Undercover Pastor

I was just reading Charles Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening devotional for this evening, and it referred to Job 22:21.  In the NRSV (New Revised Standard Version), it says, “Agree with God, and be at peace; in this way good will come to you.”  In the NIV (New International Version), it says, “Submit to God and be at peace with him; in this way prosperity will come to you.”  The tricky part of the translation is the Hebrew verb SKN.  In this stem, it seems to mean be reconciled with God.

I sure understand that.  I don’t know what it is about me that makes me struggle against what God wants for me.  I will have a sense that God is leading me in a particular direction and there’s a part of me that will immediately go the other direction.  I did it in a big way when I was running away from the call to vocational ministry.  Now I do it in smaller ways.

The common thread is that whatever God is calling me to is always better than the alternative plan I have in mind.  Once I finally give up on fighting God, once I agree with or submit to or am reconciled withGod, there is peace.  It always works out better too.  Even when I can’t figured out how it could possibly work out beforehand.

Maybe you can be wiser than I am: ”Agree with God, and be at peace; in this way good will come to you.”

Last week, I attended a “round table” of sexual assault survivors and members of the clergy. The honesty of the six women who had survived sexual assault was extraordinary – and extremely difficult to hear. But the hardest part of what they had to say was the part about how their churches had treated them. The horrible things pastors, counselors, and church friends had told these women. If you have time, please take a look at my church newsletter post in the Trinity blog and leave your comments. I think it’s time to shine a light on this whole area in the church, let go of our denial, learn how to treat people as they should be treated, and bear witness to the love and grace of God for sexual assault survivors.

In Memoriam
Oscar Myra Mendoza Whitney (Myra)
1994-2008

Last night (April 30), our long-haired miniature dachshund, Myra escaped from the back yard.  When we realized it late last night, I went searching for her in the neighborhood and after about 45 minutes, found her across Jefferson Blvd. (a busy, highway-like street with 4 lanes).  She had been hit by a car and killed – instantly from the looks of it.

Myra has been with Eleanor and me for 14 years (9 of them before we had any children).  When Eleanor and I had known each other for just three years, Myra joined our family.  We’ve lived in five different places together, and it’s really hard to see her go.  We knew that she would die one day – maybe even soon – but this sudden, violent death is a little hard to deal with.

I thought it would be fitting to offer a Myra retrospective here.  She got her name because I insisted that if we got a tiny little dog, she would need a joke name.  Hence she was christened Oscar Myra Wienerdog – Myra for short and O. Myra on official documents.  The pictures below capture a bit of who she was.  In order, there are a picture of her as a puppy from an early 1994 webcam in my Silicon Graphics office, Myra’s glamour shot taken by a fellow student while we were in seminary, Myra on the beach, Myra the french fry (any human food, really) thief, Myra the measuring stick that tracked the growth of all three of our children as babies, and finally a white-muzzled Myra in 2008, exhausted after Johnny’s little friends went home from his birthday party.

Now we’ll finally have to learn how to clean up food spills around the table, and I’ll have to figure out how to keep myself company after the kids go to sleep. The house just seems a little bit darker and less friendly tonight.

Myra, you were a member of our family.  We will miss you.

I preached on sex, lust, and divorce on Sunday.  Blech!

I knew that I needed to do it, but I sure didn’t like the idea of standing in front of a whole group of people and talking about sex.  Heck, I don’t want to talk to a small group of people about sex.  And my parents were there too!

So I did it anyway, and I have to tell you, I haven’t been this uncomfortable preaching for years.  But at the same time, I knew that it was important and good.

What really made me nervous was the idea that people would become angry and defensive.  Or that they’d hear me as telling them that they had to clean up their lives to earn God’s love.  I didn’t want to sound condemning, but I wanted to speak God’s truth about what God wants for our lives.

I was amazed to get good feedback from people.  Several people told me that what I had to say was helpful and that they were trying to work on things but weren’t sure how.  One person shared feedback with me that I knowwill improve a marriage.  Another person bought the book I recommended and is looking for a group to discuss it in.

