I'm in James today. Now I should probably give full disclosure and say that James is probably the book that has given legs to my faith. The Gospels are great, fantastic, and, let's face it, we wouldn't have a bible without those stories. However, James, as much as the Gospels, is the book that has kicked my butt.

What I enjoy about it the most is that it says a lot of hard things about being a Christian that most Christians don't want to say. While most Christians say that a personal relationship with Christ is all you need (which is, technically, true), James says that there is no way that a true faith in the real God can be impotent; a relationship with Christ WILL change the way you behave towards others...and towards yourself.

1:22 says this, "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." It goes on to say (in essence) that anyone who ONLY listens to the word is a fantastic moron...that it is like immediately forgetting what your face looks like directly after having looked in the mirror. That is pretty funny.

But then he says this, "But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and CONTINUES (caps mine) to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it - he will be blessed in what he does."

And that's the hard part, right? Continuing to stare into God's perfect law, his word. I find that the more I do it, however, the more I am blessed. Or maybe it's not that, but that I see God's blessing more. When I am in continuous communion with God, staying in prayer, in my bible, and loving others, God seems to be so much more evident in my life and the world around me. I tend to notice where God is and what He is doing when I, only by God's grace and discipline, CONTINUE in my faith as if it were the most important thing in my life...because, well, it is.

As a side note, I have to say that whenever I write a blog, it is probably more for my own benefit than anyone who happens to read it. I NEED to remind myself often of these truths that surround me. I NEED to challenge myself with the truth of God in order to fully function in my life. When I don't, I begin to feel spiritually drained, and disconnected from my creator and my God.

matt

In the beginning of John 16, Jesus says these words, "All this I have told you so that you will not fall away.  They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the hour is coming when those who kill you will think they are offering a service to God.  They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me."

Interesting, I think, for two reasons.

First, Jesus was telling his disciples that "church" would hate them.  The "church" would throw them out and even try to kill them because of their "radical" beliefs...hmmmm... Maybe one of the good reasons many people don’t fit in church now is not because they don’t believe in God, but because their beliefs about what God REALLY cares about are different from the "church" crowd.  For example, is it too far of a stretch to think that Jesus cares MUCH more about the homeless, prostitutes, drug dealers, poverty, wellfare, single mothers, and orphans than He does about whether or not gay people get married?  Or maybe he cares more about the Kingdom of Heaven and what that looks like than the kingdom of America, capitalism, and the declining value of the dollar...

Secondly, Jesus makes it very apparent that if we truely follow Him, we should expect to be ridiculed, ostracized, and possibly killed.  The funny thing to me is that we have tamed our faith in Jesus down to the point where it is comfortable.  Following Jesus has actually become easy:  Go to Church (maybe even tithe!), vote Republican (because Jesus was republican), and make sure your yard looks good and that your house is clean.  That will definitely qualify you as Christian.

I’m praying that we, the Church, God’s chosen instrument to reveal Himself to the world, start to move closer to Him by REALLY loving other people and not trying so hard to protect ourselves from those same people...

I meet lots of folks being in ministry.

I meet plenty of new students on campuses just about everyday. I meet new people who come to our church for the first time. I meet parents who want to know what the heck I am teaching their children. And I think I am learning that there is one common thread throughout humanity...that we are all looking for something REAL. Something to give purpose to life, something to love and to hold on to.

Now I have also found that for the most part, people are not turned off to God. In fact, most people would agree that the thing they want most is to know who God is, to experience beyond all doubt his reality in their lives. But the majority of people who go searching for that walk away unsatisfied. This God they believe in doesn’t meet all their needs and isn’t around for them when they are in trouble. It’s hard for them to believe in a god that would let bad things happen to them, a god that would actually let them go through trials of life. Because if God is love (like the bible says), why wouldn’t he just stop some of the things in our lives from happening to save us from grief and sorrow, loneliness, sickness, etc, etc.

I think part of the reason people come away with an unsatisfied feeling with God is because they have tried to make him obey their wishes. "I’m sick, God. Get me better." "I need money, God. Fix it." Whether or not people realize it, they want God only to the extend that they can control Him. But that’s not really God.

Jesus says in John 14 "If you love me you will obey what I command." Now, honestly, that does sound like something to say just to manipulate people. I’ve heard plenty of times where people say that to other people..."you’ll do this for me if you really love me..." and they guilt the other party into doing something. And the funny thing is I seem to love other people more when they do what I command. So when Jesus says to obey His command and that will show Him that we love Him, that seems a little selfish. At least until we know his command.

In the very next chapter, Jesus says, "This is my command: LOVE EACH OTHER." Now for some reason that doesn’t seem selfish anymore. It’s so weird how that works, that Jesus says in order to love Him you HAVE TO LOVE OTHERS. And I would guess that those people who have come away unsatisfied with God do so because they have never really obeyed this command. Instead, they love themselves and ask God to do their bidding. The reality though, as foolish as it sounds, is that loving others the way Christ did...selflessly, sacrificially...will lead you closer and closer to God.

