Offering Discipleship

In my experience, discipleship does not begin when you offer to teach. Discipleship begins wen you rescue someone from a situation that they could not save themselves from but needed saving. The person rescued feels relief, excitement, happiness over you. They also have a little bit of awe, you have power, ability, grace that they don’t. So they want to know what you know, get strong like you are, stay rescued like you stay. When you offer to teach someone they might take you up and gain knowledge from you. When you offer to save someone you are offering your power to change their situation.

For repetition’s sake, let us look at the baptism of John. John, the cousin of Jesus came baptizing. In 27 AD, John came offering a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins (Luke 3:3). For a people who were struggling with sin and used to God cursing and killing them for their failures. John came offering a sort of salvation and Jewish people of the first century came, accepting his offer. They respected him as a prophet. Men and women of Judea believed that God was offering a simple way of getting right with him. They asked “What then shall we do?” (3:10). He answered them (3:14). The salvation the offered was so real people wanted to know if he was the Christ (3:15). John offered to act and then completed actions that caused people to know that their sins were forgiven by God. He taught them to stay right with God (3:11-19). John had disciples two of them are mentioned in John 1:35, another in Acts 18:25 and twelve more in Acts 19:3. These were men and women who had been baptized by John, became right with God, and believed what John taught to stay right with God.

In my experience, I have been discipled by the men and women who acted first. These men and women offered me a salvation and then followed through with their offer when took up them at their word. These men and women offered me salvation, to bring me closer to God, to align my actions with God and they followed through. My life was changed in a way that did not correspond with my faith or actions. Through their ministry I was surprised, overwhelmed, and blown away by the presence and work of God in my life. I, then, was happy to follow their teachings to stay close to the Jesus that I have come to know and love. Dennis Dorran, Carlos Price, Reverend Anthony Williams, Reverend Fay Acker, Elder Grace Owwuwanne, are some of the few.

You, Christian, want to start discipling? Great. Go. Do. Remember what you are offering, you are offering to bring someone closer to God by your actions. Can you do that? Will your bible study, conversation, worship leading, bible study leadinger, praying, change situation of the person, in bringing them closer to God, that you are offering it to? Can you confidently assert that you have the power to do so? I do not mean elixir’s and steps that work only if the person uses their own power to make the steps or elixir work. I mean will your action change the person’s situation whether they truly believe or not? If you can change someone’s situation, you have someone with the motivation to follow what you teach. If you cannot, do not be surprised if a person does not follow you. That’s the just the way it works.

If no body...

If no body listened. I would still speak. I would still speak because of the One who is still speaking. If not body read, I would still write. I would write because the words I read changed me into a writer. If no one sang along, I would still sing, because I heard the song that convinced me that, "Yes, Jesus loves me." That is enough reason to fill my lungs and explode unto good, clean air the perfume of my notes. If no one came forward, I would still preach. The greater Preacher is still preaching. Who knows, I might still come forward again. If no one said, "aha!", I would still teach. The great teacher is still teaching. If no one accepted the rumors I spread about the death and failure of sin and death through the deeply conniving work of my Lord, I would still whisper against and backbite sin itself. After all, I found the rumors to be true and sin is no longer cool. However, it is true that "Yes, Jesus loves me." That is all the reason I need.

Giving: Short theology for a friend.

Hosea 2:8-9
"And did she know that it was I who gave her the grain, the wine, and the oil, and how lavished on her silver and gold, which they used Baal? Therefore I will take back my grain inits time, and wine in its season, and I will take away my wool and my flax which were to cover her nakedness."

Takor,

First, I confess my deep curiosity of what it means to be a Christian when it comes to money. I have almost visceral reactions to friends and family quantifying their actions by money, and I think less of myself when I do it. Also, with recent looks at Christ and work by Amy Sherman and others, I am curious seeing how God has been relating to our concept of money. I confess that I ended up on this subject, because I struggle with tithing, I needed a word on it I guess.

On to it.

