Hey JC, JC...

I have always wanted to use this clip on Palm Sunday...but I've yet to find a community that would truly appreciate 1) my sense of humor or 2) the complete appropriateness of this clip on Palm Sunday.

I don't even know what I have to say about this except that I feel like so much of the church has grown into the Pharisees and Priests on the scaffolding, who are terrified of the rabble who celebrate the presence of Christ in their lives and have forgotten about the peace and joy that goes along with grace and forgiveness.

I wonder what would happen if Jesus rode into our places of worship today?  Would he be surrounded by the broken and the hurting?  Would he find them in our midst?  Or would he see people who have forgotten that being the Beloved is a gift that is given to all of us, something we haven't earned, has nothing to do with how well we walk the line?

Thinking Out Loud

Fair warning to anyone reading this one, there's no real plot on this one.  I am very much just thinking out loud.  If you don't mind riding the train of thought, read on.  If you need smooth flowing narrative prose, back away slowly and don't make eye contact...


I believe that the Church is a place for people to work out their junk. 


I believe that people should be able to walk into church and be as honest and vulnerable as a person at an AA meeting would be.  Think of it like this:  "Hi my name is Daniel and my life is an unmanageable mess.  So much so that I know I need help putting it back together."


And the beautiful thing would be that everyone there would say, "Hi Daniel!  Don't worry, our lives are unmanageable messes, too.  Let us walk with you as we learn to be Beloved together."


Bam, community is expressed from the get go.  The foundational belief is that we are broken, but we are loved.  And, we are not alone.  I meet a lot of people who really, truly think that they are the only messed up people in the world.  And I have met more than my fair share of people who really, truly believe that the Church is not a place to express brokenness, or vulnerability, or a desire to be loved.


But I believe that we are given the gift of community because we are all broken.  But we are all loved. 


Or, as I heard in a sermon from Mercy Street:


We believe that life is meant to be lived from two pockets. 


A short rabbinic saying claims that every human being lives out of two pockets. In one pocket there is a message that says, "You are dust and ashes." In the other pocket, the message says, "For you the universe was made." 



Yes, we are all broken.  But we are loved and have been given the opportunity to become more.  Because you don't make the universe for someone you don't love.


And you don't write on the hearts of people you make, "Loved you are" if that promise isn't meant for the heart it's written on.


I love Jeremiah 31:31-34 where it's said of God, "I will write the new covenant on their hearts, and from the least to the greatest, they shall all know me.  I will be their God, and they will be my people."  (Daniel's paraphrase, sorry if I offend.)


God is saying, "My promise to you is that I am yours and you are mine.  I wrote that once on tablets of stone, but it was too easy to think that the Promise was only for the Holy people.  The reason I'm writing it on your heart is because I want you to know that this promise is for you."


Yeah, I'd love to be in a community where we owned our two pockets.  That's my dream.

Some Thoughts for the 4th Sunday in Lent

A few weeks ago I began a Lenten series of messages dealing with covenants in the Bible. The community I lead began the series with a message on God's covenant with Noah (and all of creation) and the idea that our only part in this covenant is to have faith (trust) in God's steadfast love, and that the foundation of any covenantal relationship with God is faith/trust.

The second message dealt with God's covenant with Abraham and Sarah and how covenants give us a new identity and Divine purpose.

The third message was a look at God's covenant with Israel in the 10 Commandments. Covenantal expectations on how we order our lives with God and with each other.

Today was a look, again, at how integral faith is in terms of our covenantal relationships.

Numbers 21: 4-9:
From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way. The people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.” Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.” So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.

To talk about faith in an abstract way is easy. To make faith an idea that we understand doesn't require much from us, not really. Faith = trust, Faith = belief. For example, I believe that when I leave my house in the morning I trust I will get to work safely; I believe I will get there with no issues of mechanical nature. (Driving in the country of Japan requires a bit more than faith in my car's mechanics or my ability sometimes, which takes faith and trust to a whole new level, but that's for another time...)

It is also easy to take faith in God for granted when life is good. I've not had anyone come into my office and say, "Daniel, I'm having a hard time believing in God. I mean, how can God exist when life is so FREAKING great? How can God be real when I have full cupboards, a great job, an ideal family"...yeah, I don't have those kinds of conversations with people very often.

