How to Ask for healing

Three stories of the blind being healed

Matthew 20:29-34   Mark 10:46-52   Luke 18:35-43

This week we complete the miracle-healing stories of Jesus, and one of our readings ends with the same account of a blind man/men being healed, but remembered differently by each of the synaptic gospel writers.  What stands out to me in this reading is how desperate the blind men to be healed.   They shouted out, and when the crowd rebuked them (same in each account) they shouted even louder. 

Similar in each story was the question Jesus asked: “What do you want me to do for you?”

A: “Lord, I want to see."

At healing services we hold, when people come forward to be anointed or to ask for healing, I usually ask something along the lines of “How would you like to be healed?”  I like the way Jesus asked much better: "What would you like me to do for you"

So maybe I could say: “What would you like Jesus to do for you?”  

A: I want to see, I want children, I don’t want to be afraid, my children are far from the Kingdom, I hurt, I can't forgive, I don't want to be overweight...

And then we could say: 

Receive ____________, your faith has healed you. Go, your faith has healed you. 

And then add: It is done!

Healing 24, The One who is Grateful

Gratitude seems to be the message from the story of the Ten Lepers.  One  returns to thank Jesus; he is the one who one who is made well, while the others are just cleansed.  As we have discussed before, there are two elements to being made whole, one component is physical, the other, spiritual.  We concluded that unless both are addressed, the illness may return.  If one is cured, but continues to live in spiritual detachment, whatever caused the illness might allow it to happen again.  Whatever life lessons that were meant to be taught will come around again; when the student is ready, the teacher will be sent, and only when the student is thankful, has the teacher truly taught.  

Gratitude is an important component to being healed, for gratitude defeats bitterness about one’s situation; just as being generous defeats greed about one’s things. 

The disease Leprosy is the death of nerve endings, so that one no longer feels pain.  Though it has been largely eliminated by medical science, I believe there is still is a form of it that is prevalent today: Spiritual Leprosy.  

If Leprosy is the failure to experience pain; Spiritual Leprosy is the failure to mourn the pain of our spiritual separation from God.  The pain of that separation is still there, but we no longer grieve it. We accept that separation as normal be it from God, from the people around us (including our family), or the future God created us to live into.  Could there be something inside each of us (a spiritual compass) that knows the truth of our situation, and when we no longer care (that we are lost), we suffer from Spiritual Leprosy?

In the case of the 10 Lepers, 9 of them continued, being physically healed, but spiritually still disconnected.  They were given a chance to reconnect with the creator, and the life they were created to live, but for whatever reason, did not complete their wholeness, with gratitude. 

I pray that I will be the one, the one who returns to Jesus, and is grateful.   

Miracles 21 The Woman Bent Double

Luke 13:10-17 The Woman Bent Double

This was the text for Amy's message last night at the Georgetown Service of Wholeness and Healing [click here to listen to one held in 2011].   While Amy was reading the text (which is different from the NIV used in study guide) she read: 

 The synagogue leader, incensed that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, responded, “There are six days during which work is permitted. Come and be cured on those days, not on the Sabbath day.”

What I heard her read is that Jesus healed on the Sabbath, but the synagogue leader could only cure on the other six days.  I always find it interesting that it was not doubted that someone could be healed, only the rightfulness of doing it on the Sabbath.  

Last night as part of Communion, we offered each person the chance to be anointed with oil, a station next to where the wine was offered.  Generally anointing is offered in a back room, or in the foyer, and maybe one person will show up.  But last night, everyone who came for communion asked to be anointed, and to be healed from some sort of brokenness.  

I wonder if anointing has become our "healing on the Sabbath," something that is only done in the back room, away from other people to protect their privacy.  And we wonder why it does not always happen?  When Jesus healed, it was for the glory of God, not for the person receiving it.  

Who Sinned?

This text from John 9 is one of the classic text I have preached on several times, usually in times of national disaster, when people will ask "Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" 

It is a classic text in that this is the question people deeply want to ask in times of national disaster, who sinned, that this terrible very bad thing happened?  When Jesus was asked, they could have been asking about generational sin, what this the sin of the father manifest in the son?  Or was the blindness due to his own sin?  Four chapters later, in a different gospel, Jesus will be asked a nearby question twice, but this time he answers so differently: 

Luke 13 Some who were present on that occasion told Jesus about the Galileans whom Pilate had killed while they were offering sacrifices. ² He replied, “Do you think the suffering of these Galileans proves that they were more sinful than all the other Galileans? ³  No, I tell you, but unless you change your hearts and lives, you will die just as they did. ⁴  What about those twelve people who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them? Do you think that they were more guilty of wrongdoing than everyone else who lives in Jerusalem?⁵  No, I tell you, but unless you change your hearts and lives, you will die just as they did.”

