Pizza is a lot like life…

3 Lent
Ps. 78:1-39; Ps. 78:40-72; Gen. 45:1-15; 1 Cor. 7:32-40; Mark 6:1-13

I love that God created us to be intrigued by story. Today, we see the Psalmist speaking about listening and communicating in parables and story.  Later in the reading we see the story of Joseph and his brothers, that is a page turner!  We then see Jesus, the master communicator, show us that story is engaging and it can also teach great truth.

The reading today reminded me of an experience my wife and I had this weekend… I love to try out new places to eat.  This week was a restaurant that came highly recommended from many of our friends, The Wedge.

The Wedge has a parking lot that is probably three times the size of the dining room.  A full parking lot equals a nice little wait inside. Lanie and I had some cold beverages while we were waiting and enjoyed the place immensely.

I’m not going to do a food review so I’ll get to my point.  We had the pleasure of being served by one of the managers.  He came to our table and explained how the appetizers and all the food in the place is organic, not one bit of preservative put into the meal at all.  He went on to describe how all the veggies are brought in from a local farm, totally fresh. All the food is cooked in the lone cooking instrument, the brick oven.  Each item that was brought out had a story behind it, from the imported goat cheese to the homemade sausage and fresh made mozzarella.

This place tells a story, it is intriguing, it makes me want to go back and it makes me want to tell others the story too.  As a matter of fact we went there again last night and brought four friends with us!

Let me try to tie it all in now.  We are part of an amazing story, a story that began in darkness before anything was formed and will continue for all of eternity.  The story is powerful, it is adventurous and we will be victorious.  All the makings of a great tale, this true tale we are living each day.  Put a smile on your face, the story will pull people in.  Share it with everyone you know, what an adventure we are on!

Forever and ever

2 Lent
Ps. 61, 62; Ps. 68:1-20(21-23)24-36; Gen. 42:1-17; 1 Cor. 5:1-8; Mark 3:19b-35

I’m reading about “forever” and “generations” and thinking about how long God has actually been around.  Have you ever been lying in bed short of breath and your heart beating a bit too fast?  No, you pervs, not because of that, but because your mind is racing, you’re thinking about FOREVER!  An eternity, we are going to be around forever, wow…

Sometimes I think that we get stuck in a mindset that says, “since God always was, we have to keep doing things the same way we always have.”  That mindset is poisonous.  In the book Signs of Emergence, Kester Brewin basically says that the world has changed so much since the Industrial Revolution but the church hasn’t changed at all.

Specifically, he says this;
“The question, though is not shall we change, but how to do so.”

We’ve been focused on personal transformation for so long, that series hasn’t worked.  We’ve focused on how we can live holy so that we can get God to come back for us.  Hearing our pastors give a talk that Dr. Phil, or better yet, Richard Simmons would give if invited to speak on a Sunday morning.

The problem is simple to see when allowing your mind to release its “church toxins”.  There are two drawbacks when hearing a sermon like this.  One, it is a very selfish message that causes a person to only work on themselves, church becomes nothing more that a form of therapy.  Two, it allows you to think that you had some hand in God’s forgiveness, that you somehow earned it.  Get this straight, He gave it and is giving it, we must rely on that grace completely.

It is time to give up selfish religion and turn to serving others, preferring others, loving others.  I believe that through that the “you portion” of it all will fall into place.

Fixing yourself isn’t the solution to your brokenness.  You being fixed is a byproduct of you selflessly giving of yourself.

James 1:26,27
Anyone who sets himself up as “religious” by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air. Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world.

What changes do you see coming?

1 Lent: Feb. 12, 2008

1 Lent
Ps. 45; Ps. 47, 48; Gen. 37:12-24; 1 Cor. 1:20-31; Mark 1:14-28

I see all the places the Psalmist says to “sing our praises” to our God. I have something to confess, I don’t sing that many “praise and worship” songs on the market today. I don’t know the last time I bought (or downloaded) a new album in that genre. The songs are so sterile, so produced and so mass marketed that I just can’t seem to get past the cheesiness of it all.

The “worship industry” is a multi-million dollar business. All the songs placed on CDs are designed to not offend. Reading the Psalms offends me sometimes, I think our flesh needs to be offended regularly!

I think it is time for a new kind of worship to rise to the top. We need a real, uncontrived and even liturgical approach to singing our praises to God in my opinion. Maybe we should just memorize the Psalms and sing those more often! Memorizing the Bible in more than just a chorus to a song would be a good idea I think.

I’m ready to really worship, I’m ready to spend quality time in a quiet place. I want to spend the time for God not to be entertained by MY favorite songs, but to sing HIS favorite songs to him.

Think about it! What do you all think?

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday
Ps. 95, 32, 143; Ps. 102, 130; Amos 5:6-15; Heb. 12:1-14; Luke 18:9-14

Today is a big day in Christendom, it is Ash Wednesday, starting the 40 days of Lent. Through todays reading it is easy to see the theme:

1. Focus on God, focus on His greatness, focus on singing songs of joy to him, as we have been greatly blessed.

2. Remember the 40 years the Israelites wandered in the wilderness because of their own hardened hearts, and Jesus’ own time spent fasting for 40 days.  We must have pliable and loving hearts through this next season.

3. We must repent of our sins, confessing them to God. We must allow our secret place to be fully dedicated to our God, many times though our secret places become our most sin filled times. Confession to God and living a life of invited correction from others is key to having a pure life. Ash Wednesday is specifically a day of penitence to cleanse our souls before our Lent fast. The ash is symbolic of the burning of a sacrifice for our sins, it is proof of the fire burning away the sin and filth. Many times through the Bible people covered themselves in ash for penitence. Today it is symbolic of our saying, “I’m sorry, forgive me and I ask you God to take my sins

4. Understand that we are so blessed and it is now a time for us to be a blessing to others. We must remember the poor and not take advantage of people but instead we are to show love and accept people as God does. The clear picture of this is in Luke’s reading today. God saw the real repentance of the tax collector and had mercy on him. He saw the Pharisee and was disgusted by his selfish prayers.

5. This is to be a time of peace, I noticed that Luke 18:14 says this, “Strive for peace with everyone”. That is a big request and one that I need to take more seriously!

photo credits:
Created by Polloni Papucci Studio, Florence, Italy
Located in Our Holy Redeemer Catholic Church, Webster Groves, Missouri
Photo by loensis on flickr