The Relational Mission

American Christians are more known for what we are against than what we are for . This seems to be more true of Evangelicals than any other group. The shining example of this occurred when Reformed Christian leaders came out against Rob Bell's book Love Wins . Their ranting against Bell's message propelled that book up the bestseller list. I see this happening all over the place, especially in social media. It seems like the most popular blog posts are those that are coming out against something or someone. Like cats fighting, we know how to be antagonistic. I've only recently seen the problem with this against mentality. For years I was blind to it because my Christian imagination was formed by it; it was the water in which I swimmed. As a kid growing up as a Southern Baptist, I was more known for what I did not do than for what I did. Good Christians do not smoke, chew or go with girls who do. We were against abortion, against invasive government and against homosexu...

I've lived most of my life in the Bible Belt. And while Christian leaders like to talk about how various authorities (i.e. media, education and entertainment) deride Christianity, it seems to me that Jesus and church are still alive and well in America. Yes, the stats are gloomy about the growth patterns in the church, but I drive around and I see churches all over the place, and lots of them are full. I go to Target and see all kinds of Christian books being pushed. The best-selling hard-back book of all time is The Purpose-Driven Life by Rick Warren. There seems to be an ongoing degree of respect for things connected to Jesus. After all what's not to like about Jesus. Here is the man who healed the sick, raised the dead, fed thousands and ultimately gave his life for the world. We celebrate him at Christmas and fill churches up on Easter. It hit me last Christmas as I was driving through a light show with our family. It included a display that celebrated Jesus' birth...

"Blessed are the merciful," Jesus said. To get my mind around his words, I have reflected about the opposite of merciful. From my perspective, it's being judgmental, by which i mean putting myself in the seat where I'm the judge of others, the one who determines the rightness and the wrongness of others' actions and motives. When I put myself in this seat, I become the evaluator of everyone and everything. To boil it down, I become the critic of others actions and motives. I criticize their looks, their choices and their way of life. Of course a critic assumes that his or her perspective is correct. In more ways that one, this has become a way of life of many in our world. Just listen to ESPN right now and listen to the critics of various athletes. The airways are full of opinions about Dwight Howard right now. And even more have opinions about Jason Collins. We have made criticizing others a common language. We have put ourselves in the seat of evaluation and...

Jesus said, "Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy." The reality is that all of us find ourselves in situations where we need mercy. We all enter into places where we find that we have very little to nothing to offer those around us. But for some reason we have been taught that we need to outgrow the need for mercy. There is the myth that circulates around Christian teaching that trains us to think that Christians should grow up to a level where they can always benefit others. The assumption is that we need to grow out of the need for mercy. It's based on a triumphalistic perspective where we think that somehow we can always rise up and that the Spirit will empower us at any and every time to be strong for someone else who needs mercy. But this is a myth. We are all wounded. We are all in need of mercy. In my experience, those who don't think they need mercy are not very good at offering it. They are professionals at telling people how to bec...

Have you ever been so hungry that you eat food that is half-baked? The hunger is so great that you can't wait any longer. Sometimes this is how we try to follow Jesus. We are not willing to wait on what God has for us so we go for it and make something happen. We cannot live with the hunger that is growing so we settle for half-baked answers to fill that hunger. God is a God of: Word and action. Promises and promises kept. Proclamation and fulfillment. If you want to follow Jesus well you must view how God both states and acts. He makes promises and he comes through on what he has promised. However, for the most part, we have become very accustomed to following God as if his actions, promises keeping, and fulfillment cannot be trusted. God gives us a holy hunger for him. God stirs up a thirst for righteousness and justice. We hear his calling to live out a certain vocation or pursue a specific line of work. Then we set off on our own path to make it happen. If you want...

"Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy." If we are truly following Jesus, we will be growing in mercy. This means that we will be offering sacrificial, other-oriented love to those around us who do not deserve it. Think about it this way: Imagine neighbors, family members, co-workers, and friends in your life. Think about them all in one large room. Now in your mind, put them into groups. Group 1: Those who can benefit you. Those who have something to offer you. And most likely they offer something to society. Group 2: Those you consider your equal. They are friends you like to hang out with. Your relationship with them is not really about what they have to offer you. They are just friends. Group 3: Those you know but you don't particularly like, for whatever reason. Maybe it's a neighbor who annoys you. Maybe it's a friend who drains you when you spend time with them. Or a family member who is a downer. Group 4: Those you know who seem ...

Remember that rule from high school geometry? Something like: the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Well if you want to increase your hunger for righteousness, the way to get from where you are today to the point of greater hunger is not a straight line. If it were, then all that would be required is to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and by our own will, effort and hard work we would develop hunger for God's righteousness. We would just start walking to that place and make it happen. But there is no straight line to hunger and thirsting for righteousness. You cannot make it happen. This is not because Jesus was setting up something that is impossible for us to attain and therefore we are in need of grace, as if hungering for righteousness is some kind of magical gift bestowed upon us just because God wants it. No we grow in righteousness as we meander along the path of following Jesus in this life. It's what happens to us as we follow the ways o...

