Break For Elders

We interrupt our regularly scheduled program to bring a word from the Word about elders. We talked this last Sunday morning, in a combined bible class, about the importance of elders and what makes an elder, from a biblical perspective. Participants in the class got a handy handout that will help us think through what it means to be a select good elders for our congregation. Here's the highlight reel, as I see it, from our time together.

-A really good place to begin talking about elders is back in the gospels when Jesus talks about leadership in his new community. Jesus has called a distinct community to follow him and has called them to a unique way of life. He wants leaders to emerge from within this community that can lead the community to become like him. Therefore a great place to begin looking for qualities of a elder is the life and teachings of Jesus.

-Jesus inverts the way the world looks at power. The leaders that Jesus seeks are those who are first and foremost servants of others. Jesus wants those who follow him to be servants just like him - and Jesus serves everybody. Mark 10:45, "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many." Jesus calls those who follow him to serve and so leaders in his community need to truly exhibit service to others in all that they do.

-We talked about the interesting fact that biblical leaders don't generally want to be leaders! In the Old Testament when God calls a prophet the prophet rejects God's call at first. They don't want to do it! God wants leaders who are humble and don't think, perhaps, that they actually have anything to offer.

-The leading metaphor for a leader in the bible is that of a shepherd. God is often talked about as being a shepherd, right? And so a leader of God's flock should emulate God in this. Shepherd is a powerful image for a leader in the church.

I know we talked about more. What have I left out? What moves you about all of this? What difference do you think it would make if we served our servants?

Peace,
Aaron

From the Mountain to the Valley

I want to begin by briefly reminding readers that you don't have to have a "blogger" account to make a comment. All you have to do is choose to comment as an anonymous person and then, if you would be so kind, just sign your name to the bottom of your comment. A few folks had questions about this. On the comments page just scroll down to "post comment as" and then select "anonymous." You will have to then "de-code" a secret word, which will make you feel like a secret agent - enjoy that experience - and then you can publish your comment. It's really not that hard. Feel free to do a practice comment, just for fun. Comment with something like, "wow this is easy, I'll see you all on Sunday!" or something less cheesy. Alright...enough.


I want to have more Sunday morning classes like last Sunday's class! We really ripped into the text and talked about some powerful things. It never ceases to amaze me how deep a conversation can go when we read texts communally. This reveals, once again, the communal aspect of our spiritual lives. God speaks to us the loudest, I think, in community. Let's do that again.

We opened with the story in Mark 9 about Jesus' moment of transfiguration. It is, we all agreed, a rather odd story. Jesus selects a few from the disciples and heads up this really high mountain where he suddenly transfigures before their eyes. His clothes are dazzling white and then Moses and Elijah are there. Peter speaks up and says, "It is good for us to be here! let's put up some tents for the three of you chaps!" and then God speaks up, "This is my son, who I live, listen to him" and then everyone is gone. Then they turn and walk right down from this mountain into a rather messy valley experience.

This story, like many stories in scripture, works in many layers...

-this story shows the ultimate authority of Christ. Elijah and Moses were some really well thought of guys, to say the least. They were powerful prophets and all believers held them in the highest esteem. On one level this story shows God selecting Jesus out of this crowd. Joshy Stump commented that God spoke up right after Peter wanted to build tents for the three of them, which was the wrong attitude. As Joshy said, "if there were going to build any tents, there would have been just one tent!" This story shows the ultimate authority of Christ.

-This story also reveals that, indeed, Jesus is God's own son. This is important when you consider what all is about to happen to Jesus. This is a reminder of who Jesus really is.

-This story shows that Jesus picks some leaders from among his leaders. This is a sub-plot, to be sure, but an important one, especially for us as we begin to pick some leaders (elders) from among our church leaders.

-And then we focused on the fact that Jesus rejects Peter's desire to stay on the mountain. Peter obviously thought the mountain was some sort of an arrival point...nope. It was a sending point. The mountain was not a place they were gathered to, it's a place they were sent from time.
Jesus does not want to dwell on the mountain. Rather, he heads right down into the valley, where things are messy. We noted that this move is actually a very Godly move. God is, in his very nature, incarnational. God goes out to his creation. This is a very important idea in scripture.
The very first commandment, or perhaps mission, that God gives humans is way back in Genesis 1 when he asks them to be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth. Remember, oh please remember because I feel like we constantly forget, people are created in the image of God. "In the image of God he created him, both male and female he created them." Men and women (everyone) is created in God's image. As our song goes, "and every person of every race is a variation on our savior's face."