"Unless you change your ways, you will die just as they did," Jesus says, twice, but in this week's passage he replies  "This happened so that God’s mighty works might be displayed in him."  

Both times people are asking about the relationship between sin and suffering, if suffering is the punishment for our sin.  In the week of the Boston Marathon bombing, and a fertilizer plant in West, Texas exploding it is a question a lot of people are asking.  "Why did this happen?"  "Who sinned?" 

The both answers seem harsh:
"so that God’s mighty works might be displayed" in the rescue efforts?
"if you don't change your ways, you end up just as dead?"

Back to the story, there is an investigation launched by the Temple authorities and after the man gets thrown out the Jesus finds him and asks him if he believes, "Tell me," he says not using the language of  the sighted, "so that I may believe in him."   Jesus replies him, "You have now seen him" 

Always Ask

In the healing story about the blind man at Bethsaida, Jesus does something that is a good reminder for me.

1. Ask do you want to be made well (not in this story, but others)
2. Pray for healing
3. Ask is anything different, (what do you see, instead of can you see).
4. If less than desired, goto #2 and repeat.

I was observing a prayer for healing back in 2003, when I was an apprentice in an existing healing ministry.   These two men had been God's healers for 20 years, and had reunited after a 5 year break.  A friend of mine was dying of ovarian cancer.  We had gone to seminary together, were in the same ordination class, and together drove to Glen Lake about every six weeks for years.  During nine months of those drives, the cancer was in remission, and we talked about ministry, and her dreams for the future.  But then it came back, and our drives were more about making the most of those minutes.  After she was ordained early, and it was clear she would be making one final trip, I asked if I could invite my teachers to come pray with her.

We all fasted before going to her house, and thought we would be there with her, but it turned out there was a large presence non-believing friend how would not leave her side. She sat in the room while we prayed for her, glaring.  Our prayers were empty ones, they felt powerless at the time, and I wondered at the time if it was the friend who belligerent in her no belief  (at the time it felt like it was more important for her to be right, than my friend to be healed).  

So these two men of God, who did not know my friend, but had  a vast knowledge, experience and track record of healing prayer, fasted and prayed for my friend in her sitting room.  After the prayers were finished, one asked "What did you feel?"

He didn't ask it of my friend, but of the other man praying, who said  "No." I felt nothing.  I had to agree.  And then he turned to my friend, "maybe a little bit of tingling," she said, not wanting us to be disappointed. 

So we prayed again, and to no difference.  What I remember about this time of prayer was his courage to ask, "What did you feel?"  Like Jesus in this story asking "Do you see anything?"   

I hope I can always to remember to ask, "What do you feel, or see..." and if the healing has not occurred  to maybe ask how the prayer could be more on target, and then pray again.  

Ultimately my friend was healed, but not in the way we were praying for that day. Her healing came May 11, 2004.  

Godspeed Susan. 

Healing Stories 15 & 16

Daughter of the Canaanite Woman #15 

At first read, this story seems to be about persistence, about a Gentile woman who came and knelt before Jesus saying “Lord, help me!”  Her daughter was possessed by and evil spirit.   Initially, Jesus refused to help saying he was “sent only to the lost sheep of Israel,” but I suspect he could have been saying this for the sake of the disciples, who often wanted to restrict the kingdom of the Gospel to only Jews.  Maybe Jesus knew she had the fortitude to argue with him and make his point for the disciples, that God’s healing was for everyone.  

Interesting that the daughter (who is possessed) plays no part in the healing, it is all about the faith and courage of the mother, who comes on behalf of her daughter, and asks.  A good reminder for those of us who’s children are far from the LORD, that we can still –in faith—ask for God’s healing in their lives. 

Finally, the healing, as in other stories is done from a distance.  “She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.”  A reminder that God’s healing power knows no distance. 

Deaf man with speech impediment #16

We’ve seen this before, where Jesus heals the blind man and then says “See that you tell no one.”  In this story he touches the man’s ears and tongue, which opens the man’s ears and loosens his tongue, and then he says to “not to tell anyone,” which would not have been a problem five minutes ago.   