The Bible calls us to rest in him, to enter into a life of peace and wholeness. Quite a few writers and preachers have confronted the pattern of the overfilled, frenetic lives that are common in modern society. In the 1970s when computers were being introduced, futurists were predicting a 25-30 hour work week. You probably chuckled inside at the absurdity of the reality of the unrestful world we live in. But we must rest because as we rest, we realize that God is a work, that the Spirit of God is working within us stir up the hunger and thirst for righteousness. If we are ever going to move beyond our busy efforts to try and act hungry to the point that we truly are hungry for God's righteousness, then we must rest. Sometimes I read books on the call to simplicity, rest and peacefulness. I read about people taking week-long retreats to be with God. I know pastor of a huge church who roles into the office at about 11:00 a.m. because he has his morning time with God everyday for ...

When it comes to Jesus' words "Blessed are those who "hunger and thirst after righteousness," I think it helpful to reflect on different ways that we can relate his words. I see five ways. First, you have those who don't and don't want to. They hunger after the things of the world and they are honest about it. And they don't really want to change. Second, there are those who don't but wish they did. Their inner being hungers after what this world can give—power, position, possessions, and pleasure—but they have gotten in touch with something deep within themselves that longs for more. They feel the Spirit of God stirring up something new within them. They just don't know what to do about it. A third group includes those who hunger after that which the world offers, but they think that they hunger for righteousness. This is a most dangerous group in which to find oneself, and I must confess  that I'm all too familiar with it. This is a bl...

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they will be filled."—Matt 5:6 This beatitude reminds me of when our kids come to us and simple say "Hungry!" To which we have to respond, please ask, "Can I have a snack please?" However their raw expression speaks to the rudimentary nature of what Jesus is saying. We don't have to train our kids to realize that they are hungry. It's part of who they are. And when they are hungry, they want to be filled or they get very cranky. Before getting into what this beatitude actually means, I have to be honest about what I've heard preachers say that it means for most of my life. "Blessed are those who do right things." Or "Blessed are those who live a moral life." Or for the more fundamentalistic sermons, "Blessed are those who line up (that is attend church faithfully, pay their tithes, and volunteer for ministry)." But that is not what this beatitud...

In the sitcom The Soul Man starring Cedric the Entertainer, Cedric's character, Reverend Sherman, is a new pastor who was a former singing artist. After his father retires as the pastor of a local congregation and he assumes the role, he is questioning his ability to be a pastor. His father tells him, "Preachers are basically rock stars for the Lord." I know that most of us would never make such a crass statement about a pastor. Most pastors I know have entered the ministry because they want to serve God and love people. Most have put in years of hard work, sacrificed much and worked for must less than we could in earn in other jobs. However, it does seem that we elevate the role of senior pastor to a status that calls for questioning. As I've meditated on Jesus' words "Blessed are the meek," I've realized that being meek is about having the freedom to be oneself, without pretension. It's about having the freedom to live out one's iden...

The path to meekness which involves hearing God’s words of love for us often starts with our own voice. We must begin with what we have in our heart and learn to express it to God. ( See previous post on meekness for more about hearing God's words "My Beloved .") We must learn to express our true voice, even when what what lies within us falls short of what we think it should be. Let's call it "dialogical praying" the kind that reveals all of who we are, without the need to pretend to be different than we are. It grants us the freedom from having to get prayer “right.” It allows us to actually be the beloved to the point of being honest with ourselves and with God and foregoing any need to pray according to some kind of plan or formula. For some, expressing their true voice is not a big challenge. I have encountered a few who freely expressed themselves to God no matter their circumstances. Whether out of a sense of desperation or because that have a great...

Being a follower of Jesus means meekness will be a byproduct of our relationship with Jesus. However, it seems that we have defined Jesus followership today in such a way that we can avoid meekness. As a result, we miss out on the life that Jesus wants to give us as we fall short of the character the Spirit is weaving into the world. How then do we participate in meekness? Or put another way, how do we make room for the meekness of Jesus in our lives? I think part of the answer lies in being true in the way we pray, as opposed to praying in ways that might be called perfunctory or inauthentic. When we are true and truthful before God, we are freed to hear God's voice of love for us. This frees us to participate in meekness. Henri Nouwen spent a lifetime praying and writing about prayer. He was a Catholic priest and taught theology at Notre Dame, Yale and Harvard. Then for the last season of his life, he was the pastor at l’Arche Daybreak in Toronto, Canada which was a commu...

