Monday, December 8

Today’s Readings: Psalm 40; Hosea 8:11-14; Matthew 20:20-28; 1 Peter 1:13-25; Psalm 32

I was recently talking to an individual preparing for ministry. We were talking about some of the sacrifices a person makes when she/he responds to her/his call to ordained ministry. Now some of those sacrifices individuals make are pretty obvious to most folks. Other of the sacrifices, however, are not. One of the less obvious sacrifices a person called to ministry makes is the way the one’s call affects one’s experience of the holidays. This is particularly true of Christmas. You see growing up, most of us got lost in the experience of the joy and wonder of the Christmas season and could lose ourselves in a variety of experiences ranging from long coffees with friends to spontaneous shopping trips with family members to attending a variety of worship services and special events. Once you step across the threshold into ordained ministry, however, your life change dramatically. Instead of having these special moments for ourselves, our lives become focused on helping other people have those experiences of joy and wonder. Many of us clergy are lucky if we can even find time to get our Christmas cards out by the middle of January. So what got me thinking along these lines? It was Jesus’ comments to the mother of James and Zebedee when she asked if her boys could receive places of honor next to Jesus. Jesus responded to the “boys” themselves in the form of a question: “Are you capable of drinking the cup that I’m about to drink” (Matthew 20:22 from The Message). Of course, most of us focus on the radical implications of discipleship when we read those words (i.e. the willingness to give up our life). And that certainly is a part of what Jesus was getting at. But I don’t think that’s all Jesus was getting at. The implications of REALLY putting God first in your life fan out in a thousand different directions. And sometimes the things those implications ask us to give up are far more personal and far more difficult than we ever imagined! Today, I would invite you to sit with Jesus’ question to James and Zebedee: “Are you capable of drinking the cup that I’m about to drink?” Think about the implications of that question – the various aspects of your life that Jesus’ question would reach. Til next time…

Sunday, December 7

Today’s Readings: Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13; Isaiah 40:1-11; Mark 1:1-8; 2 Peter 3:8-15a

One of my favorite holiday activities is to participate in a white elephant gift exchange. I know that some of you may not be familiar with that activity (or might know it by another name) so let me take a moment and explain what the activity is. Individuals in a group are asked to bring a wrapped gift to the party. Usually the gift is in a certain price range. Some individuals will bring serious gifts and others, gag gifts. The wrapped gifts are then placed under a tree. Each individual then draws a number. The individual who drew number one goes first. He/she then selects a gift from underneath the tree and then unwraps it. The person who drew number two goes next. He/she has a choice: he/she can either chose an unwrapped gift from under the tree and unwrap it him/herself; or – if he/she likes the present person number one just opened - then he/she could take person number one’s gift. If person number one loses their gift, they get to chose an unwrapped gift from under the tree to replace their “lost” gift. Then you move on to person number three. The game continues in that fashion until all the gifts are dispersed. The fun of the game is that it reveals the personality of the individuals who are participating. You can see those who are willing to take a risk for what might be in the unknown box, and those who would rather play it safe and take something that has already been fully revealed. In today’s Gospel reading from Mark, one can see that individuals in Jesus’ day were confronted with a similar choice. They could either go on with the version of life as they already knew it (that would be choosing the equivalent of an already unwrapped gift), or they could risk everything and follow John the Baptist’s call to a baptism of “life-change” – one where the individual would be asked to turn “your old life in for a kingdom life” (Mark 1:7 from The Message). That would be the equivalent of taking a risk and choosing the unwrapped gift. The only difference between the two scenarios is that the people of Jesus’ day didn’t have to risk choosing a gag gift – the present they opened in choosing a baptism of life-change revealed the fullness and the goodness of all that God had to offer. This Advent season, I would invite you to examine your approach to your spiritual life. Do you continue to play it safe and simply settle for life as you have known it, or do you make the most of the opportunities you have to take a risk and reach for that “kingdom life”? Til next time…

