Squatters rights

At bible study this week, we read the parable of the vineyard... the basic plot is that a man owns a vineyard and has tenants. He sends people to go collect some of the harvest and the tenants beat them up. Finally he decides to send his son cause he thinks the tenants will respect him. But instead they kill him because they think that if he's gone they will get the property.

Our initial discussion was about how Jesus told this parable to describe Israel and predict his death. It seemed pretty straight forward. But then we started thinking about the rights of tenants. These tenants felt that they had a right to decide how things would work on the property. They used violence to assert what they felt was their right. And their minds got twisted. Somehow they felt that they were entitled to ownership.

Applying this to our own faith walks we discovered that sometimes we act like this toward God. When we work hard on something and put ourselves into it, we assume that it is ours and we get really upset when God intervenes and changes things. We assume we have rights.....

What is wisdom?

This past week we talked about what is wisdom. In the bible we read about earthly wisdom and Godly wisdom. It seems a bit confusing. Earthly wisdom says "be prepared" Godly wisdom says "have faith." Earthly wisdom says "be strong" Godly wisdom says "make sacrifices."

Godly wisdom seems to go in the face of what we recognize on earth to be wise. Why is this? What is it about the spiritual realm that changes the nature of wisdom. Does Godly wisdom apply to earthly affairs or only spiritual ones? How do we discern what is wise to do in a given situation?

Jesus loves a hussla'

In biblestudy this week, we read a really interesting parable. The full parable is found in Luke 19. In summary the story is about a powerful guy who leaves for a few months so that he could be made king. While he was gone, he trusted his money to his servants. He gave one servant $100,000, one $50,000 and the last one $10,000. When he came back he found that the first two servants had doubled their money but the last one was worried about losing the money and simply hid it because he knew that the man was a hard ass and that he'd be in some major hot water if he lost the money.

We were thinking of this parable. In order to double someone's investment in a short amount of time you have to be out there really hussling. Looking for opportunities, taking risks, putting it into long shots and at the same time you have to have a great degree of discernment to know what's going to pay off in the long run.

When we tried applying this to faith we thought of the guy who hid the money as someone who believes in God but doesn't share it with anyone. Doesn't go to church. Doesn't talk about it with friends or family. Doesn't do anything with it. In this way, their faith is never stretched and it never grows. The easy thing to do is at least find a few people to share your faith walk with who are close to you. This is a safe investment. It grows slowly but there is little risk involved.

But the parables urge us to be husslers. To always have our eyes open. To always be willing to take risks and open our ideas about faith up to those around us who might challenge them. To share them with strangers. Jesus loves him a hussler.

Pick up your cross and follow me

This week's verse at Crossings was a tough one. Jesus asks the disciples who they think he is. Peter answers, "the messiah." Jesus says, "yep, and here's a secret. I'm going to go to Jerusalem and the chief priests are going to have me killed."

TIME OUT! If you are the messiah, the one who's going to save us. The one who's going to restore God's favor to the earth, why are you going to die? We were waiting for utopia. We don't get it...

Furthermore, Jesus says to them. If anyone wants to follow me, he needs to pick up his cross.

DOUBLE TIME OUT! Not only are you going to die and leave us in this miserable world but now you want us to die too? What is this, mass suicide? Why so much death? I was very puzzled by this. How could God's will be so seemingly destructive and pointless.

Jesus knows life beyond death. God sees the past and the future and the present all at once. I remember as a child having a very painful splinter. My mom said, it had to come out and it would feel better. I didn't want her to touch it. Why would she make it hurt more? She's supposed to make it better. Like God, she knew that once I went through the pain of getting it out I would be healed.

Death is a letting go. Picking up our cross to follow Jesus is a choice to let go of something in this world (a dream, a job, money, a relationship, a habit, a hobby) and follow what God calls us to do and be. To let our identity be changed by God. And if we do, let go and trust God, what life is waiting on the other side? Will it be better or worse? This is faith.

Jesus choose to let go of his Godliness and to die, a man on a cross. On the otherside of death he found life and a the relationship between God and humanity restored. What will we find?

Jesus has pissy days too...

This week at Crossings the gospel story portrayed a Jesus who seemed a little "off." His responses to people were more short than compassionate. We struggled with this text. Why is Jesus like this? Does he have something else to teach about these individuals? Is there a reason he is staying arms reach?

Jason, the new intern at DLC, brought an interesting idea forward. Maybe Jesus was having a bad day....

Did Jesus have bad days?

Does God have bad days?

Or does Jesus who is fully God and fully human experience his humanity like the rest of us and have moments where he is just fed up with people?

In his message, Jason spoke a word of comfort to us, that yes, in his humanity Jesus experienced being "off" and "not being in the mood." So that when we also face inevitable bad days, we can take comfort in knowing that God is with us in them.

But this has made me think about how God might feel watching mankind hurt the earth and hurt each other. Are there days that God just doesn't want to deal?

Living in community

For me, this evening fit the ideal description of labor day. A cool breezy afternoon in the park, BBQing, a game of ultimate frisbee, friends sitting around in fold-up camping chairs sipping on various drinks while kids did "performances" for us from just beyond the playground.

I looked around, some people I had known for the entire 3 years that I have been involved with Crossings and some I've only met a few weeks ago. But somehow, this evening, it felt like we were at a family reunion and that we had known each other forever with a type of intimacy that is rarely experienced among a group of friends. It felt like my favorite pair of jeans after they've been worn a few times.

This is what it means to be "church." to be the "body." One couple is getting married and we all gathered to support them in their wedding preparations. New students and professionals are settling into town to start a new life here and we gather to help them move in and feel welcome. My husband and I are expecting our first child and everyone gathers around us to help prepare for the new baby to come -- and not in a "this is a church duty" obligatory way, but in a comfortable, we count on each other the way we count on our family kind of way.

This evening, as I watched everyone enjoy the night. As I sat with my feet up, peaceful with the world and not being anything but myself. I was very thankful that God has worked in us all to form "the church" among us and pray that this kind of "church" could exist for everyone.