The Value of Things

April 24th.
At one point in our house search we made an offer on a house that had been on the market for over 500 days. This house was priced higher than what we wanted to spend and when we looked at all of the details we decided that it was priced higher than what it was actually worth. So, in real estate lingo, we made a “low ball” offer which was, not so promptly, rebuffed. My Dad used to always say that things were only worth what someone was willing to pay. We (buyers and seller) had a difference of opinion about value.

This difference of opinion actually moved us to make an offer on an alternate house that, it ends up, will be our future home. So, we are convinced that this whole part of the process was God directed.

As we prepare to move we have been living out a different kind of “value” experiment. Our Denomination pays to move the first 12,000-pounds of our stuff and after that we get charged something like 39 cents for each additional pound. A representative of the moving company has already estimated that our load will be 14,000-pounds which means that we have to dispose of a ton of stuff. The bottom line is that “valuable” things have a place in a moving box, things that don’t matter end up in the garbage or in a bag headed for Good Will.

When you are forced to sort through your entire life you begin to realize (rather quickly) that “value” has very little to do with how much money something can generate. We have already given away items that cost us hundreds of dollars to buy and then, in contrast to that, there are pieces of paper covered with crayon marks that I would never sell for any price. Value is an interesting thing.

I often say that if you want a sense of how valuable you are all you have to do is look at the cross where Jesus died. Jesus came to save us from our brokenness to sin and to bridge the gap between God and us. The price required to accomplish this miracle of salvation was Jesus’ life. This is how much God was willing to pay and subsequently this is how much you and I are worth to Him.

This value conversation is worth spreading around. Everyone should hear that they are important enough to God that He was willing to surrender Himself to the cross. I mean, once people understand the incredible price that was paid for them maybe they will begin to live like they are people of value. Then maybe those valuable people will begin to treat the people around them like they are valuable as well. Value is an interesting thing. It can change the world.

Fortune Cookie Wisdom

April 18th.
So, my fortune cookie said, “Be calm and collected, peace is a virtue.” To which I replied, (Yes, I’m having a conversation with a cookie) “Peace is a fruit of the Spirit.” I didn’t dig it up from somewhere it is part of the gift of a changed life that Jesus offers those of us who trust Him. My cookie’s only response was an opportunity for me to learn how to say “popcorn” in Chinese. Popcorn?

So, I moved on to my second cookie (they’re small), which said, “You have executive ability. Apply this in the future!” and I found myself saying, “Oh, all right…Hey!” (Which would be a rather obscure “It’s A Wonderful Life” reference.) I’m not sure I like this “mini-cake’s” implication. I didn’t even bother with the lucky numbers.

The third (they’re only 10 calories) said, “You have a flair for adding a fanciful dimension to any story.” We call that the “5th Dimension”, thank you.

The last of my Chinese treats said, “Analyze only when necessary” to which I replied, “It is always necessary.” Being a follower of Jesus means always paying attention to the details of life. Being one of Jesus’ Disciples means I am always analyzing, not only my actions, but also my motivation. Being Christian means always paying attention to the people I meet and to the things that are happening around me. There is no automatic pilot in the Christian life. I need to be introspective and realistic, contemplative and practical. So should we all.

I don’t place much store in fortune cookie fortunes, but they make a decent low cal snack and every once in a while they even make me think. In case you’re wondering the Chinese word for “July” is “qi yue.”

Time To Modulate

April 10th.
I am beginning to feel more and more like John the Baptist.

John had a particular role to play in God’s plan and for a time he took his place on center stage in order to prepare the way for Jesus. For a time John had everyone’s attention, he was making a difference, he was gathering disciples and he even had the Pharisees coming to listen to his preaching.

For a time he was famous, but, then things changed. John’s role in God’s plan was played out and it was time for him to step aside and point to the one who was coming. I have no doubt that John knew his place. I believe he understood his part, but I have begun to suspect that John’s transition from center stage to supporting player wasn’t as easy or as seamless for him as it has always been presented.

In his definition for “transition” Webster uses the word “passage” which makes it sound like John was (and we are) on a journey of some sort and I believe the word captures what was (and is) happening. He was (and we are) on a journey. It is just that this journey is measured in relationships instead of in miles.

I am beginning to understand how hard it is to let go of something when you have spent a significant amount of time learning to care about what will soon be behind you. The only thing that would have made it tolerable for John (and for us) was his certainty that God was at work and the conviction that stepping aside was the best way for God’s plan to be worked out.

When we talk about transitions in music we use the word “modulation” which means a change from one key to another. The song doesn’t stop it just moves in a new direction and often times the movement brings new energy and excitement to the tune.

Let’s just say that it is time to modulate. I wonder if John was a singer.

After The Party Is Over

April 1:
In my life Thanksgiving was one of the few times when the entire extended family gathered in the same room at the same time and I was always excited about that particular meal because it meant that the cousins and aunts and uncles were all coming from exotic places like Nebraska and Iowa. We called it “Thanksgiving” but we really spent our time celebrating family, good food, football and Canasta (in that order.)

