“WHEN I GROW UP, I WILL GO THERE”

In what is considered one of the best novels ever written, Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad tells the story of a man who goes up the Congo River on behalf of a trading company. As the story begins, Conrad relates that this man had a passion for maps as a child. He would look at a particularly inviting place, put his finger on it, and say, “When I grow up, I will go there.”

Perhaps you have said a similar thing when faced with Christ’s call to be his disciple. In a sermon, Dan Meyer puts our reaction this way: “When I grow up I’ll go there. When I have more faith, I’ll go to these places Jesus is talking about. When I’m a little more convinced I might go there. When I don’t have all of these obligations, distractions, and complications I might go then. “

When Jesus calls us to be his disciples, though, he does not give us the option of waiting until we think we are ready to follow him to the difficult places to which he calls us. Consider these penetrating and well known words in Matthew 16:24-25: “Jesus told his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

Jesus spoke those words after a pair of dramatic moments with Simon Peter. First Peter makes his confession of Jesus as God’s Son after Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” Then Jesus tells the apostles that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer and be killed and be raised on the third day. Peter challenges Jesus on this being his destiny and tells him, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” Peter was saying, I am not ready for that. Not until I grow up. Then I will go there. But Jesus responded, “Get behind me, Satan.”

Like Peter, we may not want to go to the places God has placed on the map in front of us. We think to ourselves, and may even say to God, “When I grow up, I might go there.” We fail to realize that it is only by going with God to those places on the map where we have never been that we actually grow up and live as his disciples.

In the Disney Pixar movie The Incredibles the middle-aged suburban dad has been living a routine life. He pulls into his driveway to find his neighborhood boy watching him. He asks the boy, “What are you waiting for?” The boy looks back at him, and says, “Something amazing.” The man responds wistfully, “Me too, kid, me too.”

Jesus calls us to something amazing when he says, “Come, follow me.” This is the most amazing invitation we will ever receive. We dare not wait until “we grow up,” but should say yes to it.

“Follow Me” or Follow Me?

The essence of discipleship, the theme we are considering as we explore the Gospel of Matthew in my current sermon series, is responding to Christ’s call when he says “Follow me.” Many people, though, would rather follow me. That is, they would rather follow their own view of who God is and how they want to live. Even Christians have to be careful of falling into that trap.

New York Times columnist, Ross Douthat wrote about such a woman. Elizabeth Gilbert, in 2001 at age 32, had a rewarding job, an apartment in Manhattan, a big new house in the Hudson Valley, and a devoted husband. Five years later at 3:00 AM one morning, she locked herself in her bathroom, weeping over a life she didn’t want anymore, and then fell on her knees in prayer.

Culturally she was a “Christian,” but she was not able to believe that Christ is the only way to God. On the night of her prayer, she addressed herself to “God,” but she had no idea who God is. Her prayer was simple, "I don't want to be married anymore. I don't want to be married anymore. I don't want to live in this big house.”

Gilbert would eventually hear someone speak back. She said, “It was merely my own voice, speaking from within my own self …. [And yet], this was my voice as I had never heard it before… How can I describe the warmth of affection in that voice, as it gave me the answer that would forever seal my faith in the divine?"

Fortified by this "religious conversation," she left the husband and the house and the plans for having kids behind and set out into the unknown. Then she started a globe-trotting "spiritual quest" that led to the publishing phenomenon known as Eat, Pray, Love—a book that spent an extraordinary 187 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and was turned into a movie starring Julia Roberts.

Gilbert’s story is just another account of a person who “found God” within herself, which is not finding God at all. This has become one of the notions of God that is prevalent in our culture, but it is a false understanding of God.

Those of us who have responded to Christ’s call to “Follow Me” have to be careful that we are not just responding to the god within ourselves (follow me) who is not God at all. Christ’s call to discipleship is a call to follow him on his terms, not our own. Matthew clearly shows us that in his gospel. Continue reading Matthew as we explore it together, and learn how Jesus calls us to follow him.

