Stories For The Way There Luke 18 9-14 

I was finishing up my sermon on the Pharisee and the Publican for tomorrow morning when I found myself thinking back to one of my favorite youtube clips ever from about two years ago. I'm a fan of the blind boys for a lot of reasons, I just happen to think that if you looked up "cool" in the dictionary you should see their picture as far as I'm concerned.

But beyond that I was thinking about the "prayer that arrived" in Jesus story from Luke 18 ( Read it HERE)

The thing is Eugene Peterson is right in calling this story "The Two Sinners" ( Tell It Slant) We really fall to the way-too-common virus of self righteousness when we lose our place. The advantage for the tax collector is he knew something to be true of himself that is true of all of us.

Back to my beloved blind boys video...Lou Reed is never likely going to win a "dove " award for his contributions to the world of Christian Music. In an interview for an upcoming concert in Australia ( HERE) the venerable founding member of the boys, Jimmy Carter drops this little explanation about such an unlikely duet as Lou and the Blind Boys. " Anytime that you are with someone who has a little gospel in them, he's alright by me ...he must have some in him cause he wrote this song. " (Paraphrase)

In Jesus' story one of two men found his proper place, and went down to his house justified.

"Jesus , help me find my proper place" indeed.

Pulpit Envy and Other Complexes:

Pastors of smaller churches are usually hesitant to enter into the conversation about ideal sizes of church congregations. If they do speak a discouraging word to the culturally accepted idiom that bigger is better when it comes to congregation size, they end up sounding like a weekend flag football warrior criticizing the NFL as being "overrated."  An old friend of mine once planted a church and often used the borrowed slogan " A church for those who don't do church". At the time I was a staff member at the nearby big box church who interestingly enough supported the new church financially. Sometimes I would tease a friend at the new plant about being 

"The church for people who don't do church,  paid for by the people who do do Church". 

A few years later I fell into the lure of church planting myself, drummed up a lot of support from large churches and would wax eloquently about the opportunity to have a "blank page" to start out with, only to discover that rather than a blank page for my oh so cutting edge ideas,  a church plant was more like a paper shredder! 

But enough about me 

...I have made it my practice the last three years to do extended reading by one favorite author this summer it's Eugene Peterson. I find most Peterson books are worth reading a second or third time.  I'm into my 7th Eugene Book in the pre-office hours reading in my back yard , his newest , his Memoir "The Pastor". 

I just made it into Chapter 18 and a referenced letter to a friend he wrote many years ago really got my attention this morning. His friend was leaving his church for a bigger opportunity, and Eugenes advice to him really resonated with things I have often wondered about but would rarely voice out loud especially from my place in a small Church. This will be my longest post ever but since 3/4 of it will be a direct quote of Eugene it's not really all that remarkable , but may fuel some remarks...

" The Pastor" Pages 156-158 : " One Tuesday as we were getting ready to break up, one of our company announced that he was leaving his congregation for another, a church of a thousand members, three times the size of where he was. He described it as "more promising." I had lunch with Phillip later that week, and he told me that he felt his gifts were being wasted where he was, that he needed more of a challenge, more opportunity to "multiply his effectiveness" (his term). He had not been one of the original members of the Company, but he had been with us for seven years. He was thoroughly familiar with the particular ethos of pastor that had been developing among us. 

   The more he talked that day over our plate of bread-sticks and vichyssoise, I realized that he had, despite the Company of Pastors, absorbed a concept of pastor that had far more to do with American values-competitive, impersonal, functional- than with what I had articulated as the consensus of our Company in Five Smooth Stones. That bothered me. It didn't bother me that he was changing congregations - there are many valid, urgent, and, yes, biblical reasons to change congregations. But Philips reasons seemed to be fueled by something more like adrenaline and ego and size. I made a few shy demurrals, but he wasn't listening. SO the next week I wrote him a letter. 

     Dear Phillip, 

       I've been thinking about our conversation last week and want to respond to what you anticipate in your new congregation. You mentioned its prominence in the town, a center, a kind of cathedral church that would be able to provide influence for the Christian message far beyond its walls.

Did I hear you right?

     I certainly understand the appeal and feel it myself frequently. But I am also suspicious of the appeal and believe that gratifying it is destructive both to the gospel and the pastoral vocation. It is the kind of thing America specializes in, and one of the consequences is that American religion and the pastoral vocation are in a shabby state. 

    It is also the kind of thing for which we have abundant documentation through twenty centuries now, of debilitating both congregation and pastor. In general terms it it the devils temptation to Jesus to throw himself from the pinnacle of the temple. Every time the church's leaders depersonalize, even a little, the worshiping, loving community, the gospel is weakened. And size is the great depersonalizer. Kierkegaard's criticism is still cogent: "the more people,  the less truth."

