The Patience of Job?

You know a Job.  Just about everyone does.  In fact, as you read this post, your Job is already coming to mind.  They experience an inordinate amount of misfortune.  Emergency contacts and insurance company phone numbers are posted on their fridge.  They know which phone buttons to poke to talk to a real person at those insurance companies.  Jobs are regulars on church prayer chains and in sharing times.  Sickness, accidents, financial crises are not occasional visitors, but residents in their homes.

No one knows why some people seem to live Job lives.  If ever you find yourself thinking, "They must have done something to be in that position" then take another look at the book of Job.  It's true that there are consequences to our actions, but suffering isn't, by any means, always a result of some hidden character defect or moral failure.   And yet how often do we fall into that judgment trap?

Job's "friends" (with friends like these...) quickly deduced that Job must have done something to deserve such a rotten turn of events.  Little did they know that it was the Accuser, the satan, who had been given permission by God to "afflict" Job with any terror he wished, short of death.  And that permission presents a whole assortment of problems and questions for those who want to follow a loving God.  What sort of a God does that?  The ending of Job, when health and wealth are restored and he gets a new family, is hardly satisfying either.  I can't imagine a father thinking, "Well this kid's better than the last one anyway.  No harm no foul."  So where does Job leave us?  As a friend recently posited to me, are we simply a part of "...a big experiment and God will decide when he's ready to intervene...?"  


This week's message is the final in our four part series, Where's God When Life is a Mess?  We will review Job's trials and what he learns from them about God, friends, life.  Come to get confused, frustrated, and just maybe, closer to God.  
- Curtis

Do You Matter?

Several weeks ago I had a conversation with a good friend who had recently started a new relationship with God.  He grew up with some sporadic attendance in church, but had never embraced the idea that God was that important to his life.  I think that many people share that perspective.  God can be real and yet not that tied into what my life is about.  At least that's what many people think.  

Some rotten family events had happened for my friend - the kind that tempt you to lose faith in people, yourself, and God.   But instead, he started going to a long-forgotten church from his childhood.  I asked him, "Why did you start going to church?"  He told me, "I needed more texture in my life" and by that he meant that he sensed his life was not full of much meaning, only a matter of daily duties and less than worthwhile responsibilities.  And he had found new texture as he connected with God for the first time in his life.  He became connected to something larger than himself.

So I started talking about the "story" God is inviting us to be a part of.  "What does that mean?" he inquired.  He'd never considered the idea before.  I explained that in the bible, people are given the opportunity to join into the unfolding story of God in history - join with him in his plan to restore, recreate, and redeem the world.  We talked about how that's still true today - each person has a role to play in a much larger tale, even if it's a small part or one we don't understand at all in our lifetimes.
He thought about that concept for awhile, and then he said something that surprised me.

"That idea makes me feel insignificant." 


"Really?  Insignificant?  What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well, the idea that we're just here to play some minuscule  little part in God's huge plan just seems ... small to me."

I have to confess that that very same idea is part of what's so compelling about following Christ for me.  I already feel small.  It comes naturally to me.  I don't need God for that.  In fact, the more I work and push and struggle to "make a difference," the more I feel like I'm not making much of a difference at all.  As I push past 50, I wonder if I'll ever achieve something that's really special. Or, even more, if I'll ever be a decent person deep, deep inside.

At just that point, though, there's a whisper from God who says, "Shhh.  Be still, foolish man.  Remember, you're not writing the Story.  I am.  Stick with it. Persevere. Trust.  Listen to my voice and you'll fit in the story.  You do matter, though you may not see how just now."

My sense of insignificance isn't a problem to God.  If there is a larger (redemption) story to tell, it isn't my job to become significant.  That's God's concern.  In fact, it's his promise: Though my part may be minuscule and apparently irrelevant, there is a hidden meaning to my life - and yours.

So perhaps my friend is right.  Finding our place in God's story might just make us feel less important. Maybe that's where God is at last able to plug us into something good.

Jeremiah, who we'll learn about in this week's message, doesn't deal directly with these issues.  But I have a feeling that he wondered if all his suffering and efforts amounted to anything.  We'll learn about his struggles with God this Sunday.
Check out the song by Andrew Peterson - Fool With A Fancy Guitar.

- Curtis

Where’s God When Life is a Mess?

Back in 1989-1990 I spent a year doing what's called a "residency" in Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) at Sutter hospital in Sacramento California.  CPE is training not only for becoming a chaplain, but really for being a pastor and walking with people through all of the traumas and troubles that come with life.  One woman, whose husband had suffered a severe heart attack and was on the verge of death, sticks out in my mind for the way her faith was rocked by her husband's illness.  Mary was a kind woman, in her early 50's, who had always been a dedicated catholic.  One afternoon, we stood in a long hallway that connected hospital wings, and talked.  She spoke of her fear regarding her husband's condition.  I asked her where she thought God was in all that was happening, and she replied something like this:

Mary: I don't know.  I don't suppose I've really thought about God much.  I've prayed, but that's about it.  I think of God as being very distant from all of this.  He's God of course, and he's far beyond all of this.