And I have found THAT to be true. That we will never be close to God, now matter much we read the bible, no matter how much we "know" about him, and no matter how much we pray. Let’s all do that a little bit better today, this whole loving others thing, and see where God shows up. I’m wagering that He’s already there...

I’ve been realizing that if Christianity were more dangerous, maybe more people would be interested in it.

There is this story in John 12 that I think is so interesting. Jesus has been doing some pretty crazy things, not least of which is raising Lazarus from the dead. And there were a whole mess of people around to see this happen. So a little while after this event, Lazarus and his sisters (Mary and Martha) decide to throw a dinner party for Jesus. Lazarus probably assumed it was the least he could do since the guy brought him back to life...

Now Jesus was already controversial. There were people plotting to kill him, even though He was performing miracles in their presence. He was messing up the way of life for many Jewish folks who thought they had a monopoly on God. So the fact that he was getting himself into trouble was not surprising. What is surprising, and maybe a little comical, is that the chief priests were also wanting to kill Lazarus. Why? Because he was now a freak show. He had been dead and was now alive and people wanted to see him and when they saw him they believed in Jesus. So, obviously, Lazarus should die to. His mere association with Jesus, the fact that he had been affected by Jesus and was alive made people want to kill him. Needless to say, Lazarus was guilty by association.

So my question is this...how is it that something that was once so controversial has now turned into everyday tea-time? We’ve tamed religion and our belief in Jesus so that it is no longer anything dangerous. And I think we’ve done this by not taking Jesus’ claims seriously, and possibly even making Jesus in to something we want him to be...

Is it so crazy to think that Jesus would not be a white, middle-class republican? Is it so crazy to think that Jesus, were he walking on earth now, would be more concerned with social justice and the homeless and the hungry than homosexual marriage? Maybe Jesus would have a few things to say to the religious elite...maybe he would speak out against all the buildings we have constructed and put the name "church" on them, or maybe he’d bring his prostitute and gay friends into the middle of a worship service and ask "who’s going to love and help these people?" Now that would cause a stir.

Maybe Jesus is still dangerous.

I’ve been reading John with a fresh perspective coming of a 10 week class in the Gospels at Fuller Seminary. I’m really enjoying it because it seems so different now from the synoptics (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), and I never really understood the differences before.

Anyhoo, I think I’m learning that one of the biggest reasons people are afraid to follow Jesus is that they think they will have to give some things up...partying, alcohol/drugs, sex, basically ’having fun.’ I actually remember thinking some of the same things when I began to follow Jesus at about 19. I remember focusing on the religious rules, thinking that all Christianity was about was to get people to straighten up, to live their lives in a certain way. And on the surface, maybe that’s true. Maybe that’s what most people who don’t really know Jesus think, because that’s the face the church has put on Christianity for so many years.

In John 9-11 Jesus has been doing some AMAZING things...he healed a man blind from birth (but the Jewish leaders wanted to kill him for it), he raised Lazarus from the grave, who then walked out of his tomb with the linens still wrapped around his body. And many people are seeing what is going on and believing in him. Jesus, more than anything else, is about giving LIFE. He declares "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." He is about healing and restoration and reconciliation...and it makes people who have been comfortable with their "religion" angry!! They are so used to their lives and the rules they have made up that when something pure and true and beautiful comes along they can’t bear to see it.

One of them, the Jewish high priest even declares, "Here is this man performing many miraculous signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation."

I think that sentiment is true of most people who aren’t willing to believe and follow Jesus; that we will lose our "comfort", our way of life that we have set up for ourselves. We think to ourselves "what happens if I can’t live my life the way I want to." And that may be true. I certainly thought that...at least until I realized that what Jesus was offering was SO much better than what I had set up for myself.

And so now I spend my time trying to convince people of that. That Jesus is LIFE. That living with him is so much better than anything we could do alone. And if we would just give him a shot, his promises would make sense. Our lives would begin to make sense. And although being a follower of Jesus is BY FAR the hardest thing I have ever done, it is the truest thing I have ever done.

Nothing in my life is good on it’s own anymore. Nothing in my life is good without Jesus.

If you ask just about anybody on the streets today, Christian or not, about who Jesus was and what his message was, most likely you will get a pretty standard answer, something like this. "Jesus was a good teacher. He taught about love and peace and God." And while I certainly also believe those things, it’s interesting to take a look at what a 1st Century Jewish person, someone who actually heard his words, would think.

I think it can be summed up in the first verse of John 7.

"Jesus went around in Galilee, purposely staying away from Judea because the Jews there were waiting to take his life."

I guess I forget just how controversial Jesus was...and is...

Why would someone who taught peace and love be sought after in order to kill him?

I think the biggest reason is that Jesus was calling the "religious" people out on how they lived their lives. He was calling into question their practices, their rules, and their interpretations of scripture. He was the first century "Rage Against the Machine." And people who had grown accustomed to their perfect little religious system weren’t too happy with what Jesus was saying about them.