    The only way the Christian life is brought to maturity is through intimacy, renunciation, and personal deepening. And the pastor is in a key position to nurture such maturity. It is true that these things can take place in the context of large congregations, but only by strenuously going against the grain. Largeness is an impediment, not a help.

   Classically, there are three ways in which humans try to find transcendence - religious meaning, God's meaning - a part from God as revealed in the cross of Jesus: through the ecstasy of alcohol and drugs, through the ecstasy of recreational sex, through the ecstasy of crowds. Church leaders frequently warn against the drugs and the sex, but, at least in America, almost never against the crowds. Probably because they get so much ego benefit from the crowds.

   But a crowd destroys the spirit as thoroughly as excessive drink and depersonalized sex. It takes us out of ourselves, but not to God, only away from him. The religious hunger is rooted in the unsatisfactory nature of the self. We hunger to escape the dullness, the boredom, the tiresomeness of me. We can escape upward or downward. Drugs and depersonalized sex are a false transcendence downward. A crowd is an exercise in false transcendence upward, which is why all crowds spiritually pretty much the same, whether at football games, political rallies, or at church.

   So why are we pastors so unsuspicious of crowds , so naive about the false transcendence that they engender? Why are we so knowledgeable in the false transcendence of drink and sex and so unlearned in the false transcendence of crowds? There are many spiritual masters in our tradition who diagnose and warn, but they are little read today. I myself have never written what I really feel on this subject, maybe because I am not entirely sure of myself, there being so few pastors alive today who agree. Or maybe is is because I don't want to risk wholesale repudiation by friends whom I genuinely like and respect. But I really do feel that crowds are a worse danger, far worse than drink or sex, and pastors may be the only people on the planet to encourage an imagination that conceives of congregations strategically not in terms of its size but as a congenial setting for becoming mature in Christ in a community, not a crowd.

   Your present congregation is close to ideal in size to employ your pastoral vocation for forming Christian maturity. You have talked about "multiplying your influence."  My apprehension is that your anticipated move will diminish your vocation, not enhance it. 

   Can we talk more about this? I would welcome a continuing conversation.

                                              The peace of Christ, 

                                              Eugene

So many things spun through my head as I digested those unusual words regarding church leadership, like if I got a letter like that from Eugene would I have the guts to open a second one?  

Sometimes my ministry reminds me of a line from the great songwriter Bill Mallonee 

 " I was drinking in obscurity,

       the small talk of the town.
    Yes, she is the silent type
        But she'll buy you the next round" 

Eugenes words have me thinking that there is so much more to be worked out in my ideas about what the ideal sized church really is. Fortunately perhaps, my unique mix of spiritual gifted-ness, management abilities and leadership style seem to be just the perfect combination for growing a church of 100 people, so there appear to be a lot of bridges I will likely never have to wonder about crossing. 

This strange idea popped into my head as well though...Joel Osteens crowd is the fastest growing one in America these days, and while we don't have the headcount recorded,  one of the larger crowds Jesus ever attracted were shouting crucify him crucify him.

JB 

Father of Daughters : If you are a Dad with a daughter, take this link and listen to Red Robin by Clark Richard...I just discovered the guy but I have a feeling I will be a fan for a while...
RED ROBIN

Here's the rough notes I took with me for the roughest message I have ever tried to give...if you were not there you can read it and imagine the guy reading it crying like a baby and you will just about have it right....

Jordy Speech

Thanks to guests…family from S A and the Dominican…Happy Fathers Day

§                     Jordan it's fitting that this day happened on Fathers day, you made me a Father …best thing I’ve ever gotten to be in life.

§                  I missed my first Youth Event Friday June 9^th 1989 a welcome to the Blackman's barbecue…I went home to an empty apartment and sat at the table and wrote a letter to the future 13 year old Jordan that I would give you on your 13^th birthday, to let you know that right then when you had never done a thing, never walked a step, laughed a laugh, passed a test , you were already so loved…

Of course I have no idea what I did with it, but I bet it was great.
The next morning, I was at sears with debit card in hand, to buy you a coming home outfit…now that we knew you were a girl…this was the last time I ever chose your clothing, but not the last time I paid for them. I also bought a pink tie to wear to church the next day…
I drove to the hospital with my Atlantic R& B mixed tape cranking the Temptations song … My girl! I’ve never listened to that song without thinking of that drive from the mall to the hospital…

§          Jordan you were always ready for the next phase of life. Whether  it was  the door to Mrs Beauchamps Kindergarten class /first time to camp/  a new elementary school / high school /trip to the geographic center of china /  university  you just walked right through each of those doors. I’m sure you’ll do the same with the doorway to marriage and family life. Some here today may be surprised at how confident and ready you appeared for this big day, Janine and I are not surprised at all!