Saturday, December 6

Today’s Readings: Psalm 60; Hosea 8:1-10; Matthew 11:11-19; Acts 17:24-31; Psalm 79

These are challenging days to be in ministry. Many folks would hear that and I assume I’m making that statement for reasons other than the one I would give for that statement. They might assume, for instance, that I’m saying these are challenging days to be in ministry because of the economic difficulties of the day. Or they might think the days are challenging due to the political polarization that reigned supreme during the recent election cycle. They might even think I’m saying that because of the challenges of living in a post-Christian age where people’s faith went from being their top priority to being just another one of the many, many things in their life. True, each of those things makes doing ministry a challenge; but none of them account for the primarily reason for why I feel ministry these days is so challenging. Let me explain my primary reason to you. You see for several decades, people have built our churches using one principle: give people what they want and they’ll come back/keep coming. Now that statement – on its surface – sounds harmless enough, right? Well, think of the dangerous places that statement will take you if you follow it through to its logical conclusion. It starts out simple enough with the “I love the pastor’s sermons” or “My kids have fun in the youth program” or “I like songs we sing”. If you dig below the surface of those statements, however, what’s at the base: personal preference. Over time, the quality and depth of our spiritual lives become increasingly driven by one thing: those personal preferences. As a result, we start creating and worshiping a God who fits the narrow parameters of our likes and dislikes. Then we attack those who have personal preferences different than ours. This dynamic makes living together in spiritual community nearly impossible. Jesus points out the fickle nature of such a “give them what they want” approach when he said, “How can I account for this generation? The people have been like spoiled children whining to their parents, ‘We want to skip rope, and you were always too tired; we wanted to talk, but you were always to busy.’” He concluded, “Opinion polls don’t count for much, do they?” (Matthew 16-19 from The Message). So how can we 21st Century pioneers move past spiritual communities based primarily upon personal preferences? Well, I don’t have all the answers to that question, but I do have one. We start getting rid of the question “What do you like?” when speaking with one another in spiritual community and replace it with the question “What spiritually feeds you?” For some, the difference in wording between the questions might seem minimal; for me, the difference is monumental. You see when you pursue only those things that you like, you develop a spirituality that is comfortable. Consequently, your growth is stunted because you never encounter a God that pushes or challenges you. If the spiritual community is driven by what spiritually feeds its members, things begin to change dramatically. Today, I would ask you: “What approach do you take toward your spiritual life?” Do you participate only/primarily in those things that you enjoy or like; or do you participate in those things that spiritually feed you? Til next time…

Friday, December 5

Today’s Readings: Psalm 146; Hosea 6:11-7:7; Matthew 11:2-10; Revelation 2:2-7; Psalm 145

As I read today’s Gospel passage from Matthew, I was reminded that one of my role models in life is John the Baptist. There are two reasons why I say this. First, John had an amazingly clear sense of call. The clarity of his call made it impossible for him to veer off track in life. This leads directly to the second thing I admire about him: he had an absolute sense of humility that kept him grounded. He was never seduced by the public’s enthusiastic response to his ministry in the desert and started to think more of himself than he should. No, he always knew Someone greater was coming along behind him and that his call was to prepare the way for that Someone. The more I think about these two characteristics of John – a clear sense of call and a strong sense of humility – the more I realize how closely related they are. Folks who have a healthy sense of self-esteem know who they are and are comfortable living into that sense of self; they have no need to try to pass themselves off as something they are not. A profound sense of humility goes hand in hand with that sense of self. Using John the Baptist as a yardstick, I would ask you where you are at with you call and your sense of self. Have you prayerfully embraced your call and developed a healthy sense of self as you have live out that call; are you still struggling on your own to establish an identity that may (or may not) be the person God is calling you to be; or are you somewhere between those two places? As someone who is locate somewhere between the poles myself, my prayer for today is that God would continue to work with us as we grow into a stronger sense of both call and of self. Til next time…