We very seldom view accumulating stuff as a barrier to serving others.  Common sense would seem to say that if you possess more stuff then you have more with which to serve others.  Jesus appeared to see this from a different perspective.   In Luke 12 Jesus tells a parable of a rich man whose  land is especially productive and has much more than he needs.  The rich man comes to a simple conclusion of what to do with this incredible blessing:

I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.

Jesus proceeds to tell His disciples (which hopefully includes you and me) that our lives should follow a radically different path rooted in living out His kingdom in the here and now.  Here’s Jesus’ radical conclusion of how that should look:

Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

I don’t want to get too preachy here, but as followers of Jesus a big part of our mission (our reason for existing on this earth) is to be a glimpse of Jesus’ coming kingdom.  Think of our life’s misson as being an appetizer for the amazing banquet that is to come (check out this parable too).  Jesus seems to repeatedly say that our desire to hold on to the stuff of this world creates a big barrier to us living out this mission…

Here’s a few thoughts on why:

The more stuff we have, the more we want more stuff. Consumerism is addictive.  Our natural tendency is to pursue the bigger, nicer, better, fancier ____________.

The more stuff we have, the more we want to hold on to our stuff.  Somehow our stuff  easily becomes the source of our security and satisfaction.  Our hearts have the capacity to turn almost anything into an idol.

The more stuff we have, the more our stuff becomes the desire of our hearts. We often think that wherever our heart is that our treasure  (money & resources) will follow.  Jesus says it’s the other way around.

The more stuff we have, the more of our time and energy it requires. Just check out our calendars.  A lot of time is spent keeping up our nice stuff rather than sacrificially serving others.

The more stuff we have, the more it insulates us from the needs of others. Everyone (both wealthy and poor) has needs, but all too often pursuing bigger better stuff removes us from intersecting with those in need. Does God  choose to bless some with larger houses, nicer cars, and more resources? Certainly.  Does God lead some Jesus-followers to reach out to the wealthy with the good news of Jesus? Of course…

BUT here’s the big bottom line:  If God blesses us with a lot of stuff , it’s so we can be a blessing to others and become a glimpse of His kingdom in the midst of a messed up world.

Footnote:

Although this 2002 Barna study is several years old and focused on tithing, I still find it interesting and somewhat relevant:

In general, the more money a person makes the less likely he/she is to tithe. While 8% of those making $20,000 or less gave at least 10% of their income to churches, that proportion dropped to 5% among those in the $20,000-$29,999 and $30,000-$39,999 categories; to 4% among those in the $40,000-$59,999 range, down to 2% for those in the $60,000-$74,999 niche; and to 1% for those making $75,000-$99,999. The level jumped a bit for those making $100,000 or more, as 5% of the most affluent group tithed in 1999.

 

For some reason this issue  (retribution vs. reconciliation) has been on my mind a lot lately.  Part of the reason is having a new baby.  There’s something about spending time with Jude and Wren that makes me think about things such as redemption and reconciliation.  In my family, and especially in my relationship with my own dad, I’ve struggled with the desire for retribution and the need for reconciliation.  Maybe it’s also partially influenced by the whole Osama Bin Laden thing.  I’ve found myself excited that he’s dead and he can no longer directly hurt people- as some have put it, “justice has been served.”  I’ve also found myself wondering if my excitement, thoughts, and feelings have somehow moved away from the arena of justice to vengeance (a.k.a. retribution).

One reason this should be a big deal to us is that reconciliation should be one of the defining values of a Jesus-follower.  The Apostle Paul writes that God through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18).  Although we may 100% embrace the idea that Jesus went to the cross for us, forgave us our sins, and gave us a restored relationship with God, we often struggle to practically live out that reconciliation right now in the real world.  Two examples stick out in my mind…

#1) Reconciliation in our families. I constantly hear about how the family is endangered in America due to issues such as the “culture wars,” the debate about gay marriage, or the growing depravity of the entertainment industry.  I personally think the greatest attack is not from outside but from within our families due to broken relationships.

Many of us have been impacted by divorce, whether as participants or victims.  We’ve seen husbands and wives exchange vows then break those vows.  I’ve personally heard Christians say that they are divorcing due to “irreconcilable differences.”  I’ve seen adult children refuse to speak to their parents due to mistakes from the past and vice versa.  Somehow we’ve grown to accept that love can turn into hatred.

This is not a distant struggle for me.  As an adult I watched my parents go through a divorce due to my father’s indiscretions that was finalized one month before my wedding.  Although I was extremely close to my Dad while growing up, we ended up going through two years of not speaking.  I had a choice to make: I could either make him pay for his mistakes for the rest of his life or seek reconciliation.

I think somewhere along the line God showed me that if I’m going to talk about being reconciled to our heavenly Father that I need to be reconciled to my earthly father.  I especially want my kids to understand what scriptural reconciliation is about- hopefully they’re seeing it right in front of them.

#2) Reconciliation with our enemies. I know that’s a pretty broad term, but when I use it you probably already have a picture of who that is from your perspective.  Usually, when we’re using the “us” and “them” terminology, your enemies would be the “them.”  Maybe it’s those nations or groups at war with America.  Maybe it’s the groups on the opposite side of the Christian culture wars.  For a Democrat it may be a Republican and to Republicans it’s the Democrats.

Here’s the big challenge: Jesus teaches us to love our enemies just as He tells us to love our neighbors.  Whether we consider someone (or a group of people) our neighbor or our enemy, Jesus challenges us to love them in the same manner.