Me:  Hmm. Do you have questions for God, or are you frustrated or angry with him?  (Though I knew better, I'd often stick my foot in my mouth and "suggest" to people how I thought they might be feeling...)
Mary:  Angry or frustrated with God?  No.  That wouldn't be right.  You should never be angry with God.   
Me:  How do you talk to God, then?  What do you say when you're going through a time like this?  
Mary:  Well, I pray at church.  And my church worships only in Latin, so our prayers are in Latin and everything we do is in Latin. 
Me:  So you understand or speak Latin?  That's wonderful.  
Mary:  Oh no, I don't understand it at all.  
Me:  You don't understand it?  Then how do you know what's going on in worship and what's being said?
Mary:  I don't.  But I think that's how it should be.  It's so different.  I don't think we're supposed to understand it all, do you?  There's just something about being there with the stained glass, the incense, and the chants and prayers all in Latin.  It's so mysterious and holy to me.  That's what worship is.  


We talked more over the coming days.  I shared with Mary how God might be a lot closer than she realized, and how reading the bible in English might be a good way to know God personally.  She was intrigued by the idea, as if she'd never considered it before.  A tiny hunger for something more from her relationship with God seemed to start.  But I don't know if that hunger ever deepened. Her husband went home after a few days, doing better, and that was the last I ever saw of them.

Mary has remained in my mind all of these years because she's stands at the extreme end of how some people view God as so "other," so distant that he is virtually uninvolved in what happens on this earth.  Such faith sees God as One who set the world spinning and then pulled away to attend to other matters while we humans fend for ourselves.  That brand of faith can be nice for those in religious power who broker knowledge of, and communication with, God.  But it has nothing to do with the picture of God we see in scripture.  What the bible reveals is a God who is shockingly involved, even when it seems he is not. A God who keeps the world spinning each day; who is kind and forgiving, but also angered at our destructive and selfish ways.  He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous (Matthew 5:45).  Perhaps strangest of all, God welcomes (or at least tolerates) our angst and aggravation towards him.  


During the next few Sundays, we're going to look at four stories of people in the bible who shared their heartfelt struggles in life with God. Some cried out to him in pain, others pointed a finger at him in frustration or anger.  Some questioned aloud if God had forgotten them altogether, or if he had renegged on his promises.  What they discovered about God in the process will surprise you.  This week we start with the questions of Habakkuk.  Buckle up, it's going to get bumpy.
- Curtis

Blessed Foolishness

2011 is starting off with a bang.  
In many locations around the world, that's a literal bang that's heard.  Earlier this month, dozens of Christians in Egypt were killed by bombings which seem to be part of an escalation of persecution around the world.  Today news from Egypt has been virtually cut off, as protests have escalated and the citizens of the African nation take to the streets in hopes that their government can be transformed.  The protests are spreading like wildfire into neighboring nations like Yemen as well.  (Read today's WSJ article on the spread of unrest) 

Though there's fear of a radical islamist takeover, most political experts believe there's a good chance that a democratic transformation could take place.  A month ago such protests seemed absurd, but with the overthrow of Tunisia's government following a popular uprising, it seems that the climate for change in northern Africa has arrived.  Of course, there's no way of knowing how all of this will play out or what it will mean for the millions of Coptic Christians in Egypt who long for an end to persecution and a day of greater religious freedom.

I'm not certain this has much to do with our passage this week (1 Corinthians 1:18-31) or what the sermon is about - "Blessed Foolishness"  (ie how the good news about Jesus is seen as foolishness in the world).   But at some level I think world events and this week's passage are connected.  There's an enduring human hope that things in this world can be different, that justice will arrive, that people and nations can be free.  With human systems alone, those hopes are surely foolishness.  All the "wisdom of the wise" (vs 19) is foolishness to God. And yet, with God all things are possible - which, ironically, seems like foolishness to "those who are perishing," as Paul says.

Does that mean that we should just sit back and gleefully hope the world goes down the tubes, cheering on the deterioration until at last, when there's no glimmer of hope left, we expect Christ to appear and rescue us all?


Hardly.

God's people, from the time of Abraham until now, have never been called to such fatalism - nor have we ever been "raptured" away from calamity (the Left Behind books were, after all, fiction).  Abraham prayed for his loved ones in Sodom, Jonah labored through the flood, Moses brought his people through slavery and through the Red Sea, Joshua lead people through battles into a new land, the prophets taught them how to endure in times of persecution, telling them that one day "these bones will live" (Ezekiel 37).  Early Christians suffered persecution but spread and grew because of it.  Jesus went to the cross - he endured its shameful death - the ultimate foolish sign of God's great love which redeems and rescues us.  In the wisdom of God, there has always been a day of resurrection and renewal - but it always comes after, or through, suffering and pain.