Again we read about the faith of friends fueling the healing power of Jesus, who ask on behalf of their friend.   When Jesus healed this man he healed his hearing, and loosened his tongue, but I suspect that had to do more with healing the speech centers of his mind.  This story contains a big and little miracle.  The little miracle is the healing of the ears, the much larger one how Jesus healed his mind and he could “speak plainly”. 

Two Blind Men - Matthew 9:27-31

Two Blind Men - Matthew 9:27-31

“According to your faith will it be done to you” – is this the same as “forgive us our trespasses and we forgive those who trespass against us”? That in some respect we must participate with Jesus in our healing; we bear some responsibility.  When Jesus asks “Do you believe I am able to do this?” Those with just a little faith, will receive just a little healing; When we pray to be forgiven as we have forgiven others, and if our forgiveness of others is small, so will God’s forgiveness of us?

When Jesus says “See that no one knows about this,” he has just said it to two formerly blind men, who until just a few moments ago would not been able to see anything, let alone that no one else knows about this.

Interesting that the story starts outside, and they follow him in.  There must be more to this story, some details as to why this part was omitted.  Yet in reading this, I understand that sometimes we don’t have to leave the room right away, but linger, and see what God does in that room or our lives when there is nothing pressing that is next. 

Woman with Hemorrhage & Jairus Dauther

There is a group of 7 of us that have begun a journey together to examine the healing miracles of Jesus that appear in scripture.  This class has a significant writing component, in that each of us will have a blog where we answer the questions "What lesson(s) have you learned about healing from this account? 

Here I examine Matthew 9:20-22, Mark 5:24b-34 and Luke 8:42-48, the account of the woman with hemorrhage

Last week in class we talked about the difference between healing and cure, how they were not the same, though in our society the two are used interchangeably. 

Being healed - is a process leading toward wholeness

Being cured – is the elimination of all evidence of disease or injury to the body.  

One can be cured without being healed, just as one can be healed without being cured. I suspect that much of the medical profession’s focus these days is on cure, but a cure without addressing the underlying spiritual unrest (or dis-ease) is just a band-aid . 

Maybe that is what was going on with the woman in this story, that she had “suffered under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse.”  The doctors were attempting a physical cure when what was needed was a spiritual healing. 

“If I just touch his cloths, I will be healed” the story goes, she did and she was, and Jesus felt that the “power had gone out from him”.  This story is a reminder that we can be agents of God’s healing without even being aware that we are playing a small part in the great thing that God is doing.  This story is also a reminder to be aware of our own spiritual tank, and when we feel the power leave us to step away, and not be tempted to rely on our own power. 

For this woman being healed lead toward also being cured; and she was made whole.   

Man with Shriveled Hand AND Centurion’s Servant

In the account of the Man with the Shriveled Hand (Matthew 12:9-14; Mark 3:1-6; Luke 6:6-11), I wonder if the Pharisees had not been the protagonists of this story if the gospels writers would have remembered this particular healing.  The Pharisees make the story compelling because clearly Jesus is choosing to value people over livestock and The Sabbath, and that does not sit well with the Pharisees, they were “furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus.”

In my ministry I’ve observed that some 80% of the problems I see are not really problems, (or what I like to call self-correcting problems).  Meaning that they will go away on their own if I don’t intervene.  What I have learned through the years is that if I treat any of the 80% like it is an actual problem, then it becomes a problem, and I will be forced to intervene.  I think the art of ministry is knowing exactly where the line is between real problems and the 80%.  The Pharisees, I think, didn’t have that line well calibrated with Jesus, and by their reactions turned, what would have been a rather unremarkable Sabbath healing story, into the story we are reading today. 

I wonder where the line is with people who ask to be healed.  Is there an 80% that will naturally just get better, like a doctor friend said about having a cold:  “You should be better in about a week, but sometimes it can take as long as seven days.”   Contained in that 80% is, I think, a smaller subset that are afflicted with a real problems, but unwilling to participate in being healed.    Now clearly the man with the shriveled hand was not in that 80%, Jesus intervened, and by asking him to stretch out his hand, he too participated in being healed. 

In the healing of the Centurion’s Servant (Matthew 8:5-13; Luke 7-1-10), something very different is happening among those who observe Jesus saying “Go! It will be done just as you believed it would.”  In Luke’s account, he adds “I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.”   To those hearing Jesus say this, they would have understood Jesus to say that the faith of this Gentile was greater than all of Israel, and for a people whose self-identity claimed that God’s blessing was for them only, the thought of Jesus first listening to this non-Jew, and then performing the healing he asked for, would have disturbed them.

