Regret

Mosaic Series

Lent 2013 - Regret.  

Luke 19: 1-10

The story of Zaccheaus is lifted up as an example for us to move past our 'past' and into the new life that Christ offers.  

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Sister Winter

It’s cold.

With our eyes focused upon the weekly forecast of potential snow, rain, or other frigid temperatures, I thought it would be appropriate to talk about Sister Winter.

Many have commented to me that Easter is early this year.  As we plan our ‘Easter Egg Hunts’ we not only have to plan on rain, but snow contingency plans.  Lovely.

With Easter being so early it can draw us deeper in the season that the Church refers to as Lent.  Though not all take part in some form of observance, most could probably relate to this season being a time of prayer, sacrifice, and fasting.  This is a time in the church where we try to get out into the wilderness, spiritually speaking.  What better way than for us to have Lent during the winter.  Easter comes with the new birth of Spring and we see life being renewed, but we still need that wilderness experience of winter.   

Unfortunately, for some reason God seems to do the best character-development work when we are in the wilderness.  Throughout the Biblical text we see men and women out in the wilderness and in the ‘wintertime’ of their spiritual lives and walk with God that God decides to do something new.  Jesus himself went out into the wilderness and was actually led by the Spirit into such a place.  If I was God, then we would learn the most in the summertime of our faith, but I am not God.  And in fact, we glad – God knows what He is doing.  God’s ways are different than our ways, and often – we need to be out in the wilderness. 

Don’t be afraid of the winter.  If we are honest with ourselves, we find ourselves there more often that we like.  The circumstances and situations of our lives have placed us in periods of restlessness, frustration, anxiety, and depression.  As difficult as those places are, God shapes us there.  Embrace the winter – spring is coming.       

“Oh my friends I've begun to worry right

Where I should be grateful, I should be satisfied

Oh my heart I would clap and dance in place

With my friends I have so much pleasure to embrace

But my heart is returned to sister winter

But my heart is as cold as ice”

 - Sufjan Stevens

Restlessness

Mosaic Lenten Series - 

God take take the broken pieces of our lives and create His masterpiece.  

This week - Restlessness.  Matthew 11: 28-30

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bow down to me

Matthew 4: 8-11

The final installment of the Jesus' Temptation series.  Where are we tempted to seek power or control?

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Justice & Compassion

There is a man who is drowning in a river.  We ought to feel a compulsion to throw him a life-raft and pull him to safety.  When we see this man and throw him a life-raft we have COMPASSION on him.

Compassion is a necessary part of life.  In fact it makes us the true people we wish to be.  Caring for one another defines our purpose in what it means to be a person.

What happens when we see another person come floating down the river struggling to swim?  Our natural inclination is to repeat our compassionate behavior and throw this person a life-raft.  Person after person we reveal our compassionate hearts as we help one another.  Other times we can become embittered and even tired in doing good and give up saving people from the river.  'It's probably their fault anyway', we think to ourselves.

In some of us there is a moment when we realize that the fact that people are floating down the river struggling and drowning isn't right.  We may even have the courage to walk upstream to investigate why people are getting into this river.  Are they falling?  Or are they being placed there by someone else?  When we seek the answer to why people are in the river in the first place, our compassion changes and is defined in another word; JUSTICE.    

As Christians we are called to do both.  I fear, however, that most of what we have been taught is that we should be compassionate.  There is nothing wrong with this, but when we leave justice out of the picture then people will just keep floating down the river.  Justice is always the harder conversation because it gets to the heart of why people are in the river to begin with.  To do justice require great courage, especially when the injustice is discovered.

"When I feed the poor they call me a saint.  When I ask, "Why are they poor?", they call me Communist."  - Romero

Micah 6:8 - What does the Lord require of you? Seek justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God.

throw yourself down...

Jesus is tempted to be spectacular.  We are continuing in the study of the Temptation of Jesus from Matthew 4. 

Jesus calls us to community and a mutual sharing together. 

We overcome solitude by confession and forgiveness. 

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my children's song?

Will this be the song of my children?  Is this my song?


Daddy was a preacherShe was his wifeJust tryin to make the world a little betterYou know, shine a lightPeople started talkingJust to hear their own voiceThose people tried to accuse my fatherSaid he made the wrong choiceThough it might be painfulYou know that time will always tellThose people have long since goneMy father never failed
ChorusEven when the rain fallsEven when the flood starts risingEven when the storm comesI am washed by the water
My response: 
Even when the Earth crumbles under my feetEven when the ones I love turn around and crucify meI won’t never ever let you downI won’t fallI won’t fallI won’t fall as long as you’re around me
- Need to Breathe's "Washed by the Water"