My Psalm

Father, Your name is burned on the chambers of heaven and in your peoples’ heart.

I’m hungry for your plans and desires to be actuality on earth, in our homes and churches and lives.

Lord, I ask for nourishment for the masses of hungry that will die of starvation today; Many of the hungry call on your name for help, but your body is slow to respond. Forgive me for being slow and blind and deaf to the cries of your people.

Lord you’re rich in grace and generously lavish freedom on all whom desire your love and forgiveness. You have wiped out my great debt that was a noose and guillotine hungry for my neck and head. Help me to echo your grace to those whom have seemingly violated our laws and charged against our earthly facade of wealth.

Lord what do we do concerning the illegal alien? What are these peoples’ names? Are they not your children? Are they not parents and sons and daughters of distraught dependents fighting off death and grabbing after their fleeting self-preservation? What would I do in the sojourner’s situation? Would an ethical and godly virtue send me beyond starving and desperate homelands to a near or distant land of potential relief? How far does an animal dying of thirst venture for one drop of water?

Forgive your people for caring more about man’s laws than your laws. Forgive your people and reprove a nation’s people that strangle the innocent and shun the desperate marginalized poor to preserve their own comfort.

And lead us not into temptation.

My eyes distract me. We want what we see. We are easy pickings for the evil one. Not one of us exists without sinful inclinations. Our hearts stray from your will and justice. We squabble in our families and your family. We trust in our thoughts and interpretations more than we humble ourselves before your great open throne of grace. We are tempted in self-reliance, self-ruling, self-serving and selfishness in all areas of life. We perversely think that guarding our wealth against outsiders preserves our survival. We have instituted greed as the fabric of our society.

Rejection and grief haunt me.

Let not despair bury me. Let not trials crush me, however, if I am crushed let it be into your image. And when I die and in dying form me into your selfless image.

Do bury my selfish greed. Do crush my life for your sake and the sake of the least of these. I know not where to begin, tenderly lead and give me Gethsemane like courage.

In your name Jesus I cry out. In your name will I finally sleep and awake. Your name is what I cling to and the true only surety in life.

What criticism is there toward those who cling to your name? What rights and wisdom of others do I have to criticize?

If I am critical let it be for those without voice or defense. May we be found on your side of grace and love when all the superficiality of this age is finally uncloaked and openly manifested.

Proof of I.D.

• John 2.13-22
  3.19-06 DBC
  
  Proof of I.D.
  
  Today’s Scripture presents a hard picture of Jesus: “Jesus put together a whip out of strips of leather and chased them out of the Temple, stampeding the sheep and cattle, upending the tables of loan sharks, spilling coins left and right . . .”
  
  I can imagine Jesus walking into the crowed Temple with his disciples close behind in awe of the magnificent structure (MK 13.1). As he walked and surveyed the scene, his blood began to boil and pace grew faster. He reached into the animal bins and grabbed out strips of leather used for bedding and twisted the leather strips together into a crude whip-like weapon. All of the sudden he explodes with passion and holy rage whipping tables and stampeding animals and flipping over tables and shouting “Get these things out of here stop turning my Father’s house into a market house.”
  
  This is a very different portrait of Jesus than we are use to. It really is a shocking image of a raging, revolutionary, and passionate man; and this image of such a man is the Christ, our Lord.
  
  Some may have a hard time reconciling such an image of Christ with Sunday school and nighttime story images of Jesus that many of us have grown up with.
  
  
  It is easier to picture the serene Christ tenderly caring for a lamb or eloquently teaching crowds from a hill side or carefully reaching out to restore sight to the blind or compassionately touching the forehead of a dead little girl and raising her back to life or picking up a little child saying “for such is the Kingdom of God;”
  
  
  but to picture a revolutionary angry Jesus is harder to imagine and harder to comprehend.
  But all of the above is indeed that same man, a man full of love and zeal and feelings and emotion and humanity and divinity all at the same time. His anger and humanity, however, was without sin or malice, it was a holy anger and righteous indignation.
  
  The Passover was the biggest event of the year at the grandest and most important Jewish location of Jerusalem (The Temple).
  
  The Passover was an annual feast celebrating when the angel of death passed-over the lamb blood sprinkled doorways of the Jews in Egypt (Exodus 12). Jewish people traveled to the Temple in Jerusalem for the Passover from diverse and widely spread out regions and other countries; in fact, attending the Passover was mandatory for every Hebrew adult male within fifteen miles of Jerusalem. It’s been estimated that as many as two and quarter million of Hebrews, at any given Passover, were in Jerusalem to celebrate (Barclay).
  