Several things about this  Centurion’s Servant story speak to us today:

1. That the healee need not be present, or even aware that healing is being asked for them.
2. That the circle of who Jesus listens to is much larger than the ones hearing him at the time expected.  I think the same could be said for the American Church today.  

When Are We Healed?

There is a group of 12 of us that have begun a journey together to examine the healing miracles of Jesus that appear in scripture.  This class has a significant writing component, in that each of us will have a blog where we answer the questions "What lesson(s) have you learned about healing from this account? Here I examine John 5:1-17

When, we are asked,  was the man by the pool healed? I wonder, could he have been healed long ago, but had not known it?  In our OSL guide we are asked “Of all the disabled people there (at the pool of Bethesda), it seems that Jesus singled out one man…”   Why did Jesus single this man out?  What was special about him or his case?  I wonder if maybe Jesus could see/knew that the man had been already healed, but was not behaving like one who has been healed.

² In Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate in the north city wall is a pool with the Aramaic name Bethsaida. … ³ and a crowd of people who were sick, blind, lame, and paralyzed sat there.^[a] 5 A certain man was there who had been sick for thirty-eight years.  (John 5:2-5, CEB)

Could the man have been healed years before, but had continued to live in the lie that he was still paralyzed?  Being healed implies a change to one’s current circumstance,  and when that change is unimaginable the healing may not be realized.  So Jesus asks:

“Do you want to get well?”

It’s a great question because I think sometimes we want to be healed of the symptoms but not the wound.   I’m not talking about the severe cases where it seems unlikely that someone will ever get well, but the times when staying sick, or unhealthy is truly a choice we choose, and choose over and over, even though we have been healed, we choose to act otherwise. 

⁷ The sick man answered him, “Sir,^[b] I don’t have anyone who can put me in the water when it is stirred up. When I’m trying to get to it, someone else has gotten in ahead of me.”

What if the man was already healed and all Jesus did was see that in him and his potential; seeing things not as they are but as they could be.  

It is really too bad that the story continues on past verse nine because it brings to light the fact that people do not always show gratitude.  I know I should not want the gratitude, and yet sometimes I do. I want my part in it to be recognized, but doesn't that steal or at least compromise the glory to God?

⁸ Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” ⁹ Immediately the man was well, and he picked up his mat and walked. 

What sins (wounds) have we been healed from, but are not able to pick up our mats and go on with life?

LiveCast of Bess Komm Memorial Service

On Sunday January 27, 2012 there was a LiveCast of the Memorial Service for Bess Komm.  The service was held in our historic chapel.

Here is a link to that service of worship: 

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/28862302

Sorry, it starts a few minutes before the service begins.

When Jesus Healed

There is a group of 12 of us that have begun a journey together to examine the healing miracles of Jesus that appear in scripture.  This class has a significant writing component, in that each of us will have a blog where we answer the questions "What lesson(s) have you learned about healing from this account?   This week we are examining the healing of a woman with fever (contained in Matthew 8:14-15; Mark 1:29-31; Luke 4:38-39), and the healing of  a leper (contained in Matthew 8:1-4; Mark 1:40-45; Luke 5:12-16)

It used to be that when I would pray for someone who was  sick, I generally I just asked for an alleviation of the symptoms, (to be relieved of the pain...), but did not ask specifically for them to be healed.  

This week I have been praying for Laura, a singer I used to work with at my previous church.  She was a student at Southwestern, and sang both in the praise band and choir.  We enjoyed her theater performances at Southwestern.   

Over the week-end I received an email from her mother telling me that several weeks ago, they had rushed Laura to the ER with joint swelling and lesions on her hands.She was admitted to ICU for three days and then the cardiac unit, and later was diagnosed with  ANCA vasculitis, an auto immune disease. 

Her mother writes: 

She realized today that all her "instruments" have been attacked! The doctor told her not to speak or whisper at all since so much strain has been put on her vocal chords. After he left she was brought to tears realizing that her "gift" has been completely silenced!   

I remember when one of my gifts was silenced, our second year in Ghana [read here] when my shoulder was dislocated and fractured by a large wave while swimming in the ocean.  While I healed, I was unable to play guitar, type on the computer, cook, ride a bicycle, or really do much else.  While the pain was unimaginable, what I really felt was the loss of who I was and what I could do.  If I could not do these things, then who was I, and what good was I to anyone around me?  I imagine that is what Laura is feeling right now, and maybe God can use this in her life to teach her that she is so much more than those things that she did.