God was amazingly gracious and worked through my nervous obedience to do some very cool things.  Now what was I afraid of?

If you have a half hour free, you can listen at http://www.trinitywestsac.org/podcast/archives/94

I am learning more and more that I can trust that when God calls us to something, it may be difficult, but God works powerfully through it, and the fruits that come from the action are good.

First a word of  introduction.  I had the great pleasure of attending the Bayside Church (of Granite Bay, CA) THRIVE 2008 conference.  It’s nice that such a huge and wealthy church – that could easily hold a world-class conference just for its own leaders – invites leaders from other churches to come and learn and share fellowship together.

One of this year’s speakers was Brennan Manning, author of The Ragamuffin Gospel.  After sharing his rough, broken story and sharing God’s love with us, he gave us homework.  I’d like to challenge you to try it.

The Challenge:

Take 20-30 minutes to pray over the following four Bible passages.  Be sure to read them enough times, to let them soak in, and to see how God speaks to your heart…

• Isaiah 43:1-5
• Hebrews 4:14-16
• 1 John 4:16-19
• Psalm 103 (in this one, note that the Hebrew meaning of “fearing” God means to stand in awe of God’s power, goodness, and incredible love)

I found the experience very powerful.  See what you experience and share it in a comment if you want to.

Tired of the Homeland Security Threat Level or the fire danger level?  Try this.  My level of caffeination (is that a word?) is on the low side today.  Where’s yours?

HT: KC Wahe

About a year ago, I was at a ministry conference and someone I had been talking to the day before came up to me and said, “I have a message for you, Steve!” “Uh, OK…” I replied. “The message is that you’re ministry is on hold until you can stop caring what people think.”

Now, that isn’t a license to do whatever you want and to run rough-shod over people. What I believe he meant was that a pastor is called on to do what’s right and what God calls him/her to do, and that sometimes isn’t popular.

What the people wants isn’t always what God wants. The Bible is full of stories about how God spoke to one person or a small group and then did things that nobody thought were possible.

What brought this up for me tonight is that Tom Smith – our Wednesday ministry speaker – was talking about Moses receiving the Law up on Mount Sinai and what was happening below. While Moses was up getting the rules God wanted the people to live by during their time in the wilderness, the people – including their high priest – were making and worshiping a golden calf.

Moses was furious! Why did Moses’ brother Aaron make a golden calf for the people to worship?

“Do not be angry, my lord,” Aaron answered. “You know how prone these people are to evil. They said to me, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.’ So I told them, ‘Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.’ Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!” Exodus 32:22-24

The people asked him to so he did. Is that a good reason? Is that the right way to do ministry? No way.

Johnny had a birthday party for some of his little friends last Saturday.

We always struggle with the gift issue.  Eleanor wants to have a “no gifts” party, and I imagine what that would feel like for the kids.  They bring presents to all of their friends’ parties.  Is it fair for them not to get any?

But the kids always behave a bit worse after the deluge of new toys.  It doesn’t take them long to start acting spoiled.  How much is enough?

The culture we live in says that there’s no such thing as “enough.”  More is always better.  But the Good $ense budget class that we offer a couple of times a year at the church suggests that we should “drive a stake in the ground” and decide that enough is enough.

The Bible comes out on the Good $ense side:  2 Corinthians 9:8 says, “And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work.”

Next year we may make the party “gifts optional” in hopes of reducing the number without completely cheating the kids.

Last Sunday, many things went wrong in worship at Trinity.

Now we’re not one of those churches were everything is polished and perfect, but even we are not accustomed to the sheer number of small things that went wrong, from people being out sick to sound system glitches to bulletin information being wrong.  And you know what?  God showed up anyway!  It was a bit like “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.”  God came even without many of the things that we seem to feel are so necessary.  God worked in people’s hearts even though the praise team’s monitors weren’t working right.  God showed up in the Lord’s Supper even though we weren’t singing the song that was planned.

There’s a lesson in there.  We seem to think that we’re in control of life and that God can only do anything there if we get everything lined up and straightened out.  Well, it seems that more often than not, God does the best work when everything that we rely on is messed up.

