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Follow the Leader

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Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls (Matthew 11:29). Anyone with multiple kids knows that it's not unusual for a second or third child to do something earlier than their older sibling did. It's not always the case, but it does occur. One of the reasons this happens is probably because younger siblings have a shorter learning curve. They can usually learn how to do something by watching. I've noticed it in our two boys. Micah (2) is attempting things that Asher (6) didn't try until much later. Micah seems to be more adventurous. Case in point: One day recently Micah started calling out to me from the boys' room. I walked in to find Micah perched like a gargoyle on the top bunk of his and Asher's bed. As soon as he saw me, Micah started barking out orders, "You move that chair over here." At this point, a smarter person might have anticipated what chain of events was being set in motion. I didn't. Instead, I asked Micah why as I slid the overstuffed red chair toward the bed. Micah didn't bother to tell me. Instead, as soon as the chair was in range, he simply turned and let himself go into a free fall. I yelped. Micah went into a midair seated position, and executed a flawless landing in the chair. Later that day I was telling Rachel about it. She wasn't surprised by Micah's acrobatics. Apparently, he's been watching his older brother, who, instead of just falling, flings himself off the top bunk like a flying squirrel and lands with a "thunk" in one of the chairs half way across the room. I think it's safe to say that Asher never would have tried that at age two. I also won't be surprised if Micah is our first trip to the ER. Who knows what Ruthie will be trying by the time she's two. All of our lives, we will learn by watching. If you explain something to me, I might eventually get it. But I'll learn much more quickly if I watch you do it. And that right there is what it means to be a disciple. A disciple is someone who learns by watching. We see it in those who follow Jesus throughout his 3 year ministry. They learn by watching him, and then they try it themselves. That's why Jesus' primary call to His followers has less to do with belief and more to do with following. (See that verse on the top of this article.) This morning we're going to start learning from Jesus. We're going to be changed by watching him and, hopefully by learning to act as he acts. We're going to learn what it means to "love God" by watching Jesus' relationship with "the Father." I hope that you learn something today. I hope that it helps you go a little deeper in your relationship with a God who loves you very much.

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Happy Mother's Day

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Later on, we'll be talking about how Jesus changes lives, but I had to stop and remember the importance of today. If you haven't done so already, call your mother! I recently rediscovered a poem by one-time U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins entitled "The Lanyard". The narrator of the poem remembers making a lanyard for his mother while at summer camp. Here is an excerpt: ...I had never seen anyone use a lanyard or wear one, if that's what you did with them, but that did not keep me from crossing strand over strand again and again until I had made a boxy red and white lanyard for my mother. She gave me life and milk from her breasts, and I gave her a lanyard. She nursed me in many a sick room, lifted spoons of medicine to my lips, laid cold face-cloths on my forehead, and then led me out into the airy light and taught me to walk and swim, and I, in turn, presented her with a lanyard. Here are thousands of meals, she said, and here is clothing and a good education. And here is your lanyard, I replied, which I made with a little help from a counselor. Here is a breathing body and a beating heart, strong legs, bones and teeth, and two clear eyes to read the world, she whispered, and here, I said, is the lanyard I made at camp... I love this poem, because it's such a fitting picture of the way things work. I love the contrast between the gifts of the mother and this one cheap, useless piece of plastic. Our mothers give so much. And nothing we give in return can measure up to the mountains of blessings they pour out onto us. So today, on Mother's Day, I hope you have been given something. I'm sure that whatever it is you were given in no way measures up to what you have given out. But I hope that it still reminds you just how important you moms are. May God bless you as you bless us.