We would be foolish to believe that human systems will change, for the better,  through human wisdom alone.  The little-remembered fact of the sinful nature teaches us otherwise.  But we be even more foolish to think that God is not, somehow, working all things together for his good purposes - and that in his seemingly foolish wisdom he is at work in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Iraq, China - everywhere in our world, with us, to bring about his purposes - and eventually to redeem the world.  This is our foolish hope:

“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever.” Revelation 11:15

- Curtis

Niche

nichenoun1 a niche in the wall: recess, alcove, nook, cranny, hollow, bay, cavity,cubbyhole, pigeonhole.2. he found his niche in life: ideal position, place, function, vocation,calling, métier, job.
One of the unique things about being a pastor is getting to know people well enough to realize how many people don't feel like they've found their calling in life - their niche.  Lots of people have found someplace to work, to serve, and spend their time . . . but most people aren't really sure they've found what they were born to do.  I see people all the time who just don't seem to have found something they can give them selves to passionately.  There's nothing more satisfying than steering someone in a direction that fits them well and where they come alive.What I've noticed is that, oddly, people don't always have a clear idea of what they are good at doing.  We don't recognize our own giftedness.  The person who's a gifted leader doesn't see it, so they stay in the background and become frustrated with disorganization.  The musician who inspires others with their gift and passion, uses that gift too rarely and wonders why they're not satisfied in their hum-drum job.  Perhaps it's a fear of failure or anxiety over being asked to do more than they feel capable of doing.  The result is, too many people end up doing what they're not called to do, and just about everyone feels misplaced.  In Romans 12, Paul reminds us of a concept that isn't well remembered in our individualistic culture: we are all a part of a much larger Body - the Body of Christ.  He writes, "... in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others."  What's that?  Each member belongs to all the others?  You've got to be kidding.  I'm my own person!  As Invictus puts it, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul. 
Well, according to God, you're not. 
In fact, one reason that many of us go through life not sensing that we've found our purpose, our niche, might just be because we haven't stopped to ask God how we fit into his Body.  We're like toes without a foot or eyes without a socket; stumbling and rolling around wondering why we just don't belong.  This week's sermon will conclude our "Leave a Mark, Not a Stain" series, and we'll study how being a "living sacrifice" actually leads to greater meaning and fulfillment in life.  

Leave a Mark, Not a Stain

Normally, I don't like to watch a movie more than once, but Ana has probably watched Sense and Sensibility at least ten times.  I'd rather de-lint my sweaters.  There are only a handful of flicks that I can sit through multiple times.  One such movie is  It's a Wonderful Life (watch it free here), with Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey.  It ran on free TV around Christmas, as it often does, and the magic of the classic film hit me all over again.  One of my daughters, who happened to sit down with me while it was on, got caught up in in it too.

      What's so powerful about It's a Wonderful Life, of course, is that there's some of George Bailey in all of us.  You may have forgotten, but George is far from perfect.  He struggles with success; he is tempted by money and sexy women; he loses his temper.  In the face of evil Mr. Potter and George's own temptations, he valiantly tries to be a good man.  Yet he fails, or so he thinks. He becomes so distraught after a colossal failure that he wants to kill himself - an edgy proposition for a movie in 1946.  In one pivotal scene, George tells Clarence, a wingless angel sent to help, "I wish I'd never been born" - a very biblical response (see Jeremiah 20:14).

     George gets his wish.  Clarence tweaks time and space, and George re-enters a world that never knew him.  Clarence takes him on a tour through a George Bailey-less town, and all of the people and places that are deficient without his unique contribution.  The final scene is one of those moments which is so syrupy sweet that you can't believe it would work, but it does.  

     We all go through times when we don't see the point of our efforts.  We mistakenly think that our failures loom larger than any small contribution to the world.  But the very odd, virtually un-verifiable Truth we learn from scripture is this:  

You Matter.  

          I Matter. 

               We Matter.  

Our lives matter - to God; to the Story God is writing in HisStory.   It is, indeed, a wonderful life because God takes the trials and errors of our lives and spins them into a Story that is so much greater, larger, and Truer than we realize.  

So....if that's the case...how can we enter into the story in the best way possible?  That's what this little sermon series is all about.  Join us!

- Curtis

Saved for What?

Last week those who were in worship at Cedar Hills were "introduced to the elephant." You'll have to listen to the sermon if you want to know exactly what that means (listen to it here).  It's been a funny week of conversations, following that sermon.  Comments have been all over the spectrum from, "That was good.  We needed to hear that" to, "The same thing is happening at my brother/sister/cousin's church, so I guess we're not the only ones."  Some have cautiously asked, "So, what have people been saying about that sermon?"  Even in my own family we've had some interesting and spirited conversations.  As if to punctuate the week, I had a long, sad talk with a friend of mine, also a pastor, who is going through difficulties in his church and isn't sure what to do next.

So what this sermon series, Becoming An Outpost for the Kingdom, aims to do is help us rebuild our understanding of what the Church, and our church, is all about.  We've had such an emphasis in Christianity for many decades on being "saved" that we don't really know (or haven't considered) what we're saved for. What's the point?  It's like all we're taught to do is wait.  Wait for the afterlife - in other words we're just hanging out until we die, and then finally something really significant or good will happen.  What kind of a God would do that -- desposit us here for 70 or 80 years like we're prisoners on death row, waiting to see who gets pardoned and released into heavenly bliss?  That's not what the bible teaches at all, but it's what a lot of people believe.