I hope that gives you hope.  Because in both worship and in life, when the night is darkest and the mess is biggest, God is most likely to do something extraordinary.

Eleanor and I were having a conversation over lunch and the topic of the church came up.  I said something about the church not being my church.  Well my son Johnny said, “It is your church, daddy,”

“No Johnny,” I replied, “It’s Jesus’ church.  And he’s my boss.”

Without skipping a beat, Johnny responded, “He’s everyone’s boss.”

Then my three-year-old, Joshua, started pointing to everyone in the Carl’s Jr. restaurant saying, “Jesus is their boss and their boss and their boss…”

I guess my boys understand discipleship pretty well!

OK, I’m not a big Nintendo Wii player, but why are people so disturbed by this image of Jesus? Check out a blog entry about Mission Bay Community Church’s attempt to reach people by using the culture. The blog post by “Ryan” at the Two Small Coins blog does a nice analysis.

Our church used secular Easter culture by featuring a chocolate bunny in our local newspaper Easter ad, “You can’t live on chocolate bunnies.”

Is the Wii Jesus using humor to reach people? Or has it gone too far? I think it’s funny and challenges people in a nonthreatening way that tells them that church doesn’t have to be stuffy and boring. But others might argue that it doesn’t take Jesus seriously enough.

What do you think? As we move farther away from a Christian Culture, the church needs to decide where to use culture and where to challenge culture. This is just one of many chances for us to think about it.

NOTE FOR THOSE WHO DON’T FOLLOW VIDEO GAME CULTURE: The Nintendo Wii video game system allows users to create a version of themselves called a “Mii” (pronounced just like “me”) by choosing hair, eyes, skin color, etc. That’s what Mission Bay is playing with.

You’ve heard about Botox – the toxin (poison!) that people use to minimize the appearance of wrinkles – to look younger. Well, there’s a new twist. A recent study in rats shows that the toxin that people inject into their foreheads may travel to the brain, damaging the brain stem!  There have also been human deaths related to the botulism toxin.  (Read the story at the Orange County Register).

I guess it’s not too surprising that injecting a neurotoxin into your body might not be a good idea, but that tells you something about the culture that we live in. We idolize youth and beauty. We’re willing to poison ourselves to achieve it! That tells you something about the depth of hunger for acceptance in our culture. Everywhere we look, we hear this “gospel” – look good and collect enough stuff and you’ll be happy.

But God has a different plan. God calls us to look beneath the surface. God tells us that appearance isn’t what matters. Instead, Jesus tells us in Matthew 7:15-18 that you can identify what kind of person someone is by their actions, – by how they treat others – not by their appearance. There are “wolves in sheep’s clothing” out there. Jesus is writing about prophets, but I think the principle is more generally applicable. A focus on creating an appearance that we think will please others or hiding our age isn’t what Jesus calls us to. He calls us to bear fruit. Loving and serving others may not make our foreheads look better, but that just poisons us. Loving and serving others builds up our spirit, connects us with God, and helps us to grow into the image of Jesus. We find true acceptance not by looking right by by loving and serving, which, it turns out, is much more attractive than an expensive, expressionless face!

Today is the 40th anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Junior. I think everyone in this country owes him a debt of gratitude for raising the consciousness of a nation that has always prided itself on being the land of the free.

Well, it’s not over.  Since I’m a white man, people sometimes think its safe to make racist comments to me. The vast majority of people don’t, but every so often someone does. And that means we haven’t arrived yet.

As a pastor, I am acutely aware of the cultural divisions in our society and how they affect the church. The old saying is that Sunday morning at 11:00 is the most segregated hour of the week. That’s not 100% true, but the effort to build multicultural churches isn’t an easy one. It’s much easier to gather around people who have as many things in common with us as possible. For example, many new “start-up” churches are built around that concept – build community around middle class parents between 25 and 45 with children between 1 and 10 – usually without a lot of cultural diversity. The families all share a very similar context so it’s easy for them to understand each other, make connections, and form community.