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Aliens In America

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It's a sad time of year for me. Sure, the weather is getting warmer. Summer is just around the corner. Soon we will be going to the beach, Busch Gardens, Camp Idlewild (Woohoo!) and Tides games. And sure, the days have gotten longer, which means we can play outside with the kids after dinner. Everything is lush with color. When the wind blows, the leaves give off a green whisper instead of a brown crackle. So why do I have this vague sense that something is missing? What's with this creeping sensation that something's not quite right? It's as if I should be looking for something that I've lost but I'm not even sure what it is. And then I see the calendar and I remember. Football season is sooo far away. It ended back in February. But back then I could tell myself that there was the NFL draft to look forward to. That happened last weekend. College football is done with spring practice, and the scrimmages are over. We have now entered the football doldrums. I can now look forward to three more months of pigskinless weekends. And that's if I include the NFL preseason. We're actually four months away from "real" games. Oh well. I look at this way-at least I don't have to worry about missing SportsCenter. I mean, there aren't any other sports being played right now, right? (Can you tell I'm a little biased?) Ok. Maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration. I'm not as bad as I used to be. I think Rachel would tell you I watch a lot less football than I did before (back me up here, honey). And when my teams lose, it doesn't ruin my day like it used to. This mania can all be explained by my Southern upbringing. In SEC country, football (particularly college football) just plain crosses the line into idolatry. I have actually heard of large numbers of people who didn't go to a close family member's wedding because it took place on the Saturday of the Auburn/Alabama game. You have to see it to believe it. People so identify with their particular team, it's all they can think about. They live for their team. The success of their life is determined by the success of their team. It is a classic example of groupthink in action. During football season people stop being individuals and start being fans. I'm sure there are some fascinating Psychological studies that could be done on the power of identifying with a sports team. This morning, we're going to continue looking at how Jesus changes lives. And we're going to be looking at how Jesus calls for pretty dramatic allegiance, as well. Jesus calls on us to pledge allegiance to the Kingdom of Heaven. Paul says that, in Jesus, there are no Jews or Greeks, no males or females (Galatians 3:28). I would say there are no Vols or Gators, no Titans or Ravens. And where I'm from that's saying a lot. What about you? What affiliations do you think are really important? Which ones are important to your identity? Are they sports related, political, or maybe even religious? Whatever they are, Jesus will call you to a different kind of allegiance. The Good News is that we're invited to identify with an infinitely greater arena.

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Carrier, Politics, and Screwtape

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I was on a roll and then I quit posting. Why don’t we get this thing going again with some miscellaneous items? Did anyone else watch Carrier? I gave you a heads up about it last month. If you missed it you can watch a lot of clips at the website. A film crew embedded on the USS Nimitz for a full deployment. I have been enthralled. I’d love to hear from those of you who can speak with experience. How fair of a representation is it? I find it convincing, but what do I know? I love that you get a glimpse of all the different types of people who live on this floating city. It really shows how different people experience Navy life differently. Seems like so much depends on where you’re coming from and what your attitude is. So did you watch it? Maybe you’re thinking to yourself, “Why would I want to watch what I do at work?” Rachel feels that way about watching medical shows. I’ve never seen a reality show based on a minister’s life. Because, well, how fun could it be to watch a minister write a sermon? Not exactly a ratings bonanza. Anyhow, let me hear from you if you’ve been watching. Also, for all of you current issues/politics folks, I just listened to an episode of Speaking of Faith that features a discussion between three very different evangelical leaders about faith and politics. How should we as Christians engage in the political arena? Chuck Colson, Greg Boyd and Shane Claiborne have their disagreements (one is a pacifist, another worked in the Nixon administration), but they manage to have a very considerate and thoughtful discussion. Give it a listen. You can download the podcast, listen to, or watch their discussion at the Speaking of Faith website. I’ll probably talk more about it at a later date. And I’m probably going to share one of Shane Claiborne’s anecdotes from the discussion on Sunday morning. Finally, I just rediscovered this quote from C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters. You’ll recall it’s a fictional (of course) correspondence between an older managing demon and his apprentice/nephew demon about how to best tempt a man to stray. Here he is talking about how useful it is to tempt humans to spend a lot of time worrying about the future or the past and very little time living in the present:
He (God) does not want men to give the Future their hearts, to place their treasure in it. We do. His ideal is a man who, having worked all day for the good of posterity…washes his mind of the whole subject, commits the issue to Heaven and returns at once to the patience or gratitude determined by the moment that is passing over him. But we want a man hagridden by the Future—haunted by visions of an imminent heaven or hell upon earth—ready to break the Enemy’s (God’s) commands in the Present if by so doing we make him think he can attain the one or avert the other.
May God give us this day our daily bread. And may we see what a blessing it is.

