derasha: mission
I was just reminded that I failed to put the last chapter of Derasha: This Thing Called Church vol 002 on my blog. We concluded our teaching last night where I was asked about a Nelson Mandela quote. It was actually Marianne Williamson who wrote this, not Nelson Mandela. This is the quote that I could not remember, "We were born to put on display the glory of God that is within us." We had a great time learning last night. What follows is an excerpt that I during that teaching.04 Mission
Mission is no longer thought of in terms of something we have to go and do. Following Jesus is not a checklist. It is not handing out paper with the plan of salvation on it and calling it a day. It is a way of living, seeing and feeling that affects everything we do. As a Dad, I see, think and hear the world differently. I did not have to work on this; it just happened.
I have become the guy who stands in his yard with his arms crossed glaring at young people who drive down my street too fast. I am the guy who is very concerned about what is on television and on the radio because there are little ears around. I am the guy rolling around on the carpet snorting like a bull, bouncing my kids on his foot while whinnying like a horse and hiding under blankets. Being a Dad is not a checklist. Being a Dad is a complete reorientation to the world.
Nothing requires me to go and stand in my yard and give dirty looks to speeding drivers. Doing this is just within me as a Dad. If something endangers my children, I do not like it. I do not wake up in the morning and give my son and daughter hugs and kisses and then cross that off my list. I hug and kiss them because I cannot stop myself from doing so. Snuggling, changing diapers, giving baths, wrestling, playing with trains, spoon feeding, cleaning and dressing them are not requirements. I do these things because of what is within me. All of those things are part of the greatest gig in the world. It would be odd to most people if I told them I had a Dad checklist. I don’t. I simply am a Dad.
Following Jesus is no different. God does not want us to have a checklist. He is not a God who asks us to do a whole bunch of things so that we can feel good about ourselves when we lay our heads down at night. He simply wants us to be in him, and to live each moment with an awareness of him in our world. The beauty of this is that wherever the Church is, there God is evident and embodied.
Wherever we go, and whatever we do, we now do as a part of the Body of Christ. As a follower of Jesus, living is a mission. When I take a walk with my family, I do so with an awareness of who God is in our world. When my family and I spend time with our neighbors, we do so knowing that we are an alternative to the prevailing culture in our world. When you are at your job, are you working with an awareness of who you are as a part of the Body of Christ? Your job is now a mission simply because you, as a follower of Jesus, are the one performing the duties required of you.
It is in this understanding of ourselves that we are able to help others see God in their world.
love is giving
One of my favorite places to eat is Qdoba Mexican Grill. There is nothing Mexican about it, but the burritos there, while high in sodium, are great. Last night my wife and I swung by to pick up the sodium filled burritos. More than just the burritos Qdoba also has what I consider to be the nectar of the gods … Dr. Pepper.
If you drink Dr. Pepper you are aware that one of the 23 flavors in it is an addictive chemical that makes you crave for it nightly. So there I am ordering sodium and knowing that at the end of the line I will not order a Dr. Pepper. My son, who is three years old (almost four), says to me in the car, “Dad, do you get soda at Qboda?” (this is how he pronounces Qdoba).
I said, “Usually.” He asked, “Why did you not get soda?”
I replied, “Your Mommy and I are not drinking soda, juice, coffee or any other drink. We have given that up for something called Lent.”
Not content with that answer he continued his line of questioning. “Dad, why are you and Mommy not drinking for Lent?”
So I explained to him what our thoughts were about what has been tagged only water and how many people in our world do not have what we have. I told him that for us to live acting as though those who are less privileged do not exist is wrong. I told him that when we have a lot we have to give people a lot.
He then said, “Why do people not have water?” He had me. I was silent for a time. He said more earnestly, “Dad, why do people not have water?”
So I simply told him that people do not have water because there is an imbalance in our world. That there are people who have a lot and there are those who have literally nothing. I asked him if he knew how much I loved him. He, thankfully, said yes. As I continued I explained to him that there are people in our world who do not love others. Because they do not love others, they do not give. I told him that love is about giving to others. It is not taking. It is giving, risking, and asking for nothing back.