  The Temple was like the White House of Israel. “The Temple was the organizing center of Jewish life in the first century. It was the center of government [albeit brokered by Rome at this time], judicial law, religious life, and taxation. It set the moral, religious, and political, tone of the country.” (Burge, 99-100)
  
  It was huge magnificent structure, and to this point had been still underway for the past 46 years (It would not be complete until ca 66 AD and then would be ironically- prophetically- burned down in 70 AD.).
  
  So what was the deal? What was the problem? What was it that sparked off Jesus’ fiery anger?
  
  Let me point out a couple of things and suggest some other points that served to fuel the anger of Christ that day in the Temple:
  
  The traveling Pilgrims were being exploited. They could pay their Temple tax only in the Temple coinage (Jewish gold shekel). Moneychangers were set up in the outer court to change the pilgrim’s foreign currency into Jewish coinage that could only be used in the Temple. The moneychangers were making about a days wages for the transaction.
  
  In addition to the moneychangers set up and conducting their very lucrative trade pilgrims were to buy animal offerings (if they wanted to offer sacrifice) only form Caiaphas’ Temple priests (the sacrifice animals had to be unblemished). The Temple priests were charging an overly outrageous price for sacrificial animals and they were not accepting sacrifices from outside the Temple. The pilgrims were being fleeced!
  
  There are some other factors that I think Jesus’ anger was directed at:
  
  1. The Scripture repeatedly says, “animal sacrifice was completely irrelevant.” (Barclay) Therefore, the temple traditions and sacrifices were irrelevant.
  
  A. “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? Says the Lord; I have had enough burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bull, or lambs, or goats . . . Bring no more vain offerings.” (Isa 1.11-17)
  
  B. “For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers of command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices.” (Jer 7.22)
  
  C. "For thou hast no delight in sacrifice; were I to give a burnt offering, thou wouldst not be pleased.” (Ps 51.16)
  
  2. The other Gospel accounts explain that the Temple had been intended to be a house of Prayer and not market commerce. (Matt 21.13; Luke 19.46)
  
  3. Also, the Temple and God’s presence was to be a house of prayer for all nations (LK 19.46). The Temple priests had sectioned off the temple into 7 courts. (Utley) Such courts included an outer court for Gentiles, then the court of women (Jewish women), then the court of Jews (men), then the court of priests. The courts were used to keep people out and excluded from God. “The Temple authorities and Jewish traders were making the court of gentiles into an uproar and a rabble where no man could pray. The lowing of the oxen, the bleating of sheep . . . the rattle of coins, the voices raised in bargaining disputes- all of these combined to make the Court of Gentiles a place where no [one] could worship. The conduct of the Temple court shutout the seeking Gentile from the presence of God.” (Barclay)
  
  So what can we say in away of application and contemplation for us today about all of this?
  
  First, I think that we must consider the multiple faces of Christ. Yes he is the good shepherd and the manifestation of God’s love . . . He is also the Lion of Judah and the man who one day went flipping over tables and cracking a whip scattering people and animals all over the Temple, all of this in the same Jesus.
  
  * We too readily accept the most comfortable notion of Christ and we too often do not willingly acknowledge how awesome and unlimited Christ truly is.
  
  * We like to think Christ is like us:
  That he looks like us.
  Thinks like we think.
  Votes the way we vote.
  That he is of the same denomination and mindset as we are.
  
  * And what if Christ came into our temple today?
  
  Would he find a welcoming place to all people (all races and denominations)?
  
  Would he find a place of prayer or a place of empty and exclusive tradition?
  
  It’s interesting that he received no arguments for his actions that day . . . In response (knowing that his actions were justified) all that the Temple authorities could ask was, “What credentials can you present to justify this? Who are you? Where is your proof of I.D.?
  
  Jesus says that his proof of I.D. was this prophetic utterance, “Tear down this Temple [his body] and in three days I’ll put it back together.” That was his authority.
  
  * What of our zeal for the things of God? Is the inclusion of his people, the purpose of prayer, and significance of his death and resurrection our passionate proclamation as well?
  
  Amen.

What's for Lent?

I wrote this a week ago and posted it on my other blog. Thought I would share it here . . . it has to do with the Christian practice of Lent that precedes Easter. It's a little wired . . . The sermon (A Line in The Sand) following this post is a little more standard and typical of my posts on this blog.

Flying Penguins and Ashes

I dreamt about a massive flock of flying penguins last night . . . Weird? I've been very much feeling mortality this week and it just happens to be Lenten season. I didn't do ashes this year . . . "Excuse me sir, you have a little something on your forehead."

