static – that when we grip to tightly any moment in time, we miss the beauty of change and growth and wisdom. <br />
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These days; I rarely, if ever, listen to “christian music”. I love and embrace salty language… and beer. I don’t believe that <i>anybody</i> should be denied a seat at God’s table. I am not sure I believe in the “rapture” and I am more than a little conflicted about hell. And I look back at that 27 year old kid and realize that we still have something in common. We both want desperately to live as closely to God’s heart as possible. We both are seeking wisdom and truth and we are both being changed by every question asked. <br />
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And so… I look back and marvel at the evolving reality of the man I am while I look forward to meeting the man I will be when 50 has almost disappeared in my rear-view mirror. <br />
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As our vision as a community has come into focus over the last few weeks and months, I have been struck by something beautiful and surprising in its simplicity. As we become a people who pursue the work of the kingdom - liturgy as the work of the people – our doctrine becomes less and less important. When we are raking leaves at Miss Bev’s House or sorting sweatshirts for “The One”… we are not all that concerned with debates or controversies. We are not concerned with being<i> right </i>when we are concerned with being <i>busy</i>. This community represents a variety of opinions on a variety of issues and we will certainly discuss and debate these issues over coffee, or a meal, or a glass of red wine. But our debates will <i>not</i> define us. Our doctrine will <i>not</i> define us. Instead, let us be defined by our love for one another, despite our differences, and by the way we actively engage in the work of the kingdom. Let us continue to believe that His kingdom is here and that we are called to actively participate in the full revelation of his kingdom. A kingdom revealed in our love… for Him… for each other… and for the world. <br />
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His Kingdom Come </span>Mark Curreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11730546626574519771noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3787679.post-71242661860626345622011-10-23T14:41:00.000-05:002011-10-23T14:41:58.774-05:00Occupy Jerusalem<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aWXqSVUIghw/TqRt-Q_qIyI/AAAAAAAAADY/C1eiKiTAKLY/s1600/justice.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="232" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aWXqSVUIghw/TqRt-Q_qIyI/AAAAAAAAADY/C1eiKiTAKLY/s320/justice.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><strong><em>Nehemiah 5</em></strong></div><blockquote><strong><em> 1 Now the men and their wives raised a great outcry against their fellow Jews. 2 Some were saying, “We and our sons and daughters are numerous; in order for us to eat and stay alive, we must get grain.”</em></strong><strong><em> </em></strong><strong><em> 3</em></strong><strong><em> Others were saying, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards and our homes to get grain during the famine.”</em></strong><strong><em> </em></strong><strong><em> 4</em></strong><strong><em> Still others were saying, “We have had to borrow money to pay the king’s tax on our fields and vineyards. 5 Although we are of the same flesh and blood as our fellow Jews and though our children are as good as theirs, yet we have to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. Some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but we are powerless, because our fields and our vineyards belong to others.”</em></strong><strong><em> </em></strong><strong><em> 6</em></strong><strong><em> When I heard their outcry and these charges, I was very angry. 7 I pondered them in my mind and then accused the nobles and officials. I told them, “You are charging your own people interest!” So I called together a large meeting to deal with them 8 and said: “As far as possible, we have bought back our fellow Jews who were sold to the Gentiles. Now you are selling your own people, only for them to be sold back to us!” They kept quiet, because they could find nothing to say.</em></strong><strong><em> </em></strong><strong><em> 9</em></strong><strong><em> So I continued, “What you are doing is not right. Shouldn’t you walk in the fear of our God to avoid the reproach of our Gentile enemies? 10 I and my brothers and my men are also lending the people money and grain. But let us stop charging interest! 11 Give back to them immediately their fields, vineyards, olive groves and houses, and also the interest you are charging them—one percent of the money, grain, new wine and olive oil.”</em></strong><strong><em> </em></strong><strong><em> 12</em></strong><strong><em> “We will give it back,” they said. “And we will not demand anything more from them. We will do as you say.”</em></strong><strong><em> </em></strong><strong><em> Then I summoned the priests and made the nobles and officials take an oath to do what they had promised.</em></strong><strong><em> 13 I also shook out the folds of my robe and said, “In this way may God shake out of their house and possessions anyone who does not keep this promise. So may such a person be shaken out and emptied!”</em></strong><strong><em> </em></strong><strong><em> At this the whole assembly said, “Amen,” and praised the LORD. And the people did as they had promised.</em></strong><strong><em> </em></strong><strong><em> 14</em></strong><strong><em> Moreover, from the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, until his thirty-second year—twelve years—neither I nor my brothers ate the food allotted to the governor. 15 But the earlier governors—those preceding me—placed a heavy burden on the people and took forty shekels[</em></strong><strong><em>a</em></strong><strong><em>]</em></strong><strong><em> of silver from them in addition to food and wine. Their assistants also lorded it over the people. But out of reverence for God I did not act like that. 16Instead, I devoted myself to the work on this wall. All my men were assembled there for the work; we[</em></strong><strong><em>b</em></strong><strong><em>]</em></strong><strong><em> did not acquire any land.