Pastor Jimmy's Blog

Yeah– what he said…..

While trying to figure out what I should be doing after this morning’s men’s breakfast, I was driving around town when I turned east onto Eighth Street off Central Avenue…..

WOW!

The trees lining the street were covered in a mix of snow and frost, perfectly absorbing the pastels of a sunrise filtered by fog from the layer of snow covering the ground…. gentle pinks and purples that took on solid form on the trees…..

God had fun with the crayon box this morning.

Though the colors will be quite different later, I highly recommend driving down Eighth Street behind the church, then around the cemetery, and down Marr by East High School and Clifty Park.

Then read Psalm 8.

More thoughts inspired by A. W. Tozer (see previous post; again, thanks to Anne Jackson) on whether worship is merely noise in God’s ears…

A while back (which, being translated, means I’m getting old) there was a semi-popular song “Me and Jesus”:

“Me and Jesus, we got a good thing goin’; Me and Jesus, we got it all worked out….”

Sounds good, right? It’s very Baptist-sounding, right? I can worship God (or serve or whatever) just fine by myself. Right???

Nope. I don’t see any evidence of this in scripture. In fact, I see the opposite. The writer of Hebrews strongly encouraged his/her audience to continue meeting together, in spite of trends away from community. (Hebrews 10:25) Most of the letters to the early church in the New Testament address how to live together as God’s community of faith, as God’s family.

In fact, the togetherness and community of the early church was its most powerful witness to the outside world. The world knew something was real about what the church was preaching because they saw how the church cared for one another and grew together as community. (Acts 2:42-47. Bookmark it– I will refer there often!)

I’m not saying we cannot worship on our own apart from established church services. I am saying that if we do not nurture our connection with Christian community, we weaken our connection with God and actually cannot worship (or serve or anything else) as well.

We were not created to live alone (Genesis 2:18). We were created to live in community; one could even say that community was created for our benefit. Coming together to celebrate Christ in worship energizes our personal prayer and worship, as well as our service and our study and, well, everything we do as we follow Christ TOGETHER!

So, while it’s not grammatically correct, can we start living and singing “We and Jesus…”?

Writer, blogger, and tweeter Anne Jackson posted this quote on Twitter this morning:

“Religious noise and worship do not necessarily mean the same thing.” AW Tozer (The Purpose of Man)

(Perfect timing after a sermon on worship, don’t you think?)

This is the picture that came to my mind when I read Tozer’s statement: Dr. Seuss’ Grinch complaining about the Christmas noise down in Whoville, with drumsticks beating on his ears. The “noise” was the one thing he hated the most about the Who’s Christmas celebration.

Does our worship make God put holy, giant hands over holy, giant ears and scream “Oh the noise, noise, noise”? Don’t answer too quickly; read through Isaiah 58 first.

God seems to dislike worship that’s focused on us, “services” that reinforce our own prejudices and keeps us comfortable, seeking to avoid change, insulating us from the constant movement of God’s Spirit. “Here we are now– entertain us!” is not a response to God’s activity in the world and in our lives. “Here am I; send me” is.

God desires worship that celebrates and engages God, because that kind of worship opens our hearts for God to pour God’s own self into us. That kind of worship invites God into our whole lives, not just a few moments on Sunday mornings when we’d rather be fishing.

One of my dear friends back in Greencastle, when praying before worship with the praise team, always invites God to “sit back and enjoy.” Now that’s what I call a heart of worship!

Tomorrow: preparing ourselves for worship.

I actually did think about this one for Sunday, but it didn’t fit the flow. Then again, that’s why I started the blog.

No matter what our intentions are, if we are so busy working in church or other activities that we don’t have time for family or for our own spiritual development, we’re too busy!

At this point, I’m not talking about service that claims to be honoring God when we’re really honoring self. I’m talking about well-intentioned over-serving. Whether we feel like God will pay more attention to us or whether we want to do as much as we can for God, we miss the point when we sign up for anything and everything.

We should be thinking about service as calling. How is God calling me to use my resources (talents, passions, possessions, finances, etc.) for others? How is God calling me to contribute to my church’s in-house ministries? How is God calling me to contribute to ministry in my community?

As in mind my last post (Church Work is Not Necessarily Service), we must remember that busy-ness in God’s name can hinder us from truly opening up to God. We should seek out one (or a few, but not several) place to serve in church, a place that will not only allow us to contribute to the whole but also allow us to grow spiritually as well. When we’re serving in God’s way in God’s time, we experience optimal results, not only for ourselves, but also for our church family and our community.

If you’re on the verge of burnout from over-serving, or if you’ve given up on church after giving it 150%, check out Anne Jackson’s little book Mad Church Disease. It’s a very personal, bluntly honest testimony about the dangers of sacrificing self for the institution of "church" rather than celebrating church as the life-giving body of Christ.

