Elder Brother

What’s the good word? I was convicted on Sunday. What was I convicted about? Well, it was about being an elder brother. Now, I am an only child, never had a younger brother or older brother, nor was I either of those myself. I was teaching a class on the well known story of the Prodigal Son on Sunday and something hit me in between the eyes. This isn’t a story about one son who was far away from his father, this was about two sons who were far away from their father. We like to focus on the younger brother as a church because he was the one who took his part of the inheritence and blew it all on gambling and prostitutes. We like to focus on this “lost” child, because, well aren’t they the ones we are supposed to focus on? Yes, but if we don’t pay attention to the elder brother we miss who this story was intended for, the Pharisees. The elder brother was far from his father too. Remember what the elder brother did when the father took back the younger brother into the family? He said, “Father, all my life I have done you right. I’ve been good. I’ve done everything you’ve asked me too, but this son of yours (notice he didn’t say my brother) squandered everything and now you are throwing him a party?” Do you see it? We are all guilty of this. When someone receives grace, aren’t we a little jealouse because we feel they don’t deserve it? You see this son was just as far from the father as the younger brother, but not because of what he did wrong, but because of his righteousness. He too was only interested in what he would get from the father as a result of being good. Don’t we do that? “Ok God, I’ve been good, I’ve been doing what I am supposed to do, why aren’t you blessing me?” Until we can confess not only our wrong doings but our righteousness, we can’t be the followers Christ calls us to be. Remember, the target audience of this parable is not “the wayward sinners” but the religious peope who do everything Scripture requires. Jesus is saying, both the religious and irreligious are spiritually lost, both life paths are dead ends. Wow! And I thought I knew this story well. Perhaps I should get to work on that. And that’s the good word for the day.

Worship Gathering?

What’s the good word? I’ve been thinking more and more about worship lately. Perhaps it is because of where I am at in my current ministry setting. What I have been pondering (struggling?) with is the term worship service. Can we call it a worship service any more? I would like to think we can but I think we can’t. We can’t until our way of looking at worship changes. Service entails doing something. I think we have lost the fact that worship is not about us. We come to worship on Sunday mornings, in some places Saturday nights, and we expect something out of it. We focus on whether we like the songs or not, we focus on how well the preacher preached the sermon, we focus on what was done or not done that we didn’t like, what we did or did not get out of the worship service, and suddenly we seem to have lost the meaning behind why we are there in the first place. If we are going to use the term service, we need to be reminded that we are there in response to the goodness of what God is doing in our lives. Worship is about God, not us. But if we can’t get passed the service being for us and not for God, then what do we call it? We call it Worship. Or  worship gathering. If I recall, worship service is never used in the Bible, but there is always reference to a gathering of people FOR worship. Perhaps just by switching the word we use, maybe we can begin to get back to the heart of what worship is about. God! And that’s the good word for today!

Freedom

What’s the good word? I am preparing for Reformation Sunday this week. A Sunday that is a BIG day for the Lutheran Church. And as it is every year, the Gospel comes from John 8:31-36. In it Jesus tells us that if we continue in his word we will know the truth and the truth shall set us free. Free from what? Well a freedom from sin. If we look at Jesus as the “New Exodus” (if I can coin that phrase from Rob Bell) then this is indeed an exodus from our ways of sin. If you look at the whole story of the Old Testament, you will begin to see a patern of slavery to exodus out of slavery. Ultimately this becomes exile later on in the story, just before we hit the “newer” testament. It is evident by the stories we see in the older testament that people were just stuck in a vicious cycle, and that cycle had a lot to do with sin. But Jesus was sent to bring us into a new exodus, an exodus that will free us from the slavery of sin. Freedom from sin is not an innate characteristic, but rather is seen as a gift of God, available only through Jesus. This was a new and radical idea. But just as Moses lifted up the stake in the wilderness as he led the exodus, so too was a stake lifted up in the new exodus from sin, but this time it came with someone on it. Jesus. And that’s the good word for today.

Molded

What’s the good word? Today I attended a network meeting and during our devotions we were asked to mold a piece of clay into anything we wanted. For some reason I thought of a smooth skipping stone. You know those? They are these flat smooth rocks that have been formed by the waves that are ideal for skipping across the water. Why was I molding that? It occurred to me that when we pick up a skipping rock we toss it across the water and it now is relocated to a different spot. The stone may not have wanted to go there, but it now is, and it’s served a purpose. This may be a stretch, but it might be the same with us. Sometimes we are quite content where we are. We’ve gotten into a routine and we are comfortable where we are, but God has other plans. God has a purpose for us. And one day we are picked up and sent to another place. Sometimes we may not want to go, but God has a reason and a purpose for us to go. God has molded us with gifts and perhaps the gifts can be used somewhere else for good. One other thing I noticed. As I molded the clay, I could see my finger prints on the clay. So too, when God molds us, God’s finger prints are all over us. That’s the good word for today.