I taught him that Jesus loved people and because he does we should. One way of showing our love for people is to give them things like water. He said, “Dad can I have some juice?” I smiled, reached down and grabbed his bottle of orange juice. I did so thinking there is no way my three year old tracked with my “sermon” about love.
I gave him the juice, and he yelled excitedly, “Thanks Daddy!” I asked, “And why did I give you juice?” He said as he spread his arms out, “Cause you love me thiiiisss much!” He got it. I give not simply because I love him. I give because that is what love is.
only water
Tonight I got home, and was greeted by my son. He had a blanket tied around his neck and was wearing his batman pajamas. Before I could set my bag down I was assaulted several times by batman because he thought I was a bad guy. My daughter and I then danced together for a time while batman was defeating ghosts. I then walked into my kitchen, grabbed a glass from the cupboard, filled it with water from my Brita filter and drank a glass of clean refreshing water.
More often now whenever I drink a cup of cold water I think of billions who do not have it that easy. Across the globe men and women have to walk miles just to get a cup of clean water. There are many more who drink what water is available and it is literally killing them. For as much as we here about the lack of anti-retroviral drugs and how easy it should be for those in the poorest countries of the world to get them … water should be easier.
It is not right that so many are dying because of lack of water. The World Heath Organization suggests that more than 3 million people die each year because of bad water. Over 6 million lose their eyesight because of bad water. Out of those millions of people 90% are under the age of five. Ninety percent of the dead are someone’s batman or someone’s dance partner. I am really sick of hearing about this.
The hope is that it can be fixed. We can do something about this, and see tangible results from our efforts. My wife and I have decided to do something beginning Ash Wednesday of 2007 which is February 21. Ash Wednesay is the first day of the Lenten Season. It is a day where God’s people reflect on our own lives. The ashes help us to remember who we are as men and women who have been freed from sin through the sacrifice of Jesus.
The Lenten Season that follows is forty days of fasting. It is a season of preparation as we prepare for the joy of Easter. Through this we identify with Jesus who fasted for forty days in the desert and with millions of brothers and sisters who have observed this time since the Fourth Century. Lent is a time for introspection, self examination, and repentance.
In observing this time we will be abstaining from drinking anything but tap water. No coffee, juice, Brita filtered water, beer, wine, milk, Odwalla juices, Dr. Pepper or anything else that is not tap water. As each day passes I will take the money I would normally put toward my morning coffee in an envelope. With each trip to the grocery store where no juice or milk is purchased my wife and I will put the money we would normally spend on those things in an envelope.
We have figured that over the course of forty days we will put away somewhere in the neighborhood of $150 - $200. What does this mean? According to Blood Water Mission it means that 150 - 200 people can have clean drinking water for an entire year. It means that International Aid will be able to deliver more Plastic BioSand Water Filters™ to the poorest countries of the world. It means that Water Aid will be able to build wells, educate men and women about hygiene. It means that someone’s batman will live another day to fight the bad guys. It means that a dad will be able to dance another day with his daughter.
We can change the world. I invite you to join me during this Lenten Season in changing our world one drop of water at a time. I will be updating my blog during Lent with links to articles educating us about water sanitation, listing sites that receive donations will contain information about how you, your family, your small group, your co-workers, your church or anyone can save literally thousands of lives in forty days.
Please join us. We are not asking you to do more, we are simply asking you to do less.
derasha: tradition
This Thursday, we will have our third of four Mid-Week Teachings. The title is, "Tradition and Ash Wednesday." We will explore the beauty of the Body when each part functions using his or her gifts. Below is an excerpt from Chapter 03 of Derasha: This Thing Called Church Vol. 002. As we walked into the room, music was playing, and the chatter of Spanish was everywhere. The door closed behind us with a thud, and the music and chatter stopped. My Aunt Eva screamed, “Look who is here!” Everyone turned in unison and began screaming with excitement. Within seconds, we were surrounded by Cubans pinching us, kissing us and prodding us. They were all yelling things like “Usted es tan magnífico!” Lipstick was moving from their lips to our cheeks and foreheads at an alarming rate. Did I mention that my wife had never met any of these people?