There are far too many thoughts after yesterday’s sermon on the discipline of service to make one brief post. I’ll try to stretch out the main ones over a couple of posts for easier digestion.

I wish I had made this point yesterday: church work and service are two different things. While one can serve through church work, one can easily be heavily involved in church work and not serve anyone but one’s self. How to tell the difference? We must take a long, honest, hard look at why we’re doing what we’re doing in church.

Church work can be motivated by several misguided factors: desiring to impress God or others with our busy-ness in his name, attempting to earn God’s favor or our place in heaven, wishing to control church through our work, or attempting to avoid serious self-reflection by staying preoccupied. These fail to qualify as service because the focus isn’t on someone else. In fact, in each of these situations, our church work is hindering us from genuinely serving anyone other than self.

Church work becomes service when the focus is on someone else. How can I help someone else explore their relationship with God? How can I help remove distractions from the worship or study experience? How can I make someone feel wanted and welcomed here? What can I do to help someone else experience God here?

We have all benefited from someone else helping us better focus on God during the worship time or some other time: janitors, ushers, nursery staff, children’s church staff, etc. Next Sunday, be sure and thank them for their service to us, and let’s see how we can learn from them how to serve each other and our guests better.

Up next: quit doing so much so you can serve better!

Relationships have been on my mind a lot this week, probably because I watched To Save a Life with our youth group last Sunday. (Thanks to the Community Church of Columbus for making the necessary arrangements with the theater!) Have you ever thought about how we handle our relationships as a part of good stewardship?

I’m NOT talking about the church marketing and/or popular evangelistic approaches that treat people as conquests. In fact, I mean the opposite. Stewardship is about proper management of what belongs to someone else, and we believe that all things and all people ultimately belong to God (Psalm 24:1). If that’s the case, then our relationships belong to God as well.

So how does God want me to treat that annoying neighbor? That co-worker who spends all her time gossiping then I have to work harder to meet the deadline? The pregnant girl at school? The guy who got her pregnant but won’t step up to his responsibilities? The weird, anti-social guy at school or work that seems to insist on being a loner?

Stewardship of relationships requires that we look at others through the eyes of Christ. Jesus can help us see past the outside layer– whether that be a false bravado or a false “lone ranger” attitude– and see the hurts and pains that are really common to all of us.

Not everyone will respond nicely to us, but we can let them all know that the door is open. We want to share life with them just because they too are special, unique persons of worth created in the image of a loving, gracious God (words blatantly stolen from the Rev. Grady Nutt). No hidden agendas, no “check marks” on a list, no “brownie points” for inviting someone to church– just loving them because God loved them first.

Forgive us God, when we have not loved you with our whole heart, mind, and soul, and forgive us when we have not loved others as you have loved us.

The Biblical languages are languages of word pictures. They had to be; the ancients lived in a world where few could read and write, and fewer still had access to scrolls or books. Words with vivid imagery helped hearers retain the ideas they heard so those ideas could be passed along to others.

Take Psalm 46:10, for instance. A well known verse– “Be still, and know that I am God!” (NRSV) The word picture behind “Be still” is someone fighting a losing battle and just flailing away, yet accomplishing nothing, like a shadow boxer, or the image of a fidgety child who just can’t sit still, expending much energy but going nowhere. The key image is great effort with no gain.

The Good News Translation (one of my personal favorites, and the pew Bibles at Memorial) handles this verse well: “‘Stop fighting,’ he says, ‘and know that I am God…’” The idea is that our constant attempts to do everything on our own don’t really get that much done, and in fact can keep us distracted from what God is doing. Stop our fighting, and let God show us who God has been all along.

In what part of our lives are we doing all the work rather than relying on God? Do we tend to follow our plans until they fail and only then turn to God?

Sometimes we need to close our eyes and try tosee what the scriptures are saying to us. Those who have ears, let them hear what the Spirit says…. those who have eyes, let them see what the Spirit says.

On Sunday, I challenged us to read a psalm a day this week, listening for God to speak to us. Some suggestions: Psalm 1, 8, 19, 46, 24, 42, 51, 73, 148, 149.

Ask questions like, “What is God encouraging me to do here? What is God asking me to stop doing? What does this passage tell me about what God is like? What does this passage tell me about who God wants me to be?”

For example, let’s take Psalm 1. Notice the progression away from God’s path toward those who reject God. Where am I taking “harmless” baby-steps away from God? How do I come back to God’s path before things get out of control? If things are already out of control, how do I let God bring me back?

Another suggestion for this type of scripture reading. Eugene Peterson’s The Message paraphrase provides an insightful commentary on the scriptures from just this perspective.