What You See is What You Get - Lent Holy Week

Keeping a close watch on him, they sent spies, who pretended to be honest. They hoped to catch Jesus in something he said so that they might hand him over to the power and authority of the governor... ...He saw through their duplicity. (Luke 20: 20 & 23)

I have a question. Ready? Okay, here goes: What do Rebekah (my wife), Naomi (my daughter) and Scout (Rebekah's fuzzy, galumphing, labradoodle) have in common? Warning, this is a hard one!

First off, they're all girls! Right, but that was the easy answer.

Second is the thing that I'm getting at here: they all have this "What you see is what you get" approach to life. Put another way, there's not an ounce of pretense among them.

This means they don't play games (well, Scout likes to play "tug the rope", and "chase the dog with the wallet" but that's not the kind of game-playing I'm talking about).

What I'm talking about is their "lack of duplicity" quality, the "Let's not waste time with airs and political correctness" approach to life. It's the "Cut to the chase why don't we?" (Okay, Scout likes to play chase but that's something else too) response to most everything. It's a kind of purity but not really... It's more like the gift of living without half-measures or the cloudiness of compromise; it's resisting the urge to allow cynicism any room at all.

It's about authenticity. It's about being real.

Jesus did not have one iota of interest in playing games. Consequently, the Master was always able to see right through people who would posture, and feign, and outright lie, and practice duplicity - and these were the kind of people who tend to expect others to act without authenticity and Jesus always threw them.

Liars have a hard time with people who hold to truth. Truth exposes them, and they don't like it one bit. The sad thing is that the truth is also absolutely willing to heal, to love, and to set people free. But - and we'll go back close to the beginning of John's Jesus-narrative for this one - people who operate in the dark are in point of fact pretty much scared of the light:

• "This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed." (John 3:19-20)

These "try-to-trick-Jesus" folk could not understand the Savior. They had a value-system that had firmly set filters in place, and the truth simply could not-would not resonate. Understanding Jesus really isn't possible outside of surrender.

We're all going to run up against people like this; it's happening more and more all the time. But the answer is not for us to condemn others, or for us to argue them into submission, or for us to fall into their cynicism trap or to latch onto their toxic way of ordering the world... the only answer is to love them like Jesus loved them - like Jesus loves us. Love is our mandate. It won't necessarily make things any easier, but it will say something critically important to this world about the Lord we profess to follow.

Love and blessings - DEREK

Subversive in this culture!

Palm Sunday, yesterday, at my church (First Presbyterian in Brandon, FL).

Palm Sunday sets up the initial trajectory into Holy Week with some real momentum. Chunky momentum. The definition of momentum, if I remember my high school physics correctly, is weight times speed. And there is significant weight, spiritual gravitas, coming in - especially if we have paid any consistent attention to our observation and consideration of Lent during the past 40 days or so.

So we witness this burst of energy and excitement as Jesus wows his way into town - Jerusalem, or maybe even our town. Crowds, energetic songs, bright clothes and spring-time optimism carrying the Gospel truth into the heart of the city where the power-brokers had set up shop. It was only expected that they were going to push back; and they did.

So I'm wondering this morning where the push-back it hitting us; me and you? In Luke's telling of the Jesus story a whole sequence of incidents take place Monday through Thursday. Jesus tells the truth, and the push back seems to build with everyday. The following is an excerpt from Luke 20 (13-15); this is Jesus talking, telling a lightly cloaked parable of the Now:

• "Then the owner of the vineyard said, 'What shall I do? I will send my son, whom I love; perhaps they will respect him.' But when the tenants saw him, they talked the matter over. 'This is the heir,' they said. 'Let's kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.' So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him..."

IT turns out that the momentum wasn't this irresistible surge toward peace and love and hugs and flowers in your hair... instead it was a tide of inevitability that could only result in death. Push back is most insistent when there is a threat to status quo and when the values that define a culture are so obviously upended; when the truth demands replacement of current power-peddlers with a new gods - the God.

So I am asking people to think this week about the call to be subversive in this culture. Not to be rude, or to be overbearing, or to be holier-than-thou or to be disruptive for its own sake... but to be honest and conscious witnesses to the truth in all that we do; that it will be obvious that our values are the values of Jesus and - in our way of being - to subvert the gods our culture has chosen... and to see what happens.

Love and blessings - every day - DEREK

Picture - Rebekah at the church door: we sing and we pray - but then we're called to leave church and be Jesus-followers in this world.

Riding High on a Dream

This week, Holy Week, my posts are going to follow Christ's last week with his friends, in real time - one day at a time. Today is Palm Sunday:

"They took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting, "Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord - the King of Israel..."