What the bible does teach is what we started to look at last week:  We're here to partner with God in building a new kingdom - or rather restoring the world to the way God intended it to be.  We don't accomplish that on our own, but with God's help and with the complete restoration ultimately in God's hands.  This week we'll begin to study 7 Objectives that God has, and each are ways that he invites us to partner with him.  These 7 objectives begin in our own hearts and lives, and from there they can change our community, our work, our schools - our church - and our world.  See you then...
- Curtis

A Ridiculous Command: Love Your Enemies

This week,  I'm preaching the second part of last week's message about Jesus' teaching to "turn the other cheek" and "love your enemies."  Luke's version of Jesus' teaching says this,

Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,

 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.  Luke 6:27-28

It's really a crazy idea that we're supposed to pray for and bless those we start out hating.  Seriously, how often do we do it?  It's so unnatural for us on one level, yet there is a rightness to it that stirs something in our souls.  "Yes," says that something inside, "the world won't be a different, lovelier place, without forgiveness and love replacing anger and retaliation."  

But how?  All it takes is a car to cut me off in traffic and poof, something dark springs to life in me.  I want justice (!) or, honestly, revenge.  If that's a somewhat typical reaction to being less-than-marginally wronged, much less truly hurt, what hope do I have of loving an actual enemy?  

Jesus' words there in Luke 6 are more than a simple restatement of "love your enemies;" he's telling us how to do it.  And here's what he says about those good for nothing, evil enemies we encounter in life: Do good to them; bless them; pray for them.  Just try doing these actions, even when you don't feel like it at all, and see what happens.  We'll dig into what these terribly hard actions might mean for us personally on Sunday in worship.  

For those of you who know little 7 yr old Daniel in our church, please keep praying for him.  His surgery went okay, but he's healing very slowly and he's had some setbacks.  He's quite miserable and in a lot of pain, but he needs to move more and breath deeply in order to heal.  Pray for Joyce and Dennis too, as their hearts ache for Daniel in this process. 

- Curtis

When Heaven Opens

There are both profound and simple experiences that cause people to say, "That was a glimpse of heaven."  Such profound experiences might include the birth of a child (giving birth to, or being present for).  Or it might be something as simple as a particularly beautiful sunset or a beam of sunlight breaking through clouds.  Though our glimpses of heaven experiences can almost always be explained as natural events, we describe them as glimpses because we have some sense that a pathway or window between heaven and earth opened for a moment.  Something special happens in the course of the ordinary.

Jesus' transfiguration in Luke 9 was like that.  He takes a few friends on a prayer hike up a mountain, and -Shazaam! - he's changed.  We might wonder what exactly happened, there, but the more important question might be, "Why?"  Why was Jesus changed in this moment in such a radical way?  And why didn't he stay that way?  Why was it such a temporary state?   That's what we'll look at in this week's message, along with what it says to our faith and our place in the world today.  See you in worship!
- Curtis

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

25th Anniversary in Carmel California

It's odd how quickly three weeks of experiences can evaporate into feeling like they were a dream.  This phenomenon seems happen most easily with vacations.  Once vacation is over, it's poof, like it never happened at all.  This summer I took three weeks; the longest vacation I think I've ever had.  Ana and I celebrated 25 years of marriage by returning to Carmel, the same spot we enjoyed on our honeymoon.  Despite overestimating how much we would enjoy driving down the Oregon and California coast, the time in Carmel was relaxing and fun.  After spending a few days with family and doing a tour of Stanford University with Becca, we drove back home to Beaverton, organized and loaded camping stuff, and trekked back to California's Lake Siskiyou.  It's a little hidden gem of a lake near Mt. Shasta with a warm water, huge campsites, and plenty of sun and heat to drive way the dismal memories of the long Oregon winter.  We swam, kayaked, read, slept and played.  It was a good, low-key vacation.  We had time to refocus and reconnect with each other and what's important in life.  

Lake Siskiyou fun

Rest easy, this week's message isn't really going to be a slideshow of vacation photos or a long diatribe about camping experiences.  Vacation did provide me with an opportunity to disconnect from much of my normal life, and perhaps that's where I reconnected with some important realities.  Which is what Jesus also attempted to do for the Pharisees in Luke 12 when he tells the story of the "Rich Fool." He uses the parable to chop through our normal priorities and values and hone in on what's truly important.  That's what we'll study together in worship.  And don't forget our Party in the Park Saturday at 11 AM!  

Some Thoughts on Summer and Purging

It has actually happened.  Summer seems to have finally arrived in the Great Northwest, for more than a few hours. Today, Thursday June 24, is day two of real, unabridged sunshine and warmth.  Hal-layy-loooo-yahhhh!  It came in the nick of time too; I was preparing to suggest on Sunday that we move the church to the Caribbean.

Inspired by the dumpster party we had to clean up church flood damage last weekend, we ordered our own dumpster (pictured above).  It's far larger than we need, but it was the same price as the one half the size.  And this is America, so the bigger one seemed the logical option.  A dumpster either means you're getting a new roof, or it's a bad sign of having bought into the lies of materialism for too many years.  We're not getting a new roof.  Hopefully we are cleaning out the junk and tidying up our lives, and not just the garage.

