Tag: Embody the Gospel

Come, Follow Me

What do you see when you see people?

What we look like often says something about us. How we dress, how we walk or stand, how we smile or frown, they say that body language is 80% of your personal communication. You can learn a lot about someone from how they look. But not everything, oftentimes we are usually lacking contextual knowledge and we can’t see inside their soul. The upside of this: people can surprise us – there is more to people than meets the eye.

We see this in an early story of the gospel in Mark,the-gospel-of-mark when Jesus first meets Simon Peter and his brother Andrew, and their fellow fisherman down the Sea of Galilee coast, James and John, the sons of Zebedee. Jesus, the intriguing and powerful prophet approaches four gritty fisherman to become his disciples. This is outrageous and unheard of!!! What did Jesus see in them?

Maybe Jesus saw in them betrayal and pettiness, bravado and posturing, pride and prejudice, vengefulness and racism, envy and sloth. He probably saw that in most everybody he met. Probably still does. But maybe Jesus also saw in Peter and Andrew, James and John, you and I, a spirit, mind and body open to God’s renewing work in the world. Maybe Jesus saw the real them and decided it was worth the invitation: “Come, follow me.”

Jesus sees you, and when he sees you, he invites you to “Come, follow me.” Not because you are without sin, not because you are better than other people, nor because you’re special. He calls you because he knows you’re open to the life he has for you – a life of blessing the world in Christ’s name through your flaws and talents.

The messy you is the one he is calling, like those Galilee guys, and if he can put up with their shenanigans, by the power of the Holy Spirit he can bring good out of yours too.

So what’s keeping you from seeing yourself with the eyes of Jesus? What’s keeping you from seeing others with that Christ-vision? What if, instead of looking down or away from others, we looked into them, by the Spirit of Christ, past their appearances, with a prayerful spirit: “Lord, help me to see what you see”

rd_acpp_FishersOfMen_28x20_750When Jesus called the fishermen, he said, “Come, follow me, and I will send you out to fish for people.” The story says that “at once they left their nets and followed him.” Wow! What was it about Jesus that compelled them to go with him? It must have been an amazing moment.

Jesus wants to have that amazing moment with you. And he wants to create those amazing moments in others through you. He wants to use you, in your “fishy” life to send you out to others to really see them, speak hope into them, to help them join in with Jesus. Just as Jesus opened your eyes to him and to others in a new and beautiful way, Jesus wants to take that new vision of yours and help open up the eyes of others to new possibilities, new faith, a new community with God’s people.

FollowMeWhat if we all could see each other with the eyes of Christ? That would be a great start for some amazing changes in our community, wouldn’t it?

“Lord, help us to see others with your eyes. Send us with your vision and your invitation, with your words of love and hope.”

Why Do Bad Things Happen To Good People?

Ever asked that question? Most of us have. It’s too common for us, for humanity – our story is full of tragedy and sorrow. How often does it seem like the good die young and the wicked prosper? It makes us wonder whether there is any logic to the universe, is there a good enough reason to justify these injustices, is there anyone in charge up there and do they know what’s going on down here?

In the gospel according to Mark we get an ironic, very human, sad yet poignant start to the ministry of Jesus:

“After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God.”

Isn’t it ironic that John’s unjust imprisonment is a starting point for Jesus’ preaching ministry of the gospel of God?

the-gospel-of-mark

It’s interesting that something tragic prompted something good. Maybe John being jailed – which would have shocked, enraged, and broken the hearts of Israel – was the stark wake up call the people needed to open up to God again? This was the last straw – if even John can be jailed, will God ever show up? Maybe people are ready now for what Jesus has to say: “The time has come. The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

When you think of the bad things that have happened to the good people you know, it ought to make you angry, sad, disappointed, frustrated, and grief-stricken. But for those of us who have been through those sorrows, we know in our heads and hearts that the world can be cruel, that no one gets through this life with out suffering, and that too often badness gets rewarded more than goodness. We know it, we protest it, but what can we do about it? We can feel so hopeless.

It’s in this place that we can be most open to the good news of Jesus. King Jesus is the gospel. He himself is the good news (gospel means “good news”).

crucified Jesus

As the rejected king of Israel, Jesus experienced the worst of humanity, absorbed the violence of the world, was broken and crushed by Israel’s iniquities. Jesus endured the worst of the bad things that happen to the best of the good people. If even Jesus must go through this, then are Christians exempt? No. Though we may still persist in asking “Why?” Jesus understands.