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Turn Around

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I'm kind of a grammar geek. I was that weird kid in grade school who loved diagramming sentences. There's just something comforting about figuring out how each word fits into the sentence and charting it accordingly. It's the only way I can connect with those of you who like to look at budgets and financial reports, but for some reason it's just not the same for me. I also like to study how language changes through the years. Language formation and grammar are always in flux. "Standard" English today is not the standard English of 100 years ago or even 50 years ago, for that matter. What is acceptable today might not have been acceptable in the writing of our parents or grandparents. That's because language can be driven from the bottom up. What I mean to say is that rules of grammar can be changed by general usage. As much as grammarians might complain, correct word usage is not always determined by the rules. It takes time, but if a majority of the people of a certain language adopts a way of saying something, it will eventually become the standard. It doesn't matter if it's right or wrong. A good example is the word irregardless. Right now, if you were to use the word irregardless in a paper for school, your paper would come back to you bleeding red ink. Irregardless is not technically a word in standard usage. Irregardless is a combination of two words that have overlapping meanings-irrespective and regardless. But I would bet that in another 50 years or so, the word irregardless will be a standard word, simply because so many people are using it. English teachers can complain if they want, but you might as well try keeping the tide from coming in. Unfortunately for an English snob like me, the tide is coming in on the pronunciation of the word nuclear. It still drives me crazy to hear it pronounced nu-cue-lar. But it's probably here to stay. In the same way that words can change, they can also fall out of use. This morning we're going to be talking about a word that we're hearing less and less. And we Christians (particularly we preachers) are probably to blame. It's a word that is prominent in the Gospels but is not very prominent in our conversation. I would guess that's because it was used so extravagantly and so loudly, people just became tired of it. This word just began to lose its punch. Today I'd like to try and bring that word back, especially because it is among Jesus' first words to His followers. When Jesus begins to change lives, He invites us to change in a specific way. He invites us to repent. I hope you'll get a clearer picture of what that means this morning.

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Tell Your Story

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Good morning! Rachel and the kids and I are out of town today. We're at Keith and Deborah's farm with the rest of Rachel's family. I'm really glad to be taking a weekend off and spending it with my family, but I will also miss being with my church family. I look forward to worshiping with you next week. For now, let me give you a preview of the morning you're going to have... I love to read the first sentences of some of my favorite stories: • "I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice." -A Prayer for Owen Meany • "It was a dark and stormy night." -A Wrinkle in Time • "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit." -The Hobbit • "All this happened, more or less."-Slaughterhouse Five And my new favorite... • "I told you last night that I might be gone sometime, and you said, Where, and I said, To be with the Good Lord, and you said, Why, and I said, because I'm old, and you said, I don't think you're old."-Gilead Of course, what makes a story good isn't just the beginning but the rest of it, as well. I love every one of the stories quoted above. I've read them all multiple times, with the exception of the last one (which I read for the first time just last year). I don't remember a thing about the beginnings of stories I have not cared for. And, as good as those first sentences are (I wish I had come up with any of them), I really love them because I know the rest of each story. I know the depth of the narrator's memory for Owen Meany, the boy with the wrecked voice. I know what adventure awaits Meg Murray on that dark and stormy night. I know the playfulness and the seriousness with which Vonnegut says everything in the story happened. And I know the beautifully heartbreaking words of farewell that John Ames is about write to his young son. This morning you'll get to hear a couple of stories that I love. The first is the story of Paul and of his conversion to the Way of Christ. I think that someone ought to write a modern version of Paul's story. It's amazing. There's a great novel in it, just waiting to be brought forth. The other story you'll get to hear is the story of Bill Hromada and of his conversion to the Way of Christ. It is also an amazing story. Bill's story is a rousing example of how a life can be changed through Jesus. As you worship this morning. As you reflect on your life during the Lord's Supper, let me invite you to also reflect on your story. How has Jesus changed your life? How is Jesus changing your life even now? I also invite you to share that story with others. We need to hear these stories. They can be a great source of faith. They can inspire. They can spur us on to let Jesus have a hold of our story.

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Connections Sunday

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From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. (Ephesians 4:16) Just before Ruth Ann was born, Rachel and I took a two-day trip to DC just to get away. As luck would have it, "Bodies: The Exhibition" was on display in Arlington, so we got tickets. Perhaps you've heard about "Bodies." Part science and part art, it features approximately 20 human cadavers captured in different poses and dissected in different ways so as to shed light on human anatomy. The point of the exhibit is to educate viewers about the wonderful complexity of the human body. As far as I am concerned, the exhibit was a success. I came away realizing just how intricately God has made us. The psalmist says it well: "(We are) fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14)." One of the most impressive aspects of the display focused on the musculoskeletal system. Standing in front of a complex web of muscles, ligaments, tendons and bones, it was amazing to me all that was involved in even the simplest of tasks. For every bone that had to move there was a muscle or system of muscles for that movement. And each muscle was attached to its respective bone in just the right place so as to enable mobility. Finally, for every muscle that performed one action, another performed its opposite. Otherwise we would only be able to, say, open our mouths rather than close them or bend our knees rather than straighten them. Of course these muscles usually do their things without us even thinking of them. But it's really amazing when you think about it. That system of muscles is able to keep us moving. It lifts and pushes and propels our entire body in very subtle and complex ways. And it does so by working in concert. If the muscles didn't work together, human movement would be impossible. No one muscle is strong enough or sitting in the right place. It takes the entire system. Today is Connections Sunday. It's a chance for you to be better connected to this church. We hope that today you will find new friendships and new ways to serve God. Both are important. They are important to the church and they are important to us as individuals. It's no coincidence that Paul uses the metaphor of a body to explain the church. It takes a system of organs working together to make the church move. Without all of its parts, the body doesn't work as well. But at the same time, without the rest of the body no individual part can live up to its full potential. Today, if you haven't already, I hope you'll find your place hear at Norfolk Church of Christ. I hope you'll make connections. If you can, it will be a blessing to you and to this church.