So...

God want's to fill the earth with his image. This is our big mission as believers, as image bearers, of God. This is what God wants from us as his people. Fill the earth with the image of God. In the book of Revelation we have a picture of the end when, what!, the whole earth is filled with the glory of God! This the where the world is going to...filled, absolutely filled with the image, the glory, the fullness, of God. And we get to do that. God has been calling his people to join him in this mission through all of scripture. Genesis 12, Exodus, Luke 10, Matthew 28, Mark 16, Acts, Ephesians...and so many more are stories and invitations to fill the earth with the image of God. This is the big mission. This is our main task!

But...

This does not happen by staying on a mountain. This happens by going down into the valley. Filling places where God is not seen with the image of God. Jesus does not remain on the mountain, rather he goes down into the valley. We, as God's image bearers, must not remain on the mountain (or in our churches...for that matter!) we must bring the image of God into all the world.

Whew! You can see it was a thick class. We talked about how this applies to the journey we find ourselves in these days with the possible sale of our building coming up. This is a move of faith! But it is scary. Noticing that God blesses his people when they follow him off of the mountain and into the valley is vital for us at this time.

Reflections?

Hopes?

Encouragements?

The Third Way

Friends,

Thanks again for the time and thoughtfulness you gave to the class on Sunday. This is always such an inspiring time for us to explore the deep inner-workings of the scriptures as they interact, intersect and, hopefully, transform our lives. The gospel of Mark has proven to be a powerful Word to us and is a great resource as we deepen our commitment to Christ and strengthen our commitments to God and the world he loves deeply.

This last Sunday we continued to unpack the themes of orientation, disorientation and reorientation. We noticed that these three rhythms, or perhaps cycles of life, are evident in the gospel of Mark. Those near to Jesus in Mark’s gospel are oriented to who Jesus is in chapters 1-8 and then enter a time of disorientation in chapter 8:27-9:1 when Jesus begins to share what it really means for him to be the messiah, or the Christ. This looks different than what people were expecting.

There are three basic reactions to disorientation. The first is to go back to orientation and hold fast. The second is to throw it all away and reject the whole thing. And the third is to look forward to reorientation and stand willing to receive a new message.

The first reaction (hold fast). Peter’s immediate response to Christ’s message is to return to the comforts of orientation. Peter, remember, rebukes Jesus when Jesus reveals what being the Christ looks like for him. Peter rejects Jesus’ revelation and, seemingly, holds fast the Jesus he has always known. He’s unwilling to receive a new message from Jesus on Jesus’ terms. He wants to go back to what he’s known. Do we know people like this? This is, actually a normal human instinct, yes? Perhaps it’s an instinct for survival, or an innate distrust of change?

The second reaction (throw it all away). We will soon notice the crowds dissipate in Marks gospel. Remember, the crowds are major fixtures of Mark’s writing; they are always around Jesus. They are in every chapter of the gospel (at least at this point) and are kind of a staple. Soon, however, we will see them trickle and eventually leave. They want to have nothing to do with this Jesus who suffers. They are unwilling to receive Jesus on Jesus’ terms and will throw the whole thing away. Sadly, we know people like this, yes? We have friends and family who were unwilling to remain in conversation with Christian dialogue and have rejected it altogether.

The third reaction (grow in our understanding of Christ). The tricky bit is that this reaction is eerily absent from Mark’s gospel, leaving the task of imagining what this looks like up to the reading community. The third reaction is to grow and accept where God is and what God is up to even when this is vastly different than what and were we might think. The great task we have been given is to remain open to God and his future in all things. How do we do this? Asking the question, “what is God up to?” is a great way to start. Expecting that God is going to call us out of our bondage (even the bondage that we place on ourselves!) is critical. God will always call his people to transform as they follow him and become people who look and act like him.

May we be people of the third way – a community poised and ready to hear fresh news from God…

May we be people who expect God to act in our midst and call us to fresh and new ways of life…

May we be willing to let go of the past and embrace God’s future no matter what that looks like or where that takes us…


Here’s a question…how can we apply this to our current situation at Westside regarding the building? What might God be up to in this?

Psalm 46

Friends,

            Thanks for a great day yesterday!  As those of you who were there saw, class time got me really revved up!  I began tired, but very excited.  The subject matter we discussed is one that is very close to my heart, how to have peace in the middle of conflict. 

