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. 

Typhoons and the Drowning Man

28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. 30 Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; 31 but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:28-31)

I served in the Navy from 1989 - 1993.  The ship I was assigned to was cruising from South Korea to the Persian Gulf and encountered three typhoons off the coast of Taiwan. Living in the Far East, I now understand that typhoons in this area of the world are common, especially in the late summer and early fall.  The was made the decision to steam through in such a way that we rode the edges of all three storms, letting the "safe" edges of the storm front carry us through. I’ve never been through anything quite so rough while at sea. Most of our crew was bedridden with sea sickness and those of us who did not get sea sick worked extra watch shifts until we made it to the other side. There were moments when I wondered if we would make it to the other side.

Such is life from time to time.  We find the "safe" spots to push through the brunt of the storm, any yet...and yet...there are moments when we wonder--not when--but if we will make it to the other side.  In “Drowning Man” we are reassured that “the storms will pass” and “this love lasts forever.” The lyrics make a direct reference to Isaiah 40: “rise up with wings like eagles” and “run and not grow weary.” 

It is sometimes difficult to not grow weary when life is dumping buckets on us.  It is sometimes difficult to also rise up when the winds seem to be pushing us down--or that we're running into a strong gale wind.  It is difficult sometimes to not grow faint under the circumstances of life.  This is why we need community.

Maybe you have disengaged from community because someone let you down when you needed help the most.  I would encourage you to seek out community again so that you aren't carrying your burdens alone.

What is the source of your inner strength? What is it that helps you get through the rough moments of your day, week, month, or year? If you do not already do so, hold on to the love that last forever! Take the hand of the One who, when everything else is falling apart and failing, stands strong right beside you. 

I've head people say that life has meaning only if God is completely in control of everything.  And when I listen to them, I get this image of God as a puppet master who is manipulating every moment of life.  Or that God is one of the Fates who has written every detail of life into a book and we're just living out the script.  And when that understanding of God is challenged, life ceases to have any meaning at all.  Everything is chaos and faith is difficult to have.

I recently asked someone: "Is it more important to you for God to controlling every aspect of your life or that God be present with you, no matter what?"  It's important to consider that question.  Do you feel better knowing that "God's plan" was to plop you into three typhoons or that God is with you in the three typhoons.

I have come to understand that the great power of God is not in the manipulation of our day to day activities--I cannot believe that we are marionettes acting out a great script written for us that we have no control over.  The power of God is in being with us when we are happy and being with us when we grieve.  And not just being present with us, but rejoicing with us, and grieving with us.  Loving us through thick and thin and whispering encouragement to us all along the way.  God's power lies in love that holds us when we are weeping, like a parent holds a child.  God's power lies in loving us even when we're having a tantrum...yes, even when we're screaming at God we are loved. 

So, hold on.  Hold on tightly.  And if you are not tossed in a storm at the moment, offer hope to those who are.

Promises, Promises (Part 1)

I began a sermon series last week that's looking at covenants in the Bible.  I talk about covenants quite a bit in a variety of settings and usually I get a "lights on" kind of look from folks when I explain the difference between a contract and a covenant.  Contracts are rooted in convenience and return on investment; covenants are founded on relationships and trust.  And when the trust is broken in a covenant, we learn what grace and forgiveness are all about by making the choice to not walk away and to work it out.

The lessons in the lectionary this year are about covenant and we get to move from God's Covenant with Noah and all of creation, to God's Covenant offered to the world on Easter.

But maybe promises and vows are things that we struggle with, and maybe you cringed a bit when I mentioned choosing to not walk away but working it out, because we're accustomed to the "Promises, Promises" mentality.  In the 80s there was a song by Naked Eyes that went something like, "All of your promises you knew you'd never keep; promises, promises, why do I believe?"  We're pretty much ruined when it comes to promises and trust because we've all be hurt more than once, maybe even more than once by the same person.  And on the flip side of the coin, we're pretty aware of how many times we have broken promises ourselves.

And you know that rhyme from when we were kids, if someone doubted our truthfulness, we'd say, "Cross my heart and hope to die."  Maybe add "stick a needle in my eye" if we wanted to really assure the other person of our honesty and trust worthiness.

But the foundation of any covenant is trust.  Plain and simple.  Whether we are in covenant with other people, or in covenant with God, trust is the cornerstone.

But there's another important piece in God's covenants and that piece is a word called "Hesed."  Hesed is a Hebrew word that means steadfast love, unending mercy, never ending loyalty. The cornerstone of trust cannot be crafted without the vital ingredient of "Hesed."  And any covenant that is made by or with God requires knowing about this word.

In Genesis 9:8-17 God promises Noah and all of creation, "Never again."  And what's so interesting to me about this particular covenant is that there's only one party bound by it, and that party is God.  There's nothing for humanity to do, no role for us to play, no vows for us to fulfill.  The only thing we have to do in this covenant is trust--have faith that when God says, "Never again."  It's a "never" that is solid.

I know, there was Hurricane Katrina and there was the Tsunami in South East Asia and, about one year ago, the tsunami here in Japan--but the "never" in Genesis 9 isn't about natural disaster or about floods; the "never" is connected vindication and punishment.  One scholar says that in the Noaic Covenant God, "turns from vindication to forgiveness, patience and steadfast love for creation and for humanity, despite the knowledge that the human heart may (will?) never change."

God says, "regardless of the inconsistency of the human heart, my mind is set.  Never again.  And to remind me, I will hang my bow in the clouds."  We see the word bow and think of a rainbow because of all the pictures and movies and nursery paintings, but one pastor suggests that " as a celestial memory aid, God promises to set in the gathering clouds his war bow, unstrung and pointing away from earth."

Stop and let that picture settle into your mind and heart for just a second.  The war bow of wrath is no longer directed at us, even though our hearts are as constant as a tray of Jello Jigglers.  If one song writer wants to know "Or am I too far gone to get back home?" when asking the "stranger man" to save him, the bow in the clouds reminds us that God has given a resounding "No!" in answer to that question.  Am I too far gone, am I too broken to be fixed, have I changed my mind and my heart one time too many?

God's Hesed says, "No!"  Hesed--steadfast love, unending mercy, never ending loyalty.  Hesed says, "No, you're not too far gone."

When we're at the end of our ropes, when we're at the end of our hope...when we look out the window and all we can see are gray days that go on and on and on and on....Hesed says to us, "It can't rain all the time."

But, let's talk about rainbows...because rainbows are awesome, right?  When we see rainbows we run and grab people so we can share the rainbow with them; we take pictures and post them on the social networking site of choice for other people to see; we ask later in the day, "Did you see the rainbow?"  And there's this innocent joy that radiates from us as we talk about "the rainbow." (You're thinking about it aren't you?  Either that or you're thinking about Kermit the Frog playing his banjo and singing "Rainbow Connection")

The cool thing about rainbows is that they pop up everywhere.  Sunlight breaks through a sprinkler's mist at the just the right angle--BAM there's your rainbow.  Sunlight comes through our windows at just the right time of day, and the glass cuts the ray of light in just the right way--BAM there's your rainbow (again!)  Even on the cover of a Pink Floyd album...

And that's just how Hesed works, if we give ourselves the eyes to see, it's everywhere; and usually, we'll get a reminder right when we need it the most and we have hope to carry on.