Now don’t misunderstand me. I love my church. And I do believe that it is God’s desire to use the church to communicate His love to the world around us. But I wonder what Jesus’ words for us religious folk might be today. I wonder if He would be in our face about what our worship services look like, or the "politics" we align ourselves with. I wonder if Jesus would hang out in bars, with gay people, with the homeless, with addicts. My suspicion is that He would, and that He would have a few words to say to us about how we spend our time, how we use power, how we do church, and how we attempt to love people.

And I think we, too, might want to kill Him...

Let’s be honest. Some of Jesus’ teachings, had we been there to hear them first hand, would have been pretty freaky. Take this one from John 6; "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me."

Now I know in the 21st century we have new fad-diets just about every week, but come on...

Some have said that these verses refer to our communion (bread and wine) and that when taken, the elements actually become Jesus’ flesh and blood. Some (in the first and second century) thought that Jesus was advocating cannibalism. So what the heck does he mean?

I believe Jesus is telling us that in Him there is LIFE; that His presence on earth provides us access to God; that He himself is the most fulfilling, sustaining, and satisfying thing we could ever imagine. He is TRUE access to what we really need in life, and nothing else will do. All other food and drink is only food and drink. We will become hungry and thirsty again. But in Jesus we will never need for anything else.

And I’ll leave you with this; a beautiful promise from Jesus written in Matthew 6...

"So do not worry, saying, ’What shall we eat?’ or ’What shall we drink?’ or ’What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."

In John 3 an argument arises among John the Baptist’s disciples about whether it is okay for Jesus to actually baptize people. "Look, he is baptizing and everyone is going to him." Now I guess I can understand why they are so upset...John has basically had a monopoly on the baptizing business for probably about 10 years. His disciples LOVE the way he does things, and now, all of the sudden, there is another guy on the scene doing it, too. And differently. And people are actually going over THERE... I’d imagine their reaction would be something like, "Hey, is he supposed to do that? I thought only we did that..."

This sentiment is not too far off from how churches seem to work. We get so caught up with the way we do things that we actually get upset when "someone else" has a good idea, or starts to do something well, especially if it is taking attention away from what we are doing. We use all sorts of reasons to justify ourselves and condemn the other party...."That’s really not biblical...I like what they’re doing, but...they don’t use the bible enough...they are too big to teach depth...they are too small to be healthy evangelizers..."

The problem is when we do this we are really focusing on our own, man-made kingdom rather than the one God is about. John’s reply to his disciples is amazing, "He must become greater; I must become less." If churches and church leaders would actually take that to heart when looking at others’ ministries, the Kingdom of God would be so much greater for it. But we usually don’t, because we like our way of doing things so much that we couldn’t possibly see the true Kingdom value in another way of doing things.

I have found that many people, including me, get caught up frequently in theological discussions about "Church stuff." And, being a youth pastor, the emphasis of what I teach and many of those conversations comes down to 'how to live' and practicalities of the Christian faith. I do think these are of utmost importance, because if we don't know how to recognize that "the Kingdom of Heaven is near" right now, what sense does our faith make here on earth? Being able to live our faith NOW seems to me what people want to know the most about, and while teaching (let alone living) that is difficult, I feel like I haven't been teaching the whole story (at least lately).

Today in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul cuts straight to the chase. "For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve."

And there it is. I would say that's Theology 101. And I love how simply Paul puts it; "here's what you should believe first and foremost to follow Christ."

And somehow, I feel like I've missed that, or at least I don't communicate that well enough to those around me. That needs to change, because as Paul puts it in the 1st chapter of 1 Corinthians..."not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emtied of its power."

I pray that I NEVER put myself, my words, my thoughts (or how I communicate them) before the CROSS and the power it has. I pray that I preach Jesus Christ not first, but ONLY, and that His life, death, and resurrection be glorified and celebrated in my life...

I'm working on it...

I'm selfish.
Now, deep inside I have known this a long time. If I'm with friends and we're discussing whether to have a sandwich or a burrito for lunch, I want the burrito everytime. Why? Because they're better. But also, because I'm selfish. And we all to a certain extent, right? It's hard to put others first if one is not used to doing it. It takes practice. And putting others first is the antithesis of selfishness. And have you ever noticed how many friends those who are unselfish are? Usually a bunch.
But here's my real point. In 1 Corinthians 9:12, Paul writes, "...we put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ." Wow. What does that mean? What exactly is put up with anything? Well, as a youth pastor, here are a few 'anythings'...

cussing, paying for students food all the time, kids calling for rides 3 minutes after youth group has started, music that really isn't music, eating way too much pizza, students not listening to messages, longandstinky van rides, MEXICO, girls not talking to their girlfriends, girls not talking to their boyfriends, listening in on way-inappropriate conversations about fill-in-the-blank, drinking and drugs, etc, etc, etc.

But that is the fun part. If I had to have my way all the time, I wouldn't be a youth pastor. More than that, I probably wouldn't be a very good follower of Christ.

So my hope is that we can all (although we are not apostles) take Paul's advice and begin to 'put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ.' Can we, as followers of Christ, put away our selfish selves in order for others to see Jesus better? It's tough, right? But we have to...