Sunday, March 29 “A Noise”

Today at Middlefield Methodist, we had kind of a state of the church address. Pastor Ed reflected on where we have been as a church, where we are right now, and where we are going. Didn’t It feel a bit like a State of the Union? Just messing…but there sure are reasons behind Sundays like this!

Often, as we come to church, we forget our mission, our history, and our present. Especially in times like this, when our economy is shaky, we miss forward thinking. When our life gets upset, we turn inward, seeing how we are doing and preparing ourselves for the situation. It’s almost like hiding from the reality, to escape the strife, whether real or created, and to think only about ourselves.

Our scripture paints a different picture however. Jesus speaks in verses 25 and 26 saying, “The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.” Jesus always has a way of pointing us to service doesn’t he? It is one of those messages all throughout scripture…to look beyond ourselves. I believe it is one of the things that really draw us to him. Never does he just leave us where we are at, but he extends us, directing us to a whole new place.

Often, I wonder why He does this? Why does Jesus push us to serve, act and have a vision beyond our own? The first answer that I get, and probably the easiest to come up with, would be that we can’t do it on our own. We need a savior and guide. I, personally, am constantly reminded of this. My moments of being a buffoon warn me harshly.

Still, even further, I believe that we live into a deeper context when we look beyond ourselves. When we look to serve others, we are empathizing. We are taking steps to walk in another’s shoes. When we can see the larger picture of the world around us, we can see a bigger vision…a bigger context. Our vision changes, and the images that God would have for us, may begin to creep into view. Maybe, and I can only say maybe here, we begin to view the world how Jesus did?

Imagine what it is like to be God for a second (don’t try too hard, or you will hurt yourself J).

God has such a large vision of the world, not only seeing my endless needs and struggles, but something like 8 billion peoples’ needs and struggles. Wow…(I hope you didn’t hurt yourself).

Maybe Jesus is pushing us to look beyond ourselves because we get to see with that different vision. Maybe it directs us deeper into the life he has for us, to see beyond some of the financial worries of today into the mission that God has for this world. And maybe, by doing this, we will begin to reside deeper into the life that God has for us.

The time is always ripe for God to move in a powerful way. Sometimes, that movement is small, like a single rain drop falling to earth. Other times, it is like a lighting strike, powerful and humbling. Our church has great potential to be a community that does not get caught up into the worries of this world, but a community that only gets caught up into the worries of God’s world.

Are we this church? Probably not, because we humans are a part of it.

Still, what would look different if we were 100% vested into God’s mission for this world? What would change? How would we act, think and live differently? (These are not rhetorical questions)

I ask myself these questions and I hope that you do too! We need to always be reminded that we should be a growing and teachable community, probably not always getting it perfect, but perfectly aware that we should always be striving to be headed in that direction.

And so, may we, as a community of believers following Christ, live deeper into a life of service and vision beyond the here and now and into the movement of God beyond our very selves.

Grace and Peace!
Micah

Being Spiderman

Have you ever wanted to dress up like a Super Hero?

Don't lie, I know its true :)

I know that I always wanted to be Batman and in some ways, I still do. We all have these intrinsic, funny desires in some way or another, or at least, we have these wild, childhood heroes that we admire and long to be like.

Well, I just read an article about a Thai Fireman who dressed up like Spiderman to get a boy who has autism down from a third story window. The boy was frightened about school and once the fireman put the costume on, the boy came down quickly. You can read the story for yourself at http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090324/od_afp/thailandchildrenoffbeat%3B_ylt%3DAk8OqrUvs2SiiemPR9IJ8KsDW7oF

I just thought this story was brilliant. His creativity is inspiring. And his true empathy, to walk in the shoes of a young boy with Autism, is just empowering.

And so, may we all dress in our spiderman costumes to be creative and engage this world :)

Grace and Peace,
Micah

Biblical Worldviews

The Barna Group, which is like the U2 of the Christian statistics world, published a recent finding that 1% of young adults and 9% of all adults hold a Biblical Worldview.

Interesting.

The first thing I need to do is to define what a Biblical Worldview is. From the Barna Group, a Biblical Worldview is defined… as believing that absolute moral truth exists; the Bible is totally accurate in all of the principles it teaches; Satan is considered to be a real being or force, not merely symbolic; a person cannot earn their way into Heaven by trying to be good or do good works; Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth; and God is the all-knowing, all-powerful creator of the world who still rules the universe today.

This seems like some drastic information. Does it surprise you? (this would be a great question to leave a comment about…hint, hint)

For me, yes and no. It has been apparent to me that our culture has been shifting over the past few decades. Our world is just looking different. Pluralism is a reality. So, it does not surprise me that the numbers are low.

Nevertheless, within the Christian world, completely following Barna’s definition has become more and more difficult for people. The two areas of his definition that are most troubling are a belief in Satan as a real being or force and that persons cannot earn their way into heaven. These two are not surprising either.

Satan.