Palm Sunday is one of my favorite mornings at church. Every year, without fail, the mass of children tug my heartstrings when they march into the sanctuary waving palm branches. Maybe it's the way they sling them about (elderly worshipers have been warned to sit a few seats in from the center aisle), or maybe it's the look on their faces - pure radiant light - as they sing. Even the reluctant, slinking their way in dragging their branch "I'm only doing this because I HAVE to..." can't help but get into the occasion once they're half way down.

I can imagine how excited Christ's followers were.

• "We've finally done it!"
  
• "This is what we've been waiting for!"
  
• "It's going to be nothing but smooth-sailing from here on..."
  
• "Look! That's MY Savior and friend!"
  

Sometimes, especially right in the middle of struggle, and tension, and stress, it's good to simply celebrate regardless. We know Jesus; we know the rest of the story; we know how wonderful it is to live a life of exuberant faith; we know how much God loves us.

Sure, it's difficult to maintain optimism and hope in the face of tough times. But Jesus IS our hope, and it's not Pollyanna or pie in the sky when we celebrate Jesus; it's a simple statement of a spiritual truth.

So let's go nuts today! Let's wave the branches and sing the songs! Let's not allow the small things to come between us and the life-giving affirmation of a Savior, riding into town on a donkey, coming for me and for you.

Peace, love, hope and joy!
- DEREK

Awesome moment to share!!!

"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message,." - Jesus (John 17:20)

I'd like to set up "Holy Week" by sharing a holy moment. This time last Saturday I opened my email to read the remarkable letter reproduced below. The writer gave me permission to use the email, but I'll just use his first name - Christopher. It was a holy moment for me because it was one more slice of compelling evidence that the power that raised Christ from the dead is active in this world today, and that we -as Jesus-followers - are invited to participate in ongoing redemption.

One clarification up front: Christopher believed he met my son, Andrew, in the cafe; but it turns out it was someone else... only making the story more wonderful still...
Read, and enjoy:

• Derek: You don't know me. And yet, you probably do. About a month ago, I was sitting in a cafe in Italy. The purpose of my visit to the area was to set up outreach camps for youth for the summer. I have been in the ministry overseas now for a little over three years. There I was sitting there in a crowded cafe, but feeling all alone. Maybe it was the fact that everyone else spoke Italian and I only know one language, American. Maybe it had to do with the really difficult last six months that I had been through that included losing a child and having someone make false accusations about me. Or, maybe it was because deep down, I knew that the stories I had been telling were getting older and older.
• So, as I sat there, sipping on my fresh cappuccino (the best in the world), I heard two gentlemen talking in English. I can't remember everything that was said, but I remember thinking that what the one guy was talking about was piercing me to the core. I had not had this feeling in such a long time.
• The one guy sort of ends the conversation with "trust me, just read this book." As I watched him hand the book to the other gentlemen, I kind of laughed to myself inside. "Great", I thought, "just what this guy needs, another Christian book." "How about handing him some Jesus." I thought. And yet, I had an urge that had escaped me for some months. I actually wanted to read.
• See, the prior six years I had spent working on and finishing a Ph.D. in Organizational Leadership. I can't even begin to tell you how many books I read over that period of time. So, as the guy, began to pass by me, I said, "Do you have another one of those books?" He reached into his bag and handed me one. We didn't carry on any conversation, he just simply walked on out the door, but after reading your book, I now realize it was your son.
• The Lord has lead me on an incredible spiritual renewal using your book, "Get Real." The experience has been so enriching and transformational that I just had to Google your name and find your email address. It is so cool how God works. A Brit from Tampa writes a book and his son hands a copy to a missionary serving in Germany in Italy.
• Anyway, I just wanted you to know. I have also been praying for the "Men's Room" group. I don't know what God has for me and my family next, but I am ready to step out of the boat again and let him have control. Thanks for being faithful to what God has required of you, including writing that wonderful book. If I am ever in Tampa, I would love to get together for a cup of coffee.
• Grace and peace from Germany - Chris.
  

So there it is. Grace and peace in action. I am constantly amazed at the redemptive and creative love of God.

Imagination

It was the danger of Jesus challenging and changing people that ultimately led to his arrest.

I’ve often imagined myself in Israel, on the dusty hillside, just outside Capernaum, part of the multitude surrounding Jesus. Or, rather, on the edge of the crowd just watching, happy simply to see the Savior if only from a distance.

In my mind I see a rocky vista, some sparse vegetation, a smattering of grass, but pretty much blown brown by the dry wind. I’ve been to Galilee, so I know what it looks like; I know the way it feels to be in that place, the very boulders I rested against maybe resonating still with the distant echo of the Great Teacher’s words.

I see a crowd; maybe five thousand or more stretching across the natural amphitheater created in the hollow of the hills, there above the blue sea. In the distance, around what can almost be described as a grassy place, near where a spring emerges from the rocks, the throng is more dense (not in the way the disciples were dense but in terms of a physical concentration).

