O By The Way

Just finished a series of Sunday messages on Paul’s letter to the Colossians.  A great letter, some say it should receive much more attention for its emphasis on the person of Christ and the teachings on the basics.  I really enjoyed my time in this epistle.  When I came to the last verses, I thought of passing over them as they are just a rundown of hard-to-pronounce names and places. 

Then I got to thinking, who are these people?  Some of them I have heard of like Mark and Onesimus (from the book of Philemon) but there are others, who oversee the Colossian churches, others who will hand-carry the letter over the thousand mile journey into the Lycus River Valley as well as a woman who hosted one of the churches in her home.  And Paul’s words in chapter 4:7-18 are not only to encourage the Christian communities in Colossae but to put them in touch with each other.  This was his strategy and he did this wherever he went.  He would start with a small group in the local synagogue and stay there teaching as long as he was permitted, then would find another hang out to proclaim the good news and add to the community.   

The great apostle shows us the importance of his team approach to ministry and living the Christian life.  We are never in this alone.  Even though it can be frustrating and complex much of the way, it is so much more interesting and even fun.  I think of the great discoveries made and victories won with brothers and sisters from Hollywood to Seattle to Orange County, opportunities I never would have had without my team.  Currently we are opening new roads to a new generation of young adults in our church, along with bringing God’s good news to children and their families.  We have a team of 60 ready to launch our biggest outreach of the year in our annual Vacation Bible School.  Everyone is preparing their own skill and assignment and praying up for this big week. 

I hope all of you are experiencing your faith in community.  The model comes from Jesus and the intentional community he built with and for his followers, beginning with the twelve disciples.  For them it meant choosing to follow him at his invitation and to respond as a team in the ministry they were exposed to.  After the resurrection, they gradually picked up the torch and carried the message to the waiting world. None of these relationships played out without hard work, forgiveness and patience, but it meant the fleshing out of what God was wanting to accomplish His new kingdom and the restoration of His beloved creation.

This is new life in the form of team and fresh relationships.  May God be praised with how we move out together!

As I write this post, I am in Seattle at the home of my son and daughter-on-law, and…..our grandson Eli.  It is such a wonderful time to be with him and to see what this little guy has been able to do with limited vision in his three years of life.  Eli was born with cataracts in both eyes forcing removal of both lenses a month after his birth.  As a result he has faced nearly ten surgeries and has 20/400 vision, which is legally blind.  We live in hopes that someday, there may be some medical technology that will allow him to improve, but for now he has to make the most of what he has.

So when we come for a visit, we are excited to be with him and he never lets us down.  Such is the case this time.  He is full of life, wanting to play with his wooden railroad, read books, tell stories and take walks.  He has made the most of what he has. 

That is what God asks of any of us.  He doesn’t expect me to be like some great preacher in the past or you to emulate some other person.  He has given us all a package of talents and gifts along with the promise of the indwelling Holy Spirit.  God is sufficient.  Go in peace.

Have you ever read that sign as you unexpectedly wait in a line or for something to kick in on your computer screen or your television set?  Most of us have a hard time waiting anymore for anything, period!  I remember my grandmother saying to me when I was a child, “Now Timmy, you must learn to be patient.”  Many experiences we have faced that demand waiting when we would just as soon hit fast forward and get it done.  My wife and I have had to wait several times for the birth of our children, nine months at least, even longer for many as they look forward to children.  Well, I hope over the years God’s good gift of patience has shown up in my life, especially at the key times when it can make a difference. 

There is a whole field of sociological study around trying to fend off the negative feelings of having to wait, like the sign.  I was told not long ago that Disney has a division of their theme park operations that concerns itself with how to make the wait in line for one of their attractions more tolerable.  We try to cover it with music, with games to play, now with texting or other distractions.

My impression is that there a significant period for the disciples who are left after the events of Holy Week and Easter Sunday that calls for them to wait.  In fact, just before his ascension, Jesus orders his followers not to leave Jerusalem but to wait there for the gift promised by the Father.  After all that has happened over the previous forty days, he tells them to stay and wait. Must have been a rough time, on top of everything else.  I mean you would think God could have shortened the time, made it easier on the loyal disciples at least.  Perhaps there was something in the waiting that was valuable.  Can you imagine the personal reflections, the intense conversations, not to mention the vigorous prayers that were spoken during this time of waiting.  This was all, I think, very formative for this first generation if believers.

After most times in my life that have been tumultuous, in the long run, I have appreciated periods of quiet, normal time-outs, when nothing much goes on but the ordinary.  Those times have allowed me to sort out and to think through what has occured and how I might face an uncertain future.  The wait itself, at times, has been very trying and painstaking, but at the end of the day really worth it.

This past Sunday I preached from the letter to the Colossians about how God has been in the business of making change happen on such a large and historic scale “from the inside out.”  About how that change happens because the mystery of God has come to us and is “the hope of glory,”  actually Christ residing in us, among us.  It is in waiting that we can sometimes fully appreciate the presence of this risen Savior and grow in our love and understanding of our journey in Christ.   

In the Old Testament, Isaiah prophecies “Those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength like the eagle’s…”  Perhaps now there is something in the waiting that God is doing under the radar in your life, even something that presently seems inconvenient or unnecessary, even painful.  Remember there are literally hundreds of citations in the Scriptures of God calling on His people to take a time-out and quietly hope and watch for what He is going to do next.  It could be a surprise.

Every year, Easter Sunday is one of the big highlights of my year.  Even when I was a kid, I would get up at 2:30 am to go and usher at the Hollywood Bowl Easter Sunrise Service.  Cold, so cold, relatively speaking of course.  Just to be there so early and to see the sunrise come up over the hills, bringing our worship to the risen Lord, was something I will always remember.  Then I remember the first time i ever preached a sermon was a Bel Air Presbyterian Church, Easter Sunrise in 1977, on the hill overlooking the San Fernando Valley. 

The first day of the week that changed it all.  Known as Palm Sunday, portrayed in the watercolor to the right by the French artist James Tissot, it was a coming out celebration for our Lord on the way to his transforming sacrifice at Calvary.  This event was a turning point.  A surprise to those who were there and to us readers, Jesus now is more proactive with letting his true identity be known.  In Matthew’s version of the trip into the great city, we see him signaling the fact that the King has come.  He enters on a donkey, just as the prophet Zechariah foretold in chapter 9.  The people drop palm branches on the road just as they would for a royal visitor.

He came into the city as a king, descending from the Mt. of Olives with pomp and circumstance, but one riding astride a donkey.  Mixed message?  Not really, because he came as a king of peace to serve his people, in his sacrificial death only days away.  A new kind of king right from the heart of God.

Perhaps this is something for us to think about this Palm Sunday.  Power unlike any we have ever known, but power that comes to serve and to save.  This is the God we proclaim as we head into this remembrance of Holy Week.  It is important that we live through the week, each event, certainly with the knowledge that God has done his great work, but not letting our knowing of the outcome, strip each one of its intensity.  Kind of like watching a movie a second or third time, when we know what will come at the end, it can take the punch out of the story.  Live together in our community, or any believing community you are part of these dramatic scenes, for they define our very salvation!