</em></strong><strong><em> </em></strong><strong><em> 17</em></strong><strong><em> Furthermore, a hundred and fifty Jews and officials ate at my table, as well as those who came to us from the surrounding nations. 18 Each day one ox, six choice sheep and some poultry were prepared for me, and every ten days an abundant supply of wine of all kinds. In spite of all this, I never demanded the food allotted to the governor, because the demands were heavy on these people.</em></strong><strong><em> 19</em></strong><strong><em> Remember me with favor, my God, for all I have done for these people.</em></strong></blockquote><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">It would be fairly easy to slide today’s passage into a purely political discussion and I have to admit that the temptation is great. That said, while I won’t promise not to touch on the relevance of this passage to current events here and over the rest of the world, I hope we can find a deeper truth in the passage. I hope that, together, we can find a way forward into our own story that allows the ancient story to resonate and illuminate.</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">Israel had been in exile – in Persia - and, although Nehemiah and others were allowed to return to Jerusalem, they were there at a foreign king’s pleasure and were arguably still in exile – while residing in their own land. Nehemiah had been granted to opportunity to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and it was for this purpose that a great number of Jews had returned home. The Jewish society and economy, however, were not fully restored and the result seems to be a situation where a few benefitted financially during the return but many did not. In fact, it seems that our passage indicates that many Jews found themselves oppressed in their own homeland – not by the Persian government – but by their own.</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">Verse 1 of Jeremiah 5 says that “the men and their wives raised a great outcry against their fellow Jews.” They complained of lack of food for their families. They complained that they had been forced to incur debt in order to simply eat. And they complained that the lenders, other Jews, were charging high rates of interest and forcing them to mortgage their property – with all the associated risks – in order to survive.</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">Jeremiah hears the complaints of the poor in his community and he is angered. He strongly accuses the powerful, the rulers, the officials within his community. Not, by the way, the “religious” officials or leaders. Rather, he accuses the local Jewish government of oppressing their own people. He accuses the rich and powerful of benefiting at the expense of the poor and powerless. Nehemiah is angered by the disparity between the greatest and the least of his community and he speaks out for those whose voices had been ignored. </div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><blockquote><strong><em>“You are charging your own people interest!” So I called together a large meeting to deal with them 8 and said: “As far as possible, we have bought back our fellow Jews who were sold to the Gentiles. Now you are selling your own people, only for them to be sold back to us!” They kept quiet, because they could find nothing to say.</em></strong><strong><em> 9 So I continued, “What you are doing is not right. Shouldn’t you walk in the fear of our God to avoid the reproach of our Gentile enemies? 10 I and my brothers and my men are also lending the people money and grain. But let us stop charging interest! 11 Give back to them immediately their fields, vineyards, olive groves and houses, and also the interest you are charging them—one percent of the money, grain, new wine and olive oil.”</em></strong></blockquote><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">and then an amazing thing happens. The accused officials and rulers respond:</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><blockquote><strong><em>12</em></strong><strong><em> </em></strong><strong><em>“We will give it back,” they said. “And we will not demand anything more from them. We will do as you say.”</em></strong></blockquote><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">And then Nehemiah, in order to seal the deal, calls in the priests and makes the officials and rulers take an oath before the priests that they will return the possessions and property they have taken, return the interest they have charged, and treat the least in their community with justice and compassion.</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">This is sort of and “Occupy Jerusalem” moment…</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">Ok… in fairness… I did indicate that I <em>might</em> mention it…</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">In this ancient story we find a fairly modern and familiar situation. We live, if we are honest, in a society that values the beautiful, the powerful, the wealthy, and the successful. And I do not suggest that this is completely surprising or even completely wrong. We certainly admire those who are visionaries… innovators and risk takers… and we should never resent their successes, financial or otherwise. </div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">However… when wealth becomes its own goal rather than the byproduct of vision or hard work - and when financial wealth is gained with little regard to its adverse effects on others… what is our responsibility?</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">Maybe it is to remember that we are citizens of another kingdom. Maybe to remember that while we remain in exile – remembering our passage a couple of weeks ago and the admonition to settle down and to live life where we are – and yet to always remember that our 1st and deepest responsibility is to His kingdom and his Kingship.