It's when we are standing in the desert, looking at the forward direction, and all we see is sand, and heat waves rising from the sand...and when we look at where we have come from and all we see is dust from the group of people we're traveling with. When all we can see from blinding hot horizon to blinding hot horizon is sand, sand, and more sand, dotted with the occasional dust devil, those are moments when our faith turns a little Jello like. "Watch it wiggle, see it jiggle..."

This is where the people of Israel are as this passage from Numbers begins to unfold. They are a company of several thousand; they have been traveling through the wilderness for a long, long time.  they have been at the edge of the promised land, and yet they chose to walk away in fear.  So they travel in a world of hot, hot sand.  And we all know that in the mix of large groups there are folks who like to murmur and complain. There are folks who are like Hudson from Aliens, "That's it man, game over man, game over! What the f--k are we gonna do now? What are we gonna do?" 

One pastor says that no matter where you are there is always a "Let's go back to Egypt committee."  It's staffed by people who weren't happy in Egypt, but they aren't happy where they are either; they would rather go back to the known evil than travel through an unknown in order to arrive at the blessing.

So as they murmur and complain, wondering how much worse it could be: snakes.  ("Why did it have to be snakes?")

And the snakes didn't just affect the "Let's go back to Egypt Committee."  They got after everyone, because murmurers and complainers aren't content with their own misery, they have to make life suck for everyone:

When I reported to San Diego in 1990, no one told me my ship was going to be at sea. No one told me what "Transient Personnel Units" were, or that I was supposed to go there. I was a freshly minted penny from training, looking for my ship--which wasn't there--and I got dropped into a "holding group" for people who getting out of the Navy, voluntarily and involuntarily. I was surrounded by murmurers and complainers, life sucked.  No matter what I thought or believed, the word I kept being exposed to said, "Life sucks."

I was bitten by the fiery serpents of my company's misery, just like the community that was happy with God's provision was impacted by the fiery serpents.

The community knows what to do, though; they have become adept at repentance--they are master artists when it comes to asking Moses to make things all better: "Pray to the Lord to make the serpents go away!"  And Moses, being a good shepherd for his people, goes before God and does his thing.  

And this is where it gets interesting.

God doesn't make the snakes go away.

Go ahead, scroll up and check it out.  Look it up in your own copy of the good book if you don't believe what I have up there.  You'll see it though.

God does not remove the snakes.

God makes the people choose.  Live in misery or look up and be saved.  "Whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live."

Trouble still exists; but so does hope.  This is why we have to circle the wagons every now and again and talk about this word faith.  Faith is easy when life is good.  Faith is necessary when life is hard.  

Lift up your face.  

Sidebar with the Church

“1 O God, you are my God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. 2 So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. 3 Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.” (Psalm 63:1-3)

If you've ever watched the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, you've seen his sidebars with folks.  He calls them over to one side of his "news desk" and has a personal talk with them.  I'd like to have a sidebar with the Church for a second.  Thanks.

Why is it that we don’t really appreciate something until it is absent or in short supply? (Even if that “short supply” is simply a matter of perspective?) The psalmist in the 63rd psalm says, “My soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints for you…so I have looked upon you.”

I think we allow our spiritual lives to fall victim to the same “don’t eat when you’re not hungry” or “don’t eat when you’re bored” mentality that saves many of us from large bottoms and thick waists. But God calls us to have loosened lips and praising tongues and glorifying lives all the time, not just when we get threadbare and soul thirsty!

God invites, and God deserves, our Glorias on a regular basis. When was the last time you let loose with a Gloria from the core of your spirit? When was the last time you found your completeness in God and found yourself shouting, “Eureka! I found it!”

The Gloria is, for some of us, a regular part of worship. “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost! As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be; world without end! Amen! Amen!” My question for you, though, is this: when you lift up your Gloria, is the praise from your lips, or from your heart? Ponder this question today. May we not be a people of whom Jesus can say, “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far away.” (Matt 15:8 ref. Isaiah 29:13).