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American Idol Goes to Church

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American Idol rarely surprises me anymore. I’ve now watched 3 seasons in their entirety (guilty pleasure, anyone?) and they’ve all basically followed the same formula. But this week’s episodes managed to provide a double shock. If you’re not a watcher of the show, the first surprise probably won’t be of interest to you. I was surprised to see Michael Johns exit when he did. Poor choice in neckwear aside (a cravat? really?), I liked the guy. Not a great performer, but a great singer. The second surprise was that anyone who happened to turn on the end of Wednesday night’s episode might have thought they had accidentally stumbled onto one of those infomercials for praise music. Part of every results show is a group-sing from the contestants, usually one that pertains to that week’s theme. These are usually painful to watch. Case in point: this hokey version of "9 to 5" on the week when Dolly Parton was a mentor to the contestants. They actually line dance. Te-hee. Anyhow. The group song for this week was…(wait for it)…"Shout to the Lord!" Yes, that "Shout to the Lord." I never in a million years saw that one coming. They actually sang a praise song! Now, I didn’t get to see Wednesday night’s performance because my DVR cut off before the ending. But you can check it out here. Notice they edited the lyrics to make them less overtly Christian, leaving out the name Jesus. But last night (for result’s night part 2) they sang an unedited version. Check it out by clicking here: So what do y’all think? What do you make of this? I hope you’ll leave a comment. I have a lot that I can say about this, but I want to hear what you have to say. How do you react to hearing one of “our” songs on American Idol? My initial response is to say “Hmm. Cool.” But there’s more. For now I hope you’ll watch the video and chime in. If you don’t, you’ll be forced to listen to me prattle on about it. And aren’t you tired of hearing from me? (Please don’t vote me off.)

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Be Fruitful

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“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)

So how does Jesus change lives? I hope to get a glimpse of it in the coming weeks. We will be following Jesus—listening to him teach and watching him work. We will hear him invite his followers to change; we will see him change lives.

This week, I want to start at the end—the end of a life changed by Jesus. Among the different metaphors Jesus uses to describe this kind of life is the metaphor of fruit. Jesus says that, when it’s all said and done, His followers will be known because they bear fruit and that it’s good fruit. What does he mean? We’ll talk about that this morning. In the meantime, for your reading enjoyment, I thought I’d give you a little bit of useless fruit information from our friends over at wikipedia.com.

• Botanically speaking, cucumbers, tomatoes, peas, corn, beans and peppers are all fruit.
• Botanically speaking, raspberries and blackberries are not actually berries, but tomatoes and avocados are.
• According to superstition in the UK, it’s unwise to pick blackberries after 9/29, because after this date they’ve been claimed by the devil.
• The apple originated in Central Asia in regions including modern-day Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
• Bananas and oranges both originated in Southeast Asia.
• Alexander the Great is credited with the “discovery” of dwarf apples in Asia Minor and bananas in India.
• According to mythology, an apple is the indirect cause of the Trojan War.
• Despite popular misconception, Genesis doesn’t say that the “forbidden fruit” is an apple. Perhaps the idea arose from the fact that, in Latin, the words for apple and evil are the same in the plural (mala).
• In a number of languages, the orange is known as “the Chinese apple.”
• The navel orange was first grown in the 19th century at a Brazilian monastery.
• The world’s leading producer of fresh fruit is India, followed by Vietnam.
• The world’s leading producer of tropical fruit is the Philippines.
• The difference between jam and jelly is that, in jelly preparation, the fruit pulp is filtered out.

Now that you’re ready to go on Jeopardy, let’s look at what really matters. What does Jesus mean when talks about fruit? And how fruitful are you and I? And what must we do to bear fruit? Thanks for joining us for worship.

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