We’ve all heard (or preached) messages before that suggest that sincere “thanksgiving” has to be something that happens inside our lives before it has a chance of being something we express on the outside of our lives. We’ve all learned that a big turkey dinner doesn’t make us automatically thankful for God’s blessings.

I started with American Thanksgiving because the Passover meal that Jesus and his disciples gathered to celebrate (on the day we call Maundy Thursday) was similar to our November holiday. It was also meant to be a time when God’s people paused to remember and celebrate God’s faithful love. It was a day to be thankful.

In Jesus’ day the meal would have been lamb, bitter herbs and unleavened bread. These menu items were a reminder of the lamb that was sacrificed and whose blood was spread over the doorposts of the houses, the bitterness of Israel’s slavery in Egypt and fact that they were leaving in a hurry (no time for the bread to rise.) Everything they ate or drank in their Passover gathering was meant to remind them to be thankful for what God had done. But, like our thanksgiving gatherings just gathering to eat the meal was not the same as being thankful. What they did after the party was over was far more meaningful.

Judas stayed for dinner with Jesus and he even hung around while Jesus washed the disciple’s feet. But after that was over he left and arranged to betray Jesus to his enemies. The other disciples stayed for dinner and the foot washing and even some teaching time after that but then all they wanted was a nap. So when Jesus asked them to stay awake with him and pray they all went to sleep. Then when the soldiers finally came to arrest Jesus they protested for a few moments but eventually they all ran off to hide.

For those of us who gather to celebrate Maundy Thursday, the question shouldn’t be, “How many times did I come to dinner?” The question should be, “What will I do after the dinner is over?”

I would suggest that (rather than emulate Judas) we must never act like everything we do in the congregation is meaningless and empty and (unlike the other disciples) we should never fall asleep to the opportunities and challenges that come with being a follower of Jesus. The world is watching!

So, the question remains, “What will you do now that the dinner is over?” Hopefully we will all go out and help Jesus change the world.

Dinner With The Dead

March 24th:
John 12:1-8
1Six days before the Passover, Jesus arrived at Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2Here a dinner was given in Jesus' honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. 3Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

4But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, 5"Why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year's wages." 6He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.

7"Leave her alone," Jesus replied. "It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. 8You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me."


This is a lunch that is rich with symbolism.

On the surface this seems like an ordinary gathering. Jesus was in town and was invited to a luncheon in his honor that was being held at the home of a man known as Simon the leper. Simon was known as “the leper” because he had been a leper but Jesus had healed him. So, this was an “ordinary” lunch being hosted by a man who had for years been considered dead to the world but was now alive again.

Attending this dinner were the 12 disciples and Jesus’ good friends Mary, her sister Martha and their brother Lazarus, who had been dead for four days and was called out of his tomb by Jesus. So, it was just an ordinary lunch being hosted by a man who had been socially and emotionally dead and attended by a man who had been physically dead and had been raised to life by the power of God. OK, so it’s not so ordinary, but it is interesting.

And then, somewhere during their time together, Mary decided to offer Jesus a very expensive gift. She took a bottle of perfumed oil, about the size of a ½ liter bottle of water, and poured it on Jesus’ feet. This was oil that was extracted from the roots of a plant which grew in the Himalayan Mountains. It had to be processed and imported and so it was very expensive to buy. Some people even bought it as an investment. This oil (nard) was so precious that it was used to anoint “kings” and, in her mind, that may have been exactly what Mary was doing. She saw the kind of impact Jesus’ ministry had on people. She knew that they were on the verge of something big. She could very well have been anointing her king for his triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

And this was the next event in the life of Jesus. After this “ordinary” dinner Jesus would be riding into the city of Jerusalem on the back of a colt (which, by the way, was how conquering kings entered a city) and people would stand on the side of the roadway and wave palm branches in the air.

Mary may have been anointing her king, but Jesus knew that she was anointing him for his burial. Jesus knew that he was going to Jerusalem to die.

Against this backdrop we have Judas Iscariot complaining about money.

Simon and Lazarus recognized Jesus to be the Lord of life. Mary recognized Jesus as her king. Jesus was preparing to ride into Jerusalem to sacrifice his life for the sin of the world and all that Judas cared about was a few dollars.

Judas was sitting in the presence of a man who had healed Simon the leper and called Lazarus from his grave. Judas was sitting in the presence of a man who had walked on water, healed the blind, multiplied loaves and fish and forgave sin and all that Judas could see was that someone was being overly generous with some perfume.

It struck me that we often struggle with this same kind of “blindness.” Judas saw but he did not see because he was so focused on temporary things that he missed all of the really important things that were unfolding around him.