The actuality of a being, comprised of full evil, that is alive to tempt and sway us into sin seems contrived to many. The characterization of this force through movies and even in the Christian world, has made Satan look like a cartoon character, separated and almost playful. Many communities relay information about Satan as this outside force of evil, almost never naming him/her. So, to come out and say that Satan is a being could be hard for many.

The other area, earning ones way into heaven, has always been a large struggle for people of the Christian faith. Almost embedded into our humanity is this deserved righteousness, through our actions. From the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, this has been the tremendous struggle between Catholics and Protestants. So, to come out completely and say that salvation is a gift through faith can be quite a leap as well.

Even with these difficult realities, I am surprised that only 1% the younger generation holds this view completely. That seems quite low.

I guess I see two larger questions coming to my mind…First, what does the changing landscape of America say about the Christian faith today? Second, are we still able to be in relationship, pursue God and love people who hold differing views than our own?

For the full article, you can follow this link http://www.barna.org/barna-update/article/21-transformation/252-barna-survey-examines-changes-in-worldview-among-christians-over-the-past-13-years...wow, that is a long link :)

Grace and Peace!
Micah

Lent – The Inconvenient Truth

We are now into our second week of Lent, the churchy word we use for the 30 days before Easter. We have a lot of “churchy” words in our community, as does every community and most often, not always, they are used to help us think deeper about our faith. Lent is one of those words. It comes from the word Lencten, Anglo-Saxon for spring and it has been traditionally a time of fasting and preparation for Baptism.

This year, as we journey towards the cross, we are falling into another traditional pattern of Lent, to remember key words and stories about Christ. This Sunday, we thought about the cross and how Jesus both predicted his death and commissioned us to take up our own crosses.

Pastor Ed conveniently titled this Sunday, “The Inconvenient Truth”. We reflected on Mark 8:31-38, and Ed talked about how it is for us to follow this commission and carry the cross Jesus has for us. He continued by stating that we come most alive when life is hard, when we are carrying this cross and live out this dangerously powerful ideal from Jesus.

I was struck by the stark contrast this perspective has against the nature of our 21st century American culture. When we look at the “ideal” life of our culture, we often are taught that we should be married with 2.5 kids, with a white picket fence around our perfect little house, on the corner of some nice street, with perfectly white teeth and driving a brand new SUV and having plenty of money to go around from our great jobs. We have plenty of friends, family and our marriage are always great. I could easily continue this scenario, but I don’t want to bore you and I think most of us could continue it pretty easily.

This is often the ideal, but never the reality. There are these subtle and not so subtle expectations around us all the time, to fulfill this mindset and live this perfect little scenario. However, life is so much deeper and vibrant than any of these expectations. We are human and we have burdens and struggles. We are broken people always needing a Savior. And to follow this commission from Jesus, to carry our cross, calls us often to sacrifice…to break the mold we are so often taught.

Carrying our own crosses often calls us to cross over these expectations and step out in a dangerous and volatile direction. Often it means for us to get a few splinters and have a little dirt on us. I think of the life of Jesus, the perfector of our faith. He was a homeless wanderer, a friend of the “not so popular”, single, often despised and rejected by the church hierarchy, a rebel against many of the norms, born to unmarried parents who ended his life killed by the death penalty.

I guess, as I think about who Jesus was, I wonder what splinters I have gotten recently for his sake? And I imagine the question we should be thinking is, which expectation am I really trying to fulfill?

Grace and Peace,
Micah

Lent - Water Wilderness, Witness

This last Sunday, we ventured into Lent, a season of journeying to the cross and remembering who we are in the midst of what Christ went through for us. On Sunday, we looked at Mark 1:9-15, reflecting on Jesus' first actions in Mark as an adult: his baptism and temptation in the desert.

Before we moved into communion, Pastor Ed talked about our wilderness experiences. We all have these experiences at one time in our life, when life is hard and we just feel like we are stuck in a wilderness. This passage is a great reminder that we serve a God who knows our experiences and can suffer with us, because he was tempted and struggled like we did.

The sermon pushed me to remember a passage from the book of Hebrews...

""Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need."
Hebrews 4:16-18

I find this passage beautiful, because it directs us to think of our High Priest as something more than distant and far away, but intimate and close...Jesus knew our walk.

As we think about how close Jesus is, we think about why we take communion together. The body and blood of Jesus, taken in remembrance through the cup and the bread. It's so simple. Just some bread and some juice. But it so powerful. Each time that we partake in the cup and chalice, we enter into something powerful.

We commune, entering into relationship...extended our heart into God's heart, breaking down the barriers, opening ourselves up and being present with God.

There is just something about that cup and that bread and that God who works in the middle of it all.

And so, as we move forward in our journey to the cross over Lent, I hope that the body and blood of Jesus sustains us all and that we, whether in our wandering wilderness or in the best moment of our life, are fulfilled and nurtured into something deeper with the God who loves us so much.

Grace and Peace,

Micah