The Great Adventure

In his book, The Island of Lost Maps, author Miles Harvey shares a sentiment you might share:

In my 30s I spent a great deal of time at the Kopi [a travelers’ café in Chicago] whose walls were adorned with masks from Bali and shelves filled with guides to far-flung destinations. I was then the literary critic for Outside Magazine, a great job but one that was beginning to wear on my patience. You see, the books I read were about people who climbed Himalayan peaks, rode a bicycle all the way across Africa, sailed wooden boats across the Atlantic, or tracked into restricted areas of China. These tales of adventure filled my days and my imagination, and yet my own life was anything but adventurous. The interior of the Kopi coffee shop was ringed by clocks, each one showing the time in some distant locale, and as I watched the weeks ticking away in places like Timbuctu and Juno and Goa and Denpasar, I began to long for an adventure of my own.

Dan Meyer, minister in Oak Brook, IL, opens a sermon from Matthew 4:18-25 that he titled “The Great Adventure” quoting that passage. He then tells that Harvey felt he was acting like a character in a Joseph Conrad novel who said, “When I grow up I will go there.” Then Meyer states the idea of the sermon as: “When Jesus says, ‘Follow me’ it’s the most amazing invitation you will ever get. Say yes to it.”

The story of the four fishermen that Jesus called to follow him in Matthew 4 is about four men who went on a great adventure when Jesus said to them, “Come follow me. Matthew, the author of the Gospel of Matthew, also received the call to follow Jesus and joined that great adventure. Many others during the course of Jesus’ ministry on earth and since have also joined the adventure. Meyer says:

In other words, lots of people from all walks of life and places lay down their tools, get out of their vehicles, release some of their associations, and follow him…. These people from all these places were willing to get up and go after Jesus because they had seen with their own two eyes what Jesus could do with a life put into his hands. They had seen his transforming power.

How about you? Do you want to go on an adventure great than anything you can imagine? Do you want to say with Joseph Conrad “When I grow up I will go there?” Jesus can take you to the place on the map that will change your life.

You get there by following Jesus. That is what the New Testament calls discipleship. There is no better place to learn about it than in Matthew’s Gospel. So we will do just that in the coming months.

Christmas Letter 2014

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased” – Luke 2:13-14

One year has passed since Christine went to be with the Lord. How do I sum up a year that has been filled with heartbreak over losing her and joy over knowing she has gone home, to the home all of us who follow Christ long for – our home with God? I am not sure I can, but let me mention just a few highlights.

I have been blessed in the past year by loving family, friends, and a wonderful church, including each one who will read this letter and who also grieve Christine’s death. Longtime family relationships and friendships have deepened for me as a result of our common grief and hope. One longtime friend who has been an encouragement to me over this last year has said repeatedly, “We will get through this together.” Many of you have demonstrated that sentiment without stating it. All I can say is thank you.

I ended last year and began this year with a two month break from my preaching and leadership responsibilities at our church, for which I am grateful. During that time and other time afforded me away from church, I visited family, returned to the church where I held my first preaching ministry, the first ministry decision Christine and I made together after we were married and a church where we have continued to have deep friendships, and I reoriented my life. I returned to preaching on February 2, and continue to carry on my life’s calling.

I was able to travel to a church planting conference in Florida and to the North American Christian Convention where I reconnected personally with friends I had not seen since Christine’s death. I also had occasion to speak at two retreats for church leaders about my journey on the theme, “Leading When Your Heart is Breaking.” Much more has happened that I do not have space to write about.

In early November, our daughter, Nancy, and son-in-law, Dave made their third mission trip to Nairobi, Kenya with a group from their church in Cincinnati. They are both engaged in ongoing work with the mission in Kenya and Dave is extending that work into other parts of Africa through his new mission, Africa Fire Mission. I am looking forward to when I will have an opportunity to go to Kenya with them.