Fear and Trembling

“12 Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12-13)

Sometimes life just happens. Sometimes the bottom just falls out of our day, our week, our month and we’re left wondering what just happened. Sometimes we feel hung out to dry, on the wrong side of the road from hope, or caught in a rip tide. But a life of faith is a life that moves from the muck to the damp ground to the dry ground to the green grass--and not necessarily in that order! A life of faith knows, believes, trusts that God is at work even on the worst of days and takes a step forward in faith.

Paul says we should “work out our salvation with fear and trembling.” This says to me that there will be days that our faith is tried, days when we doubt that what we’re doing is really worth it, days when we wonder where God is in the midst of the mess we see and feel.

If you’re in that place, trust that God is there with you. If you are familiar with the poem called “Footprints” you know that on the worst of days God is carrying us and that’s why there’s only one set of feet in the sand (as much as I like the “sand people ride single file to hide their numbers” image that’s going around right now) Sometimes we can’t see God because we’re being held very, very close. If you’re in that place of distress, take one step forward, one step closer to knowing. 

Every day I am reminded that each day is a mystery waiting to unfold.  We have our plans, both long term and short term, and rarely do the actual days we live go according to the plans we have made.  On days when I think I know what God wants from me, I am reminded that I am still seeking, still walking forward, still listening, still one step closer to knowing.  On days when I am prepared to embrace the mystery that is God, I am reminded of how vast that mystery can be and how much I have left to learn.  

Take this soul...

“10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.” (Psalm 51:10-12)

Return begins with knowing we will be accepted. David prays for a clean heart and a new, right, spirit in Psalm 51 because he *knows* that God will give it to him. The singer/speaker in the song “Yahweh” prays for change because (s)he is certain that God will help those changes happen. 

This is what amazes me more than anything else: before we're ready to return, God is waiting.  As Brennan Manning says in The Ragamuffin Gospel, the good news is that salvation precedes repentance.  Why repent if the promise of forgiveness is conditional.  Why offer our hearts, our voices, our souls, our lives...if we aren't sure God will receive them?  Fear of rejection is pretty high on the list of things we are afraid of, right?  We are hesitant to risk love if we aren't sure there will be a reciprocal feeling.  

I remember the night my wife said, "This will be so much easier if you just admit that you love me." (We were debating "ending" a seven year friendship for the sake of romance...we've been married for almost 14 years now.)  When she said that I knew that she loved me; I knew there would be no rejection.

If you want change in your inner being, ask God to begin making that change. But God won’t do it alone. You have to work for that change, too. God won’t put up road blocks to dead end streets, but God will whisper to you, “You don’t want to walk that road.” God will teach you how to use your hands for Kingdom work, but you have to make them available. God has shown us how to live a changed life, but we have to look at the example of Jesus, we have to open our ears to listen to the Word.

God will take our hearts, but only if we offer them.

To the One I Love

Two quotes from Martin Luther (1483-1546):

“I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess.”

“Whatever your heart clings to and confides in, that is really your God.”

Let’s reflect upon those things that are truly important to us as individuals. (You need to think about this for yourself, I can’t list the things that are most important to you.) Where do the things that God calls important fit into your list of priorities? Is your love, your life, your livelihood being invested in things, or in places where moth and rust consume and thieves break in and steal—or are you investing your energy and passion into the Dream of God?  Scripture is full of invitations to dream God sized dreams, and says in more than one place that everyone (and, yes, that includes you) gets to see what God sees and dream what God dreams. 

Christ invites us to make our priority the will of God, the Kingdom (Kin-dom, as one dear friend of mine calls it) of God, a place where the streets have no name, a place where our love does not turn to rust.  As I journey through this season of Lent, I try to think of that one thing that holds me back from ultimate trust in God and then work at giving that obstacle away (“Tear down the wall that holds [me] inside.”). If you’re willing find someone to confide in if need be, find a holy friend who will help hold you accountable, but whatever it is that holds you back from fully trusting in God, give it away. Write it down and tear it up. Write it down and toss it into a fireplace if you have one, but give it away as an offering to the God and then rest in your movement toward freedom.

