Practicing What I Preach

Every once in a while someone makes a statement that reflects their curiosity about the relationship between my life and my sermons. That's fair enough. I periodically see doctors smoking or police officers speeding and I wonder too. I guess some things are different when when you're not "on the job."

So what's the relationship between a sermon and the life of the person who preaches it? I can't answer that question for anyone else, but I must admit, if I were a police officer I might have to write myself a ticket periodically. And that's because the standard I preach is no easier for me to attain than anyone else. "Trust God," I say, but then something happens and I find my default response is to look to some thing or some one else. "Live in the power God has made available through Christ" I say, but then I struggle not to feel defeated or powerless in some situation.

I think Paul might have known something about this. He said, "I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize (1Cor 9:27)." I can't think of a much better way to say it. The biggest difference between me and those who hear a sermon I preach might be that my response time is before the sermon instead of after it.

Living The Resurrection

I don't really struggle with believing that God raised Jesus from the dead. I know it was almost impossible for the disciples to believe at first, but they didn't have the advantage of my perspective perched comfortably atop a 2000 year span of time. I get it. No problem.

But I do struggle with living out the implications of his resurrection. Ephesians 1:18-20 says, "I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know...his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms." I read what Paul wrote and realize that the eyes of my heart remain darkened so many times. I struggle through difficulties and trials, never realizing that God has made his resurrection power available to me anytime, in any place. What a waste. This Easter I am praying that the eyes of my heart might be enlightened throughout the year so that I can live a life full of God's resurrection power, day in and day out. He is risen indeed!

Surving An A-BoMb

What's an A-BoMb? The word A-Bomb usually refers to atom-bomb. However, in Jaredese, A-BoMb stands for Annual Business Meeting, as in The Annual Church Business Meeting (spoken in a deep voice with lots of reverb). Why am I thinking about an A-BoMb? I survived leading my first one last night. The difficulty is not so much in preparing for the questions you know are coming...it's preparing for the questions you know you can't know are coming. The A-BoMb turned out to be anything but explosive (thanks to the wonderful people at WCAG). So what do I take away from such an experience?

It's a great metaphor for trusting God. You prepare for all the stuff you know is coming, but fear of the unknown is usually the most unnerving. What if this? What if that? Trusting God means that after we have done everything we can to prepare ourselves for life and godliness, we rest in the knowledge that He knows what we can't and He will provide what we need, when we need it, even if it's a well-timed motion to adjourn:o)

What I learned from Frank Sexton...

If you don't know Frank Sexton, let me tell you about him. He has been at WCAG for the last twenty years, and for the last seventeen has led a business men's luncheon every Thursday at high noon. Frank has organized over 800 meetings and many of the men who attend have gone for years. The thousands of people who have attended these meetings have seen Frank live out his Christianity in the midst of some difficult circumstances. But that's not what I took away from his final meeting today. What I learned is that we all have a unique group of people God has put into our lives to walk with us through the ups and downs every life brings. There are memories that Frank and his companeros share because they were doing the same things at the same time--they shared with each other in life, cared for each other in loss, laughed a lot, cried at times, but the whole time were demonstrating what Christian community is all about. It makes me all the more thankful for those I am walking with right now--my family, my church, and the friends God has blessed me with. Thanks, Frank.

No short jokes, please!

Zacchaeus has gotten the long end of the stick as far as Biblical stories go. I think it has something to do with being known as a wee-little-man and the fact that Jesus wanted to have supper with him. How can you not love a wee, little man? But the truth is that if he lived today, no one would write a song about him, and if they did, it wouldn't be so kind. He was a professional crook. He enriched his life by impoverishing others. So what does this story teach us?

The story of Zacchaeus offers an antidote to cheap grace. Zacchaeus didn't take God's grace as a free pass for all the terrible things he had done. Instead, he allowed that grace to work itself out into his broken past and he made restitution, to the extent he could, for what he had done. The Old Testament law commands restitution for any number of offenses. In fact, many are surprised to learn that incarceration was not used as a punishment for crimes in the Old Testament. Instead, God called people to make things right. We could learn a lot from Zacchaeus. Grace may be free, but it does come with a price.

A Thirsty Woman

The story of the woman at the well fascinates me. There's so much tension and so many secrets that the story seems so...human, so realistic. Her antagonism toward Jesus is thinly veiled at best. She doesn't like his kind and knows his kind don't like her kind and she just can't bring herself to speak civilly to him. Of all the things we learn about this unnamed woman, perhaps the most import lies in the fact that she's thirsty, and her thirst runs much deeper than the need for well water. She needs a long, cold drink from the well of God's grace, and thankfully Jesus remains undeterred by her most valiant attempts to avoid receiving his message of hope. But finally, seeping through the hardened ground that was her life, the spring of living water began to flow and she experienced pure, unfiltered grace.

So what do we learn from this fascinating story? So many of the facets of this story sparkle and beg to be explored. But this Sunday I want to look at two things in particular. One, using Jesus as our example, I want to explore what living out God's grace requires. Two, I want to explore the grace we see in the story, a grace that exposes and comforts all at the same time. What do you think? What strikes you about this story?