Tuesday, February 26, 2013

"Driver's Test"

Luke 13:1-9

How do we know if we are bearing fruit for God?  How do we know if what we do is worth doing?  In this parable, Jesus tells of a man who found no fruit on his fig tree for three years. The man felt he should cut it down because it was of no value. The gardener told him to lovingly tend to it for one more year...

Give it another chance....

On this road we are traveling during Lent, we might need to go back and re-do our Driver's Test.  Remember that? When was the last time you took a driver's test? The last time I took one was almost 30 years ago!  Goodness knows I probably don't know half the rules of the road, and yet I am out on it every day anyway.

A little refresher course wouldn't hurt.  Teaching at teenager to drive has been good for me. I learned, through Jake's instruction, things that I had forgotten or never knew.  Some lessons Jake taught me I am quite sure I never learned!  It is a good refresher for me!

So how do we stop and test ourselves along the way?  When we feel like what we are doing is fruitless and will never be of value, perhaps we should stop, re-evaluate, test our assumptions and give it another chance.  We need to be patient and loving with this journey we are on. We need to be grace-filled in the middle of the long and winding road.  We need to give it all a chance to redeem itself.

The road has an end point.  How we get there is up to us. We can plow headlong into it without a thought and without listening for the still small voice. Or we can pause, take a little driver's test, nurture our growth process a little and maybe learn something new in the process.

Thoughts? Email me or comment below.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Staying on the Main Road




One thing about following a road to the cross is that it isn't actually that much fun.  When you know that agony lies ahead, how can the journey be pleasant? And yet, we can't focus on the pain in our lives, as we journey, or we will stop dead in our tracks and never reach resurrection. So, we plow forward, regardless.  We plow forward and cry for help.

Hear, O LORD, when I cry aloud, be gracious to me and answer me!
 "Come," my heart says, "seek his face!" Your face, LORD, do I seek. Do not hide your face from me. Do not turn your servant away in anger, you who have been my help. Do not cast me off, do not forsake me, O God of my salvation!

This might be the time to add some inspirational CDs to the car's disc drive, or set the Sirius Satellite radio on inspirational healing talks with folks like Marianne Williamson or Oprah Winfrey.  Time to get a pep talk to keep things from falling apart.

Or maybe we need to hear from our faithful apostle, Paul, encouraging the Philippians to carry on.

... my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved. 

It is hard to stay on the main road, the road that leads to the cross, when we would rather turn off at the fun and easy road exits instead.  When we see off to the side of this road a bright and colorful amusement park, and off to this side we we see a lovely mountain stream and a picnic lunch, all we want to do is go off the exits of fun and relaxation. Staying put on this road is endless. And perhaps a little dull. And definitely a little depressing. So why do we have to do it?
Why can't we hang out in the fun and easy places during Lent ?
What's wrong with a little distraction?

Thoughts? Email me or comment below.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Hitchhiker from Hell

Luke 4:1-13

Jesus gets baptized and then gets thrown into the wilderness with the devil. What a great baptism party!

This scripture, about being thrown into the wilderness, always reminds me of a scary movie, where the people are afraid of what is lurking around the next tree... you know, a movie like The Blair Witch Project or something.

I just finished reading a Stephen King book called Desperation that also comes to mind when I think of the temptations all around Jesus.  The book takes place in the southwest US desert, no man's land, and is horrific.

I don't pretend to know the horrors that Jesus went through in his journey in the wilderness, his time of fasting and fighting with the devil.  But it can't have been easy and it probably came close to breaking his will to go on.

During Lent, sometimes, we feel like we have the devil on our back. We drag ourselves down into depressing moods and negative attitudes, particularly if we have decided to give up something like caffeine or smoking or some other highly-addictive drug that keeps our moods calm. We have allowed a faithful Christian discipline become hijacked by the negative energy of evil.

We have allowed our ROAD TRIP to become miserable because we have picked up the hitchhiker from hell and we just can't get that hitchhiker out of the car or off the road. No matter how hard we try.

This Lenten season we will be journeying through a sermon series called RESURRECTION ROAD TRIP. We are looking at images and metaphors of what it is like to be on the road toward the cross, and ultimately on the RESURRECTION highway.  We have a long way to go before we reach resurrection. Starting with figuring out how to get that Stephen King-esque hitchhiker off our backs.

Thoughts? Email me or comment below.