I remember when I saw the movie Rattle & Hum in the theater there was this shift from black and white to color as the song “Where the Streets Have No Name” began.  I got chills; when the guitar intro started up and the Edge was ringing the bells on his guitar, I think that was the moment that I truly fell in love with U2.  I remember with even greater clarity the moment I fell in love with God, so when I speak of tearing down walls it’s so that I can keep falling in love with the One who gave everything for me.

Angels

18 Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. 19 I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. (Isaiah 43:18-19)

Let's be honest, a life in faith--life in general--isn’t all sunshine and daisies or strawberries and cream. “Some days are better than others,” as U2 sings in a different song.  We see so much that needs to change, so many situations that need God’s attention; both in our own lives and in the lives of others. 

We cry out “God why don’t you do something about (insert current dilemma here…Chile, Haiti, war, famine, poverty, illness, violence, injustice, etc.)?” Then we sit by and wait for the action to happen.  Or we draft up eloquent statements that declare beyond a shadow of a doubt that "THIS (whatever this is at the moment) is a bad thing and PEOPLE (whoever those people are, usually somebody other than us) really need to do something about it." (Douglas Adams refers to the "SEP Field"--Somebody Else's Problem.) 

The thing is, God has done something, is doing something, and it’s happening through us! We are the somebody, we are the "People" we're waiting for; we are God’s angels; we are God’s ambassadors of reconciliation (2 Cor 5:18-20).

I think I heard a sermon preached once that said if we want to see God fulfill the Promise we need to step out in faith. We cannot just sit and wait on God to do something, because God wants to work through us! Look at all the stories of faith we call our Scriptures…Noah, Abram, Moses, Esther, Mary, Paul..all these people stepped out in faith to see what God’s Promise looks like.

I am grateful for them.  They have impacted my life.  Some of the people we meet on the roads of life, are there to walk with us on as we journey through dry and desert places.  Some of the people we meet on the roads of life need us to lead them from the dry river bed to the well of Living water.  It's a blessing to be in both spots.  

Be thankful for angels.

We Get to Carry Each Other

9 Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; 10 love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers. 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. 17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. 18 If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. (Romans 12:9-18)

“One life with each other…we get to carry each other”…I like the way this song says we get to carry each other. Not we have to carry each other, or we’re supposed to carry each other…we GET to carry each other. It is a privilege to be in holy community with one another. It is a blessing to weep with those who weep and to rejoice with those who rejoice. It is a blessing to share more love than we have received. It’s fun to try to outdo loving each other—not because we should be in competition, but simply seeing how far love in community can go.

We all have busy lives, those of us who work, those of us who raise children, and those of us who are retired—the idea that retirement gives you more time than you had when you worked full time is a myth that needs to be dispelled, as does the notion that stay at home parents "don't work"—but, if we want to see healthy, vibrant, vital, holy community…we have to decide to start loving even if no one has demonstrated that love to us, even if we feel that we are too busy to stop and share love. Why? Because we GET to carry each other. You only get one life here on earth, why be unhappy? Why be too busy to share in the joy of others, or share the in grief of others? Love genuinely; love authentically, love deeply, love extravagantly…slow down, and love one another.

Grace

"Grace makes beauty out of ugly things."
31b Jesus said to them, "Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. 32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him. (Matthew 21:31-32) 

Grace challenges everything we know. Grace upsets the world’s notions of justice, equality, and retribution. Grace says tax collectors, thieves and prostitutes (and even their 21st century equivalents) are welcomed into the God’s Kingdom as much as we are. Grace says that men and women in prison, serving life sentences for heinous crimes, can be just as forgiven as we religious folk, or “normal sinners,” are. Grace is a scandal because it looks at ugliness and sees beauty, it looks at hurt and sees healing; grace looks at tit for tat, eye for eye and tooth for tooth as says, “No, forgive your enemies, love those who seek to do you harm.” 

Where does the scandal of grace fit into your spiritual journey? Do you hold grudges and carry baggage from hurt, pains, or crimes against you? Do you carry the weight of doubt when it comes to God’s acceptance of you, regardless of how “colorful” your past—or present—may be?

