Romans 13:3-5 :: Jesus and your boss

Romans 13:3-5 in the Message and TNIV translations

"For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good." v.4 TNIV

This is how sick I am: when I first read that, I thought, "what if I worked at Dunder Mifflin, and Michael Scott and Dwight Schrute were my bosses?"  Those guys are God's servants?

If you haven't yet worked for someone you thought was inept/corrupt/unfair/out to get you, you probably will.  I have had some great bosses, and some terrible ones.  And I've learned a great deal from both.  As painful as the experiences with the bad bosses were, they were formative experiences.  God taught me and grew me under bad bosses in ways I never would have grown under an easier boss.

The one in authority over you may not always be good, but he/she can be for your good.  What does God want to teach you through your relationship with your boss?

Romans 12:3-8 :: Part or Prominence?

Romans 12:3-8 (The Message and TNIV)

"The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him." v3b

I love this passage of Scripture.  I love this entire chapter of Romans, but these verses are particularly important to me.  They are the verses that God used to help me find my place in His ministry, they are the verses that continue to sustain me in that ministry and they are verses that push me to encourage you to be who God has called you to be.  For a long time, I did not like the part I was called to play in this story.  I felt like my part was a pinky finger when the index finger got all the attention.  I wanted to travel and speak at camps and be the guy people wanted to come and do their retreats.  It took me a long time to realize that I might be better in relationships and that my place in His ministry was going to be much less in the spotlight.  When I began to understand this, I began to sense a deeper fulfillment in the part I was to play.

This is not to say that I am always good at it though.  I am being refined in many ways to play my role.  I don't like to be pigeon-holed either.  I still like to try different things.  The above verse has to stay at the front of all I do or attempt to do though.  The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.  Period.  If I want to know who I am and how important I am, I must not look at what I do, but what God is and what he does for us.  This understanding produces a humility that I cannot conjure up on my own.  It keeps my pride in check and consistently gives me something to celebrate and embrace.  God is always good and always doing something around me, even when I am sloughing off.

Have you found that "place" that only you can fulfill in the body of Christ?  When you are thinking about this "place" are you envisioning yourself doing it in a church or with your table group?  Are you envisioning a "ministry" where you can be or are you thinking bigger than that?  What would it mean to think bigger?

Acts 14 :: People Worship

Acts 14 in the Message and TNIV translations

It's an oddity of human nature: we want to worship one of ourselves.  We want to look to another human being and convince ourselves that he or she is better, more perfect, living on a higher plane than we are.  We believe that our job is to idolize these people, glorify them, and cheer them on, while their job is to achieve some kind of greatness we never could.

Another oddity of human nature: there are enough crazies in the world who are willing to accept this position on a pedestal.  They get all the power and glory that comes with it, and all the humiliation when they fall off.  Is it really necessary to name names here?  The list of sports heroes, rock stars, politicians, TV personalities, and religious leaders is long and very familiar, and new names seem to be added daily.

We can point an accusing finger and say, "how dare you put yourself up on that pedestal!"  But they only stand there because there were enough people who wanted them to.  We build the greenhouses where the narcissus flowers grow.  Why?  Why do we so badly want a god from among our own ranks?  And the church might be the worst offender, especially considering that this is the church we're talking about, the one place where God has supposedly already been identified.  What excuse do we have for refocusing the spotlight onto someone else?

There is only room for one God.  A church, or a pastor, or a Christian, can't simultaneously draw attention to Jesus and to himself (herself, itself).  Thankfully Paul and Barnabas understood that the words "celebrity" and "church leader" do not go together.

(props to Brad for finding the cartoon and David Hayward for drawing it. his May 6 cartoon is equally insightful)

Matthew20::The Kingdom Upside Down

The last will be first, the first will be last, the least will be greatest and the greatest will be least.  Jesus' Kingdom will be just like any other--except exactly the opposite.

If we're honest, Jesus grates against our understanding of fairness.  If some lifelong degenerate (as we perceive it) turns to Jesus at the last minute, there should be some kind of lower-class designation for him in the Kingdom, if he gets in at all.  We could all name people who might not make the cut if we had our druthers.  To be honest (again), our churches often operate on this unwritten rule.  Some Christians are better than others.  That seems obvious to us.  But the grace, the love, the value imparted to each, according to Jesus' story, is the same.  Think about it this way: heaven may be populated with people who make us rather uncomfortable.

And what about the other end of the scale?  What does it take to be a rock star in the Kingdom?  Be a slave, Jesus says.  Think about it this way:  God may be applauding people in heaven who make us rather uncomfortable.