While the entrance proved to be somewhat intense for my wife, she enjoyed the party. She heard stories about little Carlito (my Dad’s nickname). She would laugh, point at me and say, “That is you!” We ate black beans and rice, citrus marinated chicken and sipped Café Cubano. That day, she had a crash course in our tradition. Later that evening, we sat out by the hotel pool. As my wife commented on my family, she reflected how much my cousin was like my sister, my Dad was like me and how she understood how my Mom felt the first time she met the Hidalgo family. She was connecting the dots.
This is what tradition does; it connects the dots. As the Body of Christ, we need to be men and women who connect the dots. We need to point toward our heritage and celebrate who we are. We need those conversations in which we point and say, “That is what we do!”
Some churches however want to be known by what they are not. We have our list of things that make us distinctive. Our lists draw boundaries separating local congregations from others. Over the last five hundred years, the Church has chosen to embrace these divisions rather than celebrating who we are both in our past and in our present.
We have bought into rugged individualism. As individuals, we believe our experience within the church is private, and does not need to include others. The attitude of the individual is indicative of the attitude of the whole. We remain separate from one another and live out an individual faith that is particular to each person. Living this way makes it difficult to believe that all Christians share the same heritage.
For a Baptist to hear that a Catholic has the same historical roots would be like meeting a guy you have never seen who tells you that he is your brother. That would complicate the world we have come to know and presently live in. We could only make sense of a new brother by learning where he is from and telling him where we are from. The role of tradition is to tell us where we are from.
does this even work?
For those of you who read my blog, you know of my heart for the poorest countries in the world. You are also aware of my involvement with one.org, the campaign to make poverty history. I have had many people ask me, "Is one really making a difference? To answer that question, I have copied an email I just received from Katie Andrews. Katie is the One Organizer for our region. Please read all the way to the end, and take action ...
The Senate just passed the 2007 continuing resolution - 81 to 15! The House had previously voted in favor of it, 286-140.
So what does this all mean, and why are we so excited? I'll let the ONE blog explain:
As you might recall, if congressional leaders had gone ahead with their plan to pass a straight continuing resolution, federal funding would have remained at 2006 levels for all of fiscal year 2007, and critical poverty programs would have lost an expected $1 billion increase. Hundreds of thousands of people whose lives relied on that funding would have died.
ONE members came together, however, and called, faxed, emailed, wrote letters and even met with their members of Congress, urging them to recover as much of the money as possible. All in all, ONE members sent more than 200,000 letters urging Congress to fully fund the fight against extreme poverty in 2007.
This is a huge victory not only for people living in extreme poverty, but also for our campaign. These results show that all of your hard work really does make a difference. 200,000 letters will make anyone take notice.
I want to thank all of you that called, wrote, and generally got all up in your representative's grill on this one. Let's keep it up everyone, you really are changing lives...
derasha: parts
This Thursday, we will have our second of four Mid-Week Teachings. The title is, "Don't Hate Me Because I am Beautiful." We will explore the beauty of the Body when each part functions using his or her gifts. Below is an excerpt from Chapter 02 of Derasha: This Thing Called Church Vol. 002. If you would like more information on how to get a full copy of Derasha, please email me.At this point in my life I had a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications but little direction. My professors told me that one could do whatever he or she wanted with this degree. My problem was that I did not know what I wanted. I had a job working second shift. During the day, I sat around my apartment. When Dan called, I was lying on my couch reading.
His voice came through the answering machine, and it echoed off the plaster walls and hard wood floors of the partially furnished apartment. He chatted for a time almost like he knew I was there listening to him. Then he said, “I need you to teach the students this Sunday. Could you speak about why Jesus did what he did?” I smiled nervously. My only confidence was my communications degree. I could do virtually anything with that degree.
Some time later I called him back and uneasily agreed to teach the students. It was Wednesday, which meant there were only three days to prepare something. Before going to work that evening, I found a stately volume of theology that taught about Atonement. After reading it over a few times, breaking the teaching down into three points (of course making sure each one started with the same letter), I finished it off with a riveting conclusion.