In those two verses, God is in the midst of promising to punish Judah for its sins. Here God is especially angry at their physical worship of other gods because those gods require things, that God gave his beloved people, as payment for their services. It as if they story of the gift of the Maji ends the wife using her hair brushes to buy and sleep with a male prostitute on Christmas day while her (watchless) husband watches in sorrow and pain.
Takor every time you hear a pastor quote "Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, 'How have we robbed you? In your tithes and contributions." Micah 3:8, you are hearing the middle of the love story. This story of God redeeming his sickly and dying creation is the story in the midst of which tithes and offering occur. The story always begins with God approaching us in walking through the garden, in a burning bush, in a cloud of smoke in the temple, in the person of Christ, and in the coming Christ. The story always ends in the presence of God.

As you watch the tithes and offering, know that you will never know the whole of what a person gives to God. God requires in return for His love and gifts is steadfast love & knowledge of God (Hosea 6:6), to do justice, love mercy, walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8). This is what God requires of us.

Tithes and offering fall under a subset of God's desire for justice. This subset is specifically the justice of taking care of those whose labor is to preach the gospel. In Matthew 10:10, Jesus says "for the laborer deserves his food." In context he speaks of those, in 10:7, who go proclaiming, "the kingdom of heaven is at hand." They are to be fed according to their doing that labor. They have a right to that.

Paul sums up that particular cry for justice in 1 Corinthians 9. If one should not muzzle an ox as it works on grain, so one should not make a pastor go hungry who has broken open God's word for God's people. Make no mistake, the offering plate is for the pastor's pocket. If he has labored to proclaim the good news, we as Christians are to feed him accordingly, it is his/her right to receive that.

God requires broken and contrite hearts (Psalm 51:17), steadfast love and knowledge of God (Hosea 6), and to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God. (Micah 3). All of those things will never quite make into accountants ledger. A subset of that justice is to care for those who labor to proclaim that the kingdom of God is at hand. We are indebted to his or her needs.

It gives me a little more comfort to know why I might dance to the offering plate on any given Sunday. It gives me great comfort to know what God requires of me. I hope it encourages as you might be called to be a steward over dismal numbers at times. Those numbers were never meant to be a mark of our faith or our faithfulness. They can be proof that we are willing to do justice to the vulnerable in our community.

Amara Chima

Valentine's Day

To love someone is to believe in the goodness of God, even you don't know him. That faith is less a head-knowledge thought and more an act of bodily throwing yourself from a cliff, feeling almost certain that everything will be alright.

Sometimes it is.

On many a Valentine's Day, I find myself unwilling to believe in God. I assent to the truth of him, but the faith that makes a lane to a cliff-lip, I just don't have.

Something I wish for.

Just the same.

Dear Chris

Dear Chris,

When I said, "choose a profession." I meant "choose a mission field." The gospel, you know and know well. Who you tell and how well you tell this gospel is now the issue. Choose well. Your profession is where you will preach. Your profession is how you will teach. It is how you will love this earth. 
Choosing a profession you can do well is your means to teaching and preaching well. This good news is news about our new world, our planet, our reality. If we have this news, if we know nature better, then our relation with this earth should be better than those who don't. Note, I said relationship and not performance. In light of this gospel, we love our profession. We do not depend on our relationship with our work for our identity and worth. Rather, we freely love what we do. Out of the gracious largess of God we live supported by his generosity we freely love our profession. With love, we do good work.  By good work, I mean well-informed, well-meant, and well executed effort. This work, done freely, and given freely without demands for fame or fortune will create a question. For this same work is almost always done with increasing demands for reward, (Rewards, in and of themselves, become less rewarding. 
That, in turn, inspires a search for greater satisfaction either through more of the same  rewards or through novel ones.) Your good work given without regard to lust of the flesh, 
lust of the eyes, and pride of live illustrates this gospel. Each whole-hearted illustration, each day is a powerful-compelling source of goodness. A goodness that causes the needy to seek 
its source. Men and women will agree they need your work. Some will be convinced that 
they need the gospel that guides your work. This persuasion is a work of the Holy Spirit. He will use the profession you choose and the gospel you know.