Recently, I've been seeking direction related to aspects of my writing. As I was praying, I was impressed with the words "Trust your heart." The actions that these words pointed to were clear and logically those actions made  sense. However, the words "Trust your heart," prompted two things in my head. First, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" (Jer. 17:9). And second, the song "Listen to Your Heart" by Roxette from the 1980s. Since what I felt in prayer sounded more like Roxette's song than this verse from Jeremiah, I realized I needed to work this out in my mind. For the sake of clarity on this subject of listening to our hearts, think about it in terms of hearing God's will regarding one's vocation. There seems to be two extremes on a spectrum of thought. The first begins with the doctrine of universal sin, which in it's most basic form means that man is unable to enter into a...

Over the past couple months, I've been writing posts about the beatitudes. I assumed that I would write about them in a linear fashion, that I would write them quickly, and then I would move on. But reflecting on the beatitudes is like a good science experiment. Once you have an answer to a question, three or four more questions arise. So, I've been pondering this question: Why are mourners blessed? I know that Jesus said that they would be comforted. But I've been wondering if there is something within the essence of mourning that brings blessing. Is there something that we can experience while mourning that produces within us the ability to be comforted? While my thoughts were formulating, I came across this great passage from Parker Palmer's book Healing the Heart of Democracy . While the book itself is focused on how we can change heart issues related to citizenship in America, this passage has a much broader application, one that I think provides insight into how m...

"Blessed are the meek." The more I meditate on the beatitudes and prayer through them the more I realize that my natural first response to them is "Really! Jesus you've gotta be kidding." They just go against the grain of how I've been encultured to think and act. Think about it with me. Happy are those who do not possess power over others. Happy are those who are not trying to attain possessions so that they can show the world their worth. Happy are those who are not climbing the ladder of position so that they can make things happen. Happy are the meek. Is it possible to be any more counter cultural? When we think about those  in our world who have the ability to get something done, we don't envision "meekness." When Steve Jobs passed, so many were singing his praises about all he had done. But with that they were talking about his character. Meek? Not! Not even close. But Jesus said that the meek are blessed because they will inherit...

It was rainy today in Houston. A typical winter, yucky day. Yes, I can wear shorts but this is just dreary. This makes me think about life and the journey of finding God in the midst of the everyday and ordinary stuff that we do. This day makes me think about the suffering of the world, those who are facing great pain and loss. I think about the Christians who are being martyred as I write this. About wives who try and stay faithful to God when their husbands couldn't care less. About parents whose kids are making poor decisions. About people who have made radical choices to serve God, but things did not turn out like expected. The journey of following God will be marked by rainy days, rainy seasons, and sometimes even rainy years.When you are in those dreary times, all you can see is rain, grey and nothingness. The sun is nowhere. But those days are part of the journey. The dreary seasons teach us that walking with God is not about stepping from one triumphal act to the next...

I've been trying for two weeks to write this post. I knew what I wanted to write, but I did not know (the kind of "knowing" that really matters) what this beatitude means. After all, it is the most paradoxical of all the beatitudes. On the surface it makes no sense whatsoever. If a synonym for blessed is "happy," as some translations put it, and mourning is associated with unhappiness, then in some ways Jesus is saying "happy are the unhappy." At the very least, we must admit that Jesus' way of seeing happiness is absolutely different than the common ways that we view it in our culture. I think part of the insight we need comes from the shortest verse in the Bible: "Jesus wept" (John 11:35). Over what was he weeping? Lazarus' death? The fact that he was about to raise Lazarus from the dead? That his followers did not have faith? I've heard all of these reasons and while any of them might be true, I think there is something that ...

“You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule." (The Message) Recently, I read a writer about his take on the beatitudes. He tells a story about a woman he met who's son had walked away from Christianity because he was a successful businessman and he did not want to have to live out Jesus' words in the Sermon on the Mount. The writer then goes on to explain how this self-reliant businessman did not have to embrace the beatitudes as his own. Instead proposes that Jesus' words were exemplary, in that he was pointing to the Jewish crowds that surround the mountain who were obviously poor in Spirit. He was using them as an example to teach the disciples about the fact that they were blessed because God's kingdom is for them.  By contrast, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote about what it meant to be a disciple. He stated, "They [the disciples] have neither spiritual power of their own, nor experience or knowledge...

Life is a dance. We can dance according to one of two rhythms. Our dance steps can be conformed to the rhythms of this world or they can be transformed to the dance of God. Romans 12:1-2 reads: Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. The rhythm that follows the pattern of this world is something that we dance quite naturally. These are the patterns of life that we simply do because they go unquestioned. We live the way we do because that is just the way the culture around us does life. Most of us grow up dancing these rhythms without our ever knowing it. When the dance floor is the world you were born into and everyone around you is dancing the dance of the...