I’m closing down my wordpress

I have moved all my writing efforts to ONE blog, and it is not this one. If you read my blogs and would like to continue to do so, please visit:

ragamuffinwrites.blogspot.com

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thank you for reading

Your thoughts…???

I read a pretty great article today.  Here are a few quotes from it to get the idea.  I’m still processing it–to be honest.  Any thoughts…???

“Do church leaders study the complexity and changes of our cultural environment with the same kind of seriousness when it comes to the design and construction of church facilities?”

“The Church has been building the spiritual equivalent of vacation cruise liners: large slow structures made for calm, balmy seas and friendly ports of call.  We may be trying to make these ships faster, a little more up-tempo and with a mission statement, but we’re expecting calm seas and a sunny horizon. Here’s the catch: The Church has long since left a stable, homogenous, and predictable culture.”

“Churches must understand our culture’s suffocating pace and, in turn, develop response that will make life simpler and more sustainable.”

“In 1990, 90% of the world’s Christians lived in the Western world. Today, according to one study, only 30% do. We are no longer the center of Christianity for the world, and Christianity’s arguably no longer the center of our culture.”

“Today’s serious church leaders know they can no longer build for calm seas, sunny horizons, and pampered passengers.  The church was born in turbulent times, and true to its calling, has always functioned best on the high seas.”

(Bahler, E and Couchenour, Bill. “Thyspace: rethinking buildings & facilities.” Rev! Sept/Oct. 2008. 100-106.)

Coffee Shop Empires Collide

Two empires collided this day in a Sacramento coffee shop. It was the empire of the old meeting with that of the new, and it came and went in a matter of moments you may have missed if you had been here.

This aforementioned shop has always contained various characters behind its counter.  Each is identified and nearly titled by his or her own various strong characteristics.

“Armpit-hair and Nose Ring Girl”

“Pretentious Man-prees Guy”

“Bushy Beard Guy”

“Looks Like A Guy I Know Girl”

“Roller Derby Girl”

Those are only the workers within.  The patrons bring their own setting contribution.

“White Pants And Loafers Guy”

“Really Tall Guy”

“Ass-less Pants Guy”

“Overwhelmingly Pretentious Corduroy Jacket Guy”

“Sling” (A super hero in his own right, thus warranting his own one word name)

These are only those this writer can remember in this moment.  There once was the most bazaar of all. The bazaar has a way of becoming the majority so that the normal becomes bazaar.  This was the fate of Normal Girl who once worked behind the counters of this shop.  Normal Girl stuck out among the bazaar only because she was normal. Her normality was as intriguing as it was refreshing among the normally bazaar.  Not a hipster! Not an 80’s throwback! Not…nothing! Normal!

Normal girl has not been around these parts for many months. She left unannounced to many, never to return. Like a fast acting vacuum sucked the refreshing normality from the otherwise douche bag infestation, Normal Girl was gone! Forgotten lest in tall tales such as this.

Today, a revisit to the shop reveals something quite wonderful. They say history has a funny way of repeating itself.  They say empires come and go, and it has been possible that they may also come again. What have your eyes beheld!? Could it possibly be…… Normal Girl Part 2!?

One can only sit concealed behind his coffee in wonder that the rise of Normal Girl may have come at last. Not the same Normal Girl; it is Normal Girl 2. What planets have aligned to bring this about? What great gods have shown their favor upon the bazaar little coffee shop in Sacramento? No one knows; nor do they need to.

But readers be braced! For this is not the collision originally spoken of.

As one did sit in amazement for nearly 2 hours at the arrival of Normal Girl 2, the door squealed open to usher in a light breeze and then an impending second time when everything seemed to be still and almost eerie. No way is this happening! The breeze was the precursor to the collision. It is Normal Girl….1!

It is the collision of the Normal Girl empires.  Overtly familiar with her surroundings, Normal Girl 1 enters with greetings for the bazaar who have always been (today it is Looks Like A Guy I Know Girl).  She is familiar with all but one element, but it is much larger than an element.  It is a force! It is a cosmic coming of events! It is Normal Girl 2: the new empire of Normal Girl in the wake of the forgotten first empire now revealed once more.

The two empires meet at the counter, and this writer is strangely surprised everyone else can drink coffee, can work on a computer, can read a book, can sit slouched and indifferent on an old dirty couch…can do ANYTHING else but watch and wonder. What will happen? Will there be fallout? What danger awaits?

Turns out not much! Cordial greetings are exchanged, Normal Girl 1 leaves in a matter of moments, and the new empire remains. Normal Girl 2 is here to stay, and the original remains a tale of bygone days.

And NOW Sling arrives having missed it all…some super hero!

* Soundtrack to this event provided by Sigur Ros

New Sermon Audio

I’ve put new full-length sermon audio up of the most recent series I preached through the book of Colossians. Its only a 3 part series, and its called “FULL”. You can click HERE…if you are at all interested in that.

No more forgiveness talk

There is a story of a moment when a man named Rich had been in an argument with a friend that ended in an abrupt bitterness.  The story would have it that Rich, later that evening, would show up at the friends house and begin mowing his lawn.  It was an action of humility and service that would be remembered by that lifelong friend long after Rich had passed away.

“LOVE your enemies! DO good to those who hate you. BLESS those who curse you.  PRAY for those who hurt you. LOVE your enemies! DO good to them. LEND to them without expecting.” – Luke 6:27-28, 35

Its amazing how many of these are intentional actions Jesus commanded of us regarding our enemies. It doesn’t say, “Try to forget everything in your heart.” “Try to have pleasant thoughts about them and hope that something happens for the good somewhere down the line.” “Try to have a change of heart and leave it at that.” “Listen to a good sermon and think, ‘Yeah, that would be nice.’” No! These are all very intentional and quite tangible actions we are told to do for our enemies. Can you imagine the love and reconciliation that would happen between our enemies and us if we would stop thinking, planning, having conferences and talks, and started LOVING, DOING, BLESSING, PRAYING, AND LENDING to our enemies?