The problem is that the Body of Christ is made up of many different parts. Where do older people fit in? Or young adults? Or unmarried people? Or people struggling financially? Or people from other cultures?

I firmly believe that the church is at its strongest when it embraces diversity. Our Christian faith is enough to unite us. And when more voices are present in the conversation, we can challenge each other. We can challenge stereotypes and assumptions about who “the others” are.

And there’s a strictly practical reason too. Increasingly, American families are mixed. My wife is Mexican-American and my kids all have the middle name “Mendoza.” Our church is drawing more and more couples of mixed racial-ethnic backgrounds. Are we going to create a separate church for 50-50 European and Mexican background families like mine? Obviously that makes no sense. It’s impossible!

But becoming multicultural means giving up some amount of comfort. You don’t have “instant community.” Sometimes we have to work at it. For example, it’s not possible for every part of worship to speak equally to every person. Sometimes, something will be in a language that we don’t understand. Or a tradition will be unfamiliar and possibly uncomfortable. But we can learn from each other! And over time, we find the beauty in traditions that others bring.

Trinity’s church board has made a commitment to becoming a multicultural church. It won’t be easy. But it wasn’t easy to get from where we were 50 years ago to where we are today. Dr. King and those who worked with him were able to see a possible future that didn’t yet exist, and many paid a high price for that vision. The price to continue their work today is much lower because of the strides that have already been made, and the potential payoff is great.

The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 1 Corinthians 12:12

I look forward to seeing Christ’s Church lead the way in bringing people together to become the very different, equally necessary, parts of the body of Christ.

Jim Edwards, one of the speakers at the West Coast Presbyterian Pastors’ Conference this week, spent some time this morning talking about various virtues and about how we can make a decision to act in ways that we might not feel yet.  An example for me might be to help clean up the kitchen even though I’m dog tired at the end of the day.  I don’t feel it, but I know it’s right so I do it.

Well someone asked him about that.  Do we have to do it under our own strength?  ‘Cause I don’t think I have it in me!

He responded with a story from the chapter 20 of the book of Second Chronicles – not one of the ones I read often, I have to admit.

You see, the enemies of King Jehosophat had gathered considerable forces to take him on – far more than Jehosophat had on his side.  It was going to be a very short, one-sided battle.  Jehosophat was getting pretty scared so he decided to pray, asking for God’s help.  In fact, he had the whole country fast and pray for God’s help.

God told them that they had to go and fight…  BUT, this was going to be God’s fight, not theirs:

This battle is not for you to fight; take your position, stand still, and see the victory of the LORD on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem.’ Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them, and the LORD will be with you.    – 2 Chronicles 20:17

Ever feel outmatched by the challenges of life?  These words apply to us too.  God asks us to show up, but doesn’t ask us to do it all under our own power.  In many cases, all we have to do is show up, stand still, and let God handle it.

That sounds like good news, doesn’t it?

At our conference today, Jim Edwards has been speaking on a list of Greek words he’s selected from the New Testament in its original language. One of them is a word “proserchomai” (since I don’t have a Greek font), which is the word for people approaching God. He notes that Matthew’s gospel uses this word for people approaching Jesus too. But then at the end, it flips. After the resurrection, Matthew uses that word for Jesus’ followers coming to him. Now Jesus’ followers are bringing him to others. He’s still doing the same things that he did back then – healing, teaching, working for justice, and most importantly walking with us. (Listen to my Easter message for more on this.) In Matthew 28, Jesus says, “I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Isn’t everything better when we’re not alone? It sure is for me.

As Dr. Edwards put it, those four words, I am with you, have the power to transform despair into courage.

I’m sitting here in a huge group of Presbyterian Church pastors, and I’m struck by how real these people are!

If you’ve heard me preach or have come to my Bible studies, you know that being real is a biggie for me. I think that one of the biggest problems that the Christian Church faces is that people aren’t real… Some people have secret lives, but even more people just hide their imperfections or struggles. That means when someone shows up at the church, one of two things happens

1) They believe the act and think that everyone in the church “has it all together.” Since the person checking out the church knows the problems and challenges in their own life, they figure this isn’t for them.