All of this dumpster/tossing out/tidying up stuff has spiritual ramifications, of course.  And it's part of what summer is all about: Opening up real and symbolic attic doors, lugging things out of web-filed garage corners and cluttered backyard paths.  Cutting down overgrown brush and yanking out wild weeds.  It's a time of evaluation and asking,
"Do I really need this anymore?"
Or, "When did this get so bad?"
And sometimes, "Oh my, I've been wondering where this went.  I've been needing this for so long."

As important as the evaluation process is, it doesn't really matter unless the junk actually gets tossed out.  A few years ago we had a dumpster.  We went through the whole house and pulled junk from every room, getting rid of everything we that wasn't good enough to give away or sell.  But a couple of days after the dumpster was gone, we realized that we had neglected to toss in the one big thing that we really wanted to get rid of - a mattress under Amanda's daybed that was my brother's before I was born.  The disgusting old thing was at least 50 years old and it weighed, no joke, about 100 pounds.  At least 30 lbs of that is probably dust and mites, I figure.  I hated that mattress.  But we had forgotten it and so, to this very day, it has stayed in our house.

What old, mite filled, stained burdens are hanging around your place?

Summer, with warm sunny days, is a great time to pull stuff out into the Light and do some honest evaluation.  What needs to be dusted off and saved, or even treasured once again?  And what (behaviors, damaging relationship patterns, addictions, habits, burdens, etc)  should be joyously and enthusiastically lobbed into the dumpster because they are cluttering life - or damaging - you?

That old mattress is the first thing going in the drop box today.  It's going to be great.

- Curtis
(P.S. This post has little, if anything, to do with the sermon this week.  Except that self-evaluation and letting things go is often a part, or a consequence, of true rest)

Getting the Most Out of Summer

There is a certain irony in the timing of this new sermon series we're beginning this Sunday. It's a series about rest, sabbath, and stuff I mention below. It comes, however, at a time of extreme busyness. At Cedar Hills we're cleaning up after some significant water damage and we have a workday planned (this Saturday at 9 AM - hint, hint) to sort junk and toss stuff into a huge dumpster. Along with the cleanup we're gearing up for Vacation Bible School which starts on June 27th - just a week away. Rest seems out of the question.  Most of us constantly feel that sense of "There's just too much to do!" far too often.

But maybe that's God's point.

There are always more things to do. Sometimes those things press in so urgently that they simply must be done. But life can't be filled with what Charles Hummel calls, "The Tyranny of the Urgent." Not all the time. God knew such things about us when he planned the cycles of the body. He created us to need sleep and for our slice of the world to go dark for a portion of each 24 hours so we would ... stop. He hard-wired us in such a way that those who simply refuse to rest and play will eventually break down. It seems important to God, then, that we get this right.

So even in the middle of urgent things that are pressing in upon you and me, we're going to start this little message series. I hope it helps take away any misplaced guilt about taking time to slow down, rest, worship, remember God, spend time with family. Recharge.  There are many different kinds of retreat or rest are mentioned in the bible. There is the overall concept of Sabbath - which means “cessation” in the Hebrew. There are also great celebrations and feasts, prayer retreats, and other times when people of the bible stopped doing their regular work. This three-part message series will study different rest periods and look at the reasons for them.

So listen to God's wisdom and ... take a break! As if for us personally, the Wall Street Journal has an article today (June 17, 2010) entitled, Why Relaxing is Hard Work. Take a look at it (I snagged their picture - above - too...) and you can even check out their "Are you a workaholic?" quiz linked in the article.  Then, for a little over an hour on Sunday, we'll all simply . . . stop . . . and begin to consider God.
- Curtis

Chained for Good: Jeremiah

I sometimes wonder what the dedicated prophets of the bible would have to say about some of the big name preachers today.  Consider some of the top selling books and audio CD's by one of the most famous preachers in the USA today.  His works include:

• It's Your Time: Activate Your Faith, Achieve Your Dreams, and Increase in God's Favor
• Become a Better You: 7 Keys to Improving Your Life Every Day
• Good, Better, Blessed: Living with Purpose, Power and Passion
• Living in Favor, Abundance and Joy 
• Living The Joy Filled Life (Six Easy Steps To Living A Life Of Victory, Abundance And Blessing)

While I'm certain he has some very good things to share, I can't help but wonder how Jeremiah would respond to advice about Six Easy Steps to Living a Life of Victory.  Jeremiah spent a good chunk of his life being hated by his own people, persecuted by those he was sent to save, and tortured for doing exactly what God called him to do.   He's known as the weeping prophet.  