§        Matt when Jordan was just a Jr Higher , Janine went to a mothers and daughters conference …they told her to make a prayer list for her daughters future husbands , List three qualities three P’s That he would be a Prayer, Protector & Provider.  Matt you have been all three of those…( reminded me of what I was praying for in a woman before I met Janine that she would be three B’s Beautiful, Barely old enough and a  and Bad judge of character… )

§          First Year at Tyndale she got a bookmark part of a promotional campaign, with the heading "Have You Found Your One?…with Matts picture on it! Then we heard…"Hey there is a guy at school who went to HS with Luke"…Then things like " A bunch of us went out, there was  Stiller Stiller blah blah blah & Matt Murray. Then just "Matt Murray this",  "Matt Murray that", then Janine said “ I think she likes this guy"….

§         Tyndale, that place Jordan spent the whole ride to, on a "college for a day" trip, with Christine McCourt, explaining so confidently that "she was not even thinking of going there; she’s just skipping school for the day" …then by chapel as I sat with Sandy Roberts, Jordan goes by us and says "I really love it here! I am really thinking about it!" We may be the only father daughter tandem to have been resident advisers in the same dorm!
       Four years later look at your wedding party and the significant mentors you asked to come and pray for you…either family or Tyndale…Amazing!

§         Matt, you should thank Scotty Mack for breaking us in as parents with boyfriend-in-laws or you would have had to break down all the barriers he had to face!

§       Jordan is named after a river … to cross the Jordan, Matthew,  in scripture was usually was a metaphor either for entering the promised land or dying…you cross her and let us know how it works out.

§        There’s plenty going on behind those eyes…as a toddler she rarely ever slept in the car …we’d be on long trips between Sault ST Marie and Grandma’s house…everyone else would be asleep and I’d look in the rear view mirror and there would be those eyes…staring right at me in the mirror…she was 2 or three years old and she could see right through me…there’s a lot of mystery and strength going on behind those eyes …I could see it then…I’ve discovered some of it over 22 years…but there’s so much to this woman … I’m sure you will carry on the privilege of discovering even more 25, 30 years from now. May you be blessed to discover that who you have become, is so entwined in your relationship, that you don’t even make sense any more without the other.

§       We spent all these years preparing to present her to you…you now can spend the rest of your life preparing to present her to Christ.

§   

Welcome to our family

We love you both …

 I don't have a specific reason for posting this other than the fact that I believe it will forever be one of my all time favorite songs. I think for me, it is what a person coming to faith in Christ sounds like, wrapped up in a song. I think there couldn't be a married couple in the world with more cool per pound then Buddy and Julie Miller!


 Broken Things - Julie Miller

Top 5 Reasons I Believe The Mavericks will Beat The Heat

1. The week my 1st daughter was born in 89 the team we were cheering for won their first title ( Pistons) , This week she gets married thus Mavericks win...
2. 50% of the retired jerseys in the rafters for the Mavericks have the name Blackman on them.
3. Dirk is the epitome of the New International Version of a basketball player Lebron James goes by the nickname King James ... nuff said! 
4. Miami promotes their own version of the Big Three, blasphemy! 
5. Watching the American feed of game 5,  the commercials included one for Mens Wearhouse ... I just bought a suit from them in Florida for the aforementioned wedding ( surely a sign). Another commercial Tim Horton's! ...any true blooded Horton's drinking Canadian knows Chris Bosh cannot leave the Raptors High and dry and win a championship. It just wouldn't be right (nor should he be scoring double doubles! ). 

New Creations And Old Diapers
I have a friend who may be released from maximum security incarceration after roughly 4 years. He has been held without bail pending trial these four long years. During this time he has made a profession of faith in Christ, if the rumors are true and he is released, there are some major challenges ahead of him. I don't want to post anything here that could compromise the process but it would be suffice to say that his success on the "outside" in the coming years will be dependent on identity issues. Here is a passage I am preaching on this Sunday that draws attention to what my friend will be facing:

2 Corinthians 5:14-21 (New International Version, ©2011)

¹⁴ For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. ¹⁵ And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
 ¹⁶ So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. ¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:^[a] The old has gone, the new is here! ¹⁸ All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹ that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰ We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. ²¹ God made him who had no sin to be sin^[b] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 