It's a matter of perspective.  If I am the benchmark, then my evaluation of others is based on them in comparison to me.  But God does not operate on my convenient scale.  If Jesus is the benchmark, then the most moral, the most dedicated, the hardest working person is still a long, long way from Jesus.  It's like a world full of couch potatoes swimming against Michael Phelps.  Can you imagine any one of them making a big deal about how much better he was than anyone else...except Michael?  Is there really much point in awarding a silver or bronze medal in such a race?  Or complaining that some other schmuck has an unfair advantage?  That's how silly we must look when we compare ourselves to each other.  And it takes so little for us to adopt such a pathetic mindset: all we have to do is take our eyes off of Jesus.

I always walk away from this teaching feeling the need apologize to a lot of people.  Maybe you do too.  Go for it if you want.  But at least, let's think a bit higher of each other this weekend, serve each other a bit more.  Aim for the bottom, because in the Kingdom, that's the top.

Matthew18::Kids, Lambs, and Servants

Most of my posts on Matthew have been about Jesus' authority and his willingness to be confrontational.  It's an important theme for Matthew, relative to the other gospel writers, and it's also part of Jesus' personality that is lost in the common notions of who he is.  But Matthew 18 gives us another facet of Jesus, in private moments with the disciples.  His themes are humility, grace, mercy and forgiveness, wrapped in stories of children, lambs and servants.

This is not the only reference the gospel writers make to Jesus and children.  He apparently liked having them around, and the disciples took note of it.  The God-Man, the King of Kings, the One who has an authority unlike any other teacher, who never considers himself above anyone.  Kids were drawn to him, without fear.

To which character do you relate: the child Jesus welcomes, the lost sheep rescued by the Shepherd, or the servant whose massive debts are forgiven by the Master?  In any case, the news is all good--God embraces all three.  And His response to us serves as the template for our relationships with each other.

Matthew02::What If God Was One of Us?

The Gospel writers don't tell us much about Jesus' childhood (Anne Rice paints an interesting picture of Jesus at age 7 in her novel, Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt).  What we do know from Matthew 2 is that it wasn't easy for him or his family.  They travelled to Bethlehem for the birth, set up camp there for a year or two, then slipped away in the middle of the night for fear of their lives; lived as exiles in Egypt until king Herod died; then resettled in Nazareth, an insignificant village far enough away from Jerusalem that they could remain under the radar.  Jesus lived the first 7 years or so of his life as a fugitive, and the next 23 as a resident of Nazareth (In John 1:46, Nathanael asks, "can anything good come from Nazareth?").  Joseph sets up his carpentry business for the 500 or so residents, not much of a market.  Four half-brothers of Jesus are born.  During Jesus' teens or early adult years, Joseph dies, leaving Jesus, the oldest son, with responsibility for the family.  It was not a life of ease or prominence, lower middle-class at best, with the social stigma of a military brat or family in the witness relocation program.
Jesus was the original King who was "of the people."  He understood the lives of regular folks because he was one.  He arrived helpless and literally homeless.  He knew what it felt like to be an outsider, to experience loss and grief and poverty.  So the early Christians sang of their King,

"Christ Jesus,
who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness."  (Philippians 2:5-7)

And He is still "of the people" today.  He is the King, who understands and relates to all the good and bad of your life's experience and mine.

Core Virtue :: HUMILITY

I choose to esteem others above myself.

"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of others." Philippians 2:3-4 (TNIV)

I love the way Eugene Peterson translated this passage in The Message:

"Don't push your way to the front; don't sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don't be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourself long enough to lend a helping hand." Philippians 2:3-4 (MSG)

This is not one of my strongest competencies. Father is continually teaching me about humility and transforming me into a more humble person. By saying that we choose to esteem others above ourselves, we assume a level of hierarchy in our relationships with others. I believe Paul is helping this young church in Philippi break out of that paradigm. Our survival instincts put our needs, our wants and our desires above everything else. We reach out when our stuff isn't threatened. Paul is flipping our natural tendencies on their head. When we love each other the way Father loves us, then we don't manipulate situations and relationships to get our way or to move us forward in our ambition. We can put ourselves aside, and help others get ahead.

What an incredible presentation this would provide to those who live with us in our communities. Can you imagine being a group of people known for this kind of fruit in their lives? All of us can point to certain people who live this way and we just know that there is something special about them. But an entire church? A whole community? That could blow the minds of some of the most critical.

Other competencies related to Humility : Identity in Christ, Compassion, Giving Away My Life, Biblical Community, Love, Kindness/Goodness

Parenting this Competency:

KidsKreed :: I am putting God first, others second and myself third.

It's important that you help your kids understand that humility is putting others above themselves. For kids, it's difficult for them to process thinking from another's perspective. Developmentally they may not be there yet. Part of our training is helping them "wear other people's shoes." Spend some time with your kids asking them questions like:

What happens when a friend wants to do something that you don't want to do?

When do you put what they want ahead of what you want?

Are there times when this is easier than other times? What makes it easier to do what your friend wants?

The answers to these questions can really lead to some great discussions with your kids.