Imagine a conversation, then, between Jeremiah and a Big Name Preacher (BNP) from today. . .
----------------
BNP: Jeremiah, my friend, you're not living a victorious life.  Look at you.  You're sad, you're unsuccessful, you're a mess.   But I can help.  Let me share with you the easy secrets to living a life of victory. 
JEREMIAH:  Really.  Do tell. 
BNP:  Clearly you're doing this prophet thing all wrong.  You'd have favor, abundance and joy if God were pleased with you!   You need to activate your faith! 
JEREMIAH:  I'm about to activate you.  
BNP:  You see that?  That's anger.  Let God can turn your anger to action;  your sadness to sufficiency; your trials to triumphs!  
JEREMIAH: You've got a knack for catchy phrases.  
BNP: Thank you.  I'm writing a book about that. 
JEREMIAH:  Of course you are. . .   But here's the thing.  God told me, the day he called me, that my path with him would be terribly hard.  That my work is to warn people of God's coming wrath.  This is what he's called me to.  
BNP:  Of course he didn't.  You misunderstood.  He doesn't want anyone to be unhappy.  He wants to turn your inner Eeyore into a Tigger!  It's right here in my book, "Living in Favor, Abundance and Joy."  
JEREMIAH:  My inner Eeoyore is about to kick your . . . never mind.  I have to go.  Someone wants to throw me into a muddy cistern.  (walking off)
BNP:  Read chapter 3 - God Has More In Store!  
JEREMIAH: (muttering) What I wouldn't give for a little fire and brimstone right now. . . 

----------------

Truly, Jeremiah had a tough row to hoe.  So tough, that at one point he curses the day he was born (Jeremiah 20:14) and wished it hadn't happened at all.  But in the end, he stuck with the thing God had given him to do.  He realized that life wasn't all about him, but about God's purposes and Kingdom.  That's a huge thing to remember.

It isn't all about Me.  

A good friend reminded me of that this week, when I was lamenting some of those tough rows God gives.  We'll see what else Jeremiah has to say to us this week in worship.
- Curtis

Chained for Good: Peter

I think it must have been very confusing to be an early Jesus follower.  It's confusing enough for us sometimes, but these guys had to be constantly saying, "Huh?  What's God doing now,  for Christ's sake?!" (and, if they used that phrase, they really meant it - not like people do nowadays, who say it lightly and defame the name of Christ - not for his sake at all...but I digress).  It would have been confusing because God never seemed to do things the same way twice, even when it would have been quite nice if he had.

Take the Big Three Apostles, for example.  Peter, James and John.  These guys were Jesus' BFF's.  We don't want to think about Jesus having favorites, or if he does we'd like to think it might be us.  But the truth is, Jesus always chose these guys to go do stuff with him that no one else got to do.  They got to go into the house when Jesus raised a little girl from the dead.  They were the ones to go up on the mountain and see him transfigured in glory.  They were the ones he asked to pray with him in the garden before was carried away and executed.  Again, if I had been there with Jesus I would have been the obnoxious one saying, "Pick me!  Pick me! Oo, oo, pick me, Jesus!!"  He never would have.  He always picked Peter, James and John.  Which makes what happens to James in Acts 12 extra confusing.  If you read it quickly you might even miss it because it's like a little footnote to what comes next with Peter.  But read what happens to James, one of the Big Three friends of Jesus,

It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them.  He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. (Acts 12:1-2)

Poof.  That's it.  James is done.  There's nothing more said of him.  Yet back in Acts 5, all of the apostles were apparently rounded up and imprisoned.  They were put in jail by the High Priest and his thugs, but during the night an angel came and sprung them free.  So when James again ends up in prison in ch 12, he might have thought and prayed, "Okay, Lord!  You know me, your buddy James! Spring me free again!"  It didn't go that way, sadly.  See how confusing following God can be?  And dangerous.  

Peter is the next one tossed in the clink (ch 12).  Herod sees how happy the Jews are to have James sliced open, so he grabs Peter and puts him in stocks too.  I wonder what Peter was thinking the night before his trial and probable execution?  The scripture doesn't say.  He had experienced miracles and he'd felt God's silence when prayers for deliverance were uttered.  Just because we ask God to free us from a prison, it doesn't always mean he will.  Which leads us back to the beginning:  Following God is certainly confusing.  A dangerous adventure.  The funny thing is, I don't think Peter or even James would have wanted it any other way.  They were content with putting their lives completely in God's hands.  For Christ's sake. 

This Sunday is both Pentecost and, at CHBC, Camp Sunday.  So wear campy, red stuff!  The message will look at Acts 12 and how Peter sensed the Spirit's peace and power, even in prison.  

- Curtis

Chained for Good: Jonah

A long time ago I remember hearing a preacher tell a story about a guy in the late 1800's, in English waters, who fell off a ship called the "Star of the East" and was swallowed by a whale.  According to the story, the poor guy had very light skin the rest of his life as a result of the whale's gastric acid which bleached him.  The story was told to show that yes, in fact, something as amazing as Jonah's story could be true.  The unfortunate guy who was whale chum was named James Bartley.  The story (see one version here) has been told in many sermons through the years and is still a common one today for preachers who desperately seek a hook to make the more amazing bible stories a bit easier to swallow (insert groan here).

The trouble is, the Bartley story isn't true.  The best that historical sleuths  have been able to come up with is that the story was fabricated soon after an actual whale was beached and died near the shore town of Gorleston England.   The thirty-footer was rather famous and lots of stories circulated about it - including the Bartley story.  Eventually, an ambitious taxidermist stuffed the whale and it was displayed in the London Westminster Aquarium.  But James Bartley was not found inside.