            We looked closely at Psalm 46 (one of my favorites) and noticed the way that this psalm holds up both the reality of storms and also the presence of peace.  The psalm uses imagery of crashing waves and also a river.  One is an image of chaos and the other is an image of control and order.  The beauty of Psalm 46 is it shows us that both can exist at the same time. We can have hope, peace, stability and order even in a world filled with chaos and storms. The river, the stream, has order and leads to (or perhaps points to) a place that cannot be shaken.  There is a city that cannot be moved and our God is actually bringing that city to us right now.  Maybe not fully, but in part.  The church, we said, can hopefully be such a river; a place that lives out the purpose and order of God’s holy habitation. 

            We also talked about the three different categories psalms can be placed in.  Psalms of orientation, disorientation and reorientation.  These three categories represent a certain order to life.  Life moves in cycles of orientation, disorientation, and reorientation.  There is hope that these cycles have been occurring even from the time the psalms were put together.  There is so much more to talk about here…hopefully soon we can do a series on the psalms exclusively. 

            For now feel free to respond to one or all of the prompts or simply make up your own post. 

Share how you have seen the “river” in your own life.  How have you found peace in chaos? 

Share how the rhythm of orientation, disorientation, and reorientation have come through in your life.  Is it helpful to know, in times of disorientation, that times of reorientation are on the way? 

I do hope that all is well and look forward to hearing from you soon! 

 

Peace,

Aaron 

A Cross and a Manger?

Well hello there!  Sorry it has taken me so long to get this here post up.  Usually I will try to get something up by Monday mid-morning, but it will most likely vary from week to week.  I will, however, try to have something up on Monday for sure, so we can have a whole fun week’s worth of stimulating dialogue under our belts before we start again.

This last week we opened by talking about the story of Jesus’ birth from Mary’s perspective.  We noticed that her birth story was very different than Elizabeth’s. She didn’t have the joy-filled birth that Elizabeth enjoyed and, rather, found herself having to adjust to a new life situation that was less than what any young mother would want.  Who, after all, wants to have their child in a barn?  This story showed us:

1. This story of Jesus is not exactly the warm, Thomas Kincaid colored, lovely birth story we often think.  This was actually real life, which is often less that what we would hope.  Sometimes we have a tendency to inflate, or overly glorify, these biblical characters and these stories, it’s good to step back and notice that this wasn’t all so different from life as we know it.  Hopefully that will give us some hope…along those lines we noticed,
   
2. There is virtually no situation that God will not or cannot be born into. If he entered the world through a manger surely he can enter wherever we find ourselves.  God creeps into his world into the most unsuspecting of places.  Bringing his order into chaos in many different places and ways.

After an intriguing discussion about Mary and the birth of Jesus we switched gears hard-core and flipped back to the book of Mark, where we will spend much of our time these next few months, welcome home.  We looked at Mark 8:22-10:52.  A few highlights,

1.      We noticed that this section falls in the middle of Mark’s gospel, which gives it certain significance, especially when we take into account the Greek emphasis on the middle of a document.
   
2.       This important section is bracketed together by two stories of blind men receiving their sight.  The first blind man doesn’t receive the sight as quickly, or as fully the first go-around as the second man does.  This “sandwich” is echoing and underlining what is taking place in Mark’s gospel, the identity of Jesus, the Real Jesus, is being revealed. 
   
3.       The question “Who do people say that I am?” is central in Mark’s gospel.  The identity of Jesus is key, paramount, vital, and also important to why Mark is writing this gospel. 
   
4.       Who Jesus really is, a servant who suffers (Mark 8:31) is directly tied to discipleship (8:34-35).  Those who want to follow Jesus must become tied closely with his identity. 
   

I know we talked about some other things, but these are some highlights.  With all this in mind chew on and/or respond to some of these thoughts…

-What does reading the story of Jesus birth through a different lens, this was a very human sort of story, do to your understanding of God and how he might enter the world?  What does this story say about God?  What does it mean for you that there is no room so dark that God will not creep into it?

-What sorts of things do you hope to learn from looking deeply into the gospel of Mark?  Do you expect or hope to learn some new habits from looking at this powerful gospel? 

-Reflect on this passage, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.  For whoever wants to save his life will lost it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.”  That’s a powerful passage and central one to Mark’s gospel.  How does this passage hit you?  What sorts of emotions does it stir? 

Alright dear friends, feel free to write, write, write away.  Or just sit back and bask in the powerful comments of others.  I am more than impressed with much of the depth that comes from you on Sunday mornings and am excited to see what you come up with during the week.

 

Peace to you all,

Aaron