It is there that scores of people are pressed, inclined toward the place where Jesus sits. The Master is laughing softy, dangling his legs from an outcropping, speaking fairly quietly yet with the kind of authoritative tone that carries beyond mere volume.

Then, nearer, I can make out the hundred (more or less) who travel in his entourage - and closer still his disciples, a dozen or so men and a handful of women, leaning in, deeply attentive, literally touching his garment… his arm… the bottom of a foot.

And out at the rim of the congregation, there in the margins, half in half out of earshot, scores of the hesitant mill around. Some pause to edge in and take a few tentative steps toward the personification of their hopes and dreams (if only they dare to trust him). Then they waver, maybe turn around, maybe listen, maybe not….

I find myself wondering where I would fall among such a multitude? I wonder and then sometimes - if I wonder long enough – this is what I see...

…I see a figure approaching – he’s about six foot tall and of average build - long strides hurrying up the hillside as if anxious not to be too late. I see the cloak pushed back to reveal wavy, blond hair (I was blond once and I still could be at least in the summer) and I see brown eyes, piqued with curiosity, peering intently as the long legs stalk around the borders of the crowd…

…And I watch him stay, right there on the periphery, as if he – as if I – know exactly what will be required if he dares move any closer to Jesus.

And I hesitate; I turn back; I stumble. Yet, still I do not leave; I cannot. What should I do?

Jesus at the table - Lent 37

For today's post I'm going to back out of sequence in terms of The Passion. But it's a deliberate move because the Greatest Story Ever Told is being told for a reason, and that reason always comes into much clearer focus every time I think of my family.

Naomi and Craig came to Brandon for a week, just in time for my birthday. It would have been great to have Andrew in the mix too, but Tuscany is more of a challenge than Connecticut and we are, after all, heading his way in June. I know I talk about my children a lot, but they tell the story of redemption and reconciliation so clearly that I can't help but listen.

And so I'm jumping back to John 12, the chapter before Jesus settles down to that long, last feast with his friends. Here it is, with Jesus once again attending a dinner.

• Six days before the Passover, Jesus arrived at Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here a dinner was given in Jesus' honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him.

There is peace around the table; in the Master's presence; hanging out with Jesus. And look who's there! Lazarus - until recently, dead! On my birthday last week we ate a long dinner together. But food - as in bread, wine, lasagna, chicken Parmesan, cannelloni, spaghetti, coffee, chocolate cake etc. - was only a small part of the occasion. It was love that held sway over the evening.

Likewise my brother's birthday celebration two days later. That's where the photograph was taken, at my niece Hannah's home.

This Easter story is all about living completely, radically, consummately; living out loud. Living as if we mean it is a theme of mine at the moment. That is, after all, why Jesus was willing to give absolutely everything for the very people he reclined at table with. He is still most welcome; not as a guest but family. Celebration is incomplete any other way.

Love and blessings - DEREK

Scripture = Truth = Strength

"My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth." - Jesus (John 17:15-17)

This scripture worked its way into my brain this morning as I drove away from the airport. I got up extra early today to take our daughter, Naomi, and her husband, Craig, over to Tampa International so they could board their United Airlines flight back to Connecticut and home.

Sometimes, back when Naomi and her brother Andrew were growing up, I really did pray that God would somehow insulate my children from the world. Like Jesus, I wasn't asking God to whisk them away so much as I was asking God to "protect them from the evil one." Civil liberties and freedom were not exactly #1 on my list; I was more than willing for God to bend the rules and intervene - with or without my children's consent. "Just get them grown, Lord," was a constant refrain.

But there remains that element of choice - even during the formational years; and choice is still a daily option. Intellectually, I understand that being "sanctified by the truth" is not anything that can be imposed externally... "Here, let me sanctify you by the truth." It simply doesn't take. But, emotionally, I wanted God to skip the free will part and simply ride herd!

But instead we had to watch - in much the same way that God observes his children - and we have to do our very best to make sure that the truth is evident and authentic and accessible. Freedom is a necessary building block to wholeness. Guidance, yes; example, most important; teaching, imperative. But the moment we take away freedom we also take away legitimate growth.

Years of pain and struggle and heartbreak have now yielded to joy. Andrew and Naomi are both young adults, and our children are making the kind of positive choices that - had they been imposed without regard to their own choice (and, believe me, I would have - had I been God), and had they not emerged from their growing understanding of truth - would not have allowed them to develop the strength of character that defines them today.

Jesus pointed to God's word as truth. The evil one is resourceful; but God's word is a sword more than equal to the task. We simply need to immerse ourselves in truth so we are more than ready when the time comes.

PRAYER: Jesus walked this Earth well-armed with truth. Challenge us, we pray, to likewise prepare ourselves for anything that may come our way. Amen.