I find it interesting how in each of the tellings of this story, they end with "and she got up and began to wait on them."  It was the fever that was keeping her from doing those things that definer her, and once healed, she returned to do them.  Knowing the marvelous instrument that God gave Laura, I can imagine that is going to be one of the first things she does when she is healed...begin to sing God's praise.  When I say "I can imagine," I am not using a turn of phrase, it is really my prayers for.  I go to my prayer place, and imagine her singing, not as a memory, but as a soon to see future in her life.  Praying now with words, but with images to let God fill in the details of how to get there.  

In the second healing account, the one of the Leper being healed, I like how in each case he says "if you are willing..." never doubting that Jesus was able (even though it happens very early in the ministry of Jesus).  Prayers like that must pull at God's heart, and I hope so, for that is my prayer for Laura, saying "If you are willing..." and then imagining Laura singing God's praise.  

I so look forward to how God will heal Laura, and hearing her amazing voice she sings glory to God with gratitude.  Will you pray with me too? 

Message or Messenger?

I wonder if we have forgotten how to tell people what we seek to be as a church.  Over the years I’ve found myself defending the institution of the church, what we do, how we do it, why we do it… And lost.  Every time.  I lost even though I believe there is no more powerful organization in the world than the Holy Spirit working in God’s Church.   

People look at the world and say, “Why doesn’t God do something about it!”  God did, God did do something about it 2000 years ago.  God gave us the Church, and through God’s people working in the local church, this organization can be the most powerful force for good in the world. 

What government, university or corporation has the influence over people’s lives that the church has?  Sure governments can pass laws, companies can develop great products, universities can teach the knowledge of the ages, but neither the president, nor any corporation or university has the power to change a person’s life.  Only God has that power, only God can make a person come alive, can turn a neglecting father into a devoted one, bring a wayward son home, offer forgiveness, heal brokenness, or help people come alive for the first time in their life.   God does all this through the message of Jesus Christ in local church.   

But instead of telling that story, we talk about the architecture, or the music, or the people or pastors.  All fine but imagine trying to convince someone to join the Rec. Center for the design of the building, or the music they play, the people who work there, or the programs they broadcast?  All could be absolutely true, but still not convincing. 

Carl Medearis, in his book “Speaking of Jesus” says we have confused the messenger with the Message.  The Message is Jesus; and his messenger, the Church.  I think when people come to church and get the messenger, we hope it will lead them toward Jesus, but when they come to church and get The Message, they get Jesus, and see him in the people, the music, and maybe even the architecture. 

So I've quit defending the messenger, and am trying to stay on message, the message and stories of Jesus, then maybe then people will get the church.  Because I'm not sure it works the other way around.  

Mind the Gap

I’ve been driving by it for years, and while I’ve been driving by they expanded their building to appeal more to teenagers and seniors, two demographics I’m not.  My dad would go faithfully each week, and often several times during the week.  He went for about an hour and then would walk home.  My dad tells me about all the programs they have there, ones that sound fun and interesting, but not that interesting, besides, I’m not sure I have the time.  My daughter goes to the teen functions there at night to hang out.  But not me.  Each time he was going, dad would ask if I wanted to go, but I declined.  I didn’t think I needed to, after all I was doing just fine, and what could they offer me that I wasn’t already doing for myself? 

This morning, I was listening to an NPR report about religious practices in which it was reported that 79% of Americans identify with an organized faith group, which makes the United States a significant outlier when compared to other developed nations.  But this research is based on what people say they do. 

For example, when pollsters ask “Did do you attend church this week,” 45% of Americans will say yes, they attended their church. But researchers are beginning to understand that that 45% is in fact answering a different question, and that question is “Are you the kind of person who goes to church,” which brings me back to that place I’d been driving by for years.  It was the Rec. Center, a place where my dad worked out, and wanted me to go because it would be good to get some exercise.  A few weeks ago I actually joined, I walked the isle, confessed my sin, and wrote them out  a check. 

If you asked me did “Did you go to the Rec. Center this week?” I would have answered no until a few weeks ago, but if I understood the question as “are you the kind of person who goes to the Rec. Center,” I would have liked to say yes, even though I didn’t go to the Rec. Center.   

“Do you floss your teeth?” is different question than “Did you floss your teeth this morning?” The previous question seems to be really asking “are you the kind of person who takes care of their teeth by flossing them?”  And has some value judgment associated with it.

So there is a gap between how people see themselves, and what they practice.   No big surprise here.  I guess it is what we call our human potential, that space between what we do, and what we want to be known for doing.  As the Brits say “Mind the Gap!” If you don't you may fall into it, be it in your faith practice, exercise program, or dental hygiene.   

