Go to the End of the Line.

"They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, "What were you arguing about on the road?" But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest. Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all."

Funny how quiet I get when God is in the house.

Do you get quiet when God's around?
You know,
stop all the
talking...
judging...
criticising...
arguing...
debating?

I notice how great I am doing my thing and how others don't live up to the "standard".

I have such a high opinion of me.
I should most likely be first.

My opinion of my opinion is so great that I actually THINK that God
must have a high opinion of me. (Secretly, of course. I'd NEVER tell God
how high God's opinion of me must be.)

So, I ACT like my opinion is not too high when God's around the house.

I keep quiet when God's in the room.

For some reason I wouldn't want God
to know just how my ego gets in the way of seeing things the way they are.
Seeing myself the way that I am.
I just want to be great-- FIRST.

Do you do that?

Do you argue with others who travel the same road, on the same journey to God about who is the greatest and deserves to be at the front of the line, first among the crowd, and then when Jesus comes into the room you get all quiet, as if he hasn't heard you?

Go to the end of the line.

"Okay, I'm here! Look how great I am now!"
"Am I first now, Jesus?" (wink, wink)

When we get to the end of the line,
we'll no longer have a need to be first.

We'll no longer Edge God Out by trying to be first.
God wants us to be GREAT,
just...like... Jesus.

It's Getting Very Dark in Here.

It's often easy to see the shadow lingering around others than it is the shadow that hovers over me.

Many are taught to ignore, deny, repress, or hate the shadow that hovers around them.

Where there is light, there is a shadow near by.

I cannot grow whole until I recognize and embrace my shadows. Yes, I said embrace.

If that is troubling, well, you just discovered one of your shadows. Go ahead and love it.

Yes, I said "love it"... it's YOU! (see, another shadow... wow, we sure seem to possess many shadows)

Whatever I hate about you, there's a good chance I recognize a shadow in myself.

Logs and specks.

Your speck, is my log. 

It's getting very dark in here.

Isn't this fun? Fun to help each other discover our shadows? 

And all this time I thought it was you, when it was really me.

Bill, Sean, Anderson, & Jesus.

"Defend the weak and the orphans; defend the rights of the poor and suffering. Save the weak and helpless; free them from the power of the wicked."You know nothing. You don't understand. You walk in the dark, while the world is falling apart. I said, 'You are "gods." You are all sons of God Most High." Psalm 82


Hmmm. Defend the weak and the orphans?
Defend the rights of the poor and suffering?
Save the weak and helpless?
Free them from the power of the wicked?

I wonder what Bill O'Reilly would think of this?
Sean Hannity?
CNN?
Politicians?

Liberal agenda?
(We no longer have to fear the Russians, so we need some mythic power to fear and hate)

Conservative right?

Or a prophetic call from our Creator?

Sons (and daughters of God)?
One nation under God?
In God we trust?

Are we walking in the dark while the world is falling apart?

Stone those preachers who claim to speak
for God; kill those who dare to speak
for justice and mercy?

"Again some of the people picked up stones to kill Jesus."

It seems that a lot of folks wanted to kill Jesus.
We religious folks seem to like to throw rocks.
We like to crush those who we oppose.
We like to silence those with whom we disagree.

But he said to them, "I have done many good works from the Father.
Which of these good works are you killing me for?"

They answered, "We are not killing you because of any good work you did, but because you speak against God. You are only a human, but you say you are the same as God!" Jesus answered, "It is written in your law that God said, 'I said, you are gods.'(Psalm 82)


Who are the weak and orphans?
Who are the poor and suffering?
Defend their rights?
Who are the weak and helpless?

God cares about the weak?
The poor?
The suffering?
The helpless?

That sounds a bit like a hand-out in the 21st century, don't you think?
Sounds a little like a wicked liberal scheme, perhaps?

"This Scripture called those people gods who received God's message, and Scripture is always true."

So why do you say that I speak against God because I said, 'I am God's Son'? I am the one God chose and sent into the world. If I don't do what my Father does, then don't believe me..."

"But if I do what my Father does, even though you don't believe in me, believe what I do. Then you will know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father."

Jesus doesn't really believe that those who call him Teacher, Master, Lord, or God when united can actually do greater works, does he? Does he really expect me to follow him?

Am I walking in the dark?