Sincerely, A

The Bus

 I was in luck. I saw a bus headed my way. I crossed the street and approached the door. When I looked in I saw the bus driver point, not even looking back at me, around the corner. I went around the corner at a slow jog, when I saw all the people waiting in line. I slowed down to a walk. I would be there when she got there.

After waiting for the man in the wheel chair and his helper to enter the bus, we all entered the bus. She refused to let us pay the fare. I didn’t know why though. I stood as far back as I could go and took my first ride in a long time. I was going from Silver Spring to Washington DC for the annual book festival. I can't live without books and I wanted to know is something from Achebe was there. However, I saw far more valuable things on the ride than after it.

A young woman, baby in a carrier in front of her entered the bus. As she entered we all looked for where she would sit. Somewhere upfront, we suspected. We all identified the same young man sitting in a seat close to the door. He was the only one with no grey hair. He only looked down as the woman and baby passed him by. The old man beside him turned and stared at him. Despite the anger in his eyes, he said nothing. We all stared at him.

Before she passed the middle of the bus, a young woman got up. Saying, “You don’t have to stand. You can sit here.” I can still see her 5’4 frame, black skin, and an island’s lilt.

I blinked. I had just seen justice.

We continued to ride. I had a long way to go and was happy when I found a seat. About three stops later. An older woman entered the bus, cane on her arm as she balanced herself and paid the fair and I saw the young man get up. He walked to the front of the bus and said, “Here. You can sit down.” There was another young African-American who had felt the weight of our stares and anger. He got up several times during my ride to tell another, “You can sit here.”

I blinked. I had just seen repentance.

These are beautiful pictures that intend to keep. Forever. On my blog.

2 Corinthians 7:11

Closing the Loop

This loop begins in Genesis 3:15 NIV: "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head and you will strike his heel." So it begins, the search for the one who would crush the head of the serpent, Satan. Who is searching? Everyone, especially the Woman, was looking for that off-spring who would be the deliverer. There were shadows of that deliverer. We saw can see it now in the stories of Isaac, Moses, Samson, Samuel, and so many others. They were men who born to deliver their people from oppression, to crush the head of their oppressors. Yet, none could crush the head of Satan; none could satisfy our need to regain the immortality we lost.

None accept Jesus.

I found it odd when he addresses his mother as "woman" in John 2. Now, I think he speaks for every "son" whose parents have looked to him to be their savior from shame, futility, and the grave. She calls him to save a marrying man and his family from shame in saying, "They have no more wine." Luke 2:3 NIV. He responds "Woman why do you involve me?" "My hour is not yet come." (Luke 2:4). Yet he responds, he saves the bridegroom and his family from shame in the ensuing verses, 5 - 11.

He speaks for every son and daughter who could not save their parents from death, futility, and shame. Perhaps, they could not save because it was not time for THE Savior. Perhaps they could not save because they were not THE Savior. Perhaps both were true.

In addressing her as "woman." I think he is identifying her with the first person to referred as "woman" because it was her first name: Eve. I think he is beginning to close the loop.

On the cross, he does close the loop. The search for the "offspring" of Genesis 2:15 is over. Parents no longer have to look at their children, searching for and sometimes seeing a deliverer. The only deliver a man or woman needs was on that cross delivering them. He delivered them as he closed the loop. He says to his mother, ""Woman, here is your son," and to the disciple, "Here is your mother."" (John 19: 26-27).

Now each son and daughter is just that, a son or a daughter, none them have to be a deliverer. Each mother and father are just that, a mother and a father not victims and slaves needing to be rescued. They already have been rescued, by and through their union with Christ.

The search is over. The loop is closed.

John 20:15, the risen Jesus says, "Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?" He then makes the same shift Adam did in the garden. (He went from calling his wife "woman," to naming her, Eve (Genesis 3:20).) He calls her "Mary." She turns to him, recognizing him, and cries out "Rabboni!" She has found him: her teacher, her lord, her friend, and now her Savior.

Our search is over. We have a Savior and no longer need to search for another. His name is Jesus and that is wonderful.