I did a funeral today --A 21 year-old full of life, otherwise healthy and vibrant. Her memory will be my ashes this Lenten season.

This week started with feeling mortality. My ankles, legs, and joints have been doing their due-diligence to remind me that I'm mortal all week long. Feels like I've been out jogging with Prophet Nathan everyday.

Tuesday night I imagined being blind which led to imaging being deaf, and then I imagined being paraplegic. My eyes, more likely my brain, experienced a weird electric like impulse that blurred the center of my vision. Whatever I focused directly on was blurred by an electric-like flashing blue, green, white, and red stringy impulse. I couldn't focus on TV, the computer screen, or read.

So, laying down Tuesday night, I imagined being blind. If I live long enough I'll eventually go blind. What would it be like? I am thinking of preaching sometime about blindness, deafness, and disability. I will go blind one week. I'll wear something over my eyes and experience what I experience.

I was thinking of how odd it will be. Some people won't get it, they'll say: "What's wrong with his eyes . . . What kind of point is he trying to make . . . He's trying to draw attention to himself." Whatever happens, at least it will be a memorable sermon. How many truly memorable sermons have I ever heard and will I ever preach?

What point will I be making? I'll go blind for a week and preach blind on that particular Sunday at the end of my week experience. Then I'll do a week deaf and then a week in a wheel chair.

I was trying to think of a convenient time to do this, like going blind or being blind would ever be convenient. Ashes are an interruption. One day we wear them on our forehead and wash them off in the morning. One day our ashes will take on a more long-term effect.

The point of ashes is . . . The point of preaching blind and deaf will be that we are all only temporary able. We are all turning to ashes and falling down.

Then I got a call Thursday to do the funeral of a 21 year-old. Transference is a hard thing to guard against in the ministry. In the end, I am invited to bear wittiness and become a part of grieving families' rawest of moments. But I am there only as a witness and helper, kind of like a midwife of sorts.

I deal with other's ashes as a minister. I am becoming ashes, myself. That flock of penguins landed and rolled and slid on their bellies and made noises. I dreamt of flying penguins and dreamt of dying. So I will live and contemplate flying penguins and becoming ashes this Lenten season.

A Line in the Sand

Dellview Baptist Sermon on 3-12-06

The story behind the Scripture text (context): Jesus had just predicted his death (8.31-32) and Peter could not stomach the thought of his leader, the one whom he had abandoned all to follow, end up dead. The Scripture says that Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him.

In my mind’s eye I imagine Peter feeling the need to take control of the situation. Peter, I imagine, grabbed Jesus by the arm and turned him away from the others and began to tell Jesus that he if he continued to speak this way that he would lower the moral and spirits of those who were following his lead . . . At that moment, I further imagine Jesus abruptly (in Peter’s mid-speech) turn and face all of his would-be disciples and say:

“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and the gospel will save it . . .”

In my 7th grade Texas history class coach Lockhart, the class teacher, loved to tell Texas history stories. He told all of them with great imagination and passion. One of the lessons –or stories- was about young William Travis at the Alamo.

The situation for Travis and his patriots and comrades was ominous. Santa Anna with his mass Mexican army was ready to pounce and finally (they had already attempted two previous charges) destroy the strong stubborn defenders of the Alamo.

The next part of the story is either legend or history. On March 5, 1835, Travis realizing the fatal gravity of the moment gave charge and choice to all of his men; they could fight or flee; they could stay and die or try to escape to save their lives. The story goes, he drew a line in the dirt with his sword and invited all who would fight and die with him to cross that line. Various sources say that all but one or two crossed the line in the sand.

Travis’s line in the sand really is the stuff that Hollywood loves to dramatize and that history teachers capture their students’ sleepy attention spans. (i.e. Travis, William Wallace, Churchill, and Jesus! etc.).

Jesus’ invitation, his line in the sand, was also a call to courage and sure death for those who would follow him. Jesus never called his would-be followers to do any thing or go anywhere that he himself was not willing to do or go himself. It can never be said that Jesus sweet-talked anyone to follow him, instead he invited, “deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me.”

I must admit most of the time when I think of Christ speaking to me or when I speak on his behalf to others, I am most often reminded of Jesus’ other invitation found in Matthew 11.28:

“Come to me all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn form me, for I am gentle and humble in hear, and you will find rest for your souls . . .”