I do not believe this means we should not seek justice nor stop those who are doing wrong from harming the innocent.  Unfortunately, we often cross the line of justice into the arena of vengeance and retribution.  Only when we place vengeance in God’s hands can we approach others with a spirit of reconciliation so that they may see the life of Jesus in us.  I realize this is a tough line to tow…

How do we really know if we’re driven by justice or vengeance?

What does it look like show forgiveness and offer reconciliation while not dismissing appropriate consequences?

I’d love to hear your feedback.

A couple of weeks ago I received an email from David Medina, a good friend and church-planter in California.  In his email he shared the following:

I can genuinely say for the first time since we started, that numbers in that regard do not matter to our heart. It’s hard to explain, but I am so grateful to Jesus for being patient with us, and leading us to a place where we can be full of integrity in announcing to the world, and to our surrounding church co-laborers, that it is ALL about Jesus. We are whole-heartedly focused on our (as Piper says) our vertical relationship first, and then learning how to “bend” that vertical fruit of love out to all of our horizontal relationships.

For the past week and a half, these statements have been haunting me.  I cannot get them off of my mind.  Although as a Jesus-follower and pastor I wear the Jesus label, I have been forced to ask is it ALL really about Jesus?

What would my life and ministry look like if I focused on my vertical relationship first and then learned to bend that vertical fruit of love to all of my horizontal relationships?

Is the life I’m living, the family we’re growing, the relationships I’m building, and the ministry I’m starting all really about Jesus?

Am I trying to pray God into my agenda and my plans or am I faithfully responding to who He is and what He’s doing?

What if following God’s path leads to greater suffering and sacrifice than I anticipated- is Jesus worth that much to me?

Is everything in my horizontal life the overflow of a vibrant vertical love relationship with Jesus?

I desperately want the answer to be yes.   I want to be a the point where I can fully agree with what the Apostle Paul writes to the Philippians:

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith– that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

I appreciate your prayers in this matter.

Please pray that I would consider everything a loss compared to knowing Jesus.

Please pray that my marriage to Christin, my relationships with Jude and Wren (our soon to be born daughter), my friendships, and my ministry would all be the byproduct of bending this vertical relationship with Jesus.

Please pray that I would never use Jesus as means to an end in doing ministry or serving others-I want it to be ALL about Jesus.

Please pray that others would see the life of Jesus in me, on the good days and especially during the difficult times.

Through the cross…

Jesus gives Himself as a ransom.

Jesus forgives our trespasses.

Jesus erases our debt.

Jesus liberates us from sin.

Jesus frees us from our futile ways.

Jesus reconciles us to God.

Jesus reconciles enmity between people.

Jesus reconciles all things on heaven and earth to Himself.

Jesus pays our penalty and removes our guilt.

Jesus appeases God’s wrath and justice.

Jesus upholds God’s righteousness.

Jesus secures our redemption for eternity.

Jesus models the ultimate denial of self.

Jesus displays God’s power for our salvation.

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

2 Corinthians 5:14-15

Over the past few weeks in our Sunday morning Home Fellowship we’ve been looking at the early church in Acts 2 and how that impacts the way we “do church” now.  One of the defining characteristics of the early Jesus movement is they were committed to sharing their lives with each other- eating together, praying for each other, sacrificially serving one another.  SO a very counterintuitive, paradoxical principle came up in our discussion: to effectively open your life to others, you must also learn to effectively set boundaries. With seemingly limitless needs in the community, opportunities to serve, and potential relationships to invest in, this has proven a timely reminder.

I admit this principle sounds extremely contradictory, because isn’t creating boundaries the opposite of opening up and sharing your life? Not necessarily.  Let me put in another way.  To develop deep meaningful relationships with some people, you cannot possibly develop deep meaningful relationships with all people.  None of us have the time, energy, or relational capacity to do that.  Just take a look at Jesus.

As we read through the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John we can see that multitudes (literally thousands) of people would gather to watch and listen to Jesus.  We can also see that out of these multitudes Jesus had a band of 70-120 people he referred to as disciples with whom He had a more committed relationship. Jesus had a closer knit familial relationship with His twelve apostles and some other close friends such as Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.  Still even within that group, Jesus would often pull aside Peter, James, and John, who became His inner circle.  For some reason, Jesus made a deeper investment and had a qualitatively different relationship with those three guys.  Most importantly, Jesus made a habit of withdrawing from all these people to spend time with the Father.

In my own life I see this at work.  To say yes to personal time with God through the scriptures and prayer, I have to say no to other things- that’s creating a healthy boundary.  To say yes to spending time with my wife and son (and soon arriving daughter), I have to say no to spending time with other people.  To say yes to mentoring potential leaders, I cannot say yes to making that time for everyone.  To say yes to sacrificially serving some new friends God has placed in my life, I have to actually say no to other opportunities.  These are all healthy boundaries- not boundaries to limit God’s activity but to focus the time, energy, and resources He has entrusted to me.

A few days I read this humorous and somewhat challenging post by Donald Miller discussing the real characteristics of Jesus’ disciples.  Here’s his list of eight:

1. You think Jesus wants to take over the government so you cut off a soldiers ear in order to get the fighting started. (The neo cons are definitely disciples!)

2. You keep pestering Jesus about who he will give more power to in heaven.

3. You have no theological training but own a small fishing business which somehow makes you qualified because you “get it.”

4. The Holy Spirit crashes into one of your mini sermons so everybody can speak different languages and outsiders think you’re drunk.

5. People ask you if you know Jesus and you freak out and say no and run away.

6. You hear they killed Jesus on a cross and you figure the whole thing was a wash and you got duped.

7. You choose other disciples by playing rock, paper scissors.

8. You teach bad theology and have to have somebody else come over and correct you.

Check out the entire post.