Love, Belief, Fruit, and the Garden.

I have some deep thoughts this morning.

I've been thinking about HOW the Church is called to LOVE.

Is that how non-members know us best?

I mean, if they were going to say ONE THING, would it be about how radically we love one another?

There's now fear within the Institution that even in the "growing" segments of the Institution for the past 30 years, we have discovered that we've, for the most part, only "recycled and retreaded" those souls from the institution and perhaps, for the first time in a LONG time we actually have to GO instead of being "talking heads" to a captive audience. (Is my ego-self wounded that many don't care what I have to SAY? Am I offended that some won't listen to me? Losers.)

What is it about love that seems to scare some of us who are called by our God to love?
Doesn't perfect love cast our fear?

Jesus gave his disciples a NEW commandment: Love one another AS I have loved you.
Agape one another AS I have agaped you.

Do we not believe this?

Jesus told his students to go and create more students in his manner of life. The one command he gave his students was to love each other in the manner of the Teacher and his Parent loved each other. he taught that this is the way others would know.

It seems that the Teacher wasn't interested in creating a large attendance of potential students, but more so interested in what the students could accomplish if they were willing to do what he taught-- love.

Perhaps it's we don't trust; we don't have faith in Jesus' instruction to GO... that love really isn't the higher way. It is easier and far more self-serving to focus on beliefs and differences than it is to love.

Love seems to cost something.
Self.
Love is humble.
I am not.
Love is patient.
I am not.
Love is kind.
I am not.
Perhaps my God is against everything I oppose.
I self-preserve.
God empties.
God gives.

My teacher is the way, truth and life. I believe this. Just ask me.
Do I trust my teacher enough to walk in his way, truth, and life?
I guess you'd have to watch me.

Do I have the faith to walk in my Teacher's way, truth, and life.
Look at what is growing in the garden of my heart.
Look what is produced by my life.
I can read all the books in a library about growing fruit.
I can learn about soil, minerals, and climate that produces ripe fruit
I can even quote authors who have written about how to grow fruit,
but until I am willing to put my hands in the dirt to plant a seed you
will never see fruit in my garden.

THE church is called to LOVE.
Rather than allowing beliefs about God to divide;
it is the LOVE of and for God and each other that can unite us as the church;
to help make us ONE as Jesus prayed to his Father.

Church "beliefs"have often been a source of separation and division, perhaps even an instrument in the hands of crafty evil,but it is only by surrendering to Jesus' command to love that can help usher in the Kingdom of God. Maybe Jesus' call to love is the ONE THING we can agree on???

Jesus said that folks will know what we believe, not by our words, but by the fruit that grows in our garden. Perhaps Jesus was more interested in growing His Garden in us, than he was was about telling us about some garden in the distant future while watching us starve to death now.

I'm hungry.
Others are starving.

Perhaps once I am willing to allow those who are hungry
to feed-off the fruit in my garden
that they too will want to know who taught me to grow
such life giving fruit.
They will want to meet the Source of my fruit.
They might just want to invite the Source to be the Source of their garden as well.

"You see, I was not raised in a particularly religious household, but my mother instilled in me a sense of service and empathy that eventually led me to become a community organizer after I graduated college. And a group of Catholic churches in Chicago helped fund an organization known as the Developing Communities Project, and we worked to lift up South Side neighborhoods that had been devastated when the local steel plant closed.

And it was quite an eclectic crew -- Catholic and Protestant churches, Jewish and African American organizers, working-class black, white, and Hispanic residents -- all of us with different experiences, all of us with different beliefs. But all of us learned to work side by side because all of us saw in these neighborhoods other human beings who needed our help -- to find jobs and improve schools. We were bound together in the service of others.

And something else happened during the time I spent in these neighborhoods -- perhaps because the church folks I worked with were so welcoming and understanding; perhaps because they invited me to their services and sang with me from their hymnals; perhaps because I was really broke and they fed me. Perhaps because I witnessed all of the good works their faith inspired them to perform, I found myself drawn not just to the work with the church; I was drawn to be in the church. It was through this service that I was brought to Christ."

Good News

Gospel = Good News.

The Gospel isn't, you (or I) accept God.

The Gospel is, God accepts us.

Good News, it is finished.

Awaken... believe... and live into this reality.

Share this with the world.

Live in love.