So which invitation is it (Matthew 11.28 or Mark 8.34)? It is both. Sometimes we’re weary and faint and need the sustaining and reviving life grace of Christ (Matthew 11.28); and other times, in our life, we need to count the cost and choose which side of the line we will stand and fight on (Mark 8.34). Moreover, the context of Matthew 11.18 was that of an initial personal (come to me) and salvation relationship with Christ and in Mark 8.34 the context is discipleship and ongoing commitment (whoever wants to be my disciple). The context of the calling has everything to do with the invitations that we hear from Christ. Both callings, nevertheless, are true.

The context of Mark 8.34 was that those in earshot of Jesus had to make up their mind. Christ was being quite frank and honest with them; he had just told them very plainly how things were going to play out. Peter quickly made the inference and objected. After all Peter signed up for the cause of Christ, which in his mind (perhaps) was life and freedom for his country and family from the tyranny of Rome and Gentile culture. He did not sign up to die in defeat; he wanted his life to count, he didn’t want or his leader to die a criminal’s cursed death on a cross.

Jesus’ ways are always backwards compared to the logic and ways of this world and often our minds. What Peter and so many would-be followers don’t realize that by such willingness to deny one’s self and die for the sake of Christ and his message is the very way to life, freedom, and victory.

*Jesus said to his would-be followers, “deny [yourselves].”

Such self-denial is equally hard for the modern day would-be disciple. Jesus often spoke in such ways: “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and be the servant of all.” (Mark 9.35) And, “whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and the gospel will save it . . .”

We live in an age and time where being first, winning, succeeding, accomplishing, and triumphing is the admirable and relished position.

In our individual lives we strive to get ahead of others in school, the work place and even in church.

Many buy into the self-succeeding and self-securing at all cost lifestyle as the apex of ultimate meaning and purpose of living this life. Individually we hold on tightly and try to run further, faster, and harder than all of those we are competing against. We live in a world that teaches and sells self-advancing and self-winning as the primary significance in all of one’s life.

But Jesus teaches that real selfhood, self-identity, and meaning is only found when we stop holding on to our life so tightly and let go. But we want to win so badly and it’s hard to let go and fall effortlessly in to the arms of God. And yet we only truly win when we give in to God . . . But we want to keep control of the situation like Peter (Mark8.32).

Jesus told of another individual that such self-denial proved to costly:

“ . . . a man came running up, greeted him [Jesus] with great reverence, and asked, ‘Good teacher, what must I do to get [we want to win!] eternal life?’ Jesus said, ‘ . . . You know the commandments: Don’t murder, don’t commit adultery, don’t steal, don’t lie, don’ t cheat, honor your father and mother.’

He said, ‘Teacher, I have- from my youth- kept them all!’ Jesus looked him hard in the eye- and loved him! He said, ‘There is one thing left: go sell whatever you own and give it to the poor. All of your wealth will then be heavenly wealth. And come follow me.’

The man’s face clouded over. This was the last thing he expected to hear, and he walked off with a heavy heart. He was holing on tight to a lot of things, and not about to let go.” (Mark 10.17-22)

Self-denial is hard. Where in your life is self-denial an obstacle to following Christ?

*Jesus said to his would-be followers, “take up your cross.”

The mention of taking up a cross was a death sentence. For all in earshot of Christ that day (historical context), they herd Jesus say that if they chose him they where choosing death. What is the significance of taking up our cross in our day? We may not be asked to physically die for our faith (this day and age), but we would-be followers (transcending all times) are always asked to fully live out our faith.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “When Christ calls a man he bids him come and die.”

Would you be willing to die for Christ and his message? You have to first be willing to fully live for Christ and his message.

*Jesus said to his would-be followers, “follow me.”

I herd a quote from Richard Rourke (?) that I’ve been pondering these last few weeks; that is that Jesus never called upon people to worship him . . . he called on people to follow him! Where is Christ leading you today? Where is he leading this church? Following Christ is always costly and sacrificial.

Are we (individual and as a church) willing to follow him at such an expense?

Are You Into the Gospel?

Mark 1.14-15
3.5.06 DBC

Are You Into the Gospel?

“After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. ‘The time has come,’ he said. ‘The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news.’”

Tony Campolo tells the following story (Let Me Tell You a Story, Did you say this, 207):

“A friend of mine, who was pastor of a Baptist church, was once confronted by a woman in his congregation who wanted to have her seven year old daughter ‘done.’ By that she meant baptized.

My Pastor friend was reluctant to baptize this seven-year-old girl because he wasn’t sure she had had a genuine conversion. Since it is the custom of Baptists to baptize only believers, he was hesitant to accede to the woman’s request. However, the woman was so insistent, that my young preacher friend knew that he had best go along with her demands.