Taking a break to or from Worship

During last night’s discussion in the book and Bible study of Speaking of Jesus some one remarked that almost everyone in the room had taken a break from church at some point in their life and come back.  A break measured in years, and decades.  Call me odd (Suzanne does) but the kind of break I took from church, was a few month.

Later that night I got to thinking about a Catholic friend of mine, Mark Hinkl who never missed a Sunday in worship.  This came up because he was on his honeymoon, and they went to church, not only the next morning but a week later when they were still honeymooning. 

“Really?!” I asked.

“Never missed a Sunday.”

“On Vacations?”

“Always Went.”

“On travel?,” we both worked at a research lab and travel was a part of the job.

“Took time for it.”

“Sick?”

“Went on Saturday night.”

Though I’ve lost touch with Mark, I have not forgotten that conversation, and it has challenged me to made attending worship a priority.  I mean its not that difficult when you are a pastor and work in the church, but even when we’re traveling and nobody is watching.  I like to go to worship, even if I’m alone because the rest of the family wants to sleep in, I go to worship, and in those moments maybe experience something different or disconnect from this world to connect with the next.  I like to go to worship, its taking a break to worship instead of from it. 

Speaking of Jesus

This week is the introduction to a new book and Bible study at St. Philip's based on the book "Speaking of Jesus: the Art of Not-Evangelism," by Carl Medearis.   I first read this book in the spring after a friend of mine had recommended it to me, and then in an email wrote:

I found that it has really made me think about how I say things now.  And it was a really good thing when I met with an African American woman last week.  I had no idea about her beliefs and she asked me one of those loaded questions along the lines of “don’t you think you are ruining African traditional culture and beliefs by importing Christianity?”.  Fortunately, I was able to tell her (truthfully, of course, but I wouldn’t have known how to say it without having read the book) that I wasn’t really interested in importing Western church traditions.  I looked at it more as I had a best friend, Jesus, that I wanted to introduce my African friends to.  And that I thought they needed Him as much as I do.  Turns out, she is a Christian too, but she had been wrestling with this idea that somehow Christianity would destroy African culture.  Religion might – but not Jesus.

Over the summer I read it again, and then read two of Carl's other books.   Over the weeks and months between my first and second read of "Speaking of Jesus," I asked friends both at St. Philip's and other churches to tell me what they thought about Jesus.

I would ask about Jesus and they would tell me about the Church they went to.  I would ask what their (or our) church thought about Jesus, and they told me about the choir, or the praise band, or their pastor.

If someone asks me about my wife Suzanne, I don't tell them about the house we live in.  If someone asks me about that new restaurant we like so much, we don't tell them about the tablecloths.  If someone asks about that movie, or sports team, or musical artist, we don't tell them about the venue.  Why is Jesus different?

I am excited to read this book with others, and learn from them how we can really speak about Jesus.  Will you join me?

Read the first chapter [click here]
At Amazon [click here]
A Google eBook [click here] (but is missing chapters 8 & 10)

The Innkeeper of the Heart, part 1

It is now 12 days before Christmas and Suzanne and I are looking toward our kids coming home from college and we’re looking at our house, which is the smallest we had since they have become full sized, and we’re wondering how are we all going to fit? There is not so much room in the inn, so I might be coming to asking, Do you have a guest room in your house?

In the Christmas Lore that has evolved over the years, these would be the ones that are not in scripture, like the names of the Magi or Wise Men or even that there were three, there is another one, Innkeeper. He’s gotten a rather raw deal it seems to me. If you’re like me you have this image of a Bethlehem Hotel 6 and its one of those places that maybe would not be your first choice early in the night, but the later it gets…

Do you remember what it was like before Cell Phones, and Smart Phones, going from hotel to hotel late at night, looking for a room. Each hotel interaction would take about a half hour, to find it, and then go in to ask for a room, and anymore it seems like always have VACANCY signs even when there is no room in the inn. All the while you’re kicking yourself for not calling ahead, and it gets later and later, the kids are asleep in the back seat, the parents are tired and road weary and all you want it is place to rest for the night. As the night drags on your standards drop, it really doesn’t need cable or a swimming pool or even a comfortable bed. You’re so tired you’ll take anything.