The “Law of Karma” says you get what you give. If you give good, you get good. If you give pain, or hurt or evil, that is what you get in return. Grace travels outside of Karma, and—Thank God!—we don’t get what we deserve. But we are challenged to give Grace as we have received it.  Maybe that's a message we need to listen to more than anything else.

If Grace walked up to you, would you be willing to listen the strings of her music as she says, “You are loved. You are forgiven. Take my hand and walk with me.” 

Fighting Identity Theft

16 I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, 17 and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. 18 I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 

(Ephesians 3:16-19)

Identity theft is a tremendous fear for most of us. My wife left her purse at a restaurant one afternoon, and because her credit cards, debit cards, drivers’ license were all in there and out of her possession for a few hours she called our banks and had all those cards cancelled and reissued. 

When someone asks you to describe yourself—when you talk about your identity—who do you say that you are? Do you start with your family identities (I’m a father, a husband, a son, a brother…), your career (I’m a pastor), your hobbies (I’m a painter and an illustrator; I’m a fledgling runner and a not-so-great gardener…)? What’s the first thing that comes to mind when describing your identity? Where does “child of grace” or “child of God” or “Beloved” fit into your identity? Can you lift up as a prayer, “I was born a child of grace...All because of You, I am!”

It is incredibly easy to let our "child of grace" identity get stolen from us in the name of careers, or societal expectations, or haunting words from others. If you have ever seen the movie Precious, maybe you have an idea of what I mean by "haunting words."  In a scene between "Precious" and her teacher Ms Rain, Precious says, crying, "Nobody loves me!"  Ms. Rain tries to reassure her otherwise, "People do love you, Precious."  Precious says back, "Please don't lie to me, Ms. Rain! Love ain't done nothing for me... but beat me... rape me... call me an animal! Make me feel worthless! Make me sick!"  The movie is full of people trying to change the self-image of Precious, and people who are trying to prevent her transformation.

This is one of the reasons I love this passage from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians: “I pray…being rooted and grounded in love…you may…comprehend…what is the breadth and length and height and depth (of God’s love.)” Paul's prayer, my daily prayer for so many people I meet with and talk to, is that we all come to understand the breadth, depths and height of God's love for us.  I pray that we can all come to the knowledge that God's love goes beyond labels that we hang around our own necks, or that we hang around other's necks.  

I pray that during this season of reflection you may make the first thing in your heart, the first thing off your lips, “I am a child of grace” and that, with your whole being, you may come back with your whole heart to the One who has a love so deep, so wide, so high and that your life would become a mirror reflecting that love to those around you.

Joyful, Noisy Living

I can only provide a link to the song for today: Magnificent

12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:12-13)

How do you think God sees you? Do you think that God look at you and sees a broken, tangled mess of humanity or does God look at you and see a beautiful, magnificent creation? The answer to that question is “yes,” but, God looks at us and sees our “child of God-ness” even as God sees our brokenness. God looks at us and sees “beloved” and calls us to live into that vision.

It isn’t enough to just know that God sees us as beloved or beautiful magnificent creations, we must accept that and live into it. The singer in the song says, “I was born to sing for you…I give you back my voice.” It is an understanding of the need to claim the way God sees us for ourselves, to believe and trust in God’s grace, and then live in joyful response to that grace.

If you wrestle with believing that you are God’s beloved, if you have difficulty accepting that God sees your child of God-ness before anything else then I invite you to say as a breath prayer these words offered by one of my favorite authors: “Abba, I belong to you.”

If you have accepted the grace-filled status of Beloved, if you are making it part of your day to day identity, then I challenge and encourage you to make your life a joyful response to that grace by reaching out I the name of the One who reached out to you.

Broken Hearts

34 Then the king will say to those at his right hand, "Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 35 for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me....Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.' (Matthew 25:34-36, 40)

“Mother’s of the Disappeared” was originally release on U2’s The Joshua Tree album in 1987. U2’s song is about the Argentinean Mothers of the Disappeared—thousands of “disappeared” people of who opposed a 1976 coup d’état who were kidnapped and never seen again. Similar mothers exist in San Salvador and if you do deeper searches you can see that other countries in South America have “Mothers of the Disappeared,” too.