It was the custom of his church for anyone who was going to be baptized to give a personal testimony about his of her conversion experience at the midweek prayer service. The night came when this little girl was to tell how she came to believe in Jesus and share with the congregation, in her own words, something about her Christian experience.

The little girl started by saying, ‘For years I wandered deep in sin . . .’

Snickers and giggles went up among the people in the small congregation. It was pretty obvious that what she was doing was simply repeating some of the things she had heard other people say. She wasn’t sharing her own faith. She was mimicking others

I wonder how many of us simply repeat what we heard other people say and try to pass off the experiences of others as our own.”

I like that story, because what it is saying is that when we claim the name of Christ on our life than our own life (behavior, actions, conduct) must match what we say we believe in.

In what Jesus says, he reveals two (primary) covenantal requirements found both in the OT and the NT. That is, Repentance and belief in the gospel are the two primary things that bring one into an active relationship with God.

In the OT (in the Hebrew) repentance demanded a change of action. That is if one was to follow and love God they must change their behavior. There is example In Solomon’s Temple dedication prayer in 1 Kings 8.46-50:

46-“When they [God’s people] sin against you [God]—for there is no one who does not sin—and when you become angry with them and give them over to their enemies, who take them captive to their own lands, far away or near; 47—and if they have a change of heart in the land where they are held captive, and repent and plead with you in the land of their captors and say, ‘we have sinned, we have done wrong, we have acted wickedly,’ and if they turn back to you with all their heart and soul . . . 49—Then from heaven, your dwelling place, hear their prayer, and uphold their cause. 50—And forgive your people, who have sinned against you; forgive all the offenses they have committed against you, and cause their captors to show them mercy . . .”

So in the OT (Hebrew) repentance demands a change of action, behavior, and conduct.

In the NT (Greek) repentance deals with the demand for a change of mind or the way one thinks and focuses their thoughts and mind.

The Greek word for repentance is mentaneo, and it means “to think differently about something or to have a change of mind.” (Seeking Him, 67)

It has always been this way and in our generations we’re starting to biologically and psychologically explain the difference and way that one’s thoughts and mindset can affect one’s body and behavior.

It is sort of psychosomatic, which is simply: We become what we think of. Our mind consists of peptides (emotional molecules) that form our identity and mindset.

*We become what we think of; what we focus on and what we think like, in a sense hard-wires, our brains. For example, if I hold hateful thoughts and bitter resentments then my actions and mindset becomes hatred and begrudging.

Basically and simply, you will become what and how you think.

So repentance in NT (Greek) involves changing one’s mind and therefore changing one’s action and being.

Repentance saves us from future mistakes and sins because it not only regrets the consequences of one’s past actions it anticipates future actions!

Buechner on repentance:

“True repentance spends less time looking at the past and saying, ‘I’m sorry,’ than to the future and saying, ‘Wow!’”

Jesus said repent and he said belief in the good news.

In the OT, belief or faith primarily revealed God’s character. God was loyal, trustworthy, faithful and kept fidelity.

In the NT (Pisteuo), belief means that God’s people (those who turn to him) trust and place their faith in him. It still carries the OT idea of loyalty, stability, fidelity, and trust.


Belief or faith are always used with a preposition (i.e. in or into).

Now there’s not much of a difference in the prepositions as they were used in the Greek (at least in this example), but in the English (for our application) there is a difference with the prepositional phrases of in and into. (A preposition links a verb into a noun; for example we believe into Jesus, i.e. John 3.15, 17.)

Let me illustrate if I say I’m in shoes, I mean quite literally I am in a pair of shoes. Now when I talk about some ladies (My wife specifically) I can use the preposition into . . . My wife is into shoes! She loves shoes. She digs shoes. She is into shoes.

Or someone can say if they’re asked what they do and if they work at a bookstore they can say that they are in books. Now if you ask Doris or Barry or Crensencia or Glenda or myself we could say we are into books. We dig books. We really, really, really, like to read books. We are into Books.

One more example if you ask someone who works with the Spurs administration what they do, they could say that they are in the Spurs basketball organization. But if you ask Becky, or Issela, or any number of you spurs fans out there about the Spurs, you could say that you are into the Spurs. You dig the Spurs. You’re fanatical about the Spurs. You’re into the Spurs!!!

How do you belief Jesus? Are you really into Jesus? Or do you just believe in his historicity or that he was good model or teacher? Or do you really believe and place your faith into Jesus.

It’s hard to explain, in my own life and this has not always been the case, I am constantly aware of the divine. I am often, sometimes constantly, thinking about Jesus or spirituality. It was not always this way. I am placing my faith, more and more, into Christ. I long to be found into Jesus.