For Christians, when we go through these vales of sorrow, we can be reminded of what the suffering Christ also endured. The good news is that Christ is with us, he mourns with those who mourn. But out of that solidarity of pain comes a new kind of openness to the kingdom of God – to the gospel work of King Jesus redeeming the world. With us. Through us. Subverting evil. Rescuing others from evil. Overcoming evil with good.

Why do bad things happen to good people? I don’t know if I have the best answer. But I believe that Jesus makes possible a new kind of understanding, acceptance, and redemption of suffering and evil.In our good world gone mad, Jesus works to restore all things – nothing is wasted. And Jesus suffers with us while he works in us and through us.

As you reflect on the recent or distant tragedies in your life and our world, it’s easy to dwell on darkness and despair. I know, for I have been there. But consider Jesus, who introduces himself to you and the world while he is in pain, while his friends suffer, always working for the restoration of all things. Listen to his words to you. “‘The time has come,'” he said.”

 

Prepare The Way

Everything is preparation. 

But for what? 

Everything is preparation for the future. Everything is seemingly meaningless if there isn’t a future hope you are keeping your eyes on. A future hope helps put the past – the pains, the failures, the disappointments – in perspective.

But even a future hope is kind of vague. For Christians, that future has a name, the future is grounded in a person, that future is becoming present through the presence and work of Christ Jesus. 

So for Christians, we can believe that everything that happens to us now is preparation for the future – maybe for tomorrow, maybe for next year, maybe for something Christ is working on in three decades that he needs us to do.

the-gospel-of-mark

We get this kind of perspective in the opening lines of the Gospel According to Mark:

The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, as it is written in Isaiah the Prophet:

“I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way” –

” …a voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.'”

John the Baptist was born before Jesus in order to be the messenger who went ahead of his cousin to announce the good news of his arrival as the anointed deliverer of Israel and their long awaited King. John is the one appointed to prepare the way for Jesus. For thirty years John lived with this mission, knowing that someday his moment would come. As a young man he sojourned into the wilderness as part of his preparation. It was there that he began his ministry.

What about you? What are your future hopes? What are the tough things you are going through now that could be prepration for something in the future?

More importantly: what might God be wanting to send you to do as a way to prepare others for the arrival of Christ Jesus in their life? How might what you are going through now be preperation for that future work of Jesus becoming real to someone important in your life? 

It’s important to know that John didn’t know how everything is going to play out. Jesus had to give repeated instructions to John about what was going on, what was going to happen, and why. John had his doubts, and so do we – especially when times get really difficult.

The medium is the message. 

It wasn’t just the words that John was preaching about repentance for the forgiveness of sins, it was John’s life, him as a person embodying this message that added power to his words.

Repentance is about change, about returning, about new possibilities.

grace-repentance

John was in the wilderness re-enacting the story of Moses, preparing the people of Israel to re-enter the Promised Land as a cleansed, made-holy, recommited kind of people of God. Everybody came to see John to be baptized – they were so sick and tired of the corruption and evil – they wanted to see a change, they wanted to see God rule the land again – and that starts with a people being changed by letting God be king of their hearts, mind, body and soul.

You embody a message. You are a message. You are a message of hope (or despair), of repentance and forgiveness (or embittering grudges), of restoration and reconciliation (or envy and hate).

God sent John ahead of Jesus into Israel to prepare the people for the Christ (anointed one) to deliver them from their sins and sow seeds of shalom (peace). John preached a message of repentance for the forgiveness of sins and renewal of allegiance to God.

God is wanting to send you ahead of Jesus into the world to embody the message of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. When you repent of your sins, when you receive and extend forgiveness, when you sow seeds of peace and reconciliation, you are not only preparing people for the presence of Christ, you are embodying and extending the presence and work of Christ himself.

John begain his ministry on his own, but eventually formed a community from which he continued his ministry of preaching and baptising, of teaching the people how to repent, forgive, and start their lives over again in God. The same goes for us: whatever God calls us to do, wherever and to whomever he wants to send us, it will need to be in community. The gospel is embodied best by community. cropped-Community-Service-YUSA-Pic.jpg

How might your perspective change on your present pain in light of the preparation God might be bringing you through in order to extend the healing and reconciling work of Christ to others in the future?

Who has God laid on your heart? What if some of the tough things you are going through now are preparation for what Christ wants to do through you for them?

If the medium is the message – and everything is prepration for embodying the message of the gospel – what kind of work do you know God needs to do in you now so that others can more clearly hear the good news of Christ through your words and works?