On December 6 and 7, one year after Christine’s accident and death, Nancy, Dave, and I hosted an open house for family, friends and church members, and we held a special worship service on Sunday. Several of our family traveled to Madison for the weekend, including my sisters Karen and Connie, Connie’s husband, Doug, my brother, Tom, and his wife and their two sons, Christine’s sister, Susan, and her husband, and one niece. Christine’s and my longtime friend, Bud Clapp, came to preach for us that Sunday.

Among the things that Christine had on our refrigerator when she died was a scripture quotation from Psalm 73:23-26 that reaffirms everything she lived for: “Nevertheless I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My heart and my flesh may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

I trust you and your family will have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, and trust you will have a wonderful year in 2015.

Ken

Are You Ready For an Awesome Christmas

In the November issue of Christianity Today, Megan Hill asks “If Everything Is Awesome, Where Does That Leave God?” In her first three paragraphs, she writes the following:

I have never eaten an awesome meal. I’ve never driven an awesome car or taken an awesome vacation. I haven’t danced to an awesome song or streamed an awesome video. I do, however, know an awesome God.

My history with the word awesome goes back to my childhood, when my father—an amateur linguist and professional theologian—gently corrected my early attempts to apply that word indiscriminately. In our family, we reserved the adjective for the One whose name is great and awesome (Ps. 99:3).

My dad’s point was not that awesome itself was some sacred incantation only for the divine . He simply wanted me to acknowledge with my words that, in both character and magnitude, God is different from deep-dish pizza.

Hill goes on to describe that “we live in a culture of inflated language,” as illustrated by The Lego Movie in which they sing “Everything is awesome.” Then she says, “But if everything is awesome, then nothing is.”

After reading her column, I began thinking about Christmas, and it occurred to me that we can ready for Christmas — or we can be ready for an awesome Christmas.

So what is the difference. Well, I am glad you asked.

I began getting ready for Christmas early this year because Nancy, Dave, and I are holding a Christmas Open House on Saturday. I knew I would not have time to put the Christmas tree up and do some other decorating after Thanksgiving, so I decorated the tree and did some other Christmas decorating earlier than I ever have — before Thanksgiving. You can’t have a Christmas Open House, after all, without Christmas decorations. Now if I get a few more presents that I still need to buy, I will be ready for Christmas. It will be good to have all of that done for Christmas, but that will not make it an awesome Christmas.

You see, an awesome Christmas requires understanding and celebrating how Christmas began, and worshiping the one Christmas is all about.

So you will have an awesome Christmas when you reflect again on how the God who alone is awesome came into the world by being born of a virgin in the person of Jesus. Everything about the birth had been prophesied for centuries and occurred just as it had been prophesied. Nothing like that had happened before and has not happened since. God became a man. Angels announced the birth to shepherds who went to worship him. The world has not been the same since. Reflect on that and you will have an awesome Christmas

Reflections on “One Another”

The phrase “one another” is used at least six dozen times in the New Testament, both negatively and positively, to refer on the one hand to how Christians are not to treat one another and on the other hand to how Christians are to treat one another. I will only be able to deal with less than a dozen positive uses of the phrase in my current sermon series, so let me give you a glimpse at some of the other positive things Christians are to do for one another.

Greet one another — In Romans 16, Paul gives a long list of greetings to people in the church at Rome and instructions for them to greet specific people. Then, in Romans 16:16, he says, “Greet one another with a holy kiss.” One of the joys of watching people at Westwood on Sunday morning is how everyone greets one another. I have also experienced this kind of greeting in many church settings and Christian gatherings over the years. It is not only important in greeting one another that we say hello, but that we also keep our spiritual antenna up in listening to people and learning whether there are special joys or hurts that they are experiencing.