How many people do you know whose lives have been changed by their relationship to Jesus? If you haven’t seen them yet, then you need to start paying attention because they are all around you. How often have you paused to admire the complexity of a leaf or marveled at the birth of a child and missed seeing the hand of God at work in these amazingly “ordinary” things? It is time for us all to open our eyes so that we might see what has been right in front of us “hiding in plain sight.”

Lent is supposed to move us to look at things we rarely see and recall things we have forgotten. Easter is supposed to remind us again of a God who loved us too much to leave us alone, but instead came into our lives to save us from ourselves. Judas wasn’t seeing what was right in front of him. We should never make that mistake.

Calling The Prodigal Home

March 18th:
Luke 15:11-32 (in the New Testament) is one of the most familiar parables that Jesus told; the story of the “prodigal son.”

There are a number of memorable characters in this short story and most of us find ourselves relating to one or the other of them. However, what often gets missed as we follow the progress of this run away boy is that this “made-up” story was addressed to two groups of real people.

It struck me that if we are going to get any real value out of this bit of teaching we might want to take a look at who the story was being told to.

The first group was “tax collectors and "sinners." Jesus had a habit of reaching out to those people who were the outcasts of society. Tax collectors were Jews who worked for the Roman government and they were considered to be the worst kind of traitors. The Romans didn’t care how much money the tax collectors collected as long as they got their cut. So, tax collectors basically extorted money from everyone and used Roman soldiers for protection.

“Sinners” is a word that would have included people like prostitutes, the physically crippled and even lepers. These were the members of society that honest, decent people avoided. These were the members of this society that were considered to be un-redeemable. I would assume that when you’ve been told for years that you are not acceptable that after a time you wouldn’t even want to try anymore. Jesus was a ray of hope for people who had no hope.

The other “real” people in the story were the “Pharisees and the teachers of the law.” They were the ones who spent their lives telling people what they could and could not do. They were the ones who determined who the “real sinners” were and who was “in” and who was “out.” They weren’t very “gracious” and they didn’t offer a lot of “mercy.” They were “hardnosed religious types.”

It was to these two groups of “real” people that Jesus told this story about two sons. The older son was a good boy. He stayed home, he did his work and he followed the rules. The younger son was just the opposite. He turned his back on his “decent” family and ran off to do the kinds of things that decent people don’t do. In fact, he went so far away and so far off the deep end that his family considered him dead. He was lost to them physically, emotionally and spiritually.

Most of the story is about how this “prodigal son” came to his senses and decided to return home to his father, but the point of the story isn’t so much about his decision to return as it is about the responses of his father and his older brother.

The older brother could only see how he, himself, had been “offended.” He was acting morally superior, which was bad enough but his real problem was that he had no mercy in his life. He had no forgiveness in his heart, no grace to offer. He wanted his brother to stay dead. The father (on the other hand) saw what was really happening. He loved his son and understood that the son was stepping from death back into life. The father was willing to forgive and welcome his “lost son” back into the family.

But we have to come back to the fact that this make believe story was being told to two groups of real people and the implications are pretty clear. The tax collectors and sinners are the “son who walked away” from the family. They were the ones who had made poor choices and had found themselves far away and lost. The Pharisees and teachers of the Law were the “elder son” who chose to be offended and had forgotten about things like mercy and grace. They cared more about being right than they did about these other people. At least on the surface, they were the ones who were following the rules and doing their jobs, but they had no heart.

And the application is also fairly clear. If you have wandered away and your life is coming apart IT IS TIME TO COME HOME. Your heavenly Father is waiting for you to come and will welcome you back into the family. He wants you to move from death to life.

If you have never strayed then you need to remember that IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU! Be grateful for all that you have been given and learn to care about those “lost” brothers and sisters. Don’t turn them away. Invite them home. This is OUR job.

Home Blessed

March 4:
For the first time in my life I am feeling homeless. It’s not like we are out on the street or living under a bridge. We still have a roof over our heads. It’s just that, for the first time in our lives, we know that we are leaving where are living now (we are here on limited time) but we don’t know where we are going to end up.

Normal people do this all the time. It’s just that for the last thirty plus years we have been parsonage dwellers. I don’t have time nor space to elaborate on parsonage living (it has both advantages and disadvantages) but let me just say that we are looking forward to being first time homeowners. But, until we find the house that God has set aside for us we are in a kind of property limbo. I guess it would be more accurate to call us “property-less” or “place where we keep all of our stuff-less.” Whatever the label, it’s still a little unnerving.

I have always heard it said, “home is where the heart is.” What this means is that I actually have a number of “homes.” I gave my heart to Jesus thirty-seven years ago and I have been trying to keep myself from taking it back every day since. As of this moment, it still belongs to Him (at least a sizeable piece of it.) My wife and children all lay claim to pieces of my heart as well. When I think of them I think of many of those things that make life special.

Ok, I take it back. I’m not “homeless” I am “home blessed.” I’m just not certain where I’ll park the car after July 1st.

You know, I'd be willing to bet that, if you think about it, you will discover you are “home blessed” as well.