I'll leave it up to you to decide whether the Jonah story is historically accurate or mythic.  I don't have a problem with it being true.  If God can create big fish -  and you and me - out of a single cell and puff his breath into us to make us alive, then it can't be that hard for him to give a fish a hankering for a Jonah snack and keep the rebel alive for a few days.  "The earth is the Lord's and everything in it" the Psalmist says.

What's odd to me is that we squabble over the truth of whether Jonah could live in a fish, but we don't blink an eyelash at how the Ninevites repsond when Jonah shows up.  Jonah delivers the "turn or burn" message and they . . . turn.  Huh?  The arch-enemies of Israel who follow a smorgasbord of other gods drop everything, fast, pray, repent and turn to God because some reluctant fishy smelling loudmouth tells them they're going to fry if they don't turn to God?  Seriously?  How great of a miracle is that?  That's a story that we should cause us to think, "Wow, what sort of a God is this?"

On Sunday we'll think about such amazing truths and hoist more treasure from the depths of Jonah's tale.  In the meantime, Netflix has the VeggieTales version streaming online . . .

- Curtis

Chained for Good: John the B

It's been awhile since there's been time to write here, but we're in the middle of a 7 part sermon series about biblical characters who were imprisoned.   I have to mention, before I write anything else, that I absolutely KNOW you're going to love the video intro to this week's message.  If you've been in worship, you know that each message in this series starts with a story about an unusual prison.  This week's is one of the best - really fun (which isn't the way you might normally describe prison stuff).  But I don't want to spoil it for you, so you'll have to show up if you want to see the prison story I'm going to share this week.  It's great!

Anyway, this is week three in the Chained for Good series, and we're taking a look at John the Baptist who is an interesting guy.  (Matthew 11:1-19)

[Part I and II of Chained for Good can be downloaded here]

John's ministry is fairly short-lived and yet Jesus describes him as the greatest of all the prophets.  He has an amazing ministry of proclaiming the coming of the Messiah and getting people to look at their lives.  But soon after Jesus comes on the scene, John gets tossed in jail for daring to tell Herod that he was an adulterer.  Instead of being rescued as some of Jesus' disciples were later, he comes to a grisly end when his head is lopped off to please a bratty dancer (makes a nice painting though, doesn't it?).  

If you've ever believed that a radically faithful life lived for God will lead to success and comfort, this guy torpedos that idea.  What does John have to teach us then?  That's what we'll discover Sunday.

- Curtis

Extreme Makeover

I have a memorial service this week for a wonderful woman who lived 96 full years:  Ida.  The last time I saw her was on Friday when she was, quite literally, on her death bed.  Her body was rounding the final turn, but her mind was still sharp.  The visit consisted of a scripture, a prayer, and holding her hand for a few minutes.  She dozed and breathed heavily.  She smiled.  Then she said, "Well, thank you for coming.  It's been delightful!"  I knew that meant, "Time to go, preacher man!"  But I also had a feeling she was saying that this life had been delightful.  Even in those last moments she was dignified and grateful.  That's a beautiful lesson.  I laughed and she smiled once more. We said our goodbyes on this side of the new creation.  Three days later she went home.


A central theme all the way through 2 Corinthians is about Paul’s awareness of his own mortality.  He was probably in his mid to late 50's when he wrote the letter, but he knew that there were plenty of people who wanted him dead.  Life wasn't exactly safe for him.   He writes about, “Treasure in jars of clay...being crushed...outwardly wasting away...earthly tent destroyed....”  Yet his awareness of death is always framed within the context of hope in the resurrection and knowing that this life is not all there is; in fact it is a small part of all that life is for the believer.  


We are in the infancy of our lives.

Try and think back to when you were leaving elementary school and heading off to middle school.  For most, that’s 5th grade, 6th for some.  Those first 5-6 years of school, at that point in your short life, seemed like forever.  As a 5th grader, you looked back at those little 1st graders and thought, “They’re so little!  They’re so young and silly. I’m so big and smart now.”  And then you re-lived a similar experience in 8th grade as you looked back on those punky little 6th graders; yet again when you were a senior in high school and you saw those pimple faced freshman walking, deer-in-the-headlight style, down the halls.  Those experiences continue, perhaps with less frequency, throughout our lives when we end one stage and begin another.  College...our first job....marriage....raising children...taking them off to their first day of elementary school.
Isn’t it likely, then, that we’ll find something similar at the end of this life as we step into the next?  I suspect so.  Once we’re with Christ, stepping into a new stage of life, we’ll look back on the decades we’ve spent in this “earthly tent” (2 Corinthians 5:1) and say, “Wow.  What a child I was! Look at all that lies ahead.  I wonder what this new stage will be like?” 

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” - 1 Corinthians 13

Paul’s whole point, in 2 Corinthians 5 (our sermon passage this week), seems to be, “Don’t waste the time you've been given in this body.  Spend your time on eternal things, meaningful things."  The very most meaningful, to Paul, was reconciling people to God.  And that’s the topic we’ll be looking at for  this week’s message.  How does this long-term, eternal perspective of life - and other people - change what we focus on now?  How does it change our view of people and their sins, hurts, troubles?
- Curtis

Decisions, Decisions . . .