According to homelessyouthamongus.org, there are over 1 million homeless youth in America. How many “Mothers of the Disappeared” does that make in our own country? When we think of hungry children in developing countries, there are 25,000 children under the age of five who die each day from preventable diseases such as malnutrition, malaria, diarrhea, and acute respiratory infections. Malnutrition is associated with over half of those deaths.* Every day hunger creates 25,000 more “Mothers of the Disappeared.”

Some have said that the corruption that lead to the "Mothers of the Disappeared' in San Salvador should not be compared to deaths connected to hunger and hunger related diseases.  But if we have the ability to change a situation, and stand by without doing anything, it's a form of corruption.  And hunger, and the diseases related to hunger, can be prevented if we --as humans, as the Church--decided to do something about it.  For the Church, we are called (commanded, even) to not let this continue.  “Just as you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me,” says Jesus. “Hear their heartbeat," says Bono.

My most common prayer is a request for God to break my heart for a people.  When our hearts are broken for people, for communities, we do something about it.  We work for change because we love them.  And when we do something out of love, we are committed in ways that know no bounds.

Let you heart be broken.  Hear the heartbeat of children around the world; hear the heartbeat of children in your own community who do not have enough, and then let love help you answer their prayers.  

*Statistic taken from 30hourfamine.org : “Hunger Fact Sheet”

Table Crumbs

25 But she came and knelt before him, saying, "Lord, help me." 26 He answered, "It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs." 27 She said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." 28 Then Jesus answered her, "Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish." And her daughter was healed instantly. (Matthew 15:25-28)

It has been strange for me during the last two years because I have not been doing an event called the 30-Hour Famine.  For eight years I had been doing this event with youth groups of local churches I was serving.  The youth would  fast in solidarity with the hungry poor all around the world, seeking to raise awareness that most people in developing countries can feed entire families on one-dollar per day. One dollar—a value menu item at your local fast food restaurant, the cost of a song, many of them anyway, on iTunes—can feed an entire family in parts of Africa and South America.

One year our theme centered around this verse: "Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth." (1 John 3:18)  It was amazing watching the youth have this "Aha moment" about what it means to follow Jesus.

The beautiful thing about choosing to follow Jesus is coming to the knowledge that God invites us to be the answer to our prayers.  We get to be crumbs from the Master's Table.   We see "TV's hungry child, his belly swells" and we pray "God, why don't you do something about this?" and "God, why do you allow these things to happen?" As we pray for change to come to our world, as we pray for hunger to end, poverty to cease, God empowers us to make those changes happen, God says, "I have done something about it, I've put you there."

There are times when we become hyper-aware of suffering, last year's earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the earthquake in Haiti, the ongoing turbulence in East Africa.  Sometimes we get the opportunity to see how long term poverty can make bad situations into even more dire situations when disaster strikes. What we need to be continually aware of it that we have the power to change these situations before the tragedy happens—and for many of us, we can do it with “the crumbs from our tables."

Vertigo

5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him…12 After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, "Do you know what I have done to you? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. 14 So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. 15 For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. (John 13:5, 12-15)

“Your love is teaching me how to kneel” is how this song called Vertigo ends. After saying repeatedly “you give me something I can feel,” the song concludes by saying that Love teaches us to kneel.

When we talk about sharing God’s love with the world, are we talking about an abstract emotion (the romance of Valentine’s day)--a feeling--or are we talking about the sacrificial, vulnerable love of the servant who washes the dirt and dust of the journey off of others’ feet?

The longer I study, pray, and experience God’s love the more convinced I become that “God’s Love” is not an emotion meant to just coddle and comfort us; rather, God’s Love is a verb that transforms us from broken to whole, that leads us from lonely isolation to places of connection, that helps us move from the identification as worthless sinner to beloved child. God’s Love kneels before us, pours water into a basin, and washes the dirt of our life journey away and THEN says, “As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”  We're told to do something with our love on behalf of those who need to know about this kind of love.

Go to the place called Vertigo. Walk with God to the mountain tops of life, but remember that we are never meant to stay on the mountains. Let God’s Spirit lift up your days and light up your nights, but don’t forget to let God’s love teach you how to kneel, too.