</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">Maybe it is to look at our own country and even the world and to ask ourselves this:</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">What does it mean to love mercy and to do justice?</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">If we forget our party affiliations and the marching orders we receive from their ideologies, what would Jesus have us do? What is our responsibility? Or more pointedly… Who is our neighbor?</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">What if Jesus were president?</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">I was asked once to participate in a debate as to whether Jesus’ teachings were more compatible with the Democratic Party or the Republican party. I showed up and made my case but found myself saying again and again that the entire question was really wrong. Jesus does not call us to follow a political ideology… he calls us to follow him.</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">And so when Nehemiah saw the oppression of the least in his community at the hands of the powerful and important in that same community… he stood up and he spoke out. And he demanded a change. For us, when we see so many people hurting… struggling… unemployed… hopeless… and yet the most powerful and successful among us seem to only gain in power and success… why do we check our party allegiance before we decide how to respond? Has the American church… on the whole… failed to stand up for the poor… the hungry… the outsider… and has the church instead focused on valuing and protecting the powerful?</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">What if the churched stood up and spoke out against oppression and poverty in our own society? What if we stood up and spoke out for the poor and the oppressed with the same level of passion and conviction to that we often reserve for our anti-abortion or anti-gay marriage rhetoric? What if Christians followed Nehemiah’s lead and demanded that our leaders govern and lead fairly and justly. What if our rulers ruled as Nehemiah ruled…</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">If the final section of today’s passage, Nehemiah becomes governor and holds the position for 12 years. Here is his description of his term:</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><blockquote>…<strong><em>neither I nor my brothers ate the food allotted to the governor. 15 But the earlier governors—those preceding me—placed a heavy burden on the people and took forty shekels[</em></strong><strong><em>a</em></strong><strong><em>]</em></strong><strong><em> </em></strong><strong><em>of silver from them in addition to food and wine. Their assistants also lorded it over the people. But out of reverence for God I did not act like that. 16Instead, I devoted myself to the work on this wall. All my men were assembled there for the work; we[</em></strong><strong><em>b</em></strong><strong><em>]</em></strong><strong><em> </em></strong><strong><em>did not acquire any land.</em></strong><br />
<strong><em> 17 Furthermore, a hundred and fifty Jews and officials ate at my table, as well as those who came to us from the surrounding nations. 18 Each day one ox, six choice sheep and some poultry were prepared for me, and every ten days an abundant supply of wine of all kinds. In spite of all this, I never demanded the food allotted to the governor, because the demands were heavy on these people.</em></strong></blockquote><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">What if we expected to be governed with true justice… for all? What if our leaders refused to gain at our expense… refused to prosper as we suffer? What if we believed that our calling was to build Jesus’ kingdom and to do the work necessary to see it come on earth as it is in heaven?</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em;">His Kingdom Come…</div>Mark Curreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11730546626574519771noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3787679.post-56605705428395244482011-09-14T12:07:00.000-05:002011-09-14T12:07:13.400-05:00walk on by...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://media.livenationinternational.com/lincsmedia/Media/k/r/k/c7727972-2942-46fe-9db5-1cfa42e58479.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://media.livenationinternational.com/lincsmedia/Media/k/r/k/c7727972-2942-46fe-9db5-1cfa42e58479.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">Ok... there is something unassailable about a great pop song. They may not be daring or edgy... but they are to music what Frank Lloyd Wright is to visual art. And if Dylan is Van Gogh… Bacharach and David are certainly Wright.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">I saw Dionne Warwick perform last night. My wife called her the original Diva and she meant that in the most flattering and honoring sense of the word. At 70+ years and certainly with number one hits and platinum sales long in the rear view mirror, the legendary singer reminded me that sales and awards and magazines covers are not the point. The point is, as it has always been, the songs. And my god… what songs.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">We say that familiarity breeds contempt and maybe it is true; but not with these songs… not with these melodies.<span> </span>From the opening notes of “Walk on By”, she had me. I could not resist a smile. Maybe it’s because these songs take me back to my childhood or maybe it is simply because they are so perfectly crafted and, after 40 years, still delivered with an unbelievable ease and joy. It’s not that her voice is as strong as it was in 1968… or even 1988… it is because these songs belong to her. They were composed by master architects who knew so intimately the eventual resident who would make these songs her home. They knew where to put the corners and the long hallways. They knew where best to let the light in and where to embrace the dimness of evening. They knew what type of staircase was needed to make the house beautiful and yet allow the lady of the house to move effortlessly up and down the stairs. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white; font-family: inherit;">Is there a more hopeful ode to failed love than “What Do You Get When You Fall in Love?” Is there a more heartbreakingly beautiful melody than “Alfie”?<span> </span>Is there a more irresistible sing-a-long than “What the World Needs Now”?<span> </span>And is there another voice who more perfectly indwells these melodies?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">My high-school buddy, Rob, has played and toured with Dionne Warwick for over 20 years. I went to the show last night because he lives a world away and it was a rare opportunity to see him face to face. I went to see my oldest and closest friend and to reconnect with a younger and less cynical version of myself. I am not sure I’d have gotten there so effortlessly without those songs and that voice. Thanks, Ms. Warwick. Thanks for taking care of my buddy Rob and thank you for taking care of and watching over these songs. They</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> both remain in good hands.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>Mark Curreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11730546626574519771noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3787679.post-86913614221964285732011-08-29T09:57:00.000-05:002011-08-29T09:57:33.790-05:00looking back...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8Kc9TcXfqxo/TluoazIfTYI/AAAAAAAAAC0/-LwdUqnlUZ8/s1600/RearViewMirror.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8Kc9TcXfqxo/TluoazIfTYI/AAAAAAAAAC0/-LwdUqnlUZ8/s320/RearViewMirror.gif" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNormal">I am 47. I can see 50 in pretty clear focus. In a handful of years I will have outlived both of my parents. And I find myself looking back more often. It is not that I have stopped looking forward; it’s just that I am finding the path ahead is greatly defined by the path behind.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I see change. The world has changed. The ways we communicate have changed. But, mostly, I am thinking about how I have changed.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">As I came to the close of my 20s – as I faced 30 – I was certain about a great many things. I knew what was right and what was wrong. I knew what God loved… and what he hated. <span> </span>I argued and debated for right belief. I smashed secular records, gave up R-rated movies, salty language, and beer. And I wondered, if not out loud, if HIV was not a natural consequence of sin. I voted republican.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">When I look back at 20-something me, I am not ashamed or filled with regret. I know that that version of myself was a necessary part of becoming who I am in this moment. And I am encouraged because I am beginning to understand that growth cannot happen if we remain static – that when we grip to tightly any moment in time, we miss the beauty of change and growth and wisdom.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">These days; I rarely, if ever, listen to “christian music”. I love and embrace salty language… and beer. I don’t believe that the earth was made in 6 days and I don’t believe that LGBT folks should be denied a seat at God’s table. And I look back at that 27 year old kid and realize that we still have something in common. We both want desperately to live as closely to God’s heart as possible. We both are seeking wisdom and truth and we are both being changed by every question asked.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">And so… I look back and marvel at the evolving reality of the man I am while I look forward to meeting the man I will be when 50 has almost disappeared in my rear-view mirror.</div>Mark Curreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11730546626574519771noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3787679.post-25098015713643832422011-08-26T14:51:00.004-05:002012-06-05T08:13:30.460-05:00the parable of the lost sherpa<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">So you are climbing Everest and you have contracted with a Sherpa to guide you to the top. Thing is - he has never led an expedition to the summit. He has been on the mountain most of his life. He’s been to the summit with other sherpas. And you like him, he’s scrappy and determined; and really wants to go to the summit… to lead a </span>team to the summit. So you go…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">At base camp you notice that he’s not always as sure of himself as the more experienced sherpas. He seems to ask a lot of questions. He alternates between great enthusiasm and deep doubt. But he is going. Doubt or no doubt; he is going. And so you follow…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">At the next encampment you notice that some new climbers have joined the team. The young Sherpa has invited them. He seems to like them but you are not crazy about them. They are just so different… so unlike the rest of the team (or maybe they are just unlike <i>you</i>). But they seem to want to climb and he wants to lead them (and you) up the mountain.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Then you notice his gear. You have never heard of the maker and you have been climbing for a long time. You also realize that the map he carries, his map to the peak, is not the standard map. In fact, it is a map that many of the other sherpas have rejected – warned others not to trust. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">And still more climbers join. Some with no maps. Some with maps they have drawn themselves… and worse; you begin to believe your team is lost.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">And you become afraid. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">You wonder, from base camp, if the novice Sherpa and his team made the summit. You kinda hope he makes it but you know in your heart there is no way he could have. And you think aloud, “I’ll come back and try again… I'm sure I will.”</span></div>Mark Curreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11730546626574519771noreply@blogger.com0