It's Lent already.  That's the 40 days leading up to Easter which really doesn't seem like it should be as close as it is.  I'm beginning some sermons that don't technically qualify as a "sermon series" but there is a common string that winds through the next three Lenten sermons.  That common string is "Decisions."  Life is full of decisions small and large.

"Will I get out of bed today? .... Oatmeal or cereal?" 

"Phone call or email?"

"Should I quit my job?" 

I'm suspicious that, like the guy who opts for junk food instead of something healthy, we fill up on relatively unimportant choices and neglect the truly important and less numerous decisions.  We ponder what TV show we'll watch, whether to buy a new gizmo and fifty other meaningless choices each day, but we don't bother thinking about whether there's any significant purpose to the day we just completed.

The problem with such a pattern of small choices taking precedence over important decisions is obvious:  Life feels meaningless.

What if the solution to this problem is very simple?  Could it be that there are perhaps just two or three decisions that require our focus?  And, once we honestly make these genuine decisions and live daily in concert with what we've chosen, then everything else will fall into place rather well.

Over the next few weeks we'll look at what these two or three decisions might be, and how they impact every other aspect of life.  Check out the weekly question above - I 'd love to read about some of the decisions you have made this week.
- Curtis

We've Got the Power

A lot of times, when I read a bible passage, I blow through it as if I'm at a buffet.  I move right along, looking for the good stuff that tastes best: Morsels of the Word that encourage me, inspire me, comfort me - whatever it feels like I want at the moment.  I doubt that's a good way to read scripture.  What's missed are the most nutritious parts of the biblical meal.

There's a little appetizer in Ephesians this week that is easily passed over.  It's this:

And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. 

Ephesians 1:9-10

Did you catch that?  The "mystery of God's will" is that God is in the process of bringing all things on "heaven and earth... together" under Christ.  In other words, that's where everything is headed.  This world isn't going down the tubes.  It might look that way, but it isn't.  God's bringing heaven and earth together and that means that his recreative power is constantly being released all over the place.  It's kind of funny that we have a hard time seeing that since it goes on all around us and we take it for granted.  Just this week here in Oregon we had a super nice spell of weather and the blossoms started exploding on the cherry and plum trees.  Grass began to grow.  Leaves poked out of dead looking tree branches.  "That's just Spring," we say.  It's also part of the regeneration and recreation that God builds into nature. It's like he's tapping us on the shoulder and saying, "See? Heaven and earth are joining.  All things will become new."  Paul says the Spirit of God is the beginning of our own regeneration - part of heaven implanted into you and me, and yet there's more to come.

Back in Ephesians, after Paul points to this unification of heaven and earth, he prays that the "eyes of (our) heart may be enlightened."  Hmm.  That's different. Picture your heart with little plastic goggly eyes peering out between your ribs.  What are the "eyes of our heart?"

This week I'm finishing up our short series of messages on prayer by looking at this prayer of Paul's.  What strikes me most as we've studied some key prayers in the New Testament is how different they are than the way I normally pray.  I guess that shouldn't be so surprising - I'm no Paul or Jesus!  Yet their prayers are dramatically different than what most of us pray.  Part of that difference is due to them praying for many people, not just for an individual or a time constrained situation.  But their prayers are also different because they think differently; they have a larger perspective and a bigger view of what's going on around them.  In other words, it seems that reality is so much more real then mine.  The substance of Paul's prayer and what it means for our lives today is what we'll explore in the sermon.
- Curtis

Forgive us Our Sins As We . . . What?!

Have you been faced with . . . 
   * wanting to forgive, but the person who wronged you denies or minimizes their offense, or
     *  knew you needed to forgive but you didn't feel capable of it?
        
And have you . . . 
     * wanted to receive forgiveness, but it wasn't offered, or
       * received forgiveness when you knew it was immensely difficult to the one who offers it? 


In the Lord's Prayer, Jesus teaches us one of the hardest prayers for us to say with complete sincerity,

Forgive us our sins 

as we 

forgive those who sin against us

It's the "as we" that hits us between the eyes.  If we were just asking for forgiveness for ourselves - and sure, we could ask God to forgive those who sin against us - that would be one thing.  But he ties the two aspects of forgiveness together, 

For if you forgive men when they sin against you, 

your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 

But if you do not forgive men their sins, 

your Father will not forgive your sins.

What is there about un-forgiveness that short-circuits God's forgiveness for us?   Is it that grace, after all, is somehow earned - or perhaps withdrawn depending on whether we forgive others or not?  Or is there something deeper going on?  I opt for the second option and that's what we'll discuss in this week's message. 

I'll also be sharing a clip from a film that impacted me profoundly when I saw it recently.  It's called As We Forgive (trailer here), and it shares the true, contemporary story of Rwandans who were called to forgive those who participated in the genocide of over one million of their brothers and sisters in 1994.  If you've ever struggled to forgive something terrible, you'll want to see it.  If you need to sense God's forgiveness in new ways, join worship at CHBC this Sunday. 

- Curtis