The next day, I met with a pastor friend of mine and proudly presented the outline of what was sure to be a masterpiece of oratory. He read it over, smiled, looked at me and said, “If you preach this to the middle school students, they will laugh you out of the room.” This was a minor set back.
On Sunday morning I stood up to teach. A few hundred middle-school students were looking at me as if they were begging me to say something to which they could bear to listen. At that moment my college degree meant nothing. In that silent moment, which was both a flash and an eternity, I began to speak from somewhere else.
The words coming out of my mouth weren’t just thoughts. These were things that were in my core. Every part of me wanted everyone in the room to learn what God was teaching me and experience life transformation. As I spoke, this deep sense of truly living captured me.
I finished and walked off the platform. I knew in that moment what I would do with the rest of my life. When God knit me together in my mother’s womb he had used the thread of a teacher. Leaving the building, I got into my car, and my future wife said to me, “You were totally you up there. You were fulfilled.” She saw it. I had discovered what I had to do, not just what I wanted to do.
The following week I hung out again with my pastor friend. He asked how it went, and I was unable to tell him. Tears were in my eyes, my knees were bouncing with excitement and all I could do was look at him. He said, “I knew it. You are a teacher. You are hardwired by God to live the life of a teacher.”
My gift had found me.
mid-week
Last night at our Mid-Week Teaching someone asked about the use of the word ekklesia in the Bible. There are more references than there was time for, and I forgot the one specifically asked about in Matthew. Here is a link to the Blue Letter Bible website that tracks its usage throughout the New Testament. Next week we will gather to discuss Spiritual Gifts. Remember next week we will meet on Thursday the 15th! See you there!
derasha: movement
This Wednesday, we will have our first Mid-Week Teaching. We will ask the question, "Did Jesus Come to Start a Non-Porfit?" Below is an excerpt from Chapter 01 of Derasha: This Thing Called Church Vol. 002. If you would like more information on how to get a full copy of Derasha, please email me. 01 Movement
Somewhere between where I was and the mountains on the horizon, the buildings of Sao Paulo, Brazil faded into the smog that blanketed the city. Our group was standing on the roof of the tallest building in Sao Paulo. We were on one of many stops on our tour. We hit four cities all together in our two weeks of travel.
We walked back inside and took the long elevator ride down. On the way down we stopped on the eighteenth floor. The doors opened and a well-dressed businessman looked at the faces of twenty or so hyper American teens. He smiled politely and wisely chose to wait for another elevator. We reached the ground floor and made our way outside.
Our leader told us we had two hours to do some shopping before dinner. My friends Ben and Peter decided to take off together. They went looking for soccer stores where they could buy some shoes. They headed down a street, and as they rounded a corner were met with a rotten smell. One hundred feet in front of them was a massive pile of trash. Someone had obviously not paid their bill.
They crossed the street to avoid the pile of dirty diapers, empty bags of chips, rotting fruit and half eaten burgers. As they crossed the street Ben saw three kids on the trash heap. They weren’t playing; they were shopping. They walked on a little further and saw two more people. It was the mother of the children nursing their new sibling. Ben and Peter could not help but stare. They were two American, Midwest, suburbanites who did not know people lived like this. They asked the mother if they could buy the family dinner, and she agreed. Minutes later they were eating like royalty at McDonald’s.
They met up with the rest of our group two hours later, and we all went to dinner. We went to a Churrascheria. This is a Brazilian style place where they bring slabs of meat out on swords. The servers put slabs of animal carcass impaled by a sword on your plate, and at your bidding they slice off big chunks that land with a thud-slap on your plate. It was like something out of a vegetarian’s nightmare. Needless to say, we were well fed that night.
We returned to our hotel, and a few of us went to the hot tub on the hotel roof. Ben told us about what he and Peter saw that day on the garbage heap. All of us began to wonder out loud what in the world we were doing twenty floors up in a hot tub when kids were digging in garbage heaps below us.
The trip seemed to be more about entertaining a group of American students than about serving people living in Brazil. To think that we went all that way to go to soccer games, tour soccer stadiums, stay in beautiful hotels, shop in the cities and eat exotic foods is in some way unbelievable. But this is what we spent most of our time doing.