Following

What’s the good word? I just finished my devotional this morning. It was the gospel text from Matthew, where Jesus calls his first disciples. Following is not always easy to do. The story makes it sound so simple. In the text it says that the disciples immediately followed Jesus. They just threw down their nets (basically what they made their living doing) and followed him. How easy it sounds to do, but how hard it is to actually do it sometimes. As a pastor, sometimes I’m called to go somewhere. Sometimes it’s at a time that seems wrong in my opinion, but is probably right in God’s view. We know what can happen when we don’t follow. Look at Jonah. He didn’t want to go where God was calling him to. But God continued to seek him out. Sometimes we don’t want to go where God calls us to go. Sometimes we feel it’s the wrong time. We now have to give up going to that football game, going out with friends, or we are simply left scratching our heads going, “Why now?” We always liked to play follow the leader as a child. We liked it better when we were the leader. We have a leader we can trust, and go we must. And we go, knowing God is with us. We go, sometimes not knowing what the journey looks like. We go, with anticipation and butterflies in our stomachs. We go and follow. That’s the good word for today.

The Dash

What’s the good word?  I wrote my sermon for Sunday this morning. We are reading as a congregation “One Month To Live” by Kerry Shook. We are doing the entire church wide campaign and we will be preaching on the four principles in that book over the next 6 Sundays. This week is about the dash. It’s been a theme that keeps coming up. We don’t get much choice in the two dates on our gravestone when we die, but we do have a big choice as to what that little dash means. And now, I just picked up a totally unrelated book and turned to chapter one, and it’s about the dash. Is God trying to tell me something? I hope He just means, “Brad, start living!” instead of “Brad, you don’t have much longer!” (laughing out loud right now). But none of us know when that time will come. We choose whether the dash means everything, or nothing. So today I ask myself, and I hope you do the same: What am I really after? What do I long for? What does my heart really desire? I’ve learned to benefit from God’s plan, I have to be willing to let go of my own. That is scary at times. How willing am I right now, in this moment to let go of my own plan, and let God’s plan rule? That’s the good word.

Vision

What’s the good word? I’ve been thinking a lot about vision lately. Vision is important. I am finding out that it is important in a church, a company. and even in our personal lives. There’s a fine line between mission and vision. I’m learning that mission is about what you do well, it’s what you are about. Vision on the other hand is about what your future looks like because you do mission well. It’s about what you want to become. Now we can have vision statements all we want and not have vision. I know plenty of churches who have a vision statement but lack vision. If you lack vision you will simply be satisfied with the status quo. You will go to great lengths to protect it wihtout ever thinking about what might or could be. If you lack vision you will burnout really quickly. There won’t be anything to give toward. You will become inwardly focused. Craig Groeschel of Lifechurch.tv posses the following questions in regard to stirring up vision. And keep in mind here, I’m talking about personal vision, ministry vision, coorporation vision, or you fill in the blank.

1. Why do you (or your organization) exist?

2. What can you (or your organization) be the best in the world at?

3. If you could do only one things, what would it be?

4. What breaks your heart at night and keeps you awake?

And remember, don’t make the vision long and complicated. It needs to be short, it needs to be motivational, it needs to be clear. I heard a great story about Walt Disney. He died before the park in Florida was completed. On opening day in 1971, 5 years after his death, someone commented to Mike Vance, the creative director, “Isn’t it too bad Walt Disney didn’t live to see this?” “He did see it,” Vance replied. “That’s why it’s here.” That’s the good word.

National Youth Gathering Day Three

What’s the good word? It’s the last full day of the gathering. I can’t believe how fast it came. I was doing some walking again yesterday (yeh, I know BIG surprise!) As I was walking I was looking up at these huge sky watch boxes that the city police department has put up everywhere to keep watch over our youth. I was reminded that God is constantly in the watch box. God is constantly watching over us, and God is watching over this gathering. There is no way this could be going as well as it is without God watching over us. God is here, God has been here, and God will remain here far after we leave. And that’s the good word.

National Youth Gathering Day Two

What’s the good word? My feet hurt. It hurts to walk right now. Yesterday was the first full day of the gathering and it went great! Of course there were a few cliches, but the good that was done far out weigh the things that didn’t work. As I think about the 10.2 miles I walked yesterday, as I think about how my feet hurt still today, I am reminded that sometimes it hurts to walk in the shadow of the cross. Jesus calls us to take up our cross and follow him, but sometimes that journey isn’t easy. There isn’t anything easy about following Christ, well, perhaps the easiest thing is the grace we receive. Sometimes Christ calls us to unexpected places, to do unexpected things, and that is what this gathering is about. It was an unexpected place. Many didn’t feel we should be in this city. The youth are doing unexpected things. But in the process the people of New Orleans are receiving an unexpected grace, and in return, all participants are receiving it back! Sometimes it hurts, but in the end, as my coach would say, no pain, no gain. Perhaps he was right all those years! And that is the good word.

National Youth Gathering Day One

What’s the good word? It’s now 9:30 p.m. and I’m exhausted. Day one of the National Youth Gathering is in the books. I got a chance to get over to the Superdome to hear 37,000 high school students worship God this evening. It blew me away! And one thing that stuck out at me was this: “When I get down, He lifts me up.” It is the line in one of the songs that we sang tonight, and yet it still rings in my head. Jesus really does lift us up in the times we feel the lowest. And now it’s already the next day, and I’m feeling low. But you know, there have been people around me that have been lifting me up the whole day, even when things aren’t going well. Jesus lifted up those who were low. He lifted up the woman caught in adultery, he lifted up the paralyzed man, he lifted up the woman who anointed him with oil. And all of that began with a song from his mother Mary early on, before he was born. “He has lifted up the lowly, and casted down the mighty from their thrones.” And that is waht 37,000 kids are here to do this week. To lift up the lowly. To be God’s hands, to do God’s work. To lift up the lowly. To do as God would do to us when we are down, lift them up! And that’s the good word!