Have we already forgotten?

"You will always have the poor among you"
John 12:8
This is one of the most difficult passages of scripture I wrestle with. Jesus continues to say "...you will not always have me."

It seems that just a few weeks ago aid to Africa was the trendy, cool topic of discussion. But after people left the free Live8 concerts it seems that most people have gone on with their lives forgetting that starvation is occurring daily.

Tonight's NBC Nightly news had a moving piece regarding Niger's famine, which has resulted due to draught and locusts. 50 years ago, Africa was selfsufficient and actually exporting food. Now it needs 14 million dollars to import food, so that it can save children and mothers.

Niger has a population of 11million people, 3.6 million are starving (not on the brink, not about to starve, but actually starving). 800,000 of those are children.

Please go read NBC's website, and pray: Region on the Brink

Uncomfortable Grace

"You can't learn surgery in a comfortable office."
(as quoted in Leadership Jazz 107.)

If that is true, what makes us think that people can learn GRACE in a comfortable setting?
Shouldn't the good news of Jesus be awesome and disturbing?
Might our message be ineffective because it lacks the grace and creativity of God?

Grace is radical--it transforms and redefines everything.

Jesus' ministry transformed (and transforms) our understanding of God. Jesus left the abundance of heaven where angels herald His name, to live the life of an itinerant minister alongside the marginalized. Therefore, it would not be perposterous to suggest that he sometimes went to sleep hungry.

The God's Message of Grace-Jesus Christ-came in a creative manner to transform all of human history. In the same manner, shouldn't our worship be a radically creative and gracefilled experience?

By creative, I am not suggesting that the traditional service has to be dismissed as passé. Instead I want to move beyond a discussion of the methods necessary for worship (i.e. guitar vs. hymn, pew vs. comfy chair), and suggest that true communion worship of God, which should occur outside of an hour on Sunday, can be uncomfortable, scary and mysterious.

If we acknowledge that God's Message of Grace is uncomfortable, we will be brought to our knees in humble worship, and open to the Holy Spirit's creative movement.

Institutional

Recognizing that Princeton Seminary does not provide good leadership courses, I am reading Max DePree's Leadership Jazz (also check out his better known "Leadership is an Art.") DePree was the CEO of Herman Miller, a large furniture company, who successfully introduced a servant leadership mentality into corporate America. Knowing that servant leadership is a popular buzzword in corp.A, many have sought to become nominal servant-leaders. However, if one notices that the insitutional desire of most corporations is not service but profit.

An interesting example came from "Supersize Me." Pepsi and Coke love to show how they are serving their community by taking the monies earned in school vending machines and giving a percentaging of it back to the school system. When in actuality what they are doing is taking moeny out of the school district, because the sodas being purchased in the schools come from the parent's wallets and not an outside source. So naturally Pepsi collects the 1.25 (1.50 if you live in NJ) and skims it's profits off the top and returns a small portion to the school district. Pepsi/Coke are tremendous leaders (their profits are larger than most countries GNP), yet they are not much of a servant. [Side comment: I wonder how much money corporations would donate if the government did not mandate that they spend $X/year in charitable contributions].

Similarly, I believe that the church can easily fall into an institutionally focused drive if it does not listen to the voices in opposition. It is easy to be a servant to those who you like, and who have served you in the past. It is only through God's grace, though, that we can serve those we do not like--that is the radicalness of the Gospel. Servant-Leadership is not maintaining "us," it is serving "them" even unto death (e.g. Good Samaritan, The Great Banquet Feast, The Unruly Servants).

Max DePree writes in his book, which is geared towards corp.A but Biblically based: "An institution's future is fragile...A few questions about the present will give you a good idea of how fragile the future of institutions really is. How hospitable are you to an innovative idea? Do you really welcome and consider contrary opinions and dissenting perceptions? (I don't mean that patronizing smile and nod of people who have already made up their minds.) How open are you really to the surprise of innovation and the sting of the unfamiliar? How open is your group to new blood? Are you friendly and helpful, or are you out for the kill [insert maybe conversion for Instutional Church]? Add your own quesitons. They are the forms and shapes of the future, each as likely to disappear as to become reality?" (page 46).

As the church, are we open to innovation (Christ and the Spirit are alive)? Are we willing to really listen? How much new blood appears in our pews? At our small group/sunday school classes? At Seminary???

While I believe that the Church--the group of followers of Christ who acknowledge their sin and need for transformation--'s future may not be fragile. The church-local's future is certainly in jeopardy if they are not willing to serve the other, rather than the self.
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healing (John 5)

I just finished reading John 5, and am reminded of God's gracious healing. But if I had to wait 38 years to be healed I would be somewhat pissed, that is until I heard "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk."

After trying to heal myself for 38 years, to know that all it took was for Jesus to pass by, I would feel like an idiot, since healing is not based on what I do, or what I do do well. Instead, healing is based solely on the presence of God.

Reassurance comes in the fact that, unlike the invalid who had to wait for Jesus to be born (--interesting point: Convential wisdom guesses that Jesus was about 33 at this time, and if this guy has been waiting by the pool for 38 years, he really did have to wait for that precise moment for Jesus)-we do not have to wait long for Jesus to pass by.

Jesus has passed by, in fact he passes by us daily because he is alive. Therefore, unlike the paralytic, we do not have to wait for Jesus to pass before us to be healed. He is here, healing in our midst.

Also, I do not glorify the invalid by thinking that he was patiently waiting for God all those years. Rather I see him as a real headcase (I mean he is without friends and an invalid, and for some reason he is mad that people are getting into the pool ahead of him). But I do see him as someone who had hope.

Healing occurs when we recognize that our Hope is alive.