OR

2) They see through the act or figure it’s impossible that these folks are perfect. That makes us a bunch of phonies.

The antidote is being real. If you don’t feel like smiling today, don’t smile until you actually feel it. If you have a problem, find someone to share it with. We can help each other. If you need to cry, do it. If you feel angry, maybe have someone pray with you. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, ask for help! Then when we see you smiling, it will be real. Yea!

That’s what God wants from us anyway:

“Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” – Galatians 6:2

It’s good to see pastors being real, it’s certainly how I try to be, and I believe our church is becoming more and more authentic each day. It’s sure a better witness to the world. We may be just as messed up as everyone else, but we have help!

OK, I may be exaggerating a bit, but this is how a lot of bad sci-fi movies start out.  A 12-foot tall, 3400 pound robot with 11-foot arms “rose like Frankenstein” to be installed at the International Space Station.  Watch out, guys!  In space, no one can hear you scream.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2008-03-15-space-shuttle_N.htm

I was just holding my 6-week-old daughter in my arms.  It was actually a pretty special moment.  She was almost smiling as she gazed into Daddy’s eyes.  But then she started to get sleepy.  And she hadn’t had her pink eye drops yet.  So I held little Lydia as her mother dosed her with the drops.  She screamed and cried for a long time.  I felt bad.  I knew that Lydia needed the drops to be healthy, but I also knew that they were painful for her.

I believe that God must have the same experience.

“My child, do not despise the Lord’s discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord reproves the one he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.” Proverbs 3:11-12

I wouldn’t bother to give Lydia drops if I didn’t care about her well-being.  And God wouldn’t bother to discipline and teach us unless he loved us…  It’s no fun, but it helps to know that it comes from love.  Some day, Lydia will understand that too.

OK.  There are no guns in this post, but it sounded much cooler with them.

I have found the easiest way to get the abs you’ve always dreamed of, and you’re in on the ground floor.  Introducing, Cold and Flu Abs^TM

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3) You acquire the ab-activating germs and begin the patented incubation period. At this point, your new abs are on the way.

4) In just days, your constant coughing provides a targeted workout for your abdominal muscles.  You don’t even have to think about it – your autonomic nervous system does all the work.

5) Enjoy rock solid abs without ever setting foot in the gym.

To order, contact an authorized Cold and Flu Abs^TM preschooler near you. Do it today. You won’t believe how simple it is!

“Can I have some apple juice?” my son Joshua asked.
“Sure,” I responded.
“DAD, HE ALREADY ASKED MOM AND SHE SAID NO!” my older son Johnny yelled.

Yes, Joshua has discovered the fine art of continuing to ask until you get the answer you want.  Dave Barney, a system software director I worked for for a while, called it “toddler syndrome.”  People did it in big technology companies too.  Just keep asking people at all levels of the organization until you find someone who will give the answer you want.  Sometimes even the corporate big wigs would do.  It’s like something out of a Dilbert comic strip:

Corporate VP to software development manager: “Can you get the project finished by the end of this month?”
Software manager: “No, even if we finished today, the testing cycle would last longer than that.”

Corporate VP to software development manager’s boss: “Can you get the project finished by the end of this month?”
Software manager’s boss: “I don’t see why not!”

That got us into a lot of trouble in the computer business.  It gets me into trouble at home too.  “What did you just tell Joshua?”

But it’s most dangerous in our lives as Christians.  People look for churches or small groups or friends who will tell them that whatever they want to do or not do, or to believe or not believe, is OK.  We don’t want to face difficult truths, and today, there is enough variety of belief and practice out there that we don’t have to.

Sometimes that saves us from error or persecution.  Sometimes it lets us continue down paths that harm us and others.

I wish Joshua had been honest with me.  In this case, Mom said no to the request for apple juice because she was taking care of the baby.  It was no problem for me to get the little guy some juice.  But the “toddler syndrome” kept us from getting to the root issue.  I hope more of us can get to that point in our faith too.