You feel like you are in the wilderness that Isaiah spoke about in today’s reading, and yet, Isaiah says: “The arid desert shall be glad, the wilderness shall be rejoice” (Isa 35:1, Tanakh)

I got to tell you, that is not what Suzanne would say on those late night jaunts finding a hotel, there is no one glad, there is no rejoicing. We’ve finally come to the last hotel in town, our standards are zero. We drive up and the turn signal starts making that special sound that it only makes really late at night.

We turn in, I get out, Suzanne stays in the car, her face reveals anxiety and distress that late night travel brings on. I’m at the front desk, ringing the bell, waking the night attendant who says “No, I am very sorry, but we filled up the last suitable place just a few minutes ago. There is no room. However there is a place out back where you can rest for the night, its not much…”

But that’s not how it was. The City of Bethlehem wouldn’t have had a Motel-6, or really any Inns to speak of. Those were usually on the Greek Trading Routes, The Interstate, and Bethlehem was far off the beaten track. What some houses did have, is roughly equivalent to what some of us have today: guestrooms. Rooms that are not generally used, but stay ready for visitors. If you look at the Greek word that is translated as Inn in our Bibles, you’ll see that it most often means guest chamber or inn as a lodging place or an eating room or dining room.

It is interesting to search the New Testament and find that word is used only in only one other place, and in that other place it is translated to mean “The Upper Room.” On the night of his betrayal, when Jesus gathered with his disciples for the Passover meal, we know they gathered an Upper Room, but it’s the same word used for Inn in the text that tells the story from Luke 2, and it means a large guest room. Which if you think about it, gives some almost perfect symmetry to the life of Jesus, that His first family and last meal could have been in the guest room, except there was no room in that Inn.

He was a guest in our world, but the guest room was full, and so he Mary and Joseph had to make do in the stable. There was no room in the Inn.

Like Liquid Paper on a CRT - Adaptation is not Change

First the lot emptied, then one day a crane appeared and lowered the huge sign. Next day it was being boxed up and day following, gone. All that remains in the large capital H that is built into the building and now I’m guessing will stand from Hewlett. I remember when they built that Hummer dealership and all those years of driving by when its lot was filled with the different models and colors, and especially the ones parked at precarious angles in the drainage ditch. "Over at Don Hewlett Hummer," writes Autoblog.com, "customers can test-drive the full-sized SUVs on an obstacle course." The obstacle they didn't test drive was the changing world.

It’s a contrast to the abandoned Movies Plus store over in Taylor. This store joins Blockbuster, that announced Chapter 11 today and may soon go the way of VHS, Circuit City, Linens 'n Things, and Sharper Image.

Five years ago, who could imagine that any of these great companies would be history? For some it was a change in the marketplace or economy; factors outside their control. For others, it was an unfortunate decision or series of that either bet the company and lost, or failed to adapt when the world changed. Their marketplace and competitors still exists—people still need cool gadgets, appliances, electronics, DVDs, kitchen and bathroom soft items, only their company ability to sell them doesn't.

Each morning I dry by that big H, I think about God’s Church. According to the Wall Street Journal,

“Recent statistics have shown an increasing exodus of young people from churches, especially after they leave home and live on their own. In a 2007 study, Lifeway Research determined that 70% of young Protestant adults between 18-22 stop attending church regularly.” [WSJ]

I wonder if these now empty storefronts are just the first wave, a wave that will eventually empty our pews, reduce our once great churches. Years from now, we in the local church may realize the signs we missed or ignored. The larger governing bodies of the United Methodist Church understand problem, and are doing their best to educate the rest of us through studies, briefings, webinars, and called sessions of the Annual Conference.

But faith is an intensely personal experience and despite evidence to the contrary, most of us still think the way we experienced Christ need not change, even though most everything else about our Western world has. We act like all we have to do is rebrand it, or ReThink it, or jump on the latest technology or social network. I believe that unless we change from the inside seeking an almost fanatical dedication to our core purpose, these efforts will fail.

I mean consider the difference between Amazon.com and Cokesbury.com. Amazon and later adapter BN.com changed the whole way we buy, research, and experience books. Cokesbury also has an online presence, but it is an online catalog. No rethinking of the way they do business.

Because the denomination has asked that we support our Methodist Publishing House, I go to cokesbury.com. Twenty minutes later and still trying to login (first trying to find my account number, and password, finally giving up and trying to create for a new account). Click [Next], nothing happens. Finally I give up and call Cokesbury’s 800 number.

They find my account information immediately:

“Now what is the ISDN?” I tell her the title of the book.

“What I need is the item number?” I don’t know it, I say.