Serve one another — This phrase appears in Galatians 5:13 when Paul says “serve one another in love.” Leo Tolstoy studied a young artist’s painting of the Lord’s Supper and, referring to the image of Jesus said, “If you loved him more, you would paint him better.” The same can be said of our service for Christ — ”If you loved him more, you would serve him better” — and of our service for one another — “If we loved one another more, we would serve one another better.”

Bear one another’s burdens — Galatians 6:2 says, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” This verse comes immediately after Paul has told the Galatian church to restore those who have sinned with a spirit of gentleness. In the context in which Paul places this phrase — bear one other’s burdens — it is clear that we are to help fellow believers along the way who have fallen in some manner instead of condemning them. This often takes great effort, but has great rewards when a person is restored to his or her faith.

Bear with one another — Ephesians 4:2 says we are to “bear with one another in love.” It is important to recognize here how important love is in living out all of these one another instructions. Everyone of us will have relationships with other Christians who are hard to accept and love. Even as I write this, there are names and faces that come to my mind. However, we need to bear with these people and recognize the value they bring to the Kingdom of God and to the lives of others, recognizing that we too have our shortcomings and our own detractors.

Encourage one another — This phrase appears in 1 Thessalonians 5:11 alongside the phrase “build one another up.” Paul even says that his readers were already doing this. Everybody has a hard struggle of one kind or other and needs encouragement to keep on trusting and serving the Lord. There is no greater gift that you can give to others than encouragement.

Here’s an idea: search out the one another passages, make a list, and rate from 1 to 10 how you are doing with each one.

When We Are One With God and One Another...

Several years ago, I read a true missionary account of some unusual bickering that took place in a church in an isolated village in Thailand. There were sixteen Christian families in the village who became seriously divided over the use of their church property.

One of the younger Christian men, those father had owned the land on which the church building was built, decided to make the use of the land more productive. He fenced in the church property, dug up the ground, and planted corn. As the corn began to sprout, he began to dig the ground beneath the church building, which was constructed on stilts, and planted beans under the church building.

These actions caused the other Christians to suspend worship services. They were convinced the young man was laying a trap for them— that he would blame them if the bean crop failed. For many months the church did not meet, except for occasional meetings in individual’s homes. The church had lost its unity and purpose.

About a year later, a visit by two of the missionaries prompted a meeting of the church in the church building. The building was packed, and, then, as one of the missionaries preached, the entire length of floor on one side of the building collapsed and all the people on that side of the building tumbled to the ground. This shared experience helped reunite the Christians and inspired them to build a new building. This time the building was built on the ground with a dirt floor.

When the building was completed, the missionaries returned to the village for a building dedication. But two days before they left for the village, another young Christian man erected a small bamboo and grass house within fifteen feet of the new church, and by the time they arrived, the Christians were split again. Some accused the young man of deliberate disrespect for God and his fellow-Christians. Others were wisely urging patience and understanding. The young man himself pleaded ignorance of the fact that the church grounds were for church use only. In spite of the missionaries’ efforts to exhort both factions, they remained divided and unforgiving of one another. Of course, there was no dedication service.

On the one hand, we may find such division foolish or even laughable, but congregations in America have split over such small issues and Christians are often divided over issues of small consequence. So how do we maintain unity among Christians? Let me mention two things, one that we emphasized at this year’s Great Communion service and one that is the subject matter of my sermon series that starts this coming Sunday.

1. Become one with the Father and with his Son. Jesus prayed in John 17:20-23 for unity among believers: “...that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us.” We gain unity with the Father and the Son by experiencing the glory of Christ. Christ experienced his glory in his death, and we experience that glory when we die to self.
2. Become one with “one another.” When we learn how to treat one another, how to build up one another, how to be members of one another, how to honor one another, how to love another, then we develop a unity that keeps us from dividing. We will examine this theme through the “one another” passages in the New Testament in a sermon series that begins this coming Sunday and extends through November.

There will no doubt always be division between Christians, much of it over silly things, but we can and should work for the kind of unity between one another that the Father and the Son demonstrate.

God bless,

Ken