Paul  is stating here that something has actually changed in the life of a person who has come to faith in Christ. A whole new identity. He has reconciled us with God so that we might "become the righteousness of God" ,  and,  "he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again."
For the next steps in my friends walk of faith, there will be constant challenges as to which identity he is going have dominate his decision making. Before Christ or  After Christ. There are things in his past that will have seemed perfectly congruent with how he saw himself before and if he submits to the reality of who he is in Christ these things will change. 
Some may ask "can someone really change?". That new identity in Christ will be crucial for the answer. Consider dirty diapers as an example. Our church congregation is teeming with toddlers and babies. Many new creations every year!  We warn new visitors that "someone is always pregnant at Renaissance!" As a result each Sunday on average about 10% of our congregation do something quite offensive to the rest of us. They soil their pants! It feels perfectly natural to them! They for the most part, feel no remorse! They probably feel relieved and perfectly comfortable doing it. They probably enjoy the whole experience. Every one of the other people in that same building on any given Sunday are perfectly capable of doing exactly the same thing , but you know there's something about it that just wouldn't seem right!
You see we have come to see ourselves differently. Based on who we have become it's just no longer appropriate. These changes did not happen over night, but eventually we actually lost the joy in the whole experience, because we came to see such behavior as inappropriate for a " grown up" . As we grew it was not even a temptation for us.
So when my friend just out of incarceration or anyone else with a new identity in Christ begins to make decisions in life. The question will be, is my decision, my action something that fits who I was before Christ "changed me" ( no pun intended) or who I am "in Christ".
 ¹⁶ So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. ¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:^[a] The old has gone, the new is here!

I am a roadie...no I don't haul amps and lights for Jackson Browne ...I ride a bicycle...a road bike...skinny tires , drop bars , stretchy pants the whole deal. I tell my mountain bike stump jumping friends: " If God intended men to ride on dirt trails why did he create all these miles of paved roads?" They usually have no good answers for such logic, of course most of them are concussed anyway , so air tight logic like that is not something they are often up for.
But I got an idea during a discussion, at my mid-week small group, about life as a follower of Christ and as a man in general, from one of my cycling pet peeves...headwinds!
I bike about 2300 - 2500 km a season. I ride in cold weather ( not too cold) in hot weather , in traffic , on country roads. On flats and hills, some big hills. I've never tried the famous Ontario Hilly Hundred , but I've come a long way. I used to hate big hills but I have gotten used to them. Once I get my fat carcass up a big hill I've learned that within a few minutes I've adjusted , and it's forgotten. As long as my wife didn't get to the top too far ahead of me, my ego is still fairly intact.

But I hate headwinds!

I watch the flags at the local elementary school when I head out. We always head north out of Brooklin; so when that flag is blowing straight south I know that the route is not only going to be uphill but against the wind. I realized that my definition of a good bike ride has come to be determined by wind direction. Flag pointing south = lousy ride, flag heading north= great ride. I realized my attitude goes south with that flag.
I have also realized that on a day with no wind, I ride for hours and have a great time. On the other hand, 30 minutes into a stiff headwind and I just want to go back home. It boils down to this: I have come to believe that an enjoyable bike ride is one that happens at the speed I am used to, with the effort that I want to put into it. That preconceived idea unfortunately doesn't stand up to headwinds! I could (theoretically) go for a long ride, into the wind and just travel slower than I think I am supposed to. It would be slower than what I think I should be going, for a ride to qualify as a "good ride". What I am trying to tell myself now is that it's just a good bike ride with a headwind!
Ultimately I asked myself, what has changed, on a head-windy day? I'm outside, on my bike, enjoying the outdoors getting some exercise but this one thing that is out of my control ( the wind) has me believing something is seriously wrong!
You see the guys in my men's group are learning together that things like: conflict/obstacles /blocked goals, in life/family/work/ministry, all create strong feelings. What we are feeling at those times is actually just life! Trials and difficulties, like headwinds happen, while you are living a life!
Here's the jump from the rims to the real life with Christ...my problem with head winds is my distorted idea that a headwind is some kind of thing that makes a good bike ride impossible ... when really it is just bike riding...with a head wind. I am tempted in the spiritual life in Christ to cherish comfort and "progress" ( my definition/ expectation of it). So when I feel "at peace" and things are "going well" I think to myself " now this is living". When difficulties disappointments trials pain suffering come my way, I can forget that what is happening most of the time is life. If I really wanted to become a strong cyclist, headwinds would be an opportunity to achieve that. James says :

James 1:2-4
² Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,^[a] whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³ because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. ⁴ Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Maybe this summer if you see me riding into a headwind and you ask me what I am doing? I will say " Going for a bike ride" (between breaths) or if you see me in a trial of some type and ask me what I am doing perhaps I will say "living, and growing stronger while I am doing it".
Don't let yourself believe that trials mean you are not really living.

OK now that we have re-done our Church web site I am resurrecting this Blog. I don't plan to become the next great famous blogger but I do hope to use this to post some thoughts that don't make it into sermons, things I have read lately that have moved me and that type of thing. Maybe when you hear me preach and ask yourself " What on earth is he thinking" perhaps this will be a place where you could get some answers!