“Can you look it up on-line?” Sure, I say, and I go back to my laptop, go to cokesbury.com, find the item, and read off the numbers. Like I said its an online catalog, but a prime example of how we have embraced technology without adapting to it, how we use it. Its just an electronic form of a paper catalog.

Its like the old blond joke, of seeing Liquid Paper on the CRT. (if you don’t know what either are, here are the wikis Liquid Paper, CRT).

I guess my point is that I believe the church has more in common with Circuit City than with HUMMER. With HUMMER, the economy changed and suddenly people realized that they didn’t or never needed these huge SUVs, they still need personal transportation, just not this kind. Where as with Circuit City, the market still exists, people are still buying exactly what Circuit City used to sell.

I believe the “market” still exists for the Church too. It is not the case that the world will wake up one day and realize they don’t need what the Church has to offer. However if we don’t wake up and change the way we offer it, the world may decide it just doesn't need it way we like to offer it.

Adapting to change is only change when we allow it to go both ways; that is allow the adaption to change us and how we use it.

PS: For an interesting read on the demise of Circuit City, read How the Mighty Fall by Jim Collins, available at Cokesbury: http://www.cokesbury.com/forms/ProductDetail.aspx?pid=819624 1-800-409-5346

Links to how Penn and Teller did it (9:30-FLC)

On Sunday in the 9:30-FLC service, we showed a clip from The West Wing in which the illusionists Penn and Teller appeared to burn an American Flag in the White House, as part of Zoey Bartlett’s birthday party. We showed the clip as a way to begin a discussion of the threatened Qur’an burning this week by the pastor in Florida.

Our Media Team had found this The West Wing clip, as one it was based on from, I’m guessing, Penn and Teller’s Las Vegas show, which goes on beyond the one we showed, and explains how they did it. Its a really interesting clip, and quite profound for not only what it says, but how.

Here is the clip we showed on Sunday: [The West Wing]

Here is the Las Vegas show: [Penn and Teller in Las Vegas]

Member or Disciple?

It is unfortunate that the term “member” has become synonymous with the word disciple. It is unfortunate because being a disciple requires that we apprentice with people who have let their Hearts be Opened to Jesus, and their Minds be Enriched by Jesus whereas being a member might only mean showing up on our membership rolls. Being true to the Great Commission (Matthew 28), means we must first be concerned with disciple making, and make means that as a Church, we take this responsibility seriously.

My friend Rev. Paul Gravley, who is pastor of Hutto United Methodist wrote:

The word disciple, best translated, means apprentice. An apprentice is part student and part follower, with the goal of learning from the teacher in order to be as good at what they do as their teacher. In the case of the 12 disciples, they studied and learned under Jesus so that they, to the best of their ability, might be able to do what Jesus did! Then, at the end of his ministry, Jesus offers this incredible edict to the disciples: “go and make more disciples, and teaching them…” Jesus apparently thought that the 12 could actually do what Jesus did and not only that, that they could pass on to the subsequent generations that they can do what Jesus did.

This doing what Jesus did has been passed down to each of us so that each of us, through God’s grace, in Christ, and through the movement of the Holy Spirit, we too can do what Jesus did when people come Home to God, at St. Philip’s United Methodist Church.

The word Home is incorporated into our logo at St. Philip’s Logo. H.O.M.E. - where each letter has meaning

H – Hearts

O – Open

M – Minds

E – Enriched

When we welcome people into our church our hope is that they will come H.O.M.E. to God, that is become disciples of Jesus Christ with their Hearts Open, and Minds Enriched. But this has not been an articulated, or disciplined hope. Instead, it has been our practice to get people involved in choir or a Sunday School class, or in one of the committees of the church, and hope that they would figure out what it means to be a disciple. Disciple-making is too important to be left to chance. It takes training and intentionality – just as Jesus trained the first Disciples, so too we must be trained to be disciples of Jesus.

It may not be how we in the church today became disciples, but I submit to you that the world is very different than what it was, and we too have to adapt and change. Paul Gravley writes:

Consider that families move. Often, on average, once every five years. As nomadic people if who live on average to 80, we would have moved 16 times. In the community that we find ourselves in (the greater Williamson County area), that rate is probably much higher. This fact has major implications for the church, particularly with regards to disciple making.

Quite simply, St. Philip’s has a small window in a person or family’s life to help create disciples out of seekers, and it is time we become intentional about our disciple making process.

Over the next few weeks and months you will hear about an intentional disciple making process Connecting Ministries has been working on called HOMESteading, our local answer to the practice of intentional discipleship.