The world could be a different place.  Our city could be a different place. Our neighborhood could be a different place. Our church could be a different place. Our home could be a different place. Our own heart, and the relationship with the enemy within, could be a different place.

Healing Machine

You never realize just how many people Jesus healed when you don’t read the Bible (or even just the book of Matthew or another gospel) straight through as I have been. I am stricken by how many people were constantly following Jesus around (even when he tried to find rest and solitude and they always brought all of their sick and possessed who needed to be healed. Jesus always met that need. When you read different stories here and there (as we typically do), you don’t realize how frequently Jesus was healing people.

Writing Exercise #3 – “The Head”

I had my own head.  You could tell by the oversized necktie attached at the chin. Mine was the light blue one with white polka dots.  The smell of my own sweat inside an empty Lysol can made my head less pleasant than it might have otherwise sounded.

My head made me silent by obligation, but I would only have to walk and interact with more movement and drama. How else would anyone interact with me? My head did well to attract attention on its own. So my drama was only half-needed.

Those mall Santas had it so easy; at least they could use words.  The Easter Bunny had to rely on their nonverbals and the natural draw of the head.

Good Little Boy

As Christmas approached, I was always asked the same question you were asked. “Have you been a good boy?” (or girl…maybe it wasn’t the SAME question). What a question! This would have been the closest I would have known to my own Day of Atonement.

What are we talking about here? For an entire year? I mean, we only ask that each Christmas; so we must be talking since last Christmas.  Well no, I don’t suppose I have been a good boy…for an entire year. Do you know how hard it is for me to be a good boy for an entire year? Just mark it down as an impossibility.

But I always got Christmas presents anyway; regardless of my flawed year-in-review.

The Jewish people had a certain thought concerning the Messiah’s coming; that they would have to collectively honor fully the Sabbath for four straight weeks, but like normal human beings, that could not last a day. They were convinced they would have to earn and deserve the coming of a Messiah to deliver them.  But Jesus doesn’t wait until you deserve him, because you will never deserve him.  I will never deserve the freedom and forgiveness that he offers as a gift.

Jesus is not a reward for the righteous or a prize for the pious.  Jesus was and is a gift for the imperfect. He is good news for the failures who try hard by are unable to live out the perfection they wish they could.

I will never be good enough to earn his gift, but thats the good news of this story.  It is a gift for the broken and sinful; not a prize for the perfect.

How we doin…

I am in Zechariah right now, and today I have read chapters 7 and 8. There are some instructions regarding the MOTIVE behind fasting (and all other ritual) but asking the people, “was it really for me that you were fasting?” Then God assures the remaining people that he is going to turn things back around for them, because things which seem impossible simply aren’t for God. He is going to restore great things for Jerusalem.

BUT…

He gives them some pretty specific instructions throughout.  They are to judge fairly, show mercy and kindness to each other.  They are to care for a pretty particular group of people: the widows, orphans, foreigners, and the poor.  They are not to be scheming against one another. (7:8-10)

This care is a call that God gives to his people throughout the Bible.  We are constantly told to care for (and particularly NOT to oppress) the widows, the orphans, the foreigners, and the poor. I am prompted to ask my country, my society, my church, my family, and ultimately MYSELF, “How are we doing at that?”

Though I may not personally oppress these people, I have mostly sat idly by while those groups are oppressed on a daily basis.  Me, a pastor! On a daily basis, these specific groups of people (and others) are oppressed, and not all of those cases are outside the U.S. Not all of those cases are outside of Sacramento.

IS MY IDLE INDIFFERENCE EQUALLY OPPRESSIVE?

God continues in chapter 8 to tell his people what they are to live out. “Tell the truth to each other. Render verdicts in your courts that are just and that lead to peace.”

How are we doing there?

“Don’t scheme against each other.”

How we doin…

“Stop your love of telling lies that you swear are truth.”

How are we doing?

“SO, LOVE TRUTH AND PEACE.”

Stuff

Stuff on stuff! We have spare rooms, closets, and garages full of things we will never use.  If that isn’t enough, some of us have storage units separate from our house that we pay for full of more stuff we never use.

Why?

I simply do not understand it.  We never have enough, sure; we all hear that message all the time.  But I just do not understand why we keep getting more and more things.  More stuff! We work hard for the money to buy more things we never use.  Further, if we never use this stuff, do we even NEED it at all?

Of course not!

I don’t need half the things in my garage.  I have not even used a lot of it in years.  I am a consumer.  I am a wealthy American consumer.  I work hard to get things I not only don’t use, but don’t even need.

All of it only clogs up the huge house and garage and storage space, and a lot of it will only sit there for years without ever being used.  Yet still, its not enough.  I keep wanting more things.  There is always something on the want list.

Why?

I came to Habakkuk today, and chapter 2 says, “Wealth is treacherous; the arrogant do not endure…like Death they never have enough.”

The word ‘wealth’ in the Hebrew has a connotation of ‘wine’ to it.  Consumerist wealth is like being a drunk who simply cannot have enough.  Always just one more drink! Its only one more drink until you’re faded out of control and begin acting like an idiot; before you become an addict who simply cannot get enough.

How arrogant am I!

Could I live a life of enough? Of need alone?

Could I sell everything I have so that I could only keep the things I use and need?